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Red kites are now a much more common sight
People are used to stories of conservational doom-and-gloom with fragile species threatened by creeping urbanisation, but recent reports suggest some birds of prey are booming in the UK. So why does the prospect of a soaring hawk or eagle leave some people worried?
Birds of prey are admired. Their powerful talons and soaring flight impresses. People relish the suspense that comes from watching them hover before making a kill.
Britain’s biggest, the white-tailed (or sea) eagle – the fourth largest eagle in the world – has a wingspan of eight feet.
But during Victorian times many birds of prey were hunted ruthlessly. Four species – the osprey, white-tailed eagle, goshawk and marsh harrier – were virtually extinct in Britain during most of the 20th Century.
And some of their emotional resonance comes precisely because of their perilous decline during the period of intensive industrialisation in the UK.
“This is not the Serengeti plain, the Amazon or Antarctica – we’re in a highly farmed environment”
Keith McDougall Songbird survival
During the 1950s and 1960s organochlorine pesticides were widely used, seriously inhibiting top predators like the golden eagle’s ability to breed. But at the end of the 1960s these chemicals were banned.
That together with reintroduction schemes and a new ethos of protecting birds of prey – culminating in the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act – has turned the tide, says Grahame Madge, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds’ conservation spokesman.
The white tailed eagle, after a successful reintroduction scheme during the 1970s on the island of Rum is now well established in the west coast of Scotland.
The red kite is now up to 1,800 breeding pairs – a “staggering turn around”, says Madge – while there are thought to be around 40,000 buzzards soaring over the UK. Everyone from hikers to motorway drivers can now expect to see birds of prey regularly.
But, it’s neither a story of unbridled success or acceptance.
“It’s a sweeping generalisation to say that birds of prey have bounced back,” says Madge. “It may be fitting for some of the 15 species but not all.”
Some farmers are worried by the spread of reintroduced eagles
Several species – notably the hen harrier, golden eagle and goshawk – are still at risk. In England there is only one breeding pair of golden eagles and 12 pairs of hen harriers when there should be many more, Madge says. There’s plenty of food and territory, the problem is persecution, particularly poisoned bait, he says.
“Persecution was rife during the reign of Victoria. And we still see that mindset now with birds of prey being illegally persecuted in upland areas where you have grouse shooting, such as the Pennines and southern Scotland. “
A newspaper ran a spectacular photograph earlier this week of a golden eagle plucking a lamb from a field. Local farmers claimed the photograph was evidence that eagles – which have been reintroduced back into parts of Scotland – are now out of control.
The Scottish Crofting Federation is complaining that the reintroduction of the white-tailed eagle has been too successful. Donald Murdie, a crofter on the Isle of Skye and SCF consultant, says the bird has spread from its initial reintroduction to the west of the mainland, and the islands of Skye, Lewis and Harris.
What is a bird of prey?Bird of prey is a loose term often applied to the eagle, kite, hawk and even sometimes the owlTypically have curved beak, curved talons and good eyesight for finding preyRaptor is sometimes used specifically to describe birds that seize warm-blooded animals during the day
Debating animals“They’re magnificent to behold. But whereas people were initially happy to see them, these birds are now causing serious problems to sheep producers.”
Murdie says that the most seriously affected crofters complain they are losing 10 lambs a year. It’s now time for a rethink, he argues.
“It would be fine if the reintroduction was kept to one discreet area but the fact is they’re continuing to reintroduce in other areas like the East Coast and potentially Suffolk.”
Others even allege that birds of prey are hoovering up the UK’s songbirds. Keith McDougall, policy director of pressure group Songbird Survival, reels off a long list of species whose numbers are declining – the skylark down 51%, the song thrush down 48%, the tree sparrow down 89%. The reason is threefold, he says – intensive farming, a drier climate and an increasing number of predators.
There is only one breeding pair of golden eagles in England
This last category includes cats, crows, foxes but also birds of prey.
“In this country we’re in the business of species balance – this is not the Serengeti plain, the Amazon or Antarctica. We’re in a highly farmed environment so Songbird Survival believes that the management of species is important,” says McDougall.
In the future that might mean extending its experimental cull of crows to birds of prey, he argues, a move that would require a change in the law.
“If things are going wrong for some birds it’s the duty of those in charge to help species that are in trouble,” he says.
But the RSPB says there is no evidence that birds of prey are to blame. And the idea of a cull appals journalist Rod Liddle, who presented a radio programme this week on birds of prey.
He believes that opponents oversimplify the relationship between predator and prey. The answer for all birds is not culls or more reintroduction schemes but to work on improving the biodiversity of farmland, he argues. “There’s no point putting the eagle back if the environment is ‘too clean’ for them. The answer might be to pay farmers more to leave one or two weeds in the fields,” he says.
And the awe that birds of prey inspire will continue to be a driver for conservation efforts.
“The golden eagle is pretty beautiful, the hen harrier stunning,” says Liddle. “But my favourite memory is seeing an osprey at six o’clock in the morning one summer in Wiltshire. It was flying south, a big, black, white and brown bird. It was a magnificent sight.”
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Houthi rebels in north Yemen say the armed forces have fired on their anti-government protest.
The Shia rebels claim two people were killed and at least seven were injured in the incident in the northern province of Amran, reports say.
There have been many anti-government protests in recent weeks, mainly focused in cities of Sanaa and Aden.
Demonstrators want the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled since 1978.
Thousands of people are reported to have gathered in the town of Harf Sufyan for a peaceful protest, calling for political change and an end to corruption.
A rebel spokesman told Reuters news agency that the military had fired rockets at protesters from an army base.
The government and the Houthi rebels, members of the Zaidi Shia sect, have been observing a truce, although there are occasional clashes.
The Houthi announced their support last month for anti-government protests which have been inspired by the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
England is the only part of the UK still charging for prescriptions
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The cost of prescriptions in England will rise by 20p to £7.40 per item from 1 April, the government has announced.
The move will be a blow to the British Medical Association (BMA), which has been calling for charges to be scrapped altogether.
Earlier this week MSPs voted to scrap NHS prescription charges in Scotland, while Wales and Northern Ireland have already removed the charges.
The Department of Health said removing charges in England would cost too much.
A spokesperson from the Department of Health said: “The extensive exemption arrangements we have in place mean that in England, around 90% of prescription items are already dispensed free of charge.
“The price of the 12 month prescription pre-payment certificate will be frozen for the second year running. This allows people to get all the prescriptions they need for an average cost of £2 per week.
The government went on to say that the NHS would be left with a shortfall of more than £450m per year if prescription charges were removed altogether in England.
“This is valuable income – equivalent to the salary costs of nearly 18,000 nurses, or 15,000 midwives, or over 3,500 hospital consultants. This income helps the NHS to maintain vital services for patients,” the Department of Health said.
The government also said it is investing an extra £10.7 billion in the NHS and cutting back on bureaucracy, which will release an extra £1.7 billion every year for patient services.
The Scottish government won the approval of Holyrood’s health committee to remove the current £3 charge.
A last-ditch Conservative and Lib Dem move to block the plan failed in Scotland.
The price paid by Scottish patients for prescription medicine has been reduced each year since 2008 and the final vote will see charges removed on 1 April.
Scottish government health minister Shona Robison said lifting the charge would reduce the long-term cost to the health service and would no longer put people off going to see their doctor.
The Scottish government has played down the risk of people in England travelling across the border to claim free prescriptions.
The Department of Health in England has also announced that dental charges will rise.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The National Assembly website was among high profile targets
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South Korea has been hit by a series of cyber attacks which have targeted some of the country’s leading websites.
Government ministries, the National Assembly, the military headquarters, US Forces in Korea and major banks were among those hit.
It is believed that the attackers injected malware into two peer-to-peer file-sharing websites.
The attacks are similar to those that targeted South Korean websites in July 2009.
Some 29 institutions were affected by so-called distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) which overload a site with data causing it to fall over.
The web page of the Financial Services Commission, the country’s financial regulator, was overloaded and an online stock trading system was shut down for a few minutes but both soon recovered, according to government sources.
“There was a DDoS attack, but no damage was done,” said an official from the presidential office.
South Korean security firm AhnLab expected another wave of attacks on Friday, targeting up to 40 government and corporate websites.
It estimates that up to 11,000 personal computers were infected by malware and recruited for the attack. It is distributing free software to clean PCs.
The South Korean cyber investigation unit has sent investigators to the two file-sharing sites that are believed to have spread the malicious code, according to the National Police Agency.
The cyber attacks against South Korea in 2009 were blamed on North Korea, although no link has been proven.
South Korean media outlets have, in the past, accused North Korea of running an internet warfare unit aimed at hacking into US and South Korean military networks.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Rice is the staple food for about half of the world’s population
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A gene that increases a rice plant’s resistance to floods also boosts its ability to recover from droughts, a study has shown.
Researchers found that the gene, Sub1A, allowed to plants to survive by growing fresh shoots after a period of drought.
Rice is the primary food for three billion people, and more than 25% the world’s harvest is grown in areas that experience extreme weather conditions.
Details have been published in the journal The Plant Cell.
“Flood tolerance does not reduce drought tolerance in these plants, and appears to even benefit them when they encounter drought,” observed lead author Julia Bailey-Serres from the University of California Riverside’s department of botany and plant sciences.
The gene’s role in providing rice plants with a higher tolerance of being submerged in water was first identified in 2006, just 12 months after the vital food crop’s complete genome was unscrambled.
Professor Bailey-Serres and her team wanted to follow up the discovery of the “flood-proof” trait provided by the presence of the Sub1A gene did not reduce plants’ ability cope with other environmental stresses – such as drought.
A rice plant containing the Sub1A gene (at right in each image) recovered significantly better after a simulated drought
They reported that the gene served as a point where the pathways of the plant’s response to both submergence and drought, resulting in the crop’s ability to survive and recover from either kind of extreme weather event.
“Our findings suggest that the plant recovers well from drought and growing new shoots,” Professor Bailey-Serres said. “This is something that is also seen with flooding.”
Plant breeders have already utilised the gene’s flood tolerance traits and transferred it into high-yielding varieties.
The researchers said the next stage of the research would involve scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) plant specimens containing the Sub1A gene in field trials to see if they display a similar trait in natural conditions.
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Stephen Sondheim has been honoured with eight Tony awards in the US
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American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim is to receive the prestigious Special Award at the Laurence Olivier Awards later this month.
The honour is being presented in recognition of his contribution to London theatre, organisers have said.
Previous recipients of the award include Sir Alec Guinness, Dame Judi Dench, Sam Mendes and Sir Peter Hall.
Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton are to host this year’s ceremony. Musical Love Never Dies has seven nominations.
Over a career spanning seven decades, Sondheim, 80, has won numerous theatre awards including an Oscar for best song in 1990 for Sooner or Later from the film Dick Tracy.
Some of his best known works include West Side Story, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and A Little Night Music.
He wrote the lyrics to Hugh Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd, which Olivier hosts Staunton and Ball will star in together at the Chichester Festival Theatre in September.
Phantom of the Opera sequel Love Never Dies leads the way with seven nominations at this year’s awards ceremony.
The Andrew Lloyd Webber show is up for best new musical, while its stars Ramin Karimloo, Sierra Boggess and Summer Strallen are in line for acting prizes.
Benedict Cumberbatch, Anne-Marie Duff, Lost star Matthew Fox, Mad Men actress Elisabeth Moss and Rupert Everett are among the stars who will be handing out prizes on the night.
The ceremony, which takes place on 13 March at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane, will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 2 and there will be live red carpet coverage on television via the BBC’s red button.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Seven universities were classed as being at “high risk” last December
More universities in England could be put at risk of bankruptcy as a result of cuts and changes to funding, the National Audit Office (NAO) has warned.
A report from the financial watchdog says some universities will benefit from the changes but some will have less money.
It says the public might need to be told more about universities at risk.
Universities minister David Willetts says the changes will increase universities’ cash funding by 2014.
The NAO report says the sector has seen “strong growth in its income” in recent years.
But it says: “The new funding framework, coupled with the squeeze in public funding, is likely to increase the level of risk within the sector.
“While there are a number of financially strong institutions, there is wide variation in institutions’ financial performance.”
It notes: “The transition and the new environment itself will increase the risk within the sector, potentially raising the number of institutions at high risk of failing”.
Teaching grants to universities are being cut and universities will be expected to fund their courses from higher tuition fees, which are being raised in 2012 from just over £3,000 a year to a maximum of £9,000.
The government has said it will protect funding for science-based courses and research.
The NAO examined the regulation of the financial health of England’s universities by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce).
About one in 10 institutions had been in the red in at least two of the past three years, it said.
And a quarter of England’s universities fell below at least one benchmark designed to check an institution’s finances in 2009-10.
The auditors said that as of last December, Hefce classified seven universities as being “at higher risk” .
The length of time that a university was in this category had grown, the report found.
One institution, Thames Valley University, had been “at higher risk” for 12 years.
NAO head Amyas Morse said: “The funding council has performed well during a benign environment for higher education.
“Our universities do an excellent job and letting them fail would be an act of academic barbarity”
Sally Hunt University and College Union
“However, the sector is now facing a period of transition to a very different financial environment, increasing financial and management pressures on our higher education institutions.”
Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, Labour MP Margaret Hodge, said: “Ongoing reforms towards a market-based system open up higher levels of risk for the financial viability of institutions.”
Mr Willetts said: “I welcome the report’s finding that our higher education sector has ‘increasing robustness in its financial stability’.
“However, we are not complacent about the challenge ahead. We are clearly moving into a changing financial environment, but it should provide our universities with access to 10% more cash funding overall by 2014-15.”
The NAO report says Hefce should consider giving the public more information about universities judged to be at risk.
At the moment, the funding council waits at least three years before naming institutions thought to be at risk and then only does so if it considers there would be no harm to current students or the institution.
The report says: “As a greater proportion of funding begins to follow the student, the funding council should consider whether the current arrangements strike the right balance between protecting institutions and their students, on the one hand, and enabling prospective students to take more informed decisions on where to study, on the other.”
Sally Hunt, general secretary of the lecturers’ union UCU, said the report “lifted the lid on the financial health of higher education and the likely consequences of the government’s proposals”.
“The worrying conclusions are that, while there might be a handful of winners, many institutions will struggle to cope financially with the new regime,” she said.
“We believe that our universities do an excellent job and letting them fail would be an act of academic barbarity.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Tom Hanks has some fun with a BBC reporter at the Oscars, human breast milk ice cream and the claustrophobic contortionist. It’s the week’s weird and wonderful video stories in Newsbeat’s Odd Box with Dominic Byrne.
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Mr Mebazaa he would continue in office even though the constitution limits caretaker presidents
Tunisia’s interim president Fouad Mebazaa has announced details of new elections promised after the overthrow of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
Mr Mebazaa said voting for a council of representatives to rewrite the constitution would be held by 24 July.
He said a new interim government would run the country until then.
Mr Mebazaa said he would also continue in office, even though the current constitution limits caretaker office-holders to a 60-day term.
In a televised speech, he promised to stay in power, “contrary to what has been rumoured, until the elections are held, with the help and support of all”.
Once elected, the constitutional council could either appoint a new government or ask the current executive to carry on until presidential or parliamentary elections are held, Reuters news agency said.
Tunisia has struggled to restore stability since mass protests ousted Mr Ben Ali on 14 January.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi resigned from the interim government. Six other ministers have since stood down.
Some demonstrators are now urging Tunisians to stop rallying and return to work
The BBC’s Owen Bennett-Jones in Tunis says the power vacuum Mr Ben Ali left behind is becoming ever more apparent.
The political confusion has been compounded by the constitutional provision limiting a caretaker president to 60 days in office, he adds.
Mr Mebazaa has argued that, since the current constitution no longer has any credibility, he will stay in office beyond the limit.
In his speech, he said the constitution “no longer reflects the aspirations of the people after the revolution”.
The president must now wait and see if his new plans will spark more protests or receive broad support, our correspondent says.
Last weekend, five people were killed by police during anti-government protests demanding more rapid change.
Nearly two months after Mr Ben Ali fled, protesters are still camping beside the prime minister’s office in central Tunis, saying nothing has changed.
But other demonstrators are now urging Tunisians to stop rallying and return to work.
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Foreign Office Minister Lord Howell of Guildford has said that the uprisings in North Africa risk stalling peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
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Damien Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living was commissioned by art collector Charles Saatchi
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A Damien Hirst retrospective featuring his infamous “pickled shark” is one of the highlights at Tate Modern in 2012.
The exhibition, which will include works by the British artist spanning two decades, will run from 5 April to 9 September at the London gallery.
Its Turbine Hall will host a commission from Tino Sehgal, the Berlin-based artist best known for using people as living sculptures, to mark London 2012.
A “radical” assessment of the work of Edvard Munch will also feature.
Tate Liverpool will exhibit the later works of Turner and Monet, while Tate Britain will explore Picasso’s relationship with the UK.
Tate St Ives. meanwhile, will celebrate the 85th birthday of Alex Katz with an exhibition of the US artist’s work.
Works including The Three Dancers will feature in the Picasso exhibition
Sehgal’s previous work includes The Kiss, which saw a young couple embracing on the floor of New York’s Guggenheim museum.
“The year 2012 is a wonderfully apposite time for Tino Sehgal to undertake the Turbine Hall commission,” said Sheena Wagstaff, Tate Modern’s chief curator.
The hall, she added, would be “excitingly animated and transformed” by what she called “a truly dynamic addition to the year’s culture calendar”.
Sehgal’s installation, which will run from 17 July to 28 October, is one of two Tate projects that are part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
The other is the Tate Movie Project for children, which will culminate in the production of a full animated film.
Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye, running at Tate Modern from 28 June to 14 October, will detail the Norwegian painter’s “obsession with the rise of photography, film and stage production”.
Its Picasso and Britain exhibition, which runs from 15 February to 15 July, will set out to reveal the artist’s “enormous” impact on British modernism.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Is winter really the time to expect to wear vest tops?
Our homes are getting warmer just as the powers-that-be are asking us to turn our thermostats down. How cool is too cool for a house?
Spring is in the air in the UK, but it will be weeks – if not months – before the nation’s radiators switch off.
The average indoor temperatures of British houses are creeping up now central heating is the norm, and double glazing and insulation are added to older, draughtier homes.
In the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change’s new online modelling tool My 2050, users can decide what they want the UK to be like in 39 years time. The only caveat? Carbon emissions must drop 80% while keeping the lights on.
It shows that hitting this target requires more than extra wind turbines or nuclear power stations. How many cars should be electric? Should international shipping grow or shrink?
Government drive
My 2050 is web application for Department of Energy and Climate ChangeThey want to cut emissions by 80%My 2050
And, most immediate to personal comfort, should the average indoor temperature of British houses continue to rise, stay roughly the same at 17.5C (63.5F), or fall?
Dropping it to 16C – the lowest setting in this virtual world – only shaves 7% off carbon emissions. Even if we all get in the habit of wearing woollies inside, this will still feel chillier than usual to most people.
David MacKay, the DECC’s chief scientist, practises what he preaches in his once draughty semi-detached 1940s house. As well as double glazing and insulation, he has turned the heating right down.
“When I’m at home, my normal thermostat settings are roughly 13C, but lower when I am out, and 15C, briefly, at getting-up time in the morning. One important additional rule is that whenever I feel cold, I turn the thermostat up as high as I like. The automatic thermostat control then turns it back to the normal settings a few hours later.”
He hopes that insulating more homes, smarter thermostats and “the promotion of sweater-wearing by sexy personalities” will encourage more people to follow suit.
Wrap up warm to get cosy
But to many, a thermostat set in the low teens may sound unconscionably frugal – especially when the range of numbers commonly goes from 10 to 30C.
Comfort cannot be defined absolutely, but the World Health Organization’s standard for warmth is 21C (70F) in a living room and 18C (64F) elsewhere.
Our expectations of thermal comfort have been raised by central heating at home and at work, and because we are more sedentary at home and at work. Those sitting still – in front of the TV, or at a computer – feel the cold quicker than someone moving about.
“A human’s perception of whether they feel warm depends on what they are doing, and what they’ve been doing for the past hour or so,” says Dr MacKay in his book Sustainable Energy – Without The Hot Air.
According to one widely quoted model, devised in 2008 by the Carbon Reduction in Buildings project, average indoor temperatures have risen from 12C in 1970 to about 17.5C (63.5F) today.
But, says Michelle Shipworth of the UCL Energy Institute, this model assumes we are turning our thermostats up, to explain why energy use hasn’t gone down as homes have become more energy efficient.
What has happened, she says, is that we now heat more rooms, and for longer.
Room temperature v health risk18-21C – comfortable temperature9-12 or 24+C: Risk of stroke and heart attack21-24C or 16-18C – increasing discomfort12-16C – risk of respiratory diseaseLess than 9C – risk of hypothermia
Source: Study by housing expert Richard MooreForty years ago, few houses had central heating, and chilly hallways and spare rooms dragged the average temperature down. Radiators now warm rooms that previous generations wouldn’t have heated – corridors, bedrooms, and bathrooms.
The last comprehensive set of measured home indoor temperatures is from 1996, when the English House Condition Survey found that although living room temperatures in winter remained relatively stable, the nation’s hallways were getting warmer – up from 16.3C in 1986 to 17.9C.
“And for bedrooms, you’ll be far more comfortable while your asleep if it is about 14C,” says Shipworth.
Dr Lucy Worsley, chief curator of the Royal Historic Palaces, agrees. “My grandmother wouldn’t sleep in a heated bedroom, and would always have a window open. You can’t imagine many people today feel the same.”
In our enthusiasm for cosy homes, she says many of us are like the profligate Georgians.
“Fair houses so full of glass that one cannot tell where to become to be out of the sun or cold”
Sir Francis Bacon on 16th Century fashion for huge windows
“A warm living room showed you were a good host and a generous person. They thought an element of wastefulness showed you had enough cash to be generous,” says Worsley, presenter of BBC Four’s If Only Walls Could Talk, a history of our homes to be broadcast in April.
“In medieval times, heating your home was akin to burning money. There was a 16th Century saying, ‘the game’s not worth the candle’ – a task was only worth doing if it justified the expense of illumination.
“But when people began to have more spare time and spare money, considerations of waste became less important.”
With energy bills soaring in recent years, and more people aware of energy consumption, she expects frugality to be thrust upon us once more.
“I do think the future will be medieval, when the big bang comes and we run out of oil. Small windows, shutters on the outside, a chimney for natural ventilation.”
Learning to operate a smart thermostat takes time
And expectations can be adjusted down as well as up. In Japan, there is a move away from super-cooling and over-heating office buildings. Government officials are encouraged to abandon jackets and ties in summer, and some local authorities have workers wrapped in blankets at their desks in winter.
“In 2005, Prime Minister Koizumi decreed that no government building should be heated above 20C or cooled below 28C,” says Professor Michael Kelly, of Cambridge University.
“That had quite an energy saving, but no drop-off in worker productivity. Compare that to London, where the expectation is that buildings will be within a few degrees of 22C year-round.”
So will smart thermostats and radiator valves help, that allow homeowners to target heat where it’s needed at different times in the day?
Experts say technology can only do half the job. A smart thermostat is only as smart as the person operating it.
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All Comments (5)
5.
Tom
Interesting to read that temperatures above 24 degrees can increase the risk of stroke and heart attack. Here in Hong Kong the Government recommends thermostats are set at 25.5 degrees. There is a peculiar bent in Hong Kong to have air con set at arctic temperatures, even in the dead of winter. On a sweltering summer’s day, I always have to take a jumper and jacket to combat the frigid air con.
4. Alicia
Personally I only bother putting the the fire/central heating on if there is ice on the inside of windows. I don’t class it as properly cold otherwise
3. fiskrond
Always females complaining it’s cold…try dressing appropriately for the time of year and remember that work is not a catwalk. If you feel the cold, simple solution devised via evolution and ancestry..wear warm clothes.It is soo selfish to inflict unnecessary heat on those who do not feel cold (because they’ve dress appropriately), human body is more stressed by excess heat than excess cold!
2. Tangoman642
radiators on when u wake…maybe for an hour…to boost the house & your warmth fresh from a warm bed…then turn off till its needed and even then i only put it back on for an hour or 2..as for evenings and night time…i never put it on because the heat would keep me awake all night..then id need the window open to cool it down..which defeats having it on before bed in the first place.
1. James
It also depends on the gender divide in your workplace..While most men are happy for it to be nice and cool, women often like it to be swealtering!! So an unhappy median is reached with both parties uncomfortable!
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Adele’s debut album 19 has been in the US album chart for 71 weeks
Adele’s second album, 21, has gone straight to the top of the US Billboard chart in its first week of release.
The record sold 352,000 copies, knocking Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never: The Remixes down to number two.
Adele, who won a Grammy for best new artist in 2009, now has two albums in the top 20 after her debut record, 19, leapt back up the chart from 50 to 16.
Her single Rolling In the Deep also sits at number seven on the digital songs chart.
UK number one song Someone Like You, which the singer has been performing on US TV shows over the past week, is currently at number 45.
Meanwhile, Adele is on course to continue her chart reign in the UK.
She is expected to spend a third week at the top of the singles chart, with 21 also leading the album race for a sixth week.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
By Jorn Madslien
GM says it is very focused on new products, such as the Ampera
Having emerged both leaner and stronger from bankruptcy in 2009, the US-based automotive giant General Motors (GM) is firmly back on its feet.
The company is making a profit again, its global sales are powering ahead, and it is so confident about the future that it recently withdrew an application for $14.4bn (£8.8bn) of cheap loans from the US government.
“It does send a signal,” says motoring analyst Itay Michaeli from Citi Investment Research, “that this company is running things on their own.”
As the Geneva motor show gets underway in Europe, however, it is clear that GM’s challenges remain largely on this side of the pond – especially in Germany.
With just less than 13.4 million cars sold, the overall European market – which was hit by the end of scrappage schemes that were widespread in 2009 – shrunk 5.5% last year, according to ACEA, the European automobile manufacturers’ association.
Sales of GM’s European brands fell roughly in line with the rest of the market, with one notable exception. In Germany, Opel sales fell 29.5% in 2010 to some 270,000 cars.
In the past, much of the loyalty to the brand in Germany had been linked to Opel being seen as a local manufacturer.
Hence, when GM Europe started cutting costs, laying off workers and threatening factory closures, many – both customers and workers – felt let down.
GM sales in Europe2009: 1,263,3282010: 1,166,894 (down 13.9%)
Source: ACEA
“As far as the overall image in the market place [is concerned], it was affected mostly in Germany,” Nick Reilly, chief executive of GM Europe, told BBC News in an interview at the Geneva motor show.
Matters were made worse when a drawn-out plan to sell Opel and its sister-marque Vauxhall ended abruptly and acrimoniously in 2009, with the German government, which had offered financial backing for the plan, left hanging.
As GM Europe’s restructuring plan is nearing completion, with a much reduced cost structure in place, the task now is to regain trust and loyalty.
“We’re working hard at that,” says Mr Reilly, insisting that relations with the German government have been patched up.
“They know we’re investing in Germany. We’re hiring engineers. We are one of the most advanced companies in the industry on electrification of vehicles. So the somewhat unfortunate occurrences of the last year I think are behind us.”
GM’s effort to revive its European brands cannot rely on any expansion of European production capacity and thus large-scale job creation.
“The industry still has a lot of overcapacity in Europe,” says GM’s chief financial officer, Chris Liddell.
Nick Reilly admits that the GM brand suffered the most in Germany
“The chances of us adding capacity in Europe over the next couple of years are slim.”
Moreover, though profit margins in the US seem solid now that the burden of healthcare costs equivalent to about $2,000 per vehicle has been lifted, in Europe competition remains fierce.
So GM is unlikely to make the sort of profit margins that it does in North America, Mr Liddell acknowledges.
“I think that’s going to be very difficult given the industry dynamics,” he says, pointing to additional pressures from rising costs.
“It’s not just higher fuel prices for consumers, it is also commodity prices,” he says.
“Commodity price inflation, mainly steel prices, has become a concern across the board.”
So to lure back customers in Europe, GM will have to rely on its ability to make better cars.
“We’ve got to get out of the market share driven mentality”
Chris Liddell GM chief financial officer
“We’re very focused on new products, such as the Ampera – the world’s first extended-range electric vehicle,” says Mr Reilly. “Our new products are doing well.”
Mr Liddell, however, believes there is still plenty of work to be done.
“The quality of the product we have in Europe is probably better than the brand image,” he laments.
“On the sales side, it’s all about the reinvigoration of the brand.”
The carmaker has made great strides in recent years.
“Every car we build now has to be first class. It has to be able to be a market leader in its segment,” says Mr Liddell.
Armed with a new model line-up, Mr Liddell is hopeful that the turnaround can be swift in Europe too – the way it has been in the US and in Asia.
He is not, however, prepared to sacrifice profits in order to bolster sales.
“First and foremost, we’ve got to get out of the market share driven mentality,” Mr Liddell says, pointing to how GM used to offer large discounts to ensure it remained the world’s biggest carmaker by volume.
“The focus has got to be on producing world-class vehicles on a profitable basis,” he says.
“And the objective in Europe is still to break even this year.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
By Jorn Madslien
Nissan hopes crossover cars like the Juke will help increase its market share in Europe
Nissan is planning to open 400 new dealerships in Europe over the next three years, in addition to 600 opened during the last five years.
Combined with a slew of new models, the company hopes this will help it overtake Japanese rival Toyota.
“Our ambition is to… eventually become the number one Japanese brand in Europe,” Simon Thomas, head of sales and marketing in Europe, told BBC News.
During the last two years, Nissan has launched 10 new models.
“We’ve got one of the youngest ranges of any brand in Europe,” said Mr Thomas.
“We also have the widest product range in Europe. We are represented in more segments than any other brand in Europe with 24 products.”
Last year, Nissan had a 3.1% market share. During the first two months of this year, that rose to about 3.5%, helped by strong and growing sales of its Qashqai crossover and healthy demand for its smaller Juke.
“That’s the kind of level we think we can achieve for the rest of this year,” said Mr Thomas.
In Europe, Nissan sells one-in-four crossovers, which combine the high ride of 4x4s with the fuel economy and driving style of ordinary cars.
And although more and more rivals are piling in, the company predicts that the crossover segment will continue to grow.
“Our long-term ambition is to reach a 5% market share.”
Nissan’s brave talk has done little to rattle the world’s largest carmaker Toyota, however.
“Everybody’s got very ambitious targets,” said Didier Leroy, president of Toyota Motor Europe.
“But we expect our sales to rise 10% this year. Every single month since September we’ve beaten our sales targets in Europe.”
Toyota is slowly recovering from the damage caused by mass recalls of cars during 2010, backed by a broader range of petrol-electric hybrid cars.
“We want to develop sustainable growth in Europe,” Mr Leroy said.
“We’re not rushing for market share. We’re not rushing for volume. We want to do it in a profitable way.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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