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Project makani fantastic new wind power concept from google
http://www.google.com/makani/solution/ These look like a brilliant idea. Instead of a fixed thousand ton wind turbine they fly a kite/drone hybrid to higher altitudes that is much simpler to build and deploy and use the higher and more consistent wind speeds to attain higher energy and higher CFs Their much smaller size…
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Labour = Houses prices go down, Torys = house prices go up?
Apologies for the rather simplistic and perhaps inflammatory headline... Anyway, I have been reading various things in the news regarding the forthcoming election and how the result could potentially affect house prices. The general consensus seems to be that if labour get in, even as a minority/coalition, then house…
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Nice People 13: Nice Save
Welcome to the 13th Nice People thread - no unluckiness for anyone here. Pull up a pew and have a nice natter about anything nice, in a nice way, especially now that the autumn nights are drawing in. :beer: I've found (not taken!) a picture just to illustrate this ... :D Old hands and newbies equally welcome. The only rule…
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Tory Economic Competence Myth?
An interesting article: https://kittysjones.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/conservative-negative-campaign-strategy-share-the-lies-and-win-a-prize/ Obviously the writer is biased against the Tories, but the quotes are mainly from independent sources (but correct me if I'm wrong). Some highlights for discussion: 'The Office of…
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The Economics of The Economist
Enjoy! http://redef.com/item/551c43128d825e106a9a08d6?curator=MediaREDEF A very interesting piece on the future of media highlighting the experiences of one of the few old print media companies to have expanded over the last decade or so.
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Labour = Houses prices go down, Torys = house prices go up?
Apologies for the rather simplistic and perhaps inflammatory headline... Anyway, I have been reading various things in the news regarding the forthcoming election and how the result could potentially affect house prices. The general consensus seems to be that if labour get in, even as a minority/coalition, then house…
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Welcome to the map of up and coming London ...
http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/wp-content/gallery/night-tube-map/night-tube-map.jpg
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The Cost of Success
The one child family was a huge success: women were hounded into aborting second and additional children and a cultural change has now occurred when a second child is seen as decadent and the only child is feted as a little emperor. There is no real tradition of retirement savings in China, unsurprising when more than 2…
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Katie Hopkins to leave UK if Labour are elected.
Looks like Labour are a shoo-in for the election now that Katie has become involved :) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/katie-hopkins-promises-to-leave-the-uk-if-labour-get-elected-wins-ed-miliband-the-battle-for-number-10-10138526.html
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Have to Sell before Buying Now?!
I have bought 2 properties and sold one in my life. In the past buying a house meant placing an offer, negotiating that offer and then everyone waits until both parties sell/buy their respective properties. It seems this is no longer the case and no one actually seems to be being transparent about the whole process. Our…
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R.Peston blog on inflation flooded with those disenchanted with housing
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32033926 Robert Peston has yet again had to suspend the comments on his BBC blog due to yet another uproar about housing costs in the UK, all of which are are very well articulated and well received. The argument this time is that the reporting of low inflation is just a joke when so many…
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Working as a Professional Troll
http://www.rferl.org/content/how-to-guide-russian-trolling-trolls/26919999.html
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train crash waiting to happen in London property
I read a stat in the FT yesterday that absolutely blew my mind. There are now 54,000 homes planned or under construction “in the priciest areas of the capital”. Most will cost “close to or above the £1m mark” and most are two-bed flats. Here’s the mind-blowing bit: in the same areas last year, just 3,900 homes were sold…
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House Prices Falling in Wales
http://www.nationwide.co.uk/~/media/MainSite/documents/about/house-price-index/Mar_2015.pdf
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The Swanson Effect
We've presumably all heard of Moore's Law. This is the idea coined by a founder of Intel that stated that the number of transistors on a microchip would double every 18 months. This has basically held true since Gordon Moore said it in 1965 and the result is that we can carry access to the sum of all the world's knowledge…
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‘Super-prime property’ could be the canary in the coalmine
One big feature of this boom has been the way it started with a big surge in super-prime property, in areas such as Chelsea, Kensington and Westminster. This then radiated out, as people priced out of those areas moved to slightly less expensive ones. In turn, they displaced others. As a result, notes The Daily Telegraph,…
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Concrete
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/24/how-china-used-more-cement-in-3-years-than-the-u-s-did-in-the-entire-20th-century/ China used more concrete in the period 2011-3 than the USA did in the entire C20th! About 50% more. This explains how.
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UK inflation to plummet to fresh low
Inflation fell to its lowest rate on record last month, official data will show this week, as supermarkets stepped-up a price war and consumers reaped the benefits of cheaper oil prices. Prices are expected to have edged up by just 0.1pc in February compared with a year earlier. This compares with an increase in CPI of…
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Insolvency system favours investors
I agree wholeheartidy with this report, and it's refreshing to see it prominent in the news. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32014025 Risk needs to be bought back to investing. Infact, the whole system needs a shake up as I believe the system protects the most wealthy above everyone else.
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The government will now GIVE you 20% of your deposit
Osborne announced at the budget that a new "Help to buy ISA" is on the way. For every £200 you save, the government will GIVE you £50 extra. I will make use of this, be silly not to (depending on the fine print!) but it's simply astonishing. The government is now GIVING people money to buy a house!