The Internet of Things.

The photo above was taken by me during the recent "Our Erith" art exhibition in Christ Church Erith. It shows the choir and altar area of the church, along with two landscape paintings done by local professional artist Patrick Hearne. I have now uploaded the first batch of photos taken at the exhibition onto my Flickr site. You can click here to see the photos.

There has been much press coverage over the last week about the lack of public toilets in the UK nowadays. The London Borough of Bexley does especially poorly in this respect. Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to do more to save Britain's dwindling number of public lavatories. The Prime Minister said he would examine the case for lifting thousands of pounds of taxes from them every year to try to save them from closure. The search for public toilets in towns and cities has become more and more desperate in recent years because the number of lavatories has fallen markedly. Campaigners say that many have had to be closed because of councils have to pay onerous business rates on them. The British Toilet Association has estimated that 40 per cent of local authority run public conveniences have disappeared in the last decade, taking the number down from 12,000 to 6,000, in part because councils have to pay business rates on them. The Daily Telegraph reported earlier in the week that Public toilets have traditionally been liable for business rates in the same way as non-domestic premises such as shops and offices, while churches and premises used to care for disabled people are exempt. Four out of five councils have cut spending on public toilets since 2011. Overall expenditure has declined by almost a third in four years, with £21m less spent last year than in 2011, and 43 councils have slashed their budgets by more than seventy percent. Raymond Martin, managing director of The British Toilet Association, said: “This is a public facility. People have to go to the toilet. We have to do five things in life – we have to eat, sleep, breathe, drink and we have to go to the toilet. Failure to go to the toilet we get sick, we get disorientated, we have high blood pressure, we can have strokes – this is a health and wellbeing issue. It is about equality, social inclusion and bringing more older people into town. The reason that toilets are closing is councils do not get any financial support from government to do it, so they have to sit down and look at costs. I have calls coming into me from councils saying ‘how do we close down all our toilets’. Councils really want to provide these facilities, they really want to have them but commercially and economically they can't afford to do it. The fall in numbers of public lavatories meant more and more shop owners are complaining about people urinating in the street, and worse".

Following the account from Maggot Sandwich reader and occasional contributor Alan Magin last week, where he shared his recollections of his part in the construction of Thamesmead, and a photo of him from back in June 1969 where he was helping install a stressed steel beam onto what was to become East Bridge on Yarnton Way. This week I have been sent an Email from local resident Tom Burnham, also with a historic photo of Thamesmead. Tom writes:- "Incidentally, in 1969 I had a holiday job working for Bexley Council at Sidcup Place, where the Borough Engineer's Dept was located in those days, and was set to constructing a scale model of the Harrow Manor Way flyover at Abbey Wood station.  The model showed the then proposed station entrance directly off the flyover, adjacent to the bus lay-bys) so it's interesting to see that idea now coming into effect, 47 years later. It had also been expected that there would be a third platform so that trains could terminate there - I think a Victoria-Abbey Wood service was envisaged". Interesting stuff. It just goes to show that pretty much every plan has been thought of in some form before. The Abbey Wood Crossrail terminus design is obviously a lot less groundbreaking than many had considered. 

It seems that the vision of the “Smart Home” is more than a few years away. A survey has recently been carried out by accountancy giant PwC shows that British homeowners are more concerned with practical applications and financial advantages rather than the need to be “tech-tastic” when it comes to smart technology at home. The majority of participants (72 per cent) were uninterested in making their homes smarter, and were not looking to buy smart appliances, renewable energy devices or automated cleaning appliances over the next two to five years. Research shows that they could be convinced if there were financial incentives such as reduced energy bills or free installation of smart energy meters or lights. Less than ten per cent of consumers were not bothered by pressure to keep up with tech-savvy friends and family with smart homes and were unimpressed with the ability to control devices through an app, possibly preferring to stride over and flip the switch themselves. Concerns were expressed over the security of certain smart devices, after the revelations last year that smart TV’s could be used by hackers to spy on individuals, by remotely activating the TV’s camera and speech recognition microphone. People seem to want simplicity and reliability over additional functionality, according to the report. One of the problems very few people have considered when discussing “The Internet of Things” as digitally connected domestic devices are often called is that of durability and lifecycle. Whilst, for example, a central heating system may last for twenty or so years (with a boiler swap – out halfway through), a smart phone with an associated app to remotely control the heating system has an average life of not much more than a couple of years. There is no guarantee that the app will continue to be supported on later version of the phone or tablets’ operating system, or that the app itself will still be available. As some of you may know, my “day job” is as a technology analyst in a multinational consulting company. I did some research a little while back into the possibility of replacing some very expensive, proprietary interactive touch screen screens outside of office meeting rooms which showed who was using the rooms, and who would be in there next with much cheaper Android tablets fixed to the outside of the meeting room. The Android tablet hardware worked out at less than one third of the cost of a proprietary screens, but the problem was that the company that provided the meeting room screen software could not guarantee that their code would carry on working for at least five years, and after multiple Android updates. The project ended up dead in the water because of this. I think that many similar situations may well arise in domestic environments, where a device such as a heating or lighting system with a relatively long lifecycle is to be controlled by a tablet or mobile phone with a far shorter lifecycle, and with software with a shorter lifecycle still. I feel that much of the “internet of things” is actually a solution looking for a problem. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

You may recall that a while ago, back in December I featured a story which debunked the myth that the Homeleigh Care Home in Avenue Road, Erith was to be converted into a centre for fifty Syrian refugee families. The malicious hoax story had been created and spread via social media by extreme right wing hate group, the English Defence League. "Bexley is Bonkers" author Malcolm Knight had also investigated the story, and came to the same conclusion as I. In fact, the former care home has been converted into a refuge for homeless people, including women seeking shelter from domestic violence. i am not going to debate the bones of the story, as to whether the building is actually fit for purpose - others are already doing that, and I see no benefit in duplicating that discussion. What does concern me is that several of the residents of the former care home are photographed and named in the News Shopper piece. The location of Homeleigh House is very well known both locally and beyond. It strikes me as irresponsible for the News Shopper to run the story in the form that it has. Any disgruntled former partner could easily trace the women from the information published in the story - the possibilities are potentially dreadful. Bear in mind that it is only a few months since the appalling murder of Sian Blake and her two children in Pembroke Road, Erith. I would have expected the News Shopper to have been more responsible under the circumstances. 

Did you know that the words “Internet” and “Web” are no longer considered to be proper nouns? As of last week the bible of English speaking journalists, the Associated Press Stylebook , which offers a comprehensive guide to the usage of words, style, spelling and punctuation. "The argument for lowercasing Internet is that is has become wholly generic, like electricity and the telephone. It never was trademarked and is not based on any proper noun," writes Tom Kent, Associated Press Standards Editor, in an interview with technology news website, Slashdot:-  "The best reason for capitalising it in the past may have been that the term was new. At one point, we understand, 'Phonograph' was capitalised." The two names will join the likes of website (formerly Web site) and email (formerly e-mail). Thankfully, for capital letter enthusiasts, there's one prominent holdout: PDF, short for Portable Document Format, will remain capitalised. I don’t make the rules, I just report them.

I took the photo above recently; it shows an empty mini canister of Nitrous Oxide gas (commonly known as "laughing gas"). The canister was dumped on the road by the pedestrian crossing on Manor Road, Erith. "Legal Highs" are no longer legal;  Synthetic drugs such as "Spice" and substances such as Nitrous Oxide are now illegal to sell. The Psychoactive Substances Act  2016 came into force on the 6th April 2016. The Act will make it an offence to produce, supply or offer to supply any psychoactive substance if the substance is likely to be used for its psychoactive effects and regardless of its potential for harm. The only exemption from the Act are those substances already controlled by the Misuse of Drugs Act, nicotine, alcohol, caffeine and medicinal products. The main intention of the Act is to shut down shops and websites that currently trade in ‘legal highs’. Put simply any substance will be illegal to produce or supply if it is likely to be used to get high. Possession of a psychoactive substance will not be an offence, except in a ‘custodial institution’ (prison, young offender centre, removal centre etc.). Possession with intent to supply, importing or exporting a psychoactive substance are now all offences. I have never understood the attraction of such substances, but after undertaking some online research, I came across the respected academic journal "Addiction". In an article aimed at UK lawmakers, The opening statement, by Prof Peter Reuter and Bryce Pardo of the School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, outlines three problems with the Psychoactive Substances Act's total ban of new psychoactive substances (NPS): 1. The Act's definition of psychoactivity is too broad: it applies to substances of potential and known minimal to moderate harm. 2. The Act does not provide a way to establish psychoactivity. On this topic, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has warned that "There is currently no way to define psychoactivity through a biochemical test, therefore there is no guarantee of proving psychoactivity in a court of law." 3. The Act's penalties for violations of a total ban are not proportional to the harm of the substance involved. Under the Act, judges cannot impose a common sense approach in sentencing since they will have little if any evidence on the harms of the specific drug involved in the case. On the other hand, Reuter and Pardo point out that total prohibition of NPS has two major potential advantages: 1. The Act will likely reduce the number of different NPS introduced in a given period. 2. The Act should reduce the cost of managing the NPS problem by eliminating the need to study and classify each newly emerging NPS. Professor Reuter says: "Given the prominence of the United Kingdom in drug policy affairs internationally, the choice made by the UK is likely to reverberate throughout the world. The Expert Panel that developed the Psychoactive Substances Bill identified several alternative approaches but did not have sufficient time to study them fully. So little is known about the subsequent Act's feasibility and consequences that it would have been better to delay until more effort was made to assess all the alternatives." Thought provoking stuff, indeed.  Do you have an opinion on the new act? Leave a comment below, or send me an Email to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The following announcement was made this week by Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association:- "Two youths have been arrested and charged in relation to 28 offences over the theft of motorbikes across Plumstead, Erith, Abbey Wood and Dartford. One aged 19, and officers from Metropolitan Police arrested the other 18, who are both from Erith, on Wednesday March 16th. The 19 year old is charged with 12 offences - four counts of theft of motorbikes, one count of burglary, one count of attempted burglary, two counts of driving without a licence, two counts of driving without insurance, and two counts of riding a bike without protective headgear. The 18 year old is charged with 16 offences - five counts of theft of a motorbike, one count of burglary, one count of attempted burglary, two counts of driving without a licence, two counts of driving without insurance, two counts of riding a bike without protective headgear and three counts of breaching a criminal behaviour order. This is merely the tip of an iceberg and where it is hoped our BikeWatch scheme will, in future, help to reduce offences".  Excellent news - illegal bike riding is a major problem in the local area, something I know is a major source of annoyance to the majority of law abiding local bikers. 

As many readers will know, whilst being very interested in science and technology, I do have issues with privacy, security and the way in which seemingly benign and everyday information is mined by large corporations and governments to enable them to profile us in ways that many could not even imagine. One such method was published earlier this week on IT news website The Register, and has just been picked up by the BBC, though they miss a few key points in their coverage. It turns out that popular social media behemoth Facebook is monitoring its users in ways that few could have ever previously considered. Professor Kelli Burns of The University of South Florida, with the help of several television journalists, has verified the fact that Facebook's mobile app grants itself access to your mobile phone's microphone by talking about a holiday she wanted to take. "I'm really interested in going on an African safari. I think it'd be wonderful to ride in one of those jeeps," she said out loud with her phone in hand. According to the report, under a minute later, the first story in her Facebook feed was about a safari. And a car advert soon appeared on her page. Of course, the "evidence" is purely anecdotal, and as soon as the report spread, Burns has walked back her claim, saying that she may have been searching online for the same things she said out loud – in which case Facebook may be reacting to other data it has picked up on her habits. It may also be worth noting that before Professor Burns became an academic, she spent seven years in corporate marketing and the course she teaches is the "principles of public relations." Facebook's app access to a phone's microphone is fact, and, critically, it now appears to be turned on by default, meaning you have to dig into your phone's innards to disable it. This is not the first time Facebook has faced this charge: last year it was also accused of listening to people and selling ads in response. It said at the time that users had to turn the microphone on. But that may have changed subsequently, since most users find their microphones are on as a default for the Facebook app. Facebook says this about its use of the microphone: "We use your microphone to identify the things you're listening to or watching, based on the music and TV matches we're able to identify." It also points out that it doesn't record conversations – although it doesn't need to actually record conversations, of course, to act on them and relay "relevant ads." And last year it claimed that listening was limited only to when you are writing a Facebook update. In response to Burns' report and other similar anecdotes reported online, the company has denied using what you say to place ads or impact your news feed. It said: "Facebook does not use microphone audio to inform advertising or News Feed stories in any way. Businesses are able to serve relevant ads based on people's interests and other demographic information, but not through audio collection." Of course, it is possible to parse that official response and question what Facebook's definitions of "inform" and "collection" are. Unlike other better-known voice services such as Apple's Siri and Amazon's Echo, Facebook has given itself far greater control over what it can do with your microphone. Its explanations also follow a familiar trend of Facebook responses: vague policies, followed by clear denials, followed by a new set of policies. Apple's Siri assistant can listen to you any time, but there are three significant differences between it and Facebook. First, it waits for its "wake word" – in this case "Hey, Siri." Second, it is turned off by default. You have to activate it and then carry out four voice tests before it turns on. And third, it only works when plugged in (although Apple has reportedly considered turning off the plugged-in restriction). Likewise, Amazon's Echo technology listens for a wake word before carrying out any analysis – in its case, "Alexa." Amazon is also upfront about its collection of audio and allows you to delete recordings plus play around with settings. Facebook, on the other hand, gives itself access to your phone's microphone – seemingly by default despite earlier claims – and is capable of always listening and does not tell you what it does with the information it receives. None of this should comes as a surprise to people: Facebook has repeatedly given itself access to people's personal data and then begged forgiveness afterwards. It continually tweaks its privacy settings, requiring people to keep making changes to prevent the company from sharing the information you provide. And whenever there is an uproar, it announces small changes that require people to actively change their settings again. Most don't. Facebook claims the feature is good for users because it makes it easier and faster for you to post about what's going on around you. If that's a persuasive argument for you, continue on, but for everyone else the answer is to go into your phone's settings and manually prevent your Facebook app from accessing your microphone. How to turn your mobile phone microphone off:- iOS: Settings > Facebook > Settings > Microphone. Android: Settings > Privacy and emergency > App permissions. Find Facebook and turn off mic access. Better still, ditch the phone altogether. I know some people thought that I was mad for not having a mobile phone - perhaps they can see that my concerns were not "tin foil hat paranoia" after all. On top of all this, another story broke with a very similar message. If you are using a mobile device (phone or tablet), then you will almost certainly rely on encryption, whether you actually know about it or not. If you use services such as Gmail, or buy anything from an online retailer, or use online banking where the website URL beings with "HTTPS" - this indicates the connection between your device and the website is encrypted. It has generally been understood that this connection is practically uncrackable in normal situations, however a research paper has now put this into doubt. It has been known for some time that tiny fluctuations in electrical current during encryption routines, or even the sounds made by the system, can be picked up wirelessly to ascertain the encryption keys used – but it usually requires hooking up expensive analysis equipment and takes long periods of time to gather all the bits needed. The NSA's TEMPEST programme was set up to do just that. Now, in a paper published by the Association for Computing Machinery, researchers from Tel Aviv University have detailed how inexpensive kit can be used to harvest 4,096-bit RSA encryption keys in just a few seconds and from distances of around 10 metres (33 feet). This is the same security research group who hid a loop of wire and a USB radio dongle in a piece of pita bread last year and used it to steal encryption keys over the air. In their latest research, the team managed to pick up encryption keys using acoustics. As a computer's processor churns through the encryption calculations, the machine emits a high-frequency "coil whine" from the changing electrical current flowing through its components. By using a parabolic microphone, the team was able to pick up the coil whine from 10 meters (38 feet) away. Trouble is, that mic is a little obvious if you're trying to be sneaky, so they managed to get the same result from a mobile phone's microphone placed 30 centimetres (12 inches) away from the spied-on PC. In both cases it took an hour of listening to get the 4,096-bit RSA key. To combat this security hole, you need tweak your software, the team wrote. It's possible to use acoustic dampening inside a PC against sound attacks, Faraday cages to block electromagnetic emissions, and insulation of the enclosures of laptops. This is not practical in the real world. Instead, the team recommends encryption software writers build in "blinding" routines that insert dummy calculations into cryptographic operations. Software developers and website operators such as Amazon and Google are already working on this. Whilst this type of security exploit is (as far as I am aware) only being deployed in research labs at present, it will not be very long before criminals are using it "in the wild". You have  been warned. 

There have been rumours that the forthcoming Crossrail (Elizabeth Line) could be extended, with an additional station at London City Airport. The Wharf newspaper has reported that London City Airport has questioned why Transport for London is rebuffing its proposals to fund and build a Crossrail station at the Docklands hub. The newly-named Elizabeth Line has stops at Custom House, to the north of Victoria Dock, and at Woolwich and it is carried in tunnels underneath the airport but the airport itself is not on the initial roster of stations. A spokesman for the airport said that the station would generate the £3 million a year operational costs and another station would add just under three minutes to overall journey times according to the airport’s calculations. The airport is currently awaiting the outcome of its planning appeal against the decision to block its £300 million expansion plans with the new Mayor, Sadiq Khan, more receptive to the idea than his predecessor. It will be interesting to see what happens now that we have a new mayor in charge. 

The end video this week is a short film about how The Peabody Trust intends to rebuild and improve Thamesmead. It is not all a one - sided commercial for the redevelopment - there are some very interesting objections made by long - time Thamesmead residents. Give it a watch and see what you think. 

Our Erith exhibition.

The two photos above show Erith railway station; the upper photo shows what it looks like nowadays, and the lower photo (courtesy of photographer Tom Burnham) was taken back in the Spring of 1970. It is immediately obvious that the building has changed remarkably over the time period, and in my opinion it looks far better nowadays than it did back then. I believe that the way the station looks now is pretty close to what it originally looked like when it was built back in 1849. The structure on the front (to the right) in the 1970 photo appears to be a "goods in" depot for freight - I know that historically the station used to have a small branch line and an extra mini platform for the loading and unloading of sheep, pigs and coal, amongst other commodities. By 1970 this kind of freight was long in the past, and newsprint was the main load, though commuting into and out of London was very much on the increase - the days of most Erith residents working locally was decreasing. The focus of the station was already moving away from freight and onto catering for daily commuters instead. The station now is host to around 2,500 passengers every weekday - somewhat less at weekends.

Southeastern trains have taken yet another hammering this week; they made the BBC National News on Tuesday morning, when they used the incredibly weak excuse that the sunlight was too bright for drivers to see the signals outside of Lewisham station. This compounded problems elsewhere. Less than two years after a serious landslip happened – and after which Southeastern said “lessons have been learned”, another landslip happened on Monday night / the early hours of Tuesday morning at Barnehurst station - this was followed by a second landslip on Thursday. From my understanding, a series of ground reinforcement ties were deployed to strengthen the high earth banks after the last landslip, but for some reason the bank collapsed onto the rail track, blocking the line, and meaning that no trains were able to run on the Bexleyheath line for all of Tuesday. I concede that the problem is quite complex, with a number of conflicting requirements. During the summer, the trees and bushes along the sides of the track have to be cut back to keep up visibility levels, and to reduce the risk of fire. In the autumn the foliage is also cut back or weed – killered to try and stop the “leaves on the line” problem all rail travellers are acutely familiar with. Conversely the tree and bush roots act as anchors, holding the railway cutting soil in place when it rains. Totally removing the vegetation would be a really bad move – on both the Bexleyheath and the Greenwich lines, much of the route is through cuttings or tunnels, and land slips would be even more common The News Shopper have reported that Bexleyheath and Crayford MP David Evennett has written to Southeastern, complaining about the situation. He said:- “I have written to Network Rail to complaint about the lack of information and action, given that this occurred nearly twelve hours ago. I have also raised concerns about this not being an isolated incident as a landslide occurred two years ago. I have asked what action was taken to prevent another landslide and whether a trackside safety assessment had been carried out before last night." I doubt his letter will make much of a difference. To rub salt into the wound, the News Shopper have also reported that people are criticising Southeastern after the company's yearly accounts revealed a £20 million profit, despite the train operator's poor ranking in customer satisfaction. That figure is an increase of just over £10 million on the previous financial year, according to records filed just days before Christmas.  But despite the jump in revenue, Southeastern ranked second to last train company in London in the Which? 2015 consumer satisfaction guide. Back in December rail minister Claire Perry pledged to sit down with local MPs in the new year to review Southeastern's performance.  She also warned that the rail company could face fines of up to £4 million if it fails to meet targets for stations, train services and customer services. If this was not enough, a petition that demands the stripping of the railway franchise for Southeastern has been launched, and in the short time since it was started has gathered more than half of the signatures needed for a government response. “Remove the rail franchise from South Eastern” was started up earlier this month, and has already collected more than 7,000 signatures. For the government to respond to a petition, it needs 10,000 signatures, and for a debate in parliament, 100,000 signatures are needed. Alongside the petition a statement reads: “Southeastern consistently let down their paying customers, cancelling trains strategically so they don’t have to pay refunds, whilst making £12.8m in profit. Their customer service is beyond useless and the people of the South East have suffered for long enough;" Another rail related story has also been doing the rounds over the last few days; Pressure is mounting on the government to extend Crossrail (C2G) from Abbey Wood to Gravesend, as originally planned. Crossrail 1 was originally supposed to run to Hoo Junction, near Higham and the Shorne Marshes. The Ebbsfleet Development Corporation (EDC), Boris Johnson, Thames Gateway Kent Partnership and Bexley, Dartford, Gravesham and Kent County councils joined forces to put forward a case on Friday January 8th for the high speed rail line's extension into Kent. This would also service the huge London Paramount theme park that is planned for the 872 acre site on the Swanscombe peninsula, construction of which is due to begin in the autumn.  Bexley Council leader Teresa O'Neill (someone with whom I rarely agree) said "The existing North Kent Line will not support the growth we aspire to deliver. More capacity is needed beyond what can be provided within the Southeastern train franchise or by Transport for London taking over the Kent Metro services. Growth on this scale requires better connectivity to meet future demand. Bexley and North Kent are uniquely located between the capital, channel ports and less than an hour from major airports. Extending Crossrail 1 presents a real opportunity and we look forward to discussing this further with the Commission." A decision on the matter is due to be reached on February the 13th. More on this story in the weeks to come. 

      

Further to my article last week regarding the wind - down of AM (Medium Wave) radio in Europe, I got a very interesting and indeed thought provoking Email from my former boss, Peter Moore, the station manager at Radio Caroline. This is what he wrote:- "I would like to contribute my views on DAB Radio. I was interested to read your comments about the rolling close down of AM ( Medium Wave ) radio. This system still works as well as it ever did if transmitted with sufficient power to overcome interference that power lines and electrical devices create. The promotion of DAB radio is another example of how Governments nudge us towards things we neither want nor need, using mostly spurious arguments. It is true that many years ago, there was insufficient choice in radio listening as the BBC had a legal monopoly and provided programmes that they thought the population should have and not the programmes they wanted. As long ago as the thirties, the population tuned en masse to overseas stations providing light entertainment and music. This is why radio sets of the thirties show Radio Normandie, Luxembourg and Hilversum. The reaction of the BBC was not to amend their programmes to compete, but to use every means possible to cause their rivals to close down. The same happened with the upheaval caused by Sixties pirate stations at sea. The Government response was to legislate them out of existence. During the Seventies, privately owned stations started to be permitted, first for major cities than regions, then smaller local stations and the BBC, fearing they were being sidelined, demanded they should have local stations also. FM, which uses a different technical system was particularly suited to local radio and as time passed The Radio Authority, which became Ofcom now wanted to licence as many stations as could possibly be accommodated and this situation was like gold rush, as getting  a radio frequency to use was almost a licence to print money. Eventually saturation point was reached as each new station was taking a percentage of the audience from existing stations and of course, because there were now many more ways to seek entertainment other than by listening to the radio.  So as stations demanded the right merge with each other in order to survive, it can be assumed that the UK has enough radio now. So when Digital Audio Broadcasting appeared it really had no role and the Industry described it as ' a solution to a problem that does not exist '. It was promoted on the supposedly improved audio quality and Stephen Fry advertised the sound as ' honey dripping from your ears ' but it is not. DAB is fragile in that reception may just cease or be subject to background interference. As the operators of DAB try to add more stations in order to break even, these problems increase and, the DAB we use in the UK has long since been superseded by more modern versions. So behind all the hype, the march of DAB has no merit and continues only because the Government has decreed that it must happen, probably because they want the AM and FM bands back to sell again for other use. But to achieve this, Government must persuade every household in the UK to throw away perfectly serviceable radios and spend money on DAB sets that do not work as well as or provide as much choice as the item they have just junked. The Industry also calls DAB ' dead and buried ' but the powers that be will not let it die. I am sure that few people really wanted wind turbines, but someone somewhere decided that we would have them like it or not and now they blight landscapes while we pay subsidies to support their inefficiency" A very pertinent and insightful view from someone within the broadcasting industry. 

Local MP Teresa Pearce will formally launch on the morning of Monday the 18th January. the “Our Erith” exhibition with a call to local artists, photographers and craft makers to prepare entries for the event in May this year. The “Our Erith” exhibition is being organised by Friends of Christ Church Erith in association with Bexley College and will be held at Christ Church Erith in Victoria Road, Erith from Friday 13 May to Sunday 15 May this year. The Friends of Christ Church Erith and Bexley College believe the local area is alive with artistic talent and would love to see this channelled to celebrate the local area. Budding artists, photographers and those who enjoy craftwork are encouraged to produce an original piece inspired by Erith. This could range from Erith’s history, its landscape, its architecture and its people. Local people of all ages are invited to take part and works will be displayed in the magnificent interior of the church. Entries should be submitted by 30 April and will be returned after the exhibition. Please feel free to attend the launch event at Christ Church Erith on Monday morning at 10am. The event will be covered by the local press, and I will be there with my camera. 

You may have seen the recent press coverage regarding the maximum levels of alcohol consumption recommended by the government. Technology website The Register have reported that the government’s chief advisor on health ignored more than eighty studies to produce her new Puritanical guidelines on the consumption of alcohol – which asks Britons to forego their weekend drink. Civil servant Dame Sally Davies has drawn up the lowest recommendations in the West: there is no “safe drinking level”, her team declared. The question is what justification was used to get there? The answer isn’t pretty for “evidence based” policy. Repeated studies have shown that alcohol in moderation prolongs life: it reduces the risk of heart disease and strokes. In fact the benefits of alcohol in preventing strokes and heart disease are far clearer than the negatives of drinking. "Four out of five cohort studies showed statistically significant reduction of all causes of mortality between 15 per cent and 25 per cent for moderate drinking,” notes one meta study, with moderate drinking defined as men who drink about three pints a day and women who have two glasses of wine a day. If three pints a night sounds a lot today, then that’s because of the almost imperceptible ratchet effect that public health policy has had in distorting risk. The guidelines in the 1960s, Christopher Snowdon points out, declared that a bottle of wine a day was fine. The natural conclusion of the health policy is that all alcohol is unsafe – which is the caveat added to today’s new guidelines. The proposed guidelines – you have until April to complain about them – focus heavily on a cancer scare. It is an argument that we have heard before. In fact, neither the cancer scare nor the “unsafe at any level” recommendation have any scientific justification. As Snowdon finds, Davies ignored over eighty studies and meta studies showing the same J-curve of risk. If you drink nothing, you are at greater risk of heart disease, strokes and living a shorter life than a drinker. The health risk falls for moderate alcohol consumption, with optimal consumption of around 20g (two pints a day), then rises for heavy drinkers. Instead, as Davies isolated, some highly selective statistical methods were used instead. Compare the error bars to the data point. One is bigger than the other. Yet even here, the researchers found a relative risk of below 1.0 for almost all groups. Davies simply threw out the evidence that didn’t fit what she wanted to say (i.e. almost all of it) and highlighted the evidence that did. As Snowdon shrewdly observes, the alcohol guidelines aren’t written for the public, which will simply ignore them, but serve a different purpose. They’re intended to show the public health lobby how “virtuous” the government is. It is virtue signalling – the UK can show the world that it is the most moral group in the room. Just as it is the most moral at “fighting climate change”, “being digital” or spending money on foreign aid. Some or all of these things may not matter to you – but they matter to bureaucrats and diplomats when they meet on a junket. If you’re wondering who pays for this mini-industry of Puritans, then you do not have to look far, as I discovered in 2012 by examining the history of a Victorian society which began life in 1852 as the “United Kingdom Alliance to Procure the Total and Immediate Legislative Suppression of the Traffic in All Intoxicating Liquors”. It’s still going, only now it’s called the Alliance House Foundation, or AHF. The AHF funds the Institute for Alcohol Studies, which is giddy with excitement today – but wants the cancer scare to be amplified. The largest funder of the AHF is the European Union. In other words, it’s you and I as tax payers. Feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Any residents or regular visitors to Erith will well know that the town gets especially busy on Friday afternoons; road traffic through to the Dartford Tunnel and along Bronze Age Way from the South Circular often grinds to a halt due to the sheer volume of vehicles. I usually work from home on Fridays (my "day job" involves working with technology, and means that most of the time, it is not actually important where I am physically located). The traffic outside Pewty Acres is almost always gridlocked for a couple of hours at minimum on Fridays. This may all get quite a bit worse shortly. Road works are shortly to begin on North End Road to open up a new opening in the central reservation and build two new signal controlled crossings. Work will take place at the junctions at Bridge Road and at Colyers Lane. During the works, starting on February 8, the road will be reduced from a dual carriageway to single lane traffic at various stages, with 30 mph speed restrictions in place. Businesses and residents were consulted on the work in October last year, with a letter sent out to businesses in advance of the works, though from my information is that many people are still unaware of the extensive and disruptive works that will be taking place. The Bexley Times report that Alex Sawyer, Cabinet Member for Traffic and Transport, said: “In recent years there has been significant growth in the area and the amount of new homes means that the number of road users has increased. The increase in housing is set to continue and we need to support this regeneration and ensure that the area is accessible in the future, by investing in road improvements now. Public transport is critical. Bus services in Slade Green and in Colyers Lane will improve and become more reliable as a result of the work. Unfortunately this does mean that, during the improvement work, there will be traffic congestion and those who use Northend Road should allow more time for their journeys. We apologise for the short-term inconvenience, but the works will improve the flow of traffic in the longer term".

Seasoned Maggot Sandwich readers will be familiar with my attitude towards what some journalists refer to as “The Internet of Things” – the current vogue for making every possible domestic device “smart” and connected to the Internet. It started off with Samsung and their “smart” fridge with a built in OLED video display, and Apple with their widely reported range of watches (which, incidentally have been quite successful with male customers, but not that big a hit with women – more of this in the future). Now a new smart device has been created. Security researchers have discovered a glaring security hole that exposes the home network password of users of a Wi-Fi-enabled video doorbell (yes, you did read that correctly). The issue – now resolved – underlines how default configurations of “Internet of Things” components can introduce easy to exploit security holes. The smart doorbell, called The Ring allows users to answer people knocking on their door from their mobile phone or web enabled tablet device, even when they are not at home. The kit acts as a CCTV camera, automatically activating if people approach the door, letting homeowners talk to visitors, delivery couriers and so on. There is an optional feature that allows the kit to hook up to some smart door locks, so users can let guests into their home even when they aren’t in. IT News website The Register are reporting that there is a serious problem with this system. Security researchers at UK consultancy Pen Test Partners were shocked when they carried out a security evaluation of the device. The major component is the doorbell itself, which comes with electronics and battery and is fitted outside the house. The electronics are connected to a back plate which attaches the doorbell to the wall and can provide power from a mains source. The device is secured outside a house using two commonly available screws, leaving it vulnerable to theft. The supplier - Ring offer a free replacement if the kit is stolen, so homeowners are covered in that scenario (at least). However that’s not the end of the problems with the device. An easy attack makes it all too simple to steal a homeowner's Wi-Fi key. To do this, hackers would need to take the kit off the door mounting, flip it over and press the orange "set up" button. Pressing the setup button puts the doorbell’s wireless module into a setup mode, in which it acts as a Wi-Fi access point.  The doorbell is only secured to its back plate by two standard screws. This means that it is possible for an attacker to gain access to the homeowner’s wireless network by unscrewing the Ring, pressing the setup button and accessing the configuration URL. The configuration URL is simple, so the attack could be pulled off using only a mobile device and a screwdriver. The device could be screwed back on afterwards, all without leaving any visible signs of tampering, Any hacker could walk up to a door fitted with a Ring smart doorbell, unscrew the unit, connect it to a mobile device with a web browser and download the house Wi-Fi password and settings, all without physically needing access to the inside of the house. Carrying out this very straightforward attack, the hacker would have complete control over the house’s wireless network. This may be an extreme situation , but it is a prime example of the law of unintended consequences. I guarantee we will be seeing more of this kind of issue in the very near future.

Regular Maggot Sandwich reader, and occasional contributor Dana Whiffen has written the following piece on the Routemaster bus:- "It is just over 10 years since the red London Routemaster was removed from the fully accessible bus routes across London in December 2005, one of the last Routes to have them was 159 which runs between Marble Arch and Brixton via Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. Original Routemasters (RMs) ran on most routes across London from 1957 and a longer version was later introduced to take more passenger known as(RMLs). A batch of Routemasters were revamped and given new engines prior to 2005 with a view that they would operate for another 10-15 years although this decision was cancelled and only a handful of those reconditioned buses were kept to run our one of the main tourist routes route 15. Of the 2,876 built around 1,200 are still running as preserved buses which show their staying power and how well built they were, some of today’s London bus fleet that were built around the year 2000 are on their last legs and due to be replaced by newer buses. The RM is an iconic symbol of London and Englishness and is loved by tourists and visitors alike.  Many of the RM’s that are preserved  across the Country, are being used for weddings, private parties and by sightseeing tour operators. Catch it while you can The RM is still running past St. Paul’s Cathedral to the Tower of London on Route 15".

The short end video this week is fascinating. It shows the work of the small group of people who maintain and support London's gas powered street lights; until I saw this mini documentary, I did not realise that certain parts of London are still lit by gas lamps. This film gives an insight into the men and women who keep these historic lanterns working. Feel free to leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.