Tag: Wales

Britishvolt signs MOU with Welsh government

Britishvolt has signed an MOU (Memo of Understanding) with the Welsh Government as both parties work together on plans to develop a commercially viable 30 GWh battery manufacturing plant, and supplementary 200MW solar plant, at the former RAF base at Bro Tathan, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales.

The site was narrowed down from over 40 locations, due to a number of factors including: import/export accessibility, availability of labour and skilled staff, and convenient geographical proximity to customers and local industrial companies.

Wikipedia shocked by hatred

walesThe Wikimedia movement’s 10th Wikimania conference at the London Barbican  turned out a little more badly than expected.

Normally the event is a love fest between the editors and staff of Wikipedia all centred on the founder Jimmy Wales.

But according to wikipediocracy  the event was spoiled as the British Press failed to share the love and kicked the event to death.

Wales made the mistake of being interviewed in a Newsnight interview with James O’Brien, in which Wales insisted that the right to be forgotten only covered links and should adjudicated by a court of law.

Wales is a member of Google’s advisory board and his theory is that European taxpayers should pay, without limitation, for their already-overburdened court systems to deal with every single revenge-porn complaint Google receives under the ruling.

However Wales should have chosen his sparing person a little more carefully  O’Brien, has been repeatedly defamed in his Wikipedia biography has little love for the way Wackypedia operates.

“I could go on Wikipedia now and describe you as believing in fairies and a man whose – I don’t know – favourite drink is the blood of freshly slaughtered kittens. That’s neither history nor truth, but it could be on Wikipedia,” O’Brien snarled at Wales.

When Wales started laughing O’Brien growled:  “It’s not funny, if you’re sort of an ordinary person and you have a degree of public profile, and people have deliberately altered your Wikipedia page. I have spoken publicly about my children having been born as a result of fertility treatment. And my Wikipedia page, which I didn’t even know existed, contained a phrase along the lines of ‘he wasn’t man enough to impregnate his own wife’. That was there for weeks, months possibly, until my wife found it. Shouldn’t that be your priority?”

All Wales could come up with was that it was up to the victims to police his site.

What Wales did not get was that that three years of their own spying scandals, the UK press is big on privacy so when Wales proudly tried to put a positive spin on their refusal to grant any of the 304 “content removal requests” wackypedia had received in the past two years, it came out badly.

The Guardian published a profile of Wales that referred to his past as an “internet pornographer” and said that Wikipedia is populated by “self-selecting cliques” that pay more attention to the site’s coverage of female porn stars than to its listing of women writers.

Ironically Wikimania ended with a presentation by Jimmy Wales on “civility”. This seemed to involve talking about users who have a reputation in the community for creating good content, and for being incredibly toxic personalities.

Wales said, stating that “these editors cost us more than they’re actually worth”. It was a “big mistake” to tolerate them, he continued, receiving rapturous applause.

At least he has learned something.

Shop rents in Cardiff tumble 70 percent

cardiffThe high street is hurting and property owners in Wales seem to be getting the worst of it. According to property experts and the council, the number of empty shops in Cardiff increased from 9.7 percent in October 2008 to 15.8 percent last October.

As a result, shop rents have dropped by up to 70 percent in parts of Cardiff’s historic city centre, reports Wales Online. The depressing figures were presented to Cardiff council planners by property firm Calan Retail, which is struggling to find tenants for its own property.

Calan has now applied for permission to change the use for the ground floor and upper floors in its Habitat building to restaurants and cafes, as they should do better than retail shops. Calan executive Andy Sturrock told the council that the retail market went through a seismic change over the past six years.

Rents on Queen Street have fallen by a third since 2008, but the worst example comes from a unit at Cardiff’s Capitol Center. The unit used to be rented by fashion chain Oasis for £224,000 per annum, but last year it was acquired by a sandwich shop for £70,000.

Measles hits distribution channel

fgwAs the measles crisis reaches dangerously high levels, a GP has spoken about under the table payments and the rush to get hold of single vaccines. Meanwhile, First Great Western is offering MMR injections to people under 25.

The now retired medical professional  also pointed out that research has both suffered and improved as a result as it is now far more regulated, while the “scare-mongering” has created a huge UK risk.

His comments come as Wales is currently experiencing an epidemic of measles. Last week the cases had risen by 73 to 693 in the Swansea area with professionals warning that the outbreak wouldn’t reach its peak for another four weeks.

The country is now furiously racing around trying to get as many teens vaccinated as possible.
First Great Western has also waded into the crisis, with reliable sources claiming the train company would be offering the vaccine to anyone under 25.

The government, which has been blamed for the outbreak, is now targeting schools and offering immunisations to 10 to 17 year olds – the age group likely to have missed out on being given the jab as a result of research released in the 1990s.

The study, carried out by now discredited Dr Andrew Wakefield’, linked the MMR jab to autism. However, after the initial hype died down, the Government, which initially backed these findings, and scientists, insisted that MMR was safe.

By this point the damage had already been done.

“The world went mad when the research about the vaccine came out all those years ago and the number of those choosing to get their children vaccinated fell rapidly,” the retired GP told ChannelEye.

“We went from packed waiting rooms to days when no one would show up, despite our reassurances that it was safe.

“Mums were running around trying to get the single inoculations, with some going as far as France to pick them up and paying GPs, maybe under the table, over here to administer them.
However, the children who didn’t have the jab are now suffering, as is a nation, which is now experiencing this outbreak.

The medical world, which has for so long backed research, is of course now more cautious about releasing research, which could have a knock on effect. Does it stifle innovation? Yes I suppose it does.

“On the flip side, it also shows research has to be carried out far more intensively before it potentially destroys communities.

“It was all scaremongering but people jumped on the bandwagon and that was that.”

However, one mum isn’t so sure, claiming her child “has never been the same” since the MMR jab.

“I don’t really talk about it because it upsets me, but he was never the same after that jab,” she said.

However, as many professionals have pointed out, the signs for autism do usually come out at around 12-18 months, the same time that the jab is traditionally given.