Dick

This topics back in the news again. One problem with this forum is that after a few days threads tend to get lost, so someone starts a new one on the same topic and an interesting argument is sidelined. Despite todays Stern report I stick by my opinion that global warming is good for Sheffield, certainly at the moment. I've not read the report yet but there was a mention on the Today programme this morning of a paragragh that said there were some beneficial aspects for temperate zones. To be cynical about it, governments are always looking for something to tax, and if they think there are Brownie points in this they're in there feet first. So far all we've had today is talk about upping tax on fuel and energy. These things are inelastic, they don't cut down usage, merely increase the cost of living. If they were really worried that it was a serious issue they'd be commissioning a new generation of nuclear power stations immediately. They'd also stop the lunacy of setaside whereby farmland is deliberately left fallow, and insist food is produced as close to the consumer as possible. Not to mention the crazy policy of closing the British coal industry and then importing coal because it's cheaper, and then saying electricity's being used too much so we'll put a climate change levy on it to make it more expensive and cut down usage. All it does is make our industry uncompetitive.

If you're in S8 try the place just under the railway bridge by the river. What was the old Heeley station.

IN A FEW YEARS? If you've made your minds up get on with it.

They said they were going to a unit on the Sheepbridge industrial estate. Thats the one on the right hand side of the Dronfield bypass as you go down the long straight before the Whittington Moor roundabout. But whether they're still thre I don't know.

Closed for alterations but definately going to reopen as a pub.

100% with you PT. I was sat right at the front left. In the interval I streched my legs out and rested my feet on the stage and was immediately told off by the staff. Pity they aren't as efficient with the phoners. The inappropriate laughter was from 3 teenage girls sitting right behind me who were in a very giggly mood. I think they'd had a drink first. Pinter is famous for long pauses but I think the opening one, the man sitting imobile for about 5 minutes without speaking, and then walking off was perhaps overdone. I also liked the sink being lifted off the bed. I took this to be an "in joke" about it being kitchen sink drama. Very Pinterish, difficult to do well but they managed it. If I'd been the actor in the middle of his long speech at the end of the first half when the mobile rang for well over a minute I would certainly have stopped and told him to leave. After all, it was the public dress rehearsal and we'd only paid a pound. Best value for a quid you'll get anywhere.

Ocean Hair 273-275 Chesterfield Rd tel 2553774

Pass it on to a collection agency. They usually take 15% of anything they collect. Otherwise write it off and put it down to experience. If you're doing much renting it happens all the time.

We keep being told that there is still a lot of steel made in Sheffield & Rotherham. Aren't there any works left that do conducted tours? In the old days Steel Peach & Tozer and Samuel Fox's were well worth a visit.

In the end the chief beneficiaries of this are the landlords if he gets the cap on HB raised. Landlords take on DSS tenants because they can get the rent paid directly to them from the benefit office. As the Happyhippy says for a single man this is about £47.50 a week. For a single woman with two children it's about £70. Anyone buying terraced houses 5 years ago would be paying around £20k anywhere outside the student areas so even the single man benefit would bring in return of 10%. Since then house prices have risen sharpley so renting to DSS is much less attractive unless the cap is raised. This man is obviously no ordinary claimant. Most of the ones I come across get payments suspended because they don't respond to requests for information from the council. Landlords give them a month or so to try and get it sorted but then have to give them notice to quit. Claimants with the most problems are those who keep getting short term jobs. The benefit system can't cope with someone who's in and out of work every few weeks. The big losers if this man really has won his case are the long suffering council tax payers who are already screwed into the floor. And of course the benefit claimants don't pay council tax either. Unless you're on £20K you're better off with nothing.

There was an item in the Star last week about a guy on benefits who was suing the council because they wouldn't pay £695 per month housing benefit for his flat in the new west one development. He said it wasn't fair that people on benefit had to live in poor accomodation. I never saw another report of the case. Does anyone know the result? By and large people on full housing benefit are in a better position than someone on average wages paying his own way.

Sheffield Corporation Abbattoir on Cricket Inn Road closed 20 years ago

I'm glad I managed to get one fact right in my last post, but not sure which one it was. I was sticking to the thread title and maintaining that if the world warms up a bit it's good for Sheffield. But if the world warming up cools down Sheffield then it's not good. Herein lies the unknown dilemma. despite what some posters say there is plenty of debate in the scientific community about whether anything out of the ordinary is happening. An important part of any scientific measurement is to say what the error margins are. For instance, I can read a metre rule to an accuracy of about half a millimetre. If I'm using that to build my garden fence I can make a good job of the fence. But if I'm using it to measure the diameter of the pistons in my car engine when I'm doing a rebore the engine wouldn't be much good. Once you start comparing todays temperatures with those from before the invention of the thermometer you're introducing large error margins. Trying to estimate prehistoric temperatures from tree rings and fossils is even more inaccurate. When politicians take decisions that are going to cost us all a lot of money I like them to be based on evidence with a very low error margin. At the moment the pro global warmers are on a roll and it's difficult for a scientist to stand out against them for fear of seeming cranky or losing research budgets. There's not much money going for people who say "everythings fine folks, we don't need to do anything" A prime example was the BSE scare. By now, according to prof Lacey and co several million people should have died of mad cow disease. Actual number so far, 153. True, back in 1990 no one could prove that Lacey was incorect, but his error margins were huge. And yet the government has spent billions incinerating al cattle over thirty months old to keep them out of the human food chain. Was this money well spent?

Global warming, if it exists, is undoubtably good for Sheffield. The damage to the infrastructure, roads, buildings, water pipes etc by snow and ice is enormous. Anything that reduces it a bit is worth a lot. If the growing season is extended by a few weeks it enormously helps the harvest and yields. The amount saved on heating is increasingly important with rising gas & electric costs. For Sheffield it's hard to think of a downside. On a wider note, don't forget that it's far from proven that any climate change at present is outside normal cycles. It's even less likely that any change is due to human activity. the whole emphasis on CO2 (sorry, can't do a small 2 on this site) is a government con to try and convince people that energy taxes are somehow a good thing. The CO2 content of the atmosphere is 0.03%. If it goes up to 0.04% they call that a 33% increase. A frightening amount. I call it a 0.01% increase, a negligible amount. The chief thing that affects our climate is the sun, and that's a variable star whose energy output varies by several percent over a cycle of years. There's an 11 year sunspot cycle and several others as well. Also our distance from the sun varies by 3 million miles per year, that's over 4% and as the energy falling on a given area varies with the square of the distance that makes a 16% variation. The earth's orbit also precesses over a 25000 year cycle so the point in the orbit at which we are nearest is constantly changing. No 2 days are exactly alike. Anybody who thinks burning a bit less coal or oil is going to make any difference is sadly mistaken. Any money spent would be much more useful helping people in less fortunate places than Sheffield to live with any change that might be happening than just increasing our cost of living.

Busy Bee in Totley

Can't disagree with any of that.

Any library

Excellent Exhibition. Well worth the money.

Blacberries are the worlds easiest plant to grow. Go for a walk anywhere in the countryside or in town by the river. In a few minutes you'll see a blackberry bush. Cut off any stalk a few feet long. Take it home, stick it in the ground and watch it grow

According to last Saturdays Sheffield Telegraph it's being blown up on Sunday August 27 at noon.

The whole point is I don't have a bill. The last tenants left without leaving details of who the supplier is, and probably left a bill owing. I want the meter read now and to tell the electric company I've only just moved in. The next bill might not come for 2 months and then it's a bit late to start arguing about the meter reading.

That telephone number you gave raychul has to be the worst automated service I've ever heard. Have you tried it? After a few minutes you think yuo're going mad. I think I'll try Don's idea

Thanks for that. I'll ring them tomorrow

I've just moved into a rented house and don't know who the electricity supplier is. I want to let them know the customer has changed and get them to read the meter. The landlord doesn't know which company it is as the last tenant had changed suppliers and left without telling him who the new one is. How do you fnd out?

Nothing wrong wi't Alifax