Price of Cigarettes

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The Price of Cigarettes

Australia is to increase the price of the fags by 12.5% each year from 2017  to 2020. By 2020 the packet will cost AUD$45 or over €30 a packet. The given word is that this move is a health issue, and of course it is, but I would guess that the other main aim is the increase in tax revenue.

I'm thinking that the Irish government, if we will actually see a government formed any time soon, could take a leaf from the Australian parliament. The revenue could go towards a lot of badly needed services like health and education, along with a bit of post recession relief for low earners, even pay some of the Irish Water losses!

The cost to the nation of smoking is massive. The cost to individuals is even greater in terms of suffering. Did you know that:

 

OVER 80% of lung cancers caused by smoking.

OVER 65% of mouth & throat cancers caused by smoking.

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Celtic Tiger Devours Children

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The Celtic Tiger is Returning

Returning Celtic Tiger Devours Irish Children

The IMF International Monetary Fund has issued a recent statement saying it expects the Irish economy to grow by no less than 5% this year. That figure, if it is realised, is more than three times 3X the expected EU average.

At the same time that this “rising tide” is in the process of bringing back the Celtic Tiger, we have been given a glimpse of a very dark underside of the Irish economy. A place where nearly one third 33% of all Irish children are now living in deprived households.

UNICEF Report on Ireland.

This upsetting figure comes from a new UNICEF report in which that organization states that children are now the most neglected demographic in Irish society.

Another black hole in the Irish economy is revealed in studies which indicate that while Ireland as a whole is doing very well financially on the world stage, it concurrently has the fourth worst income inequality figure in the EU, with an income gap of over 76%.

The Irish income gap appears to look a lot better when Social Welfare payout figures are applied. The Social Welfare payments narrow the income gap to a little over 41%.

The UNICEF report clearly says that this income gap is unsustainable and leaves many families "living on the edge".

The Definition of a Deprived Household.

The EU has deemed households as deprived if they are unable to afford at least three items from a list of essentials. The main items on this list are housing, heating, utility bills and a protein meal every other day. Other designated essentials include; the ability to face unexpected expenses, a yearly holiday of some sort, a telephone, a television, a washing machine, and in some cases a car.

UNICEF Statement on Ireland.

UNICEF Ireland, in a statement released by Peter Power, Executive Director said: "100 years ago this month, the Proclamation proclaimed to cherish all Irish children equally. This report demonstrates that as a demographic group Irish children are falling behind other sections of society."

"The message is stark: as inequality increases, wealthy nations of the world are failing their most vulnerable children. " "Those with the least ability to narrow the gaps are being allowed to fall furthest behind."

UNICEF has urged the incoming government to act on the findings of the report.

Constitution of Ireland 

a reminder of some of its provisions.

Equality before the law:

Under Article 40.1. The equality of all citizens before the law is guaranteed.

Family and home life:

Under Article 41.1 the state promises to "protect the Family", and recognises the family as having "inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law".

Under Article 41.2 the state is required to ensure that "economic necessity" does not oblige a mother "to engage in labour to the neglect of [her] duties in the home".

Education:

Article 42 guarantees parents the right to determine where their children shall be educated (including at home), provided a minimum standard is met. Under the same article the state must provide for free primary level education. Currently Irish law also guarantees free second and third level education.

Social and Economic Policy.

Article 45 outlines a number of broad principles of social and economic policy.
The principles require, in summary, that:

(a) "justice and charity" must "inform all the institutions of the national life".
(b) Everyone has the right to an adequate occupation.
(c) The free market and private property must be regulated in the interests of the common good.
(d) The state must prevent a destructive concentration of essential commodities in the hands of a few.
(e) The state must supplement private industry where necessary.
(f) The state should ensure efficiency in private industry and protect the public against economic exploitation.
(g) The state must protect the vulnerable, such as orphans and the aged.
(h) No one may be forced into an occupation unsuited to their age, sex or strength.

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World Stability in Jeopardy

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The World

is in 

Jeopardy

  Not climate change, war, terrorists or asteroid strikes
Imbalance and Greed are the threats

I am re-publishing this post because I am really concerned about the possible consequences of a dangerous imbalance in the world.

 

One of my recurring  nightmares is that the world was returning to Medieval Feudalism with all the horrors, disease, and ignorance associated with that time returning.

A time when all the power and almost all the wealth was in the control of a handful of emperors, kings, and war-lords, and church leaders.  A time of plagues, a time of migrations, a time of famines, a time of wars and uprisings. It's happening again now, a return to a form of Medieval Feudalism - just substitute the super rich, the mega businesses, the financial manipulators, the big stock market players, for Emperors, Kings, and War-Lords.

Here is what I wrote then:

http://wood-pellet-ireland.blogspot.ie/2015/02/reset-your-calander-2015-to-1015.html

Oxfam have just released 
a New Report  
62 of the richest people - just a Bus full
Own as much as 3,600,000,000 of the poorest
1% of people own 99% of everything
The Disaster is happening

Mahatma Gandhi

"Poverty is the worst form of violence"

Mahatma Gandhi

Squirrels

If Mother Nature went seriously awry and some few squirrels were able to take and hide away some tens of thousands of times their normal share of nuts, what do you think might be the outcome?

Thankfully this is not happening in the woods and forests of the world, but it is happening in the human world.  The latest reports clearly show that the rich are getting very much richer 44% in 5 years, while the rest of society is getting poorer. What do you think might be the outcome?


Those who take and hide away more than their fair share, are depriving others. Those who take vastly more than their fair share are committing violence against the greater part of the peoples of earth.

My fear is that the deprived, the starving, the under-privileged will rise up and chaos will ensure.

Frederick Douglass

"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced ... 

neither persons nor property will be safe"

Frederick Douglass

The Oxfam Report outlines the GROWING Imbalance.

 Growing inequality means that the world's wealthiest 62 people, as many people as would fit on a tour bus, own as much as the poorest half of the entire world population - some 3.6 billion people - according to a new report from Oxfam.

Don't you think the shape of the graph of growing inequality is remarkably like a missile?

It amazes me just how symmetrical both sides of the above graph actually are. It worries and sickens me that the richest 1% of people - which is around 73 million of the world's 7.3 billion people - now own as much as everyone else put together. That is 1% of people own 99% of everything. Too much water behind a dam - and the dam will burst.

This is in a report published ahead of the annual World Economic Forum of global political and business leaders in Swiss ski resort of Davos.

The latest Oxfam report indicates that world-wide imbalance, unfairness, and inequality has reached levels not seen in over 100 years..

Oxfam has calculated that the richest 62 individuals had the same wealth as 3.5 billion people, or the bottom half of humanity.

The wealth of those 62 people has risen 44 percent, or more than half a trillion dollars, over the past five years, while the wealth of the bottom half has fallen by over a trillion.

The Toxic Trend

The saying that "a rising tide lifts all boats" could not be further from the truth in this case.  Wealth is being sucked upward at an alarming rate, leaving a massive vacuum at the lower end. Of the generation of wealth in our present day world the Oxfam report says the following:  "Far from trickling down, income and wealth are instead being sucked upwards at an alarming rate".

It points to a "global spider's web" of tax havens that ensures wealth stays out of reach of ordinary citizens and governments, a recent estimate puts the figure at $7.6 trillion in private individual wealth held in offshore accounts. The figure is greater than the combined economies of the United Kingdom and Germany.

Some Other Commentators on the Dangers of Inequality

Jyrki Raina, general secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, which represents 50 million workers in 140 countries in the mining,energy and manufacturing sectors. "Inequality is one of the biggest threats to economic well-being and it needs to be addressed."


Edelman's annual published it's "Trust Barometer" which shows that in 2015 there was a record gap in trust between the informed publics and mass populations. This exists in many countries, and is driven by income inequality and divergent expectations of the future. The gap is the largest in the United States, followed by the UK, France and India.

In the last year, trust has declined for three of the four institutions measured. NGOs continue to be the most trusted institution, but trust in NGOs declined from 66 to 63 percent. In 66% of countries surveyed there is not trust in the media. Governments are not trusted in 19 of 27 markets surveyed.
And trust in business is below 50 percent in half of those markets.


In December of 2014 the New York City's police commissioner has reminded us of the roots of crime, and recent acts of civil unrest."This is about the continuing poverty rates, the continuing growing disparity between the wealthy and the poor. It's still about unemployment issues"


I'm depressed and worried.

Oil - Smokeless Coals - Reviewing the Situation

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Oil or Coal?

and a further look at 

Formed Smokeless Coals

Coal is not the best heating value just now, simply because the bottom has fallen out of oil prices, and this makes oil the cheapest heating method for a short space of time.

Oil Best heating Value Just Now.

Those with oil fired heating should top up their tanks now - that is if you have the cash, as the low price will not last too much longer. At the current price oil a a very good deal for home heating. I filled my tank for the 1st time in almost 5 years. The price was €477 for a 1000 liters, that's about half of what it cost at the highest point.

Back to Coal.

For those who do not have oil heating, and cannot afford any fancy geothermal heating etc. and especially for those who have to rely on solid fuel, coal is the next best on the value scale.

As regular readers will know, I have long been a fan of Calco Mix, a blend of petro-coke and lignite, along with some other types of coal. Two of my fairly recent deliveries of Calco came with some FREE extras - in the form of rocks, stones and pieces of concrete. I was not the only one who got these free extras. My most recent delivery of Calco was a big improvement but not totally free of stones and other bits.

The Calco with stones mix, with the dangers of exploding stones - put me to looking at the formed coals more closely and my supplier suggested Hi-Glo. In December I did a short review of Hi-Glo, that is the one on the right in the photo below.

Left Cozy-Glo by Bord na Mona - Eco-Brite center - and far right Hi-Glo

Hi-Glo Smokeless Formed Coal.

I have used over 10 by 40kg bags of Hi-Glo coal to date, here are my further observation about this fuel.

The fuel is very smelly when burned. It is fair to say it stinks. You can smell this coal a kilometer away from the house. Once you get to know the smell, you can tell who is using it, and where it is being used. Hopefully the manufacturers can do something with formula to reduce the pong in time.

The coal does not leave cinders as such, just the odd bit of un-burnt coal and a fairly fine ash.

The winning points of this fuel are:

(1) the high heat output,
(2) the clean burn - except for the smell, and
(3) the best point is the long burn it gives. I have not had to relight my stove in over 2 weeks. The fuel can be made to stay glowing hot for up to 11 hours.

If the smell could be improved, this would be a very fine quality coal indeed.



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General Election and State of Irish Politics

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What is the State of Ireland's Politics

 

A Painting by Shameus O'Conman

With an general election coming up in literally days, and the spin machines fully oiled and rolling, I wonder where this election is going to take the Irish Nation.

A survey in the not too distant past indicated that politicians are one of the least trusted profession in Ireland. 

I find it very strange and I wonder why the Irish public don't trust the very people they themselves have elected as their representatives, and law makers?

The trust figures for the profession of politician were just staggering. It would seem that a huge 88% of Irish people said that they do not trust politicians. 

Would you take a job where 88% of those employing you did not trust you?

The question on my mind is will the people vote again for those they do not trust?

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My 1st ever post

Coming up on the 10th anniversary of this Blog I am re-posting my 1st ever article. I have corrected the spellings, I was blind to many mistakes back then!


Wood Pellet Heating Rip-Off in Ireland

Rip-Off Ireland has become a common catch phrase in recent times. There is now a completely new type of Rip-Off going on which is based on the new Government Grant Scheme set up to promote domestic renewable source heating systems.

There are generous government grants for Solar, Geo-Thermal, and Bio-mass wood pellet heating systems. Full details are available at www.sei.ie. This is an excellent site with lots of information. There are grant application forms etc., and the site gives details of approved units and approved installers.

What the site does not detail are some of the major price rip-offs going on in the business. For instance; the cost to install a pellet central heating boiler and commission it, price not including materials, the time amounts to about a half days work, was quoted by one recommended installer at €1000 inclusive of VAT. Materials for plumbing and flue etc. are extra. Now that's price gouging at its worst, and it is just plain sickening!! I have a great dislike of gougers, I consider it nothing less than thievery.

Government "Greener Homes" Grant has spawned green eyed monsters!

Some of the more common makes of wood pellet central heating units being sold in Ireland are the Opop and Dor Boilers with either Boink or Scotte burner mechanisms fitted. The Boilers are made in the Czech Republic and I will have the retail prices posted here soon. But be assured that the Irish price is perhaps 50 - 100% more expensive. I will also publish some retail prices for the burner units from the mainland European Continent. Again you can be sure the Irish price is 50% to 100% more expensive.

The single biggest rip-off is in the installation and commissioning prices being charged. Like €1000 one thousand Euro being asked for a single boiler installation. I kid you not! €1000 for installing ONE boiler. The installation and commissioning time amounts to roughly a half days work this information by the admission of two separate installers. The seller-installers tend to charge a bit less for installation - but then they have the sale profit don't they? 

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Impending World Disaster

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The World

is Heading for a Disaster

I am not talking about climate change, nuclear war, or asteroid strikes.
Greed and Avarice, in this case, are the Weapons of Mass Destruction

Just short of one year ago I posted a piece that voiced one of my nightmares; that the world was returning to Medieval Feudalism with all the horrors, disease, and ignorance associated with that time returning.

A time when all the power and almost all the wealth was in the control of a handful of emperors, kings, and war-lords, and church leaders.  A time of plagues, a time of migrations, a time of famines, a time of wars and uprisings. It's happening again now, a return to a form of Medieval Feudalism - just substitute the super rich, the mega businesses, the financial manipulators, the big stock market players, for Emperors, Kings, and War-Lords.

Here is what I wrote then:

http://wood-pellet-ireland.blogspot.ie/2015/02/reset-your-calander-2015-to-1015.html

Oxfam have just released 
a New Report  
62 of the richest people - just a Bus full
Own as much as 3,600,000,000 of the poorest
1% of people own 99% of everything
The Disaster is happening

Mahatma Gandhi

"Poverty is the worst form of violence"

Mahatma Gandhi

Squirrels

If Mother Nature went seriously awry and some few squirrels were able to take and hide away some tens of thousands of times their normal share of nuts, what do you think might be the outcome?

Thankfully this is not happening in the woods and forests of the world, but it is happening in the human world.  The latest reports clearly show that the rich are getting very much richer 44% in 5 years, while the rest of society is getting poorer. What do you think might be the outcome?


Those who take and hide away more than their fair share, are depriving others. Those who take vastly more than their fair share are committing violence against the greater part of the peoples of earth.

My fear is that the deprived, the starving, the under-privileged will rise up and chaos will ensure.

Frederick Douglass

"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced ... 

neither persons nor property will be safe"

Frederick Douglass

The Oxfam Report outlines the GROWING Imbalance.

 Growing inequality means that the world's wealthiest 62 people, as many people as would fit on a tour bus, own as much as the poorest half of the entire world population - some 3.6 billion people - according to a new report from Oxfam.

Don't you think the shape of the graph of growing inequality is remarkably like a missile?

It amazes me just how symmetrical both sides of the above graph actually are. It worries and sickens me that the richest 1% of people - which is around 73 million of the world's 7.3 billion people - now own as much as everyone else put together. That is 1% of people own 99% of everything. Too much water behind a dam - and the dam will burst.

This is in a report published ahead of the annual World Economic Forum of global political and business leaders in Swiss ski resort of Davos.

The latest Oxfam report indicates that world-wide imbalance, unfairness, and inequality has reached levels not seen in over 100 years..

Oxfam has calculated that the richest 62 individuals had the same wealth as 3.5 billion people, or the bottom half of humanity.

The wealth of those 62 people has risen 44 percent, or more than half a trillion dollars, over the past five years, while the wealth of the bottom half has fallen by over a trillion.

The Toxic Trend

The saying that "a rising tide lifts all boats" could not be further from the truth in this case.  Wealth is being sucked upward at an alarming rate, leaving a massive vacuum at the lower end. Of the generation of wealth in our present day world the Oxfam report says the following:  "Far from trickling down, income and wealth are instead being sucked upwards at an alarming rate".

It points to a "global spider's web" of tax havens that ensures wealth stays out of reach of ordinary citizens and governments, a recent estimate puts the figure at $7.6 trillion in private individual wealth held in offshore accounts. The figure is greater than the combined economies of the United Kingdom and Germany.

Some Other Commentators on the Dangers of Inequality

Jyrki Raina, general secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, which represents 50 million workers in 140 countries in the mining,energy and manufacturing sectors. "Inequality is one of the biggest threats to economic well-being and it needs to be addressed."


Edelman's annual published it's "Trust Barometer" which shows that in 2015 there was a record gap in trust between the informed publics and mass populations. This exists in many countries, and is driven by income inequality and divergent expectations of the future. The gap is the largest in the United States, followed by the UK, France and India.

In the last year, trust has declined for three of the four institutions measured. NGOs continue to be the most trusted institution, but trust in NGOs declined from 66 to 63 percent. In 66% of countries surveyed there is not trust in the media. Governments are not trusted in 19 of 27 markets surveyed.
And trust in business is below 50 percent in half of those markets.


In December of 2014 the New York City's police commissioner has reminded us of the roots of crime, and recent acts of civil unrest."This is about the continuing poverty rates, the continuing growing disparity between the wealthy and the poor. It's still about unemployment issues"


I'm depressed and worried.


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Abel Pifre Solar Energy History

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Solar Energy History

The French Connection 3

I felt the need to find out more about 

French engineering genius Abel Pifre
This post is my research 

A drawing of Abel Pifre demonstrating his Solar printing press in Paris

I really wanted to know more about Abel Pifre

I have had a keen interest in the history of solar energy for several years, and have written several posts on this blog tracing, as best I could, the far from clear lines of that history. Some of the most interesting and exciting episodes of solar history took place in France where Augustin Mouchot came up with the concept of a practical solar concentrator. Essentially a large parabolic mirror to focus the suns rays onto a target and extract the energy and drive machinery. The idea essentially was for a solar concentrator to produce steam to drive various machines. Realising the idea took the mechanical genius of his student and assistant Abel Pifre to actually bring it to fruition.

History has, for the most part, tended to place Abel Pifre in the role of side-kick to Mouchot. I, on the other hand, tend to believe that if it were not for Pifre, the concept would not have been demonstrated so effectively.

Here is a link to the original referred piece:  

http://wood-pellet-ireland.blogspot.ie/2010/07/solar-energy-history-french-connection.html


What I previously wrote.
Back in July of 2010 I wrote the following:

Abel Pifre (1852-1928), Genius and showman.
(I could find no photo or likeness of M. Pifre)

Unfortunately there is no photograph or likeness of, nor is there any great deal of historical information to be had about Abel Pifre.

He was a French engineer who got his start in solar energy engineering by working as an assistant / consultant with Augustin Mouchot the guy that developed the first solar engine.

Later on Abel Pifre went on to build several improved solar engines of his own, including a solar driven printing press, for which perhaps he is most remembered.

My recent research on Abel Pifre 

 Taken outside Pitre's Lyon workshop before the merger with Otis

Pifre merged with Otis new name on workshop in Lyon

I have been doing a lot of digging and searching and have come up with a few insights into the genius of Abel Pifre. What follows is a condensed version of what I have gathered. There are some questions about the quality and veracity of the data, and especially regarding a photograph taken in front of Abel Pifre's engineering works in Lyon. I am hoping, perhaps naively, that perhaps one of the gentlemen in the photo may be Pifre himself. If anyone has information on this, or any other point, I should be most grateful to have an update.
 

The Man.

Could the man on the left possible be Abel Pifre?

Marc Abel Pifre was born April 24, 1852 in Segonzac Charente. He died 24th March 1928 in Paris at his home at 54, rue de Monceau in the 8th Arrondissemen. He was 76 years of age.

On the 13th of April 1882 there was a marriage contract; between Marc Abel Pifre, civil engineer of Arts and Manufactures, residing 30, rue d'Assas, and Marie Tavernier, without profession, residing 30, rue d'Assas . Wedding at the town hall of the 6th arrondissement of Paris.

A replica of Abel Pifre's solar steam generator.

Abel Pifre was a true hands-on leading inventor and engineer. While he is generally remembered for his solar energy work with Augustin Mouchot, he has many other achievements and credits including. Officer of the Legion of Honour (D. August 12, 1923, OJ August 16, 1923, p. 8155).General Albert Adviser (1919-1925). Aveluy mayor (1908-1919) ( Aveluy is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France).

Then mayor of Albert. Engineer of Arts and Manufactures. Industrial Albert (director of Otis-Pifre facilities (lifts)). Founder of Le Réveil of the Somme.

And the bit commonly known about him; his association with Augustin Mouchot the mathematician who worked on solar energy, but it was Abel Pifre who brought the idea into reality. Later, he developed Mouchot's idea far past the initial point, to where he demonstrated the first printing press using solar energy.


Pifre's Patents.

Documents dated 11th to the 27th of August 1901, indicate that Abel Pifre transferred some 29 patents to the new merged company. The new company had already received patents relevant to the construction of elevators, hoists and electric motors (D. 26 Feb. 1902 proclaiming 87 assignments of patents, 47th to 65th, Bull. Acts 1901, No. 2449, Text No. 43116, p. 1477).

Pifre's Workshops.

It would seem that Abel Pifre had several workshops on the go in various places and at different times. I am unable to figure the sequence. Here is a brief list of some workshops.

AteliersAlbert (Somme) for the manufacture of equipment and material for sugar mills, oil mills and distilleries, but also for cement plants. Director in 1899: Théophile Colinot. Workshops destroyed during the war.

Aterlers Abel Pifre, later Ateleirs Otis Pifre in Lyon, at 28 bis, rue Dumoulin - now street of Father Chevrier 7th Arr.

Ateliers Bezons (Seine-et-Oise - Val-d'Oise today -), at 2, quai de Seine, workshops created after the destruction of workshops Albert.During the great war, workshops Bezons were employed in the manufacture of shells:

Ateliers Otis-Pifre built for the Navy including pumps, cranes, electric folding cranes, intended for battleships Danton, Mirabeau and Vergniaud, as well as up-munitions, which were equipped with the first two buildings.

Disappearing name of Abel Pifre.

It would seem that Pifre's name was deleted leaving only the Otis name. I wonder how much Otis owes to Pifre in terms of invention and development? I also wonder why Pifre's name was quickly lost when it comes to the development of lifts.


Was Abel Pifre Shafted by a Lift Company?

Some old postcards show workshops in Lyon where Abel Pifre's name has disappeared from the facade.  Otis remains the great name in elevators but I suspect Pifre was much of the genius in the early development of aspects of elevator technology. I also have a nasty feeling that Abel Pifre was to some extent shafted by the elevator company, if you will pardon the pun, but I could be very wrong in that feeling and stand to be corrected.

Rue Dumoulin in Lyon is where were the Otis-Pifre workshops once existed. The street is now called Rue Pere Chevrier. The old workshops have long gone. One can locate the site which was on the corner of the Rue Anvers.

 https://www.google.ie/maps/@45.7496174,4.8425194,3a,75y,19.28h,89.8t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sWkaD1oZD2ygn7dHtus5CHw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

You can go to Google Maps and visit the corner. which gives us a 3D look at the street junction.

This post contains as much as I have been able to find on Abel. If you are able to add to this information about Abel Pifre, I would be very happy to hear from you.

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