Peter (sometimes P.J.) Moar

The development of technology strategies, across all business and industrial sectors, is best performed by systems engineers. Available from all good booksellers. Please DM to discuss the book's contents. #INCOSE #SystemsEngineering @incose_org @incoseuk @incosewma @incosepres

Space weather, such as solar flares, can disrupt infrastructure and technology on Earth. The government has invested in improving its forecasting capability, but there are still gaps in its preparedness which must be addressed. Read our report: nao.org.uk/reports/the-uk…

@CbwDave @EricIdle Fair enough. Subconsciously I was probably thinking of LOB, although I'd found the lyrics for 'Life will get you in the end'. lyricstranslate.com/en/eric-idle-l…

@MoarPart @EricIdle "terminal breath"

Oddly as you age you remember more and more of your early memories whereas you can’t remember what you did yesterday. I think it may be your brain reviewing everything as you begin to pass away…. Not a bad thing but do write it down!

@annemcelvoy As an island nation, it's the one thing we should be doing really well, if necessary to the detriment of the other service branches.

Soon we won’t be shipbuilding

@AlecMarsh @JAHeale @spectator @ShippersUnbound NF will have this framed on his wall before the day's end.

@JAHeale @spectator @ShippersUnbound What a cover!

This week's @spectator cover with @ShippersUnbound: the most extensive deep-dive to date on Reform's rise

@flatfingers0 @skdh @elonmusk Engineering is often called “applied science”, but engineering pre-dates science by many millennia. Much contemporary science, especially physics, is more akin to “applied engineering”.😉

@MoarPart @skdh @elonmusk Some time back I was reading up on the history of technology, and it struck me how often scientific discovery (physics) emerges from gaining new measurement tools (engineering). Then physics explains what's measured, and engineering usefully applies those explanations. So: 👍

he's entirely right of course. even if you think he is wrong, at the very least physicists should think about why everyone else agrees they've lost the plot.

And modern physics needs engineering. It's symbiotic. Physics is exploratory and scientific, often using equipment built by engineers. Engineering is solutions-driven, focused on real-world challenges, often using principles established by physicists. I think @elonmusk's emphasis on speed of results is correct. AI will often get to answers more speedily. Quantum offers similar benefits in very targeted use-cases. "Big science" is slow and costly, that's for sure.

@skdh I wonder if he's expressing a preference between physics (passive, abstract, theorize, understand) and engineering (active, concrete, build, go see). I don't think those are zero-sum, and engineering needs physics. But it's an interesting difference of motivations.

@HCH_Hill New constitution. New flag. New capital. New nation. Simply "Ireland". That works for me. I hope all residents, north and south, can get behind this idea. In the long run, everyone benefits.

An important contra-indicator of the likelihood of a 'united Ireland' is the deep unwillingness of southern voters to countenance this sort of change.

@RaymondSnoddy "Cometh the hour." Question mark.

A "courageous" decision if flawed BBC board goes ahead with this. In 80 years never has been a BBC DG who was not a national newspaper editor, a programme maker, a broadcasting journalist or had worked at BBC for years. Matt Brittin is none of the above. Good luck to one and all

@KMFollett I avoided listening to anything when doing homework as a kid, and the habit has stayed with me. I like to concentrate. Always found open plan offices challenging.

I never play music while I’m writing. That’s not because it distracts me. On the contrary, I’m so deep into the imaginary world that I just don’t hear the music. How about you? Do you listen to music while you work?

@IGMansfield I think it varies greatly. I know about a forthcoming state school trip to China in July. Thirty 11 year-olds plus a handful of staff. Cost is just £450 pp. Apparently there's a hefty Government subsidy to foster Anglo-Chinese relations. A fantastic experience for the kids.

In 1997 I went on a Y8 school French trip (4 nights). It cost £220 - or £437 in today's money. My eldest's Y8 French trip will cost £600 (3 nights) - a 37% increase Most travel is cheaper than in the '90s. Why is school trip inflation higher? Or is this atypical?

Car production shouldn't be subsidised, but politicians are scared witless of any large factory (or industry) shedding workers or shutting down entirely; hence support for car manufacturing, even by parties opposed to private modes of high carbon transport. The status quo is always defended. (If the coal industry still existed today, it would pose some dilemmas for the Left.)

There's really no point having a domestic car manufacturing industry in Britain. The price of cars is set on the global market - producing them in the UK doesn't reduce the cost of cars here at all. And cars produce CO2. Why would we want this?

@rodolfor Sometimes, when old houses are converted into multiple apartments, everyone owns a share of the freehold. (At least that's my understanding.) Of course, this still means that the apartment owners must negotiate with one another over the building's management and maintenance.

Because in the UK you cannot buy flats, only lease them. Even if you own all the flats in a building, you do not own the building, someone else does. And you have no say in how this owner charges you for the usage of the shared areas.

Good article. Until housebuilders are installing these technologies as standard, I don't see how the Government can expect homeowners to willingly retrofit them. Retrofitting is always a more expensive and riskier proposition. If it's such a slam dunk, the housebuilders would be doing it already. Of course, everyone should undertake the first step, which is to maximise home insulation. Beyond that, it's a lottery. Perhaps a small gain over the longer term, perhaps a small loss. It's almost impossible to predict, because it's based on the 'known unknowns' of future factors, such as energy prices. Up-front costs are a major hindrance to most people, especially when compared with the installation of a more trustworthy gas boiler (less than £3000). A net-zero enthusiast will comply simply because they believe it's the right thing to do morally, not because they need to save money. It looks as though we'll still be equivocating over heat pumps in five years time, if not ten. @EvanHD

Top read by @KarlMathiesen aka “net zero dad” @POLITICOEurope Reminder of how it all went so wrong on heat pumps for Germany’s Greens. I’m also not sure at the end of it how likely it is to get much better: a big challenge to @Ed_Miliband . It’s the right idea – with very tricky implementation. My heat pump hell politico.eu/article/new-he…

@hoffman_noa Noa, I'm not sure these are significant 'gotchas'.

EXCL: Ed Miliband faces accusations of hypocrisy after giving a top eco job to a civil servant who heats his home with an oil boiler While Jonathan Brearley — currently Ofgem boss — urges Brits to adopt heat pumps, he still relies on oil at his sprawling Buckinghamshire pad

@henrywinter I only saw a small fraction of his game time, but I never saw him make a mistake. He was a genuinely world class player who deserved to win something at international level. Glad he's still around. One to watch for the future. @TheRealAC3

Every time I’ve watched England Under-21s train at home or abroad over the past five years, Ashley Cole was out there early, laying out the balls and cones (pic below), discussing the session with the head coach Lee Carsley. He gave individual instruction to defenders like Levi Colwill and Tino Livramento. They spoke highly of Cole’s counsel and desire to improve them as players. His work ethic and humility inspired them. In matches, Cole would sort the subs with the fourth official. No airs or graces, even though Cole was a genuine superstar as a player. He was the most consistent of the Golden Generation, England’s greatest ever left-back, seventh on his country’s all-time appearance list with 107 caps, winner of seven trophies with Arsenal, nine with Chelsea. He stood up to Cristiano Ronaldo and Arjen Robben. He nailed his two shootout penalties in the 2008 and 2012 UCL finals. He was an elite competitor and winner. After retiring at 38, Cole could have played golf or gone into punditry. Instead, he’s built a coaching career. Along with some other reporters, I helped Cole do the media module of his Pro Licence at St George’s Park. Cole's attention to detail and desire to deliver in his second career was very clear to us. Cole worked his way up, assisting Frank Lampard at Derby, coaching in Chelsea’s academy when Lampard went to the Bridge, and then assisting Lampard at Everton. He assisted Wayne Rooney at Birmingham City. He also assisted Carsley in his six games as caretaker of England’s seniors before becoming a full-time FA coach. Cole, 45, now takes on his first managerial role – at Cesena in Serie B. It’s only until the end of June but an experience, an education and with the possibility of a longer stay. Good luck to Cole. He’s earned the opportunity. He’s grafted for it.

The pipeline of 'talent' into the main UK parties has always produced variable results. But in general, the skills, experience and gravitas of MPs has declined over the past 20-30 years. This has been so damaging to democracy that all parties now have a shared interest in re-designing their selection processes. However, a new pact with the electorate must include improved pay and conditions for MPs and their staff. @s8mb

Substantially increasing MP's staffing expenses would be in interesting way to make the job more appealing without increasing their pay - you'd give each MP the power to effectively chair a mid-size organisation somewhere between a charity and a think-tank and create the possibility for far greater impact. Problem at the moment is that most MPs seem to select primarily for stupidity and banality in their staffers.

Samira might not appreciate this view, but resources ought to be shifted away from drama (which has minimal public service justification) towards news and current affairs, which no other media organisation has the wherewithal (or brand strength) to perform effectively on a global stage.

I’m on Newswatch with @SamiraAhmedUK this weekend. The #BBC must be properly funded, and some of that investment should go into strengthening News. bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod…

@spectator As an experiment, they should turn it all off for 12 months. If, as I suspect, behaviour doesn’t deteriorate, that should be the end of it.

At the same time, we are bludgeoned by signs and audio requests – known as ‘Tannoy spam’ – that tell us how to behave, particularly when we travel. Don’t smoke, stand on the right, let passengers off first, don’t run in the rain, don’t swear at our staff. It’s as if the more we’re shouted at, the more chance we’ll remember something we didn’t learn as children. Is there a passenger in the country who doesn’t dread being told ‘See it, say it, sorted’? ✍️ Anthony Horowitz Article | spectator.com/article/the-in…

@paullewismoney The relationship between solicitors and charities in producing these ‘free’ wills is something which needs greater transparency.

Free wills can be very expensive for your heirs bit.ly/4uNc9ev solicitors make more money from badly drawn wills than from writing them. So always use a solicitor to write your will. And if you leave money to charity make it a specified amount not the residue of the estate. That will avoid expensive disputes.