How we got here? Where we are going?

Again just some links of timely interest:

More maths videos with rate of change of new cases & deaths from 3Blue1Brown on Simulating an epidemic; and minutephysics on How Soon Will COVID-19 Peak? (And How To Tell).

Numberphile have published a video on dome of the maths relating up modelling COVID19 transmission.

An app has launched from researchers at Kings College to help slow the spread of #COVID19 and identify at risk cases sooner by self-reporting your symptoms daily, even if you feel well 🙏🏼. Download the app.

Share the app and share your “well/ill” status and let’s get some data for the policy makers to work with.

Damming article in Lancet.

& more…

Practise Distancing Now! Isolation for those that need it! And support them! Prepare for where this is going with UK numbers two weeks behind Italy!

We need to prepare ourselves for psychologically if we can for what is already certain to come to our communities in turn over next two weeks.

Here are some harrowing but vital links to get over the urgency of situation.

Critical Situation at Intensive Care in Italy ; Graph(s) at the FT (or find on Twitter etc., ask me for a copy) ; …

Listen to The Burner daily podcast using Telegram or Soundcloud from Novara Media

BBC Newsround

Business / Science Insider

Confront the death cult that is the UK government!

I was all riled up yesterday the write this post but feeling so drained to today, so as usual instead, I am just linking to another person’s article which sums up better some of what I wished to share: Government Strategy Tipping Britain Towards Huge Death Toll.

I was all riled up yesterday the write this post but feeling so drained to today, so as usual instead, I am just linking to another person’s article which sums up better some of what I wished to share:
Government Strategy Tipping Britain Towards Huge Death Toll.

Work From Home - Save Lives.
Take Decisive Community Corona – Action. Now!

Vote Labour

I am voting for the Labour party in the upcoming UK election on Thursday, December the 12th. Please check out the issues that concern you in their Manifesto, using online page where you can select your priorities.

I am voting for the Labour party in the upcoming UK election on Thursday, December the 12th. Please check out the issues that concern you in their Manifesto, using online page where you can select your priorities.

Ulla’s previous baby blog posts

I only link to one other in the Blogroll panel in the right-hand column of this blog, and that is the now no longer maintained blog of Ulla, the love of my life. Recently I pointed others to her posts on pregnancy & baby issues such as choice in where one has birth and Baby-led … Continue reading “Ulla’s previous baby blog posts”

I only link to one other in the Blogroll panel in the right-hand column of this blog, and that is the now no longer maintained blog of Ulla, the love of my life.
Recently I pointed others to her posts on pregnancy & baby issues such as choice in where one has birth and Baby-led weaning, mainly for links to other resources. But those articles are inter-dispersed amongst others so I thought I would collect links together in one post here in reverse order:

Little baby brother arrived
Second baby due
Recommendable parenting books
Baby Fringe
The Diaper Free Potty Training
Which? Baby
Baby Groups and activities
First Potty success
Reuseable nappies
The first few weeks with baby
Our lovely baby boy is born
T – ? (towards birth)
On maternity leave
Summary of the last months

Links:
Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services
Which?; Birth Choice
Home Birth
Baby Led Weaning; The Mush Stops Here

Mish Mash of Musings

I often have odd musings that are worth blogging about but find limited time to blog. So here is just mish mash of pointers. Baby Lead Weaning (BLW) has worked really well over more traditional spoon feeding of purees for us with our son. It was difficult at the start when you wanted to take … Continue reading “Mish Mash of Musings”

I often have odd musings that are worth blogging about but find limited time to blog. So here is just mish mash of pointers.

Baby Lead Weaning (BLW) has worked really well over more traditional spoon feeding of purees for us with our son. It was difficult at the start when you wanted to take a short cut with a spoon rather than give him time to explore and learn developing his own autonomy. But is has worked out very well and he eats a wide range of foods. We are very proud of him when other compliment him on what a good eater he is now. It all fits in with latest research and advice on introducing foods to babies. Listen to edition of Naked Scientist podcast covering food. And BBC news online reporting research that Spoon feeding ‘makes babies fatter’. BLW has helped my diet too, when we used the steamer more, and cut out the salt.

Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt was a good read and useful; feeding into books and articles reading on child development.

And on a totally different note I have enjoying reading blog articles by Adam Curtis after previously appreciating several of his films.

The daffodil bulbs that we planted last autumn are starting to come up in our garden. The one’s Ulla planted in October in the front are coming on much better than those I planted last December in the back. The green inf front of us could do with some blubs too. I always enjoyed see in the early spring bulbs on Muirhouse Medway when I had a view over it from my previous flat. There are some similar in Pilton Park borders towards the Council housing office. I notice these on way back from North Edinburgh Arts where we attended Family fun day on Saturday. We usually go to CREATE there.

Taking on the banks over bank charges

Radio 4 had a programme covering the issue of reclaiming bank charges. They also just had a good one on Privacy in Peril which cover identity theft and use of information stored on us in databases such as credit card info. But back to bank charges, which it seems well worth reclaiming any that have … Continue reading “Taking on the banks over bank charges”

Radio 4 had a programme covering the issue of reclaiming bank charges. They also just had a good one on Privacy in Peril which cover identity theft and use of information stored on us in databases such as credit card info.

But back to bank charges, which it seems well worth reclaiming any that have been made against you for missing credit card repayment, bounced direct debits or cheques, or unauthorised overdrafts in last six years (maybe more in Scotland, yet to check out, but there is the lower limit of £750 at small claims court in Scotland). There are several websites with templates for letters to write and then small claims court procedure which will result in getting charges refunded. There are various other web forums where one can follow others’ success with this.

Consumer Action Group forum

Penalty Charges website includes forum

Bank Charges Hell

Martin Lewis on reclaiming bank charges

This is money on reclaiming bank charges

Basically given the government wish to save money by scrapping post office basic bank account to force us all to use banks to have benefits and pensions paid into; it is good people are taking on the banks over there unlawful use of bank charges to fund the advertising blurb of ‘free banking’ where 20% of often poorest customers who incur most charges fund wider current account system through bank charges that amount to extortion. The law says that charges that cover more than admin costs are an unfair penalty and that is unlawful.
Also, the only local cash till in my area was converted to fee-charging cash till that only warns so in blue writing in the thin font on blue background.

Phone Call Costs

Ok, after my post the other week on phone call costs, I though I would post up a summary Here are some pre-dial numbers for having cheaper UK mobile calls: 0844 428 0004 (4p/min) 0844 428 2525 (4p/min) price comparison from: http://niftylist.co.uk/calls/to/uk/mobile/ or for UK landlines: 0844 721 2525 (1p/min) 0844 861 2121 (1p/min) 0844 … Continue reading “Phone Call Costs”

Ok, after my post the other week on phone call costs, I though I would post up a summary

Here are some pre-dial numbers for having cheaper UK mobile calls:

0844 428 0004 (4p/min)
0844 428 2525 (4p/min)
price comparison from:
http://niftylist.co.uk/calls/to/uk/mobile/

or for UK landlines:

0844 721 2525 (1p/min)
0844 861 2121 (1p/min)
0844 861 3838 (1p/min)
0844 721 0001 (1p/min)
from:
http://niftylist.co.uk/calls/to/uk/landline/

The Niftylist website is best viewed with CustomizeGoogle enabled in Firefox web browser.

Another Phone call cost comparison site which is worth checking out does not have adverts but is more garish.

Note: you get charged for time to answer even if not answered but at these prices compared with BT/Telewest/NTL etc. this not significant factor in decision to use over default with line supplier.

If you wish to verify rates and who supplies service use:
http://www.magsys.co.uk/telecom/codelook.asp

Also another aspect of using these pre-dial numbers is the follow through number actually called does not show on itemised bill.

Also you can view web and have you can access phoneline clear at same time you can get some minutes of landline calls hassle free from JaJah and Webcalldirect. I think it gets max trial minutes from number used rather than cookie which could drop or IP which could change via Tor ( http://tor.eff.org )

These can still be used after switch to The Phone Co-op as default service which I recommend for reasons over immediate cost comparisons but is slightly cheaper than BT but still worth using these pre-dial access numbers to get the cheapest rates.
I recommend The Phone Coop because it is a customer coop and so is more stable and can’t be taken over by another company which causes disruption. Also one can have share and influence the company policy through that as well as get a dividend. Also it is worth getting a Phone Coop account if you use Cable phone line to get fixed cost calls in evening.
For directory inquiries use 118114 which is cheaper than most of others.

Martin Lewis’s take on phone and broadband costs

Rip off ATMs and bank charges

BBC have a story today about rip off ATM charging. This comes after the goverment forced pensioners and those on benefit to get bank accoutns to receive dole in. There was a previous story on Scottish TV. In our area the only ATMs that charge. One is in a location that used to be non-charging … Continue reading “Rip off ATMs and bank charges”

BBC have a story today about rip off ATM charging. This comes after the goverment forced pensioners and those on benefit to get bank accoutns to receive dole in. There was a previous story on Scottish TV.
In our area the only ATMs that charge. One is in a location that used to be non-charging can they keep the bank symbols on it and only warning that it charged £1.75 was on screen in a blue thin font on a blue background. Often wehn people using told it charges people don’t use it, so in many case people go to use it unaware of charge. Obtaining money from these charges is deceiving people and in my view amounts to fraud.
Also a friend went into a shop and first asked if they accepted cards and they said they did then later at till they told him to go use charging machince in the store.

Also now with admin charges on bills people are encouraged to used direct debit but it is not as straight forward to set it up so fits in with weekly or fortnightly pay. I have a friend who has several time including last 2 months had bank charges to pay because out of sync direct debits with income. I would advise them to move to bank that has buffer zone (such as the HSBC) where it is preserved by not being able to dip into it with solo/eletron card or atm withdrawals but if direct debit attempted will be able to. But I doubt can switch bank with resulting bad credit rating due to previous uncovered direct debit attempts.

For basic accounts the co-operative bank has a lower charge than most, but still it is pretty unbearable to get one of these let alone several. HSBC may be not charge.
Someone elses advice on bank charges

The market creating cost spread on phone calls

I just added to my webpage on phone issues that some of the cheapest phone calls can be had is by using pre-dial numbers from a company called Connect Telecom UK Ltd (Finarea SA) under brandnames Phonecheap, 0844calls, Discountdial, Dialaround, Telediscount, Telesavers and Telestunt (note they offer a different mix of rates via each but … Continue reading “The market creating cost spread on phone calls”

I just added to my webpage on phone issues that some of the cheapest phone calls can be had is by using pre-dial numbers from a company called Connect Telecom UK Ltd (Finarea SA) under brandnames Phonecheap, 0844calls, Discountdial, Dialaround, Telediscount, Telesavers and Telestunt (note they offer a different mix of rates via each but rather than lok at each site you can use a comparison site). For UK landline numbers at 1p per minute try 0844 861 2121 or 0844 861 3838. For UK mobiles at 4p per minute try 0844 428 2525 or 0844 428 0004. The disadvantage of this is that one gets charged for time the call ring even if not answered which is often the minimum charge. But in some cases, mostly overseas mobiles, it is same price to use ukfsn/justdial’s similar access numbers, which I previously recommended as UKFSN got a cut.

Also the same Connect Telecom / Finarea SA is behind a slightly different method that is maybe more suitable for mobiles: 18185, TopUpDiscount and TeleTop, so more rates to compare but do take into account the costs call to London number to access, as well as there system. Also this method makes more even sense if one has an unlimited call package. Others offering this style of service include cheapestchat. But they also can be found via comparison site.

I still recommend one switchs line rental from BT to The Phone Coop (and apply for a share in The Phone Coop) but on either look at using these prefix numbers for each call where saves money which in most cases will.

I am intrigued by fact the different brand names offer similar rates but in many significant cases not, meaning one has to work to take advantage of the market by continually checking prices and not relying on market competition for you. On one site, they even invite people to send in with lower prices spotted elsewhere. This is great way for them to get feedback on those that cross check sites.

I also added link to a site to compare costs of phone calls: http://www.magsys.co.uk/telecom/ but recently found niftylist which is easier.

Also a word of advice if you have someone from overseas staying it is worth for piece of mind to get direct dial international calls blocked so have to use cheaper service preferably their own accounts. Though be warned a friends experience with BT was they removed her premium rate call block when she got international calls blocked (she has bypass pincode) and will take 7 days to get this back on. In her case wished to keep premium rate calls blocked as pre-dial number, but BT staff did not mention premium rate calls when she order service so she did not consider them. In fact when rang back up to try rectify they at first mistakenly insisted one could only have one or the other blocked.

[UPDATE (12/July2006): It seems the cock up in dealing with this issue but BT customer service operators was even more then I realised. It now turns out that the Call Barring product could have also blocked premium rate calls as well national, mobile and international. How the service is all explained in a leaflet BT produce. If they had mentioned that just need to punch in *347# to bar premium rate numbers this when rang up to query how come premium rate call blocking removed, let along when product first ordered, or just sent out copy of leaflet when ordered. Nor did they even give us this info in response email to online complaint.

Also when we only found leaflet online yesterday because when we tried to view pages on call feature we could not as system is too clever for it own good and it would not let us view call bar feature page (as comes up in first link on search for it one their website) as we had services on order once enter account number which promoted for ie removing call baring to restore premium rate bar, which is not what we wanted we wanted both. It seems there service although more flexible than rivals, suffers for this if they don’t set systems up to make customer understanding it possible]

And be warned about suggesting to guest to use pre-paid cards as these often will come with 0845 access number listed first which is 3p/min during the day with is itself more expensive than Telesavers etc. for many UK/European calls, as well as them often having hidden costs for the user. The Post Office (TM) card seems to be free of hidden costs with rate quoted what you end up paying overall. But I suggest suggesting to them they use pre-paid service under own name instead of pre-paid cards to get better value for them.

Maybe best idea is to encourage them to get a UK sim card for their mobiles and use TopUp service with best rates for most likely calls.

Also it is worth claiming five mins of free hassle-free calls for a range of international places using JaJah. But one needs to have plain old telephone near your web browsing computer. And similarly another in same vain: Webcalldirect