The Net Zero road to ruin - why Synthetic fuels are the answer NOT Battery vehicles for future transport

 

An almost new TFL Battery powered Bus only a few years old - 

now in a Barnsley Scrap yard awaiting scrapping!

A typical cost for this type of vehicle new is around £400,000.

Was this TFL vehicle representative of good value for money for London ratepayers?

Human beings will never be 'Net Zero' they breathe out CO2

With the rush to Net Zero and away from Fossil Fuel vehicles to supposedly 'Greener' vehicles, Electric, Hybrid or Hydrogen powered, are these Net Zero enthusiasts going down the wrong road and indeed a road to ruin? I think so and here is why:

We have had access to 'free', clean energy since 1954. Yes, check up what Dr. Stephen Greer has to say on that after you have read this. Free, untaxable - and clean and its not solar power or nuclear I'm talking about either.

We are just one of the many oil based economies of the world with America as one of the biggest stakeholders. If free energy is available, it will certainly change the world economy, potentially disastrously for those relying on oil revenues like Britain does indirectly through applying taxation and duty. 

The 'pay to pollute' model won't change easily as there is too much money to be made from oil and its use and you can't deploy 'pollution taxes' on free, clean energy. So that's why road pricing for electric vehicles hovers just out of sight. Its the only way to recoup the money. And don't think that your vehicle charging is cheaper, it can already cost more to charge an EV than to fuel a conventional vehicle.

The internal combustion engine is not dead yet by a long way

The 'race to the bottom' away from the internal combustion engine (ICE) is a big mistake for the following reasons:

* Modern engines are at their now cleanest in terms of emissions they have ever been

* Engines will continue to be improved and made cleaner to operate

* Synthetic alternative fuels are infinite and green, recapturing CO2 generated all round

* Battery components are finite and China controls the majority holding resources

* Battery components prices may rocket and become a seller's market

* Britain has already cut its CO2 by 40% from 1990's levels - others must act now

* What future & waste legacy is there for spent batteries that cannot be recycled?

* Battery cars recoup none of their CO2 generation

* Bio Mass CO2 used to make electricity for battery cars is not recouped

* Massive 100 amp electricity demand to charge millions of cars is unsustainable 

* Green energy can not meet our electricity needs now, let alone charging cars up

Moving away from Fossil Fuels as propellants is a way forward, but perhaps retaining them only for use as lubricants in other industries, but the key is if you make oil products, the oil distillation process leaves you with other by-products - including Oil, Petrol, Diesel, Grease, Paraffin etc. Countries like Russia have an appetite for those products and I don't see them switching to expensive battery vehicles because of the cost and they will be a market for fossil fuels for some time. Let alone the cold weather that kills batteries.

Porsche and Siemens have been developing synthetic fuels and this is the answer to our future transport problems. This fuel provides the most convenient transport solution in that you are not reliant on a mains charger, a working charger, a battery, the right charger plug or indeed a power supply to feed it.

The recent 2 weeks of homes without power in recent storms in Scotland shows that if your house is reliant on electric power, you are going to be left cold and in the dark if that source fails. And your battery car sits dead in the drive until the electricity supply comes back on.

Already the power industry thanks to Green initiatives is reliant on Diesel generators backing up the shortfall demands that Green energy can't service. Burning wet Biomass wood chips helps one 'Green' power station to be the single biggest source polluter in CO2 terms in the UK, how Green is that? 

Let alone factoring in the cutting down of swathes of CO2 processing forest to make pellets that are burned wet, about the most un-Green thing you can do, oh and don't forget the 3000 mile sea journey these wood chips made from America to be burned. You couldn't make it up.

Factor in the 100 Amp requirements for fast car charging hitting the National Grid and you are looking at the biggest embarrassment to this nation for all time - if there is no power, it will cause chaos, loss of life and perhaps civil disorder. 

Already power is down in amperage at the plug, you might get 220 volts at the plug but are you getting the Amps? The lights seem dimmer and the electric cooker takes longer to do the same job it did a few years back, even on a new cooker. 

Add on the demand from a possible 20 million electric cars to that Electric Boob and you face black outs unless you can provide some other available resource. The solution is obvious, synthetic fuels not battery vehicles.

The synthetic fuels solution is probably the best measure we can adopt for now, the fuels can be grown from plant Algae and are infinite, the fuels work in current and older vehicles and does not have the issues that the dreadful E10 Ethanol petrol does, they can be also used in all our current road, rail, sea and air transport vehicles that currently use fossil fuels without adaption in probably the majority of cases, it also recaptures any CO2 burned in new growth Battery cars don't. 

Batteries unfortunately recapture none of their CO2 creation dividend or their environmental negatives, let alone the human cost of slave labour to get some of the components.

Electric vehicles are in their infancy in terms of battery technology, the ICE engine has had around 140 years of development, displacing the battery vehicles in the early 1900's. 

If we can't recycle batteries, then the ingredients they consist of are another waste problem that will be needlessly created and sacrificed on the altar of political expediency by clueless headline-grabbing politicians. 

Why gamble all your future cards on the 'now' poker hand of infant-level technology batteries? Once those elements are used they may not be recoverable for future use. That will have been a catastrophic mistake. Remember Fridgehenge?

Rather than hobble ourselves with unsatisfactory and damaging battery vehicles, we should go with synthetic fuels, at least for the short term of the next 40 years until another alternative can be developed. In this way our CO2 dividend will be stable or neutral and probably less damaging than battery vehicles. Its not rocket science.

The people making these energy decisions are possibly not the best informed, to be polite. If you asked them why they were going down this precarious road, pointing out the pitfalls of the battery vehicle versus the synthetic fuel alternative, they would likely have no real answers when presented with the obvious benefits of Synthetic Fuels over battery power.

They are trying to 'sell' a concept of battery vehicles. Potentially it could result in the next 'South Sea Bubble' when it all goes wrong. The reliance on resources majority controlled mostly by one nation (China) are a schoolboy error and the elephant in the room they choose not to see. No credible industry or company relies solely on one avenue of supply. If that is compromised you can be finished if that fails.

Synthetic fuels negate that scenario. They are the future, for now at least.

Vintage Longines watches - revived and remade for today

A Longines with a pre-1920's movement - 

the small pin at the 4 o'clock position on the case side is pushed in and the crown rotated to set the hands - the watch winds normally if just the crown is used.

I have been fascinated by watches since I was very young and have grown to appreciate the mathematics and engineering that go in to making one, ever since I flipped the back off myTimex watch in 1977 and saw the wonders of the mechanical movement inside!

Whilst quartz watches are functional, they always have the disadvantage of having a battery to replace. One of my best ever watches off the shelf if not the best I owned, was a Seiko 5 7009-4040 I purchased in 1983. 

I love the style and design of the vintage Longines watches as well as the recent, modern Longines 'Master' collection pieces, although these are more than I can afford to spend. The Master collection is very varied in design styles and offers great investment potential too, as well as watches which are practical to wear. 

Here are a few vintage Longines examples you may like to view.

A nice 'Wedding cake' dial with mechanism from 1908, a really classic looking piece!

With coin edge to the bezel and lovely guilloche in the two-tone dial centre -

The Guilloche engraved pattern is made by a lathe-like machine called a 'Rose Engine.'

I love this early movement ' Bauhaus' style dial design - 

it is quite simple but classic looking and hasn't dated - it still looks modern!

From around 1930, a nice off white parchment dial -

not fussy, but easy to read and keeps great time - what more can you ask for?

Longines 1930 movement in an aviator dial style seen on WW2 era watches -

A classic aviator style watch which is easy to read when flying or driving

Early Longines movement in a 'Trench watch' of the WW1 style - 

nice military look, much in the style of some recent 'Master' collection designs

Longines 'Grand Prix' case 1930's Moderne style with Sun ray Guilloche dial -

It has that great 1940's look and looks really incredible, set off by the 'Bullseye' dial

A Longines 1930 movement stolen from me in the post and found being listed on EBay - 

sadly not much help from EBay in resolving things or getting it back for me.

Longines 1915 era Regulator movement - 

A nice ornate piece of work here from this rare mechanism - 

Regulator watches are one of the most complicated mechanisms to make 

as the hands are on 3 different posts, rather than on a single central position

Longines Tank style watch with 1949 movement - 

A nice style of case in Nickel finish hence the yellowish tone

This style of case was made popular after WW1 and remains in style 100+ years later

Longines pre-1920's watch, fabulous design which hasn't dated!

Nice guilloche design on the dial face which has been gold plated.

Fabulous 20's style Longines with coin edge bezel

Nice vintage adverts below:

Classic adverts from the company from the 1900's

  

 

Monkee business - The Monkees and the unique concept of mid 60's commercial television opportunity

 

Derided by many, the Monkees proved they could actually play

and their music continues to be enjoyed half a century later!

'Here we come, walking' down the street' - the familiar opening words of the Monkees TV series theme tune.

Manufactured by American TV executives the Monkees TV show was surely a new concept for the medium, of television the Monkees were created to ape, if that's the word, the success of the Beatles film 'a hard day's night' but on a half hour episode format

The premise of 4 young men sharing a house, the madcap adventures they got up to and the performance of the occasional song, were essentially a transfer of the old vaudeville theatre music hall template, onto television, except in the modern TV show there was only the same performers for the whole show, not the variety of acts of the 20's vaudeville shows.

The Monkees came along at the right time, in late 1965 into 1966, just as the Beatles had played Shea Stadium and called it a day for live touring. 'One more limousine, one more run for your life' George Harrison quipped on the chaos the Beatles faced every time they played live. Now the Beatles moved into the studio to explore the music and move into another musical dimension, only to play live once more on the famous roof top session in London.

Where the Beatles left off, the Monkees filled the slot, primarily on the commercially lucrative primetime children's hour 'after school' TV slots. Like the British ITV children's program of the same era called  'Do not adjust your set' which featured the Bonzo Dog Doodah band as the resident musical ensemble, the Monkees and ITV's 'set' both found an adult following, who liked the zany antics found in each of the shows. 

Do not adjust your set also featured Michael Palin, Eric Idle and Terry Jones, all later Monty Python cast members. At this time, in the 1960's, television was growing massively in terms of content, programs and new directions including this alternative comedy of the day.

American television relied on advertising as a support for the operating costs and the program making and with a big hitter like the Monkees series, endorsement deals and/or endorsements opportunities with entities like Kelloggs Cereals and Gretsch guitars were great opportunities to promote the series. Likely as a result of the Monkees toting Gretsch instruments played through Vox amplifiers, sales of both sets of products in the US rocketed.

The commercially minded American product, had the concept of the Monkees defined into a carry case all of its own, that is that Don Kirshner the music executive had the call on some of the best songwriters in the US, songs were written by many greats such as Mann & Weil, Neil Diamond, Carol King and many more household names for the Monkees project.

Musically, many of the top session players of the time including Glenn Campbell would play on the song backing track recordings, the Monkees at that time only adding a lead vocal. This rankled with the Monkees, who decided they wanted to be playing on the records and writing the songs. 

This would be more lucrative for them, but the Kirshner model did allow a greater variety of songs from different writers so the problem of musical leit motifs cropping up in future songs was limited. In retrospect, perhaps a 1 original and 1 imported song might have given the Kirshner / Monkees situation more duration.

There had been mentions in the media of the Monkees not playing their own instruments and for Micky Dolenz, Peter Torq and Mike Nesmith, all people who had been musicians before the Monkees, this did not sit well. Seeing the Monkees playing unplugged electric guitars on the TV shows no doubt added to this view that they did not actually play their instruments.

For all that Don Kirshner held, reputation, musical control and contracts with the best songwriters, the Monkees felt too creatively constrained. As a sop to alleviate the problem, Mike Nesmith did get to contribute songs and these were popular as the public bought them enthusiastically which opened the doors to the Monkees having more creative control and eventual writing, performing and production on their music.

After two series, the Monkees TV shows were cancelled, it was probably only ever going to be a short lived 'Beatlesque' type television show in concept and the next project a film called Head, was started. 

Head had an R Rating and as such, many of the Monkees core younger audience could not get to see the film, so commercially this did not really achieve what for the Beatles a 'hard day's night' type of success had been and lead on to further film projects.

Pop music notoriously moves on and musical fashions quickly change, so the shelf life of the Monkees as a format for a TV series was likely never going to last more than another season if that.

The Monkees did take their music on the road to prove they could play live and Beatlemania was now replaced with Monkeemania, which lasted until around 1971 when the group fragmented with Peter Torq and then Mike Nesmith leaving.

Jimi Hendrix opened for the Monkees on a 1967 tour but the young audience couldn't understand or appreciate what Jimi was doing and he was drowned out by an ocean of teenage girls shouting for the Monkees. Jimi Hendrix went onto greater things thankfully securing his own musical legacy, the Monkees live shows were very successful in their own right and disproved the critics who now had to eat their earlier words.

I barely remember the Monkees from the time they were around in their pomp the end of the 60's into the 70's, seeing their shows on BBC children's hours television along with other great US imports like the Hanna Barbera cartoons, Top Cat, Tom and Jerry, the Wacky Races and the Banana Splits cartoons around 1971. This was often the case the UK TV stations buying in a lot of US made television content usually a couple of years or more down the line.

Now there is only one Monkee left - Micky Dolenz, I met him in 1979 or 80 when he was directing a play for the BBC TV corporation in London, my father worked for the BBC as a photographer and the scene Micky was directing was done at a shoe polish factory or similar at Acton, West London, on a saturday afternoon. 

Eleanor Bron (who I believe had also had appeared on the ITV 'do not adjust your set' series coincidentally) was acting the scene playing a Czech defector who had to walk through a pair of sliding doors on the camera shot, the doors out of camera shot, were pulled back by pieces of wood taped to them by two camera assistants, oh the power of television!

Micky was really nice to meet and the filming was nice to see, it was only a few months later on BBCTV that there was a rerun of the Monkees shows and I recognised Micky. Musically for me, around this time about 4 musical influences converged and helped me with my guitar playing which I enjoy more than forty years on. The Monkees playing on the TV show reruns was one.

The Monkees were of their time, a commercial opportunity, successful and now provide a great nostalgia fest to the who remember them, or have discovered them since. Their legacy is that they staged reunions years after and filled venues, their music is still popular today. They outlived their initial short project and continue to be popular more than half a century later.

And more importantly, they could really play!