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I'm still optimistic [read "DAFT"] enough to make New Year resolutions, consisting of the usual half‑baked ideas to eat less rubbish, take more exercise, stop beating the missus...

There are challenges to take up regarding LPMCC.net. Often it involves working less hours, but making them more productive. [NO CHANCE]

This book was where I discovered Jitsi, now adopted for our Virtual Club Nights

Late last year I read This is for Everyone by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web. It isn't often that I read a real book
[apart from Rupert Annuals], but on those occasions they can have a profound impact.

So one LPMCC.net resolution is to follow Sir Tim's principles.

In the process of organising some outside events, I stumbled upon .ICS files. If you use an on‑line calendar, this iCalendar Standard file can enter details into it, saving you a lot of time. They are begging to be incorporated into Hans Veenendaal's Rally Listing, for the benefit of the many riders who make good use of available technology.

Every new or updated page on LPMCC.net is announced in our left‑side menu, in our Mobile News, and through an RSS feed. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or maybe Rich Site Summary. If the latter, then I've been doing it a disservice with short measure. I'm resolved to correcting that this year.

Watch this space...

Whenever we announce our plans to add something to the website (such as the features proposed in our New Year Resolutions, above) we add the proviso "Don't hold your breath". To make sure you keep on breathing, living, and reduce your blood pressure and stress levels, here is a guide to a regular, relaxed six-breaths-per-minute rhythm. Sit comfortably and keep time.

According to Caroline Williams in 3rd January New Scientist, the benefits of deep, slow breathing are supported by research. Simply breathing slowly in through the nose and out through the mouth for 10-20 minutes a day can make a real difference. It's free, safe and can be done anywhere. If you're looking for a gentle, natural way to feel calmer and more rested, your breath is a very good place to start.

I can breathe easy over one of my resolutions: Our RSS feed now contains more information and illustrations.

I try to think ahead. Fresh out of my engineering apprenticeship, I was already thinking of retirement. So I took out a "With-Profits Endowment Policy" for half of my wages, but projected to pay me happy returns on my 65^th birthday.

Soon after taking on the policy, I began to worry about increasingly automated production. Would it result in a reduction in retirement age, leaving me to pay instalments from my state pension?

Now AI is bringing the same problem to professions.

As it turned out, in this (and every other) case of "improvements", the impact has been the very opposite. Rather than benefitting the workers, it put some out of work, while those still employed need to work longer years to fund unemployment benefits.
But profits are up.

Whoever coined the phrase "Win some, lose some" doesn't live in the same world as me.

What I never anticipated was my insurance company demutualising and the "With-Profits" going to shareholders, leaving me to just about break even.

A few years back, I moved into retirement apartments where we are not trusted to use gas appliances. My heating was provided by storage heaters, devices designed to be an expensive way to provide the wrong heat, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. I decided to seek a better method.

The buzz-word these days is "Heat-Pump". It is a cunning way to move heat from somewhere cold to somewhere warmer, using a relatively small power input to trick the Second Law of Thermodynamics. (not break it, just trick it) It is much favoured by Those-In-Power, who support varying subsidies for air source and ground source heat pumps. They need to, because installing those systems is very expensive.

Not wanting to forgo the opportunity to black the eye of the Second Law, I chose to install an air-to-air heat pump. These are not subsidised because they are also known as "air-conditioners" that will cool during hot periods. Those-In-Power do not want the hoi polloi to install these devices that they enjoy in their ivory towers, because that could strain power supplies during hot weather.

Nevertheless, I went ahead with air-con. It has been very successful, providing warmth at the right time and place, at an acceptable cost. A bonus is cooling during the couple of days when we have hot weather.

Ruining AMOC

AMOC stands for Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation — Google it. What you need to know is that it includes the Gulf Stream that brings warm seawater to Blighty, blessing us with a mild, maritime climate.
And it is weakening.

The result of continued weakening will be to change our climate from mild winters and cool summers into arctic conditions.
So I ain't feeling so smug about having a cool air-con!