#HeadlineTherapy Google told to halt work on Finnish data centres after clearing an estimated 250,000 trees before environmental review was done

Thanks to Joshua Hong and Fortune Magazine Online for the Headline

Google has built a good relationship with Finland who have welcomed them with open arms for the last ten years as a site for their Data Centres. Must be the bears , and the fish and the cold.

Google have invested a unbelievable amount of money already and have a fully operational data centre in the town of Hamina in Finland.

Unfortunately the environmental impact of cutting 250,000 trees without the complete assessment of the impact on the surrounding area has caused a rift in the relationship and Google have been asked to suspend their preparatory work in Muhos and Kajaani.

Removal of trees, stripping of topsoil, construction of site roads and storage areas, changes to ditches and culverts and storm water arrangements have now been put on hold. Though Google can still continue with work that can be easily reversed.

Google on the other hand says the work they are doing is helping the environment , their site at Hamima which is a former paper-mill, uses cooling water from the Gulf of Finland and then recycles the sites waste water to local homes and businesses and that heat recovery will cover up to 80% of Hamima’s district heating network’s annual demand.

The environmentalists say that the Irish model of regulating grid access for those running large data centres is necessary due to the possiblity that data centre consumption could cause energy price increases and affect availablity of energy to the normal everyday consumer.

Google has forseen this by signing a 22 year agreement to help extend the life of the Loviisa nuclear plant which is supplies about 10% of Finland’s electricity.

There are big players in the rush to secure data centre locations to enable hyperscale cloud providers. The top three are Amazon, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. Just so you know.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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#AIPoetryPrompt

What was your first ever videogame?

Pong

My first video game must have been Pong,

I never had an Atari so I could be wrong,

Perhaps I saw it at a friends,

And that perhaps is where the story ends,

There might have been a mouse,

But perhaps that was a different house,

I do remember thinking it was quite fun,

To play it wasn’t really so dumb,

Those little blocks of white moving on the screen,

Got so competitive we were really mean,

Another game I’m not giving up you know,

Go on give me another go.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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#HeadlineTherapy We’ve gained an hour!

My headline

So today in the UK we’ve gained an hour it’s really eleven O’clock but all the clocks that change automatically (like the one on this computer) say the correct time and now the race is on to change the ones that don’t change themselves.

To be honest the car clock takes me about three weeks to change and I get used to it being an hour ahead, until I get fed up and sit down and read the manual .

Still it will be light tomorrow morning and will get darker about five or earlier until December when the days will start getting longer.

I’ve linked this video to the American US Congress successfully making a step towards making daylight saving time permanent.

I wish we would do the same, it messes with my body clock , the dog’s body clock and suddenly it gets dark so quickly at night.

Though if there is evidence that road traffic accidents are reduced then I think we should stick with it as I suppose the roads are busier in the morning.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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Do you set personal goals for yourself?

Yes on a daily basis I set personal goals,

There are many just like me lonely souls,

We aim our efforts high and true,

And forget that we must look anew,

For a goal once dusted and done,

You have to think of another one.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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#HeadlineTherapy Theft of ‘unique’ £10k fountain investigated

Thanks to Kirsten Robertson and BBC News online for the Headline.

There is no doubt that stealing can be a lucrative if precarious career. I would say that staying under the radar is a way of maintaining your success. For example there is currently a chap now living in Dubai who had a massive VAT scam importing and exporting the same goods numerous times and claiming the VAT on them while more or less selling nothing. It cost the UK government about £30million, and despite him being found out and found guilty , he cannot be extradited to face the prison sentence that has been imposed on him. He continues his ‘career’ with a veneer of respectability, donating to charities etc in Dubai.

However, stealing an ornate bronze fountain decorated with cherubs and fishes and weighing about a tonne from outside someone’s house in a quaint little village in Wiltshire was not exactly under the radar.

The theft occurred between Thursday 8th and Saturday 10th of October and the Police want to know if anyone in the village noticed anything suspicious during the time it went missing.

It must have been quite a noisy excavation and also someone must have “cased” the joint out to check the feasibility of excavating and transporting one tonne of bronze.

The likelihood is that the sculpture will be melted down for it’s bronze and no doubt will be repurposed into something else. Even so, that is no small enterprise . Perhaps it wasn’t pure bronze and the whole exercise was pointless. As I say thievery is precarious.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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#HeadlineTherapy Glasgow museums remove mummified remains from public view

Thanks to James Delaney and BBC News Online for the Headline

The Kelvingrove and Hunterian museums in Glasgow have removed the remains of Egyptian mummies from public display as it is now viewed as disrespectful for the remains to be seen in a public viewing.

In the Hunterian musuem’s case they have covered the remains of Lady Shep-En-Hor’s body in specially designed textile to protect if from being seen by visitors. (this is also complicated by the fact that it might not be her body at all , as 19th Century excavators of Egyptian Tombs often switched more intact remains into ornate sarcophagi)

The latest guidelines though from the International Council of Musuems revised code of ethics, recommends that the “inherent dignity ” of human remains be upheld.

Both museums also said that they would consider repatriation of the remains if a request was made.

My how times have changed

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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#HeadlineTherapy Denmark nurdles may be from Tyne spill, agency says

Thanks to Jason Arunn Murugesu and BBC Online News for the Headline

Nurdles are small plastic pellets which are transported around the world for use in industry by ship. Unfortunately there was a container spill and a whole load of them were released into the sea along the Coast of North of England. The clean up has been going on to remove them from beaches in England.

However, sea conditions in the North Sea and the circulation pattern of the sea has lead to the nurdles reaching Danish and German Beaches also. So the clean up of Danish and German beaches has started. Tragically it is believed that only 28% of the released nurdles have so far turned up, which means these plastic beads which en masse look very unsightly will turn up elsewhere or perhaps after circulating in the ocean will end up on the sea bed.

Plastic pollution in the sea can now be tracked with drones and also following records of spills and subsequent ocean movements.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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#HeadlineTherapy Prominent Virginia senator charged over allegations she ran a criminal cannabis scheme

Thanks to Kayla Epstein and BBC News for the Headline.

The gentlemanly and womanly agreement , by the American Justice System , which avoids major actions involving lawmakers, candidates or other electorally sensitive matters in the weeks before an election has been blown to the wind.

Now the midterms vote are underway with the actual vote on the 3rd November , Democratic state Senator L Louise Lucas and six of her family members including her daughter who is running for the city council of Portsmouth , Virginia have had various charges thrown at them including racketeering, conspiracy to distribute cannabis and maintaining drug involved premises.

I was surprised to read that Senator Lucas ( who is not standing for re-election as she is 82) has for a long time ran a legal cannabis dispensary which she has talked openly about and also has campaigned for cannabis to be legalised. She has also been critical of the Trump administration.

I think it would be strange for her to actively take part in illegally supplying cannabis when she has taken the trouble to own a legal dispensary and had campaigned for cannabis to be legalised, it sounds to me that she wanted to stay within the Law.

It also seems strange for the Justice Department to bring charges against the Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar , as well as agreeing for a raid to be made on her home and investigating her immigration status, right in the middle of an election campaign. Definitely the answer is blowing in the wind.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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#HeadlineTherapy Massive wasps’ nest in wildlife office dismantled

Thanks to Imogen Lee of BBC News Online for the Headline

The Wasp is a much maligned insect. They are attracted by food and if you are outside eating they can be very annoying as they won’t give up if they are attracted to that picnic, or sweet smelling cakes that you are trying to enjoy.

However, my experience of them on my allotment, watching them fly by backwards and forwards to and from their nest in the ground for about six months. They didn’t bother me and I didn’t bother them. I checked on the internet and found out that the nest they had built would be abandoned and they would not return to it. And so it was, come the winter , I dug the soil around it and saw the papery cells and basically they were composted in the soil. They’ve never returned.

The headline is about some wasps which made a nest in some bookshelves and books of a nature reserve manager’s office in Norfolk. That was in June and they stayed until September, building a very impressive structure. They buzzed around the office but didn’t bother anyone , having their flight paths clearly marked and doing what wasps do and returning to their nest to feed and water their larvae.

Fortunately the nature reserve manager knew the value of the wasps and left them alone, it was only when the wasps had gone in October that she dismantled the large, intricate nest in her office and saw the cells where the wasp larvae developed.

They probably made it their home in the office because it was cool and there was shelter from the sun during the heatwave, it was a case of live and let live .

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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#HeadlineTherapy Six white rhinos to come to Wingham Wildlife Park near Canterbury after South Lakes Safari Zoo closure.

Thanks to Millie Bowles and Kent Online for the Headline.

Living close to Cotswold Wildlife Park , it is really good news that the “crash” of six Southern white Rhino’s from the South Lakes Safari Zoo which closed in 2024 are being rehomed at Wingham Wildlife Park and will be part of the expansion of the parks exhibits while also playing an important part in educating the public about these beautiful animals.

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