Cash For Clippings?

Council proposes £25 fee to empty your green bin – Local – Stamford Mercury.

South Kesteven district council (Conservative) in Lincolnshire, UK  is proposing a £25 annual charge to households in order for their garden waste bin to be emptied. This charge, they claim, will help keep the council tax at it’s current rate by making green waste collection an optional extra charge.

Can we envisage a time when similar services are broken down by individual costs? Those that can’t or won’t pay won’t get the service.

This proposed green wast charge is not as high as East Northamptonshire council who contracted out their service to a private contractor which charges £14.40 to join the collection service with a £58.20 annual charge.

The thin end of a very sharp wedge? Very probably. But local authorities are having to question what are the core services that can be funded by ever smaller budgets and what they can now only offer as optional chargeable extras.

Image adapted from an original by harry harris under this creative commons licence

Frozen Batteries Live Again (Sometimes)

All things must die. Eventually. Other things die too early. Other things are just playing dead temporarily. Some things can be revived.

And so it seemingly was with a mobile phone battery which just wasn’t accepting a charge anymore. For a long time I’d assumed the phone’s charging system had packed up and very nearly bought an external dedicated battery charger to allow charging of the battery outside of the camera. Then I went a little funny in the head. Yes a little more funny in the head than I perhaps usually am.

I put the battery in the freezer. For five days.

I’d heard of this act of desperate revival for years but kind of dismissed it as an urban myth or at best a slightly dangerous move which indeed it can be.Batteries can explode if care is not taken.

I wrapped mine in newspaper and then wrapped plastic around that and placed it in the bottom of the freezer compartment.After five days I removed it and placed it in a box outside to thaw out. Once thawed I then tested it in the camera and lo and behold the battery had started to accept a charge so I hooked it up to the timer for a scheduled overnight charge (cheaper night electric rates and all that).

This morning the battery was showing 100% charged and it’s not discharging rapidly on use of the camera.

Miracles do happen.Well planned ones do anyway.

Image by trekkyandy under this creative commons licence