Prodding the system: UK electricity resilience

It's probably a good thing that there's going to be an investigation into the power supply incident and failure a few days ago which led to Heathrow Airport suddenly shuttering for most of a day. Especially as it's concerning that a Single Point of Failure resulted in the closure of a critical national and international transport hub.

The news article mentions that the National Energy System Operator (Neso) will 'investigate the incident and assess the UK’s energy resilience'. It also mentions that:

Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden is separately already leading a review of national resilience, which is due to report shortly. A National Risk Register published in January outlined the risk of attacks on the power network or critical failures.

The National Risk Register could be a few hours of 'fun' reading one wet Sunday afternoon. As well as being catnip for anyone either into collapsology as a sober science, or lost in the maze of conspiracy theories and disinformation a la the mid-2020s.

Todolí Citrus Fundació, and fruit of many shapes

Today there's an article on the BBC website about Vicente Todolí and Todolí Citrus Fundació, an initiative to not just catalogue and preserve but to actively use many varieties of citrus fruit.

And there are, indeed, many varieties, with a greater range of shapes and sizes and colours than are found in the (known) apple universe:

There's one shaped like an octopus with fat tentacles, a wart-covered citron the size of a newborn baby and a colourful pear-shaped fruit splattered in a tie-dye of green and yellow. 

If or when I return to the Valencia coast of Spain (it's been a very long time), it feels like an almost obligatory visit. And not just because of a lifelong love of quality marmalade.

Food supply resilience (or lack of) in the UK

There's some interesting fact, links, and national comparisons in this Guardian opinion piece (by one of the authors of "Just in Case: 7 steps to narrow the UK civil food resilience gap") on ensuring some kind of food storage, supply or access in a time of crisis or shock. Including a mention of changes in Sweden:

Last year Sweden produced a major reorientation of its food policy and intends to build more diversity into its food system, including creating dispersed national food stores. Sweden is also passing new legislation making it a responsibility of mayors to ensure that all are fed in a crisis.

...and also of information for people in Switzerland (where the national food reserves are proposed to increase from 4 months to 12):

The Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection reminds its citizens that they can go without food for 30 days but without water for only three. The truth is that we UK citizens live in a fantasy world – a legacy of the British empire – that someone far away will always feed us.

On a micro-supply scale, that's made me figure out how long my food and water supplies would last (with, and without, electricity and/or gas and/or water supply).

Understanding the Biodiversity Crisis

Earlier today, I signed up for an online course at (with?) Oxford University. The full title is "Understanding the Biodiversity Crisis: Introduction to Ecology and Conservation", and it runs between late April and late June. It shouldn't be too onerous, being but a few hours a week; assuming all goes well, I "attend" the mandatory weekly lecture and do a good 1,500 word assignment, it'll be 10 CATS points, equivalent to 5 ECTS, on the academic portfolio.

However, while it's useful to bank more ECTS to the already large collection I have, my main reason for undertaking the course is to learn.