Aug92017
The international crude oil price of Indian Basket as computed/published today by Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas was US$ 53.39 per barrel (bbl) on 07.09.2017. This was higher than the price of US$ 52.97 per bbl on previous publishing day of 06.09.2017.
Aug92017
9 August 2017
A South West MEP has warned that the travel chaos experienced by thousands of air passengers to Europe this summer is a taste of what is to come post-Brexit [1]. The delays have been caused by tighter checks at some EU airports. Molly Scott Cato, Green MEP for the South West and Green Party speaker on Brexit, says this should serve as a ‘wake-up call’ for what lies ahead once we leave the EU. She said:
“We were promised that taking back control would lead to less red tape. But what we have seen this summer is the inevitability that greater control of borders will result in more not less bureaucracy and paper work.
“Once Britain leaves the EU, UK citizens will be covered by the same rules as Americans or Australians. This will mean everyone wanting to visit an EU country will likely be required to follow a process similar to applying for a visa, providing personal information including particulars about state of health, any criminal convictions and details of the purpose of travel [2].
“It is ironic that the delays experienced by the British travelling public have been so vociferously lambasted by the Brexit headbangers of the right-wing media [3]. Isn’t this exactly what they wanted? To take back control of our borders? Perhaps they naively believed that restrictions on freedom of movement would only apply to people they didn’t want to enter the UK, not UK nationals wishing to travel to the continent. Their reaction borders on the ridiculous, and this is another fine mess that Brexiteers are leading us into.”
Notes:
1. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jul/29/uk-border-customs-chaos-hit-hard-brexit
Aug92017
The north China city of Tianjin is aiming to lower a major air pollution indicator by a quarter this coming winter, the municipal government said Wednesday.
The city plans to reduce the density of PM2.5 — a measurement of fine particles in the air often used to gauge the severity of smog — to 70 micrograms per cubic meters in the period between October 2017 and March 2018. This represents a 25 percent drop from the same period last year.
The number of heavily-polluted days will also be cut by more than 20 percent, the government said.
Wen Wurui, head of Tianjin Environmental Protection Bureau, said the target will be reached by closing down polluting factories, phrasing out the use of coal for heating, raising vehicle emission standards, and enforcing load shedding on heavy industry manufacturers.
The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region sits at the heart of the North China Plain where air pollution, particularly winter smog, often occurs as a result of the high concentration of industrial and vehicle emissions, static air circulation and the burning of coal.
All three areas have set clean air targets.
Beijing, for example, aims to lower its PM2.5 density to 60 micrograms per cubic meter in 2017, a challenging target to reach according to meteorologists.
Aug92017
Ofqual is looking to recruit current Functional Skills maths teachers to take part in an online research study.
Participants will be asked to compare the likely difficulty of multiple pairs of maths questions – in terms of which question in each pair is likely to be most difficult for a Functional Skills student to answer fully. To do this we are looking for current Functional Skills maths teachers, or people who have taught Functional Skills maths in the last 3 years. You must not have been involved in developing assessment materials for Functional Skills maths.
Each question will be isolated from its usual context of a whole paper; and you will be making a judgement of difficulty considering all the factors that may affect a student’s response. You won’t need to complete the work in a single sitting, but will need an internet connection while you’re doing it.
We plan to run the study in late August/early September over a 2 week window. Participants will be paid for their contribution.
If you’re interested in taking part, please email your contact details, along with your experience in Functional Skills maths to functionalskillsreform@ofqual.gov.uk by 21 August 2017. We will then provide further details about the work itself and what you need to do next.
Aug92017
Whenever a strong earthquake hits southwest China’s Sichuan Province, panda lovers across the world feel their hearts tighten.
A 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Jiuzhaigou County, a popular tourist area, at 9:19 p.m. Tuesday at a depth of 20 km.
The China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP) quickly confirmed that pandas and staff at its base, 400 km from the quake epicenter, were not affected by the earthquake.
Preliminary checks confirmed that no pandas were injured and their breeding houses in the center’s several reserves remained intact.
However, the earthquake was near a panda migration corridor and might have an impact on the wild population in the area, according to Gu Xiaodong, deputy director of a local wildlife protection station.
Giant pandas live mainly in the mountains of Sichuan and neighboring Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. Due to habitat loss and very low birthrates, only about 1,800 still live in the wild, while some 300 live in captivity.
Panda reserves cover about 60 percent of their natural habitat and are home to 70 percent of wild population. Most of the habitat is in Sichuan, where earthquakes and habitat fragmentation have affected panda breeding patterns.
Secondary disasters, such as screes and barrier lakes, also change the habitat, cut off food sources and increase risks for the wild population.
On May 12, 2008, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake damaged Sichuan’s Wolong Panda Reserve. Most of its pandas and staff were transferred to another facility in Ya’an, 140 kilometers from provincial capital Chengdu.
That facility fell victim to similar circumstances when a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Lushan County on April 20, 2013. The center reported minimal damage and all 61 of its pandas were uninjured.
A new panda breeding and research center, sponsored by the government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), has been built on less rugged terrain in the Wolong reserve, with the capacity to accommodate 80 captive pandas.
Two years after the earthquake, Wolong restarted its program training captive-bred pandas to live in the wild.
Gu said after the 2008 quake a giant panda rescue plan was introduced. Local residents are required to report sightings of injured pandas to a wild animal protection center, who will send veterinarians and center staff to check the panda’s condition.
Local forestry authorities also take measures to restore panda habitat after earthquakes.
In 2016, the provincial government put forward a plan for a giant panda national park that would unite the isolated habitats.
The park, which will cover 27,134 square kilometers, aims to restore migration corridors to link 67 panda reserves on six isolated mountain ranges. It will allow wild pandas to mate with pandas from other areas to enrich their gene pool and raise their numbers in the wild.