What kind of problems do we work with?
If you believe you have an eating disorder, hear or see things that other people say they do not hear or see, have a drug or alcohol problem or are currently feeling actively suicidal we may not be able to provide you with the support you need. However, there are local services that can help. If you need urgent support please click on the red 'I need help now' button on the left hand side of the screen. If you or someone else is at immediate risk of harm please call 999.
During your sessions all information you share with us will be treated as confidential within our service, unless we become concerned that you are a risk to yourself (e.g. self-harm, suicide) or others (including issues of child protection). If possible, this will be discussed with you but the appropriate information will also be shared with the appropriate agencies. If we offer you therapeutic support your difficulties will be discussed in supervision to ensure the quality of your treatment.
We welcome people from 18-years onwards who are registered with a GP practice within Barking & Dagenham. We are committed to reaching out to people before their difficulties become chronic and severe and we welcome people of different cultures, and life experiences. We try to be flexible by offering appointments in GP/Health Clinics, children centres or libraries in the Barking and Dagenham areas.
What kind of support will you receive?
An important aspect of all the support we offer will be the opportunity for you to regularly record how your mood changes from week to week. This will help us to focus in on particular problems you have while also helping you to identify the ways your mood may have improved.
Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs) are trained professionals who use guided self-help techniques based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to assist you to identify unhelpful thoughts and behaviours and equip you with ways in which you can help yourself through your problems. PWPs work with people who may experience the following: depression; anxiety; panic attacks; stress; excessive worrying and mild phobias.
Once you have been allocated a PWP they will call you to arrange your first appointment with them. This is usually a face to face appointment so you can see the person you will be working with. Sessions last for 30 minutes and are either over the telephone or face to face.
Guided self help is not counselling. Usually you will be working with your PWP through a workbook specifically designed for your problem based on scientifically proven techniques. This will involve doing some work in-between the sessions which you will then review with your PWP e.g. keeping a record of when you feel anxious. Being willing and motivated to try these tasks will affect the speed of your recovery so it is important you are able to find time to do them. Don't worry if you think you've done a task incorrect, this is useful information that you can tell your PWP to help you overcome obstacles you may encounter. Your PWP will also tell you about other things you may find useful for example books, CDs or websites or inform you about other services or groups within the service or borough.
What is a High Intensity Therapist?
High intensity therapists offer more intensive support than what is offered by a PWP. Your therapist may be a Psychologist or CBT Therapist and s/he will usually see you once per week for around 50 minutes and you will decide together what you want to focus on in therapy. The most important aspect of therapy will be that you work together with your therapist to help you to reach your goals. Additionally, it will be important for you to be able to build on what you do during therapy sessions by also completing activities between sessions that will be agreed on with your therapist.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a very effective form of therapy. CBT has been found to be very effective in helping people that feel low or anxious. It aims to help you look at different aspects of your problem and understand how your thoughts, feelings and behaviour are linked. Your therapist will work with you to create a safe environment where you can discover what changes you can make to live more healthily, be more confident and feel better. CBT sessions tend to be focused on one or two target problems. The aim is for you to learn new skills to help you cope with difficulties. You might be asked to try your new skills outside the sessions so that you can practice and grow in confidence.
What is Couples Therapy for Depression?
This therapy is evidence based and was developed to help people suffering from mild to moderate depression who also experience difficulties in their relationship. When a person experiences depression this can impact on their relationship and sometimes problems in relationships can lead to one or both partners becoming depressed or anxious. Couples therapy for depression deals with both depression and relationship distress. The therapy aims to help improve interactions between partners, to communicate more helpfully and work together. It helps partners understand one another's emotions and the things they do. As well as gaining an understanding for one another, the couple learn skills. This can lead to a more fulfilling relationship where differences between partners become less problematic. Couples are invited to attend four assessment sessions to identify whether Couples Therapy for depression would be a helpful therapy for them. If this therapy is identified as being suitable, the couple will then be invited to attend up to 16 weekly therapy sessions.
What is Behavioural Couples Therapy?
Behavioural Couples Therapy (BCT) aims to improve couple relationships, especially where depression or anxiety are affecting one or both of the partners. It helps couples with both overcoming depression and alleviating relationship distress. This is achieved in a number of ways such as enhancing the partners' understanding of depression, helping them improve communication and resolve conflict, as well as working towards increasing positive experiences and decreasing negative ones. When distress in relationships is resolved the chances of depression returning are expected to be reduced, which makes BCT particularly suitable for distressed couples who are also dealing with depression. However, BCT is also suitable for couples who are not distressed in the relationship but where one of the partners is suffering from depression or anxiety.
The mind can often heal itself naturally the same way the body does, this natural mechanism often happens during sleep particularly during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. EMDR was developed using this natural process in order to successfully treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.


text:
Q: How to check if firewalld is blocking an incoming ip address? I have CentOS 7 with firewalld. I installed fail2ban and using the firewallcmd-new action. I am seeing bans in the fail2ban logs, and I want to check in firewallcmd if they are blocked. How can I do it?

A: Details here: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FirewallD#Which_zones_are_available.3F

*

*List all zones with the enabled features.
firewall-cmd --list-all-zones

*Print zone  with the enabled features. If zone is omitted, the default zone will be used.
firewall-cmd [--zone=<zone>] --list-all
If the above command is not displaying enough info, you can try

*

*iptables Direct Interface (Quoted from:Introduction to FirewallD on CentOS)

For the most advanced usage, or for iptables experts, FirewallD provides a direct interface that allows you to pass raw iptables commands to it. Direct Interface rules are not persistent unless the --permanent is used.
To see all custom chains or rules added to FirewallD:
firewall-cmd --direct --get-all-chains
firewall-cmd --direct --get-all-rules

A: First, I strongly recommend that you use banaction = firewallcmd-ipset as this will provide much better performance when the ban list starts getting large.
Now, with any of fail2ban's firewalld actions, it will add a direct rule, which you can inspect with firewall-cmd --direct --get-all-rules:
# firewall-cmd --direct --get-all-rules
ipv4 filter INPUT 0 -p tcp -m multiport --dports ssh -m set --match-set fail2ban-sshd src -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-port-unreachable
ipv4 filter INPUT 0 -p tcp -m multiport --dports 0:65535 -m set --match-set fail2ban-nginx-http-auth src -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-port-unreachable
ipv4 filter INPUT 0 -p tcp -m multiport --dports http,https -m set --match-set fail2ban-nginx-wordpress-login src -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-port-unreachable

As you can see, I am using firewallcmd-ipset, so the actual banned IP addresses are not listed here. Instead, I find them with ipset list:
# ipset list
Name: fail2ban-sshd
Type: hash:ip
Revision: 1
Header: family inet hashsize 1024 maxelem 65536 timeout 600
Size in memory: 16528
References: 1
Members:

Name: fail2ban-nginx-http-auth
Type: hash:ip
Revision: 1
Header: family inet hashsize 1024 maxelem 65536 timeout 600
Size in memory: 16528
References: 1
Members:

Name: fail2ban-nginx-wordpress-login
Type: hash:ip
Revision: 1
Header: family inet hashsize 1024 maxelem 65536 timeout 86400
Size in memory: 40656
References: 1
Members:
108.62.172.244 timeout 70819
108.62.172.121 timeout 82750
212.252.164.233 timeout 69907
108.62.24.87 timeout 58024
23.19.127.20 timeout 84310
### many more omitted...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Don't just sit on the sidelines, experience all that Shenandoah County has to offer.
experience the vast history of the Valley from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War.
The best way to experience an area is to do as the locals do.
and begin planning your getaway today.


text:
Investigation: "Significant" methane emissions recorded at UK onshore oil sites
By Ruth Hayhurst on October 23, 2021 • ( 22 Comments )
Researchers have discovered significant emissions of methane, the powerful and invisible greenhouse gas, at onshore oil sites across England.
Oil well at IGas's Glentworth site, 8 October 2021. Photo: CATF
The emissions were detected earlier this month by Clean Air Task Force (CATF), an international climate NGO. It used infra red imaging cameras to document the emissions on visits to onshore oil sites across seven counties.
The results, published today, just over a week before the start of critical Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow, revealed methane emissions at 14 of the 17 sites visited.
Methane accounts for at least a quarter of global warming since pre-industrial times and levels in the atmosphere are rising faster than ever. It has more than 80 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide in the short-term, so reducing methane is critical to slowing climate change.
The sites where emissions were recorded were operated by IGas, Egdon Resources, Horse Hill Developments Limited and Perenco, some of the biggest names in the UK onshore industry.
Some of these sites were among the most recent to go into production onshore in the UK. Others had inactive wells and were no longer producing oil.
Methane, which is sensitive to infrared light, was detected coming from vent pipes and stacks, hoses, pipes, pumps, valves, separator tanks, tank hatches and, in one case, the well head itself.
CATF called on the UK government, the Cop26 host, to turn promises on methane emissions reductions into action as soon as possible. "True climate leadership is achieved by actions, not words", it said.
Earlier this month, the International Energy Agency said there must be rapid cuts to methane emissions at oil and gas sites to meet climate targets.
This week the European Parliament approved a strategy to reduce methane emissions and called for improved leak detection at oil and gas sites.
The UK onshore industry has said it "takes great care to avoid flaring and venting natural gas [methane] wherever possible". Its trade body, UK Onshore Oil & Gas (UKOOG), says on its website:
"it is in the best interests of operators to be as efficient as possible so that they can deliver as much natural gas as possible to their customers."
But according to the CATF findings, at least 10 of the sites visited this month were using cold venting techniques and had been permitted by regulators to release all gas associated with oil production.
The organisation found significant methane plumes at Larkwhistle Farm, Glentworth 1, Horndean X, Beckingham 1, all operated by IGas.
Infrared footage from Perenco's Kimmeridge site. Video: CATF
There was significant venting at Perenco's Kimmeridge site, the oldest continuously producing oil well in the UK. DrillOrDrop reported more than three years ago that this well was legally releasing hundreds of tonnes of methane a year into the atmosphere. At the time, the Environment Agency told us many existing sites in England were venting gases produced during oil extraction.
James Turitto, the super pollutants campaign manager at CATF, recorded the footage. He said he had filmed emissions at more than 250 European sites and defined significant emissions as in the top 20%.
"Considering that cutting methane pollution is our best bet to avoid significant warming in the next 20 years, it's spectacular how much natural gas is being released into the atmosphere. In the middle of a gas crisis, it shows these companies have little regard for either the cost to the climate or costs to British citizens."
What was recorded where?
Beckingham 1, Nottinghamshire (IGas): Significant emissions from two vent pipes on a separator and high concentrations of methane downwind
Infra red footage of IGas's Beckingham 1 site in Nottinghamshire. Video: CATF
Beckingham 5, Nottinghamshire (IGas): Fairly large emissions from the wellhead
Beckingham 8, Nottinghamshire (IGas): Methane emissions apparently from pipe infrastructure on the side of the well pad – unable to visualise
Beckingham 41, Nottinghamshire (IGas): Emissions from the hydraulic pump of an inactive well
Folly Farm, Hampshire (IGas): Small but continuous source of methane emission
Glentworth 1, Lincolnshire (IGas): Four sources of methane and other emissions, from pressure release valves of the separators. There was also a small leak from one of the wellheads
Glentworth East, Lincolnshire (IGas): Significant methane emissions from the central relief vent and emissions from the separator tank
Horndean B, Hampshire (IGas): Significant methane emissions from central relief vent and emissions from a separator tank
Horndean X, Hampshire (IGas): Significant emissions from a vent stack
Infra red footage from IGas's Horndean X site. Video: CATF
Horse Hill, Surrey (Horse Hill Developments Limited): Five sources of methane and other gases from three separator tanks, connection hose and unlit flare at one of England's newest production sites
Kimmeridge, Dorset (Perenco): Significant methane emissions from two vents on the separators
Larkwhistle Farm, Hampshire (IGas): Significant venting of methane and other gases from the central stack and all six separator tanks
Singleton, West Sussex (IGas): Four sources of methane and other gases from closed tank hatches on the separator tanks
Wressle, North Lincolnshire (Egdon Resources): Emissions from at least one separator tank at one of England's newest production sites but the researchers were asked to leave before they could fully document the source
The sites where no emissions were recorded did not necessarily have no emissions. They were often highly secure or surrounded by trees and difficult to get close to, CATF said.
DrillOrDrop invited all the site operators to comment, along with the industry organisation, UK Onshore Oil & Gas (UKOOG), and the Environment Agency, which regulates emissions from oil and gas sites in England. Only Perenco and Horse Hill Developments Limited responded.
A Perenco spokesperson said:
"We are operating the Kimmeridge site within all regulatory permits and consents, and report the monitored emissions every six months.
"Perenco is committed to reducing emissions and is currently in the process to decrease the venting of gas significantly from the Kimmeridge site.
"A project is well underway to recover, compress and export gas to a third party facility and construction will be completed in 2022."
Horse Hill Developments Ltd said in a statment:
"Horse Hill Developments Ltd operates Horse Hill in a safe and environmentally responsible manner, in accordance with its regulatory permits and consents.
"The site is regulated by Surrey County Council, Environment Agency, the Health and Safety Executive and Oil & Gas Authority, who make frequent inspection visits to the site and respond to any complaints from the public that they receive.
"We note that an EA report released this week states clearly that the use of optical camera assessment often results in 'high expanded uncertainties', saying the cameras cannot detect the difference between different gases. Therefore, the risk of misinterpretation renders this CATF report questionable.
"The inadequacies of the methodology used by CATF are illustrated by the fact that the report does not indicate how much methane has been released. We would also like to point out that we have not been allowed sight of this report.
"HHDL will always investigate any operational and environmental matters and implement any necessary regulatory actions where appropriate, but we prefer to respond to accurately obtained data using robust scientific methods."
CATF filming
CATF said it used a FLIR GF320 camera, the industry standard in identifying emissions, leaks and events at oil and gas sites. The organisation said the equipment had been calibrated and independently tested to detect and visualise the presence of at least 20 gases. It is primarily a qualitative tool; it cannot quantify emissions.
CATF also said it used a methane gas analyzer to confirm the presence of high concentrations of methane at some sites.
James Turitto is a certified ITC Level 1 Infrared thermographer. His previous footage has been published by Reuters, Bloomberg, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, La Repubblica, RAI, ANSA, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, among many others.
CATF said of HHDL's statement:
"No OGI [optical gas imaging] camera can indicate exact volumes of methane emissions, so any suggestion that the footage CATF should be doing so is irrelevant. What CATF's footage shows is that best practices are not being upheld. This is by no means an indictment of the Horse Hill operator – rather, it is a pattern we observe for all oil and gas operations that we have investigated. Self-regulation is an unsuccessful route to the reduction of methane pollution, so it is past time for policymakers to step in."
The research, carried out from 4-22 October 2021, also found significant methane emissions at National Grid gas transmission compressor stations in Chelmsford and Kings Lynn. They were potentially super-emitters and were some of the largest the organisation had seen after visits to more than 200 sites in 12 countries.
CATF said it would put videos from the UK filming on its website.
The European Union and the US agreed in September 2021 to cut global methane emissions by 30% by 2030. This global methane pledge will be launched at the Cop26 climate talks.
Jonathan Banks, international director, super pollutants, at Clean Air Task Force, said:
"The UK has an opportunity to become a world leader in cutting methane pollution. They have helped spearhead the Global Methane Pledge at COP26 and are making the right noises on tackling the biggest low-hanging fruit in climate policy. But these images show that promises must be turned into action as soon as possible. True climate leadership is achieved by actions, not words."
CATF said it saw an opportunity to help governments around the world converge around the need to address methane emissions.
It has been collecting evidence of methane emissions from oil and gas facilities across Europe:
"With a major announcement on methane just around the corner at COP26, uncovering evidence of methane pollution in the UK and across Europe is designed to drive action from policymakers sooner rather than later."
The organisation said there were low-cost technologies and practices that would reduce emissions:
"The oil and gas industry is the largest industrial source of methane emissions, almost all of which could be solved at negative to marginal costs given the proper incentives.
"The EU (plus Norway and Great Britain) represents the world's 7th highest oil and gas methane polluter and is also the world's largest importer of natural gas and one of the top importers of oil.
"Through carefully constructed methane policies, Europe could cut its domestic methane footprint and also issue standards with incentives and verification approaches for imported gas to reduce emissions from key suppliers— Russia, Norway, Algeria, Qatar, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, and others. "
Onshore monitoring
This week, the Environment Agency (EA) published a report on techniques for quantifying methane emissions at onshore oil and gas sites, unlike the qualitative work done by CATF .
On optical gas imaging (OGI), the EA said:
"The potential use of OGI to determine whole-site emissions would require a detailed campaign to measure all components or functional elements or sampling of components and extrapolation to the whole site. This would lead to high expanded uncertainties in whole-site methane emission rates."
It also concluded there was high uncertainty with other technique: air quality towers, solar occulation flux (SOF), mobile measurement and satellite.
Categories: Research, slider
Tagged as: Beckingham, CAFT, Clean Air Task Force, COP26, Egdon Resources, emissions, Engalnd, flaring, gas, Glentworth, global warming, greenhouse, Horndean, Horse Hill Developments Limited, IGas, infra red, International Energy Agency, investigation, invisible, James Turitto, methane, oil, onshore, Perenco, powerful, production, sites, UK government, venting
Angus Energy oil production plans for Brockham wellsite
Judi Dench supports fundraiser for legal action against Surrey oil drilling
Thank you Ruth for being willing to "burn the midnight oil",(yes,I know!), to draw attention to this pollution, local and planetary. The days pass, the pollution gets worse, denial tactics are ramped up, countries attempt to subvert the conference, yet the polluters bemoan their exclusion from Cop26.The co-director of the Grantham Institute is reported yesterday as remarking "Be under no illusion, decarbonisation at the level we need to avoid dangerous climate change will be opposed….by a number of people, companies and nations that benefit financially from fossil fuels." (Guardian.Oct. 22). "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." (Churchill) On the brighter side, public awareness of industry's evasive tactics seems to be growing and to be appropriately resented.
Let us press our local political leaders to insist the UK do more, and do more more honestly, to ensure Cop26 does not fail the world.
Martin Frederick Collyer says:
Last time I visited Kimmeridge there were many beef cows wandering around the place-producing methane- and my ex colleague who was a regular skin diver in the Bay reported that all through his many years of diving within the Bay, gas could be clearly seen bubbling up from the sea bed to the surface. (He used to joke about the risks of wayward munitions from the tank ranges causing a chain reaction!)
I also note the science classes are still being taken there and "Sir" or "Miss" are routinely showing the kids how the rocks along the shore can be lit!
Perhaps controlled extraction of fossil fuel from the area might reduce the levels of leakage?
Actually, the methane leakage question might be better addressed by comparing UK on shore levels with levels from sites over the horizon developed in order to export oil to UK.
Jono says:
So it's ok for UK to have methane leaking because other countries do ? That is the worst argument you have ever given Martin. Should we start beheading people because the Taliban do ?
Answer your own statement, Jono. I did not make it.
However, perhaps you could explain whether your plastic keyboard is okay, at the same time.
Seriously, if you actually believe many overseas sources apply anywhere near the same standards as the UK, (have a chat to Jack!) and you believe transport emissions are not then added to bring that oil/gas to UK, then your argument may hold water-but, it won't because that is fantasy.
Visiting 250 sites around Europe without dialogue with the operator, producing emissions, and then reporting about emissions is an interesting job! I suppose it has it's rewards, and would be a lot easier than visiting other parts of the world and trying to measure. In which case, comparison is indeed very difficult, but it doesn't mean that it should not be part of the consideration. If I purchase UK produced meat, I do not expect that no animals died during rearing before they were processed for my plate, but I can check and see if less did so than same meat produced overseas. Part of animal welfare, and why many UK farm shops do a good trade. Choices are rarely between the perfect and the flawed, usually between less than perfect and flawed. Strangely, Jono, there are those who wish to crowd fund the support for the flawed over the less than perfect, and then try and claim they are attempting to make a difference! I wonder how much cash would be available to UK on shore oil/gas sites to improve their house keeping if they were not spending cash defending legal challenges, that their overseas competitors do not have added to their costs?
MH says:
Martin Frederick Collyer
With the gasses naturally leaking into the atmosphere from the rocks and under the sea where it was formed in large volumes we are likely better in the long term to harvest and process it than let it create more global warming.
The irony of the report was that it was only UKOG who picked up on the ineffectiveness of the camera in assessing quantities of the gas which are monitored by the EA and local authority to be within acceptable regulatory levels which leaves the article as another over exaggeration.
Had this experiment been carried out on imported fuels or gases I'm sure the emissions released would be higher even without considering the emissions to import it.
Maybe oil and gas should be promoted as locally produced as with other local products and be considered for its qualities not just its negatives, putting some pride back into a valuable UK industry in this period of transition to net zero.
Yes, MH, I like the idea of a little tractor type emblem for UK produced oil/gas!
Would be quite appropriate-as most little tractors are fueled by red diesel. Perhaps it could be borrowed from the farmers?
On a separate, but linked, issue. I can understand the emissions of methane when sites have little gas to utilize. However, surely then one of the solutions would be simply to encourage sites to scale up rapidly so that the gas became significant and warranted early installation of appropriate equipment to generate electricity? Strangely, looking at the recent decision in E. Yorks that is not the direction of travel. It might be interesting to see how much is emitted as an indirect result of the antis activities in such respects Together with the levels of emissions that were measured at KM and attributed to their presence, it may be quite significant.
Spot on Martin!
Had it not been for all the challenges and hold ups at Horse Hill it may already have been developed with the gas to wire already in place, contributing to the UK economy.
It just goes to show that the protesters, NIMBY's and imported oil and gas have a lot to answer for in UK emissions and local production would be best, bring on the tractor or maybe a little red oilrig.
Eli-Goth says:
Breathing causes Carbon Dioxide!
Wrong Eli Goth!
Breathing, or to use the correct term, respiration, does not "cause" carbon dioxide at all. The suggestion is bizarre to say the least.
In fact breathing draws in atmospheric gasses, which consist of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, >1% argon, other rare gasses >1%, 0.04% carbon dioxide, 0.5% water vapour.
When any fauna that breathes in air (creatures that live in water or are semi aquatic absorb oxygen from H2O via gills or other structures). Land based creatures however inhale the same mixture of gases contained in the atmosphere. No animal can filter out the oxygen from other gases. Any more that they can filter out pollution, be that by natural causes or anthropogenic artificial sources.
https://sciencing.com/chemical-composition-exhaled-air-human-lungs-11795.html
All living creatures that breath air use some of those gasses to absorb oxygen into their blood streams. No carbon dioxide is "caused". Carbon dioxide is only expelled by breathing out, after breathing in the same constituents in air in the first place. Only gasses that are inhaled can be exhaled, no gasses are "caused". The differences in amounts inhaled and exhaled are due to the body of the animal utilising energy and gasses to break down the gasses in order to extract oxygen, and exhale the excess.
In general, breathing out produces nitrogen which makes up the bulk (78 percent) of the air that humans breathe in and out, considering human bodies have no use for it. Second place belongs to oxygen (21 percent in, 16 percent out) and at a distant third carbon dioxide (0.04 percent in, four percent out). Other trace elements exist in exhaled air, such as argon (0.09 percent both ways, again because humans don't use it). Fauna also exhale water vapour, a by product of cellular respiration, at a rate that varies depending on the person, their health and other factors.
So, no breathing does not "cause" carbon dioxide, only exhaled as an unwanted gas which had to be breathed in in the first place.
Of course if the animal or human being is unlucky enough to be breathing unprotected close to an oil or gas facility vents and operations. That will inevitably "cause" the animal or human being to breath in more carbon dioxide, and other gasses, such as methane and various poisonous chemicals. If the animal or human being is then able to survive the experience, it will breath out as much of the the excess poisonous gasses as possible. But the experience will of course lead to varying degrees of toxicity and perhaps serious respiratory and other health problems if the experience is extended beyond individually tolerated limits.
Don't try that at home by the way, or indeed at any other location without the requisite proscribed, approved and certified respiratory gear preferably with an oxygen supply and or a sealed and checked hazmat suit…..
Now, children, if 0.04% is in and 4% is out, how many times is exhalation greater than inhalation?
Please remember during your calculation that carbon is not a gas-until it becomes carbon dioxide. There may be a clue there.
Plant some trees and the carbon can be converted from the CO2 into carbon within the tree and the oxygen released.
P.S. children:
The carbon cycle:
Ultimately, everything that is organic, or living, gives its carbon back to nature either through respiration (eg. humans) or through death and decay. This recycling and reuse of carbon is known as the carbon cycle. Sorry, children, you can not opt out of that and live.
So, children, if you don't understand that, do not become a submariner, otherwise you may quickly find you are not in the "either" group but the "or" one.
It seems a lesson in metabolism is required?
It may help you to read the explanation I supplied, but good question anyway.
"The differences in amounts inhaled and exhaled are due to the body of the animal utilising energy and gasses to break down the gasses in order to extract oxygen, and exhale the excess."
Animals and living forms have a metabolism which breaks down wanted and unwanted absorbed elements in order to grow and extract elements and gasses to have energy to maintain a strong metabolism. Metabolism involves breaking down inhaled and ingested materials be that animal vegetable and mineral, also from exposure to sunlight which breaks down constituent elements to use for the conversion process and expel the rest. the magical factor is sunlight
Nothing is wasted, not even carbon dioxide, or carbon from other forms. Nothing can be evacuated that wasn't already there by inhalation or from food which absorbed or breathed carbon dioxide previously.
Nothing is wasted. In fact animals including human beings absorb and excrete in a process which is deliberately balanced in nature. It is human anthropogenic activity which attempts to overturn the balances in nature and creates an unstable imbalance that creates rapidly accelerating instability for the entire planet.
That accelerating instability has "caused" the sixth major extinction of all life on the planet and has led to 1 in 5 deaths of human beings and presumably animals as well being caused by fossil fuels and their uses.
I noticed a strange silence still persists on that 1 in 5 deaths being proven to be caused by fossil fuels from someone I see. No change there.
I repeat: Breathing, or more accurately respiration cannot 'cause' carbon dioxide to be made or "caused". The constituent elements have to be already there. In particular with carbon dioxide, from oxygen and carbon, one atom of carbon bound to two atoms of oxygen, or from respiration during which carbon dioxide is already inhaled. The body merely concentrates that which is already there and releases it into the lungs. Hence the increase in figures. Simple arithmetic really….or mathematics if you wish to include the entire range of sciences, physics and living animal metabolism processes.
Like I sad:
That pre-empted the question presupposing it was not read when it was posted.
In order for carbon dioxide to be exhaled, both carbon and oxygen have to be absorbed by ingestion and processed to be exhaled. Be it from plants or animals that were used for food by the animal and further broken down by sunlight and stored energy in the animal.
So first and foremost the important result of the respiration process, is that more nitrogen and oxygen than carbon dioxide is exhaled. Not just the 4% of carbon dioxide. When carbon dioxide is exhaled, that is only from what is absorbed by other processes, such as ingestion or inhalation and what is already in the body, and cannot be any more than that.
Nothing is created, only a growing healthy body by ingested and inhaled metabolism processes. Just like all the other elements that are either absorbed or exhaled or urinated or excreted by any living body.
All of that is a perfectly balanced natural process along with all the other creatures on the planet. Not the completely out of balance artificial anthropogenic excesses of industrial extraction and pollution that has no additional natural living processes to be able to deal with it. All life exists in a natural closed system. No sufficient natural system exists when the balances of natural systems are exceeded and overturned without changing the entire balances of nature into an vastly unbalanced system that is unable to sustain natural living creatures.
Always better to read everything that I said, rather than attempt to cherry pick and separate out one single element out of context wasn't it.
Balance in all things. animals including humans, exhale more oxygen than carbon dioxide.
Have a Nice Evening.
Yes, it seems it is.
Carbon is ingested by humans, and animals in the form of solid ie. FOOD as well as gas. It is also released from decay within the body-try researching the turnover of body cells.
So indeed far more carbon dioxide is exhaled than inhaled-4% is much greater than 0.04%. Those are the simple facts.
Yes, E-G you were correct. The carbon dioxide exhaled by humans is far greater than the carbon dioxide inhaled. I do not believe you made any reference to ratios of oxygen exhaled versus carbon dioxide, or any reference to the amount of carbon within food ingested.
I am sure the carbon cycle is still part and parcel of education. For those who wish to miss out on education I did hear the consequences today on a TV quiz program where the food of the Gods and Homer were confused and the answer given was " doughnuts"!
Children-if you wish to be outside of that humorous, but concerning circle, just study the carbon cycle.
UK use of coal to produce energy compared to Germany where the resource is running out article.
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/German-Coal-Plant-Runs-Completely-Out-Of-Coal.html
UK coal use was below 3% in September to produce energy compared to its usual about 1%.
Germany's use of coal to produce energy in the first quarter of 2021 was 26%.
While there is obviously more to do in the transition no one can say that this is a step in the right direction by the UK compared to our European neighbours.
Well ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it looks like the metabolism lesson fell on deaf ears? No change there.
No. Eli Goth is still wrong. Since the ingested food, be that animal or vegetable is no longer respirating and exhaling or chemically emitting carbon dioxide. Nor it can be said breathing out oxygen. Which is the greater? And also the ingested for is no longer consuming oxygen for its own growth and metabolism
either. Life continues and the natural balance is restored.
Small breaths gained and lost do not a climate change make. That is the priveledge of one sided equations of the industrial processes.
A species living in harmony within nature, not only preserves balance, it can, if by choice, enhance and improve natural life systems and climate balance. That is natural balance. Not the exploitative one sided equation of profit motivated exploitation and extraction which only takes and gives nothing back to nature.
Artificial anthropogenic industrial processes exist outside of nature. They not only consume oxygen and carbon they also extract and reintroduces hydrocarbons and other pollutions back into the environment and to the atmosphere.
Millions of years of stabilising and burying ancient potential pollutants are again reintroduced into an already struggling natural system besieged by deforestation and monocultural agriculture. Anthropogenic artificial industry produces vastly more carbon dioxide than billions of human and trillions of animal respiration. Industry also produces vast amounts of carbon monoxide, methane and artificially petrochemical produced unnatural chemicals which natural life process and natural balances are unable to deal with.
The oil and gas industry since the beginning of the first industrial revolution, the petroleum based extraction and production operations. The chemical and industrial industries. Have all been allowed to become a greed based money oriented, out of control, monopolised and jealously guarded system of exploitation and control. Nature is seen only as another exploitable resource to be pillaged, ransacked and the waste discarded and dumped anywhere, for nothing more than greed and profit.
That is what has caused the accelerating anthropogenically climate change so evident now.
That also has caused the sixth major extinction event in the Earth's history and 1 in 5 deaths of humans and animals from fossil fuelsare a direct result of that insanity.
Still no replies on that from someone about the points that David King proved to be true.
The carbon cycle is only one small aspect of life on Earth. However, ignoring the entirety and complexity of the holistic integrated processes of nature which had previously been balanced and was capable of recovery when natural climate change did occur over millions of years. That natural life system and life balances are now so severely damaged and in great jeopardy they cannot deal with further excesses.
In only a few thousand nature destroying years and 250 years of industrialisation or so, the human race has destablised that vital natural systems ecological and climate balance to such an extent that nature can no longer recover sufficiently from the last two and a half centuries of rapidly increasing anthropogenic abuse. The extent to which that destruction of natural life and climate balance is now reaching even the most reluctant corners. The massive green washing of industry is now in full flood. But little if anything is actually done. Lots and lots of fine words and speeches. Nothing is actually done. Quite the opposite. The trend now is to reverse even the little which was promised.
So yet again the attempt at cherry picking one element out of context fails to take into account the entire complexity of natural life systems, animal metabolisms and the natural balanced life cycles, and failed to explain the entire inter-related processes of natural life systems.
No. Eli Goth is still wrong.
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text:
Lanie Johnson
President, Chief Executive Officer
There are two types of people in the world, those who get stuff done and those who tell you why they can't. Guess which one Lanie is? Her action-oriented mindset has driven Lanie to lead our teams to achieve many milestones at The DRG.
A big part of Lanie's job is working with the Leadership Team to lay out a roadmap for the company's future and guide the strategic planning that leads us to achieve our goals.
Lanie often uses the analogy of amplifying the consumer's voice to describe the purpose of marketing research. She believes an insight is only meaningful if it helps our clients "hear" their customers more clearly. When we can do that, we make our client's job easier. They can take the intelligence we deliver and swiftly turn it into ways to improve their customers' experiences.
As a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate, with a degree in Computer Science & Statistics, Lanie started her career at a global employee benefits consulting firm. After three years of invaluable experience and a first baby on the way, she felt the need to find a work home that would provide the kind of work-life balance she desired. The DRG was a perfect fit. The family-first work culture her father, Bob Dieringer, helped create, paired with The DRG's relentless pursuit of exceptional client service and quality, was exactly what Lanie was searching for. She started at the ground floor, programming surveys and processing data – the rest is history.
When she's not logged in at work, Lanie loves spending time with family. She and her husband were permanent fixtures in the stands at both of their two sons' basketball and baseball games, as they were growing up. These days, she loves watching college sports, biking, taking on home remodeling projects, and spending time with her husband on the beach, near their home in north-eastern Florida.
Shelley Ahrens
Chief Customer Officer, Senior Vice President
Finding answers to complex problems is Shelley's passion. It's what led her to a career in marketing research, and it's what makes her excel as a leader.
Shelley's leadership style is something like an Olympic coach. Having worked her way up through nearly every position in our Research Services group, she knows full well what it feels like to be in the heat of the race. And, like a world-class coach, she pushes her teams to reach their highest potential.
She sets uncompromising standards for quality excellence, celebrates achievements, but then challenges her teams to reach even higher the next time. As a member of our Leadership Team, Shelley works to ensure The DRG is delivering on our promise to provide our clients intelligence they can trust. She does that by asking questions, relentlessly. What essential information do our clients need in order to make smarter business decisions in less time? How will the data we collect help our clients enhance the products and services they provide to their customers? By keeping these questions at the forefront of every DRGer's mind, Shelley shows others how to always "look to the data" to find the answers needed.
When studying marketing at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Shelley instinctively recognized that marketing research was the field for her. It requires a perfect combination of logic, reason, creativity, and imagination. That just so happens to describe Shelley to a tee.
Outside the office, you may catch Shelley having fun at the dog park with her precious pups, Gomez and Eddy. She loves spending time with family, especially when she can spoil her nieces. Shelley also practices yoga, is an avid photographer, backyard gardener, and wine enthusiast. Red Zinfandel is her favorite, if you're wondering.
Ron Rawski
Chief Information Officer, Senior Vice President
Ron is someone who's always on the search for a better solution. During his tenure here, Ron has been instrumental in advancing The DRG's technology infrastructure, implementing rigid security and compliance protocols, and enhancing the capabilities of our Research Centers.
Ron is our resident champion for automation and process efficiencies. Evidence of that can be seen in every online survey, heard in every phone interview, and witnessed in every focus group conducted at The DRG. As one of the members of our Leadership Team, Ron plays an integral role in setting The DRG's growth strategy, business goals, and key directives. He leads, not by telling people what to do, but by guiding them to find new ways of doing things when unexpected challenges arise. Ron's known for his quick wit and sense of comedic timing, which comes from an innate talent for improvisation. He uses that skill to nurture a deeply collaborative work environment, where team members learn to build off of one another's contributions. That creates an atmosphere of trust, mutual respect, and leads teams to achieve together what individuals would not be able to do alone.
Ron believes the opportunities for our employees are limitless because that's been his experience here.
He became a DRGer in 2001, as an IT specialist. At the same time, he pursued his degree in Business Management at Cardinal Stritch University. Today, he sets the course for the company's technological innovations.
When he's not leading his teams to invent the future, Ron loves spending time with his wife and their two sons. On the weekends, you may pass him on the bike trails, or run into him at a vintage record store.
Nicola Riggleman
Nikki has never seen herself as a salesperson. What she is – is a relationship-builder. And she's been building relationships on behalf of The DRG since 1999.
In her role as Vice President of Business Development, Nikki focuses on her passion for nurturing one-on-one relationships with clients to help them meet their business challenges.
She's held positions of increasing responsibility in Research Services, Client Services, and Business Development at The DRG prior to being promoted to Vice President early in 2021. Nikki says the company's focus on finding the gifts and talents of team members helps employees grow, while the company benefits from promoting from within. Her career trajectory is proof of that.
As a member of The DRG's Leadership Team, Nikki focuses on developing strategic partnerships with firms that provide complementary services to strengthen and expand the company's research offerings. This is one more facet of the relationship-building Nikki puts such a value on. It's also living proof of how she's guided by The DRG's core value emphasizing that "individual excellence fuels collective success."
Nikki has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology, with a Business Minor from Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois.
Nikki's passion to see growth extends beyond The DRG. At home, she tends to her flower and vegetable gardens to help them grow. When the gardening season is over, Nikki turns to quilting as a hobby. She and her husband also serve as coaches for a youth sports team. The latest addition to Nikki's family is an English bulldog named Maggie.


and Nightmare On Elm Street and The Excorsist.
.................... . . . hi my names Tyler....yep............well for those who dont know me or care about my life(which u at least a have a little for reading this far.......right) im blank years old and live in Memphis Tennessee.....and well yep if u really want to know more about me just well....ask...but no stalkers i wont answer to u sorry......and well bye.


text:
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R.E.S.-ilience in Value Creation 《竹经:经商经世离不得立根创新》
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← Jessica Alba On Her Billion-Dollar Success: 'People Just Saw Me As A Girl In A Bikini'; The Power of Full Engagement — Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal – Bamboo Innovator Daily: 14 Jun (Sun)
YCombinator's Sam Altman reflects on long days and short decades and the 36 life lessons learnt: Tell your parents you love them more often, Be grateful and keep problems in perspective – Bamboo Innovator Daily: 15 Jun (Mon) →
Buying Furniture with Warren Buffett and Mrs. B at Asia's Wide-Moat Furniture Innovators – Bamboo Innovator Weekly Insight (Issue 87)
"Bamboo Innovators bend, not break, even in the most terrifying storm that would snap the mighty resisting oak tree. It survives, therefore it conquers."
BAMBOO LETTER UPDATE | June 15, 2015
Bamboo Innovator Insight (Issue 87)
The weekly insight is a teaser into the opportunities – and pitfalls! – in the Asian capital jungles.
Get The Moat Report Asia – a monthly in-depth presentation report of around 30-40 pages covering the business model of the company, why it has a wide moat and why the moat may continue to widen, a special section on "Inside the Leader's Mind" to understand their thinking process in building up the business, the context – why now (certain corporate or industry events or groundbreaking news), valuations (why it can compound 2-3x in the next 5 years), potential risks and how it is part of the systematic process in the Bamboo Innovator Index of 200+ companies out of 15,000+ in the Asia ex-Japan universe.
Our paid Members from North America, Europe, the Oceania and Asia include professional value investors with over $20 billion in asset under management in equities, some of the world's biggest secretive global hedge fund giants, and savvy private individual investors who are lifelong learners in the art of value investing.
Buying Furniture with Warren Buffett and Mrs. B at Asia's Wide-Moat Furniture Innovators
MUNGER: I think Warren and I can match anybody's failures in retail.
BUFFETT: Yeah, we have a really bad record, starting in 1966. We bought what we thought was a second-rate department store in Baltimore at a third-rate price, but we found out very quickly that we bought a fourth-rate department store at a third-rate price. And we failed at it, and we failed…
MUNGER: Quickly.
BUFFETT: Yeah, quickly. That's true. We failed other times in retailing. Retailing is a tough, tough business, partly because your competitors are always attempting and very frequently successfully attempting to copy anything you do that's working. And so the world keeps moving. It's hard to establish a permanent moat that your competitor can't cross. And you've seen the giants of retail…a lot of giants have been toppled.
MUNGER: Most of the giants of yesteryear are done.
BUFFETT: Nobody is going to be able to compete with the Nebraska Furniture Mart. I mean, this store does more home furnishing business than any store in the country. And what are we in, I don't know, the 50th market in the country? This store does $450 million annually… But there's no store that remotely can offer the variety. There's no store that can undersell us.
"Sell cheap and tell the truth." – Rose Blumkin (Mrs. B) of Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM)
"I'd rather wrestle grizzlies than compete with Mrs. B and her progeny." – Buffett
Buffett in the 2004 AGM: "I cost us about $10 billion. I set out to buy 100 million sharers [in Wal-Mart], pre-split, at $23. We bought a little [5 million shares] and it moved up a bit and I stopped buying. Perhaps I thought it might come back a bit – who knows? That thumb-sucking, the reluctance to pay a little more, cost us a lot."
What is the investment Achilles heel of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger? How did they overcome this weakness? Are there positive inspiring entrepreneurial stories of wide-moat innovators in Asia in this area of vulnerability and how can value investors use a framework to identify them? We will travel together to Asia to examine the success factors of an Asian wide-moat innovator who still holds the record for the longest continuous sales and profit growth – 28 straight years – of any listed company in its country and its market cap had compounded over 9-folds since 2002 to $8.5bn.
First, back to Buffett's Achilles heel, which appears to be in the "tough, tough" retail industry, from the above CNBC interview in 2014, given that it is "hard to establish a permanent moat that your competitors can't cross". Also, their biggest error of omission, as Buffett admitted during Berkshire Hathaway 2004 AGM, had been his "thumb-sucking" reluctance in investing more in Wal-Mart in the 1990s because of one-eighth of a point uptick in the stock price. Buffett's self-awareness and candor saw him making right his earlier decision in Wal-Mart by building a large position in 2005, according to SEC filings, and now owns 60.385m of its shares, at probably an average price of $51-60 as compared to the current price of $72 per share.
Thus, one of the best investment deals that Warren Buffett considered he has made was ironically in a retailer, a furniture store called Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM). NFM was founded in 1937 by the late Rose Blumkin, fondly known as "Mrs. B", a Russian immigrant to America, with $500 she had saved for 16 years selling used clothes. NFM was set up in Omaha with no locational or product advantage and goes up against rich, long-entrenched competition – and grew to become one of the top furniture retailers in the country and into the radar screen of Buffett. After several attempts to buy the business and rebuffed each time Buffett acquired 90% of NFM for $55m on his birthday on Aug 30, 1983 with a purchase proposal just over a page without the involvement of investment bankers or lawyers. Buffett didn't audit her company, nor did he check her receivables, inventory, and real estate titles. Mrs. B agreed to make a deal with Buffett at the age of 89 because, she figured, if she sold the company before she died, then her children wouldn't fight over it. After tucking in the cheque, Mrs. B reportedly said: "Mr. Buffett, we're going to put our competitors through a meat grinder." Mrs. B work ethics was phenomenal: "I come home to eat and sleep, and that's about it. I can't wait until it gets daylight so I can get back to the business." She was on the floor until retiring at 103, and died the following year in 1998, with the business well taken care of by her capable children. Today, more than 30 years later, the Omaha-based store generated more than $450m in annual sales, with Buffett proclaiming confidently that the store will become "very big" and "will do over $1 billion".
Buffett had tried to assemble a furniture empire since with the purchase of Utah-based RC Wiley in May 1995, Star Furniture in Jun 1997, Jordan's Furniture in Oct 1999, and rental furniture provider CORT Business Services Corporation in Jan 2000. But none came close to matching NFM's success. In Jun 2004, Berkshire also invested 9% In home furnishing retailer Pier 1 Imports (NYSE: PIR), an investment that did not work out. In Aug 2007, according to Bloomberg news, Buffett even mentioned about the Swedish-controlled flat-packed furniture retail innovator IKEA as a possible investment target, though the trust foundation setup at IKEA made the acquisition impossible.
Every year, when undergraduate students from 40 universities compete for a trip to Omaha to spend a day with Buffett, the Oracle would bring students to Mrs. B's store to show what can result from hard work and sheer will. Buffett has previously told reporters that he would have rather done business with Blumkin over any highly pedigreed MBA in the country. Buffett explained the success factors behind NFM: "I have been asked by a number of people just what secrets the Blumkins bring to their business. These are not very esoteric. All members of the family: (1) apply themselves with an enthusiasm and energy that would make Ben Franklin and Horatio Alger look like dropouts; (2) define with extraordinary realism their area of special competence and act decisively on all matters within it; (3) ignore even the most enticing propositions falling outside of that area of competence; and (4) unfailingly behave in a high grade manner with everyone they deal with. (Mrs. B boils it down to sell cheap and tell the truth.)" In his 2013 letter to BRK shareholders, Buffett wrote: "Aspiring business managers should look hard at the plain, but rare, attributes that produced Mrs. B's incredible success. If they absorb Mrs. B's lessons, they need none from me."
Make no mistake: NFM and IKEA are the rare exceptions. Furniture retailers face at least two critical economic hurdles and problems in building a wide moat and scaling up its business model. After all, can anyone still remember the once-mighty Heilig-Myers (HM)? HM used to the largest furniture retailer in the United States in the 1990s with over 1,000 stores nationwide – and it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Aug 17, 2000 and was also embroiled in an accounting fraud scandal.
It was distribution and delivery problems that helped bring down HM when it over-expanded nation-wide in 1993 as it buckled under the costs of operating large distribution centers and sprawling home delivery systems. Thus, the first critical problem to understanding the wisdom of Buffett beyond the usual quant screens, checklist and financial numbers when he commented why it is "hard to establish a permanent moat" in retail: Every furniture retailer hoping to go national must eventually overcome the same economic hurdle: the diminishing returns that kick in when a single distribution center can no longer serve all of a chain's stores.
The second critical problem: HM, like other furniture retailers, relied on financing customers' furniture purchases with installment loans, usually of two-year duration. Much like a financial services firm, HM provided its own debt servicing and realized revenue from the interest and fees collected from servicing the installment loans. That revenue accounted for up to one-third of profit in some years. HM lost focus in its core business improvement and dabbled in complex financing engineering transactions to boost short-term profits.
Specifically, HM transferred most of its installment sales to a trust account that issued certificates backed by the collection of the installment loans—asset-backed securities (ABS), and some were held by HM in a special-purpose entity (SPE) which were reported on its balance sheet at fair-market value despite the fact that these securities were never traded in a public market. When consumers with better credit quality began using credit cards for purchases rather than Heilig-Meyers installment loan plans, the loan plans were increasingly issued to consumers with low credit quality who defaulted and HM was awashed in toxic waste. The accounting fraud scandal was that Heilig-Meyers kept two sets of accounting books: the company was basing its loss and delinquency statistics on historical patterns rather than current data based on actual payments and collections which showed that HM was not as profitable as they wanted investors to believe. Heilig-Meyers used a "recency" accounting method rather than the standard "contractual" method, and that actual loss and delinquency rates on the contracts were in fact twice as high as stated by the company. In short, the ABS was based on the overly optimistic figures, which improperly inflated the true collateral behind them.
Thus, making and selling affordable furniture for the end customers is critical to avoid the temptations of financial engineering.
Let's examine the success factors and business model of Nitori Holdings (TSE: 9843, MV $8.5bn) who still holds the record for the longest continuous sales and profit growth – 28 straight years – of any TSE-listed company.
Nitori is the largest furniture retailer in Japan with a 15% market share with around 300 Nitori stores, 17 Deco Home and 19 overseas stores. Rivals include Shimachu (6% market share), IKEA Japan which entered Japan in 2006 (3%), Otsuka Kagu (2%), GMS (21%) and home centers (5%), department stores (4%) and small specialist mom-and-pop stores (44%). Nitori was established in 1972 by Akio Nitori in Sapporo, Hokkaido in the northern island of Japan. Hokkaido is home to a number of innovative retailers, many of which started out in the early 1990s, when the bubble economy collapsed. Nitori first listed in the Sapporo Stock Exchange in 1989, followed by the listing on TSE in 2002.
Nitori grew by…
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Nitori is also renowned for its tight quality control in which less than 1% of items sold are found to be defective, winning customer's trust. To achieve this, Nitori hired former Honda engineering specialists, many of whom are in their 60s, and gave them an engineer's paradise. Theses engineers break chairs to see why they splinter, wash pillow covers with acid to see if their colors bleed, left lightbulbs on for hours to see how hot they get.
Like the legendary Sam Walton who has a penchant for the right analysis of data, Nitori tracks a long list of data: customer traffic; the age of every store and employee; the number of quality complaints; profit and sales area per employee. To each the company assigns a target, most of which Nitori can recite from memory.
Nitori's motto is: "Our greatest pleasure if offering and achieving 'true life affluence' for our Japanese customers." Yet, like Mrs. B, many people do not know the pains and challenges that Nitori-san had to endure and overcome in order to realize this motto. Interestingly, both Mrs. B and Akio Nitori had the same life experience when they are trying to implement their low-price strategy.
For Mrs. B, Buffett wrote that when furniture manufacturers stopped selling directly to her after bigger customers in Omaha complained about her low retail prices, she travelled to Kansas City, Chicago and New York, bought from department stores and still undersold her rivals. Her competitors used fair means and foul, and after pressurising manufacturers to stop supplying her, hauled her into court charging her with violating Fair Trade laws. But "she not only won all the cases….at the end of one case she sold the judge $1,400 worth of carpet."
In the late 1960s, when Akio Nitori was just starting its business, local furniture wholesalers wielded enormous power, because it was relatively difficult to buy products in Hokkaido, primarily due to geographical and transport-related factors. If a company tried to accelerate its store launches by selling products at low prices, wholesalers would refuse to do business with it, as such firms were seen as troublemakers disrupting the status quo of the industry. For this reason, Nitori started buying products from wholesalers based in Niigata and Gunma prefectures. "But the transactions with them ended quickly, as information was passed on from the Hokkaido-based wholesalers," Nitori said.
A major life-changing event was when Akio Nitori joined the Pegasus Club in 1972, the year when Nitori was officially established. The Pegasus Club was formed in 1962 to study the US and European chain-store management system and led by distribution consultant Shunichi Atsumi. Young small-business retail executives at that time, such as Daiei's Isao Nakauchi, Aeon's Takuya Okada, and 7-Eleven/Ito-Yokaido's Masatoshi Ito, were among the initial participants. A core principle of the Pegasus Club is "thorough rejection of the current situation and always looking ahead to a better format in 10-30 years." Akio Nitori's approach of setting long-term goals and determining the right steps to achieve these goals is heavily influenced by the Pegasus Club.
The Pegasus Club organized a trip to US and Akio Nitori, 27 and the owner of two furniture stores, joined in the trip to learn more about how overseas retailers operate. Nitori spent a week in California, shopping and observing the way Americans lived. He was inspired by the insights gleaned from the US trip and was determined to achieve a "logistics revolution" to grow and scale a national chain store:
"When I visited chain stores in the United States more than 30 years ago, I was overwhelmingly impressed and marveled at the wide disparities with Japan in terms of consumer values such as low prices, merchandise selection and product quality. Creating a home that is enjoyable, relaxing, harmonious and suited to the residents' lifestyle is a well-established activity in Europe and America, and the reason is the means exist for easily purchasing, at a reasonable price, home products that can be readily coordinated. Nitori has declared its dreams of 'realization of a society where Japanese can enjoy true life affluence' and by taking the excitement, stimulation and resolve of that time as its starting point, Nitori is striving to achieve a "logistics revolution" centered on the creation of a national chain store."
Thus, to the bullying powerful local furniture wholesalers, Nitori found a solution outside the country. The company started…
Besides Nitori, another wide-moat furniture innovator that we have written earlier in Mar 2014 in the article Willingness to be Misunderstood and the Swedish Corporate Model to Scale an Asian Wide-Moat Compounder: The Story of "Korea's IKEA" Hanssem is Korea's Hanssem (009240 KS, MV $5.6bn), whose market cap had since jumped by 270%.
In the 1983 annual report, Buffett explains how, at 23, Rose talked her way past a border guard to leave Russia for America. Mrs B had no formal education and knew no English. She learnt the language from her elder daughter who taught her, every evening, the words she learnt in school during the day. Mrs. B had worked in the store at age 6, talking her way into a job as a store clerk when she was 13 and becoming manager with six men working under her three years later. When her initial resources, the $500 savings that took her 16 years to accumulate to establish NFM, ran out, she sold every appliance and piece of furniture in her home to pay off a debt.
So how can value investors identify wide-moat business models and the entrepreneurial owner-operators, like the tough Mrs. B, who run them? Buffett revealed his mental model in the quote below and in a Charlie Rose:
"One question I always ask myself in appraising a business is how I would like, assuming I had ample capital and skilled personnel, to compete with it. I'd rather wrestle grizzlies than compete with Mrs. B and her progeny. They buy brilliantly, they operate at expense ratios competitors don't even dream about, and they then pass on to their customers much of the savings. It's the ideal business—one built upon exceptional value to the customer that in turn translates into exceptional economics for its owners."
Charlie Rose: How was she able to kill them [the competition]?
Warren Buffett: She cared and she was smart. She knew her limitations of her knowledge and she was confident in the circle of her competence. She didn't get outside of it and she took care of her customers. She sold cheap and it took her a long time but she built the largest home furnishing store in the country in a town like Omaha, a town of 700,000 people. She was a remarkable woman, and Charlie, she could not read or write and I think every business school should study her.
Charlie Rose: What would they learn?
Buffett: They would learn the essence of business. They would learn that taking care of customers is what it is all about. Taking care of them. I mean by that, giving them good deals, which nobody would touch. She did and working like crazy she was there day after day. She had a passion for it. The truth is, if you took the Fortune 500 CEO's and I gave you the first draft pick on 10 of them, and I put them in competition with her; she would win.
Buffett compared her to the late Walmart founder Sam Walton:
"One thing that Sam Walton and Mrs. B had in common is they had passion for the business. It isn't about the money, at all. It was about winning. Passion counts enormously; you have to really be doing it because you love the results, rather than the money. When we buy businesses, we are looking for people that will not lose an ounce of passion for the business even after their business is sold. After all, doing business with someone who is driven by beating the competition by creating a superior company rather than simply finding ways to build a war chest is what it's all about."
In essence, Buffett's mental model beyond the numbers to identify wide-moat innovators is to sense that an entrepreneur takes care of his or her customers in a deep way and keep delivering exceptional value to them. Even if it means pains and sacrifices. Even if there are bullies. Even if it takes a long time, working crazy day-in-day-out. Even if they grow rich. All possible only because they are committed to an idea larger than themselves.
When Nitori returned from California in his life-changing trip in 1972 and inspired to carry out his "logistics revolution" to offer and achieve "true life affluence" for the Japanese customers, he did some quick calculations. It took America 120 years to develop its retail industry, and he guessed it would take him 60 years to catch up. He began crafting a six-decade plan then that he continues to refine today. With his single-minded focus on keeping prices down for customers without disappointing them on quality.
Who are your Mrs. B and Akio Nitori in Asia?
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In the month of June, we investigate the #1 ice cream and pasta maker in its domestic market in an Asian country. It is also the main supplier of buns to McDonald's in its home market. Its high-speed bun production business has expanded to serve other quick-serve restaurants, including Wendy's and KFC. The firm has nurtured a corporate culture and deep know-how in branding to establish an impressive track record in acquiring and turning small heritage brands into market leaders in different food and beverage categories. Its share price is down 37+% in the past year. This is despite resilient results announced in May. The company was incorporated in 1957 by a group of entrepreneurial families and is now led by an outstanding down-to-earth third-generation business leader.
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Kee Koon Boon ("KB") is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea's largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore's financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world's first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.
H.E.R.O. | Honorable. Exponential. Resilient. Organization
H.E.R.O. stands for "Honorable. Exponential. Resilient. Organization." and is operationalized into a unique, systematic 4-step investment process to identify the winners. The investment objective seeks to capture long-term investment returns created by disruptive forces and innovation by focusing on high-quality and liquid listed equities in the Asia-Pacific region that ride on and benefit from them. Through our cross-sector and in-depth fundamental research process, the Fund aim to provide access to companies whom we believe are run by high-integrity, honorable and far-sighted owner-operators with a higher sense of purpose in solving High-Value Problems for their target customers and society, and have unique, scalable and wide-moat business models with sustainable competitive advantages and innovative products, services, and processes to create, expand and service their total addressable market, including the resiliency and balance sheet strength to maintain or grow profitability, pricing power and market positions through up/downturns in the economy.
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CENTERED With H.E.R.O. Issue 9: Real-time A.I. Software Analysis for Breast Ultrasonography; Global Leader in Image/Video A.I. Processing Solution July 14, 2019
CENTERED With H.E.R.O. Issue 8: A.I. for People In Need, Asian IoT-SaaS Partner of Amazon's "AWS IoT Events" Worldwide Service July 6, 2019
CENTERED With H.E.R.O. Issue 7: Collaboration & Office Automation Software/AI, Asia's Leading Online Marketplace in Local Experience Tours & Activities June 30, 2019
CENTERED With H.E.R.O. Issue 6: Dassault-Medidata; Asian SaaS-AI Medical Imaging Software; "100X: Exponential Innovators in the H.E.R.O.'s Journey to Navigate the Volatile Uncertain World" June 23, 2019
CENTERED With H.E.R.O. Issue 5: Flourishing Highly-Profitable Exponential Innovators, Japan's DeepMind, Anti-Fraud AI June 16, 2019
CENTERED With H.E.R.O. Issue 4: Internal Rhythm to Create Value Amid Trade War, NICE, SettleBank, the "Power of One" June 8, 2019
Singapore's Super H.E.R.O. Roundtable: Re-imagining Value Investing in an Exponential World – VALUE 3.0 With Ever More "Value Trap" Losers & A Selected Under-the-Radar Group of Winners with Exponential Edge June 1, 2019
CENTERED With H.E.R.O. Issue 2: Resilient Amidst Trade War – Japan's AS ONE AI X RPA, Exponential Innovators Highly Impervious to Trade War Risks | 27 May May 25, 2019
CENTERED With H.E.R.O. Issue 1: Resilient Amidst Trade War – Japan's BrainPad +AI, Korea Data Leader, Oceania MedTech Disruptor | 20 May May 19, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (15 May 2019) – The Spectacular Implosion of Dr. Cho's 'Nefarious Network': Hong Kong's markets are plagued by stock manipulation, share pledging, cross-ownership and margin lending. Regulators say they're going to take action. May 15, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (14 May 2019) – How to Increase Your Personal Agency May 14, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (13 May 2019) – Gates's Law: How Progress Compounds and Why It Matter May 13, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (11 May 2019) – Secret of sensor giant Keyence's super-high margin + Japan's Google-backed AI pioneer plots a quantum leap; Analyzing retail data only scratches the surface of Abeja's ambitions May 11, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (9-10 May 2019) – The Company Behind Gore-Tex Is Coming for Your Eyeballs; W.L. Gore, the classic American innovator, is building artificial corneas, and reinventing itself in the process. May 10, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (8 May 2019) – This Little-Known Stock Nearmap Rallies 149% to Take Australia's No. 1 Spot + Robert Browning on Artistic Integrity, Withstanding Criticism, and the Courage to Create Rather Than Cater May 8, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (7 May 2019) – Word's new AI editor will improve your writing May 7, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (6 May 2019) – 'We screwed up' not buying Google shares, Berkshire's Munger says May 6, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (4 May 2019) – Reversion to the Mean Is Dead. Investors Beware. May 4, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (3 May 2019) – Buffett says Berkshire Hathaway, finally, has invested in Amazon.com, says he has been an 'idiot' not to buy into Amazon.com May 3, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (2 May 2019) – AI is already changing how cancer is diagnosed May 2, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (1 May 2019) – Microsoft, Slack, Zoom, and the SaaS Opportunity + A $4.4 Billion Accounting Error Burns Investors in China; One of China's largest listed drugmakers Kangmei Pharmaceuticals said it overstated cash holdings by $4.4 billion May 1, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (30 April 2019) – Meet Matt Calkins: Billionaire, Board Game God And Tech's Hidden Disruptor; he runs Appian which sells software to help businesses build apps more quickly; What Buddhism Taught Me About Product Management April 30, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (29 April 2019) – On the need for hardship and the longing to grow; How to reduce digital distractions: advice from medieval monks April 29, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (27 April 2019) – Amazon is reportedly building a high-fidelity music streaming service to rival Tidal April 27, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (26 April 2019) – Microsoft Surpasses $1 Trillion Valuation April 26, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (25 April 2019) – Scientists develop an AI that can turn brainwaves into speech + Why Bill and Melinda Gates wash dishes together every night April 25, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (24 April 2019) – Nearmap Partners with HNTB to Use 3-D Aerial Imagery to Win More Business Against Larger Competitors April 24, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (23 April 2019) – Nearmap doubles valuation to $1.5b in three months; Every company Disney owns: a map of Disney's worldwide assets April 23, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (22 April 2019) – Catalyzing Success: My Interview with Pioneer Founder Daniel Gross [The Knowledge Project Ep. #56] April 22, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (20 April 2019) – All shook up: Behind the rise of Atlassian, Australia's $35b tech giant; Zoom, Zoom, Zoom! The Exclusive Inside Story Of The New Billionaire Behind Tech's Hottest IPO + Memento Contendere: The Benefits of Intentionally Anticipating Our Struggles April 20, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (19 April 2019) – Refused U.S. Visa Eight Times, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan Is Now a Billionaire + To Do Your Best Work You Must Fall in Love With Hard Work April 19, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (18 April 2019) – How Setbacks Help Us Discover What We Truly Love: "The truth is, we just don't know whether we actually are in love with the process until we experience the setbacks." April 18, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (17 April 2019) – Linkbal Inc., an operator of an e-commerce portal website for matchmaking events, has offered the CoupLink online dating app since July 2016 that enables users to "get to know 1.5 million event attendees online" April 17, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (16 April 2019) – TransInfo: How China's new highway for self-driving cars will boost its AV ambitions ; You Cannot Talk About Self-Improvement Without Talking About Values April 16, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (15 April 2019) – Fully integrating AI and healthcare is closer than you think + These are Amazon's 38 rules for success April 15, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (13 April 2019) – Salesforce and Other Business-Software Companies Are in a Sweet Spot April 13, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (12 April 2019) – Lessons in Persistence From Climber Tommy Caldwell + From Broke To Billionaire: How Fred Luddy Built The World's Most Innovative Company ServiceNow April 12, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (11 April 2019) – The first research book written by an AI could lead to on-demand papers April 11, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (10 April 2019) – Why $1.5 Billion Startup Asana Ditched Email To Prove Its Own Work Management Strategy + Eric Schmidt – Lessons from a Trillion-Dollar Coach April 10, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (9 April 2019) – Subscription Is Blowing Up Aussie Traditional Models ; 76% is how much Microsoft 's cloud-computing business grew sales last year April 9, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (8 April 2019) – The technical landscape for processors and sensors for embedded computer vision applications has changed tremendously over the past five years and will continue to change dramatically over the next five years. April 8, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (6 April 2019) – Adobe's growth to be fuelled by AI + 20 Ideas That Changed My Life April 6, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (5 April 2019) – How billionaire debutant Sanjeev Bikhchandani built himself a fortune; The new-age tycoon and founder of Info Edge has earned himself a a reputation to match April 5, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (4 April 2019) – Pinduoduo burns through cash in attempt to buy future growth; E-commerce group's sales and marketing expenses to woo customers wipe out revenues April 4, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (3 April 2019) – Kudan is developing programs that enable computers to perceive real-world objects in three dimensions. They have uses in everything from driverless cars to drones and even vacuum cleaners + The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You April 3, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (2 April 2019) – No escape? Chinese VIP jail puts AI monitors in every cell 'to make prison breaks impossible'; Minority Report-style crime prevention with artificial intelligence is fast becoming reality; The Outlandish Story Of Ollie's: A $5 Billion Retail Empire That Sells Nothing Online (But Is Beating Amazon) April 2, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (1 April 2019) – How AI Is Reshaping Healthcare Data; IKEA is getting into the FaaS (Furniture as a Service) game to become the "Netflix of Furniture" April 1, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (30 March 2019) – Japan aims to produce 250,000 AI experts a year + How to Dare to Begin March 30, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (29 March 2019) – AI Powers a New Innovation Machine; How Collaborative Platforms and Ecosystems Are Changing Innovation + Ask yourself these five questions to find your best self; Finding an "alter ego" for yourself is a self-development strategy that can help you navigate the struggles that life presents with more grace and more grit. March 29, 2019
H.E.R.O.'s Journey in Tech (28 March 2019) – Would you like fries with that? McDonald's drive-throughs will start making personalised suggestions based on artificial intelligence March 28, 2019
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咬定青山不放松
咬定青山不放松,立根原在破岩中。 千磨万击还坚劲,任尔东西南北风。


For years, Yahoo! was the web darling amongst geeks and wannabe geeks. Over a year ago I waxed philosophical about the early years of the web and using my Yahoo! address as my primary addy for years. I still log onto the Yahoo! Instant Messenger every day and I've always enjoyed certain Yahoo! features like MyYahoo! and their news portal. Yahoo! was the top dog for years.
Then along came Google. Google overtook Yahoo! as the web darling amongst geeks and wannabe geeks with their awesome search and web savvy apps. Yahoo!, it seemed, was stuck in a rut. They no longer seemed to get it whereas Google did. I don't remember the last time I did a Yahoo! search for something.
Lately, Yahoo! has been resurfacing as a relevant web company. I'm reading that their search results are improving, they're about to launch a new blogging tool called Yahoo!360, they've upped their email to 1GB a'la Gmail and they just bought Flickr, the coolest online app I've ever used.
Don't call it a comeback, they've been here for years, but Yahoo! matters once again, and that's a good thing.


How do I design my own logo?
I'd love to have my own logo, but can't afford to hire a designer. Can you recommend a cheap online alternative?
Camille from SearchMann was looking for a way to set up her own logo which she could use on business cards and other print stationary and asked me for some way she could do this without going through the expense of commissioning a graphic designer. Well, it turns out that logo design isn't as hard as she thought. I found an online service called LogoYes that's a quick and extremely flexible way to play with some ideas and come up with a logo you can use. They can even take it a step further and create business cards for you with your logo. Buying the print quality files and a bunch of business cards will cost you less than $100 (around £50) and you can reuse the logo on all your print stationary and even online.
So, let's walk through how you create your logo, just so that you can see how simple the process is. (Note that the pictures below are thumbnails, you can click on them to see the step in greater detail.
Go to the LogoYes website.
The first step is to choose the type of logo you are after. You have a choice of High-tech, Bold and Flair. You should choose the type that matches the image you would like to project of your company or service, as this will then give you a selection of different images that match the type you selected.
The next step is to choose the industry you work in. This will help the wizard present you with a selection of images that match the type of work you do, and get the match as close as possible. So, go ahead and select the industry that most closely matches the field you are in.
The next step is to select a symbol for your logo. The wizard has thousands of different graphics that can be used on your logo, so this stage will help you select the one you want to use. It uses your industry and type selections to come up with an initial set, but you can always search for an image type if you are after something specific. Take your time in selecting your image as there are lots of choices to go through.
This step lets you type in your business name and an optional caption for your logo. You can type in the details and select what font you would like for each line. Don't worry too much about the formatting at this stage, just specify the text and font to use and click Next.
This is where you can let your creative juices run loose. You can now move your image and text around, change colours and perform all sorts of manipulation on the logo. You can drag, resize, rotate and flip different elements around the logo, to make it just as you would like it. Just click on the element you would like to change (text or image) and click the palette or toolbar on the right to make your changes.
Step 6 shows you a preview of what your logo will look like. If you don't like any part of it, you can go back to any part of the wizard by clicking on the step numbers at the bottom of the screen. If you're pleased with what you've done you can click on Checkout to go ahead and buy the print quality files you would need to give your printer to produce your cards. Alternatively, you can use the website to make business cards too. If you click the caption that says See your logo on matching business cards, you'll be taken down another couple of steps to create you business cards.
The website will now show you a preview of what your business cards could look like. This screen will cycle through a number of different options to show you some options that are available to you. Click on Create your matching cards in 2 easy steps.
This screen shows you a number of options for creating business cards. You are presented with a number of templates that you can use. Running your mouse over each one will zoom into that template to show you what it would look like. Take some time to go over the different options and click on the one you want to use.
The final step in creating your business card is to specify your business address, phone number and all the corresponding details. Just click on the text you want to amend and key in the correct details. It's as simple as that! You can also change fonts, alignments and point sizes to make your business card exactly the way you like it. Once you've completed this step, just click on Checkout to conclude the process and buy your business cards.
It took no time at all, and I was amazed at the flexibility the website offers when it comes to different options and selections. I told you logo design isn't that hard 😉 So go ahead, create your own logo.
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You don't have to download any software to apply your watermark and it's completely free!
Very good info for those who don't want to spend money for their branding or who need a nice free logo. Thanks for sharing this info.


text:
Q: Bluetooth controller profiles In bluetoothctl, if I run show on my default bluetooth controller, I get the following:
Controller XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
        Name: computer-name
        Alias: computer-name
        Class: 0x00010c
        Powered: yes
        Discoverable: no
        Pairable: yes
        UUID: PnP Information           (00001200-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: Generic Access Profile    (00001800-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: Generic Attribute Profile (00001801-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: A/V Remote Control        (0000110e-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: A/V Remote Control Target (0000110c-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        Modalias: usb:v1D6Bp0246d0517
        Discovering: no

Where are supported bluetooth profiles, such as A/V Remote Control, set? is that coming from the firmware of my USB bluetooth adapter or from somewhere in the bluez stack?  Can I change a config file to support a new profile?

A: I discovered that the additional bluetooth profiles can be added by the programs that offer the appropriate functionality.  So if I set up a bluetooth OBEX server on my computer, then the output of the show command of the bluetoothctl has a bunch of new lines:
Controller XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
        Name: computer-name
        Alias: computer-name
        Class: 0x10010c
        Powered: yes
        Discoverable: no
        Pairable: yes
        UUID: PnP Information           (00001200-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: Generic Access Profile    (00001800-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: Generic Attribute Profile (00001801-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: A/V Remote Control        (0000110e-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: A/V Remote Control Target (0000110c-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: Message Notification Se.. (00001133-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: Message Access Server     (00001132-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: Phonebook Access Server   (0000112f-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: IrMC Sync                 (00001104-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: OBEX File Transfer        (00001106-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: OBEX Object Push          (00001105-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: Vendor specific           (00005005-0000-1000-8000-0002ee000001)
        Modalias: usb:v1D6Bp0246d0517
        Discovering: no

The first time I set this up, I did something like the following steps (after pairing, but before connecting):
sudo killall bluetoothd
sudo bluetoothd --compat
sudo hciconfig hci0 up
bt-obex -s [/path/to/receiving/directory]

However, now I just seem to need to run the last step, which actually starts the OBEX server.  I'm not sure the other steps were even necessary now.


Two stories which seem to be constantly recurring on our TV screens and in the papers are the two E's of the Economy and the Environment. No matter how much we try to ignore them, both, in one way or another have a direct impact on our lives.
With so many money saving schemes and recycling campaigns out there, it can be difficult to keep track of what to do and wonder if what you are doing is making a difference. One way in which you can make a difference to both is by switching the type of batteries you use from disposable (Alkaline) to rechargeable (Nickel Metal Hydride – NiMH).
It would be easy to say that the benefits are obvious; Alkaline batteries have single usage whereas NiMH batteries can be recharged up to 1000 times so it is obvious that you get more use from rechargeable batteries and produce less waste at the same time. Unfortunately, it isn't that simple as with all alternative technologies there are advantages and disadvantages.
In this post, I am mostly talking about standard size batteries, AAA, AA, generally the most commonly used in the home for remote controls, game console controllers, portable speakers, digital cameras, small electronic toys etc. We can also include C and D cells used in lights, torches and larger electronic toys.
A lot of these devices have the characteristic of irregular use; e.g. a remote control sits on the arm of a chair for a long time and is then picked up to be used, a remote control car (no matter how much was wanted at Christmas and promised to be played all the time) can spend considerable periods of time in the cupboard only to be used on rare occasions. This type of usage is the major reason why Alkaline batteries are the most commonly used batteries in the UK household.
Alkaline batteries have low self-discharge, this means that the battery doesn't lose much of the energy stored in the battery when it's not being used. It is estimated that Alkaline batteries have a self discharge rate of around 2% per year, for NiMH batteries this is more like 1% per day when not in use meaning that you would need to know how charged the battery is and make sure it is charged regularly. This wouldn't be too difficult to achieve but we all know how hectic our lives are and this kind of usage isn't practical so the cost savings are outweighed by the convenience.
So next time you think of picking up a cheap packet of disposable AA batteries have a little think to yourself, it may be cheap at the till now but over time you'll hurt both your pocket and the environment.