Walking around leafy suburbs of Christchurch earlier in the week pre lockdown there were loads of people obviously packing up and leaving for their bolthole (on the peninusula? castle hill?). Burglars on bikes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosedive
Has anyone seen the Black Mirror episode about social ratings?

Worth noting that Cambridge Analytica barely exists, other than as a shell. Contracts won by CA were serviced by SCL

SCL, the parent company, seems like another from the genus giant vampire squid

http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2018/03/20/scl-a-very-british-coup/

This story has plenty of legs

Apologies for lack of clarity - I was thinking of the NZ situation. The wikipedia link from Zach above is fascinating reading. Sounds like both Labour and then National were bluffing on the referendum but then the bluff got called.

One thing I've noticed here in London: no billboards. You might see a flyer sellotaped in someone's bay window but none of the A0 plastic ones you see on every roundabout and front garden in NZ.

Greens here have been criticised for moving away from their core green issues and going all out left- maybe as a result of their experience with proportionality in Europe. Whether this wins them votes or costs them votes we'll see.

I predict outrage when a party that polls 11% (UKIP) gets 4 seats and the majors on 33% get 250+ seats. I can't see anything changing though. Someone educate me please - who was pushing for the MMP referendum? A political party, or concerned citizens?

Great story!
Declaring my interest, I'm a structural Engineer working in London.

I went to a seminar a month or two ago which I found very interesting. On the nautical side I remembered that when I was in Vietnam I had noticed the water tankers supplying all the junks in Halong Bay were all made from concrete. I didn't think much about it at the time, but the lecturer showed slides with photos almost identical to the ones I took.

On a more general construction side - mot many buildings are built in ferrocement, as the building codes for reinforced concrete all specify minimum concrete cover to the reinforcement to prevent corrosion. Ferrocement mixes have higher concentrations of cement and less larger grained aggregate, the effect being a reduction in the movement of chlorides etc through the concrete to the steel (which is essential for submerged hulls!). This means you can reduce the required cover and have a thinner section. There are also concerns about how it would hold up in a fire (the lecturer was adamant it's fine, but this goes against all we've ever been taught). Also, the amount of care required in the construction makes it generally uneconomic. The fine chicken wire layers require careful tying and you can't just mix and pour.

Having said all that, there are some very impressive buildings being constructed in ferrocement. The case study from the seminar was the roof to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre in Athens.
Hopefully this article isn't behind a paywall or geoblocked

http://www.building.co.uk/stavros-niarchos-foundation-cultural-centre-roof-athens/5062682.article