Mathematician, inventor, and friend of Marie Curie, Hertha Ayrton was an outspoken advocate for women's rights in science and in the voting booth. Her Ayrton fan dispelled toxic fumes from WWI trenches, and her research on London's lamp functioning landed her the first Hughes Medal awarded to a woman. Although her inventions impressed her peers and saved the lives of soldiers, few of her colleagues supported her efforts for women's equality during her lifetime.

The daughter of a Polish watchmaker, Hertha was born in 1854 as Phoebe Sarah Marks. She had a natural gift for tinkering, which won her the family nickname Beautiful Genius. When she was just seven, her father died and left her mother in poverty with eight young children. Still, her mother recognized Herthas intellectual talents and so, when an opportunity arose for Hertha to go to London and live with her aunt who ran a school, her mother allowed her to go. She studied mathematics, Latin, French and music until, when she was 16, she was obliged to start working as a live-in governess to send money home to her family in Portsea.

A sphygmograph

It was during this time at a womens suffrage meeting that Hertha met Madame Barbara Bodichon, a prominent educationalist, artist and the founder of the Girton College for women at Cambridge.Bodichon helped Hertha enter Girton to study mathematics. It was alsoaround this time that she acquired the nickname "Hertha" from an Algernon Swinburne poem.While a student at the college, and with Bodichons help, Hertha filed patents for several inventions, including a line divider that could be used by artists and designers to divide lines in equal parts or scale up drawings, and a sphygmograph that could record a person'spulse. Hertha would file 26 different patents in her life, striving to carve out a record of womens accomplishments that others could follow.

More lives than a cat

After finishing college,Hertha took a job teaching mathematics. Shealsoenrolled in night classes at Finsbury Technical College and, the following year, married her electrical engineering professor, William Ayrton. Hewould become her collaborator and a champion of her scientific pursuits.

Portrait of Hertha Ayrton by her cousin Hlna Arsne Darmesteter

Via Wikimedia

William admired his wifes talents, remarking to a friend that you and I are able people, but Hertha is a genius. In defiance of the conventions of the time and to some of his colleagues disapproval, William supported his wifes scientific pursuits, even setting up a laboratory for her in the top floor of their house. Though the couple shared many intellectual interests, William was careful not to collaborate with Hertha on some of her projects to ensure that she was not robbed of the credit for her work.

Nevertheless, Hertha struggled throughout her life to receive recognition for her own achievements, once stating that errors are notoriously hard to kill, but an error that ascribes to a man what was actually the work of a woman has more lives than a cat.

The electric arc

In 1893, Hertha took over a project from William investigating the cause of an irritating hissing noise coming from the electric arc, which powered lamps in London at the time. The lamps consisted of two carbon rods with a charge running between them that produced an arc of light in the space between the rods. Hertha was the first to figure out that this loud hissing was due to the oxidation of the carbon electrodes. If you simply enclosed the whole contraption in a bulb so that it was not exposed to open air, the hissing stopped.

An electric arc forms between these two wires when a current jumps between them, creating light that used to be used in lamps in London during Hertha Ayrton's time. She figured out how to reduce the hissing noise caused by oxidation of the carbon rods

Khimich Alex via Wikimedia

Herthas remarkable work on the electric arc won the attention and admiration of contemporary scientists. She was thefirst woman invited to give a paper at the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1899 and became the first woman elected to membership of that Institution. She spoke about her findings at the International Congress of Women in London and at the Electrical Congress in Paris. Her appearances convinced the British Association for the Advancement of Science to include women on scientific committees.

But even with all this success, she still faced barriers. In 1901, her paper on the electric arc was presented to the Royal Society by a man standing in for her, since women were not allowed admission. In 1902, her name was put forth for admission to the RoyalSociety but was rejected by a majority of votes because, simply, they were of the opinion that married women are not eligible as fellows of the Royal Society.

This decision held even after, in 1906, Hertha became the first woman and only the second woman to date to be awarded the Hughes Medal for outstanding research in the field of energy.

A friendship forged in rejection

Being refused admission to a prestigiousscientific societyput Hertha in good company. During the same time period, Marie Curie was refused admission to the Academie des Sciences, even though she had already won a Nobel Prize in Physics and was about to win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. When Curie was nominated for membership in the Academie in Nature, Hertha wrote a letter to the members on Marie Curies behalf requesting equality of treatment of intellectual work without regard to the sex of the workers.

Bonded byrejection and by being physicists who were also widows of physicists (William Ayrton died in 1908), the two women formed a fast friendship and spent summers together with their children on the Hampshire coast. Hertha reportedly even got Marie Curie to join the womens suffrage movement and sign the international petition to free British suffragists imprisoned and on hunger strike in 1912.

Making waves

These trips to the Hampshire coast inspired Herthas next major project, on ripple movements in sand and water. She became interested in the dynamics ofthe rippled appearances of sand on the beach. Her 1910 paper on the subject, The Origin and Growth of Ripple-Mark, was published by the Royal Society, though they still did not accept her as a member. The paper, while credited to her, is listed as having been Communicated by the late Prof. W. E. Ayrton. Even after death, men were given credit for womens work.

A figure from Hertha Ayrton's published paper "The Origin and Growth of Ripple-Mark" shows how waves create ripples in the sand. She later used this research to design a handheld fan that would expel poisonous gas from war trenches

Via Wikimedia

Hertha later developed this line of work into her invention of the Ayrton fan, which used the principles of wave motion to expel poisonous gas from war trenches. The use of chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas as weapons was becoming common in warfare during the early days of WWI. Herthas fan was dismissed at first but, after proving useful, the war effort finally manufactured 104,000 Ayrton fans and distributed them to the men fighting in the trenches. Hertha spent the rest of her days building upon this wave theory to devise strategies of clearing noxious gasses out of mines and sewers.

The fight for women

At the same time that Herthas house served as an active laboratory, it was also a centre for suffragist endeavor. She joined the Womens Social and Political Union in 1906 and participated in marches and demonstrations with her daughter, Barbara. She was attacked by a police officer while marching to Downing Street with suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst. In 1913, Hertha took in women who had been on hunger strike in prison and nursed them back to health.

In 1914, Hertha doubled down on her support of the suffrage movement. She donated part of an inheritance from mentor Barbara Bodichon, 100 pounds,the equivalent of 11,625 in 2019, to form the United Suffragists, which included both men and women. Hertha became the vice president and her daughter, Barbara, the secretary of the organization.

Herthas support of women was not limited to the suffrage movement. In addition to supporting the scientific endeavors of her friend, Marie Curie, Hertha was also an outspoken voice for the rights of women in science. According to her 1923 obituary, It was her opinion that women were naturally inventive and original, and that these qualities, joined to the capacity for patient work that is universally allowed to be theirs, especially fitted them for scientific work. She fought for this principle every day of her life.

And as her obituary writer also noted, she was a good woman, despite of her being tinged with the scientific afflatus.

More:
Meet Hertha Ayrton, the mathematician who cleared WW1 trenches of poisonous gas - Massive Science

Eyebrow-raising finds are a constant for Shuswap home inspector Brad Campbell in old homes and new.

Born and raised in Salmon Arm, the certified master home inspector and owner of Where the Heart Is Home Inspection has been rooting through crawlspaces and scrutinizing attics since 2010. Over that time, hes come across a variety of things that have puzzled or perturbed himself and homeowners.

Theres a lot of things that are found, and when I point it out we scratch our heads. We cant figure out why somebody did something, said Campbell, who has been gathering photos of these finds that hell be assembling for a gallery on his Facebook page. Among them are numerous images of improper venting, wood rot due to leaks, insects and other causes, dangerous wiring and more.

One of the photos, taken in the attic of a 20-year-old home, shows a dark, mouldy roof, caused by 20 years of improperly vented septic gas.

The attic was full of black and white mould and rot, said Campbell.

With the inspection of 1960s home, recent renovations of the living space didnt address more serious concerns along the homes foundation.

I drove up and I saw this garden built in along the outside wall on the side of the house It was one of these red brick gardens up against a red brick wall, and I thought OK, Im going to have to have a look at this when I go under the house, said Campbell who, once in the crawlspace, discovered alarming dry rot.

Read more: Building inspector urges renovators to get permits

Read more: Despite COVID-19, construction of single family homes in Salmon Arm outdoing 2019 numbers

The structure underneath the floor holding the walls up on the foundation was all dry rot, said Campbell. And I know the homeowners knew this because they had pulled up the old rotten plywood in the kitchen and dining room and put in new plywood

New homes can also come with their share of surprises.

Campbell said he inspected a new double-wide modular home on a permanent foundation and found numerous head-scratchers. Among them: an installed but not yet assembled furnace, windows in need of wells beneath a deck that wasnt where it should have been, an unprotected gas meter on a wall in the driveway (a safety concern for the whole neighbourhood, said Campbell), and bathroom, dryer and kitchen exhaust being vented into the garage.

These finds had Campbell concerned for the neighbouring homes of similar build.

I learned that none of the 30 homes except for this one had a home inspection on it before people moved in, said Campbell, noting people often buy new homes and assume theyll be just fine.

Dead animals and living insects are also common finds during home inspections.

Squirrels, birds Ive found a wasp nest the size of like an exercise ball in an attic, said Campbell, who has also come across his share of dead cats in crawlspaces.

When people advertise theyve lost their cat, they dont know where their cat has gone, the first thing that comes to mind for me to recommend to people is check your crawl space and ask your neighbours to check their crawl space, especially if its a mobile home park, said Campbell.

B.C. and Alberta are the only provinces in Canada in which home inspection is regulated. In B.C., home inspectors are licensed by Consumer Protection BC.

Still, when choosing a home inspector, Campbell said its important to do some research. He advised checking an home inspectors online reviews.

Like hiring a tradesman, there are some good ones and some not so good ones, said Campbell. You kind of have to do your due diligence.

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From mouldy attics to giant wasp nests, Shuswap home inspector shares surprising finds - Pentiction Western News

Negative test results for COVID-19 led to a bizarre incident at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital earlier this week, with the family of a deceased patient informed by hospital authorities that he was alive just hours after they had performed his cremation.

Devrambhai Bhisikar had been admitted to the COVID-19 isolation ward of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital on May 28 with fever, cough and breathlessness, all symptoms of COVID-19.

Also read: Coronavirus | Model State Gujarat under great strain

He died the following day before the results of his samples came from the laboratory and hence, as per protocol for suspected COVID-19 cases, his body was wrapped in PPE and handed over to the family. They cremated soon after as per instructions of the hospital authorities, with only two persons allowed in the ambulance carrying the body.

He died on May 29 and the hospital handed over his body, which was completely wrapped and out of fear of the infection, we did not open the cover to see his face also, said Nilesh Nikte, son-in-law of the deceased.

Just two of us myself and my wifes cousin cremated the body and we reached home walking all the way from Vadaj crematorium to Viratnagar and in the morning we were informed that he was alive, a distraught Mr. Nikte told The Hindu.

When we returned home, we received multiple phone calls from the hospital in the early morning on May 30 that the corona report of Devrambhai had tested negative and he could be shifted to the general ward. We were shocked and speechless, he recalled.

When we rushed to the hospital, the doctor informed us that it was a mistake of the control room person, who informed us that Devrambhai was alive based on his negative test results, he said, narrating the horrific experience the family went through.

After the incident was widely reported in the local media, the hospital issued a clarification.

It was mistake of the [control room] person, who informed the relative without checking patients status and asked them to facilitate shifting of patient on basis of negative report for COVID-19 test, the hospital said in a statement.

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A customer looks at the menu of the citys newest food truck, Vital Seen, started by former Brasserie du Soleil and Circa 1922 chef Tripp Engel. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

WILMINGTON Long gone are the weeks when Tripp Engel was working overtime in Wilmingtons upscale restaurant scene. Now hes doing his own thing, serving Rastafarian vegan food from the citys newest food truck, Vital Seen.

Inspired by the food diet known as Ital, which uses purely natural ingredients to enhance ones livity, or life energy, Engels menu reflects a Rastafarian philosophy influenced by Jamaican, Ethiopian, Egyptian, and Indian food cultures.

I wanted it to be healthy and tasty, and I didnt want it to be a vegan truck thats trying to create meat substitutes. I didnt want to have fishless fish tacos or meatless meatloaf, he said.

RELATED: Leland local favorite Bridgewater Wines announce second location in Porters Neck

Engel, an executive chef for Brasserie du Soleil for 12 years, got his first kitchen job in the late eighties when he was 14 years old illegally, he noted for a sandwich shop on Long Beach in Oak Island.

I got paid under the table, four bucks an hour, cash, he recalled.

After years spent moving up the ladder in the restaurant world, Engel became a line cook at downtown Wilmingtons Circa 1922 restaurant in the spring of 2005. He then began spearheading the creation of Brasserie, and after opening the new restaurant within the year, he led the kitchen there for over a decade.

In 2016 he became the executive chef at Circa 1922 at the time, both were owned by the Circa Restaurant Group then called it quits in the summer of 2019.

I just got to the point in my life where, number one, I was ready to get out of the restaurant environment, Engel said. I didnt like the stress.

Although he had learned a great deal during his career, and had loved it for a time, he said it was time to cook the food he actually wanted to cook for less privileged customers. And he wanted to take better care of himself with the arrival of a baby; many colleagues over the years had developed health issues due to the demanding nature and fast-paced culture of the restaurant world, he said.

When Engel decided to start his own food truck business, he researched different truck options for months, even traveling to a food truck manufacturer in Virginia before he heard about a retired truck sitting in a repair shop in Castle Hayne. It took a year, he said, to install the electrical wiring, plumbing, walls, and kitchen equipment all with the counsel of Catch the Food Truck Chef Keith Rhodes before getting it up to code for the county food inspections department.

Tim Armstrong, on his way to the beach from New Jersey, orders what he would later say is the best drink hes ever tasted. Called agua de Jamaica throughout South America, and sorrel in Jamaica itself, its made from dried hibiscus flowers. (Port City Daily photos/Mark Darrough)

His menu is simple, just like his newfound goal with the food he serves no longer to tables covered in white cloth but from a window to guys like Tim Armstrong, in town from New Jersey.

Alkaline is the objective. No acid. Starch brings acid, Engel told Armstrong, who said he was lured in by the trucks logo next to the order window: a circle outlined in red, yellow and green, resembling the flag of Ethiopia, with the words, Roots, Garden, Food above a cluster of palm trees.

[The food philosophy] comes from the word Ital, which means pure and natural from the earth. Thats what the Rastafarian diet is. If it doesnt come from Mother Earth, you dont eat it, Engel explained.

The alkaline diet, he said, originates from a belief that acidic foods can affect the overall acidity of the body proponents of the diet say that lower pH levels help and treat and prevent diseases which is why he tries to avoid starches like sweet potatoes and French fries.

The menu includes Okra Chaat (Indian influence), Falafel Bowl (Egyptian), Quinoa Tabbouleh (Lebanon and Syria), and Mujaddara (an old Arab dish consisting of lentils and rice covered in sauted onions). While developing his food concept, he said he was particularly intrigued by a theory that the Egyptians began making falafels hundreds of years before other Arab nations began cooking their own versions of the deep-fried balls of chickpeas and fava beans.

Armstrong, who was heading to Wrightsville Beach when he pulled over at the parking lot of the Triangle Lounge to try the food, was particularly excited about a drink known throughout South America as agua de Jamaica. A dark purple, it is made from infusing dried hibiscus flowers.

It has a sweet flavor to it but isnt so overpowering, Armstrong said, reggae music playing overhead. Its got a little bit of a bitter taste to it as well, and they complement each other. Honestly its like nothing Ive ever had before. Its a little hard to describe: Its so refreshing and I want another one.

Five minutes later, Armstrong returned to the window and ordered another drink before heading to the beach.

Catch the truck this weekend. On Friday (11 a.m. 1:20 p.m.) it will be parked at the Eagle Island Seafood shop off U.S. 421 just over a mile north of the Isabel Holmes Bridge (2500 US 421). On Saturday (1 6 p.m.), it will be again parked in front of the Triangle Lounge (5920 Wrightsville Avenue).

Send tips and comments about Wilmingtons food and beer scene to the reporter at Mark@Localvoicemedia.com, @markdarrough on Twitter, and (970) 413-3815

Read more here:
Wilmington chef hits the road with new 'Rasta-vegan' food truck, Vital Seen - Port City Daily

Express News Service

DODDAMANNINA GUDDE (RAMANAGARA): For 14 long years, over 1,400 applicants under an affordable housing scheme, have hung on to hope that one day, a house will finally be theirs. But just like their dreams, the houses too now seem to be crumbling.

In 2006, the then Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had launched a project to construct affordable houses for the poor in his Assembly constituency Ramanagara. As many as 240 flats were constructed and 1,430 people, who were identified as beneficiaries, even paid up the initial amount of Rs 5,100. The cost of each unit was fixed at Rs 1.35 lakh. While SC and ST beneficiaries were required to pay Rs 13,500, the General category allottees had to pay Rs 15,000.

The eight-acre project site at Doddamannina Gudde in Ramanagara, is about 1 km from the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway, close to Janapada Loka, where 240 one-BHK flats have been constructed. There are 30 blocks with each having eight houses (ground plus two floors). The 20x20 sq ft flats/houses have a living room, bedroom, kitchen and toilet-cum-bathroom. The connecting road too is well-asphalted and has streetlights.

The vacant houses now have broken windows, doors and commodes, with cracks in the walls, peeling roofs, electric wires cut and are filled with dust. The sumps for storing water do not have lids as they were stolen by miscreants. Locals also say that the project site has become a den for anti-socialactivities.

Allottees to be picked through lottery

Manyanti-social activities take place here now. Its scary to come here, specially during night. Many people come here to drink and heaps of bottles can be seen inside the rooms, Manjunath, who hails from a nearby village, told TNIE. When Kumaraswamy was CM, the then government directed the Revenue Department to construct the houses, which, in turn, entrusted the work to the Karnataka Slum Development Board.

The Board constructed the houses and thats when the Forest Department came up and said the land belongs to them. Since then, any further construction has been halted. Only a few months ago, the Revenue Department decided to provide alternate land nearby to the Forest Department, said a official source. Slum Development Board officials said that since there are more than 1,400 applicants and only 240 houses, the final allottees will be picked through lottery.

This has to be done under the chairmanship of local MLA Anitha Kumaraswamy. When asked if the initial deposit will be returned to those who are not picked in the lottery, official sources said that houses are being constructed under other schemes and those left out will be allotted houses elsewhere.

Read more from the original source:
14 years on, crushed dreams, cracked houses - The New Indian Express

Issued on: 05/06/2020 - 22:54

Washington (AFP)

US President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to slash the number of troops it maintains in Germany by more than a quarter in the coming months, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The newspaper said the Defense Department would cut the number of military personnel by 9,500 from the current 34,500 permanently assigned to Germany postings.

The Journal also said a cap of 25,000 would be set on how many US troops could be inside German at any one time, whether in permanent postings or temporary rotations, half of the current allowance.

The move would significantly reduce the US commitment to European defense under the NATO umbrella, though it could also impact Pentagon operations related to Africa and the Middle East.

White House and Pentagon officials declined to confirm or deny the story, which comes amid tensions between the Trump administration and European allies over longstanding cooperation agreements.

Washington in particular does not think Germany spends enough for its own defense.

John Ullyot, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement that as commander in chief, Trump is always reassessing the presence of US forces overseas.

"The United States remains committed to working with our strong ally Germany to ensure our mutual defense, as well as on many other important issues," Ullyot said.

2020 AFP

Read more:
US planning to slash troops in Germany: report - RFI

Our worst-case scenario for a 20% decline in prices and those of others seeing 30% plus falls are unlikely thanks to support measures and the earlier reopening of the economy. To get these worst-case scenarios would require a second wave of coronavirus cases & so a renewed shutdown or another down leg in the economy in response to a surge in bankruptcies.

However, further falls in prices are still likely, as true unemployment (to become clear after September) remains high for several years, government support measures and the bank payment holiday end after September, immigration falls and likely government measures boost housing construction. Our base case is for national average prices to fall around 5-10% into next year. Sydney & Melbourne are likely to see 10% falls as they are more exposed to immigration and have higher debt levels whereas Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth & Hobart are only likely to see small falls and Canberra prices are likely to be flat.

This may be seen as a reasonable outcome in terms of making housing more affordable but without posing a big threat to the economy (via a downwards spiral of falling prices and negative wealth effects on consumer spending) at the same time.

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Excerpt from:
Australian house prices starting to fall - collapse likely averted but expect more weakness ahead - Livewire Markets

Kottayam: The Kerala Police suspect the role of a quotation gang in the murder of a 55-year-old woman, Sheeba Salih, at Thazhathangady in Kottayam district.

Sheeba, 55, was found dead at her house, Shani Manzil, at Parappadath in Thazhathangadi on Monday morning, while her husband, Mohammad Salih, was found unconscious nearby with assault wounds.

The police have found that Sheeba and her husband had financial dealings with several people. It is suspected that a dispute over the financial deal had led to the murder.

The investigation points fingers at a gang, based out of Thazhathangady, and involved in financial dealings.

It was also suspected that the assailants had not plotted the murder. Instead their objective was to extort money from the couple.

The cops reached this conclusion as the assailants had not used lethal weapons to attack the couple. However, when the dispute escalated, the assailants were provoked to attack the couple using the tea table in the room. Though electric wires were tied around the victims' bodies, there was no proof of them being electrocuted.

Attacked & tied up

The assailants had first hit Sheeba and then attacked Salih. Both of them were tied up using electric wires and the assailants ransacked the house. They then left the gas cylinder open. They exited the house through the back door and fled the house in the couple's car. Sheeba's relatives said that the gold bangles, chain and earrings worn by her, and the ornaments stored in the cupboard were missing.

As the victims had suffered grievous injuries, the police suspect that the assailants have a criminal background, or have a history of substance abuse or mental illness.

It is also suspected that the car and gold ornaments were stolen to make it appear as a case of burglary and mislead the investigation.

Meanwhile, the police have found CCTV images of a person, suspected to be the culprit, fleeing in a car from the crime scene. Though images of the car as it passed through Kumarakom and Vechoor were found, the car is yet to be traced. The police have also received information that their car was taken to Kochi, based on CCTV visuals. The probe team hopes to the nab the culprits within two days.

The police, however, suspect the involvement of more than one person as it is unlikely that a lone individual can attack two people in the house and tie them up.

The police are probing the three possible angles of personal enmity, dispute over financial dealings and burglary in the blood-chilling incident.

The heinous manner in which the couple were attacked prompted the police to suspect that the culprits harboured enmity against them. The police team is also checking whether the assailants planned to set the house on fire, by leaving the gas cylinder open.

The police also found blood-stained gloves from the house. Following the scent of the blood-stained glove, the police sniffer dog had run up to near the Arupuzha bridge on Kottayam Road, which is 1km away.

The police recorded the statements of some people who frequently interacted with the couple on Tuesday.

The case is probed by a 13-member team led by DySP R Sreekumar. DIG Kaliraj Mahesh Kumar and district police chief G Jayadev are also following-up on the investigation.

Autopsy findings

The post-mortem report has said that Sheeba had died of head injuries. Her skull was fractured in the impact of the attack, leading to haemorrhage. Several wounds were also found on the body. The autopsy also found signs of assault.

Though live electric wires were found on the bodies, the post-mortem report does not say that Sheeba was electrocuted. However, the body parts will be sent to the forensic lab in Thiruvananthapuram for more tests.

Police surgeon Dr Ranju Raveendran, who is also the Kottayam Medical College forensic department chief, carried out the post-mortem.

Sheebas husband continues to be in a critical condition at the Kottayam Medical College Hospital. The 65-year-old had undergone a surgery at the hospital.

Sheeba's funeral was held at the Taj Juma Masjid in Kottayam on Tuesday evening. Her daughter Shani and her husband, who are in Muscat, watched the funeral proceedings through a video call.

See original here:
Quotation gang behind Kottayam womans murder? - Onmanorama

The plants and saplings I used to care for on our roof are gone. For a week, we had no electricity. We saw the rescuers work day and night though. They said it was too risky to restart supply as a lot of the areas were still submerged and there were torn wires lying all around, she says.

Indrani Roy Mitra Joint Managing Director Mitra and Ghosh Publishers, Kolkata

Ascion of the family that owns one of Bengals biggest book publishing companies with sales of several Crores of Rupees every year, she was working with an international NGO at Gopalpur On Sea in Odisha when the supercyclone struck in 1999.

I have now seen two of the worst ones but this one was definitely the strongest. I have never been so afraid in my life. All of us were huddled in one room in our 100-year-old house. It was like apocalypse. Somehow, our old structure held out, whereas I saw the balcony of a modern apartment in my area collapse. Fortunately, my house had power too though just six houses apart, the neighbourhood did not have any power for over three days.

She was heartbroken though when she finally visited her office in the historic Boi Para (The Books Neighbourhood), the largest book market in the world where thousands throng the length of Kolkatas College Street.

There was waist-high water and the 500 second hand book sellers had lost everything. Their stalls were lying strewn all over the main road, pages wet and tattered. Giant trees had been felled. The College Street like you knew it once has vanished, she says, choking on her own words.

The rest is here:
First person accounts of the devastation by super cyclone Amphan - National Herald

The deal to sell Peterboroughs electricity distribution system to Hydro One is set to close on Aug. 4, states a new city staff report and now city councillors have four new proposals to evaluate as they mull how to use the proceeds.

Councillors had previously considered banking the proceeds in a Toronto investment firm or backing its own renewable energy company, but now they can also think about four new ideas: creating a home energy retrofit program, creating a trust to support renewable energy projects, investing in a local bank or creating a stream of grants for local charities.

City council approved the sale of Peterborough Distribution Inc. (PDI) more than three years ago after a contentious debate. The deal was finalized in the summer of 2018 and approval from the Ontario Energy Board came in April.

PDI is the wires and poles distribution arm of Peterborough Utilities Inc., which will continue to exist as a power generation company.

The agreement to sell PDI to Hydro One includes the wires, poles and transformers of Peterborough Utilities, which delivers electricity to 37,000 customers in Peterborough, Lakefield and Norwood.

Although the sale price is $105 million, the city is expecting to receive somewhere between $50 million and $55 million once fees and debate are paid.

In a virtual meeting on Monday, councillors will discuss the idea of striking a new group made up of city staff plus three councillors (Andrew Beamer, Gary Baldwin and Dean Pappas) to review all options for use of the sale proceeds and make recommendations to council later.

Councillors will also vote Monday on a staff recommendation to invest 100 per cent of the sale proceeds and spend only the returns from the investment.

At a meeting earlier this year at City Hall, councillors heard two detailed pitches: one to place the money in a bank portfolio with the Toronto non-profit One Investment and the other to invest instead in renewable hydro and solar generation facilities of the municipally owned City of Peterborough Holdings Inc. (CoPHI) in a plan that would return dividends to the city.

But now the city has received four new proposals that merit consideration, states the staff.

Those new proposals include:

Alan Slavin, climate activist and physicist, suggests investing the sale proceeds but using the interest as homeowner loans for energy retrofits.

Fred Irwin, founding director of Transition Town Peterborough, suggests the creation of a trust fund to ensure theres money available to maximize local renewable power generation in the future.

George Ripoll, investment adviser at BMO Nesbitt Burns, suggests investing through a local bank with a Peterborough-based adviser rather than going with the Toronto-based non-profit ONE Investments.

The Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough suggests banking most of the sale proceeds but setting aside at least 20 per cent or $10 million for a new fund, with interest disbursed as grants for charities.

Although the sale closes Aug. 4, the report states that council may not have settled yet on a final plan by then and if thats the case, the money would be placed in a short-term investment.

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PDI is a branch of Peterborough Utilities Inc., which was founded 105 years ago.

The previous councils decision to sell it wasnt popular with some residents who said at public meetings they didnt want the city to lose control of the asset because electricity rates could increase over time.

But CoPHI, which governs PDI, had advised council at the time that replacement of PDIs aging infrastructure would cost so much it would soon threaten the distribution systems viability and so the city was better off to sell.

joelle.kovach@peterboroughdaily.com

Read more:
Deal to sell Peterborough Distribution Inc. to Hydro One closing in August - ThePeterboroughExaminer.com