Interesting Links for 12-06-2021

[andrewducker]

Sperm DNA methylation epimutation biomarker for paternal offspring autism susceptibility

(tags:autism epigenetics genetics )

The Connecticut deli that won't let you discuss mathematics in the line

(tags:mathematics food sign viaNancyLebov )

Sea eagles at Loch Lomond for first time in 100 years

(tags:eagle nature scotland )

Human chromosomes are much heavier than they should be and nobody knows why

(tags:genetics )

Government backs call to raise legal age of marriage in England and Wales to 18

(tags:marriage age children UK )

Young people are deserting Labour for the Greens

(tags:GreenParty labour politics uk )

'Nothing is negotiable': France threatens to veto any changes to Brexit deal

(tags:France UK Europe Doom )

Reflections on an Irish Wake

(tags:death Ireland emotion video viaSwampers )

Keep out or be fined: Edinburgh city centre ban on older vehicles

(tags:transport cars pollution Edinburgh Scotland )

Comments

[mtbc]

It annoys me that these British bans' wont is to use the blunt instrument of registration year as proxy for how polluting it is. E.g., they mention 2006 being the cutoff for petrol cars, when I had a 2004 petrol car (here in the US) it was classified as a low-emissions vehicle in California and had three catalytic converters in the path. With these laws it's disappointing there isn't some easier way to account for that vehicles from the same year vary considerably. I hope they've at least finally started rating light brightness by, er, brightness, rather than input power.

[andrewducker]

Yes, it would be nice if you could get a certificate which would override the year of registration.

[original_aj]

If they are using numberplate recognition it would require a database of exemptions which is up to date. If it's just year of registration I expect they can run that through the existing DVLA database.

[andrewducker]

So the front end will need to make two queries:
1) Query DVLA, see if it comes back as possibly not allowed.
2) If so, query a table and see if the registration number is on the "actually it's okay" list.

I can't see this being that big a deal for any semi-competent IT department.

[original_aj]

True, but that requires them to build, integrate and maintain a database of exemptions locally which will hugely increase the costs and difficulties in dealing with errors. Querying DVLA is much easier and does not require a locally maintained database. Also, it's unlikely that the council has the in house capacity to develop the IT so it'll be being outsourced and the semi-competent bit is therefore unlikely.

The number of people who would benefit from an exemption is relatively low compared to teh administrative cost of implementing one, so it's not likely to be politically worthwhile as they would loose more popularity for the extra expenditure than they would from the people with old but low emmissions vehicles.

[andrewducker]

The diesel cars will be 7 years old at that point. That seems remarkably recent to assume that numbers will be *that* low.

(Context here is multiple people on my friends list complaining about being affected by this. I may be an outlier here, of course.)

Germany is also managing this by adding information to the registration details of cars, so that particulate filters can be added to make cars "safe".

https://www.berlin.de/sen/uvk/en/environment/low-emission-zone/vehicle-sticker/

[original_aj]

There's a big difference between what could be done if DVLA was doing this nationally and what Edinburgh council can achieve. If there were reliable emisiions measurements from MOTs and these were linked into a national database by DVLA it would be possible to do a straightforward vehicle by vehicle system. What is proposed is not ideal but it is possible and better than doing nothing.