The Economist: Lexington columnist bids farewell -some parting thoughts on American politics

From The Economist - Lexington - Our columnist bids farewell - After five years, which included reporting trips to 46 states, this Lexington offers some parting thoughts on American politics

EU vetoes on Balkan integration - Opinion Piece

Edmund Ekrem Krasniqi - "Time to end EU vetoes on Balkan integration", Opinion Piece, EU Observer - Edmund Ekrem Krasniqi is a Kosovar journalist:

"The key to unlocking EU integration in the Western Balkans lies in the EU treaty - abolition of the unanimity rule on enlargement...In the current treaty, all major steps in the enlargement process are subject to 28 potential vetoes. That means that none of the six Balkan EU hopefuls will become members on the visible horizon, not due to lack of reform, but due to political deadlocks".

See also:


Russia's Bosnia Gambit, Intrigue in the Balkans, Jasmin Mujanovic, Foreign Affairs


A new Cold War? The Baltics; Deutsche Welle - "NATO is conducting military drills to prepare for a potential Russian invasion of the Baltics. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told DW the military alliance was increasing its presence in response to a growing threat from Russia".

The Internet Archive; Digitized Books; Dissemination of Knowledge

About The Internet Archive

https://archive.org/about/

11 million books and texts - "Not everyone has access to a public or academic library with a good collection, so to provide universal access we need to provide digital versions of books. We began a program to digitize books in 2005 and today we scan 1,000 books per day in 28 locations around the world. Books published prior to 1923 are available for download".

Building Libraries Together

"The Internet Archive is one of the world's largest public digital libraries, with an extensive collection of human culture: 2 million books, 430 billion Web pages, 3 million hours of television and more. However, the archive's users upload only a small percentage of these materials and to preserve the world's knowledge the public should be encouraged to contribute. The archive is embarking on a project to make the archive.org site more community-driven by improving the tools that allow people to upload, describe and organize items. With these new tools, the Internet Archive hopes to democratize knowledge by giving global communities the ability to save, manage and share their cultural treasures for free. What Wikimedia did for encyclopedia articles, the Internet Archive hopes to do for collections of media: give people the tools to build library collections together and make them accessible to everyone".

A tremendous service!

Drinking water, plastic microfibres

From Euronews - World's drinking water contaminated with plastic fibres, study finds

A new investigation has discovered the presence of microfibres in tap water worldwide.

Old Came Rectory, Former Home of William Barnes (Country Life)

From Country Life - A sprawling Dorset cottage for sale where Thomas Hardy met his inspirational mentor  -  with photographs.

"The outside space, meanwhile, is an absolute joy to behold. There are superb, professionally landscaped walled gardens with delightful shrubs and flowers throughout – you can almost imagine Barnes and Hardy wandering through the space as they discuss the world".

More details and 40 photos

Dorset Health Care, Ambulance Journey Time Report

An independent report by ambulance service reveals operational impact of Dorset healthcare shake-up - Dorset Echo

"A major healthcare shake-up would mean longer journey times for more patients than those who would have their journey time reduced. This is the findings of a new independent report carried out by the South West Ambulance Service Trust (SWAST)".

Other problems:

South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, Inspection, from Care Quality Commission

Full Commission Quality Report (pdf)

The provider must:

Ensure staff have further performance observation and support to ensure the needs of callers are correctly responded to.

Reduce risks to callers by improving delays in call abandonment, initial answering of calls, warm transfer and returning calls by a clinician.

The NHS 111 service provided by South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust rating remains inadequate until a full comprehensive inspection of the Trusts NHS 111 service is carried out by the Care Quality Commission.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice