A Fringe Benefit Of Cashless Payments?

After all, we can't say it's because the standard of parenting has got better, can we?

Society's move to cashless payments may have had an unintended positive side effect, surgeons say - fewer children needing operations or procedures to remove swallowed coins. The Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) experts looked back over hospital records in England since the Millennium. Procedures to remove foreign objects, including coins, from children's throats, airways and noses saw a "significant decline", of almost 700 cases by 2022.

I know, correlation is not causation, but... 

But other factors - such as child-proof packaging and safety campaigns - probably also helped reduce cases, especially of objects stuck up the nose.

Yet curiously, these 'other factors' seem to not work with other items! 

But concern is shifting towards other potentially dangerous shiny objects, such as button batteries and magnets, which are now sometimes swallowed by children.

So much for the saviour being technology.  

You’re Not Entitled To Our Custom, George!

Local businesses are fearful that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's work from home plans will turn Britain's high streets into ghost towns and destroy their livelihoods.

Buggy whip manufacturers must have felt the same when motor vehicles began to catch on...but I doubt any of them would have felt entitled to halt progress because of it. 

...small independent businesses across England and Scotland have warned the move could be a disaster for shops and may cause a 60 per cent drop-off in customers. Owners, citing how many independent shops have 'gone bust' following the pandemic, say they 'don't support' Sir Keir's proposal and have instead called on the Government to 'focus on small businesses more'.

Meaning what? Halting working from home? Subsidising them for their estimated losses?  

'It is not a good idea at all. It will not be good for business,' George Koumpanakis, who works at Acropolis, a Greek diner inside the Grainger Market, told MailOnline. Mr Koumpanakis warned that the diner would 'probably lose around 60 per cent of business' because it 'relies a lot' on office workers coming in on their breaks.

A lot of business owners are joining this bandwagon, as if they were somehow entitled to the custom of workers.  

'If you stay here for a couple of hours you will see how busy it is when offices are on their lunch,' the 49-year-old said. 'When people come into work they might buy a coffee from the market and might come here for lunch, but they are not going to be doing that if they're allowed to stay in the house from their first day.'

You're forgetting that these businesses grew up around the areas they did to meet a demand, and now that demand has gone elsewhere. They've gone elsewhere because their businesses have changed, but you want yours to remain static. Why not adapt yours to the new requirements, and do delivery to homeworkers instead? 

Now, This Is Genuine Progress...

Every roof in the city district of Utrecht is to be “greened” with plants and mosses or have solar panels installed under plans driven by the success of a similar scheme for the municipality’s bus stops.

The “no roofs unused” policy is part of an attempt to reinvigorate biodiversity in the city and create a less stressful and happier environment, of which the construction of a so-called “vertical forest tower with 10,000 plants on its facade is set to become a leading example.

It looks amazing, like one of those sci-fi book covers about life in the future. And what a wonderful idea to make our concrete jungles less, well, concrete...

Utrecht, the fastest growing city in the Netherlands, was rated in a 2019 study by Natuur & Milieu as the most “sustainable” in the country in terms of buying green electricity, its use of environmental zones, exploitation of solar power and encouragement of cycling.

The municipality completed the installation of green roofs on its 316 bus stops last year, capturing fine particles of air pollution, storing rainwater, and providing cooling during the summer months.

The bus stops roofs are planted with sedum, a plant with small yellow flowers in the summer months, draws birds, bees and butterflies. The bus stops, fitted with bamboo benches, feature energy-efficient LED lighting and 96 of them have been outfitted with solar panels.

Bring it on, I say!