- Written by Peter Edwards Editor, Global Cement Magazine
As I write this Last Word for this October 2024 issue, it is tempting to ask where the summer went. Perhaps time flew while I was enjoying myself. It certainly ‘went,’ but where - or when - did it go to? I thought it was about time to find out.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
Earlier this summer, the UK saw the demise of one of its favourite people: Dr Michael Mosley. You may not know him, but he was a popular TV and radio doctor, who had been broadcasting for nearly 20 years. He had an appealing down-to-earth manner, and seemed to give a lot of good advice. He was not averse to experimenting on himself, having been injected with snake venom and been infected with parasitic tapeworms, in order to gauge their effects on his physiology. In fact, after working around the edges of media for years, he was brought to a wider public on a TV show after he had received a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes, whereupon he decided to find out if he could ‘diet’ his way back to health. He undertook an intermittent fasting regime (severely reducing calorific intake for two days each week), and at the end of the programme he had lost 9kg and his diabetes was in remission, after the fat had ‘drained out of his pancreas and liver.’ He wrote a number of books about weight loss (although not everyone agreed with his conclusions), and had recently become even better known through a series on TV and radio called ‘Just one thing,’1 about how simple changes can transform your life.
- Written by Peter Edwards Editor, Global Cement Magazine
The city of Zermatt, Switzerland, has no cars. Difficult to reach, locals and visitors must park in the next town across and take an Alpine train to get there. Post, deliveries, police and taxis are all milkfloat-style electric vans. Walking, cycling and, in the winter months, skiing are commonplace, while private vehicles are not allowed. Indeed, anyone wanting to use a milkfloat van for their own business must make their case to the city authorities. The result is an eerily quiet oasis in the Swiss Alps, without the constant rumble of traffic.
- Written by Peter Edwards Editor, Global Cement Magazine
As the main active ingredient in concrete, cement is essential to the past, present and future of the global construction sector. As well as homes, schools, hospitals, commercial buildings, roads, ports and other facilities, it will be vital to building the new infrastructure that helps the world to deal with climate change. This material will build CO2 capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) installations, offshore wind turbines, new water management infrastructure, sea-defences and much more besides.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
I have sung in choirs all my life, including for 20 years in Dorking Choral Society, and now in my village choir, Ashtead Choral Society. I love singing, for the mental workout it gives you, for the camaraderie and for the lovely sounds that we can make (after plenty of rehearsals). I am a tenor (the higher of the two male voices), and we are quite rare, so we are heartily welcomed into any choir. Over the years, I have sung a huge variety of pieces, from Jacobean bawdy songs, to Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, and from the most delicate of motets to the huge waves of sound produced by massed choirs and orchestra in some of the grandest pieces of music ever written. The pieces are always chosen by the musical directors and conductors of the choirs I have sung in, and they will of course choose the pieces that will get an audience to turn up and pay for a ticket, or as we say, ‘get bums on seats.’
