Come spring, chances are there’ll be driving tours in fake panda cars along the A646 between Halifax and Todmorden, with overnight stays in dodgy-looking farmhouses. Happy Valley has done for Calderdale what Peaky Blinders did for Birmingham, and dark telly tourism is all about ticking off locations and looking the part (though I’m not sure hi-vis tabards will catch on). But there are three better, more active ways to explore the Calder valley. Two of these use the Calderdale Way, either the northern section or the southern, both of which involve hill climbs and traverses across fields, hedgerows, stiles – the usual argy-bargy of agricultural rambling.
Tag: Culture
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Missing radioactive capsule found in Australia
Authorities in Western Australia say they have found a tiny radioactive capsule that went missing last month.
Emergency services had “literally found the needle in the haystack”, they said.
A huge search was triggered when the object was lost while being transported along a 1,400km (870 miles) route across the state.
Authorities released a close-up picture of the pea-sized capsule – which could cause serious harm if handled – on the ground among tiny pebbles.
A serial number enabled them to verify they had found the right capsule, which is 6mm (0.24 inches) in diameter and 8mm long.
It contains a small quantity of Caesium-137, which could cause skin damage, burns, or radiation sickness.
Mining giant Rio Tinto apologized for losing the device, which is used as a density gauge in the mining industry.
A 20m “hot zone” has now been established around the capsule and it will be placed into a lead container.
It will be stored at a secure location in the town of Newman overnight before being transported to a secure facility in the city of Perth on Thursday.
Announcing their find, the state emergency services paid tribute to “inter-agency teamwork in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds”.
The capsule was found when a vehicle equipped with specialist equipment, which was traveling at 70 km/h (43 mph), detected radiation, officials said.
Portable detection equipment was then used to locate the capsule, which was found about 2m (7ft) from the side of the road.
The device is part of a density gauge, which was being used at Rio Tinto’s Gudai-Darri mine in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia.
“The simple fact is the device should never have been lost,” said the head of the company’s iron ore division, Simon Trott. He thanked the authorities for the “pretty incredible recovery” of the capsule.
Rio Tinto would be happy to reimburse the cost of the search if requested by the government, Mr. Trott added.
Australian authorities have promised a review of existing laws on the matter.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a news conference in Perth that the current fine for failing to safely handle radioactive substances is “ridiculously low”. It currently stands at A$1,000 ($700, £575) and A$50 ($35, £30) for every day that the offense continues.
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The big picture: the messy and magical reality of motherhood
Hungarian photographer Andi Gáldi Vinkó’s playful portrait of her child, part of series on becoming a parent, combines humour and intimacy.
o say the subject of Andi Gáldi Vinkó’s book is a diary of motherhood doesn’t get anywhere near to the fleshy, playful vulnerability of her pictures. Titled Sorry I Gave Birth I Disappeared But Now I’m Back, the Hungarian photographer’s journal is a kind of traveller’s tale from the magical and estranging foreign land of childbirth. “When I realised I was pregnant,” she writes, by way of introduction, “I had no idea what awaited me. How messy and how raw, how unpredictable and how out of control motherhood really was compared to the images I had in my mind from films, photos, paintings done by men.”
Her images take you deep into that out-of-control place, her body no longer all her own, colonised by other dramatic forces. Her camera watches it all swell, as she pictures befores and afters: “Then I was an emerging artist, travelling around and going to art fairs and exhibitions and openings. Now I am a mother of two working on borrowed time hoping the years I’ve lost to mothering can be written into my CV without guilt and shame.”
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Fed announces smaller rate rise as inflation cools
The US central bank has raised interest rates again as it continues its fight to stabilize prices in the world’s largest economy.
The Federal Reserve said it was raising its key rate by 0.25 percentage points.
That marks the smallest increase since last March, after a series of aggressive rate hikes last year.
But officials warned that they did not think they were finished raising rates, despite signs that price increases in the US are slowing.
The bank’s moves are closely watched around the world as the US drives a global shift after years of low-interest rates that followed the financial crisis.
The Bank of England and European Central Bank are expected to announce their own rate increases on Thursday.
The rate rise announced by the Fed on Wednesday was expected. It increases the bank’s benchmark rate to a range of 4.5%-4.75% – the highest since 2007.
By pushing up borrowing costs, the Fed is trying to cool the economy and ease the pressures of pushing up prices.
But officials risk triggering a painful recession, in which the economy slows so sharply that it prompts mass job cuts.
Pressure has mounted on the bank to slow, or stop, its rate hike campaign, as the higher borrowing costs hurt sectors such as housing and the US economy, slows sharply.
Those voices have grown louder amid recent data showing inflation in the US dropping to 6.5% last month.
Many investors have been betting that the bank will raise rates only once more after this meeting.
But Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said bank officials remained worried by data suggesting that the costs of many services – such as health care – are increasing far faster than the 2% pace considered healthy.
He said the bank would rather raise rates too high than declare victory over the problem prematurely.
“The job is not fully done,” he said. “While recent developments are encouraging we will need substantially more evidence to be confident that inflation is on a sustained downward path.”
In the statement announcing its decision, Fed officials said they continued to believe “ongoing” increases would be appropriate.
Projections released in December showed they thought the bank’s benchmark rate could stand above 5% at the end of 2023.
Mr Powell declined to say whether officials had changed their views, noting that there was a lot of “uncertainty” about the outlook.
Stocks rose during and after the news conference, with the S&P 500 ending up more than 1%.
The market gains could be a sign that investors are gaining confidence that the central bank will be able to stabilize prices without a recession, said Jay Bryson, an economist at Wells Fargo.
But Ronald Temple, chief market strategist at Lazard, said if investors get too optimistic that the rate rises are over, it may make the Fed’s job harder.
“Taken together with today’s report indicating near record level job openings, I believe markets remain too dovish regarding how high rates will go and how long they will stay there,” he said.
“The more markets resist the Fed, the tighter conditions will have to be to tame inflation.”