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UTILITY WEEK | 25TH SEPTEMBER - 1ST OCTOBER 2015 | 31 Community Editor, Utility Week, and content director, Utilities: Ellen Bennett, t: 01342 332084, e: ellen. bennett@fav-house.com; News editor: Jillian Ambrose, t: 01342 332061, e: jillian.ambrose@ fav-house.com; Associate news editor: Mathew Beech, t: 01342 332082, e: mathew.beech@ fav-house.com; Assistant editor (insights): Jane Gray, t: 01342 332087, e: jane.gray@fav-house. com; Research analyst: Vidhu Dutt, t: 01342 332026, e: vidhu.dutt@fav-house.com; Reporters: Lois Vallely, t: 01342 332080; e: lois.vallely@fav-house.com and Lucinda Dann, t: 01342 332083; e: lucinda.dann@fav-house.com; Business development manager: Richard Powell, t: 01342 332062, e: richard.powell@fav-house.com; Business development executive: Sarah Wood, t: 01342 332077, e: sarah.wood@fav-house.com; Publisher: Amanda Barnes, e: amanda.barnes@fav-house.com. General enquiries: 01342 332000; Membership subscriptions: UK £577 per year, overseas £689 per year, t: 020 8955 7045 or email membership sales manager Paul Tweedale: paultweedale@fav-house.com. ISSN: 1356-5532. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Printed by: Buxton Press, Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AE. Published by: Faversham House Ltd, Windsor Court, Wood Street, East Grinstead, West Sussex RH19 1UZ 3,580 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2014 Membership subscriptions: UK £577 per year. Overseas £689 per year. Email: paultweedale@fav-house.com Top Tweets Disconnector The French underground They're weird people the French, and not just because of their penchant for wearing berets and riding around with onions draped over the han- dlebars of their bicycles (which Disconnector knows for a fact most of them do). No, the great man muses on the cultural dif- ferences between ourselves and our Gitanes-puffing cousins upon learning of the existence of Musee des Egouts in Paris. That's the "Sewer Museum" to you and me. Now, sewers are fascinating places to visit if you get the chance. They are marvels of 19th century engineering and well worth a visit – although you're advised to wear appro- priate footwear. Several cities in the UK offer guided tours of specific parts of the sewer network to members of the public intrepid enough to take advantage of the offer. But devoting an entire museum to the history and development of sewers? You have to be French to want that much detail. The Musee des Egouts is situated underground and visitors get a tour of the sew- ers too for their entrance fee. But strolling around exhibits tracing the history of Parisian sewage from the Middle Ages to the current day is just too much. Who needs to see 200 years' worth of sewer tunnel- clearing tools? The French are rightly proud of their pioneering sci- entific prowess, but Disconnec- tor thinks it is possible to be too pleased with yourself. Rushing Russians If the French are too interested in toilets, then the Russians take no interest at all, appar- ently. In fact, last week the big news in Moscow (as far as toilets are concerned) was the installation of the first public lavatory in the city's under- ground metro system. Yup. A single "bio toilet" has been installed at Prospekt Mira metro station, about 1.8 miles north of Red Square. It's on the platform, so everyone will be able to keep an eye on you while you're in there. But then that's not really neces- sary anyway because an alarm goes off aer 15 minutes if you haven't emerged. Moscow's underground network serves about seven million passengers a day across 96 stations, so the queue is bound to be a long one. Ivan Ostashko, the metro's pub- lic relations chief, says the Prospekt Mira cubicle is a pilot and "we'll study the results of this trial and decide whether to install toilets at other stations". Taking the piss On second thoughts, maybe the Russian authorities are being very reasonable in limit- ing passengers to 15 minutes inside the metro loo. Aer all, it only takes a person about 21 seconds to empty their bladder. And that's not a guess – it's a scientific fact. What's more, it turns out that any mammal weighing more than 3kg takes exactly the same time to have a wee: 21 seconds, because of a remark- ably consistent "scaling law" in bigger beasts. We know this thanks to original research undertaken by a team of scientists at Georgia Tech in the US, who studied high-speed video of all manner of animals from dogs to elephants. The rules are different for smaller animals such as rodents. Rats, for instance, can empty their bladders in a fraction of a second. It's a curious scientific discovery but as yet not a par- ticularly useful one, which is perhaps why the team behind it were awarded one of Harvard University's Ig Nobel Awards this year. The Igs – awarded for "improbable research" – are in their 25th year and have actu- ally garnered a certain cachet all of their own. Lead author of the Georgia Tech report Patricia Yang, a PhD student in mechanical engineering, turned up in person to collect her Physics Ig, together with her three colleagues. Another gong on the night was awarded for the discovery that the word "huh" occurs in every human language. Disconnector Why #HinkleyPoint C? @edf_maginot #HinkleyPoint LATEST: George recycles old news, while Amber offers a field or two in Essex. Chinese silent. HaveIGotNewsForYou @haveigotnews Chinese government finds way to charge government £2bn to smuggle huge nuclear bomb into Britain. Seb Berry @SebPV Rudd still going on about world's most expen- sive & heavily subsidised #Hinkley nuclear deal being "good deal" for UK consumers. Remarkable. Caroline Lucas @CarolineLucas And I've just seen a pig fly past my train window...Reality is #nuclear is hugely costly, unsafe & unnecessary Alan Simpson @AlanSimpson01 The Charge of the 'Lights-On' Brigade: Osborne pledges £2bn loan guarantee to Hinkley (when even the pro-nuke lobby tell him it's bonkers) Lisa Nandy @lisanandy V troubling that govt has agreed these extra nuclear subsidies at the same time it's cut support for more affordable clean energy tech Edward Davey @EdwardJDavey A credible energy policy is technology neutral: Osborne hiking support for nuclear & shale while slashing renewables is ideological & stupid Joanna Yarrow @joannayarrow Like hiring Dracula for a veganism conference: Cameron gives top environment policy job to oil man b4 climate talks Zachary Bogue @zackbogue Wow. Huge expose. Exxon's top scientists were telling its C-suite about risks of global warming back in the 1970's. William Marchant @richonlyinname French farmer claims wind turbines making his cows sick. They're right moo-dy. Wants to milk operator for damages.