UKC

Nick Galpin (the UK's rep on UIAA Safecom/ CEN working group on Mountaineering Equipment) was involved in tonight's episode of Dispatches on Channel 4 discussing the hazards of using counterfeit and improperly certificated mountaineering equipment.

If people have any questions or discussion points resulting from this feel free to pop them in here.

If you use copy safety equipment you need pray. But specifically via the Catholic  church and the Pope, apparently. The instruction on this Chinese "Petzl Tandem Speed" says so!

🤣

In those trying times, the Church is your only reliable anchor...

(I'll go get my coat)

Or possibly involve Vince Cable

We have regular bulletins about online risks, scams, viruses etc as part of our cyber security training at work. The temu app was flagged as being highly risky as downloading on your phone gives the app operators permissions to access your personal data on your phone above and beyond what is necessary for making a purchase, and make changes to your phone like turning on your microphone without permission and tracking you. There are concerns that this data could be shared with the Chinese government as per the concerns about TikTok. In terms of privacy we were told if we must shop on temu then do so on the website rather than the app. Personally I think it can bugger off,  we don’t need another behemoth churning out fast fashion that ends up discarded in a mountai of waste in Chile, with all the negative societal and environmental impacts that brings. https://youtu.be/4DV-rtpj2tY?si=-PdAluYaE6Zbpx9Y

It’s not just climbing gear.  Electronics at every level from a plug-in charger through appliances to MCBs/RCBOs can be bought from the UK sourced from dodgy exporters.

When I worked in a uni I would regularly remove chargers and 4-bar adapters with clearly non-spec plugs.  Others had shutters that were depressed by the actual pins with no safety features.  We’re being flooded with dangerous shit at every level. In terms of electrical safety, having lived in a terrace and now a semi, it’s terrifying as your neighbours choices could burn it all down.

that's without even mentioning counterfeit components!

Thought this might be a thread about a Yorkshire Rod Hull ... 

That's genius 

Timely article on what’s being shipped in their containers… https://theloadstar.com/transpac-ecommerce-freighters-on-pause-as-us-custom...

As my dad once said to me ‘if you can’t see how a business is making money, it’ll be drugs or crime of one form or another’

Chinese climbers buy the same brands as you and me. 
So who is buying this stuff?

Some actual test results of 'made up brand name' Chinese carabiners, alongside others from Black Diamond, Camp  and Trango.

youtube.com/watch?v=7ItzJvJ7Qpg&

Chapeau! 

It's interesting how many containers of Chinese pans and other steel items set off the Gamma alarms at the ports. Well, may as well chuck all those knackered industrial and medical x ray sources and associated kit into the smelter if it's going for export.

Not orphaned sources so much as alloyed ones..

may least your crabs keep you warm on the portaledge though!

I don't think they're too fussy about what goes in their domestic product, either: formaldhyde baby formula?

I think we also need to consider exactly what any chinese-made network connected electronics are doing...

A large number of people in the UK seem happy buying Chinese EVs (e.g. MG) and those really do send telemetry!

I know of a refinery that bought 40km of cheap pipe from China during construction. They couldn’t ultimately trace the provenance of the material, so they had to de rate the minimum design metal temperature, which causes them a lot of issues starting up in the winter. 

Not just cars but a whole load of China sourced container port cranes in the US have mysterious mobile network data links bullish them that were installed in china

https://maritime-executive.com/article/chinese-built-port-cranes-may-be-abl...

I’m more worried about someone calling the cranes than the cranes calling home mind.

Seems like a lot of heavy ships have remote data links on various bits of kit - sometimes connected to key control busses - that manufacturers have included for remote support without that being known or signed off on as part of the build.

It’s as if nobody in project management or security assurance anywhere had ever watched The Lawnmower Man, Terminator or the rebooted Battlestar Galactica…