WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[PanBiker]

Here's one for Tiz. I tried to order 2 boxes of vinyl shed gloves on Amazon this morning but gave up eventually because I couldn't find a way of getting to the check out, the site seemed to want me to go into Prime. That's it as far as I am concerned, bugger Amazon. They lost a customer.

Have you tried Ebay? You can pay via Paypal without an account.

[Stanley]

Yes Ian I have used them in the past. Amazon have got to the stage where they are obsessed with Prime.... I noted that there was no way I could find to send an email complaining either.

[Tizer]

You've picked a good day to get my opinions about Amazon! Halfway through this morning's shave the Braun shaver gave up. That's odd it usually flashes a red light when it's getting low on charge and also I can then tell it's got weaker. I can usually get several more days on it in the red mode if necessary. Today it just stopped and now it won't recharge - it's dead as a doornail. Bought last December through Amazon. I had a look at Amazon's returns policy and it's almost all about exchanging things that you don't like, or have gone wrong in the first 30 days; very little about goods failing after a longer period. They direct you to the manufacturer. On second thoughts I'll probably just ditch it. I've always had a Phillips razor (dad worked for Phillips ) and I got the Braun to see if it was any better. It hasn't been as good for me and I'll just switch back to my old Phillips which I've had for many years and hasn't failed. Then when I want a new Phillips...I'll buy it from a shop in town so I can easily return it if it fails!

We keep having goods fail. The digital radio I mentioned recently - less than a year old, for example. `They don't make `em like they used to'. At least that was from Argos and they replaced it immediately over the counter, no problems at all.

[PostmanPete]

I've always had a Phillips razor and I got the Braun to see if it was any better. It hasn't been as good for me and I'll just switch back to my old Phillips which I've had for many years and hasn't failed.

I did the same thing going from Phillips to Braun and it's one of my poorer decisions! The Braun leaves quite a few hairs untouched on my neck which I need to get with a disposable razor after shaving with the Braun. Back to Phillips again when the Braun packs up.

[Tizer]

I'm glad to hear it's not just me that finds the Braun less effective, Pete!

I've been warning that we'll see dams collapsing but I've usually confined myself to the giant dams in other countries. Now it's our turn...
`Whaley Bridge dam collapse: Town evacuated over Toddbrook Reservoir fears'
`A town is being evacuated because parts of the wall of a nearby reservoir have collapsed in floods. The Toddbrook Reservoir dam, above Whaley Bridge in Derbyshire, was damaged following heavy rains. Police have told the town's 6,500 residents to gather at a local school and they will be evacuated from there. A severe flood warning, which means there is a threat to life, has been issued for the River Goyt, below the reservoir. The Canal and River Trust, which manages the dam, has engineers assessing the damage - but pictures shared on social media show the collapsed part of the wall was growing...'.

[PanBiker]

It's an earth dam with concrete capping's. The dam wall breached last night as one of the relief channels failed. Water permeated through and displaced the concrete at one side of the dam. All that is holding the reservoir back now is the earth bank if that starts to leak, the fear is that it will then wash out the core and collapse. Scary stuff for those directly in the path. As seems usual in these kind of events some residents are ignoring the warnings and refusing to evacuate!

[Tripps]

I've been warning that we'll see dams collapsing

I thought of you Tizer, immediately I heard the news.

Being a bit bolshie, I've always thought I'd refuse to leave my house, when ordered to by the authorities, but in this case - and having seen the photos - I'd certainly be 'up the road'.

Seems Edwina Currie lives in Whaley Bridge. It doesn't seem long since we were shown pictures of dried up reservoirs, and told not to run the tap whilst brushing teeth.

[Stanley]

HERE'S the latest BBC report on the dam. All those names are very familiar to me and I can't remember any of them being in danger of flooding before.They say no blame is being allocated.... but I doubt if that situation will last. Quite obvious that the concrete skin on the slipway was defective to allow the water ingress to the soil beneath.
Philips razor, very interesting, my Philips razor must be at least 30 years old and I have been thinking about a replacement and sort of favouring Braun. Your reports have convinced me, it will be another Philips when the time comes.
Got a box of vinyl gloves at Shambles in the Square yesterday. Twice as expensive as the Amazon ones but I suspect better quality. I've used the same brand before. Bugger Amazon.

[Tizer]

It's an earth dam with concrete capping's...

180 years old and patched up many times since, but perhaps not maintained as often as necessary. The curse of old infrastructure. The reservoir is owned by the Canals & Rivers Trust but I don't know if they own the dam. Toddbrook

Braun shaver. My dad (Phillips employee) would have told me "Serves you right for buying rubbish!". My PC mouse has started malfunctioning - I'll skip Amazon and buy one in town. Mrs Tiz has reminded me that we got into the habit of using Amazon because we lived out in the wilds for 20 years, far from the big shops. Now we're living in walking distance of the shops - time to change habits!

[Tripps]

180 years old and patched up many times since, but perhaps not maintained as often as necessary. The curse of old infrastructure. The reservoir is owned by the Canals & Rivers Trust but I don't know if they own the dam. Toddbrook

I think they do. The Chief Exec (they are a charity)was on 'Newsnight' last night, on the receiving end of an attempted good kicking from Emma Barnett. He was quite impressive, and though she tried to get him to say lack of funding (and by implication austerity), was to blame, he clearly said it wasn't a factor.

I think all will be well. The problem seems to be on the outside of the dam caused by overtopping, with the water damaging the facing stones, and accessing the earth bank. I think that if they lower the level and stop any more water penetrating the bank then it won't get any worse. Would be good if the rain stopped too.

Longer term they need to re-assess the 'overflow' situation which despite being improved in the past, has proved to be inadequate. Read this Resevoir overflows then you too can be an armchair / tap room reservoir overflow expert too.

[Tizer]

Tripps, thinking of large structures, am I right that Astra Zeneca is building a giant new research centre somewhere in your manor?

[Tripps]

Yes indeed Astra Zeneca . With heating from bore holes too.

The Addenbrookes complex is like a small town, and there are cranes everywhere. Flats are flying up everywhere, many just for students and university staff, such as at Eddington, and lots for the ordinary market.

The weak pound makes it attractive for overseas buyers, both of property and education. Enormous numbers of Chinese, and Malaysians.

[Tizer]

I note the sentence in Astra Zeneca's description of its new centre which says: `A ground-floor cafe will serve staff, visitors and curious passers-by alike.' I can see you now, Tripps, popping in for a quick latte now and then and getting the low-down on the latest bit of biomolecular research!

[Whyperion]

It's an earth dam with concrete capping's. The dam wall breached last night as one of the relief channels failed. Water permeated through and displaced the concrete at one side of the dam. All that is holding the reservoir back now is the earth bank if that starts to leak, the fear is that it will then wash out the core and collapse. Scary stuff for those directly in the path. As seems usual in these kind of events some residents are ignoring the warnings and refusing to evacuate!

BBC Reported that the relief channel was alleged by some residents not to be cleared and cleaned regulary and sufficiently. Being some indication that the Canals and Rivers Trust are cash-limited despite their denials, someone is not correct in what they are saying.

[Stanley]

Looking at the puny efforts to reduce the level by pumping, it would seem that an emergency system for letting down excess water by gravity is not present. They estimate that they will have to reduce the level by at least 7 metres for any degree of certainty of safety, so far they have managed half a metre and rain is expected tomorrow.

[Tizer]

In assessing the future of the dam there's a factor that doesn't seem to be discussed. We know climate change and maintenance are important but you've got to look at the inflows to the reservoir from the catchment area too. All possible steps should be taken in the catchment to slow down and even out the flow from rainfall on its way to the reservoir. Otherwise you have rapidly changing levels of water in the reservoir. This means planting many trees, creating ponds and boggy areas, and lengthening the route by putting lots of curves and loops into stream and rivers. All this I learnt from my ecology lecturer on a field trip to the Lake District back in 1970. We were standing on the slope above Thirlmere reservoir, looking across to Helvellyn and he was pointing out why the trees had been planted on the lower slopes. He was an ideal person for teaching these aspects of ecology because he was from India and had experience of these factors on a much grander scale. He didn't need James Lovelock to tell him about Gaia and feedback mechanisms, it was all second nature to him.

[Stanley]

The dams problem... Another contributory factor is that the dams most in question were built under a laisser faire system where industry was largely unregulated and in their defence, had not had the evidence of failure of clay core earth dams that we have now by reason of previous failures. There was no mechanical compaction of the earth components because they were built by hand and animal power. Today we understand these matters and the basic fault is I believe that these facts and the evidence have been ignored because they were so big. 'Let sleeping dogs lie'. Why go looking for problems when cost and profit are the overriding factors?
As you have pointed out in the past , there are many such constructions world wide. Look at THIS for a classic example, the Johnstown Flood.





These caught my attention in the back street yesterday. I love a bit of common sense.
for complicated reasons we have had a situation for over 100 years where there has been confusion caused by the fact that a house back yard belonging to Hill Street has been next door to a house that was legitimately 5 East Hill street. It looks as though this might put this right.
There is also some confusion because of the similar names of the two adjacent streets. I had a posse of policemen banging on my door one day, they had come to harass me into lowering the level of noise I was making. I persuaded them that it was 10 Hill Street that they were after and not me. I also told them that I didn't think much of a system that could make such a mistake. It could have been a lot more serious!
See THIS late BBC report of the shooting in El Paso. 20 dead and many injured. This is being directly linked to tacit encouragement by Trump's racist language.
Later, news is coming in of another shooting in Ohio in the US. No details yet....

[Tizer]

I isolated this sentence because it's mind-boggling: ` It was the 246th mass shooting in the US this year, according to US tracking website Gun Violence Archive.'

I wrote that only last Monday and now have to revise the figure to 251, the latest two being El Paso and now Dayton.

[Stanley]

On an entirely different note.... I have news today that my next great grandchild due before the end of the year is a boy. Jess and Mo will be delighted but I have pointed out to everyone that I never complained about having three daughters.

[Big Kev]

This was an interesting read which caught my attention quite a lot, I'm not sure why I've never heard of the Great Central Line

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/08/the ... dy-exists/

[Tripps]

I read this in the Spectator. I subscribe and get the paper copy every Friday. It's my extravagant 'guilty pleasure' - along with Stokes Brown Sauce.

I had exactly the same thought as you when I read it, though opening in 1899 and closing in the 1960's probably covers it.

In that case why am I clearly aware of LMS, LNER, and GWR then?

[Big Kev]

I've done some further reading and, with my simplistic outlook, can't see why there's a need for HS2. Use of the GCR looks as though maximum speed would be restricted to 140mph, instead of the predicted 225mph of HS2 but the potential financial benefit could be phenomenal, most of the infrastructure appears to be there and there would be very minimal disruption or demolition if it was used. The lower speeds would give the opportunity to stop at a few more stations too, I'm sure the 'remote' areas it run through at its closure, in the 1960s, aren't so remote now.

Wikipedia has a bit of info
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Central_Main_Line

[Stanley]

I knew about the GCR and have always thought it was a far better and cheaper option. The obsession with 'bullet train speeds' has always seemed juvenile to me. But there you are, another example of why the Beeching Axe was so short sighted.
The fact we missed any violent rain yesterday, could the Met Office have been over-cautious yet again? I noted in the weather topic that they had scaled the warnings back in the forecast but then still plugged the danger in the broadcast forecasts.
Getting a straight edge in the shed. Now I have to get into writing mode!

[Stanley]

Jack met Pepe on the Green yesterday afternoon and I gave Catherine her whistle, she was surprised and delighted. I told her what you had said Tiz about making her a happy woman and she laughed. She has promised she will practice, I shall test her the next time I see her.
Why of why should a 17 year old throw a 6 year old child off a roof? He's been charged with attempted murder as the child is temporarily out of danger. Informants on the scene say he admitted he had done it.

[Bodger]

Some interesting links on here,
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/a ... ndex4.html