WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

See THIS for a BBC report on the latest statistics on national crime. These are bad enough but if you put our post code into the search engine in the report you'll find that Lancashire is, on the whole, worse than the national average. Remember us being assured this was nothing to do with staffing or funding? The National Police Federation rep. for rank and file officers tells us a different story. She says the patient is in critical condition. I'd rather believe her! I think I heard a figure suggesting that we had less officers than in 1996.......

[Tizer]

Yesterday at about 5pm we were sitting in the garden with a cup of tea when we suddenly thought a swarm of insects was passing above us. As our eyes re-focused we realised it wasn't insects close by but seagulls up in the sky. There must have been a hundred or more all flying about aimlessly above us. It went on for about 15 minutes until they drifted off elsewhere. In the south-west the problem of urban seagulls is increasing in all the towns, inland as well as on the coast. The RSPB say they aren't attracted by food but by the `artificial cliffs and beaches', the high buildings and flat roofs, where they can nest safe from most predators. Of course they will look for food and scavenge waste from the streets and landfill sites. In recent weeks there has been an outbreak of drunk seagulls falling of roofs and staggering about in the streets, with the danger of seagull vomit being added to the usual seagull poo. The RSPB believes that the gulls have been feeding on brewers' waste which farmers spread on their fields. Sober seagulls are bad enough but drunk seagulls are a step too far!

[PanBiker]

49 years since man first landed on the moon. Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin (Pilot) and Neil Armstrong (Commander) set the Lunar Landing Module "Eagle" down in The Sea of Tranqulity at 20:17 UTC. Six hours later in the early hours of the 21st July at 02:56, Mission Commander Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon, Aldrin followed him onto the surface 20 minutes later.

NASA - One Giant Leap for Mankind

Wiki - Apollo 11

[Stanley]

Drunken seagulls.... the mind boggles.
I got a query this morning and don't know the answer. It's from John Clayton: "Stanley - just had a woman visitor who is researching the modern Labour Party. She says that John McDonnell lived a few doors down from me (in Barrowford) around 1968-72 yet nobody can remember him. He worked at Silentnight for a while and I said that I know just the man for the mystery - any ideas?"
My reputation for being a know-all is at stake! Help!!

[Wendyf]

According to Wikipedia he started studying to be a priest in Ipswich after school but changed direction and took a series of unskilled jobs until, after marrying his first wife, he studied A levels at Burnley Technical College.
A bit of research shows he married Marilyn Cooper in 1971 when he was 20 years old and the marriage was registered in Nelson.
That puts him in the right area at the right time!

[Stanley]

Thanks Wendy!
I've told John to watch this thread.....

[Wendyf]

I've had a peep at the Cooper family, just to see if I could find a connection to Barrowford there. Marilyn looks to have been the youngest of four children with a mother's maiden name Sirett, and it looks as if the parents married in Coventry in 1939, had their first child there in Coventry and then arrived in the Colne/Nelson area where the other three were born. Link to Barlick!

[PanBiker]

I could have asked him when he was in town back in May. He did mention that he was involved with Silentnight on union matters, he also said that his daughters live in Colne. I assume the person making the enquiry will have tried contacting the Constituency Labour Party for information?

[Tizer]

This Pendle Today web article says:
`Mr McDonnell spoke to the Burnley Express to reveal his strong links to Burnley and Pendle. The politician studied A Levels at the former Burnley Tech and later worked for Silent Night in Barnoldswick and Mullard's in Padiham.' LINK
The last line of the article says: `See Friday's Express to find about Mr McDonnell's strong links to Burnley and Pendle.' A google search brings up this Burnley Express page but I can't access it without registering: Burnley Express

[Stanley]

John will be reading this.... looks as though his researcher lady was on the right track!
What attracted my attention yesterday was nothing to do with the minutiae of modern life.... Purely by chance I stumbled on a reference to The Rong Fu 30 mill drill. So what?



Anyone who has followed me on Shed Matters will have come across references to my El Cheapo Taiwanese vertical milling machine. I've always known it was only entry level milling and it definitely has its limitations but despite all this over the last thirty odd years I have done some good work with it.
Yesterday I came across the Rong Fu reference and when I chased it up I found that this design for a cheap Mill/Drill machine originated in the Far East in 1980 or thereabouts and was immediately pirated by numerous manufacturers in Taiwan and China. The machines were imported and branded by individual companies, mine is labelled 'WARCO' and Warren Machine Tools, Shere. Surrey. I've had a look and they are still selling a slightly modified version of mine for £1350, I think I paid about £300 for mine in the early 1980s.
Not earth-shaking news and of very little interest to most people but for me, a most satisfying discovery. Now I want to know about the origin of the original design which hasn't changed for over thirty years, even the castings are the same shape. I think we can say it was a success!

[Tizer]

This is worth a look - big (very big!) mechanical stuff and some good animated graphics...
`The mega-machines helping China link the world' LINK

[chinatyke]

http://www.rongfu.com/en/product.html

They're still in business. If you know the machine number you'll still be able to get parts for it. Taiwan goods have a good reputation in China, much better quality.

[Stanley]

From what I can see it's a model 30 China. Never needed any spares and I think you'll have gathered I have a lot of time for it, well made and very accurate. All right, it has its limitations but I have done some good work with it....
Can you remember when China and the Far east refused to take any more of our packaging waste? The industry found an alternative, send it to Eastern Europe where it appears a lot of it is being burned in landfill, the worst environmental outcome. The government response to this is that it will address the matter in its waste management strategy to be announced 'in the Autumn'. In other words they have kicked the matter into touch. Out of sight out of mind and bugger the environment!
Lewis Hamilton's win in an eventful German Grand Prix at Hochenheim yesterday. A very exciting race and Vettel crashed while in the lead. He must be so pissed off! What nobody has mentioned as far as I can see is the psychological effect on him, Hamilton managed the intermittent wet conditions and he didn't. Could be very significant.

[Stanley]

Just announced that West Mercia police have arrested three men in London in connection with the terrible acid attack on the infant. (LINK)

[PanBiker]

Just got my payslip from Pendle Education Trust for my invigilating duties and noticed that they have taken £120.00 off in Tax and £8.00 in NI. As a part time ad hoc worker I shouldn't pay either. I have checked back to last years earnings and no tax or NI was deducted. I can see that they are using a different tax code for me but I have not had any notification of a coding change.Probably done in the new tax year, my previous period of employment was at the February mock exams and I had nothing deducted, I can see from that slip that it was the same on accumulated totals for the whole of the previous year. It could also be something to do with being transferred to a new employer I suppose with the school moving from LCC to the trust.

The pay slip is advisory and the transactions wont actually occur until the end of the month when I will be paid by BACS. I will have a look online to see if I can sort this there but I reckon I will have to wait until we get into August or HMRC won't have any record. I will have to let them take it then claim it back which is always the case, the bloke at the bottom never gets the benefit of the doubt.

[Stanley]

That was always the way Ian....
Can't stop thinking about that little 3 year old boy who was the victim of an acid attack in Worcester. (LINK) There is an argument going on about the two ISIS recruits who tortured and beheaded people. It may be just me but I see this crime as being worse. It troubles me that there are people in society who are so brutal they can even consider doing something like this. There must surely be a back story here.....

[Cathy]

Re: The Thai Cave Rescue
Australia has saluted 9 Australians with Medals.
6 Police Divers, and a Navy Diver have received the Bravery Medal and Richard Harris an anesthetist from Adelaide ( ) and Craig Challen, a veterinarian have each received the Star of Courage Medal.
We thank and salute you all. Well done.

[Stanley]

I see May got in on the act. (LINK).
I saw a nice pic of the lads with shaved heads as they become temporary trainee monks to signal their recognition of all the help they got. Probably a very good way of relieving any residual stress on them. Lots to be said for some traditions.
Just heard THIS story on World News. A German boy trapped in a domestic safe. Well worth reading the firefighter's account of how they got him out!
I saw THIS report on the Laos Dam collapse and thought of Tiz'r warnings.......

[Tizer]

Yes, we can expect to see more dams collapsing, due to a dangerous combination of building more and bigger at a time when climate change is causing bigger surges in rivers and more flooding. Likewise we'll see more heat waves and wildfires. There's been too much bickering over whether or not the heat waves are due to climate change when the answer is simple - if the climate gets warmer then the heat waves will get hotter and more frequent.
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What got my attention today was this. Mrs Tiz has a tendency to mix up words, sometimes with hilarious results. This morning we walked past some old garages and she said: "I wouldn't want one of those old garages, they've probably got asparagus roofs".

[PanBiker]

Just got my payslip from Pendle Education Trust for my invigilating duties and noticed that they have taken £120.00 off in Tax and £8.00 in NI. As a part time ad hoc worker I shouldn't pay either. I have checked back to last years earnings and no tax or NI was deducted. I can see that they are using a different tax code for me but I have not had any notification of a coding change.Probably done in the new tax year, my previous period of employment was at the February mock exams and I had nothing deducted, I can see from that slip that it was the same on accumulated totals for the whole of the previous year. It could also be something to do with being transferred to a new employer I suppose with the school moving from LCC to the trust.

This was nagging me so I went onto my HMRC account via the Government Gateway. From there you can see all your PAYE information going back 5 years. Your income is shown broken down into streams from each source so I can see my various small pensions that started life as endowments and my pension from LCC as I worked for them full time for 10 years until redundancy. What I cant get my head round is that you have a different tax code for each stream rather the how it used to be, one code to cover all income sources.

The reason they have taxed me is that they are working on estimated earnings assuming that what I have earned this year so far is regular income rather than part time ad hoc hours. My records from the last three years show a similar pattern of work so why they should assume that I will continue to earn the same each month is beyond me! In effect they are taxing me ahead of earnings assuming I will go over the personal. Even on the projection of earnings my record shows that I will not reach this threshold and that my tax liability for this year is £0.

There is provision to alter the projected earnings so this is what I have done. I edited it to my earnings to date from the start of this tax year which agrees with the figure supplied by my employer. It will be my last payment as I will be stepping down from the job after the holidays. I'm making slow progress on my spinal stenosis problem despite doing the exercises and further research into the condition says that standing for long periods can exacerbate the problem.

I think they will still take the tax but should now see the error and I will see how long it takes them to give me my rebate.

[Stanley]

Ian, if you were domiciled in the Cayman Islands and had millions you'd be left alone......
Tiz, I love it! I used to know a bloke who talked about insulting tape and non-ferocious metals. I still use the terms.....
Did I hear last night that Trump has done another volte face?

[Big Kev]

Chaos over the tops at Whitemoor, according to Facebook. The A682 is shut between Barrowford and Blacko for resurfacing, the diversion is sending all traffic onto Barnoldswick Rd through Higherford.
The closure of the M6 has more chaos as drivers are diverting onto the A65, that's being resurfaced too...

[Stanley]

Timed nicely to cook drivers with no air con. as they sit in queues! So glad it doesn't affect me. Sorry for those caught out.
I managed to keep the shed down to 80F while I was in there. It got hotter later!
Another warm day today but the word is that change and rain are on the way. Wendy's borehole is working!

[Stanley]

Lots of things grabbed me this morning.
Trump's former attorney is getting to be more of a threat to him.
Amazon announces a massive increase in profit bearing out what Janet told me many years ago.
Facebook shares dropped 20%, more than the value of the whole of the stock market in Argentina! These global empires are becoming an even greater threat!
What attracted me yesterday was the fact that the Phantom Crapper had struck again in the back street. To make it worse it was covered in bright blue flies! I have some strong insect spray so I got it and gave the crap and it's surroundings a good spraying, it's a long acting chemical that kills by contact. Very satisfying, there are dead flies there this morning and no doubt many more have visited and got a fatal dose! Every cloud has a silver lining!

[Tizer]

I've read about a charity that's providing advice on finance for children in schools to prepare them for adult life. What caught my attention is that the project is financed by Experian, the credit reference agency that accumulates our personal data. I can't see them doing `owt for nowt' so I hope they're not getting the children's data and, possibly, data on their parents. I wouldn't put it past them. Coincidentally I see that Experian wants to merge with ClearScore, the other big UK data company and, not surprisingly, some objections are being raised.