WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

The fact that I mustn't forget that tomorrow is pin-cushion day. Jack gets his annual jabs at 11:20 and will see his favourite woman, Gillian Marsh. I get my flu jab at 12:20 at the surgery, they're in good time this year! Have you noticed how the chemists have been pushing for you to have the flu jab with them? It must pay well! I shall support the surgery! This might be the reason why the doctors are getting in early this year, it's usually in November.

[Big Kev]

Interesting you should mention that, I received this last week:

This is Barnoldswick Medical Centre. Please BE AWARE - Pharmacies are NOT doing flu jabs on our behalf. We encourage you to have your jab with us as we have access to your full medical record. Thank you.
barnoldswickmc@nhs.net

[PanBiker]

I believe the surgery orders up and buys in enough vaccine for the patients on their list. if folk wander off and get it done at the chemists there is no feedback to the surgery and they get left with unused vaccines. The chemists service is still valuable if you are not eligible for the shot on the NHS, I would gladly pay for mine if I had to. Mine is on the 21st this year a couple of days after my next blood donation, it may have put the mockers on that if it was a tad earlier, good job the surgeries are on a Saturday.

[Stanley]

When I got my last batch of Metformin at the chemists they offered me the jab but I told the young lady hard luck love, I am having it across the road!
On a similar subject.... I don't know whether it is a consequence of old age but I get junk mail by post which has the NHS logo on it offering me eye tests, hearing tests and free delivery of prescriptions. You have to read the blurb carefully to detect that this is not in fact an NHS service but private enterprise trying to get your custom.

[Wendyf]

Our vehicle breakdown cover is due to expire and we have just received an email from Startrescue giving us a discount for being a regular customer, making cover cheaper than last year!!

[Stanley]

That's a result!
I mentioned yesterday that the fact my flywheel wanted painting was nattering me. I got up after my afternoon sleep and decided that action would cure it.



One coat of smooth black Hammerite.

[Big Kev]

I like that.

[Big Kev]

Our vehicle breakdown cover is due to expire and we have just received an email from Startrescue giving us a discount for being a regular customer, making cover cheaper than last year!!

That's a result, shame that car insurance isn't the same.

[Stanley]

The redundancies at BAE Wharton and Samlesbury and the continuing penalty tariff imposed by the US Commerce Department on Bombardier to protect Boeing. Cries for the British government to step in and protest on the Canadian company's behalf because of the factory in Ireland but forget it, Boeing control so much of the avionics used in both fighting and commercial aircraft that we daren't upset them!

[Stanley]

Some time ago I received a letter from Lancashire County Council offering me a one to one consultation on benefit entitlement. I got a call yesterday morning and it was a nice young man from the Council responding to my application. I wanted to take advice because of the changes in my circumstances, I needed to be absolutely certain that I was still entitled to Council Tax relief and Income Credit. He was very thorough, we went through all the circumstances and sources of income and he assured me that I was perfectly legal and in receipt of all that I was entitled to. Further he alerted me to the fact that if my physical condition deteriorates I will be eligible for a contribution towards care.
There is so much going wrong in the benefits system at the moment it's nice to be able to report on something that is useful and working well.
I don't normally give much credence to anything the Daily Express says but I think that THIS merits some serious attention. Apart from the dangers of any eruption locally in the Islands, this volcano has been cited often as a major threat to both the US and the UK as there is a fear that at some point the whole of the seaward side of the volcano could collapse into the sea causing a mega-tsunami. Worth keeping an eye on!

[Tizer]

There's no news about earthquakes or volcanoes in the Canaries coming out of The British Geological Survey or the US Geological Survey at the moment and they both give warnings worldwide about such events.

[Stanley]

Good. As I said, I don't trust the Express and they are notorious news chasers but I have seen this possibility raised before in credible reports. I still think it's worth taking note of. Remember the little lad who cried 'wolf' too often but in the end he was right..... (I note that the Express are forecasting a hurricane on Monday......)
The main event for me was the successful running of my latest engine. I have a few finishing touches to add and then I can start looking for a home for it! I have too many bloody engines!

[Tizer]

One of the original sources of that Pa Palma volcano/earthquake/tsunami story was a hazard analysis company in the UK that aims to sell its data to big companies and governments. Possibly not free of bias? A team of scientists monitors the events in the Canaries and they know there are more earthquakes at the moment, but then we're seeing more earthquake activity worldwide at present.

I've had my tax return from HMRC stating how much I've got to pay them. It's wrong. The first sentence in the letter perhaps shows why - it says: "We have not checked your return....". They want to grab the money before they've done any work to confirm whether it's due to them or not.

[Tripps]

The main event for me was the successful running of my latest engine. I have a few finishing touches to add and then I can start looking for a home for it! I have too many bloody engines!

What would you take for it? I have just the spot for it. Send me a private message.

DT.

[Stanley]

I've PMed you David....
I was watching Antiques Road Trip last night and one of the items for sale was a nameplate off a Robey Boiler. Their trademark was Hero's Aeolopile superimposed on an image of the world.



The expert said the Aeolopile was made by Archimedes in Alexandria not often they get it wrong. While I was looking it up to check I had it right I found a reference to a 'Heron Engine', they got it wrong as well, it was Hero of Alexandria.

[Tripps]

Thanks for the PM's - I quite understand.


Noted from 'teaser' clips that Andrew Marr of the BBC had been granted an interview with Hilary Clinton. My immediate thought was - Oh she must have written a new book - why else would she speak to him?

Seems I was right - What Happened

Why is it OK for the BBC to plug without mercy - books, films. music, theatres etc, even on flagship programmes such as Today, but cover up brand names such as Kellogs? If they charged to going rate for the publicity they could cut the Licence fee. For me the BBC has become the very last choice for listening / viewing.

[plaques]

Hillary Clinton, 'What Happened'.


History will be kind to me, I intend to write it. Winston Churchill.

A lie will travel halfway round the world before the truth has got its pants on. Winston Churchill.

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. Karl Marx.

[Stanley]

I know what you mean David. but I am still addicted to Radio 4.
What grabbed me was the case of the Canadian 'pilgrim' who took his family to Afghanistan and suffered for five years. My crap detector is whining and I agree with the lady's father who said it was unforgivable to have taken his pregnant wife there in the first place. Something very strange about the whole episode.....

[Tizer]

The news media still seem to think the Weinstein trouble is the most important subject for our attention and give it top billing in the news reports. They live in their own little bubble.

[Stanley]

The mass media is always over exposed by the mass media! How long before the example of Weinstein is used against Trump!
Doing something else in the shed that wasn't engine related. A change is as good as a rest!

[Tizer]

I'm gobsmacked by this advert which appears on the Quooker web site and on the front page of at least one major UK newspaper this morning. It promotes the company's taps which deliver 100C boiling water on demand. Just imagine kids playing with that! They don't know the danger until it's too late and they get scalded badly. Is there no-one in the company with enough nous to say that ad is unacceptable? And likewise at the newspaper that has published it on a front page. (I doubt that young kids delve into OGFB so it should be safe here!)

[chinatyke]

Perhaps the ad is designed to show that the unit is so safe even a kid can use it. Like you say: not a good idea. Also shown, he is putting boiling water into ice cold glasses. If you were demonstrating that to a class of kids I'd guess it would have to be done behind a safety screen and with the demonstrator and kids wearing safety specs.

[PanBiker]

With the absence of another tap, one would assume that this one vends cold as well.

Just looked at the website and it claims that it is safe due to a childproof valve which controls the switch to hot.

Still not a good idea though for a domestic sink. £600 worth of a bad idea as well.

[chinatyke]

I guess the clue is that it isn't steaming! I missed that.

[PanBiker]

On another safety matter, I have been following developments in the case of the bloke accused of tampering with his wife's parachute in an effort to get rid of her according to the prosecution. Her main and reserve chutes failed and she only survived (with multiple injuries) by landing in a ploughed field. The evidence presented features the use (or misuse of "SLinks") which are safety fasteners used to connect the parachute lines to the webbing harness risers.

I had never heard of these so I went off on a web search to learn more, eventually YouTube surfing a number of parachute safety and packing videos to see how it should all work. The SLink, (soft link) can be a cord type device which when fitted correctly provides a self tightening and locked multi loop knot, or a metal screw locked carabiner can be used to connect the lines to the webbing. It is the efficacy of the former cord type device that is in question in this case. What I gleaned from a simple search and half an hour on YouTube is pretty damning for the defence I would think (supported by manufacturers evidence). They stated in evidence yesterday that the company, Performance Designs had supplied over 75,000 sets of 4 Slinks for use on main canopies with only two reported failures of individual Slinks and no failures at all with Slinks fitted to any reserve chutes worldwide.

The prosecution points out that the Slinks in question here were actually in place but undone from two of the four risers for the reserve chute.

Here's how they should be fitted.

[BBvideo=560,315]https://youtu.be/fBX0ed2yE50[/BBvideo]

They don't come undone on their own.