WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

But the rewards are considerable...... Bit like living with a dog, when things go wrong you tear your hair and wonder why you do it. And then the buggers die.....
How, even though I do my best to make allowances, the evidence my eyes eyes give me is false and I can't saw straight! That's why, if possible, I do my sawing mechanically because that way I can guarantee the squareness of the cut.

[Marilyn]

Prince Phillip in hospital...

[Tripps]

I noticed that the National power demand at the moment, in the middle of a very sunny hot June day, is close to 40 GW. This is about the same as the peak December / January figure with its associated need for heating and lighting. That's a puzzle - do we have so many air conditioning units?

[Whyperion]

And Fans, people buy them in the Summer, then chuck them out in the winter.
41deg in the sun at Queens Club , Tennis, London

The Spectator considers that wind turbine is not that green (but looks at energy - which includes fuel for transport and cooking and space heating), mostly due to wildlife considerations and rare earth metals and pollution plus coal cost to make (new) steel blades etc

[Stanley]

They assure us it's not life-threatening Cathy. Something to do with his UTC evidently. Getting dehydrated at Ascot the day before might have exacerbated it. His, after all, 96.
What grabbed me was a telling phrase in the report on baby deaths (LINK) that revealed that in a quarter of the 1136 cases examined no assessment could be made because of the poor quality of the initial report. Just a few scribbled notes on a case file? The UK has the 2nd worst record in Europe, only exceeded by Malta.

[Tizer]

Tripps, just think of all the supermarkets and other big shops, factories, office blocks etc which are using air conditioning and it's been going full blast over these recent days.

[Stanley]

The fact that I woke after three hours sleep convinced I was not going to sleep again tonight. Most unusual! No sweat, I just got up and did interesting things. However I noted that my ears were a bit bunged up, a common thing for me (usually a sign I need to drink more water....) but as it was bad enough to affect my balance slightly I decided to take a Sudafed tablet, they usually help. Funny thing is that i noticed I also had a pack of Senokot! I can't for the life of me remember why I have them! I looked at the manufacturing date and it's January 2014 and expiry three years later. Maz would say they need chucking........

[Cathy]

Chuck'em Stanley, no point taking any chances.

Our Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us today that we now have 24.5 million people living in Australia. We have a (net) extra person every minute & 22 seconds, made up from births and international migration. Our population will rise to 25 million in early October 2018.

Onwards and upwards.

[Marilyn]

I can tell you, with some authority Stanley, that Sennakot ( however you spell it) do not work for bunged ears...only bunged REARS!
Increasing water intake helps with both though...

[chinatyke]

I can tell you, with some authority Stanley, that Sennakot ( however you spell it) do not work for bunged ears...only bunged REARS!
Increasing water intake helps with both though...

...and don't take it together with sleeping tablets!

[Stanley]

I knew that Maz, I was just commenting on how surprised I was to find them.
My local difficulty increased yesterday. The symptoms were exactly the same as two years ago last March when I flaked out in the butcher's shop. (also a Friday!) So I used my head and did nothing but look after myself. Whatever it was has passed but I'll give myself another easy day. Old age isn't for cissies! Nurse Susan comes this morning to see me......

[Tizer]

Stanley, have you had the doc check you recently to assess your type 2 diabetic or pre-diabetic state? It sounds like your blood glucose or blood pressure are wandering out of control.

The Grenfell Tower fire is having further ramifications. It emerges that the fridge-freezer that caught fire and started the blaze is a Hotpoint, and that brand now belongs to Whirlpool, the company that is in trouble for making millions of tumble dryers that have to be recalled due to fire risk. The dryers have started a lot of fires but the company is way behind with its recall. Now the fire brigade has raised concerns about fire doors and also the type of insulation used to envelop gas pipes in the tower blocks. The news reports on the exterior cladding of the tower are still confused, with many of them still mistakenly describing it as being a sandwich of insulation between aluminium panels. If the journalists would just take time to check instead of copying each other reports they'd find that the aluminium cladding (Reynobond) is not insulation, it's decorative and consists of a sandwich of solid polyethylene (which burns easily) between aluminium. The foam insulation is separate and fixed to the wall. The cladding is on the outside of the foam insulation and will be either directly on it (touching) or set further out (i.e. with a cavity between, which is where the chimney effect is thought to have contributed to the fire's ferocity).

The foam insulation now used in such situations is polyisocyanurate (PIR) which has a 0 fire rating (the best rating). This is the foam insulation used in 90% or more of modern houses. In the past polyurethane (PUR) has been used but PIR is more fire resistant. PIR panels char on the outside surface in a `normal' fire and this char layer prevents the bulk of the foam burning quickly. However in an intense fire such as occurs in tower blocks the very high temperatures reached at higher levels will probably burn the PIR like a fuel as well as generate toxic fumes. This is why it's supposed to be restricted to use only in buildings below 18 metres height. Of course, everyone concerned in the construction, renovation and management of Grenfell Tower is now blaming everyone else. "It's not my fault, gov, they didn't specify fire-proof, did they?"

[Stanley]

That thought had occurred to me Tiz but as I am on 6 monthly assessments now due to my age I am due any time now and will raise the matter with the nurse. Whatever it is, it is intermittent and I don't feel threatened. After all, something is going to get me shortly! I'd rather continue with my healthy aversion to doctors and pills which has served me well over the years than finish up like some who end up as walking pill boxes after chasing every quick fix. It's a fine balance and you takes your choice. I read Illich many years ago on iatrogenic disease and that has always influenced me!
Cladding. You're right, it's complicated. I had a very interesting conversation many years ago with an expert on destructive fires and learned a lot from him. One thing is certain, fires are very destructive beasts and the one thing I am convinced about is that the choice between 'passive' and 'active' fire precautions isn't an either or. No reason why both routes shouldn't be taken in tandem.
In passing, I have seen some images of the el cheapo methods used to retrofit the new gas distribution systems in the towers and they were definitely cutting corners!
Here's something I saw that comes under the 'best laid scheme go aft aglay' syndrome. When Coates built their new ink factory at Ellenroad the fire precautions were superb, even the internal telephones were mines safety standard to avoid sparks because on occasion they used some very volatile substances. But they forgot one small thing, they installed the normal fire alarm buttons by Gents where you break the glass. This of course opens the circuit in the alarm system and causes a spark. Luckily it was noticed and there was a last minute rethink! Bit like the final inspector's punch mark damaging the integrity of a part......

[Wendyf]

I would doubt if it your diabetes control, your blood sugar is unlikely to be low if you aren't on medication (Metformin alone won't give you a hypo) and high blood sugar doesn't affect the body in that way. I might be totally wrong of course!

[plaques]

Cyber attack on Parliaments MP's e-mails. Link. Thought to be a foreign government sponsored attack. Who in their right mind would want to bring their system down to our level?

[Tizer]

An interesting side issue with the Grenfell fire is the way the word `flammable' is used to describe materials - "It's `flammable' therefore it's not safe. Most non-mineral materials are flammable given the necessary condition - very high temperature, higher than normal oxygen level, strong draught of air, contact with more flammable materials etc. This is why PIR foam insulation is safe when used internally in a low building and clad with gypsum plasterboard, or externally in a low building and clad with mineral board. In high buildings a fire can reach much higher temperatures and cause a very high draught of air, like the `fire storms' triggered by incendiary bombing. The usual reason why PIR foam insulation is used is that it gives a much better thermal insulation performance than mineral wool and it's needed in order to reach the obligatory U value (a measure of heat transfer) demanded by Building Regs. The outer cladding (the decorative aluminium sandwich) could have been used with a mineral filling because it isn't insulation.

[Stanley]

One thing seems obvious to me. The present policy of Fire Brigades advising evacuation seems to have a hint of overkill. Nothing is 100% safe.....
That's my thinking as well Wendy. I think it's something that occasionally goes awry in my body but it doesn't last long and can be managed with common sense.
For what it's worth, Hamilton is right to say that Vettel's driving was a disgrace. Quite clear that he deliberately nudged Hamilton and the race controller agreed, penalising Vettel with a ten second stop and go. The loose headrest cost Lewis the race, never seen it happen before.

[Cathy]

From our ABS 2016 Census
For the first time in history the majority of Australians born overseas are from Asia not Europe.
Melbourne is growing faster than Sydney and fast becoming Australia's most populous city.
Australia has developed a case of middle - aged - spread. People aged 65 and over now make up 16% of the population. Those aged 85 plus number half a million.
More than one - quarter of Australians are now born overseas, with England remaining the dominant single source of expatriates.
Almost 1/2 of all Australians are either born overseas or have one parent born overseas.

[Stanley]

Interesting stuff Cathy. My dad of course moved the opposite way and two of my daughters went to Oz. Only one now of course, Margaret in Perth. All my grand children bar one are in Australia. Actually I tell a lie because Yiota is living in Cardiff for a year and visits me next Sunday so at the moment that's what is attracting my attention!

[Tizer]

Cathy, what little I know about Australia's history comes from reading Bill Bryson's book `Down Under' about his visits there. I seem to recall him saying that in the early days Melbourne was large and Sydney was small, so perhaps they are reverting to their original size relationship. Incidentally, I enjoyed the book - some history and geography, leavened with plenty of humour.

[Stanley]

One of the good things about Australian history is that the modern era is so recent. When I was extracting my dad's story out of him it was fascinating. Here's one incident when he ran away from home and joined an expedition to cross the Dead Heart using Afghans and camels. (I know that his later stories about the war were legends but the early sections of his story all check out.) Here's an incident near the half way point of the trip from NSW to Darwin.....

"Next morning when we got up one of the camels was gone. Now this was a very serious matter because it meant dumping some of our supplies or somebody having to walk. The man that was in charge said to Thompson “If we let them get away with this, before we get through their territory, they’ll have taken all our camels, the best thing we can do is to give ‘em a lesson.” Thompson said “Well, I don’t know anything about that, I’m leaving that in your hands.” So he said “Right, we’ll deal with it.” These fellows went out and they rounded these blacks up, mind you, they’d done nothing else only pinch the camel for some food, but they rounded them up and they shot about half of them. Well that got rid of the blacks, they didn’t bother us any more but I’ve since thought that it’s no wonder that the blacks hate us when we take such drastic action against them as that fellow did that morning."

They were indeed, different times.

[plaques]

Google news has changed its format, everything seems to be US based. Getting local ie: UK news, business etc involves a separate search. Am I doing something wrong, if not I don't like what they have done

[Tripps]

Not just me then. Let us know when you find the answer. probably just sheer spite after being fined 2 x DUP bungs yesterday.

[Tizer]

Bryson tells how many of the expeditions in the 1800s would run out of water and almost always ended up drinking their own urine. He coaxed one of his pals to join him on a trip across Australia after telling him the many stories of expeditions. When they were landing at an airfield from which their trip would begin the friend leant over to him and said quietly: "Bill, I want you to know that if it comes to the crunch you can have my urine". At the end of the trip they relaxed in a hotel beside the pool and his friend went to the bar. He returned, put two beers down on the table and said: "Sorry about that Bill, they didn't have any urine."

[plaques]

Tripps, ref Google news. The best I could do was to go to the new News and in the bottom 'Manage Sections' , Added three more items. UK Business News, UK Politics. UK Health. I could have added a lot more but it was a matter of getting the right heading to show the content I wanted. I'm not into football so to call up 'UK Newspapers' would lumber me too much football headlines. I will take advice from other suggestions. I hid the recommended Sport and entertainment sections. All one big ball ache that I could do without.