WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Cathy]

Maybe Ian.

[chinatyke]

Not seen any mention here Cathy.
Wuhan, the source of the present flu outbreak has more inhabitants than London. 11 million as opposed to 8.5 million in London. We forget how many people there are in China!

There are cities in China that are unknown to most people in the west but have more people than London!
Wuhan is in lock-down with no people allowed to depart by air or train. This comes in the middle of the great migration period where millions of people go home to spend New Year with their families. My wife has gone home to spend time with her mum and eldest sister who is over from New Mexico. I'm on chicken watch!

[Stanley]

Don't catch anything nasty off them China!

[Stanley]

See THIS NPR report of Trump's latest roll back of environmental protection in the US.
This quote says it all; "a move that is welcomed by many farmers, builders and mining companies but is opposed even by the agency's own science advisers. "
Is anything safe as far as this man is concerned?

[Stanley]

The continuing saga of failings in maternity units. What is revealed is terrible but the vast majority of births are not like that. It must be very worrying for mothers to be all over the country and most of those worries are unfounded.
Trump attending an anti abortion rally. Regardless of his personal beliefs he is President and this is dangerous. How long before reversal of Roe v. Wade reaches the Supreme Court?

[Big Kev]

The email from the new CEO at Sonos, this follows the story that certain older Sonos products will stop working this year forcing customers to replace them..

We heard you. We did not get this right from the start. My apologies for that and I wanted to personally assure you of the path forward:

First, rest assured that come May, when we end new software updates for our legacy products, they will continue to work just as they do today. We are not bricking them, we are not forcing them into obsolescence, and we are not taking anything away. Many of you have invested heavily in your Sonos systems, and we intend to honour that investment for as long as possible. Whilst legacy Sonos products won’t get new software features, we pledge to keep them updated with bug fixes and security patches for as long as possible. If we run into something core to the experience that can’t be addressed, we’ll work to offer an alternative solution and let you know about any changes you’ll see in your experience.

Secondly, we heard you on the issue of legacy products and modern products not being able to coexist in your home. We are working on a way to split your system so that modern products work together and get the latest features, whilst legacy products work together and remain in their current state. We’re finalising details on this plan and will share more in the coming weeks.

Whilst we have a lot of great products and features in the pipeline, we want our customers to upgrade to our latest and greatest products when they’re excited by what the new products offer, not because they feel forced to do so. That’s the intent of the Trade Up programme we launched for our loyal customers.

Thank you for being a Sonos customer. Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback. I hope that you’ll forgive our misstep and let us earn back your trust. Without you, Sonos wouldn't exist and we’ll work harder than ever to earn your loyalty every single day.

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
Patrick

Patrick Spence
CEO, Sonos

[Wendyf]

I was listening to that story on R4 You and Yours yesterday lunchtime Kev, has the email arrived since then?

[Big Kev]

I was listening to that story on R4 You and Yours yesterday lunchtime Kev, has the email arrived since then?

Yes Wendy, it was in my mailbox just after 02:00 this morning. I think they upset a few people with the original announcement.

[Stanley]

What exactly is Sonos?
I've been furtling and found THIS so now I am up to speed. I can see why people would be upset when a perfectly serviceable speaker or other piece of equipment is rendered useless. I don't think I have any......

[Big Kev]

What exactly is Sonos?
I've been furtling and found THIS so now I am up to speed. I can see why people would be upset when a perfectly serviceable speaker or other piece of equipment is rendered useless. I don't think I have any......

I have two Sonos Play 3, which aren't on the 'obsolete' list but the Connect (the module that plugs into my 'traditional' hifi) is on it. I still have the original CR200 Controller and Bridge in a cupboard but stopped using them a couple of years ago, these are also on the list. The cost of replacing the Connect was around 400USD and the new device had a lot of features I would never use.
The Bridge had an ethernet connection to my router and had it's own wifi mesh which, when used with the Controller, provided it's own isolated wireless network. Unfortunately this was unreliable in thick walled stone houses, I use an old mobile phone to control the system now on the home wifi.

[Stanley]

A long way from my level Kev!
I am listening to the coverage of the Chinese Virus and one medical man, I think from the Welcome Institute made an interesting point. He said that if the same publicity was given to 'normal' winter seasonal flu people would get very worried as the number of sufferers and deaths would be far higher than this 'new' virus. That's an interesting observation that brings things into perspective.... It isn't as though this virus is actually new, there are evidently many other examples of the Coronavirus.
Food for thought!

[Tizer]

Information on coronaviruses from the US CDC: LINK

[Tripps]

The floor show at the care centre this afternoon was this gent - very appropriate for Burns night.

Black Watch.jpg

If you're having a piper, go for the best -

He's a Pipe Major (W.O.Class 1) from the Black Watch, and looked magnificent. He played lots of stuff including memorably, 'She moved to the Fair'. Why do I get emotional on such occasions - no idea? I don't have any Scottish blood at all. The whisky bottle was passed around at half time - appreciated by the residents.

I had a word with hm afterwards - he's actually a Geordie. I now know why the Black Watch have square cut spats.

[Wendyf]

Just go steady on the whisky! Took me days to recover from my first Burns Supper in Scotland and years till I could enjoy a wee dram again. Still love a bit of Burns especially "Sic a wife as Willie had".

[Stanley]

As you probably remember, I served with the Black Watch in Berlin. Have they changed the regimental tartan?



It was this when I was with them, said to be the Grant Hunting tartan originally.
I once attended Burns night at the Tarbolton Bachelor's Club, never to be forgotten!

[Tizer]

Javid's having another go at getting the Boris Brexit coin circulated. They had to melt down the previous million with the old date on. I wonder if we'll see `modified' versions circulated after treatment by remainers, like those done by the suffragettes?
`Brexit day 50p coin unveiled by Chancellor Sajid Javid' 50p

`The Shetland dog models whose photoshoots can stop traffic' Dogs

[Tripps]

Have they changed the regimental tartan?

I must say had some doubts about his 'bona fides' when I first came into the room. I have even more now. This constant scepticism is a bit of a curse. . Someone asked him about the tartan, and he said it was 'Royal Stewart' and was worn with the express permission of the Queen.

I wondered why this obviously top man in his field didn't have a better 'gig' on Burns night than the one he was appearing at - and so far from Scotland. We usually get Elvis impersonators, or the lady harpist, or schoolchildren singing. All most welcome of course, but not the same calibre.

Still - let's suspend all doubt and accept it for what it was - a magnificent and memorable occasion. I'll ask a few discrete questions next week though.

[Big Kev]

More on the smart motorways. I found out that eight people have died so far as a result of having to stop in a live lane. Fastest fatality apparently was only 17 seconds after suffering a breakdown. In all cases the cars could not reach a refuge area.

38 deaths in the last 5 years
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-51236375

[Stanley]

David, scepticism and curiosity are some of the best servants we have. We may find uncomfortable truths at times but overall, lead fuller lives!
BCG!
Er, that's it....

[Marilyn]

I really enjoy watching Jane McDonald on her cruises. Such a down to earth character. She must love her job.
Wakefield lass...

[Tizer]

We've just had a food delivery from a supermarket and the driver was complaining about the firm's `pickers' who put the goods in the boxes that he delivers. He says they make daft `alternative' choices and said how someone had ordered a victoria sponge but they were out of stock and she was sent a car washing sponge as a replacement!

[Tripps]

scepticism and curiosity are some of the best servants we have.

Well I agree, and I've got plenty of both. For example I am immediately sceptical about Tizer's tale above. Sounds like an urban myth to me. Harmless though.

[Tizer]

Like you I'm sceptical about that specific story but I do know that the supermarkets tend to stretch the meaning of `replacement' in deliveries!

Now this isn't an urban myth and it probably doesn't surprise any of us...
`Grenfell Tower fire: Inquiry told firms 'deny responsibility'' LINK
`None of the companies involved in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower has accepted responsibility for the deadly fire, an inquiry has heard. Richard Millett QC, the inquiry's chief lawyer, said each claimed what happened was "someone else's fault"....Mr Millett said that, with the "sole exception" of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea - which accepted that the refurbishment work should not have been signed off - all organisations had denied responsibility in "carefully crafted statements". "Any member of the public reading those statements and taking them all at face value would be forced to conclude that... nobody made any serious or causative mistakes," he said. "In every case, what happened was, as each of them would have it, someone else's fault."....

[Tripps]

Well - I've found the piper, and answered some of my questions. I'll ask no more. Looks like everyone else thinks as highly of him as I did. The photo has had 91 views that's a lot.
Good luck to him.

The Cambridge Piper

[Stanley]

The fact that the BCG is working, it must be, lousy 12 hours.
However, I remembered something I heard on R4 in a programme on waste reclamation. The informant said that in the case of clothes with mixed fibre content like cotton/polyester they could separate the fibres but it was too expensive and therefore uneconomical. Then he said that by accident there was an exception. They had found a way to dismantle a cotton garment sewn with poly thread. You just microwave it and all the stitching dissolves! I thought this might help our seamstresses?