WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

The major event yesterday was the return of my old rocking chair looking very smart and unbelievably improved. They stripped it and completely rebuilt it and did a good job. I haven't given it an extended test flight yet, I shall do that this morning and bugger the Shed! I moved the replacement wing backed chair into the front room and funnily enough, there feels to be more room now there is an extra chair. Very good for my back and knees, great improvement on the slumped position on the sofa. Jack has adapted well. He approves the rocker, he's asleep in there at the moment. He isn't phased at all by not being able to lie next to me on the sofa, he's appropriated it for his personal throne and alternates between ends as the fancy takes him. He must like it, he declined coming to bed with me last night but stayed there in front of the stove. The improvements weren't cheap, but I never thought they would be, craftsmen and women are worth their corn! Big improvement, now what I have to do is concentrate on economy and the household mint and repair the hole in the Burial Fund! (Susan has told me to keep them clean so they are in good nick when she inherits them....)

[Bruff]

Well Sir Fred Goodwin is now plain Fred Goodwin. Have to say I don't agree with this. As various commentators have noted, one usually gets stripped of one's honourific when one has broken the law or somesuch, but all poor old Fred has done is make a complete pig's ear of things. As we all have on occasions. Far better just to hold him up as someone not perhaps as capable as we are all led to believe these 'Masters of the Universe' generally are. One further pillar of the necessity of dynastic reward for such people kicked away then.

Richard Broughton

[Callunna]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-1539151 ... QB,1Z54L,1

Clicking on the above URL revealed that I was the 76,421,647,876th person to have ever lived and when I was born I was the 2,897,403,125th person on the planet.

Lots of fascinating population facts and figures such as: Earth’s population has more than doubled since 1960 and more than tripled since 1940.

[PanBiker]

Being on my own for the first time with my 3 week old Grandson Finlay. Mums gone on town shopping, he's been tanked up and I have just rocked him off to sleep. Magic!

[Stanley]

Exercise, food and sleep. Never fails! Problem is it is ephemeral...
Richard, I agree. Far better to look at the whole subject of 'honours'. Too often they are a quid pro quo and not a meaningful recognition of service. There was a move at one time to adopt the French model and have just one reward, perhaps the Order of Merit, for all recipients, regardless of their position in the hierarchy. I would support that as a meaningful step away from 'class' and towards a more equitable society. Regardless of protests to the contrary we are still using a hangover from the feudal system in the 21st century.
How lucky I am to have a warm house and control of my heating. My thoughts go out to those who are not in that fortunate position, their will be many people shivering today through no fault of their own. Same problem that has faced the poor since time immemorial. Progress?

[Tardis]

Installation of a new zebra crossing on Kelbrook road.

Hopefully the document is attached from LCC:

[PanBiker]

This was yesterday but I forgot to post the activity around town with the CCTV infrastructure. Cherry Picker outside PO Buildings on CCTV pole there and guy on Cherry Picker at Police Station plate antenna. Ladders up in Town Square as well, looks like some kind of upgrade was going on. Was this reported at some point as being on the cards, seem to remember something maybe from Tardis before Christmas. It is to be hoped that someone is monitoring them if they are going to all the trouble of an upgrade.

[Stanley]

I'd be a lot more impressed with the town CCTV if I thought it was getting better than the national average of 15% of footage actually monitored. Has anyone ever given comparative figures for Barlick?
CEO of Compare the Market on R4 talking about the success of Sergei and Alexander. He said the genesis of the campaign was research that showed people remember 'compare' but had problems with 'market'. Brilliant solution and long may the campaign continue.
I have noted the closure of Flourish on Newtown and was musing on the organic nature of the relative success of certain shops in certain locations. I once asked a bank executive in the US how they decided on the location of new branches and he said they always placed them as near to the local RC church as possible. Not applicable to Barlick of course but it got me to wondering what the underlying influences in Barlick are. I haven't any definite theories but it did occur to me that there was a certain critical mass influenced by things like banks and post offices and that the success or failure of a town centre might be more fragile than we think. All I am sure of is that closures of services will not help. One reason why we should watch things carefully. A new supermarket might not be the greatest danger.

[Tardis]

The cherry picker did all the cctv in the town, as I also saw him do the ones outside the police station later.

CCTV is only watched if "something happens", from what I can gather.

[Tardis]

Bob Peston appears to have put his "impartial" beeboid foot in his mouth:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/ ... o?tw_p=twt

Maybe, finally he is to leave the beeb

[Tizer]

...or maybe it's just a journalist doorstepping him on a bad day when his heating system has broken down and he doesn't need yet another problem! And it's pretty difficult to be impartial when you're having to deal with bankers who seem to live on another planet.

[Stanley]

I'd just like to place on record the fact that I think we are lucky to have the BBC.


Just snapped this in the back street. Are they all going home? Or do they know something we don't! Had a word with the postie (Hubby of BB) and he said he'd seen it once before and that it had turned out it was a plane circling to enable a radar check to be made. Circling waiting to land at Leeds/Bradford? Surely too high up. Intriguing, anyone got any ideas?

[Tripps]

Have a look on here next time, and you may get some clues. Be quick though because it is in real time.

http://www.flightradar24.com/

[catgate]

This makes interesing reading and also gives food for thought.

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=42352

[PanBiker]

Have a look on here next time, and you may get some clues. Be quick though because it is in real time.

http://www.flightradar24.com/

Nice site Tripps, you can also see air traffic data from the previous 16 days if you click the playback button. You can set the date and time for replay.

[One Carleton Gal]

The lovely frost in Barnoldswick x

[Stanley]

Welcome to the site Sally. So nice to have a proper name to respond to!
What grabbed me was the rise in the price of farmland as it is seen as a safe investment in these troubled times. They mentioned £10,000 an acre for agricultural land. I have a friend at Kelso who bought his land pre WW2 when it was rock bottom, perhaps as low as £25 an acre. He has about 3,000 acres and I remember working out his worth when land hit £1,000 an acre. He is certainly a man of wealth now! Problem is of course that the market rent must be enormous and this will eventually feed back into food prices.

[Tizer]

What grabbed my attention is all these `Has thanked' and `Been thanked' numbers showing up under members' avatars - at least all except Sally above and me. Sally has the excuse of only just joining, but I've been loafing here for yonks. The truth is I just can't get motivated about that kind of box ticking. I thank people directly in posts when appropriate and I don't look to see if anyone has ticked a box about me. I'm not trying to be awkward, it's simply that this sort of box ticking makes it seem like we're all thanking each other to see who gets the biggest numbers (a bit like bankers' bonuses, as I've just written on the `beware the bankers' thread). I'm sure OGFB members are not like that and would only send `thank you' ticks if they really meant it, but I still don't feel comfortable with it. Can I be awkward, I wonder (`what's new' I hear you say!) and remove the `Has thanked' and `Been thanked' from under my avatar - or maybe only Doc can do it, or perhaps it's obligatory. Will I get sacked for not `thanking'? Will Tizer become Tizer?

[Twinkletoes]

Snow, and lots of it!

[catgate]

What grabbed my attention is all these `Has thanked' and `Been thanked' numbers showing up under members' avatars - at least all except Sally above and me. Sally has the excuse of only just joining, but I've been loafing here for yonks. The truth is I just can't get motivated about that kind of box ticking. I thank people directly in posts when appropriate and I don't look to see if anyone has ticked a box about me. I'm not trying to be awkward, it's simply that this sort of box ticking makes it seem like we're all thanking each other to see who gets the biggest numbers (a bit like bankers' bonuses, as I've just written on the `beware the bankers' thread). I'm sure OGFB members are not like that and would only send `thank you' ticks if they really meant it, but I still don't feel comfortable with it. Can I be awkward, I wonder (`what's new' I hear you say!) and remove the `Has thanked' and `Been thanked' from under my avatar - or maybe only Doc can do it, or perhaps it's obligatory. Will I get sacked for not `thanking'? Will Tizer become Tizer?

I am exactly of the same opinion, Tizer. It smacks too much of "Have a nice day y'all!"
I am also wondering about the "number of Post" log and the way News Hound is outstripping Stanley 2:1.

edit:- Also there is the "Progress to next rank:" rating. Is there going to be a gold medal or an MBE at the end of it all.

[Stanley]

The 'thanks' facility can save a post but show you've read and approved. Personal preference I suppose. Nowt wrong with 'good day' as long as you mean it.
What grabbed me was losing my TV signal early in the evening. Funnily enough, Channel 4 survived the longest! Either I have had terminal failure or, more likely I suspect, the dish, mounted on the west side of the chimney stack to be as unobtrusive as possible, has been covered by drifting snow. Still off this morning. I shall survive!

[Stanley]

Popped back in to report that whilst doing my stove duties I switched the TV on and we have a signal again. I suspect it was something as simple as snow building up on the detector. Funny thing is that last night, though the TV was AWOL, the radio signal was OK.

[Tizer]

Catty, perhaps accumulating all those numbers appeals to the puzzle fanatics who enjoy OGFB? I'll continue being old-fashioned and and using the word `thanks'. And instead of pressing buttons to thank Doc I pay my subs to support his wonderful endeavours (well Mrs Tiz pays, if I'm honest!).

[Tardis]

Catty, perhaps accumulating all those numbers appeals to the puzzle fanatics who enjoy OGFB? I'll continue being old-fashioned and and using the word `thanks'. And instead of pressing buttons to thank Doc I pay my subs to support his wonderful endeavours (well Mrs Tiz pays, if I'm honest!).

I hope that I have volunteered

[Doc]

Looking out of the window at the cottonwool like fog covering Barnoldswick, Kelbrook and Foulridge.


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