WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Wendyf]

We have been renewing house and car insurance recently and found that premiums for both are considerably lower than they have been for the past few years (apart from the companies we were insured with last year of course!).

[Stanley]

BET letters page has ignored my letter asking for a bit of reality in our MPs weekly 'Report from the House', never mind, they have some interesting letters so no room for mine.
News from my ladies in the Co-op after my letters to the two CEOs pointing out that they have failed miserably in the matter of getting me my tobacco the management has rung them and asked why they haven't been ordering my Green Condor. They have replied that their orders are ignored by the stock control programme. Could a delivery be in the offing?

[Tizer]

Car insurance premiums have been messed about by the EU equality legislation, supposedly raising them for women and lowering for men.

[Wendyf]

This is "Little John", a tiny miniature Shetland pony, at Trawden Show today. In 2010 a dog walker found him tied to a tree deep in a wood in Tyne & Wear, he had no food or water and was in poor condition, suffering from strangles, a nasty infectious disease. Rescued by HAPPA he is now out on loan to a new family and winning rosettes at shows!

[Stanley]

Wendy, lovely little animals. I once had about fifty black ones in the wagon and trailer, funniest load I ever carried.

[Marilyn]

Little John is so cute.

I have just looked out the front window and got riled again because the Asians with large sacks are rifling through the bins as usual scavenging stuff ( bin day tomorrow so some bins are already out).
They go all night at this activity. Son has seen groups of them with sacks and torches at 3am as he has been leaving for work.
It annoys me. I wish they could be stopped. We have three houses being built on the corner and as soon as the workers leave each day they turn up to scavenge bricks and timber etc. it is theft...the builder has to wear the losses.
One just rode by with a huge roll of electrical wire balanced precariously on the handle bars of his bike! That will be missed tomorrow. They steal anything not nailed down.

[Tizer]

Maz, do you not have anything like our Neighbourhood Watch schemes? If so, they could photograph the thieves carrying their loot and the others taking stuff out of bins, then email the photos to the police and the newspapers. On the other hand, you could consider the bin riflers as useful scavengers and let them get on with it. I could do with some of them around here to dispose of our rubbish - anything that can't go in the bins has to be taken to the council dump and, where we live, they charge us for leaving anything there.

[Tardis]

Supermarket wars:

Phil Dorgan, the former food retail analyst at Panmure Gordon, wrote last September that Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s, the quoted food giants, spent a staggering £34bn in the previous decade, to grow profits by only £1.7bn. In the past three years, they have blown £11bn to grow earnings by just £645m.

Tesco’s annual reports show that between 2003 and today it has spent an incredible £17.9bn in the UK, store numbers have leapt from 1,877 to 3,356 and it now takes £1 in nearly every £6 spent by UK shoppers. But could it have expected a better return than £1bn more in operating profit? Sainsbury’s has spent £10bn, and its profits have only gone up from £667m to £788m.

Who has paid for the expansion then?

[Bruff]

The Tennessee judge who by court order changed a seventh month old child's name from Messiah to Martin. I make no comment on this, save to note some of the interesting issues world wide with respect to the naming of children that various commentators have come up with on the back of the Tennessee judgement.

Apparently, back in 2008, a NZ judge struck down the name Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii, on the grounds that it made a fool of the child. The judge bemoaned this trend among parents, noting recent names like No 16 Bus Shelter (scene of conception?), Midnight Chardonnay (cause of conception?) and twins called Benson and Hedges (post-conception reward?) were similarly insulting. Germany has naming restrictions for obvious reasons.

I guess some naming 'restrictions' happen by default: few if any Sutcliffes I imagine would call their child Peter these days; nor any Wests Frederick

Richard Broughton

[Stanley]

Naming children is an interesting subject Richard. My first thought was the names that Native Americans gave their offspring. Second was the fact that when my daughter was naming her first child in the bosom of a Greek extended family she deliberately chose 'Holly' as a counterpoint to Alexandra. In the UK it doesn't matter because anyone can add another forename any time they want without taking any legal steps. My mind also goes to the occasional instances where those in charge of burial plots have to make rulings on what memorials are allowed. The biggest example I know of this was the adoption of standard grave stones in the war cemeteries after WW1. In that case for reasons I fully support. I think there have to be very good clear reasons when bureaucracy collides with personal choice.
What grabbed me yesterday was when I got into difficulties saving three hours work on one of the LTP transcripts. That's why 'Newton Edit' appeared on this site. I had to safeguard it in some way! It took me back to the Amstrad days when I realised that the work was in jeopardy!

[Marilyn]

Logging in problems again. Second try with this post...keeps asking me to log in again and again...

We had both an Earl and a Lord in our family. ( could never call a child Lord...I would feel somehow beneath the little tyke!)

[hartley353]

Woke up this morning with very stiff and sore legs. The glorious 12th is to now be removed from my calendar 12 miles tramping over moorland is a bit much these days, I have never seen my terriers so tired, they are still sleeping now. A pair of dressed Grouse can be had for £17.00 these days, that is the way to go.

[PanBiker]

I watched the Perseids meteor shower from my large NE facing Velux skylight at around 00.30 this morning. Skies were mainly clear and in about 20 minutes I saw 18. These ranged from streakers which skimmed right across the sky to straight in bursts of light as the meteors disintegrated in the upper atmosphere. The ones on straight approach were just like camera flashes. Spectacular, still worth looking tonight for the tail end Charlies if you have missed it so far. Quantratids is the next big one one in January.

[Tizer]

I'm pleased you saw so many meteors, Ian. I had a poor viewing and saw only one, and that a brief flash too far to one side of my line of sight to be of much interest. I was watching from 10.30 to about midnight and then again for half an hour around 3.00am. The sky was partly cloudy in the first period but with plenty of very clear areas, and was excellent for the later period with almost full visibility throughout. So, a good night for viewing...but not much luck for me!

The best meteor shower I've seen was in the 1980s, probably the Geminids, and from the M40 motorway near Stokenchurch. I was travelling home from London in the late evening and there was a beautiful sky full of stars and this was in the wonderful time when the M40 was still almost empty at night. I was the only car on that stretch of motorway and the sky in front of me became a shower of meteors. It felt as if I was driving into them, a bit like being in a spaceship and travelling through them in space...which is actually what we are doing, the spaceship being the Earth.

On the other hand, it wasn't all bad last night. I was lucky enough to see the International Space Station crossing the sky at around 11.00pm. I've seen it from near Land's End in Cornwall and once you've seen it you'll always recognise it in the future. Very bright, moving fast at a steady speed, in a straight line, constant luminance (i.e. not flashing therefore not an aircraft). By fast I don't mean like a meteor but fast enough to know that it's moving and not a star or a satellite in fixed orbit. When it passes behind thin cloud it's so bright that it lights up the cloud a bit like the moon does. You can find the times and dates for viewing it in your own locality from the NASA web site.

[PanBiker]

I saw it as well Tiz, crossed my line of sight at about 0.50 (just a guess, watching in total darkness). I should have switched my radio on to see if there was any activity from the crew.

[Tardis]

England (& Wales) beat the Australians to win The Ashes

[PostmanPete]

Just had a recorded message from Ticketmaster telling us that Neil Young & Crazy Horse have had to cancel their European tour Money being refunded but we were really looking forward to it

If it's any consolation Wendy, Graham Nash is giving a talk about his life and music on Saturday 12th October at the Kings Hall in Ilkley (part of the Ilkley Literature Festival)


http://www.ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk/whats-on/

[Wendyf]

Thank you Pete!
Must go and tell Col.....he's up on the roof....might not be the right moment!

[elise]

I have a friend who was a singer in a local group in the 60s who was on the same bill as Graham Nash a few times

[Wendyf]

In the Hollies era Elise? Crosby, Stills & Nash are playing Manchester Arena on October 12th....same night as Graham Nash is giving his afternoon talk at the Ilkley Festival. We saw them in Liverpool a couple of years ago and that was really special.....not sure if it would be same seeing them again so soon.

[Tardis]

The Law is filled with jargon that hides procedure

[PostmanPete]

Thank you Pete!
Must go and tell Col.....he's up on the roof....might not be the right moment!

I hope he doesn't cancel.........

[plaques]

Finally found out what was going on during the Heritage open days 2013.
A bit late but there you go.

http://visitburnley.com/wordpress/wp-co ... 13_Web.pdf

[Tizer]

I saw it as well Tiz, crossed my line of sight at about 0.50 (just a guess, watching in total darkness). I should have switched my radio on to see if there was any activity from the crew.

Ian, here is a page for International Space Station sightings from Preston for, starting 12th August 2013:

I suspect the moon might be too bright now but there's a chance at 9.23 this evening. The sightings data are from this NASA page:
http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sighting ... gvYZqx385Y

[Have you too noticed that the insert image and insert url boxes don't work?]

[PanBiker]

Must not have been the ISS then Tiz, I was looking NE directly at Perseus constellation. Must have been some other orbiter, probably in a low earth orbit by the speed that it crossed. Reminiscent of the amateur OSCAR satellites that had a 1.5 - 2min pass when on overhead. The early shuttle missions had similar orbits and were easily spotted.

Not noticed the url or image insert problem, will investigate.

Test Link




Seems to work for me.