WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

Not noticed any posting problems here. Good job because of the number I'm posting for the LTP.
A call from Margaret at home and recovering. All well so far.....

[Tizer]

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.

I think you said it was timed about 0.50. The following screenshot lists the brightest satellites passing over Barlick in the first hour on the morning of 13th August 2013. You might find a likely candidate there, depending on direction, azimuth etc.
I got the list from the Heavens Above web site where you can enter your location in various ways - I used the map and found Barlick. Then click on `Daily predictions for brighter satellites' and set it to the day you want and a.m. or p.m.

http://www.heavens-above.com/


[The problem with the Insert image/URL box has affected me for a couple of weeks but I've been entering the img and url codes manually to get around it. So, it's not a problem for me but would be if I didn't know the codes]

[Stanley]

Few things annoy a snapper with good visual recall more than not being able to find an image. Normally my file naming system gets me out of trouble but I found I wanted an image of me indicating Bancroft engine. I knew I had one somewhere but couldn't find it. Last night it dawned on me that as I was fully occupied when I was indicating, it must be someone else's picture and I remembered a photography student once coming to do a day's snapping and giving me prints afterwards. So this morning I went digging in the boxes of prints in the archive and after a while found the pics in one of the boxes. I realised then that when I was digitising my negs and some foreign prints I'd missed these and never scanned them. So I fired up the old IBM and scanner and settled down to some scanning. About an hour later I had 22 pics captured and on a pen drive so I am a happy bunny!



Here's one of them. How young I looked then! I was struck yet again by the way the old Aptiva chugged away and is still faster than many modern machines. Truly, nobody ever got fired for ordering IBM!

[Cathy]

Fine looking chap Stanley, bit would not have realised it was you.

[Tardis]

The Film Jason and the Argonauts with the Ray Harryhausen animation is 50 years old today

[Stanley]

It's the mileage Cathy!
The strange goings on at Balcombe where people are protesting against something that isn't happening as no fracking is going on and could only do so if a separate permission was sought. The leader of the parish council said that most of the protagonists weren't local. That figures, it has every indication of a concert party. Funny thing is they are all energy users but protesting against ensuring their supply....
I can't help reflecting on the fact that most of the North suffered the 19th century equivalent of the worst effects of fracking and large areas are still scarred. Nothing to do with Balcombe of course but a sign of the different age we live in. Perhaps the key is the fact that the people affected then had no time or means to protest on this scale and simply had to suffer the consequences.

[Stanley]

Two matters, both connected with letters. The first was a letter from the Co-op apologising (more grovelling actually!) for the long fight over my Condor Green tobacco. "This has been investigated by our Buying and Merchandising Departments and I am delighted to be able to advise that the product has been restored to the store's range and will be stocked on a permanent basis".
I knew things were stirring in the woods because my Ladies told me they had been rung by the management asking why they hadn't ordered the tobacco. They pointed out that they had but had been ignored.... So we shall see if this is a solution.

The second matter is that the BET published a letter I sent a fortnight ago, I was beginning to wonder if there was some bias in their selection.... By the way, Stephenson's column this morning was headed "Sunny Days Make People Happier" and was a paean of praise for the governments 'successful' economic policy. Here's what I wrote:

"Thank you for a particularly good letters page on the 26th July. Peter Wolfenden's letter in defence of us carnivores was a pertinent and useful balance to Mr Stuttard's letter associating animal cruelty with the eating of meat. I can vouch personally that there is more compassion and understanding amongst those responsible for animal care than he thinks. Mr Wolfenden was perhaps correct in wondering how much experience Mr Stuttard has in the field.
I sympathise with Simon Dean whose letter on the unequal society ticked all the boxes and Frank Neal's letter defending the pensioners. The thing that struck me was the gulf between Mr Stephenson's weekly dose of Tory rhetoric and the reality observed by Messrs Dean and Neal. To say that the unemployment statistics “... bodes well for the months ahead” is either reckless optimism or a cynical disregard for the truth. I hope he reads Simon Dean's letter and realises that reality will trump rhetoric in any meaningful election campaign. My own view is that we are served better by a lively letters page than political spin wherever it originates from.
The truth is that working class incomes fall week by week. Mr Dean is right to ask how many of these 'jobs' return a living wage. We are faced with over £10 billion of cuts in the next financial year. Austerity is with us for at least another ten years. All this and the effects of the benefit cuts have not yet been realised and are ongoing. This does not bode well for the ordinary citizen or any meaningful revival in the economic health of the country. Ask the Pendle Borough Treasurer what his view of the future is. Time for honesty, transparency and recognition of the price being paid away from the rarefied Millionaire's Row in Westminster."

Stanley Challenger Graham
10 East Hill Street, Barnoldswick

[Bruff]

Hmmmm. 'Sunny days make people happier'.

I'm at my happiest on an autumn day, when the leaves are in full glory, the wind is blowing, the rain is falling and I'm wrapped up and out in it all in the country. I'm at my most miserable when the sun is blazing, the earth is brown, the temperature's up and I can't cool down.

One of the times when I saw people at their happiest was in February 2009 when over a Sun/Mon night my part of SW London was visited with a foot of snow. No one could get on the trains to work and the schools were shut. Cue an impromptu day off work and study and mums and dads and the kids all out building snowmen, larking about and otherwise having good, happy fun. Somehow I imagine Mr Stephenson as the sort of jeremiah unable to compute this situation as one that equally makes people 'happier'.

We are blessed each week with our MP, former TV journalist and businesswoman (I use that term loosely) Esther McVey, similarly mouthing banalities and platitudes via her weekly column in the local. I don't know who first said it, but 'a non-entity who reached the giddy heights of insignificance', could hardly be more apt.

Richard Broughton

[Stanley]

Richard, I suspect that Tory Central Office PR people advise MPs to establish a column in their local paper and feed them ideas. Certainly Mr Stephenson's sticks rigidly to the party line and is a mush of platitudes and stating the bleeding obvious. No evidence of independent thinking or compassion in them.
Your observations on happiness reminded me that I was never more happy than when I was working, doing a useful job and seeing the results of my labours. Perhaps the peak is when you have just ploughed a field and you lean on the gate and look out over the finished job. Watching well fed happy kids playing in the field at Hey Farm came close. Think of the number of people these days that are either unemployed, working in non-jobs or insecure. As far as the Stephenson's of this world are concerned they are a success story because they aren't an unemployment statistic.

[Tizer]

The strange goings on at Balcombe where people are protesting against something that isn't happening as no fracking is going on and could only do so if a separate permission was sought. The leader of the parish council said that most of the protagonists weren't local. That figures, it has every indication of a concert party. Funny thing is they are all energy users but protesting against ensuring their supply....

The company has given in, saying it took advice from the police and stopped work. As someone on the radio put it this morning, "Bowing to the minority". It worries me that we seem these days to be forever `Bowing to the minority' instead of considering the majority view (which is often silent). A commentator said "The company has a right to go about its business" to which a second said "People have a right to protest against the company"; the first then said "But what about the rights of the people who are not protesting?"

If a company wanted to drill for shale gas in my locality would I approve or protest? I don't have a simple answer to that because I'm not against fracking, even close to where I live; I believe it's safe and, done properly, won't cause me any danger. But what does worry me is whether the companies concerned are competent enough to carry out fracking (or, for that matter, any other industrial process) in a safe manner. It's not the process that bothers me but the companies; I no longer have confidence in them (e.g. think BP and the Gulf disaster).

[Thomo]

Very true Tizer. Offshore and onshore wind farms, tidal barrages, nuclear, underwater wave power generators (difficult to protest about on site) all attract protesters who are doubtless, energy users. It is probable that any new hydro electric schemes would come under attack as well, the bill for Policing the fracking site already stands at£750,000. Quite often when whatever it was that was the cause of the protest goes away, the protesters do not, Greenham Common comes to mind, Menwith Hill is another. Protesting has to some extent become a cult thing with those who will go anywhere and protest about anything.

[Thomo]

The weather wasn't good, but the two engines on display at Rolls Royce Welfare today looked just fine. Here they are and fully restored, two of Barlicks finest:-



The RR Welland.



And the RR Nene.

[Stanley]

Tiz, one of the unfortunate concomitants of energy production is the risk. Look at the death toll in the mines over the years only stemmed by union protest which led to improved safety. So there is a place for organised protest and I have nothing against that. What troubles me about Balcombe is the fact that it's not the locals who are protesting, in fact they are protesting against the protesters. Also, the protesters seem to be organised activists who are threatening disruptive behaviour, this is the reason the company has had to close the site and spend money on increased security. The irony is that the company aren't doing any 'fracking', they are drilling an exploratory well and there are hundreds in the area already as well as long established oil production in the South. This has all the hallmarks of protest for protest's sake, an excuse for doing something in concert which makes people feel involved. I can't help thinking that this energy could be better directed elsewhere, like doing useful work.
The only way a complicated modern society can work is if the general population trusts the regulatory structure the government has put in place and I see no evidence of failure on their part. Fracking cannot happen at the site without a further licence. If this is a general protest against fracking why is it being concentrated at Balcombe?

On another matter. There was an interesting piece on the World Service this morning about the inhibiting affect that US food aid has on local agriculture. There is a move to purchase food from sources inside the country affected thus saving on transport, stimulating local production and shortening the supply chain making aid more efficient. This is being opposed in the US by elements whose interest is in stimulating US agriculture, employing US merchant shipping and injecting activity into the whole supply infrastructure. The argument is that using local sources will damage all these activities. The world is truly a complicated place. There is one more problem connected with the aid. If the local farmers can't sell their grain it is more profitable to grow poppies, the base of the heroin trade.

[Tizer]

Organised protest, in the form of physical, on-site activity, has had its day and is best avoided now. It's far too easy to subvert, especially with modern mobile communications, and anyone instigating it is asking for trouble, playing into the hands of those who simply enjoy causing disruption or even criminals making money out of it. The opportunities for protest via the Internet, TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and the like are numerous and effective and represent a much better method for the 21st Century protester.

The British Geological Survey people are now looking at the Weald as a likely source of large quantities of shale oil (note oil, not gas in this case) and I can just imagine how much harrumphing that will lead to in the south-east! I notice that the Church of England is tightening up on the mineral rights under its many acres of land in Britain so it sounds like the frackers may have God on their side!

With shale gas, in the UK we seem to be going down the same dead end route as we did with GM crops - banning them regardless of their safe and effective use in much of the rest of the world. Vast amounts of GM crops have been grown outside Europe for 20 years now with no problems and the food crops eaten with no observed adverse effects on health; even in Britain we eat GM foods!

[hartley353]

Very simplistic to say that GM crops have not caused damage because they have been grown and eaten for twenty years. the practice is still in its infancy, and most sensible people see were it is going and the problems that lie ahead. There is nothing in the science for the common man, and it is only being persued in the interests of financial gain for the few. Once again the lid of Pandoras box is being cracked wider open with no regard as to the damage being released.

[plaques]

Oil and gas are just another form of fossilized fuel. If you burn them you finish up with carbon dioxide and extra greenhouse gasses. The answer would therefore be to develop sequestration (carbon capture and storage). This then leads to the question as to why we closed all our coal mines. Nothing to do with degrading the strength of the trade unions I suppose. The scene looks set to continue with shale gas and oil by the very fact there will be very little trade union involvement. So much for the green energy argument.

[Stanley]

"There is nothing in the science for the common man" Really!?
The hint from Ian that the new OG platform is ready and all that is needed now is for me to finish the edit of the LTP. I promise I'm doing six hours a day on it! I think you might agree that it's worth it when you see it....
News about Johnny Depp playing Tonto in the remake of the Lone Ranger. I'm sure you all know the reason why the LR eventually shot Tonto. He found out what Kimosabe meant.

[Bruff]

The partner of The Guardian journalist who has been breaking a lot of the NSA/GCHQ shenannigins was detained by officials for the maximum 9 hours under anti-terrorism laws while transiting through Heathrow to Rio the other day. Interesting.

Richard Broughton

[Tizer]

There is nothing in the science for the common man, and it is only being persued in the interests of financial gain for the few.

The reason GM crop research is dominated by big business is that universities can't get the public funding to do it in Europe due to a lack of interest from the governments. Therefore the research goes on behind closed doors and is only published in patents rather than publicly available journals.

[Bruff]

Earlier post edited as I misunderstood the original post to which it referred - apologies. Tizer has commented rather well on the matter......

Richard Broughton

[hartley353]

If universities had funding it would come from private Companies, I wouldn't expect the nation to fund it. The one problem I have is the modification of wheat to be self fertilising. It took natural selection and evolution to give plants the ability to not self fertilise and for a very good reason what lunatic would meddle with this. Had they already damaged the pollinating insects and saw a future without Bees and such. Many folk now believe our Bees have been poisoned by science, their diet has given them colon cancer, though the companies who damaged them would persuade them otherwise. The human race is still counting the cost of DDT and the genetic damage done by this, why would anyone risk another episode by GM crops when there is not one jot of benefit. The world needs less mouths and not more food this is where the future lies.

[Tardis]

Wierdest spam ever?

A discount offer to buy kneeler covers for 'my' church

[Tardis]

The partner of The Guardian journalist who has been breaking a lot of the NSA/GCHQ shenannigins was detained by officials for the maximum 9 hours under anti-terrorism laws while transiting through Heathrow to Rio the other day. Interesting.

Richard Broughton

Yes, though I find the screams from the left somewhat hypocritical as it was their government that passed the legislation (2007?) that was used. *awkward turtle*

According to the bod from the Home Office on #WATO at lunch there is more legislation passing through parliament to amend this, I have to say that detention for up to an hour without access to legal representation is not something that I wish to see. Though, those circumstances were normal until recently in Scottish Law.

[Tizer]

If universities had funding it would come from private Companies, I wouldn't expect the nation to fund it.

In that case don't object, as you apparently do, to it "only being pursued in the interests of financial gain for the few".

Richard, I'll bet you were led astray by his claim that "There is nothing in the science for the common man". I read it as you probably did, as a comment on science in general until I re-read it and noted the use of the definite article. But we all know he'd be just as happy to write it without `the' as in: "There is nothing in science for the common man".

[Bodger]

I wasnt a scientist, just a" bog" engineer, but i still like to know why an egg goes hard when it's boiled, or why the earth is round,and why do we die, the reason i became a member of this forum was because for all my education i wanted to know how to ladder a chimney, ?, so i am rather glad that other people have more interest than i in finding out facts, i think if one looks at the scientists contribution to the developmet of our world there are far more plus'e s than negatives!, we would still be wearing animal skins and eating out of a boiling pot, and by the way, was it curiosity alone that dicovered that eating cooked food was more digestible ?,. think of all the diseases that are now being controlled, i;m sure years ago all the "do gooders " were against giving humans cow pox as a cure.
I don't see many of these "do gooders " not taking advantage of developments, petrol driven cars, micro wave ovens, multi glazed windows etc.
The reason as we develped our way of live was because man has always adapted and found a better way of doing things, and once we stop that we will be back in the caves dragging the wife by the hair, the wife is not looking, so maybe not a bad idea!.

My own view is that it would appear that we all originated in Africa, our ancestors even then were curious, whats over that hill ?, so they left, some turned right and developed early civilisation in the east, our set turned west, silly buggers, it was cold wet, and no great abundance of nut and berries, so they had to learn to kill, but has life grew harder the further north they travelled the more they learnt survival instincts, and this is what makes us the people we are today, not happy to sit in the sun, but to find new frontiers, and long may it be
bodger