WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

Orange went down at 05:48, back on shortly after 06:00. Checked Speed to see if we were being switched. No improvement, 6mps.

[Tizer]

My attention was grabbed by `The Public Philosopher' on Radio 4 this morning, a debate on "Should a banker be paid more than a nurse?" No definite answer of course, but a great discussion, made all the more pleasing for me in that they never once mentioned the words socialist, communist, fascist, Tory, Labour, Liberal etc. It was non-political and in the true spirit of philosophical debate and the only way we'll ever make progress in our thinking and attitudes. I felt let down on only one aspect - when they discussed whether `the markets' should dictate how much people were paid they didn't delve into the control of the markets. One lady made the relevant point that nurses had little control over markets whereas bankers have a lot of control. I was hopping about, wanting them to follow that up, because my belief is that `the markets' are no longer the objective, self-controlled tool that they are considered to be by staunch capitalists. World markets are now grossly manipulated by the very people who benefit from them directly.

[Whyperion]

I missed it , but dependent on lifestyle a nurse could live without a banker ( cash payments in and out ) , but at some time the banker will probably need some kind of nursing care between birth and death.

Alternative the Nurse could marry / enter civil partnership with the banker and S/He and He/She can live happilly ever after.

[Stanley]

You're right Tiz, good programme and he is making people think.
This morning was meter reading morning. I await the bill and the direct debit payment with interest. Tomorrow is the day I can ring the help line back if I haven't got the discount.
Up late this morning at 6am. Nowt wrong just a good sleep!

[Tripps]

This made me smile - an advert on the local Gumtree.
For sale - Very nice print of horse and cart with cottage in the background.

In fact it was John Constables "The Hay Wain"

[Stanley]

Seen on a TV programme: a notice in the front window of a house porch; "I am already disturbed. Pleas walk in."
New postal arrangements in Barlick involve powered hand trucks on some rounds. I suppose this means longer rounds. One consequence is that our delivery is now late afternoon. Doesn't seem so long since we occasionally had a second delivery after the normal early morning round.
George Zimmerman, the man who shot the young black man and escaped arrest because under Florida law he claimed successfully he 'felt under threat' has been arrested and charged with second degree murder due to new evidence coming forward.

[Stanley]

I wouldn't like to be the person in charge of North Korea's failed rocket launch yesterday. Not a good career move!
A letter dropped in yesterday telling me that HSBC are closing their Barlick branch at 13:00 on Friday 6 July. A sign of the times I suppose, who cares about customer service! It won't bother me too much as I only have one transaction a month but it means I have to waste time finding out the way round the new procedures. I did consider moving to another bank that has a branch in the town but I suspect that would be even more hassle and no guarantee how long they will have a branch open.

[Stanley]

News of a seagull trapped by a plastic bag in London. It was in water about 3 feet deep. Reports say that it looked like a major incident as 20+ firemen and police assessed the situation. Eventually it was decided that due to HSE regulations they could not intervene and it was left to a member of the public to don waders and rescue the bird. Mr Cameron says he wants to reform over-aggressive HSE regulation. Perhaps this could be a good place to start.

[Whyperion]

Has anyone found a connection between the rate of change of economic growth and the reduction in Royal Mail services ( I just could not conduct by business in the time frame between getting mail in , goods processed and then out in time for collections ( particulary when the Sunday collection went as this freed up a lot of mail on outgoing on Mondays ). If one missed Friday outgoing then the Monday pile was even greater.

[Stanley]

Have just spent an incredibly frustrating twenty minutes with my 'support team' at HSBC somewhere in the foothills of the Himalayas finding a way round the problems they are causing me by closing the Barlick branch. Wonderful!

[Bruff]

HSBC closed in Hoylake last year. Now no bank in the town at all, but thankfully there are 2 cash machines...

I will stake my house and life savings and note that no 'HSE regulations' will have prevented anyone wading in to save a seagull. Indeed, there are hardly any HSE regulations that are prescriptive and prevent anyone doing anything (I think you can't open a mine with only one exit; there's probably a few others). All you need to do is exercise simple common sense and act reasonably. But as this story (if it's true) shows, along with related stories of folk standing around as someone dies, is that the capacity for common sense and reasonable judgement is in short supply. And when one's capacity for common sense and sensible judgement fails, far better to blame 'health and safety' than look at yourself.

'...due to health and safety reasons' should be banned from common discourse.

Richard Broughton

[Tizer]

I agree with you Richard and I think the problem is mainly organisations frightened of being sued by the no win, no fee brigade rather than a false belief in HSE regs. Blaming the regs is an easier excuse than saying you are scared of being sued. If David Cameron wants to get rid of the attitude he needs to do more about the legal profession's handling of liability law.

[cloghopper]

Have just spent an incredibly frustrating twenty minutes with my 'support team' at HSBC somewhere in the foothills of the Himalayas finding a way round the problems they are causing me by closing the Barlick branch. Wonderful!

Stanley, you're lucky it was only 20 miutes!
You should try their offshore lines, with French/Irish accents mixed in with Himalayspeak; takes at least an hour just to be identified.
best rgds,
cloggy

[Bruff]

There is no doubt that part of the problem is in reality a fear of being sued and then a backside covering exercise. But this fear too is somewhat overblown and misplaced. You have a pretty good and long-established defence in English law against civil claims and that is the test of 'reasonableness'. That is, did you act reasonably? Take clearing snow in front of your house, which hits the press with depressing regularity each winter. Can't do that....due to health and safety reasons. Wrong. Actually, I can't do it, as I'll get sued. Really? Well, you might but pound to a penny it'll get chucked out. Most people would do all that is reasonably expected in clearing their snow and if someone fell and sued they'd stand hardly a chance.

It's quite important this as 'health and safety', 'fear of civil litigation', is conflated such that one now can't apparently help someone in distress in the street. Yes you can (which is why we don't have/need Samaritan Laws in this country, which they do in some other countries). You can't put a plaster on a child at school. Yes you can.

Schools are interesting. Apparently, you can't put sunscreen on children, due to health and safety reasons. Wrong. You should ensure children sensitised to some sunscreens, have their hypoallergenic screen (or whatever the term is) applied and kids don't smear each other so cross-contaminating. Oh that's a drag isn't it? Let's not be honest and say we can't be arsed, and blame it on 'health and safety'. Same with applying a plaster. And these two are wrapped up in the media-inspired hysteria around adult-child interaction, showing again the schizophrenic nature of much of the British press. Conkers? Fed up with kids hitting each other the head with them, so we'll ban it and blame health and safety, and not our failure to maintain any discipline (if indeed this low-grade jape is worthy of any discipline).

I could go on, and probably would......

Richard Broughton

[Stanley]

Richard and Tiz, here are two experiences of mine which reinforce your theory about fear of litigation driving the use of mythical or often mistaken HSE regs. (Some of the inspectors don't know the rules)
Scene a demolition site where we had been called in to cut up and dispose of a large fuel storage tank. We knew exactly what should be done, Get Neston Tank Cleaners in to thoroughly clean the tank and issue a gas certificate certifying that the tank was flammable gas free. As soon as we had the certificate we cut two large holes one in the top and one at the end of the tank to ensure it was ventilated. Following morning just as we were about to start up pops the "Qualified Safety Man" who stopped us because a gas certificate is only valid for 24 hours. It tool two hours of argument and the summoning of senior staff to convince the 'inspector' that now the tank was ventilated it was no longer a hazard.
Scene, a large Whessoe oil storage tank (about 500,000 gallons capacity) which we were dismantling prior to re-erection on another site. This involved cutting the tank into large sections but first the internal stays had to be cut using electric arc cutting rods, a savage operation that produces showers of incandescent metal falling inside the tank. We had cut a large doorway in the wall of the tank for access and I was stood there sheltering from the falling metal and having a smoke of me pipe. The safety man made me stop smoking because it was a fire hazard!
In both cases common sense and experience were over-ridden by an incompetent Jobsworth.
Another universal ploy is to give contractors a lecture on H&S before work starts on the site. Usually a litany of the bleeding obvious given by a young person with no experience. However, in legal terms this gave the firm a get-out if anything went wrong as they could claim that the contractors had broken site rules. Very often these site rules, if adhered to, made the job impossible and the firm knew this. Cover your arse syndrome.
Nothing new in this, my Uncle Jim was a linesman on the railway telegraphs in NSW, Australia and he was killed in 1912 when a pole he was working on collapsed and due to the fact he was wearing a harness he couldn't get out of the way as it fell. He died from a fractured skull. The inquest noted that the linesmen had pointed out this danger but had been told that if they didn't use the harness they would be sacked.

[Tizer]

The BBC's `BH' programme this morning spoke to a man who had made crystal radio sets in the Channel Islands during the German occupation and, at risk of execution, listened to the BBC news. He described a couple of his sets and I think it is these shown in the last photo at the bottom of this web page of the BH site LINK. Panny should enjoy the pic! Which makes me ask, what happened to his Radio Homebrew that he started on the old OG site? Did the radio get finished? LINK

[PanBiker]

Very Good Tiz, the one on the left does not appear to have any tuning arrangement for the coil but I suppose it would not really need it as I assume they would have a very good signal from the south coast of England. Interesting detector arrangement, looks like it was designed to hold some kind of mineral rock. I will give the program a listen later and see if it has any more information.

My project is still in the making, got sidetracked in the main by 3 grandchildren arriving in reasonably quick succession. Coils is made, tuning slider sorted, board to mount on sorted and contemporary headphones obtained. (bit of work to do on them). Very lazy of me not to finalise, must do better. I'm looking at the coil and board now. Why is it that as you get older you seem to have more and more to do and simply just not enough time?

[Sunray10]

The number of films and documentaries etc on the Titanic disaster 100 years ago. Everybody is getting in on the act from Len Goodman to Suggs from the band Madness. Watched the film 'A night to Remermber' from 1958 with Kenneth More - very good and an excellently made film. Commemorations at Colne in honour of Wallace Hartley the bandleader who went down with the ship supposedly playing Nearer My God to thee ?

[Stanley]

Ian. I know the feeling! The marine engines are partially stalled but I do have the excuse of having flu and getting knocked back over Xmas!
The outbreak of Taliban attacks in Kabul over the last two days and the breakdown of the UN truce in Syria. Many human beings are on the whole cruel and stupid. You'd think I'd be used to it by now.....
I stumbled across some recordings of radio programmes that Phil Smith and I did for Radio 4 and the World Service. Self praise is no recommendation but I spent a happy couple of hours listening to brilliant stuff. The programme we made on the Ellenroad engine came third in the BBC ratings for that month and was reviewed in I think it was the Telegraph. In one made in 1984 I forecast that because we were living in a fool's paradise we would hit a crisis point in finance within 15 to 20 years..... Spooky!

[Bruff]

Three peahens and a peacock walking in the street here in Bootle.

Not something I would have imagined ever having to commit to print.......

Richard Broughton

[Tizer]

"Three peahens and a peacock walking in the street here in Bootle." Is that an ornithological sighting Richard or a Liverpudlian euphemism for what used to be called dandies?

Ian, I don't know anything about crystal radios but I read somewhere that they used galena (lead sulphide) as the crystal. Your mention of coils reminded me of the form that you have to fill in to register as a patient with our local surgery. It asks many questions, one of which is "Do you have a coil" - I was tempted to answer "Yes" but couldn't face the fuss of having to explain that most people, both men and women, will have a coil...somewhere.

[Pluggy]

This was picked up by the newshound earlier in the month about Barlick being on the telly in 'Bang goes the theory'

http://oneguyfrombarlick.co.uk/viewtopi ... 77&p=11370

It was shown tonight and will be available for a while on iPlayer :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... Episode_5/

If you just want to see Barlick, fast forward to 08:30, it lasts about a minute.

[Stanley]

Richard, I had a similar experience about a year ago when I saw a young deer trotting down the side of the Co-op in Barlick one morning. I did a genuine double-take!
Australia brings forward withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan by twelve months, they leave next year. Sensible move, we should do the same.
Made my monthly visit to the bank to adjust my affairs. Sad because it is the last time I will do it. I commiserated with the two ladies who have been there for yonks. A lot of people are affected and this does nothing good for HSBC's relations with the public. A sign of the times, bugger the customers...
Fracking for natural gas is to be allowed to proceed on the Fylde. Sounds sensible, I don't think we are in imminent danger of catastrophic earthquakes but I'll bet the NIMBY element will go into top gear immediately!
Ubuntu update for flashplugin installer popped up this morning and performed flawlessly. That Pluggy is a magician....
Nice to see that the blast furnace at the old Corus works on Teeside is in production again. The steel is destined for Thailand.

[Tizer]

We watched `Bang Goes the Theory' and saw Barlick in all its glory - especially Choudurys (spelling?) shop! The programme was interesting in other ways too, with the use of lasers to transmit `wireless' energy.

What a shame about `the two ladies who have worked at the bank for yonks'. Continuity of employment is important, not only for the employee but for the customers. Familiarity with customers (in the correct sense!) should be treasured. Now that the banks have lost the link with their customers they force them to go to great lengths to prove their identity. We had experience of this recently when we moved my father to a new house. In the house purchase we were forever having to prove our identity to banks, solicitors, estate agents, and proving that we are not laundering money. Now my father is having to prove who he is - at the age of 93!

Like many other issues these days, `fracking' for production of gas and oil is the victim of much misinformation. I'm not particularly for or agin but I'd like to see transparency and honesty on both sides of the argument. The media keep on talking about `earthquakes' even though the tremors are like the background we normally experience in the UK and are no different from the tremors caused by coal mining. They may even be beneficial because a stream of minor tremors can prevent a build up of tension and sudden release in an earthquake at a level that could cause cracks in buildings. The `gas in tap water' stories from the USA appear to be a red herring because isotope analysis of such gas has shown it to be not derived from fracking activity. We've also got to keep in mind that fracking has aleardy been going on for decades in many countries and at thousands of wells, it's not new and there is a wealth of experience and knowledge about the process.

[Sunray10]

Earth tremors when big lorries go past the front of the house. They are all coming past here because Walton lane is still closed off for the new railway bridge. No one knows when it will be finished, if it ever will be. It should have been finished at the end of last January. Its now mid April !