Seen in the News

[Tizer]

Opal consists of silicon dioxide, as does quartz and a number of other minerals but unlike the others it also contains about 5 to 10% of water and it occurs not as crystals but as tiny spheres which gives it a waxy, amorphous appearance. The size of the spheres is important - the colours of precious opal only occur within a narrow size range when light is diffracted and causes iridescence. Opal outside this range is common, or potch, opal which is black or white. That can be found in many places including Cornwall. More information here: LINK

Something different...
`BBC: Your pictures on the theme of 'garden creatures'' LINK

[Cathy]

Love the garden creature pics. A lot of time and patience needed to get pics like those.

[Whyperion]

Lest we forget.... The original intention of the motorway system was to aid freight traffic and get it out of towns and narrow roads. We may have to move towards that.

Ever since, and I am not sure when, they have been used, particulary junctions, as reasons to build 'out of town' distribution hubs and similar, difficult to get to work by public transport from any nearest residential places, and generators of more truck movements, at the same time as rail yards were being closed due to 'lack of demand'

[Stanley]

I could look at those pics all day Peter. I love the bedraggled Robin!

[Tizer]

I'm glad to hear there have been some penalties even if its pocket money to the bosses of Rio...
`Rio Tinto bosses lose bonuses over Aboriginal cave destruction' LINK

[Big Kev]

When did setting fire to vehicles, armed robbery and discharging firearms become a 'protest'?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53886070

[Tizer]

When Donald Trump became President?

I notice a news report in The Times says that there is a legal challenge against the sentences handed down on the policemen prosecuted for the killing of George Floyd. It claims that Floyd wasn't killed by violence but that he took an overdose of opiate as the police tried to take him into custody and that killed him, that there is photographic evidence, and that Floyd did the same thing on a previous occasion when the police stopped him but he survived the drug. I suppose there's going to be a long drawn out case that'll make lots of money for the lawyers.

[Stanley]

I heard that report about the fines for the Rio Tinto bosses also Tiz. As the commentator said, though not significant in financial terms at least it was levied on senior management and not lower down the hierarchy. I suppose that is to be welcomed.
Kev, as Peter says, since it became clear to oppressed people that non violent protest was ineffective. I don't condone it but it's understandable when you get a very angry protest. The same thing has happened here in recent times. Escalation of violence on both sides occurs when legitimate grievances are ignored and history shows us that this is what causes violent revolution and even civil war.
Trump in particular uses civil violence as a political tool, look at the rhetoric he is stoking up at the moment in his election strategy. In my opinion it is a form of madness.

[Big Kev]

Kev, as Peter says, since it became clear to oppressed people that non violent protest was ineffective. I don't condone it but it's understandable when you get a very angry protest. The same thing has happened here in recent times. Escalation of violence on both sides occurs when legitimate grievances are ignored and history shows us that this is what causes violent revolution and even civil war.
Trump in particular uses civil violence as a political tool, look at the rhetoric he is stoking up at the moment in his election strategy. In my opinion it is a form of madness.

I can understand 'angry protest' but can't see it has any relationship with armed robbery and looting. When the Black Lives Matter protests were making the headlines there were black people's businesses being robbed and looted...

[Stanley]

Yes, and if you remember, in the riots here a few years ago the same thing happened. There are always bad people looking to take advantage of a temporary breakdown in policing. Like you, I see it as having nothing to do with the original protest but once it happens everyone is tarred with the same brush. It's a horrible problem.

[Big Kev]

The media don't help by reporting it as protesting, they need to separate the two...

[Stanley]

[Tizer]

This couple are appearing in Trump's promotions, and Trump says he will pardon them for their gun crimes. Read it right through to get the full story. They are making themselves out to be victims but they are not nice people..
`Mark and Patricia McCloskey: What really went on in St Louis that day?' LINK

[Stanley]

That picture epitomises for me gun culture in the US. I never understood it. I was once in a conversation with a group of middle class citizens in the mid-West and one man told me that the first thing he considered when buying a house was fields of fire and whether the building had a substantial, defendable basement. That was in the days when there was a very strong Survivalist movement.
Also on the same trip I stayed for a week with a professor at Appalachian State University, I was staying in Boone on a visit to ASU. He lived in a mobile home and was a nice if somewhat naïve man who was deeply in love with a secretary at the college and was dreadfully conflicted because he was leaving to take up a post in California. He would spend hours whingeing to me about her. One evening during a dose of this he got very emotional and suddenly stopped and asked me to get up. I did and he lifted the seat of the chair I had been sat on and pulled out a very large Colt .45 automatic pistol. He said "I'll be back in a minute" and went outside. I went to the window and watched him and all he did was go to a bank of soil and fire a full clip of ammo into it. He came back in, put the gun back under the seat and said "That feels better!". I just passed it over as though it was an everyday occurrence but quietly thought to myself that a good shrink could have a field day with behaviour like that. It wasn't uncommon, I quietly asked around and almost everyone owned a gun. I decided it was a strange manifestation of insecurity and l left it at that.
Incidentally, one of the things I asked the man was if he had ever told the woman how he felt about her. He said no, so I suggested he have a talk with her. Later I got a message from him, he had done what I suggested, she felt the same and so they left together for California, got married, and as far as I know lived happily ever after. I sent a return message saying that I refused to accept any responsibility but wished him well!

[Tizer]

One of my relatives who lived in Johannesburg was carrying a handgun in her handbag in the 1980s but she had more justification for it than most Americans have.

Some more organisational incompetence and the proverbial catalogue of errors...
`Spreadsheet error led to Edinburgh hospital opening delay' LINK

[PanBiker]

Back in the 80's I had the opportunity to up sticks, take the family and emigrate to South Africa to work in their emerging TV trade. At the time all standard Mono TV's so easy repairs and lots of work and money to be made. Based of course in the European enclaves in the towns. That didn't appeal to my socialist beliefs and it was given that you would have to sleep with a hand gun under your pillow. I elected to stay servicing in West Craven.

[Stanley]

Surprising how you can find that syndrome here as well Ian. When I was doing Ellenroad I came across a man who was a bookbinder and a licensed gun dealer as well. He was quite open about the fact he slept with a .45 Magnum under his pillow. Nowt so queer as folk.

[Whyperion]

Lancashire Telegraph
AEROSPACE giant Rolls-Royce is under fire for cutting 350 jobs at its Barnoldswick site and transferring fan blade work to Singapore.
https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/n ... -transfer/

Not mentioned is presumably knock-on losses in supply chain and product finishing in Earby and elsewhere. Tory Red Wall MPs need leaning on and I am sure this is part of the brexit bonus

[Whyperion]

BBC
Bread price may rise after dire UK wheat harvest
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53921121

Our daily bread (from Wheat) may be a thing of the past. Given we probably waste 40percent of grown food someone has to be more efficient. I could probably live without bread, cakes and biscuits at a push. My Pasta and Pizza bases I think use imported Italian wheat anyway, which will be interesting when the (red wall) tories find that tariffs might need to be applied to all our imports from the EU.

[Tripps]

You beat me to it Whypes with the awful Rolls Royce news. Heavily leaked in recent days, but the Singapore angle really rubs salt into the wound. How can that save money? I think it's true to say that per capita income there is more than here.

[Stanley]

I've been watching the Rolls situation as well. Unfortunately it's a syndrome we have seen coming for many years, look at all the major manufacturing industries and ask yourself what role Global Capitalism and the Market have in this. Many years ago Aneurin Bevan recommended we should keep control of what he called 'The commanding Heights of the Economy'. A wonderful description that exactly describes the concept. We haven't done that for many years, the profit motive and government withdrawal from responsibility under the influence of a financial market that controls everything. I have never seen anything wrong with government control of the Heights so long as the end result was employment and the preservation of skills. Buy then I am at heart a social democrat and one of yesterday's men. My ideas are out dated and not profitable.
Trump is a moron and I hate him but you have to admit that one of the kernels of what success he has had is that he has a vague idea of this, it is the basis of his 'Keep America Great'. Pity is that his other flaws (many of them!) have obscured basic truths.

[Tizer]

This is just one small example of what we'll see more of as the climate changes - but it's very serious for those who live and work in the area. It's not a new problem but it gets worse with more extreme weather...
`The Rest and Be Thankful: An infamous road through 'a mountain in torment'' LINK

[Stanley]

All true Pater but then it isn't in London or the South East so it has a low priority. Contrast the investment in Crossrail and HS2 with what we spend on rural roads. QED.

[plaques]

Jonathan Pie is a one of those journalists well know for his rather vulgar YouTube rants about current news events. Having said this his latest comments on twitter are not far from the truth. About Trump's talk at the white House.

Seriously? This is really scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to defining what ‘news’ is. We‘re talking Daily Mail levels of irrelevance here. Pie.

[Big Kev]

Matt Hancock, the man who overruled the local decision to relax some of the restrictions in Pendle, has dropped a clanger. He said, on national TV, that he's going to change the law to allow nurses and pharmacists to administer the flu jab. Good to see he has his finger in the pulse, they've been administering it since 1996

https://www.independentnurse.co.uk/news ... -1/229985/