Seen in the News

[Tizer]

I know we need these giant battery factories and there is plenty of H.E. power in Sweden and Norway but is it really sensible to be placing them in such remote places? Think of all the transport in of raw materials and then of product out. And they are talking about them also recycling old batteries so that means even more haulage movements. The factory in Northumberland seems more sensibly placed!
`Gigafactories: Europe tools up against US and Asia as a car battery force' LINK
`Surrounded by a forest of tall green pine trees, 125 miles south of the Arctic circle, a giant electric battery factory is rapidly taking shape on a site as big as 71 football pitches' and `..Norwegian energy company Freyr is planning a gigafactory fuelled by wind and hydro energy in Mo i Rana, a remote coastal town close to one of the country's most popular ski resorts..'.

[plaques]

From what I know of modern mega factories is they employ one man and a dog on each shift. The dog being there to make sure the man turns the lights off. All robotics, not a forklift driver in sight, Welcome to the new world where cars are charged up by electrical induction. Mind you you may have to walk round n a Faraday cage to avoid being fried.

[Stanley]

That's what I suspect as well Ken. I note also that Cornwall is to be saved by the new Lithium mines or so say those Tories trying to account for what will replace EU subsidies.

[plaques]

Yes I know we paid money in but we did get some of it back. I think that if someone did the sums then not all the £350M a week will be going to the NHS. See below a pavement plaque abut the Burnley University.

.

Princes Way.jpg

[Tizer]

Does the other three-quarters of Burnley not have knowledge?

[Big Kev]

Does the other three-quarters of Burnley not have knowledge?

[Stanley]

Ken is right and the point about EU funding is that it often went to projects and schemes that would never have been funded any other way. Would London really have funded jetties in the Small Isles or improvements in Cornwall?

[Tizer]

A couple of days ago news appeared about a discovery of large quantities of diamonds dug up by local people in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa, said to be the first find of diamonds in that part of SA. A `diamond rush' followed and photos show lots of people digging and showing off their finds. My immediate response was scepticism - the `diamonds' looked much more like colourless, transparent quartz and there were people holding lumps of the crystalline stuff the size of cricket balls or even bigger. Real diamonds are usually rather boring looking pebble-like specimens when found (and small!). Also they are found either in ancient rocks such as Kimberlite (named after Kimberley, SA, of course) which occur as `pipes' underground or as alluvial stones on beaches or in rivers. Unfortunately the local people in the village have never seen diamonds, rough or cut, and therefore will have easily been misled. I suspect there are `wide boys' who will have been selling their lumps of what I'd guess is quartz at high prices and then disappear before the locals find they've been scammed.

The situation has probably been fired up even more by the latest specimen in Botswana (which is known for diamonds) of what is claimed to be the third largest diamond ever found.

A side effect of the Kwazulu news is that I now know the BBC has a pidgin version of it's news stories - here's the Kwazulu `diamond' one: `'Diamonds' in KZN Ladysmith: Di crystal-like stones wey cause 'diamond rush' for one South African village - See wetin we know' LINK

[plaques]

What's the point of gem stone quality diamonds when we know know how to make them far cheaper than going to the trouble of digging them up. All that money just to make some skinny bird sparkle under flood lights. I'm more impressed with a 50p diamond cutting disc. Could be my age though.

[Tripps]

My immediate response was scepticism

Good man. Way to go. . . .

Love the BBC (of course) translation into' Pidgin'.
Dare I suggest that anyone who can read it, could also read it in ordinary English?

I suppose the BBC have a large staff for the purpose, and surely a 'Head of Pidgin'. I bet they have meetings in Frankie Howerd. Must watch Twenty Twelve again - Oh my goodness 'not available on iPlayer'. Just as well I have a copy.

Can you tell I'm having to pay the Licence fee once more.

[Tripps]

I came across this picture elsewhere this morning. Looks somehow familiar. . .

Always high.jpg

[Stanley]

Peter would be amused if he knew his pic was on a site called 'SeekingJusticeUK'.



Peter at home in 1986 with his pot of tea and the Capstan Full Strength that I reckon killed him in the end. I still miss him.

[Stanley]

The allegations against the Tory MP that have led to him being deprived of the Party Whip. (LINK)
I have no opinions about this as I do not know any of the details but what does strike me is that it must be a terrible shock when something like this surfaces after 13 years and shatters your life.

[Tizer]

This came as a surprise. I've never heard about this before I know about US summer camps but this is terrible and it's been going on for many years. It's not about the `me too' issue - don't be misled by mention of Paris Hilton at the start - it's about ordinary kids taken prisoner under frightening conditions in the middle of the night...
`Troubled US teens left traumatised by tough love camps' LINK

[Cathy]

I’ve never heard of that either.
Giving troubled kids even more trouble.
I wonder how the parents explained that away.

[Stanley]

I knew about the camps but not the abuses. It strikes me that only parents looking for a way out of dealing with a family problem could fall for this and the children suffer.
'Tough Love' has never seemed to me to be anything more than an oxymoron.

[Tizer]

My immediate response was scepticism

Good man. Way to go. . . .

Yes, they're quartz, not diamond...
`South Africa gems that sparked rush are quartz not diamonds' LINK
Mind you, I would advise the locals not to throw their quartz away. Colourless transparent quartz can be attractive and it's hard enough to use as a cheap gemstone. Some of it might be flawless, with no fractures, no inclusions and no colour. Then it's considerably more valuable because it can be used for making things like special lenses and spectroscope cuvettes where quartz allows transmission of the light spectrum into the ultraviolet, compared with glass which only stretches as far as blue. (Perhaps I should have put this post in the Household Tips thread!)

[plaques]

Some 30 years ago they were bringing diamonds up to gem stone quality by 'healing' them with laser beams. The same may be true for quartz if you need a big chunk for what you are doing.

[Stanley]

If de Beers released the diamonds they hold in stock the market would plummet. It's all actually a scam, withholding supply to create a false market.

[Tizer]

There have been theories about particles of magnetite in the brains of birds allowing them to `navigate by compass' but this new idea is about chemicals in their eyes.
`Clues to how birds migrate using Earth's magnetic field' LINK

[Stanley]

I love these theories! I'll bet if you could ask the birds they wouldn't be able to tell you....

[Tizer]

There was an item on the radio news this morning of racing pigeons not returning home and the owners wondering what has happened to them. I wonder if this is related...
`Racing pigeons “totally confused” by Portugal’s horrible weather' Portugal Resident web site
...and there's this news too..
`Lost racing pigeon lands on HMS Queen Elizabeth' BBC
`A lost racing pigeon has been rescued by the stealth jet flight crew of HMS Queen Elizabeth. The exhausted pigeon landed on the vast flight deck of the aircraft carrier off East Anglia. The crew, who have nicknamed the bird Pauley, found her in the hangar as they were stowing F-35 Lighting jets..'.
(Let's hope it's not a Russian pigeon!)

[Stanley]

I listened to a laid back interview with a man from the Federation of pigeon clubs and he was quite relaxed about it. He said that the pigeons found a loft when they were lost or exhausted and lodged there being looked after by the fancier for a few days while they fed and got their navigation systems sorted. He said that the vast majority would make it home, better late than never.
Later.... Shock, horror! The Hairdressers Federation report a shortage of apprentices and say this will lead to staff shortages later making it more difficult to get your hair done.

[plaques]

Later.... Shock, horror! The Hairdressers Federation report a shortage of apprentices and say this will lead to staff shortages later making it more difficult to get your hair done.

Baring in mind 90% of gents hairdressers are Turkish and Priti awful Patel has stopped their tap that may account for one lot. Also a lot of the ladies hairdressers are continentals so blame the EU even if its the UK that won't give them a permit.

[Tripps]

Hancock has resigned.

Inevitable - he surely could not have appeared at the lectern again with any credibility at all, to tell us what to do.

Later - Sajid Javid will take over.