WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Cathy]

Gosh that’s frightening, but a lot of the time, it’s just Mother Nature doing her natural thing.

[Tizer]

Correct Cathy, but climate is changing in a way that makes forest fires more frequent and more intense; and it does the same for extreme weather events.

[Stanley]

Nothing on the web yet but former Nissan boss Carlos Gomes has slipped the net of the Japanese authorities and is in Lebanon. He has issued a statement defending his actions saying that he is escaping from a corrupt justice system. From what I have seen of the case I tend to agree. It always seemed to me to be more like a conspiracy against him than a genuine case of fraud.
There will be a bit of explaining to do in Japan..... (Later, BBC Today broadcast quite a lengthy statement by Mr Gomes' lawyer. Only problem was it was in Japanese with no translation...)
If there is one safe bet in this world it is that the Daily Express will run a news story about slimming diets in the aftermath of Xmas. See THIS.

[Tizer]

Having problems with your TV reception?...
`Freeview blames weather for TV problems' LINK

[Cathy]

Gosh 2020 , (sounds like a sci-fi movie title)
I hope it will bring lots of good things.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE AND THANKS FOR YET ANOTHER GREAT YEAR ON OG

Cheers Cathy xx

[Wendyf]

Happy New Year Cathy, it will be another 12 hours before we reach 2020.

[chinatyke]

Happy New Year to everyone. Only 2.5 hours to go where I am!

Graham and Jiaping

[Tizer]

Happy New Year to all OG members, as and when it happens!
From Tizer & Mrs Tiz

[Wendyf]

Happy New Year to all, I'll no doubt be tucked up in bed at the appointed time.

[PanBiker]

Happy New Year and all the best to all members for the new decade.

[Stanley]

We worked out last night that there is a good case for saying that Muthomi's father and mother are my son and daughter in law. New baby, New extended family and a New Year. I wish you all such good luck!

[Big Kev]

The address of the South Yorkshire Police Operations Complex.

Letsby Avenue, Sheffield

[Stanley]

I always find it so refreshing when I am dealing with a firm or organisation that has full contact details. This is quite rare these days.
Falling foul of Google's policy whereby they make arbitrary decisions about which OS they are going to support. When you think about it, that's enormous power. I suppose theoretically they could block Ubuntu! What a good job they aren't owned by Microsoft.......

[Marilyn]

Note to Tizzy...I finally got to listen to The Three Vicars “Christmas” today. Fabulous.
So I have heard the “death” one and the “Christmas” one. I must listen to the “birth” and “marriage” ones yet.
I will get there, eventually.

[Stanley]

The rise in the death toll from the fires in NSW.
The arrival of my Rudolph Hess book.
The flood of warmth I feel from my new extended family.

[LizG]

A state of emergency declared in Victoria today due to the fires. An enormous number of people evacuated from their homes. There are 4,000 people trapped in one town on the East coast; the one road in/out was closed about a week ago. Many didn't realise how bad it would be and chose to stay and defend. Part of the town is burnt and there is no power, internet or phone coverage. Helicopters have dropped sat phones, food, water and other personal requirements.

The navy now has a boat anchored off the coast and has started ferrying people to it. 800 - 1000 will be relocated at a time and each boatload will take 20 hours from the time of embarkation to disembarking at the other end. It will be a slow process to evacuate everyone from this area, with fires still raging around the town. Accommodation will be provided at the other end. An amazing logistical exercise.

A huge percentage of our country is now on fire, some has been burning since November. The smell of smoke here is horrendous and we only have small grass fires burning near us.

Bring on the rain everywhere.

[Marilyn]

The smoke we are getting is from Kangaroo Island...

[Cathy]

Our poor country, bushfires have been in our news since September. Every year seems worse and my heart goes out to all and everything damaged and affected by them.
I understand why people live in these lovely areas but I couldn’t

[Stanley]

It's getting full coverage in the news here. What struck me was the way many fires are creeping along against the wind, things are so dry.

[PanBiker]

They say life begins at forty, twenty six years ago today I was forty and it was the day my dad died. Brain tumour triggered but a chest infection saw him off. Not a day goes by though.

[chinatyke]

They say life begins at forty, twenty six years ago today I was forty and it was the day my dad died. Brain tumour triggered but a chest infection saw him off. Not a day goes by though.

Happy birthday Ian.

The day I was 40 I was offered an interview for a works managers job in Bradford. It really cheered me up. Life changed for me at 40 and didn't work out too badly!

[PanBiker]

It's not my birthday China it was merely the fact that I was forty years old when my dad died on this day.

[Tizer]

This needs to be dealt with if we are going to have enough skilled people in the coming years...
`Warning over 'fake' apprenticeship courses' LINK

[chinatyke]

It's not my birthday China it was merely the fact that I was forty years old when my dad died on this day.

My mistake. I've a brain like a sieve these days!
Glad you have happy memories of your Dad.

[Stanley]

A good link Tiz. I have been critical for a long time about the way apprenticeship schemes have been downgraded. Time was when they were all the equivalent of seven years at university in academic subjects and turned out fully skilled workers. There are still some like that run by people like Rolls Royce but the majority are worthless.
The rot set in when downward pressure on wages and mass production led to de-skilling workers and forcing them into repetition of one task. Easily taught and useless in any other situation. This meant the workers had less bargaining power. Marx recognised this and warned against it in the mid 19th century in Das Kapital. Modern CNC machining is a good example of where this has led us.
It's a big subject and with the coming of AI and robotics a very pressing one. Unfortunately, like so many other things lip service only is being paid to it.