Seen in the News

[Cathy]

In Australia we can buy Bilby or Rabbit Easter Eggs. Part of the cost for the Bilby one goes to ‘Save The Bilby Fund’.
A Bilby is an Australian Marsupial, a small burrowing Bandicoot.
It used to be found in it’s millions, living across 70% of Australia, but due to settlements, clearing, plus the introduction of rabbits, foxes and feral cats, the Bilby was pushed to extinction.
Here in SA, where the Bilby was once extinct, there are now (2018) estimated to be over 1500 Bilbies back in the wild.

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[Tizer]

Thanks for that, Cathy - let's hear it for the bilbies!

Do you have these electric scooters in Australia yet...
`Teens ride hired Tees Valley e-scooters on A19' LINK
`Two teenage boys hired e-scooters and rode them along a busy dual carriageway, police have said. The equipment is being trialled in the Tees Valley area and can only be used on cycle lanes and roads with a speed limit of up to 40mph. Cleveland Police said they stopped two teenagers who hired the scooters and rode them along the A19 to Teesside Park on Thursday. Police have not said how old they were or whether they had driver's licences. Ginger, the firm running the trial, has been asked how the system will prevent those not permitted to use it from hiring the vehicles, but has not commented..'.

[Cathy]

E-Scooters. Can’t say I’ve seen one being used in my area. Definitely available to be bought here in Aust. Every state seems to have different info. All very confusing.
SA - Helmets must be worn. Riders must give way to pedestrians. Illegal on road, footpaths and bicycle tracks. Can only be riden on private property. Considered to be a motor vehicle - licence, registration and 3rd party insurance needed. Cannot exceed 15km/h.
Other (?) can only be used on footpaths/ shared pathways, not on multi-lane roads.

[Stanley]

I commented earlier in the year I had seen one in Barlick and have seen the same lad since on it. Looks like an additional hazard to me especially on pavements.

[Tizer]

It's interesting the SA limit is 15km/hour. It's 15mph here which is a significant difference in safety hazard.

[Stanley]

I'm pretty good at estimating speed and the one I've seen is faster than that! It was in the Co-op car park and I remember thinking at the time that if someone drove a car as fast as that everyone would have been in danger.

On a different subject. Remember the report about the repainting of the RAF transport that cost £900,000? There was a letter in PE this week from someone who looked as though he knew what he was talking about that said the Airbus was in for a scheduled major overhaul which more less involved taking it apart and inspecting everything, this includes stripping off all the paint so that the external skin can be inspected. The correspondent said that the cost of that was about £1million. If that is correct why didn't someone scotch the criticism of the government by making it public?

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on a £400million investment in this company during the post Brexit surge of Johnson optimism in an effort to compensate for our exit from the EU Galileo programme. It appears that one civil servant described it as 'unusual' and now questions are being asked as the company has applied for bankruptcy.
One to watch?

[plaques]

Looks like Boris is running a book supporting firms with the potential to go bust. Having said that there is an interesting paragraph at the end of the article....The UK government sees satellites as a way to meet commitments on the roll-out of super-fast broadband and believes OneWeb's constellation could also deliver a precise satellite navigation system.
In times of global conflict the first thing the combatants will do is switch off their satellite navigation leaving the UK blind to what's going on. Another unintended consequence of leaving the EU.

[Tizer]

...and now questions are being asked as the company has applied for bankruptcy. One to watch?

The fact that it's going bankrupt is the reason the UK is taking the opportunity to buy into it - not that I'm saying I think it's a good idea.

`Earliest evidence for humans in the Americas' LINK

[Tripps]

An engineering professor was sacked yesterday for saying (in a casual conversation with a collleague) the Jewish people were very clever. Now I see that Plusnet's latest ad campaign is based on the idea that Yorkshire folk are tight fisted.

I thought the former was a fairly well established fact, whilst the latter is a totally unfounded calumny. Isn't it?

[Stanley]

It's getting complicated David. I heard a discussion on World Service about racism in America and one thing that came out is that 'The silent majority' and 'law and order' are now seen as dog whistle racist remarks because they are aimed at a racist white sector of the voters.
You can still specify a suite of locks with one Master Key. That will have to go...

[Tizer]

On The Times front page this morning. (I can't give you any more than this because The Times web site is on subscription only - I don't subscribe and we only buy the Saturday paper.)
`Islamic Relief leader quits as Times discovers antisemitic posts'
`A leader of Britain’s largest Muslim charity labelled Jews the “grandchildren of monkeys and pigs” and called Egypt’s president a “Zionist pimp”, it is revealed today. Heshmat Khalifa was a trustee and director of Islamic Relief Worldwide, whose £570 million income over the past five years included substantial contributions from the United Nations, the European Commission and the British taxpayer. He resigned after The Times confronted the global aid charity with antisemitic comments that he made on his Facebook page...'.

[Stanley]

Even more important... I see that jokes beginning with "An English man a Scotsman and an Irishman..." are now regarded as racist. Where does this all end?

[Tripps]

Scotland yard have been accused of being over zealous in bursting into a house when a child was reported 'with a gun'. London gun raid

I don't think they would have reacted similarly if the kids involved had been this pair.

► Show Spoiler

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[Stanley]

I think the police have realised that if they rigidly follow the instructions they have been given they cannot be held responsible for any perceived over-caution. Following 'procedures'.

[plaques]

It was ONLY a BB gun? They were quite right to investigate.
Can a BB gun kill you?
BB guns can kill a person. High-velocity BB guns, which have muzzle velocities higher than 350 feet per second, can increase this risk. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has reports of about 4 deaths per year caused by BB guns or pellet rifles.

[Big Kev]

The family should consider themselves lucky they were only subjected to a search and arrest. Could have been a completely different story...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/mor ... ic-pistol/

[Tizer]

We believe it was a ball bearing gun that blasted holes through the thick double glazed glass in the side and roof of our neighbour's house.

[Stanley]

'Air Rifles' can be very powerful. I used to have an off the shelf .22 BSA air rifle that I used for shooting pigeons trapped in the engine house at Ellenroad. At short range it hit almost as hard as a .22 short cartridge rook gun. I know! I hated doing it but you should see the mess they make fluttering round in the dirty ceiling and what it does to an engine. You wouldn't credit how destructive that gritty dust can be to bearing surfaces.

[Stanley]

See THIS and reflect that the world this article describes is light years away from ours. Nice to know though that the spirit of Andrew Carnegie is alive and well in some places.

[Tizer]

If you've watched Monty Hall and his family on their visits to the Galapagos you'll already know about such ships fishing in protected waters off the Galapagos Islands...
`Ecuador on alert over huge Chinese fishing fleet off Galapagos Islands' LINK

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on the inaccuracy of Johnson's statements about child poverty and ask yourself if the age of the Big Lie has gone or simply been replaced by Trumpian 'false news'.

[Stanley]

I heard the owner of a private company which supplies home carers that his staff were not eligible for Covid testing. Amazing! The same applies to carers in 'care villages' as well.
Read MD in Private Eye this week on Coronavirus, a source of good medical common sense and a surprising read.

[Tripps]

Read MD in Private Eye this week on Coronavirus,

Very sound on face coverings I found.

The full list of new Life peers has now been oficially announce have been partially leaked a few days ago. Most publicity for Ian Botham naturally,but some interesting people haven't had so much
.
Nigel Dodds - N. Irish ex MP

Claire Fox- Founder & Head of 'The Institute of Ideas' (No I didn't make that up.) briefly MEP.

Charles Moore - Biographer of Margaret Thatcher, and regular columnist in The Spectator.

Dame Louise Casey - Former Czarina of various quangos - mainly for homeless people etc.

Evgeny Lebedov - owner of The Independent and The Evening Standard.

I'm sure they will all - in their own little way - add to the good governance of the Nation.

[PanBiker]

There are a lot more hanging on Lords than elected MP's! The other failed Tory, she of poison chalice, her husband has got something. Hasn't Boris set his brother on a nice retainer of about £100k as an advisor? Jobs for the boys as usual.