WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[PanBiker]

Run up to Harrogate yesterday via Otley and Poole to avoid the closed A59 at Kex Ghyll went OK. We went to see Paul Carrack last night who was playing with his band at the Royal Hall. Sally had booked the trip with an overnight stay at the Yorkshire Hotel for my Christmas present.

An excellent gig to a packed hall, he played a whole range of current and past hits, recognised for his voice I would think, I have always liked his stuff but never realised that he could play keyboards as well as the guitar that he normally fronts the band with. He did excellent stuff on the organ as well as piano and electric and acoustic guitar. Two drummers playing counterpoise backed the band which apart from Paul consisted of bass and lead guitars, two more keyboard players, one who also featured on saxophone, flute and melodica.

[Stanley]

Tiz, now there's the small job of getting the bridge out of the river....
I see that the EU is coming under increasing pressure to reinstate the practice of feeding properly treated swill to pigs and saving the use of costly high protein supplements which have to be grown specially rather than being fed to humans. About time, it's a double whammy. Waste food has to be either incinerated or buried in landfill and is a criminal waste of potentially valuable nutrients.

[Tizer]

And putting food into landfill is creating problems for the future. It degrades, ferments, releases gases and makes the landfill unstable.
Talking of landfill, a BBC report today states: `The carcasses of three sperm whales washed up on the east coast have been taken to landfill sites in an overnight operation.' I'm glad I don't live near that landfill site and I'm sad for those people who will suffer when, eventually, some developer builds houses on the land and they later collapse into a sinkhole.

[Stanley]

I think they let it slip that the site was somewhere near Sheffield....
The banning of swill was a knee-jerk reaction to an unproven source of infection and should never have been allowed. Good swill feeding operations were wonderful. I used to deliver skim to Marshall's at Bradley who cooked and fed swill from canteens and hotels. Boiled with ground barley and skim the result was a very appetising porridge that was safe to eat for humans. The pigs loved it and the pork was great. Just think of all the soya that is used to replace that protein.....
Amazon deliver my auto darkening welding screen tomorrow..... I'm looking forward to trying it out!

[Tizer]

`Young people in England have 'lowest literacy levels' in developed world says OECD'
"Young people in England are the most illiterate in the developed world with many students graduating with only a basic grasp of English and maths, an in-depth analysis by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has found. The OECD report rated English teenagers aged 16 to 19 the worst of 23 developed nations in literacy and 22nd of 23 in numeracy. In contrast, pensioners or those close to retirement were among the highest-ranked of their age group. England had nine million people of working age with low literacy or numeracy skills, it said. The number of low-skilled people aged 16 to 19 was three times higher than in top-performing countries such as Finland, Japan, Korea and the Netherlands. South Korea came top of the list for literacy — assessed by the ability to read and answer questions on a text — and numeracy." LINK

Sadly, many of these young people have been encouraged to pursue university degree courses and therefore also have the burden of a large debt early in life and but can't get a job.

[Tripps]

And putting food into landfill is creating problems for the future. It degrades, ferments, releases gases and makes the landfill unstable.
Talking of landfill, a BBC report today states: `The carcasses of three sperm whales washed up on the east coast have been taken to landfill sites in an overnight operation.' I'm glad I don't live near that landfill site and I'm sad for those people who will suffer when, eventually, some developer builds houses on the land and they later collapse into a sinkhole.

I think 'waste' food these days goes into this sort of device. Biogen plant

I drive past the Bygrave site quite often - the digesters are enormous, and there is usually an interesting smell. They seem to have got planning under the radar - there was no local discussion in the press beforehand, and it is built on agricultural land which would surely never have been given any other sort of permission - certainly not for housing. It was said that it would be powered by waste food from supermarkets. I think that was PR; but if true, there would nothing left for the poor pigs. I smell subsidies.

[Stanley]

The money spent on subsidising biogen plants is one of the unfortunate legacies of the swill ban. If the money had been spent on efficient conversion of the waste to pig food it would have been a lot better.
Tiz, I heard that report about literacy and while it doesn't surprise me, what a terrible indictment of our primary schools because that's where the foundations are laid. I have argued for many years that the primary schools are underfunded and the teachers underpaid and denigrated. After all they are only teaching infants.... How short sighted can you get?
Personally it was finishing the first of the two crankshafts....

[Tripps]

The latest Grey Funnel Line recruitment ad - Can you fix a bike - then you can fix a car - etc etc, -then you can fix a Lynx helicopter - and a Type 45 destroyer. Perhaps they foresaw the need for a lot more mechanics? I did wonder how they would get the engines out if the need to be replaced - looks like they will have to cut into the skin. This news item is short on detail - is it the engine or the generator which isn't up to the job?

[PanBiker]

Apparently the generators are not up to the job of supplying the hi-tech electronics systems. When the systems trip out it leaves the ship dead in the water. It beggars belief really you would have thought that sufficient overkill would have been specified in the systems when built for future upgrading etc. It said on the news that they could not trace who was responsible for this design flaw which I find very hard to believe. Surely all the original designs, designers and suppliers are still in the chain somewhere. Obviously no one is going to be held to account for the massive knock on. They have to cut a hole in the side of the vessels to get to the installation point for an additional generator, bloody ridiculous. Whatever happened to serviceability?

[Tizer]

It's sad to see these old hovercraft threatened with extinction. I hope the museum does save one of them. They're especially significant for Mrs Tiz and I - we set out on our honeymoon in one of those! Hovercraft

[plaques]

that they could not trace who was responsible for this design flaw

Are we sure its a 'design' flaw by the firms that supplied the parts. More than likely its a specification flaw by the MoD. Most firms now-a-days will supply exactly to specification even if they know full well it won't do the job it is intended to do. A nice little earner some time down the line.

[PanBiker]

Matters not really if it was a design flaw or under specification for the job in hand, someone has cocked up in no small way with what looks like no comeback to the cost of the taxpayer.

[Stanley]

Tiz, hovercraft... Too big to save, the resources aren't there to keep existing museums open. Robert Aram and I had a conversation ten years ago and we both agreed that if we were starting on Masson Mill or Ellenroad now we wouldn't take them on, it would be impossible. On the subject of destruction, what is going to happen to all the books when Lancashire closes the libraries due for the axe?
The Type 45 destroyers.... Whether it was design of specification engineers would be involved and if they had any salt they would be specifying built in redundancy to cover any eventuality. Then the accountants would move in and argue against extra cost.... Good job they weren't designing a nuclear power station......
Swarf!

[Marilyn]

Went for a drive by our Murray River Mouth/Coorong today looking for suitable stretches of coastline to go kayaking. Lovely scenery, and plenty of calm spots. Stanley to post a pic I took of a sign at one of the landings...( we won't be fishing!)

[Stanley]

How's this for service.....

[Tizer]

I wouldn't want to find one of those in my fish & chips!
One for the fashionistas out there...`When pyjamas ruled the fashion world' LINK

[Stanley]

From my dog walking I know two houses in Barlick where the woman of the house seems to be permanently dressed in nightwear and a dressing gown but I wouldn't class either as high fashion or even attractive..... Mind you I'm a bad judge, I am invariably fully dressed by 4AM!

[Stanley]

Trump losing the Iowa Caucasus....

[Tizer]

Yes, it's good to see Trump getting knocked back but let's not forget the winner, Ted Cruz, claims that climate change isn't happening, is a Tea Party hardliner, gun supporter, anti-abortion, pro death penalty, promises to combat the "war on faith", defund Planned Parenthood and dismantle Obamacare. As if that isn't enough, Sarah Palin likes him!

[Stanley]

Yes I know..... depressing isn't it!
Today I benefit from the fact that the high risk turning of crankshafts is over! I like making them but they aren't easy!

[Bruff]

Seeing the incomprehensibly stupid Palin turning up to a Trump rally was best expressed thus: dog takes a dump; second dog rolls up to sniff it. The same image comes to mind with Cruz beating Trump…..

Richard Broughton

[PanBiker]

That made me laugh Richard.

Postman has just delivered my new router. Just putting back the stuff I had to move to get my line extension in.

[Stanley]

Many of the commentators are pointing towards Marco Rubio as the dark horse who did well in Iowa and could be a game changer.
I see a new word has been coined, 'Trumptantrum'. I like it.....

[Stanley]

Wendy has been, she likes her map weights and she has left me these.... Guess what I shall be having for tea!

[Wendyf]

Not really a fair exchange of goods! My map weights are magnificent and will be on display until they are needed.