WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[PanBiker]

Facebook sites have their uses and can be very informative and provide social contact and easy sharing options, it's some of the folk that use them that's the main problem.

I can remember the various early sites in Barlick but you also have to remember the platform software available at the time was not very sophisticated or feature rich. What amazes me is that some of these fairly non functional or crude sites are still around. Barlick History Society comes to mind, compared to the Earby equivalent they are light years apart.

[Tizer]

The big social media sites are what statisticians would call self-selecting - the population of people who use them is biased towards those who like to rant and/or be abusive and the presence of such people attracts others of the same persuasion. Of course that doesn't mean that there won't be `ordinary' folk using the sites but their voices will often be drowned out by the ranters and abusers. It always amazes me to think how in the 21st Century with smartphones, TVs, the Internet, jumbo jets, cars and easy access to information the human species is still so filled with superstition, suspicion, false beliefs and the like. Those old witch hunters are still around but on the Internet now and sometimes working for tabloid newspapers. By the way, did you see that the Star newspaper has discovered more 2-foot long super-rats?

[PanBiker]

By the way, did you see that the Star newspaper has discovered more 2-foot long super-rats?

No but I did see a similar report it in the sidebar of a Facebook page I was visiting. Some of the sites are absolute gems, I love the Now and Then and historical photo sites, some good discussions prompted on colourised photos. I also have bookmarked Aurora monitoring sites as you can get real time information from them. Most of the problems are due to the fact that its generally an open platform, anyone can join in on the worst managed sites, tailor made for trolls and idiots.

[Stanley]

Funny thing that. I have seen rats that could be loosely described as '2 feet long' if you counted the tails. They were at Rex Paterson's pig feeding site at Birstall. On a hot day they used to sun themselves in the yard and the dogs just watched them, they were that big.....
Nice to be working on cylinders again..... Very satisfying.

[PanBiker]

It's our youngest Jack's birthday tomorrow so we have been out for a meal at the Craven Heifer this afternoon. Just the immediate family so Jack and his girlfriend, Carla, Ant and their two Isla and Finlay and Sally and myself. It was very nice and everyone enjoyed it. Isla and Finlay came away with one of Jack's birthday balloons each so they were well happy. Is it really 30 years ago.

[Stanley]

The attempts by the oil producers to cut production and raise the price of energy causing falls on the stock market. The Market failing again!

[Tizer]

What grabbed my cousin's attention was an electricity substation catching fire close to her house on Saturday night! The fire brigade and the power company had to be called out and they've put a very noisy portable generator in the street that now keeps everyone awake at night. They say the fire was `due to an electrical fault' which seems a reasonable conclusion.

[Stanley]

I threw Jack's ball for him yesterday and woke up the old war wound in my right arm and shoulder. If it isn't one thing it's another! Bugger old age!

[Tizer]

Now Mitsubishi Motors has admitted falsifying fuel economy test data for more than 600,000 vehicles and it's share price has dropped 15%. Yet another example of how big companies are ignoring laws and regulations. BBC

[Stanley]

I noted that as well Tiz and from what I can pick up from the reports it wasn't smart software but simple things like blowing up tyres rock hard to improve consumption figures by as much as 40% in some cases. In other words, manipulating the testing process, simple cheating! I look back at things like Gardner Engines running fuel consumption curves on their engines as routine and the fact that you could trust the figures implicitly and wonder where we lost simple principles like honesty.

[PanBiker]

The speed and efficiency of Nick Livsey and a few volunteers in establishing a beacon stack on Weets. Nick mooted the idea on Facebook yesterday after helping with one at Malham and discovering that nothing was planned in Barlick, a number of local communities are having beacon fires to celebrate HM Queen Elizabeth's 90th birthday tonight. Earby will have one up Stoneybank, Martons Both are planning one as I noticed on the bike yesterday, Malham as already noted, I would imagine there will be quite a few more as well.

It will be interesting to see how many we can see. We will be walking up to have a look after tea, the full moon tonight should help to get folk back down off the top, (with a lot of swearing as well I bet).



Photo courtesy of Nick Livsey.

[plaques]

Pendle Leisure at Colne are reducing the hours available for afternoon adult swimming from monday to friday starting 2nd May. It would appear that since they are cutting back on there poolside staff there won't be staff available to watch over adult swimmers in the mid afternoons. Check your own pool for timetable changes.

[David Whipp]

Apart from the beacon (and sunset) - pictured in Bank Edge View, it was the appearance of an illegal Police and Crime Candidate leaflet that caught my attention today.

The Tories were getting a leaflet delivered by a commercial distribution company for the local elections which promoted their PCC candidate, but failed to include the appropriate imprint... not a good move.

Interestingly, the leaflet also failed to mention one of the three Conservative candidates in the local elections - it was if she didn't exist. Very strange.

[PanBiker]

Earby, Martons both, Malham moor side, Long Preston (who managed to set the moor on fire as well!), possibly Elslack and Lothersdale all visible from Weets summit, nothing visible from over the Lancashire side or down the Ribble Valley. Well done to Nick and friends who organised and managed. About 50 people or thereabouts on the summit, the vast majority walked. Here is one of Sally's photo's. A bit nithering in the wind once the sun went down but it got a whole lot warmer once the beacon was fired.

[Stanley]

David, I noted that as well......
VW agreeing to compensate car buyers and buy back almost 50,000 2 litre engine cars..... (LINK) A Cunning Wheeze that backfired.....

[Big Kev]

Earby, Martons both, Malham moor side, Long Preston (who managed to set the moor on fire as well!), possibly Elslack and Lothersdale all visible from Weets summit, nothing visible from over the Lancashire side or down the Ribble Valley. Well done to Nick and friends who organised and managed. About 50 people or thereabouts on the summit, the vast majority walked. Here is one of Sally's photo's. A bit nithering in the wind once the sun went down but it got a whole lot warmer once the beacon was fired.

Were there fireworks around 9pm? I heard a lot of bangs as I got into bed (4am is not a civilized time of day to be getting up to go to work).

[Stanley]

Nowt wrong with 4AM Kev!
Later news about VW in the US was that if everyone took the buy back option it will cost VW $14billion. The cash back is slightly better at $8billion. Expensive way of marketing cars.....

[PanBiker]

Fireworks were at the Earby beacon Kev we saw them as we were coming off Weets, there were some over at Lothersdale as well, Earby's were very loud though.

[Wendyf]

There was a bonfire and some big fireworks at the Black Lane Ends pub.

[Big Kev]

Fireworks were at the Earby beacon Kev we saw them as we were coming off Weets, there were some over at Lothersdale as well, Earby's were very loud though.

Could well have been Earby then, difficult to determine a direction from my bedroom as the window is north facing and Earby is t'other way

[Tizer]

The reason that VW is having to buy back the offending cars in the USA but not in the UK is not only because the US is more rigorous in chasing companies that break their rules, it's also due to to the US models requiring more modification than the UK ones if they were to have been brought into line with the laws there. It costs VW a fortune either way.

Daimler Mercedes Benz is now having to carry out an internal investigation into diesel exhaust emissions of its models in the USA at the request of the US Justice Department.

The Mitsubishi exhaust emissions scandal has another side to it that doesn't seem to have occurred to the news media yet. This company has now been shown to blatantly ignore regulations but let's not forget it's not only a car-maker and its scornful attitude to the law and regulations may extend into its other areas. And what are these other areas? Most notable in this respect are its operations in nuclear power, chemicals processing, aviation, food and banking. I wonder how much cheating is going on in those Mitsubishi companies?

And this isn't the first time Mitsubishi Motors has been cheating. Let's look back at the New York Times of 23rd August 2000...
MITSUBISHI ADMITS TO BROAD COVER-UP OF AUTO DEFECTS
TOKYO, Aug. 22, 2000 — Mitsubishi Motors admitted today that it had systematically concealed customer complaints about tens of thousands of defective automobiles since 1977. The admission by Mitsubishi, Japan's No. 4 automaker, came a month after its top executive had denied accusations that it had covered up problems that included faulty fuel tanks, clutches, crankshafts and brakes. NYT

[PanBiker]

How matter of fact are kids?

Prince was our Dan's favourite artist, on hearing the news of his death his daughter Ruby (7) asked her mummy this morning if her Daddy would have liked to have met Prince. Her mum said yes I'm sure he would have. Ruby replied "that's alright then, he'll be able to see him now".

[Marilyn]

Aw...Bless her.

When my son was little, our beloved cat died. He was ok that we buried it in the back yard, but got a bit of a wobble on when I explained that...no...we couldn't leave the cat's head poking out so it could breathe...

[PanBiker]

Nothing like that from our kids Maz they have always been reasonably OK with our departed moggies. They were little older when we lost our first one. We have three in our front garden, two of them were put to sleep by the vet when through illness it was kinder to let them go. As such they could be curled as if sleeping and so would fit in a reasonably neat square hole. Buster and Emily are interred in this manner. George, our magnificent black and white Tom cat liked to roam and ran out of luck down on the road. Sally found him on her way to work on the verge at the side of the road where someone had placed him after being knocked down. Problem was he was "galloping" consequently I had to keep extending the hole in the front garden to get him to fit, it was over 2 ft long by the time I had finished. I know we could have left him a bit but the kids wanted to sort it sooner rather than later. He's buried in a Star Wars pillowcase. Buster got Care Bears and Emily is curled in My Little Pony (the first time round).

[Marilyn]

Gosh...I can't remember what we wrapped the cat in!