OneGuyFromBarlick

The Curiosity rover scientists think they've detected chlorobenzene on Mars - they need to check it's not being formed during the analysis. Or that nobody put moth balls in the rover!

It did the trick! I can remember how surprised I was when I realised how many poisons were used in small quantities in medicine. Gold, Strychnine and other deadly substances. I remember reading once about shepherds in the mountains in I think it was Spain, taking arsenic in small quantities because they believed it made them better at heights. Over the years they built up a tolerance to doses that would kill anyone else.

Pure gold isn't toxic and is approved for use in foods and it's long been used as gold leaf for coating fancy foods - I've eaten the gold coated seeds that are common in India for instance. Chemical compounds of gold can be toxic but they don't form from gold in the body because it's such an inert metal. Some people are allergic to gold.

I was told that Gold was what killed my mate Roger Perry at a young age. He had chronic severe arthritis and evidently the gold eventually caused a build-up of something in his organs.... Could be wrong of course....

How did gold get into him in the first place?

Roger was so bad he tried every 'cure' available and I think one of them involved gold. He introduced me to 24 clove garlic soup when I stayed with him once. I got to like it.... (Sorry Maz....) He suffered terribly and in the end it, or the medication, got him at 37 years old. Such a shame, he was a brilliant snapper.



He did this pic of me in the engine house in 1976.

A great photo. If Roger was affected by ingesting gold it must have been an unusual chemical compound of gold. Wikipedia says gold compounds are still used in two anti-inflammatory medications in the US. Toxic gold cyanide salts are used in electroplating.

You're right about the pic and Roger thought it was OK or he would never have sent it to me..... He interpreted me as intelligent and dangerous! I'll leave others to judge.... I'm glad he did it....

Re the Perry pic. It struck me this morning that in those days some people spent hours debating the subject of grain with fast films and there were two camps, Ilford FP for fine grain and Tri-X for the journos.... That pic is an example of what a good man could do with a Nikon and Tri-X. The trick was to over expose slightly where possible and adjust the developer (Always Kodak D76). I was lucky, I was taught my snapping by the right men!

The Guardian, today...
`Revered Observer photographer Jane Bown dies aged 89 '
"The magnificent Jane Bown, the Observer’s veteran and legendary photographer who recently said: “I spent my whole life worrying about time and light,” has died just four months short of her 90th birthday. The Observer editor, John Mulholland, called her “part of the Observer’s DNA”.

"She joined the Observer in 1949 and, resisting all offers from other prospective employers, continued to appear in the office every week for more than half a century, working on 35mm film to the end, meekly waiting for assignments, and turning in dazzlingly beautiful images for news stories and features. She was particularly well known for portraits of the rich, famous, infamous and unknown. Many became trademark images of her subjects, including her definitive portrait of the playwright Samuel Becket, glaring like a caged eagle, whom she cornered in an alley beside the Royal Court theatre as he tried to make his escape.

"She was made an MBE in 1985, a CBE in 1995 and, although by then too frail to take photographs, she last appeared in the Observer offices in August."
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign ... ies-age-89

She was one of the last of the black and white snappers who believed that colour polluted the image, you don't see the essential elements of the image as clearly because the eye is confused. That's how Roger and Daniel taught me. She didn't trust any camera speed above 1/500sec because she didn't believe the faster speeds! Almost all her pics were done on 1/60 at 2.8, you always got a usable image.... Often called the NUJ setting.....
Roger once told me that the test was to take a pic of a black cat in a coal house and see if you could get a good image.....

Leave carrots, whisky and mince pies in the hearth tonight......

Enjoy yourselves today but try to avoid eating too much. The classic picture is the front room full of sleeping crumblies after dinner while a tide of kids with presents surges round them.

Never take the skin off poultry when dealing with left overs. Most of the flavour is in the skin and the fat. I once skinned an old goose in the days when we were poor and it was a disaster, no taste at all. It even failed in a curry!

Old fashioned hard scrubbing soap is often the most pure and can still be found sold in blocks. It has no additives to scent it and is very long-lasting. In Barlick it can be bought at Shambles on the Square....

During the Great War many women's magazines published knitting patterns for fingerless gloves which were sent out to the troops. The idea was that the fingers were free to operate weapons. You don't see them nowadays but they can be very useful.

I'm pretty sure I have seen similar fingerless gloves used by people operating their mobile phones on wintry mornings,maybe they have been re-introduced. And I think some drivers wear them too.

I don't think fingerless gloves have ever gone away, I've had a few pairs over the years and though the idea seems like a good one, in reality if gloves don't have fingers in you might as well not have them on at all.....useless!

I have a few pairs of fingerless gloves, readily available and quite useful when fishing. I prefer them when walking in winter as well, I don't have a problem with slightly chilled fingers, rather have the dexterity.

Perhaps we should initiate a campaign for the return of the fingerless glove. I have a pair of mittens somewhere with a top section that can be folded back to free the fingers.....

I've knitted a few pairs of those in my time.

I think the next project is a stab vest for Dad....

Ever wonder how to remove those stubborn glue marks left by labels that don't have peelable adhesives?
We have metal skinned doors in China and they stick a few labels on new doors. In addition some Chinese businesses advertise by sticking a label with a telephone number on apartment doors, eg for locksmiths, local shop, cleaners etc.The Chinese just leave them on but I don't like seeing them and remove them from my doors. The trouble is that they often leave those glue marks that are a pain to shift. A few weeks ago I was removing a label and in frustration I picked up a can of mosquito spray that was lying nearby, and tried that. Hey Presto. Instant success. You had to be quick whilst the spray was still wet so I guess it was the butane propellant that was acting as the main solvent, so most aerosols should work. I'm told WD40 does the same but WD40 contains solvent, possibly Xylene. Test on a small none important area before using solvents. I remember a manager at the chemical works using acetone to clean the keypad on the office computer. All the letters immediately disappeared and he was left with a sticky mess. And he was a qualified chemist. I think keypads were only about £3 at the time.


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We're very advanced here in Britain, we have `stickystuff remover' that you buy from places like Lakeland Plastics. Very effective and I think it's based on citrus essential oil - a byproduct of citrus fruit processing. Some people are said to be allergic to it but I've never met anyone who is.

I start with lighter fuel, next one is methylated spirits, next is the cleaner you get with dye test kits, I think it might be acetone. You've got to find the right solvent and they seem to vary. We often forget that the most universal solvent is water but it doesn't work on sticky labels!