OneGuyFromBarlick

I am using 600 for the width of my .jpgs and that seems to be OK.

I can remember a time when the element of entertainment was occasionally present in news broadcasts.... Long gone I am afraid. The easiest form of news production is to get someone with a personal tragedy (plenty of them available in these Covid days!) and do a tear-jerker interview. Responses are triggered from the contributor by asking puerile and leading questions ("and how did your child's death affect you....") and the pathos milked as hard as possible.
I'd like it to stop please..... Can we get back to Flatley Dryer news which was often bad but simply reported factually.

It's too late, people are addicted to drama, sad faces, angry faces. I watch little live TV and only selected recorded programmes, mostly factual, interesting and thought provoking. Mrs Tiz watches craft and cookery programmes live. Whenever the TV goes back to live broadcast at the end of a recording it's usually anger and sadness, things like Casualty and East Enders. No wonder we have so many people on antidepressants!

Same here with TV viewing, it's very rare 'live' TV is on. Thank goodness for On Demand services and a Freesat DVR

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has noticed. I think it's perhaps the idea of making news programmes without supporting journalists that is causing the change. Even what used to be serious programmes like BBC news are responding to click bait and reporting 'viral trends' I couldn't care less about viral trends.....
So the Flatley Dryer element is the loss of proper journalism.

Looking at the current plethora of choices in the media I am reminded of the time when I bought our first VHF radio and then found that there was only Radio 2 on VHF, the rest were on Medium and long wave and on the old system. I was not popular at home. This was of course long before we had TV.

Bought this 26 years ago and now part of history.

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Stanley wrote: ↑16 Mar 2021, 05:03 there was only Radio 2 on VHF, the rest were on Medium and long wave

That would be the Light Program at that time Stanley. Folk also rushed to get VHF radio aerials put up and found the same thing. A bit like digital radio is now.

Due to failing eyesight and a tuning error, I found unexpectedly that Radio Caroline is back on the medium wave on 648 kHz. I take a passing interest - having been slightly involved in its removal from the previous 518 kHz spot. Ironic that they have been given a former BBC frequency which used to broadcast the World Service from Orford Ness to a grateful Eastern Europe.

They always announced it in Metres, Radio Caroline on 199, Luxembourg on 208. Not surprised about Eastern Europe all they had to listen to at the time were the monotonous number groups with the odd "bing bong" from time to time. Tony Blackburn and the rest of the now well known DJ's that ended up with the BBC would be very welcome I'm sure.

You're right Ian I think, I know when I left for London an Sunday night when I was on the Tramp in the 1960s I left Vera listening to 'Sing Something Simple' on VHF while I had the old Home Service on Long and Medium wave on a radio in the wagon. Vera nursed an intense dislike of Sing Something Simple and Jimmy Shand and his accordion band until the day she died!

Have a look at THIS Wiki article on the Droitwich radio transmitter. Long wave and medium wave are Flatley Dryer territory in the modern media but hold on, there are still some surprising uses. One that surprised me is the time signals for the Economy 7 electricity billing system. It's controlled by a Long Wave signal if I have read the article correctly. At 87 years old it's two years older than I am. That makes it automatically Flatley Dryer material.

I think it was David who mentioned The Manchester Guardian this morning in another topic. See THIS history of the paper and the fact that the Peterloo Massacre was a factor in its birth. I can remember being vaguely shocked in the 60s when the paper moved to London.
The Manchester Guardian is definitely Flatley Dryer!

Something rather different but now qualifies for Flatley Dryer status. Do you remember the good old days when if you had no debts you would be treated well by retailers, car salesmen etc, perhaps given offers or discounts to entice you while they shooed away those who were in debt and therefore judged to be unreliable? Whereas now they don't want people free of debt, they work to attract those in debt by giving offers and discounts. They now judge that those who take up debt readily will be more profitable to them. I thought of this because I'm going to ditch my HSBC credit card (had it 40 years!) and go for one at my current bank instead. When I look at credit card offers they're aimed at people who already have debts and want to transfer them. I pay off my card every month so I'm not attractive to them!

You're right Peter and the same applies to someone who wants to pay cash for a sizeable purchase. No commission from the loan sharks if you do that so sales persons don't want to know.

Looking at your post again Peter....
Yes, I'm lucky enough to be able to pay my card off as well. I've often wondered how it was possible for me to have that credit at no cost. It seems to me that the system relies on the high interest paid by those least able to pay. A counter-intuitive way to run a system but it must be profitable.
The Flatley dryer element is paying cash on the nail.

Attempts by the EU to manipulate the delivery destinations of centres manufacturing vaccines in Europe remind us oldies of previous attempts to embargo trade, none of which ended well. It's Flatley Dryer country, they should avoid it and argue about contracts instead!

In 1950 the very latest rat poison was Warfarin. It's use is declining now as better rodenticides have been introduced. more is probably used as a blood thinner for human treatment now so as rat poison it's probably Flatley Dryer territory.

I was going to cite this poison as an example of Flatley Dryer country but I had a surprise when I checked. As far as I can see you can still buy it even though it was made illegal in 2004.

Paul Butt, senior specialist with the Wildlife Management & Licensing Team said: “Despite having lost all approvals for storage and use in December 2004, old stocks of Cymag are still being discovered. These have been found in a number of unsuitable and poor storage situations and as the packaging deteriorates, there is an increasing possibility of gas being released, so creating a poisoning risk to anyone coming into contact. The only legal and safe way of disposing of this material is to obtain the services of a licensed pesticide waste contractor.” Cymag

Many years ago I used it for rabbits, spoon it in the burrows with a desert spoon than stop the burrow. Deadly stuff but no training or safety gear, nor even gloves. Those were the days!

A Boeing Atlantic Clipper flying boat. (LINK) I knew a lady in New York who was an 'air stewardess' on Transatlantic flight in the early days when the flights took so long that passengers went to bed in bunks at night. In those days every stewardess had to be a qualified nurse. She told wonderful stories about the first Boeing 707 flights. Cooking in flight for passengers, exploding baked beans because of the reduced pressure and many other stories. All Flatley Dryer country now. She was a pioneer.

I think that might be the Seattle Boeing factory in the background.

I think you could be right Peter.
Her stories about the early days of 707 flight were great. She said that when first put into service it had a habit of suddenly deciding to go into a dive. At one point this happened and a male passenger panicked and tried to open the door of the plane. He couldn't of course, it was locked but he did manage to trigger the pneumatic slide which suddenly deployed in the cabin. My friend had to borrow a penknife and stab it repeatedly to deflate it. She still had the knife when I knew her. She said that some food was pre-cooked but others had to be cooked or reheated in flight by the staff. This was where the exploding baked beans came in. They soon found that certain foods didn't like the lower pressure in the cabin and when they opened the tins of baked beans to warm them the beans exploded.
At that time they all still had to be registered nurses.

Anyone who has travelled has seen sights like this in some countries. It happens if domestic electricity distribution isn't strictly controlled. This is a relatively mild example.
We were lucky, all services in towns except telephones were installed underground from the very beginning of supplies. With hindsight we were very lucky!