WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

Big sleep, I think my body is still working on eliminating the nasty!

[Tizer]

My hearing must be going as well because I often have to ask people to slow down and repeat what they said....

I'm younger than you and already have some hearing loss (the higher pitch) but there is also the change in speech where younger generations talk too fast for our generations.

[Stanley]

Thanks Tiz, I was beginning to think it was just me!

[Tizer]

Welcome to `Dismaland'! LINK

[Stanley]

I saw a TV report last night. Banksy has a very active imagination and a unique view of life.....

[Tizer]

Malala Yousafzai, the 18-year-old Pakistani girl who faced up to the Taliban on their treatment of women, has just got four A* GCSE grades and two or three A grades.

[PanBiker]

Good lass

[Cathy]

Very impressive. It will be interesting to watch her over the years.

[Stanley]

W C Fields springs to mind.... "I hate smart kids!".
Under pressure to cut costs the BBC has terminated its contract with the Mat Office. That's a mistake if ever I saw one. I forecast that it won't be long before pressure comes on them to rethink this one!

[Tizer]

These days we all know of the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning from malfunctioning boilers and fires etc. But here is another thing to be wary of - when you've finished with your barbecue don't bring it indoors or inside your tent even if you think it's gone out. LINK

[PanBiker]

Under pressure to cut costs the BBC has terminated its contract with the Mat Office. That's a mistake if ever I saw one. I forecast that it won't be long before pressure comes on them to rethink this one!

One of the firms tendering is in Australia, how is that going to work for Leeds Bradford Airport or for any other degree of accuracy for our complex weather systems over the UK, some things surely should be ring fenced. Fancy asking someone at the other side of the world what the weather was likely to be like in the channel and for the Normandy coast in June 1944, we would have lost!

[Tizer]

I suspect the BBC took the Met Office for granted and just assumed they'd carry on regardless.

[Tripps]

If 9032 had been 9320 - or vice versa - I'd have won £30,000 on the lottery raffle last night.

Ah well. . . . .

[Stanley]

The boss of the Met Office was on Today yesterday morning. They will still be doing the severe weather warnings for the Beeb and the Shipping Forecast won't change because that is done for the Maritime and coastguard agency nit the Beeb. It sounds crazy to me, they have obviously been forced by the accountants to go for the lowest tender.... Always a potential recipe for disaster.....

[Tizer]

If you have a photo of anyone who served in the Battle of Britain you can submit it to the RAF's Commemorative Mosaic via the link on this Winged Heroes page: LINK

[Stanley]

A card behind the door to tell me there is a Registered Letter waiting for me at the Post Office. Worrying stuff for someone of my generation, they were almost always bad news!
Later, all is well. it was my army records. An interesting read and a bit of a mystery because they are not accurate in one respect. According to my service record my indisposition in January 1956 while with the Black Watch was simply Nonspecific gastro enteritis and I was discharged back to unit after three days. In fact I was transferred down to Hannover and spent about a fortnight there before being sent back to Berlin. No mention either of the fact I was on light duties from then until my discharge in July. I wonder whether they were covering their bases in case of any blow back. After all it was severe food poisoning (not least Botulism) contracted at the Black Watch barracks and I almost died. Interesting......

[plaques]

A letter addressed to Mrs P using her full name, nobody uses her full name unless they are asking for money, this one was no exception. Supposedly from the 'Peoples Postcode Lottery' congratulating her on having won £850,000 in this months draw. This was a surprise since neither of us does lotteries of any description. All you have to do is ring this number. (here comes a sucker) and then make a payment for 'processing' (we've got one here). Finally send us your banking details so that we can transfer the amount securely. (round the world cruise here we come). Since we are not in need of this sort of petty cash we have decided to decline the offer.
A quick Google check gave the following.
The Postcode lottery is genuine but it costs £10 up front. Postcode
The maximum prize by law is £400,000.
The address given in the letter turns out to be the London Shard.
They have used this address for other 'Sweepstake' lotteries.Sweepstake.
The question is. Do you think this could be a scam?

[Stanley]

Never!!! As if anyone would do that....
What strikes me P is that it's a bit quaint using snail mail to do this. Perhaps they think that people have more trust in letters?
The army records I got were mainly my medical records and I was struck by how thorough they were on enlistment and right through my service to discharge (apart from the gap when I was in Hannover....). Interesting to see that I grew 3" in that two years, put 7lbs on and my chest expanded from 33" to 35". I was still growing at 20 years old on discharge and over the next five years filled out to what eventually became my fighting weight of 168lbs.
One thing that always puzzled me was the PULHEEMS system of medical classification so I looked it up and found this on Wiki....
PULHHEEMS is an abbreviation for the factors it is intended to test. These include:
Physique
Upper limbs
Lower limbs (or 'Locomotion', as this includes the back)
Hearing (left)
Hearing (right)
Eyesight left (corrected / uncorrected)
Eyesight right (corrected / uncorrected)
Mental function
Stability (emotional)

My score was always straight 2s except for my eyes which were 8 without glasses (unemployable) and 1 with (excellent). This was what prompted the MO at Birmingham in March 1954 to grade me as 3, not to be employed in infantry or artillery but could be used in pioneer or labour battalions.
This grading was changed to 2 while I was in training, they must have been short of cannon fodder!
Another thing that grabbed me this morning was the realisation that I was wrong in thinking that Thursday was the day I transfer to fibre, it's today.Just out of interest I did a speed test and got the highest speed I have ever had, 18mps and so I think the process must have already started. But I'm not going to rush.... I shall install the new router tonight and leave it to argue with itself all night, so if I am AWOL tomorrow morning it means we have cocked up!

[Stanley]

The TV shooting in the US. How bad does it have to get before the red necks accept gun control? As Obama says, far more people are killed by domestic gun violence than terrorism....

[Tizer]

"`Peoples Postcode Lottery"
Plaques, if you put the above into google together with `scam' you'll find plenty of warnings from various UK police forces and councils such as this one: LINK
You say the address in your letter turns out to be the London Shard. Be aware that police are currently investigating scams that are starting to be sent out from `prestigious London addresses'. Stanley notes that it's in an old-fashioned letter but that's probably a way of tricking people into thinking it must therefore be `safe'.

We are getting more scam attempts and they are getting more crafty all the time. Phone calls that sound official as if they are from government departments and asking us to press button 1 or the hash button etc. Watch out for these and don't press any buttons, just disconnect. If you press the button, at the very least you are giving them permission to contact you in the future. They can use it in court as a defence to show you accepted their call.

In other cases with phone calls, you'll probably find your phone line is `hung' for some time after disconnecting. That's a characteristic of the ones where they claim to be from e.g. your bank or broadband provider and then suggest for safety you look up the correct number and call that institution. When you do they are still holding the line and you end up back with them but thnk it must be genuine and you're through to the right people. Don't let them get you!

[Tripps]

"Remember – it is not possible to win a lottery unless you have personally purchased a ticket."

That's all you need to know.

[plaques]

Thanks Tizer & Tripps. I posted the scam on OG as a general alert. Not that I am tight, just careful. It has been said that getting money from me is like getting blood out of a stone. Another one that's just been ditched is a text to say that our PPI claim is being processed and just ring XXXXX. Needless to say that on pay as go a text costs about 14p. So there's another loser.

[Stanley]

Another telephone scam was highlighted on You and Yours yesterday. Crooks can hijack your line and reconnect it to a mobile number that they control. You know it has happened when your phone is suddenly a garbled mess. This is quite new and the banks report it is associated with attempts to gain control of accounts. There are some nasty people out there....
The decomposed bodies, thought to be migrants found in the abandoned lorry in Austria. (LINK) People smugglers plus greed equals death....
Later, the Austrian police say that there are 70 bodies.....

[Stanley]

I think the matter which claims my attention most at the moment is the tide of refugees moving towards Europe in search of some peace and a better life. This is not new of course but hitherto has been restricted largely to countries nearer to the war zones in the Middle East. Countries like Lebanon are swamped by the influx and are not receiving enough support. Is it any wonder that Europe has become the target and I have to say that with some notable exceptions, we seem to have our heads buried in the sand.
Many years ago when I first became aware of the scale of the incursion into Iraq and the subsequent cost I outlined the history, said that we had a responsibility and asked whether it would be better to spend the money we spent on armed conflict in aid to the countries concerned. I still think that this would have been the better and cheaper option in the long run. The truth is that the exploitation by the West (and of course this includes the US) of Middle Eastern resources since 1900 has interfered with and damaged what could have been a more normal course of development and we are now paying the price.
I am told that this recognition of the history is irrelevant as it was all so long ago but I'm afraid I disagree. Look at the hot spots that have produced problems, Ireland, the Balkans, the former colonies, the Middle East and recognise that they all have one thing in common, political and economical interference and often the re-arranging of boundaries to suit what we saw as the priorities. There has never been a better example of the Law of Unintended Consequences. Have we learned anything? I can see no evidence that we have. It's depressing isn't it.....
The re-emergence of Rebekah Brooks in the Murdoch UK empire.... (LINK) Will this end well?

[plaques]

Travelling home through Colne centre by bus at 7.30pm. A young girl being arrested and being placed in the lockup van. Probably only in her late teens putting up quite a violent struggle against four officers. I know its the Colne blues festival but some people go way over the top, usually a small group of non- blues enthusiasts.
To quote Stanley, "Or do they live in chaos. Does that chaos extend into their lives and attitudes? "