WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[PanBiker]

There might not be solicitor involved I suppose, it's actually down to the named executor whoever that may be to see that the deceased wishes are adhered to. Unless a person dies intestate in which case it can become over complicated if there are over zealous relatives involved. Everyone should make a will and name a responsible person to see that it is executed. We have our kids named as executors as we trust them implicitly to carry out our wishes.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report that a Brazilian judge has blocked the assets in Brazil of BHP Billiton and Vale, the joint owners of the iron ore mining operation where the dam broke and allowed toxic waste to spill 400 miles down to the sea.
I knew about the accident but only now have I realised the scale of the disaster. Reminds me of Aberfan.....
Later on World Service, a very good one hour dramatisation of the Greek financial crisis. Well acted, entirely plausible and as far as I could judge, very accurate. Well worth seeking out on Listen Again. It ran from 4AM to 5AM.

[Marilyn]

Made a discovery in Febby's family tree today. A person not directly connected seemed to be alluding us, but I discovered they were in a mental asylum (!) for 33 years straight (!)
Doesn't say much for the mental health system when they can't cure a patient in all that time, does it?
The person died in the asylum after 33 years, at the age of 70. How sad. Obviously the physical body was healthy, despite being as mad as a two bob watch. ( prior to that they had been in a workhouse)

[Stanley]

Not necessarily an indication of madness Maz. Many people suffered long term confinement for no reason that would be seen as valid today in this country and no doubt in Oz as well. Teenage pregnancy or simple juvenile delinquency could mean a lifetime in an institution and after many years the individuals became so institutionalised that incarceration was the norm for them. I was talking to a friend who is deeply involved in the most desperate end of the care system dealing with young men who are incredibly flawed and he told me that the system has now swung too far in the opposite direction. Fifty years ago all these difficulties, no matter how minor, were put out of sight and out of mind in large institutions which were regarded as the waste bins of the system with no recycling.
So don't be too harsh on the relative, he may just have been unlucky.

[Stanley]

The price of North Sea crude is down to $34 a barrel, the lowest since 2004. The price has dropped 70% in a year..... This is good news at the pumps but in global terms is a clear sign of lack of demand and a slowing economy. It won't do Ossie's tax take any good either....

[Tizer]

A bit of fun for Xmas!

Tea with a Dinosaur
by: Arthur Guiterman (1871-1943)

Thunder-lizard, Brontosaurus,
You that lived so long before us,
You that ruled this mundane locus
In the days of Diplodocus,
Marvel of your age--the classic
Mesozoic time, Jurassic,
Stir your sixty feet of length!
Rouse your prehistoric strength!
Lift your twenty tons anew!
They are taking tea--with you!
What effrontery! what mockery!
Rise, oh, rise and smash the crockery!

Once you roamed o'er rocks cretaceous
Feasting on the growth herbaceous,
Chewing Damarites gum
With Iguanodon, your chum.
Once you listened to the singing
Of the Pterodactyls, winging
Through the arborescent ferns.
Doing acrobatic turns,
Archæoptrix bore chorus,
When, with mighty Mososaurus
And Triceratops the proud
Through the tepid seas you plowed.

Now you hearken to the clatter
Of the tea-cups, and the chatter
Of an upstart race, as dwarfish
As a Cenozoic crawfish!
Though they say you're not carnivorous,
Wag that tail--and Lord deliver us!

Did some dragon-slaying Horus
Cause your death, great Brontosaurus?
Did the marshes cloak your glory
With their mud?--(A shameful story!)
Once you breathed, Creation's wonder,
And your footsteps woke the thunder.

Now, they treat you with disdain;
Say you had a two-pound brain,
Not an ounce of wit to spare,
And the courage of a hare!
Will you hear the shocking slander
Unrevengeful? Where's your dander?
Make these Men of Science see things!
Raise a riot 'mongst the tea-things!
Show the might you lived to glory in!
Rise! insulted Dinosaurian!

Black Cat Poems

[Cathy]

Gosh someone 's clever.
I can't find the Christmas Wishes topic, can someone resurrect it please??

[Stanley]

Neither can I Cathy so I'll start a new one for you.
THIS came to my attention after a report on World Service. What happened was that when the source was changed the engineers forgot to check on how much anti-corrosion buffering would need to be added. The new source of water, while not toxic in itself released lead from old pipes as it attacked the scale already present in the system, the legacy of many years of using lead pipes in the supply. The dreaded law of unintended consequences has struck again....
I watch the latest reports of suspect behaviour in the IAAF, link that to the FIFA scandal and the shenanigans in Formula One and begin to wonder whether dodgy dealings are now endemic in society. Think of the behaviour of large corporations, the financial sector and even government. Have we seen the death of probity in public life?

[Tripps]

" Have we seen the death of probity in public life?"

No I don't think so. I don't think there ever was 100% 'probity'. It 's just a lot more difficult to keep things hidden these days. Interesting point today revealed on LBC - Jack Straw's entrapment by Channel 4, has been found by OFCOM to have been broken no rules, and was in the public interest.

He is currently on the committee looking at modifying the Freedom of Information Act.

[Tizer]

Talking of toxic water, I saw a report that BHP Billiton, 50% owner of the Brazilian mining company whose dam burst and flooded all the way to the sea, claims that the water from the dam is `non toxic'. I find that very hard to believe - it likely contains copper, arsenic, cadmium etc. The UN says the water is toxic, Billiton says it isn't. I know who I would believe.

[Stanley]

David, you're probably right but it's definitely more 'in your face' these days. As for Jack Straw sitting on that committee... politics sees no problem nowadays in co-opting poachers on to the gamekeeper's committees.
Tiz, right on..... BHP are caught bang to rights and they know it, time they stopped talking nonsense, admitted the mistake and got on with helping to put it right....
THIS caught my attention. A news item reporting that Xmas lights in America use more energy than many small countries consume in a year.... Go figure.....

[Tizer]

These pictures show the aftermath of the BHP Billiton dam failure... Brazil dam flood
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Every year I exchange Xmas cards with a lady on the other side of the country who I worked with in the 1980s. She and her husband (a print worker) have always been strong socialists and Labour supporters and she and I used to have great debates about politics and philosophy in our tea breaks. As you know I don't support any political party and I often would argue against her as devil's advocate, but it was all in fun and full of humour. We continued this into our recent years in the Xmas cards. She's now well into her 80s and this year her card says: "I can't be having with this ageing business, it's a pain in the bum. And I've had enough of politics, I'm going to vote for that Mr Trump."

[Stanley]

It sounds as though, like many of us, that lady is pissed off with the way things are going and the lack of real opposition.
How cold it was this morning....
THIS caught my attention, a BBC report that the 35 surviving hostages from the 1979 Hostage incident in Iran are to get compensation. Better late than never I suppose..... Interesting thing to me is that the money will come from a fine on a bank for laundering money for Iran.....

[Thomo]

On a rather more local note, this town is at present almost completely cut off from elsewhere, the road through Foulridge is closed as is Earby town centre. The authorities are appealing for people not to attempt unnecessary journeys. The local Councils have run out of sandbags. Common sense says "stay put" sadly much of that went out of the window years ago! It is hard to imagine what conditions are like in Cumbria, now facing inundation again, had this happened in say Bangladesh, there would have been a global appeal by now.

[LizG]

116 homes lost in bushfires in the beautiful seaside area of Lorne on the Victorian coast. Not much of a Christmas for all the people there who were evacuated. No human lives lost luckily.

You get floods, we get fires - yet again.

[Stanley]

I looked out of the window and the slates were drying out, it had, at last, stopped raining. Mr Cameron has tweeted that he is very sorry for the people affected by the floods and he's going to attend a meeting of COBRA on Monday.... That's all right then, sorted.....

Couldn't resist this pic from the Daily Mail this morning....

[Big Kev]

The number of locals that responded to a social media appeal to avert flooding at Ghyll Meadow yesterday. A temporary flood defence built to hold back the rising water on the RR sports ground, a team of people armed only with brooms diverting flood water into drains. This was well co-ordinated action by local people. Social media posts tell of 3 water pumps eventually draining the sports ground into the canal. People power at its best. The Reverb Factory have produced a video of events, I'll post a link once I have access to my PC, unless someone else finds it first

[PanBiker]

One of the videos over in local Facebook land.

[BBvideo 425,350]https://youtu.be/iiOu8t1c3Gw[/BBvideo]

Well done everyone, I know my lad turned up for his tea like a drowned rat.

[Thomo]

A big "WELL DONE" to all concerned.

[Tizer]

That Daily Mail pic of the flooded advert for house development is wonderful. Here in our low-lying area of Somerset the councils have been happily giving permission for thousands of homes to be built on flood plains and they are still doing so, even after our bad floods in recent years. There are lots of big estates going up around Bridgwater and Taunton. For once I can give credit to the Environment Agency, they advised the councils not to give permission, it was the councils that ignored advice and let the builders have their way. Of course, this would be quite unrelated to the fact that the council planners slap Section 106 demands on the developers forcing them to provide money for the council to spend.

[PanBiker]

I often wonder why they built in Barlick in the area at risk yesterday down Skipton Road. It was always known to be prone to flooding. A bit like the new development down Havre Park another area at risk. It isn't as if there are no elevated areas in Barlick to go at.

[Tripps]

I'm having my usual Sunday morning listen to a bit of Southern Gospel - when what comes along but this. Amen to that.


I’m pressing on the upward way,
New heights I’m gaining every day;
Still praying as I’m onward bound,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

Refrain:
Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
By faith, on Heaven’s tableland,
A higher plane than I have found;
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay;
Though some may dwell where those abound,
My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.

I want to live above the world,
Though Satan’s darts at me are hurled;
For faith has caught the joyful sound,
The song of saints on higher ground.

I want to scale the utmost height
And catch a gleam of glory bright;
But still I’ll pray till heav’n I’ve found,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

[Stanley]

Nice video of people helping each other. Wonderful... I saw an earlier video of the threat developing and wondered what had happened. The question is of course, if there are drains there capable of taking the water, how does it accumulate in the first place?

[Tizer]

Burnley, Nelson, unclaimed babies, cannibalism, whatever next! LINK

[Stanley]

Nice piece Tiz. Victory-V was a very successful company in Nelson. If you look at the early Newton Pickles transcripts in the LTP he tells the story of his father working there briefly when he left Henry Brown in Earby as a Journeymen after completing his apprenticeship. I'm not sure if it was Victory-V but another little known fact about Nelson is that a firm there perfected a machine for putting a pinch of salt in a small twist of blue waxed paper. They built a successful business selling these to Smith's Potato Crisps, every packet had the salt separate. I think other crisp firms took up the idea as well. Eventually they did away with the twists and you got salted crisps whether you liked them or not!