So apparently rumours are rife that Hilary Benn is to be sacked following his speech imploring labour MPs to vote for air strikes. Suits me, I thought it was a cynical and manipulative attempt to unseat Corbyn, and that putting petty party politics before matters of national importance and life and death was a pretty immoral move.

emergency services”, although given the amount of waste around you’d be hard pushed to start a fire right now, which could be the reason.

I reckon that the simple, non conspiracy theory reason for this is simply that a lot of other organisations are involved these days; the meeja probably have a bit of a hard time/can’t be arsed to identify which organisation provided which dry suited crappie waist deep in water. They all look fairly similar, in similar kit.

But I wouldn’t whine and never have after an incident that we hadn’t had coverage.

No, me neither. I’m largely motivated by a) getting paid and b) a job well done, but different folk are motivated by different stuff. I’ve seen staff absolutely furious that the incredibly hard work that they’ve put in themselves on a job has been eclipsed by, say, the attendance of a fire crew or air ambulance who didn’t actually do anything at the job but got all the press attention. And I can kind of see why. Fairs (very rarely) fair, after all.

1500

Pah, I see you and raise you 3100 😉

Took about 5 seconds to find a photo on Google:

You need to practise your Google fu;

2012

isn’t proving much either way.

Really? That’s his concern that they’re not getting coverage?

Ah, come on Drac, fairs fair. Maybe it’s different up your neck of the woods, but ambo peeps ALWAYS used to moan that it was always ‘the fire service that rescued and gave first aid to the patient’ who was subsequently magically just ‘taken to hospital for treatment’ with ne’er mention of any prehospital care or who by. Our Trust is better at blowing its own trumpet these days, (sometimes too good!) but lack of coverage compared to other agencies involved was always noticed by those involved. Fairs fair; the public would expect to be told just who is fishing people out of the floods, and if Trumpton aren’t being recognised for the excellent, filthy, hard, and long work they are doing, I think I’d feel a bit miffed too.

What is this LBC? Does the L stand for London, or do they actually Lead Britains Conversation as they say on their website? Is it worth sticking it on my tunein radio, or is it so London centric as to be irrelevant to the rest of the U.K.? How would you place it if you had to compare it to newspapers, for example? Ta in advance

Thanks everyone. Going to look into that Eden food, and also get her teeth properly looked at. Dunno about the senior food thing; she’s still very (hyper) active for an old’un

Really interesting stuff to think about, thanks!

Did the vet examine her/feel around the tummy for any bloating or tenderness?

I expect/hope so (but I didn’t take her), that would surely be part of any basic examination, wouldn’t it? (But IAMAV). In any case, her tummy doesn’t seem tender or bloated, and it remains her favourite thing to present to a besocked foot for a rub. She’s not actually poorly or off colour in any way, just increasingly honking. I’m going to have a good look at her teeth next, I think.

She loves dry food, lol! She has plenty of water available all the time, and has eat it for years. Not sure why dry food would start to make her smell after 10 years, but I’m open to a sensible rationale; we’ll try anything. In my experience though, wet food fed dogs can smell worse than dry food fed dogs. (And it’s not dog fart pong; it’s less intense but more constant).

She eats ‘Wagg worker dry food, with no extras. She’s got a good appetite, and ironically, her actual poo isn’t that smelly. I’m stating to think again about breath now though. I’m going to have a good look in her mouth again. Thanks for the thoughts so far x

Yeah, emptying okay, we think. She has good firm poo too, which is a small mercy. Her glands don’t seem to be impacted, and she’s not distressed. Just smelly! She’s not scooting, and she’s not got (especially) bad breath, I don’t think.

This is about the only non silly money stick transmitter that I can find on the bay. It won’t have the ability to adjust end points on the throttle channel though, unless you’re happy doing the aforementioned ‘hack’. On the plus side it IS as cheap as chips.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/272082250709

Two stick transmitters have really reduced in popularity over last few years. They are out there, but there’s less of them, which means less choice and more money. I used to use sticks but have converted to pistol grip now. It makes sense if you are ever going to get into flying stuff, where its benificial not to have to unlearn muscle memory responses from stick controlled surface vehicle… (Trust me, it’s a bugger). I’ll have a little look on t’bay for you.

Something like this will do you, if you’re dead set on being able to dial down the throttle response. If you decide that’s not necessary, you can get something for about half the price. Just search ‘flysky’ on eBay. Decent (nowt special, but do the job) quality 2.4ghz radio gear from China. Plenty of resellers in the UK Means you won’t have to wait too long. Enjoy your new toy! 8)

Edit, not sure why that hasn’t worked. Try this; http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/111857606738

Awesome, ta! 🙂

and yet we allow ‘faith’ schools to exist in this country that are indoctrinating their children with views like this.

Yep, it’s disgusting. Religion has no place in delivering education. If it was up to me I’d get rid of CofE, Catholic and Islamic schools. Unfortunately, while this country is happy to allow CofE and Catholic schools, it’s on a bit of a hypocritical sticky wicket criticising some of the more ‘hardline’ Islamic schools. It’s not like Carholisism has a particularly strong record on misogyny, after all.

I followed a magical tractor today…

… It trundled down a lane and turned into a field!

65/65. At bloody last!

I didn’t realise that the salaries were quite so high, I thought it was typically about £25k.

Salaries start quite low, but are compensated by decent unsociable hours supplements (for now 😯 , watch this space if Jeremey **** gets his way). Also, there’s yearly progression, which the Tories are also trying to take away. I don’t think I’d actively encourage anyone to do it for the money these days. Your income would be very much at the whim of politicians.

Yep, Plus 25. Best job in the Trust 8)

I do work in the real world equivelent of Mos Eisley for that Drac, reckon I’d probably swap with you if you work where I think you work 😉

Pretty sure (although I’m on 63, so could be wrong) that the ‘boots on the roof’ are just chimneys…

Edit; this is NOT a cryptic clue!

Up to 62 now. Still don’t know what the cube thing or the clock is, but;

The Birds on the Roof

yes. You’ve nearly got it.

The Bird on the Sign

Should really be much darker in colouration.

The figure on the gable end

who is really well camouflaged, ideal if he was a sort of hunter…

The Guy in Denim

i think the spider and the makeup are important, not sure about the denim.

Damn I’m awake too late…

Would anyone like to help with the blue cube or the gold clock? Kinda bugging me…

Stuck at 56, but need to go to bed. Thanks for the link!

Rather than let folk explain complex and nuanced positions they just attack them on a small point and then berate the shit put of them

Hmmm. Sadly I reckon it’s the Paxman effect. He’s seen as the style to aspire to, but it’s all to easy to fail and just come across as rude and arsey. But I could be wrong.

Its all the above, plus…

It’s great fun. You get to solve peoples problems, all day (and night) long; this is very satisfying. Spoiler; that’s the real reason most people call ambulances, it’s nothing to do with being ‘big sick’, it’s the running out of ideas of how to solve their current predicament, whether that be ‘I don’t think my baby is breathing’ to ‘I’ve got no money for the leccy meter/taxi home/taxi to the labour ward etc’. I have been called out to change someone’s TV channel. I remain reticent.

For me it’s pretty well paid; after 15 years in the job, like Drac I’m now employed to solve the problems that the road staff can’t solve, rather than the patients (primarily). I’ll clear circa 50k by the end of the year, which I can’t complain about seeing as I never went to uni, and dossed around at school. There’s better paid jobs out there, but not many that will be as varied as mine. 15 years and it can still be challenging, frustrating, tedious, hilarious and terrifying, but never dull. I got interviewed by BBC breakfast at some ungodly hour (and at the end of a long night shift!) the other day; that was a new and terrifying experience!

Yeah… Thanks for this. Thanks a lot. I’m meant to be wrapping pressies tonight… 👿 😆

It isn’t, (well, there’s technically a page 3, but without bare boobs) according to Wikipedia. Last bare breasts were in that rag on 22 Jan 2015. Ain’t google great?

In fact, your version, where the loudest bunch rule, can be worse

except it’s not the ‘loudest’ group, is it? It’s the group with the most reasonable and persuasive argument. Because we’ve decided in recent years that sexism and objectification of women is, y’know, bad and all.

It needs tackling but I think articles like this, and the stop page 3 stuff, can actually make it worse as it gives them something to rail against.

So what would you do about it Dan? Because I think raising awareness, making people actually think and take a look at themselves is a good thing. You list the ‘no more page 3’ campaign as a bad thing, whereas I see it as a small step forward. See people, rightly or wrongly, see print media as an authority. (See also, the daily mail effect). The calendar is a a much smaller, but similar sort of thing. In someone’s brain, somewhere, a little neuron connects to another neuron, saying ‘well they’re allowed to print it, so it’s not illegal, and Dave down the road has it on the wall and he’s a decent bloke so it’s all good to objectify women’. In a very small, but significant way.

Convert +1000

Stay classy Lucy! 😕

Dan, you recognise the problem. That’s real progress, and to be honest, takes the wind right out of Binners’ sails. No one is suggesting banning a calendar. People here are despairing that there is still a market for it, and are dissapointed that a large firm with access to professional marketing and the like would think tha it’s a good idea. For reasons that you have pointed out, it probably is a good idea, from a fiscal perspective, because there are plenty of unreconstructed, mysoginistic men who have there belief system validated by this sort of dross. It is a spectrum though; there of plenty of mouth breathers (I don’t for a second believe you are one) there are the chaos that are in the middle who don’t give it much thought because it doesn’t affect them or theirs (this is where you are probably I think, and I certainly was in the past) and there are those who are hypersensitised to sexism, like Mol Binners and probably myself, because they are empathic with women in their life, or just because they’ve done great deal of analysis, both internally and of the world around them.

You’re not so far apart in your thinking, everyone.

With you all the way Fionap. As a bloke I had literally NO IDEA that this sort of thing happens (because I wouldn’t dream of doing it) until I got to be really good friends with a woman who works in the same role (but as a double female crew) as I have worked (ambo paramedic). Talking about it, I was aghast, literally gobsmacked at the casual and not so casual sexism that she experienced on shift, Every. Single. Day. Likewise, she was surprised that I wasn’t aware of it happening. It’s shocking, disgusting and endemic in our ‘enlightened’ society. The only saving grace is that it’s becoming less acceptable, evidenced by the fact that it’s not even as apparent when she works with a chap, which to me at least, suggests that the sexists know that it’s unacceptable, and keep it inside when there’s someone present who they can’t trust to ‘f’nar’ along with them. The whole thing really pisses me off.

As 100 days passes, do I detect a very slight softening of the media stance towards Corbs? It’s most unsettling. Like a crocodile that submerges 50yds from where you are swimming…

Unless you’re listening to a radio show live, as it’s broadcast

Don’t listen to radio any other way, TBH, anything else is too much fuss. Thanks for the replies, it’s interesting getting an insight into other people’s habits from time to time.

Not at all. I still look for new music online, typically through a mixture of bandcamp, youtube and Facebook.

this is a fairly active process though, whereas if prefer to just listen whilst I am doing other things. R2 is a very long way from perfect, but it does play a fairly broad spectrum of music. And I’m not massively fussy, which helps, I can enjoy most music. It’s over repetition that fries my brain. (Strangely, a bit of repetition is a good thing; it must be a fine line for playlisters to tread).

Mol, Kerrang perchance? That was a sad day.

I’ll be in for two 12hr days, then two 12hr nights from Wednesday, assisting in the staving off of said

local healthcare armageddon

All good fun.

My radio station consistently plays music or podcasts I want to listen to. Imagine that.

I hear you, and that is indeed attractive to someone who has very definite and established musical tastes, and has no interest in listening to stuff that he/she wouldn’t normally listen to.

Serious question; Music is t a massive thing to me, I enjoy it, but it has no greater relevance to my life than a pleasant back ground noise most of the time. I appreciate that I am probably in a minority with this. However, my musical tastes were formed mostly by listening to radio of all different flavours, both here and abroad. If you only ever listen to music that you have chosen by writing your own playlists, do you not worry that you’re missing out on music that you may enjoy, but just never hear?