Redcar Cleveland UK

we're beginning to wonder whether the motivation for
President Macron's
mentoring of
President Putin
denotes a plan on the part of
President Macron to set a precident
so that he can launch and
invasion of Algeria
before his second term ends
and he's appropriated
UK illegal immgrant
Paddington Bear
to infiltrate The Palace
and take a French
STUDIOCanal
production team
from French TV giant
CANALPlus
with him
is it Putin or Macron
bidding for world domination?


our Ricker's battered old AA road atlas lists
10 locations beginning with
Skelton
one on Humberside and one in Cumbria
the rest in Redcar and Claveland
and the one, of the 8 in Redcar And Clevalnd
that is actually called Skelton
is described by the AtoZ as being in
Saltburn-by-the Sea
but true to form
the BBC have it in their latest news report as
near Middlesbrough
they should run a sweep
like weather forecasters insereting puns and
'naughty words' into buletins
each month
a free BBC Breakfast mug
for the hack describing the place
most distant from Middlesbrough as
'near Middlesbrough'

we just want to add a little note about
mutilated shellfish on the beaches of North East England
one factor that may be small but is not mentioned is
there be seals out there
common and harbour seals...
erm
don't swallow crabs and lobsters whole
just sayin'
seals are a bit of a problem
a bit like squirells
the sort of UK seals are called
common or harbour seals and they are seals
then there are
grey seals
and some suggest that
grey seals are doing to harbour seals what
grey squirrels are doing to red squirrels
added to that
seals pup at times determined not by
species
but by colony
the mums in a particular colony will
give birth at the same time - roughly
but that won't necessarily be the same time that
mums of the same species give birth in another colony
they are adapting to local conditions
it is said that
in Redcar greys pup in summer and harbour or common
pup in winter
clearly food demande will be greatest just before pupping
and that may cause something of a switch from
pelagic to shell fish
swimming fish to shell fish
a combination of
heavier that expected storms
polyphospates in the water softening shells
and extra predation from pregnant seals
may have come together to whack Redcar shelfish stocks
autumn 2021
blue-green algal blooms
typital government new speak
the only place government departments research is in
their press cuttings
what did we say last time?




regarding The Ukraine
there is a term in French that has been
imported into English
and t sort of links
CoViD and Ukraine
the term is
cordon sanitaire
and initially in French it was a term for
barrier nursing
a gap or space or barrier or
DMZ
a DMZ is a demilitarised zone
a cordon sanitaire is
a semipermanent version of
the nomansland between the trenches of the
First World War
the option here is to have say
the eastern half of the Donbass
become in some sense
soverign territory of The United Nations
a strip of land with
no citizens, under the control of
UN peacekeepers

consider two sisters
one day they have a squabble and the elder says
go get yourself fucked
and couple of months little sister turns up
pregnant
she did what she was told...
but then consider two female love rivals
they both want to be the partner of the same man
one goes to the length of allowing
in the current climate
public heavy petting
this may impress the target man
but his family may say
we're not having a slut like that as a daughter-in-law
really the tightrope a prospective bride has to walk is
I really really love him
but I'm not a girl like that
so the whole point of
rape and indecent assault is
I love, I love I love him
to the point that once we're married I
may let him touch me
for the sake of being able to
make babies for him
and further
if we are living in the 1950s
if something does happen that should only ever happen
on the wedding night
the court is asked to declare
in public
that whever happened
it wasn't the woman's idea
and she either put up a fight
or was paralised with fear
the concept of
I want grankids
more than want a son-in-law
is entirely 21st century
and
well the people who push for more
rape and indecent assault convictions
probably not the people who will
re-mortgage their home to
pay for their lesbian daughter's
IVF or surrogacy


for the benefit of people who were born in the 21st century...
this stuff about checking women's 'phones
when they complaine about men
in the Uk in the 21st century parents worry about
their children's eduation and job prospects
children not just boys
but people in the Uk still living in the 1950s
and thinking
girl
marriage prospects
not for companionship and family
for economic security
girl you'll be a woman soon
soon you'll need a man
and so when a woman approaches the police over some
tiff, or anything more serious
the first question they police ask is
is this woman married
if not what are her marriage prospects
since they are living in the 1950s they do not recognise
divorce
all these crimes are seen by the police and the
justice industry in terms of
is the woamn married, if so
she's made her bed, she should lie in it
if she is not married
what are her marriage prospects
if she is the
office bike
she is seen as having zero marriage prospects
and so
to the crunch question
has this man damaged this woman's marriage prospects?
if she didn't have any beause
she is divorced or known to sleep around
then the man is seen as
having done no harm
by helping her to indulge in her
favourite passtime
it is absolutely beyond the comprehension of
the denizens - inhabitants - of the justice industry
that 'time of the month' may influence a female's
response to suggested intemacy
they have no sympathy for
I was having a bad day
I wish to withdraw my complaint
these things are the issues for female emancipation
scrub marriage
but particularly scrub
The concept of the
virgin bride
accept the concept of a
woman's - particularly a menstruating woman's - prorogative to
change her mind
don't use bad day outbursts to
destroy relationships and careers
















a coupe of things here
Majuba Road
closure - demolition - of publc convieniences
from today
Portaloos behind the nearby Tuned-in
and then Pacitto
King Boris had a Lemon Top
NOT at Picitto on the High Street
at Pacitto on Pybus Place
off the Esplanade - sea front
Christ will anybody at the Get Wet ever get out of the office??

we are interested in this parade of
exotic infections that mostly seem to come from
sub Saharan Africa
what is interesting is that there seem to be
reservoirs
of various infections in these areas
but that when they are exported to the rest of the world
and more specifically The Western World
they fizzle out
there are two lines of thought here
the frst is this idea that once species can
tollerate and regard as a nuisance parasite
a pathogen that is lethl to a very similar species
the prime example being
squirrel pox 'kills reds stone dead
and happily co-exists with greys'
we're not sure how much evidence
apart from pics of very ill reds
there is for this
but in the case of these
monkey pox style infections
nobody much seems to be badly affected
the disease is simply 'detected'
a second line of thought
specifically on
why do Western outbreaks fizzle out?
is that
very few people in the Western World
are ill - have underlying illness
and those you are
1 don't travel much
and 2 are quite well cared for
in contrast to some of these reservoir populations
where many people are malnourished and generally debilitated
and there is this
middle seam of humans
when 'an animal in the wild'
gets even a bit sick or injured
that will be the one that falls victim
very quickly
to predators
sick humans are protected from predation by healthy humans
nd clearly in very different ways
in The Bush to In Shepherds Bush - a London district
so this means that
justlike bacteria flourishing on
meat past its sell by date
these pathogens flourish in and on
people who are being kept alive but are very sick
and this chimes with our earlier 'revelation' that
although viruses need living cells to reproduce
they do it better in dying cells
and tht comes down, not to, general hygiene
but more focussed
barrier nursing
of the sick, injured, feeble and disabled
there is barrier nursing and reverse barrier nursing
PPE that either protects the sick from
things 'going around'
as opposed to isolating people who are infected
from the general population
both are clearly important

we don't want to pick a fight with the NRA
National Rifle Association of America
but
in the UK we don't have a lot of gun crime
we have way too much
knife crime
the first thing we say about that is
don't carry a knife 'for protection'
because somebody may take it away from you and
use t to kill you
in the NRA's magic kingdom
those two teachers would be
have been
tooled up to the nines
and some nutter waltzes into their classroom
completely unarmed
and takes their gun and shoots their class
if you distribute submachine guns like
fire extinguishers
or defib machines
UK public de-fibs are locked and you have to get a code
by dialing the ambulance service but
even if you knew the code, unlocking the gun would take too long
so it would be 'like fire extinguishers'
and anybody can set one of those off
it pretty solidly blocks the
more guns - less shooting theory
so the nutter has no need, even if they have a deep urge
to own a gun
in order to shoot people in that scenario
the other problem is
essentially
friendly fire
law enforcement don't shoot
because they are not in the words of
Elanor Bron - God that's a way old cultural reference
a dead eye shot shooting
law enforcement with guns?
like fly spray
squeeze and hope
most cops don't even know whether they have
a gun or a Tazer in their hand

we haven't seen so much of President
not Yeltzin, Gorbachof
yes it's coming back
President Putin
there are obviously three main groups
fghting for Russia in Ukraine
Russian troops
merenaries
people who speak Russian and not Ukrainian
at this distance
when something is reported
it is hard to tell which of these groups are being
referred to
when it is said
The russians are advancing
Russian speaking Ukrainians may be defecting
evenin this day and age there is
the fog of war
we are always aware of spelling difficulties in
foreign affairs
Donbas Dombass
it's probably Donbass


Kourtage for Kingship


somebody self important
like three times as many cars as
Charlie Boy when he visits
AND
is Boris scarred of heckleopters
or was it just to double the passenger numbers at
Teesside Airport

we recognise the dilemma over
confidentiality - medical in particular
is important, and not simple
we have a couple of ideas about
Prime Minister Johnson
we understand that until
either Eton or Oxford he was known by his first name
Alexander
the change to Boris seemed to be a bit of an attempt to become
more outgoing, less bookish, more like
Call me Dave - David Cameron
whom he met at this time, approx
on a more medical line
we refer with some justification to
a clownish persona
clown like
we understand that in earlier youth he had
the infamous grommets fitted several time into his ears
on the one hand that would indicate
glue ear
and some deafness
repeated insertions - they fall out after about 6 weeks
indicate a general question of
deafness or daydreaming?
but the other elements of the clown
the famous zip wire in particular
indicated more serious infection related damage
and the loss of balance called Meniere's disease
not just stopped up ears but
damage to the ear nerves associated with balance

during the Giro d'Italia
our Ricker looks forward to a glimpse of
Orla
on Quest
it don't take much to make an old man happy
anybody who doesn't threaten
there are difficult days and tody was a difficult day
for our Ricker
memories
sliding doors
it is often seen that
democracy is in a way the oposite of
oligarchy and plutocracy
but there is a question over
does democracy involve being
anti-meritocratic?
but is
we won't let you work, unless it is in London
anti-meritocratic
it is true that our Ricker's interest on optics was started by
a Co-Op recruitment leaflet
but he really got into it because
his mam wanted a hairdressers
but said she would settle for and optician's
so she sponsored his training
but then she died when he was two years through his degree
but actulaay he lost interest when he and a
researcher from Cmabridge called Liz Pimm-Smith
were both told they had to repeat their
end of first year exams
and our Ricker had to juggle
resits in London with taking his dying mother to
a family wedding in Reading
arrogant bastards
city uni. didrespecting a Durham and a Cambridge grad
so our Ricker was half way out of the door
before his mother died and he didn't have to
open an optician's shop to keep her happy
so he switched to computing at Teesside University
and that went a little better
but with universities
once you get qualified
they start with the
you're upsetting the other staff - harassment stuff
what universities are interested in s 2 things
1 recruiting students and how much they will get in fees
2 first destination of graduates
look what jobs we got for our students
hence
the less likely a student is to
'walk into a job'
the more likely they are to get a
top ranking qualification
and so if they want to actually EMPLOY a student
at the end of their course
since in the eyes of the uni
the only purpose of that degree is to get that first job
why waste a qualification on staff?
keep the likes of professorship, readership, Doctor of Science
as a poaching or anti-poaching ploy
because if you don't actually give a decent qualification
you just give a licence to practice
what other uni is gonna poach you?
but if patients and hacks check out
the qualifications of
people who are telling them what to do
they may be lead astray by
numpties with lots of letters front and back of their names
putting that another way
when a student joins a vocational course that
leads to a job they are not 'cut out for'
they are the ones who get a Double First
and possibly a PhD Doctorate
to help them get job at something else
but that can confuse the public


our Ricker has been havng a think
about Marietta Higgs and her being married to
Mr Higgs who was not a doctor
there appear to be
official files about her that are
sealed
for fredom of information purposes
it has lead our Ricker to have wider thoughts
about the 1980s
but on this we assume that if she is or was a doctor
some registration details should be
on file, on line, we won't search for them
what we will assume
quite without evidence is that
with a name such as Marietta
she could be of some sort of
German extraction
and so taking 1980s and German...
we look to somebody our Ricker knew better at that time
Ronald Douglas is a biologist specialising in the visual system
who joined City University London in 1984.
he was previously a Royal Society post doctoral fellow
at the Unversity of Ulm (Genrmany)
and a researh assistant at the University of Sussex
Ron granduated with a BSc in Biological Sciences
from the University of Sussex in 1977
and got a PhD from Sussex in
spectral sensitivity and visual abaption in the raindow trout
now, our Ricker isn't quite sure about that
he thought Strathclide Uni came into it somewhere??
any way yes
work on teliost visual syatems
he had a tank with live fish in it in a broom closet
on the top floor of The Dame Alice Owen Building
in Islington
wasn't Strathclyde it was
Stirling
PhD from university of Stirling, Scotland
he published papers in 2014
OK
here is the story
our Ricker was accepted onto the optometry course
at City around 1984
now, during the summer before he arrived
the two tutors who were teaching
biological elements within
the optometry and visual sciences degree
that's to say lecturers - not the Professor
profesor Ruskell
the two juniors, that summer, married
each other, together, and
abruptly decided to leave
one replacement appointment was easy
Terri Grifiths
her photo was in the deprtmental promo leaflet
the other was
Ron Douglas
and so but how
both of them were taken on at very very short notice
and given
3 year contracts
and so
our Ricker with his medial school background and
Durham University degree
was due to graduate in
Optometry and Visual Science
at the very moment that
the contracts of the newbie
biology lecturers contracts were due to expire
Terri married a dentist...
and she was an optometrist anyway
Sanderson if you're interested,
and the Head of Department
had a word with our Ricker
don't upset Ron
he has a serious mental health diagnosis
and then the HOD had a heart attack
having campaigned for a defibrulator for the department...
and died
in this inter regnum
first it was decided that
our Ricker would not do Honours
not do a research project
but spend extra time in the
public clinic
The London Refraction Hospital
and then that he should withdraw from the degree altogether
and so our Ricker decided to retire
and the link?
well Ron didn't go to Germany by chance
his mother was German
so we're thinking about the end of the war
and the mid 80s not being all that long after
if you are a chid doctor and you have no idea
how to care for children
blame the parents as a distracor
if you are a fish biologist teaching optometrists about biology
and your contract comes up for renewal just as somebody with
a more suitable background becomes joint graduate in
what you're qualified in
and
what you're teaching...
you gonna want to discredit your rival
if you don't want to be sent back to
still with the Berlin wall 1961 - 1989
times was hard in the 1980s



once upon a time
there were iron smelters on Teesside
mainly because ironstone was discovered in
The Eston Hills
as time went on iron continued to be smelted on Teesside
but but not from ironstone from the Eston Hills
the process stayed but the raw material had to be imported
initially from the west coast of England
and then from around the world
the importation was required because
Eston Hills ironstone was found to contain
too much phosphorous
sulphur and phosphorous in the raw materials for
iron and steel making is a bad thing
and so to
a new mine for
'coking coal' from the Whitehaven area of
North West England
the geology of the North West is
less 'contaminated' with sulphur and phosphorous
so just as the iron ore was once desirable
the coal is too
but it is not tht the coal is
good for making coke
t is good for making iron and steel
making metalurgical coke
as opposed to making a form of coke we may think of as
smokeless fuel
in other words
you take coal with high sulphur and phosphorous
or any other coal and you make coke
the coke will be metalurgical
in terms of the sulphur with be burned off but the phosphorous
not so much
but if you cycle the fumes from your iron works coke ovens
through your blast furnace
you are using
all of the coal and not just the coke element
in your smelting process
in that sense
you don't need 'special metalurgical coal'
if your coke ovens 'filter out' the sulphur and phosphorous
we are kinda thinking
how much sulphur and phosphorous is there in
sewage sludge?
we see adverts for
household chemicals - washing products
and they end
always keep away from children
all aw sewage contains phosphorous
up to 17mg/litre
thousndths of a gramme per litre
as a result of the high phosphate content in
most detergents and leaning products
about 40 per cent is digested by bacteria
in sewage works
so...
whatever phosphate you by the the
household chemical aisle at the supermarket
plus whatever you ingest from the food aisles
a bit lees than half ends up in
sewage sludge
and a bit more than half ends up in the
water the swage works returns to rivers and seas
and then there is this other great experiment
because of the military activity in Ukraine
farmers in Ukraine may have to put less fertilizer
than normal
on their crops this year
will this result in
less run-off into rivers
or lower crop yields
neither or both?
on balance we don't think
'British Steel' - not the current company of that name
would have had
Northumbrian Water
build bran Sands sewage sludge de-watering plant
if they thought there was
too much phosphorous and sulphur in sewage
for it to be a carbon source for
iron smelting

you know...
there is an element of
National Pride
in the Partygate Debacle
people are beginning to become alive to
The nation's 'stength in depth'
having been able to
'muddle through' a number of crises
despite having
such a Bunch of Clowns
for a government
better a baffoon than a bastard for a boss
the nation begins to think

we love the way that hacks live in the past
the latest suggestion is that
if railway workers go on strike
Drax will not be able to generate the nation's electricity
last year - 2021 we assume - coal contributed
1.6 per ent of the nation's elecricity mix
that was down from 25 per cent five years earlier
however
Drax generated 6 per cent of the nation's electricity
because it now burns wood pellets
as well as coal and
petroleum coke
back in the day
every now and again a motorist would have to take their vehicle
to a garage to have
the engine de-coked
coke is what you get when you bake coal
petroeleum coke is what builds up in anything that
heats petroleum
sooo
rail is involved in biomass
60 per cent of the biomass comes from
south eastern USA
22 per cent from Canada
Brazil and Belaruss feature but
not the UK
and so Drax gets the majority of its fuel
by sea
but how easy it would be to run road transport
from Immingham to Drax we can't say
or Goole
West Burton A, Drax, and Ratcliffe-on-Soar
what is not clear is
has Drax switched to biomass with the same kit
or has it built new kit to burn biomass?
big power stations have generally been built
on river banks so as not to need rail for deliveries
Drax and Goole are on the River Ouse
not a lot of rail transport involved in
natural gas and nuclear routine operations

today's linguistic concept is
by proxy
one of the essential fats of the lives of
The Chattering Classes
is that they have never had to
take a job that was
beneath their skill level
out of economic necessity
partly because their support network is so good
and mainly because their
skill levels are so low
and so
because a community was set up
a couple of hundred years ago
as a Mining Village
the chattering classes believe that
unemployment levels in that area
can only be improved by
finding
skill free manual labour in that area
the variety of 'by proxy' we want to point out today relates to
a member of any of the bands of English workers who
destroyed machinery
especially in cotton and woollen mills
that they believed ws threatening their jobs
1811 - 16
yes we are referring to
the Luddism by proxy of the chattering classes in London
London Luddites
across the piece
climate change deniers are
Luddites by Proxy
and this is almost identicl to the once famous
Munchausen's Syndrome by proxy
when it arrived it was big newss
now it is a foundation level tool in
applications for funding
reference neo Luddites
Munchausen's syndrome is a
psychological disorder where someone
pretends to be ill
or
deliberately produces symptoms of illness in themseleves
by proxy was associated with
Dame Marriettta Higgs at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead
children were turning up apparently ill
but may have been abuse victims
The Cleveland Child Abuse scandal
refers toa wave of suspected child sexual abuse cases
in 1987
in Cleveland, England
many of which were later discredited
we believe Dr Wyatt still works at James Cook
and Dr Higgs is perhaps based in Kent
the whole thing is about a concept
re-echoed not so long ago by
The childless female First Minister of Scotland that
all children are born equal and any
developing defects are the result of abuse
the pop song probably has it better
not written as an anthem to Hemlington
but
we smoke and drink and screw
'cos there's nothing else to do
in essence
precocious sexuality was seen as
something that would not happen without
adult encouragement
and this was a distraction from the concept that
industrial pollution and social isolation
were stunting the development of children
and putting the focus on child abuse
nd social workers and others in the
justice industry lived their
formative and training years during
a time when these ideas held sway
the Higgs effect
will take a couple of more generations to
be retired

one of these three shows Redcar Coke Works
with Tar Tanks
and another shows them
without Tar Tanks
and the pic with the low cream coloured shed...
that shed is the Turbine Hall
or compressor Shed
3 turbines one for each blast furnace
only one turbine used because
the gutless politicos wouldn't close down
Port Talbot
and Sunny Scunny - Scunthorpe
so Redcar was left one third built



and the Direct Injectio Plant
IS Now
being dismantled
it has probably been overtaken by German technology where
hydrogen is used instead of carbon
to shift the oxygen of iron oxide to
BUT
never say never
they may just be re-arranging the plumbing
time will tell
imagine a T piece in plumbing
people who know about
old cars
have heard of
carburetters and the venturi effect
you spray petrol into an air flow
and the petrol gets dragged along and mixes with the air
between the Direct injection plant and the blast furnace
there is a T piece
air from the number 2 ompressor
enters a pipe at the bottom of the Direct Plant
and drags pulverised coal along
like it was dragging petrol
the plant itself just pulverises the coal
in the Redar form
the injected coal is regarded as
auxiliary fuel for the furnace
in other words
as an experiment
SSI were retaining compressor 1 to provide the conventional blast
and using compressor 2 and the Direc Plant
to swith in and out to see the effect of the direct injection
on the process, on the performance of the furnace
we won't chase up references but there are
published engineering papers on
substituting de-watered sewage sludge of pulverised coal
di SSi ever get to 100 per cent 'auxiliary fuel'?
we don't know but we suspect
success or failure
experment over
time for a purpose built plant
where?
not so sure about that but
we said
they may have plans for the hearth of the big blast at Redcar

wil ya lookie here
donkey rides on Redcar Sands



Christianity is not associated with
extreme poverty
Christianity is not even
Indo-European
it is European
it is a religion of
The West
we don't want to explore the question
what is the religion of people who carry out
FGM female genital mutilation
we do want to say that
there are essentially two sorts of
female genital transgression
one is the obsession with
virginity
and that leads to
hymenoplasty - 'restoration' of virginity
and the other is
depends upon
an acceptance of the existence of
female sexuality
and various attempts to remove it
by surgery
no clitoris - no sex drive - no babies
FGM is associated with cultures developed in
areas of extreme poverty where
there will be high starvation related child mortality
and well
there's not much on a female to cut off
but FGM is a form of
SYMBOLIC female castration
if this one has no clit
she will be accepting of sex free and childless life
oh dear Germain Gree again
the Female Eunuch
in a more modern world
where abdominal surgery is more survivable
the females society does not
want to breed from with have their
'tubes tied'
and so FGM betrays two inmportant facts about the
beliefs of the cultures where it is done
1 a belief that the female provdes at least half the
genetic contribution to the child by providing
the egg
2 women get pregnant because they - at times
throw themselves at men
because they have a sex drive
and here we see a bit of a problem
the clitoris is the female penis
the ovaries are the female testacles
it would not be normal to
remove a boys penis and leave him with his balls
and so to the other feminist theme
the g spot, the vaginal orgasm
push on I nearly came
size matters
the basic problem
FGM does not reduce female sex drive
but does reduce options
and leave mainly options to achieve sexual satisfaction
that are MORE likely to lead to pregnancy
but FGM is not associted with cultures where
high reproductive rates are
encouraged and admired


at the conclusion of yet another dreary
Division 1 Season with all the other clubs
under instructions to
let the Mackums score
next season we assume the Boor will be told to let
The Macums win at least twice in the season
'coz we don't want them toffs back in division 1
since Boro have no ambition whatsoever
having a target of
preventing Sunderland from getting relegated - again
is SOMETHING to aim at
it must be absolute hell for
Division 1 clubs to have to visit
The Stadium of Shite
now that Newcastle has a football club
Tyneside's hopes don't rest on
The Heed - Gateshead
but nice to see they have a rising alternative
and not Saudi owned?
but what a relief to see
York
finally get their arses into gear
and such as shame
Marske United are the only club
suth of the Tees with an ounce of ambition

what do you keep in your back yard?
Redcar and Cleveland College
keep, amongst other things
a wind turbine nacell
they used to call them nacells
we forget what they call them now
but it's the generator that goes between
the blades and the mast
and just 'cos we woz there
the entrance canopy, portico of
t' 'ospital
just in case you thought we woz too shy to
treck to James Cook

we have heard about a compensation claim from
a former employee of a former MP for Hartlepool
so we looked up
how many employees do MPS have
our researches confirmed our assumption that on average
an MP has around 5 employees
but with that came the unexpected added information that
they tend on average to stay in that job for
between one and two years
and this combines with the revelation that
the one working for the Hartlepool MP was awarded funding to
re-train as a
florist
and you begin to get a picture of why
politiians and hacks spend so much time
talking
bollocks
no continuity
no expertise
instead of offering
guidance to the nation
our elected representatives are
offering the nation
challenge after challenge
herding cats
and
running a pre-school
seem to be the only appropriate way to describe
the way the UK is governed

we have heard a lot about
energy price caps
we have heard that prices are going up
because the cap has gone up
we don't have or want dada from a lorra lorra people
we have one meter to consider
the thing about
pre-payment meters - electricity at least - is
every time you put money on the key
your supplier has the opportunity to
re-programme your key
and every time you transfer credit from your key
to your meter
the key has the opportunity to re-programme your meter
nd so we can say that over this period
of the April price hike
this one meter we can report on has raised
standard tariff from 20 to 21 pence per KwH
killowatt hour
and
off peak Economy 7 power from
10 p to 11p
as things go
if you are paying by Direct Debit
it looks like you are going to have enough
excess credit on your account by Christmas
to afford a ski-ing holiday
we assume you will get your Direct Debit reduced
oh what shall we say
just in time for the next General Election
energy companies are taking a massive loan from
customers at this time
and so how so many of them went out of business recently
is a significant puzzle
we suspect that the answer is
they were paying 'spot prices' and not 'hedging'
to be clear
we are saying
energy costs have gone up around
10 per cent
Direct Debits have gone up 50 to 100 per cent
energy companies will be slow to
adjust their Direct Debits down
retail energy companies could
over the coming 18 months be
vying with pension funds
for opportunities to park or store
vast amonts of money they will
eventually have to refund



this past week has seen...
well as far as we can see
the removal of the tar tanks at
Redcar coke ovens
but we can't be bothered to go get pics


yesterday 18th May 22
some Trans PennineExpress trains
began to run from Saltburn
this is all very tricky
all to do with driver familiarisation
3 coach rakes of TPE stock have been running
through Redcar central with Not In Service
on the headboard
our guess is
over time with enough trained drivers
TPE sevices will all run
Saltburn - Manchester
picking up and setting down in Redcar?
we don't know
but what we anticipate is
this will free up the Redcar central goods loop
so that
Middlesbrough to London direct trains can
extend and become
Redcar Central to London KingsX

in the modern context it is difficult to
get a feel for how
The Allies
particularly the USA and the UK
regarded Germany during the Second World War
there were no mobile 'phones
no drones, no satellites
some aerial photography
an soBR> towards the end of the war a number of things combined
at a point when the nuclear weapons were not yet quite ready
The battle of the Bulge cost massive US losses
17,000 in a day kind of ball park
and
US troops broke into
concentration camps and
for the first time discovered that they were in fact
Death Camps
people with diret authority got very very angry
and although there was nothing much
Military - in terms of troops and armament
in Dresden
it was a major logistical hub
and so it was decided to
End This Now
by removing Dresden from the map
as not much later Japanese cities would be
removed using nuclear armaments
if there had not been a constant drip feed of news about
Russian atrocities during the current confilct
a similar moment of outright shock
some time later this year
could have lead to the removal of
Moscow from the map
it is 'touristy' but no more that
Old Dresden was
a decision to remove it in order to
end Soviet Style Agression
could be on the cards
but is less likely due to the
fore-warning and drip feed of
tales from liberated land

the darkest hour is
just before dawn
if we go back a couple of years
at that time, a lot of people had had a
CoViD vaccination
not the 50 million in the UK alone of today but
a lorra lorra people
and yet the BBC and other news outlets were
scurrying around thrying to find people
who had had a vaccination and later died
this in their quest for
balance
their quest for evidence that the chance of
dying from the vaccine were
around fifty fifty
we do recognise that the Great British Public
have trouble distinguishing
evidence
from
proof
for the most part the authorities don't bring prosecutions if they
don't think there is a good the excellent prospect of conviction
that disguises the normal balance of evidence in
the investigative phase
in the eary stages of any case
exept where the perp is
bang to rights
there will be
shall we say, more evidence for the defence
than comes to light in court
whatever the balance of the evidence
it is the court that decides
guilt or innocence
and the media take it upon themselves to orchestrate
trials in the court of public opinion
where the rules of evidence are not
as in a court of law
evidence is not proof
evidence is material that can be used to
build a case
and that case may eventually be proven
take the parallel world of
police incitement to crime
the police contact an individual offering
child sex
in an out of the box world
the person approached may believe that a real child is
going off the rails
and may seek more details in order to
be able to provide
evidence of a willingness to participate
so that the child can be referred to the
appropriate authorities
this is a scenario never considered
because we are dealing with
AIDS and HIV represented the
last hurrah of the UK Taliban
in their fight against adult gays
it is remarkable that in the current effort to
deny the concept of child sexuality
the idea seems to be that
children too young to reproduce
have no appetite for intemacy
unless perverted by elders
what we are saying here is that
HIV was the tool of the last hurrah of the UK Taliban
but there appears to be no such crutch to the current
crusade against child sexuality
they have become so emboldened by???
events in Afghanistan?
that they just steam on without
evidence of harm let alone proof
and in this context
we observe the BBC and other media
in their treatment of the Ukraine situation
the BBC seem to be
asleep at the wheel in terms of
where is your famed BALANCE
why do we not have the propaganda machine
feeding us with the case FOR the actions of Russia
is there no equivalent of
anti-vax DEFRA
in Whitehall to push Russia's case?
the darkest hour is just before dawn
calcualte back to
AIDS
and calculate forwards to
a campaign in support of
a child's right to
have a sex life
just for now, in the UK
the state of play
gay men and gay women have the right to a sex life
straight women?
not so much
the concept of
a straight female sexuality
is
struggling
and since most child sexuality is
female
if you feel sex is something grown women
tollerate for financial reasons...
an acceptance of child sexuality
seems way off
but then, in evolution, we see
punctuated equilibrium
paradigm shifts

one of the things we say is
if your town doesn't have
canals
it wasn't part of the
first wave of the Industrial Revolution
for example
North East England hasn't got canals
because?
by the time it was industrialised
it was in a position to
invent the railways
thye say
trains can't climb steep hills
water can't climb at all
Russia has canals
very big ones
we are going to invent a word here
perieuropean
we are defining perieuropean Russia as
Russia west of Caspian Sea
not just opposite the Caspian but
any part of Russia to the west of a line from
The Caspian Sea to The North Pole
that's the part of Russia that could be described as
Mother Russia
Russia, China, United states of America, Australia
these are countries that got massive big because
most of the land they claimed was at the time
empty, barren, desert or tundra
and nobody argued with a nerby country taking some sort of
responsibility for them
America bought Alaska from Russia
but
at one time Russia extended as far south as
California
but there was nothing there
nothing as yet discovered and deemed useful
it's a bit like a little village or small school
theoretically having a whole rosta of
sports teams
but only a couple of dozen players
you can't play in the under 19s and the under 17s and
the under 11s all at the same time
even if you are under 11
and so
before there were roads there were railways
and before there were railways there were
canals
and before there were canals there were
rivers and coastal waters
and so
what human population there was on the Earth
didn't get out much
didn't travel far from home
and urban dwellers lived in what we may call
City States
and we still have a few
Monaco, The vatican
and back in the mists of time
one city state was called
Moscovy
and that was Moscow and 'hinterland'
surrounding and dominated countryside
but as transportation improved
the amount of countryside
hinterland
a city coud dominate
expanded
and this is the basis of the separation of
Empires
into two categories
a dispersed Empire
and a
Contiguous Empire
The Russia Empire grew like an
ink blot
the British, Portugese, Dutch, Spanish, French, Empires
grew like sprinkled pepper on a stew
beause they depended on
Sea Power
navigation, exploration
from the historical perspective
in a lot of cases the non-contiguous empires
were established on the basis of some sort of
Grand and Imperfect concept of
Squatters Rights
Squatters Rights as opposed to
Military Conquest
but now we have descendents of
First Nations people
saying
Europeans weren't squatters
they drove the indiginous people off the land
and it all gets a bit like
you can't build here
we've found newts in that pond
we've got squatters rights even though our
population density was
six people per thousand square miles
like if you're the only human in
Australia
you own the entire continent
almost universally
explorers
perhaps we should call them
latter day explorers
claimed continents and such
on behalf of a sponsoring nation
not themselves as individuals
and now boundaries change by
referendum
or some other
device of democracy
unless?
unless you are talkng
comunist or something
where there is a
command economy
and the one thing you never do is
consult the little people

The Duke of Wellington
once said of his soldiers
I don't know if they frighten the enemy
but they scare the hell out of me
and he also said
tnext to a battle lost
(although he never actually lost a major battle)
is a battle won
in tht sense he was promoted as a war hero
not a war monger
it's very easy to characterise
President Putin as a
snivening little snitch
using his military as
a cat's paw
in his machinations
in what may be seen as a potential
parallel universe
it could be considered that
President Putin is using
The Ukraine and NATO in a sort of
Grand Version of
Who will rid me of this turbulent priest
come, slaughter my armies
so that I can modernise my country

on 16 May 1703
Tsar Peter the Great
looked out over a section of
Sweden that he had just annexed to Russia
sparse marshlands at the mouth of
The Baltic Sea
and said
let there be a city here
between 30,000 and 100,000 peope died
many of them Swedish prisoners of war
in the effort to build it, St Petersburg
the city was and was intended to be
an exercise in which Russia would
'hack a window to Europe'
a city to
look like a European city
and to be a port on the Baltic
with all that Lenin stuff...
it was seen as a bad idea all around
but it was not destroyed
it had its name Welshed
it was called
Petrograd
for a while
we've decided to use
Welshed and not Tureyed
for any pointless name change on a map
every time a Russian refers to a city in Russia as
xxxgrad
Russia aligns itself more closely with
North Korea
Peter the Great - raproshement with Europe
President Putin - backslider
who wouldn't expect Russia to be Communist?

we are going to have a little go at the question
should females be given advice on anything...
no that wasn't ti
should females be given advice on
how to be street safe?
at the base line
the question is
why should a female have to
pay for a cab or taxi
when a man can walk home for free?
and if you look at that
how many females are randomly stabbed in the street
how many males are randomly stabbed in the street?
and so you could say
the only reason females aren't stabbing victims is
they all run around in cabs
there is some truth in that
so really females are not being
discriminated against in the case of this advice
if you are drunk and incapable
get somebody to pour you into a taxi home
is advice for males and femles
no distinction
femles get preferential treatment because
there are more likely to be people
looking out for them and
making sure they have the cab fare home
but that is
1 getting home from work
2 out to socialise with friends
it is different from being
out on the pull
say you are female and you fancy one particualr bloke
the standard method is
wear a split skirt and make sure it only
falls open when you have your target's attention
all well and good
but that may have worked well up to around
twenty years ago
realistically, these days
blokes?
1 keep out of debt
2 keep out of pain
3 keep out of jail
this basic tactic of
look good and position yourself so as to
give your target the opportunity to
jump you
is likely to end in frustration
more and more a bloke is gonna be thinking
how is this gonna sound in court?
at a slight tangent
surveying the trend in the
definition of sexual activity
and this crime of
indulging in sexual activity in the
presence of a child
there is no doubt that
mum and dad kissing goodbye at the breakfast table
falls within indulging ij sexual activity
in the presence of a child
if they
kiss on the lips
and the whole idea of consent
is washed away by
I only consented because I was too frightened to object
more and more females are going to have to
come across to males
in a way that will stand up in court
if they hope to
get any action


it is so easy for any orgaisation
a national government for instance
to be so complex that it pursues projects that
directly conflict
and again the exact words have a bearing
on the one hand
levelling up
and on the other hand
work from home
work in an office
work in THE offfice
in other words
you centrlise - geographically
power and wealth if you say
this is THE place
and no matter how wonderful anything is
if it wasn't started and developed HERE
it has no relevance
this is called
not invented here syndrome
only work done in an office 'counts'
easily becomes
only work done in THIS office counts
obviously remote working is a great boost to
levelling up if you are a government minister
with six kids
who has no truck with
contraception
Rees-Mogg
you want to spend as much time out of the house as possible


we know that the only major country wanting to see
Russia win in Ukraine
is Greece
but the rest seem to want a stalemate
they have a major problem
the whole thing is geared to
one side or the other winning
the reason for this is
there is not one scrap of
military hardware or materielle in general
that is available to
UK, US Europe, NATO who or whatever
that is not
a world away superior to the
heap of shit the Russians have
there is no practical way to
dumb down or de-range the equipment so that
Russian and Ukrainian artillery - for example
can stand, say, twenty miles apart
and hit each other
if the Russians fire from twnty miles away
and say that is the limit of their range
the Ukrainians can simply move back
five miles and still hit the Russians
you get the idea

we have a couple of bits of
Redcar High Street news
the TSB bank has gone and we think the unit will be a
Tesco Daily or Express or whatever they call them
we hope that in time
perhaps immediately
it will expand into the derelict bit of
Uptons
department store tht wasn't included in the
pub develpment
the other news is not so
'hot off the press'
KFC
have gone from
Redcar High Street to
Roseberry Road
which puts them near the
little ASDA
as one of the units on the site of the
earlier long gone
filling station
petrol filling station
and homas Cook travel will be
a solicitors
and Bright House
an Estate Agents
and there was talk..
the Salvation Army
were to move from the High Street to
where Carpet Right was
next to Kwikfit
on Corporation Road


hold on tight to nurse
for fear of something worse
nurse being a nanny
this is the thing with energy supplies
the word of the day today is
etiolate
bak in the day there was
blotting paper
now there are kitchen paper towels
jam jar, full with paper
keep the paper wet
slip big butter beans
live ones - seed ones
between the glass and th paper
the beans will germinate
take 2
leae one as is
wrap the other - just around, not over the top
in something black
as the seed geminates
the shoot will make its way up
in one case it is just up
in the other case it is
up towards the light
even without light
plants 'know' up is for light
the non-wrapped seeds have light all around
but they grow upwards anyway
the embryo - the growing plant is
taking energy from the starchy - white - parts of the seed
the bit we always eat
not the bran we sometimes eat
and just as a baby lamb switches from
mother's milk to grass
the seedling switches from
energy stored in the seed
to
energy from sunlight
and to capture that energy is has
chemicals and structures in its
leaves and stems
that it doesn't have in it's roots
and they make the leaves and stems
green
so if you are doing this with
clear plastics drinks bottles
not jam jars
you can put the seeds at fifferent depths from
the top of the container
and in the black wrapped examples
kinda no matter how deep you bury the seeds
there will be
no green in the bits that are in the dark
this is an experiment to show that
whatever makes plants green
is there and only there to
capture energy from light
if you have a skip parked on your front lawn
and it's there for a week
when they take it away
the grass and the dandilions will not be green
they will be yellow
that's eliolation
plants capture energy from the sun
there is enery within the earth
left over like heat in an
Economy 7
night storage heater
from the time of the creation of the Earth
we call that geothermal energy
just rocks remaining hot
but there is also
energy burried in the earth or The Earth
that was long ago captured from sunlight
by plants
and by a quirk of geology
that energy was stored in the earth
like energy in the starchy part of seeds
but as coal, oil and gas
these petroleum deposits are
essentially
renewable
but is will take eions of time
to put them back 'where they belong'
extracting fossil fuels is
'acting the seedling'
not being grown up and respnsible
and capturing our own sunlight
letting the crops rot in the field
whilst we live on the corn in the barn
there's some scripture about
seven fat years and seven lean years
if you have a good year
you don't just harvest enough crop for
this year's needs
and let the rest rot in the field
you harvest what is there and
store the surplus
against the possibility that
next year - or the next seven years
may bring inadequate harvests
to have proper grown up control over
the energy system
the energy industry
we have moved on from
growning plants to be able to store them as
fuel to burn in the night and
in the winter
to having more direct control over
exactly the same process
except that we now can
collect
insolation
that's a real word not a misprint for
insulation
insolation - energy coming 'in' from
sol - the sun
now instead of having to
keep plants alive
fertilizer, heat, storm protection etc
we can capture insolation with
photovoltaics and wind trubines
and all that good stuff
that works more reliably than a
crop in a field
and instead of storing that energy in the form of
wood, and straw, and seeds
we can store it
without risk of spolage through rot
as
hydrogen
water split using electricity into
hydrogen and oxygen
ready at a moment's notice to be
recombined
to release the energy we have stored by this process

and then we bring in the second concept
the concept of
seed corn
as a population decends into famine
and stage is
they eat the seed corn
this winter we will eat 'a little' of tht corn and in that context
there are
mineral resources
things underground
that we should be
making into things
not burning
so
do you chop down trees to
build a cabin
or do you
live in a tent
and chop down trees to
keep the camp fires burning?

sometimes there is a fine line between
leaping to our own defence
and
clarifying something we have said
we said
paraphrasing
and referring back to earlier similar comments
a defibrulator is
way smarter than an epipen
and more recently
having a defibrulator on every street corner
is more valuable than having
fast and faster ambulances
we said
faster and faster ambulances
we DID NOT SAY
shorter and shorter ambulance response times
you ring for an ambulance...
you wait ten hours for a ambulance to be
allocated to your job
and it crashes on the way to you and
you have to wait a further 12 hours for
a replacement
what we are saying is
speeding on the road is
NEVER going to compensate for
delayed alloation
it just makes matters worse
if you are three years old...
wanting to be a fire fighter may
revolve entirely around dashing around under
blues and twos
blue lights and two tine horns
but
given the amount of
pre-treatment given in ambulances
as opposed to
scoop and scoot
the complet abandonment of
blues and twos
would have almost zero effect on
patient outcomes
and some positive effect on
road safety
the reason for queues of ambuances at A and E
is that
these days
you don't go to hospital
the hospital comes to you
inevitably, there will be some delay in
developing a culture of getting
every reported casualty into a
Zoom call
so that the virtual hospital will come to you
in milliseonds but that will come

we want to point out
Redcar Regent
on the west, river, entrance
side
the path down the side is mich wider than the
path on the eastern, Saltburn, side
'cos for that's the side for access to
the new pier
if it ever gets built


we have previously made passing reference to
'the grid'
it is about how central government manage the release of
data and other information
at best to brovide a steady flow of political news stories
what we have noticed this week is
the March inflation figures were released on
13 April
BUT
the April inflation figures are not due to be published
until 18th May
on the fae of it, that may be because they don't want them
released before the conclusion of the debate on
The Queen's Speech
that s due to last 6 sitting days...
so it fits

we are wondering about a few things
we are wondering whether a reason for not
updating best practice in health care is
because of a suicide risk amongst practitioners who have
innocently been doing their thing
doing it 'wrong'

we were asking about the differential mortality of
males and females in Ukraine and Russia
to reprise - females like into their 90s
half of males ae dead before their early 60s
we read that younger people in those countries are
switching from
wodka to wine and beer
we suspect that over the ages it has been the men
and not the women drinking the wodka

we may try later to determine whether late dagnosis of
bowel cancer is more a female than a male problem
if it is...
perhaps this is because female periods mean that females are
accustomed to blood in their urine???
and so don't react with the shock a man would experience
if he found blood in either urine or poo
blood in poo has absolutely NOTHING to do with periods

we picked up a couple of other stats about Ireland
thinking the population of Southern ireland went from
1 million to 2 million between the first and second World Wars
not exact just ball park
in the First World War there were
irish Regiments in the British Army
and around 50,000 people out of around 1,000,000
irish people died in WW1
in WW2 Ireland South was non-combatant or neutral
but around 10,000 people out of around 2,000,000 Died
as a result of that war
so
a further distancing was thought appropriate

regarding metoo
and wives expecting to inherit their husbands
work roles
there has been at least one case come to court
but there will have been many more, where
elderly dentist marries dental nurse
he becomes incapable of carrying out procedures
and so his nurse operates for him
it's a little like that GP who was supposed to have
ended a good number of patient's lives early
because his far less intellectually gifted
nurse/wife said it would be OK
so in a sense
and is a mechanism to prevent
untrained and unskilled operatives
gaining control of professional practice
because they have 'legal rights' as a spouse or partner
it is very difficult if
a professional can either
be struck off for incompetance
or jailed for
upsetting unqualified assistant staff
but
in a sense
if you run a religion
and there is suddenly a high mortality rate
amongst your flock
suddenly ordaining a legion of lay-clergy
to ensure the dying get their
last rights and a decent funeral
is way different from
deciding
the NHS is under a lot of pressure
let's bung a few tens of thousands of
young lasses through a virtual reality course
on how to have a good bedside manner
at the local polytechnic
we do seem to be a bit lost between
the pure decency of proper religious rites
and real fact based medicine
there does seem to be a significant element of
Auntie may has had a good run
time she popped off but
we need 'the doctor's' OK
there was a point in history
around 50 years ago when
there were more 'sientists' alive and working
than had ever died
in the past
not so distant past
there was a tendency to think
if the patient arrived at hospital alive
they should leave alive
and that spawned the concept of
'blue lighting' people right left and centre
she's just a bit dead
the hospital may be able to bring her round
we need more help in the health service becomes
we're done if we
put somebody in front of the patient
our Ricker used to know an elderly woman who had
lost her only child, a daughter, to cancer
at an early age wthout grandchildren
and she dedicated her life
a little to volunteering in
Cancer Research UK charity shops
but mainly to
sitting in vigil at the bedsides of
people in the final stages of dying from cancer
it made her very experienced in matters related to dying
didn't make her a 'cancer expert'
a lorra lora professionals have
a routine
a process they are supposed to go through with every
patient/client
in order to avoid being
struck off
there is no point whatever in doing
medical research
if the law enforcement industry does not accept that
'best practice' changes with time
as a result of that research
and any regulatory framework is
bad if it is 'time honoured'
and good if it is 'fact based'
and in practical terms
not faster and faster ambulances
but
literally
defibrulators on every street corner
this is not a paid for presentation for particular
product
but at this point in time we believe it should be
a requirement to be
registered as an optometrist
that you have the scope and insist on having
every patient scanned with a
Topcon Maestro2 scanner
or equivalent
before you begin your examination
in simple terms if tells you whether the patient has
glaucoma or the opposite...
age related macular degeneration
and the treatment is so different
the scan should be mandatory
it seems to us...
that an awful lot of people with
Age related macular degeneration
are being pointlessley put on
glaucoma meds
and just as a driving licence note
we said the peripheral vision
has to be
along a horizontal axis through the
vanishing point - the place where you are going and these scanners
scan along that axis in particular
so to put it is extreme terms
to drive on a road
you don't need to be able to notice a
potential bird strike
coming from a different plane
as you perhaps should if you wish to
fly a 'plane

we did a bit more reading aout Ireland
essentially
Ireland, Southern Ireland, The Irish Republic, whatever
was a self declared independent nation between
1949
and
1972
joined the European Union in 1973 after a
referendum in which one and a quarter million people voted
just over 1 million to join
the declaration of independence came
as a repudiation of
Dominion Status
alongside a lot of other
Dominions and Protectorates
leaving
but with the difference that it did not join
The Commonwealth
soo
protectorate
like the Faulkland Islands
like
if you get invaded we'll come and liberate you
lots of contries gave that up because
the price was
mutual aid
all around the world young men were 'called up'
to fight against Germany or Japan
because they lived somewhere that was
within the British Empire
and Europe, the European Union
wasn't gonna have an army so
get all the other benefits without the
military service jeapordy
and some of that was to do with
nuclear weapons
no need tom fight if you can just
bomb the bastards


we are always open to the idea that we have made a mistake
and we said President Putin was showing signs of
Parkinsonism
in the context of this appearing a few weeks after his
latest war turned bad on him
we have to consider that he may ahave
suddenly got serious
and cut down on his
put that another way
increased the blood content in his
alcohol stream
we have a technical problem when we mention
blood doping
people tend to think we are referrng to
drug taking
blood doping is having a blood transfusion
when you have not recently had a sudden loss of blood
a haemorrage
and don't have anaemia
if President Putin has recently
either
cut down his alcohol consumption
or
had blood transfusions
he could suffer
the DTs
Delirium Tremens
the most severe form of ethanol (alchohol) withdrawal
that could easily look like Parkinsonism


we were discussing Eamon Devalera and Ireland
just in passing we noted two things
he was American
and 'he'
chose
Irish Free State
as the name of his creation
although later Irish politicians secured
Membership of the European Union for
Southern Ireland and changed the name to
Republic of Ireland
we was thinkin'
rather like Australia and Israel being in
The Eurovision Song Contest
did DeVAalera see Southern Ireland
and a United Ireland
as a state within the United States of America?

as so often happens we will begin this section
from way outside the box
Dame Margaret Barbour
married a bloke who owned and ran a
wax jacket manufactury
and after one daughter and a handfull of years
he dies and decades later the mother and daughter are
still running the company
still in Shields
that be
South Shields, Tyne and Wear, UK
all fine and dandy
and so to our list of suspects regarding the
Ricker stitch up
Tory Bliar
Janice Webster
Vera Baird - sometime labour MP for Redcar
Janice Webster - if she is still alive is now
80 years old
and living in
well was in 2014 living in
Yarm, Cleveland TS15 England
on 8th October 2014
she resigned as
a Director of
Baltic Contemporary Visual Arts Trading Limited
04345367
wher eshe was described as
Enterprise Consultant
having become a director in 2007
she had been a director of
a company dissolved at some date
and
a director of
Baltic Flour Mills Visual Arts Trust 03589539
wher she had been
Director Vr Centre
so we have a slight confusion
three companies run from a private residence
the Dance one dissolved
the other two still 'active'
indicating that the director(s) are still
alive, at least
we always limit our enquiries and so we have no
accounts
but we suspect there are no substantive accounts

we didn't try very hard but her
Linkedin page seems to be missing
we have a little more about the story of
Janice Webster
we don't know how she came to be
the wife of Dr Webster
what we can say is more about him
initially
at some point in history
he was Director Designate of Teesside Polytechnic
and at the same time was
something like, titlewise
Director of Visualisation
for
The Teesside Development Corporation
and his approach to visualisation was based on the use of
fractals
his idea of fractals - probably not current
was that
everything in the world is made up of smaller versions of
the whole
and so in computer graphics you
build a fir tree by defining a sprig of foliage
and you repeat that thousnads of times
and you attach those sprigs to mega sprigs to
represent branches
and you attach mega sprigs to make a tree
and you set trees around your visualisation
etc. etc
so here's the thing
he employed his wife Janice at the poly
we don't know that he married somebody already working there??
and we don't know wht happened to Dr Webster
but our Ricker does recall
Janice one day shepherding him in or out of,BR> the polytechnic building in rather the manner of
caring for
what shall we say
looked like an alcoholic but could have had any number of things
Parknson's, Motor Neurone Disease, Dementia
and across the time
whenever anybody at the Devlopment Corporation of
the Polytechnic
asked where he was
Janie would tell them he was
'at the other job'
and eventually The Polytechnic sent him
a dismissal notice or similar
and a severance cheque
and the next bit leans towards the alcoholic??
his wife being at work, at the polytechnic
he at home opens the post and
nips out to bank the severence cheque
and when janice finds out
she is
incandescent livid
and through a series of options she becomes
Director of a Spin off Virtual reality company
within the University of Teesside
and she's running masters degrees
but she's recruiting
London based students
because she wants them to naff off back to London
when they complete
and hence
Tanya on Teesside
but Tanya has an agenda for wanting to stay on Teesside
The Ricker man
and Janice not knowing this
takes Tanya onto the staff of her spin off company
so Tanya want Ricker
University of Teesside want Ricker
Janice wants The University of Teesside
and felt she had it and needed to keep it
example
she would interview masters cadidates
in the Board Room of The University
and allow candidates to smoke
a genuine belief that she had
inherited her husbands
vice chalcellor designate status
and we assume that Janice recruited the likes of
Vera Baird
to the cause of
it's the wimin who should have the top jobs???
by hook or by crook
and it plays into the leftist concept
the people should enslave the intellectuals
Cambodia
French Collony
Pol POt
set the intellectuals to work in the paddy fields
and it sits with the leftist views of
British Universities
that tutors should have
tenure
a job for life
and researchers should be on
fixed term contracts
hence the plan
Ricker under the thumb
not
Ricker out the door
ooops

Tony Blair is recorded as having, as Prime Minister
changed the UK political and judicial system to be
more American in nature some nonsense about having a
Supreme Court
rather than Law Lords
scrapping Tuesday and Thursday Prime Minister's Questions
and replacing them with Wednesday Questions to the Prime Minister
what he did was
make The Labour more electable
and
try to turn the office of Prime Minister into something
More Presidential
relying on Her Madj to keep stum in public
and staying away from the House of Commons as much as possible
he carved out this niche for himself as a sort of
de facto president
but that was it
and with no policies
no intention to govern
he turned to
one of those Presidents Bush for
direction on what to do
rather than simply
polish his smile
so we now want to do a bit more on the case against
our Ricker
we have to say that Craig Beer died many years ago with his dementia
his firm is now called BBNM
Brown Beer Nixon Mallon
soo PC Hinchcliff interviews our Ricker about these emails
in the presence of a responsible adult but no lawyer
and comes back and says
we've decided to charge you
released on police bail pending appearance at
Guisborough magistrates'
now long since closed down
and then we get there
Ricker and his demented brief
and there's no mention of emails
but now it's the t shirt
and
prosecuton can't produce the T shirt
prosecution can't produce a photo of the T shirt
there was at least one 'old biddie' on the bench
Ricker can't remember the two blokes
so ya see
the prosecution have no case
but the demented brief tells our Ricker to
plead guilty
so he does because he's joined the bench in the
hands in the air, a plague on all your houses spirit
and lovely though Tanya was???
she obviously had connections who were
out and out nutters so
good riddence
bring on the restraining order
'cos it cuts both ways
and to hell with the University of Teesside
tried to recruit him to do another course
sent somebody to accost him in Redcar Library
bame cheek
this kind of carve up was what Blair used to call
getting all your ducks in a row


you know how rubbish our fact checking is...
but
we think Chris Whiteside
BT Open Reach executive and
prime advocate of the proposed
Whitehaven coal mine
has lost his seat in this week's local elections
and Cumbria is where the Tories did worst
up North
when will they ever learn?

we thought we would explore the concept of
geography by football stadium
but we soon realised that
explaining the secrets of the universe is
a lot easier than explaining sporting regulations
as far as we can tell most Premier League clubs have to
set aside 3,000 seats for visiting fans
and most - one level down - championship clubs are supposed to
set aside 8,000 seats for visiting fans
but we probably have that wrong
sooo
on average
each match day, and Saturday is not so often match day now
30,000 people visit the stadium of a rival Premiereship club
so 60,000 people regularly travel to visit
football stadia
and so 1 in a thousand people
actually know where these stadia are...
perhaps, a very big perhaps, a similar number
know where Championship stadia are
for the general public not as useful as
Turn right at the Green Frog

not a lot to take from the local government elections except
The Labour entrench their reputation as
The party of Character Assassination


Sidi - the female presenting partner on
Secrets of the London Underground
has 'had work' between series 1 and series 2
pretty enough but, makes her more 'ordinary looking'


Sidi - the female presenting partner on
Secrets of the London Underground
has 'had work' between series 1 and series 2
pretty enoughbut, makes her more 'ordinary looking'
speaking of which
we have kept back some details of the
Tanya Nelson story
at the end of our Ricker's first involvement with her
she was a pretty little elf cut blonde of around
20 years old
and when she re-appeared she was around 32
with longer darker hair and a bit more
thick set - just a touch
but more importantly she had acquried a
brocken nose
and the expalanation was
back in the day one day
Tanya turned up to class with a palm sized section of
glittery purple glass fibre that was
all that was left of her canoe
kyack probably
so our Ricker lives in Redcar and as far as we know
Tanya never has
we will come back to that
sooo, this completely unbelievable story about
tanya died in a canoe accident...
not least because it was in the news and
it wasn't Tanya
so the family had obviously lifted a handy story fro the news
and so our Ricker concluded that
Tanya had had a less newsworthy accident
and had had her family tell our Ricker she was dead because
she dodn't want him to see her new face
this much seems sad but sensible
so we reels on about ten years
and Ricker and Tanya are getting re-acquainted
and then Ricker gets arrested on account of
three 'personal' phrases in course work communiations
added to in court by a story about
a T shirt in a parcel opened in the
Post Room at Teesside Uni
and paraded around to Tanya's embarassment by post room workers???
taking one consideration with another
and being represented at Guisborough Magistarates Court by
later to be diagnosed with dementia solicitor
Craig Beer
our Ricker pleads guilty and
the 'penalty' imposed is - alone
a lifetime restraining order for
our Ricker never to contact Tanya
in other words our Ricker was
'bound over' to refrain from further contact
for ever
here's the kicker
we said Tanya never lived in Redcar
a short time after the case
Tanya turns up walking the streets of Redcar
with her mum in tow
and with a huge dressing on her nose
and she gets ignored by - blanked by in accordance with the order
our Ricker as she passes where
Morrissons petrol station is but then was the gas works
on the corner of
Corporation Road and West Dyke Road
there are three options here
if she thought she would get her nose fixed and
surprise our Rcker with the results
she would have waited to heal before she approached him
1 wanted to impress him with nose repair - don't think so
2 had another accident,going for sympathy?
probably not
3 the person who broke her nose the first time
had done it again and
and
Tanya and her mum had come to Redcar straight from the hospital
hoping they can chat him up and get her some protection from her abuser
so why would her abuser be cross with her following the court case?
perhaps it had gone wrong
perhaps the magistrates had said
a plague on both your houses
instead of saying
you must marry this woman
and if you upset her or any of her connections
family, workmates etc.
you will be back in court
perhaps somebody was unhappy with what Tanya had done
and they get into a fight over it
and for Ricker the suspects were
Officer Nelson and her boss at teesside Uni, Janice Webster
but despite mummy Robertson having been willing to
lie in writing
she had not been willing to tell the truth in writing
we should note Tanya Nelson was not a court witness
in the case
there was no confrontation at any time
the case did not include a
victim impact statement
it is always supposed that a victim or survivor will have
'pressed charges'
so afr as our Ricker could tell this case was not
Robson V Nelson
but
The Crown v Robson
the line seemed to be
you did this
that would have upset her
not
you did this and it upset her
the essence being
'she's not complaining, but we don't think you're treating her right'
or
are your intentions towards my daughter honourable?
and then they have the nerve to say
this relationship has
stopped her from pursuing other men
or
she fancies someone we don't approve of
but she's tending her light for him so
we want to convince her that
he's a wrongun

we are interested in the commercial psychology of
projects such as the new Redcar Regent
this is quit small but
extremely well appointed and located
in the past - during construction
Redcar and Cleveland council have tried to
let a lease to run the property
'off plan' - no completed building just impressions
two factors arise now that we have completion
this may be described as a
boutique cinema
and make Redcar a destination for cineiasts
people who want to watch
'art house movies'
this will make the operators of all sorts of
cinema venues think
'we were told Redcar was tumbleweed and soup kitckens
but
if there is a new high class boutique cinema there
it may attract audiences away from
our tiny, shed-like art houses
for miles and miles around
perhaps we should get in on that action'
the second like of thought is
if, no, since, New Redcar Regent has set such a
high new benchmark for local
architectural standards
do we want to build a
Holiday Inn rip off on Majuba Road
or a Gateshead Arena rip off on Newcommen Terrace?
perhaps the new normal for Redcar is
Go big, or go home
why would you spend £6 mllion to own
the trashiest venue in Redcar

we appear to have fallen down the rabbit hole
regarding Irish history...
anybody seriously interested in the topic should do two things
recognise the
if I can't win, I'm taking my ball home
mentality of a lot of people in Ireland
essentially, people in Northern reland can vote
Nationalst
for independence
but if they elect a nationalist MP to Westminster
that MP will not take up ther seat because
paying lip service or not
MPs have to swear aliegence to the Crown
etc. etc.
the second thing a body should do is George de Valero
well don't bother
you won't get far
this fella was born on 14 October 1882
in New York City, USA
the son of Catherine Coll
a first generation Irish immigrant from
Bruree County Limerick, Ireland
and a chap called
Juan Vivion de Valera
a 'Spanish' artist born in 1853
who may have been born in Cuba
in a home for destitute abandoned orphans
on Lexington Avenue
our main man became
a prime mover in
Irish Independence
later known as
Eamon de Valera
in all of this we have a
Classic Case of
a person blaming the British, London, government
for having had a harsh early life in
the American diaspora - exiled community of his supposed
native community
in America
we get this with Black Americans blaming the British for
segregation in the US etc etc
what can you say?
if you want the truth
perhaps you should consider
outsiders with chips on their shoulders
meddling in British Affairs
for a lot of agitation within the UK

when we try to track what we may call
traditions or ethnic traits
over several centuries
as on the island of Ireland
it is very hard not to get confused
we think there will be relevant elections this week
in Northen Ireland
and the power balane may shift a little
as at present it could be said that
Southern or The Republic of, Ireland is
happy to be free
in a sort of way
'The Irish' have chosen not to be
Independent
but to be independent of the UK
choosing, rather, to be a part of
The European Union
and so the UK is in some rspects
dealing with ROI is also dealing with the USA
because a lot of important people
do this double standards thing
we are of British descent when
it means
from the best stock in the world
but we do not toady to london because
our ancestors were
Scottish and or Irish
at this point we will say
the population of ROI is increasing
from about 2 to about 5 million since 1960
the populations of Scotland and Northern Ireland are steady
Scotland 5 million - more than ROI but not much
and Ulster or Northern ireland around 2 million
in the broadest of terms we can say
5 million people in ROI braodly wish to continue their
independence from London
and in Northern Ireland
around half a million want to remain a part of the UK The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
and half a million people want
and All Ireland republian government
it is not clear how many republicans object to
The British Monarchy
and how many object to
involvement of the UK Parliament in Irish affairs
if what is now the ROI had had the
devolution options available for the past couple of decades
to Scotland and Wales
a whole load of conflict may have been avoided
there is absolutely no doubt that
The Troubles
were made worse by factions simply cashing n on
tensions to excuse anti-social behaviour
in other words there were and are
decent, honourable republicans who had their cause
hiJacked by the usual suspects
what we are getting to is the fact that
1 the Irish Plantations were universal and involved
confiscating land from 'gentry' and not
the poor as in the Highland Clearances in Scotland
the aim was to civilise the people
not to de-populate the island
2 this was universal. it was not an invasion that
started in Belfast
and didn't get very far
in historical terms
the London government divided the island of Ireland
in around 1921 into two
devolved provinces
Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland
but the people of Southern Ireland
rebelled against mere devolution
and declared
Southern Ireland to be
The Republic of Ireland
initially
The Irish Free State
in other words a peaceful solution was
on the table
but rejected by some influential individuals
the isalnd of Ireland has several settlements
some of which may be regarded as cities
Dublin ROI 1,173,179 population
Belfast NI 483,418
Cork ROI 208,669
Limerick ROI 94,192
Derry NI 93,512
Galway ROI 79,934
Newtownabbey NI 65,646
Bangor NI 61,011
lots of other places
famous from news reports but with populations
at or under 50,000
what is not so often emphasised is that
as with us always - broadly
Northern Ireland is industrial or post industrial
and ROI is rural - agricultural
and 'these days'
rural - agricultural has added 'hi-tech'
Roi is booming because it is peaceful and attractive to
next generation industries
what if
what if five years from now M. LePenn
takes France
out of Europe
it could happen that
ROI seeks links with the UK that
by-pass rust belt Belfast
people have to consider these things
but returning to?
Mo Mowlam and Tony Blair
The tTroubles and the Irish Problem
had long been very difficult and nobody would have
thunk
the Good Friday would be possible
and so Blair hands that
poison chalice to Redcar's then MP Mo Mowlam
and in a classic
tell yer mother I saved ya
move
muscles in when unpredicted success is
clearly on the cards
and that may have something to do with
our Ricker
we - if we are Tony Blair - can discount
Mo Mowlam's achievements because
she's got a brain tumour
but just to be safe
let's have prominant Redcar citizen
our Ricker
certified insane...



we tried searching age profile Russia
and
age profile Ukraine
and the patterns seemed very simlar
not many very young people
and within sort of young adult to
60 or so
roughly equal numbers of males and females
but over 60...
the number of males kinda halves
from the age of 60 or so
in both countries
we know that a lot of man from Russia and Ukraine died
during the Second World War
but those people woud noe be over 90 not over 60
omething else has killed off a load of men in those areas
in the most recent half century
our Ricker can't quite get over the idea of
medical students being taught anatomy by
computer screen
do they get haptic feedback on how it feels
to operate on people?
he was one of six students who dissected the
Mortal remains of a chap called Walter
who had donated his body to science
a couple of stories about that
the pre-clins building was a 9 to 5 building
and one Saturday morning some chap was found
hammering on the front door
when asked what he wanted he said he wanted to
donate his body to science
the second story is the lecturer who described
and drew in chalk
the male genitalia
and then said
and we'll treat the female genilalia
some times found in student nurse leture notes spelt
Jenny Taylor
as a hole
kinda saying
this is medicine
not midwifery

when it comes to 16plus exam content
studying so many subjects
each subject is going to get a
quick run through
and so to History
and today
The Irish Plantations
never 'erd of 'em
something to do with potatoes?
love the stock French GCSE question
moi aussie
translant into English
I am an Australian
sooo
what the issue with the Irish Plantations?
Plantations in 16th and 17th Century
Kingdom of Ireland
involved the confiscation of Irish-owned land by the
English Crown
and the colonisation of this land with settlers
it took place - mainly - between 1550s and 1620s
so we introduce a term in fairly widespread use even today
this Irish Plantation occured at around the same time as
the colonistion of North America
but it had a different purpose or motivation
people went to America to seek
freedom, and fortune
a lot of that was religious freedom
in contrast
people were sent to Ireland with the intention that they
civilise the entire island
and to some extent it worked???
in the sense that a lot of 'English' people and families
assimilted into Irish culture
and to that extent proctically nowhere on the island is
as it was before the plantations
but some did not assimilate and in a concept similar to
Offa's Dyke or Hadrian's Wall
some of the country became perhaps a characterature of
the England these families left
rather as areas of Patagonia in South America are now
more 'Welsh' than Wales
and the line on the island of Ireland equivalent to
Hadrian's Wall
was called
The Pale
as in a palling fence
and hence any activity not
just so
was referred to as
Beyond the Pale
we could obviously go on for ever about
Irish politics and history and religion
but one thing we should say now is that there were
three parties to a lot of this
various 'English' invaders and overlords
The Roman catholic Church
and
The Irish Catholic Church
Christianity started in?
The Middle East, Palestine?, whatever
it spread through the Holy Roman Empire as
'soft power'
but it also spread through a much less
organised and militaristic
evangelism
to the Celtic Fringe
Northumberland in England Ireland
and eventually Roamn Catholicism
Overpowered Irish Catholicism
and then you need to think about
St. Hilda and the 'diet' of Whitby
and a whole lorra rock...
Catholic
means
anybody can join
many religions are 'catholic'
Jewdeism
is not
it is possible but difficult to
convert to Jewdeism if you are not
ethnically Jewish
but tribal identity s important to Jews
and so
when the majority religion in an area is
technically 'catholic' - small c cactholic
people who want to roll ethnicity into religion
do the thing we so much about in Islam
they say
everybody should be Moslem
but only our sect essentially our genetic tribe
are the chosen ones of God
hence
Shia Islam versus
Sunni Islam
and a bunch of smaller branches
and conflict between branches of a religion
can become more important than conflict with
infidels


we did say previously...
that DEFRA
Department for Environment Food (Farming) and Rural Affairs
was cruising for a bruising
we do note that
Tractor Porn MP Neil Parish
is the chair of the relevant committee of the
House of Commons
it may be very handy to have him say googbye
at let someone a bit more, shall we say
heavyweight
get a grip on DEFRA

it is a matter of little consequence to most people...
we have had our attention diverted to
the question
what are Fred Karno's Army up too right now
under their current name
Arquiva
it appears that they did actually use helicopters to
refurbish Emley Moor transmitter
and it took four years
it's like using chop sticks to put ice in yer drink
but they are apparently
a law unto themselves
so maybe
maybe they will be dusting off the
Big Book of Egyptian Pyramid Building
to replace Bilsdale Transmitter and
go for providing over a decade of 'work' for
the thousands of people they reckon to employ
with the Platinum Jubilee upon us
the Corranation Flag Salesmen may have to get out of bed
on a few occasions over the coming few months oh, by the way
Kirkleatham Hall...
the patriarch of
Scott Bros
the hauliers responsible for
site clearance as subs for Tolent
recently died
so that explains exerything
like he was responsible for
producing artist's impressions of the project
to hang on the hoardings???
but we do have some signal, some of the time
that is
on a clear day we get around three quarters of channels
with continual dropouts
would you want a company like that to
fit out an Intensive Care Unit
at your local hospital?
good enough for government work?
good enough for government work in the 1950s
a load of blokes shnning up a scaf with
buckets of concrete

there is a saying
give them an inch and they'll take a mile
so far as Russia and Ukraine are concerned it appears
the new version is
give them a mile
and see if they choke on it
this is causing a loss of patience
if it is Rusian, and military and in Ukraine
this is a bit like
Russian Lives Matter
don't upset the poor Ruskies
you might be a Ruskie yourself some day

there are around 200 countries in the world
some are run in a so-so way
some are run worse
is there ant country other than Russia that has citiens who can
do what they like
especially cheat at interntional sport
and just make a slight change to the
spelling of the name of the country they represent
and carry on regardless?
what do 'they' know about Russia that 'we' don't
that makes this OK
Half past dead
How long is it since the Korean War?
it is long past the time when we should be using
that as our yardstick
and sestablishing
Russia and North Korea
and
Ukraine as South Korea
and encouraging Russians to emgrate to Ukraine
not Uxbridge
and don't say nuclear weapons
China, France, India, Israel
North Korea, Pakistan, Russia
United Kingdom, United States of America
have between them
13,000 nuclear warheads
which country do you think has the most
that won't work?
if you watch the mens sheds shows
you will know that
all the rubber bits in a car that has been
in a shed for twenty years
will have disintegrated
it's not a matter of
how many have you got
it's a question of
how recently were they
remanufactured?
if President Putin wanted to be
North Korea Class
in Sabre Rattling
he would be testing nukes
not making comments that the world
could interpret as referring to nuclear weapons

one of the things that does sometimes get
under the skin
is the
Considerate COnstrutors Scheme
contractors do tend to remove everything from site
before they start work
and that means they are
in vernacular terms
clarts plodging
playing in the mud like littl tiny boys
for the next couple of years
and dragging mud onto local roads in the process
there should be a rule
build the car park first
and work from that - in the plans - hard standing
not from the mud bath you have created
Kirkleatham Hall Shool
is a Special Educational Needs state school
for 2 to 19 year olds with
Autistic Spectrum Disorder
Hearing Imparement
SPeech Language and Communication Needs
Visual Imparement
155 pupils
in November 2021 Tolent Engineering
began a £2million extension- remodelling project
at Kirkleatham Hall School
their management of the site
leaves a lot to be desired
signage directing pedestrians
TOWARDS
danger
etc
no signage explaining what they are doing
signage directing pedestrians aross a
spoil tip


we may return to this next topic but for now
you remember The Beatles
you remember Ringo Star
you may not remember that he did
voice-over work on Kids Tv
Thomas the Tank...
and you probably don't ask yourself
what's it like to be
our Ricker?
well
our Ricker identifies with
Wreckit Ralf
but more colsely with
Chorlton
in Chorlton and the Wheelies
one of Ringo's
what is plaguing th minor characters
is, in a way, stting the bleedin' obvious to Chorlton
he addresses to
the terrorising witch with
hello, lickle lady

we are gonna have another go at explaining
about fossil fuels
it's quite a simple analogy
grandad dies
so you sell the house and
use the money to build a
granny flat extension on your house and
you use granny's pensions to cover the
extra costs of running the extended property
and grandad dying is the demise of the
coal industry
and building the extension is
exploiting North Sea oil and gas
and granny dies and you loose her pensions
but the kids grow up and start earning
and pat their share towards the household bills
but then they leave home
after you have spent money on re-doing the granny flat
to suit their taste
and then you retire and you are alone
trying to run a mansion on your pension
the point here is
government wants to invest in
economic stimulus, growth, employment
to take the Tory route
if the couple in question were well enough
at the point of abandonment
they may be able to rescue themselves by
turning their over developed property into a
bed and breakfast
but perhaps they should have done what is in the adverts
and used equity release to help
set up these short term dependents
in suitable homes of ther own
in other words
you have taxpayers' money
you have planning powers
invest in new technologies
not in
a naetwork of care homes for the obsolete
like our Ricker's dad
spent his pension lump sum on
oil fired central heating
despite having an electricity and gas supply
because he had had
diesel tanks at all the quarries and similar
when he was at work
it neaver worked properly and
neighbours with breathing difficulties
complained about the fumes and the smell

and now the Wedding Car analogy
three scenarios
1 you have no daughters but you think there is a
business you could run in
wedding car hire
2 you have a daughter and you think
I like cars, maybe I could run a car suitable for use as a wedding car
3 you have two sets of daughter twins
all born within a couple of years of each other
4 wedding car hires versus buying and selling a wedding car
in the case of
fossil fuels
you are in senario 2
if you don't already have the fossil fuel exploitation kit
ther smart money
hires to tide over to the next era
to try again...
think of energy as
music or music videos
energy is music
coal fired power stations are
Betamax video recorders
gas fired power stations are
Sony Walkmans
nuclear driven power stations are
ghetto blasters
we don't need LESS carbon dioxide
and we don't need MORE
there is no problem whatever
releasing carbon dioxide that has been
captured from the atmosphere
there is a problem releasing carbon from
fossil material
some people are showing signs of
psychosis not prejudice over not accepting this
fossil energy is not dead
borders on
my boy will one day come home from the war
people should be
moving on



we like to follow up on things we have not got quite right
the technical term for the sort of
friends and family appointments we see with
The UK government - mainly Downing Street
is
nomenklatura
Despite Marxist-Lennist notions of a classless society
the Soviet Union had a pawerful ruling class
the nomenklatura
which consisted of party officials and key personnel
in the government and other important sectors
such as heavy industry
and so to become a memeber of the UK government
First Division Association
you have always had to be
somebody 'we' know
somebody we know to be
too stupid to rock the boat
rather than somebody with
a CV packed with achievements
and so
the first problem Pesident Putin has is
that he has no contact with his
apparat
he only has contact with his
nomenklatura
but now
he seems to be pretty closely closseted with his
Falstaff
or perhaps his Rasputin
his Russian Orthadox Christian Patriarch
Patriarch Kiril
a young man - 75 years old
and presumably in better health than President Putin
it is very plausible that President Putin is in some sort of promise
that if he extends the reach of
The Russian Orthodox Church
Patriarch Kiril will have a word with God
about
a cure for President Putins aliments

it is quite interesting that when
Cleveland Police arrested our Ricker in round 2001
the idea was that
what PC Hnchcliff had been told to do was to go through
all of or Ricker's communications with anybody at
The University of Teesside
to see whether any of it broke any of the new laws against
harassment
two things stand out
the police completely disregarded the soon to be abandoned
provision in law at the time
that
in order to bring a complaint
a complainant had to clearly inform the perpetrator
at least twice
that they did not wish to receive any further communications
from the defendant
PC Hinchcliffe went through around 86 emails
amounting to 134 'pages'
that in the main consisted of our Ricker's
course work for his masters degree in multimedia
and in his mind transposed the need for
three warnings not to continue
into
three instances where a note or comment could be
construed as personal
as in not
'strictly business'
the other element of this was that
in the context of
interview
PC Hinchcliff and his immediate superiors
first examined by the police surgeon
and then in interview
not represented by the duty solcitor but
chaperoned by
a resposible adult
the gist of that being that
this was being considered as a
mental health case
this is about two MPs
vera Baird at that time
and the libDem guy later
saying
I don't wish to know that
plausible ignorance
in more classic terms
we, the government have
sanctioned Tholidomide
and we wish to claim that we heard nothing about
it being harmful
ecept from certified nutters
whom we were entitled to ignore
it was quite nteresting because
politicians at a certain level expect
run of the mill Civil Servants
at all pay grades
to assist politicians in implementing their
policical agendas
and at some point they run into
other agencies
it was quite musing to see
the frustration - in this case
of the Probation Service
unable to get onfirmation from
our Ricker's consultant Dr Green
that he was suffereing from any mental health defect
and at a later date having a
Crown Court Judge decline to agree that our Ricker had
broken the law
in other words
we should not be surprised that
apparatchiks
within the Kremlin
hang on every word of President Putin
but
there appear to be no external checks
if the UN is to have any meaningful agency
it must focus on ensuring that nations have
appropriate institutions in place
it i a first order task of the UN to
protect nations from other nations
but it is a vital second order duty fot the UN to
ensure that nation states are run and organised along
nternationally approved lines
and so to clarify
our Ricker's adventures in Wonderland were the result of his being
the chair of the Friends of the Earth Teesside Project

Peter Gary Tatchell
is a British human rights campaigner
originally from Australia
best known for his work with LGBT social movements
in his youth the press set up a meme
a little bit of Tatchell on my shoe
and now we are devastated to have to report that the little bit of
Glen Owen on the shoe of
the Mother of Parliaments
is a greyman a Grey Man
a graduate of Grey College, Durham, England


we've written about two related issues
at different times and we should bring them together
technology moves on
acetylene headlights werre replaced with electrical ones
and so electromechanical electrics
were replaced with electronics
you can take an abrasive sheet to refurbish
electrical 'points' in a distributor in a vehicle ignition
and so the alternator replaced the generator
if you bring a magnet close to a suitable metal
iron, steel, nickel, cobalt
well, iron or steel anyway
at some point they will snap together
but that's it, end of proceedings
to get the pair to do anything else
you will have to pull them apart
bar magnets have a north and a south pole
if you let a north and a south pole to
get near to each other
they will move as a result of a
magnetic force, similar in a vague way to
gravity
snap together
but if you put two north or two south poles
near ech other
they will try to get away from each other
opposites attract, similars repel
those are permanent magnets
suitable metals can be
magnetised and demagnetised
either permanently or temporarily
but more intriguingly...
a bar of iron can be magnetised
by hammering in earth's magnetic field or
by simply putting into a much stronger magnetic field
BUT
a very temporary magnet can be created by
psaang an electric urrent through a coil of suitable
conductive material such as copper
electrical motors and generators act by
putting permanent and temporary magnets together
in a suitable structure
it is interesting that the
linear motor is easier to understand but was a
bit of an Eric Laithwaite flash in the pan this is not exactly how maglev works
imagine a track where the track in front of the train
is temporaily made into a south pole
and a shoe on the train is made a north pole
the magnetic force will drag the train forwards
to have the south and north as close as possible
but then you are stuck
so you swap things areound so that the bit of trak under the train becomes
a north pole and the bit of track just in front of the train
becomes a south pole
the train will be dragged forwards again
you only have two poles so it is quite easy to switch
each section of track
back and forth between north and south pole
this can be done mechanically or electronically
if you MOVE the train and one of the magnets is
a copper coil or such
the movement of the magnet near it will cause
an electrical current to flow through the coil
so then you wrap the track around the train
and you turn your
Linear Electric Motor
into a rotary motor
when you are Monsieur Ampere
and this is all new
you suggest that the switching can be done by
wrapping a set of coils around
a rotor
and containing that in a sleeve made up of permanent magnets
to skip out of sequence
this why you are not supposed to hammer a sticking starter motor
beause hammering the permanent magnets
will tend to demagnetise them
with a pair of 'brushes' that are in contact with a coil
in the armateur
and as soon as the rotor turns
the brushes loose contact with that coil
and come into contact with
the next coil
a commutator
and then somebody invents the
diode and the diode bridge and the bridge rectifier
and you can simplify the whole thing
because
you can
make the permanent magnets the rotor
and electronically switch the current in the
wraped around temporary magnet coils
a brushless motor or a brushless alternator
colis spin in a generator
permanent magnets spin in an alternator
but not all motors are
some work by oppsing two sets of temporary magnet coils
long long time ago
some sad sacks sucha s our Ricker
lusted over
a Magimix
because they were food processors with
an induction motor
not a permanent magnet motor
we will stop soon...
but
an induction motor has it's startor windings
the coils that don't move
excited - powered - by an AC source
a synchronous motor
has its armature windings energised from an AC source
and its field windings powereed by a DC source
a synchronous motor has to be 'run up to speed'
by an auxiliary motor, before it will work
that's more than enough

when we get a mament we like to follow up on things we
have previously referred to
we mentioned a speed limit on the part of the Darlington to Saltburn up line
running over Coatham Marsh
it has now been removed after
a couple of dozen sleepers were replaced
the 'heavy' traffic on that part of the line is from
the mineral traffic from Boulby salt mines to Middlesbrough
we have not recently had an upadte of the progress of the
tunnel
for the new mine
it's called the
Woodsmith Mine Tunnel
and it is supposed to be 23 miles 37 km long and
with a clearance of 20 feet 6 metres
it was due to open in 2021
at present it is an
Anglo American project
there may be a bit of a gap
but
what it is due to produce
is currently imported from
those Belaruss sort of places...
and of the projected length of the tunnel
17 miles should be completed by the end of 2022
and that leaves us thinking at least
5 more years before production starts
as far as we know, at present, spoil from the tunnelling
is being removed by one of the world's longest conveyor belts
but if you build the tunnel with a 20 foot clearance
you have the option of putting in a rail line???
for the moment
it is thought that Michigan will supply replacement for
Russian potash
US farmers
and perhaps UK markets too...
but Woodsmith should make the UK self sufficient in
potash and polyhalite
within 5 years???
and to the specific
potash tarins run empty on the down line
and full on the up line
so only one track was sinking
just a bit
good enough for mineral traffic but
not for Eurostar
although we seem to see Boulby Potash mine
at full capacity
we are not aware of any increase in capacity at present
we suspect they are honouring existing contracts
and not selling on the open market
the depot fo for the Boulby mine is in the sort of
Forty Foot Road area of Middlesbrough
Ayrton Works
but the shipping depot for
Woodsmith Mine is we assume that Anglo American
could speed up devlopment of Woodsmith
if they thought
shipping from Belaruss to Europe proper
would eb compromised for a significant lenght of time
in broad terms
potash is the other half of fertilizer
the other half being nitrogen
nitrogen is available from
in South Bank, Redcar

we had to watch the repeat , just to check
Wheeler Dealers S16/EP11
Triumph TR4
first why the hell waste your time on a TR4
when there are TR4As out there?
BUT the big problem is
Generator versus Alternator
the clue is in the name
an alternator produces AC
Alternating Current
a generator
DOES NOT
the 'back end of an alternator containsa
bridge diode
to convert AC to DC
it's a bit like a sheep sorting pen
take zero voltage
AC fluctuates from going positive
to going negative
to rectify the current and make DC
diodes only let current flow one way through them
so
when the alternator is producing
over zero
the electrons go one way
and when the alternator pulls the electrons back
the diodes send them the opposite way
we may explain that further later
the difference between an alternator
the clue is in the name
and a generator or dynamo
is the way the power is picked up from the coils
slip ring commutators
So
there is NOT RECTIFICATION in the electrical control box
of a car with a dynamo or generator
it is there to disconnect the dynamo from the battery etc
if it produces less than , say, 12 volts
it reacts to voltage and current but it does not rectify
a diode bridge is an arangement of 4 diodes
in a bridge circuit configuration that provides
the same polarity of output for either polarity of input
generllly referred to as a
bridge rectifier
a commutator is a specialised slip ring typically used
on direct current motors and generators
to transfre electrical power between the stationary
housing and the rotating armature
with the added purpose of reversing the electrical current direction
sooo
the slip ring commutator retifies the current n a generator
but the alternator needs a diode bridge to achiee that
so dynamo - electro-mechannical control
altenator - electronic control
if you can find a classic car that is running a generator
not an altenator
put you multimeter on the generator output and see
you get DC
even with the control box disconnected



we have been set to wondering
what was King Boris doing in India?
there is no official announcement of progress in getting
Tata to upgrade Port Talbot steel works to
Redcar standards
a small investment in the chemicals division is all
we still don't know why SSI pulled out of Redcar
but we do know that Thailand is the sort of place where on a whim
it's quite difficult to know sometimes
why the Uk thinks it needs
inward investment
but the UK Royals are having some trouble with
visits to Commonwealth Countries
we don't know the details but it appears that
people in some of these countries have a vague grasp of
the concept of
Independence
they seem to think that
after independence they will continue to get the sort of
Block Grant
that UK local authorities have had
it's kinda turning
no taxation without representation
on its head
we want the money but we don't want any guidance on
how to spend it
and so that concept of
this isn't levelling up funding
this isn't build bak better
because that would have
efficiency and anti-corruption strings attached
this is
compensation and reparation for
the fact that some people who died hundreds of years ago
may have been brought here
by people who may have lived where you do now
such that
third and 4th generation immigrants to the UK
would pay taxes to be handed over
to people living in places that were once
how shall we say?
People from the Indian Sub-continent
paying reparations to people living in the Caribbean
because?
India and the UK have thriving economies
and some Caribbean Islands do not
they are asking for money from people who are not the same people
who were involved in the Slave Trade
but are not in the remotest descended from
people who were involved in the Slave Trade

we think it's now official
the long conference table
the grip on the table edge
we have no doubt that
President Putin has Parkinson'r disease
and as a part of that he is
disinhibited
we doubt anybody will carry out any of his future orders

we do face this problem of
'the pneumonia in bed 5'
in other words
two problems with medicine
1 problems with resistance to
fact based medicine
2 this idea that
a we can get more people into practice quicker if
they specialise really thoroughly
from the start of their careers
leading to the idea that
if the initial diagnosis is a bit off target
the patient will get
what the first practitioner normally does
or
the patient will be written off as
untretable beause their allotted treatment team
don't do that
tht being whatever they actually need
but underlying thi is the idea that if you have A you can't possibly have anything else
and so we recently had a case in North yorkshire where
a woman killed herself because
her autism was diagnosed as personality disorder
largely it is down to
politicians and their obsession
because a lot of them 'come from business'
obsession with TARGETS
hence vote for me because I got
thousnads of people qualified as
doctors, nurses etc
if you are the guy - lke our Ricker - whose 'box'
is to look for causes and linkages
they will be stamped on for
sloing progress towards achievement of
TARGETS
and so to today's
LINK
today's link fctor is
oral plaque bacteria
and so
you know that tooth decay is painful
pain involves nerves
so rotten teeth have a connection with
the brain
so
we have plaque bacteria with a route to
breats through breast feeding
and the brain through tooth decay
and so
PLEASE look for plaque bacteria in
brain tumour tissue
our Ricker
DOES THE FIGURING
he's the guy who is trained to see
links connections
you need to divert a little effort away from
random targets
into investigations of links within illness
the concept is
the voter is always right
so we close down
the pre-med school at Durham University
and open medical schools in the likes of
University of Sunderland
because public spending is about
pleasing the punters
not solving the problems

in order to qualify for
charitable status
an organsation in the UK has to have
stated aims
and show that it is dedicating its income to those aims
hence we all assume that
NSPCC
stands for
National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
and we do not expect the organisation to operate in a way dedicated to being
The National Society for the Prevention of the Creation of Children
the impression we have of the NSPCC is that its corporate idea of
contraception
is
an asprin
clenched tightly between the knees
there is going to be a problem here
our Ricker's brain is these days
somewhat absent
the thing is he's forgotten the structure of
redcar.biz
technically it involves a re-direct
from where to where??,BR> AND
this files is getting too big
so he need to direct readers to a new file
so there could be a situation where this lot is
available at www.teesvalley.online
or WWW.our.st
but not at www.redcar.biz
that will still be there but may not be updated

we want to add a bit of detail to the chemistry of steel making
North Sea Gas and other varieties of
Natural Gas
replaced coal gas or Town gas in the UK
and elsewhere around the 1970s
Town Gas was made by baking coal
and collecting the fumes
The thing is
with adjustments of emphasis
both
Gas Workd and Coke Ovens
produce the same things
gas and coke
and we have said before that because of the
significant amounts of carbon monoxide in Town Gas
desperate housewives committed suicide
and drunken housewives died by accident
by turning on the gas and not lighting it
and so
the fumes from coke ovens contain a lot of lethal
canbon monoxide
and as we said this is fed to the stoves
and when the blast furnaces were removed from
South Bank but the coke ovens were retained
the fumes had to be piped to Redcar to be fed into
the Redcar stoves
and as to the chemistry
if you burn canbon monoxide in air
you reduce the oxygen content
carbon monoxide plus oxygen = carbon dioxide
and so the stoves not only
heated the blast to 1,000 degree C
they depleted the oxygen
getting neared to a stream of
hot nitrogen
but at the same time at those temperatures
oxygen and nitrogen combine
and you get nitrogen oxides instead of nitrogen
and thus the blast gas was
nirtogen plus oxides of nitrogen
and that acidic mixture would be a major contributor to
the need for periodic re-lines of blast furnaces
in theory, perhaps
when you split air into
oxygen for the BOS plant and nitrogen
you could feed oxygen to the BOS plant and nitrogrn to
the blast furnace stoves
to provide the furnace with a hot nitrogen blast
as opposed to a hot air blast
but we don't know if that was ever done


to business...
University of East Anglia medical school have made
an important breakthrough in prostate cancer research
what they are saying is
people with certain rare some previously unknown
bacterial infections
get prostat cancer real bad
we need to explain this
we have said that in breat cancer and prostate cancer
you get contact inhibition cancer because of
spicules of calcium depaoits
that act - for a better explanation - like
asbestos fibres act in asbestosis style lung cancer
so
we like bacteria with calcification and what do we get?
plaque
if you don't brush your teeth
bacteria in the mouth grown
and full gaps between your teeth
and those plaques of bacteria get calcified
and calcified plaque id called tartar
sooo
perhaps people who have a big tartar and plaque problem
get more
breast and or prostate cancer
this gives
oral plaque research impetus
we say

there is information about the Russian Navy on line
but just a superficial note
The Russian navy has what we may call
One Capital Ship
it is an aircraft carrier
and it is in dock for a re-fit
the basic informaton available is that
most of Russia's fleet are
boats not ships because they are submarines
there are supposed to be around 70 submarines
but obviously the casual observer will not see them
the Russian Navy tries to be a world power
and so it is divided into 4 fleets
plus a flotilla in the Caspian Sea
one aircraft carrier means
even when it is not in re-fit
only one of the 4 fleets can have
genuine command and control
at any one time
North, Murmansk
1 battlecruiser
plus one in re-fit
1 cruiser 5 destroyers
3 frigate, 8 corvettes, 38 submarines
West Kaliningrad
i destroyer in long term re-fit
2 frigates, 25 corvettes
1 submarine
South The Blak Sea Fleet
5 frigates, 22 corvettes 7 submarines
Caspian flotilla
2 frigates 7 corvettes
Eastern Vladivostock - the Pacific Fleet
1 cruiser 5 destroyers but one in refit since 2005
24 corvettes, 21 submarines
lorra lorra submarines
corvette are small warships used for coastal patrols
and fast attack purposes
essentally, in sum, The Russian Navy
without aircraft carriers
is restricted to
patrolling caost near to places where it has
secure naval bases
we can't be bothered to find out how many of those
submarines actually exist
and how many are diesel powered
most we suspect
in essence
Russia does not have a navy
and without any aircraft carriers
it can't project air power from
anywhere other than
land based fixed air strips that are
dead in the water if bombed

now, we a have referred to our Ricker's study buddy as
Tanya Nelson nee Robertson
hich is supposed to mean
Tanya now Nelson, born Robertson
and usually that would mean
Miss Robertson, Mrs Nelson
but not in this case
we skip forward to 2000 or 2001
and this will be tedious
because we will have to go even further back
when our Ricker was teahing at Teesside Polytechnic
he was teaching the computing module on the
HNC chemistry course
and HNC meant day release
HND chemistry students were full time
and there was a student newspaper...
and one day there was a front page
HMIHE Her Majesty's Inspectorate for Higher Education
say
HNC chemistry course s boring
but the computer science module is good
that sounded the death knell of our Ricker's teachng career
the whole challenge of higher education is to
survive crap teaching
gonna tell you a story
more than half of the HNC students worked for now, how come people working for GSK were students at Teesside Poly?
you know it makes sense
Barnard Castle
4 days agi GSk which has a site on Harmire Road in Barnard Castle
signed a letter of intent to
fight
oh we don't know
something to do with vaccines
any road up the Ricker angle is
as you all now know...
Barnard Castle is
deep in the woolie back
The woolieback is actually stritly
the North Yorkshire moors
in contrast to
the scalieback - the fishing villages of North yorkshire
but Barny is the Durham County - north side of the River Tees
version of The Woolieback
a palace with utilities on totem poles
and/
and the computer module of the HND was taught during normal office hours
the computer module of the HNC was
the evening class
chemistry all day, break for tea, computing
and had to get back to the back of beyond
after class...
and regarding the HMIHE report
our Ricker had full attendance at all his classes
and the HND students deputed a handful of their number
to attend class and 'get the notes'
and that was the context of the invite to meet with the chaplain
to be told Tanya had died
NOW we spin on to 2001...
and our Ricker signs up for a part time masters in
multimedia skills
and there was a module in VRML
virtual reality modelling language
and the tutor didn't turn up the first week
and the second week she did turn up and she was
Tanya Nelson
and then
quite a bit of chaos
lines like
do you mind if I assess your work - from Tanya
and
the VRML module is no longer available in the masters scheme
it is a frst degree only - BSc - not MSc module
and then the explanation of the
Tanya Nelson nee Robertson title
Tanya had changed her name
by deed pole
to that of her birth father
after a reconcilliation
and just for completeness
Tanya's uncle was
Chief Constable Robertson
late of Cleveland Police but
sometime chief constable of
Scotland's Northen Constabulary, police based in Inverness
and the Mr Nelson was
Officer Nelson
and so we have a woman with connections to the police and
the Church of England
made to choose between
our Ricker and her real dad
not that she had had any other dad because
her mam had been a single mum
our Ricker never met Chief Robertson
but he did know and meet with his wife
so you can guess
mum's side of the family proud of Tanya and her association with
our Ricker
and dad's side
somewhat resentful and not wanting to
'loose her again' to some smart arse
you can surmise that
perhaps in time it appeared that
Tanya was makng more of herself than
officer Nelson's ligitimate kids
but we have no evidence for that



our Ricker has had an epiphony
he was at the work of preparing his garden for spring
so he was stuck in one palce
using his new secateurs to give himself
a blister
turning beech hedge twigs into,BR> nest material
well that's how it seemed to him
he baing supervised by
sparrows
his hedge is now half height and his front garden
8cm deep in 12 cm lengths of twig
3 inches 5 inches whatever
and his mind began to drift
why don't a man like me have kids to do this for me?
anyway
his thoughts for some inexplicable reason turned to
past relationships
and something about Tanya Nelson nee Robertson suddenly struck him
the best description of the actual relationship was that
on a course at uni they had been
study buddies
and our Ricker had expressed the dea that them living in different
halls of residence had impeded that function
in their first year,BR> she had lived in the other City uni hall of residence
and he had lived in Finsbury Hall
corner of Bastwick Street and Goswell Road
Islington
Finsbury hall was a dump
but the other hall was worse..
in Finsbury hall there was a communalTV
and most of the seating was such that
if you sat n it
your view was of a huge concrete column
not the TV
so you could go down and
listen to the TV
in their second year she had had a
home share with a couple on a narrow boat
so that would probably have been
Camden Lock
and he had lived in Wimbledon
and at different times at
SLOSH
and Wimbledon YMCA
SLOSH was South London Overseas Student Hostel
Arterbury Road
and Ricker thought no harm in he and tanya both doing their thrid years
living in
it wasn't a demand, just a suggestion
but
for whatever reson he was soon fter required to
and he thought no more about his study buddy
what to Ricker was really offensive was that
the suggestion was made that despite being required to
withdraw from the course
'people' were epecting him to
move to London
with no course or job offered
anyhow
some times later - years probably
One Saturday morning some bloke rant him - Ricker to say
Tanya has died
and the following Saturday he rany againt to say again
Tanya has died
and our Ricker tried to do his best
I'm sorry for your loss
but on the basis of the details given
a canoeing acident in France
the assumption was that the funeral had passed
so what more was there to do?
Ricker knew where she and her mam had lived when she was at school
but he had never tried to contact her beyond a few months
after last seeing her in person
and that had been years before
then he got a letter from her mum
but the first contact on the matter was
a note in his pigeon hole at
Teesside Polytechnic or uni - forget which
where he was teaching
asking for a meeting
from the chaplain of the uni
so she could tell him in person about
Tanya's death
the vicar was the wife of the vicar of
Marske-by-the Sea
so, sorry but I don't know why this is
MY ISSUE
she was an adventurous sort
and these things happen
this is the background to this epiphany
our Ricker had retired to Redcar
to internl exile
because
people obviously thought that they had a right to
make a student withdraw from a course beause
they fancied a laugh at his expense
in other words he had a home in Redcar and
with that level of disrespect in London
he assumed he would be
homeless
rough sleeping
within months
if he ventured back to London
and so to the epiphany
perhaps
perhaps ther had been some sort of faulty communication
between City of London uni and Teesside
and somehow the idea had got around that
our Ricker had retreated to Redcar to
avoid any responsibility for Tanya
and that if he believed she was dead
he would feel safe to return to London
in essence the problem from our Ricker's perspective was
that Dolland and Aitchison
did not pay
London Weighting
did not pay a wage that would secure a home in London
similar to the one he was always had
in Redcar
you want me in London - bloody pay
was his approach
as an interesting side issue
a chap called Keith Davey
whome he had shared time with at SLOSH
brought his sister
Jaqueline to meet our Ricker at his home in Redcar
she was the PA to the boss at that healthcare company
BUPA
but she took one look at our Ricker and it was a no
but then she had been driven through Redcar to get to
Ricker's house....
but it would never have worked
she grew up in
Personchester
Manchester as was
and so our Ricker works
pro bono publico
rather than for peanuts
the thing was
Dolland and Aithison
wouldn't let our Ricker work for them
once he started his course - like
weekends and vacations
and we had the area manager Mr Adamson saying that
so the uni and students thought our Ricker was 'sponsored'
by D and A
and Mr Adamson said no
and then his Dand A mentor Mrs Terela
said
you knew everything you need to know from me
how come the uni are saying you are failing?
what are you doing there?
but they were still wedded to the
sons and daughters of
practicing opticians
and D and A were buying up all the students' birthrights
and closing the daddies shops...
it was the law
only uni deprtments of optometry could
sponsor students to do
pre-registration training with shops and hospitals
so in theory
City could have saved our Ricker the third year
fees and accommodation but
the AOP association of optometric practitioners
took against that because
our Ricker had some letters published in
Optometry Today
and some of the readers were upset at the concept of
it all being science
and not 'magic'
they wanted the workings of lenses to be
mysteries known only onto God
or similar

we did note that the demolition of
the balst furnace offices
gave us a never befote seen view of
the blast furnace stoves
the stoves are just a tiny bit like
turbos on a car engine
Redcar and most other iron smelting blast furnaces is
was?
a hot blast furnace
it took hot gases from the faurance and the associated coake ovens
and used them to heat the air
through just being hot and through burning
gases such as carbon monoxide
to heat the air that would be blasted into the bottom
of the furnace to
around 1,000 degrees C
and so like the BOS plant that is was autogenous
the blast furnace is was semi autogenous
that is the heat is recirculated to save fuel
and all the carbon input is used - at best
for the chemistry of transferrng oxygen from
iron oxide to elemental carbon
we wait to see whether the Redcar stoves will be demolished
or found another use???
hence the deep yellow - pale orange mega pipe from
South bank coke ovens, along the rail line to
Redcar blast


it's funny how moving around a bit you find
things are not as you thought, elesewhere
in his work as a sort of
forensic book keeper
our Ricker would suggest to the book keeper
well just use the Snowpake
get anything from blank looks to derision
apparently the Uk was split between teretories for two brands of
paper correcting fluid
darn sarth they used
Tip-Ex
any road
when our Rcker was a lad his mam and him used to
at Easter
do a sort of
tie-dye thing with
boiled eggs and onion skins
one day in the year was
Pace Egg Day
or
Pasche
there's a whole thing here about Easter
Jesus as crucified is sometimes described as
The Paschal Lamb
it refers back to
Abraham and Isaac
Abraham was willing to make his son Isaac
a human sacrifice to God
bt at the climactic moment a lamb appeared
and was substituted
and
Jesus was a substitute for
All Mankind
so there was an item of BBC Breakfast about
Ukrainians in exile
decorating real eggs for Easter
and of course chocolate eggs are a very recent trdition
and the phrase for
takng the traditional and beleving it is
new and trendy
is
teahing your granny to suck eggs
because
if you wanted to KEEP the Easter egg
you didn't boil it in onion skin water
to dye it
you blew out the contents of raw egg
and painted on its empty but whole shell
and as a high craft
you use wax at protect the egg in places from the dye
to make intricate patterns and designs
or

you have to have a lot of sympathy with people who
regard
this
as destruction of Redcar industry
arranged
not by
The Russian or German governments
but by the British Government
simply to
curry favour with
the people and govenment of
the breakaway province of
Wales
it is not surprising that some in England see
Wales as the
British equivalent of Taiwan
we have to hope that eventually
something genuinely positive
something more
real world than
Carbon Capture and Storage
replaces
the Workshop of the World
and...
paraxylene?
they used it to make
PET
polyethylene terephthalate
(C10H8O4)n
in textiles it is called
polyester
invented by DuPont
in the 1940s
well sort of
actually patented by
Calico Printers' Association
bought and developed by DuPont
Dixon and Whitfied - the guys
worked at Calico in the UK
the xylene is made into terephthalic acid
a crystaline solid
and that is compounded with
ethylene glycol - also used as antifreeze in engines
and in printing inks including
the ink in ball point pens
and we are saying?
carbon is a vtal part of
our own structure and the structure of
many useful things
and in the context of such abundance of
renewable energy
carbon should be reserved for use in
the process chemical industry and
NOT BURNED
Wlton had
a polyethylene plant - closed by BP in 2001
a polypropylene plant closed by Basell in 2009
in 1993 Enron built a gas powered power station
dismantled in 2014-15
in 2009 SABIC built the world's largest
low density polyethylene plant on Wilton
to use ethylene from
the olefin 6 cracker
Biffa curently recycle 30 per cent of
UK plastic milk bottles - as from 2011
on Wilton
Wilton International is a place for
First Industrial Scale Application of New technologies
Redcar s a place for first industrial scale application
of new technologies
because of the
nature of the vailable workforce
but thee processes do pas to other locations work the wrinkles out
and that can
in clumsy PR and media hands
look like Redcar becoming
Post Industrial
it is not
it is just one of the biggest
lab sites in the world
the Uk is the place in the world where you will find
the basic innovation
example
soft contact lens material
developed in Ware in Hertfordshire by first person in the world to wear
soft contact lenses
Martin Hodgson
yeah baby, Seth Hodgson the Coatham History Head's son
who got a pass degree in chemistry from the
the fifth columnists at
Bristol University
the effort put is by UK Universities to
destroy British industry
beggers belief
no doubt our Ricker
who's sister is married to
Martin Hodgson
will remember what Martin was working on at the time
but he thinks it was
membrane material for
kidney dialysis machines
but he does have his name on
he does not own - he has his name on
the patent for
Elastoplast Airstrip
a guy in the lab not working on that at the time but
with the biggest prescription on staff
but
particularly at that time
people around the world would feel
US good - Uk bad
so Smith and Nephew
sold soft contact lens technology to
Bauch and Lomb in the USA
because they had a better chance of
achieving customer - patient - acceptance

sinter plant Easter 2022





Blast Furnace offices








Warrenby Works Pill Box gun emplacement


Warrenby Works slag heap

tar tanks


it may be a little unwise to publish
the mutter from the gutter
or the press releases of
Private Pike and his
Teesworks Circus
so we will have a go at a bit of reality
most people think of
The Black Lubianka
on Trunk Road
as the steel works offices
at present
Thompsons of Prudhoe
are demolishing the
Blast Furnace Offices
a company called
Erith Group
are just finshing the demolition of
the Wilton paraxylene plant
and they have moved onto the
Redcar Coke Oven site
in essence
there have been nine demolition contracts let
for Redcar Iron and Steel Works
Brown & Mason
KDC Contractors
Keltbray
Erith Group
Thompsons of Prudhoe
Buckingham Group Contracting
Coleman
DSM Demolition
MGLDemolition
what has happened at the coke works is
the sheds have been taken off the
actual equipment
leaving pipes and tanks exposed
so three essential categories of demolition
Thompsons and DSM knocking down
brick, block and concrete
other firms removing steelwork
Erith tackling the hazardous remains
at present they are running steam through some of the
coke works plant
to warm it up so that the
bunker oil and such melt
and can be pumped out
over time
individual demolition companies will
start and complete their contracts
jobs will be created and lost at those times
one contractor pulling out
does not mean that the work has been completed
typical Get Wet
tail wagging the dog
a handful of contract workers
are the focus of all attention
and prospects for the entire community are
dismissed
this is not a job for cowboys the like of
Able UK
previously we said that
he sinter plant had been
separated from its chimney
now there are three separate elements
chimney
filter block
main plant
the filter box is standing alone and will
probably be removed in the way the
power station bunker went...

we've been considering the latest utterances by a
superannuated - due for retirement - middle ranking
police officer
on
male violence on females
t appears that in the minds of this sort of individual
it is not possible for a man to
OFFER sex to a woman
it can only ever be that he
DEMND sex of a woman
and the queston that evokes is
where does lesbian sex fit into this
when a female - female couple
have sex
at least one woman must have wanted it



at first blush
the UK Labour Party
election strategy
entire strategy
looks like a game of
musical chairs
but we've given this a bit more thought
The Labour
are turning the government of the UK into
a GAME of Simon Sez
a game where
The Chanceelor souldn't be thinking
how can I keep the economy afloat
BUT
if I walk through this door
NOW rather than in ten minutes time
will I get a
career ending parking ticket
we do wonder about the stats
has no Prime Minister and no Prime Minister's partner
or child, or parent or sibling
ever got a a parking ticket
whilst they were in office?
Simon Sez because
you do something you're OK
so long as your PA says
NIX
while you're doing it


this Ukraine debacle has a very interesting basis
what we see is
Russian armed forces going into Ukraine rather as
The National Guard
might be sent into
Chicago
they are attcking the civilian population
civilian infrastructure and property
and ignoring the Ukrainian military
they are acting as though they are
as President Putin insists
in Ukraine to liberte the country from
some sort of insurection
they seem to regard the local military in any country as
the ligitimate authority
an assumption that anybody in the military
would be loyal to
the biggest organisation available
and so
despite the Ukrainian military not
painting a Z on their gear
they are ignoring it
considering that to fire on it would represent
friendly fire
in other words they are committing war crimes
and avoiding
breaches of military etiquete
wheras
the Ukrainian military are kind of torn
between
failing to have stopped the invaders at the border
but seeking to defeat them once established
except that
the two armies were at war for 7 years??
what seems to have happened is that
the Ukrainian and Russian armies have contnued their
established hostilities
and quite separately
Russian military have invaded from the north
thinking they were on a sort of
parallel universe style
UN peacekeeping force style
exercise elsewhere in Ukraine
in other words
Russia is saying
yes we are at war with Ukrine
we have been for the past 7 years
but that war is in support of sepratists in Dombas
but entirely separately
we are also engaged in a
special military operation to achieve
regime change in western ukraine
in order to cut off support for the people
trying to gain independence for
the South East of Ukraine
Nazi parallel
bombing Kiv like Nazi bombing of London
in the Blitz
to force the Uk to keep out of the
Nazi-Russian war
to force Kiv to keep out of the
separatist uprising in Dombas
Ukraine gave up Crimea to secure peace
it will give up Dombas to secure peace
but this has turned out to be
once bitten, twice shy
and gve them an inch and
they'll take a mile
but the underlying miscalcualton was to assume that
a democratic government
is
a weak government
when in fact it is a
puppet adminsitration
the one that was pre-democratic
is the weak government
in essence...
in 2013 there was a
revolution in Ukraine
when the President refused to sign
a political association and free trade agreement
with
The European Union
the parliament had approved the EU link
but the president signed up to
The Eurasian Economic Union
overall
despite the disbandment of
The Soviet Union
it wasn't until 8 to 10 yers ago that
Ukraine made serious efforts to establsh
genuine independence
so it is not surprising that
Russia expected
massive support for it's invasion
support that was not available
8 to 10 years of
feedom and democracy in Ukraine
appears to have had a
dramatic effect on the popultion
in particular the young
it is interesting that
totalitarian regimes
assume that young people are
easily swept up in
jingoistic fervour
but with
t'internet
this seems no longer to be the case
we assume that the Russian military are
not attacking the Ukrainian military
because they expect them to
switch sides
any day
and pictures of women and children
preparing Molatoff Cocktails
in the early days of the war
will have reinforced that expectation
it's us against the Ukrainian people
not
us against the Ukrainian military

sometimes we don't notice
the bleedin' obvious
we know that small hydrogen powered
passenger trains have been built
we know that hydrogen is being considered
a more viable option than batteries for
road running trucks, lorries
what we hadn't considered is the one
glaring disadvantage of
electric railway locomotives
almost all diesel locomatives are
diesel-electric
using a diesel engine to power an alternator
to provide electricity to power the
wheel-set motors
what we had not considered is that
apart from the slight
Darwin Award risk
of youths climbing on infrastructure
and getting electrocuted....
we have mentioned before the fact that
AC has fluctuating power
and DC has constant power
Alternting Current, Direct Current
and that the power band is smoothed by having
three windings on the motor that are
out of phase
covering for each other
broadly
London Underground trains run on
third rail DC power
because they run
stop-start frequent stop operations
diesel electric locomotives use
three phase electricity generated on board by
three pahase alternators
BUT
it is way beyond impracticable to have a
power pick up system that will pick up
three phases and an earth return
plastered over the outside of the
train body
and so
'intercity' electric trains
run on single phase
and whatever they do internally
AC to Dc conversion etc
the actual power picked up
will be 'lumpy'
and so
for safety reasons
and
for smoother power delivery
the best available option
for the future
is
multiphase - 3 phase
hydrogen-electric motive units
the old trolly buses had two poles
and two wires because
they rubber running tyres
could not provide an earth
so trams to trolley buses had to be
either DC or AC single phase
some railways were built with
two catenary wires for 2 phases
and one rail for the third phase
and the other for the earth
not ideal
the hydrogen molecule is
the smallest molecule that exists
giving hydrogen as a fule
the highest possible
energy density
but
it means some care is needed to
use suitable materials to
contain it
hence you can't neessarily
put hydrogen into a
duel fuel LNG converted vehicle
more care needed
if you burn hydrogen in air
or feed it with air in a
fuel cell
the whole thing gets hort enough to
oxidise the nitrogen in the air
and produce harmful nitrogenoxides
thus
feeding
hydrogen and oxygen
as opposed to
hydrogen and air
is preferable

the reason intercity trains are fed
high voltage A is
to reduced
resistance losses over
long lengths of cable between
supply points such as
electricity sub stations
electrial conduction involves
moving eletrons
AC moves then back and forth
like a piston going up and down in a cylinder
DC delivers electrons
like gas down a pipeline
and high voltage AC is
litterally
like greased lightning
cuts through the conductor
real quick and gets it done
rather than having to
shoulder other electrons and such aside
or like a waterfall as opposed to
a stream down a gentle slope
or...
DC rolls a ball
AC just keeps it bouncing



sometimes we listen to members of the
chattering classes
and we think we have detected a gap in their logic
in North East England
we no longer
mine coal
smelt steel
build ships
three things...
those things are done elsewhere now
unemployment in North east England is around 5 per cent
so?
we must be doing something else
putting that another way
we mined coal and smelted steel and built ships
WHEN THAT WAS
CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY
now that it's run of the mill
to the extent of being passe
we don't do it any more
we do the current generation of cutting edge stuff
not
nothing
we have a nuclear power station in Hartlepool
that has been there so long
it's up for replacement
we build cars including electric ones - Nissan
we build electric railway trains - Hitachi
we don't build ships but we can dock the biggest ships in the world
the talk of
Rust Belt
is very wearysome
this is not Detroit


French is a language of idioms
for all the seond homes that BBC hacks have in France
quinzaine
15
quinzaine de jour
FORTNIGHT
not 15 days
it comes from
a French fortnight being
15 days and 14 nights
if you get two weeks holiday
it starts an a SATURDAY evening
and ends on a Monday morning
'cos this was before
Le Weekend
replaced The Day of Rest - Sunday
and it's a vacation duration
not a measure of time
a proper quinzaine de jour
includes 3 Sundays
but French being a language of idioms
there is no other term for fortnight

while we're on
you may have heard the term
never in a month of Sundays
and you amy think that is 4 or 5 Sundays
but it's 28 to 31 Sundays
when a man proposed to marry somebody's daughter
a farmer's daughter
he was proposing to take a member of the father's
workforce from him
so you can marry so long as you work on my farm
a month of Sundays
you work for me for a month
but spread over your Sunday's off
at your own farm



there are things we learn and then
sort of unlearn
things about Santa and the Tooth Fairy and such
and if we grow up in the UK
we learn that
tere are only two towns or cities in the UK
the one we live in
and London
so we do wonder what you may make of the question
what do Paris and Odessa
have in common?
the answer is catacombs
the answer is that they were both built by
turning the local geology
inside out
the stone building material from which
Paris was built was mined from underneth Paris
and so it is with
Kiv and Odessa
there are around 2,500 km of tunnels under Odessa
AND
at one time
Ukraine was the assumed future
front line between
Germany and Russia
and so
a lot of the quarried out spaces under Ukraine
have been converted into
air raid shelters
some nuclear bamb proof
Ukraine is not Syria
millions of little rabbits
popping down into a veritable warren of caves....
there are caves in Ukraine from which
gypsum
has been removed
The Odessa Catacombs
are labyrinth-like network of tunnels located under the
city of Odessa
the rock that has been taken is called
coquina
and that is apparently a form of limestone
Odessa 1,500 miles of tunnels
given that Ukraine has been
at war with Russia since 2014
preparations that involved these tunnels
have probably been made
Marioplo, by the way is Not on
The Black Sea
it is on a much smaller sea to the north east
but linked
The Sea of Azov
Straight of Kerch
the sea is shallow and has
oil and gas reserves
so Ukraine will want to keep or recover it
the water in the sea of Zaov may be somewhat
brackish - low salt content
because fresh water comes down the river
and sea water has to enter via the narrow straight
all in all
Ukraine is not in the postion of having to
ration spaces in bomb shelters
there is room for many many people
which probably explains why the
vast majority of people leaving the country
under Russian bombardment
are toddlers and their mums
reports now tell us that Russia has removed
numbers of howitzers
from mothballs
for use in Dombas
if you take a modern day
Abrams tank
there are 'gills' half way along the barrel
and essentially
the barrel has to be hinged away from the turret
after each firing because
the gasses produced to propel the round, shell
are highly toxic and must not be vented into
living spaces
when loading the next shell
over time a howitzer crew will fall ill
from the toxic fumes

another little note for the
UK Taliban
we said that if the murder of the schoolteacher
turned out to be
an honour killing we wouldn't hear much about it
turned out it wasn't an honour killing
but we didn't hear much about it
in the sense that it was reported but not
made into yet another
object lesson over femele behaviour
the message is
when a perp smashes the glass of
a display case in a jewellers
their intention is to steal
when another smashes the window of
a charity shop
they are not after second hand clothes
still less
when they trash a bus shelter
do they expect their action to
cause their bus to turn up
men have sex with women
men are violent towards women
sometimes the two are linked
sometimes they are not
get out in that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans
well roll my breakfast for I'm a hungry man
classic
male female tension song
Shake Rattle and Roll
it's about a man being frustrated about his view that
'his woman' is not holding up her end of their bargain
not that she is not consenting to sex
but that she is not feeding him
Bill Haley and His Comets
wearing those dresses your hair done up so nice
you look so warm but your heart is cold as ice
well you never do nothin' to save your doggone soul
the more I work the faster my money goes
when a man attacks an ex
the extent to which
law enforcement has
gutted his finances in order to
shovel money at his ex
is a much more direct provocation to violence than
whether he can get his end away
with this particular female
he has made an investment in this relationship
and the court says
he must write it off because
the Gold Digger
has moved on
essentially
n the eyes of the law
women are not people
there used to be a power tool commercial
about a bloke with a lot of power tools lending
some to a neighbour
and he says
I'll brng them back
point s to the CCTV and says
yes you will
there is no
lending to a woman
in law
hand it over and it's hers

we love these little bits of
Local Authority bickering
you pays £8 million for a cinema and some
councillor - wanting their name in the minutes
sez
is that parapet aroud the walkway
high enough?
the one around the new
Regent cinema is 110 cm high
42 inches
the authorities say
spot on
but the council put up barriers
and a bloke turned up Monday morning with
a nanny great compressor
to blast holes in the top to fit a
guarad rail
rang the office
and naffed off
leaving the fencing in place
it's a bit like
pissing on the carpets in your new car
there always ahs to be something the
archictects and engineers got wrong

sometimes people will say
my Christian Faith is
all important to me
and then start quoting
The Old Testament
The New Testament
is Jesus' repost to
The Old Testament
in the Old Testament
The Lord Thy God is a jealous God
Exodus 20:5
in the time when our Ricker was living in a
City University student hall of residence in London
and feeling increasingly betrayed by
his employer Dolland and Aitchison
and the university itself
took a series of evenings in his room to
read The New Testament
as one would read a novel, a book of fiction
it gives a different perspective from
each day reading the
verse of the day
overall, what is there can be divided into two categories
Acts 0f Jesus and of his close entourage
and
Parabels
stories Jesus told to illustrate his message
and so to an Act
Exoscism of the Gerasene demoniac
The Miracle of the Gaderene Swine
so a demonic bloke
let's call him
President Putin
is brought before Jesus and
jesus ask's his demon
who are you?
I am Legion
and Jesus drives Legion out of
the President into a herd of pigs - swine
and they dash over a cliff to their deaths in the sea
from another angle
there is this crowd of Jews at a railway station
and one of them says
if you get into those cattle trucks
they will take you to gas chambers
and the people deliberate
and some say
but those SS guards are
sooo handsome
and they vote to board the train
in a sense we are trying to drive at the
limitations of democracy
in a democratic society
populists can gain and hold power
because they
simplify
and point a finger of blame at
outside influences
some people say
youth is wasted on the young
is democracy wasted on the masses?
when supervising little children
it falls to the children to be ale to know
when 'don't do that' is an expression that
to do that would be a nuisance or messy
and when doing that could lead to
serious injury or death
how much responsibility lies with the
adult in the room
or the middle class professional on the sink estate
for not being able to get
core messages across?



anybody who was a child in the UK or USA
in the 1940s will have been growing up in a time when
space flight was fantasy
writen bout but not witnessed
and so - apart from cars and aeroplanes
science and engineering was all about
inventing
weapons
and we see a tiny reflection of that now in talk of
hypersonic missiles
so people presently in their 70s do tend to regard any
technological change as a disguised weapon
it's the default assumption
and their is a TV series called
World War Weird about this our Ricker has never been up close and personal with
a wind turbine
he has been qute close to the one at Kirkleatham
but not in touching distance
he has certainly never
heard
anythig from the 27 turbines in Caotham bay
whilst walking on the beach
aside from the
wind turbines kill birds
the idea is that they are noisy
here's the
Old Chestnut
people say
I bet that's noisy
so you stand them next to it and they say
is it on?
and you say, yes
and their face saving response is
Oh well then, it must be emitting
infrasound
sounf that can rub your organs against each other
but is too low a frequency for
the human er to detect
cos it's new so it must be a weapon
sometimes you just shrug
there's nothing else for it

it may still be true today but
back in the day
when our Ricker had moments to fill
waiting for a train on the downline platform of
Middlesbrough Railway Station
he would notice a small notice on the wall
above a vertical slit in the wall
the notice said
AMBULANCE
and in the slit or slot was - presumably
a stretcher
stretchers have got a whole lot bigger
and motorised over the years
in the First World War
The Field Ambulance
was not a vehicle
we understand HM Queen Elisabeth had a motorised one
to drive in the Second World War
a Field Ambulance WW! style was
a front line medical unit
within the
like a US Army M*A*S*H
the corps - RAMC
Rob All My Comrades
Royal Army Medical Corps
were responsible for establishing and operating
a number of points along the casualty evacuation chain
from the Bearer Relay posts which were up to 600 yards behind the
Regimental Aid Posts
in the Front Line
the casualty would go to the
Advanced Dressing Station
to the main Dressing Station
so casualties would be carried on a stretcher
in relays of up to 600 yards
getting - if still alive - better care at each stage
and now we will fictionalise the life of
George Robert Frank
we don't know when he was born
but by the outbreak of World War 1
he was married and living on South Tyneside
from his surname we assume he was 'from'
North of East Yorkshire
and he had sold haberdashery - lace, thread, pins, needles
door to door in Leeds
and we know that he had an
inguinal hernia
guts poking out of his groin
that meant that he was
not fit for front line service
so we suppose he may have been in the
RAMC
and we suppose that this may have been
before or after the introduction of
conscription
so we are thinking
after 1916 when so many voluteers were already dead
filly fit conscripts were put in the front line
and unfit men were put into somewhat behind the lines
locations such as RAMC
we think it then had a name more like
support corps
but the support cops may have been more concerned with
burying the dead
so, honestly we don't know which George Robert Frank was in
we track back litle way to
1914
George's wife Eva falls pregnant
and she gives birth to a boy in 1915
but her son is born dead
and she is told she must get pregnant again as soon as posible
t help her over the grief
and this time she has a daughter and calls her
Eva May - born 6th April 1916
and so
we assume she is left with this substitute child
and a husband away in France
but we are thinking about George
and they a some sort of
Methodist by religion
and he has lost his son
and his wife is probably thinking I've had enough with
pregnancy
and so e will not be having another son
and so through his church he devotes himself to
other people's sons
by becoming some sort of leader/adult supervisor
in The Boys Brigade
we is urban and working class - well sorta
not really working class but living and working in a
working class area - Tyne Dock
so not the Boy Scouts The Sea Scouts
Boys Brigade it is then
and all is well
entirely well because at this time
The Taliban have not yet decreed that
men should not have access to children
and the Boys Brigade
are the very opposite of
Children should be seen and Not Heard
when he went...
George left behind some sort of
piccalo - small pipe style instrument
so he may have played or taught that
in the Boys Brigade
although he didn't die when his wife died
he moved away and was not in good contact with his daughter
and her son - our Ricker - from around the time of
Eva senior's death
he went abroad
a land far far away called
Somerset
a town called Taunton
because he re-married somebody who had
worked for
Cardiff City Council???
no accounting for taste
well actually we don't know
we guess there was a county council
with offices in Cardiff
'spect they met at some sort of
Methodist Holiday Home
until she retired and
married for the first time she had been
Dorothy Morse
and she was related in some way
auntie perhaps
to a BBC rostrun cameraman called
Ken Morse
he was born 1944 an may stil be live
he got a BAFTA
Lifetime Achievement
there was a time when
Rostrum Camera Ken Morse appeared in loads of shows he had
nothing to do with
a sort of running gag
so whether he had anything to do with Dorothy
we don't know
a rostrum camera is used to run the same length
of film through the camera
several times to 'animate a still photograph'
and we had thought
BBC Bristol David Attenborough but
tinternet sez
Shephard's Bush
so who knows

we suppose that the
Deep Water Horizon rig
could be said to have been located in
The Gulf of Mexico
and we have come across a couple of related things
we did not expect
it sounds rather complicated but at one stange in
the 1930s
an American had a business selling
Mexican oil to Nazi Germany
and he was against
War with Germany
because it seems - rather strangely?
that German efforts to block trade in the supply of
goods to the UK
harmed, damaged, suppressed
the supply of Mexican oil to Germany
the conclusion of that is?
Germany U boats and all
was pretty indiscriminate is sinking
merchant shipping in the Atlantic
that's strange, requires consideration
the other point here is
in the 1930s, apparently, Mexico had so much oil
to provided around a third of the oil Germany imported
and now, we hear, proven reserves of
Mexican oil amount to
13 years supply for Mexico's internal
non-export
usage
this speaks again tothe thought
we don't need to fret so much about
persuading people to stop using fossil fuels
ten to 20 years from now
most places won't have any anyway
this leaves us with this really strange bit of 'logic'
regarding the Second World War
at the time
Britain and Germany both had coal
and neither had oil or gas
unless they made it from coal
and we are told there were shortages in the UK
because of a German blockade of
Trans-Atlantic trade
why weren't the Germans
letting their own supplies through?
one assumes that
british supplies couldn't get across the
Atlantic
and German supplies couldn't get
shall we say - Cornwall
to occupied Europe
and that may explain why
the Germans took the
Channel Islands
not as a launch pad into England
but to protect German shipping in the
English Channel
it sort of comes down to
it's easier to attack your enemies
than to
protect your friends
but the whole concept of
busness in the USA wanting to keep America
out of the war
because America would have
less trading opportunities
if it was at war with Germany
has current resonances
all these people in positions of power
are so vulnerable to
hucksters
because of their own
imposter syndrome
a huckster is
a market trader, a fly-boy
a Dell Boy
Lord Alan Sugar
a person for whom
profit trumps facts and logic
so we begin to think
what was President Putin's gameplan?
dd he think that if he emptied Ukraine of people
he could deport all the Russian Jews to Ukraine?
we do detect a feeling that people in the Uk are thinking happens in London
therefore everything positive and profitable in the
Former soviet Union
must have been happening in Moscow
and so the break-up of the Soviet Union represented
Moscow getting rid of a chunk of
provincial dead wood
and now...
the stats devloping as they have
a sense that Russia has
thrown the baby out with the bathwater
that Ukraine was more valuable to Russia than
the chattering classes of Moscow
had realised
but this assumption that the Ukrainian people
would welcome a return to
Mother Russia
is a bit more difficult to understand
the concept of the
Command Economy
the idea that the workers are
rudderless wthout
strong central command and control
the sort of idea that we see in French President Macron
the concept used to be expressed as
it's not hat you know
it's who you know
more recently
networking
we saw this problem with the UK's Downing Street
just getting on with the job
on the computer
was not seen as work
real work was done by
networking at parties
a person known by a face and a dress sense
rather than by an email address
a sense that it is a total violation of
personal space
to get an email from somebody
you haven't previously
met at a party
we can go back to the origins of genetics
Gregor Mendal
there was a time when all intellectuals were
expected to be priests
and universties were referred to as
Ivory Towers
the revolutionary thing about
Gregor Mendal was that despite being a priest
he didn't sit in a cell that imagine
he went out into the monestary garden and
dd experiments with garden peas
the power of the church
had always been deployed to
force the people to rote learn
random imaginative concepts about
Life The Universe, and Everything
like the Flat Earth
and the sun revolving round the Earth
but
BUT
when experiments and not incantations
improved the yield of crops
the concept of
if we say it lound enough and often enough
and with a catchy - earwork - tune
it will become true
kinda took a battering

guerilla
we stand perplexed over the way
The Western World
has set out to equip the
Ukrainian armed forces for
special ops
guerilla warfare
an insurgency
and not equiped their
regular army
t seems there is deep seated
group think
that
the democratically elected independent government of
Ukraine
is some sort of
uprising
how many other countries do the
Great Powers
have chalked off as
Russian posessions?
the story seems to be
bung 'em a few bazookas
so they can go out in a blaze of glory
if we characterise the countries of
Eastern Europe as
American city states
there are three cities in Russia
Moscow 12.5 million people
Saint Petersberg 5.4 million
Novosibirsk 1.6 million Siberia
Yekaterinburg 1.5 million Urals
Kazan 1.2 million Volga
another ten towns with around one million inhabitants
316 settlements with more than 50,000 inhabitants
big country - moderate population, well spread out
around two thirds of these places have seen
population growth over the past decade
BUT
the overall population has declined - a little
people in Russia are moving to
towns and cities
but that is a slow process
we want to concentrate on the
break up of the Soviet Union
you may want to see
Russia as England
Ukraine as Scotland
Belarus as Wales
but it would be better to see
Moscow as New Orleans
Saint Peter's burg as Washington DC
and Ukraine as California
something like that
we mentioned the Antonov earlier in the war
the Russians made a special effort to destroy it
the Ukrainians have enough spares to build a new one
like assemble a new one
Ukraine was the
Silicon Valley of the Soviet Union
and the whole thing of
where are Russia's high tec weapons
why not cyber attacks from Russia?
because they always were
in Ukraine
Ukraine is like Wshington State, Oregon, California
and they have
declared independence from
the USA

we've metioned this guy before
Mike Jackson
Hull University graduate
housemate of
Roy Hattersley MP
when a Hull student
married to a woman from the Channel Islands
so quite French and very Roman Catholic
and so we are talking married in the 1950s?
could still be alive?
two things
Roman Catholic wife so
after producing
four daughters
he, not being RC, had a vasectomy
a fact he was keen to broadcast
especially to new single work colleagues
but
the seond point...
in discussions along the same lines
we would say at a time when his daughters were still
at home ad all in 11 to 18 education
these people are engaged in
11 - 16 education
and the suggestion that
when a number of females of child bearing age
live together
they synchronise their monthly cycles
so you get all the staff in one beauty salon
giving birth within a week of each other
so Mike is a biology graduate Hull university
and head of Science at Gillbrook School
in Eston
so
do your daughters synchronise their periods?
how on earth would I know about something like that?
now you could say
I wnt the world to know I've had the snip
but I don't want people to know about the
private lives of my daughters
or
genuinely
young females under effective pressure to
keep things like that
hidden
these things have a habit of coming out in
unexpected ways
our Ricker's next door neighbours' sewer
joins his
and for a while he was forever clearing blockages
turns out the teenager next door
was not only putting pant liners down the toilet
pant liners stick to panties
and so you have to tear off a plastic sheet to expose the glue
turns out she was not only putting the used pant liners
down the toilet
she was putting the tear off plastic
adhesive protecting plastic sheet down the loo too
and it was the plastic tear offs that were blocking the drains


people in any given genertion often have no idea about
the living conditions that still living relatives
were born into
sometimes people with an important message from the past
get sidelined because they transgress in comments on
an issue on which they are not expert
we think Germaine Greer has been sidelined over
trans comments
but we will set that somewhat aside
from an objective - scientific, medical - opintof view
one issue regarding Germaine Greer's motivation stands out
there is a whole genre of jokes about
how stingy, mean tight, careful with money
Scotsmen are
and over the passage of time one particular line
got significabtly more absurd in the
mind of the audience
it's not quite a one liner, it needs a little setting up but
the punch line is
the regiment has decided to go for the repair
the set up is
a scottish soldier goes into a pharmacy and
shows the assistant a rather battered looking condom
and ask how much?
well it'll be a fiver for a new one and
two quid to have this one repaired
that sounds absolutely absurd in the context of modern
disposable condoms
but the joke originated in the days when condoms
were re-usable
so i the original usage the joke was that
the entire regiment had only the one condom
for communal use
today it is absurd to suggest that condoms could be
reusable
there is a side plot about a woman desperate to get pregnant
fishing a used condom out of a bin and
putting the contens into a turkey baster...
we don't have full details but we understand that
Durex
were planning to phase out disposable condoms from
the end of 2019
on environmental grounds
CoViD may have put bit of a crimp in that
less controvercially
a lot of people will have heard of
terry nappies
you can
if you have a strong stomach and a strong washing machine
use re-usable nappies on your baby
and we are getting around the the GG point
the issue that set Geraine Greer on the path to her campaigning
the essence of which you may not realise
was the fact that out in Australia back in the immediate post war period
every month she was shut in the garage
away from any chance that her brother might see
what she was doing
to?
wash her jam rags
re-usable sanitary pads
and so
the whole drive of the GG quest has been to
get everybody men, women, boys, girls to be
fully aware of what the female condition is
and since this is the core of her being
she is essentially focused on
menstruating women
not post menopausal women
not trans women
because these
hormonal cycle issues
don't affect them
now that she is post menopausal herself
she has a new problem with
post menopausal vaginal atrophy
but that's a very different problem


this is very difficult
it's an attempt to enter the world of
1950s England
the world of the NSPCC
people who were that then new invention
teenagers
then
would now be in their 80s
so there will be quite a lot around
but this story is about a woman who was
in her mis thirties in the 1950s
pwoplw of her generation were in the 1950s
trying to reset their lives and
start afresh cutting the decade of the Second World War
out of their time-lines
so we have a thirty something
35 going on 15
and along the way she had known some blokes
some had liked her more than she liked them
she had liked some more than they liked her
nothing 'steady'
and so the war is over and she has moved from her
war work
to more traditional female roles
we will add that she had been splitting her time in those
lost years
between her service and her home town - South Shields
and when she was no longer 'working away'
she no longer had any roots on Tyneside
and so she reluctabtly followed her parents to
Redcar where her father had found work at the steel works
not steelworkery sort of manual labour
but
as a tally man on the weighbridge
not far from her parents' house there were - still are
even grander houses
houses that had a bell push at the side of the chimney breast
that rang a bell in the kitchen
master and lady of the house had to rise to get to the
doorbell button style thing
but like not their place to go into the next room - the kitchen
unbelievable - just the one brick wall between
the dining room and the kitchen
but communication modelled on etiquet based on
the servants' hall being miles away
and above the kitchen
the maid's bedroom
so imagine
a two bedroom semi with a two story side extension
kitchen garage and upstrairs the maid's room
and the one bathroom and toilet - separate rooms but
daringly
both indoors and upstairs
separating the maid's room from the children's bedroom
and this maid we are talking about was
the first maid they had had who
didn't live in
such a panic getting out of bed at her parents'
getting to work
making breakfast
before the man of the house
had to go to work
and so
the lady of the house dies
throat cancer undiagnosed because it was
dismissed as a goiter
this is all scene setting for the main action
so
her dad wouldn't let her live with the widower
unless he married her
and so we get to the
Taliban-NSPCC bit
the master invites her away
for a romantic weekend
him not wanting to attempt sex in the bed his wife had
died in
and she agrees
and they get somewhere swanky
and
it's a bit lke the wedding nght of one of those
Romantic Poets
they get their kit off and
to is revealed
like a strip search
that this is the day for her to be
'on'
she is so utterly utterly ignorant of the
basics of intemacy
that she does not hve the slightest clue that
sex involves that bit where she bleeds
once a month

I counted them out and I COUNTED THEM BACK WAS
Brian Hanrahan, not Max Hastings
sorry
but we forget the
Soviet Style fashion in which
the BBC News was taken over by
the UK Ministry of Defense
we hear about the Russian people not having
anything but state media to colour their view of
Ukraine
but 40 years ago
UK citizens were even more in the dark about the progress of
The Falklands War
Hanrahan was referring to the fact that he had no
official briefing about the progress of the war
and all that he knew from his
'Press Box'
was that Royal Air Force jets had set out on sortie
and all had returned

there is this story that the Nazis used
tourist guides to Britain
to plan attacks on the country and a possible invasion
it seems increasingly clear that
the current UK government uses as guide to
Premier League football stadia
to plan government spending
20 Premier League clubs
60 million citizens sooo
there must be
3 million people living within walking distance of
every Premier League stadium
simples
6 million in Manchester
6 million in Liverpool
3 miilion will have to move out if Everton get religated
15 million in London
works fine
good enough for government work
but there must be quite a housing shortage in
Brentford and Norwich
and Burnley
Burnley has a Premier League football club
and a population of
less than 90,000
living spread across 42 square miles 110 sq Km
Brentford has a population of 16,000
and a Premier League football club
at no immediate risk of relegation
Liverpool has a population of 496,784
Redcar has a population of 136,718
and it has no professional football club
Middlesbrough has a population of 138,400
and it has a second tier - Championship - football club
sooo
Redcar does not exist
and Teesside another name for Middlesbrough
is a town the size of
well would you credit it
Stockton on Tees has a population of 197,348
but they don't figure on the
census by soccer stadum stats
either



there is a fundamental challenge in world politics now
we have a simple model
the concept of the
rogue state
it's becoming quite clear that
the populations of nations
cannot be held accountable for the actions of
their leaders
everybody is saying
the rules state
the United Nations
cannot act against individuals
it can help individuals
but it cannot discipline individuals
it's all or nothing
let them get on with it
or
nuke the bastards
all of them
their fault for not demanding
democratic accountability
if the UN is to be more than
UNICEF
dishing out charity to orphans
it needs a set of rules for
Heads of State
Presidents, Prime Mnisters
and a protocol for responding in a way that
deals with the leader or leadership
without devastating the land and people he or she is
ravaging


we probably should saywhat we are getting as a new
South Bank Warf
not a South Bank Dock
a wharf is one sided a dock is a complete enclosure
and so it is Redcar's relatively slight
tidal range
tht makes wharfage viable
the ship won't ride up and down with the tide as much as
at other British ports
we are looking at usual and not spring tides here
Tees Navigation
tidal range around 2,3 m to 2.9 metres
Liverpool Bay 10 metres - 33 feet
Portsmouth 2.2 to 2.3 but 4 tines a day
Plymouth 2.6
Bristol Channel 15 metres fifteen metres
spring tide ranges..
Sheerness 5.2 m Tlbury 5.9 London Bridge 6.6 metres
same as Redcar
so as with almost all 'Levelling Up'
think of a dumb place to put port?
West Coast of England
invest in a post-panamax port in
er where's ther a football team?
Liverpool
no football team - worth mentioning - in
the Bristol area
no port investment
and 'today' the Oxford and Cambridge (rowing0 boat race
will be on the Tideway on the Thames at Putney in London
the Thames Tideway is
the part of the river that is tidal but isn't the estuary
the Tees is the biggest UK port with non-Atlanic tides
sooo
boffin advice
west coast - tidal power stations
east coast - ports
but
football fan opinion
build everything in Liverpool
we have mixed up average and spring tidal ranges here but
2.5 on the East Coast
at least twice as much on the west coast
Liverpool and Bristol
nearer to America
but more directly influenced by the Atlantic Ocean

some sort of a quote...
in Marxian
we assume that means Marxist - devloving from the writings of
Karl Marx?
in Marxian Economics,
The Commanding Heights of The Economy
are certain strategically important sectors of
Private Indutry
Publc Utilities, Natural Resources,
Foreign and Domestic Trade
in recent times in the UK the introduction of
Sanctions against Russia
highlights the contrast and tension over the extent to which
these Commanding Heights
are genuinely, privately - non-governmentally owned
and the extent to which they operate
Under Licence
from the government
every indivdual railway line when first built
required it's own founding Act of Parliament
so
broadly
in the UK complaints about Plutocrats
despoiling the land and exploiting the people
are essentially quintesential leftist whinge
there are and have since
Magna Carta
been massive checks and balances
and at the extreme..
one day to put up a wind turbine
ten years to get permission
the Commanding Heights of the UK economy these days are
Education and Health Care
However,
in the addled minds of Old School Leftists
the Comanding Heights of the Economy are
Coal Mining, Ship Building, railways, that sort of thing
here s the issue for them
they 'know' how to - through Unionisation of labour
hold the economy and people of the nation
to ransome
BUT
so, case study, The Unions have The Railways
by the short and curlies
soooo
we build roads and trucks and employ lorry drivers
much harder to unionise
why so much fuss over steel works closures
ferry decommissioning
etc. etc.
no so much over bakeries and sweet factories?
because Trade Unions are not about
Workers' Rights
they are about giving Unioun Leaders
control of the Commanding Heights of the Economy
if you switch from coal to wind
Leftists have to persuade technicians to strike
and that's a bit like
The Social Workers are taking
Industrial Action
gone on strike
How can anybody tell?
working from home
no factory gate
at which to picket
as it is
Secondary Picketing
is now illegal
I'm not a worker in a Primary Industry
but I think they are getting a raw deal
so I'll picket their workplace
on their behalf...
illegal
just as
third parties
expressing a concern for the welfare of
somebody who's relationship you want to destroy should be illegal


when we were considering the
dead crabs on the beaches of North East England
somebody commented that there has been dredging in
The River Tees
we don't know any details about that
what we can say is that by some measures a vessel called
Pioneerng Spirit
has tried to dock in the Tees
on a handful of occasions
and has not been able to
this is disappointing
and perhaps that disappointment
is the reason for the dredging
There is a compny based in Switzerland called
All Seas
it owns - all comments are subject to change
a vessel called Pioneering Spirit that by some measures is
the largest ship in the world
it is 382 metres 1,253 feet long
124 metres 407 feet wide
and sits with between 10 and 27 metres
33 to 89 feet
of it's structure below the water line
on its visits to Tees Bay in the past
it has had to lie off Redcar at anchor
while it's cargo was trans-shipped
to a barge
for delivery to Hartlepool
on the one hand
it is good that the bay has the capacity to
be the anchorage for the biggest ship in the world
on the other hand
work has had to be done to
upgrade the dock
the new dock is on the riverside where
South Band Coke Works used to be
and so
'proper big ships' will soon be able to
dock in Redcar
rather than having to anchor in the bay

it's always a risk - especially in the UK
to publish something new on
April Fool's Day
nevertheless...



if you go into
St Cuthbert's Church Yard, Kirkleatham, Redcar
there is an old part 'behind' to the north of the church
beyond a stone wall and behind the village cottages
there is a new are
opened post Second World War
and right up against that wall there is a row of graves
a lot are unmarked
one of the unmarked graves is that of
this woman
she was Eva Frank nee Wright
and she was from
South Shields
and she was our Ricker's Gran
and she died on the Christmas Eve that he was
4 years old
and she was a Wright of the South Shields biscuit making company
but she had married somebody who
offered credit to the people of Tyne Dock
in the 1930s depression
and the biscuit factory makes quite a typical
boom and bust story
the economics of poverty and industry are not
text book stuff to our Ricker's family
but then they are all dead now anyway
'cept Ricker
it's hardly a pauper's grave but
if our Ricker had been granted a
proper career
he would have had head stones put up for his amm and his gran
but his dad's makes up for that...
it's quite interesting that estranged from South Shields
little baby Ricker never had any contact with his gran's family
even thought they were doing quite well post war


we have 'all' heard about
human organ transplantation
and most people have heard that because of a risk of
rejection
and most of those people will recognise that
transplant recipients are given drugs to
suppress their immune responses
what most people probably don't know is that
because these drugs have side effects
most patients have their
immunosupressive drug doses
cut back
after around 6 months
this is - in some ways
counter to the concept that
over time post vaccination
immunity will wane
but in another sense - not
present transplant tissue and the body
would be expected to respond to this
as to an infection
as to a vaccination
that is, to mount an immune response
just as - perhaps, for instance
over time antibody levels decline with
the passage of time after vaccination
the need for immunosuppression declines
over time after transplantation
in one sense
the cat that owns a home
will need help getting used to
a new kitten or a baby
they wiil need some protection from
the home owner's teretoriality
and this can occur with some dogs
but with dogs it is more likely
two relatively new introductions competing for
supermacy
and so...
we see the observation of
less antibody presence as
guard dog asleep at its post
rather than
calm and a new family hierarchy
being established

compensating women for having had sex
is like
compensating men for having watched football
sometimes government grinds slow
'most' alegations of rape result from an idea that
whatever is bothering you
you dial 999 0r 911 as appropriate
and then when asked
what service please?
you say police
putting that another way
when a woman needs
the morning after pill
she will often think
if I cry rape
the police will give it to me
rather than seeing this as a doctor of pharmacist issue
noe, finally, in the UK
self prescription for at home
post coital contraception
did you get that former Leader of The House
and current minister for BrExit exploitation
Rees-Mogg?
post coital contraception
only work in the first 4 days max
not an abortiveicant as Lord Snooty has suggested

perigo minas
we should react to some
funny if it weren't so serious footage of
people in Ukraine driving over land mines
set out in rows of a major road
set like that they are an obvious counter measure to
large fast moving vehicles
a bit like a miitary grade 'stinger'
we have referred to and gun emplacements - howizers
you can protect a permanent gun emplacement with
land mines
but then you have quite a problem
moving the emplacement and even supplying it
more importantly
cavalry units have since the very beginning
adapted thei vehicles with
front mounted flails
looking a bit like the cutter bar on a farmer's combine harvester
designed to cut a swathe through a mine field by
deliberately setting them off over an access strip
overall mines are a bloody nuisance and
not very effective

another vsit to the wonderful world of
our Ricker's analogy engine
imagine a world in which
all people transporting children on the roads
even in a private car
had to use a London Cab style vehicle
with the children n the back with the
dividing window blacked out
so that
children under 30 would not get any ideas about
how to drive
for fear they may steal a vehicle and crash it
and this is the world of
if the children don't know
what the gash is for
under 30s won't get pregnant
a little girl is fully clothed and standing up straight
little boy standing on a little girl's head
six year olds
boy says
I've got on top of you
now what do we do?
I don't know
but I've already got a headache


sometimes we fail by
neglecting to
state the bleedin' obvious
what we see but don't comment on is
the UK Taliban
call for
more rape convictions
not
less rape
there is a bit of newspeak where we say
innocent until proven guilty
but we also have the reverse
the dangerous dogs act
a dog of a specific breed
will kill your child
a dog of any other breed will not
and so
your daughter will be better off with
a soldier or a security guard or a cop
than with any other sort of man
because they have been
'vetted'
and yet
vetted men are responsible for the majority of
genuine, actual violence towards women
like the nutter released from the nut house
she's the sanest person in the village
because she's the only person in the village
with certificate that says she's
fit to be let loose


the UK Taliban demonstrate how a
totaltarian state operates
you take a stat
99 per cent of rate alegations have
no merit
so in
the world of
Newspeak
the language of
1984
you say
the justice system is failing
in order to get the convictions we want
we must dispense with the requirement for
evidence
we have Kafka - The Trial
and what we can say that
Eric Blair the author - intended
1984 and Animal Farm
as
cautionary tales
but the Tony Blair government
took it as an
instruction manual
Eric Blair wrote under the name
George Orwell
and he chose 1984 as the title because
he wrote the book in 1948
the word for
an acusation without evidence is
to denounce
and in Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, etc
people denounced neighbours they didn't like
and they disappeared

it appears that
The Redcar Regent Project
is complete





it is very strange that media
including the BBC
seem to have a record stuck
regarding Ukraine
the mantra directed towards Ukriane seems to be
wait 'til you father gets home
that somehow the world s expecting the
Russian miltary to some day soon
get home from vacation
and swing into action
very strange
any hoo
we want to remind readers of the term
panamax
and introduce the term
capesize
a capesize ship is a ship thatis
a ship that can dock in 121 ports in 31 countries
but can't fit through
The Suez Canal
Redcqr Bulk Terminal is one of those ports
it is the deepest port at 56 feet deep - 17 metres deep
in eastern England
it can dock, load and unload both
capesize and panamax ships
capesize - too big to fit through the Suez Canal
and big enough to sail around the cape - southern end
of South Africa
and fit through the Panama Canal
and so aside from reflecting our mantra
what Redcar does is BIG
we are pointing out that these days
if you are willing to trans-ship to rail or road
you can get to Europe from 'the world'
via Redcar
without recourse to
The Suez Canal
or China's Belt and Road
the rail crossing of Europe and Asia
so Europe...
don't need MIddle Eastern oil and gas
don't care what happens to the Suez canal, no more
NOT a cheerful prospect for
Arabs or Israelis

we woz watching a Blaze series about Skinwalker Ranch
in Utah
our opinion is that a natural parabolic mirror
in rock formations
is
focusing solar wind from sun spots
there will still be people living in Redcar
and around the world who
remember
Seth the Head of History at Coatham
Sir William Turner's School
Stanley Hodgson
and we can say one thing about him that is relevant here
before he came to Redcar to teach at Coatham
ot a lot of people know this...
after graduating from Leeds University
he took a job with
The British Council
teaching in
Egypt
when they were 'out there'
a son was born to his wife in 1935
and a daughter born later was born in the UK
so The British Council were
active in Egypt in the per-second world war era
and much earlier
Gertrude Bell commemorated by a Blue Plaque
on the wal of Red Barns in Kirkleatham Street
was active amongst the Arabs
along with
Lawrence of Arabia
and so
he British were on the ground in the region
and they disagreed with
the American project to establish
Israel
and hack up
Palestine
if The British had had tha power
they would have used a more subtle approach
to
satisfying the Mr Benett style
Zionists
sooo
speak softly and carry a big stick
perhaps not so good to confuse that with
three wise monkeys
way
speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil
you really need to keep eyes and ears open if you do decide to
carry a bg stick


any one of the groups that are involved in
social tensions has some scope to choose
integration or individualism
many young women these days have food related
specialisms
some girls can sing
some can dance
some have beautiful handwriting
some have charming dress sense
and some have an eating disorder
the list goes on and on
the saying in
North East England
is
shy bairns get nowt
in more refined circles
you'll get nothing if you don't ask
all children but especially the female ones
are programmed to act in ways that
make sure they are not ignored
forgotten, abandoned
recently our Ricker observed a
tiny little girl who was having a
lot of trouble with her dad
he was wlking her along a busy road
on the pavement - sidewalk
but his concern was that he feared that
if he let go of her hand
she would dash out into traffic
but she was not happy
she was very not happy
and she was so good at telling the world that
she was not happy that she caused a police patrol to
go around and take a second pass alongside the couple
the thing she said was
her feet hurt
so dad bends down to try to see whether she
had a stone in her shoe
and he continued when he found none
and Ricker - like the police patrol - thought
I hope this is OK
and he decided t was OK because
the little madam was shouting at her dad
but she wasn't red in the face
or crying
she was clearly
mad at her dad
not afraid of him
and this scenario continued for
a couple of hundred yards metres
with all sorts of hazards including
having to cross a busy road
with dad saying 'I'll let go your hand'
when we get away from these busy roads'
and so it was
and there is a lesson or two here
she was a very tiny little girl
and when the two turned a corner into a quiet road
dad let go
and the girl behved well and ws no longer distressed
but very quickly something occured to dad
little girl was walking
sensibly but slow
and dad picked little girl up
and carried her
and still all was not entirely well
and so dad removed little girl's coat
and finally, all was well
all along little girl
had said
my feet hurt
she did not say
my feet hurt because you are
making me walk TOO FAST
and
it's spring and I'm propper over heating
in my pretty pink coat
if dad had more experience with daughter
he would have picked her up as soon as
they hit the pedestrian crossing
sometimes people can only explain that they are,bR> in distress
they can't explain how best to help them
that requires
an adult in the room
not just somebody who is
big and strong
but somebody with
experience
and the chickens coome home to roost when
we put people into categories
various sorts of
vulnerable people
and say
everybody else must
follow instructions from vulnerable people
to the letter
that's called
the blind leading the blind
or more exactly
the blind leading the blinded
people who don't know exactly what they want
calling the shots over people who would
sort out the problem in a trice
if they had licence to do so



in the period following the Second World War
Israel was established
there were two reasons for that
we will check this out later but
The Jews wanted somewhere to call their own
like teenagers wanting to rent a flat
even though it makes little economic sense
to move out of your bedroom at home befre you can afford a mortgage
which was fine
the reason The Allies were willing to fix this was
they wanted a settlement on good terms with
The West
that they could
plonk down
at or near the entrance to the
SUEZ Canal
to ensure it was kept open
and we may investigate the ,BR> Problems with the
Boss of Egypt - Nasser was it
that were predicted
and the establishing of Israel was designed to
mitigate - lessen
and so
The Jews go a Promissed Land
that was where The Allies wanted it and not
somewhere more
self sufficent
like a
chunk of Egypt
for instance



give David Coulthard
a monacle
he's come out at this year's F1 as a
Lord Charles lookalike
Lord Charles was a puppet used by a
very famous vent called Ray Alan
he - coulthard - and Lee Mackenzie look as though
they have been made up with
special purple Logie Baird TV makeup
let's hope they break out
Billy Monger
later in the season
ventriloquist

different people publish different
'facts' about all sorts of things
taking an overall view of
Israel
it appears the country has little or no oil or gas of its own
its energy usage profile shows a clear split
it imports oil from
countries formerly in the Soviet Union by pipeline
and it imports gas entirely separately
by another pipeline
from Egypt
and as a not Mr Benett has been
Prime Minister of Israel for less than a year
and President Putin appears to have spent most of that time
preparing this now abandoned switch from
targeting Dombas
to targeting Kiv
so this c-o-operation appears to have been
First Order of Business
for the new Israeli PM


before there was a cafe in the Locke Park Boathouse
a chap with an icecream van
produced an advertising board to promote
an annual event ready for the net year
it was marked 'KEEP'
but the date wasn't changed to the following yeqr
so the works depot scrapped it
it appears that Redcar and Cleveland Council
removed three lamp post on the Esplanade
technicallu on Newcomen Terrace
and put them into storage
when they were taken out of storage at the
end of construction
3 lumiinerers
one totally wrecked
the other two rusty and with their glass lenses missing
run over with a fork lift?
probably not a fork lift
probably used instead of piles of coats
for goals at footie
typical


and so to return to P & O
it is a classic example of
jarbs versus economic growth
we won't allow economic growth putting that another way
both Eurostar pasenger trains
and the truck hauling freight trains
use the same tunnels
this to generate congestion so that people will
still use the ferries???
how do they do the magic/
how do they persuade hauliers to park thei trucks
in a stack
on the road to Dover
rather than use the Channel Tunnel?
there do genuinelt seem to be Hauliers who think
it's gotta go to Europe
Oh
well it'll have to go to Dover
Dover is Europe
Folkestone
Folkstone equals Europe
103 kilometres London to Folkstone
106 kilometers London to Dover
7 kilometers Dover to Folkstone
a probation officer once said to our Ricker
regarding Vera Baird
it's illegal to disagree with an MP
a lot of people seem to believe that
but perhaps more narrowly
a lot of people in Middlesbrough
seem to think they are living
in Russia
just 'cos they have a Labour MP
but we do see the contrast
if a technology sustains a lot of
high pay - low skill
jobs
DO NOT build a better mousetrap
for fear of governmental wrath
jobs will be sacred cows if
people THINK they are in Middlesbrough
but out with the bath water if they
realise they are in Redcar
and the excuse?
f it ain't broke, don't fix it
hence it took the sinking of transatlantic shipping
during World Wat 1
to persuade the government to allow the
growing and processing of
sugar beet in Lincolnshire
that could threaten sugar cane growing in
the West indies
and speaking of which
a fairly blatant did at Kate and her fella..
give jamaica maw money
or we'll leave
The Commonwealth
and shack up with
China

we have enormous respect for the
somewhat Canadian singer songwriter
Neil Young
but we have particular interest in his song
After the Goldrush
and because we have a European perspective
not Californian
flying Mothe Nature's
SILVER seed
to a new home in the sun
has always struck us as a reference to
the post WW2 establishment of Israel
and
Neil Youngs mom was
a
Duughter of the Revolution
a segregationist
genetics based movemnet to
protect the interests of
descendents of
soldiers who fought for American Independence
so this is a two edged sword
most Jews do very well in
Western Society
but some yern for a place where they arw
shoo in automatic top dogs
and perhaps some Israelis would like
Russia to fix it for them to
trade
Israel for
Ukraine


soo
the fundamentals of this war in Ukraine
elude us
the key figure here is an American called
Naftali Bennet
13 June 2021 he started in Israel
and he has pretty quickly contracted Russia to
invade Ukraine
but we can't figure out why
he was minister for diaspora affairs
2015 to 2019
that's minister for Israelis abroad
or
minister for Israelis in America
he was born in Israel in 1972 to parents who had
emgrated from America
to Israel
so that speaks to a family history of
dissatisfaction with the move by American Jews to
moved from their post war dream of nationhood
to a more integrated social and religious traditions
concept of Jewdeism
in other words
Jews who fled to Holocaust to America
decided to integrate into American society
but the vestages of thier historical culture that they kept
singled them out for persecution from
fellow Americans
and some switched tracks to
Nationhood and Israel
the history of the Jews and Ukraine is significant
the First World War can be characterised as
War 'Games' between cousins in the German Royal family
British Germans versus German Germans
at a tme when British people regarded their
Kings and Queens in the fawning way
Russians regard their Presidents today
the upshot was
when the Germans swept into Ukraine
they kinda came in as liberators of the
rather large Jewish community
so it was the most God awful shock
to Jews everywhere
when the Nazis
swept into Ukraine and anilhilated the Jewish population
rendered to zero
so.. Ukraine is one of those countries that had
maybe half Jews before World War 2
to having almost no Jews today
and so a nationalst - convert, in a way - Israeli
such as Mr Bennet
may see Ukraine as a county that
let
Jewish holocaust
happen
although what chance he would think there was for
Russia to re-settle Jews in Ukraine
we can't guess
but
Russa's Jewish population is still among the largest in Europe
1,200,000 Jews in Israel
350,000 Jews in USA
178,500 Jews in Germany
165,000 Jews in Russia
56,000 jews in Ukraine
all rather unreliable figures
what the Nazis destroyed
in many places but especially in Ukraine
was
Yiddish Cuture
because
shall we say
of all the Tribes of Israel
of all the Arab nations
physically the Jews are
by far the most
Caucasian
European
looking
and many many Jews make a habit of
changing their names
so
there was always a
common man approach in Germany of
why can't you bhecome more German
and avoid all this grief
and it is said
remembering that
Ann Frank's mother wa Jewish and her father was not the Frank family wer betrayed was that
the sisters' mother started casting around for
'good Jewish husbands' for her daughters

these days the courts do whatever the
ambulance chasng lawyers tell them to do
it renders redundant the stock question to
any man fingered byt the wimin
have you stopped beating your wife?
answer yes - admission to have beaten your wife earlier
answer no - admission that the beatings are ongoing
conclusion
eventually every adult will nedd a home of their own


let's take an example
say you are a
Meat is Murder
protester
and you con your way into a job in a abatoir
you can't reasonably claim
compensation for PTSD
post traumatic stress diorder
the very fact thqt you think meat is murder
defines that you would find work in a slaughterhouse
distressing
people can vet very distressed if their team has
a penalty denied
a goal diallowed
a player sent off
it is REAL distress
aside from wanting the term
rape
removed from the criminal code
we want the word
unfaithful
removed from the reporting lexicon
it is downright obvious that if you
want coercive control of a friend or partner
'if you're unfailful to me
I'll report you for rape'
is coercive control
'upset'
like your team being kicked out of the cup
doesn't CUT IT
and neither should loss of control
using the criminal law to bolster
coupledom
is coercive control

23rd March 2022
Pebbles and Bambam
broke camp in Redcar
so the Esplanade now belongs to the local council and
earlier in the week Burgoynes ther contractor
put lumieres - lamps - on the top of two of the three
reinstarted lamp posts
so that is a sign of the typical
local autnority chaos that we can expact for while now
perhaps they have kept the fencing up because
they think if they take if down
huge trucks will curb the new concrete
so they want it to sit behind a fence for a few months to
gain its strength
sounds a bit too clever for a council engineer

in light of teenged girls being kept from school
in Afganistan by
The Taliban
have the Taliban hired the UK's NSPCC as consultants?
will we see teenage girls in the UK banned from school soon has the NSPCC a secret code
Education begins at Thirty?


here's a thing
imagine living on Redcar Lakes Estate
in the 1960s and 70s
a bit like living in the USA today
the houses had to wait until this century
to get walls
they were originally built like
stage sets
from
lath and plaster
so the original version of thei story
relates to the tenaments built some time earlier
in New York
the absence of true building materials meant that
of a night time
a person in a bedroom would hear a thump on the ceiling
and that clump would have been
the man in the bedroom in the flat above
sitting on the edge of the bed
and dropping his workboot onto the bedroom floor
but was that what the noise was?
you had to
'wait for the second shoe to drop'
to be sure that that was what you were hearing
and so to Peninsular and Orient Ferries
you built the Chunnel
and the trucks that carry things people
can't be bothered to put into containers
go through the Trans Manche Tunnel
and
how many times has the ferry service survived when
a suspension bridge
Humber, Forth etc
is opened/
tunnel not bridge but
all those people who have lost their jobs with P & O ferries
started those jobs
AFTER
The Chunnel was opened

the clue is in the name
cruise - the travel around
at normal operating speed
with no fixed or particular goal
the whole odea of a cruise missie is
a surprise attack
below the RADAR
suddenly
at the last minute
changing course towards the
intended target
therefore difficult to
track
technically, the cruise missile is the
current iteration of the
V1 or Doodlebug
trying to combine
flying under the RADAR and flying quickly
has for reasons previously described
proved very difficult
essentially
a cruise missile is great for surprise attack
on a medium defended target
such as a terrorist hideout
or a divisional headquarters
but is not effective as part of a
barrage

we have said that the cavalry
tanks
are fighting without
infantry support
and so
'knocking out' tanks
can be done with minimum Russian casualties
one explanation for the failure to
knock out artillery implacements may be
fear of accusations of
war crimes
The Ukrainians may be trying to
win without killing any Russians
if so
they are setting themselves a
mighty challenge
there is a scenadio for ths and it is
deeply contraversial
essentially - like a Taser or stun grenade
or CS gas
you incapacitate the enemy with
sub-lethal force
and disarm them
dodgy because
one fatality within enemy ranks
and the spectre of
chemical or biological warefare is raised
you may not think this matters but consider
the shit the
British Army
are STILL getting
over the use of lethal force in Northern Ireland

just a little update on the hypermissile nonsense
the analogue here is
the V1 and V2 rockets of Nazi Germany
with mobile launch vehicles these could be sent from
anywhere in 'France' to London, England
Vi missiles or rockets
were set off in the approximate direction of theire
Rather large target - London - and fell out of the sky and
were supposed to explode on impact
when their fuel raun out
so you set the range by how much fuel you put in
you set the direction
mostly by where you pointed it
but to compensate for being
blown off course by wind storms...
there was a gyro - gyroscopic - guidentce system
that made primitive auto pilot adjustments
the gyro system was also on the V2
so they could MAINTAIN course but not CHANGE course
sorta
these hypersonic missiles are supposed to have and
optical guidance system
instead of or as well as the gyro system
in theory, since they are
air launched
you could try controlling them with a
modulated laser beam for the launch aircraft
kinda clound sensitive but maybe infra-red??
but t would mean the launch aircraft
following and tracking the misslile and
the jet don't do Mach 10
the whole thing is a nonsense
but if you use a fairly complex computer guidance system
you could get the missile to
zig-zag and tack to avoid interception but
that would damage not improve accuracy of targeting
it has been found...
you need a spotter aricraft to
call in such strikes
and these DEFINITELY don't do mach 10
the Russians have their own version of GPS
their own fleet of
geo positioning satellites
but the plasma problem makes this very unreliable
for such fast moving missiles

we had a look at Ukrainian politics
450 deputies
there seem to be almost as many parties
scores if not hundreds
and now some pro-Russia parties suspended
whatever that means
and so
are the Ukrainians holding back from attacking
the Russians because the government does not have a
parliaentary mandate?
strange days indeed

there's something a bit odd about some of the accounts
coming out of Russian occupied areas
Russian troops giving over 60s Ukrainians
a - presumably rare - seeing to
and some of them
topping themselves
for shame
'cos it was a bit too much?
but it feeds back to the
Old Sweat angle
if you got superannuated soldiers
manybe it's only the over sixties who
can't run fast enough to escape them
we remember the old line
are you a virgin?
yes, she lied
how would you like to be deflowered with a bullet?
if the reports were
some of the women who are being raped are
over 60
that would be different
but things can get lost in translation
if the Ruskies had a load of women stood against a wall
and CHOSE to fuck the over 60s
the only conclusion you could come to would be that
they didn't want to strengthen the Ukrainian breed with
half bred Russians
women over 60 being assumed post menopausal
overall, very confusing
if you're Ukrainian and female and over 60
perhaps what is really happening is
Soviet era Females thinking
what an honour to be of service to our
brave Russian soldiers
and then getting all hell from their daughters and grandaughters
as so
a viable angle is
all the Fifth Columnists are
over 60
and not much other use than for sex


here's one of those
word origins investigations
there seem to be two perhpas three major theories about
the origin of the word
turncoat
some people say it relates to
crossing the aisle
moving from one political party to the
opposing or simply another party
in that case changing the
badge on your coat
the second version is
related to the
coat of arms a Lord would live under
and you could take your shield with it's insignia
awarded by the King or such and
litterally fight with it upside down
to show your aliegence was over
and so we have in Ukraine at the moment
the equivalent of
wearing your badge upside down
Ricker had his school badge on Velcro so he could
take it off or wear it upside down
the Ukraine equivalent is
paint a big Z on your truck
but the third version is more mundane
these days in team sports
people play in team strips
kit or uniform coloured to easily identify
which team you are on
and this has evolved from the days before
soldiers fought in camo
camoflage kit
the two sides would have a National Colour
like with racing cars
Red for Italian, Green for British, Blue for French
because in those days
battle was a mass and elaborate form of
duel
nobody was being 'sneaky'
they were all up front
and so
some people had Great Coats made
that were of two layers
both the same except
one side was, say, blue - and the other red
and depending on circumstances
they would wear the coat with
the colour that wouldn't get them shot
on the outside
as with all such thingsBR> it is hard to tell whether this is
fact or fiction
we would say it probably happened from time to time at least


Austria, Costa Rica, Finland, Ireland,
Liechtenstein, Sweden, Switzerland
Turkmanistan
and then ther's
Ghana, Japan, Malta, Mexico,
Mongolia, Moldova, Panama, Rwanda
Serbia, Singapore, Switzerland
Usbekistan, Vatican City
these are the 'countries' that expect
other coutries such as
The US the UK
to fight wars as proxies for them
essentially, currently
Ukraine is striving to join that list
whinge whing whing about
no fly zones and 'super missiles
and absolutely no reports of
Howitzer installations being destroyed
ther is a good chance that if this situation continues
for much longer
Western patience will wear thin
and Ukraine will
fall between two stools


listen, do you wanna know a secret?
have you heard about
Faraday cages?
a metal (conductive) mesh enclosing a space
through which
radio signals - interferrence - cannot pass
even if there is a gap
like Ricker's experimental Faraday cage was
5 sided so he could get at his apparatus from the
sixth side
and you've heard of
plasma
wots the difference between
a hypersonic missile
and
an ICBM?
inter continental balistic missle
an ICBM leaves Earth's atmosphere and
travels through space
most of the way
a hypersonic travels all the way through the atmosphere
at the same speed
and a plasma builds up over its surface
and that plasma acts like a
Faraday cage
so
so?
so, the missle cn't get
GPS signals from satellites
so
it's broadly
non-guided
it's a no brainer
it can't be directed over long distances
because it can't survive
re-entry style heating from air friction
fo ver long at all
it may travel 3,000 km
well, some of it will
very fast over very short distances
in bits over longer distances

it is with monotonous regularity that
the media hand the generl public
the wrong end of the stick
and so today's word is
Trafigura
and that is apparently the name of the company
that runs the
LNG terminal on Teesside
liquified natural gas
and you may take from current press coverage
the dea that Trafigura are
planning to IMPORT LNG through there
mothballed terminal on Seal Sands
in Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees
nope
they are fixing to
EXPORT North Sea LNG from
CATS
to...????
Garmany?
perhaps we should read BP or bp for Trafigura
it's a two way process
they can import LNG and they can export LNG
if you decide that
Russia can be
put back in it's box
over the coming 6 months
you can afford to export North Sea Gas to
places that aren't connected by pipeline
it makes NO SEENSE for a countru sucha Uk
that imports 8 per cent of its gas from Russia
when the price is right
to think in March in the Northern Hemisphere
spring
it is
worth the candle
to open an LNG terminal to IMPORT LNG

we probably should point out a thing or two about
gas networks
they have
boiler houses
distributed aroundd the world
and you may think that they use gas to heat water
not these ones
Natural Gas is transported around countries such as
The UK, Australia
through liquifed natural gas pipelines
boler houses are the gas network equivalent of
electricity sub stations
they allow the liqufied gas to
boil off
and become the gas we get into homes and businesses
the liquifaction of natural gas is routine
if not universal
trunk mains - liquified natural gas
local networks - gas
and Seal Sands has had
excess capacity to liquify
and here's a thing we don't know
does CATS transport LNG or
the raw stuff
complet with water and sand and such
we suspect the latter
there is some de-watering on the production rigs
but we suspect that this is just a rough first pass at
purification
since the Sberian and TransAlaska pipelines are
1970s technology
and we know they are ot insulated
they probably still carry gas not LNG


consider Shakespeare's Henry V old sweat
an old sweat is a term for a soldier
for the most part the characters in Henry V are
English - or WELSH
not on the French side
got that 'de niles' bit
anyway
we can put both Russia and Ukraine into Henry V
the current President is of course Henry V
Once more to the breach, dear friends, once more
but the Russians are
old sweats
Pistol and Bardolph
and speaking of
dead colleagues
and
alas poor Jorik, I knew him well
all those young women evacuees with little children
husbands and boy friends
fthers of those children are
Henry's army
Rosencrantz and Guildenstein
are dead

what we are saying is
The Russians are trying to re-live past glories
and the Ukrainians are fighting for their future
Laurence Olivier as Henry V
and then again, right now
where is Max Hastings
Max I counted them out and I counted them back in Hastings?
suppose he's got dementia or Parkinson's...
that was wrong
that quote was
Brian Hanrahan
sorry

See?
hHenry V
our Ricker's set text fot O' level English Literature
he failed of course...
because?
his dad
I'm not having anything about
surgery or war in my house...
no scope for homework in that context
and
nobody saying
we'll help you with your former soldier dad's
PTSD
Ricker gave up at an early age trying to learn
awywhere but school
whenhe got the response he did from his mam
to his question
is meat the muscles of an animal
so may things you didn't talk about in the 1950s
or in earshot of cops today


and then you think
and then you think about a lad brought up in a military
context
and he talks about Henry V
and no mention of Falstaff
and you begin to see how his
O' level answers may have fallen outside
the marking scheme
and so we can extend our analogy and ask
how many Falstaffs in the Kremlin today?
and so with the problems of
sons and daughters of doctors and dentists,BR> failing to get into med school
1 because of the tigermums with no background in med
2 tutors saying 'I'm not teaching them. They know more than I do
14:41 19/03/2022oesn'r apply to
pill pushing GPs
but surgeons...

we're beginning to loose patience with
the Ukrainian authorities
back in the day the schoolboy cry was
don't let the bastards grind you down
as t goes
the government know where these artillery batteries are
and they are not moving to shut them down
as such the suspicion grows that
what they are calculating is hat
the more Soviet Era Brutalist architecture they
induce the Russian visitors to demolish
the bigger the EU US reconstruction fund will be

we suppose we should give an update on
Redcar Regent
as we understand it the
sculptues of stars escaping the old building
have not found a place in the new scheme
except in the form of screen printed posters inside
ther are 46 seats in the cafe plus 17 on the outside balcony
screen 1 has 95 seats
screen 2 has 35 seats - some salvaged from the old cinema
screen 3 has 55 seats
so taking that with the council wanting ticket prices to be
kept low
turnover will not be high and who can say but perhaps
up to 50 jobs
more like 20
it took at least 3 goes - tests
to get passive building approval - certification but
it is an all electric building
there is no gas supply
although this is a movie theatre not a theatre
at least one of the auditoria has enough space
between screen and audience
for a bit of stand up or solo 'acoustic?'
performances
subject to licence one assumes
a bit like a uni lecture theatre
remember those?
we keep thinking the job is complete ... but
this week 3 lamp posts returned to The Esplanade outside
it doesn't look like a tenant will be in by Easter
and it's still quite windy in Redcar
so that would have driven some inside
we have been reminded that
Locke Park
has a bigger band stand than
Coatham Enclosure and it's
under trees and on an island


perhaps you now see why we so often just
let it go
a soverign government willing to pay
a billion for a project that
Air Products
gave up on
as a pure and simple
Greenwashing Stunt
the resources available to
distort any discussion or debate are
mind boggling
nobody is saying
hey folks
look we just figured it out
from now on it's gonna work peachey
they saying
thank God
we've finally offloaded this turkey


Bunter has been to Saudi Arabia and secured an investment of
a billion something in
a plant in Billingham that
Air Products were building
to
create
jet fuel from household and industrial waste
Air Products pulled the plug on the project in
2015
after doing 2 years work on the project
they installed a
gasification plant
gas from waste...
we can't see where jet fuel comes into it
the original Air Products design was for a plant to
produce propane
this is the whole thing...
politicians never did sums
so they don't look at the numbers
so they think
waste recycling
shitty job
hoards of tens of thousands of
illiterate unemployed people in
Hartlepool
they'll trample each other to death in the
scramble for
shit shovelling jobs
it was supposed to cost £600million
gone up to billion??
Impetus Waste Management
were going to source the material for processing
the idea is
plasma arc furnaces to,BR> blast the waste
instead of just 'burning it'
a whizzy laser that was to zap thousands of tonnes of waste
every day
wotta lazer
well just a plasma
there were to be two phases
TV1 was built
TV2 was being built
by the 700 construction workers
quoted in yesterday's press release
and they got pulled off building TV2
when TV1 failed in operation
and the fix would be too difficult
sooo Saudi money to complete the plant
but no idea that the fault
has been fixed
so not 700 jobs building 2 plants
700 jobs finishing off the second plant
that probably won't work
and
Impetus WM have diverted the waste elsewhere
and the other plant of this design
Bilsthorpe in Nottinghamshire
apparently isn't working either
but Greg Clarke MP
probably isn't the responsible minister any more
thing is
the technology comes from Canadian firm
AlterNRG
and is supposed to have worked in plants in
Asia
we thinking
Air Products have finally
offloaded a pup onto
money? we got loads of that
Saudi Arabia

time was we tried to track
unemployment in North East England
and we gave up
so we thought, just this once we would have a look
at the figures
in 1992 the unemployment rate in the North East was
13 per cent
essentially that rate fell to
5 per cent very steadily over the years to
2008
between 2008 and 2013 the rate went at about the same rate
to 13 per cent
by 2019 that rate was just slightly into a new zone
a bit over 4.5 per cent
then there was CoViD
back up to 6 per cent in 2020
but now back to 5 per cent
as we have often asked
how many job seekers can you have
and say
job creation should not be the prime
determinant of industrial policy
we see the 2008 financial crash
causing major unemployment problems
we see CoViD restrictions
having a noticeable detriment
we don't see
failure to re-invest in smokestack industries
as having any noticeable effect
it is so interesting that
the post industrial North East as
so vulnerable to a crash in
financial services
Redcar Steel Works
DIDN'T close in 2008
it closed in 2015
but it was also 'mothballed' between 2009 anf 2012
North East unemployment fell
from 9 per cent to 8 per cent during the mothballing
and fell from 7.5 per cent to 4.5 per cent
between the permanent closure and CoViD
Build it and they will come
Cut the shit and they will come


we don't suppose that
Lord Digby Jones
is a farmer
most of these plutocrats are
the first rule of farming is
live as though you will die tomorrow
farm as if you will live for ever
tend your land
don't rape it
one of the most disappointing book titles in literature
The Rape of the Loche


we've come up with a refined analogy for
exploiting Siberian, (extreme) North Sea and Alaskan oil and gas
instead of thieving the fuel for the lawn mower..
as we said before
it's more like
using up the fuel reserve for the water pump
and putting it in the car
and then the water pump is useless
when it's needed to
fight a fire

we have a bit more of
gas attacks
in the First World War
after they becaome commonplace gass masks were issued and drills on their use were
put in place
the troups had to put on their gas mask
and then go into a gas chamber
and them removed the mask
to impress on them the importance of
responding to the cry of
GAS!
we suspect the gas they were trained with was a bit
sub-lethal
but highly irritant
as a tactic
gas would have been conceived as a means of
flushing troops out of their trenches
stay n get gassed
come out - get shot
sooo a dense gas that would pool in low ground such as
trenches
so Sergeant commanding gas mask drill
to soldier struggling with the mask
come on Mrs Evans...
you leave my wife out of this


in't fust world war
6,000 British Troops died from being gassed
90,000 people died from gas
in that conflict
who the other?
Russians who
didn't have gas masks
early World War 1 gas masks were very simple
cotton face pads soaked in
bicarbonate of soda
by 1918
the ones with carbon - activated charcoal?
were in general use
people use activated charcoal to keep
the tanks they keep pet fish in, safe
the deployment of chameical weapons is complcated
very weather dependent
in an accident involving fire and explosion
for the most part
the gases emmited get hot and rise
and any wind will dilute them very quickly
as a munition
you have to have a dense cloud of agent
and you have to trap the victims
in a valley or frost pocket
there was much fear of gas attacks in Workd War 2
much carrying of gas masks
but they were only used in
Europe indoors in gas chambers
and generally in Asia
releasing a nerve agent in dense, humid tropical vegetation
approximated to indoor use


it is utterly pointless trying to
din anything into the
wooden tops in the
emergency services
but
for the rest of us
all that shattered glass on the streets of Ukraine
may poin to to
IT THERE IS RISK OF EXPLOSION
OPEN WINDOWS
so that the shock wave can pass through the window opening
without shattering the glass
AND
toxic smoke
WILL NOT
make a Bee Line
for your open window

The Britsh Empire
Such as it was
depended on Naval Power
and in the mid 19th century
you assaut a Brit in some foreign land...
1850 Don Pacifico
Lord Palmerston - British Foreign Secretary
despatches a squadron of the Royal Navy to
blockade the Greek port of Piraeus
in retaliation for an assault on a
British subject David Pacifico in Athens
like ya do
later
US President Theodore Roosevelt
produced a characterisation for this form of
Gunboat Diplomacy
he referred to it as
Speak softly and
carry a big stick
and President Putin has reversed this
Run off at the mouth like a
bar room alcoholic
and carry a
theatre prop sword
made of rubber
and low grade Chinese perrished rubber at that
reference to crumbling Chinese tyres on
Russian invading military vehicles

that president Putin of Russia
he's not as green as he's
cabbagey lookng
perhaps President Xi of China..
not so much
it would appear that PP got PXi
on board by claiming common cause regarding
Empire Reunification
but that was not President Putin's goal
he was/is after
entirely new land acquisitions
and PXi may be now somewhere between
feeling cheated and feeling
out of his depth?


and so help for Russia from China
may not come as expected


we have a couple of things to say about
Siberuan and Alaskan oil
we invite others to fill in the gaps
the climate for the laying down of
oil and gas holding rocks
is normally around the
tropucs - the equator,br. so how come there is oil and gas in
Alaska and Siberia?
the answer appears to be that the
axis of the world
is in the habit of
tilting
so...
Alaska and Siberia have oil and gas because
they were once on the equator
so...
we do not KNOW this but we assume
the oil and gas in A and S
have been in the ground
a lot longer than the stuff in
Saudi and Venesuela
and so they been leeking out for a lot longer
so there won't
all other things being equal
be as much 'up there' as 'down there'
Hartlepool Pipe Mill makes the sort of pipe they
transport oil and ga in
20 inch 43 inch 48 inch
the TAPS - not what they play at military funerals
Trans Alaska Pipe Service
is just the one 48 inch pipe
presnty sinking becaus the permafrost is melting
see?
in Alaska (Norh Slope) and Siberia
you can't pick up oil and gas by
sea going super tanker
so you have to have a pipeline
so you have to have Hartlepool Pipe Mill
so
overall
Alaska and Siberia constitute a
whacking great
jerry can
The brits preferred the German Army fuel cans and nicked them
at every opportunity
hence jerry for German can
massive great jerry can stowed in the back of the garage
and
well
we kinda used that
instead of nipping to the service station for
fuel for the lawn mower
in other words
we should have taken oil and gas from Alaska and Siberia
onlt so long as the
Saudi embargo lasted
but we kept on doing it until
until it's strated to run out

first we want you to imagine a stack
this is a stack of gegraphical locations
starting in the north and the slaices 'underneath'
moving south
Belaruse
Ukraine
The Black Sea
Turkey
Syria
Iraq
Saudi Arabia
and now - since five years ago
Crimea between
Ukraine and The Black Sea
what President Putin's Russia did
over the weekend was
fire around 30 missiles
from ships in the Black Sea
at targets in Ukraine that are very near to
Poland
1 those ships can turn around an fire at targets in Turkey
2 even with a clonky on heap of steming
Patriot
The Ukraineians were able to
intercept two or three of those misslies
in all probability
Triumph would have had the lot
there is no problem issuing NATO member Turkey with
for arguement's sake Triumph
if they felt happy to sent Patriot to Ukraine
so for President Putin
having the freedom of the Black Sea
does not mean he has Turkey by the danglers
Russia hea knock off kit
NATO has kit that
works
quite a lot of the time
enough of the time to make
the Russian stuff pretty powerless
at the moment NATO has brought it's
fifth best girl
to the party
that's pretty much like
we're getting fed up of storing this stuff
let's set it off

take information - for instance the flammability of aluminium
and the toxicity of blue green algae
and we try to form an opinion
we are told that
before 1973 oil and gas did not come from Russia
they did not export them - it
in 1970
oil was exported by
Abu Dabi,Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia
and Venezuela
a couple of those were not
founder members of OPEC
Abu Dabi, and Qatar
but that makes no difference
globally
fossil fuels for export
not including
USA Uk Sacandinavia etc.
came from Northern South America - Veneszuela
and the Middle East
America in particular has problems with Venezuela
essentially over human rights and
the distribution - or not - of oil wealth to
the genereal population
and in 1973 the Middle East got to be a problematic source
wars and such
there was a war between
Arab Countries led by Egypt
and Israel
and if you like
the world cut off from Middle East oil
because it had supported Israel
sorta called in the 'favour' of all that
Lend Lease help to Russia
during the Second World War
and asked Russia to open up its
Siberian oil reserves for abstraction
so we have perhaps
OPECplus
an organisation that adds Russia to the original OPEC
and we said
Russian oil abstraction had been flat for a decade
but it has fallen away over the past couple of years
Russia is fighting in Syria
Middle East oil states are heavily armed by
The West
but Russia i fighting in Syria
id Russia were a true 'super power'
it would annex the Middle East
so as to be able to continue to export oil and gas
from its empire
just exactly how invading Ukraine
fits into this?
we can't tell
but if President Putin has a
'maniacal plan'
we would expect
Turkey and not Poland
to be his next target
after he has swept Ukraine out of his way
sooo
we see Saudi Arabia allowing Russia into
OPECplus and not OPEC could be seen as an
attempt by Saudi Arabia to control Russia
and dwindling oil reserves or not
president Putin is not
the sort of person to
Brook being controlled
or even influenced

so here's a juxtaposition to consider
Europe starts to import Russian fossil fuels
in 1973
and the Berlin Wall is up
in use
between 1961 and 1989
so one way to see this is
oil wealth softened the Soviet Union
to the extent that eventually
the Berlin Wall came down
and if
the Third World War
ends up being
Russia versus Saudi Arabia
and Russia regresses and becomes the next
North Korea...
what will the refugee consequences be then?



we have scope to surmise
regarding Ukraine
we understand
we say understand when we mean we may ahve been conned
we understand that,BR. Russia has had visits from France, Belarus, and Israel
we think perhaps Israel was offering a promise
not to supply Ukraine with Iron Dome
and looking for some sort of reward
who the hell ever knows what the French are up to
least of all the French - probably
so to Belarus
we think they may have been saying
thanks for the deal
thanks for the help
but we're done
no more parking permit on our land for
your army
and so to what that all means
in the context of
'40 mile long' Russian army caravan
between Kiv and Belarus/
here's how we see it
mid last week Russia was thinking of a
Dunkirk style
air evacuation
tke the rmy to an airfield ane vamoose
commanders would have thought that
a good idea but if President Putin
got wind of it it would have been
squashed
and if Ukraine got wind of it they would
have destroyed the utility of the airstrip
The Russian Army have lost their
completely defunct
umbilacal to Mother Russia
even their knock off
supposedly ened to end encrypted 'phones
appear to have failed
so they have 'grouped'
for evacuation
and now
the biter bit stlye
instead of
the Russian Army surrounding Kiv
the Ukrainian Army
are in a postion to
surround the Russian Army

we like to do a bit of fact checking
before we write...
so the facts we checked are
Scarborough railway station opened 1845
Redcar railway sttion opened 1846
and that did a bit of damage to what we were gong to say
about that picture of the amusement park at Redcar Central
Redcar station only got re-named Redcar Central in 1950
and Redcar station started out with
just one platform
so
the Middlesbrough to Redcar Railway
was built to transport day trippers from
Middlesbrough to the amusement park in Redcar
what we were going to say ..
Blackpool railway station opened in 1863
scarborough is to Filey
as
Redcar is to Saltburn
as
Blackpool is to Lytham Saint Ann's
from this
we can't say
Redcar - Saltburn was the model for
Blackpool - Lytham Saint Ann
we have to say
Scrborough - Filey and Redcar - Saltburn
sort of merged itnot the mind to
inspire Blackpool - Lytham
and then
Teesside industry outgrew Middlesbrough
and took over Redcar
and so for that
second half of the 20th century
Teesside didn't have an equivalent of
Blackpool or Scarborough
but it didn't matter because by then
Teesside had
Callers Pegasus
air travel to Sunny Spain
and for a while
people from Teesside
Retired to Scarborough
as those in London retire to Brighton
and very few hoildayed in
either Redcar or Scarborough
so now
people don't so much want a rollercoaster
as they want an indoor ski slope
and they
can't have one if it ain't in Middlesbrough
seaside resort Uk stacation style?
sealife centre and indoor ski slope
nowhere to be seen
not even on plans
and they wnt to give the town
more industry
because they have completely forgotten
the leisure origins of Redcar anf Saltburn
and leisure means...
gender neutral job opportunities



tody we want to return to an issue that is not currently topical
but remains important
we could research the proposition that
within
North American First Nations
there was hierarchy
dominant and subdominant tribes
dominant and subdominent castes
but we will just make a note here about the
proposition that The British interoduced slavery into
North America
primerily this relates to the
State of Georgia
we have talked about the crimes that lead to
transportation to Australa
and they were a list of what had been
in the main
Capital Crimes
two categories of those
1 recidivist
people we after a short period of
re-education
return to their criminal ways
in other words people who are
incorrigable
incapable of being reformed
2 people who have committed crimes where
if they were not executed by the state
would be Lynched by the general public
and the whole Australia thing was an attempt to
generate an alternative to
execution
however, the Georgia Penal Colonies
had a narrower remit
they were established on the basis that
people who got into debt
did so because they lacked
the skills and education needed to
earn a living
and so debtors were sent to Georgia
to do forced labour to pay off their debts
but also to
get help to
work smarter not harder
and this was
endentured labour
and ina sense
apprenticeships are based on
learn your life skills from an employer
rather than your family
the trouble is
as with amny good deas
this descended into something less helpful
and prospective trainers
degenerated into exploiters
and perhaps we should say
it takes time to become wealthy
in that time technology moves on
and rich successful bussiness owners
are not sources of training in
modern techniques
and traditional techniques
look a lot like slavery
hence hand car washes
and ditch digging without mechanical assistance
it is a very clear characteristic of efforts to tackle poverty
in deprived areas of the UK that
assistance is linked to
efforts to find work
and not efforts to gain skills
and this encourages employers to
exploit labour
and not expolit technology
once a person from a deprived background has
left school
the pressure from Job centres
or their computer substitutes
will be along the lines of
how many jobs have you applied for this week
and not
how many spellings have you learned this week?
peoples are trained to say
1 I need the money
2 turned up
3 I've got kids
they rarely say
and if they did they would get a cold response
if they said
I'd be cheaper to keep for a fortnight than a week
that isn't a common saying
the common saying from the old days was
of a horse or an employee
he'd be cheaper to keep a week than a fortnight
essentially
there is a squeemishness about
the idea of
employing people as being a profitable exercise
pay somebody £100 a week and they add £110 to
your weekly bottom line
empoy somebody for a week and
get a kick back from the government
is seen as
more politically correct
the other concept with regard to
people who will drift
from job to job
is the concept of
a wood spolier
a manufacturing business will aspire to
a zero defect operation
no scrap
no mistakes
people who design training schemes tend to think
start them with the simple stuff and let them
progress if they get that right
the tendency is to
end the training at the first sign of error
schemes that factor in
the cost of experience are needed in
manufacturing industries
but schemes are almost always restrcted to
covering any pay for the trainee
and so
and we must point this out at this stage
it is deeply risky to
start somebody out as a
tea boy
making beverages and distributing them to
new colleagues is
way compicated and traumatic
for youg people who have always had
hot beverages handed to them by their mum
or have thus far lived on
cold cans
to get the apprentice familiar with the workplace
best to be up front and tell them to
shadow somebody
and allow for the pair to chat a fair bit
it's absolutely ridiculous to condone
hazing or pranking of nubies
on the basis of
trying to find out if they can
take a joke
or will 'fit into' the culture



this is one of
Teesside Traction's?
trolley buses
about to pass the three blast furnaces of
South Bank Ironworks
an esteemed visitor described the buses on Teesside
at the time or a littel later as being
the colour of moldy cucumbers


back twenty years ago
when Teesside University and Cleveland Police
were giving our Ricker
enough grief to
give him nightmares
those nightmares were inspired by
this sort of thing
this was Billingham ICI
contrast the bus route through the factory
with
the high security
aresholery of
TeesWorks and Wilton International

for some reason somhow it has been decided to repeat
this image of the roller coaster just visible in the
Redcar Races pic

what we now have from satellite imagery is
search BEF
British Expeditionary Force
we have the expeditionary force
regrouping around
Antonov Airport
they will propably use their artillery to
lay down covering fire whilst they are
evcuated by air - leaving their kit behind
and so
the west not giving Ukraine the kit to destroy it
plays into Ukraine's hands
this is
Dunkirk not Normandy
and it is the reverse of
Taleban verus 'virtual' Afgan Army



we have got a clearer picture of the
Russian military
1 conscription is for 1 year
change over is in April
so
if the Russian army wants to use conscripts
they will have to train them first
if the conscripts with 1 year's service are
not yet in theatre
it would take a change of regulations
to get them there
the age group of Russians - men
most of whom have experience of military service
40 per cent of 45 tp 59 year ods
11 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds
have experience of military service
active personnel 1,014,000
reservist 2,000,000
5th largest
there are despite all that
400,000 regular soldiers in the Russian armed forces
that is
contractors or paid regulars
contractors can sign on - begin service - up to
age 40
Russian regulars go directly into
specialist training
there s no induction training
so of the number above none will be
flexible in role
from history...
the life expectancy of a Russian soldier
deliveder to the front line was
24 hours

overall we have not been able to determine the
average age of combat troops in the Russian army but
we know that the reason for the levelling out of
the total population in Russia is due to
a significant fall in
birth rate
and if they are recruiting people up to age 40
they have a recruitment problem
and frankly an aging force
not well suited to
gettng out into the mud under a broken down vehicle
to fix it
it appears that some military comentators are
biging up the Russians
in defence of fellow professionals


when it comes to child protection
we do tend to think that a lot of what
the likes of the NSPCC do is akin to
rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanc
take a recent case
in some way it resembles the following
man is shown a ultrasound of a baby and is told
that it's his
he doesn't want to be a dad
or he doesn't want another kid
so he kills the woman and her unborn child
and two other women who witness that
apparently, to him, this, end of story
the fact that he will be caught and spend a good deal
of time in jail
does not seem to occur to him
and that's the bit that baffles
how has this man
this clearly very violent man
got to the age of 39
without ever being
challenged or confronted over
his behaviour or attitudes
is it because
violence - good
sex - bad
pervades some communities?
this mind set that we detect
oh, he only killed
he didn't feel her up
so she'll go straight to heaven
we - the posh folk - get to see these people
from time to time
come to visit a gym or something such
and expect
the peasants to scatter before them
because
that's what happens down their street
in their neck of the woods
and a part of that
is people the likes of the NSPCC who
scare men out of professions such as teaching
with threats of
we'll take the case and we won't seek evidence
because they think it more important that
young people have no sexual experience
than that they have
male role models
rememeber this obsession with sex extends to
Tv electronic programme guides
if a show includes two fully clothed characters
sharing a kiss
the show will be labelled
'contains some scenes of sexual activity'
these people - NSPCC etc.
have got what back in the day would have been described as
a kink
an obsession

NOW we have the 'clarification' that
100 per cent
of Russia's REGULAR army are in Ukraine
the suggestion is
the conscripts have not been sent in as
cannon fodder
because the regulars would ahve wanted the glory of
an overnight victory
the uS have but
some Patriot air defence into Poland
that is the fifth best system in the world
it has had tracking software failures
Triumph is the best
when it's working
patriot can down an enemy aircraft at a
range of 100 miles
so, Kiv is less than 100 miles from the Belarus border....
we doubt conscripts are issued with any sort of
capable kit
so if they join in
t's unlikely to make much difference
except that
the store - Russia itself - will be completely defencless


we're gonna put another
terminological inexactitude spanner in the works
if Andy Macdonald and the Corbyn brothers
ran this country they would be
oligarchs
but they wouldn't be
plutocrats
oligarchy - rule by the few
plutocracy - rule by the rich


at this point we need to explain
OPEC
Organisation of Petroleum (rock oil) Exporting Countries
so why did the UK not join OPEC when
North Sea oil and gas were discovered
because....
OPEC is a group of countries whose
entire economy is
based on exporting oil and gas
and the Uk for example depends mainly on
financial services and law
for its 'export' earnings - intangibles
things you don't load onto a ship
and we said the price of oil and gas depends to some extent on
the increasing cost of abstraction
and
Deep Water Horizon
was an example of that
however that said
the 'spot market' - buy it in a panic, price of oil and gas
are driven by markets
BUT
the baseline price of oil
incidentally 80 dollars a barrel
is bounded on one side by
we know what we can produce
we know what we've promised our people will be
government spending
and so we musk keep the price over 80 dollars
and on the other side by
every time the price of oil and gas goes up
it makes alternative energy sources
more attractive, more cost effective
only TINA
could deliver rocketing baseline prices
There Is No Alternative
and TINA has left the game


a small aside
Pebbles and Bambam
have hired the most enormous telehandler
to tidy Redcar Esplanade
there's two wall ties missing from the Regent
and three bollards need concreting in
and the parking ticket machine needs some attention
BUT
they have set out tables and chairs on the
cafe balcony


we did the oil reserves calculations for
Belarus
and so to Russia
80 billion barrels of proven reserves
as at 2016
sounds like a lot
4.8 per cent of world reserves
not so much
and in 2016 they were abstracting
taking out of the ground
1,32 billion barrels a year
so
tht would run out in
2076
but f they doubled the abstraction rate
it would run out in
2045
most of Russia's oil reserves are in
Siberia
Donbas is a much nicer place to be
Russia hasn't increased its
abstraction rate much over the past decade
and it consumes half
and exports half
of what it abstracts
so if the world stopped buying Russian oil
it would last
through domestic consumption
120 years
as at 2020,BR> oil refineries around the world were working at
three quarters of capacity
75 per cent
crude oil is
a finite resource
in declining demand
and yet prices go up
partly market forces
but mainly
the low hanging fruit was
harvested many many years ago
roughly from 1950s
but it was used before then
the first wells were drilled in Ontario, Canada
in 1858
for that first 100 years
petroleum - oil from rocks
as opposed to whale oil
came from tar sands and such
and was a bit of a curiosity
without any major
oil refineries to process it
in the overall scheme of things
it could be said that
the steam engine fired by coal
dominated for around 140 years
1820 to 1960
and the internal combustion engine may
prove to have a reign of similar length
since present oil refineries are at 75 per cent capacity
new ones are unlikely to be built


here's a thought
it is quite possible that there are
oil and gas reserves in
the Donbas - south east Ukraine
but so far as we know it is Belarus
and not Russia that is
running out of reserves
and Russia couls have taken The Donbas
just as they took Crimea
end of
Russia wants the whole of Ukraine
and if you want that
you want the
agriculture
if you want the agriculture
who the HELL is gonna buy food from Ukraine
after it has been
dosed with
tactical nuclear weapon fall out?
destroy a nuclear plant
is a very different concept from
irradiate the entire region

can we explain this in terms
simple enough
for a hack or a politician to understand
Ukraine is asking for weapons they don't need to defeat Russia
what if
you them them and they stick them in a warehouse
and after they capitulate to Russia
they use them
against Germany?
perhaps you could consider that in context of
President Putin's recent
anti-Nazi retoric
defensive weapons only


you probably won't believe this
but
apparently it is true
during World War 2
The Allies
US UK and so on
supplied
tanks and self propelled guns to Russia
under
Lend Lease
11,900 we think
at the time
$11.3 billion
in today's money
1941 to 1945
essentially
the US paid Russia to defeat Hitler
partly because
the UK trying to stop Hilter was like
tapping a tiger on the shoulder
whilst it was attacking an elephant
all that gear has rotted away
well most of it
The war for the Nazis was about
liebenz something or other
living space
Nazi objectives
1 kill everybody who is
a smarter than the average Nazi
b everybody who is dumber than the average Nazi
2 kill everybody who is living on land in Eastern Europe
Ucraine Russia etc
and
Wild West style
set real Germans up
on self sufficency small holdings
and
The Blitz
the UK's major involvement in World War 2
was just a
you keep out of this
slap in the face
because
the UK was not the sort of land
the Nazis wanted to live on
during the blitz
1940 tp 1941
40,000 Brits died
half in London
ad 3,363 German air crew died
that was
Lebensraum
it was a
Hitler Youth concept
kill them foreigners
and we'll give you a parcel of
Land fit for Heroes
hence the ill educated President Putin
is kinda waiting for
more Lend Lease
to fight the Nazis
he imagines are in
Germany and Ukraine
and so
Russia v Germany
Japan gets in on the act
Russia v Ukraine/Germany
China gets in on the act?


President Putin
Plan A - sneak around the back through Belarus
Plan B - set fire to a nuclear power station
Plan C - hire mercenaries


here is a very interesting development in the
Ukraine debacle
nobody in Russia much cares about the fate of
the military
just so long as
they don't have to join it
here is the reality
repressive and autocratic though
President Putin my be
he is living in a parallel universe from his
people
and what is happening now is
President Putin wants a war
President Putin has got a war
but his people don't want a war
and so
in Putin World
what do you do if
the Russian people won't play your game?
you hire mercenaries
an at present it appears that
President Putin s using ether money
or promises of future rewards
to get soldiers from around the world
but mainly from
Syria
to come fight his war for him
and the question would be
what, if any, kit they can bring with them
this is a US government report
the media keep plugging the line
the heavy stuff is coming soon
US Department of Defense
say almost 100 per cent of
Russian combat power is
committed into Ukraine
President has loadza money
but he does not have the support of
The People of Russia
and integrating the likes of
Syrian Mercenries
into his war game
may prove difficult


we're gonna make one of our little corrections
many many decades ago
people made TV programmes
mocking the idea that
computers
would lead to
The paperless office
and saying hang on to your shares in
filling cabinet manufacturers
well
no so funny now
and so we come to our 'error' in detailing
Russian exports
Russia has a lorra lorra trees
but traditionally they didn't just sell timber
a goodly proportion of trees harvested in Russia
went into making
paper
and so the paperless office
and to some extent
plastic packaging
hit the Russian economy
many years ago
we are not sure of the reach of the term
Baltic
on Teesside
if you say
it's Baltic down 'ere
it means
it's very very cold
The Baltic is unofficially
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
and we bang on and on about how
ancient our Ricker is
but
he can remember when
Hartlepool Docks
weren't awash with
bobbing yachts
but the docksides were literally
pilled high with
mountains of tree trunks
like
like heaps of match sticks
sooo
Timber used to come from
The Baltic
and paper pulp came from further in towards Siberia
and of course
The Baltic on Tyneside
Gateshead not Newcastle
was a flour mill
and is ow an
Art Gallery
and some people spent teir lives
sailing between
North East Egland and
the Baltic States to bring over
wheat and timber and paper
and however bad the weather in
North East England
it would be worse in The Baltic
and for practical purposes
Finland was Baltic
because it fringes
The Baltic Sea
just as much as the Baltic States do
and Finland has gone all
Washington State on us
top exports now
electronics and optics
cars and steel
as well as
coated paper
to put it simply
we need a lot less
photocopier paper
but we still need Finland's
Koalin coated - glossy - printing paper
once upon a time
Finland's Nokia
made most of the world's mobile 'phones
imagine that

we've been distracting ourselves in the archives
and looking in one of
Peter Southeran's publications

broadly, the fountain is where
the Mo mawlem memorial is now
and the building in the background is
the convalescent home where there is nothing
but was the
Coatham Bowl

elf and safety
considering how shallow the boating lake is
and the concrete bottom
that diving platform looks
a bit hairy

thta round thing..
the original
bandstand
complete with covered audience seating

now this is a bit of a thing
the feint curvy thing
top left is
the roller coaster
that was where
Sandringham Road
off Corporation Road we think the chimney is the gas works
where Morrisons filling station is now
so this Redcar Race Course was
vaguely
much nearer to Mersey Road
than the present one
certainly on the Mersey Road side of
West Dyke Road
that's pretty heavy industry to be
slap bang in the middle of town
just like Wilton International is now
lapping up against the
Kirkleatham Green estate



NOW we have a report of an
'airstrike' in Ukraine
but we doubt it is confirmed as not being
a rocket attack
we have to point out
IF Belarus had kept to
2015 rates of oil abstraction
they would run out by 2032
BUT if they raised the abstraction rate
it would happen sooner
and
why would Belarus agree to its
southern border region being used
as a staging post for a Russian invasion of Ukraine
in return for
supplies of Russian crude oil
if Belarus has not already run dry?
Belarus not crude
opportunity for a
flanking move arround Kiv
worse than the bloody Welsh with thur
name conundrums


so we've had our say about the limitations of
howitzers in Ukraine style battle
so now we have on our TV screens
pictures of
Katyushia rocket launchers
every insurgeant group since the
Second World War has had Katyushia rockets
they are a much lighter proposition than howitzers
and completely
not steerable
it is a sort of mortar
it looks very impressive when fired but
takes around 50 minutes to load
that is to load a full set
of 24 grenades
or the original 48 taking twice as long
the original rockets were 132 mm
about 5 inch
and a salvo would be the equivalent of a rond from a
75 mm field gun
and you may have seen field guns being re-loaded when
number 24 gun for example salutes are set off
in Hyde park or whatever
it's another shock and awe job
like a
mega stun grenade
antipersonnnel
but not much use against defences
the American version is called
HIMARS
High mobility artillery rocket system
the Russians WON'T have that
thta has the greatest range
2 to 300 km - 1.24 to 189 miles
so NOT a close quarters weapon
generally the warhead is
6 kg - about 12 pounds
each warhead in a salvo will hit a
different target
in any one salvo any one target point will oly be hit once
so it will be about an hour
before the next impact
unless several launchers are operating from
the same platform
the rocket launcher was called
Stallin's Organ
because like the doodle bug V1
it made a whistling sound
there mobility lead to their mode of operation being
referred to as
'shoot and scoot'
the launchers were difficult to destroy because
unlke the howetzers
they could move before
then non-computerised non digital
tageting could get a lock on them
hence now?
not so safe as
non-guided missiles
against
guided missiles
of today
and of couse after Israel was on the receiving end of
4,000 Hezbollah M-21 rockets
the iron shield or dome was specifically designed as a counter measure
5 Israeli dead - 2.300 Gazans
in essance, again, no fly zone
no effect on rocket launchers

GDP
is gross domestic product
it is the turnover of a country's economy
the UK has a GDP just a touch larger than that of
India
and twice the size of Russia's
all way smaller than the USA
the GDp of Russia surged between
2000 and 2008
2008 being the stock market crash
it remains at 2008 level
that is, the pre-crash peak
Russia's GDP is currently just below
that of Italy
if we use 1988 as a starting point
Russia GDP increase 0.5 trillion to 1.2 trillion
Germany GDP increase 1.5 trillion to 4.0 trillion
taking 1960 as a base line
UK GDP
1960 really really small
1980 0.5 trillon
pre-crash 2008 3.0 trillion
2020 2.8 trillion
USA now.. 20 trillion
China now 14.72 trillion
per person
China now 10,000 US dollars
Russia now 10,000 US dollars
Inda now 4,000 dollars
here's a kicker
Russia 2015 15000 US dollars
UK now 40,000 dollars
USA 60,000 dollars
UK pre-2008 crash - 50,000 dollars
US pre-2008 crash - 50,000 dollars
this reflects how much of UK GDP is
financial services related
Russia 10,000 dollars Ukraine 3.726
Poland 15,656 USDollars Portugal 22,439
Germany 45,723 France 38,625
Spain 27,057
Belarus 6,411
Belarus 2013 8,000 Russia 15,000
Belarus, Russia and Ukraine are converging
in the period 2000 to 2014
Russian per person GDP rose
from just lower than Belarus at 13,000
to 16,000
approximately twice that of Belarus at that time
Belarus is reputed to be the poorest country in Europe
its main product is
potatoes and the tractors to cultivate them
there is some sort of cross border trade in
crude and refined petroleum products
Belarus's oil reserves rank 56th in the world
less than one tenth of a per cent of world reserves
it is reported that from March
Belarus will no longer export oil products diretly
but via Russia
essentially
Belarus will import Russian crude and
pass it back after refining as of 2016
Belarus was selling six per cent of its
oil reserves each year
obviously that AMOUNT become a greater per centage each year
so at that rate it will have no reserves by
2032
back to that 10 year figure again


numbers do tend to go out of our heads quickly
so
if Russia were to stop exporting
oil and gas
today
its proven reserves of
oil would run out through home - domestic - consumption
in 55 years
its proven reserves of
gas would run out in
95 years
we may do a little sum later and tell you
when Russia's proven reserves of oil and gas
will run out if we continue to buy them at the present rate
but we know it will be less than 50 years,BR> so it could be the famed 10 years
Russia currently supplies 7 per cent of world gas
and so if the world - say - trippled purchases of Russian gas
they may run out by lunch time
or, within a decade
let's face it

they are stupid and greedy enough
to sell off the gas and oil their
own people
'need'
Russia is not
BIG
on oil and gas
they just
Local to Europe
within pipeline
not
tanker
range
the ability
not VERY new
liquify natural gas
has been a game changer
like switching from
mains to bottled gas



sometimes we hold back from
stating the bleedin' obvious
and then again we have a think
as we see it
the Ukrainian defense is going wel but
their president doe reprisent a slight risk
it appears that he has in mind a narative in which
he can say
we won
but we only won because I......
and at the present it seems his
....
secured us a no fly zone
nd that is something they neither need nor want
they are not being
'bombed'
they have a problem with shelling from
artillery that is probably now
not capable of moving
as we said
big guns on
fragile transporters that by now are
probably completely defunct
in the sense of being mobile
or offering
aiming options
in a sense their efforts are like
trying to break
an already shattered window



we're trying to figure out
president Macron of France
obviously he regards his own electorate -voters
with huge disdain
and to summerise his relationship with
President Putin
his position seems to be
I understand your natives are getting restless
perhaps I could offer you some pointers on how to
get them back into line
in other words
I respect your status as a
World Leader
and we world leaders must stick together
but
steady on old chap
there's none of us as can take our
inate arrogance
too far
in yet other words
you are quite right to treat
little people like shit
be we experts should be
a bit more subtle about it

the thing is
it's nice to be needed
but
the day you take the training wheels off
your kids first bike...
that's a really good day
and it is hard to understand why
the Ukrainians have so much respect for Russia
hard to know why they decidded to resist
if they wanted help so soon
one day our Ricker was playing at home and
he starts to get grief from his mam
getting pestered to go buy something from
the co-op down the road
he'd never done this before
in the end he agreed
he asked for what he had been sent for
handed over the money
and was asked for his
membership number and he gave the
'phone number instead
and was just about to correct himself
when his mother walked into the shop
a bond of trust was broken at that moment
another bloody set up
suppose he was about seven
soo cross
mainly because he didn't get chance to correct his mistake


we need to be a bit clearer
if
NATO, OTAN, Europe, UK, USA, UN
declare war on Russia
Russia will be divded into
Europe
and
China
sectors
China is already way to
big for its boots
having to declare war on China
ti divide it into
Korean China
and
Japanese China
would be tedious in the extreme



space shuttles
Columbia
and
Challenger
appear to have failed causing fatalities
as a result
when they were flying later missions
in an emergency
the autopilot would go into a glide
a hatch would blow out
and the crew would exit by sliding down a pole
swung out like the old time
semaphore signals on the sides of cars...
we may have this wrong but we think at the end of
Dr Strangelove or
the captain of the bomber climbs down into
the bomb bay and releases a jammed nuke
and then being stock
he rides it down as it falls
whooping and brandishing his
cowboy hat
as he goes
you know sometimes history is kind
this is one of those
simple twist of fate examples
the atomic bomings of japan were carried out by
B29 Superfortress bombers
there were a few
Hiroshima was first and
that bomb was dropped from
Enola Gay
named for the pilot's mother
but the Nagasaki bomb was a
switch job
Major Charles Sweeney was flying a plane named for
Captain Frederick Bock
and Bock was flying the plane named by
Major Sweeney
and so
you heard of
Boxcar Willie?
a singer
and a boxcar is a form of
railway truck
and so Captain Bock's plane was called
Bockscar
Bock's car
box car
and Major Sweeney was flying it
when it dropped Fat Man, the plutonium bomb
all three planes and more
returned to base safely
however, as usual we are getting to a point
when any bomb, but especially a nuclear device
is released
the stand off distance is important
you take a Tu-160
built in the 1980s and sold back to Russia by Ukraine
at the time of the break-up of the Soviet Union
and currently Russia's most advance bomber
when you set off to drop a
nuclear device on Ukraine
your stand off distance
the distance you have to be away from the impact
if you want to survive
will put you
over either Russia
or
Poland
kinda sorta
you don't have to FLY over Ukraine
in order to BOMB Ukraine
so bombing don't come into it
and if you want to strafe the population
you use a
helicopter gunship
and you can take one of them dowm
with a catpult
or a drone
they ain't quick
so talk of a 'no fly zone' is
politics not military strategy

the role and title that in the UK is referred to as
Foreign Secretary
probably more properly
Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary
is in the USA denoted
Secretary of State
t the end of World War 2
the US Secretary of State
was
George Marshall
so we owe him a couple of
terminal Ls from below
we probably spelt
Marshall Plan as Marshal Plan
and it is sgnificant to note we did not make the
significant error of referring to a
Martial Plan
in fact officially it is called
The European Recovery Plan
its core work was carried out between
1948 and 1952
it replaced the earlier
punative concept of the
US Secretary of the Treasuary
Henry Morgenthau
the Morgenthau Plan was to destroy
yet again Germany's Military-Industrial combine
the ability to make war materials
The Marshall Plan sort of set that aside and
concentrated on making people in Europe
especially Central Europe
feel a bit of security and dignity
and find better things to do than go to war
rather than to try to destroy all vestages of military might
unfortunately
Stallin rather queered that pitch
by making it essential that Europe kept up its guard against
Soviet Expansion
and so at present
Post Russia
it will be this
hybrid
Marshall-Morgenthau plan
because now there is a real prospect of
China taking the Stallin role
but it has to be said that an administration
such as China
dedicated to
crushing little people
is probably not well prepared for all out war
and 'we' built up China as abulwark gainst a possible
resurgence of Janpan - post WW2
and they are now begnning to
'act outside that role'
to characterise China over the past few decades
give them and inch
and they'll take a mile

HARP
consisntes of the two biggest guns in the world
High Altitude Research Project
they were used to project martlets almost vertically into space
they are
one is rusting, one is action ready
16 inch naval guns
connected end to end
the martlet - a daft word from the fact that the assciated
university has an emblem of a martin peering out of
a gun barrel
the martlet was 5 inch
the gun was 16 inch
the gan was made up with a wooden sabot that fell away
when the martlet exited the barrel
not intended to be accurate so
the barrels are
NOT RIFLED
big guns - not accurate
shock and awe
like
stun grenades
bombardment
not
snpers
the biggest gun in the world weighed 1,500 tons
Nazi natch
150 feet long 40 feet high
2 built<> twins Schwerer Gustav and Dora
800mm rounds
range 24 miles
a crew of 1,400
the biggest guns the
Ukrainians have is the
2S7 self propelled howitzer
203 mm diameter shells
30 mile range and the Russians have
the same hoitzers
but with a firing tec upgrade
designed and built as recently as
1976
Russia has 300
Ukraine 100
Ukraine is supposed to have
13 in working order
each has a crew of 14
Russia has 60 in working order
very very loud
and very difficult to re-load
and will get hot after a few rounds
and the metal will expand
the gun gets hot and expands
the unfired rounds stay cold and
don't fit so good
the big problem the Ukrainians have is
the Russians can use drones to
spot
Ukrainian owitzers
and you don't need a direct hit
to disable a gun like that
but it is far from sure these guns will do damage to
a nuclear power station
they take decades and cost billions to build and
for a reeason
they are
mahusive
wlals many metres thick
they are
already deaf
so the big bang won't scare them
and war is a bit like football
howitzers want to
take on howitzers
not concrete walls
bombarding a concrete wall is
a bit like playing keepy uppy
AND
this is 2022 - not 1922
first shell you lob at a power station
the owners will know exactly where you are
what has probably surprised the Russians most is
how few
fifth columnists
sabateurs, traitors
there appear to be


we probably need to make a couple of things clear about
munitions
although there ar many types and sizes
there are two essential categories
explosive
incendiary
they are both designed to
'go off'
on impact
unless they are a different minor catagory
such as
flares
if they are set to explode at altitude
they will be very very big indeed
an air burst missile
in that sense that category would include
a nuclear device
even if you are dealing with
a track mounted naval gun
a very big gun
essentially the shell will
go sideways
the recoil from a large naval gun being
shot skywards
would do real damage to the gun and its carrier
there is after all that, fundamentally,
absolutely no point whatever having an incendiary round
'go off' in flight
so when you see footage of a bright light
descending qute slowly and almost vertically
it is an incendary that has
hit something on the way down
no ifs or buts
or more precisely
something has hit it
it's shrapnel
probably magnesium
magnesium shrapnel will burn in air



God this next bit makes our Ricker feel realy realy
OLD
he remembers at the time of the
Moon landings
trying to explain to his school mates
that part of the problem with the
Saturn 5
was how to stop the bottom catching up with the top
if you listen to recordings of the launch you will
probably hear
'ingition sequence start'
the sequenxe in essence was
retract the tower
ignite the engines
wait
8 seconds
release the hold down bolts
rockets, missiles car engines
are chemical in power source
a car engine needs
gears - manual or automatic
because it has to
get out of its own way
build up power
if you have a nuke in a submarine
it has essentially
not gears
but
two engines
just as a Saturn 5 has
stages
and the flying brickyard - spaceshuttle
had detachable fuel tanks and a
lift on a Boing
back to the nuke on a sub
one engine does one thing
it slowly
and without damaging it
pushes the missile out of the sub and up through
the water
into the air
where the real engines fire up and we're on our way
a round in a gun....
the breach has to take the full force
of the propellant
every action has an equal and opposite re-action
f you fire a gun
you whack the gun with the same amount of force
that you apply to the round - the bullet or shell
and of course in an automatic
you use some of that force to load the next round


we have a line of thought at present
stemming from the announcement of a
knighthood for Gavin Wiliamson
it did catch our attention that the
chief executive of
Redcar and Cleveland council retired with a CBE
not a damehood
and although there are a few
unlooked for incidents in Redcar
what shall we say
if you were Cleveland Police
you might want your Redcar & Cleveland division
based in TS6 not TS10
but it is not so
at the core we are thinking that it is time for a new era
with all the technological develpments in
law enforcement
it's probably way past time to end the tradition of
hiring disposable people
into the police
really it is probable that far fewer police officers
die on active service
than was expected when the system was first set up
and so we turned our thoughts to
isn't it well past time
Ian Swales - former LibDem MP for Redcar
got HIS knighthood for
services to the chemical process industry
it probably will eventually come
but we think it quite a shame that he did not
use his
anybody but Vera Baird gifted platform to
ease the area's transition away from
fossil extraction
all the way down the road
the media do their thing
and their thing is not to reflect public opinion
Vera Baird was and is a
one trick pony
and for that the people of Redcar
booted her out
was it bacause she just would keep harping on about
male violence towards women
or was it because she would not
discuss
ANYTHING ELSE
today we noted that
The Great Wall of Tesco
a stack of product at the door to
separate people entering from those leaving
has gone
for the second time
since it consisted of logs and windscreen cleaner
perhaps it will be back next winter
but it marks the need for a government to be able to
switch from infectious disease to nuclear fallout
overnight...
and so with Ian Swales
threatened with violence because
fuck wits from TS6 believe the likes of
Andy Macdonald
when they suggest that
their housing association should
replace the solid gold taps in their bathrooms
every time they cash them in at Cashconverters

we should offer a few background ideas to this war
some people refer to Ukraine as
the breadbasket of Europe
for it's wheat production
between 1940 and 1990
the population of Russia has erupted on an
Irish Potato Famine scale from
37 million to 140 million
and since then it has levelled off
Russia too can grow wheat but
without money from oil nd gas
it may suffer
sooo
in Ireland we had
population growth from 2 to 8 million
and then the potato crops began to fail
now in Russia
there is a serious threat of
not being able to trade
oil for wheat
and the problem is on a much larger scale
AND
in that 1940 to 1990 time frame
the population in russia has moved from
rural to urban
ther was a time when somrthing was bad
it was said to be
'in a worse state than Russia'
those times may be returning
perhaps we were a bit vague about why we said we should
regard Ukraine as Israel
and Russia as Palastine
the Russians are attacking Ukrain with
protty much the same weapons as Palestine uses against Israel
shell fire
and Israel has a high tec system to
blow shell out of the air
it wuld seem that Europe has not yet sent a system of this kind
to Ukraine
we wonder why
they have OK's the money
where is the kit?
wwe'll give you the contact detais
Rafael Advanced Defence Systems
Israel Aerospace Industries
or just leave Ukraine to hang out to dry...
as for an
Iron Dome


n a small southern town locals resent the nearby
presence of an Army base
mostly because of the trouble caused by
enlisted men
Officer Michael M Nace (Brian Keith)
is in charge of community relationsnd thinks
a dance might do the trick
but it only serves to
rile up locals and soldiers even more
Thngs come to a head when local Sheriff
Ernest Borgnine
arrests Nace's buddy
Sgt. Gambroni
and Nate borrows a tnk to spring him
welll
the movie is a comedy a comic from the movies...
nobody - not even The Americans
we have that story from World War 1
The National Guard
advancing to offer some relief on the
Front Line
sez to Tommy
Where's that God Damned Shootin' gallery?
hours later they return having been shot to pieces
movie?
Suppose they gave a war
and nobody came


thers's a problem for the
mice that roared scam
we're saying Russia and Ukraine are in it together
hence mice not mouse
if as seems likely
everything of value was removed from the buildings
that are being shelled
tht activity will have beeen recorded
by satellites
and such recon
so?
we have western hacks
in theatre
who are not reporting what they see
but what they are told
the Canadian gal
announcing
in five minutes there will be
an artilery attack
and then there wasn't
or
just like those 'interviews' on Palace Green
timed to have the hecklers available...
srens going off
during interviews - in particular
sirens during interviews
before air raids? - not so much


we detect a change in the approach of
The West
towards the Russia problem
we had a phase of around a week when
the plan seemed to be to
call President Putin out
rather than
snuff him out
now we are moving into
The Mouse That Roared
territory
an impoverished nation declares war on
The USA
hoping to loose and score foreign aid
The Dutchy of Grand Fenwick
in the sense of
looking ahead to
a post fossil fuel future
Russia sees itself as
an impoverished huge country
and so...
the need for a
New Marshal Plan
a plan to re-invent Russia
post oil and gas sales
so America said to Putin
show us wot yer got
not a lot
and Putin says to the world
If I can't be King Boris
if I can't be King of the World
better there is no world
the quid pro quo is
unless we can blame all of this on
President Putin
like we blamed
the whole of the Second World War
on Hitler
the world won't pay for a
Ruskie Marshal Plan
we wonder when it will come to
pearl handled revolver time
what we are pretty cerain of is
there will be no Eva Braun
funny how Braun is a respected Trade Mark
and nothing gets called Hitler

so this is a clarification and includes an admission
of 'error'
kleptomania
is a mental health disease
kleptein Greek - to steal
mania - madness, sometimes less generally, obsession
there is a distinction here between
Russians who kinda won the lottery when
state assets were privatised
some say they were allocated on the basis of
a willingness to support the politicians
doing the divvying up
the kleptocracy bit is kinda applicable to
some in Russia and China
we all think long and hard before
buying from the seller offering
a less good deal than elsewhere
but some people think of
absolutely nothing else but the best offer of money
for something we can sell
and so there is a history of
motor racing, F1 in particular
simplifying all judgements on the basis
who is offering the most money?
tobacco sponsorship
all sorts of deals
so sometimes an external regulator needs to
be the adult in the room
set externally moderated regulations
as to kleptocracy
an uncontrollable or morbid impulse to
steal or secrete things
in that sense it is about
the taking
not the having
thus conning people over buying
antiques or cars
for nothing
or next to nothing
and then letting them rot
in a field or barn


there is talk about
the Russians
laying siege to
Ukrainian towns and cities
given the rubbish they have for
artillery....
in a lot of places thsi would amount to
setting up a
circular firing squad
we draw on long experience
in the First World War
a proportion of British soldiers were
condemed to be
shot at dawn
in reality
at dawn a detachment of soldiers would be
ordered to - at dawn - practice their
marksmanship
by firing at a
blanket with a target on it
they did not know
whether anybody was standing behind that blanket
or if there was, who it was
Russian soldiers
especially artillery divisions
may for a while believe that they are
on a range
firing at practice targets
but it has been clear from
captured and dead Russians that they all carry
very advanced personal
smart 'phones
and will eventually
get wise to
what they are actually doing
as to the Belaruss is a small country
they will have co-operated with Russia up to a point
but when their leaders see
a war crimes tribunal in their futures
they may not see
supplying food and fuel to
Russian troops intent on
laying siege to the Ukrainian cpital
as likely to and as we have hinted
600,000 young Russian middle class men
who currently have
medical exemptions from military service
will not want the criteria to be changed

we sent our Ricker onto Coatham Marsh again today
he thinks
the up rail line across the marsh is
sinking
a speed restriction
it may have to be re-laid
or just tamped
if it just needed tamping they would have done it by now
like we said
if you want it to
Eurostar standards
it will take time and money
we remember some littel arsehole emerging from the
entrance lodge - gatehouse - of Teesworks
to harange our Ricker about walking the
Teesdale Way
as it crosses the entrance to Teesworks
now a section of the
boardwalk on the >BR> Teesdale Way as it crosses Coatham Marsh
installed twenty years ago
has been removed and replaced with a
sandstone rubble enbankment
we note from his pics that
the main development on the Redcar works demolition is
they've disconnected the
sinter plant from its chimney








t is the baseline, default, norm
in modern history to downplay
British achievments
and so a kind of baseline to
the history of the Second World War is
Churchill failed to defeat Hitler
so Stallin had to do it for him
it is really quite important not to
overestimate the enemy
we know of one shining light in
Russian military hardwear
it is the
Antonov
anywhere in the world when you want anything
really very big
delivered by air
you call
Antonov Airlines
and this provides an insjght into
The Russian Air Force
there is no genuine suggestion of
Top Gun
in the Russia Air Force
Russia's elite air force units are
paratroopers
anyone from around the world who wants to
fly cargo
will consider applying to join
The Russian Air Force
to put that in context
the maximum payload of an Antonov is
250 tons
essentially with the Russian Air Force
you just get more of the same - quicker
if you have a suitable landing strip
you can get 250 tons of
infantry in your back yard
pronto
but actually
what the Antonov was designed for was
shifting
rocket boosters
250 tons at a time
and remember
all Russian tec is
knock off
they are presently using
Cruise Missiles
to
not so much effect
Cruiseki Missiles
they have 150 launchers
and the launchers will be
mobile?
but not essentially
protected
150 launchers - probably not all in range of Ukraine
sent up
100 missiles
on Sunday
first
did they hit anything
anything that could be called
a target
anything they intended to hit?
we carry some scepticism that
any of the launchers
carry alingside them further missiles
or are n a fit state to reload in the short term
this campaign is providing
massive amounts of data on
what Russian tec is actually capable of
we suspect that the Cruiseki crews are accustomed to
swanning arond
military parades with their launcher and their one missie and last weekend was their
first opportunity to
press the go button
if your strategy is
Blitzcreag - shock and awe
do you bother with
targeting?


we can often offer a reading list
without actually reading more than a review of the book
in that spirit we offer
Yuri Poliakov's
One hundred days until the Order
the Russian Army is a conscript army
BUT
two factors
Russia is corrupt in that sense of
money can buy you anything
and it can buy you exemption from the draft
we can't pin this down but some say that
men between 18 and 27 are liable to the draft
we are not sure how long
Russian National Service lasts
but 250,000 are conscripted every year
leaving 600,000 who avoid the draft???
the men who get conscripted tend to be
1 poor and ill educated
or
2 regarded as disident
they get hazed, bullied etc.
and some commit suicide in
'death by cop' shooting sprees
this is worse than
Dad's Army
ths is
The Dirty Dozen
Clockwork Orange
all that kinda shit
NOT Lions lead by Donkeys
morons lead by psychos
more like

so far as we can see....
Ukraine is taking care of the
geriatric Russia troops
it appears that the tactic is
hold them up in the cold and they will
use up their fuel keeping warm
and then we canremove them from their vehicles
to a new old folkes' home
you know what
if you didn't know better
you would cast
Ukraine as Israel
and
Russia as Palestine
all the whilewe're thinking
all those care home resdents
strung out along roadsides
in Ukrainian snow
we saw the pictures of
young - 69 - year old President Putin
being visited by his
grandfathers
the miltary chiefs
we thinking of Mr Putin as
The Young Mr Grace
in Afganistan we saw
fictional fighters
in the Afgan forces
people who were on the payroll
but never paid because they didn't exist
now we see
residents of the
Russian
military retirement homes
out on a day trip and
caught in a snow storm
this would be the key statistic
what is the average age of
Russian Military Personel?
as for
Air Power
yoy probably don't know what
Concordeski
was
but it was a Russian version of the
Anglo-French supersonic airliner
Concorde
built from plans
stolen plans
like a
model aircraft
built from plans out of a magazine
there are two essentials here
what we are seeing is not
USSR versus the fuzzy wuzzies
this is
Russia the rural sector of the USSR
versus
Ukraine the industrial part of the USSR
it's a bit like
we exaggerate here
Manchester United
all the fans live in London
Russia
manchester City
all the fans live on Merseyside
Ukraine
Concordeski - Tupolev Tu-144



in the 1964 Stanley Kubrick movie
Dr Strangelove or:
how I learned to stop worrying,BR> and love the bomb
an American Brigadier
puts the world on the verge of
a nuclear catastrophe when he deploys a
B-52
on the Russians whithout
notifying his superiors
in Rugby Union
perhaps League
it's called
getting your retaliation in early
anybody who puts on facebook
I've got a knife and I'm comming for you
is likely to
to get shot en route
Openheimer
the father of the A bomb
opposed the development of the H bomb
the A bomb flattened a couple of Japanese cities
the H bomb could
split a lump off the moon
are you SURE yer hard enough
what;s that lake called?
used to called Mocba
or some such

imagine all those people who are
rejecting fresh food from food banks
and 'going for' the ready meals because
they can't cook
and then consider Russia
exporting crude oil
but having to
'buy back' petroleum products because
they have little or no refining capacity
and in this connection
it is important to consider
terminology
an oil terminal
is not an
oil refinery


we have taken a few minutes to consider Russia
the biggest iron mineing and steel production company/city
Magnitogorsk
ranks 30th in the world and is way out east in the Urals
what we see in general is
some export of metals
mostly we see export of
crude oil
our impression is that
a small number of people of
Russian heritage
are taking profits from the export of
crude oil from Russia
and investing those profits in
part and full ownership of
ndustries that should be located in Russia
but are actually located in
and providing employment in
Europe
Germany...
in effect
it could be said that
Russian cleptocrats own
vast swathes of
central european industry
and they think
hell why don't we own the country?
it's a bt like
you own orange groves Sevlle in Spain
and - historically - they are sold to
Dundee to make mrmalade
why isn't Dundee
a colony belonging to Spain?


at this time
the deal seems to be
China is watching to see whether
'the world'
stops Russia taking over Ukraine
as a guide to
whether 'the world' would step in to defend
Taiwan
if China invaded
so far as we can tell the leadership in China is
a pun here?
somewhat jaded and
thinking of invading Taiwan
for a bit of fun
and it wouldn't be fun if
Enola Gay II
set out to kiss Peking


pools of quiet desperation
our Ricker tries to be available
within reason
it's just one of those days
a 60 year old qualified
heavy large vehicle driver
somehow
how?
a couple of years ago he
acquired
perforated bowel
guts leaking through his belly button
and he gets
TWO stoma bags
one on the large and one on the samll intestine
and somehow
good enough for government work
this is not an isolated case
the NHS seems to say
if you're not gonna die this week
you don't get treatment
it's a puzzling case
all we can think is that
there are two perforations in the gut and
each has been given a stoma bag
to the casual observer
if the guut is free enough for material to reach why not seal the stoma in the small intestine?
we have to think that this guy
who woke up leaking
must have had a severe beating the night before...
there just seems to be an attitude of
patch 'em up
and send 'em back out
as though
James Cook is being run like a
M*A*S*H
mobile army surgical hospital
very puzzling

we are beginning to unpick the Russian strategy
going way back
after the Second World War
The Allies
UK, France, USA and somewhat detached Russia
agreed to rebuild Germany
on condition - a condition prevously
flouted by Hitler after the First World War
that Germany would not have
'a military'
and so Germany feels weak in the face of Russia,BR> The United nations cannot defend anybody from Russian aggresion
NATO is a UN surrogate
soo
Russian Oligarchs - cleptocrats
say to Mrs Merkel
at the first available excuse
you will shut down your nuclear energy facilities
and then...
in the evergreen context
let's keep the UK out of this
a nuclear plant in Japan decides
to keep its spent nuclear fuel
in the loft - roof space - above the reactors
instead of sending it to
Sellafield for reprocessing
and a Toon Army
tsunarmym whetever
hits the plant and the
accident is the
Russian gun to Merkel's head
and now we see what the objectives of
the Russian forces in Ukraine are
there are around 4 nuclear power stations in Ukraine
including Chernobyl
and the aim of the invasion is to shut them down
so that they cannot supply non fossil energy
to Germany
there are 15 reactors in Ukraine
and
the SWIFT - money laundering system will
stay in place until
reactors in France are
switched to replace them in supplying Germany
the latest country to
bite the hand that feeds it
in terms of
deliberate attempts to piss off tourists
is
Turkey
so we don't at this point give a damn what our
lick spittle media have been told to call
Peking
what we are thinking is
around Peking in China
the terms
Russia
and
Paper Tiger
are probably paired in general circulation
we shall see what we shall see
as for India...
a better place since they kicked out the British?
not so sure
this idea in President Putin's mind that
the Ukrainiand people had the same attitude
towards Russia as
Afganistan has towards The Taliban....
it does leave body thinking
regarding Afghan women
methinks the lady doth
protest too much
Afgan women versus The Taliban
Ukraine women versus Russia
discuss
may be an essay title at some future time
as the comic in drag used to say
Ooo you are awful, but I like you
Dick Emery

at this moment we feel somewhat distanced from
Ukraine
and from Russia
we know Europe buys a lot of Natural Gas from Russia
but the activities of President Putin are confusing
we like to think outside the box
and outside the box we were reminded of
King Cnute or Canute
the singular incident in the life of King Cnute was
demonstrating to his court that he
could/could not hold back the tide
over and again leaders of Russia and
the USSR and such have played
Wizard of Oz
to the American people
some fearing him
some wanting to be on his team
familiarity breeds contempt
that thing where a child moves from
my dad is the king of the world
to
my dad should be in a home
from the standpoint of the 'Western World'
it's vital that
Ukraine is seen to stand alone aginst Russia
to provide a true test of
Russian capabilities
the Cnute thing is about
is Pres. Putin under pressure to
do something
in the past it has been said that
The Space Race
was between
America's Germans (Nazis)
versus Russia's Germans
but another line of thought says that
Americans who were taken up with the
Russian Wizzard
handed American space secrets to the Soviets
and Gagarin was firts into space because
the Russians were more focussed
and less questioning about the
blueprints they were handed
when we say 'less questioning' we mean
in a dictatorship you get one shot
what the boss decides
in a democracy you get debate
and sometimes debate descends into
we'll support whatever the other lot don't want
Pres.Putin is presently 69
not old
without doing the simple checks we think
ex-wife, two daughters, one or two ex-sons-in-law
how much pressure from the younger generation?
we talked about
Henry and Edsel Ford....
there could be very personal drivers behind this
recent conflict
not dementia but family rift
the whole world can find itself
going to hell in a handcart
over a very small scale generational rift



this Ukraine thing is unfolding in a
tragic but fascinating way
we saw with Salisbury - the poisoning
that the people at the top in Russia
fairly clearly believe that
they own the world
that they can go anywhere
do anything
because they are treated lke that in their
everyday lives because they are rich
what the video shows is that
the Russians either don't have
or thought they wouldn't need
air superiority
the whole thing at present has the air
militarialy
or having started with a
'mopping up' exercise
expecting to be welcomed as liberators of
a downtrodden lumpen proletraiat
Russians come to liberate their
Ucranian brother and sisters from their
Nazi oppressors
and that is an interesting insight into
the Russian view of Europe
that is is still riven by
East Germany
versus
West Germany
and that does not even go as far as to recognise that
East versus West Germany is
post Nazi
tacticly....
what could happen is
perhaps half of Russia's land forces are
trapped in Ucraine
and without air support
without re-supply
they will be forced to surrender
that may seem over optimistic
but it is not beyond possibility
so this could be
Battle of the Bulge
A Bridge too Far
territory for Russia

we kinda think the sculpture just got wrapped up
rather than re-furbed
the sculpture is called
Left Luggage
and so whether or not
more feature films will be made on
Redcar front venue for
communal watching of movies
anyway
a couple of shots of maps from the archive to
perhaps show the relative
historical sizes of
Middlesbrough
and
Redcar
but honestly
they were both too small to notice
and
of all the 'places' in the south half of the
Tees Bay
the first to grow was
Marske-by-the-Sea
and speaking of the bay
how difficult is it to find contractors who as
as thick as demolition contractor and can
drive sheet pilling through
mains sewer?
as yesterday at Cat Nab car park, Saltburn
do they recruit from
head injury departments at major hospitals?



to be clear
what Putin is saying is
continue to buy our
oil and gas
or
it;s curtains for the kitten
the trouble for him is
he has no kitten
we have un=classified information that we do not want to share
but
setting things in context
population - ball park
UK 60 million
Russia 144 million
Ukraine 44 million
Belarus Russia client state? 9 million
what we want to point out at this time is
when petroleum importing countries
pay for the goods they do not tke much care to
ensure the wealth is well distributed across the
populations of the exporting countries
this means that a loss of petroleum income
in those countries
affects the living standards of a
small
not
a large
number of people
Russia is a very very large country
and it has maybe twice the population of the UK
but a very significant proportion of the land is
producing
timber
and
wheat
and that and the export of that
is what the people of Russia live on
loss of oil and gas markets will affect
the oligarchs
the smal number of people who have
cornered the oil and gas market
thusly...
the Russian people occupy an economy that is
Green
the oligarchs are the only people
involved in the fossil extraction game
and it is wheat and timber that as time goes on
Russia will have to sell to the world
there are two other things to say about the populations of both
ukraine and Russia
the population of Ukraine has falled from
51 million in 1991 to 44 million now
and the population of Russia has long
plateaued
and the populations of both countries are
ageing
nether country is overflowing with
fit young people available to fight
infantry wars
if there is a lot of hand to hand fighting
most of it will be done by
middle aged reservists


a couple of things are happening at
The Redcar Regent
this week
first, however, we will say that the
restaurant is being referred to as
cafe
so what will be available apart from coffee ice cream
and a sea view
we are not sure
the ceiling of the
entrance canopy
and the cafe varandah
are getting some
serious re-work
but the major outside work is
the return of the
sculpture that was presented to the town as a
thank you
by the producers of the movie
Atonement
battle scenes of which were filmed on Coatham Sands
we have sought not to distract the contractors
but it appears that the sculpture has been
refurbished
and has returned to its original location
se what we did there
location filming...
oh never mind
should be clear for viewing by the weekend
unless 'they' pla another unveiling

we're not saying that the
CoViD 19 epidemic is over but
we think we have reached the point for a review
because out Ricker has always struggled with
fatique and cramp in the hands and fingers
he was never one for writing
screeds
long long essays
and so he
for comfort's sake
developed a style that was oft described as
pithy
so the pithy up sum of CoViD 19 to date?
the virus appears to have read the textbooks
and the Public Health officers
appear not to have done
but we are not counting
The Ladybird Book of
medsun
as a textbook
although our Ricker would claim some credit for
linking the known facts in a logical fashion



what a wonderful thing
the interweb
our Ricker is full of half remembered quotes
I like work; it fascinates me.
I can sit and look at it for hours
and so the internet sets us off to discover
who is/was
Jerome K Jerome?
answer...
he wrote
Three Men in a Boat
a humerist
died around 1927

our Rcker is of a generation who were effectively
employed to go to university
no loan, only grants
academic apprentices
and so our Ricker is grateful for tht investment in him
a part of that was and Ricker took many many courses
including for those who remember
botany 101 - not literally - with
David Bellamy
they still call one of the halls at
Kirkleatham Old Hall Museum slightly wonky
in some of his ideas
out of favour but not for
personal reasons
bit of a global warming sceptic
most of the courses Ricker did were
things such as
genetics and immunology
and what we want to point up today is that
whatever the specialism of the lecturer
they would all the time be trying to pitch how
it could be applied to
Cancer Research
because that was seen as where the fame and fortune lay
......


say you have a charty and it employs
200 people as
public relations, social workers, case workers
say the running costs, including wages, come from
charitable donations and government grants
and you specialise in
domestic violence
if 100 women are unlawfully killed in a
domestic context
each year
that's around
4 per case worker
and you are not the only charity in the sector
so
to keep the money coming in
you need to prioritise
a broader range of
clients
clearly a ded woman isn't much of a client
but you could get some fees from
caring for the relatives and pursuing the perp
so what are the
'dog whistle' words in the field
rape, indecent
so you expand your remit to include
rape and indecent assault and your
business plan says
6,000 reports - industry wide
we can get a share of that
but it isn't enough
your case workers are
underutilised
so you widen your definition of sexual assault
to include
coercive and controlling behaviour
and here is the neat trick
don't call it bullying because
that's gender neutral
invent a new term
and reserve it to
female victims
here's the problem
every time you
extend your remit
you expand your workload
but you have 50 case workers
if you go up a single notch in terms of
the scope of your remit
you go from
6,000 reports from complinants
to 60,000 expsessions of concern from third parties
to
600,000 vulnerable people
esentially
you can't
double your workload
by
expanding your remit
each time you increase your remit
your potential workload increases
tenfold
and if your case workers have
ample time with a client
there is a 'risk' the client will
cease to be
vulnerable
and will disappear from your rosta of
tragic biographies
unless you hire
complete incompetants
you run the risk of
working yourselves
out of a job
social work charities
NEVER
pitch for funds on the basis
look how much GOOD we've done
they always pitch on
look how DANGEROUS this world is


regular readers will know that we have
downplayed mutations
over recent years
when somebody works very hard to achieve
qualifications and employment status
it can be hard to dscover that all that
'stuff' they worked so hard to lern off by heart
needs major or even minor modifications
it can leave a body all at sea
Dr. Barnardo
of NSPCC clone fame
is supposed to have said
excepting The Bible
once he qualified as a doctor
never to read a book, ever again
we have noted the
Director? of Public Health for
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
presently embarked on
early retirement at the age of 61
we know not why and we do not stand behind the details
CoViD 19 has put a strain on health professionals
in many ways
our Ricker welcomes the
billions spent on trying to prove him wrong
in his thesis that there would be a
handfull of major variants
but there comes a time
a time to say
QED
to say
Quad Erat Demonstrndum
thus we have shown the answer
this is how we have proved our case
thta is the difference between
maths and science
in maths you end your calculations with
QED
because you have got from a to B
logically and within the rules of mathematics
however
a lot of the 'workings' of mathematicians are
way more complicated than
e equals m c squared
why?
because of all the
fiddle factors
that have to be added in
to make the
'difficlt sums'
come out 'right'
in science you say QED when
you simply run out of tenable, logical
objections to the idea
you set out to disprove the 'theory'
and eventually
you give up trying
a few years ago our Ricker had to tell
a hosptal optometrist with 32 letters after his name
that he had something wrong
but why did he need 32 letters after his name?
mostly masters degrees
a man not sure he was
on top of his job
seeking re-assurance by
doing more and more
university courses....

we recently watched a programme on
PSB
Public Service Broadcasting
we don't know the difference between
PSB and HBO...
a bit like the BBC
the programme was about Henry Ford
the general view of Henry Ford is that he
invented the assemby line
it's probably not quite true
in any situation where a lot of people are
making the same product
in time induvidual will specialise in one
element of the process
and ancient ship builders did that
anyway...
Henry Ford 'invented' the Model T Ford motor car
and the fact that it was simple
appealed to 'simple people'
or people who wanted a motor vehicle and didn't have time
for choices and decisions
Henry resisted the coming of a new model
he amde around 13 million model Ts
and a whole lot of social and economic history
in mid 20th century America revolved around him
and we have previously noted that a lot of peope drive
on the wrong side of the road because
Henry Ford was left handed and
had all those cars made to suit himself
at a time when road amrkings and street furniture were
largely unknown
so when you design the first 10 millon of so cars in America
the roads get built to suit
but this
any colour so long as it's black
ran deep
he didn't do that because it was easy or cheap
which it was
he did it because he believed that every American
should have a car
but they shouldn't have anything
fancy
including cars in fancy colours and styles
he felt a deep sense of failure when the company eventually
launched the model A
as regards fancy,BR> and Fords being an everyman car
so far as we can tell
when you ought a Model T from a Ford dealer
you bought if for - not very much - cash
in was with the introduction of the Model A
that dealer finace was introduced
Henry Ford wanted to do something complex
he wanted to - no to stay in business he needed to
sell fancy cars but he wanted to continue to sell them to
people who wanted a
farm truck
and to this day - Ford or otherwise
in much of the USA the
pick up truck
is the maist desirable vehicle
and in Australia it is
the Ute
utility vehicle
and in the UK - what with the weather and that
we have
white van man
the Ford Transit
and thus Henry Ford was more
the producer of mass market consumer goods
not the inventer of the
production line
assembly lne
so he had an interest in
lifestyles of the common people
but to
make them
a uniform as possible
not
as comfortable as possible
so he was not an Elon Musk type character
he did not skip from project to project
he wanted people to stay
down on the farm
but to be dependent on him for a supply of his
Model Ts
he craved control
not power
??
he hated his
River Rouge factory
where he made his Model As
and spent a lot of time at his own version of
Beamish open Air Museum
only his wasdevoted to precisely the era when
his Model T was launched
Weald and Dowland Museum more like...
Singleton, West Sussex
you create a great advance in the human condition
and then regret it
on a personal level he was married to the same person for a long time
and he had a son called
Edsel
who didn't succeed him because
he died aged 49 from
stomach cancer
broughton by the ulcers his father gave him because
henry wanted to keep on making the Model T and in terms of social history
Henry Ford kept control of the company because
he had
red neck, blue collar, customers who
applauded his simple ways
but those simple ways came to an end
during World War 2 when to get
government contracts
he had to recognise labour unions and
employee protections or various sorts
and due to sales fluctuations
selling shares in the company
and here is an important issue
Henry Ford 'ragged' his son Edsel
because he wanted to have
blazing rows with him
instead Edsel remained calm
internalised the stress
and the resulting cancer
that killed him in his 40s
but there is a greater issue
Henry Ford built a massive and important industry
but as a result he suffered from what we now call
imposter syndrome
he was
out of his depth
and reacted by diring gangsters to
enforce his simplified view of
how the company
and society
should be run
he was torn between
wanting to retreat to his
model village
and not wanting Edsel to
turn Ford into General Motors
with their
decadant products



it is a major characteristic of modern life that many people living in small siloes
think that their view of the world is
universal
apart from a few weirdoes
if people from the 'masses' rarely cross the paths of
silo dwellers
the silo dwellers can think they are in an
'equal fight' with people who
actually represent the majority
and so when they pursue the promotion of their ideas
they think they are setting out to
convert of expell a deviant minority
and so
when we see two significant Tory politicians
or is it 3
Ian and Duncan Smith
and
Boris Johnson
converting to Roman Catholicism
whilst in post as public figures
we have to set back and think
why do so amny people in 'public life'
have such strange ideas? and so we focus of this
mantra
'THIS' has destroyed this person's life
we are thnking outside the box
the mainstream box
the mainstream western box
and thinking
we said Jerry Lee Lewis was able to
marry his 13 year old cousin
we wonder whether the people who passed
and maintained the enabling law
believed in the concept of
rape within marriage
thye have a new mantra
if you like it
put a ring on it
Jerry Lee Lewis lost credence with his
Rock and Roll origins
but became a huge
Country Star
in the - possibly Evanangelical or
Born Again
sectors of Christianity
life s simple?
marry it and you can do whatever you like with it
and that is a worry
but what we are willing to consider is that some of these people
and we assume this covers a lot of judges in
The family Division
are awaiting
The Second Coming
of Jesus (the) Christ
and that they have some sort of idea that
at the Second Coming
the virgins will be saparated from the rest
does this have something to do with
burrying children in white coffins?
and will go directly to heaven
but the rest will have to spend some time
in purgatory
and purgatory is 'no place for a child'
some people believe that this life on Earth of the actual purgatory
so the presence of children is a puzzle
so that they thus justify
child abuse
on the basis that they wouldn't be here if
they hadn't been at it already
there does seem to be
within 'the authoritarian mind'
a concept of
sex as punishment
in other words
and this will shock a lot of modern minds
within living memory
teachers saw corporal punishment as
a part of their work
undertaken for the benefit of the child
sapre the rod and spoil the child
up and down the UK
within living memory
children were being caned on a regular basis

we have no confidence in
UK foreign policy
but we would say we expect
hesidency from the UK
but error from the USA
whenever we 'disagree with'
a western government
but we will offer an insight into
The Russian Position
Russia is a very large country
no matter how poor the general population
of a country
it takes a very small percentage of
the wealth of each individual in
a very large country
to make at top brass look very well off indeed
in other words just because some Russians
appear to be 'rolling in it'
it does not follow that
the country is wealthy
the second dimension of being a very large country
is more intense if - relative to, say, the USA
your country is both very large
AND
thouroughly
Land Locked
what we are working up to is that Russia has
three major neighbours
Europe
South Asia
China
if you are a very large country and
have access to
the oceans
only via access past neighbouring countries
you have a different task in demonstrating
military capacity - especially naval capability
from other 'super powers'
even North Korea can
launch missiles into the Pacific
but launching missiles is not very but more importantly
such wealth as Russia has is mainly in
oil and gas
here's the deal we would do if we were
what s it?
The Kremlin
we would say it Europe
if you want us to stop selling you
ol and gas
you must go along with a sort of medium term
at least
1 don't exercise your troops anywhere near CHina
2 exercise them nearer to Europe that any other neighbour
because, as we say in the medium to long term
you need to replace oil and gas sales to Europe
with
sales of something? to China
sooo
if you seek a strong negotiating position with
China
you don't mass your troops on your border with
China
you mass them on your border with Europe
and you
ah hem, suggest that...
you could MOVE them

we understand that it's raining in London
perhaps Mrs Johnson woudld like the
Downing Street garden converted into a
conservtory
and then when the
LibDems get into power they can
re-deignate it as an
orangery
and if the Labour get in
they can set up a
micro-brewery in there

we understand that
O2 have taken over
Virgin Mobile in some way
we are wondering who thought
naming a tent in central London
was good PR for a mobile 'phone company
from memory
O2 belogs to
Telefonica
perhaps their big chiefs
have never visited London

it is somtimes amusing
sometimes annoyng
the way politicians pressed for
today's headline
choose answers at random
we know that if the cameras had not
been rolling when the
Hindenburgh caught fire
selling hydrogen power for cars would a whole lot easier
but we have a second front of bad news for the
battery advocates
what we call a battery is not always a battery
AA and AAA 'bateries' are not batteres
they are cells
a battery is a collection
a battery sergeant major is
in charge of a battery of guns
a chef has a
battery de cuisine - kitchenalia
pots pans knives
here's the thing
when we 'charge' a cell or battery we
drive a chemical reacation that is
in equilibrium
to an extreme
an extreme from which it can only recover by
pushing electrons through a circuit
a cell is an electrochemical energy store
that 'disruption' of that chemical equilibrium is
a chemical process that
proceeds over time
not all electrical and electronic apparatus
requires cells or batteries
almost anything electronic requires
capacitors
some capacitors are classified as
electrolytic
we have smoothing capacitors and electrolytic capacitors
an electrolytic capacity has
polarity
a positive and a negative terminal
it is a dialectric capacitor
there are three types of electrolytic capacitor
aluminium
tantalum
niobium
the metal oxidises when charges and becomes the annode
a gel on the surface becomes the cathode - negative terminal
the word is
ther's a new kid on that block
an iron electrolytic capacitor
and the word is
capacitors are NOT
Not electrochemical devices
they are electrostatic devices
so they can be 'charged' with
a lighting bolt
got the right gear
got a big enough capacitor
you can charge it i
milliseconds
probably capacitors are also called condensers
one of the three physics teachers at our Rickers school
Mr Hudson - who never taught him??
had been in electronics during the war
working in huts
one day there was an explosion in one of the huts
they all rushed to help
and
an electrolytic capacitor had exploded
we won't tell you why but
electrolytic capacitors
store energy


our Ricker is - of most things
a casual observer
and in the context of
hatches battened down for a storm
random observations are the basis for
creative thoughts
some time this week our Ricker observed
a TransPennine train
in platform 2
where they normally are
the down line
and as it sat there
half a TransPennne train
passed it on the up line
and secondarily
ther previous weekend
TransPennine trains
normally headboarded
Manchester Airport
or Manchester Piccadilly
were apparently going to
terminate in York
this brings us to
crewing of these trains
because they are made up of
two three car rakes
the minimum crew is
1 driver and 2 conductors
it is not passible to move
from one three car set to the other
when the train is in motion
in these current times of
conductor shortages and strike action
the operator has two options for
keeping services running
if the crew is reduced to
1 driver 1 conductor
1 lock up one train set
2 drop 1 train set
if you drop one you save fuel
the question would be
where do you drop a set of three caothes?
as far as we know TransPennne Express
are not in dispute with their drivers
and so
running a train set down to Saltburn
to wait for conductor seems...
practicable
platform 2 at Redcar central is
the TPE platform and is the
matchstick - temp - platform
sooo
we wonder whether
we have
3 car
6 car
and
9 car
TPEs running..
it will all be about
rush hour trains at the Manchester end


a snippet from the Tannoy in Morrisons
has set out Ricker on another flight of fancy
it was just the particular line of
Band of Gold
that struck him
that night on their honeymoon
they slept in separate rooms
now we know the words of songs are
often chosen to fit the structure
but what struck was
rooms
not
beds
or whatever
and so a much more
Rock'n'Roll
explanation comes to mind
what if
his 'room' was
a police cell?
what if
he had been arrested
1 during a brawl
2 because the cops knew where to find him
3 because the bride was
Jerry Lee Lewis style - under age
at one point
Jerry Lee Lewis married his
13 year old cousin
and that was legal
but it does perhaps
fore-shadow
Prince Andrew considering
an under-age bride
interesting how
at one stage in one state in the USA
marrying a 13 yer old was legal
and in another in another era
hugging a 17 year old is
quasi illegal
that is all fancy because we are quite sure the song
referrs to
Little Richard
who was married to a woman for three or four year
despite being gay

below is a bit of a rant about geography
but the issue is important
there was a middle ranking police officer with
Cleveland Police called
Ray Mallon
and before his removal as a police officer
after pleading guilty to
charges of misconduct
when he became elected mayor of Middlesbrough
he initially assumed that he was
major of the entire
Cleveland police area
He is an independent politician
and Andy Macdonald is a Labour politician
but they are both involved in a
Middlesbrough culture in which
anybody who says or does anything
they don't understand
is deemed mentally ill
what we are trying to do is say
you can bring your business to
Stockton-on-Tees
or
Redcar and Cleveland
without
Cleveland Police being officially tasked
with pouring over the history of
yourself, your employees
your company
for evidence of witchcraft


sometimes you have to wonder
yesterday the BBC described
Loftus
as
On Teesside
we like that
it's better than in Teesside
but Loftus is
In Cleveland
it is east of Guisborough
we do think that perhaps
the BBC has reviewed its policy of
describing every location as
near (name of nearest premiereship Soccer stadium
and are now experimenting with the idea of using
near the nearest
parliamentary constituency with
a Labour MP
it all smacks of desperate attempts to be
down with the proles
in text but not as live by talking head presenters
to be clear
teesside is not a place
it does not exist
The County Borough of Teesside
DID exist
1968 - 1974
Teesside is now a term for
the area on each side of the river Tees
in its lower reaches
and stands as a aprt of
The Tees valley
which is the entire
rainwater catchment of
the river Tees
you can't be
IN a river bank
you can be in a river and
on a river bank
Redcar and Cleveland
is a remnant of
The County Borough of Cleveland
in broad terms it is what remains of
County Cleveland
when you remove
the banks of the river Tees
and so
in parliamentary terms
Middlesbough South and East cleveland is
the eastern half of Cleveland COunty
minus Redcar and minus Middlesbrough
Redcar and Cleveland
Redcar and Guisborough
Redcar and Cleveland County Borough Council's offices
are split
some departments are in
Redcar Community Heart
and some are in Guisborough
from memory - planning is in Guisborough
in that sense there is no duplication
just a split
we did note that Queen Elizabeth chose to have a picture of
her late father and not her late husband
at her side in recent addresses
we suspect that
distancing from Andrew will morph into
distancing from Phil the Greek
in other words Philip will get the blame for
Andrew's unacceptable actions
and we guess we missed a geberation in the Eillen story
we suppose she was the daughter os a daughter or a son of one of the
original Low Houslop sons
we are not sure

the two alternate free to air channels
DMAX and Quest
used to belong to Discovery 31 per cent owned by Advance
it has contracts to show BBC repeats etc
and is male focused
on those two channels
and one of the series on those channels is
Kindig Customs
about a high end
restomod car refurbisher comapny in Salt Lake City
and the main comic thread is provided by the
workshop manager
Kevin
known as KevDOg
who behaves as though he s the owner's son
mainly because the owner's son is
not in the business - in most episodes
so that was background for people who don't know Kev Dog
and so...
Andy macdonald is
the KevDog of Tees Valley politics
he may have skills
but he is unwilling to demonstrate them

when you are autistic
you can get very stressed if
events deviate from the norm
and some autistic people
enter the
justice industry
in order to
'set the world to rights'
but what they don't know is
right from wrong
they cannot make
value judgements
or
risk assessments
they just strive for a
Stepford Wives
society
where anything goes
so long as
everybody is in
lock step


long time devotees to thsi site will remember hw
we used to bang on about
Low Houslop Farm at Tow Law
the origins of
The Robsons
so we will remember
Thomas William Robson
married somebody called Baker
the children
Margqaret Annie Jane Thomas John George James William
William 1863 to 1948
died at Cowpen Bewley
whilst living in
Haverton Hill
caught in a snow storm
he married Sarah Ann
they had Selina and Thomas
then they divorced and he married
Mary Eleanor Moorhead
and they had
Janet isobel - Auntie Jenney
wot married John Clough
who's brother Joe
was the father of
Old Big 'ead
Brian Clough
managed some southern clubs
Leeds?
The Damned United
Tom Baker Robson -our Ricker's dad
1897 - 1979
married Elizabeth Ord
1901 - 1951
and Eva May Frank 1916 - 1985
our Ricker's mam, mother
George Frederick 1899 to ?
Robert William 1901
Eunice 1903 - 1995
Mabel and her twin Annie 1905
so
Bob - Robert William
married Ruth Fry 1905 - 1991
and they had
Brian in 1930
and Brian married Enid
and they had
Howard and Alastair
and one of them was a vicar
and the other one was
a pathologist at
ST Thomas' in London
having trained originally in Cardiff
Bob and Ruth also
'had' Eileen
but
she was somebody who was born to
a daughter of a duaghter of one or the original
Thomas John George or James
of Low Houslop
if she was born around 1950
then her mother was probably born around 1930
and was living in???
some town in Durham
Bishop Auckland perhaps
much more likely
Ferryhill
so anyway,
it was an adoption within the family
and we really don't know
whether it was ever
official
just a ase of moving kids around the family to
more suitable homes?
but in a sense a lesson in
genes are more important than documents
but at the same time
Eleen probably made
than she would have done if
she had stayed with her mother
not that she would have been allowed to
in those days
we assume that Eileen was adopted very young
and we have a couple of stories about her...
Ruth - her mum thought she was a
really good reader
until she discovered that she had learned the stories
in her story book
off by heart
and the other thing was
Eileen was nurseand she knew doctors
and she married an engineer
because she thought her dad would prefer that
and that was after she had turned down a
marriage proposal from a doctor
because she tought her dad would not approve
either of him being a doctor
or of him being Asian
and the marriage she did have to
please her dad
didn't last long

perhaps this IS an appropriate topic for
St. Valentine's Day
The English Calendar Riots of 1752
in 1752 eleven days in September were
skipped
in order to chnage over from
the Julian Calendar
to
The Gregorian Calendar
leading to the slogan or demand
give us back our eleven days
the next major event of similar proportions was in
1840
raiways began to use
London Time
GMT
Greenwich Mean Time
all over the country

and now we have the internet and
alongside a whole range of
universal electronic 'handshake@ protocols
we are confronted with the prospect of
calls for and against
GMM
London or
Greenwich Mean Morality
people calling
'what about the children'
are arguing for
The Julian Calendar
or
'local time, for local people'
local morality
demanding 'federl laws be
in conformity with
Parish Pump Prudery
Nutbush City Limits
motorcycles not allard in it
BrExit
happened because
Britain was not sufficiently consulted over
European Federal Laws
laws applying equally to all
member states of the federation
in THEORY
a law should not be
a Federal Law
unless it seeks to prevent
or punish
a Proven Harm
Federal laws should not
enforce
black ball style
any objection any group may have to
a common practice
shown to be no demostrable detriment
in other words you can't trade off
we'll ban paki bashing
if you'll ban gay bashing

we have an important related observation
rich kids
the schools and universities that rich kids go to
would never say to Fauntleroy Minor
your answer is wrong
they would say
what an imaginative answer
you show great creativity
you should study humanities
and the creative arts
and they get a double first in waffle and hogwash
get a job in public relations
and journalism
and end up
Prime Minister

Raymond Robson was born in 1924
Terrance was his brother born 1934
it seems
their father was
Georgo Frederick Robson
who was born in 1899
he was the
Ambulance Room Supervisor at
The Factory
and that would have been the
Synthonia
the Synthetic Ammonia
of recent fame regarding
Queensway Dental
sponsoring
Billingham Synthonia Football Club
there is and was also
Billingham Synthonia Cricket Club
Fred's brother Bob played for both of them
Fred was
for his trouble at ICI etc
a Serving Brother of the Order of St John
that being St John Ambulance
and him being physio for
Billingham Harriers
running club
Bob was - as we have said before
a fitter, turner, burner, welder
shipwright at
Arkasses Shipyard
Furness Shipyard
in terms of Haverton Shipyard
he set up stem frames on
supertankers
including at
Barrow in Furness
Fusty Bob lived in the middle of
Tintern Avenue
across
John Whitehead Park
from
The Causeway
a fitting throne for
Working Class Royalty
our Ricker can picture where Fred lived
it may have been
The Green
when they retired they allomoved out to the then new
bungalows around Satly Rd
Low Grange Avenue area?
Fusty Bob was Immingham Eileen's dad
but not her father
like we said - that's another story
adopted innit
but complex
we could say more but why bother with the likes of
Andy Mcdonald MP
speaking for Teesside

today, dear reader, we will be mostly writing about
Eileen Robson
Eileen Robson recently died in a facility in Billingham
at an advanced age
having lived on Cornforth
for at least half a century
she had two daughters
one was married to an engineer who a ong long time ago
did some refurb work on
The Transporter Bridge
but he got a stroke or a brain tumour and
had to give up work quite young
the other daughter was married to a
Ship's Engineer
but we want to concentrate on her husband
can't remember his name for now
a long long time ago he took ill
and he got the look of
Eric Morcombe
and he died from what Eric Morcombe died of
not long after Eric Morcombe did
heart trouble
he was quite old when he died but not very old
so we are not talking about the Eileen nee Robson who was
the matron at Immingham A and E
a different story
Mr Robson was
an electrial engineer
not an electrician
he worked in a factory
and we may have this the wrong way round
he learned how to
rewind electric motors
and his boss moved the business to
rewinding transformers
and as Mr Robson got older
there was less and less motor rewinding work
but the boss kept him on
because occasionally one of the customers would ask
can you do a motor?
and the boss kept him on so that he could
offer a comprehensive service
the lesson being
well there is a thing called a Goode
something lke that
Redcar and Cleveland Council had one of the first ones
it is a heavy duty litter picker
it can pick up bottles and boulder
from a sandy beach
and it regularly cleaned Redcar Beach
until the operator retired
and then it was discarded
from the council's point of view
the purpose of the machine was to
provide a job
not to keep the beach clean
although the beach in Coatham/Redcar bay isn't obviously
the worse for this neglect
except that those
dead crabs would have been
swept up before anybody noticed them....
we would say that
natural detritus - seaweed and such
far outweighs human discards in this bay
so Mr Robson's boss could say
sorry we don't do that
regarding motor rewinds
when he retired
streamlining the business
and if the company wasn't
Dowding and Mills
it was a very similar one
that company is now
Sulzer



when our Ricker were a lad
lots of people told him stories
and a couple presntly come to mind
there was this elaborate story about
a cricket match
about a group of boys involved in a cricket match
and the punch line was that
this was taking place in a far flung corner of empire
Sumatra or some such
and the story revolved around
the excitement of the participants
but at the end it was revealed that
the crickets weren't actually crickets
they were praying mantices
a very elaborate pun
and the other one was about
gouchoes
South American cowboys
and the idea was
that come dinner time they would cut a steak
from a bull or whatever
cook and eat it and pack the hole in the beast's side with
clay
and all would be well
buyt the real story is that
you can't milk a bull
but you can
bleed it
and make blood or black pudding
without killing the beast
misaprehensions that emerge when trying to
study a strange culture
and so to the question
how do you eat an elephant?
one mouthful at a time
and so to the modernisation of British Industry
not so long ago the Tees valley swallowed the closure of
Cleveland Bridge
and now - perhaps - it is time to
close the
Hartlepool pipe mill


lots of people have
little or no understanding of
concepts of
lower working class traditions
we have said this before
but a long time ago
people went into
Victorian slums and took notes
they colleted
written - before electronic or mechanical
audio recording
written 'vox pops'
and one of the more outstanding quotes collected
like collecting a folk song
was
I've had ten kids
and I've never seen anything I shouldn't have
of a morning the man of the house would leave the house to
go to work or to seek work
and after that he would go to the pub
and when he got home
his wife would be
asleep in bed
exhausted from lookng after the kids
and the home
and if they had sex
it would be
without the need for the wife to wake
and in all probability
that woman would stop
bathing the baby
long before
his balls dropped
but that was not the tradition in
mining communities
but mner were not
lower working class
they were middle working class
and the miner needed his daily visit to the
tin bath in front of the range
and as an aside that you may not know
when the miner's wife bathed him
she wasn't allowed to
wash his back
in case it weakened it
or so they say
the baths were very small
knees under yer chin small
so we assume
that the miner sat with his back overhanging
one end of the bath
and had his trunck, head and limbs washed
presumably
only th bits above the water line
some contrast to
walk in shower with two shower heads....

we woud accept that
in the first place
the appointment of
Cressida Dick as
Commissioner of the UK Metropolitan Police
was a cynical rouse to say
if we have a female boss
we are automatically
beyond reproach
you can't criticise a woman
you might upset her
however, we do feel we have failed somewhat
in the detail
as a short hand we refer to
closet gays
we are lumping together two distincy groups
there are the literal closet gays
the ones who know they are gay
and act on it
but in secret
the legalisation of homosexuality was and is
intended to help them out of the closet
and protect them in their inherent lifestyle
the group that dominate the police are those who
are either in deep secret or
in denial
over their homosexuality
two problems here
persecute straight men for being straight
persecute women for being straight
in other words
declare any intimacy beyond
the absolute essentials for
pregnancy initiation
as
debauched
and priests in many religions
especially the ones with unmarried priests
are havens for such behaviour
hence there are twwo groups of police
and a lot of them will
have a faith
and will seek to change the law to
fit with their faith
rather than to
keep their religion
within the law
and so a gay, convert to Roman Catholicism
who is Prime Minister
was that Tony Blair - we forget
is a powerful ally for those who
wish to express their
male homosexuality in the form of
mysogeny
it's OK to be gay
but it's not a licence to hate women
and not a licence to persecute
straight males
how ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm
now that they've seen Paree
keep little girls in ignorance of
real - beyond procreation - sex
so they can be happy as dutiful little
housekeepers for
gay cops


it appears that
Tesco and Morrisons have taken to selling
Austraian wine
under the brand
19 crimes
on the basis that there were originally
19 crimes that coud get a
pomme transported to Austraia and so
the people who make the wine are
descendents of peope who
committed one or more of those crimes
the main crimes were

theft, assault, robbery, and fraud

and in essence
with few exceptions
the UK justice industry
denied the option of
transportation
has decided not to
pursue such crimes
and concentrate on
shovelling money at women
after being further denied
gay bashing
and more recenty
paki bashing
what enemy do closet gay cops have left
straight white guys
and women they decide don't need
money to keep their legs together

8th February 2022

all around the world
several times a day
millions of people
set out to
set fire to
aluminium pots and pans
many of them do so using a gas ring or coal or wood fire
they
fail
and this leads to an
intuition
that you can't set fire to aluminium
but since most of these cooks are
female
that is a
female intuition
and therefore to be
disregarded
does Mrs May ever cook?
has she ever used an aluminium pot or pan?
it is an absolute miracle of the age that
a UK government so doggedly determined to
talk bollocks and
back it up with stunts
has persuaded so many people to
accept vaccinations



we have this little window into the mind of industry
in the form of
Lord Digby Jones of Birmingham
a crossbencher worker peer
not Labour or Tory
but in the House of Lords
and in some senses there to represent the
Confederation of British Industry
the basic peoblem with the likes of the CBI is that
if you can't put something
into a spreadsheet
it doesn't exist
so like
a train driver
gets a red signal and is thus required to stop
but says
I see no oncoming train
I'll press on
so we'll repeat ourselves on the
fossil fuel issue
Digby Jones says
Natural Gas Futures are today at 198.90 up about 2 per cent
Brent Crude oil is at 90.50 down about 2 per cent
WTI crude is at 89.36 down about 2 per cent
he doesn't say that but he works from it
no point in trying to work out anything except that the
numbers keep changing
and numbers go into a spreadsheet
so let's construct a numbers context fot this
competely artificial
there used to be a contractural term for a commodity
'as and where lying'
so a price for the product
in the ground
YOU gotta get it out and take it to where you want it
and so there are other prices for
refined commodities
and commodities loaded onto a ship
and for commodities delivered through a cable of
pipeline
the Digby Jones arguement is that
ther is oil and gas remaining under the
'North Sea'
there is similar underground elsewhere
he wants to put a price on
doing a
whatever that Gulf of Mexico disaster style
something like
something Horizon
where you drill into ocean tens of thousands of feet deep
to rocks that are way down there
and set that against
easy to get at oil and gas in the Middle East
we could add 20 whatever to the price of oil
for getting it out of the deeper reaches of the North Sea
and set that against
adding 20 to transport oil from the Middle East
and IF - a big if
the extra cost of getting North Sea oil from
depleted reserves
is roughly the same as the transport costs of
bringing in stuff from far far away
why not use the 'local' stuff
and
ensure continuity and security of supply?
there is an essential problem with that
take the North Sea rocks as a
jar of mayonnaise
when you get it home the mayo comes easy
with a spoon
but eventually you need a spatula to
scrake the inside of the jar
and eventually there is none left
whatever
so what Digby Jones is saying is
at the point when
the spoon no longer hacks it
don't buy
take away sub rolls
buy a spatula
which s fine
for a while
what the 'progressives' who have nothing for the
spreadsheet
are saying is
switch to
a snack that requires no mayo
it's nice but it contains no
unique essential nutrients
like erm
put some sliced mushroom
rich in vitimin D in yer bap
or banana
instead of mayo

7th February 2022

we know how it is that
historical precidents don't always fit too well
and we know how much our present Prime Minister
loves to quote...
so we can't avoid the image of the
Present Mrs. Johnson
reprising the life of
King Henry the 8th wife
Kathryn Howard
look her up and see what YOU think
we have in mind
running around the palace beseeching people to help
followed by quiet acceptance

this is not a story about the
Sarah Everard incident
but these things crop up every
five years or so in the UK
for those who don't know Redcar well
Redcar Lane is a very long road
mostly flanked with semi-detached houses with
thirty foot front gardens
but it also has Ryhills School on it
and is sufficently massive - like 4 lanes
to be a popular place of
police mobile speed traps
it leads from the by-pass to the High Street
the sort of place where even
Sir Robert Goodwill
was happy to canvas in
and as we said not
Sarah Everard or the one before so
the one before that
say ten years ago
for the sake of arguement
our Ricker is walking down to town from Ryhills School
in the midst of the attendant
media feeding frenzy
and this woman is walking this rather long walk
around 20 or 30 metres ahead of him
and as we said this a major road
not to be crossed on a whim
so this woman keeps looking around
and apparently spots our Ricker and so he drops back
but
things to do places to go
this is the kicker
this woman gets so hyped up about
'being followed'
that she accosts the first bloke she encounters
loitering around at the roadside
it is
or was
referred to as
out of the frying pan
into the fire
a floowing man is
according to the media
a bigger risk than
a loitering man
complete bollocks

6th February 2022

you lucky,lucky people
our Ricker has took you some pics of
Redcar Regent Cinema at night


this is a re-think
we have had a little think
about Calgon
Reckitt
used to be
Reckitt and Colman
and grew out of
Colman's mustard
they used to be based near wher the mustard was grown
in Norwich
they are now headquartered in Slough
the armpit of London
and they employ 4,000 people in
Hull, Nottingham, Derby and Slough
what we have now considered is
who keeps whinging on about these dead crabs
Tyne Tees Television
they had an advertising contract to
sell water softener in a
soft water area
they wnt to revive it?
they want to blame the rubber crab problem on
something other than the
sodium polyphosphate
or sodium citrate
so they can keep flogging the Calgon
and Reckitt appear to have
used up the existing ad slots with
ads for finish
just a theory
just a theory























the overall basic problem with
DEFRA
UK Department for Environment Food(Farming) and Rural Affairs regards any attempt at analysis of its
norms, traditions, conventions
as
sentimental
its basic response is
kill thngs and they will no longer be a problem
and any suggestion that a more
grown up approach
open the window and let the wasp out
rther than unleashe the fly spray
is as we say
sentimental tosh
opening a window
does not create or support
YARBS
but making fly spray does
hence, promote fly spray
hence
we have an explanation of some sort of
disturbance to shellfish stocks on the coast of
North Yorkshire
DEFRA bad blame sodium polyphosphate
threatens jobs at Reckitt
DEFRA good - find something to kill
suggest a job creating option to
reduce blue-green algae
AND
double bonus
use the incident to justify
compensation payments to Inshore Fisheries
and ,BR> we started to write this because of a biologist
contacting the media because
DEFRA had reported seven times normal levels of
pyridine
in samples
and erm
how would you describe the smell of
pyridine?
it smells like
erm
rotting fish
kill fish
measure pyridine
kill fish and leave on beach for a week
measure pyridine
seven times more, init?

there's this lovely thing about
if a TV advert can make a man laugh
it can make him do anything
and so
Calgon campaign in soft water Tees Estuary area
rubbery shell fish
end of campaign
the effect follows the
long shore drift down to Whitby and Scarborough
satellites can track
methane escapes from oil fields
we wonder whether DEFRA satellites
could track sodium polyphosphate on sea currents

4th February 2022

there once was a chain of
gentlemens' outfitteers called
Greenwoods
and they had a branch on Redcar High Street
and that became
slap bang in the middle of the
pedestrianised half of
High Street East
just a bit east of Woolworths
and being a gentlemens outfitters
the stock was not transported in bags or boxes
it was hung on rails inside the truck
meaning that deliveries - on pedestrianisation
nececssitated a dirty great truck having to
run the pedestrian precinct
to make delveries
and then the shop got burnt out
and our Ricker did write to the manager
it was a long long time ago
regretting that the business had not
taken advantage of the need for a refit
to move to a unit where deliveries could be
less obtrusive
the manager was not best pleased
gone now, sold and empty and to let
and
can we have a 'phone repair shop or
anything that can have its stock delivered on foot?
and this is the point
we have a pedestrianised half and
a motor trafficed half of High Street East
let's not start pedestrianising the
why not move
THe Livery
and
The Blue Lounge
into the Markies building
instead of demolishing it?
bus stop and car park end before we need to


hmmm this is one of those
life's too short moments
I really didn't need to know that, moments
Redcar and Cleveland Council is a
transition authority
it is a
Former Red Wall Authority
the first thing we need to say is that
according to the web site
thecouncillor with the
Economc Growth portfolio is
Chris Gallacher
of Normanby
he sits as an independent alongside two Labour councillors
he seems most interested in house building
be lfe's too short to verify that
and so we come to
25 million to be spent on
Redcar High Street
and the councillors for
Coatham Ward
Mr Quartemain ? lives in Krkleatham ward?
Mr Baldwin ? lives in Zetland ward?
Mr Quartermain is listed as Labour and
Mr Baldwin s listed as Independent
we have had words on this site about the
Majuba Road dogging venue proposal
the proposed demolition of Markies on the High Street
and now we have the
bollards and seating outside
Kidney Research
there does appear to be a whiff of
Chris Gallacher asleep at the wheel
whilst the
Children from Coatham
are making hay
or random suggestions
like not consulting Highways about the bollards?
we are not exactly sure under what authority some of these
Bugger Redcar High Street about a bit
schemes are being promoted
there is a significant strand in Redcar local politics that says
to hell with jobs
we want houses for our kids
when the Coatham Bay wind fram was proposed
some people suggested that it was a rouse
to mintain the industry designation of
what is now the SSI Wilton Free Port
to prevent the council from building council houses there
there are votes in
benefits not jobs
in some of these wards
and as far we know
Homes England
a government department
have mada a land grab for
Wilton International


we have noted the departure of Munira Mirza
from Number 10
Downing Street
this looks like the departure of an
Entriest Trot
she was the public policy guru
providing the
Transport for London
treats
for Mr Johnson to dole out as
Elected Mayor of London
and gradually it has become clear that
she has not been able to run the country on the
Evry thing free in America
basis that she ran TfL
through her mouthpiece Mr Johnson


this is a dark day for us
we got something wrong
we have to admit that
we have no idea how energy bills will be
calculated in the future
absolutely none
the basic idea is that
energy compnies try to make things as complicated as possible makes announcements that over simplify
it appears there will be
no price cap
and energy companies will be
'encouraged' to charge less than they would like to
and Direct Debits add to the confusion
on the Direct Debit scheme
an energy company estimate how much energy you will use
and take an amount from your bank account that
they think will keep you in credit - as it goes
and then at some point there is a reckoning
in other words the whole thing is in utter chaos
but we stand by the idea that from April 2022
most people's Direct Debits will be
in the region of
£165 per month
but apparently customers will be
surcharged at some point
next April 2023 - probably
if they have used absolute oceans of energy
essentially
if you
carry on regardless
your DD will go up by about a half
and all will be well
if you can afford that

3rd February 2022

we said the council had not emptied the silt trap
in Locke Park lake or pond
we should say
the bed of Locke Park Lake is
shale around two metres below the water level
depending on the height of the exit weir
the bed of the
Coatham Enclosure Boating lake is
concrete
LPL has silt
CEBL has wind blown sand
they can both be cleaned in exactly the same way
pictures of current efforts at CEBL
and pictures of the
Band Stand we were whinging on about
there are a lot of pics here
they may take some time to upload






















this s one of those
topic you probably don't NEED
to understand items
nuclear power
nuclear power stands in a sort of
third category
in many ways it is
carbon neutral
but it's not
non-polluting
and not renewable
nuclear power is divided into two classes
fission
and
fusion
we are talking here about
fission - splitting - nuclear power
fusion is in the future
however they are both in the past because
they are about
how do we continue as before with the minimum disruption
in the face of having to give up
carbon based fuels
there is a reason for this that is
not obvious
it is probably not obvious to the
non engineer/scientist/technologist
that a nuclear power station is
a coal fired power station with
a nuclear reactor instead of a furnace
there is an interface in both where
high pressure steam
leaves the boiler/furnace
and enters the
electricity generating part of the station
in BOTH
water is heated and the energy placed in the water
is removed by an electricity generating
turbine-alternator set
the only difference is
coal fired, gas fired - carbon + oxygen = carbon dioxide + heat
nuclear one radio active element goes to another radio active element
with the release of HEAT
the heat to electricity parts are
identical
the difference between
nuclear/coal/gas
and renewable
is that
in conventional power stations
trapped, bound up, internal, imbued
energy
is released
in renewable energy plant
free energy
is
captured
a weed is a plant in the wrong place
see energy as plants
take the energy from the wrong place
destructive wind and waves
parching sun
capture it
and put it to work
so you get a sort of double benefit
you get usable energy
and less extreme weather
and when we say
feee energy
we mean
unfettered
we don't mean
without cost
that reminds us that when
nuclear energy was made available
some said
we will no longer need
electricity meters
in a sense we don't need them now
an unmetered supply is not a free supply
the price cap
is the
unmetered charge
the meter helps you know whether your bill will be
less than the cap
when our Ricker were a lad
his home had
a caol fire
a gas supply
oil fired central heating
and electric fires
toasty
but next to no
gas consumption
so if that were now
his dad's gas bill would be
way way below the the cap
but the heating oil would have to be paid for
the cap doesn't set the
price per therm
or the price per killowatt hour
it sets the maximum bill you will have to pay
effectively - for big users - a non-metered supply
despite having the meter
the problem in the short term is
on a dual fuel Direct Debit
you will pay one twelvth of
of £1,971
every month from April
notwithstanding discounts and poverty busting deals even though in the summer you don't need heat
so all them little girls who have a place of their own
and are convinced they will be shacked up before autumn
will loose out
paying now for heat somebody else will use
in their flat after they go
live with some bloke

2nd February 2022

oooow
spot to pro





and if you haven't guessed...
this is the
glass 'balustrade'
going in along the restaurant terrace


there was this bloke
Federico da Montefeiro
so Italian?
around 1450
jousting
lost his right eye
his portrait is of him in left profile
and he has a huge notch in his nose at eye level
and so there is debate
did he loose a chunk of nose when he lost the eye?
or did he have it removed so his nose wouldn't
limit his field of view from his left eye?
we think it was probably an experiment that
didn't work
if you have two working eyes
and you close one
you can see your nose
but with both eyes open
you can't see your nose
it's all to do with processing
in the optic nerve and in the brain
we are very doubtful that if you
loose one eye
you can grow a bigger retina in the other
never say never
if you use one eye - either, close the other
and you stare at a spot in the distance
and you move your handor such
to athe edge of your vision on the opposite side
and then you turn your head towards the hand
and stare at the same spot
you should be able to move your hand
a little further across and still see it
but it's no substitute for a second eye
to see adequately for driving with one eye
you would nedd to keep moving your head
to get the full 160 degree field
not a popular thing to say at a time of
driver shortages


say you drive to work and a new job means
a new route to work
on that route there is atricky bend
on the first few trips you take the bend at 20 miles per hour
the next week you have got your head around this
and not wishing to hold up traffic
you take the bend at
30 miles per hour
and you've got one of those
drive well and pay less insurance apps on your 'phone
if the app justified in calcualting that
in week 3 you will take the bend at
40 mile per hour?
this whole idea that the most trivial
social faux pas
embassasing or tactless act or remark in a social setting
is a sure fire indication that you are
a homocidal maniac
that's way dafter than saying
see that bloke who just gave up his seat for that
heavily pregnant woman?
he'll leave all his worldly wealth to
Guide Dogs for the Blind
is the same thing
if on the other hand
you routinely take the bend at 50 miles per hour
THEN alarm bells should ring
however
from the point of view of the app
should it be alerted if you take that bend at
30 miles per hour
in dense fog?
on black ice?
what you can do with one stranger
or with a friend
may 'touch a nerve' with another
we know the story of the man who in Australia
threw a woamn to her death off a bridge
onto a dry river bed
but what if a bloke with nuddy pctures of his girlfriend on his 'phone
was walking across a bridge
and some female who had just
absconded from a nut house
was coming the other way
intent on suicide
is the bloke responsible for the woman's death?


the moving finger writes
and having writ moves on
sic transit Gloria Honneyford
so hearwarming to see
Mr. Micawba
standing in for
Slow Joe (Biden)
the time has come for im to go
but he'll be back next year
with a brand new show
Rowan and Martin Laugh-in reference
fancy
Tweedledee - Johnson
versus
Tweedledum - trump
running off for POTUS
President Of The United States

thinking about Whoopie Goldberg
Obama not Black enough
Camela Harris not black enough
this is a problem with
Black politics
especially in the USA
if a 'black person' a 'person of colour'
isn't
brain dead
then they's a
choc ice
brown skin
white to the bone
regarding WG
there is this idea that
black people have
cornered the market in
victimhood
only two races on the planet
African Americans
and everybody else

1st February 2022

yesterday a lorry load of
precast concrete sections arrived on
Redcar Esplanade
to connect the new
Redcar Regent Cinema building
to the sea wall
we took a couple of pictures but
we can't be everywhere all the time so
laters
we will photograph the finished effect



we made mentiion of people loosing their driving licences
if their vision - sight - failed
the basic test relates to the
vision of the average individual
in the USA and some other places
the essential datum
benchmark
is how fine is the detail
the average person can see at a distance of
twenty feet
if you have 20/20 vision
you can see the detail the average person can see
at twenty feet distance
at twenty feet distance
and in the UK
the measure is
can you see the detail the average person can see
at 6 metres
at 6 metres
so basically the same
the requirement for a small vehicle driving licence
around less than 3 tonnes
is to be able to see at 6 metres
what the average person can see at 12 metres
that is
fifty percent vision
to drive a bus or truck over 3 tonnes
you need to be able to see at 6 metres
what the average person can see at
seven and a half metres
however
for the purpose of
police spot checks
and remembering that in the UK index - number - plates
are much clearer than elsewhere
you should be able to read for the officer
a randomly chosen number plate
at 20 metres of 65 feet
in the UK
there are also some complicated requirements about
field of vision
you should be aware of movement across
160 degrees horizontal and 30 degree vertical
without moving your head
strictly
without shifting your gaze
the idea is
you can seelooking where you are going, in detail
from the point of gaze - the road ahead
30 degrees up and down and thirty dergrees all around
left and right
without moving head or eyes
but any movement - vehicle coming out of a side road
pedestrian stepping onto the road
you can detect and switch attention to
across a 160 degree horizontal field
but you are entitled to do that using one or two eyes
truck and bus drivers are required to have
some vision in your 'bad eye' something like being able to see at 6 metres
what the average person can see at 60 metres
so remember even some of the recently tested and passed
are - relatively speaking - blind in one eye
and can't see well out of the other
roll on autonomous vehicles...
for the record
our Ricker can see 6:4
he can see at 6 metres
what the average person can see at 4 metres
but that's with really quite expensive specs
and in all these tests we are talking
'with lenses'
BUT
there is a limit on how strong the specs you use can be
and
no limit on how strong your contact lenses can be

31st January 2022

we should say....
a lot of bone cancer is
errosive
that is to say
the 'cancer' eats the bone away
which is not a tumour
which is a mass that grows
and this is unusual in that
you have osteoclasts beavering away and
not in any sort of balance with osteoplasts
either because the clasts are over active
or the blasts are underactive
and this sorta where
a whole load of problems
that we now understand quite well were lumped together
under an umberella term
another exmple is
orthopaedics
we expect orthopaedics to include
broken legs, hips
hip and knee replacement
but the term orthopaedics comes from
the days when the nutritional disease
rickets
was rife
and children had
bow legs
like our Ricker's uncle
Fusty Bob
and instead of giving children
diatary suplements
they did surgery to try to straighten the legs
and literally
orthopaedics means
child straightening
orth - correct
paedics - of children
so end plate hyperplasia is a
true cancer
and adult bone cancer is kinda
osteoporosis



this site does have a strange combination of
difficult long words
and
easy to follow explanations
and recently we described how a virus
HPV
can sometimes cause cancer
but this not the normal cause
today we want to talk about
broken bones
in the sort of popular science type human biology
sometimes we talk about cellular and molecular
turnover
in living things
and the first pairing of long words for today are
osteclast and osteoblast
if you are a fan of the
Supervet series
he does bone surgery
and you many have noticed that when he is
discussing a leg problem that a puppy has
he may tell the owner
if the growth plate is damaged
the leg may end up
short
long bones in people and dogs and cats
grow in two ways
they are called
interstital
and
appositional
growth
growth plates are responsible for
appositional growth
lengthening of the long bone - limb bone
hence in adults there is
for the most part
scope for interstitial growth
when a bone is broken
two principal cell types become
more than usually active
they are osteoclasts and osteoblasts
normally they are responsible fo that
tissue turnover me mentioned
but in the case of a break
they sculpt the healing
and they will produced a deformity if not guided by
a cast, boot, or inserted rod
plates and screws
whatever , those two types of cell will
sculpt the new bone or callus
the osteoclasts remove bone that is
no longer appropriate
and osteoplasts
create new bone
they do this all the time
but they go into overdrive
if they detect a fault
especially a break or GAP
these cells 'know' what shape the bone should be
they will amke a bone bigger and stronger if you
use it more
and it will waste away if you spend too long in
gravity free outer space
if there isn't bone where there should be bone
they will make bone
but they can be tricked
they can think there is a gap when there isn't one
they can - in time -
evulse screws
force them out
essentially - plates are permanent
screws can be temporary
plates are not normally put
where bones should be
they are placed to sheath - surround
where bone should be
but screws are where bone should be
for preference plates should grip the outside of
bone fragments and not be applied like
sticing plasters with screws
we are not aware of surgeons using
dissolving screws
as they use dissolving stitches
but we think they probably should
here's the thing
the cancer thing
if osteoblasts put baone somewhere it shouldn't be
the osteoclasts should - sooner or later
remove it
to take the brain as the ultmate opposite
the equivalent of osteoblasts in the brain are called
glial cells
and there is no equivalent in the brain of
osteoblasts
tidy up sculpting is not provided for
the xxxblasts throughout the body
get switched from
maintenance to repair
when they lose contact with their neighbours
most cancers we experience are classified as
failure of contatct inhibition cancers
they blast cells are cut off from their neighbours
so they think there is a gap
and theythink they must
bridge that gap
but i prostate cancer and breast cancer
that is not a gap
it's a calcium crystal
and in lung cancer it is
an asbestos fibre
or a smoke particle
so we have cells that go into hyper drive
fat cells do if you over eat
and some of the excess cells do no harm
and some block vital passageways
and so
we have a lovely long name for callus on bone
we should note
callous means hard like a callus
non-neoplastic fibro-ossious tissue
to sum up
most common cancers are caused by
foreign bodies being interpeted as gaps
gaps that the cells responsible for structural integrity
seek to span
and to tidy up the supervet line
when the supervet
removes a damaged joint
he removes the growth plates
and because
growth plates are for growth
and if trapped would become cancerous
because they just grow and then stop
and in injury and surgery
the stop maeesage can be lost
he locks - freezes - the joint

29th January 2022

we're intending to get around to and example of
the law o unintended consequences
but first
without looking out the details
around 100 years ago
there was a lot of fuss in the UK
about
who could VOTE to elect people to certain roles
setting aside the output end...
who could vote to elect people to cretin roles
the overall drive was to
allow the Great Unwashed
and wimin
an emensely dilute role in choosing
who runs things
and although in the USA there are allsorts of
activities around
widening and narrowing the scope of the electrol roll
there have been few serious efforts in the
Developed or Western World
to scrap the whole thing
the voting is reasonably intact
the real effort is on controlling
who can STAND for election
for a long time now it has been
in practice - impossible for The Labour to have
a non-female parliamentary candidate in
the Redcar Constituancy
laugh about it, shout about it,
when you come to choose
any way you look at it
you loose
Simon and Garfunkle Mrs Robinson
to a superficial extent
since the electorate at the most recent UK
general election had little choice but
Corbyn or Johnson
the choice of Johnson was not
a ringing endorsement
the first beneficiary of the women only Redcar short list was
a very nice young woman with a brain tumour
nobody really mined her
her hear , if not her mind, was in the right place
and then we got a classic
she's 'gone through' two husbands
she needs a job and she's rubbish at
what she trained for
case
and those kind of people are
getting hopeless case off the and in no way whatsoever
showing the world what women can do
if given the chance
ahving said this stuff we come to today's exmple of
the lw of unintended consequences
in the mid 20th century
oppsessed peoples expressed their pain through
popular music
and competed for small glory by acive
or supportive
sport
I'm better than you
because my team won
even though I don't actually play
the change that has happened is that
that has been modified to
I'm better than you because
somebody who looks like me plays for my team
and we won
the overall effect is
the protest song
summer time blues
I called my crongressman and he said
quote
I'd love to help you son
but you're too young to vote
has disappeared and
popular music is now splintered by spotyfy
and majors on
the individual's suicidal tendencies
and not a group-shared problem
and you can't oppose the opposition team because
the opposition team has
MINORITY players
and so now
anybody looking for an arguement
has to turn to
shockjocks
talking heads who would start an arguement in a
paper bag
and
they feel safe because
they can foster
minority opinions
without fear of sanction for criticising
minority ethnic and religeous groups and individuals
and so nobody is stopping them from
questioning the fundmentals of
data drven, experimentally tested
science - knowledge
there's a Monty Python sketch
two men arguing across a desk
suddenly one says
excuse me
is this the five minute arguement
or the full half hour?

27th January 2022

today
The Redcar Regent has had its
Passive Building test
today
a stack of three fans in the front door opening
raise the pressure inside
and they time how long it takes for the pressure to
leak away
and we see there will be red stripes
and white stripes
wonder if White Stripes will ever do a gig in there...








and Northumbrian Water's concept of
'over the Christmas Break'
for connecting the water supply
is our idea of late January
and of course..
another dirty great hole in the sea defences
instead of tunnelling in the sand underneath

26th January 2022

we know that Around the World in 80 days has been revamped
we have not watched it so we don't know whether
Fix Treeks
is still a feature
Mr Fix was supposed to sabotage the attempt
and every time
Passepartout discovered a plot he would say
Feex Treex
Mr Teninch's version is probably quite different
Jdan Passepartout
is a fictional character in Jules Verne's novel
Around the World in Eighty Days
we assume the character in the David Tenant version is
female???
Fogg is too stupid to be
female...
Fix is a police inspector who hounds Fogg under the
mistaken aprehension that
anybody doing such 'outrageous things'
MUST be a criminal
much the attitude of any UK officer of today
encountering anybody with
two brain cells to rub together
in French Passerpartout means
skeleton key
in modern tavelogue terminology it is - fixer
in Fogg's day it was letters of Introduction
now largely replaced by
Diplomatic Passport
you can't nick a car with
CD plates
something like
Corps Diplomatique
so
Around the World in 80 Days is a tale of conflict between
plodsville and MI6
and MI5
so whenever our Ricker does anything sneaky...
FiX Tricks
and this photograph is
'not genuine'



these others??
not yer average snap
note, genuinely, the gurad rail has gone from the top of the building














Millbrook at this time we want to explore a risk to
Redcar's future
a risk that we think may have been averted
and we want to draw a parallel
between redcar's genuinely
heavy industry
and motor racing and transport history
when the SSI steelworks closed
there was this
South Tees Development Corportation
concept
and the infamous advertisement for a
civil servant to run it
with the words
This post may involve some visits to
North East England
or words to that effect
and whoever took on the job set about
essentially
devising a plan to
do to Redcar
what had earlier been done to
Brooklands is a
motor racing circuit and aerodrome near
Weybridge in Surrey England
due to popups and cookies we no longer consult
wikipaedia so we have limited detail here
in essence
Brooklands was pioneering
and due to a
property development dynamic
it was turned into a light industrial estate
and is now a sort of
Beamish open air museum for the masses
and the historic functions of Brooklands were
transferred to a location called
Millbrook
and the civil servant tasked with saving Redcar
decided to give
South Tees
it's very own
Brooklands
except that
The North East already has
beamish Open Air Museum
and
Shildon Railway Museum
and what can a chap do when he wants his home town to be
The Millbrook of the North
and the civil service want it to be
the Brooklands of the North
see
Brooklands made too much noise for
the posh people of Weybridge
and what the steelworks site in redcar has are
bunds
huge manmade banks
that separate the steelworks site
but not the petrochemical site - Wilton
from the residential area and
the civil servant said
we can't build
light industrial units on those slopes
we'll let out contracts to
flatten them
in a sense it's a bit - a tiny bit - like saying
don'r buy that kid a trampoline
buy them a new bed every six weeks
and pile the trashed ones in the garden

24th January 2022

we - our Ricker - get about a lot in traffic
and to him it seems there are two main groups of
cyclists
those who are too young to have driven a car
not very many
but the majority appear to be peope whom have taken
to cycling because they have had to
surrender their driving licences due to
failing eyesight
and that comes in two categories
no sense of spacial awareness
my bike is three feet wide if you want to overtake me
but
my bike if three inches wide if I want to
jump a queue by riding
to the point wher the queue starts
but the main group are people who
apparently
cannot see
road signs
especially
traffic lights
and most especially
temporary traffic lights
in other words
they swan around as if they were
driving the roads as they were
twenty years ago
when they could see
people are advise not to buy a car
under around 150 bhp
because it
'won't be able to keep up with modren traffic'
twenty years ago that was a
supercar
it is rather difficut as a pedestrian
when you YOU can judge how long it will take to
cross a road at a junction
but the vehicle driver has to wait until you cross
and so
generally
the green man is displayed for 5 seconds
at junctions where ther is no green man
how is the driver supposed to guess how long
this pedestrian will be in the middle of the road?
the five seconds was to give the pedestrian time to set off
an elderly pedestrian may need far longer than
5 seconds to DECIDE WHETHER TO set off
for a variety of reasons
the five seconds was time to decide to cross
not to complete the crossing
why have red and green men if
mere PRESENCE controls traffic flow/


there is something that people need to understand about
discrimination
it is wrong and broadly illegal to
discriminate against a person
on the grounds of
origin
but once a person finds themselves in a
position of responsibility
outside their niche
in contact with the general public
they need to
get with the programme
or crawl back into their hole
it's all about giving people from
disadvantged backgrounds
opportunities to
be a part of wider society
not an opportunity to
subvert or undermine
democratic decisions
democracy is not anarchy
nobody entitled to be their cult's
one woman army against the world
and use the offices of the state to
further their cause
the Jehovah's Witnesses have a term
along the likes of
unfriend
for somebody who declines this
undercover work
and of course
it IS a free country and if you feel torn
you are free to return to your cult



OK we're gonna put this a different way
we talked about our Ricker's Pete
we will have mentioned that he got a
Lower Second in some languages
we know he did an opt out at
Heidleburg
so we think it was joint honours in
German and Old English
from BNC
Brasenose College Oxford
however, after that he
redeemed himself by doing his
National Service
as a navigator on
destroyers
you know HMS Cavalier
that sort of thing
so on the back of his naval service he got a job
as a trainee solicitor at
Maxwell Batley
who were at the time at
Bevis Marks
later London wall
now Chancery Lane
of course they were bought out by a multiple
and what we wanted to say here was
one day, Tom, his dad got a 'phone call from
Maxwell Batley saying
if your boy's wife doesn't stop
ringing him at work
we're gonna have to let him go
home is home
work is work
ESPECIALLY
for a government minster
of course if you work from home
or the flat above the office
yer wife can bend yer ear
without need of a device

22nd January 2022

once upon a time
wife could not be forced to give evidence
against her husband
we consider it a sign of
despiration on the part of law enforcement that
anybody can - in the UK - be charged with
assisting an offender if they behave in a
wifely manner

all the while the POINT of marriage convictions
we recognise that law enforcement live in a
1950s bubble
and we wonder what will happen when they die
and are replaced with people who occupy a
swinging sixties bubble


we want to explore two sets of lyrics for way back
and not in too much detail
Freda Payne
sang about a
Band of Gold
that you'll walk back through that door
and love me like you tried before
and that has two interpretations
our Ricker's was at the time that
how shall we say the man had been found to have
sexually touched the woman and
a shotgun marriage had resulted and
the whole thing he had gone through had
put the lad right off sex
the more established versions are
1 both too young and married or not
they had no idea of how to proceed
2 the reason he had failed before was that he was
gay
and the original ecounter had been some sort of
attempt to strighten him out
the other song is
Kenny Rogers',br. Ruby, Don't take your love to town
It wasn't me that started that crazy Asian war
.....
and the wants and the needs of a woman your age
Ruby I realise
....
but I still need some company
so that song has two themes that seem to elude
law enforcement
male - female relationships are not
all about penetration
and
more importantly
the whole concept of
female sexuality
lovely quote from a single mum working in a charity shop
a donation includes a wall poster of a mega hunk
'excuse me, i just need a few moments alone
in the store cupboard
whenever we get mention of this concept of
sexual touching
we wonder hat ideas law enforcement have about
how babies are made
and what you can do without a baby developing
like the young woman saying
i must have caught a sperm
in the swimming pool
we need
CLUED UP
law enforcement
and not taking advice from gay men
about the
female condition


we were just having a thought about the police
and a magazine cartoon came to mind
it inspired a US politician who got into a lot of trouble
for adopting it and one says to the other
patience my ass
I'm gonna kill something
she adopted it as a theme for speeches
and it didn't go down too well
but heep in their hearts
cops seem to think that is the basis of their
collective
bill of rights
we haven't been able to find the original but
there are a lot of psychodelic - garish-coloured
knock-offs so it was
a 60s or 70s meme

essentially, law enforcement
seek out work they find fun
car chases and shoot outs and
analysing people's computer files
so that there 'isn't time'
for the things we pay them for
tackling 'genuine criminality;
and perhaps we should
like the French
have some police just having fun at public expense
and a militarised and
disciplined - doing what they are told
division
keeping a lid on the
genuine criminality of sink estates
where the plastic cops'
parents, brothers and sisters
live
in other words
some of the thugs can be distracted from
the
I go robbing 'cos my Labour MP sez
my benefits leave me in poverty
lifestyle
if they can be tempted into a cosy offce to
read other people's emails
or
my MP and my priest say
I'm entitled to go robbing to
avoid
in=work poverty
but if I had a job in the police
I could like get all the things I would
use money for
free cos I'd be a cop

so far as we can tell
this began with the
Blair administration
asking police
what laws would you like?
this has widened out into
we will consult with the industry
whenever an issue crops up
and this is like
every morning ....
now, children: what would yoy like to do today or shall we do
difficut sums?


measurement can be a fairly confusing thing
lots of confusing units
Ricker once knew a girl who insisted that her bank manager
explain all of her finances in
Mars bars
and so
we have worked out that
platform 1 at Redcar Central station is
leht length of
8 Siemens Desiro coaches
and that is 8 times 23.7 metres
about 190 metres
622 feet
and yer standard main line train is
around 964 feet long
and when we say standard we mean the old APT
advanced passenger train
a Eurostar train is
1,280 feet - 390 metres long
and so
it's quite handy that the distance between
West Dyke Road level crossing
the down end of platorm 1
and Locke Road railbridge - road over rail
the first obstacle to a platform extension
is around twice the present platform length
in other words
Eurostar trains could operate from
Redcar Central
once the track from Saltburn to northallerton is
electrified
these trains are designed to operate
South of Paris
and so will work north of London

21st January 2022

the concept is sometimes called
news management
in Downing Street
apparently it is referred to as
The Grid
the Prime Minister is the boss of a range of
Ministers
some of whom are significant Secretary of State for...
the idea of The Grid is
if a problem crops up for the PM or the government
it should be possible to feed a
red meat story about something completely other
that Secretaries of State are supposed to keep
on the stocks
ready for launch
and some of these stories are
really annoying
one aspect of this is a consequence of the
Memorial Law
when somebody's daughter comes to a premature sticky end
This s not a stand alone occurance
the next level consequence is
police services around the country
vying to be the
first to secure a conviction
under the new law
and in turn they will try to time the announcement of that
to c0-incide with the retlease of
violent crime stats
and that has to be the background to any discussion
of the following
it is not the normal role of medical workers to
quote Kurt Cobain
Nirvana
what we are getting at is
we don't dwell on the inevitable
we focus on what can be done to improve things
not the search for the Holy Grail
and to old saw
traditional saying is
what the eye don't see
the heart don't grieve
and so
police officers got in bother if they take and publish
selfies
with crime victims
BUT
if the police find intimate photos of citizens
they 'feel compelled' to confront the people in those pics
pith those pics
Cleveland Police have the second highest
per capita
after The Met in London
rate of violent crime
and yet
their
proudest boast is that they were the first police service to
secure a conviction for
voyerism
when it recently - a few years ago
became a crime
if all was so quite that
the most troubling thing in the world was
a handful of
First World Problems
such as unskirting
all would be well
but
the police can pester people with
did you consent to these pictures being taken? fat arses
so that is what they will fill their shift with











sooo
theses signs are presumably
LED backed
and so
it may be that they can be any colour the management want
or they may be red
but not black

20th January 2022

we are going to have another little go at
levelling up
the hypothetical
say you have a beauty business
say you get a grant for business development
you settle on two options
1 build an extension where
trainees can have training and 'rent a chair'
2 employ a security guard
the second option reduces the unemployment total by
one maybe two
the first option invests in the future of the community
the actuality
when our Ricker was
chair of Dormanstown Community Forum
council officials arrived at a meeting to announce
an amount of grant to be made available to the committee
members went away to consult on what the money should be spent on
suggestions included a
chidren's play area
and at the next meeting the council officials returned to say
the money would be used to
employ a community liason officer
and effectively
the functions of the forum would
habded over to an organisation called
Groundworks
and the members of the committee
went home and forgot there had ever been
a Dormanstown Community Forum
yarbs, yarbs, yarbs
handfulls of jobs that do nothing for the
broadly competent
Groundworks seem to have a window display at the front of
SG property Renovations???
in west Terrace
what we are saying is
if you offer funding and it goes to
directly getting people off the unemployment register
frankly things get done that
unemployed people can do
without much training and development
some
makework schemes
at this entry level
for example
Locke Park
on Corporation Road, Redcar
can turn out really well
but that represents a lesson in itself
a couple of time over the past 50 years
specialist contractors have been brought in to
dredge the lake
which is a drain for the area the Rivers Estate
and on the second occasion
in addition to dredging the lake the contractors installed
a large silt trap
the silt trap has been abandoned
because the sort of people available
to work in the park
mainly offenders on community service
could not be deployed
in the water
on health and safety grounds
and the flow uses the by-pass channels
that should only be open
when the silt trap is being cleaned
shades of raw sewage flushing sewage works

19th January 2022

we need to say this is not the final look
the black
THE REGENT
so we will write the script for a spitting image
sketch on the Malik Faisal Akram case
Border control at JFK
Mr Akram
do you have a gun?
no
oh well you'd better have this one
have a nice day


we mak a block assumption that a medical procedure will
hurt less if we have an anaesthetic
when our Ricker was around 10 years old
he was sitting failrly happily in class at
Newcommen Primry
and the teacher got the clas up and out
and lined up in the main corridor
and one by one into a little room to be
examined by a dentist
he only being there to do exams
didn't have a lot of kit with him
he discovered that ricker had a persistent
lower front milk tooth
in front of his emerged lower front teeth
and he thinks and says
I'll just flip that out
and it turns into a pliers job
without anaesthetic
and so our Ricker can attest that
sometimes the anaesthetic hurts more than the
procedure without the anaesthetic
that aside some people will be in the position of having had
and anaesthetic at the dentist
and never having has a vaccination
they may think the vaccination will hurt like a trip to the dentist
and say
I don't want that
I haven't got toothache or anything
I don't lke needles
may really mean we do wonder
how many people who are too frightened to
get vaccinated
have tatoos?


we will make a small comment about
levelling up
quite a lot of people will be able to remember
The BT Tower
and the restaurant at the top
we could look up how long that lasted
the reality being that the ground level entrance was in
the most appauling and intimidating
back street
most people
Up Nawth
would have heard of
The Garden Bridge - never built
and the Marble Arch Mound - now closed
a lot of the money spent on
London projects
is downright wasted
now that the scaffolding is coming off the Eliabeth Tower
at the Houses of Parliament
reference the
Sunderland football stadium being called
The Stadum of Light
the Houses of Parliament are now revealed as both
literally and metaphorically
revealed is their true colours as
The Stadium of Shite
and so to
levelling up in the North and
putting the wrong thing in the wrong place
if you asked a class of three year olds
would you like
a sand castle
or a
beach hut/
they may vote for the sand castle
and in the concrete
people in Redcar
offered European Enhancement funding
opted for
a band stand at the junction of
Newcommen Terrace and The Esplanade
and it was tiny
it was cast aluminium
and the salt spray id erroding it
and for a while a nearby
householder was persuaded to
store some chairs in their basement
and to top it all
There is no
Town Band
and if there were they would need
a band hall
not a bandstand
but in Saltburn
same local authority Redcar and Cleveland
they have made a bit of a go of having a
very similar band stand
mainly by putting it in a sensible location
so why should the north getting funding if
they piss it up against the wall
like they were living in London or something

18th January 2022

Gordonstoun
the whole of live is a
moving feast
and nothing is set in stone
and so if you are of a
Blur Broadcasting Company
frame of mind
you can always find an exception to the rule....
so we will make a sweeping generalisation based on
military ranks in the
trenches of the First World War
the bloke in charge was
a lieutenant colonel
and he had a boss who was a colonel
who wasn't in the trenches
lt col is the top
front line rank
In this case
one of probebly several was
lt. col. Yardley
and he was a
military strategist
mot had rote buks
mainly on cavalry tactics based on his experiences in
The Boar War in South Africa
in his case
the officer immediately junior to him was a
major
and the major was to be found
in floods of tears
come armistice day because
well not actually armistice day we are talking demob day - which for him came around a year after
the eleventh hour
tears because
demob - de-mobilisation
for him meant
back to managing the
family fish and chip shop
majors are essentially
non-military technocrats
and we assume this major was something to do with
mess duties
feeding the troops
so we have this pattern of
majors in the lives of the UK Royals
Major Shand
Major Ferguson
despite the image being of
marrying royal females off to
War Heroes
the sort of military they married were
flunkies in scrambled egg
support staff in fancy uniforms
putting it another way
a mayor is not a lt. col. in waiting
and the clue is in the fact that in
other ranks
we have
RSM - regimental sergeant major
battery sgt m
and this combination of
Phil the Greek
Mountbatten and
the school - Gordon's town
made many core royals
totally unfit for
either
family life
or government
so far as we know
the first UK royal to get anything resembling a
'proper education'
was Prince William
he went to
St. Andrews University
in Scotland
and met a
proper commoner
not a flunky
but a commoner
and as it stands
she seems destined to be a very creditable
Queen Kate
Queen Elizabeth didn't go to university
but she is from a generation when
women didn't
and her mother
Elizabeth Bowes Lyon
was
from a sort of provincial nobility not much given to
attending court in that traditional
flunky way
you have heard of
the Cummings chap and his trip to
Barnard Castle...
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother
as she died
that means
The Doweger Queen
was Queen of The United Kingdom and Dominions
from 11 December 1936
to
6 February 1952
because she was the wife of
King George VI
and if you look on a map
Bowes
and Cunningham's
Barnard Castle are
near enough the same place
although the
Bowes Museum
a huge building in the style of
a French Chatteau
was not built by the Bowes family
they were the Earls of Strathmore
definitely not
flunkies at the British court
so two very rich but very down to earth women
in the British Royal family
the present queen and her mother
and a swirl of tat
all around them
and boys given no real access to
similar women until
William went to St. Andrews
and we are quite sure
William would have seen much of his granny
and great granny
in Kate
and we so fervantly hope
the rest is history

17th January 2022

so we are calling this
Regent Dawn
this is the time of year in Redcar when
people do a
Prince Philip
low sun
can't see the traffic
or the road furniture
wham! bam!
take care
an in
The Dawn's Early Light
The Regent
is in part shadow
symbolic of Redcar emerging from the shadows
and our Ricker has brung out the
'arty' lens
architectural photography
one or two show
quite a
pin cushion effect
and we repeat the other approach
one is where he stitched two photos together
preserving perspective
our Ricker is old enough to have got his
post A' level education in physics
alongside his official advanced studies
by watching
free to air
Open University
lectures
what we see now is
apparently
'hundreds' of institutions
duplicating the efforts of the
BBC/Open University
by offering
on line tuition
and so we will always be referring to
the universities of the 1970s in the UK
and just to note at this point
'proper' universities used to have - each year
for the new intake
a
Freshers' Week
and this was almost universally referred to as
The Cattle Market
in Freshers' Week a female student was supposed to
get herself hitched up to a male student
to be her guardian through
at least the first term of uni
no doubt all those rinbow versions
now make all of that a whole lot more complex
essentially
female etiquette
get drunk, have sex. don't get pregnant
but most of all
NETWORK
nominate somebody to
attend lectures and
get the notes
and buy your essays


there are definitely times when we
downplay an issue
in order to avoid confusion
in the past
maybe a few decades ago
there were cases in the media
and they may coninue quietly to this day
where a child is at risk of dying because
they need a
blood transfusion
and their religiously motivated parents
don't give permission
our Ricker had an
Elder of the Jehova's Witnesses
as a work colleague at one time
and he had the children of his flock
excluded from some
secondary school biology lessons
but there was a much less contentious issue that
exercised his mind
and it is an insight into why peope lke that
get into conflict
at the time
the government - presumably the Thatcher government
were promoting a new idea
for the experts it was simple
switch the energy supply industry
from
vertically intigrated
to
horizontally integrted
it's fairly easy to understand that
a sack of potatoes can be sold by a farmer
to a wholesaler who sells it to a retailer
who sells it to a customer who willeat it
and many farmers sell to few wholeslers
who sell to many end users
the difficulty for this chap was
what a mess
several if not dozens of
power cables in every street
supplying different customers
it is quite a problem if you do this wrong
duplication constitutes redundancy
equals resiliance
our Ricker has no land line or fibre internet connection
he had BT and then he got NTL
and so he had both for a while
then BT cut him off and sent him a cheque for the
refund of his existing credit perhaps somebody impersonated him and told BT to end the contract
or perhaps it was because Bt asked him to sign to the effect that
he had read a contract runnering to
thousands and thousands of words
Ricker wrote above his signature
I have not read the above
but I accept this as your standard contract
now through click through
we all routinely
lie on official documents
to the effect that we have read documents
that we have not
it seemed more important back in the day
Ricker's solicitor told him
ah well
I didn't sign my contract
I got he wife to sign it for me
so i can't be had up for negligence
so afr as he knows Ricker has a contract with BT
it's for
a plusnet 'phone contract
and that illustrates the point behind the
switching services
you will have
one gas supply
one electricity supply
and perhaps two internet connections
under the pavement outside your home
but quite a number of people
wanting to take your money
on behalf of the
actual suppliers
or actual producers
so we can say
if we import half our Natural Gas
and the imported stuff goes up in price
the people who supply North Sea Gas
half of what we use
would be mad
not to match the price of the imports
despite the fact that
their cost of production
has not changed
soo
North Sea Gas
will run out
but for quite some time to come
it will be delivered using kit that was installed
decades ago have invested heavily
more recently
so THEY need to charge a higher price
and the North Sea Gas suppliers will
Price Match
even though it will deliver
windfall profits
because
you don't have
one pipe to deliver North Sea Gas
and a separate one to deliver the more expensive
imported natural gas
you can't choose
cheap or expensive
you have to buy
a mixture of the two
like you can choose
a British, a German, a Spanish or a japanese car
but you can't choose the origin of the fuel you
put in it
that will be a
blend
designed to suit your supplier's supplier's supplier
we have had a thought
fossil free motoring
if you can top up your car with
hydrogen and oxygen
in seconds
and it takes half an hour to
get a useful amount of charge into batteries
how likely are you to spend half an hour in
McDonalds
or TGI Friday
or the service station casino
if you have a hydrogen powered car?
hydrogen is being back pedalled
because service staton operators
want millions of people
milling around on their forecourts
so they can sell them things
and so
the Blur Broadcasting Company
will be promoting battery power
not hydrogen
don't ya just love 'em

16th January 2022

sometimes we know things that seem so
far fetched that we can't possibly
write them up because depite being true
disbelief would damage our reputation
below we document how
Bruce Shand
married off his dughter Camilla to
Andrew Parker Bowles
by unilaterally - without consultation
announcing their engagement in The Times
what we think we are seeing across society is a sort of
admixture of three concepts
people are living longer now
marriage for life is marriage for
over half a century if started when
of child bearing age
the second concept is
are your intentions towards my daughter honourable?
or
if you like it, put a ring on it
and the third concept is
it seems pretty likely that you have not got my daughter pregnant
but we are lowering the bar
and if we can suggest that you are in any way connected to her
you must do the honourable thing
or we will destroy
your career, reputation, ad life
as an aside
Andrew Parker Bowles was
through most of the marriage and the run up to it
in a different country from Camilla
due to his military service
get the ring on her finger
forget the rest....


it's not often that we delve into the archives of
Goodhousekeeping Magazine....
honestly these days we no longer see
huge companies in private family ownership
Ford motors, BMW
within living memory
McAlpines were a famous construction giant
but way back
three to five generations back
Cubitt
built
Mayfair, Pimlico, Belgravia
probably for the Duke of Westminster
but we aren't checking that
a Cubitt heiress married a soldier
who had been captured at
El Alemain
we think he was called Shand
Major
latterly a wine merchant
maybe a sleeping partner on account of his wife
having put money into the company
we don't know
we won't stand up the detail
we are talking about
Major Bruce Shand
he had daughters called Camilla and Annabel
and a son who died at 62
Camilla's gran was
one of the daughters of
Alice Keppel
King Edward VII's famous tag along mistress
anyway this is the insight into their world
Bruce reportedly became impatient with his daughter's courtship
The war hero wanted Andrew Parker Bowles to
settle down and marry his daughter - Camilla
so to seal the deal
Sally Bedell Smith reports...
Bruce and Andrew's brother worked together to
publish an engagement notice in
The Times
which pressured Andrew to propose
so 'commoner' Bruce Shand
thwarted Prince Charles' intent to
marry Camilla
by strong arming Andrew into
nicking the Prince's girlfriend
we do rather suspect all of this is covered in
The Crown
but how would we know?
there's a lot of it about
men make money and their wives make daughters
daughters who end up having to
marry beneath them
it happened in our Ricker's family
Ricker's mam's mam was a Wright
as of Wright's biscuits
Wright's biscuits were made in
Tyne Dock
and promoted by
Mabel Lucie Atwell
SHE illustrated
peter Pan and Wendy
but she also produced art work for Wright's biscuits
Wright's Biscuits became part of United bircuits and died
1973
but Eva Wright - buried in Kirkleatham Church yard
was knda cut off from the family way back when
she married a credit draper with one shop
way back
we don't know how much if anything Eva Wright
gave up on marrying
George Robert Frank


we're going to adapt something somebody said about
Actor
Mae West
no
omebody said Mae West said it about somebody else...
and apply it to Mr Micauber
he climbed the ladder of success
wrong by wrong
it was the comic Irish TV presenter
Terry Wogan
who was only ever married once
who used to refer to his wife
of 51 years - Helen Joyce - as
the current Mrs Wogan
although latterly she was
Lady Wogan
in something of a comment on the
divorces and re-marriages of the guest he interviewed
but perhaps
we could also say of she rose to enormous prominence
wrong by wrong


we have never believed that MPs are
particularly bright
what s number one top concern about
current MP utterances is this habit of crying
send in the army
at the slightest disruption to the norm
we are not deeply concerned that there is be a military take over
in the UK
but given the large amounts of funding
Miss Lee the Chinese example the latest
when they
bob up to say these things
are they bing funded by
military leaders around the world
seeking ligitimacy
within the confines of
the UK House of Commons?

15th January 2022

slowly the red is appearing






and a slightly frosty Morrisons sculpture wall

In 2015 the Succession to the Throne Act 2013 was
passed
scrapping the preference for males in succession
we don't care very much about this Queen Elizabeth wasn't born Queen
she became Queen at the age of 25
on the death of her father
but her father was not originally
heir to the throne
he was the second son of the king and
his elder brother
lost a face down with
the establishment over his choice of wife
Queen Elizabeth's grandfather changed the family name from
Saxe-Coburg=Gotha
to
Windsor
so The Duke of York is potentially
Andrew Windsor
although at present
Andrew, Duke of York
and likely to stay that way
so George Windsor - King George V( V means 'the fifth'
sooo
what we can say is
Elizabeth was born with no prospect of being Queen
and her first two children
Charles and Ann
were born before she became Queen
and Andrew was the first to be born
after she became Queen
so Charles ans Ann were born to
the heir presumptive to the British Throne
Andrew and Edward were born to
Her Majesty the Queen
only one person at a time is titled
Majesty
the rest are given a range of other titles
so there is no confusion about who is being referred to in
official documents headed
OHMS
On Her or His Majesty's Service
overall, then. The Royal Family is
a bit of a mess
so what we are divining is that
Andrew and Fergie
produced these two absolute train wrecks of daughters
born as we said 1988 and 1990
so the divorce came a few years later
and the Miss Roberts debacle began a year or twoo later
and now we know
and some people have known for a long time that as
Andrew and Fergie and
co-habiting divorcees
the divorce was
a sham
and the dea seems to be this
the moment Queen Elizabeth became Queen
Charles became heir presumptive and
Ann became second in line to the throne
as soon as Andrew was born
he bumped Ann to number three
'cos she was female
then Edward bumped her down to 4 - we guess
Prince Charles' elder
so far as we know, not eldest
son William was born
1982
the other one
1984
so they were both both older and male
with respect to the 'loony twins'
Beatrice and Euginie or some such
so
Andrew has had two attempts at
knocking something
male and human
out of Fergie
so let's fake a divorce and
hire in a teenager
to temp marry Andrew and
look three nutters
Harry, Beatrice, Euginie
out of four
we need to strengthen the breed
hire in a teenager to produce a few
male and human heirs
and then ...???
sell her on?
and get fergie to raise the kids
'cos apparently Andy dotes on her
and that plot it appears is what the former
Miss Roberts
is
'seeking to expose'
it sees quite possible
especially if you strip away the
Qanon paedophile nonsense
that both Epstein and Andrew were looking for
breeding stock
not sex

13th January 2022

the Duke and Dutchess of York divorced
in 1996
and so far as we know it was some time later that
the Duke met Miss Roberts
and if she was 17 at the time
she was not much younger than
Lady Di was when she
'met' Charles although there may well be
records of them having met much earlier since she was
born on the Sandringham estate
hands up those who do not think
Lady Diana Spancer
was
trafficked
by her brother Earl Spencer
and Queen Elzabeth to be a
womb ob legs for
Charlie Boy
born 1961
married 1981
where do you stand?
true love
Charles and Camilla?
Arranged marriage
Charles and Diana
trafficed
Andrew and Miss Roberts
or
true love
Andrew and Miss Roberts?


dogs exhibiting norovirus symptoms
have probably been eating
chocolate
and similar festive left overs


we think Queen Elizabeth has three sons and a daughter
the youngest Edward seems to have kept a low profile
Ann has had her moments
but the main interest is in
Charles and Andrew if Charles outlives his mother he will probably become king
as a side issue
there is no certainty that he will be styled
King Charles
or King Charles the Third
it does rathe smack of being a
spanial
that aside
whatever public opinion holds
Prince Charles is married to Camilla
and Charles wanted to marry Camilla from early days
except that he didn't realy want to marry
so typical female
panick over the ticking clock
he failed to pop the question so she married
parker Bowls was t? who knows
and had her kids by him
and then it was
Charles, you really MUST marry
there's this gormless guy with an estate called
Althrop
marry his sister
and get a heir
or
Edward will...
oh god he's only got daughters
and IF after divorcing Fergie - the mother of the daughters
a second Edward wife produces a son
and you don't
you will have to be succeeded by that son of Edward
soooo
Ann rides in and says
we're not having that
we'll have daughters entitled to succeed
if they're old than sons
the time lines is probably all nonsense
but the essence was
Charlie get married
Andrew, don't re-marry
Charlie met the love of his life early and failed to marry her
at the appropriate time
and Edward married a
goof ball
Sarah Ferguson
is
The Dutchess of York
her dad was
Ronald Ferguson
Major Ferguson
polo manager to
The Duke of Edinburgh
and later for many year polo manager to
Charles, the Prince of Wales
Ferguson was described as
a minor toff who
like Icarus
flew too close to the sun
so we may say
if Ferguson was
Phil the Greek's man
Phil the Greek - the Duke of Edinburgh
may have scotched any attempts by Andy to remarry
hoping for a
Sarah - Andy reconcilliation
so perhaps Miss Roberts as was
does have a genuine grievance against the Royal Family
perhaps she has brought this action
after the old git has popped his clogs???


we have a couple of things to say about
the Duke of York
firstly, we read about these
vulture judges saying
this man has destroyed this girl's life
what are their expectations for life chances
this woman has married and produced three children
now 'normal' a life qualifies as
destroyed?
the second point is contraversial
we are not here referring to any inside information
you have probably heard of
The autistic spectrum
the idea being that only recently have
large numbers of people with
mild autism - particularly females who hide it well
have been diagnosed
if we were presented with
Prince Andrew
as a patient
we would be asking ourselves
is this chap
what shall we say?
a high functioning Down's individual
there are two very well know people who are
candidates to be
cryptoDown's
the other is a famous and successful golfer
if you take one view
he does very well considering....
if you take the other view
he's got money
any more conniving little bitches we should
hand it to?
in other words he should have an
enduring - lasting - power of attourney
like
Britny Spears


wastefront
tyres are not made fron
natural rubber and so but the rubber in tyres is not from a natural source
rubber tree sap
and so anything produced from them is welcome but NOT
biofuel
it's a question of
being clear about the use of words
tyres are made from synthetic rubber
if somebody developed a
bioreactor in which a nonfossil carbon source was
transformed into synthetic rubber
how would they be able to explain that their product
could be recycled into
a biofuel
if somebody has appropriated the term biofuel
for a product derived from fossil carbon?

12th January 2022

President Macron was tarined at the
Ecole national d'administration
after Sciences Po
we don't know if M Macron was ever at
Le Sorbon
Paris-Sorbonne University in paris set up 1971
to take over the responsibilities of
England's oxford and Cambridge universities
and a little aside from talk of the
Bullingdon Club
Durham being a cut price clone of Oxford
our Ricker's Moral Tutor
Cuddly Ken
Bowler
pressed him - unsuccessfully - to join
CamRA
the campaign for real ale
you know, quietly mocking anybody taking their studies
seriously
there's a slight mismatch of dates
we saying Sorbonne 1971
but the song that encapsulaes the entire project
of
dumbing down
in European Higher Education is
Peter Sarstedt's (when you're alone in your bed)
and your qualifications
that you got from the Sorbonne
published 1969
You talk like Marlene Dietrich
and you dance like Zizi Jeanmaire
I've seen all your qualifications
you got from the Sorbonne
....
i remember the back streets of Naples
two children beging in rags
both touched by a burning ambition
to shake off their lowly born tags


here we are deliberately not going to research
exact dates
say you were a don - tutor - at oxford in 1940
you have the responsibility of selecting and training
the young men who will
as politicians and civil servants
reconstruct the nation
after the war, assuming germany is defeated
if you are a don at Oxford in 1970
you are pretty darned sure that
all that has gone away
from now on
The UK will be run from
The Sorbone - French and German universities
and you can settle down
engineer your next
Porterhouse Blue
series of nevellas by Tom Sharpe
Porterhouse Blue published 1974
there was a king who died from a surfeit of lampreys or ells
a Poertehouse Blue was a stroke induced by
eating took much swan
and similar
and in the book Cambridge not Oxford
and they elect the steward of the college or hall as the
president
on the basis he is not bright enough to
get involved in college politics
sorta
that would be played by David Jason of
Open all Hours fame
Granville
and in real life
Skullion
at oxford
The Bullingdon Club
we would be very rash to suggest that
Boris Johnson will be the last
Bullingdon Club member to become UK Prime Minister
however, BrExit does pose the question
should Oxford give some consideration to
putting forward people to
carry out government
and not simply provide a dumb show
frontise for Brussels?
Oxford's pupeteering skills one assumes have become
a lttle rusty betimes

11th January 2022

we're just going to write this down
because our Ricker does not feel safe in Middlesbrough
and so we loose track
as we undertsnad it
6 years ago somebody bought
The Cleveland Centre
in Linthorpe Road
for £85 million and
converted it into a hotel
with a shopping mall on the ground floor
we are told that this is around a third of the
retail space in central Middlesbrough??
and this hotel is opposite
Middlesbrough Town Hall
on Albert Road
that is it is one whole block between
Linthorpe Road and Albert Road
and Middlesbrough coulcil have just bought it for
£12 million
so
it can become an extension to Middlesbrough Town Hall??
there are other shops on Linthorpe Road
but the other 2 malls are
Hill Street
and
Captain Cook Square
so we could say
Captain Cook - bus station
Hill Street - railway station
Cleveland Centre - town hall
and
twenty or thirty years ago
a part of the cleveland Centre called
One North East
had a call centre called
Garlands
that disapperaed years ago
we are there fore assessing that
Middlesbrough Town Centre is
up for sale with a guide price of
£50 million
any takers?
and we find out before Easter
whether Redcar Wilkinsons
is closing
we were told by a Redcar retailer that
two major junk shops
TJHughes and TKMax
are in Captain Cook Square Middlesbroug
and not on Redcar High Street because
footfall in Captain Cook Square is greater than on
Redcar High Street
d they subscribe to
footfall recording agencies?
what's at stake here is
shop property renters - owners
offer Redcar sites cheap and
mainstream retailers don't even
check the stats
just the media reports
about tumble weed and soup kitchens
speaking of Cleveland Centre
there was at last checking a branch of the
High End brand of Sports Direct in the CC
Flannels
and it was there because
put the retail stores
where the online business is coming from
not where the universal credit payouts are low
we do struggle to see how TK Max a d TJHuges
believe they will prosper on
university campus
and a university campus - third tier - is what
Middlesbrough Town Centre is
shops in a top class uiversity town - Durham
are struggling
woke students don't shop in multiples
especially if their halls and colleges feed them
what ya gonna sell to a bunch of student nurses?
there are actual towns in the Tees Valley
Stockton, Redcar, Darlington, Hartlepool

fancy a job as a postie?
it appears we no longer have any in Redcar
we haven't had any non-urgent mail for around a week

10th January 2022

well what can you say
exactly the same scenario in New York
as at Grenfell
except
absolutely NO CLADDING
so you can spend as much of anybody's money on cladding removal the New York apartment was a duplex
what we called in the UK a
maisonette
a two flour flat
and somebody left a space heater on on one level and went to
sleep on the other level
and the heter was too close to
curtains or whatever
and after several hours
11.00 pm to 2.00 am kinda thing
the soft furnishing or the plastic or wooden
internal 'fitout'
caught fire
it does bring back to mind ... again
Fahrenheit 451
movie from the book of 1953
the basic idea is that
with the coming of the
New Brutalist Architecture
every building is made a raw
reinforced concrete
and everything is
fire proof
so there are no fires
and so the Fire Service diversifies
and at first helps people to clense their homes of anything
that can burn
and then begins to ficus on
books
so Firemen or in modern parlence
fire officers
go around sniffing out and following tip offs
that people have books
and they run around
and
publicly
burn the books
a modern day
well the Roman Catholic Church has a go the Puritans had a go
the Nazis had a go
control information
and here's the thing
these people in New York
left their masonette
but left the door open
and the door wasn't self closing
so just as at Grenfell
the smoke killed the people
not the
in this case
brick
cladding
we can't say
that couple of dozen people who died in New York
died because the UK government
refused to row back on
the
aluminium spreads fire nonsense
and that is clearly a concept that
Two Brains Gove
will never get his head around

9th January 2022

we have collected some sinter from the beach in Coatham
and it's a bit damp so
our model of a blast furnace has got a bit misted up
so you tip it in at the top and after it gets so far down it melts
and then boils and the oxygen transfers from the iron to the carbon
now, we all know how heavy iron and steel are
but this sinter has washed up on the strand line of the beach
and it's mostly black
a sinter prill is mostly coke and air
and some of them carry their iron ore on their surface
and look brown
so
when we said
Maltesers without the chocolate
sinter prill have not been made in Redcar for
at least five years
so the ones on the beach have been knocking around for
around five years and most of them have had
their
iron ore
chocolate coat knocked off
as found...






something is beginning to worry us about
UK comentary on President Trump
asked about him pundits are taking to saying
well, a man who advocates grabbing
women's genitals...
need we say more
President Trump is a rich and powerful man
so we have to take a little care
even when reporting what is
in the public domain
so we will say now that the following is based around
concepts in the public domain but
not verified
what we have heard about President Trump is that
far from being
hung like a horse
he is hung with a mushroom
I'm a little teapot
short and stout
US media have President Trump on tape saying something along the lines of
well, if you fall abit short
most women are quite happy for you to compensate with
a little
fisting
and that may avoid any 'need' to be
'tipping the velvet'
as so amny f our lesbian friends are wont
cunnilingus
fisting
dildoes
if your mushroom fails to satisfy...
get in there with the fingers
but
what worries us is
the idea that he is totally unfit to be president
but on grounds alone that he has a slightly more
expansive lovemaking repetoir than the hack
and exactly how much satisfaction is there for
a bunch of fingers that are
thrust into a warm apple pie?
each generation to their own
the swinging sixties and so much talk about
the clitoris and
the g spot
then metoo
when will the media re-discover the g spot?
and
cads who ignore the clitoris/
when metoo no longer sells newspapers?
or in the post MTV world
these refrigerators
these microwaves and these
colour TVs
Dire Straits

7th January 2022

this is a sample of Redcar's hairy concrete...







so, a few pics yo celebrate the
replacement of the hoarding aound the Regent
with a fence
and
the
black and white and red all over look
is emerging


ever thing in life
would be done by the army or the police
if only they had the time
sign up for the army or the police and wake up
next morning
omnicompetent
caple af doing anything from
brain surgery to space telescope design
if only you could be arsed



we don't often repeat ourselves and so
sometimes a small detail of what we have said
may be overlooked
Human papiloma Virus
warts are an infection of the top layer of skin
we have said
viruses can't do anything without entering a living cell
really it matters not
what cell they enter but
HPV 'specialises' in the takeover of
the cells that naturally die and are
sloughed off
'we' say
smallpox s the only virus to be exterminated
not all cirvical cancer are caused by HPV
but clearly targeted vaccinations against HPV
have done a lot to reduce the incidence of
cervical cancers
so what we have to do is imagine how this works
lots of surface membranes - perhaps all
have this facilty of
constant renewal
men ar really qute familiar with the substance called
smegma
not so much if they are circumcised
see circumcision is a once for all procedure to
avoid men having to
'play with themselves'
in order to keep clean - prevent the build up of smegma
frankly, the foreskin is a part of nature's plan
a part of God's plan and so
playing with yourself in pursuit of
clenliness,
is also a part of God's plan
we gonna quoye some tech stuff out of context here
E2 encodes proteins that regulate viral gene expression
if E2 does not regulate E6 and E7...
then the cell can proliferate and cancer ensues
sorta
what we are saying here is
the function of a virus is to take over the reproductive apparatus
of a cell and have it produce virus components
as opposed to human components
like sneaking code for bike parts into the
CNC machines at work
CNC computer numerical controlled
or bunging a guvvy file into the
3D printer
except
in cervical cancer
and probably many skin cancers
a virus can shall we say
only get as far as
speeding up the work rate of the printer
without actually changing the
pattern design element of the programme
so instead of getting a load of virus particles
you get a load of skin cells
way too many - a tumour
a tumour whose cell replication is on light speed
and will break up and circulate
so we say again
cancer is a mode change
not a code change
so yer macrophages have to
eat the human cells that are on light speed
before they get out of control
and that's on the brink of
auto-immune disease
antibodies to the virus won't
mop up human cells in an inappropriate mode
gotta get the blighters before they invade a living cell
to be technical we can divide these viruses into
mucosal
and
cutaneous
so corona viruses are mucosal
and wart viruses are cutaneous
mucosal - mouth, gut, chuff lining membranes
cutaneous - skin - the outer layer that is
dry
wart viruses have to be tollerant of drying out
mucosal ones don't do that
they avoid having protection against drying out
but without that protection
they can't survive being dried out
however
there are selection pressure son viruses
like a Kinder Egg
without cahild to break the packaging
the egg will moulder away on a shelf
consider a toy in a paper bag
if the bag gets wet, the toy will fall out
a similar toy in a lunch box
will stay in the lunch box until somebody open the box
and in time it may
crumble to dust
with a novel form of virus
the immune system first takes the
low habging fruit
then the tougher variants predominate but
BUT
they can't so easily
extract themselves from the
lycra
the leotard
and they find infecting more of a challenge
and they get
daddy boots them out of
darling daughter's bedroom
before they can get naked
in other words
these variants
will have to content themselves with
a snog in the living room
no bedroom visits
and this means
a lot more contact but no access to the vitals
so we want to marry the lass off
but we don't want her getting pregnant before the
happy day
so lots and lots of virus made in
nasal mucosa
but the bedroom of lung door is firmly shut
putting that another way
mucosa and skin can sort of regard some of these viruses as
binmen - refuse disposal operatives
breaking up
the surface, worn out, but not yet dead cells
top surface membrane cells
still alive, not no longer fully functional
suits the virus, suits the host
what happens is
if you leave the smegma to build up
in time this is not good for the
mother membrane
taking a section through the membrane
the top level is supposed to slough off
if it does not
then the elements that it is supposed to be
carring away in the wee....
hang around and
they cause deeper and deeper levels of the mucosa to
disagregate
and let nasties in
and eventually they may get into the circulation
and more likely into fully functioning mucosal cells
this speaks very directly to our
firm instruction
don't give antossins to CoViD patients
we believe that comments from
'doctors in the wrong specialism'
about dosing themselves with every drug they could think of
and promptly dying
is way beyond
a little knowledge can be dangerous

4th January 2022

we feel the need to set out a few details
the two children
prince Andrew Duke of York acknowledged and raised
were daughter born in 1988 and 1990
and thus contempories of Miss Roberts
and so some fathely interest in other young women
cannot be ruled out
contact does not confirm abuse

Miss Roberts is said to have
three children and she MAY be terminally ill
she may be engaged in some desperate attempts to
make better provision for them than
their father can muster
in the UK,BR> she would have been better served by setting up a
Go Fund Me page
and without prejudice seeking the Prince's approval
support


a really old person the likes of our Ricker
tends to pick up memories that may be useful to others
back in the day
a television was often referred to as
The Box
because they were not as today
flat screens
they were as deep as they were high
and they had an electron gun at the back
that fired electricity at the inside of the screen at the front
and the chemical - the phosphor - on the inside of the front screen
would glow briefly if hit with electrons
decades after these things were safely introduced
a group of people in the
I'm not a nutter, I'm a vegan
category
DECIDED that having these electrons fired at your face
must be harmful
without a shred of evidence
and so
'enterprising individuals'
began marketing
suplimentary screens
apparently made of stocking material
for people to mount in front of their
computer screens at work
now clearly, bg corporations had
designed computer screens to be optimal
in terms of brightness and such
so if you spend your day
pering at a computer screen that is obscured by a layer of
stockinette
you could develop
eye strain
so there was this case where
some woman
who owned a business that employed people to work at
computer screens all day
read something about these suplimental screens in some
hag's mag
and ordered the her computer tec to fit them
and he refused
so she sacked him
so he sued for wrongful dismissal
if you say
this moron heeds a job
and
what harm can she do if she's a
mere figure head
you could be
QUITE WRONG



we suppose this is the day for the
Virginia Giuffre formerly Roberts case
we - by which we mean we and not the whole wide world
have two images of Miss Roberts
one looking well - supposedly at age 17
and a video clip from?,Br. much later
in the clip she appears - purely by comparison of appearance
to have been put on
steroids
and we think through and we note
in Austaralia - not travelled to New York to
make her case?
what imediately springs to mind is
has this woman developed
Crohn's disease?
and is she
sueing over sex
because she thinks
her provious sexual activity has triggered it?
born Sacremento she must be a US citizen
we have two thoughts going on here
anyone who has ever had sex and then got gotten ill
thinks - ciould my illness be sex related?
the other thing is
American courts are infamous for handing down
sentences in the hundreds of years the justice industry in the US has a habit of
trawling the world for cases of
accidents and incidents that have not happened
in the USA and dragging them into the US courts
similarly people - often women
want their cases tried in London
in general we observe that
London justic is seem as fair and open in other words if you have a solid case
sixth wife of a Middle Eastern King
seeking a divorce..
take it to a London court and you will be seem aright
if you have a
I got cancer and I'm blaming it on talcum powder
style case
take it to the states
you may just get lucky

2nd January 2022

we probably haven't had any real cut through about this
fasting
taking 2017 as being similar to 2022
on 17th June 2022
sunrise will be in London
Borough of Hammersmith to be exact
04.43 BST - british Summer Time
and sunset will be
21.21 BST
so the time for cooking and eating for
the faithful on the night of the Grenfell fire was
7 hours 22 minutes
after a fast of
17 hours...
approx
5,38
19.05
Mecca
the fast length in Mecca was
13 and a half hours
but the essential factor is
when Ramadan falls LATE in the year
there is a lot of fasting
and a mad scramble to cook and eat
in darkness
on the 17th April in Mecca sunset is
18.41
and sunrise
6.12
so whether you use London time or Mecca time
if Ramadan is in April
the fast is 12 and a half hours
still long but shorter
TM a type 1 diabetic Prime Minister
should have
must have
known how debilitating such as long fast would be
and
and?
not willing to see her disability implicated in the tragedy
lighted on the aluminium panels
that were
were they
French not American
blame the French in a time of BrExit?
so we have two factors related to Ramadan
1 bloke in a hurry to cook and eat starts the fire by
loosing control of his cooking equipment
2 people told by the Fire Officers that
the fire would not spread
form the initial flat
decided that
it was better to break their fast
than to flee

1st January 2022

A Happy New Year to those folk at
Radio Tees
just a small item of evidence regarding
it's not milk
no sorry
it's not
Redcarr
it's RedScar
our Ricker's sister sends him a
Dalesman calendar every year and he
doesn't open it until New Year's Day
and the january picture is...
Ingleborough, from Twistleton Scar
this is Yarksha
scar not carr


Ramadan was in 2017
the 30 days starting
Saturday May 27th
The fire was on 14th June 2017
so a lorra lorra people in London at the time of the fire
had been fasting during daylight hours for
the past couple of weeks
in the absence of any
consideration of Religious Rights and traditions
many people would say
especially if these people were
mums in Hartlepool
that this was a
very dangerous position for the capital city to be in

31st December 2021

we have seen another driver on a
route familiarisation trip
through Redcar so we expect
that the commuter service
Middlesbrough - London
6.08 am to 9,30 am
will soon join the
7.08 am tourist - shopper service
it's clear that if
work from home become more entrenched
and atteding Head office in person become a
2 or 3 days a week
or 8 to 10 days a month exercise
what with Wi-Fi on trains etc.
South Tees is not out of reach
we would say this though
an increasing amount of
'office work' is commuication with
clients and suppliers in
The USA
that means being on line
2.00 pm to 10.00 pm GMT
and we think there should be a service
arriving back on Teesside around 10.00 pm
so that US business can be contracted
in transit


some may know this and some may not
when you have a apir of spectacles
properly dispensed
that is
not having the powers checked against the prescription
an bunged in a box and into the post
the dispenser will say
lokk into this eyes please
now the other one
and yer get the occasional patient who says and I've never done that wif me 'usband
Richer did observe the shock on the faces of his
mam and dad when
Pete would visit with his kids when they were
sort of 8 and 10
and he would wrestle with them on the floor
Tsk, tsk such intemacy with a child
it is very difficult to know what is
appropriate
there are clearly still circles in UK society where
it's seen as fine, no problem, how if goes
to batter a todler around the head
but a hanging offence to
touch them
anywhere near THERE
all of which is kanda crazy but likely to
'morph out' over time
we talk about
bothe ends against the middle
what we may call a more scietific
fact based medicine
approach to the likes of childcare
is being slowed somewhat by
how shall we say the
ignorant but opinionated
Theresa May former Prime Minister
and the
it's been this way for thousands of years
in The Old Country
immigrants
ganging up on the
show us the data
middle ground
we have this tremendous sense that
Theresa May is hanging on to her Commons Seat
so that she can die without admitting that
aluminium cladding of hight rises is as safe as houses
some politicians detest admitting they are wrong
some are willing to
put the nation to the sword
rather than admit to
a bit of jiggery pokery
and as far as we know
TM sent out an order for a
stunt backed report saying she was correct
in her snap German Chancellor Style decision
about Grenfell
she has a massive constituency majority
2019 32,620
that was 7,611 less than in 2017
and the local council is
The Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
as in Windsor Castle and Queen Elizabeth
it's this kinda
Noblesse Oblige kick
nobility obligates
no matter how badly the groundlings fuck up
blame it on 'the syatem' society
them dratted technocrats
not us the chosen ones of God
nor
the
Poor Bloody Infantry
sack some general and leave all else the same
The Church of England
The Tory party at Prayer
Free everything for the Workless
and never a hint that they
EVER SCREW UP
like setting fire to uPVC window frames in a high rise kitcken
because you are ravenous after an all day
Ramadan fast
our Ricker once got into an internet chat about how
some people think
med school exams should be moved so they
don't fall in Ramadan
note to NHS patients
NHS staff are largely
hypoglycemic
low blood sugar
between
in 2021 this was
it's a moveable anti-feast
it was 12 April to 11th May
Grenfell was really about a herd of hypoglysemics
completely
zoned out
in the face of an emergency
new construction rules have to make constructions
somewhere between
zelot proof
and
suicide proof


the most important lesson of the week is
aligning the law with the demands of zelots is
it's a gift for blackmailers
there is nothing
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
in the wide world
that is easier than for a
16 or 17 year old female to
pass herself off as
over 18
I'll need to se your ID before I will glance your way
in case you should raise your skirt

30th December 2021

we're collecting a bit more information about
Epstein-Maxwell
we ask
why would Epstein perfer sex with a woman
six months under age to
much less risky sex with her six months later
we don't think he would
we tend towards thinking
maxwell conned Epstein into thinking he was
having se with adult females
when she knew they were under age
so that she SHE had blackmail information on Epstein
so
marginal victimhood for the women
the question would be
how much sympathy would a jury have for Epstein
as a blackmail victim?
probably not much
so the way to punish maxwell is to present
some of her
accomplices
as her victims


Epstein a man who made billions after starting from
a deprived background
Maxwell the daughter of somebody who did the same thing
we see a parallel between what they were setting out to do
and what universities around the world set out to do
how ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm take people - perhaps in this case always women
with universities mainly women
from deprived backrounds and say
look at this wot we got
you could have this too
if you get yer arse in gear
but the majority say
gimme gimme gimme
or I'll have you jailed


there seem to be three essential questions to ask about
Epstein
is the Pope Jewish
no no not that
did Epstein have sex with teenages because it was better sex?
did Epstein have sex with teenagers because all the 20 somethings were married?
did Epstein have sex with teenagers because it was naughty?
for a maths geek ths seems like a major miscalculation
a bit like insider trading
this lass is lush
all them poor guys will have to wait until she's 16
or 18 in some states in the USa
she'll go early with me
'cos I'm rich
doing something that you can
only do if you're rich
it's impossible to believe that given free access to Maxwell
Epstein would waste his time
let alone take any risk of arrest over some
gutter snipe
we have to say
he could have
put the wrong sort of plastic in his recycling
if he'd wanted to simply do something naughty
seems overall he just declared an activity that
only rich blokes could do
and did it
a lot
if you were one of these women
and everything you did with Epstein was
through Maxwell
how could you believe that you could displace her
if only on the basis of your youth - a disappearing asset?
none of the stories suggest that any of these women were
going behind maxwell's back
so given the instant payoff
how could they expect to marry Epstein and
divorce him for half his worldly wealth?
it all sounds a lot like
Willy Wonka and the Golden Tickets
come to the Epstein shack and see if you will inherit the business
after all Maxwell don't need Epstein's money


when out Ricker was a teenager
he and his father were very enthusiastic about
The Pergamon Press
it was a Maxwell publishing house
it is now an imprint of Elsevir
it published affordable monographs
textbooks on scientific technological and engineering topics
that was good
we bought and read several of his books
we never read any of his newspapers
The Mirror Group newspapers
he - Robert Maxwell - was a
Jew
from Checkia or Slovacia
and essentially a bit like
DeLorian the car manufacture failure
tried to make money and spend it
democratising knowledge
his family one may say were steeped in the concept of
bridging the gap between
geeks
and real people
and so far as we can tell this
guy Epstein
was a geek
you know how much we detest
maths geeks
but we take away two thoughts
1 would things have been different if
Epstein had preferred his women - experienced
what age of partner would have blocked the whole exercise?
2 some people have used hyperbolic language to describe this case
but the public don't seem much moved either way
clearly if you buy sex on an industrial scale
as Epstein appears to have done
you will inevitably offer evidence for
blackmail
to many people along the way
if you are very rich and very geeky
you may get an even bigger buzz from
paying off the blackmailers
than you got from the sex in the first place
in other words what we are saying is
not that these people were
pervy for wanting and having sex
but pervy for
almost - insisting on paying for it
wanting to set themseles above
partners by paying them and thus
regarding them and treating them as
employees
back when our Ricker were a lad
boys were told two things
one way or another you will always pay for sex
2 you will never know whether you are the
biological father of the children you raise
mothers always strove to get their daughters onto
long term sex contracts - marriage
rather than have them 'jobbing' at it
now we have DNA profilling and
careers for women
so some of the edge has been taken off those concepts
it is very difficult for a woman to find a
straight guy these days
and so they can be hypersensitive about
does he want me because I am a woman
or because I am young/
would a straight guy rather have sex with a young man
than with an old woman?
we are going to single out a very clever
female in the public eye to ask about some of these questions
there is a young woman who stars in
infotainment shows in the UK about
antiques
she burst onto our screens at quite a young age
and because the format of some of the shows
involves driving classic cars - old bangers
the viewers got an insight into her
efforts to pass her driving test
and then suddenly - out of the blue
her name has changed and she is married to
one of the crew on the show
not long after she passed her driving test
and we now hear that she lives near her parents
and her husband is
working on other shows as well as hers
there is clearly an element in UK society who regard
a marriage certificate
in almost exactly the same light as
a driving licence
a right of passage
like a school leaving certificate
but how many mums are disappointed if
the wedding does not - in short order
lead to grandchildren/
when you have a duaghter with a successful career
how does a wedding rate against grandchildren?
how many mums think
why did she marry if there will be no kids?
a single man may llok to a woman's ring finger for
advice
but if the rings don't say
I'm taken
but say
I'm not a looser a failure
then he may move on and cement that failure
to make a meaningful relationship

too many chiefs
and
not enough Indians

28th December 2021

you know sometimes something trivial
really bugs you
Ricker watched the
Stephen Sondheim tributes and there was this bloke
in the background
and so it was
who was that
see how long the little white cells
Ricker s not Poirot
with his little glial cells
in time the answer came
as they used to say
the penny dropped
Ned Sherin


you may have heard of
bare knuckle fights
fisticuffs
now we are going to do a little analysis of
unarmed conbat
the manly form of brawling involves bare knuckle fighting
you aim the long bones of the fingers
and the knuckes at either end
at your opponent
classically a woman
infuriated by a man
beats on his chest with the
fleshy side of her hands
on the opposite side of the fist from the thumb
as one may knock on a door
hitting with the fleshy part of the fist
does and risks less injury
hitting with the bones
is more risky and can be more 'effective'
particularly in the form of
an upper cut
here's the problem
boys who fight like girls
attacking an adversary as though it were
a front door
can so easily find themselves taking the same action
whilst holding a knofe
you can wear a
knuckle duster
but you can't hold a knife between your fingers
and so
teaching boys to
fight like a man
would reduce the incidence of
knife wounds
but this is a digression
kisticuffs is also known as
prizefighting
and the thing we are getting around to is
The Marquess of Queensberry Rules
1 a 24 foot ring
2 no wrestling or hugging
no grabbing the opponent and pounding away
at them whilst having them in a lock
3 3 minute rounds
4 there a 12 rules
mainly about what to wear and when a contestant
is deemed to have lost and not hanging off the ropes or having an assistant
in the ring
so your second throws in the towel to signify
I'd get between them if I dared
However
thes were London rules
and in fairgound booths around the country
one of the things that was done was
to encourage ammateur opponemts to challenge the champ
the champ would allow the contendee to fight
bare knuckled
and himself have his fists wrapped in a hat
for padding and honestly because he fought a lot more
and that was
fighting
hand in cap
thus - handicap
and that was a flat handicap
but we think of handicap mor ein terms of
horseracing
and
golf
in golf you
play off a handicap
if you are new or rubbish you are allowed to take
extra shots that are deducted from your score
in a handicap horeserace
they put weights in the 'form' or good horses' saddles
so Burks' Ballew carring 7 lbs - pounds
so there are handicap races and non-handicap races
just as there are
open golf tournaments where all contestants play off
scratch
in boxing
everbody in 'proper boxing' not cage fighting
wears gloves
but they can only fight opponents of the same weight
there can be as many as 17 weights in boxing
heavyweight
cruiserweight
light heavyweight
super middleweight
middleweight
2 welterweights
2 lightweights
2 featherweights
2 bantamweights
4 flyhweights
so in honesty
their are ways to encourage
youngsters from minority and deprived backgrounds
without deciding that
the rules don't apply to them

26th December 2021

everybody is entitled to make a mistake
and the
Brtish People
over the years have been very indulgent over
Queen Elizabeth's
choice of consort
but to see her in such a
Trout Pout Strop
over how pleased people are to
finally see the back of him
is a stain on the tradition of the
Christmas Address
we've never - in the past - associated her with
me me me
so extreme has been her reaction that the conspiracy theorists
may begin to cast doubt on the theory that
the IRA - Irish Republican Army
were responsible for the killing of
Lord Mountbatten
Charlie Boy's childhood mentor
what we do expect from now on
is a lot less
appearing in military uniform
on behalf of sundry Royals
and some of these MPs.....
me shirt has gotta be wasked....
send in the army
whatIS all that about
not to mention
to fuck with being a
butcher
I'm joining the Navy
ne wonder we had to destroy perfectly good pork
for lack of competent butchers...
I was born in Blyth
but I was made in The Navy
military recruitment ad

25th December 2021

according to Ancestry
our Ricker is
one third Scots
one third Irish
one third Scandinavian - Viking
not exactly in those proportions
but his clan is
The Clan Gunn
and the motto of The Clan Gunn is
Aut Pax Aut Bellum
meaning
be it peace or war
we are ready


there are s quite naturally a tendency for
institutions to adopt a motto
Redcar used to have
Mare et Ferro
sea and iron
to denote
shipping and fishing and steelworks
some schools have the motto
aut disce aut discede
and that's Latin
some schools have
disce aut discede
and that's
cod Latin
aut .... aut...
is
either .... or....
some people have this capacity to
'translate' a phrase in one language into
something they want to say
so some people think
disce aut discede means
learn or leave
learn or leave is a decent motto
but it isn't what aut disce aut discede
means
it goes over an entrance door and means
(pass through here only if you are willing to)
either learn or teach
it reflects the concept of
communal learning
to some extent
although not directly it means
we all come here with knowledge that we can share
the tutors have more knowledge
than the students
and the books - even the internet
have even more knowledge and
we work in here to
spread and share knowledge
this place is about
teaching and learning
and this is the basis of the stuff we hear from
Durham, Oxford and Cambridge
about
we want funding to be able to accept
students from deprived backgrounds
in a sense they are inviting those studnets
to teach
some students are referred to as
exhibitioners
they attend university to
inform the institiution about life
beyond the
Ivory Towers
Gleaming Spires
but
this can be exploitative
like the girl retreating from the bedroom with
a fistfull of hundred doller bills
the grduate grasping their
Double First certificate
with the university's best wishes for their return to
the job in the supermarket stocking shelves
we've learned a lot from having you here
now
sod off
the thing is
people in the real world don't see it that way
they see a university qualification is the same light as
a licence
you have a driving licence because you can drive safely
people think
you have a degree because you are
a world authority on the subject on the certificate
it means nothing of the sort
it means
Bloggs woz 'ere
the problem is....
if you take a uni such as Teesside
at conversion from
Teesside Polytechnic
to
The University of Teesside
Leon Brittan
was the chancellor 1993 - 2005
so like a Tory and that
and then replaced by
Tom Sawyer
General Secretary of the Labour Party
1994 - 1998
and in some senses
Tom Sawyer being New Labour
not too bad a choice
but it cannot be denied that there is quite some gulf between
Brittan and Sawyer
and
Andy MacDonald
the Labour MP for Middlesbrough
and you have on the one hand
lecturers pressurising their
union and Mp to protect them from
the demands of students promoted sponsored by their
families and employers
and on the other hand the basal concept of
Corbynistas - Corbin style politicians
constantly seeking
gutter press style
dirt
on anybody who has
real world lessons of the technocratic variety
to teach
so people retreat
we say
don't ask me
look it up on the internet
I'm not going to teach YOU
in case you decide that I have
UPSET you by informing you about just how far into
a parallel universe
you have drifted
and so at present
The Labour
desperately trying to
dig dirt on a Tory
Police Fire and Crime Commissioner
there have been number of sad cases about
boffins who have been destroyed by their research
the devloper of one of the first synthetic fabrics
it may have been Rayon
had his brain destroyed by the
carbon disulphide
he used as a solvent in his lab
several people involved in DNA research
ended up with cancer due to
radiation from their equipment
and now
f you ain't Labour
we wll destroy you
one way or another
we therefore have to consider
Cancel Culture
all that lot - business
tend to say
not so much
In God we Trust
but
we will do Randon Things
and if they fail
we will turn to government for a bail out
Cancel Culture
appears to say
now that we have
quotas and minority only lists
we must re-set developemnt
and essentially declare all the
'advances' developed by
white men
and declare them
Gifts from God
and not achievements of people
so that
as a democracy
we can all
pray
equally well
and by doing so can
stand an equal chance of
catching God's ear
and securing the next
technological advance for the planet

25th December 2021

we've been thrawted again
regarding
Town Plannng
The council didn't buy
Frank Dee
Goodwins have bought it
they will be moving out of the
Woolworths building and into Frankie Dee's
soon
what is interesting is
they first moved into Woolies as
Yorkshire Trading
Goodwins is the cheap and cheerful verion of
Yorkshire Trading
AND
as we have said before
Frankie Dee started in a small unit and
had a huge supermarket built next door
and the interesting thing is
BandM was in the 'new'building
and Fulton Foods were in the original
Frank Dee
NOW the Nichols crew - Yorkshire Trading
have turfed Fulton Foods out of the smaller unit
it leads us to think
they may have plans for a huge
Goodwins
in Frank Dee 2
and a little Yorkshire Trading in
Frank Dee 1
when the Nichols first moved into
the Woolies building they arrived as
Yorkshire Trading
and re-branded as Goodwins
slowly, slowly
Redcar may be loosing the reputation
Steel works closed = tumbleweed and soup kitchens
when the steel works closed,BR> Yorkshire Trading re-branded as Goodwins
and Cancer Research UK re-branded as a pound shop
it's now more like a wool shop with loads of
BIG
Bought in Goods

23rd December 2021

sometimes a society makes a big change suddenly
sometimes it is just nudge
and gradual change
sometimes people have put a lot into
supporting a defunct idea and and
not happy to leave it behind
sometimes people oppose change as an
exercse in attention seeking
we always start these discussions with a
setting aside the ambulance chasers
message
we try to think outside the box
a bit like
helicopter parenting
let them hang as threy grow and
swoop in in emergencies
with an objective view
we are struck by the similarities between
people who bang on about
child sezual exploitation
and
vegans
in both cases we have the two elements
animals shouldn't be eaten children shouldn't have sex
and
animals will die anyway and children will grow up
the whole thing has an air of
the darkest hour is
just before dawn
and
the more the evidence stacks up aginast you
the more desperate and determined you get
we think that young people are divided into two camps
the ones who take one of these ideas
get woke about it
and follow it like a teen idol or sports team
and the ones who
have bigger fish to fry
Jake wanted to be a drummer
then he wanted to be a footballer
and now...
uni, work, girlfriend
hey a young man with
a girlfriend
not a husband...
how terribly non-woke
her's a topic for the chattering classes
we have this stuff about
men who have sex with 17-yeqr-olds being
paedophiles
choose an option for a seventeen year old
with a terminal illness
1 go to heaven as a virgin
2 put having sex on the bucket list
3 get pregnant and leave a legacy


we may explore this a little further
which means we haven't explored it at all - to date
we have referred to rabies as a
neurotrophic virus - we think that's what we said
we associate rabies with wolf, dog, bat - bites
we don't see rabies as a respiratory infection
there has been a lot of talk about
receptors on body parts
and spikes on virus coats
we haven't seen much said about how there are
two sorts of
receptor activity going on
particularly in the nose
the membranes of the nose are trying to do two things
1 detect microbes
2 pick up scents
and the receptors for scent are
on nerve endings
without a thought in the world about
infection
sites involved in what we call
olfactory nerves
are actively seeking out contacts
again we want to stress
viruses simply
ARE
they don't DO anything
the body seeks them out and
to get all Classical
they are Trojan Horses
and it really is up to the Trojans to
Beware Greeks bearing gifts
the virus is just there and
if the body leaves it alone
the virus will expire
it's exactly the same as
don't open attachemnts on
emails from strangers
sniff sniff, I wonder what that is
such a wonder - with all their
sniffing obsession
that dogs
cab survive a day
on the open streets
and the answers is
there are next to no viruses
on lamp posts
viruses are
IN OTHER PEOPLE
and have a very short life expectancy
anywhere else

21st December 2021

it is qute interesting to ask
how many people play sport with
no thought of going pro?
some people play sport
some people watch sport some people have 'back room' careers in sport
sport is
exercise
competition
livelihood
entertainment
bu most sport to be sport and not
passtime
involves
a winner
and if you start every competition with
I am the black therefore I must be the winner
why bother to play?
if you can say
you are a United player and so I am a fan
and you can say
you are a City player so wanna see you fail
but you can't say
you're useless, I want you out of the team I support
and you can't say
you're black, if you miss a penalty, I'll want you out of my team
it appears that
sport is about competition
so long as none of the competitors is
from an ethnic or cultural minority
and then it's about
inclusion
so what do we make of
influencers
actors, bloggers, athletes
who will do almost anything for money
and nothing for free
how many Premier League players have been told
by their agents
don't get vaccinated until we've sorted out ?
so you fear that the celebrations will
get out of hand
if England win the European Cup
so you get the BLACK players to
scuff their penalties
because you know you can jail anybody who
criticises them for doing so

20th December 2021

we've decided we have not been sfficiently
robust
blunt
about people who as
not getting vaccinated
the US government set this hare running
a considerable proportion of people who have
not been vaccinated
are
an incentive
a cash payment for turning out
like paying blood donors
and buying HIV contamnated blood...
no carrot



there is a whiff of the
Ponsi Scheme
about some of these CoViD stats
Ponsi was a famous exponent of the following trick
by some means
flashing qualifications, printing flashy business cards
setting up an impressive web site
you persuade a dozen or so
influencers to invest 1,000 dollers, pounds, whatever in your
wealth management company
the next month you give them 100 dollers each
as their profit/earnings
and you do this again for a couple more months
by this time they have
'told the world' just how ace you are with money
and loads more peope have sent you a grand
and if your plan to disappear is watertight
you end up with loads of money
the similarity with CoViD stats is
extrapolation
say you don't like cars
perhaps you can't get a drving licence
so you plot the number of cars on the road
against time
1950 - 1 million
1960 - 10 million
1970 - 100 million
1980 - 1 billion
the essential problem here is
throughout the period
there were going to be
around 50 million people living in the UK
so by 1970 they would have two cars each
and by 1980 they would have nowhere to put them all
which is the point the anti car publicist was trying to make
but would it actually happen?
it's like those pay day loan schemes
lend us a fiver and I'll buy you a pint
so you get the pint and change and your mate gets
a pint and his fiver back a week later
you've paid £1.50 for a week's loan of a fiver
and actually you didn't need a week to pay it back
and you would have bought your mate a pint
whether you needed to borrow the fiver or not
and he would have got the next round in anyway
but
BUT
if you calculate the annual compound interest on the loan...
5.00
week 1 5.00 plus £1.50 = £6.50
week 2 6.50 plus £1.50 - £ 8.00
week 3 £9.00 plus £1.50 = £10.50
but hang on
that's
simple interest
compound interest is
week 2 interest on £ 6.50
at the rate of
£1.50 for a week's loan of £ 5.00
thta would be
30 per cent per week
so week 2 £ 6.50 plus 30 per cent of £ 6.50
£ 6.50 plus £ 1.95
and it goes on
but not at that rate if you actually make payments
if you borrow £5 and repay £ 5.00 plus a pint
within a week
you have satisfied the debt
and no further charges accru
and so to CoViD stats
say you have a small island
population 100
somebody returns or visits and brings a strain of CoVid
wth them
with a R value of 2
week 1 - 1 person infected
week or any other time period, 2 - 3 persons infected
next test 6 persons infected
next test initial case recovered no longer infectious
10 people infected - 5 infecting 2 each
next test 7 infect 14
next 14 infect 28
next 28 infect 56
next test 56 infect oops not a lot
not a lot lest who haven't had it and gained immunity
if each day
50,000 people are infecting 200,000 people...
you run out of people quick
but if each day 200,000 people are infecting
800,000 people...
you run out of people in a couple of months
and we've already had nearly a month of
omicrom
so you calculate total melt down by Christmas
something has got to be done
BUT
if 25 million are vaccinated to the gills
and 20 million have had some vaccine
things are very unlikely to go that way
for the virus
a chain is only as strong as its
weakest link
but a population facing an infection
is not a chain
this idea
nobody is safe
until everybody is safe
gives the impression that
by getting vaccinated we are
building a wall
a wall that can be breached
against the virus
but we are not
we're simply dishing out
raincoats and welly boots
protecting every citizen
one by one
and the ones who leave the raincaots and wellies
in the cupboard
stand to
catch their death of cold
and be in line for a
Darwin Award
There's Nobel prizes - for important scientific discoveries
Ignobel awatds for pointless research
and Darwin Awards for people who
improved the genetics of the human race by
dying young during an idiotic prank
like declining a vaccine
and not passing their defective genes on
to the next generation
this is not about
let the other guy
stick his finger in the dyke
I've got partying to do
this a bit like the
seven wise bridesmaids who
kept their lamp - party frock - in good order
and were invited into the party
WHEN IT WAS PARTY TIME
ther's a sort of lesson from
mobile 'phones
the first mobile 'phones were made by
Scandinavians
Erickson Nokia??
who knows, who cares
'phones are now
iphones or Galaxy
and every time a new technology has been added to
mobile 'phones
the new company that launched it
replaced the complacent company that launched the
previous generation 'phone
except now
Google are trying to launch a 'phone on the basis that
Google is
bigger than Apple
essentially the tec giants have run out of ideas for making new 'phones more desirable than
the previous generation
in short, order a type virus has limited scope for
evolution
it will rapidly achieve
the maximum of its potential
and what that brings us back to is
punctuated equilibrium
if you follow the science...
the dinasuars were all the same for
unimaginable eras of time
and then they hit a new challenge
and aside from the birds
were wiped out
they could not evolve their way out of
meteor strike
and - in essence- vaccines are to viruses
as meteor strikes were to diansaurs
punctuated equilibrium is where the
sudden challenge is not as severe as a meteor strike
and this is the real point
you can survive CoViD by getting vaccinated
BUT
if everybody gets vaccinated
that is a meteor strike for the virus
in other words
you can buy raincoats and wellies
but everybody can work together to
halt climate change
one person or country getting vaccinated
protects that country
but if every country vaccinates
the virus has
nowhere to run to
when the treat is
unimaginable horror
smallpox
it's not the want of a cure but the decision
that sending smallpox into history is
more important than
giving
the chattering classes
something to argue about

18th December 2021

sometimes when you buy or are prescribed tablets
they are described as
enteric coated
in drugs this means
coated with a ploymer barrier applied to oral medication that prevents its dissolution or disintegration
in the gastric environment
essentially
norovirus is naturally enteric coated
it is a gut virus
gives you the runs
AND
omicron is a corona virus that
gives you the runs
it is adapted to life in
subSaharan Africa where
hand hygiene is
difficult
to the point of being
non-existent
w eshall see what we shall see
but
big numbers in London
could be
big numbers in the African diaspera
we shall see


we think....
Sarah Keith-Lucas
should be in next year's
Strictly

17th December 2021

we was wrong again
the iniquity of law enforcement
plumbs new depths
the Sutton, Surry - New Malden - fire
clearly a murder suicide
the boys were the only males in sight so
one of them set fire to the house to
kill himself and his brothers
case closed
UNLESS
thye can find some
male with learning difficulties
to confess that he had been the
baby sitter and naffed off instead


we've picked up a couple of ideas from
local TV vox pops
one is the idea of the
Passover
people who thought they could avoid vaccination
if they self isolated
and waited for the epidemic to pass over depending on other people to
have the vaccine and kill the virus on his behalf
and then feel embarassed to come forward for the jab
when self isolation becomes too much
such people obviously need reassurance that they will
not be mocked for being
Johnny Come Latelies
the second group are a bit more of a problem
they are the people who say
by now I must have had the virus
so I must have antibodies
and getting antibodies by having a vaccine is
un-natural
we suggest that this is a bit like saying
I only eat raw food
because
cooking is un-natural
you may well survive but
a lot of life's pleasures will be denied you
if you try this
beyond vegan
approach to life
our Ricker did once meet a girl who
wasn't entirely convinced about
evolution
because she couldn't quite see how
cooking had 'evolved'
and Ricker said
well, there have always been
forest fires and grassland fires
and sometimes prey animals
rabbits, whatever
would be killed by the smoke but not entiredly
burned up
effectively cooked
and people would find them
and discover that they were easier to
eat and digest
and the same with plants too
seemed to get some cut through at the time..


we have made a couple of mentions of
CATS
central area transmission system
and we don't know exactly how many pipelines come ashore
there is a baby one
and there's a mummy one
and there's a daddy one
and the daddy one is
twenty inches in diameter
but the mummy one is
thirty six inches in diameter - bore
they can shift quite a lotta gas
and in a way
this has some relevence to the
water lance vaccume excavator
the point of a big burried utility facility is
you have to put up
no digging here
signs
but the dea of no dig dig is
the water jet will turn the fill
the sand gravel and clay
to slurry without doing any more damage to
pipes and cables
than a shower of rain
so this gear is a city girl
and there are
plough style sets to cut
across the
blasted heath

16th December 2021

for whatever reason we have decided to recount a couple
of points about the Tory MP
Robert Goodwill
he's been a few things
we think they include being an MEP
Member of the European Parliament
we think he's now Mp for Scarborough
he started out as Tory candidate for Redcar
so two little stories about him then
and one about the Tory party at the time
in essence
sometimes you get the strongest impression that
although political parties want
a majority in the House of Commons
they don't want to win in certain constituencies
perhaps that is harsh
perhaps they were so worried about loosing in
Langthingy - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland
that that was why the Goodwill campaign
was instructed to pack up mid election and
and help
Mr Bates in Guisborough
now Lord Bates don't you know
we suppose it was 1992
so
Mr Goodwill says
my dad was a policeman
goood
he was an inspector
baaad
the other thing was
he's up from the farm to canvas in redcar
so he's got this mate down home
near the farm in North yorkshire
and his mate runs a car hire business
so young Goodwill comes up to Redcar to canvas
knock doors
not in his daily driver
but,BR> in a deep blue manky old ex-rental
Ford Escort
his mate was
willing to sacrifice to the cause
so that wasn't such as misjudgement
our ricker did get to drive it a bit
but then some chinless monder
who cost his accountancy company's clients was driving through Grangetown
and talking to his passenger
and Ricker in the back seat
had to shout
STOP
several times very loud
to stop the
City Gent in the making
from crashing into the learner driver
practicing three point turns in
Bolckow Road
once upon a time
somebody was fixing to sell a shed at the rear of Bolckow Road
and Ricker and his mam fancied buying it for
a workshop
and the sale fell through because
Bolckow Road was
zoned for resdential
Bolckow Road is still
but not for long
in the shadow of
The BOS Plant
the Basic Oxygen Steelmaker
it is really quite interesting that
Grangetown was zoned as residential
and Warrenby was zoned as
Light Industrial
that strange thing of traditional pride in
making a life in the midst of utter filth
because you have never known any other
really really strange to see new housing
over the fence from the
major industrial artery - to Tees Dock
the A66
we want nice things
but we want them HERE
only the council or housing associations would
build in Grangetown
because it was zoned for residential
and surrounded by
major and highly polluting industry
sooo
lorra lorra vacant plots where the
original buildings had
literally
fallen down
so our Ricker is chairing a meeting
organised by
Friends of The Earth
Carole Zagrovitch
so that a deligation from
The London School of Economics could cavas opinions
from local Bolckow Road reidents
and Ricker is explaining the problems in
having residential and heavy industrial zoned so close together
and the local bright spark asks
are you saying we're stupid?
no, no I'm saying it's complicated
the riff at the time was
overhead electric pylons carrying enough power to run a steelworks
houses built either side but not underneath the cables
and FoE go ou there and take
flourescent tubes
remember flourescent lights before LED?
the ones that take seconds to come on
they went out with bare replacement tubes
stood under the pylons and pionted the tubes at the cables
and they lit up
no connection except the
ionised air under the pylons
and the locals were saying
why can't you build our kids
homes in that gap under the pylons?
so what do you do?
local democracy
you move the pylons and build the houses
and then
why can't you build our gran kids houses
under than new pylons?


without reference to actual stats
relying on the biased reporting of the BBC...
we have gained an interesting impression
although - it appears - women continue to kill children
and teenagers are increasingly willing to
kill other teenagers....
when a man is up for killing a woman there are 2 categories
that dominate
1 the rough sex defence - mainly the fracture of the hyoid bone
resulting often in manslaughter
and 2
the historical case
to take the second
to be charged with a historical killing
you need to be?
late fifties or older
born no later than 20 years after the
Second World War
brought up by a dad who had seen
active service
with young well remembered family members
on the casualty list
brought up in a context
including civilian deaths from bombing
and in a context of
by today's standards
shockingly high child and infant mortality
in other words
death all around - commonplace
so a deliberate death...
not so much a cause for remark
killing for fun or as a part of sex
or because a chap
preferred his meat cold
on a par with
causing death by careless driving
like yer typcal Yank Spy
in the modern era
men these days
despite the abolition of the death penalty
seen to take deliberate killing more seriously than
earlier generations who saw it all around all the time
we have moved to a scenario where
someone found dead - all close associates automatically
arrested on suspicion of murder
guilty until proved innocent
for the purposes of
preserving evidence and preventing collusion
so when somebody dies outside hospital
it is such a rare even that
the police have the resources to treat it as
suspected murder - whatever
you train all those forensic scientists
you can't have then sitting around in a crew room watching telly
like a bunch of
Fire Fighters
gotta keep 'em sharp
like celebrities who will
turn up to the opening of
a book
so people expect to get caught
and only get off if they are female
as opposed to half a century ago
when these 'cold cases' were expected to go
undetected if the victim hadn't broken the perps leg
so they couldn't run away
what we don't quite understand is
where is today's Donald Soper
the radical priest came to get us released
and we was all on the cover of Newsweek
Simon and Garfunkel
you have to put radical priest or Donald
along with Soper into Google to
get a result
times change
Lord Soper - amongst many other things
campaigned to get or keep
infamous child killer
Myra Hindley
out of jail

14th December 2021

we have been contemplating the concept of a
permanrnt replacement for the
Billsdale TV transmitter
the old one
demolished without much thought...
was said to have been 1,000 feet high
that's powerful high
and aside from the fact of most people apparently
not missing it much
we have no idea how it was built
we have however, for amusement
considered how a replacement could be built
and we have turned to the
British Airways 1360 viewing tower
in Brighton, on the south coast of England
it is a mere 531 feet high
but it is more than a TV mast
but it cost £46 million
however
a TV mast does not have to be fit for
public use
what is interesting about the construction method is
aside from extensive foundations...
imagine you set a huge
bar stool over the foundations
a bar stool with no seat
a ring set on top of a set of legs that are
not taller than the reach of
a fairly ordinary mobile crane
the height of a fairly modest
wind turbine mast
so then you put a section of
wind turbine mast between the legs of your bar stool
you then clamp the top of the mast section to
the rim of the bar stool
and winch the mast section up to the top of the barstool
less a few metres for stability
then youn move another section of mast
between the legs and bolt it to the section in the air
then you winch the second section up to make room
under the bar stool for the third section
and so on
until you get the top to 1,000 feet
no helicopters required
that's how they did it in Brighton
British Airways - no helicopters?
that must have hurt...


today we are going to have a little think
perhaps with wearing face coverings in winter...
you have noticed something
IF because you feel you shouldn't
remove your face covering
you let your nose run
instead of wiping or blowing it
you may have been surprised to discover
if your nose runs into your mouth
just how salty the liquid in your nose is
salty serous secretions are anti microbial
but saliva isn't salty
saliva has enzymes
in other words
to avoid all sorts of stimulation, sensations we don't need
taste is in the mouth, smell is in the nose
sooo
you can use salt in your nose
because you can't taste it there
here's a thing we didn't mention when we were
talking about
rabies
the classic symptom in rabies is
hydrophobia
fear of water
WE KNow you get rabies from wolf bites
our bodies don't know that
they just detect the rabies virus and
all hell breaks loose,BR> but over time
the hydrophobia develops
because
you're drowning in your own salty secretions
but if you have a cold or an alergy....
we need some anatomy here
it's awful difficult for the 'expert'
to know what peope think about how they are constructed
we're going to stretch your imagination here
our Ricker has a bathroom tap that has
one spout and one lever
up and down for more of less
left to right for hotter or colder
but the kitchen has been around for a long long time
one spout and two knobs
one knob for hot, the other for cold
the one spout has two pipes or cavities all along and
the hot and cold water only mix after they leave the tap
that's regulation
imagine a tall block of flats at the top of a hill
in the ground floor flat
if the hot water pressure is determined by the distance
from the flat to the rooftop water tank
and the cold water pressure is really low because
the ground floor is at the top of the hill
if the hot and cold water mixed in the pipework
hot water - that is no longer 'treated' and drinkable
because it may be contaminated
and because the chlorine may have evpourated
could get into people's supposedly drinkable
cold water
now
turn the tap on its side
not - hot water/cold water
breathing through your nose
versus breathing through your mouth
we breath through our mouths
so that we can talk and sing
but what we breath through our mouths
has not gone through the
airconditioning equipment nature has provided
there is added risk in being a
mouth breather
if we go way back in the history of
motor vehicles and their engines
the air filter wasn't a paper element
it was a box with a little oil in the bottom
and the air wats driven towards the oil
and particles hitting the surface of the oil
would stick to the oil surface
and not be dragged into the engine
and so we collect all sorts
including viruses in the salty water in our noses
and swallow them
and digest them
along with our food
so we can
detect viruses in noses that are not actually infecting us
for research purposes
we should sample from nose and throat
separately
and test separately
because ....
associated with the nose are
sinuses
there are no sinuses in the throat
once in the nose
a virus can hang arount for ages
not so in the mouth or throat
so we are puttin the opposite arguement
if you breath a virus in through your nose
it may hang around in your sinuses for
AGES
if you breath it in through your mouth
it's straight down to the fiery heel of
stomach acid and enzymes
because stomach acid is much more lethal to viruses than
salty serous secretions
and
and if you have gingivitus
bleeding gums
and you are a mouth breather
you are at maximum risk of infection

13th December 2021

the information is not clear....but
eight minutes past six
and 7.08 am
are the two slots for direct trains
from Middlesbrough to London Kings cross
we can't see any way those trains
or prehaps that train - one of those two
can be stabled -parked
in middlesbrough overnight
ready to set off at those times
sooo
we think every night there will be
anAzuma
parked at Saltburn Station
and will trundle out to The Boro
and Thornaby
to pick up passengers
and we expact twenty past 9 am
as the arrival in London
so you've missed it for today

12th December 2021

we have had our Ricker take a little walk
now we have some pics of the Redcar iron works
as of mid December 2021
but as usual publishing them may take time
at this point we want to change one item of
terminology
but first, time for some more info on
iron from rocks
the blast furnace
you tip a mixture of
iron ore
limestone
coke
in at the top
and you blast gas in at the bottom
there is a name for the nozzle but we can't spell it so
we can't search for it
anyway...
if you tip solid material into the top of a furnace
at the top it will be cool
and as it settles down the column in the furnace
it will get hotter
until at the bottom it is liquid
and very very hot
got it
tuyeres
twee aires
yes
back to the physics
the physics of the
sherbert fountain
so if you don't know
a cardboad tube containing sherbert - a sweet
and a liquorice tube or straw
through which to suck up the sherbert
or sherbet
there are at least three meanings for sherbet or sherbert
we think of sherbet as amixture of
powdered sugar and powdered citric acid
when you start the fountain works
as it gets wet if clogs up
sooo
when you 'charge' a blast furnace
you counteract clogging or caking by
turning the iron ore into
Malteesers without the chocolate coat
little balls with structure but spaces
so that they are
self supporting
to a fairly high temperature
and retain spacing so that gases can flow amongst the sinter
now
there is only one entry point to a blast furnace for
solids
they all, iron ore, coke and limestone
are mixed and travel up the single elevator
to be tipped into the one hole at the top
and the gases enter through a ring of
tuyers around the hearth
so we have been talking about the
direct coal injection plant
misleading
what you do with a direct injection plant is
you don't make sinter you don't make coke
you mix
finely divided limestone
finely divided iron ore
finely divided carbon - either fossil or from a sewage source
and you mix them with the gas
and
blast the whole lot into the furnace
at the level of the hearth
through the tuyers
and the whole chemistry is instant
and you don't have a column of raw material
slowly making its way down the furnace
until it gets hot enough for
the chemistry to happen
























progress pic show
power station well down
sinter plant disconnected
cladding coming off the coke ovens
so injection plant untouched
blast furnace having ducting removed

10th December 2021

oh dear
we have a mystery
regarding the Bilsdale transmitter
the theory is
that on 7th December
Arquiva were supposed to erest a second 80 metre
transmitter mast
first we have a bit of a problem with
why would two same size masts at the same location be
be better than one?
we think
the first mast had to be lowered due to the weather
and the replacement isn't working very well
or isn't working at all
the whole thing is as clear as mud
in Redcar for the past two days
there have been tranmissions - mainly of Judge Judy shows
from a semi-pro or training station called
Teesside TV
the whole thing is a shambles
we wait to see whether any mast will be put up
any time soon
and transmissions will resume.....
we have to do the Regent gag
what's black and white and red all over?
makes no sense when you write it down 'cos
what's black and white a read all over
a print newspaper
so
soon
we will probably be having pictures of
The Regent Cinema
black and white is true
Art Deco style
with
red stripes covering the drain pipes
this week some mahusive air conditioning gear went
onto the roof
the carpets and seats are already in
u nless the fitters were here simply to measure up the job
there could be an Easter opening

8th December 2021

perhaps it is the result of
access to home video media outlets but
the current crop of
Downing Street denizens
APPEAR to be the first crop, cohort
to parade themselves as
lottry winners
in a sense they are lottery winners but
mostly people who had the option to buy tickes of
a particular colour
more likely to be picked
this odea of being
reprisentative of
ordinary people
is a cover for
not needing to demonstrate any skills
essentially
I grew up on a
Country Estate
and I - to be representative of common people
should have come away from there
no better educated or skilled than
someone
fresh outa Hemlington

we note one thing about 'guests' on
BBC talking heads shows
f somebody is hired to 'do' a paper review
they are paid so can be told to shut up by the presenter
or have their mike offed by a producer
and
AND
when somebody has not been hired in
but is on TV to represent an
outside organisation
they are often if not always
treated as if they are staff
told to earn their mythical money by
and a response to independent journalism
we say power cables are burried in Yorkshire
and the BBC set out to
1 find washing line cables in North Yorkshire
2 find the one and only buried power cable in County Durham
snapped because it was entrangled in tree roots
this is - we assume - what they teavh in journalism school
find the norm
imagine the opposite
hunt down an example - no matter how rare
of the imagined exception and
present the
normal and the freakish
with equal prominance
and call it
balance


life changes so quickly and
cultural references quickly loose their force
so we will guess
tht not all art is done with
magic markers
let's just hope that painting with
water colour or what is probably no longer called
poster paint
still occurs
so you start a painting project and you have paper and paint
and you set to
and then something distracts you and you
pop the brush into a jar of clean water
to stop it going hard and unusable
but you haven't time to run the brush under a tap
you don't even swirl the brush around the jar
this is becoming the experience with
carbon dioxide
we light a fire and it may be a gas fire or a log burner or whatever
in essence we are saying
the paint brush just dumped into the water
not swirled
is having carbon based heating
without ventilation
if the air is still
the carbon dioxide stays near the fire
and we want to be near the fire
otherwise, what's the point of having it?
so what we don't have is a real understanding of how our lungs are
affected by increased carbon dioxide concentrations
we know that 'respiratory viruses' infect us more readily
in cosy conditions
but we don't know whether that is simply
lots of virus containing droplets in the air
or whether the raised carbon dioxide levels
change our lungs' respose to exposure to viruses
in all honesty, we have not evolved in the presence of
high carbon dioxide concentrations
no matter how much we burned in the past
the places we lived in were
very drafty
homes are now well sealed up
passive house is it?
in a way new to nature
we don't know what effect this is having
passve house
is a a voluntary standard for energy efficiency in buildings.
people - and their pets - emit carbon dioxide
in normal circumstances a normal amount of people in a
traditional building where people open a door or window if
it gets
'stuffy in here' carbon dioxide levels wil,be around
440 parts per million
if the central heating fires up
that can easily shoot up to
one thousand and 440
1,440 ppm
you're gonna feel uncomfortable
but you are gonna feel conflicted
that heat has cost you a lorra lorra money
you don't want to see it fly out the window
rule number 1
set your heating to be
off
or if it's clever enough
to a low temp
when you expect to be sleeping
God know what you've got
but your system
especially if it's water based should have a
frost guard feature
that kicks it on if it gets seriously cold
no matter what the timer says....
we have no idea
in essence
if you have a passive house
you should not be burning carbon based fuels
within the envelope
and that includes
scented candles and non-electric night lights
best thing
have a carbon dioxide monitor
the most often used
beeps every time the level reaches
1,000 part per million
for instant drop down dead you need
90,000 ppm
but as we say
totally safe is reckoned to be
under 600 ppm
so we have to say
the nearer to 9,000 you go
the more damage you are doing to your lungs
and the longer you spend over 600
the more damage


told you so
first bit of winter and
the stand in Bilsdale transmitter
iced up and shut down

you could say that
stating the bleedin' obvious is not
engaging in politics
so a bit of contect fot
Charlie Boy's wife
she was whinging on about
2 or 3 women coming to a sticky end on the average week
in the UK
AND,BR> about 2 kids come to a sticky end each week
we would say
most of the women would be killed by a man
most of the children would be killed by a woman
to suggest
hush up the child murders because
women are the guilty parties
is
misandry
palin and simple
irrational fear and loathing of
men
<.p>

7th December 2021

everything is subject to change
especially on the railways
we've witness another
route learning trip
running THROUGH Redcar Central
sooo
the London direct trains will be departing Saltburn
but as to whether they will pck up and drop off
in either Saltburn or Redcar
who knows??


we think we may have come across a safety confusion
there are
carbon monoxide detectors - meters
and there are
carbon dioxide monitors
if you have carbon monoxide that is lethal
and that comes from
not enough oxygen getting to your burner
if you have excess carbon dioxide
that can make you ill
sleepy that sort of thing
below par
not easily lethal
and not due to burning carbon based fuels in
the presence of insufficient oxygen
it is a flue problem, not a burner problem
gas always produces carbon dioxide when it is burt
it should never be allowed to produce carbon monoxide
nevertheless
it does not mean you don't have a carbon dioxide problem

6th December 2021

obviously...
if you have two variants of a virus and
in general
people's immune systems choose to
eject evict one variant and
destroy in situ
the other
that's a selective pressure
and the ejected version will become dominant


not a lot of times you see a rigid wagon with tripple back axles....

all along we keep in mind that this may be read by
people in the
new readers start here category
we have some what shall we say
fragmentary
information about the Death of Arthur
so we will use his case as we often do to say
this is not necessarily what happened
this is 'based on a true story'
as we understand it
Arthur was deprived of his
birth mother because
she was and is in prison for
manslaughter
and so this is where the story gets complicated
we THINK he and his father were left in a house
to fend for themselves and
his father took up with another woman who
had two children of her own living with her
in a nearby house
so the strange thing about this
probably for financial reasons
we assume that
if the two adults and the three children
had moved in together
it would have resulted in a drastic drop in
welfare support
one of the two houses would have been taken away from them
so the step mother wanted to
go to Arthur's house for sex
but he wanted a mummy
and so we come back to
is it ever a good idea to jail the mother of a young child
and if it is not
how can mothers ever be held to account
for their actions?

5th December 2021

we've touched on this beforeBR> many people seem to think that they are not
God's gift to humanuty because
they are FROM London
but because they are IN London
this has even more serious consequences
these asylum seekers
and migrants
have had
'failed lives'
where ever they came from and
seem to think that if they can get to London
they can carry on in their old sweet ways
Lynthing folk for blasphomy etc IN LONDON
it will lead to Health, Wealth and Happyness


for
as they say
crying out loud

the coal fired power station
chimney next to fall?

the toppled power staton coal bunker

the direct coal injection plant

the blast furnace
and here are today's
news values
little boy is killed by his dad's partner
dad is in jail because
rock and a hard place
if his partner kills his son he's
guilty of manslaughter
'cos he let her do it
if he prevents her from doing it
he's guilty of
controlling and coercive behavious
towards his partner
females are - in law
still not fully human
because
whatever they do
the search will begin for
a bloke to
carry the can
so no headlines
little boy killed by wicked step mother whilst
dadlooked on in despair
well there was one
but it was quickly snuffed out
by the
Christ these women are a nightmar in prison
leave them out there to do their worst
fairy tales ,,,,
we suppose wicked stepmothers have been
written out by the
woke
shorter term for
politically correct
it is quite some time since
an absolute bitch became
exhibiting unlooked for behaviour
lessons learned amount to
introducing euphemisms
to make report appear to show
things aren't 'too bad'

4th December 2021

OK
we were blind sided a bit
Yesterday - Friday
there was an explosion at the
Redcar Iron Works
the coal fired electricity generating station was
tipped over
a coal bunker
on it's side
not sure how thAt makes it easier to cut up
just rolled, didn't collapse
so to date
conveyors/elevators dismantled from the
sinter plant
and we couldn't be bothered to check on the progress
dismantling the coke ovens

perhaps you don't remember somebody
teesside Development Corporation??
commissioned some outfit down south
to design a scheme for the re-development of
Middlesbrough Dock
we would say docks but there only ever was one
and they presented a sketch featuring as proposed buildings
welll....
Redcar and Cleveland Council now have
a plan to reduce Majuba Road car park from
500 to 200 places
and the designers has submitted a scheme for
a world class dogging venue
200 pitches burried in the bushes in
a curvy serpentive configuration

3rd December 2021

there is a concept in sociology
La France Profond
it denotes
'deep' and profoundly 'French'
aspects of culture in some regions of France les Etas Uni Profond
ut instead we have
The Wild West
we have to acknowledge that some people
in the
Non-leelled up North
may object to
cables in the ground
because folk might get electrocuted
some people complain about being feft behind
but constantly
jump ship
so we want to extend the Janet Stark story
it is rather tragic
by modern day standards
of dialing 999 for a wickloe
we don't know at exactly what age Janet began this
God, a really horrendous start
born in HULL
what we don't know is whether her mother had
kdney disease before janet was born
but she had died before Janet was very old
there is some sort of assumption that
every little girl wants to grow up to
be a nurse
and so janet was exposed to
dialysis and fistulas at perhaps too young an age
simple as
no transplants in those days
when the doctors ran out of places to make fistulas
plases to insert the pipes of the dialysis machine
you died
so at lest through her teenage years
Janet was raised by her dad
our Ricker has memories of his mam giving him advice
that only a girl could make use of....
and perhaps Janet got boy advice
not
girl advice
from her dad
any how PTSD
post traumatic stress disorder
relating to the manner of her mother's demise
if Sam hadn't turned out so similar
it could almost be put down as
non-genetic
the thing wth local authorities and
perhaps the NHS
the idea that
fellow sufferers
with have empathy
sympathy
BUT
it can lead to
the blind leading the blind
there is a point at which
well another little story
Redcar is quite a place for
lifelong care for
working age patients
instead of building one huge care facilty
dotted around - mainly in Coatham
are a range of smaller but not samll units
where all the residents have the same needs
meaning staff can be trained
more quickly
the downside is
people aren't multiskilled
and some people can get really fancy
qualifications and job titles
and are taken for
multiskilled
because they are
highly qualified
some of these people have to accept being
overrulled by people without
their flavour of qualification
no man is an island
NO PROFESSION IS AN ISLAND


there is a small quirk we want to note
when Comcast put cable TV into Redcar
they put the cables underground
and it was said that British Telecom were
banned from undergrounding their wires
to give Comcast - later NTL now Virgin Media
a bit of a boost as they got established
there are therefore
telegraph plos in part sof Redcar
no idea whether they are in use
and whether
Open Reach
has any dealings with them
we suspect they do
we suspect they renew them on occasion
is that to save money
to give Birgin a USP - unique selling point
or to avoid undergrounding the
final copper connection
back in the day - 50 or 60 years ago
East Coast main line
scoses if not hundreds of telephone wires along the trackside


we have this concept
we forget the name so we'll call it
hierarchy of imperatives
say
you have guests
you've been busy so
soon after they arrive
you feel the need for a toilet break
the toilet is upstairs
and so is the family album
you are advised to
dig out the almbum and put it
at the top of the stairs before
relieving yourself
beause you may forget the album if you
go to the toilet firt but
if you get the album first
you won't forget you need relief
autistic people
can't cope with
set that aside because
something more important has cropped up
tell them
don't talk to strangers
and they will never talk to strangers
or cross that road alone, or whatever
because
they can't order priorities
or do
risk assessments
so if having sex is a very private thing....
how can you have sex with your husband
if there are other people
your children
in the house?
you may say to a 8 year old
don't let anybody
touch you there
but if they are autistic
at 18 or 28 or 38
they can't cancel that instruction
so on the balance of evils
bite the bullet and give
propoer detailed instructions
from the start

watching news coverage of storm damage
it looks like Durham, Northumberland
and Cumbria are
in a Third world Country
the likes of the
United States of America
utilities like severed heads
atop
matchstick poles
here's the basic question
the electricity companies put in
cables alongside roads
why in God's name aren't the cables in the ditches?
how much more to persuade farmers to have cables burried in their
headrows than on stilts
in North Yorkshire they don't have
so many overhead cables because
the grouse shooters do them
too much damage


generators...
the thing is
in the short term
a car battery wll drive a car for about 5 years
but it will still be 'good'
you pile a load of half dead car batreries in a remote village
and well you don't even need the batteries you just need the
wind turbines
this time of year


there's a thing
a big heavy looking truck
on Redcar Rivers Estate
at present
it proclaims itself
vacuum tunnelling machine
all very odd
it appears to be tunnelling under the pavements
to fit
new gas supply pipes
as far we can tell
tunnelling through sand and clay
it looks like a gully sucker
with a hose a bit wider
and it is using high pressure water to
carve out a tunnel
and vacuum to
remove the spoil and recirculate the water
we suppose it saves relaying the sidewalk surface
it looks a bit heavy to drive across a peat bog
but fast efficient tunnelling seems
well on the cards

2nd December 2021

we all know about the
Gloria Allred Academy of Gold Diggers
there was an Ealing Comendy?
School for Scoundrels
but we want today to explore a different aspect of
wimin and the law
so our Ricker and Janet Stark were work colleagues
and both a bit dissatified with career development
and working in Greater Eston for
Cleveland County Council
a long, long, long time ago
ad our Ricker thought he'd ahve a go at the
membership exams for the
Institute of Biologists
and the course was run at
Sunderland Polytechnic
and Janet was thinking about adding to her qualifications
and thinking about our Ricker too
and so Ricker was driving to Sunderland
whatever it was
once a week for night school
so like, a seat or two spare in the car one evening and see if the MIBiol course would suit you?
OK
it's a deal
so they get to Sunderland
in the early evening
having chatted some on the way, no doubt
and then arrival
and Janet says
you go in first
I don't want us to be seen arriving together
and after a few minutes she rolls in
she didn't have the keys to Ricker's car so...
and here is a thing
this woman had left her husband and the kids
just left
nobody else involved
and she's a prime candidate for being described as a
vulnerable adult
despite being a science graduate
the sort of person who could easily become
unwitting jail bait
because?
she was - possibly still is
autistic
not able to provide society with the
usual signs and signals that she had
embarked on a relationship
she wanted
and she was intelligent enough to recognise that she was
strange
and so instead of
waht sould we say
straight scientific biology
she decided she could perhaps begin to
understand herself better
if she trained as a
social worker
and later much later
one of her grandaughters
Sam
the autistic of two sisters?
was somehow put in the way of our Ricker
after SHE had trained to and become
a probation officer
women who are
undiagnosed autistics
struggling to
understand people, society and in particular
men
there's a research project
take samples of female social workers
and
female probation officers
and female solicitors general
and do a thorough work up of
are they
on the autistic spectrum?
and this is represented in the Shakespeare play
The Taming of the Shrew
and spin offs such as
Kiss me Kate
but should we diagnose these women and
protect them from men
or should we diagnose them and decide
men are netitled to proceed in relationships with
autistic woman
in shall we say more masterful ways than with other women?
perhaps we should diagnose these women and
devise provedn techniques fot third parties to ascertain
their true feelings for the man
'in their life'
before turning them into
jail bait
for the fun of it


in an era when
men were expected to be forceful with women
being autistic was little or no barrier to
motherhood
but as women
more and more
are expected to be
demonstrative
take the lead
give clear indications of
'consent'
autistic women will increasingly be
left on the shelf
and as a genetic trait
autism
may die out

1st December 2021

if you are very very old
you may remember a track called
Whole Lotta Love
1971
Alexis Korner
the band was
CCS or C.C.S.
and that 'stood for'
Collective Consciouness Society
and there is a load of stuff about
what was CCS and
what was the
TOTP Orchestra
because Whole Lorra Love was for decades the
Top of The Pops theme tune
anyhow
the bands Alexis Korner 'founded' included
The Rolling Stones and Free
and he was the
founding father of British Blues
and we are talking about that because
we set a hare running with
our door staff versus store detectives analogy
we sorta think of the activities of the body being
co-ordinated by the nervous system
but in an important way
the immune system is not plugged into
the nervous system
but it appears to have some sort of
collective consciousness
and so to the flaw in our
store/nightclub security analogy
we said no door staff
well no door staff vetting entry
but door staff ejecting punters
when we say a virus is
more transmissable
in many ways we are saying
it is
more likely to be
ejected, excreted, banished
than be
destroyed in situ
better to quietly show the trouble makers the door
than to have a bust up on
aisle 24
and
one of the usual suspects is more likely to
be subject to the
revolving door of
free admission and routine ejection
than the bikers from hell
riding in from God knows where
who are likely to be set upon for a
right set-to
we did a technical piece about the
differing mechanisms the immune system has for
dealing with
contamination
and dealing with parasites
and we said that the immune system
takes hostages
in the sense of
creating
living mug shots by
attaching bits of
he usual suspects
to bits of the
custardy suite
for reference and training purposes
and the whole
messenger RNA vaccine thing is about
nipping into the office and
posting mug shoys on the wall
to clue security in about
new kids on the block
or just basically
MI5 and MI6 tipping the police off about
persons of interest
an mRNA vaccine is a 'fake' security file
whereas a 'normal' vaccine is
a parade of prisoners
from a battle in a nearby land

you may note associated with this site
a top level domain
ST
or course we intend it to mean
street
but actually...
in a round about way it stands for
Saint Thomas
doubting Thomas of course
so we invite you to stick your finger anywhere
you fancy

30th November 2021

we want to offer a small example of
the sort of problems that come when
oh we don't know
you want to give the little guy a try
or you let somebody build their part
in a project
we are thinking about
environmental health people
take over pretty much the whole of medicine
most people will not remember that it was
Apollo 11
that first landed on the moon
almost nobody remembers
Apollo 1
Apollo1 burned out on the launch pad
killing the crew of 3
somebody had had a bright idea
a Colin Chapman - lotus cars - idea
build in lightness
so what did they do?
on Apollo 1
they said to themselves
why take all that nitrogen
all the way to the moon and back
so the crew sat in pressurised pure oxygen
and when there was an electrical short
and a spark
everything in the spacecraft
burned

29th November 2021

the word of the day today is
in pharmacology
adjuvant
is a drug or other subsatance
so it's a substance
or combination of substances
that is used to increase the
efficacy or potency
of certain drugs
and
so
in this year's
UK 'flu vaccination campaign
there were two versions of the vaccine
one for under 65s
one for 65 and over
because the immune response of yer typical over 65
is weaker than that of spring chickens of 64
the vaccine for 65 and over was - is
a vaccine for each od 4 'flu viruses
and an adjuvant
under 65 - same vaccines, no adjuvant
soooo
if and it's a very big if
omicron is harder to hit
the second booster could be
the standard vaccine plus an adjuvant
saving the need for clinical trials


a confusion in politics is surfacing
this concept of
deprivation
almost always those outside
The Labour Party
think that when Labourites speak of
coming from a deprived background
they think of money
the problem with a lot of Labour politicians is that
they don't see
The Labour Party
as a machine for government
but as for them and others
a surrogate FAMILY
to do nothing but exercise
SOLIDARITY
There's a tradition in the Tory party
when there is a selection committee
the candidates make their presentations
and essentially
the chair doesn't call a vote
they ask which candidate can we all agree on
the aim is to be able to sell the winner as having been
elected unanimously
they want an out and out winner
and what they get is the
lowest common denominator
the candidte nobody objects to
the erm
W C Fields, Mr Micauber
candidate

28th November 2021

we do do these random oservations
and we said that over the current year
we would see nothing but demolition
at Redcar iron works
well
another terminological inexactitude
they many have used explosives to remove the
South Bank Doeman Long
coal bunker
but at Redcar works they have introduced
at least one
crane
and they are dismantaling Redcar ron works
selling it to the Chinese? like they did half the Lackenby rolling mills
we will probably never know


one of the features of Coatham sands
is the exercising of horses
there is a plan to
duplicate
Coatham Green
on the north side of
Majuba Road
to thwart those pesky
rock concerts and custom car meets
and then where will the horse boxes park?

27th November 2021

you know the story about how
Australia
was isolated from the rest of the world and
it had a sort of
Noah#s Arc concept going
imagine that there are a number of
niches
within the environment
roles that an animal or plant or microbe
can fullfill
imagine that
give or take the niches are the same in
Australia and South America
you imagine that although the Bible does not talk about
the animals 'two by two'
a later construct to instll in the minds of children
the concept of
coupledom or marriage
but let us say
South America and Australia were
two enormous arcs
and each got a different selection of
living things
and Australia set off long long before South America
more types of living things had evolved
by the time South America was set adrift
than existed when Australia was launched
this is our explanation of why
very different organisms
fill the same niche on
the two continents
every so often we get a report of an
outbreak of
ebola
in Africa
as far as we can tell
it was first noted in 1976
and it is mostly found in what some describe as
rootless populations
people who are difficult to track and trace
and so it may have been
endemic to those populations
from far earlier times
the THEORY is
that bats and non-human primates
tollerate the virus better than humans periodically transmits to humans
this is braodly based on the THEORY
that bovine TB
is incubated, cultured and tramsmitted to cattle some genetic diseases
muscular dystrophy
Huntington's
are life limiting
in the sense that the people with them
live apparently normal lives
up to a point much earlier than the normal life expectancy
soetimes a person lives reasonably happily with a virus infection
and then an event occurs that is
the straw that breaks the camel's back
and the straw is put down as the cause of death
so, in the reverse case
there may be a genetic or lifestyle underlying problem
and it is the virus that
tips the balance and
intiates clinical
morbidity or mortality
and so we have all these people dying in the UK
from all sorts of causes
who have been found
by very powerful testing methods
to also have the CoViD virus
it is almost impossible to separate
died FROM CoViD
and
died WITH CoViD
and Elola is a problem
and there s a vaccine
and it has not
caught the imagination of
governments and media worldwide
in the way CoViD has
as is often said - very quietly
each year
including the past 2
in the UK
many many more people have died
FROM influenza - 'flu -
than have died WITH CoViD
and it is really very impressive that
CoViD is so rarely detected in
those about to die
vacines and barrier methods are
preventing CoViD from being
a complication in
serious illness and death
we started today with
continents as arcs
and so at one level
ermine and some weasles
something like that
arctic hares for sure
you catch some at different times of the year
and they look so different white fur - brown fur
that you think you have two dfferent species
horticulture - gardening
is plagued by gene tracing causing the
proper names of plants having to be changed
when we switch from
what they look like
to
gene sequencing
so
if you went to China and you found ermine
and then you cam eto Europe and found weasles
chicken and egg
and the egg does come before the chicken
because it has the mutation and the parents don't
chicken and eggBR> is the weasle a mutation of the ermine? neither
BUT
say you found
an albino rat in China
and then you found
a brown rat in Europe
is being brown
or
being white
the mutation
in other words
the China version of 2019 corona virus
was found first
other variants were found later
FOUND later
but which variant has
EXISTED LONGER?
pretty much impossible to say
we've found a new variety
so 'cos it's new it
MUST BE a MUTATION
WRONG WRONG WRONG
the only answer would be
paleovirology
find datable samples of earlier veesions
or
track the variants
like we make up the family trees of
plants and such
it's a massive analytical task to
build up a family tree for a virus
but
in what order did we identify them
WILL NOT HACK IT

oh tsk tsk
we are getting very deep here
there is an event
tghe shutdown of the
Wildstar server
on which wasthe incomplete
World Story
The Lost World Story
Genesis Prime
and the conflicy between
Drusera and The Entity of Nexus
and there is a
Death Star style
ship called
Omechron's Keep
so we wonder how many people at are gamers
Omichron
Omechron
Omicron
omicron is a random letter of the Greek alphabet
omechron
can be dissected into
omega and chronos
and Omega and chronos can be interpreted as
the last time
if this is the last time we will designate a
major variant of Corona virus
call it Alpha and Omega
the beginning and the end
that's hedging of bets
let's not call it
Omega
lets call it
semi-omega
omicron is the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet
omega is the 24th and final letter of that alphabet
omicron semi or half way to the end
soooo
this variant is up for having its name tweeked
in the history books
to
the omega variant

26th November 2021

somewhere our Ricker has a copy of a book called
man against microbe
this was the natural 1950s mind set
the next battle
join the army
travel the world
meet interesting people
and kill them
join he NHS
discover fascinating microbes
and kill them
in fairness that is a rather one sided approach
the icrobes are not attempting to kill us
they simply want to
live inside us and eat us< BR> and the ones that living people need to worry about
don't want to dig us up like potatoes
and make us into chips
they want to
eat the apples off our tree
they want to
levy a tax on our own foraging
and food processing
they are in no way smart
but they won't be successful if they
kill the goose that
lays the golden eggs
so
to extend the shop analogy
they would like to rock up to the supermarket and
got handed one of those
charity food bank bags you are encouraged to
run through the checkout in Morrisons
and leave behind for someone
less fortunate
they don't WANT to cause a ruccus
and have security call the police
and get carted off somewhere nasty
we would not quite call that
commensal
commensal is more
two hours of pushing broom
gets an 8 by 12
four bed room
WE
can't digest most of the things we eat
we need gut bacteria to do that for us
and if we fail to get on with the commensals
we get IBS or Chrone's
Iritable Bowel Syndrome
remember
most people get on fine with the gut bacteria that
cause chaos in IBS
that's why they say
given time we'll learn to live with
this or any other corona virus
so the people who are dying have
IBS or the lungs
and that's why we said , way back,
some people need their immune system
calmed down
not boosted
in this epidenmic
and in that
Man Against Microbes era
we had babies raised on
sterilised food
in a sea of
Milton
who grew up
immunocompromised
and now we short circuit the learning process with
vaccinations



we've talked about
mutations come to viruses like
lottery wins
every time they divide or multiply
they buy a lottery ticket
in the sense that the virus they make may be
different from themselves
its genetics may vary from theirs
BUT
when you buy a lottery ticket
you either win a prize of you don't
if you don't win
all you loose is the price of the ticket
and so long as you didn't pawn the family silver to pay for the ticket
that's the end of the matter
for viruses this is
a bit of a lottery
BUT
the game is more like
Russian Roulette
not in the sense that you will
blow your own brains out but that
you will flood the world with
offspring that are
either weird
or
entirely non-viable
and you've wasted your effort
and so to an industrial analogy
if you are Nissan and you have a set of
the biggest stamping presses in the world
and you churn out car body panels
each time a sheet of metal enters the press
it will be transformed into a body panel
but some damage will be done to the
press tools
over time they will start to make body panels that are
not to the original design
and sometimes we say
get OEm repair panels
they will fit because they were made by the
Original Equipment Manufacturer
thing is
they may be made from
original but worn out tooling
it is a strange reality of this whole virus thing that
your immune system is not out with a gun
hunting prey
it's more like
out on the pull
looking for sex not a feed
it has to be said that the actual real point is that
the big problem for the immune system is the risk of
auto-immune disease
the agents of the immune system have to avoid
friendly fire incidents
they have to do this somewhat backwards
they are not like
door staff
checking every cell is entitled to be where it is
they are
store detectives
mingling and seeking intruders
and so,BR. immunity is not about
are you on the guest list?
but
are you known to the authorities?
a known criminal
so that is the essence
if you mutate
you may not be on the guest list
but you are not on the
most wanted mug shot list either
the development of immunity depends on
learning
there's a new baddie in town
and frankly
much of illness results from
essentially
we know there's an intruder out there
but we have no mug shots so
we will have to have a
general clamp down
a security alert

25th November 2021

like all dads
our Ricker's dad did embarassing things
and we recall a particular day
in the mid 1960s we assume
Ricker's gran had died when he was 4
and his grandad re-married
and re-located to
Taunton
in Somerset
and so this day must have been a day when
Ricker's dad was seeking to show off to his new
wel it seems silly but
was it step mother-in -law
something lke that
so in the car
decent sized car
Hilman Minx or smilar but
4 adults and a ten year old??
anyway
what's the most impressive place he knows
Harome
rocks up at a thatched cottage in Harome
knocks on the door
no answer
so instead of leaving
he troops the party round the side into the most
gorgeous flower garden at the back
and having seen nobody answering the door and
nobody in the garden
out to the road where Ricker finds
this stone built well
with a wooden frame and
a thatched roof matching the roof on the cottage
but there didn't seem to be a well
in terms of a deep hole with water in it
but hanging upin the roof was
game
rabbits, birds
and just as Ricker was getting to grips with this
a voice
good yes?
something like that
someone like a farmer standing beside Ricker
and that's one of those images from childhood that
don't quite make sense
it seems the occupants
the people Ricker's dad knew
were not available
but we have to say
that may not have been the story
it may be
tht the cotage was for sale
rather than the occupants being friends of
Tommy's
but
seeing the game and it being the 1960s
perhaps Tommy knew these peope because
they had sold him food
off ration
during the war
but
the cottage was later
The Star Inn
and now it has burned down
sad
what a memory of
ravishig colours in the garden and hanging game
but the garden would have been tarmac
decades ago
so Ricker never got inside
because the occupants were out
no concept of
'phoning ahead
probably no 'phone in the cottage at the time
and after
no money for Michelin-starred food

time
lke an ever rolling stream
bears all its sons away

23rd November 2021

girl! you'll be a woman soon
soon you'll need a man
so
family and friends trying to sell some bloke to
their little girl
oh, he won't trouble you much
meaning
he may try to get you pregnant
but he won't try to
get you off
'cos he's gay
you may have to
finish your self off
there's toys

gay men think all men should be gay and
sex with women should be for babies
only for babies
and gay Roman Catholic clergy have
a platform for their views
sooo
if you take that view
buggering little boys - OK
fucking young women - bad
mainly because
people in authority can avoid being
critisised for not dong it
we've reached a point
as we sit and listen to police officers on Tv
and read Judges comments in sentencing
where we are moved to ask
have any of these men ever
brought a woman to orgasm
not have they ever got a woman pregnant
Tony Blair famous for bairning his bride without
raising a flicker
and some soft openly gay twat
writing for the Guardian
not expecting it of them
but you know
what a trouble getting footballers
and rugby players to admit they are gay
but cops
only here for the
'comeraderie'
man love

21st November 2021

for those who don't have a
pulse oxymeter
you shove a finger into the gadget
there is a bar that stops your finger at
a fixed depth within the device
the sensor is, normally, about
1 mm in diameter and located so that the sensor is located
around 12 mm from your finger tip
most people have
little or no pigmentation on
the palm side of their hands
and no pigmentation in their nail beds
hence
the pigmentation status of your face
will have no bearing on the amount of pigment
the oxymeter will encounter
on the other hand
if you have
very long finger nails....
the standard pulse oxymeter
may not work because you are
more than 12 mm from your finger tips
but that would be a
no reding
not a
false reading
situation
same old thing
fnd a 'minority' and force the majority to
dance to their tune
if a group are self harming as a result of their
cultural values
something they can fix
pretend that
if everybody else changed
everybody would be OK
this is the thing about
if we all agree that
whatever is a good thing
like The Beatles discovering the musical instrument
the sitar
we'll send a note to God
and she'll change the laws of physics
what does occur to the neutral observer
if you doubt the accuracy of the
pulse oxymeter
we suspect that the patient will be surrounded by a range of
people of similar tint
try it on a couple of healthy people and
try it on the tinted patient and see
is there a differnce
in other words
do your own on the fly
calibration
for the ethnic type in question
after all
would the oxymeter give different readings
before and after
week in the sun
for the pale and interestng
native
we have picked out a couple of
social affairs topics
this issue of
mental health in the young
a thinking outside the box reaction
what we seem to have in general are people aged
25 to 65
who have, over the years, suffered some damage
smoking, drug taking and pollution
including lead from petrol
at least half of them appear to be on
prescription meds
like it or not the under 25s are
more clean living, by default to a large extent
because of less pollution and by choice through less
smoking???
so in one sense the 25 to 65 years olds are
wnadering around in a drug induced haze
and the 'snowflakes; are simply more
sensative
because they re more
alive
so there are sink estates
some like Hemlington built exactly on sites chosen
for their remoteness to host
fever hosptals
and the yoof
get
stir crazy
and law enforcement come along and
consult the local nutters
about what to do wif da yoof

the other issue of the moment is
this attempt by the police
in this case we will not 'blame' the media
to whip up a storm of indigntion about some bloke
taking his opportunity to take some of his
gratification
cold
it rather fell flat
it brings into focus the contrast between
a law enforcement view rather like that of
Putin style dictators
we must set up straw mwn
convince the people that they are at threat
and there's a miscalculation here
you can convince people with hard water they need Calgon
Calgon goes from being a remedy for a problem to being
a thneed
a Dr Zeuss styled THing you NEED
you need it but nobody knows why
so you can con people into thinking that there is some
magical age at which sex
switches from being harnful to being desirable
but you come a bit of a cropper in the face of
one last fuck in the morgue before ash time
or the planting ceremony
where's the harm?
it does just show the first glimmerings of
where's the meat?
old time burger advert show me the money
we have this problem with
low grade propagandists
police, environmentl health
people who constantly
cry wolf
and queer the pitch for
genuine experts when
a real emergency hits
we have a sweet little story from Wednesday last week
SABIC decided to play silly buggers with their siren
so the powers that be decided to have
the Swedish airforce send an F15 or whatever they
use these days to do a
sonic bang
over Wilton
just to remind the snivelling wittle gits just
who's the daddy
you AIN'T got the biggest ghetto blaster in town

20th November 2021

sometimes we skp past an issue and
perhaps we provoke a response???...,
and so to Hemlington
and other
'sink estates'
God it's quite a shock to recall that
our Ricker's 'Auntie Nance'
did her dying at
the Hemlington Hospital
that was cleared away to make space for the
Hemlington sink estate
it was always a risk because it is beyond
the mega A174 road
isolation - even if it's isolation from Acklam
is risky
but this is not today's topic
the thing we glided over
complaining about Google
and so
the issue is lead in petrol and
the brain damage that is linked
we keep saying that
maw monay
won't solve the problem of
violent disorder
so we have some of the information we
complained was unavailable earlier
in the Uk Leaded four star pertol was withdrawn from sale
in 2000
and the product that replaced it
Lead Replacement Petrol LRP
went the sam way in 2003
due to low sales
if you have a pre 1992 car
and it hasn't had new harder valve seats fitted
you need to tip an additive into the petrol tank
every time you top it up

you may or may not know that the
lead
in a lead pencil is actually
carbon, graphite
mixed with clay
led as a metal is soft and slippery
compared to iron and steel
so it has been used to
if you are a real
petrol head
you may have heard of
compression ratio
this will get a bit deep
our Ricker can't remember the other term for it but
in a diesel engine you turn off the fuel supply to
stop the engine
in a petrol engine you turn off the ignition
the spark
to stop the engine
sometimes switching off the ignition of a petrol engine
does not stop the engine
that is called
running on
or dieseling
and a major part of the point of adding tetra ethyl lead
to petrol was to be able to make petrol engines
with a higher compression ratio
without them acting like diesel engines
that is requiring no ignition spark
in order to run
and dieselling with a spark is called
pinking
that is exploding on the compresson stroke
and not waiting for the bang stage
of suck, squeeze, bang, blow
and a petrol - air mixture exploding past
part closed valves
knocks lumps off them
unless they are made of harder stuff than
by tradition
so here is the link between
poverty and violence
in areas where people were - through poverty
putting petrol dosed with TEL
tetra ethyl lead
through knackered old engines
transport related
lead poisoning would have lingered longer
in history although one company s still making TEL
for fuel for small aircraft
for land vehicle use it was finally phased out
not down

18th November 2021

three things about electrification of rail
the power is in bare wires that are
18 feet above ground level
as we said
the issue is with - was with
5 farm crossings
although rod going vehicles should be under 18 feet
farmers may absent mindedly
try to shift some item of farm machinery
from one field to another
across the line
without lowering the gear
...bang
so although we expect some such as
Cargo Fleet
to be removed
some may have got
enhanced protection
and now that phase one engineering work is completed
driver training has started
on the basis of a chance observation
testing or training may be occuring from
Saltburn rather than Redcar
Transpennine definitely trained their drivers from
Redcar goods yard at Redcar Central
the London trains may set out from Saltburn
on the other hand
they may be intending to run the London trains from
platform 1
TransPennines are, as illustrated, running from platform 2
which may involve using a crossover further down the line
amd hence training over that
time will tell


we got a bit leant on over talk about railway developments the Automobile Association - AA
prior to this past weekend there were five
level crossings
carring unclassifed or
C
roads
over 4 metres wide
roads actually but not much
wider that the average living room
we will content ourselves with a little history
Yarm has had twoo distinct railway stations
the long gone original was to the north of the viaduct south of the viaduct
was perhaps the first major event in the
modern era
There is a Tesco in Thirsk that
for all the world looks like it was
built on the site of a demolished railway station
what is now called
Thirsk is a fair bus or cab ride
from Thirsk and is actually in
Carlton Miniott
otherwise known as
the home of Tresk
a furniture manufactury
Yarm has a massive - very wide - High Street
and it has a railway viaduct
Te viaduct was built by the
Leeds and Northern railway
to extend the Leeds and Thirsk railway line
from Northallerton to Stockton-on-Tees
1848
and it crosses the River Tees
one thing we have not mentioned is
the Eaglescliffe or Thornaby
to Northallerton line
carries the rather pointless Redcar to Manchester Airport
Transpennine trains
but it also carries the
rather more significant
though slightly less frequent
Grand Central Azoomas
from Sunderland to Kings Cross in London
in the overall scheme of things
because there was from earliest days
both a leeds - Northallerton - Eaglescliffe
line and a Northallerton to Darlington line
and a Darlington to Saltburn line
a sort of grand scale
railway triangle developed
and although there was only one main route from
London and the South
from York to Northallerton
there were two routes from Northallerton
up the north east coast
Northallerton to Darlington and
as a consequence
the East Coast Main Line is
at least 4 tracks wide from York and probably from London in essence, but not excusively
an up and a down express line
and an up and and a down freight line
in practical terms the freight lines
join and leave the East Coast Main Line and for some considerable time
between 4th January 1962
and
19th February 1996
the line carried no scheduled passenger trains
it was relegated to be
a freight loop
and so the likes of
farm track level crossings were left in place
trains curently pass this section at
freight speeds
dvers of Transpennine Express trains have been know to
shut down one power car set
the power od both not being deeded on such as slow speed dead level track
much in contrast to the power needed at the Pennine end of the route
they are duel set two sets of three carriages 6 in all 185 Desiro
we don't think the Azoomas stop at Yarm
we doubt the platforms are long enough

15th November 2021

there are lots of things our Ricker could do
to his house
to improved s health and weelbeing
one thing hehasn't done is
have the water supply pipe changed from
lead to plastic
on balance he could estimate that the water he drinks
spends around 10 hours standing in a lead pipe
just before it goes into the coffee machine
however, he would say
the toilet bowl under the water line needs
iron deposits chipped off from time to time
all he's saying is
he's not 100 per cent certain he doesn't have
lead poisoning
however
since lead was removed from vehicle fuel in the UK
in who knows?
these days it's so hard to
put a search term into Google and get a result that
isn't related to sellng somethin
search unleaded petrola and the
links you get are to E10 petrol
because that is
current
so unleaded petrol was gradually introduced between
1975 and 2000
and lead from fuel was the main source of
lead in people's blood
from around 1890 to 1990
there are places where
violent crime is more comonplace
people living in rented properties are more violent
rented properties have lead plumbing and lead based paints
reduction in the average lead content n human blood
may be a major cause of falling violent crime rates around the world
including South Africa
people have published data on this
what is clear is
if you are exposed to lead poisoning
you can recover from the bodily damage
but any damage to the brain
caused by lead poisoning
does not reverse
if the source of lead is removed
and although lead poisoning can reduce
fertility
it is not associated with
genetic mutation
and so
people born in
heavily trafficed areas
before 1980
could be
essentially
much more
violent
than the children they produce
and
lead has been removed from fuel
country by country
and immigrants may come from countries where
younger people - more recently born people
in immigrant populations
may have lead induced violence engendering
brain damage
there is a serious prospect that
there are countries where
motor vehicles are relatively new
and for a couple of very recent decades when
violence related brain damage will peak
before their children without this damage predominate
youth and brain damage
a potent mix
but if you are older and
from birth your bain damage made you more violent
when dementia kicks in
if your society demads
respect for elders
no matter how deranged...
problems


oops we done it again
all this rail modernisation stuff
we got a bit ahead of the curve
a long long time ago
a lot of people migrated to
Manchester
because
it's always raining there are
damp air is godd for making
cloth weaving easier
frankly, geographically
Manchester hasn't got a lot else going for it
but people still live there and
rust in peace
to us the answer is
would the last person to
leave Lancashire
please turn the lights out all that rain... hundreds and thousands of
football pitches
so
everybody needs a hobby
all the weaving they do now
is with a football at their feet
buy anything except match tickets
on line and notice how rarely it
comes from Lancashire
levelling up
The North
isn't levelling up
Greater Personchester
to be a little more serious
the East Coast Main Line
is relatively
flat and straight
and the place to make
speed record attempts
the West Coast Main line
the origin of the
Pendalino - tilting train
very curvy, not very sexy
the problem here is
HS2 is intended to avoid
London to York
and then branch lines into Lancashire
mainly through
tunnels
through the
Pennines
how to
turn
The North
into Switzerland
St Gothard tunnel
or the Vale of York
by-pass

14th November 2021

we've sorted this out and it's interesting
the signal box that was to be demolished is called
Whitehouse
something like that
what it actually was
was
the Cargo fleet end of
the Cargo Fleet to Redcar railway
that became the Cargo Fleet to Saltburn
and then part of Darlington to Saltburn
so it's been essentially redundant for
a very very long time
it was left standing when
Cargo Fleet Station was demolished
because it had a level crossing to manage
and as we say, lever frame not electronic
using West Dyke Road for
road-rail access??
have they also torn up the level crossing?
since there has now long been the
Sheapardson Way
flyover
nobody would care - we guess
and
the fact that the same weekend
the Thornaby to Northallerton line is closed to traffic
there are at least 2
level crossings - farm crossings
between Yarm and Northallerton
soooo
we guess those are being uprooted too
Redcar to Manchester who cares if the speed limit is
20 mph
but Redcar to London
none of that nonsense


sooo
we Redcar Central signal box is


still standing and so
we have to conclude that
West Dyke Road had a road closure
so that
this

could use the level crossing to get
onto and off the rails

we have no intention of checking but
from memory there was a small lever frame signal box
at the up end of the up platform at Middlesbrough
and it controlled access to a siding
we do tend to think
perhaps Middlesbough no longer has a signal box
why would it need one
but we suspect that these new trains
will be under Redcar central control
York?
perhaps
and
a close up on the non-aluminium cladding on
The new Regent cinema on Redcar beach

13th November 2021

OK
15th 14 15th
rail disruption
the distinction is between
ral lines
and
rail routes
the basic idea is that
direct trains from
Redcar to London
should be electric
but they
MUSt be controlled by the network hub in
York
on these days
it is the signalling that is being ugraded
the route is
Redcar to Northalerton
but the lines afffected are
Darlington to Saltburn
and
Thornaby to Northallerton
from mid December 2021
the plan is
well we are not sure
we suspect that
Grangetown signal box may remain to
control local goods traffic
but at least two signal boxes are to be demolished
1 not needed any more
2 to make space for electrification works
we shall see
but the closure of
West Dyke Road level crossing
from midnight to 6.00 am 14 November
won't affect road users much
we shall see Sunday morning whether
the Birdsall Row signal box is
still standing...
over heard, onr of the contractors building the
New regent
are we in Middlesbrough
No


keltbray are an engineering company
one of the things they do is
overhead electrification
design and build
and
erm
they have started to park
rail electrification plant
in erm
Redcar
lorra lorra
bus replacement services in
Redcar's immediate future
expect the entire
Darlington to Saltburn trip
to take 1 hour longer than bt rail

12th November 2021

let's take three scenarios
there's this guy on a sink estate
he's six foot six
and he want to enter
Britain's Tallest Man
should we give him the bus fare to
attend the competition and tell him he can
scip school that day?
OK
there's this kid on a sink estate and he's
five foot six
but it's been his life long dream to
win Britain's Tallest Man
and his mam is doing the catering for the event for free
should we 'adjust' the rules
so that he can win?
there's this guy on a sink estate and he's
a natural at difficult sums
but he wants to be
a brain surgeon
should we fix the entry exams for
med school so that
you have to be a
maths whizz to get in?
there is this whole thing of
we don't want
minorities to
feel excluded so
we have to have at least one person
from every minority group we can think of
and force them into
each high status job we can think of
so the difference between
inclusivity
and
diversity
so somebody decides they want to
grow daffodils in their garden
they want to include every type of daffodil they can get
but exclude everything that isn't a daffodil
and somebody else wants
to grow the 'best' variety of every
flowering bulb
one is excluding non-daffodils
the other is excluding rubbish
both are being discriminatory
and both are being inclusive
in both gardens there will be plants that are
a waste of space
and in both gardens there will be
wonderful things
the big problem comes when
certain varieties are declared
too easy to grow
and are excluded in order to let
the weedy varieties take the limelight
Mrs Pearson
Ricker's childhood next door neighbour
Ricker had tiger lilies
and they grew very well
alstromeria
but Mrs Peason had
pink flowered alstromeria
so Ricker's orange ones
were a threat to the
superior ones next door
Ricker has a problem
with his garden
he has no pets
his relationship with animals is a bit like
Valerie Singleton of Blue Peter fame
I've never had a husband
but I've had a lot of other people's husbands
Ricker has a lot of animal friends
and some of them are cats
and lots of the neighbourhood cats
like sitting in Ricker's garden
so some people think he has cats
and we have this wonderful picture of
my pink half of the drainpipe


the cats and the hedgehogs just walk
straight through the gaps betwen the slats
OCD or what?

11th November 2021

every so often
we hear a version of this tale
one day there was this crocodile of cars
weaving around a small town
it was growing and eventually it was reported to the police
the control room contacted the nearest squad car
and the driver stopped and discovered the crocodile was
behind his vehicle
and on asking what the drivers were doing
the plod was told
look at the back of your car
the enunciator - illuminated sign - reads
follow me
some people - especially in the UK
follow instructions
so
when the temporary sign says
wait here until the green light shows
they have to wait until the crew bring aound
freshly charged batteries
somewhere it has been decided that
thw Welsh Team
should be
The Wales Team
The English Team must be referred to as
The England Team
just in case some on the team don't see themselves as English
and so to what is now being called
the P word
what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander...
so what is the correct designation
is it racism to refer to somebody as a
Brit
as a contraction of
British citizen
or
Resident of the British Isles?
we can see that on occasion
a Brit finding themselves referred to as a
Whinging Pom
may hit a nerve
what do we infer
if it's non-U to refer to somebody as a
Packi
is it non-U to refer to them as a
Pakistani?
I want to be treated differently becaise I am Pakistani
put on 'all minority ethnic' shortlists and schemes
but I don't want anybody to
refer to the fact that I am Pakistani
funny how we don't have a short hand for
Bangaladeshi
it's a good sceme this
encourage people to refer to you one way
and then have your children declare that
it cuts them to the quick to
hear that word
Yiddish is an amalgam of
Middle German and High Hebrew
and so a Yiddish speaker is a
Yiddisher
and
with monotonous predictability
somebody complains about being called a Paki
so somebody else - parrot like - has to
complain aou being called a Yid
and not a respectble person of Jewish ancestry
there used to be a very popular song
particularly in Jewish circles
my Yiddisher mama
there is a completely different but apparently similar problem
which had a very different outcome
once upon a time there were quite a lot of people who had had
polio
and polio s an infection that causes
spasticity in the limbs
most people who appear like that these days have
cerebral palsy - caused by oxygen starvation at birth like TV cook Mary Berry
so they set up
The Spastics Society
to help them
and that was shortened to
spas or spaz
nd extended to anybody showing a clumsy trait
instead of claiming
billions in compensation changed their name to
Scope
always the question
do you want theis problem solved
or do you want it to be
the gift that keeps on giving?
it's really very difficult to say anything
especially if you are male
without somebody sugesting that
malicious commuication
is involved
time was
the general idea was
the concept of
fair comment
was one pilar of defence
the other was
you can't libel the deceased
the new emphasis is
there are vulnerable people and
people can
express a concern for the welfare of
a random third party
and as an extension
setting aside sex with mortal remains
and photos of crime scenes
adult A sends adult material to adult B
who is accountable
if a minor gains access to that material?
or
more pressingly
a fine upstanding adult sends material to if the material falls into the habds of
a vulnerable adult
who is accountable
it's abit like product safety
1 not faulty
2 idiot proof
3 suicide thwarting
how 'safe' does a product or a communiction
have to be
to be legal?
so let us say that what we are about to discuss
may upset some people
some sorts of people
and some specific people
Oxford uni is getting some flack
and nobody has yet deemed the
complaints or accusations
malicious communication
some people can make any report they imagine
nobody asks
are you sure that wasn't a dream?
other people are
non-people
we may return to this but
within living memory
white Africans
have become non-people
so here we are writing the following as
fiction
just suppose, for example
Hi, you probably know me
now
you know my daughter Jane is
studying at your university
and, well, you know I'm wealthy and well connected
perhaps there a little something I could help you with
but I am a bit in a corner
my current wife isn't Jane's mother
so it would have to be rather discrete
on account of
well I don't thi nk any of my new family are
quite up to entrance to your university
so a little quiet help from me
as a sort of encouragement to you to
make sure
jane gets a better class of degree than
her boyfriend
I want to help her on the quiet
to hold her own with him
because i know just how smart some of his
relatives
are

and here we can inject a few facts
a real scenario
at Durham
at least in the 1970s
a tutor group consisted of
two students and a tutor
in the first year the tutor would be
a post grad or post doc student
in the second year, a junior lecturer
in the final year, a professor
sooo
the academic year was not 3 terms
but two semesters - probably
so
the structure was
no no this is all wrong Michaelmas Term
next is Epiphany Term
then there's Easter Term
things have got very very serious
ten TEN!!! teaching weeks in Michaelmas term
what happened to 8?
any way
there were around
6 to 8 students in a
first year tutor group
first years are - were - not officially - on honours
forget the freshers
too long ago to remember
second and third years...
two teaching terms plus
the Easter term
and
in the third year Easter term was exams term
so no teaching
no teaching for either second or third year students
and probably first years were doing exams too
soo
what did second years do in
The Easter Term/
a research project
and Ricker's project was for it involved some rather fancy gear because
it was a re-run
of what Dave had done for his
masters' at Manchester
at an interview later
a board member asked
where did you get your limulus?
sorry
I was working on limnea
limulus is the horseshoe crab
limnea is the common UK pond snail
the king crab is about a foot across
the pond snail, around 1 cm half an inch
so
you make these glass electrodes
fill them with saline
sooo
Ricker was all the Easter term in an annex to the
department
with snails, micro-manipulators and microscope
inside a
Farraday cage
to keep down the electrical interference
etc. etc
fab work
won him an offer of a
research technician's job at the uni
but his dad said,
he had to go home because
he hadn't even got a 2:1
dad had 'sent down' brother Pete
from Oxford
for getting a 2:2
not spending any more money on you
get a job near home
and
whatever project Jane was doing
she spent a lot of time in that annex
that summer
and Ricker asks
what would your family think if I got a third?
oh them, they don't have the faintest idea about
things like degree classifications
like a third could be two up an a first
for all they know
Jane got a 2:1
Cuddly ken had a Ph.D. from Hull
and a D.Sc. from Durham
ken Bowler was Ricker's
moral tutor
thermobiologist
his Ph.D. involves
putting rat's knackers on a hot plate
topping them a bit later
making slides of their knackers
and estimating
the effect of the hot plate treatment
on sperm production
thermobiology
and he Prof.
experimented on cats
and was one of the two world experts on
muscle spindles
voluntary muscle proprioception
how your brain knows
what the muscles you can't see and
Ricker had a lot of data
because his project WORKED
and he asked his friend at Harwell
Gwynneth Dakers
if she had a
spectrum analyser to process the data
and she didn't reply
but one day Cuddly Ken says
I hear you've been in touch with Harwell
so Ricker took that as meaning
any future association with Gwynneth
would be strictly business
there was none
long time ago but
stalking was already on Ricker's RADAR

anyway..
so Ricker was on Joit Honours so he was in
Two Tutor groups
Ricker, Jane and Dr Coulson
and that would be ecology
and the other was physiology
maybe JJK Wright, Ricker, somebody
at the end Jo was devastated
she got a 2:2
got to walk into Durham Cathedral for the
thanksgiving service
at Ricker's side
but that wasn't much compensation
Ricker has never been stupid enough to
try to cheer up a miserable woman
sympathise, but not cheer up

9th November 2021

we have still alive a couple of generations of
women
a significant proportion of whom
got pregnant
the first time they had sex and
were told - if the father was single
you've made your bed
now you must lie in it
in more modern words
time for you to say
now you've had the best of me
come on and take the rest of me
and it is interesting that
the general availability of
divorce
in the western world
pre-dates the general availability of
contraception
make a baby for some random man
either loose it because he's married
or
marry him and then divorce him
and
life begins at 40
it is strange - we think - that
the media are dominated by women for whom
that was their early life experience
even thought when they were young
the media were dominated by the
attitudes and activities of their
younger sisters and cousins
Gremain Greer et.al.
we muse on the question
what generation of females will dominate
culture and media
next?
and will their concerns be at all related to
men?
at present we seem to be seeing
the revenge of the (second) world war widows
on their younger relatives who were
the first
teenagers
women now in their 80s and 90s
never got to be teenagers
or have gap years
or go to uni
but thye seem to have risen to
the top
and used tht position to
try to undo
the swinging sixties
for those who were there...
what was John Lennon - Yoko Ono
all about?
it's very puzzling when
rich and famous men
choose a woman
no other man would want
we have a memory in the old Ricker brain box
one of those
Late Night Line Up
vibes
a woman dressed in a tweed suit
comes on stage with a large pair of scissors
and as a incident of
ther will be a term for it that ends in art
she invites the audience to come up
one at a time and
use the scissors to
cut a section out of her suit
performance art?
and was that
Yoko Ono?
was that the thing with John Lennon/
not a beautiful or adorable woman
but a woman willing to
shock

8th November 2021

we've had some publicity about
the menopause
lately
and it is a problem in many ways
the prospect is a ticking clock
pushing girls into early pregnancy
far more than vorcious males
and after a divorce
the husband has a good chance of a
second family with a second spouse
the wife - not so much
we want to tell a different tale
on the same lines
we're going to say this is fiction
it is meant to stimulate consideration of
seeing the same problems from a different angle
consider a man with two nearly grown up sons
God he's had to fight to get the elder one settled
so then he has the
younger one
God's gift to humanity
in current terms
The Giles Brandreth of The Navy
and oh
no idea where that came from
but
he did feel he had
married above himself
so he must have got it from his mum
of whom his dad was in awe
thing was
just between getting number 1 son established in
career and family life
and thinking
what about the young 'un
the wife
ups and dies
so
father and son
widdower and bachelor
what a pair
and remember this is based on, not actuality
dad is mid fifties
son is mid twenties
dad needs a housekeeper
son needs a wife
son takes some comfort in the loss of his mother
in a slightly older woman
early thirties
single, no kids
the war got in the way
so
she's a wee bit old for the son and
really quite a lot too young to marry
rather than work for the father
but dad is on a mission
number 2 son should be provided for
as well as number 1 son
number 2 son was at Oxford
his new girlfriend
left school at 14
ahh. master plan
marry the son's girlfriend
avoid needing a housekeeper
save number 2 son from
an unsuitable marriage
genius
two major problems emerge
the new wife gets pregnant elopes with somebody
even more unsuitable
and dad ends up with
number 3 son
another gift from God
and...
an outright idiot grandson
like mind blowing
like nearly got rusticated from Radleigh
dumb
the best laid plans of mice and men....
you spend fortunes on school fees and
yer lad HATES you for it
anyway
being at Radleigh good enough to secure
a UK ambassador's daughter as a wife
arm
well for a while
but
if you are Birty Thickington-Twiss
eventually
someone from
South East Asia
catches your eye

when our Ricker has a senior moment...
he wants a word
he finds the wrong word
and his memory won't accept that it's the wrong word
and blocks further searches
he needs a word today
and th blocking word is
erstwhile
the word he wants is
putative
so, that little difficulty overcome...
this week, apparently, is
gold digger week
essentially women who discover that another woman has
seduced their old fool of a husband
are weighing things up and
deciding against
divorce
and this thwarts the ambitions of
putative second wives
and result in
those who could have been
erstwhile wives
remaining wives
and so
Plan B
a claim for
sexual assault, rape, sex discrimination
sometimes you go on the internet
and you find 'information'
that s pure busking
the interbet is not massively new
but it wasn't much in
1998
we've been looking somebody who died in 1998
on the internet
and
what is written there
seems to be
very much
Third Party
there is this guy - alive today
called Mohamed Al Fayed
he's 92
but he's alive so he will probably have
something to say about
what appears on the internet about him
in the 1980s he has a rivalry
with a chap called
Tiny Rowland
about ownerrship of the group
House of Fraser
that owned Harrods
it belongs to some Middle eastern government now because
the board wouldn't let Al Fayed take a divdend
so he sold instead
so clearly Rowland lost
and that was around 1985
and Tiny died in 1998
approx
taking that as the first point
we were left with the impression that
the government
or
the powers that be
made sure that Al Fayed go Harrods
and tht fed into a feeling that our Ricker had that
if he wanted to have any kids who would
amount to anything
he would have to marry Middle Eastern or Asian
and
1 that felt like selling out
2 all those fancy clothes and makup and dancing
seemed like
too much hard work
just to get yer kids into Eton
when he was on a course at Kodak
he'd met a princling from Iran
who was at Harrow
nice lad
never lost a wink of sleep over
whether he survived the revolution
the current concept is
we don't mind
oiks getting into the Civil Service
but they will have to go to Oxford first
so if you look up Tiny Rowland
the internet will tell you
tht at the age of 50 in 1968
Tiny Rowland married
and they had children
and that is about it
so
there was this girl - this woman
in St Mary's College, Durham University, England
1973 - 1976
called
Jane Rowland
sooo
in the natural order of things
born 1954
ten years before the only listed marriage
so picture the scene
in the forecourt of Castle
that's University College to you
standing around
between the
graduation ceremony in Casle Great Hall
and the thanksgiving service
in the Cathedral
ths enormous bloke - the spit of Tiny Rowland
apparently alone
so that would have been 1976
it's all left us wondering
was there a first Mrs. Rowland
who was written out of history
by the second
we have ths interesting scenario
when our Ricker's Peter
was lving in Woodham Way, Woking Surry
before he moved to
Shores Road
Jane rowland was Peter's next door neighbour
we find it interesting that it was
Peter Robson and not Jane Rowland
who moved from Woodhm Way to Shores Road
of course
Shores Road is in Woking
but it's in Horsell
in November 2021
the average price of a house in Shores Road - Zoopla
stood at £ 1,044,883
lets be honest
it's a long time since Peter died
and a lot longer since he moved to a flat in Brighton
I mean, homes in Woodham Waye are a mere £750,000
and Merrywood is not yer typical Shaores Road property
there's an important underlying issue here
but there are
people still alive....
sometimes you get to thinking
is our Ricker really dim
or is he on the autistic spectrum?
a whole lot of not playing his card right there???
and all for
aquiet life away from
demented people
or more precisely
better the demented people you know...
you see
Anelise Robson
grew up in Woodham Waye
and at Merrywood - with the swimming pool in the garden
and one day
when she had a husband and three kids
she was sitting in her little car
a bit like but not actually
a Fiat Cinquacento a 500
upturned bath tub
with her husband at traffic lights
in Reading
when a bloke in a much bigger car
who had been let out of the loony bin
earlier that day
failed to notice the traffic lights
becaue he thought he was
driving the Star Ship Enterprise
and after he hit them
the littl car burst into flames
and they died
not the bloke who hit them
and so
our Ricker gives a very wide berth
to anybody who shows the slightest hint of being
an out and out nutter
like the connections of some women he's known
particularly the ones in the police
fire up the quatro
Ashes to Ashes
PhilipGlenister
Ant Anstee
For the Love of Cars 2014 2 series
sorry that's Anstead
some bloke called Anstee taught our Ricker somwhere
along the line, Durham Uni?
surprise you could get a job at a uni without
being related to a lead footed plod
bit of a relif really

5th November 2021

as of this morning
there appear to be about 80 channels
including BBC and ITV
available in Redcar for people with
aerials pointed at Bilsdale
poor signal strenght on DMAX
no service on Quest
baby steps
we are not sure whether
an update scan
if your device offers that as well as full rescan
will switch you from Bilsdale to Loftus



OK folks
today futile ttempt to explain
fossil FOSSIL fuels
say you have a garden
say it's a veg patch or allotment
say every yearyou pull up the last of your crops
and you have a load of manure delivered
and you dig the manure into the soil
the soil is the existing atmospheric carbon
the manure is the fossil carbon
that you are ADDING
not re-cycling
great for potatoes?
death to alpines
burning biofuels DOESN'T add
ADD
to the carbon in the system
it just
MOVES IT AROUND


we tecognise that
Arquiva have bigger fish to fry
their main problem is that they manage
a whole raft of transmitter that were built
in the late 60s on the introduction of 625 lines and COLOUR
and if the insulation at Bilsdale has crumbled
all the other masts
including in places that matter
are probably about to catch fire too
but we've seen the pictures of the
Loftus transmitter
about the size of the average caravan
it has a normal domestic aerial at the top
to collect signals from Bilsdale
just a smidge larger than a Skydish
and two dish transmitters
pointing in the opposite direction
towards Redcar
three months
and something with less power than the
microwave link between
Redcar and Cleveland council's
Redcar and Guisborough offices
AND
sorry but there's no mains connection
so half the caravan is taken up with generator
and we're awfully sorry if the noise of the generator
disturbs the neighbours

4th November 2021

we think we should introduce a historical note here
Blair and Brown are still alive
and so too Mandelson
there was a thing called
New Labour
it was designed to chase the grandchildren of
Labour Stalwarts
as they ventured into
the Middle Classes
and clearly it worked for a while
and Blair was a sort of new version of
Harold Wilson
'you'll get a free vote on this
and you'll keep on having free votes
until you get it right
on a technical note
we are pretty sure it was Blair who
pushed through the amendment that changed
Prime Minister questions
from notional 15 minutes on
both Tuesday and Thursday
to
half an hour on a Wednesday
Blair not keen on appearing
in the chamber of the house
and so far as we know
not gone to The Lords
because he was a
TV studio kind of a guy
and when those grandchildren
lost their grandparents
they felt no fear in
voting Tory
and New Labour foundered
it's both sad and funny to contemplate
people on Teesside
sneaking off to get
vaccinated
against the edict of the
freedom loving matriarchs of the lower orders
and now we have this new tactic
the concept of the stolen election
borrowed from
President Trump
how could we possibly have lost
we need to go over the lives of the
successful Tory candidates with a
fine tooth comb
we'll have none of thsi romantic
if anybody here knows of
due cause why this person should not be
duly elected
let them speak now
or
forever hold their peace


if like our Ricker you short of cash
you may haunt the likes of
Cash Converters
their rivals in Redcar are
> much easier to manage
i.e. charge when you like
no need to wait until the battery is fully discharged
those are the two major battery technologies
so far as we know
only lithium offers the choice of motor type
if you run a battery powered
fork lift truck that you bought thirty years ago...
the motor will need regular servicing
and the same goes for a hand drill
you bought new five to ten years ago
you can still get a
cheap and cheerful brand new
cordless hand tool that has
brushes
if you pay ten times the price
say £300 not £30
you can have a
major manufacturer model
that has a
brushless motor
so here's the difference between
a brushless DeWalt or Makita hand tool
and a Tesla motor car
the hand tool runs on 18 volt DC
the Tesla runs on
3 phase AC at thousands of volts
because
the Tesla was designed before
brushless was miniaturised for hand tools
and Mr Musk bought his motor design
off the shelf
we have two things to say about
hydrogen powered cars
a tank used to store hydrogen
and another used to store oxygen
built to modern construction standards
will last longer than the
lifetime of the vehicle
we guess that most battery cars will need two of three
battery packs
over their lifetime
and they - being packed with glue/sealant
are not a slam dunk to re-cycle
build a hydrogen powered car
it will have a traditional lifespan
build a lithium battery powered car it will
need less servicing than an old school
fork lift or milk float
but it is 'piece of work'
3 phase Ac at high voltage...
just so that the motors can be brushless
at best and engineering compromise
perhaps somebody will bring out
gen 3 - third generation - motors before too long
but batteries are massively heavy
compared to compressed or liquified hydrogen
and they weigh the same
charged or flat
so you can't save weight by running on half full
why 3 phase?
simply because the motor design was lifted from
static motors in factories where 3 phase is universal
your home runs on one phase
and that means the power fluctuates - acternating current AC
but in industry
they fill the troughs in the power band by having
three synchronised power sources into the same motor
in a tiny piece of kit such as a
private car or taxi
a flywheel would render a single phase motor
just as smooth
in that sense
a 4 cylinder internal combustion engine is
4 phase
and a V8 is 8 phase
and a chain saw, motor bike, lawn mower are
single phase
unless it's a V twin
or a bitza
even they use a flywheel
although with an automatic transmission
the flywheel active is split between the
flex plate and the torque converter
so in a gen 3 electric car

you ABSOLUTELY do not need
batteries to store
peak un-used wind power
you can hive it off to
split water into
hydrogen and oxygen
and you can store that
as easily and flexibly as
lquified natural gas
of oxy-acetylene gases
somebody in that Earth shot contest
makes a microwave oven sized version
and they can be
any big
not a flywheel but a torque converter


as of this morning we THINK
that if you are in Redcar and have a TV aerial
pointing at Bilsdale
and you retune your set
you will get a good range of channels but
no channel 1 or 2
you may get an inadequate signal on
chennels numbered
801 802 things like that
these are test signals for BBC channels
overall
for the moment you will struggle to view BBC
we suppose that these new signals are
coming from what they are calling
Loftus
we assume that 'Loftus' is a transmitter
somewhere up on the moors south of Loftus


it' not cost effective for us to
research these notes in great detail
soo
Royal Dutch Shell
The Hague, Netherlands
but: incorporated in London, England
Ben ban Beurden
has said, apparently
Shell needs to invest in fossils fuels so
that it can afford to invest in renewables
at some level one could interpret that as
this Green crap, Public Relations Greenwash
is costing us so
we need to put up our prices
for fossil fuels
green?
part of the price of business as usual
a this point we shift to
credulous as hell
and assume that he wants more money
for investments in alternative energy
and the we step out of the
how should we say
inner box
into an outer box
there are some long established
motor manufacturers in the US
we can only think of Ford off the bat
the arguement could be
Ford need to keep making gas powered cars
in order to be able to nvest in plant and designs
to make hydrogen or electric cars
that we assume is the Shell position
and we would point and say
look over there
we forget
however rash it was
that ebay paid
over a billion dollars for PayPal
and Elon Musk
used his share to
found, erm
Tesler
on the face of it
wouldn't you say, no ask
wouldn't it be easier to
convert a car company to a new engine type
than to found
an entire new auto giant?
perhaps not
we don't see Ford going to the wall
but the Shell arguement...
we see Shell having a better chance of having a future if
they convert Shell Stations to
tanking up vehicles with
hydrogen and oxygen
than trying to get into the
individual vehicle charging port business
we understand vehicle manufacturers saying
we'll never sell electric cars unless
the govenment funds local authorities to
put a charging point in
every lamp post across the land
we can say that
lamp post in our Ricker's street have had two upgrades
one was to install
LED lights
the second was to install
individual breakers in each post
perhaps even
individual meters
in the past we assume
street lamp were wired up wthout much
control gear - perhaps a fuse
and the power was paid for on the same basis as
a household estimated bill
it could just be repalcing fuses with breakers
but that could also be preparatory to
installing charging outlets
but we don't see where Shell fits into that

the weather in North Yorkshire has been a bit rough lately
two points
shellfish
they have stopped washing up
matbe they have all gone
maybe the sodium polyphosphate
just slowed down the calcification process
and the
lobster claws
have regained their grip

point the second
chnageable weather but
we would remind
Arguiva
they are running
television transmitters
not lighthouses --- that FLASH
it would be better if
some channesl were rock steady
and the number of rock steady channelsBR> gradually increased
rather than
I wonder what is being transmitted at adequate power
today, or right now?
we suspect...
they are trying to reset
each channel to
zero disruption
to avoid refunds to advertisers and the
infamous
licence refund if BBC is off for a month

2nd November 2021

these people
Rupert Murdock, Preseident Trump, Conrad Black
they destroyed an opportunity
Fox News, that sort of thing
Shock Jocks
before Mr Murdock bought it
The Times of London
was
a Newspaper of Record
hatches , matches and despatches
if births, deaths and marriages appeared
in a newspaper
that was as good as tripping to the
Register Office
the details would be correct
the likes of Mr Murdock said
print whatever will boost sales
and the failure of any regulator to
clamp down on this
set a pattern for behaviour
when social media were invented
so the appeal now is to logic
you read it
but does it make sense?
so we will make another attempt to explain
balance
we will take you to the children's play area of a public park
one of those kiddy roundabouts
so the adult in charge
sets the childen on the roundabout
and grabbing hold of one of the bars
runs around to get the roundabout spinning
so the adult
will give it another yank if it slows down too much
and grab it if the kids start to go too fast
carbon dioxide is not
'BAD'
the wrong concentration of carbon dioxide is bad
the fossil boys are the youths who see the roundabout
giving much pleasure to the littl kiddies
and
runs over and grab the bars and dash around
and make the roundabout go so fast that
the little kiddies are thrown off onto the concrete


when you get old like our Ricker
it's easy to doubt yourself
so in honest truth this is how it went down
lstening to Her Madg
not in Glasgow
never understood why the Scotts need
Edinburgh AND Glasgow
so she says something like
my eldest son Charles and his eldest son Willam
and immediately Ricker's thinking
Baldy
The Ginner
who've we missed?
is she trying to tell us something?
Ricker and Her Madg's own
Queen's English
go back a long way, but
erder of two
eldest of more than two
not another secret embarrrasing royal sprog
one more embarrassing than Andrew and The Ginner?
another bit of grist for the
conspiracy theorists
or was it Ricker
it all morphs into the whole question of
what is a pun?
did I misshear
or did you miss-speak
elide
is a word for missing something out of
what you are saying
we suspect that a lot of the time
in the spirit of
finnishing off other people's sentences
people often miss bits out of what they say and
most listeners put those bits
in for themselves withut thinking about it
but sometimes different people will
put different things into the same gaps
and hence
lawers and long long treaties
and hence
fishing disputes
and if anybody is interested...
when UK and France were both in Europe...
Jersey being
sort of in the UK - not exactly
but near France
France issued fishing licences to
French people as the local authority
as in Jersey was too small to need
a fishing licence granting office
BrExit and
the UK says to Jersey
you local
you deal with it
add to this
the French had been ssuing sort of
honourary licences
giving a licence to old buffers
just in case one day the spirit moved them and they
fancied a jaunt
and Jersey says
that's silly
here, fishing is a serious industry
no pro licences for amateurs
now we will turn to three words
beyond the ken of anybody with
a double first from Oxford
misogyny
misanthropy
misandropy


androgeny
amle generating
so
and - male
so misandry
dislike or contempt for
or ingrained prejudice against men
the male sex
Fran Unsworth<> Gloria Allred
the BBC
UK law enforcement
poorly disguised misandry
and
misanthropy?
similar attritudes towards
people - male or female

31st October 2021

for re-assurance
the new Regent is getting
real ceramic - jumbo bathroom style - tiles
for cladding
not aluminium

and Ricker's friend Casper
likes outside
because inside
there's a
cat
an image and a product to put into your minds
consider a dog racing to an opened front door
and running across a rug that's on a
polished oak floor
now consider the owner parting the curtains to see where he gone
the product is called
Rufflette
it's a curtain heder tape
it helps the curtain fold up as it's drawn aside
now shift your scale
consider the layer cake that is
geological rock strata
a stack of rugs in a carpet shop
sanlp to contribute tod is moved around by wind and wave action
the different layers of the strata are laid down
in sequence over time starting out
mostly level
our Ricker's front room curtains have two things
a ruffleette header and
tie backs
so his curtains are a bit more complicated than those
vertical blinds you have to have to prove to the world that
you are not mentally ill
being as it's been a wet Sunday we have introduced a lot of words
but today's words of the day are
anitcline and syncline
an anticline is a structurl trap formed by the folding of
rock strata into arch - make that dome
shapes in the rock
what goes up must come down so the top of the fold is an
anticline and the bottom is a syncline
let's go to the
Tierra Amarilla
in San Ysidro, New Mexico USA
popular for hiking and similar
the anticline is made up of Petrified dorest mubstones
and sandstone
abd it is capped with a layer of
Pleistocene and Holocene travertine
the anticline contains large amounts of
carbon dioxide
that contrbute to a rich diversity of micro-organisms
so what we are saying is
if a massive flush of organic material is
trapped in sandstone
oxygen can get to it and
the material will be digested to carbon dioxide
but if the entrapping rock in more like a
madgrove swamp
the digesting organisms will be different and
doing an anaerobic thing and making methane
like debris in a cess pit
and the other term we entered there
cap
what does travertine
travertine is a form of terrestrial limestone
deposited around mineral springs
in County Durham...
tufa mounds
but elsewhere
travertine marble
so
consider a patio
sand topped with marble
in the form of a dome
like a cathedral roof
the gas can't pass through the marble layer
but the gas escapes through the cracks in the marble layer
so you not gonna be very secure trying to use
one of these underground cathedral domes to
store carbon dioxide
if that dome is in an area of
lots of earth quakes
such as
Southern California
there will be places where carbon capture and storage
works reasonably well
but they will be
less than 100 percent secure
and we return to the point
putting it another way
oil and gas deposits need an anticline with
an impervious cap
coal??
nope
coal stay put in starta that would not trap methane of CO2
and so you can't put CO2 back where you took out coal
open casted or deep mined
and a lot of the strata that have suitable geology
are already saturated with carbon dioxide

seeing as how it's still raining....
IUPAC recognise the term or name
ethylene
but they would prefer it to be called
ethene
back in the day - within living memory
buying paraffin was quite routine
people had
paraffin lamps
we will tell a tale about
Tom
a cleveland County Council lab technician
now Tom was a really grand chap
but he was known to be
an ex Battery Sergent Major
that's an RSM in the gunners
and it was also known that he had worked for ICI
after leaving the forces
and he and our Ricker got on famously
but other people
other people, not so happy with our Ricker
when he applied for that job
to be Tom's oppo
opposite number
colleague
he was asked
are you happy having responsibility for
compressed gases?
oxygen cylinders in particular
sooo why were they hiring somebody to
relieve an ex ICI gunner of that responsibility
let that pass
so Ricker was responsible for
chemical stocks
all sorts a rock
had a little brick outbuilding to store the worst risks
so one day somebody decided
this can't be right
how come Ricker
a mere science graduate is in a more responsible position than
an ex ICI, ex gunner RSM
so they gave the requisitions book to Tom
and asked him to order some chemicals
and on the list was
paraffin
and the order came
and there it was
a gallon of....
liquid paraffin
so Ricke said never mind
and put it on top of a cupboard
out of harm's way
whilst it separated into
half a gallon of paraffin
and hlf a gallon of
water
liquid paraffin is an emulsion of paraffin and water
a usually white liquid otherwise know as
cutting fluid
and paraffin
parum - little, affinis - related
like affiliated
you filliated?
doorman's challenge to a stranger at the entrance to a
working mens' club
oil and water don't mix
and so Tom got a transfer
and they replaced him with
an ex ICI Elder of the Jehovah's Witnesses
surely he would show this
damned graduate
what was what
an they took responsibility for chemical safety from Ricker
and gave it to this other guy
so
hell we back to
what the hell do they do in schools these days??
these's a think called a pneumatic trough
it;s a big glass bowl
so yer JW gives somebody a pellet
about 1 cm long 1 cm diameter
a pure sodium metal
and she drops it into the water in the
40cm across trough of water and
it blows the thing
clean in halves
not to mention turning some of the water into
sodium hydroxide - caustic soda
gather around children
today we are going to show you
a fun way to bleech your uniforms - not
but that woman's husband was
a computer geek at
ICI
so
well, so it was OK then
but this is one of those diversions from the point
alkanes
alkenes
alkynes
and so what the odds
if we don't get the name quite right?
good enough for government work
C2H6 - an alkane called ethane
C2h4 - an alkene called ethene or ethylene
C2H2 - al alkyne called acetylene
and you don't store acetylene
for oxy-acetylene welding and burning
in water
you store it in
acetone
soo
when yer back street garige goes up in flames
don't reach for the cash box or the appointments book
drag the (gas) welding gear out the door after you
unless you aiming for an insurance claim for
half the street
oh and Tom?
at ICI he was
making
plaster board
dry wall
nothing to do with HOC
heavy organic chemicals
oh, you was a gardener at ICI
did you know Percy Thrower?
you'd know about nuclear power stations
that's how the
we're all friends Tory party
run the country
Percy Thrower was the original
Monty Don - Gardeners' World presenter
sacked for advertising
ICI garden chemicals
and another little aside
there was this Thatcher person
woman Prime Minister
Ricker was trying to help
Robert Goodwill
get elected
some people said
why don't Ricker stand?
Mrs T said
I'd prefer you to jon the Civil Service
he aced the civil service entrance exam
he's lost the handwritten note from somebody
in the Cabinet office, wishing him well at
the selection board
not recommended for appointment
reason?
nobody at Oxford
had sent in a reference
naturally this - being a blog - a a stream of consciousness flavour
soooooo
following on from some of what is below
this site is officially NOT
IUPAC compliant
for example
IUPAC say
it's sulfur not sulphur
but
engineers note this
according to IUPAC
it's aluminium not aluminum
IUPAC is English speaking
headqautered -that is registered - in Zurich, Switzerland
but the secretariat is located at
Research Triangle park
North Carolina, USA
for IUPAC the ending 'ane'
means - denotes a single bonded carbon chain
hexane is six carbons in a row, with one bond between
each adjacent pair and hydrogens as legs or frills
BUT
cyclo as in cyclohexane
means
not a sausage but a bagel
haxane got two ends
cyclohexane got no ends
and so to bed...
sorry no, and so to
gene sequencing
IUPAC defines wat those letters in DNA and RNA
have to mean if they are to be compliant
so, for the common ones
A adenine
C cytosine
G guanine
T thymine
U uracil
R Purine
wait hang on a second
R?
never heard of it
R means'a purine, sooo either Adenine or Guanine
Y means a pyrimidine so cytosine or thymine or uracil
there are 24 amino acids and 3 special codes
X means any
* is the stop bit
- indictes a gap of indeterminate length
we're not listing the lot
random sample
no
too confusing
because
sometimes the same letter is used for
a nucleic acid base
and
a differnt amino acid what we are saying is, they have not chosen to denote for example
neucleic acids a A and up
and amino acids as 1 and up
so you need to know whether you are talking
nucleic acid or amino acid
so for instance X in nucleic acids is not
'any' but 'masked'
it all works on shapes
not so much Lego but a jigsaw puzzle
and that is called
stereo chemistry
well not quite
stereo chemistryis take alanine
you can represent it in 2 dimensions as being
always the same
but
there is alanine left and alanine right
each has a central carbon atom
each has 1 hygrogen, 1 radical, one alcohol and one ammonia
taking up one each bond BUT
if you place an image of a left on a left hand
the hydrogen is over your thumb
to get the hydrogen of the right molecule over a thumb
you have to place it in the palm of a right hand
under the stipulation that the ammonia has to be over your wrist
and the COOH has to be nearer the hand than the R
Louis Pasteur discovered that
equal parts of
left Tartaric acid and right tartaric acid
behaved differently from a sample not right left balanced
sooo
pasteur discovered an acid in grapes
and he found it was actually
equal quantities of left and right tartaric acid
recemus Latin for a bunch of grapes
so racemic acid is a thing but it's also
equal quantities of left handed and right handed tartaric acid
so like we say
all this genetics...
all about how things - melocules - fit together
there's rules
but they complicated
it's rubbish trying to explain in words so
search for chirality(chemistry) on Wikipaedia

and IUPAC atands for
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
around 54 complying countries


here we are... peeling back the layers of the onion
a question for you
you are the second largest oil company in America
and you are building an oil refinery on
reclaimed land that covers half the area of
The Tees Estuary
known as Seal Sands
the question is
why don't you build the entire oil refinery on Seal Sands? and site the
Thermal Cracker
in a different county?
and the answer is
you're building an oil refinery and you
don't want the cracker to take it away
if it goes
boom
so here is the question for now
do you think in the present age when
nodody in the UK is saying
don't you know. there's a war on?
why would you expect to get consent to build
a new cracker that was liable to
go boom?
and if you were going to build a new cracker that
was very unlikely to go boom
why wouldn't you build it
AT THE OIL REFINERY
on Seal Sands

soooooo
when SABIC say they are going to build an new
Olefin 6 cracker at Wilton
that may be because they own Wilton and not Seal Sands
but
are they intending to build a new
THERMAL CRACKER
or will they build a new
CATALYTIC CRACKER?
and what, you may ask, is a residfiner
or a hydro cracker
so if we quote the FT - Financial Times of
September 2018
ExxonMobile is preparing to spend more than £500 million
upgrading Fawley
the UK largest oil refinery
essentially lets go simple
the names of chemicals change so we'll go old school
consider
ethane and ethylene
ethylene is a natural compound
from memory it causes fruit to ripen
ethane is C2H6
and ethylene is
C2H4
scale that up to bunker oil
much larger numbers of Cs - carbon atoms - in each molecule
what a thermal cracker does is it takes
a saturated alkane....???
an bunker oil molecule that has an
ethane proportion of hydrogens and
splits it down into shorter - smaller - molecules
and in the process the new morelcules don't have enough
hydrogen atoms to go round and remain alkanes
they become alkenes
they develop ethylene style proportions of
carbon to hydrogen
and so ICI used to call their polyethylene, polythene
Alkathene
because it was polymerised alkenes - not guaranteed to be
made from pure ethylene but from a mess of low molecular weight alkenes
to cut to the chase
hydro catalytic crackers
don't simply head bunker oil to high temperatures at high pressure
which is what as thermal crackers does
hydro crackers inject steam - water
and then there are extra hydrogen atom available and
you get a product stream that is
alkanes not alkenes
and if you set it up right
those alkanes are
like diesel and petrol like
soooo
you wanna make vehicle fuel?
or you wanna make plastics?
choose which cracker type and you choose
product type
so here's the thing
when it was built
Wilton was in farmer's fields near a village called
Kirkleatham
then they built Lakes Estate for the workers and
Redcar grew to encompass Kirkleatham
we can see why
NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND
would want to build a thermal cracker in the middle of Redcar
but who's to say the wooden tops at SABIC have got minds
at all
like we say
when the news is on
this weather is interesting
good thing there's none of that
mythical Global Warming
on top of this lot
we've mentioned before
The Wilton Hilton
it's neither a Hilton nor a hotel
it's an office complex
and whatyou will find is agents trying to let
units on Wilton International
units with major utility provision on site
and so
speaking of
Mister Micawber
and his Red Wall levellers
why the hurrays at the prospect of an few hundred
entry level - wooden top - jobs
and not
Jesus
Wilton International, what better place for a
Science Park
there was a conscious decision around the time of the demise of
ICI
a little correspondence between our Ricker and some top boss
in the boss man's letter we had the harbinger of
working from home
to paraphrase
we're shutting the Wilton Hilton because
our sales executives live near their customers in
Hertfordshire
and what's sauce for the goose is
sauce for the gander
shut down Redcar because of home working and
before you know it
you're shutting down London
for the same reason
Louise who used to live next door to our Ricker
used to work at the Wilton Hilton
sending faxes and such for the bosses

30th October 2021

we feel the need to clarify some issues
from memory...
we think that a company based in Westchase, Houston, Texas
called Phillips 66
in 1967 they were America'c second largest oil company
after Texaco
and were developing the Alaska assets in Anchorage
for a short while a 50 state retailer
were the anchor tenant on Seal Sands
and what we are talking about
in respect of SABIC
is the elements of
Seal Sands
a tunnel under the river Tees
and
Wilton
which were the assets through which
ICI - Imperial Chemical Industries
took the bunker oi from Phillips 66 Seal Sands
and processed it into plastics
mainly polyethylene and some nylon
it's the remnanys for the
storage, pipeline and cracker
that SABIC now hold
the main function of Seal Sands now
and for some time has been
CATS
CATS is the Central Area Transmission System
and this has for decades been drawing the
natural gas from the central north sea
to shore
in the vicinity of the River Tees
go too close to some of the installations and you risk
an armed police response
that would be BP or bp
once upon a time
British Petroleum
and ConoCoPhillips are still there
ther wer - now dropped - plans to diversify into
waste to energy - Greenergy and Air Products
never heard of Greenergy?
we neither but
British distributer of
petrol and diesel
it has over a quarter of the vehicle fuel market
and has fuel blending terminals
in the Thames Estuary and on Seal Sands, Stockton-on-Tees
20 million litres
as we said
it's not very 'now' for Teesside to import
crude oil
so there isn't a lot of bunker ol for disposal

and this is another of those
blown up by your own hand grenade issues
you want to set up something a bit nasty
you want it in a particular place
you will get somebody the likes of
Kellog
to build it
that would be
Halliburton subsidiary
Kellogg Brown and Root?
oh yeah
we have produced discourse about
Jack Clough
some other time
and they design and build and maintain it
and to get planning permission
you offer a few hundred
local dead beats
a place on the pay rool as caretakers, security and then when you want to shut it down...
the local wooden tops
are having none of it

and we were talking about the information age
an example
there's a fire door at Tesco in Redcar
and if anybody opens it
the store manager gets an email from head office
why is that fire door open?
immediately - sensors not CCTV

people - including MPs - are often unaware of
the extent to which we now live in
the information age
we have set out some stats about
TS6 - Greater Eston
today we turn to Redcar itself - TS10
and we highlight the
government statistics
English Indeces of Multiple Deprivation 2019
a lst of things
ranked 1 to 10 or zero to 10?
for a reason that may be clear to people who
know about local politics
TS10 is definded as
in the vicinity of
Coast Road Redcar
Zetland Ward
higher the number - the better off people are
child income deprivation - 7
living environmant - 8
barriers to housing and services 10
education skills and training - 7
income - 6
crime - 5
employment - 4
heakth and disability - 3
specifically
taking the population of England
1 above is in the lowest ten per cent
10 is in the top ten per cent
as of August 2020
there were 10,897 people in 'Redcar' on
Universal Credit
11,487 in Hartlepool
16049 in Middlesbrough
7944 in Scarborough
so 'Redcar' refers to the whole of
Redcar and Cleveland - including Greater Eston
it's interesting that the site we are quoting
includes Scarborough and excludes Stockton-on-Tees
probably their mistake
and the average wage is
£12.95 per hour

what we want to say here is
health and diability - 3
HEALTH AND DISABILITY 3
why do you think that is?
should we seek stats on
smoking or drinking?
we don't think that would be the answer
ONLY BETWEEN 20 AND THIRTY PER CENT OF
people in England
have worse health than the people in Redcar
and yet
AND YET
LOCAL POLITCIANS FIGHT
TOOTH AND NAIL TO
KEEP THE POLLUTERS IN BUSINESS
why did The London School of Economics
allow local unions to
hijack a visit to the area arranged by
Friends of the Earth?
The Northern Echo newspaper estimates that
around 400 people work for SABIC on Olefin 6
and around 400 people sometimes work there as contractors
we have no confidence that
any of the contractors live - keep their families
within hundreds of miles of Teesside
one of the lads killed demolishing South bank coke works was
from Worcestershire or similar
what is the message to inward investors?
th locals will work for peanuts
BUT
they will constantly be off sick
and if you want anything done
you'll have to bring in contractors
and
provide them with respirators
before they cross the county line
out Ricker does get about a bit
and on the day he was in the
Olifin 6 control room
there were about 6 old geezers in there
and
about 3 of the thirty control panels
had dirty paw marks on them
the rest seemed to have been installed in 1979
and since then - never touched
sooo
when are Cleveland Police going to
provide genuine protection for
local politicians and decision makers
from
the Luddite 300?

29th October 2021

for the longest time...
the petrochemical industry on Teesside
has been geared up to process
Brent Crude
bent Crude comes from the
British and Norwegian sectors of the North Sea
the 4 four Brent rigs have benn or soon will be
brought
to the beach
as they say
at lest 3 are being or have been broken up in
Hartlepool
Brent crude is
light and sweet
it has a low tar content
and a very low sulphur content
and so
Olifin6 on Wilton
has coped well with the tar conversion
we repeat that Olefin 6 is also known as
Bunker Oil
and can be used to power some ships
this week
Sabic announced an investment on
Wilton Olifin 6 plant
the old plant was never intended to deal with
Middle eastern Crude
we spoke recently about
bringing non-Brent oil to Teesside for processing
we suspect at this time that
when this new Olifine 6 is up and running
it Sabic will not be
bringing Saudi Oli to Seal Sands for processing
it looks for all the world that they intend
bringing
Saudi olefin 6 - bunker Oil
containing the bulk of the crude's sulphur
to Redcar for processing - alone
without the fuel elements - fractions
why would you - otherwise - announce and investment in Olifin 6
and no balancing investment
on Seal Sands?
and so
all this bleating about
soup kitchens and tumble weed
on Teesside has netted Redcar the role as
the global oil industry's waste disposal depot
and all to get the local MP's former workmates
off his back
we're gonna add a little Ricker note here
some time in the 1960s
no the 1950s
essetially throughout the 1950s
Ricker's dad would visit the
Old Bell Brothers ironworks site at Port Clarence
on a Saturday when the workers were home
and take Ricker and his mam with him
because Tommy was a joint managing director of
George Hodsman (1928) Ltd
who were recycling the slag heaps at the old ironworks
and essentially
they were using the slag to create bunds
on seal sands
and one of the things that struck our Ricker was
that although it was the weekend
and slag was not being worked
there was a constant stream of - for the 1960s - huge
trucks passing by
these were rigids - not artics
but they had very high sides
and the bodies were black or very dark blue
and along the sides were gold letters
big gold letters
spelling out
PEPPER
and these trucks were delivering
PFA
pulverised flue ash
from coal fired power stations
to fill in behind
the slag bunds Hodsmans were laying down
Hodsmans long gone
a part of a huge cement making combine
most noticeable remnant
High Forec Quarry in Teesdale
Pepper are now based in
Dromore, Northern Ireland

28th October 2021

people in general have a wide variety of
background knowledge
about topics of the day
it may have drifted across the consciousness of
the typical UK citizen...
that oil is referred to in terms of
barrels of crude
if we consider the origins of a company called
Saudi Aramco
those origins rest around 100 years ago
it's often difficult to keep track of
shifting aliences
for most people the enduring image is that
in the Second World War
the UK was under existential threat from Nazi Germany
and the US saved us
and what with the UK being lead by
Queen Elizabeth for so long,,
it's easy to see world politics as
strapping son America
protecting his dear old mum, the UK
we will not - at this time - divert into
The History of The Great War
but perhaps we could remind people that its origins were
in a quite random rivalry between
relatives of Queen Victoria
the essence was
Germany versus Britain
fighting over France
and what may surprise some readers is that
having beaten Germany
the British and the French
Anglo-French
not only sought to recover their costs from Germany
but amongst other things
felt that the Middle East
was a part of the deal and
whatever the rights and wrongs
felt that America had not made sufficient
contribution to the
War Effort
to be cut in on deals to divide
the whole of the area around the Mediterranian
in essence the British and the French decided that in the terminology of the time
under the San Remo Petroleum Agreement of 1920
American companies were excluded from
Mesopotamia
Herbert Hoover
US President of Hoover Dam fame
had an open door policy
and wanted US oil companies to import oil
as well as use local resources
and throughout the,BR> inter war years
1920 to 1940
America developed trade deals where it could in the
Middle East
and was very keen to indulge in
technology transfers
to train Saudi Arabia national in
oil field technologies
Saudi-isation
and so we return to
barrels of oil
and perhaps the likes of Nigeria now feature here
when you to some extent or other
substitute
mineral oil for whale oil
you continue to ship it in
wooden barrels
and mineral oil is
fizzy with dissolved methane
like a soda
so to make it safe to carry in wooden barrels
you drive off the methane
and flare it off - burn it
and then when you get your mineral oil to the United States
it's gone a bit flat
some may remember
octane
petrol or gas being sold by grade accouding to octane
people on TV involved in
old car restoration often refer to
fuel in the tank having become
waxy
or turned to varnish
this is because traditional fuels consist of
VOCs - volatile organic compounds
dissolved in oil
remember adding
two stroke oil
to motor bike and lawn mower fuel?
an octapus has 8 legs?
anyway an octagon has 8 sides
and octane refers to any of a group of compounds
with 8 carbon atoms per molecule
C8H18
methane cH4
propane C3H8
butane C4H10
octane
C2H6 is ethane
but we never hear about that
sooo
shipped petroleum
petroleum shipped a century ago
was a bit flat
for safety's sake
it had had its fizz removed
and so
to put it back
you needed to split the remaining safer compounds into
new fizz
and the process is called
cracking
and so we have
cat cracked gasoline
fuel made by reducing the size - length - of
alkane molecules to
make them more volatile
and diesel is cheaper than gas
because this phase of manufacture can be skipped
however
you take your fizz deleted crude and you
take off the middle weights
and you separate out the diesel
and you make the petrol
and you are left with tar
and in the Tees valley
you do that on
Seal Sands
and then you pipe the tar to Wilton
and you
use a thermal cracker
not a a catalytic cracker as on Seal Sands
to bust the tar down to
tiny molecules that you use to make plastics
and over that century
pipelnes have replaced sailing ships
and the methane can be
cooled and thus liquified
and not storred in wooden barrels
and not needing to be burnt off
except in Africa
except when....
all this heavy kit is really involved in
buffering
supply variations against demand variations
and
VOCs being so hazardous
you don't want to do that buffering by means of
storage
you want to be able to turn
whatever comes in
into
whatever you can sell
immediately, flexibly,
and f you can't use it
with a maximum of 10 days supply storage
you burn it
you make it volatile - unsafe
and so you can't store it
so you use it or flare it
and you cannot vary the operating rate of
the cracker - Olefin 6
you vary the amount of flaring
we think it's highly unlikely that
Saudi Aramco
the US bulwark against
Anglo-French dominance in fuel markets
will ever supply petroleum products to
the US by pipeline
and so - in effect - the policy has somewhat backfired BUT
now that liquifed natural gas
can be shipped
what reason is there to in the spirit of
Saudification
all these processes should be carried out
at source
and not on Teesside
or Grangemouth now that we have not got our own North Sea crude
taking in other people's dirty washing it is
makes not logical sense
unless
you want
Wilton
to be an out station of
Beamish Open Air Museum

27th October 2021

let's be clear
the regulations allow for
sewage works operators to allow
storm water to by-pass sewage works
all indications are that in many cases
water companies are using storm water to
flush sewage works
saving them the expense
or bother
of removing solids by road tanker
clearly Northumbrian Water regard
sewage solids
as a valuable resource to be exploited
not dumped
used to be called
night soil
God it don't 'arf pong around Thirsk
when they spread it on the land

sometimes we get a bit behind the curve
by which we refer to the Newton effect
'I know the answer to that'
but it will take time to write it out
Calgon
CAlgon is a water softner
Tees Valley water is not hard but
Calgon is heavily promoted
Hartlepool water - historically - is not Tees water
so hartlepool water may be hard if it is
ground water as opposed to wiver water
the Durham coal field is limestone
producing hard water
Reckitt may justify advertising Calgon in the North East
because SOME consumers have hard water...
Calgon is now sodium citrate
the whole idea is tht adding phosphates to waste water
is problematic for sewage works
so classic Calgon was sodium polyphosphate
However,
beware Wiki and the term cations
that is
cat ions
or cat-ions
Calgon works to prevent calcium in water from
crystalizing
and hence furring up your pipes
but sea invertebrates want to
fur up their exoskeletons
since crustaceans in the Tees Estuary area
appear to have soft shells
this may be due to
too much Calgon in the dishwaters of the area


we guess that in the modern age it is necessary to explain what
The Parable of the Talents
is
Matthew 25: 14 - 30
tells of a master leaving his house to travel
and before leaving entrusts his property to
his servants
according to the abilities of each man
one recieved 5 talents
one 2 and one 1
essentially
the most trusted invests the money wisely
and the least trusted
buries it in a hole in the ground
and the one with the single telent
expects praise for not having lost his master's money
and gets - not a lot
the most trusted gets a share of the profits
he has amde for his master
and so it is with business
we give people responsibilities and
some people expect praise and reward for
defending the traditions of
smoke stack industries
and we could tweek this story
we could say
the master does not return
but sends his son or grandson to
hear accounts from the stewards
and not only wats to know how the money is doing but also
have the latest technological advances been
implimented in the business?
to be fair to the modern situation
we should tweek it further
perhaps the master leaves his women in charge and they decide representative individuals from the local community
and pay out rewards
not on the profit achieved
but on the basis of
how deprived they consider the social sector they represent
is considered
like
pay the cricketer on the basis of how
grusome their
back storey
is


at the present time our Ricker stands about as far from
schooldays
as it is possible to get
and he thinks that schoolwork is all about
difficult sums
and creative writing
so he isn't shy of saying the world we know is
made from around
100 elements
you could see them as different shapes of Lego
and carbon is one of those
some people think the Earth is very old
and that just like dust settling in a bachelor pad
layers of things pile up and become layers of rock
and that
at a period of time
there were lots of plants - mainly trees
and no people, not very many animals
animals as we know them
and since all the amounts of each of the elements that there ever were
were all present from a very early stage
a few meterorites excepted
most of the carbon was present on Earth as simple gases in the atmosphere
mainly carbon dioxide
and the flourishing trees absorbed the carbon dioxide
and reduced the amount in the atmosphere
and when the trees were burried
the carbon was burried
and so the time when the trees ran riot is called the carboniferous era or time or period
because the rocks we now find that formed at that time
consist of the trees and the silt that burried them
but the Earth's surface is not static
there are earthquakes
and these earth movements can
push layers of rock down
called subduction
so that like when you use a blunt knike to
try to cut a sponge cake
the cream can ouse out over the top layer of the sponge
and the order of the rock layers gets jumbled up
coal oil and gas can be found as little as 90 metres below the surface
or very deep
but almost all of it was laid down in that carboniferous era
in the English North Sea
the rocks we find oil and gas in as
very fine particles of silica
sand but finer
and called
mudstones
and the rocks on Redcar beach are special form of mudstone
called shale
shale is mudstone that comes apart in layers
like a soft version of slate
but some of the places where carbon was trapped
trapped like the drowned forest on Redcar beach
were covered with sea shells and similar
and so we have
carboniferous mudstones made of silica
and carboniferous limestone, made of hard little bits of
shell that have a high calcium content
when large amounts of Earth's surface are covered in
water not trees
the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is
dissolved in the sea - more than it is
sequeatered by plants
when carbon dioxide is incorporated into plants and animals
it is neither acid nor alkaline
but when it dissolves in water
it makes the water more acidic
sooo
after all those shellfish have taken up all that calcium
to make their shells
if the seas and oceans dissolve a lot of
carbon dioxide
it becomes acidic and
things made of calcium - like sea shells and coral
and any rocks or sand made from them and not from silica
dissolve
and raise the dissolved calcium levels in the oceans
we could say
The Earth formed 4 and a half billion years ago
and the fossil fuels we dig up were laid down
300 million year ago
but in all those 300 million years
they have been leaking - naturally
some as methane drectly venting to the atmosphere
but mostly
leaking from sea beds and being dissolved in the oceans by microbes and making the seas more acidic
and rain has been dissolving salt from rocks and
making the oceans more and more salty
humans do do things nature does not
but the chemistry of carbon and calcium
and similar...
nature is well into that
and we are getting better
we say that as the United Kingdom
adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by
burning methane is
trivial compared to adding sulphur dioxide to the atmosphere
by burning coal
as we once did
and other still do
generally speaking
carbon dioxide does reduce the pH of water it is dissolved in
lower pH more acidic
but
carbon dioxide does not cause
acid rain
acid rain - often strong enough to dissolve concrete
epecially roof tiles
is formed when sulphur dioxide
deriving from sulphur in coal and oil
and nitrogen oxides - created when atmospheric nitrogen is
heated in the likes of furnaces and internal combustion engines
in the presence of atmospheric oxygen
these are the major components of acid rain

we would divide
rich and powerful men into two catrgories
the start up guys - Dyson, Branson and the facebook microsoft types
and the MBA people
Master of Business Administration types
the former do start ups
the latter do management
a person with an MBA would feel very uncomfortable
setting up an innovations division in their corporation
they have loys of money and will spend it on
protecting the status quo
when lots and lots of people - mainly young people
are each willing to pay a little money each to have something
an older generation does not understand
a new form of music, whatever
an new enterprise - Virgin media for example can be set up
but older people - the sort of people who homes and new vehicles will switch at the drop of a hat from for example
petrol, gasoline to diesel
whatever the buz or the word
so long as it appears
cheaper
than the original
but
the new thing has to be
drop dead cheaper diesel was seem as cheaper than petrol
LNG was seen as
more economical than petrol or diesel
but too complicated and with an up front capital cost disadvantage
no uptake
and here's the kicker
you can't run a diesel on petrol or an gas car on diesel
but you can run an LNG vehicle of petrol
at the flick of a switch
still no takers
why? if LNG vehicles had been sold as
hybrids
people would have
got it self charging and full hybrids that
run on liquid or electric
but are actually
elecrics
becuase they VAn put fuel in in the traditional way
as they were unwilling to do with
'LNG converted' vehicles
'converted'
just the same as
the conversion from town or coal gas to natural gas
no conversion to LNG because LNG is not availabe at all
filling stations
completely missing the fact that if you run out of LNG
and you have petrol you flick a switch and away you go
no harm done
nodoby got into it that deeply

we not sure how much of a grip
the UK government has on
Christmas
but
Alfie
chief cashier at GPS hardware
has a good grip on his
elf

23rd October 2021

we are having a think about the present UK Prime Minister
we kinda think he has moved on from being
a father o
being a dad
we think we should drop the
Tweedldee epithet
we are thinking about how one original portreyal of
a fictional character can influence many that follow
and it has probably escaped most people that
an actor with the stage name
W C Fields
in 1935
gave us the first
Wilkins Micawber
a chomic relief character in
the Dickens tale
David Copperfield
Mister Micawber has lines or quotes on poverty
Remember my motto " Nil Desperandum - Never despair"
Welcome poverty, welcome misery ....
Mutual confidence will sustain us to the end
what I did was for
England, Home and Beauty
you HEEP of infamy chapter 52
I have no doubt I shall, please Heaven, begin to be more
beforehand with the world
and live in a prefectly new manner if -
in short anything turns up - Chapter 11
and so the new? no not new just recently discovered
Johnson philosophy
Something will turn up

perhaps this relates to Johnson's new found
Roman Catholic faith
In God we trust
he is, after all, American by birth...
a letter day W C Fields

21st October 2021

Here's a thing...
Carbon Capture and Storage
as we understand it this involves
taking Natural Gas - methane
CH4
out of the ground
and combining it with atmospheric oxygen
to produce carbon dioxide CO2
in an equation that runs
methane plus Oxygen goes to carbon dioxide plus energy
CH4 + O2 = CO2 + energy + hydrogen
the blue hydrogen
but
that needs careful control because
all too easily the equation becomes
CH4 + O2 = CO2 + H2O + energy
or
if balanced
CH4 + O2 + O2 = CO2 + H20 + H2O
left side 1 carbon right rise 1 carbon
left side 4 oxygens right side 4 oxygens
left side 4 hydrogens right side 4 hydrogens

but that's not the point of
Carbon Capture and Storage
the point of Carbon Capture and Storage is
you take mathan out of the ground and you replace it with
carbon dioxide after you have extracted the energy
you pump it back down the well
after the well has no more methane to offer
there are few snags
initially the natural gas is
under pressure
we don't normally just take methane until the pressure drops
normally - the rocks involved being
honneycombed to allow space for the gas
normally
water seeps in to replace the gas
and if that doesn't happen naturally
we pump water down to force out the
last of the gas
so
the proposal is to inject carbon dioxide at such pressure that
we drive the accumulated replacement water
out
and the pressude will have to be very high to
get back inside
all the carbon we took out as methane
and guess what
we've drilled holes in the rock to get the gas out
and perhaps we've
fracked
the rock to get the gas out
and now we expect carbon dioxide to stay in that
punctured and fractured rock
at very high pressure
but this isn't the kicker
the kicker is
most of the carbon dioxide we are releasing into the atmosphere
comes from coal
and most of that has been
open casted
and there are no resulting underground spaces anyway
and if - to keep the water out of the workings -
you put carbon dioxide in as you take methane out carbon dioxide and methane
if this were a mineral extraction
that carbon dioxide coming OUT of the reserve
would be regarded as
tare
for the purification - extraction, concentration process to remove
but if the job is a quick dirty burn
it is a balance between
extra cost of purification
and lower thermal efficiency
and the fossil boys
love cheap

19th October 2021

we often mix up stories from
the first and second world wars
it is said...
in the first world war era
wives and girlfriends would get
men rolling drunk and
chop off their
trigger fingers
to help them avoid
call up
to the armed forces
we have a story from the second world war
Harry Hindle
broke his leg in a soccer match
and...
no NHS so no treatment
so his leg healed wonky
and he had a pronounced limp for the rest of his life
and so to Tees Valley industry
specifically to
Carbon Captre and Storage
funding carbon capyure and storage is like
gving a person with a broken leg - recent break
a wheelchair and nothing else
a wheel chair but no
abstraction - straightening - of the leg
no plaster cast
no crutches
just a wheel chair
they will be permanently disabled
and that is what the fossil boys want for Teesside
continuation to death of their glory days
and to hell with the future


and so to Redcar's puppy dog MP
he's been told
you won't be re-elected
the set is on loan
Redcarites will revert to type
come the next election
and so
he has switched his attention from
his constituency and its future
and decided to concentrate on getting his old job back at
SABIC's Olefin 6 cracker
which is shut down and
as we have said before
once shut down - like old time blast furnaces
can't be 're-started' - have to be re-built
including
re-plumbed all the way from Seal Sands
some how somewhere along the line
something has to convice him that
this parliament gig is his job for life
so he can cut the crap
and address the future



it's a shame the BBC can't send a
proper journalist
and not a Fran Unsworth toadie
to la Palma
to tell us the truth about the volcano

17th October 2021

we thought we would look into
the office of the
North Yorkshire Police Crime and Fire Commissioner
we wondered whether we would discoverBR> a hive of Corbyistas
not so
a covern of wimin
who earlier got rid of a woman called Mulligan
so the saying is
what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander
but what's sauce for the MP is not sauce for the woman
the PCFC had to go because he offered women advice that is now
being put to MPs
we suggest that there aren't enough crimes and fire and rescue incidents
in North Yorkshire
to keep the noses of the office staff
to the grindstone
MPs are supposed to be
streetwise
but women are to be
Blithe Spirits
flitting around wthout a care in the world
what characteristics would the unelected staffers
accept in a boss?
female - no
careful and conservative - no
Mulligan went for the same reason Priti Patel nearly went
and may still go
asking the staff to DELIVER
this game of charades could go on
for ever
one of these people is now the acting commissioner
pending yet another election
we would not accept a staff contract that said
no matter what - you must work for your elected boss
but there should be no scope for officers to
speak on their own behalf
and as to the oversight committee...
if every tme an issue comes to public prominance
there has to be a new election..
there is no problem making any elected representative
subject to re=call - at public , not staff request
otherwise we have a recipe for
entryism
events dear boy, events
f the media can convince the public that there is a
vehicle fuel shortage
they can convince them of anything
but a properly constituted re-call system would
give the mass media time to move on
to the next existential threat
regarding female safety
there is in the back of the mind a historical note
true or not true?
about buses and the audible means of approach
the story goes that it would be
impudent for a mere bus driver to sound a horn in traffic
and so
owner drivers and chauffers had to look out for the
well being of buses and their passengers
and sound their own horns if
they needed to point out to other drivers that a bus was in peril
a bit like vigilantees roaming the streets
on the look out for
women in peril
a couple of points about a couple of recent 'murders'
when a man is accused of murder when it should be
gross negilgence, manslaughter
research could be done to see whether the perp has a history of
throttling a kid sister and cousin or playmate
as we have said - little girls can recover from
loss of consciousness from strangulation because
green stick hyoid bones
spring back
as for
idiot son of an inattentive, overachieving, father
it is very important not to assume
like father like son
just as likely to be
like mother like son
imperative to find SOMETHING that the kid is good at
and not leave them seeking fame through murder
murder made me famous
more famous than my high flying dad



students and their tutors are at liberty to
tout for research funds
and enthusiasts and campaigners to
draw attention to specific issues
one of the reasons why
people die when
wild swimming
is that it is not a part of gereral perception that
fluids - gases and liguids
have structure
you put a hand into the bath water
and you expect th whole bath to be at the same temerature
and you will probably
no we are making assumptions
it can happen
you test the bath water...
it seems too hot
you add more cold water
you get in
the bath water has gone cold
this is probably because
the added cold water has slipped
down underneath the hot water that is
already in the bath
experts
includng homw cooks
know that liguids need to be
stirred
to keep control of their temperature
natural water bodies
especially at times of low rainfall
with little material entering or leaving
are often not much stirred
and layers build up
technical terms time
1 thermocline
the transition layer between
warmer mixed water at the surface
and cooler deep waters below
2 benthic layer, organism, etc
the bottom layer
oligotrophic
slow growing, nutrient poor
eutrophic, fast growing, nutrient rich
taking the Cumbrian - not cambrian
Lake District
in North West England
there are many different 'lakes'
many different ways to characterise those lakes
but these lakes are generally in contrast to
The Flow Country
a large rolling expanse of peatland and wetland of
Caithness and Sutherland in the North of Scotland
4,000 square kilometres of blanket bog
not a lot of that in The Lakes
essentially
most lakes in The Lake District are
deep
and if we take Scotland as our temporary focus
we are contrasting
The Flow Country
and
Lochs such as Loch Ness
Lochs are deep
as are fiords
and that is the domain of physics
the thing to think about from a biological standpoint is
The Lake District has as one of its quirks
many lakes but only one
Bassenthwaite Lake
has lake in it's name
almost everybody speaks of
Lake Windermere
but the actual name is,BR> Winder Mere
most 'lakes' in the Lake District are either
Tarn
or Water
and for the purposes of clarity we want to
pretend that
all the Tarns are the same
and all the Waters are the same
Windermere is max 219 feet deep
it's a ribbon mere - a shallow lake
but for our purposes we want to pretend that
not only is it - are they shallow
they are surrounded by
vegitation
and animal life
for present purposes we want to suggest that
a lake is a Tarn
if it is surrounded by
steep slopes of
loose bare rock called
scree
meres get inflows of nutrients
that have been released by the
living things their waters flow through
tarns get rainwater that was washed bare rock
and so
in the interests of
bio-diversity
we should not try to impose the
nutrient status of a tarn
onto a mere
however
tourist traps should have
septic tanks all around and
perhaps it's time for
United Utlities
to contract
Northumbrian water
to empty them
the other form of
significant water body
in The Lakes
is reservoirs
water for Merseyside and Greater Manchester

16th October 2021

here's the
Durham University grade sience behind
the shells on Redcar beach
we have here a couple of pics to show
how soft the shells of these lobsters etc were
easy peasy lobster squeezy




and some other shots







so like
the moult to prepare for winter is timed
for after the equinoctial gales
and the storms went on a bit longer this year
and cought the wildlife out
and they had soft shells
when the storm came
and soft clws couldn't grip the rocks
so they got washed off and bashed about and
the seabirds got them
bo proud
there are experts locally
under the
Andy McDonald RADAR








Oscar Deutsche Entertains Our Nation
1930s UK
before anti German sentiment
a cinema chain
and
we see the new Regent in Redcar
now being clad in
the tile style cladding characteristic of
Odeon Architecture
whether it will be an actual Odeon wedon't know
but this is a very special sub genre of
Art Deco


later today our Ricker will probably check this out
dead crabs on Redcar beach...
chappie on the telly had a bit of the story
crab instars

crabs are ten legged crustaceans
from what we could see from the TV
Ricker has seen these remains in person but
he hasn't picked any up lately
crabs moult
not like your dog or cat like a butterfly coming out of a crysalis
same shape - larger size
these crabs on TV seemed qute small
BUT
you hear of the
chastity belt
knights going off to wat and leaving their women welll
crabs
can't mate too well when they have a fully hardened shell
so the females at least, tend to get mated right after
they have moulted a small shell off
thing is
if they do a mating moult
just before a big storm...
they live on the rocks and they
get bashed against the rocks
when their armour is squishie
and they get bashed to bits
in a way that wouldn't happen when they were tough
simples

14th October 2021

here's the thing
these Arquiva people keep getting ahead of themselves
they keep saying
this will happen by this date
and it doesn't and they don't say it's their fault
so people think it's their kit that's faulty
we have absolutely no idea why they didn't wire up the transponders
aerials
BEFORE
they shoved them 200 odd feet into the air
BUT
every thime the wind speed gets over 20 miles an hour
the steeplejacks
naff off home
and the system remains as they left it
no matter what
so in the current breeze...
ITV normal and HD
BBC HD only and no news channel
and if that is what you've got
you're not in the 5 per cent
you're in the 95 per cent
and the web site
flashes up for a seccond and then vanishes
every time we try to refresh


this Middlesbrough MP
Andy McDonald?
something like that
people have asked what
levelling up means
the Call me Dave formula was
up North is where we send the likes of
Andy McDonald into
internal exile
this guy shows the classic characteristics of a
Barackroom Barrister
somebody who walks this narrow line between
rigid adherence to the letter of the law
but
BUT
the precise parts of the law that
are in his favour and against any opposition
the loop holes
the vague drafting
so the Call me Dave strategy was
a plague on all their houses
let them stew in it
play Queen of the Midden
in places such as Middlesbrough
and thus
Johnsonian 'Levelling Up'
is
the same laws and regulations and standards will
apply wherever
no Gulags
no places where the inmates run the nut house
and that brings us to that discussion of 'democracy'
there are exceptions to
universal adult sufferage
the likes of McDonald are not entitled to
tuff ballot boxes with the votes of the
terminally deluded
nobody is saying
you are not entitled to vote in an election or
on a resolution
if you're not fit for jury service...
but there are complex issues around the concept that
certain cases - complex financial cases
cannot be tried before a jury
snatched from the Clapham Omnibus
and this brings us to the concept of meritocracy
and with CoViD we have
populist versus expert
what the media do is try to attach
concepts to people
Joe Bloggs say A
Martin Fenugreek says B
we will choose A or B
on the basis of how many people like
Bloggs
versus
how many people like Fenugreek
no need to trouble the electorate with any
information about A or B
hence in Grammar and Public schools in the UK
in the US 'public' means 'state'
hstorically in the UK
a 'public school' was one where anybody's child could attend
if fees were paid
as opposed to
the 'nursary' of a stately home where only the
children of the household would attend lessons
retoric sessions or classes were set up where
one individual or team would have to
propose or defend a proposition that was
frankly preposterous
and the idea at university level developed at the
Oxford Union
the idea being that
no matter how
bang to rights
the defendent was
they were entitled to
due process
and somebody had to defend them
and this was the criticism of Boris Johnson
when it came to BrExit
he wrote both the thesis in favour
and the thesis in opposition
and the media go cross because he was
acting as judge and jury
and not as
advocate
and so it was more difficult than usual to do their thing
of playing the man not the ball
and some would say
why not play the man
the ball won't get the prize money
the pros amd cons of the auguement are insensate
they won't get upset if they loose
why not please as many people as possible?
in a pure democracy
Ancient Greek, Roman
original settlers in America
all citizens
get to vote on everything
there is no
representation of the people act
because nobody 'represents' them
they vote in person on everything
as you expand the franchise that becomes
impossible
until you get
the Internet
but with the internet is it desirable?
so what we have is a government that weighs up
pros and cons
and gives great weight to
opinion polls
and is willing to change course
in light of
events dear boy, events
Harold MacMillen?
so we have this week
a change of policy at
Thames Water
necessitating a wholesale replacement of the
senior management team
because?
people aren't entitled to change their stance on any issue

13th October 2021

as regards Bilsdale
it seems quite obvious that
the operators have added channels but as of now
they are at early stages of trying to see whether
this temp mast
can provide all channels at full power
or adequate power
in Redcar we - for the moment - seem to have
ITV chnnels at adequate power but
a new thing...
BBC channels at inadequte power
except...
BBC HD channels are OK
if they don't know how far they can
push the system
makes you wonder whether they bought it second hand
off ebay


we run this on a shoe string
we have limitations even if it works on some devices
t probably won't on all




one of those is our Ricker's tin duck
taking flight at the arrival of a tin puffin
a Ricker memory of bed time stories
so we'll try to get a few still from the same item up
as far as we know
the point of taking the main line out of the train shed
was to avoid these trains thoudering through a building full of people
but they only run - so far as we know
one each way per day at around 10.10 am
but who would want to clear the station every week day
so a passenger loop taking passengers beyond a wall
i.e. inside
is attractive to us



there was some sort of
New Marske Harriers sponsored
mass participation endurance run in Redcar
on 10th October
Redcar Running Festival?
it seemed well attended
we do have pics but we are too lazy to publish them






















we were talking about the
demographics of TS6
we were honest
we made reference to
around 6 per cent of the people living there having been
born in Scotland
5 per cent having been born in Wales
and around 3 per cent overseas
one of those Bush presidents was moked by a drunken hack we are buying too many imports
and a lot of those imports are coming from overseas
the dirrision coming from
all imports come from overseas
if you a hack in a booser
in Fleet Street in London
but America has
wait for it
land borders
we don't know about the residents of overseas origin
German enginees?
wives and partners picked up on foreign holdays
now there is a traditional rivalry in Redcar
between
Dormans and ICI
Dorman Long was a steel company
ICI was Imperial Chemical Industries
and in Redcar that meant
petrochemicals and plastics
the two were growth industries in Redcar in
the 1950s
so afr as Redcar - not the Tees Valley
chemicals was new in the 1950s
at the same time
steel was re-newed
and both were set up in a
post war jobs fit for heroes fashion
people came from Scotland and from Wales to work
as one may say on both
the Dormans and the ICI sides of
The Trunk Road
and Dormanstown ended up on the ICI side of
the A66 - the Trunk Road is a continuation of the A66
but is desigdated the A17X forget the last digit
so Dormanstown was set up way back for Warrenby Works then there was Redcar in the 1970s - part built
and so
housing was built in TS6 - Eston
for steel workers
and in TS10 - Lakes Estate
for petrochemical wokers
and the people who came to live and work in Redcar wer from
Scotland and Wales
Mcntyres and Jonses
and they came as young adults out of the forces for the most part
to Redcar in their 20s in the 1950s
so they would be in their 90s now
if they were still alive
well some of them are
they make up 11 per cent of TS6 residents
but the people there now are their children,
grandchildren great grandchildren
we gonna make something clear
ethnically genetically
our Ricker is
one third each of
Scottish, Irish, Scandinavian
but his ancesters came to
the Tees and Wear valleys
a long long time ago
but there you have them
second and third generation
immigrants to Teesside
who have not yet become
Redcarites
non-Eston, non-lakes Estate Redcar folk
came from Stockton and Billingham
not the Welsh valleys or Motherwell - the
central belt of Scotland

11th October 2021

at this point we are not going to say that
CoViD was a hoax
we re going to ask
how evil do you have to get to
take tax payers' money
tell them it's to protect people from infection
and then hand it to some demented old goat of a
South Asian
who
owns a steel works
to pay workers who are at no risk whatsoever of infection
if they go to work
it's just that inevitable sense of betrayal
anybody who trusts govenment not to
shovel money at the rich will feel if
they try to do the right thing
you just have to factor it in
know the news is coming
you were an excuse for a
hand out to somebody else
it was ever so
ferlough was for people who had to close
entertainment and hospitality venues
no people who fancied a year or two
excused payroll
this Gupta guy has got the nuts
ThysenKrupp was valued at
1.2 Billion
he wanted millions to
take it off the owners' hands
a bit like taking a wrong turn and
meeting with a chap who says
I'll take that Rolex off your hands
if you bung us a couple of hundred quid
and you must understand
this is an offer you can't refuse
because...
if you don't
people will stop voting for you



we have this angle on
unemployment and qualifications
we have said - implied
in TS6
ther eare 30,000 people in TS6
and half of them have less than 4 GCSEs
but only 1,600 are unemployed
qualifications?
neat handwriting exercises?
how many of those 15,000 have - as they say
forgotten more about their yobs than
any teacher ever knew about hers
the Govian
we've had enough of experts
what we need is neat handwriting
preferably in Elvish

10th October 2021

the TS6 postcode district has
a population of 30,350
it's 11.85 square miles, 30,69 square klometres
ther is massive disparity in property vlues
detached house has risen from
2017 £ 196,479 to 2018 £202,458
semiDetached
2017 £104,175 2018 £105,549
Terraced £62,676 2018 £66,834
Flats
2017 £48,000 2018 £ 45,071
there we have the effect on the property market
of the age profile
young singles and single elderly want falts
no demand for flats 'cos no single people
TS6 0 is Eston
TS6 6 is South Bank
TS6 7 is Grangetown
TS6 8 is Eston
TS6 9 is Eston
that's the postal perspective
we're gonna make a stab at this and note two things
we - entirely - guess that those detached houses are in
Normanby ward
and that is
2 Labour 1 independent
we are again entirely guessing...
people in Normanby vote Labour because
they want their councilor to be
'in government'
ecept that The labour are not in control in
Redcar and Cleveland any more and
perhaps the people of Normanby think
the Lib con ind coalition is a
flash in the pan
perhaps we can refine that
those high value detached homes are probably
on or near the Normanby end of
Normanby Road
the road to the hills
cut dead by the A174 by-pass
and so...
looking to the future
Normanby unable to extend to the south
if there are clearances of
unwanted public housing to the east and north of
Normanby
Greater Eston may be
on track for
Gentryification
Normanby may be a target for people
coming in to work in the
GE - General Electric - led move to
Green Energy Industries
in the Eston and South Bank area



the Post or Zip code
UK TS6
is also known as
Greater Eston
in the Tees Valley borough of
Redcar and Cleveland
it is a vestage of England
almost everybody living there
was born there
a handful of people from Scotland Wales and further afield
more than half have less then GCSEs - 16 year old exam passes
most age aged
30 to 60
we assume that people over 60 are rare because of
low life expectancy
the number of people under 30 is interesting
two thoughts spring to mind
at present, people over 30 were born before 1990
one way to see this is
lots of people were born there between
1960 and 1990
there are around 1,600 job seekers
a similar number excused work through ill health
and half that number excused work through having
caring responsibilities
given the very low number of over 60s
the home carers will mainly be caring for children
the mass redundancies in the steel works were in the 1970s
in the petrochemical industries later
where are the 16 to 30 year olds
if we look at these figures in ten years time will
most of the people be
40 to 60?
people don't move into the area
if they are there, they were born there
one could guess that it is the youngsters who
get more than 3 GCSEs who
get good jobs and leave
that depends on a sudden
increase in mobility and educational standards
a quantum jump in 1990
but
if we went back to the 1969s
job for life at the steel works
ten or twelve kids per couple
not now
mostly, we suggest, children in the area are
lone child of a single mum
one of two children of a single mum
we do not see
large number of 10 to twenty year olds
followed by drastic fall in number of
20 to 30 year olds
all age groups under 30 are 'poorly' represented
the popuation is aging
up to a life expectancy of 60
because the birth rate has dropped and
and
if any young people are leaving it is young men
leaving to find unskilled work
leaving the unskilled mothers of their children behind
at best they are becoming
remittance men
men gone but sending back
child support
we are defining child benefit as money from the state
child support as money from biological fathers
these days more easily tied down by a combination of
PAYE and genetic profilling
the greater certainty of being
done for child support
is a probable driver of
lower birth rates
mind
it's probably the threat of DNA
rather than any mother being able to afford the tests
that does it
so in Greater Eston you have 3,500 people on benefits
who will all be pensioners by 2060
and not be being replaced by
people from households of a dozen kids
so if we take 3,500 job seekers, chronic sick, carers
spread over 30 years
each year the claimant count will go down by
around 100
without any increase in job availability
but the chronicly sick are likely to be older
got ill when polution was rife
so job seeker may go down by
50 a year for the next 30 years - without action
but almost all the sick will pobably be dead
in less than ten years
they are probably over 50 now and have a life expecancy of 60
and due to environmetal improvements
the closure of the coke works
most under 50 now
will not become chronic sick
so without action the claimant count in Great Eston will probably be
negligable within one decade
by 2030 this is because this is a sesile community
people who are not the opposite - mobile
AND
if a mother makes a complaint to the police about the father
the police will do the DNA for free
an incentive to make a complaint
even though it doesn't work quite like that

9th October 2021

we thought we would look for one of these
methane producing digesters on
Google maps
turns out life's too short...
we think there is a
presumably Northumbrian Water, sewage digester
east of
Old Station Road South Bank
and south of the railway
what we ppear to have is
three or more sites being coane from nraby byllectively referred to as
Northumbrian Water, Bran Sands
so far as we can see the actual original Bran Sands is
sa sewage sludge dewatering site
it takes sewage from sewers
from ships
and from road tankers that empty septic tanks
the plant is being fed methane for its power needs by
two or more nearby sewage digester plants
and they are injecting sufficient surplus methan into
the gas mains to fuel 5,000 homes
and they are doing similar at the Howden plant
from where the ships bring the effluent
overall they are saying they are dumping no sewage into the Tees
the take away lesson is
if you need methane
offer to collect people's sewage and process it into gas
if Sir Alex pilkington were alive today...
he'd be right on that - glass manufacturer
NW invested £10 million with
Sweden's Malmberg to have no gas bill and
spare gas for 50,000 homes
and
and if you collect farming efflent as well as from people
not much chance of running short

8th October 2021

this is a complete dive into confusion
we're goiing to re-publish some pics
first published 6 years ago
without being able to view them first
it's just the limitations of our scope



























we think... this will show
South Bank coke works
as abandoned
but it may show nothing
we will say
ASDA is half a kilometre away - a third of a mile
and there are no homes or shops on the land between
the railway and the river - where the works was
so
the bunker wasn't actually
in the town
but not far off
and it shows that it's
The Teesdale Way
that was
stopped up
and the big drum is a
gasometer or gas holder
not exactly ten a penny but no fuss about that going
we want to say
just in case anybody believes the tosh the fossil boys put out
we have Bran Sands to produced
de-watered sewage pelets
and several - two at least
sewage sludge digesters that
create and capture methane
bio-gas
to run kilns, furnaces and the like
we got this


there is now a dedicated web site on the
state of the Bilsdale transmitter
without taking the time to visit...
the old transmitter has been felled
by next Tuesday we expect all channels to be
transmitted from the temporary mast
it is - essentially - the vetrical part of a
tower crane
without the horizontal bit
so it is less weather vulnerale than a tower crane
essentially if the winter is kind it will be OK
but it is up in a very exposed situation
the risk is that it ices up
two issues
if it ices overall it will
catch more wind than it is designed for
if it ices on one side - it's square not round
it could capsize towards that side
the good news is that the demolition went well
in that
the debris did not do significant damage to the
buildings at the foot
if the falling stuff had landed on the buildings
the temp mast would not be working
and it is

7th October 2021

we aren't very good at jokes but
we do try with analogies and some of ours are
amusing
it has occured to the great Ricker mind that
the fossil boys are like little boys playing football
and getting very irritated because prents on the touch line
keep telling them that their
boot laces
need re-tying
on a more serious note
here's the problem
although in the long term natural gas will run out
that is a long term problem
in economic terms
investments have been made in
natural gas infrastructureBR> renewables will be cheeper than gas and in adequate supply
before those gas investments
have been repaid
what Russia wants to do is
say the 2020 gas price would
repay the mortgage on the gas wells and pipelines
by 2050
Russia is saying
if demand for gas will disappear by
2035
to pay off the mortgage early
gas prices will have to increase markedly
starting right now
or
we need some of that
100 billion a year
transition from carbon compensation

regarding peasants in India burning coal
the coal is a replacement for
dried animal dung
just saying'
oh, and the fuel tanker driver shortage...
you gotta imagine it was a rouse to
get the Labour party conference
out of the news


it is not long since we previously made reference to
Jonathan Swift's early
Juvenalian satirical essay of 1729
schoolboy or student is what juvenalian is supposed to mean
A modest proposal for preventing the children of
Poor People from being a Burden to
their parents or Country
actually he was born 1667 so
he did not have the defence of youth
childlike not by a child
of feigned innocence
anyway
he was proposing that the attitude of
the authorities to child poverty was such
that he would not be surprised if
they brought in a law permitting the poor to
sell their children as food for the rich
so now we ned to do a fact check
so this pre-dates
let them eat cake
the actual 'quote' is let them eat brioche
Marie Antoinette - last queen of France
1755 to 1793
so Swift pre-dates
Let them eat cake
in the spirit of the Modest Proposal
speaking entirely
outside the box
our modest proposal is
along similar lines but quite the reverse
and quite opposed to orthodoxy too

in essance in these
deprived communities
instead of little boys being
buggered by priests
little girls should be picking up a dose or two of
their graduate teachers - science teachers especially
to
stenegthen the breed
without anybody needing to die
and making the next generation
shew ins for
STEM courses at school
Science technology Engineering and Maths?
there is - certainly was - a profound belief amongst
Roman Catholic priests
that when they died
in heaven
their parishoners would be in heaven to
continue to care for them
their idea of heaven was to be surrounded by
loyal idiots at their beck and command
as such they had no interest in
strengthening the breed
they buggered litle boys because
in life and in death they wanted
no rivals
no smart arsed offspring to challenge their
top dog status
within their parish they wanted to be
Queen of the Midden
living in a community nobody with more than
half their intelligence
would dare visit
and the ones who eshewed the littl boys
almost all had a
woman beyond child bearing age
as a
housekeeper
for more regular manoevers
and this form of
Roman Catholic parish
is the origin and model for
the sink estate
somewhere where nobody with more than
half the intelect of the
parish priest
would dare to set foot

5th October 2021

4th October 2021

we're looking at a proposal to refurb
redcar central Station
we are very clear
the trains were taken out of the train shed
in preparation for
Boulby Potash mine trains
running the line
Middlesbrough to Saltburn
and beyond that
on a mineral line
pasenger trains could return to the train shed
in a sense the original work 40 years ago tranform the Middlesbrough to Saltburn section into
an extension of the mineral line
Redcar has grown since then
we think there are 2 sensible options for
Redcar Central Station
1 put the passenger trains back inside the building
2 convert the building into a
Night Club
Regent at the north end of Station Road
Station Nght Club at the south end
and as we can see...
there is masses of room to build an completely new
railway station on the Excursion platform site















thirty or 40 years ago
Redcar central railway station
was converted into
retail workshops
such as Martin Farance's audio repair shop
now there is a scheme to re-do the work
possibly with a less workshop and more retail emphasis
not sure that's the appropriate direction of travel
we can confuse ourselves regarding the history of
Redcar Central
at the original refurb
the down line was taken out of the train shed
it is very difficult
in terms of railway safety and undergrowth accumulation
to photograph the old
downline platform
the original upline platform has been rebuilt in situ
the downline platform is
the one for trains to - as it stands
both Saltburn and Manchester
the upline platform - platform 1
on the south side of the station is
restricted to
trains to
Middlesbrough, Bishop Auckland
even though the Middlesbrough an Manchester trains
leave the station in the same direction - westwards
they leave on different platforms
as it stands
platform 1 and platform 2 are about the same length
about the length of a six coach rake
as built now decrepit but not removed
the downline platform platform 2 on the north side
stretched from
Locke Park Road rail bridge
to
West Dyke Road level crossing
this is approximately
500 metres
twice the length of the up line platform 1
this was because Redcar Central was both
a terminus and a through station
trains terminating at Redcar
as the Manchester trains now no
were held at the west end of platform 2
and through trains passed them on a central track
that is now the sole down line
and
nipped in front of them
into the train shed
so at the re-furb
the overtaking track - the loop - was extended
to be the main line
main line in terms of the Darlington to Saltburn line
not
East coast Main Line
so
back in the day
British Rail North East signs
were orange
officially tangerine
and the sign on the terminous part of
the down line platform said
Excursion
and on some pics of the era you can see what look like
a cross between a bus shelter and a row of
garages without doors

and this was where the punters sheltered
waiting for their excursion train to take them back home
the track layout was this is one of those passages where we are not
trying to tell it lke it is
here we are trying to stimulate
the reader's own research
we ar thinking about
the US Homestead Acts
there were a few so
not everything about them appled throughout
some cities in the mid-west?
offered ownership of parels of land
each amounting to 120 acres
to eligible people
broadly, to qualify you had to be
a head of household over 21 who had never
taken up arms against the United States
however
perhaps paradoxically?
under some versions of the deal
you were not eligible if you were
an agricultural worker or in domestic service
so that
you could be a former slave
but you had to have someskills not related to agricuture
we don't know what this was really about
but if you had a trade or skill one assumes you could set yourslf up in that business
in 120 acres that you could split between
your trade and agariculture
we're guessing
you hired people to tend the land you were not using for your
factory or workshop
and so
US cities planned to grow by
attracting skilled people
without creating supply chain - timber and food
difficulties
120 acres of woodland or forest would keep
a habd maker of carts or furniture or whatever
in raw material for
quite a while
starting in the 19th century
all seemed to go well until the 1920s and 30s
when the concept of the
sod buster came along
and provisions had to be made to turf people off
their homesteads if they
ploughed land that was
subject to erosion
maing prairie land where once the 'grass' went
the wind blew the soil away
in the UK we think of the Wild West as
cowboys verus Indians
but there was also
cattle ranchers versus homesteaders
and everybody versus
gold and other mineral prospectors
and then in the wetter areas
including much of Canada
natural prarie was replaced by
grain growing praries
in other words
near cites small plots - 120 acres that
after some qualifying period
were built on
to create major cities
and depending on the weather
vast open regions where it was either
cerial crops cattle
and there you have
The Windy City - Chicago
slap in the middle with
railroads
to get corn and beef off the prairies into the cities
it's very difficult to untangle the question
were the unskilled excluded because they were unskilled
or were they excluded because they were black
and the parallel in the UK?
well
hard to say but
do we detect as propensity to
pack off the unskilled
without any discernable colour bar
since most were not coloured because they were to sink estates where they would have
everything they needed and
nothing they wanted
because the clever people did not want
long term employees
they begn to prefer
robots, contractors and consultants
robots - anything powered from a lawn mower to a TV
don't feel it is
beneath their dignity to
be employed
by somebody smarter than them
there is that contrast between
I want the security of a
job for life
versus
I'm only working for you for a few years whilst I
save up enough to
start my own business
and in the UK
the latter have tended to be
immigrants
and the plan to return to the Old Country
militates against integration
and the social tensions come with
second and third generation immigrants who
no meaningful links with the Old Country
and have had their local integration hampered by
the wish of the actual immigrants to
keep alive the hope of a return
European Immigrants into the United States
or Australia
probably had little thought of return
but Asian immigrants into the UK
toy with the idea on a daily basis
UK place to make money
USA Australia New Zealand
place to make a new life
without a language change



The Friends of Zetland Park
have funded and arranged a
photographic history of the town
and Ricker has snapped a few examples
you may see the extent to which
The Coatham Hotel
and environs
were modified for the movie
Attonement
and you probably can see the
amusement park at
Redcar Central Station that is now
under
sandringham and Buckingham Roads
and perhaps the fact that
the station was there
before Corporation Road was constructed
we can't off hand remember the name of the
pile where that daft lass who
produed the next to next
king of England grew up
but
for years and years the road
Corporation road replaced
was maintained
now people in a new build estate have
turned it into a no through road back alley
and it's called
Althrop and not Althorpe
on account of her upbringing
what we are saying is
half the houses are bult on the site of
the Primary School
and half of them are built on
what was the grass verge
between old and new Corporation Road







this is perhaps the last time an engine stood
at the excursion platform
at Redcar Central Station












we made a short reference to
tractors launching fishing boats
we said the tractors don't need to have documentation
if used exclusively for fishing assistance in Redcar
these tractors are very old
they mainly - naturally - come off farms, redundant there
this whole thing has a complicated history
that is the current situation
at one time
when you bought an unregistered road vehicle
and wanted to use it on the public roads
you got it a
Q plate
we're going to nip ahead now
although the tractors don't have to be registered
the fishing boats
if used for commercial fishing as in Redcar
DO need to be registered
the boats fishing out of Redcar have a wde variety of
registration codes
but the codes consist of
1 or 2 or perhaps 3 letters
followed by a number
there is a some logic to the meaning of the letters
with exceptions
Aberdeen, Kirkwall, Exeter, Faversham, Hull
Portsmouth, Ramsgate,
Newport in Wales
the registration letters would be
the first and last letter of the name of the port
the ones listed above got in on the act early and
their registrations start with the one letter that
starts the name of the port
as we say, not chosen by size of port but on
date of entering the scheme
and by that logic
Redcar boats would be registered
RR
but RR is the code for
Rochester
so Redcar boats are registered
MH
for Middlesbrough
could have been ME for Marske
or SN for Saltburn
but it is what it is
three letters are sometimes used
BCK for Buckie
so actually it the fisherfolk had been a
bit more forceful at the time
Redcar boats could have been registered
RED
there is no IS registration code but
Inverness boats are registered
INS
more sensibly
Hartlepool boats are registered HL if there are any
ST not SN
because???
SN is for North Shields - Shields North
and South Shields is SSS - Shields South
those two are on either side of
The Mouth of the Tyne
sooo
in these shots
WY - Whitby
MH - Middlesbrough
and you may notice that one of the boats has
the tractor registration plate
on the boat
each boat has its dedicated tractor

1st October 2021

it was intresting to see a tabloid newspaper
front page today
divided up to give a spot to each of the women who have
met a sticky end over the past six months
1 they all got quite a sizable patch - not all that many
2 so many blanks
were the blanks because there are no pictures
or
were the blanks because those women were not
young and pretty?

from time to time we have to weigh up
how much good will a revelation do
against
how much harm will it do
in this instance we risk offering the world
an efficient murder method
against that we offer an explanation of
deaths during vigourous sex

we are going to offer pathologists, coroners and judges
a little open access training on
the anatomy of the neck
this will be tedious to poor old Ricker
but worth doing
the hyoid bone - lingula bone - tongue bone
is a horseshoe shaped bone
situated oh to hell
think of the adam's apple
think of that as a waste bin
think of a metal hoop between the bin and the lid
to which you attach a bin liner
so you can get the bag out easily
anterior midline of the neck
between the chin and the thyroid cartilage
lid and bin
at est it lies level with the mandible - jaw
unlike other bones the hyoid is
only distantly articulated to
other bones
it has no boney or gristly joints
it is anchored by muscles to the
front, back and below
by muscles
the hyoid bone is important to a number of
physiological functions
including
breathing
swallowing
talking
it is also thought to play a vitl role in
keeping the airway open
during sleeping


due to it's position
the hyoid bone is not normally
susceptible to fracture
have you heard of
green sticks?
the skeleton is a combination of
bone and cartilege
young un's have a lot of cartilege
and not a lot of bone
young bones bend rather than break
so the likes of
rhythmic gymnastics
are a little girl thing
top and bottom of it is
if you fracture somebody'd hyoid bone
immediated intubation is their
only hope of survival
followed by a tracheostomy
anf then major reconstrucyive surgery
the men involved in these cases
did not intend death
they lack remose because they are
utterly dumbfounded by the outcome
they are fuckwits who should not be let loose
not becaue they are evil
but because they are
irredeamably dim


so far as we know we've never seen a truck
on UK roads liveried
Wells Fargo
UK residents of a certain vintage associate
Wells Fargo with
Cowboy and Indian movies
as
cash handlers
some - you can distinguish an armoured car
from a van
refer to such vehicles as Wells Fargo
some try to be discrete
despite their armour
other bear the painted on message
The driver of the vehicle has been instructed
not to open the vehicle under any circumstances
but will follow, if asked
to the nearest police station

it has come to such that
nobody now has the slightest inkling as to whether
anybody actually has
any indicated authority
what in hell is the point of ID such as a warrant card
if you can't scan it with your 'phone
to log details of the interaction
why is thei officer where he is and
why is he flashing a warant card when
off duty?

we wanted to consider a movie that has recently
within the metoo era
been controvercial
Last Tango in Paris
and whatever the rghts and wrongs of the
production methods
it is a movie that explores the transition of a
consensual relationship
into
a relationship that is humiliating for the female
we have two lines of thought here
we should say at this point the 'star' was
Marlon Brando
odd that our Ricker mis-remembered it as
Richard Burton
the core complaint is that the director did not
trust the actor playing the woman to
give a convincing performance
and so made the film set experience
more real than appropriate
we would say that in many mini series
actors don't get to read the script of the
final episode until it is about to be made
so that they act out much of the series
as much in the dark as the audience
so
as that applies to actors of all ages and genders
it is not a targeted slight on
young female actors
the message intended for the audience?
one thing can lead to another
in this case
quite routinely
you are up for a regular date for
vaginal sex
then one day you are sent into the ktchen to
fetch the butter
in 1972 - the year of Paris not Halfax
Ann Reid again
is the message not
get it up the front and you may get it up the rear
but
get it at all and you may get pregnant
we rather like the subtle modern message
don't like sex?
maybe you have cystitis
we've got a cream for that
in 2018
why is anybody fretting about something
something quite run of the mill
that happened in 1972?
some people complain that
it's not 'fair' that
women are more willing to
give head
than men are to perform
cunilingus
licking her out
Ricker has a never to be worn T shirt
Liquour, she'll love it
it is very difficult to compute how
a female is supposed to be humiliated by
taking the female part
back in the swinging sixties
or even later
a sketch on TV about a couple preparing to have sex
could have the female saying
and this time
don't forget about the little button
a reference to a desire to have both
vaginal and clitoral satisfaction
whatever the currency amongst the chattering classes
TV advertising these days is not for
rape alarms
but for
vaginal creams
and
over the counter contraception
and
cures for erectile dysfunction

30th September 2021

we will take the Everard murder and since the Dunblane massacre
responsible journalism has
memorialised the victim not the perp

there is a belief that
violence against women is
the fualt of individual men
and maleness in general
the UK follows the US in many things
movies and motors in particular
there use dto be a
British Board of Film Certification - Classification
and a
Lord Chamberlain's Office for live theatre
there was a simple rule
no sex please we're British
violence OK - sex absolutely not
the effect of this
totally unintended was
since movie goers craved
Romance
in a lot of movies
you get just to the point where it's time
for the male principal charcter to
fuck the
female principal character
he or somebody else
kills her
we will not estimate how many
Bond Girls
met a sticky end within the movie...
if the role models
had more sex and less violence???
like we say
if the defence can say
yeah he killed her
but he didn't feel her up
there's a good chance
manslaughter not murder
we are in that sense still reaping the effects of
a post war
wadda we gonna do now/
obsession with
driving
not so much gays
but
unmarried mothers
out of society
if the Everard defence could have said
she got a bit upperty
and he killed her whilst trying to calm her down
but he kept away from the
naughty bits
he probably wouldn't have been charged at all
in the UK in 1920 there were
240,000 widows
and 750,000
given the tendency for male dominated legislatures to
dependents
it would not be surprising if governments
encouraged violence against women to
mop up some of the surplus
thin the buggers out a bit

28th September 2021

Gloria Allred
48 years of
shovelling money at women
the Blur Broadcasting Contingent
have a soft spot for her
but
three things
48 years in work
80 years old
one child - a duaghter
born for a husband she was married to
1960 to 1962
we won't research
date of marriage and date of dughter's birth
but Ms Allred does give the impression of
fighting the battles of
half a century ago
women forced to marry or give up their child
is she
The American Clare Short?
probably
and perhaps her current fame is
the darkest hour just before dawn
for people who want to see
women free
not compensated

27th September 2021

as of this evening we think
TV channels are being transferred to
the temporary mast at Bilsdale
we are assuming that
the process is scheduled to be completed over the coming week


you can lead a horse to water
but you cannot make it drink

although the expansion of the university sector
pre-dates the blossoming of the internet
perhaps we can say that it was under
New Labour
that is was decided to
expand the sector beyond
supply of graduates
meeting demand for graduates
the idea that a university education was
good for you
like a dose of cod liver oil
and towns the like of
Middlesbrough
has a university fosed on them
and towns the like of
nearby
Stockton-on-Tees
had their attempts to establish a university
stifled
people the likes of MP
Andy McDonald would say
Middlesbrough is a working class town
and it's just about OK to have a
former polytechnic 'university'
teaching
nursing and forensic science
but we don't want a
medical school
at Thornaby
this is
a local tech for local people
and the name change
shouldn't bring in train
how shall we say
a broadening out from
rote learning
to
thinking
this is the sort of
pre-New Labour
role of
UCAS
University and College Admissions System
there have probably been name changes
UCAS had, pre-New Labour
a role akin to that of the
Sorting Hat
in Harry Potter
distribute young people to
'university towns and cities'
according to their A level results
and expect them never to leave their allocated
new home town
and so now
post-New Labour
every town
has to have a university
even Redcar and Cleveland College
whatever it is called
an annex of Riverside College Stockton
has a
Higher Education annex
apparently The Guardian
rank 121 universities
there are probably more
and our Ricker's
Alma mata
ranks a miserable
4th in 2021
tht is up from
5th in 2020
BUT
since
St Andrews always ranks second
4th is realy 3rd
Oxford, St Andrews, Cambridge
Durham
London School of Economics
Bath, Loughborough, Warwick
is this some sort of joke?
the other 'real' universities
as oppose to dating agencies
are
Imperial London 9th
Bristol 11th
Manchester 25th
Sheffield 31st
Liverpool 59th


Park End, Easterside

as opposed to
Acklam, Ayresome, Beckfield, Beechwood,
Brookfield, Claireville, Gresham, Kadar
Grove Hill, Linthorpe, Middlehaven,
North Ormesby, Brambles Farm, Pallister Park
Thorntree, University
we dropped that lot for reference
perhaps the most startling thing about
Middlesbrough
is this string of stats
detached properties 13.6 per cent
semi-detached 39.9 per cent
flats 11.9
others including terrace 34.6 per cent
for a town that is supposed to be
a post industrial wasteland
Gresham
in town centre terraces
is
significant but not dominant
we set Park End and Easterside because
they are not in Middlesbrough Parliamentary
Easterside is Ok
Park End is
terrace people living in semi detached housing
a crime and disorder hotspot
in a way it tells us that if you take
underclass people and
give them middle class - albiet lower middle class
facilities
they say
there's nothing to do around here
that caretaking or cleaning job is no longer
just around the corner
and that does not translate into
an incentive to
get a better education or training
so as to become
a lower middle class commuter
to us it was quite amusing that the churches
responded to the closure of the steel works with
an assumption that this would lead to
mass unemployment in the vicinity
nobody who WORKED at a steel works
would be seen dead anywhere near it
in off duty time
and cetainly wouldn't try to raise a family in its shadow
it's like the Bopahl thing
a shanty town at the boundary of a chemical works
explosion
thousands of people blinded and killed
almost none of them worked at the plant
very very few wives and children of plant workers were affected
they had the money from working at the plant to live far far away
there's a total failure to recognise that
before the Welfare State - post Second World War
unemployed people - largely unemployable people
'signed on'
at the local major employer - for example as steel works
in exactly the same way as their children would later
sign on at the Labour Exchange
and later at the Job Centre
governmets depended on the likes of steel works to
mop up surplus labour
and incentivised them to do this and
The Tees Valley
fell foul of this
industrialists on Teesside
sought genuine contracts
major bridges etc
and sought
innovation and efficiency
and the story of one
could have been Lord Melchet
saying
I would like to be able to fire a gun
across the steel works site
and stand a zero chance of
hitting anybody
in the 1970s
that was thought of as a
shocking concept
steel works were supposed to be places where peope were
milling around
busy doing nothing
working the whole day through
trying to find lots of things
not to do
actully doing stuff was the main cause for
Sir Arthur Dorman
not becoming
Lord Dorman
never got with the programme
and there is a word for
'the programme'
'makework'
find schemes to make work as inefficient as possible to
combat mass unemployment
the problem is?
we cna't fine
mass unemployment
even in Eastern Europe
let alone
Easterside
change is resisted because it is seen as
introducing
efficiency
efficiency savings
and politicians have not yet got with
works smarter, not harder
in part because they see the
lumpen proletraiate
as having no 'smarts'
and just needing to be rendered so tired after 'work'
that they don't have the energy to
take to the streets
like the French do
in sum
Teesside Industrialists saw
for example
a steel works as a place to make steel
and politicians saw a stell works as
a work out for the masses

27th September 2021

you've hear the one about Sainsbury
I love Sainsbury's
they keep the riff raff out of Waitrose
and so
we love Afganistan
it keeps the
social affairs correspondents
out of Hartlepool
we wish

25th September 2021

sometimes a strategy is needed
the owners of the Redcar High Street
Marks and Spencers
were enthusiastic sellers to the point of
desparation
R&CBC have around £25 million for this revamp
around one million supposed to have been spent on
M&S
the owners of the properties west of France street
don't appear to be willing sellers
however
the owners of Frankie Dee's
next along
currently logoed as
B and M
are willing sellers
the property is described as up for auction
but no date so it may already have been sold?
if M&S was valued at 1 million
B&M can't be worth more than 3 million
5 perhaps
if
Frankie Dee's is demolished and the
High Street in front of it and from there to France Street
is de-pedestrianised
to accommodate buses
the owners of the trash in between
may become more willing sellers
and the budget is large enough to buy
France Street to
whatever that budget food shop next to
Frankie Dee's
Fulton's Foods is it we confuse that with the other one
over the road
next to Uptons - now The Livery -that belongs to B and M
that little discount food shop says it is closing


a question has occurred to us
what proportion of vehicle servicing garage turnover
relates to
engine maintenance?
you switch from
petrol/diesel
to
electric/hydrogen
even if you vow never to
mess with hydrogen
how much work on
suspension, brakes, low voltage electrics (entertainment comms etc)
would you stll have
throw out petroleum
and you say
no more cars
in no way is the abandonment of fossil fuels
the abandonment of personal transport
and the associated jobs
the BBC always manage to find someone who will
articulate Armageddon at the slightest
suggestion of change



we mentioned
gas oven suicides
to dramatise the concept of
the lethal being accepted because it is
commonplace
in October 1944 John Reginald Christie
murdered a work coleague by
Murial Amelia Eady
promissing to cure her bronchitis with
a special mixture
he had concocted
what he did was to bubble
mains Town or Coal gas
through a liquid to disguise the smell
and force her the breath it
at a point
she was rendered uconcious by the
accumulating conversion of her
haemoglobin - in her blood
to carboxyhaemoglobin
a molecule incapable of
transporting oxygen around her body
he then confirmed her death by strangulation and
made his desired use of her
mortal remains
perhaps one may say he
made use of her dead that he was too timid to
do whilst she was alive
the whole idea of raosting coal to make gas
gas from which there was no technology to
scrub out the carbon monoxide
and deliver it to homes offices etc.
was that there was
originally
when caol gas came in
no electric light
so gas lighting was a
risky boon
in a totalitarian state - perhaps
as soon as electric light became available
the production of town gas should have been banned
but by then
shutting down gas works
would have cost jobs
irrespective of the jobs created in the
electricity generation industry
if North Sea Gas - methane, no carbon monoxide
had not been discovered
how much beyond the 1970s
would gasworks have been kept in use?
and we should not discount the question
have catalytic converters in
motor vehicle exhausts
put an end to people
parking the car in a garage
sitting in the driver seat
starting the engine
and committing suicide
by just sitting there? familiarity breeds contempt
familiarity factors in the risks
novelty sounds alarm bells
the old technology is
60 per cent safe
the new technology is 92 per cent safe
how long until we 'factor in' that 8 per cent risk
and set it against the 40 per cent risk
there are lots of examples of new technologies
having to pass ludicrously stringent safety tests
Otis and his lifts are a prime example
but every now and again
possibly as a result of immigration
and an influx of people not familiar with
'western technology'
we get a 'scare'
and something such as the
panic over
PAT testing
portable electrical appliance testing
rises up to reassure the newcommmers who
not to put too fine a point on it
can't find much reference to
electricity in their Holy Books
such as the Koran
it brings back the Jewish eaxmple
many portable electrical devices have
moulded into their fabric
do not mmerse in water
most people would say
who the hell would immerse an electrical appliance
in water
BUT
the Jewish faith commands
when taking a new cooking utensil into the home
before first use
you must wash it
sensible in a pre-electrical age
and so in the case of some of the
more autistic parishoners
to maintain calm
Jewish priests have taken to saying
yes you can immerse your electric kettle or coffe maker
in purifying water
BUT
you must first
seal it in a plastic bag
to keep the water out of the mechanism
doctors nurses and priests are
forever helping people to reconsile
fact with faith
but these days we do recognise mental impairments
such as autism

24th September 2021

OK OK it wasn't
north Sea gas
it was heat that obeys you
high speed gas
instant heat without the carbon monoxide
and posh people didn't use the GetWet to
bloss up the fire
make it blossom
they had a metal bleezer
but if that got too hot
you could get burned
taking it down

we remember, we remwmber
heat that obeys you
North Sea Gas
you can't put a thermostat on a coal fire
so gas was an advance
it is a side issue that
before North Sea Gas - mainly methane
people had
town gas piped to most homes and people kept
coal fires up to North Sea Gas in the 1970s
because they knew
town gas had
carbon monoxide in it and was lethal
women regularly committed suicide by
putting their head in the
unlit
gas oven
but their coal fires were
especially in the early minutes after being lit
operating for all the world like
coal gas retorts
BUT
the coal fire or
range
had a massive chimney
and the gas oven had a small flue
that could get blocked
anybody out there remember what
a bleezer
was/
when you were setting the coal fire on in the morning
you put kindling under the coal
but a bleezer was
a couple of sheets of newspaper
held across the hearth to concentrate the
chimney draft
through the grate
under the coals
not across the top
so care was needed to avoid
setting the bleezer on fire
most ofthe time what we write here is written in the style of
an exam answer
our Ricker reads something and
then a little later writes something related to
what he has earlier read
not - normally - in 'open book' context
so we present a lot of this as impressions
to stimulate other people to
seek references
we don't suppose the CVs of the Tory
Tees Valley politicians would stand much scrutiny
Robert Goodwill is the only one our Ricker has
spent significant time with and he
repree gsents somewhere down south
Scarborough?
so what do we think about
Andy McDonald and the Cunningham cove?
McDonald
Acklam lad
Roman catholic in Acklam...
Polytechnic trained
ambulance chaser lawyer
Thompsons Solicitors
was he
The idiot of Acklam ?
or was he held back by being Roman Catholic?
a recipe for a massive chip on the shoulder
Cunningham
a hack
a PR guru for
Transco
something like
Northern Gas Networks
so
unreconstructed fossil boys
we think that we could securely say
the Tories are
next generation
a lot younger
less likely to have been sold the joys of
North Sea Gas
we can't bring to mind the gas slogan
the electricity one was
electricity
clean simplicity
McDonald has a
shadow ministry in parliament
so far as we know they have no office or staff
associated with that role
so
two remaining Labour MPs
trying to make a media splash
in the run up to the
Labour Party Conference
flash in a toilet pan
flash in a pan comes from
early flash photography
involving something - magnesium powder? -
being set alight in a pan above the camera
to illuminate the sitters

that's not the origin
but a cause of popularisation
the actual orign is earlier and relates to and similar guns
they have a pan into which gunpowder is put
and connects via a trail to the charge behind the shot
so a flash in the pan was when
the link wasn't made and the match was
dipped into the pan of powder
so the pan flashed but the bullet or charge
was not launched
the things you learn that you don't
need to know


we have yet another name for the BBC
Blur Broadcasting Contrarians
we are beginng to wonder whether the top brass are
Canadian
or some other variant of French

we also wonder whether they
blur people's faces so that
investigative journalists can't track them down to
check they actually said
what the BBC say they said


we note that Redcar and Cleveland Council have
bought the Marks and Spencer store on redcar High Street
so far as we know M & S still have a store on
Cleveland Retail Park in the borough
the store was always a problem
latterly - like, for twenty years or more it had this
passenger lift
half way down the store that lifted or lowered customers
instead of the fight of steps
because the High Street half of the store was - is pending demolition
about a metre and a half higher than the
Esplanade end
Woolworths - as was - next door
has the steps outside the building
on the Esplanade frontage
clearly the council were more keen to
please the owners by buying the building
than to put it to use
Boots - next door the other way
solves the problem by
only extending half way fromthe High Street
but the rear entrance has steps
clearly an open space can have a
gradual slope throughout
Markies' solution was to make
the lower Esplanade end a
Food Hall
and the High Street - fashion
naturally, now the cheapest solution
for the council
would be to make the High Street end a shop like Boots
and the lower Esplanade end into a Maritime Museum
the Esplanade has a museum housing
The Oldest Lifeboat in the World
but something more about shipping and ship-building but
Morrisons seem to want Regent Walk extended
once the building has gone, the site will at times be a
bit of a wind tunnel
but
Redcar is sooo Bracing
The land where the 'second half of Boots 'should be'
is called
Pybus Place
Boots was re-located from the part of the south side of
the High Street that is now
the entrance to Regent walk

it must take a lot of patience to
work for Northern Gas Networks and
BT Open Reach
every time you want to dig up the road or pavement
you have to wait until
AFTER
the council has resurfaced it
bcaue other wise
the pothole help line might have to be
shut down

the whingeocacy
may be having a down day today
if their
precious Noble Savages
have done an Honour Killing on a teacher
this week
just add it to the stas and stay stum
we see the media constantly trying to fit
current affars into the
classical scenarioes they learned about in school
the latest was an attempt to cast
The UK Foreign Secretary
as Nero
fiddling whilst Romen burned
holidaying whilst the source of all those
Afgan coats of their youth
became somehow desicrated
but actually we see modern life as more like
Revolutionary France
as a revival of Ancient Rome
the essence of Roman statecraft
Bread and Circuses for the masses
Let them eat cake
and the old crones
sitting knitting on the front row
at the scaffold as the aristos
were executed
now...
food banks
and
sitting in their favourite set in the
waiting room of
accident and emergency
as the dying are wheeled past them
from ambulance to operating theatre
ot
intensive care
plus ca change
plus c'est le meme chose


today we want to take a step or two back from
the details of medical care
we are seeing some problems with
suggestions that the health services
in the UK are over run
we take a slightly unconventional view of this
in the UK health care is underwritten by the government
through the NHS - National Health Service
as such government has a lorra lorra control
over the entire structure
there is no deal between
patients and service providers
the purpose and function of the NHS is as
a mechanism for politicians to say to voters
look what we've done for you
when the NHS 'came in'
was begun
one of the primary tennets of politcs was
and still very much is
if anybody has a problem
it's because they haven't got enough money
so health care under the NGS was to be
free at the point of use
but paid for by taxation
to each according to his need
from each according to his ability - to pay
and so
because illness was associated with poverty
make healthcare free
and nobody will get sick any more
loads of food, loads of pills, nobody
on the sick
it don't seem to have worked out that way
to put it in technical terms
less mortalty - more morbidity
if you keep people alive, against the odds
they will have a massive
dependency
not on life saving medicine
but on
life maintaining medicine
less acute medicine
more chronic care
all that just happened
but in terms of political input...
some politicians seek power
some just want to be liked
so health care policy is not about
giving people what they need
it's about giving them what they want
and this has two major divisions
first
don't upset people
at most play nudge
nudge people towards...
giving up smoking
second
hire and train staff
at all levels
who ill
empathise
with
not the sick
but those who present themselves as
patients
service users
some bloke who never troubles a doctor
and drops down dead at 50
will have voted for you all his adult
if you
let him smoke
and kept him on some
payroll
big tick
many crosses on ballot papers
some worried well woman
will have to be seen by a health professional
at least once a week
if the government is to keep her vote
but there is a third element
if empathy is the entrance requirement
for medical school
setting aside
you should not smoke and
give your incessant eating a rest
faced with an actualmedical emergency
no CAT scan
no 'House like' incicive diagnosis
tea and sympathy
life is a sexually transmitted disease that is
100 per cent fatal
so why bother with medical text books
just play that
bedside manner
conversation with St. Peter
at the Pearly Gates
did the doctor cure you
no, but she was very nice to me



we don't mean to preach...
why didn't you have the vaccine?
I believe in democracy
just as a guide...
there's a office sweep
and a syndicate of five people
win a free night out for ten
here's the difference
one ticket for a party of ten
three choices of venue
democracy means
you choose where to go
you all go to the same place
or you stay home
democracy mwans majority wins
a prize of five separate tickets for two
is a form of
anarchy
freedom but not democracy
and this is a part of the problem with the
Blur Broadcasting Corporation
and its
concept of balance
the BBC essentially takes the view of the
exclusive London mens' Club
people applying for membership
could be
black balled
if the BBC can find anybody
anybody
by a trawal of psychiatric wards
or whatver
who will raise a dissenting voice
the deal is off

22nd September 2021

we asked this three years ago
do you know why there is
such a creamy head on
Guinness?
the answer may surprise you if you haven't been
paying attention
it's the physics
it's the chemistry
Guinness pressurise their
kegs, bottle and cans
with
nitrogen not
carbon dioxide
people in the food industry - generally
use carbon dioxide
instead of nitrogen
because they have been
knobbled by
the marketing people employed by
the fossil boys
nitrogen is all around but
mixed with 20 per cent oxygen
as air
it causes food spoilage
the main thing is
chase out the oxygen
you can do it with
pure nitrogen
or you can prop up the fossil boys by
purging with
carbon dioxide
and here's a thing
Linde plc
is headquatered in Dublin, Ireland
and owns a company called
Air Products
that use to be
BOC
British Oxygen Corporation
and the darling of
independent news
give s you
Air Products and Chemicals
when you search
Air Products
and so
far from
Red Bull
saying a fossil boy company
is pretending to be
Linde
Linde produce nitrogen and oxygen
and much else by a process called
air fractionation
you heard of LNG
liqiufied natural gas
cool gasses and they turn to liquid
each gas at a different temperature
so
you can separate the pesky oxygen
that you need to
oh waht shall we say
run a BOS plant
turn iron into steel that you can use to
make liquids fizzy
and protect foods from
oxygen
and air can be fractionated useing
renewable energy
just sayin'

21st September 2021

today's missive s dedicated to
Morwenna Semmonds
ICI used to have a plant at the north end of
The Newport Bridge
so in Stockton-on-Tees
in Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees
it was called
CCF
we suppose that stood for
concentrated compounded fertilizers
Pete Semmonds was somebody in management there
they have a
prill tower
which is very similar to a shot tower
but that is techie detail
down south
in North Yorkshire
we have
Boulby Potash mine
and
somebody big
oh yes
Anglo American
have a thing called the
woodsmith Project
was
Sirius Mining
a polyhalite mine
and they have a base called
Anglo American Wilton Site
TS10 5PZ
and a tunnel to link the two is at least half dug
like over 10 kilometres so far
like Woodsmith is
YO11 3ZB
'cos it's near Scarborough
and the
North York Moors is a National Park
so they will link mine to Wilton
with a tunnel over 20 kilometres long
and
and?
you add polyhalite to
sewage sludge
and you have a compounded fertilizer
that is not
in any way related to or containing
fossil carbon
lke the stuff what
Pete Semmonds successors are making
soooo
the owners want HMG - Her Brittanic Magesty's Government
to nationalise what was CCF
'cos it has no place in a
zero carbon economy
sewage sludge search
Northumbrian Water - Bran Sands
yes, Morwenna Semmonds was the one of Pete's lovely daughters
that our Ricker spent a littl time with

18th September 2021

at this point in local history we
personally
face a dilemma
yesterday
early in the morning when there were no trains running
a coal bunker and a coal feed tower at
the former
South Bank coke works
were brought down by explosions
this was part of clearing a site between
South Bank railway station
and
the River Tees
that is designated for
wind turbine assembly
simple
earlier demolition began at the nearby
Lackenby BOS plant
Basic Oxygen Steelmaker
a BOS plant is like a massive foundry
in the sense that you
take in molten iron and you
add
oxygen and other things to that iron in a ladle
it's a shed with a ladle and a gas supply
but it casts into the nearby
Concast
continuous caster
that is unlike a normal casting shed because
there is no
mould making
and no
mould swapping
the molten steel runs through the plant
as in the production of
float glass
you add stuff in batches and a holding tank
feeds it at a constant rate to the caster
and then lengths are cut off
neither the BOS plant nor the Concast need
coke
their energy comes from
oxygen pumped into the molten iron
combining with excess carbon
in the iron
the process is said to be
autogenous
litle
believe it or not
cement and concrete warming as it sets
so we move to another
terminalogical inexactitude
what was demolished was the coal handling remains of
a coke works that was producing coke
up to 2015
that Lackenby
DID NOT NEED
what is msleading is that press reports suggest that
it was
Redcar Coke Works
that was demolished
it was
South Bank coke works
in the Borough of Redcar and Cleveland
that was demolshed
we have no idea what the operators of
South Bank coke were doing with their product
but
Hargreaves were shifting it
somewhere
to Redcar?
when British Steel built the first of
three planned blast furnaces
very close to the site of the removed
Warrenby iron or steel works
they built coke ovens
just to the north north east of the
blast furnace
to feed the blast furnace
the plan was to have an integrated iron works
'at Warrenby'
but partly built on reclaimed land in the estuary
they demolished the blast furnaces at
Southe Bank
but for some reason
they kept to coke ovens
partly because they were only 20 years old
they had - techy bit
ammonia washers
but
no push hoods
South Bank - 1950s technology
Redcar - 1970s technology
the answer lies in the fact that
the plan was - from the 1970s
that Bran Sands sewage dewatering plant would
provide the carbon input to the process
and South Bank would be kept going
until it was ready
but there was a
fossil fuel protection policy in place
from the 1970s to the 2000s
and although the Bran Sands plant was built and commissioned
the direct coal injection plant wasn't built
until the 21st century
see they slipped one past the
fossil boys there
sold the direct carbonised sewage pellets injecttion plant
as a direct coal injection plant
so perhaps
the big blast at Warrenby
needed coke from South Bank because
the Redcar coke ovens couldn't produce enough
we don't know
we do know that early on there was a mistry development
the phases of development at Redcar are
colour coded
Dormans' post war colour was
Green
the colour of the BOS plant and
Lackenby Mills
the colour of the
1970s british Steel developments was
Brown
and you can see a lot of conveyors and a plant with a huge chimney
on site that is brown
the one you can see now is
the sinter plant
you can import iron ore as
either
powder, dust, whaever
or
sinter
little porous balls about 1 cm in diameter
Redcar hedged its bets and built a sinter plant
so it was not reliant on
the sintering being done at the mine
it's like a huge
gramaphone record player

the other plant
was built
looked almost identical to the sinter plant
was started up - we think
and was demolished
so far as we know it was a
coal carbonisation plant
a plant to produce coke without
emitting
mountains of
shit
into the air
however
we suspect this was
Lord Melchett
or whoever
trying to pull another 'fast one'
it wasn't a
coal carbonisation plant
it was a plant for
carbonising
dried sewage pellets
from the Bran Sands
sewage dewatering plant
and we assume it ws demolished because
'they' found that
the dried pellets worked in the blast furnace
as well as the carbonised pellets
and so we await developments
BUT
we will not be surprised to see
if we live long enough
a new BOS plant and Concast built nearer the blast furnace

18th September 2021

just a quick note about 2018
ensus
E10
now that ensus on Wilton International are
allowed to put 10 per cent of bioethanol into
gasoline, petrol
they are not shut down and
they collect and sell
carbon dioxide
from their fermentation process
fermentation of non-fossil carbon containing biologicals
whereas small scale breweries etc.
throw it away





























short that lot out for yourselves
the story is
to beach yer vessel without landing on the rocks
the Markies lights blink
The Denny's lights are stready
keep the binking lights to starboard
the steady lights to larboard
and if you are new fangled
Port Out Starboard Home
Port is the side of a passenger ship that
has the fancy steps
to get the passengers on and off in style
so you park up with the POSH side
alongside
and the posh side of a vessel was by tradition
the larboard
and
passengers confused
larboard and starboard
so port and starboard
genuine steamer trunks may have
POSH labels on them
the port side being the left side
it was in the shade
UK to India
and on the sunny side on the way home
but some people dispute this explanation

sometimes when we explore
word origins
we discover that a word has its origins in
Greek
but we were never a Greek colony
we were a Roman colony
and so too was France - as Gaul
so mostly words are either
old English or Latin in origin
for some reason today's word is said to be
derived from
Italian
perhaps becuse it is still in use in Italian
perhaps because it evolved after the Romans
from a part of Italy not seen as Roman
whatever the word is
scarp
Webster's dictorary has...
definition 2b
a low steep slope along a beach caused by wave erosion
definition 1 is
the inner side of a ditch below the parapet of a fortification
elsewhere - in architecture etc - it may be described as
a ha-ha
a type of sunken fence
and so
if one were to walk along Redcar beach
across the rocks
at night or in fog
at some point one could
set off the rocks into
very deep water
and say ah-ha
or words to that effect
so Redcar is red cliff scars
it's the place where
before they were covered by the concrete of the
Esplanade
the cliffs were of red clay
and the beach was dominated by
soft -ish
rocks that
fell off abruptly at either side
and so
navigation
between the scars to get to the beach
eas tricky
and
AND
not only is there a
Blue Plaque
at the High Street end
denoting that
Plimsole
of the plimsole line - on ships
lived there
on the wall of the
Marks and Spencer some are so eagar to demolish
ther is a
navigation light
on the Esplanade end wall of Markies
to be lined up with one on the sea wall
to attain the beach
without hitting the rocks

17th September 2021

we kno we have a platform here
we try to be responsible in how we use it
sometimes we put something out there
and are surprised by the response
we ignore reflex responses to a whole range of issues that
boil down to
do you know that in any one week
one in twelve million females
come to a sticky end

in a far more constructiove vein
for quite some time now there have been
27 wind turbines in Coatham Bay
they have had a proving role
and a more lasting training role
and no doubt they will be missed by some when they go
not the main point here
the thing we have picked up on is a
parallel proposal
something we hadn't thought about until we
go wind - so to speak - of a particular response to our
rip off of the A to Z map of the
Redcar Scars
Redcar is semi industrial
some may say it is deeply industrial
time was...
the town motto was
Mare et Ferro
sea and iron
in that sense
it was
iron and steel
and
fishing and shipping
there are things such as
The Thames Gateway
and
Felixstoe
but
ther is this little Ro-Ro port
roll on roll off ferry terminal
in Kent
called
Dover
so far as media hacks are concerned
all of Britain's foreign trade
goes through Dover
and anybody who thinks otherwise is deemed
a mentalist - mentally ill
delusional
to the point
Coatham Bay took over from
the pier at Blyth Harbour
as the test bed for
North Sea Wind Farms
and then we pointed out that
if we restore
Redcar and Coatham piers
we could have a marina
between them
what has come back is
marina? yes, but
redcar has industrial traditions
plan B
restore Redcar and Coatham piers and
build a
power generating tidal lagoon
between them
relatively small scale but
other places seem reluctant
other schemes may be beyond the
experimental-training role
other places may be prone to silt up
green energy
levelling up
a marina cum tidal barage on
Redcar Front
that's a project to aspire to

16th September 2021

we have a possible explanation for why the
Bilsdale transmitter didn't trip
we did refer to it having a 500 mega watt capacity
but only using 150
if that was not properly accounted for
it would be like putting a
13 amp fuse
in the plug of an appliance that was rated
5 amp


this is not a definitive account of the Bilsdale fire
what we have gleened informs this scenario
we think the power supply and transmitters at Bilsdale are OK
we think the cables powering the aerial
burnt out around 30 metres up the mast
the 50 year old insulation broke down
it should have tripped the system but it didn't
extensive damage to the cables powering the IBA
independent television aerial
some paint burnt off the tower
the BBC side seems OK
the problem is
1,000 feet
if you have a pipe 1,000 feet long
no biggie
feeding heavy cables through it with
a winch
stand the thing up and
you need
a bugger helicopter than the workd has ever seen to drag
1,000 foot cables to the top
of a 1,000 foot tower
cost effective-wise
build a new tower - cheaper
you can do it on the level - no lifting
except for the completed tower that can go up like a tower crane
the existing tower could be re-wired
but on balance
a new state of the art tower is
a better bet
BUT IT WILL TAKE TIME
because it will have to be built
not an off the shelf item
quite amazing they found a spare 280 footer lying around....



so Pebbles and Bambam are> ???
actually building a Redcar office for MI5???
spot the puzzle
spot the consequences of spying only
one of the two
PEDESTRIANS
notices
well, Tweedledee..
out of the frying pan
into the fire
between a rock and a hard place
mum has gone
wife has free reign
the moment his mother dies
he changes his cabinet
will one chosen by his wife be
better than one chosen by his mum?

12th September 2021

we know you believed us...











further progress on the
Larry Grayson memorial door to nowhere







if you can't make out what is happening in these pictures
a littl bitty limpet
has had huge fronds of seaweed grow on it's shell
and when it has died
the seaweed has been washed ashore
we could do the one about the limpets
our Ricker and the Durham University professor
but not today

they say don't build your house on
shifting sands
or a mortal limpet
rather than a solid rock
the number one sin of government
is to say
if the policy isn't working
to hell with Plan B
plan A is working
it's just not working well
because it isn't being
applied
rigourously enough


Cleveland Golf Club
was established in 1887
it has a history that probably
means a lot to the people who care...
it was apparently 2000 when
it sort of shifted
Donald Steel designed three new holes
to move the course nearer to the river
and release what we assume were 3 holes on
what is now Coatham Green
we don't know why but
we do remember people constantly crossing
Majuba Road as they played
so we guess the course re-design build
and the construction of the new
far from inspiring
clubhouse
mus have cost a bit
Speaking of Yorkshire
Cleveland Golf Club is a links course
indeed it is the only
true Championship links course in the county of Yorkshire
it used to have a quite impressive
Art Neuveau or similar club house
OK we have no idea what it's called
this is what it looked like

now it has a brick shed
Old Tom Morris and Henry S Colt
influenced the course design
so far as we can tell
some eight year old designed the new club house
and it is thankfully mostly hidden from
public view by a giant bund
heap of grassed sand and clay
it has or had an artizan club associated
same course, no club house access
and there is a parkland club
near Wilton or Lackenby
membership fees for local golf clubs are
low
and presumably competitive
we love the idea that
31 and over is adult at Wilton
25 - 30 is intermediate superannuated teenagers
one third off
honestly not posh
we doubt Cleveland fees are much different
sooo

and we know the 'committee' at Cleveland Golf Club
aren't above
using their ground staff as a clack
at public meetings...

overall then
it may not be residents who have reported
burnouts and public urination on
Majuba Road car park but
agents of Cleveland Golf Club
asserting that they are somewhat abpve such things
soooo
what we need is an organisation to set rules
portaloos for a start
for public events on the Coatham end of the Esplanade

11th September 2021

as the generations pass
and facilities in the public realm
are built
demolished
replaced
it can seem to a newer generation that
what are actually replacements
are green field - not brown field - developments
we are now seeing the demise of
printed - effemera
posters, maps timetables etc.
as this morning's infomation is simply
over written, on line, by this afternoon's
and so we have taken what may be a last opportunity to
consult maps of the changing ward of Coatham
we are referenceing the
Vehicle Nuisance PSPO
Public Spaces Potection Order
for
the Majuba Road area
we will go back to
2002
The A to Z for the area lists
Coatham Bay caravan site
Amusements
toilets suitable for disabled people
two sets
roller skating rink
Boat House
Club House
Leisure Centre
Cleveland Golf Links
if we move on to
2014
the A to Z shows
Redcar Beach Park
Club House - of the same golf club but
in a different location
R-Kade skate park
Tuned-In - evening activity facility for
school aged youth
boat house
cycle path
th same two public car parks as before
The Coast Guard store has now
relocated to the Fire - Ambulance station on Trunk Road
in essence
you remove public convieniences and
threated to fine people
between £100 and £1,000 for
making their own arrangements
Redcar is not massively short of cash
for a little while
tourism in Coatham was in decline
in that quiet phase
like living near a massive school
during the holidays
local residents may have
established
squatters rights on public spaces
temporarily under used
lesson number one
if you close a public convienience and
find people relieving themselves in public
how many people do you need to fine
before you have enough money to pay for
a replacement bog?

10th September 2021

we have a photo essay here
and apart from the cladding going onto the cinema
we have Mary
this is our new invention
Florence Nightingale
ahs been displaced by
Mary Seacole
we have amongst these pictures
sea coal
back when the mines dumping their waste into the sea
the long shore drift
lifted the
coal smalls out of the rubbish and
delivered them on Redcar Beach
and it was worthwhile to take
a bike, a rake, and some sacks
down onto the beach to collect the
sea coal
that was inches deep
this sea coal has probably eroded from
exposed coal seams on the sea bed

































Coatham Green
runs paralle to the main East - West section of
Majuba Road
in Coatham, Redcar
it is around 100 metres wide so that
the bottom of the gardens on the north side of
High Street West - Coatham high street
the Majuba Road car park runs along the beach side of the road
if we sit back and considerthe social implications of
what can we call it
small scale new money
bling
our Ricker has a view about this
rule of thumb
be warey of anybody whose
car is worth more than their home
there is a guy on TV - worldwide - called
Brewer, Mike Brewer?
various franchises around the title
Wheeler Dealers
people do two sorts of TV series about
self employemnt
Trading up homes and trading up vehicles
and trading your way up through cars
is easier and simpler than
property development
if you build a car or restore any vehicle
and you want to sell it to finance the nest step up...
you need a venue to show your handiwork
as ever we are woefully out of date but
one place where for a while you could get
a car customised
was
Storey Vehicle Refinnishers
on Limerwick Road, Dormanstown
we are saying
there are jobs and business opportunites flowwing from
both home and vehicle customisation
to some extent a custom car may need to pass an MOT
it may be exempt due to age and it may need
SVA
single vehicle approval
because the operator cannot depend of the
manufacturer's desugn and testing investment
in other words
there are rules about what you can run on the roads
we, Redcar, have an examption
to run on the highway a vehicle needs what most people call a
log book
the exception is
the retired tractors that
launch and recover fishing boats
have no documentation, whasoever
but they don't travel far
Majuba Road car park is well over 100 metres from the the ends of the gardens of the nearest homes
it has been used for a Custom Cruise
and now Redcar and Cleveland Council have banned it
in a way they have banned a
Sunday market for motors
two tings stand out in the text of the order
how could anybody living in Coatham High Street
KNOW
that people were
urinating in the street?
the other issue is we love the way the local
councillor Carl Quartermain
has let this go whilst opposing the move to
an all electric Mayoral Car
for the council
we like to point out snags in proceedings
or
situations where you think you have won
and you've actually lost
as it stood
Majuba Road car park was
a car park
now it is a place where you can't legally
stand around a vehicle in a group
to admire it, or critique it
this leave open the possibility that
a group of car clubs and enthusiasts can
apply to have the order
REVERSED
making Majuba Road Car Park
the official car cruising venue for
Redcar and Cleveland

we note..
MGL or whoever demolished RKade on Majuba Road
have returned for a site tidy up
so we may conclude that
the builders - of the hotel - are about to
take possession of the site
and today
The New Regent
is getting its cladding

9th September 2021

These are the Errol Twins
The paler one...
between the Redcar British Steel railway station
and
the Coatham Marsh nature reserve
there is a slag heap
and one day when his driver was busy
tipping slag from Port Talbot
the paler Errol twin
escaped from the truck cab
and eventually was re-united with his twin
at our Ricker's house
it can get very sunny in a truck cab
our Ricker isn't getting out and about so much these days
he has a question
if they demolish the Dorman's Tower
a coal bunker
at South Bank coke works
wil they
re-open
The Black Path
the Black Path was a
Sailers' Trod
along the south bank of the Tees
that ran along the south side of the
Darlington to Saltburn railway line and
was open when the South Bank coke ovens were in operation blocked of
on safety grounds???
as soon as the coke oven were abandoned
a small historical footnote
when Dormans was nationalised
British Steel
went to enormous trouble to put up
boards that were presumably wood
to cover over
DORMAN
LONG
on the south side of the bunker
and gradually the weather peeled these boards off
and British Steel didn't bother to 'fix it'
hence the current situation

you may wonder what the link is between
the demise of manly jobs
and the metoo movement
The metoo movement is about
alpha females
pushing back against the influx of
all sorts of males
entering the
non-manly workplace and
frankly, championing the < R> sub-dominant females that the
alpha females have been persecuting for generations
i.e. that male is not entirled to stand up to that alpha female
when she bullies that sub-dominant female
disturbing the alpha female hegemony
is construed as
an improper relationship

8th September 2021

there are 6,700 males unemployed in
West Cumbria
that is 5.5 per cent
there are 1,800 females unemployed in
West cumbria
1,6 per cent
3.67 per cent overall
and so
not a shortge of jobs in West Cumbria
a shortage of jobs that
aren't beneath the dignity of males
agriculture forestry and fishing
20,6 per cent of jobs
quite manly
construction 12.1 per cent
similar
in Dormanstown
in or near Redcar
there is a rather large
veterans club
probably open to non-veterans
in France
there is a company called
Thomas Mouget
the building in Dormanstown that is now
The British Legion
used to be the UK headquarters of
Thomas Mouget
what Thomas Mouget used to do was
a form of salvage that had a
metal detecting element
it's not easy to vary the output of a
steelworks
more specifically - a blast furnace
when world steel prices were low
Dormans
burried surplus production on site
when the market picked up
Mouget found the burried iron
and dug it up
if the people of West Cumbria want
Coal not Dole...
how about
coal as a decorative garden feature
not gravel
not slate
crushed coal
then it may have a tendency to
catch fire
there really don't seem to be any alternatives to
leave it in the ground
or burn it
burn it before it spontaneously combusts
we have no doubt that the promoters of the
new coal mine in West Cumbria
have every intention of
setting it up and selling it off
they will have a vague idea of the cost of sinking the pit
and the market value of the available coal
but we understand that the amount of coal involved is not great
and the projected life of the pin is quite short
so we do assume the project will be done
on the cheap
the artists impressions of the
surface works
look for all the world like
a black version of
agricultural polytunnels
at present 145 people
are employed in mining, quarries and utilities
in West Cumbria
1,155 in manufacturing
the workforce in employment is
224,500
a new coal mine would not
provide new opportunities for people to
continue in their traditional trades
and so any miners employed would be
in commers
a new mine would not be a salation
but an impost
but the miners would need
fast food and an education for their children
so, as they say, jobs for locals in the supply chain

7th September 2021

we are a little puzzled as to how
'the authorities'
think childcare should go
these days for the most part
'nuclear families' - households
contain one, two, maybe three
children
so perhaps not so often
the 8 or 10 year old girl
gets to
bathe her toddler brother??
perhaps by the 1960s
children would be
in the same bath water but
not at the same time???
it is fairly clear to us that
right up to the 1970s
when children 'played out'
a signficant item on the agenda would be
to play
doctors and nurses
a emphamism for
you show we yours and
I'll show you mine
all in the cuase of
parents not having to
speak of the
Birds and the bees
with their children
children were expected to make their own
explorations
and today they do and it becomes
a crime statistic
work will expand to fill the space
available for it
no bank robbers?
fill the gap with
sexting

6th September 2021

Mantoux test
so with the TB
tuberculin testing
the vaccine for TB is BCG and
you should have had that???
not really
only once in a lifetime and
only if
at risk
because?
it is an early and crude form of vaccine
the Mantoux test is the latest of a
string of tests involving injecting a
purified protein derivative
of TB and seeing whether the body reacts
so the two aspects of this are
does the Mantoux test make the meat from an animal
as unfit for human consumption as
the BCG innoculation
and
does the BCG innoculation render the
Mantoux test invalid on account of
everybody coming up as a reactor
if they have been vaccinated
and in all that the question that DEFRA and the antivaxers
have at the forefront of their thinking
the problem is
firstly
the test is subjective
it is not a lab test to detect TB
a doctor or vet looks at the Mantoux injection site
some time after injection and
'decides' how big the reaction is
like an alergy test
so essentially the TB test tells you if you are
allergic to Tb
not if you have it
becuae it is a traditional
not a continuous improvement
regimen
these days a sample from a sick cow or a
routine sample from any animal could be sent
to a lab
to have an objective measure of
TB presence measured
THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN
it could
and this brings us on to another matter
the NHS has little or nothing to do with
your local council
both
Social Care
and
Environmental Health
are local council matters
and so
DEFRA has leverage aove Environmental Health
and so
we have
Department of Health
a year or so ago
setting up
Nightingale Hospitals
as
Modern Day Lepper Colonies
because
DEFRA said
we can't
CULL
people with CoViD
so we must isolate them
and let them get on with their dying
in care homes and Nightingale Hospitals
reverting to type
allowing DEFRA through it's influence on
Local Authorites
to call the tune


message to prison inmate
why are the police digging up our garden?
reply
now plant the potatoes

lots of kids on
sink estates
in the UK
don't know who their father is
or are wrong about who their father is
consequently
it s not uncommon for a child to
grow up on a sink estate
and for the whole community to recognise that
whoever their father is
they are the smartest kin on the estate
at one time a child of that sort would be
recruited to the local grammar school
these days they are likely to be recruited to
the local police
smart kid with middle class influences
off to uni
smart kid with sink estate origins
straight into paid employment
no brainer - police
leaving us with a police service made up of people who
because they were the smartest kids on a sink estate
thin they are the smartest kids in the world
so
when the police do something
deeply evil
we first turn to the conclusion that it is
something deeply stupid
York University cook - chef
chef means chief - can't be the chef if you have a boss
within your kitchen
missing 12 years?
no reports of any other similar disappearances in the area
not the victim of a serial killer...
her mother believes she is still alive
her mother will be dead soon
if her mother didn't kill her...
she deserves to die believing that her daughter is still alive
if the chef has a killer who is still on the loose
and has been for 12 years
and hasn't killed again
or is in jail for that other killing
or is dead
it is a grotesque display at
cruel self aggrandisation
for the police to keep
pulling stunts
in hopes of jogging somebody's memory
or forcing them into a confession
crass
comes nowhere near

DEFRA
the Uk Department for Environment Farming and Rural Affairs
are
cruising for a bruising
they have set themselves up in opposition to the NHS
and they can expect to see themselves on a
long hard series of
public relations debacles
until they
wind their necks in
vets must follow the same rules as doctors

4th September 2021

in the UK people can be divided into three 'generations'
probably more
post International Rescue
post Hitchhiker's - Guide to the Galaxy
post Harry Potter
some would like to fit post Dr Who in there somewhere
spoiler alert...
the basic idea of Hitchhikers' is
the mice
more exactly the pangalactic beings of whom
the mice are physical projections on Earth
have commissioned the company that employs
Slartybartfarst
to build a synthetic planet that planet is Earth as we know it
on that planet somebody else has commissioned the construction of
a Super computer
called
Deep Thought
which is not mining for cryptocurrency
but seeking the answer to the ultimate question
Life, The Universe, and Everything
but the mice didn't get planning permission for
the construction of The Earth
so a Vogon Constructor Fleet
have been contracted to demolish it to
make way for an Inter Galactic Super Highway
and so as a side plot...
Majikthise and Vroomfondel
philosophers
declare - regarding Deep Thought
We demand ridgedly defined areas of doubt and
uncertainty
at the time
unions - organised labour
were much exercised on the issue of
demarkation disputes
and there is a song
Flander and Swan
it all makes work for the working man to do
essentially
the gas tap is stuck with paint
there a are long list of trades that have to be brought in
to do each stage of the process
and each is so backed up with work
that the gas is off for a day or two between each stage
ending of course with
the painters and decorators who
spill paint on the gas tap
and the whole cycle is off again
Majikthise and Vroomfondel are asserting that
the Quest for Ultimate Truth
is the inalienable prerogative of
working human thinkers
and not suitable for computers
such as Deep Thought
the script of the encounter is available at
www.earthstar.co.uk
the other most famous quote is from
the dolphins
just before the Vogons destroy Earth
the dolphins send a message
so long and thanks for all the fish

what we can say is that people who have their children
taught science in schools run by religions
are hedging their bets
wondering whether on day
the moving finger will write...
like Afganistan
who will be evacuated
and that brings us to the B Ark
the Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B
from which the spacecraft in WallE
is somewhat derivative
back to the point
the question
with so much, so successful, science
in our lives
what is the place of
philosophy and religion?
Deep Thought completes its work with the answer
42
and so it is giving the philosophers the option to spend
thousands of years exploring the meaning of
42
as opposed to
the meaning of life

we - our Ricker - takes the view
abstract thoughts and religious beliefs
tide people over
until they are mature enough to
get their heads around
the laws of the universe
and there are two compartmnts to this
all the deliberate lies we tell children
like
a 50p coin is the heaviest
the tooth fairy can carry
and the grown up 'lies' that
paper over the cracks in our acceptance of
the human condition
such as
of course there is an after life
case one
so many lies of childhood
lead to
teenage rebelion
if there is an after life the dead priests can
say to the dead parishioners
told you so
if there isn't an afterlife
no accountability
the whole thing works if people accept that
religious and philosophical ideas are
subject to change
more thinking and talking
less reading

women and gay men are
mainstays of religions
women regard flat pack furniture as
a broken clock with a repair manual
men regard it as
Lego

3rd September 2021

there is a bit of a conflict over
intra ocular pressure in accomodation
some people have just measured it at random
and concluded it doesn't happen
other people have compared
known progressive muopes with
certified emmotropes - normals
and found
IOP does rise in progressing myopes
but isn't normal
this is
closed angle glaucoma
and should be screened for
that is
in adolescents
IOP should be measured both
relaxed and at near and any discrepency reported
this will probably be diagnostic of
incipient myopia
reference
EYE London
2014 Nov 28(11) 1334 - 1340 punlished online 2014 Sep5
PMID PMC4274294
Yan L Huibin L Xuemin L
Dept Ophthalmology Peking University
Beijing
lxmixm66@sina.com.cn

we just want to inject a little local interest
why does the
annunciator
moving electronic sign board
on the fromt of
The Palace Hub
on the Esplanade
run backwards?
messages emerge from the left hand side
the end of the message followed byt the middle
folowed by the beginnng
and the end has disappeared before the beginning emerges
messages
could roll up as in Blur Broadcasting Corportation shows
but they are really hard to read end before beginning
speaking of the BBC
in a flurry the other day
couldn't decide whether to
blur the kids because they are kids
or the parents because somebody may recognse them



we've had a little think about the
epidemic of short sight
we conclude that puberty is a phase of
redevlopment
and some redevelopments are intended or
at least positive
development of the scale and opperation of the
reproductive tract being the major one
we accept that some people have a problem with
the idea that in puberty
a structure develops optimally if it is
in use whilst in development
we see a clear indication that
one test appears not to be done
we have no information on the question
does IOP rise during accommodation
does the pressure within the eye rise
when switching from
distance viewing to close viewing
?
if the eye is in puberty
subjest to high IOP
intra ocular pressure
and high oestrogen levels
does this lead to eyes growing
in length as opposed to overall?
we are not exactly clear about
the conclusions of the Chinese study
but something along the lines of
go for a walk of play football
rather than reading or sewing
on the days at the mid point
of your cycle
14 days from menstruation
could end up being the best advice
in other words a day of
constricting the height of the eyeball
during growth
may force elongation
perhaps the days of
the girls standing around in their uniforms
whilst their classmates
play sport
are over???
too obvious that they are
on
menstruating
but ensuring that they are not indoors
two weeks later
may be a bit of a chalenge

2nd September 2021

Orla the presenter of
Vuelta de Espana bike race is
currently our Ricker's antidote to his disappointment with
Helen Stanley
how come such presentable women get stuck with
such dorks?
there are many wonderful things in the human body and
throughout the universe
we have in our upper arms
biceps and triceps
the biceps are at what is normally the front of the arm
and the triceps is at the back of the arm
things evolve and the smaller biceps
has evolved to do the
lifting from the elbow
and the laeger triceps
gets not a lot of use
in theory
it is responsible for
pulling down the hand
at the elbow
but pulling down the hand is normally done
by the shoulder muscles
anyway
in theorythe biceps raise the hand
the triceps pull it down
when the movement is about the elbow
things don't always work that way
sometimes a muscle is
not an antagonist to another muscle
but
an antagonist to a tendon
the muscle pulls one way and
instead of stretching a partner muscle
it stretches a tendon
contract the muscle and the tendon stretches
relax the muscle and the tendon
snaps back into shape
like a motor versus a spring
this avoids
the potential for muscle damange that would occur if you
contracted both biceps and triceps
at the same time
and so t is with the
cilliary muscle
the cilliary muscle is in the eye and its antagonist is a tendon
however, the concept here is reversed
the lens is non-muscular
and it is hung in the eye
in the optical path
by the suspensory ligament
we understand this analogy but others may not
imagine a hide - leather in the making
hung up in a frame by
a series of springs at intervals around the edge
the basic idea is that the ciliary muscles
wind in the frame
so the springs stay the same but the ciliary muscles
draw in a ring of choroid material
bringing in the wall of the eye at the point
where the lens is suspended
like a belt tightening around your waist
and when you ar young your lens responds to this
relaxation of suspensory tension by
becomeing more spherical
and gaining optical focussing power
as you age
the lens stiffens and cannot respond in this way
the optical axis of people with
long sight
is short
they have small eyes
people with short sight
have long eyes
this is the general situation
there are always relatively rare variants
long sight is called
hyperopia of hypermetropia
short sight is called myopia
myopa comes from the Greek for
close eye
hypermetropia does not come from
long eye - quite the reverse
it comes from far eye
distance eye
generally in mild cases
cases that would not have been glasses
more than 50 years ago
the shape of the eye is not significantly affected
in moderate to severe myopia the eye is elongated
not so much an apple
more a sausage
and that brings risk of
retinal detachment


we have here a
research proposal
an experiment design
given modern technology
around fifty young women
aged 10 to 20 years
and perhaps a dozen males in the same age bracket
a longditudinal study
hormone cycles at this age are erratic
we suggest once a month and
at least once a year
daily for 60 strainht days
take an ultrasonic measurement of
eye length
and a measure of
oestrogen - and perhaps other
hormone levesl
and test the idea that
the eye joins the birth canal and other
structures in
swelling or growing
under the influence of reproductive hormones
our Ricker has been a bit busy so he has not
yet responded in any detail to the idea that
too much screen time makes you
short sighted
the optics of this are clear enough
the light rays from a distant object arrive
parallel
the light rays from a near object are
diverging - fanning out
so if you never of or rarely encounter
parallel rays
your eyes will develop
fatter, stronger, more 'plus' lenses
to bring things into focus
if the lenses were fixed as in old age
the power of them would have to be
a compromise
between how well you can see distant objects
and how well you can see at near
the thing is
young - under 40 - lenses
can shape shift
under the control of the
ciliary muscles
so that
all else being equal
you should see well
from distance down to
the nearest point of distinct vision
around 10 to 15 cm - 4 the 6 inches
this theory
would imply either or both
a premature stiffening of the lens
or weakening of the ciliary muscles
in other words
a suggestion that
some children get lenses frozen
in the opposite sense to 40 somethings
the problem with this idea is that
short sighted children
once given the distance correstion
only need a single vision correction
give them a simple minus lens
and they wear that always
and accommodate to see at near
except moderate to severe cases who will
remove their glasses to see at very near
unless they also have astigmatism

our Ricker has had a canter through the fringes of
the literature on this matter
canter so no stats
the impression the literature gives is that
short sightedness devlops in 'children'
from around 11 to 16
and is 'more common' in girls than boys
and so the idea of
close work with dolls
versus
football
is somewhat undermined
it appears that the Chinese have done some of the few
serious studies on this
our Ricker has noted in himself that
when his SpO2 is lower his vision is poorer
what the Chinese appear to have noted is that
visual acuity in females
fluctuates with
time of the month
there is therefore a reported suggestion that
Chin Med J (Engl) 2015 Mar %
128(5) 659-663
10.4103/0366-6999.151669
The Eye hospital of Wenzhou medical University
Zhejiang 325035
Prof Honh-Li XieBR> Key Laboratory of Epidemiology and health Statistics

the conclusion appears to be that
a significant number of females
and some males
suffer eye distorsion
as a result of the upsurge of
oestrogen in adolescence

needs
as they almost always say
further research

1st September 2021

wouldn't it be nice to see
the Fire Fighters of North yorkshire
raising charitable funds to put
lonely pensioners in the area onto
FreeSat?
and
Arquiva
giving
Age UK
a grant for the same purpose


we do busking
just like the police
we do wonder whether they suspect
Claudia Lawrence's mother
of having something to do with her disappearance
why else would you
just up and decide to turn
training exercise in finger tip searching
into a murder enquiry and sent
selected members of the press anyway
out bit of busking for today
we looked it up
PCR test stands for
polymerise chain reaction
it's not exclusive to
SARS or CoViD
there are versions for a range of viruses
and one version detects
varicella
the official line is
samples for test are taken from
skin
specifically
vesicles, scabs, maculopaplar lesions
vesicular lesions or scabs are best
what this means is
when you have a virus infection
your body does not simply or solely
try to destroy the virus
the responsibility of the immune system
it concentrates the virus
the virus s not free to roam
if the disease is
one that involves
getting spots
it is likely to be
as we described earlier
neurotrophic
it has evolved to thrive within nerve cells
and the axoplaqsmic streaming we referred to earlier
as we then said is
two way
towards the cell body
and away from the cell body
and thus
the sensors and actuators
at the distant ends of the the nerves
do double duty as
excretory bodies
or tissue in their vicinity develops into
these vesicles wher we find
the most concentrated viral load
in that sense
a weeping spot
has a lot of virus in it
and is the major means of infection transfer
this is to a large extent the result of the
blood- brain barrier we sometimes refer to
the nerve membrane has important electrical properties
in is electrically insulating
our Ricker remembers being scoffed at by a
business studies lecturer at Teesside Uni
when he said
nerves aand the brain are
mostly fat and salty water
of course there are microstructures and
chemical elements
but in essence at the macro level you should not neglect that
nerves and brains are electrical circuits that
use salty water instead of metal wires
and fatty cell walls as insulation
inviting the immune system in to cler out a virus
runs the risk of short circuit
so it is better the try to evct the
unwelcome guests
than to call the emergency services
and have you home
blown to pieces
hence
live excretion
as opposed to destruction
and a battle in a blood vessel or sinus
will be less destructive than
a battle in a nerve or the brain
and the viruses exploit this
many times you will have spots in a limited area
that is an indication that the nerves in that area are
either
where there is most virus
or
where the nervous system is
prioritising
virus eviction

31st August 2021

we have a new name for the BBC
The Blur Broadcasting Corporation
they really can't use images any more
so they sould just
revert to radio
a picture tells a thousand words
and a modified or blurred picture
tells lies

we think we should offer a bit of
FreeSat clarification
we don't think Sky set top boxes work without
a subscription and we are not about
dodgy boxes
just didgiboxes
we guess a set top box for FreeSat
ranges in price from
thirty to 80 pounds
a family or social group could
club together to buy the
satellite finder meter
around fifty quid
cheaper ones may work but they are a pain
with the proper ones you tell the finder to find
Astra 28,2 E
or some very similar number
our Ricker had FreeSat early on
in those days it was from a satellite called
EuroBird
that has been renamed and retired
a dish for Sky
may already be pointing at Astra 28,2 E
nbut if you've taken it down and stuck it in the shed
you will need the satellite finder
it is way more fiddly than a terrestrial aerial

30th August 2021

atthis point we want to offer some advice about
salt
old people and people in less developed areas
grew up in the knowledge that
salty food
was less likely to give them
tummy trouble
because it was less likely to hve
gone off
so they grew up with a taste
a preference for
salty foods
and
if they have a good supply of
safe drinking water
and that included beer
they were best off
choosing salty food or salting their food
our best advice for people in that situation is
eat most - three quarters - of your main meal
with little or no added salt
and then add a little more salt to
the last two or three mouthfulls
this will
reassure your body that the meal was
salty enough to be safe
from food poisoning
our Ricker may be
normal
in some respects
we don't know whether other people do this...
when contemplating buying butter
Ricker buys all sorts of fats
he owns some olive oil
he has sunflower oil
here we will consider the
faux modesty of the Americans
Ricker uses a fair bit of
rape seed oil
but when the Americans use it they call it?
something along the lines of canola
the Americans are very
Victorian
we love the idea that in the UK
the Victorians - people living in the
reign of Queen Victoria
were actually offered for sale
little curtains
to mount on the rear of
pet cats
because so often
too much is on show at the rear of cats
Americans are very Victorian in the sense of this
moral double standards
fretting about trivialities
and at the same time managing to
breed like rabbits
back to butter
when contemplating butter purchase
our Ricker tends to look and see
how much is Lurpak
how much cheaper than Lurpak are the other brands
in the UK Lurpak is the gold standard of
non-artisanal butter
it's made in Denmark and sold in the UK by Arla foods
having set that scene we want to offer a
little insight into how Lurpak is made
although the brand is used for
variant products - dary spreads etc
Lurpak butter is made form
cows' milk
it is made FROM cows' milk but it
obviously isn't milk
we want to say from the off that it is made from
milk and according to packaging details
some amount of salt
the issue we want to highlight here is that it is
a little like cheese
a cultured product
any mass market heaviy promoted product
has to be consistent
the butter has to always be the same
same colour, tast, viscosity
all the time
24/365
not just 24/7
the insight we want to offer you is that
cows
in Denmark
spend the summer on pasture
and the winter in sheds
and butter produced from pasture including
what the pollen count reporters
inexplicably
refer to as
weeds
in the summer cows in Denmark eat
all sorts a rock
in the winter they eat
fodder
artificial foodstuffs
formulated to keep them healthy and productive
so in the summer Danish cows produce milk
very different from the
milk they produce in winter
but Lurpak must always be exactly the same
and so
like a fine wine of whiskey
Lurbak butter is not only cultured
it is blended
Lurpak have huge mega siloes
in which they store butter
so that they can blend the product
so you never get
summer Lurpak or winter Lurpak
and so a part of what you get will
always be at least six months post cow
and so
best before dates
use by dates
relate to
it will eat as normal
up to that date
after that
it may eat slightly differently
Lurpak has a best before date
it is a healthy food
but not a fresh food
we would like to say that in relation to
food miles
having a good variety of
healthy food
year round
is not so much a matter of
long distance rapid transport
as
high tech storage
you can grow your winter time five a day
in South Africa
and pop it on a 'plane and have it in
South Kensington
in minutes
but you can grow your winter 5 a day
in a disused tube tunnel in South London
and the artificial lights and such can be
powered from a renewable source of energy
like, it gets windy in the winter

29th August 2021

our Ricker is at a bit at a
Grand Prix rained out
loose end
so
Parabolica renamed after a deceased driver...
what is the difference between
parallel
and
asymetric
it's a gymnastics question
since the dawn of time
gymnasts have performed on
parallel bars that gather dust in
many school sports halls
two wooden bars to work a bit like a
pommel horse
rarely seen outside clubs
two bars parallel but not at the same height
above the floor
to leap between
and spin around
parallel bars are for men
asymetric bars are for women's artistic gymnastics
why has asymetric been replaced by
uneven
but parallel not replaced by
even
is it because
the pretty littl heads of
young ladies
can't cope with
long words?


perhaps this is a good time for a
Ricker fess up
being the owner of some test equipment
he has stuck an old Sky dish up a scaffold tower
and fixed himself up with
FreeSat to replace Bilsdale's FreeView
perhaps if
the Arqueva - Fire Service
axis of oblivion
makes the idea of pressing redundant Sky dishes
into FreeSat service
attractive???

27th August 2021

we have hairy concrete on Redcar beach
the concrete that makes up the sea wall is
packed full of plastic fibres
not steel reinforcing bars
look for pale flecks in the surface of the
concrete 'steps'

however, we are today - at the start of
the last lockdown Bank Holiday???
going to point out a thing about
Redcar Beach
we don't have mud
we don't have quick sands
BUT
we do have something that may lead you
to think you are in trouble
in late season rough weather
some of the summer bloom of
sea weed is washed ashore
and sometimes - as recently -
sand gets washed over - on top of
the rotting sea weed
if you walk on that
band of sand
your feet may sink 5 cm
a couple of inches
into the sand as your weight
compresses the hidden rotting sea weed
this is not quick sand
you are not in danger
the band is only a metre or so wide
two careful steps
up or down - not along - the beach
and you will be away
from the issue
it;s called
the strand line

24th August 2021

if you have some scientific background
you may have heard about
diffusion
let us consider a cup of coffee or tea
you may put sugar in your drink
and then you?
stir it
diffusion will only get you so far
living cells bestir themselves
the process is called
cytoplasmic streaming
axonal transport
or
axoplasmic flow
is a specialist form of this
it is responsible for the movement of
mitochondria, lipids, synaptic vesicles and proteins
and other organelles
to and from the neuron's cell body
this is a two way process
things the nerve wants rid of
are transported towards the cell body
thing of a nerve cell as a complex evolution of
a yard of ale
where we are going here is that
if a virus gets into a nerve
it will be transported to the cell body -
headquarters of the nerve
and there, instead of being
recycled
t takes up residence
but cytoplasmic flow is
really very slow
and what happens in
vaccination
is that
the vaccine and all the products the
immune system produces as a result of
contact with the vaccine
are rapidly transported to the whole body
via the blood circulation
so vaccination gets you ahead of the game
and an uninfected nerve cell
gets the antibodies and associated help
before the infected nerve can
pass the virus on to
the next - uninfected - cell in the network
earlier this month we had an error
we thought we'd fixed it
again we think we have fixed it
time will tell
what's the difference between
grooming
and
coaching
?
grooming is done for pleasure
coaching is done for money
from time to time
teachers
we hope, mostly in higher education
will carry out a little demonstration project
with their students
normally it takes the form of saying
all psychopaths
have green eyes
lawyers
particularly of the
ambulance chasing variety
and the agencies that comb the world for
clients for lawyers
will convince people
vulnerable people
such as
journalists
and ploiticians
and
that
something
proferably somethng that everybody does
in Carmel in Claifornia
parking with your vehicle facing traffic
perhaps
wooing
is a haenous crime
and
the people who do it or are it
gay?
should be at the bottom of a tall tower
or in jail
or chemically castrated
and the people who witness such behaviour
should be compensated
with half their compensation being
paid to their lawyers

23rd August 2021

we're not going to argue with the BBC
the world's radio station
we will say what we would be doing at this time
about the Bilsdale debacle
by now we would have negotiated with the BBC to
stop broadcasting some of the
fringe channels
to make bandwith on the BBC transmitter at Bilsdale
to broadcast main stream IBA
Independent Broadcasting Authority
ITV channels on the BBC transmitter
just sayin'



our Ricker is tired and making mistakes today

Shelley's cafe on Redcar High Street
has this image on the back of the van
the Shed on the Sands
that was Redcar Pier
looks like around the 1960s






our Ricker has been busy today so
pictures were taken
and they are not preped for publication
these three have been picked out to
show stumps of the Coatham Pier foundations
the idea was to show that
the new pier head is
at right angles to the Esplanade
but the original Coatham Pier
was in line with
Station Road
the idea was
take a walk from Redcar central railway station
straight on until
you are above the waves
and the scale is difficult to guage but
it was a glorified
gang plank
an handfull of metres wide
because it was an early pier
and it did not follow the edge of the scars
as a marina wharf would have to do

23rd August 2021

we'll start by taking you to
Redcar Pier
not Saltburn Pier, not Coatham Pier
Redcar Pier
and we start on Redcar High Street (East)
and the roundabout is the junction between
High Street East and Redcar Lane






and we can see that
Clarendon Street
was there before Redcar Pier was built
perhaps we will later introduce pictures of
where
Redcar High Street East
merges with
The Esplanade
to become
as it proceeds eastwards
Granville Terrace
very open all hours, not
and that becomes the
well technically
the lasck of a railway bridge on
Redcar Lane
means that the
A 1085
is severed
and distinguished into
A1085 - Corporation Road section
and
A1085 Caost Road section
however in the mirk
you may recognise
East Scar and Redcar Rocks
and
in other pics - of Coatham
we have -clear as day at low tide
West Scar and The Inner Height and
Saltscar
Coatham and Redcar piers were not just
run out into the sea
they ran along two sets of
shally rocks
and there is
a Deep
between those two scars
scars as in Scarborough
and plum in the middle is
a submerged island called
High Stone
The Laid and other deeps
are ideal for a
marina
easy work to put moorings on the solid
Scars
no need for the moment to
regard such a marina as
a tempting
bridgehead
for an invading army
the reason some piers were destroyed
we'll probaby return to this

20th August 2021

two issues today
for one we will just say
there are no calories in salt
but
the body needs salt and when the need peeks
we fancy something salty as opposed to
an ice cream
bar snacks are salty to encourage punters to
balance their salt intake and water intake
i.e. - buy more beer


regardng vegitarianism and veganism
we think we should point out
when motors replaced horses
for the likes of transport
the number of horses fell dramatically
if a person is redundant
they soldier on and have kids
if you have horses for
work
and
pets
and the work dries up
people will stop BREEDING workhorses
and so if you stop eating animals
all those animals won't suddenly become
rescue animals, pets
they will never be born
only so many cows and sheep will be bred
as currently
horses are bred
and so
no life
versus
a life that ends in being eaten
or at best a life that ends in a funeral
just like the rest of us


the second issue is
carbon dioxide in farming and we WILL explain this
even though nobody takes a blind bit of notice
farming starts wil plants
unless it's a mushroom farm
when it's fungi
we talk about
plant a tree in 73
and such
offset your fossil carbon use by
planting trees
trees absorb carbon dioxide
this is seen as 'good'
and the carbon stays in the trees until
they rot or are burned
so trees and peat bogs are
carbon
STORES
not sinks
trees are plants
almost all plants do the same
carbon storing thing
grass alphalpha, clover, corn, wheat
barley rye
they are all
miniature trees - for these purposes
you do not feed
oil, crude or refined to
animal stock
you feed them
carbon that is now carbobydrate
but last winter was
atmospheric carbon dioxide
except that
another delicious irony....
some people
in the glasshouse industry
greenhouses and polytunnels
feed fossil carbon to plants
they burn natural gas in their glasshouses to
increase temperature and
carbon dioxide concentration
to spped growth
of plants
your five a day
contain fossil carbon
sometmes
all the carbon the plants stored
except that which went into
straw hats and wicker chairs
will return to the atmosphere
either through the burps of cattle or
do you know that submarines have
crbon dioxide scrubbers
frre a kilo of grain to a cow
and less of the carbon in it will
return to the atmosphere than if
you feed it to a child
dairy cows put some of that carbon into their milk
and you drink the milk or eat the butter
and breathe out the carbon as carbon dioxide
and quite a lot of it
stays in your poo
until the microbes at the sewage works
release it as atmospheric carbon dioxide
plant to cow to you
or just
plant to you
the journy is the same eventual sum
science is not so tendy as pseudo science

19th August 2021

the Deepwater Horizon Disaster
was far worse than the Bilsdale debacle
but it is informative
make a smple sweep of the oil rig disaster and
you will see reference to
Transocean
and bp the former British Petroleum
you will have to dig deep to find any reference to the
company that was operating Deepwater Horizon
bp commissioned the rig from the owners
Transocean
and employed
Halliburton
to operat it for them
and President Obama tried to blame bp
but the courts made
Halliburton pay 1.1 billion dollars in consequence
and bp millions
politics demands
never blame the blue collar workers
that could cost you votes
the excuse for 'blaming 'bp was
they put 'pressure' on Halliburton to
fulfill their contract
and the resulting
'stress'
caused the errors
we think that the reporting of
The Northern Echo newspaper
is more in line with our view but we haven't actually seen it


most people will now have a near normal service on TV
in the Bilsdale service area
and
as we go with the BBC version of events
you know Malham Cove
up on the moors west of Thirsk
the BBC line is that
] people in Redcar are nor getting their TV from a transmitter
on the moors at the top of there
could be true
who cares any more
not gonna get Panorama or Newsnight on this
but it is important that people retain confidence in
the emergency services
we will just ask one small question
when a member of the public
dials 999 and says
there's a fire at a TV transmitter
why are the local village volunteer fire fighters
sent byt the control room?

17th August 2021

here's a nurdy journalistic challenge
are the navigation lights
recently renewed
still working on the
Bilsdale transmitter mast?
without literary preamble...
The organisations involved at
Bilsdale transmitter are commercial
and so they will have insurance
and viewers will not be suing for loss of service
and we said Kielder Water hydroelectric is
run from an office near Conwy in North Wales
sooo
we assume that the insurance company has reasoned
the IBA kit lunched itself
there must be a chande the BBC one will do the same thing so
we reduce the cover so that Arquiva will onlt be covered for the
BBC kit if they run it at some specified
reduced power
it will be the insurance compay's
electrical and structural engineers who will be
calling the shots

16th August 2021

there are days when unless you tune out
and let it all go
you would feel bitterly betrayed by the
UK Emergency services
this Sam about a Scottish Regiment
'the regiment have decident to have
the regimental condom
repaired'
sometimes we think the
Fire Service
foget to send their brain cell in for
its annual service
we asked
why didn't it trip?
it appears that it did trip
and then the Fire Service
the Fire Service that brought water bowsers to
an electrical fire
set up a 300 metre exclusion zone around it
so nobody could go in and reset it
we are now willing to bet
a pound to a shilling
that there has been virtually no damage at Bilsdale
there are 4 buildings
BBC power house
BBC transmitter
IBA power house
IBA transmitter
we are suggesting that the IBA power plant
overheated and tripped
but not before some of its cooling oil vapourised and
caught fire
'people?' got into the affected building
for the first time on Monday 16th August
they may have found smoke logging
they may have found a burnt out transformer
or some burnt out
switch gear
we may have all services back within days
especially if all that's needed is a cooling oil top up and a reset
but we could be wrong
how do you cope with cancelling all sorts of
engineering works because the fire service brought
water bowsers
and not
thermal imaging cameras
we now conclude that all fire service people in attendance were are
retained, amateurs, from vilages from far and wide

15th August 2021

at this pont we are going to rush out a quick and dirty
essay about rabies
rabies is an RNA virus
not DNA
and essentially it has evolved quickly
is is around one thousand five hundred years old
and it has evolved its host profile
side issue
living things can have
analogues
and
mimics
there are non-poisonous insects that look
excatly like poisonous ones
and so you can have
parallel evolution
two viruses don't need similar genetics
to follow similar lifestyle pathways
in terms such as adaptation to new host or prey species
rabies
genotype 1 evolved in Europe ain the 17th century
and spread to Asia Africa and the Americas
carried by explorers
on the other hand
bat rabies has been in North America since
1281
so Europe didn't give rabies to the world
it gave the world a different variety
the spread of rabies from bats
to racoons and skunks
was not the result of infection but to a
homologous recombination
that changed the glycoprotein necessary for
receptor recognition and binding
and that happened hundreds of years ago
the main points are
1 viruses can't reinvent themselves consciously
they exploit mutations like lottery wins
2 without the change, the virus is teathered to its original host

that aside rabies lives and grows in nerve tissue
not really anywhere else
and we would mention
foaming and frothing at the mouth as the delivery method
speutum is potentiaaly dangerous stuff
picture editors at sports events should note
nerve networks are complex
pathways can be tracked in the lab by
putting rabies in one nerve and tracking
which nerves it spreads to
the virus spread through nerves and not just
generally as would a chemical dye
nuff for now
but there is a quantity of evidence that
corona virus is
an analogue of rabies
corona virus is not
so far
neurotrophic as is rabies
but shingles is evidence that
chicken pox virus
has become neurotrophic
shingles is lifelong chickenpox
becuse the virus is in the peripheral nerves
it differs - so far - from rabies in that
it lives in peripheral nerves
and rabies grows in the brain
not a huge leap


first we should say
when broadcast signals are low
weather conditions have a significant effect
clouds eat signal
there will be weather dependent variation in service quality
we've read the Arguiva statement on Bilsdale
of 13th August
if we accept it as honest
it reveals that they are totally clueless
as to what is happening at Bilsdale
a sub text is that
Bilsdale 1
is over engineered for digital and
a 250 foot mast will do instead of a 1,000 foot job this may be so
however, as it goes
it appears that the transmitter is
entirely doing its own thing
without human intervention
and they can't rip up an site of special scientific interest
just to get the TV back to normal a week early
we suspect that the engineers are giving
the PR department the mushroom treatment
keep them in the dark and feed them bullshit
at this point everything points to
a mast that is working fine
and a transmitter that is
working on some channels but not others
is that a human choice or a machine capability restriction?
it really isn't worth the candle but if you hunt around you can find all sorts of signals
the questions we could ask but why? are
where is this very low power ITV signal coming from?
are they fixing the power supply or the electronics
we are deeply doubtful that spending
the next two wweks erecting a second mast
will be the way to go
but perhaps
they wanted to do that all along and this fire
twists the arm of the planners


we are now past the peak of the possibility of
people falling off roofs and ladders
in search of a TV signal from Bilsdale
so we will address some
terminological inexactitudes
Eston Nab RELAY
transmits southwards - up the hill at 3 watts
on the top of Eston Nab is the Eston Nab transmitter
a bit of geometry
put a point on a map where your recievers is
put another point on Eston Nab
Put another point on Bilsdale
if all three points fall near to the same straight line
and Eston Nab is between you and Bilsdale
you may be able to get a signal from
Eston Nab with a aerial pointing at Bilsdale
if you can you need to do a
manual tune
select channel 27 for BBC
channel 24 for ITV
try to get
channels 27, 24, 21 23 26 48
you may strike luckey
if the nab is north of you -
not betwen you and Bilsdale or off to one side
Eston Nab is unlikely to be any help
We have had a delicious thought
we don't know what the arrangement at Bilsdale is BUT
back in the day
there was the
BBC
and
the ITA - now IBA
in the North East of England
the BBC broadcast from
Pontop Pike
and the ITA from Burnhope - nearby
now both broadcast from Pontop Pike
what if
Bilsdale have two sets of kit
one for BBC and one for ITV
and it's the ITV set that's lunched itself?
in other words the BBC set got singed and the ITV set got totalled
just a thought


today we are off on a flight of fancy
we want to investigate one particular idea
The hair of the dog (that bit you>
we think of that as an alcohlic drink taken
the morning after as a hangover preventative
there may be some truth in this in that it
has about it a whiff of the competitive cyclist
warming down - as opposed to up - after a race
however, this is not where the dog comes in
in a world where
the world and his wife
claim to be university professors....
we want to introduce the
venerable virologists to
rabies
here's a thing no self respecting university don
would clutter their mind with
if you are bitten by a rabid dog
you will die if you are not
given the rabies vaccine
within seven days
in Scotland in olden times
hairs from the pelt of the rabid dog were bound up in
the wound of the victim
since the virus propergates itself by
stimulating saliva production in the victim
that hair will be coated in an attenuated version of
the rabies virus
and since the disease takes a week to begins to attack the brain...
and since the second adaptation of the virus is that it
slams shut the blood-brain barrier of the victim...
the innoculation sends antibodies into the brain
before the brain becomes isolated
naturally immunoglobulins injected into the
cerebro spinal fluid give a past a week patient a fighting chance
and so
dear reader
how's about diverting some of the effort to detect
mutant CoViD strains to
finding out whether CoViD shuts down the blood-brain barrier a la rabies?

14th August 2021

moving on
we hear about
Whigia Moslems
but then we find it's spelt
Uyghurs
OK
something else we didn't want to know
there's the
Noblesse Oblige
dimension
how are The Chinese
now going to differentiate how they
treat The Uyghur Moslems on their turf
and their attitude to
The Taliban on their doorstep?


we are going to be very honest about the Bilsdale issue
we may have quoted slightly off
channel numbers
that's not the point
we want to get away from numbers anyway
in your car there is an alternator
it's a drum shaped thing at one end of the engine with
a pulley and a blet driving the pulley
it will fit in your hand but not your palm
imagine the biggest baddest railway locomotive you
have ever heard of
it will have one of those that is
nearly 6 feet across - 1.6 metres
to run Bilsdale properly you would need
between six and ten of those
in present circumstances
they could hire in temp transformers
or they could hire in temp
generator sets
we don't know which they have opted for
they may have to be brought in from overseas
the BBC is on channel 27 at present
11.00 am Saturday
ITV is presently NOT on channel 43
we suspect DMAX was on channel 40
the channel numbers don't matter
at present thye seem to be just transmitting one master channel
sometimes 2
they need to get more back on line
arrival of temp gen sets or transformers is the key
and just for the record
our Ricker is a
registered electrical test engineer
level 3 City and Guilds
so jah boo sucks to hacks

here's something you can get the
grankids o try for you
no falling off roofs trying to turn aerials
if your TV is telling you scrambled or no signal
go into MENU
go into AV setting or picture settings
select
578p
or whatever the lowest number available is
this should get you BBC channels
keep experimenting with resolution settings
there are endless varitions of device spec
some will say
sevice not available for ITV
and
signal poor for BBC
if it says signal bad
try dropping the number
remember to put it back up again in a week or two

regarding Plymouth
we thought regarding the 3 year old
it immediately raised in our mind
Killing Eve
Vilainelle
upsetting a dessert into the lap of a child
as she left a cafe she had just bombed
encouraging
'mnorities' that they can be 'baddies' too
has consequences
Kill Bill
is violent as well as emancepative
women wanting to see a man who has slighted them
rot in jail
is not a different class of emotion from a man
wanting to kill a woman who has slighted them
sometimes a woman will seek to have a man jailed
so that she - as mother of his children perhaps
will be the only woman with the right to
visit him in jail
she may want him on the
sex offenders register to
frighten off prettier women
these things deserve consideration

13th August 2021

as of 8,00 pm Friday
Bilsdale is transmitting on
Channel 23 and sub channels
channel 47 and sub channels
47 is the one with the BBC services
it may not be being transmitted with
sufficient power to be detected on a re-tune
so if you need a retune you can get
DMAX and Sky News and Sky Arts and Quest +1
that sort of thing
unless you have a very good aerial connection
so they are half way through the re-boot
or a bit less
two out of four master channels broadcasting
but not necessarily on full power

as The Regent progresses
we now get a first view of
The Larry Greyson Memorial Dorr to Nowhere
we can't be sure but we think this is a frame for
a door to nowhere
and commemorates the late entertainer
Larry Grayson
who coined his catchphrase
Shut That Door!
at the Pavillion Thetre
that was also
The Regent Cinema
on this site

12th August 2021

we are still not happy about the explanations
of Bilsdale and why
in the process of trying to simplify matter for the public
they get mislead
1 if you aerial was pointed at Bilsdale
it won't be pointed at Eston Nab or Pontop Pike
2 if you TV or set top box is
Freeview HD it will look for a stronger signal so
at present try an old TV that isn't HD
3 MUX
so far as we can tell Thursday morning Bilsdale was transmissing
around 23 BBC chanels including radio
there are maybe in theory hundreds of
stations available on digital TV and radio but there are only
two or three dozen channels
we get more choce because digital
multiplexes stations in channels
so
Bilsdale is transmittin as of 6.30 pm Thursday
one channels which happens to be the one that
BBC stations are multiplexed onto
this reduces the power requirement ten to twenty fold
mux are called
]virtual sub channels in the US and Canada
at present there is only one channel being broadcast
but your device will split it out inro a couple of dozen
sub or virtual channels
the transmitter needs now about a third of the power
it needed as an analogue station
so the supply should be well adequate
it's just getting enough
transformer capacity onto site
as analogue it was
500 killowattand as digital it was to the time of the fire
100 to 150 KW
so it is all on
a worn out power house
or a new one too low in power


the amont of time we waste because of
fuckwits at the BBC....
there are around 15 relays from Bildale transmitter
mostly on the
North York Moors
this is because
people live in vally bottoms and
hills get in the way
ther nearest relay to Redcar if
Eston Nab
it is not 3 mega wats
it is not kilowatt
it THREE WATTs
they have to be low power so they don't interfere with the signal from
the mother transmitter
they can only be picked in hill shadows where
the mother station is out of reach
strewth give us strength
strewth is a contraction of
God's truth


OK regarding Bilsdale
we're gonna take our ball home
the BBC are now saying that some people are getting
BBC stations on Freeview
via relay stations
since we can't figure out how that would take
36 hours to set up
and the implcation is that Bilsdale is
as they originally said
burnt down...
we retract everything we say below
although it does add to the BBC's reputation for
non-transparency


Bilsdale
we need to be honest here
we never get a really good signal on TV and radio
and we did do some fiddling when they went off
so we can't say whether the BBC's claims of
service resumption are fair
as of 6.30 am we have a signal but not a good one
we suspect that what happened was
the equipment in the
power house
was overloaded and the
cooling oil - like the water in many car engines
overheated and caught fire
how the smoke got up the tower we can't say
this is a 1969 design
perhaps it is a design feature to direct hot air from the power house
up the inside of the tower
we would have thought that at that vintage a
Halon fire suppression system would have been in place
tht would seek to deprive the fire of oxygen
rather than
electricity and water don't mix, no hydrants nearby
a cooling effect
the fire service had to bring their own water
in bowsers
perhaps the system didn't
trip
as we would have hoped
hence we suspect that
portable power transformers have been brought in
to bypass the power house
we think there will have to be more brought in before
'full power' is restored
botom line we do not think the tower or the transmission equipment
have been significantly affected
we are concerned that the power system - electricity supply
has been overloaded for some time
and the connection to the
National Grid
may need to be re-assessed

11th August 2021

as of 6.30 pm at least one reasonably successful attempt has
been made to broadcast from Bilsdale
we therefore conclude that
the tower was smoke logged and not fire damaged
and
a full service should be available from
Thursday morning 12th August
we've seen pictures at
yorkmix
smoke at the base found its way up the tower
the time frame depends on
how much heat went with that smoke
insulation on cables may be compromised
temp equipment could be installed in
less than a week
but re-cabling can't really be done temp
they could be in for months of re-wiring


BBC radio Tees
have the condition of
The Billsdale Transmitter as
burnt down
we are expecting the government to
launch a rescue package
by commissioning
Cleveland Bridge to deliver a
Giant Coathanger
No TV no FM radio
DAB is working - comes from up north
if this remains
it may be worth re-directing aerials at a different transmitter
for now
no TV for around 1 million people
except that 80 per cent of households now have
an internet connected TV
we have a couple of points
our TV has gone
perhaps the transmitter has gone to low power
for maintenance
we have no TV
no BBC and no ads for furneral services and life insurance
as a last comment pending resumption...
this place with the non-returning female athlete
not any more - sanctions - so the world price of potash will be up
good - even if temporary - for Boulby

and
Regent news
window frames going in for the
foyer, atrium<
if we put a picture up you may see
there will be windows around
the roofless roof terrace







in Redcar there is a commemerative bench
it used to be on the High Street
it'snow in Locke Park
it's a bit mysterious
it's dedicates to someone called
Bowers
now it says he was known as
TRON
but our Ricker knew his
woodwork teacher as
Bertie Bowers
probably schoolboy alliteration
so they could be the same person
our Ricker wasn't a star pupils in the woodwork shop
but he knew where to go when they started talking about
Oxbridge entry
and Mr Bowers and Mr Bulmer were the photography experts
so our Ricker takes photoa
a risky exercise if there a children about
and he cuts up beautiful slabs of oak

10th August 2021

we have noted the transformation of
BBC NEWS 24
to BBC NEWS
and essentiallythe station now appers to have a staff of
around twenty
and essentially it is transitioning from
24 hour news to
twelve half hours per day of news
the rest flled in with
stock footage and
student projects
we don't thnk this is lack of money
or lack of news
we thnk it is because so little of what is
actual news
things happening right now
chimes with the world view of
UNICEF


how ja gonna keep 'em
down on the farm
now that they've seen Paree
there is this concept
an Englishman's home is his castle
and it appears that
the devlomant of and
clap for carers
and that sort of thing
has sent a message that
what have long been
public roads
are becoming
private Roads
gated communities
and the
Police - cold callers
stickers in front windows
some people when they visit
Redcar High Street
get very loud
a sort of
we know we're on somebody else's turf
but we're on a mission
and we feel that often
the authorities ste in to separate people
when both or all parties
want a relationship
they just want help
establishing some
ground rules
sometimes we seem to get a bit ahead of the news
we don't know why
Eston Baths
and the decline of the coal industry
some time the 20th century
women got the vote
and other 'freedoms'
like owning property and earning wages when - and it is true - daughters could not own
an inheritance
a family with daughters and money
was VERY exercised about what man they would be
handing the family fortune over to
when they finally got their daughters
married off
there is a term in British Industrial History
that used to have massive resonance
Pit Head Baths
men coming home reasonably clean
not caked with filth
The local Tory MP has bid for
five million for
replacement swimming baths for Eston
what he may not realise is that
the original
Eton Baths
included
quite proudly
'Turkish BAths'
people where not so much they prepare for the Olympics
more
get clean
we really think an issue relating to
employer subsidised leisure facilities has been missed
industry created the most appaulng living conditions
no sunshine
24 7 mirk
stench
the point was
if you provide
all the facilities a community could want
on their doorsteps
they will never emerge from this miasma
never go on a railway excusion to the seaside
and the races
be content with their lot
because
it's no better anywhere else
not that we've been anywhere else
and so we come to the
economies of scale
that travel, tourism, can bring to leisure facilities
just sayin.
but this was
Thomas Cook's mission
to raise up the eyes of the working classes to
opportunties beyond

we'll probably never tire of saying this
Demiloish Marks and Sparks
Sparks an Mencers
OK but if you really want to transform
Redcar High Street
demolish the west side of
France Street between Lord Street and High Street
and build a bus station

9th August 2021

one could ask
are there communities
rural communities
where DEFRA holds more sway that the NHS
are vaccines safe?
but honestly
farmers get compensated if their animals are culled
they would have to pay to have them
vaccinated
and we all know how tight farmers are
and
most Tory MPs are farmers
being an MP is just
top level Freemasonry
commedia dell'arte
a servant of two masters
1746
it could be described as an
Italian, comic, version of
Romeo and Juliet
and
The Labour Party of the 2020s
to be a populist political party
an organisation has to
stand for something
the traditional problem The Labour had was that
it is easier to make the rich poor
than to make the poor rich
the OPEC model
Organisation of Oli Producing Countries
was trickle down
applies to the Middle East and Russia
not the UK and USA
the problem is
make a small number of people is a country very rich
they don't invest in their own country
they invest in the UK and USa etc
no trickle down
we do the
Duke of Westminster thing here
people with money from selling oil to the UK
buy property in London
what they don't necessarily undestand is that they are buying the
Leasehold
and the
Freehold
belongs to the
Duke of Westminster
none of which makes peasants in Russia or the Middle East
one jot wealthier
A Servant of Two Masters is
what n the days of
Brian Rix
was known as a
Whitehall Farce
what UK politics tries to do is
internalise coalitions
within parties
and present two or three alternatives to voters
other democracies have many many parties
and make a specific choice
not a least worst choice
the consequence of the existence of
global resource based oligarchs
is that
if you switch out of oil
a very small number of very rich
very neuveau riche people
get burned and
peasants feel no effect

we feel we must comment on the
Regent Pier contract
we think the cladding may be on site and not being installed
there are galvanised linking strips
to connect the structural steel with the cladding
these may be referred to as
furing strips
it would appear that the people who install these
wanted danger money for working
North of Watford
so Bambam put up temp walls to preceed and
then the furing strip people mysteriously turned up


time for another think piece
The Labour
a combination of
leftists - one defintion being
I'm agin the government
and bleeding heart Liberals
they are as a group facing a bit of a problem about
why?
why is there a Labour Prty in the UK?
most people in The Labour
divide people into four groups
1 we - the chattering classes
2 toffs - Tories, owners of property and the means of production
3 Noble Savages Moslems, Africans that sort of person
with no function in society but with equal rights
4 the unfortunate - people with involuntary abnormalties
genetic disorders, non standard sexualities

the fix The Labour are in is that although
leftists and liberals can co-exist
like a slightly mismatched married couple
they have these two pets
a dog and a cat or two cats, whatever
the Tories can sit back at this stage and watch as
The Labour try to reconcile
all those gay and rainbow cultures with the Noble Savages who
want to throw them off the top of high towers
you may think
anything goes
but many of your clients
may think very differently
and
maw monay
isn't a real distraction from that

8th August 2021

at one time our Ricker worked for an optician called
D & A - Dolland and Aitchison
now subsumed into Boots Opticians
and he left because he upset a receptionist called
Vanessa Williams
his understanding was that she had a housemate
of the male variety with whom she was not intimate
recollections varied
any way
Vanessa's dad was an
ADAS advisor based in Guildford
ADAS National Agricultural Advisory Service
set up in 1946 in a sort of
Dig for Victory spirit
now perhaps
Agricultural Development Advisory Service
so when Ricker knew Vanessa it was post 1971 rebrand as ADAS
pre 1997 part privatisation
now RSK
the essence of this is
all sorts of people and organisations get ADAS advice on
agriculture and the culture is based in the England of
The Second World War
food self suffiency and
'don't you know there's a war on'
Quick Drity Fixes
like using coal and pit props to incinerate cattle culled
in food and mouth outbreaks
so when an alert goes out
there is a culture of
in an abundace of caution
kill the lot and start again with stock from???
Scotland?
in other words
drastic recative responses
not
planned strategic commensurate responses
kill the lot, dole out compensation and
have a public enguiry
after all the management are dead
around the world and around the UK
there are lots and lots of universities
they may fall into categories but they are all different
The University of Newcastle upon Tyne
has a particular history
ex Durham University, yes
but quite independent before that as
King's College
there is one particuler element of the make-up of
Newcastle - as remembered by our Ricker
from the 1970s
there were two groups of students who shared a very
similar destiny
they were destined for wealth and luxury
they were and probably still are
The Dentals and the Agrics
and they had a particular tradition of
sporting rivalry
sort of
Eton Wall Game meets
pub crawl, meets
rugby club
and now we decry
antivaxers
vet schools
and schools of agriculture are
hot beds of antivax
kill them all and claim the compo
no sense wasting millions of
buying ex-Prime Ministers
just make a feture film and ensure
all the wooden tops at Oxford see it
kill them all and claim the compo
send all the folk with the lurgi
to old folks homes and
cash in you inheritance early

7th August 2021

7th August 2021

it oes appear that at The Regent
the cladding will be a late stage install
internal walls are going up
temp sheeting
going up outside
problems with cladding or
the plan all along?
anyway, construction continues

6th August 2021

Th llama thing
it does bring to mind
how many viccine refuseniks are
farmers and agvets?
the idea of people getting all sorts of vaccines
and not being allowed to eat meat from
vaccinated cattle
antedeluvian
but still probably the law

we want to tell a harasment story
take a woman presently in her sixties
she has been brought up a
Roman Catholic
she has been married and she has four grown up sons step back to our icker's mum
would now be 105 if still alive
way back in time she faced the prospect of
her step daughter's wedding
at a time when her step daughter's mum had been dead for
around ten years
it was the 1960s and she felt stressed
and the doctor was invlved and gave her some pills
she got off the pills
but she was never the same again
returning to our mother of four
she never got off her pills
and she is a person
shall we say
known to the police as a
stalking victim
being divorced
however we would like to cast a different light
on this matter
we will turn to the wedding of one of her sons
and the issue - one of countless - we will highlight is
whatever the views of the son and his intended
the mother of the woman in question was
insistant that he be
married in church
and there followed a scramble to find
a confirmation certificate
I'll marry in church but
I'm not going through all that
confirmation mumbo jumbo again to
please gran
what we are saying is
it is slipshod, lazy, dereliction of duty to
immediatelty cast around for a
MAN
if you seek the cause of w woman's distress
look frst at the nature of her relationship with her
female relatives
reference the TV series
sMothered





soo
it appears that the monstrous sprinkler system water take
was always intended to be temp
this one fits the foundation
why it could'nt have been around the back we don't know
perhaps
in case of a riot - fire service direct access
quite astonishing that 'they' though they couldn't have
SEN pupils on site without a temp sprinkler system

5th August 2021

sooo
acording to the Get Wet
the long demolished Cotham Bowl
south of the Coatham Enclosure boating lake and
the non green extension to the east of Coatham Green
wot of the former
first and last holes of
Cleveland Golf Club's Links
is to be replaced with a
3,000 seat aditorium
not sure that will include a replacement for the famed spring wooden floored dance hall...
and hoo
progress with the
Regent Pier Head
has taken an interesting turn
perhaps it is a problem with
worker availability but
thye are doing
first fix electrical
cable trays at least
before they have installed any walls
in other news
the sprinkler system water tank at
Mo Mowlam Academy on Corporation Road
heas been replaced with a
less shiny, more squat version
still breaches the building line ut
now it is
single storey
perhaps it passes
and the lease for sale sign has gone from the
Majuba Road hotel site
we should explain something about
Redcar and Cleveland
it has a history of
Heavy Industry
across the piece
heavy industry in anything identifiable as
modern times
has a split personality regarding
health and safety
injury and death through industrial accident
has been low
health problems caused by pollution
have been much worse and
affected both workers and families
and supply chain
if you survey the area near to
Tesco South Bank
traditionally facilities
Eston Baths
The Hurlingshaw Centre
etc. etc
were installed and run
as a kind of compensation for the rigours of
living in such polluted environments
focused on residents
people will trave, miles to train for the likes of swimming
but tourists will not visit attractions
no matter how palatial
if they are in the shadow of a steel works
people in Redcar would be willing to travel to
Eston for recreation
something as simple as
Table Tennis
but to be viable
tourist attractions have to be
pleasantly situated
and Middlesbrough and Eston
need to come to terms with the fact that
in future facilities will be paid for by tourism
and hence in Redcar
and not funded by the lkes of
British Steel

4th August 2021

seeing as how
the Oxford vaccine woman
got a barbie doll
our Ricker has awarded himself
the car of his childhood dreams
all he wants out of his Nobel Prize money is
a Resto Mod Jensen FF
or Intercepter
this one didn't cost
fifty grand plus
it's interesting how we judge candidates by their
previous work
and don't enquire about their
core beliefs
we are not going to resile
Latin for jump back
from our historical support for
Theresa May as Prime Minister of the UK
we take people as they are at work diabetic and childless
important facts - perhaps
vicar's daughter?
so we end up with a PM who
supports marriage
not as a more secure background for childhood
but
as a protection against loneliness for the childless
at the same time
we have more and more mencottoning on to the idea that
they don't need a housekeeper
and life at home will be much sweeter with
friends
friends with benefits
whaever
and so they think
if I steer clear of wimin altogether
I won't get grief about being gay
I can live in a tip if I want to
and women are driven to cite
more and more trivial, slight, glancing
contact with a man as
justification for the
marry me or I'll go to the police

with this trend for more and more
new laws

how about some trasparency
bundle the whole thing up into
an offence of
damaging a female's prospects of marriage
since the sexual content of the alegations is
through male prudence
fading into memory
and all the best jobs are going to women
so they don't need financial support
just a
man sized pet

3rd August 2021

we've had a little think
we've come to a conclusion
we need to explain something
yesterday contractors began to
demolish Redcar steel works
that is sort of true
one of the things people say about
the big blast at Redca'
is that you can see it from miles and miles away
as it stands it is as tall as
St.Paul's cathedral in London
BUT
a lot of that is ducting, pipework
the hearth
is a lot lower
what we are saying is
the internal and external dimensions of
St. Paul's cathedral are quite similar
this is not the case with the Redcar blast
when the hearth was relined they had
Charlie boy - the Prince of Wales inside
cold and empty at the time of course
big, very big
the space inside
but nothing like the size of the inside of
St Paul's cathedral
the BOS plant will go in its entirity
the blast will be shorn of its
oh maybe three quarters of it's height
but the hearth will be kept
they have a use for the hearth
the bottom five to men metres
and that is why
they can't preserve the blast as a monument
it will be repurposed and a lot less tall
but that will take
the pruning will take a year
the re-fit will be time after that
patience
all will be revealed
over the next five to ten years

just as a little teaser
an analogy of what they are about
imagine you have a
wood burner
a wood burning stove
and you put a gas ring into the
ask tray
and stop putting logs in through the door
you could cut the fire box out
and move the hotplate down to just above the ash pan
that about sums it up
or
if you remember VHS
video tape recorders
most of them were
top loaders
DVDs go in through a slot in the front
same idea
first

2nd August 2021

now here's a thing
Biles
the thing is
if you look up vestibulitis
you may not get a reference to
BPPV labyrinthitis
vestibular neuritis
menieres
see a vestibule is a porch
entrance to a house
Latin vestibulum forecourt
so your body has quite a number of those
you can have vestibulitis of
ear
nose
gut
birth canal
all the same thing
in no way NO WAY connected
if you are a gymnast who had sex or
had somebody feel you up
that WILL NOT gve you vestibulitis of the ear
and what is that
if you did any biology at school
you may have heard of the
three semi-circular canals of the ear
THIS vestibulitis is an inflammation of
either these canals or their associated nerves


corrections
one of the missing teacher names from Coatham
Miss Thorp
and by the time our Ricker got into
Miss calendar's class she was
already Mrs Waller
an the head was the husband of
Sarah Metcalf
he councillor whom one of the three comps in Eston was
named for

we feel we have stirred up a hornets nest
regarding educaton and in particular
streaming
the work of a child is to learn
many people feel it is their responsibility
not only to tend to the welfare of their children
but to strive to give them some sort of
advantage in life
to set them on their way
knowledge is one advantage
qualifications are another
these days we can be quite precise about
what ails a struggling child
ADHD - attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
autism
'simple' diabilities such as
vision or hearing loss
take a choice
the letters of the alphabet
some children will quickly know them all
know their order, how they sound, how to read and write them
at an 'appropriate' that is a commonly experienced age or
stage of development
no issue there
if they are slow to pick this up
in essence there are three main responses
1 extra tuition
1a tecchnological aids
2 my child is gifted in other ways
3 it is a disgrace and an abomination that
anybody should know such things
group 2 can be a particular problem
these are the sort of people who are
paid well to do something that is
simple but dangerous or unpleasant to do
sewermen, demolition experts, you know the style of thing
these people are one end of
'both ends'
when we consider
both ends against the middle
what incentive is there to learn if
at one extreme
your family is extremely rich
and whatever needs doing
they have a amn or a woman to do that
these two come togetheras a source of examples of the concept of
clogs to clogs in three generations
somebody makes a mint by hard graft
and....
we are unraveling here the popular song is
habdbags and gladrags
the habd bags and the gladrags that your grandad had to
slave to buy for you
then we vere into the Middle East
on a grand scale
we are just beginning to loose to old age
the generation who lived a poverty stricken nomadic life
in the desert
they
Oh do any of you remember
The Berverly Hillbillies
struck oil on their land and the comedy revolved around
how to come to terms with their new found wealth
same thing on a bigger scale in the Middle East
the point being genII
got the education they needed to
efficiently
spend the new found wealth
and then you either run out of product
or
you no longer have a market for your product
and then comes gen(eration) III
in need of the eductional wherewithall to
find or develop or invest it
new sources of wealth
alternative energy solar power
tourism
and this speaks to the problem with education
just sufficent education to perform
that's Welsh - the song
we're working our way to the issue of
home schooling
people with a paying, normally self employed, job
imagine passing on their skills to their children
we have explored the opticians
imagine two brothers
one trains as an optician in the 1940s
the other trains as an electrician
imagine their motivation being to grow the busines
to the point where it can employ their children
bit of a bugger when suddenly
you need to go to uni to qualify as an optometrist
but you can sail on as a non graduate
dispensing optician or electrician
see, your pre uni optician master of all he surveys - in the shop
but suddenly
his kids can't sell specs without a prescription from
a graduate optometrist
happened to Batemans
Batemans was a Surrey Uk based chain of opticians
and the heir to the business was
a dispensing optician
having been locally a rival to D and A
it's now a handful of shops
but if we switch trades from electrician to plumber
think of
Bateman's Opticians versus
Pimlico Plumbers
with plumbing being distasteful and essential but
not requiring graduate status
the guy who owns Pimlico Plumbers
has his Bentleys built to order
parlty you have to be lucky
partly you have to be
flexible
speakin of which
a sub-section of plumbing
gas fitters
very very well paid now
out of a job in ten to twenty years
unless the de-specialise and
move to a different branch of the plumbing game
and that points to a
general education
not the kid who says
I'm gonna be an actuary when I grow up so
I'm doing
maths, further maths, and statistics
gotta keep my hands clean
an actuary - to save you looking it up
calculates risk and hence premiums for insurance
and anybody thinking in the 1960s that
all you need for that is maths
didn't see computers comeing
and so
the danger with home educating kids is
they get stuck in their parents' world of work
especially if mum has left work to home school them

the advantage is
if they are normal they won't get beaten by the
ADHD and autistic kids
and they won't get squashed by teachers who
seek to adjust the self esteem of their pupils
so that they can work like a team
like a synchornised swimming team
even a marching band have a variety of instruments
in which each can
specialise
put that bowler in to bat at number 1
get that batter into wicket keeping gear
we're all equal here
we're a team
another diversion here
our Ricker and a lad called Phil Broomhead were often
at loggerheads
the physics teacher put them together to do an experiment
to measure radioactive decay
not exactly, the idea was with an uncollomated beam of radiation
the further away from the source, the weaker the dose
Mike was the teacher's name
it was just for this one session
a non-physics lesson for Ricker
because Broomhead - he was gonna have this top job as
a quantity surveyor
was so full of himself
and wouldn't read the instructions and
wouldn't listen to Ricker
at the end of the double period
they had
wired up the apparatus
but hadn't made any observations or measurements
so Broomhead was
opening batter - opening batsman in those days
for his club team
and he thought it was because he was
the team's best batter
even in The Hundred
the purpose of an opening batter is to
wear out the bowlers
to slow them down for the sloggers
he was opening bat but if he was
he was there to stone wall
not to show finesse or slog
yer BEST batters come in at
numbers 4 to 6
or 3 to 6 if you have that many good batters
not what Broomhead wanted to hear

and Mike the teacher's lesson of the week for our Ricker...
this is the sort of arrogant fuckwit I have to deal with
every day
and you and your mates don't know the half of it
a newcastle University physics graduate
teaching arrogant little twats in a
steel town grammar technical school
at least nobody was sayin'
is it 'cos I's black?

1st August 2021

our Ricker is having a bit of a think
about why he was at
Coatham Primary
we think his dad's world view changed between
Ricker being 5 and being ten
Ricker's mum an dad were Methodists as were her parents
that is
not confirmed Roman Catholic or Anglicans
so we are thinking about what was available locally
Ricker remembers being at
Confirmation Classes
with Alison Backhouse
after he moved from Coatham to Newcomen
two faces of the Church of England in conflict
this is the theory
when Tommy moved to Redcar from Middlesbrough
the boys Gordon and Peter went to the local
academic school - Coatham Sir William Turner's School
as it went
he was told that
Peter was a pleasure to teach
but
Gordon was a moron
St. Peter's York were
willing to try to get Gordon into uni
if they were allowed to have Peter
so the idea ws if Ricker is a moron too
he will need to be a confirmed Anglcan to
get into St. Peter's
the point that Tommy was missing there was that
if Ricker had got into
Coatham Grammar from Coatham Primary
he would have been the first boy
in history
to do that
we have said that girls were separately assessed for
entry to Cleveland Grammar - the girls' grammar
so the teachers at Coatham Primary
put Ricker at risk
from the potential of being beaten up by the
thugs they had for pupils
so that they could teach Ricker
we need to say
Ricker was attacked at playtime
whilst at school
not out of hours
we can also say that
if he had not been excluded or transferred would have spent
years in the school than there were teachers
he spent 4 terms in reception starting at the Easter
then he skiped Miss Neasham's class
then he was in the class nearest Coatham Road
then he was in Miss Simpson's class
but he never got into Miss Sherburn's class
so five teachers
and you spent 6 years at the school
but f he skipped Miss neasham's class
how many years were they expecting him to spend with
Miss Simpson or Miss Sherburn
after he left he had
one term with Miss Calendar
and year with Mr Fox
and in the middle a term unconscious
in between
with an April birthday he was an Easter joiner
and would have been an Easter leaver
if he hadn't passed his eleven plus
so this was why Ricker reported he didn't much like school
on the reception table
at the side of the reception class
there were a few wooden plinths with dowels sticking up
from them
this term you will be learning
how to pick up the paintedplywood shapes
and slot them onto the dowel above the painted shape
on the plinth
that was it
aside from
learning socialisation skills
taking turns with the plinths
and coming to terms with
pissing over a shab of slate
into a communal trough
instead of using a WC
in his second year...
terms 5 -7
he could watch the teacher
shovel coke into the furnace that stood in the middle of
the classroom
if the windows began to frost over
if only Tommy had understood that
Ricker could have gone to Newcomen from the start
he
1 wouldn't have had his head kicked in
2 could still have gone to confirmation classes
they didn't start until after he moved to Newcomen
the think about
attainment tests
the 11plus
was that there was no scope for the examiner to
mark a candidate down because they disagreed with
Jane Ayre
over female destiny
there were only clear right and wrong answers to
2 plus 2
and where the capital letters go
and which two shapes are both triangles
and we said
the boys were assessed separately from the girls
these days
all the Africans and the Pakistanis, and Indians
would have to be saparately assessed and have their own
grammar schools - like in America
so we got comprehensives
but even there we had the problem
should they be streamed
like one class learning French
and another learning French Studies
French studies was - perhaps is - learning
about France but without learning any of the language
could you run a class were some of the pupils
submitted their homework in English
and some in French
we assume that a lot of homework these days in the UK
is presented in Hindi or Patwoise


Ricker's had another thought
Ricker's sister didn't go to Coatham Primary
she went to
White House
the same school that
actress Ann Reid went to
Coronation Street, Dinnerladies The Mother
last tango in Halifax
look her up
Early Life
John Emmerson Battey Primary and
White House
on wikipaedia
that was where there is now a condo
west side of the
church yard of
Christ Church Coatham
and they both
Pat and Ann
went from there to
Penrhos College in
North Wales
what was Conway and is now Conwy
so
White House would have been a girls' school
so Tommy would have thought
Coatham primary was
White House for boys
not so much

31st July 2021

Lobster Road


The Cleveland Hotel

this is the rear of the Cleveland Hotel
it did have a micro brewery
not sure it still has
CoViD my have done for it





so this was the date when one of the
fisherman's cottages was replaced with a
'modern' home

This is he spot in former
playground of the
Coatham C of E Primary School
playground
where our Ricker got his head kicked in

The former Clarendon Hotel
with the High Street East plaque