threegee

Wasn't it closed on health 'n' safety grounds? But is there any record of anyone being seriously injured in any way over the decades? It would be interesting to compare this safety record with a modern leisure center. Or indeed the safety record of the river at Sheepwash, which has linearly claimed lives over history.

Bug Report: The Change Wind should be greyed when the snow is disabled.

http://www.europarestaurant.co.uk/ Ah - Italian food! That will make a nice change.

I think the point here is that Joe and Jane Bedlington stumped up £2M to tart up the area in front of their store, and so make it a more attractive place to stop/shop, and then (allegedly) they wouldn't stump up a measly grand toward the launch - which they must have got some direct benefit from too. Some figures about how much such stores contribute or leech from local economies would make interesting reading. I wonder if the people making planning decisions have access to these sorts of figures?

If we can't even hang on to pre-padded govt jobs then that's ghastly! Hope it's not true, but given the size of the cuts necessary after Gordon's mega-binge it's not beyond the bounds of possibility. He may be using the bankers as a convenient scapegoat, but it was he who presided over credit getting totally out of control, and it was he who put nothing aside during the good years. But that's all right because someone else will be paying it, won't they? Err.. wrong!

It most certainly doesn't, particularly as there's continual peer review going on (I got moderated the other week!), but it's the general perception that matters. Moderators have a right to express their own personal views, and so we aim for the broad range of those. If they couldn't they'd probably lose interest. Thanks; we will all do our best.

The above (non-) graphically illustrates something I've alway felt. We have to build our own permanent history. It can't be entrusted to a USA Corporation with "a bottom line" to look at every quarter.

I've anticipated that one, and it won't be Maplins gear either !

Film is pretty valuable so I don't want to post it just in case. This is standard 8 not super, and there is lots of it (both b&w and colour). I'd prefer if it was scanned stop-frame to the highest quality vid possible. I could probably rig one of these video camera prism things myself as there's an old B&H projector available, but the gate jitter plus wear and tear on the film would bother me. I'd imagine that the original clockwork camera gate jitter can be removed electronically these days. Can this media still be photographically replicated? i.e. printed.

That's a sure sign that the mods are doing their job! Mrs Vic is a know, and won't be returning in the foreseeable future though she has "left the door open" for her to do so at a future date. It's not about lack of interest on her part it's about change in circumstances. Thus she will be removed as moderator - assuming this hasn't happened already. We have no idea what has happened to HP. It's important that the site is kept politically neutral otherwise the small-minded will use any perceived political bias as an excuse. As a result the entire community will be disadvantaged. The town has suffered far too much from this game in the past. Unfortunately it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract left-of-center views, and left-of-center moderators. Maybe after the general election we can all get back to a unified Government bashing? Update: Yes we have; he logged in last night!

Did you notice the East end of the town (up Bedlington Bank) at about 3.40? Those Bailey bridges used to sway when the Euclids went over them. The roads were a total mess with the clay off the Euclid wheels oozing down from above. You didn't want to be underneath at that time so you either stopped short, or pedalled your bike like ^&^&^%! Did you know that during WWII (20 years earlier) the parts for Bailey bridges just like those were made in and near the Market Place? A really good find; pity about the "music "!

a) 'cos it'll be a surprise when it gets turned on again. c) 'cos it was Monsta, and you just gotta keep feeding Monstas cookies. d) 'cos 4G likes work. e) 'cos people need something less depressing to complain about at Christmas time. f) 'cos it can be.

Have to agree with Mr D here Mons! His operative words were "for its time". Microsoft Good - Microsoft Bad... goes back far further than W98. Back to plain "Microsoft Windows" and before. It's part of the never take their money once when you can take it twice business plan that got M$ to where it is today.

I think we know what you mean! It's pointless uploading multi-megabyte pix to the web because they will take an age to display in a browser. That is unless you want to leave a high resolution version for folks to download for printing etc. You'll also eat up your member allowance in no time if you go over-the-top. No doubt Fourgee will give us the current guidelines - they change from year to year. But an easy way to find out what is usual is to go into the gallery and right click on the largest images available. The dialogue box should tell you about the image, including the file size. The server is clever these days, and produces the smaller sizes and thumbnails without you even noticing. The best tool to resize depends on what format you are using; what operating system; and whether you are prepared to pay, and how much. I'm more familiar with Linux utilities than Windows. But assuming nothing came in-the-box with your camera a Google around for free image editors will produce a result. A good free image viewer for Windows almost ten years back was Irfan (a guy's name). I'm sure he's still doing it and that it has some editing capability for popular formats. Photoshop and Fireworks are amongst the ones many pros use, but they cost! You'll often hear that something has been Photoshopped - meaning messed with. On Linux you'll get what you want for free. <fanfare> A really user-friendly Linux is Ubuntu.

Bigger than you can imagine, but not as big as in the 1950's - about 25 (real) bands then. Yes, the opening scene is shot in North Ridge, and they are sort-of coming out of there. And.. I can confirm this is 1964 as there's something I put there in 1964 in one of the shots. The only person I immediately recognise is George Woodcock. He's the rather tall and distinguished white-haired guy marching near the front. http://en.wikipedia....trade_unionist) Other faces - mainly Bedlington folk - I do recognise but can't at the moment can't put names to them - always my problem, and an enduring embarassment! Yes again, but it jumps around a lot. Did you notice the black shroud on one of the banners. This signifies a fatal accident at that colliery in the previous year. This banner (with lettered steps on it) is I think the former Weetslade colliery, just north of Gosforth Park racecourse. Thing is I can't turn up any record of an accident in 1963/4. Were they really still mourning the 1951 disaster almost thirteen years later? True. You really are an ex Bedlingtonian then!

This was when things were starting to go downhill, with multiple pit closures. The kids "Jazz Bands" were an attempt to pad things out to make up for all the many, by then missing, brass bands. I think there was an element of copying the American cheerleader phenomena. An interesting bit of research to see when the "Jazz Bands" started, who introduced them, and where the influence came from. Something nobody has so far mentioned is the quaint name of the event. Why was it called a picnic, when in fact it was quite clearly a trade union movement political rally? The answer is that when it was first held in the 1860's such rallies were illegal, so it was dressed up as a day out for the family complete with brass band competition and sideshows. The banners behind which everyone marched weren't those of the trade union branches, but those of the associated colliery bands. But by reading some of the banners - at least by post WWII, and probably long before - a visitor could have been excused for thinking they'd taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in the former Soviet Union. By sheer coincidence I've just dredged up Ken Russel's nostalgia piece from 2005 with clips of the 1960 picnic in b&w. At nearly a gigabyte it's going to take some processing to make it streamable. He's included a bit of colour 8mm amateur footage from somewhere. It looks to me as though this was also taken in 1960. The really exciting thing is that we have some 8mm colour that has never been seen in public. I've probably mentioned this before, so it's about time we got it digitised. It's late '50s, and I will probably be able to pin the year down exactly. This could be the earliest colour film of the picnic, though I doubt it. It's more likely to be simply the earliest 8mm colour film.

In this case that role appears to be to suppress all public debate. http://biasedbbc.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=hotair&thread=865 Like you I don't understand how the appointees come to be where they are, and I guess that's how it was designed to be. Anyway, it isn't democratic, and it smells almost as badly as the previous unsustainable grace and favour system. Tinker at the edges and claim a major reform? They are a registered educational charity, and like all such charities must produce statutory returns. Their policy on only taking funding from private individuals and other public charities is clearly stated. You can bet your boots it will be scrutinised most closely. I'd guess than Nigel has dipped into his own deep pockets to kick it off. He's got nothing to gain from this himself, and unlike Gore (with a large amount of money invested in the carbon trading nonsense) is acting in the public interest. If he wasn't he wouldn't be getting the cross-party support or respected figures that he's persuaded to participate. It probably has. He's an economist, and one of the best money men this country has ever had. Didn't always lick Maggie's boots either. Committing national economic suicide is something he's not going to sit on his hands and see happen. Do you honestly believe we'd be in the mess we are in now if he'd been in control of the economy? Weighted maybe; but we are talking here about the outright suppression of dissenting opinion. I don't believe your 90% figure at all. Thirty one thousand US scientists have so far dissented http://www.oism.org/pproject/ and I think the figure bandied about by the US global warming lobby is one in 5 dissenters? Get an unbiased figure and take into account all the financial pressure being put on dissenters, and the true split could be a lot nearer evens. But in reality there aren't two camps but a whole spectrum of opinions. However the global warmers would like you to believe that there's simply total unanimity plus a few nutters. Look through the leaked e-mails and you'll rapidly glean that even the main proponents of this pseudo-science aren't convinced by their own story. The sad fact is that it's now far more about politics than it is about science. And the politicisation of the matter has come from the global warming lobby who are benefiting massively. Those e-mails illustrate that this is not good science; the data is being shaped to fit a pre-ordained agenda; and dissenters must be silenced by any means possible. They insult the intelligence of the general public too: "the ignorant masses" But - rather like that Iraq dossier - expert opinion still doesn't meet the requirements of senior politicians, who have in turn added their own spin. WMD all over again? Only two videos here, but there are dozens and dozens that shed light on what's going on in the name of science: http://www.youtube.c...h?v=rSfcAhoG3_g Little mention of any of this on the BBC because it doesn't fit the government line, and we "ignorant masses" wouldn't be able to handle the plain unvarnished truth even if they consented to provide it. Good point Merlin. Apparently 7% of Gordon's revenue now comes from so-called green taxes. He's raided every piggy bank, and borrowed to the hilt right into the next generation of taxpayers. The only way to raise more tax is to pretend that he's doing it to save the planet.

Sorry for the terminology mistake. The fact remains that the BBC supremos are! Source: the Beeb itself. An open admission of the News Channel when challenged by two concerned members of the public that word has gone down that it is no longer necessary to provide a balanced view. Day-to-day policy? What in reality does that mean? If there is a general directive as to unbalanced conduct then how can you have a balanced day-to-day policy? And who vets those applications? Not the viewing public I'd wager? It is weighted to economists because it's about economic policy. It is avowedly politically neutral and has cross-party support, and it doesn't take money from either side. It would be nigh impossible not to have anyone who mattered who wasn't somehow involved at some time with some commercial interest. c.f. our Parliament. It's not about the scientific or pseudo scientific arguments, but what to actually do in the light of available hard evidence. There are countless links I could have included, but I think this was the most practical one at a time when Gordon is in Copenhagen saving the world (again), and pledging billions of future tax revenue he hasn't got, and never will have! Very tricky, but you have to start somewhere. The point of the post is to point out that you shouldn't accept someone else's pre-digested truth - especially from an organisation that is no longer prepared to present a balanced view.

You can compete on other things than price. Who wants their hair butchered by the person/outfit who is prepared to do it the cheapest? Informed choice is what matters; so I guess we need a few consumer reports on our hairdressers here. Hairdressers are better than empty shops. At least it will provide a reason for some of our considerable through-traffic to stop in the town. It's that it illustrates the lack imagination, and lack of diversity in our service industries that's the real bummer. Perhaps we need to ask local people what is missing in the town, and what sort of businesses they would genuinely patronise? Not just compile a list of aspirations, but a list of genuine service and supplier need. Then we could do a sort of situations vacant in an attempt to encourage those business types to set-up here.

Something to bear in mind when you are subjected to the constant pictures of melting ice, and people living in precarious river deltas etc., is that the BBC Governors have decided. They have decided that there is now no need to make a pretence to balance. That lots of scientists hold a quite different view is something we are not to be burdened with. So the tree-huggers at the Beeb are given full reign, senior staff can no longer steer the Corporation back to a middle of the road view. Time I think to get rid of the BBC Governors and replace them with a democratically elected board properly representative of the people they serve. Meanwhile beware of the BBC propaganda. It's all to easy to led into the belief that there is incontrovertible proof of global warming. That all dissent is now silent, and that there are only flat-earthers left. In fact quite the reverse; more and more thinking people are speaking out to question the hysteria. If you want a balanced view of what's going on then you could do a lot worse than visit http://www.thegwpf.org/who-we-are.html These prominent people aren't on the government payroll, and they aren't on the payroll of energy companies either! And kids, don't believe everything you are told in the classroom. Your teachers are following the government line - or worse! To get at the truth you'll have to start looking into this for yourselves. It's not easy, but you'll find that the junk you are being fed won't stand up to close examination, and that your teachers could be very wrong!

Well, correcting her surname was a good start. She does return on occasions. Use the on-site search as I'm sure someone posted details of the great event a while back. Anyway, all you have to do is wait until the next time, quickly bump this thread, then loudly claim your result. Unless, of course, as the loyal and dedicated Bedlingtonian she is, she's reading this. Then she'll surely post on this thread: "Callum, I was already thinking along those lines, but I'm going to dedicate this trip to you". Then you will achieve instant fame; have to give endless press and radio interviews; get asked to switch on the Bedlington Christmas lights next year; and may even get to be interviewed by a top Bedlington.co.uk reporter in his lunch break! Are you really sure you can handle all this celebrity?

The operative words here are moored and United States. But there's a germ of an idea here for Bedlington. Perhaps launch free hydrogen baloons from the Market Place with tags inviting a report of where they were found to be made on this site? An interesting map, a compy, and some publicity for Bedders all rolled into one?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe that there's a history book kicking around which says the Bedlas were a Celtic tribe. Many years since I saw it, but doubtless we'll happen on a copy sooner or later. Would really help the community effort if some of the local historians would upload some of their source material. Plenty of help available from lots of directions if the technicals are beyond them. They need only ask, and will of course get full credit, as well as a considerably firmer place in history for themselves. A Wiki would be a great help Fourgee. I'm particularly thinking about stuff in living memory where the mass recollection will be far clearer and more accurate than any individual's. There are bits I can contribute here and there going back to the 1950's and I've a few snippets that I can recall fairly clearly from what I was told as a child by people now long gone. Not enough to write a history, but enough to make a useful contribution to a common effort. We don't need to get all up-tight about this like Wikipedia - just say it's everyone's best effort to pass on what we can to current and future generations.