Symptoms

The litmus test I apply to any 'official/corporate' announcement is guided by those wise words in The Prince, namely, who corruptly benefits. For example, if a junior Government Minister announces some policy, say in the energy sector*, then usually a few short months later the same crooked guy can be walking straight into a well-paid directorship of some energy company ... (just do a Google search to find a very recent case).

All politicians/businessmen are bent!!!!!!

*substitute energy for - banking, health, water, agriculture, and so on.

Every year, when these papers are released, I shake my head in wonder at the 'crimes' that were perpetrated by the ruling elite. Oh, for whistleblowers, Twitter, Wikileaks, Editors undaunted by 'D' Notices, back then!

Transparency please! We need to know what's going on ...

Good to see Wilf celebrating at the Brighton 40th Anniversary Pride Parade today.

He's another photo taken at the show ...

Paolo Di Canio is just about to take-off in the Sunderland FC corporate aeroplane:

What about the Polanski Fiat? Also made using old Eyetie tooling.

Tiggy-Winkles has been voted the natural emblem of Britain after a survey in The BBC Wildlife magazine. I'm sure that our very own prickly character, GGG, will brand the survey as a typical BBC plot orchestrated by the Notting Hill Guardian readers. www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jul/31/hedgehog-uk-natural-emblem

But where were the main gates .... anybody?

Brian ... I don't know if the gloop is still made but Mrs Symptoms always wants me to use 'hair products' to keep my mop (thankfully, a glorious, full head of hair) in-check when she wants me to take her out ... I always refuse, arguing that it makes my hair feel 'dirty'. And the cost of these products is frightening ... judging by what she forks out at her hairdresser. So, my head goes under the tap each morning, a quick towel dry, a quick finger ruffle, and all is good for the day. I haven't even owned a comb or hairbrush for decades.

Dog turds are bio-degradable and if the woofs are properly wormed don't make kids blind if the eat the stuff. Crisp packets, plakka pop bottles, sweetie-wrappers discarded by ankle-biters stays, just about forever, in the local environment.

It's all very well to have bins in public spaces but, and it's a big but, the Council or whoever's responsible in Bedders, needs to regularly empty them. Nothing worse than overflowing bins.

Keith, if plenty of dog turd bins are provided they'll get used; the anti-dog brigade* (I'm not suggesting you K) conveniently avoid complaining about the biggest litter fowlers - kids. Kids need to be brainwashed into having an anti-litter approach ... we were at school and by our parents 'back in the day'; I can honestly say that I have never dropped a bit of litter, ever! That's not me being sanctimonious but suggesting that with proper 'training' good social attitudes will remain.

*those fascists at mumsnet and similar.

GGG , I'm not sure if you're being insincere with that first paragraph or not. There seems to me to be only two sorts of "reliable 24/7/365 energy providers" who's fuel supply is strategically secure long-term and can provide the most, if not all, of the UK needs ... nukes and coal. Renewables, however worthy, will only ever play a small role by comparison. Of course, the two big tricks that continues to be missed is for folks to use less and ensure that all dwellings are properly insulated. The current home insulation schemes aren't really addressing the problem as the uptake is poor.

Where were the main gates to the pit?

We gained access to the pit yard and heaps over back fences so I can't remember where the main entrance was.

Keith ... I'd forgotten the 'plank'; wouldn't be allowed that method today because of 'elf 'n' safety ... ankle-biters tumbling to the floor. I also remember display boxes of 'rubber-jonnies' in the place ...

Some local farmers near to me have grubbed-out their apple orchards and planted willow sticks to serve the biomass market ... this is for domestic (household) pellet hot water/cenral heating boilers. It's really bizarre driving on country roads that intersect these plantations - tall, swaying single stems 10' high ... it seems like you're driving across a Russian wilderness, then it ends and you're into rolling arable and ancient wooded land. It would make a great backdrop for those bleak, subtitled black & white films from Scandinavia. Anyway, I don't think there's enough scope for the domestic and the power-generation markets to be supplied 'locally', so most of it's going to be imported. Bonkers, truely bonkers!!!! Burn coal I keep saying!

Don't forget to create hedgehog highways at garden boundaries. Whilst the Tiggywinkles are decent climbers they can't get over fence panels, thick hedging or similar barriers so create a series of tunnels on all aspects of the garden so they can get through to feast on your slugs. I've used loads of 6" & 8" plakka plantpots lying on edge and jammed through the bases of all the hedging to create the tunnels and once the undergrowth has covered the pots you don't see them ... I had to use this method as I've got half-a-dozen free-range chucks and a woof wandering the garden so I lined the base of all the hedging with wire mesh (chicken wire) to prevent escapes; obviously the mesh stopped the hedgehogs so the tunnels are helpful to them.

Eggs - I have Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection ... Photoshop is an integral component of the suite. I use a A3 Summagraphics digitizing tablet with it so all actions are via the connected pen so that precise control can be achieved (something that's difficult with a mouse). Cheepo digitizing tablets are available but much smaller, something like Bamboo would be OK for the casual user.

If your Photoshop version is Elements or a giveaway there may be some functions disabled when comparing with the full version, but I'm not sure as I haven't used these crippled versions.

If you want to manipulate Wilf first open the file in Photoshop, there are lots of ways to manipulate but a good way is to use the Lasso tool (in your toolbox) to outline that bit of the image you want (tip: if the image is complex enlarge it with zoom-in so it's easier to outline with Lasso). Once you're happy you can copy or cut your selected area. Open the image (another file) you want to put Wilf into (don't bother to close the original Wilf file) then you have a number of options, the easiest is to paste Wilf in. You can now move Wilf to position and then further manipulate him by right-clicking on him then selecting resize, flip, rotate, etc. When you're happy with his position you'll be prompted to 'apply the transformation' - answer yes. Another tip - if you intend using Wilf again and again save the cut to a transparent background so it's easier to use in future by using 'place' to insert him into another pic.

When Barton Rafie asked the original question: "I understand women actually worked down the Bedlington pits ???" back in post #21, I replied: "Official accounts suggest that women were not employed underground at any pits in the Northumberland and Durham coalfields but I'm sure they must have done so in the very early days." JDJ55 confirms this with his reference to the Coal Mines Act of 1842 in his post #41 but of course they continued to work above ground.

So to summarise for Barton .... Yes, women probably did work down Bedlington pits before 1842 but not after this date, however they may well have continued to work in above ground jobs when employed at the Bedlington pits.

Where's all the biomass going to come from? Monster ships with their gigantic belching diesel engines hauling the stuff all the way from South America. Stuff that's been grown on cleared virgin rainforests. Burn coal I say!!!!!

Our reporter in Afganistan has just sent this image of Abu AlWilf's joyous return to the North West Frontier after he had been on a 9 month long undercover mission to the viper's nest that is Betty Windsor's base. His mission was to impregnate some concubine called Katie so implanting a future Manchurian Candidate into the centre of the evil Yankee's running-dog-jackal poodle-state.

My "true beliefs" are a synthesis of life's experiences and being widely read (from Adolf's Mein Kampf to Mao's Little Red Book and all stations in between). Plenty of stuff in the Guardian I don't agree with, including what Polly Toynbee advocated just before the last General Election GGG will be pleased to note.

Ah, now I remember Ena, Minnie & Martha, but wasn't it milk stout? I think I watched the first ever episode ... never again!

Oh dear! The Yankees will be after you now for some obscure offence under The Patriot Act.

Straight, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, any dog owner, all welcome. Never a Liberal (latterday crutches for those vile, vile Tories) but certainly one who exhibits those worthwhile, tolerant, generous, so called liberal values to all bar those nasty, reactionary scumsuckers at The Daily Mail and their legion of like-minded, zenophobic zombie fellow travellers.

"Ena, Minnie & Martha" - ?

KeithL - Did you stop star gazing, put down your bins for a moment and wave?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23419543

Eggs - I remember most pubs had a snug bar for the 'ladies'. These probably morphed into lounge bars later; you always had to pay a bit more for your drinks in the lounge than the blokes in the men only 'front bars'.

I have a room in my house which is called the snug ... a small room behind the morning room & kitchen area; I take my breakfast and read the paper in it. GGG, just imagine the scene every morning ... a cup of Earl Grey tea in one hand, the woof under the other arm, and my beloved Guardian on my knee