bbishop

Salmon(d)?

Get one quick!

An interesting trio: a left wing idiot, a right wing nationalist and, well .... Khan is an interesting guy, massively into inter race and inter faith communication and has done a lot to turn London into the city it is today. Certainly far more than his self publicising predecessor. Khan has been targeted financially by the government who would love to have a Tory mayor in position before the general election. Khan was a good constituency MP which is probably his level of competence. I have been thinking about which politicians in the last 50 years who had the ability to be President. I can only think of three, a Scot, a Welshman and an Irishman - Willie Whitelaw, Roy Jenkins and Paddy Ashdown. So perhaps we should leave the role with the firm that has done it for the best part of a millennium.

I'm a left wing monarchist. With a "first past the post" parliamentary system, would we want President Gove, President de Pfeffel Johnson or President Farage?

and if Parliament hadn't voted it through, they would have lost their heads. after Charlie 1 had lost his. How power changes.

On duty tonight and just had a ROSC. And it was my paw what pressed the button.

Let me guess. Dave = one piece of hand luggage. Jill = ditto plus four large suitcases.

It's a sheep fitted with GPS.

There were a few more: The opening lyrics of a song, written by Willson Meredith, and featuring in a film named The Music Man. Seventy six trombones led the big parade, With a hundred & ten cornets close at hand. They were followed by rows and rows, Of the finest virtuosos, The cream of every famous band. Seventy six trombones caught the morning sun, With a hundred & ten cornets right behind. There were over a thousand reeds, Springing up like weeds, There were horns of every shape & size. My mum used to sing it to the cat. Bill

I need to argue this out. The following is nicked from Wikipedia: "Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) is the growth of crack formation in a corrosive environment. SCC is highly chemically specific in that certain alloys are likely to undergo SCC only when exposed to a small number of chemical environments. The chemical environment that causes SCC for a given alloy is often one which is only mildly corrosive to the metal." It may be that the creation of mazak rot requires not only lead as an impurity in the alloy but also the presence of water. If this is correct (and it is only as argument) then yes, it is related to stress corrosion cracking. Please note the paragraph above is only an argument. To prove (or disprove) it would require two known contaminated ingots kept in dry and humid conditions and ditto with two known uncontaminated ingots. Ok, 99% of WW correspondents are now bored out of their skulls. Sorry. Bill

I'm trying to remember my chemistry. There was a certain amount of metallurgy on my course and I'm racking my brains. Happy for someone to pick up any errors, 'cos I'm going back 50 years. Sheeeesh! Zinc is a fairly stable metal but it will react with acids and does tarnish. Think iron. But it forms alloys easily which can vary its properties. Again think iron and steel. The mazak family are zinc - aluminium alloys, possibly with copper as well. A typical alloy is 93% Zn; 4% Al; 3% Cu. The problem with rot began in the 1920s when lead was tipped into the pot to bulk out the alloy. Once the problem was discovered, then it was a matter of avoiding the firms that contaminated their alloy. This was fine when the workers are educated to never add anything to the pot but when production is outsourced to certain parts of the world ..... well, you know the rest. Incidentally there was a comment that rot sets in in a cold climate. I think this is wrong and heat will accelerate the process. But I've read that humidity is more relevant; so in Britain at least, a cold damp climate is worse that a warm dry one. Hope this helps, Bill

I have a one word response to that rant: "fondue".

And Jill doesn't even have a change of clothes.

One day, Jamie, you will invest in a speelchucker. Life will be so less interesting. The answer to your question is "optional". Bill

Sadly they now play on plastic pitches. Nothing turns me on more than a lady hooker with muddy knees. Bill

Toni and I have several interesting areas on our patch. So if a call comes over the radio with "breathing difficulties in Thamesmead" we discuss on the journey whether our patient is on 40 or 60 a day. No need to worry about the Dobermann, that has COPD as well. One problem is getting them to stub out the fag before putting them on oxygen, then stopping them light the next one. We don't put on the plastic booties before entering the house but we know where they are in the Yeti, just in case. The other shout in Thamesmead is for "chest pains"; that's when they ask for the "blue gas" 'cos their pain level is ten. They are referring to Entenox. When told we don't carry it, we are unpolitely told to "f*ck off". Happy to comply. Bill

One of the threads running through Eric Langridge's memoirs is the lack of communication between the design teams at Crewe, Horwich and Derby. Eric did a lot of work on the 2-6-4 tanks in the Derby drawing office and he records that the only constraints were loading gauge, axle weight and an 8' + 8'6" coupled wheelbase. One must take Eric with a pinch of salt but he certainly sketched out the valve gear, based on his Eastleigh training. Whilst an apprentice at Eastleigh, Eric was seconded to the drawing office to work on the H16 Pacific tanks. If you were to peruse a photo, you will observe the long coupled wheelbase. There was an issue with axle weight over the Thames bridges and their primary task was cross London freight traffic. Their holiday job was the Ascot race specials so they carried the Maunsell passenger livery. Bill

A true story, before my time at Lord's. A young lady, wearing a minidress, was helped into the treatment centre by her boyfriend having fallen off her high heels and twisted her ankle. She initially refused treatment before the pain reached the stage that she confessed to the (female) treatment manager that she got her kicks by going to events without wearing any nether garments. The manager turfed all the male first aiders out of the centre. My medical scissors live with a razor in my defibrillator case. Bill.

Guys, we are touching on politics and religion on this thread. Jamie and I have recused ourselves from the latter topic (or at least that's my translation of Jamie's qwertographics), so could we all impose a degree of self moderation and remember that our colleagues may hold, and are entitled to hold, different views. Bill

Catching up after spending most of the last three days in church. Pertaining to the ambulance service, Brian, many of the problems are caused by the failure of the NHS as an organisation. I must steer clear of politics on this forum but the queues of ambulances waiting a 12 hour shift outside an A&E with a very sick patient are not the fault of the paramedics. One solution has been the ambulance services setting up triage rooms in A&E departments, with a paramedic, to release the "walking wounded" from the back of an ambulance. This gets the ambulance back on the road although doing nothing to speed up treatment for the patient. Actually a noticeable spinoff has been a reduction in the number of "taxi" calls for the likes of cut fingers; instead of ringing 999 for hubbys cut finger, wifey now loads the kiddies into the car and delivers him to A&E herself. I have spent shifts, listening to the radio, with the dispatcher desperately asking for ambulances for a dozen Dorises who have fallen over and can't get up. I'm not trained in trauma so am kept back for the Category 1 calls (cardiac arrest, heart attacks, etc). These aren't enjoyable evenings: I have asked whether I could go to Doris, but the answer is that all I could do is hold her hand and that there would be one less resource available. If my treatment of a patient were deemed negligent, LAS and SJA would dispense with my services before my feet touched the ground. And attendance at a Coroner's Court would be a very likely outcome, and that is somewhere one does not want to go..... Bill

The LAS only allow me to administer oxygen and entonox (the latter under direct supervision). SJA allow me to administer "over the counter" drugs (eg aspirin, paracetamol, etc). I can't carry these drugs but must take them from a locked cabinet and there is a lot of paperwork to fill in!

I must only treat within my scope of practice when I'm on duty. The scope does vary depending whether the duty is with SJA (eg Lord's) or the LAS. But I have a duty of care whether I'm on duty or just come across an incident. In fact anyone treating a patient has a duty of case, just that I (and Jill) are expected to apply our skills and knowledge. Bill

I have a bit of a concern about this. I have been trained in responding to major incidents. If I am at an event, then I must stay on post until given a job. If I am "joe public", then I will find someone who appears to be in charge, advise them of my skill level and offer my services. One must never self deploy, because there may still be a roaming terrorist or a building may further collapse. Yes I am squeamish as well. One just gets stuck in and treats as best one can. There will always be counselling after the event. The problem at Manchester Arena was the police didn't advise their Gold commander that the scene was probably clear and he hummed and hawed about sending in anyone. The ambulance Gold should have put more pressure on the police Gold, but in a terrorist situation it is absolutely a police decision. Bill

Let me see, three years after the pandemic started and the government still hasn't organised production in this country. Bill

My kitchen was designed and built my Sohn Lewis about 15 years ago. All fairly basic but solid and well made. The cooker is a John Lewis stainless steel jobbie so easy to clean. All the cupboards and drawers still work and could well outlast me. The work surface in melanin covered mdf, showing no sign of damage, ok I don't use a knife on the work surface and use heat sinks for hot pans, kettles and mugs. Bill