The PM Glass Box.
In a real glass box every evening at 18.00, the PM production team meets to discuss the programme that's just finished. You're encouraged to do so here in this virtual glass box. Tonight's editor Dan "the man" Mitchell will read the comments and may well add his own.
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Too late for AM Box, but I expect this will feature.
'British Airways intend to move their operation to Spain for tax purposes'. Doubtless there will be job losses here unless they intend to relocate their entire staff to Spain. There will certainly be a loss of tax revenue. Perhaps they should drop the word British from their name to avoid confusion. Everyone who still cares about this country should boycott BA if they must fly.
The rich never seem to tire of their obsession with searching for ways to get richer.
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I just love to watch the tourism "industry" in its dying throes!
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Re composting from a previous day:
Shakespeare has Hamlet telling his mother: "Confess yourself to heaven, Repent what's past, avoid what is to come, And do not spread the compost on the weeds To make them ranker." (Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4, by William Shakespeare, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Wordsworth Royal, 1997)
http://desertwaterwisegardens.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_history_of_composting#ixzz0WkandHRj
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2. Lord Nathan - indeed, me too. Good link, is that the same Ed Iglehart I've seen posting here I wonder?
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DoctorDolots (1) "There will certainly be a loss of tax revenue."
That would be a good angle to take if it were true. As it explains here . . "The business will be registered and tax-domiciled in Spain, although both operating companies will pay taxes in the respective countries in which they are based, meaning that the British Treasury will not miss out on the deal."
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Anyone else suspect that Mr. Brown is committing political suicide with his attempts to chivvy up more troops from across Europe and beyond?
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Whoops! That should have been "more troops to go to Afghanistan..."
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DoctorDolots (1) As I understand it from the statements of Mr Walsh on Today, airlines by law are taxed based on their centre of operations, which means that there will be no change to BA being taxed in the UK, and Iberia being taxed in Spain. Given how explicit he was about this point, I think we can be fairly certain that this is the case....
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Preston (5) Sorry! You and I must've been typing at the same time. My post was slightly delayed as I had to answer the phone....
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Doc (4),
The very same. I like his style, but I think he fell foul of the moderation system.
Home, sweet home
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5. Preston Firmlie - whoops, I am corrected. Lots of job losses however.
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(9) Nah Fearless, no excuses! I'm just faster than you. :o)
I also heard it on the Today programme
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10. Really? Must be more immoderate than I!
Like the pun, mortorways.
I'm planning to move to Scotland next year. Fed up with England, too crowded.
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DD 4, IE might be here. He keeps changing his name to stay ahead of the mods.
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DoctorDolots (13)You should see what the Spoof Complaint Generator says about him.
I have facts for those who think and arguments for those who reason. To organize my discussion, I suggest that we take one step back in the causal chain and stand by our principles and be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost. Mr. Ed Iglehart's a serial exaggerator. If I were to be less kind, I'd say he's a liar. Either way, we must show Iglehart that we are not powerless pedestrians on the asphalt of life. We must show him that we can place a high value on honor and self-respect. Maybe then Iglehart will realize that he has commented that we should be grateful for the precious freedom to be robbed and kicked in the face by such a noble creature as him. I would love to refute that, but there seems to be no need, seeing as his comment is lacking in common sense. To end this letter, I would like to make a bet with Mr. Ed Iglehart. I will gladly give him a day's salary if he can prove that he can absorb mana by devouring his nemeses' brains, as he insists. If Iglehart is unable to prove that, then his end of the bargain is to step aside while I discuss the programmatic foundations of his naive theatrics in detail. So, do we have a bet, Iglehart?
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Do you ever wake up in the morning thinking, "The net effect of Chairman ETE Mac III's theories will be a generation of kids who are unable to read, write, or distinguish good from evil?" Well, so do I. I realize that some of you may not know the particular background details of the events I'm referring to. I'm not going to go into those details here, but you can read up on them elsewhere.
Whenever anyone states the obvious—that Mac's circulars are a disgrace and an outrage—discussion naturally progresses towards the question, "What exactly is the principle that rationalizes Mac's stultiloquent wisecracks?" Any honest person who takes the time to think about that question will be forced to conclude that what I have been writing up to this point is not what I initially intended to write in this letter. Instead, I decided it would be far more productive to tell you that Mac says that two wrongs make a right. That is the most despicable lie I have ever heard in my entire life.
The underlying message is that Mac's politics are an icon for the deterioration of the city, for its slow slide into crime, malaise, and filth. We must remove our chains and move towards the light. (In case you didn't understand that analogy, the chains symbolize Mac's jaundiced hastily mounted campaigns and the light represents the goal of getting all of us to let him know, in no uncertain terms, that there's no indication that his attendants will ever do something about the continuing—make that the escalating—effort on Mac's part to make us too confused, demoralized, and disunited to put up an effective opposition to Mac's rejoinders.) The whole premise of Mac's fibs is false, and his arguments are specious at best. It is as if we were safely on the bank of a raging river, enjoying a picnic with our friends and family, when a bunch of bitter, rancorous freeloaders came along and threw us into the river. Not only must we struggle to avoid drowning in the raging torrent of Mac-sponsored frotteurism, but we must crawl out of the river before we can strengthen our roots so we can weather the storms that threaten our foundation. He sees the world as somewhat anarchic, a game of catch-as-catch-can in which the sneakiest fribbles nab the biggest prizes. Now that you've heard what I've had to say, I want you to think about it. And I want you to join me and beat Chairman ETE Mac III at his own game
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Amazing that generator, isn't it? ;o)
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Big Sis - You wrote that yourself and are only pretending it's a spoof! Where has he been this past while anyway?
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Preston, it is uncanningly close to the truth, isn't it? But - no! - I neither wrote it nor know where he is lying ...
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PF 15, But didn't you used to be someone else? I only changed my name because I was forced to re-register and had to. Didn't EI complain about the internal gubbins of the blog and try to change it to suit himself? Or was that somebody else?
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Horrors! First Dimblebum, and now Brucie's gone AWOL! Can the BBC stand the strain?
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LN 21, First Mad Cow, then Swine flu (well, flu).
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But on to serius matters. The nation stands shocked and angst-ridden at the news that Brucie will not present tonight's 'Strictly'.
May I suggest that John Humphrys, who so gallantly stepped in to cover for D Dimbleby last night after the 'bullock incident', step also into Bruce's nimble shoes?
I might even watch it...
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Bah. 'Serious'. Humphrys would never allow a spelinge like that to pass.
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Animal Farm, anyone?
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Am I suddenly on the Beach?
On a serious note - after a few days of an early newsletter, I'm yet to receive one today. Anyone else?
Re. power for access to the grid man - Go Eddie Go!
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You're right, Lady Sue - no newsletter today here either.
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Anne, so glad I'm not alone.
Funnily enough, I heard Eddie @4.30 mention 'Global Warming' and thought of our recent conversation (with Sid, Nikki et al) and wondered if I should just take shelter on the beach and do a bit of sunbathing.
Oh! Upshares music! Class! Love it. How very cheerie for a Friday.
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Bit concerned about the American 'runaway balloon' on the news summary - should it not be 'flyaway' or 'soaraway' or maybe 'scamaway'?
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Just listening to the week long compilation.
Baldrick's point about the chemical cosh in our rest homes compares with Professor Nutt's stance on evidence and dope?
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Can we thwart wannabe Jihadits and those that like messing about with explosives in Afghanistan and Pakistan if we could give them unlimited web access and got them addicted to Facebook?
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"you would like tony blair to come out of the closet?"
how much did Eddie enjoy saying that :)
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Frozen water on the moon discovered by "crashing a bit of kit into it".
Boys and their toys.
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Cap@32: one could hear the cheeky little grin spreading across Eddie's face!
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Just heard an email from a listener writing to say he would now vote for Gordon Brown as he had written to a bereaved serviceman's mother. It might have been pointed out that every Prime Minister from Margaret Thatcher onwards wrote to each bereaved serviceman's widow or mother and father. This is not new to this PM.
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Which closet? Carol Caplan? Perhaps the woman closet caller is confusing Little Britain with reality?
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So we just need to put some drug in the teapots at the House of Commons to stop MPs embarking on ill thought military adventures and messing about with expenses forms?
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Did Eric say slash this evening? If he did I didn't realise he is a Bob Flowerdew fan as well!
I also agree it's about time Blair came out of the closet!
;-)
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Re 'ice' on the moon and Peeps going back to said orb. For goodness sake it's not as if it is rocket science is it!
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Mr Mitchell,
The whole piece was discussing the possibility of certain evidence being perhaps "non admissable" because......
I am always fascinated by the legal profession in this country and now elsewhere. But that programme on the USA Supreme Court seen last Sunday on the BBC Parliament Channel doesn't give me an insight in what can and cannot be done over there in the United States. My condolences to the woman interviewee - a former attorney but I always feel I need a BBC legal mind that understands the differences between our law systems to walk me through why this or that can be said or done - on our airways I mean.
Sub judice - does it mean anything over there or just something very different? And how come we can ignore certain criteria for court cases overseas? In this Internet age I mean. Just wondered.
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#38. SproutGhost
Well Blair did become a Roman Catholic maybe there is more to come.
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# 41. Looternite
You mean there was evidence of WMD after all?
Crikey!
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#42. SproutGhost
Well I have some WMD-40 if that helps.
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# 42. Looternite.
Yep, that should ease the situation!
:-)
BTW, Jean #44 is a bit transparent!
;-)
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I heard on PM this evening (whilst driving home) a so-called debate on global warming. All it transpired to be was a discussion between two "warmists" - when will we have a reasoned discussion about Global Warming on the BBC? There are other views that suggest that there is no global warming and even if there were it is not caused by humans. When will we have a proper debate with actual facts..............?
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Rob Harland - it was not a debate about global warming - it was about whether the govt dept that concerns itself with global warming ought to have more teeth. (The scientific debate has already been won.)
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sid 47 said "The scientific debate has already been won".
If you believe that, you will believe anything !
I had a boss once who's nickname was, "I have made up my mind, please do not confuse me with facts". His name was 'Sid' also
The atmosphere is made of the following gasses.
Nitrogen N2 78.08% Oxygen O2 20.95%
Water H2O 0 to 4% Argon Ar 0.93%
Carbon Dioxide CO2 0.0360% Neon Ne 0.0018%
Helium He 0.0005% Methane CH4 0.00017%
Hydrogen H2 0.00005% Nitrous Oxide N2O 0.00003%
Ozone O3 0.000004%
Do you really believe that a change in 0.036% CO2 will have the effect on the climate. I can equally put forward a corrilation between the life and death of my tortoise and global warming. Perhaps later!
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realjacques (48) (from your figures)
The atmosphere is made of the following gases.
Nitrogen N2 78.08%
+ Oxygen O2 20.95%
= 99.03% of the atmosphere
+ Argon Ar 0.93%
= 99.98% of the atmosphere
+ Carbon Dioxide CO2 0.0360%
= 100.1% > 100% of the atmosphere
Which means that there is no water, hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), alkyl nitrates, CFCs, HCFCs, NOx or NOy in the atmosphere. That seems very strange, to me. Because I measure NMHC (non-methane hydrocarbons), VOCs, alkyl nitrates, CFCs, HCFCs in atmospheric samples five days a week. Do you really think that the mass spectrometer finger-print is wrong? Do you really think that there is more than 100% of atmosphere? Do you really think that fog is caused by condensed, which gas would it be . . . carbon dioxide, at about mid minus 50sC? Sorry, realjacques, but I think that you are wrong.
H.
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33. Lady Sue =water on the moon denier, what evidence do you have ;-)
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48. realjacques - it would help if you could spell correlation for a start. But yes, as we have known for many years, very small changes to complex systems can have far-reaching and huge effects. The trouble with winning a debate is that others need the necessary ability to comprehend they are wrong, which you clearly lack.
Don't let the almost daily news of the latest discoveries from carefully collected and collated scientific data that the polar ice is melting, glaciers are melting at an increasingly alarming rate, vast areas of the planet are turning to desert and the Himalyas, noted here as feeding a third of the world's human population their water is vanishing rapidly deter you from your inane cult belief in a conspiracy by all the world's politicians and all the world's climate scientists and the vast majority of all other scientists to hoodwink all but the incredibly intelligent and clear thinking band of brothers who see through this charade.
Who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes? Groucho. Get out more child, take a look around you, observe instead of reading endless websites funded by the oil industry to spread misinformation only the hard of thinking could swallow.
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46.
Rob Harland
' - when will we have a reasoned discussion about Global Warming on the BBC? There are other views that suggest that there is no global warming and even if there were it is not caused by humans. When will we have a proper debate with actual facts..............?'
Wot, a proper debate that covers itself with 'there is no global warming and even if there is' come on, make up your mind, which gacts would these be?
If you'ce been paying attention in class instead of bunking off round the bike sheds, you would have noticed the overwhelming abundance of facts, enough after years of resistance to convince all governments it is happening and is caused by us. Overwhelming. That means that deniers have just not understood, and to base your argument on ignorance is to lay youyrself open to ridicule. If all you have are the copy and pastings from these pathetically unscientific sites, then you have nothing. They go round full circle and prop each other up in their falacy.
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For Rob Harland
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51 Drdonothing
I am sorry if my spelling upsets you, but English is my second language. Perhaps you can give evidence of these 'small changes' - IN FRENCH !
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54 realjacques
un centime
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DocD: once again, you willfully mis-read and mis-interpret my posts. I was merely making a little joke about 'boys and their toys' - in other words (so dull when one has to explain) it doesn't surprise me that scientists developed a piece of kit merely to be smashed into the surface of the moon. Just like boys playing in the streets/fields might create something just for the fun of it. Is that clear enough for you?
Sid: you know I do not believe the scientific debate has been won and I am not alone.
Rob Harland and realjacques: I have been trying to put a case for looking at the 'other side of global warming' and having a proper debate on it for weeks now - impossible on the blog but it would be excellent to hear something on PM.
Humph: didn't realise this was all bread and butter to you - would be very interesting to have your opinions on the 'global warming' debate.
It is totally laughable that DocD considers himself one of "the incredibly intelligent and clear thinking band of brothers who see through this charade". Nor, it seems, can he spell "what". As usual, he has jumped up on his soap box and presumes that by being dictatorial and bombastic he can shout others down by repeated insults and on-going hysterics. Sad but true. In fact he made a rather naive comment about the ice around the Himalayas recently and was politely corrected by a more well informed and far more erudite blogger. It seems from his posts he is accustomed to people kow-towing to whatever he says so being here gives him a bit of a shock. Especially, it seems, if it is woman speaking out against him.
realjacques@54: Touche!
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Talk about hysterical...
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Lady Sue 56
A discussion about climate change on the BBC ? Not very likely.
http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/2009/11/climate-alert-hell-freezes-briefly.html
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#58. realjacques,
”A discussion about climate change on the BBC ? Not very likely.”
#56. Lady Sue,
”I have been trying to put a case for looking at the 'other side of global warming' and having a proper debate on it for weeks now - impossible on the blog but it would be excellent to hear something on PM.”
#46. Rob Harland,
”..when will we have a reasoned discussion about Global Warming on the BBC?”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The subject has been covered many times on ‘Costing The Earth,’ ‘Home Planet,’ ‘Shared Earth’ and ‘Material World,’ as well as several one-off series, such as 'Oceans.'
One of BBC’s unsung heroes is Richard Black, who undertakes his role and engagement with the public with a great deal of professionalism.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/richardblack/
Examples:
On sceptism:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/richardblack/2009/10/climates_magnetic_attraction.html
On BBC bias and coverage:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/richardblack/2009/10/climate_issue.html
On clarifying scientific data on warming:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/richardblack/2009/01/as_there_seems_to_be.html
And answering specific questions from bloggers:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/richardblack/2009/01/clearing_the_air.html
There is much, much more in the archives on his blog.
There was a whole series of BBC programmes in 2006 under the theme ‘Climate Chaos.’ This link may help you drill deeper.
http://www.solarnavigator.net/climate_chaos.htm
It's there if you want it.
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R_SM 59, Like we're all going to look at all those links. (You know who will now say she has.)
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#59. Richard_SM
You certainly do your research and put up your evidence.
Just wish others would.
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D McN - well, I looked - why didn't you? It's good stuff.
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realjacques@58: very amusing link, thank you. Antony Gormley is full of surprises, isn't he?
Richard@59: thank you for all those links and the information. As you quoted from my original which states, "excellent to hear something on PM" - I don't spend all day listening to the radio so you will forgive me if I have missed these programmes. Very kind of you to highlight them and, when I can, I will look at them.
dav@60: most ungracious of you.
Ln@61: couldn't agree more.
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Sid 62, Because I'm still a bit on the fence about it. I'll let you know what I think when all the ice has melted and I have none for my iced tea.
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Lady Sue and DavidMcN - are you related, I wonder? In my experience, only a brother a sister could squabble so successfully ;o)
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BS 65, I try my best to ignore her, but she insists on replying to almost everything I post, whether it mentions her or not. There is a word for that kind of person, but when I use it, somebody refers it.
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BS 65, PS I never squabbled with either of my sisters.
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Big Sis: my exchanges with dav could not be construed as 'sibling squabbling'. If he makes a silly comment, I merely point out the flaws. Due to the frequency of his posts and the correlating amount of flaws, the exchanges can go on a bit. If he says anything sensible, witty, amusing or something that goes some way towards constructively adding to a debate ... oh, tsk, tsk, what am I thinking?
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Lady Sue, that's what my brother always does .... hence my comment. David, you were blessed indeed.
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BS 69, Re Sue, motes and beams.
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We're probably all guilty of that sometimes, David. But, having returned from visiting my lovely neighbour, who is now bedridden and unlikely ever to rise from it again, I have to say that my mood is rather chastened. He's such a goodhearted man, in persistent pain, and trying to be strong, and it puts us all in the shade.
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Motes and beams? Not a clue what you are talking about dav. Sorry.
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BS 71, And a friend in mine in the US just had his neighbor die of kidney failure. And I just had mine scanned two different ways. Makes you think.
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The neighbour in question is/was a giant of a man - the local farmer, one of the kind who can't bear to see any animal suffering and who lets their hedgerows grow to support the wildlife. He hasn't been able to eat properly for weeks and is now a shadow of himself. But as I sat alongside his bed, he was his usual gentle, welcoming self though, it's true to say, his speech was very slurred.
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