Today's News

[Plantaholic]

How lovely for him to get that water bottle.

[Daisy]

Plant - I'm sure he'll treasure it. Apparently until recently it was traditional for cyclists to throw water bottles to each other, but Elf&safety have stopped it as being dangerous.

GJ - isn't it great to see such enthusiasm and respect for the people at the top of his chosen sport. What a great role model Pascal Eenkhorn is for youngsters.

[Daisy]

Strictly will be back to invade our living rooms any day now. Love it or hate it, you have to admit it does throw up some interesting questions - and answers.

Rose Ayling-Ellis, who is hearing impaired is one of this cohort's contestants. She's an actress in East Enders. Part of her ambition for her stint on Strictly is to help people understand that deaf people can and do love music and like to dance. She says it's a common misconception that deaf people can't enjoy music and dancing.

She says that she has a hearing aid and will be able to pick up some of the music, hear the beat and feel the vibrations. Her professional partner will guide her to stay in time with the rhythm. A combination of those factors plus reading her partner's body language and counting in her head will all help.

I really do wish her luck and hope she has great fun on the show.

[Gemini]

Oh I really like her in Eastenders, I didn't know she was in the Strictly line up

[Oma]

When I was learning sign language we often went to dancers at the Deaf club ,
Lots of Deaf people feel the vibration through their feet , they love to dance .

[Daisy]

Oma - in our days of playing in a band we played for dances for deaf people sometimes. They loved those evenings.

[Daisy]

Lake Mead probably isn't somewhere we ever think about, or perhaps have never heard of. It's the reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam in Arizona. The size of this reservoir is beyond description - the largest in America, held back by the mighty Hoover Dam. But it's under severe threat.

From the 1980s when it was at capacity its levels have dropped and dropped until today it's just at 35% of the 1980 levels. This record low sends alarm bells to the authorities as it threatens the water supply in what is already a hot, dry and arid landscape. Rising temperatures add to the problem increasing both evaporation and demand.

Even in 2000 the water level was 15 feet from the top of the dam which is on an unbelievably gigantic scale. So large that if you stand at the bottom and look up you can hardly see the top. The current low levels are an indication of the severe drought plaguing the western US, including large cities like Las Vegas, San Diego, Pheonix and Los Angeles.

The area is in the 22nd year of drought and the water held in Lake Mead provides irrigation for crops, water for industry, energy production and for domestic use. The dam generates power for 1.3 million people, about the same as the combined populations of Liverpool, Cardiff, Sunderland and Wakefield.

The current crisis means the generating capacity is down by about 25% leading to cracked dry earth and a huge problem for the area.

[Gemini]

From today care home workers must be vaccinated against Covid, in order to work.

About time is my opinion on this one!!

[Daisy]

Gem, in general I'm against compulsory vaccinations for anything, but in this case, where the whole working day is spent with frail, elderly, poorly and vulnerable people I think it's essential. The real dilemma comes if there is a serious medical reason why they (the staff) shouldn't have the vaccine (although I don't know what that would be), but even then, I think the benefit to the majority (ie the residents) should be the deciding factor. Sometime people have to change careers because of medical issues and this could be one of them.

[Nanto2girls]

Lake Mead probably isn't somewhere we ever think about, or perhaps have never heard of. It's the reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam in Arizona. The size of this reservoir is beyond description - the largest in America, held back by the mighty Hoover Dam. But it's under severe threat.

From the 1980s when it was at capacity its levels have dropped and dropped until today it's just at 35% of the 1980 levels. This record low sends alarm bells to the authorities as it threatens the water supply in what is already a hot, dry and arid landscape. Rising temperatures add to the problem increasing both evaporation and demand.

Even in 2000 the water level was 15 feet from the top of the dam which is on an unbelievably gigantic scale. So large that if you stand at the bottom and look up you can hardly see the top. The current low levels are an indication of the severe drought plaguing the western US, including large cities like Las Vegas, San Diego, Pheonix and Los Angeles.

The area is in the 22nd year of drought and the water held in Lake Mead provides irrigation for crops, water for industry, energy production and for domestic use. The dam generates power for 1.3 million people, about the same as the combined populations of Liverpool, Cardiff, Sunderland and Wakefield.

The current crisis means the generating capacity is down by about 25% leading to cracked dry earth and a huge problem for the area.

Daisy, we have seen Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam the first time we went to Las Vegas.
That was in 2008, and i can remember them talking about the water levels.
Certainly a sight to behold.

[Daisy]

It certainly is, Nanto! We visited there in the late 80s on a day when the temperature on the working platform (at the bottom of the Dam) was 120+F! It's engineering on an unimaginable scale, isn't it! Hard to take in unless you've stood there and looked up at the dam, and seen the size of Lake Mead. Did you also do a flight over the Grand Canyon as well? We went in a small plane at dawn, and the pilot took us below the rim of the Grand Canyon (unauthorised) and even let me take the controls for a while as I was in the 2nd officer's seat. None of that would be allowed now, I know.

[Daisy]

Most families with pets have at some time had that heart-sink/panic moment when you don't know where your furry friend has gone! You go out looking, you search everywhere they might have hidden, you ask neighbours to check their garages and sheds, you put up posters, you put food out, you put water and an item of your clothing where you last saw them, you go on social media asking for sightings. Many people offer a reward.

Hours turn into days, days into weeks and months, and there's no information about your beloved wanderer.

This happened to Neil and Lucy Henderson in Aberdeen. Finally after 8 or 9 months of searching they came to realise that probably the worst had happened to their loving and friendly two year old kitty, Forbes.

After giving up hope and resigning themselves to never seeing Forbes again, imagine their surprise and joy when Lucy got a phone call from the Scottish SPCA that a thin cat had been spotted in Aberdeen and a microchip scan revealed that it was indeed their beloved Forbes, less than two miles from where he went missing.

A happy end to this story, but the most amazing aspect is that Forbes had been missing for ten years.

[Lizzie48]

Daisy, I had British friends here, years ago, they had an old dog and one day he vanished, they searched all over, it was 45 years ago so no social media, the man worked for Bassets? liquorice firm and they had to go back to the UK, without the dog. A few months later the firm got a message that the dog had been found, safe, in Groningen at the top of the Netherlands, apparently he loved cars and must have got into a travellers car, unnoticed. He was found wandering the streets and someone had read the story in the newspapers and got in touch with the firm, the dog was safely shipped across to the UK and spent his last years with the family.

[Daisy]

There were 270, now there are 272.

Two hundred and seventy-two what?

Stations on the London Underground.

Love the Underground or hate it, it's a quick and convenient way of getting round London and today saw the opening of two new stations on the Northern Line - Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms.

The last time there was a major expansion on the Tube was the Jubilee line which opened in the 1990.

The cost is eye-watering - £270million in contributions from the developers and £1bn borrowed by the Greater London Authority.

The first train to depart was watched by train enthusiasts and TfL staff, plus journalists who gathered before sunrise and when the gates opened just before 5.30am over 100 people went down the platform to catch the fist train to Kennington. There's no report of what they did when they found themselves in Kennington before sparrow's cough, and sadly the train itself wasn't new.

Work on the two-mile tunnel between Kennington and Battersea started in 2015. It's reported that the new services would support 25,000 new jobs and 20,000 new homes. TfL commissioner, Andy Byford said the biggest thing is seeing the delight on customers' faces, and rather like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis.

[Daisy]

Daisy, I had British friends here, years ago, they had an old dog and one day he vanished, they searched all over, it was 45 years ago so no social media, the man worked for Bassets? liquorice firm and they had to go back to the UK, without the dog. A few months later the firm got a message that the dog had been found, safe, in Groningen at the top of the Netherlands, apparently he loved cars and must have got into a travellers car, unnoticed. He was found wandering the streets and someone had read the story in the newspapers and got in touch with the firm, the dog was safely shipped across to the UK and spent his last years with the family.

Lizzie - I'm sorry I thought I'd commented on your post - I don't know where it went (down the Tube, perhaps!)

Your friends must have been worried about their old boy. He was lucky to be found - there were no microchips then, were there. I suppose the poor old lad had to go into quarantine as well. I'm sure he would have been very pleased to get back to his family.