Bundle 2

I just remembered this....made me smile.! Will It Blend? Will It Blend? | Presented By Blendtec ... video=ipad okay, scroll down and check "iPad":001_rolleyes: Tim

Nice idea but voice recognition remains very " buggy" as far as i am aware...? tim.

As a matter of interest, Im not sure the copper beech is reverting in the same sense entirely. The leaves that are most heavily shaded tend to display more green. This is due to light levels and not the genetics of dominance whu...Anyone else care to comment? Tim

That one caught my eye also...... Not bad for a £60 camera Katie.....!

You ever heard of Google mate....?

Everyone I know who owns an iphone thinks it's great. I was not too impressed by the iPad when I first saw it. I am changing my mind though.I reckon they must be the bollox, and they compare quite well price wise... I have a MacBook Pro. The battery life is now no more than 30 mins. Apple have always had a bit of a reputation for crap batteries. iPod is the same..... I want an iPad. Apps make this device sooo cool. Apple did not tell me this. It seems a perfectly logical product given the Apple stable so far. Get one man...Misplace it at your peril!

Cool Bananas......

Cheers Ben. Westonbirt is the course they run as "Day Release". Weekly as opposed to fortnightly. Mmmm, I wonder if the other courses are any cheaper? Thanks for the reply mate!

Has anyone any idea of the cost to students wishing to enrol in Tech Cert this year ( sept 2010) ? Course fees in other words! cheers

It may be that to value a tree(s) within a more confined context lends itself more easily to a reasoned discussion. Significance is readily recognisable and so then a value...

You are soooo right Tony. The reality though is that you can only sell your grandmother for what you can get for her. You can hold out for more til you are blue in the face...but that may not result in a sale......!!

Ahhh...yes, hypocrisy. That old chesnut!!

Tony said..."The value of something is what people agree it is...." This is a very important point. My house is not covered to its market value..it is covered for the amount it would cost to replace it. Considerably less infact!

I agree the european directives are far more accommodating of the conservation values that our own legislation seems oblivious to. In particular BS3998 is so out of step these days. Out of step is not quite what I mean. Out dated maybe. ( I would say that, i have worked in conservation for a number of years now!! ) If as a contractor I was looking to site standards as those upheld with pride and/or confidence, I would most likely be looking to these european documents for guidance! Having just biked across germany I can tell you that the situation is in fact quite different on the ground. For any number of factors frankly. It is something of a dichotomy that the german's legislation is both superior, in terms of conservation, and yet somehow, you can not fart without TUV and god knows what else. But then, the legislation is as much a european directive as ever it is german. What a beautiful country it is though. As for NTSG... Im afraid I have to disagree with you. I am left wondering what they think the point of it all is, having read their draft document. Disjointed , incoherent logic , and actually I fear it will lend nothing of substance to either the perception of risk, management of tree risk or owner/manager policies. I have to agree with Phenom to some degree also...( sorry Tony...! ) The costs of repeated visits may not be entirely justifiable if the replanting policy suffers as a result. We need more canopy cover. For many of the same reasons we aspire to have these mono's valued for the biodiversity. And the sad truth is there is only so much money ( exactly £nil I understand! ) This is why having a Tree Strategy is so important for LA's.....This has echoes of the "reasoned discussion" of which we spoke in an earlier thread. I want to see LA's deliver value for money...AND i want to see them deliver what the people want, based on directives with purpose and point. Do you know, here in the UK we supposedly have the most sophisticated tree legislation of any european country...? I am not sure what this soundbite means but if anyone felt able to expand on that comment, I would be happy to hear it:thumbup: Lastly Tony, I am somehow wishing to express that I infact do not disagree with the views you have expressed so far. It is as always, a question of striking the right balance!! Cheers.

Your point is well made Tony. To counter that argument however, an incident related to the safety of these structures would surely set back their inclusion in tree strategies. Its as much about perception as anything else in the public arena Im afraid! Now I must off and do some essential "safety" motorcycle maintenance!

Look, it's not always easy to know just how "fooked" they are from the pictures. David is right to query the allocation of resources, imo.So too the assertion that the trees are included within an adequate survey schedule. Janey sums it up well. Execution is , well, as you seem to be suggesting Sean, a bit of a worry. The pine is defo bad judgement imo, and indicates that the others may well be the result of similar bad judgement...? Good thread....Good ol' arbtalk!!

Good luck with mate. The pro dip is offline til 2011 already.

Yep...you got me there mate. The need for a comprehensive and in some way approved evaluation system seems blindingly obvious. We are Arbs. Id be a bit vexed if we did not recognise this! I did not mean to have a go at Tony S but his comment that you just pick a system and go seems to be the issue. It s all about which system you pick. Well, thats just my take on it. But I cant see a reasoned discussion if the evaluation is less than complete and so in some way lacking the logical premis of "reasoned discussion"....this appears not to be the experience of those sults doing the job. How depressing must that be??! Just ignore me Hama, probably got my wires crossed as usual!!

I know of L.A's that drafted in " consultants" who are there as outsiders in a sense, to evaluate the fiscal status quo and recommend where and how cuts are implemented. It seems a tad harsh. Such work as Building Conservation and the like...it has been transformed into a profit only business. Guys who have been in LA's for 20 years or more are encouraged to stab their buddies in the back to secure their contracts of employment. I probably make it sound a bit dramatic but the few I know in LA are not happy bunnies, and the business strategies are fast changing. Im all for competition and value for money ( esp where LA's are concerned ) but how can the cuts not have a knock on effect. Just as an aside..the labour govt( outgoing) was also set to make public sector job cuts. If you look the figures, they stack up worse than the coalition govt . The thing is, once the current incumbent gov term is over, its set to plummet out of sight. This what I mean about welfare state. Its a strange one....Vegetation control can never really be ignored without serious implications to related infrastructure. So you'd think there would be "business as usual". To some extent this is the case. But where the industry suffers is perhaps where the arbs are consulted. Try get a builders/developers to outsource a consult arb from pre app when they dont know whet 5837 is, nibble away all the profit and guess what>? They dont want an arbo onsite. Period. Crazy world. Spend spend spend, then save scrimp save....Pointless!

"What is the thing in the 7th pic?" Reckon it's a bull rush that's kinda given up.....? Am I close?

Those ears keep appearing makes me laugh a little...sorry!

Maybe. The hope that was conveyed in the post above though seemed to be, central to it's purpose, a matter of "reasoned" discussion. Perhaps I am hopelessly idealistic? I was introduced to Helliwell many years ago. Im not gonna start telling you how it works. Wildly different values can be outcomed from the subjective process. Perhaps the documents are subjective. Perhaps only the weight or consideration that is afforded the doc depends on the level of qual the arb has attained in the first instance. Not a great deal of experience when it comes to writing reports despite some training in this area but hope springs eternal in that arboriculture is as much a science as ever it is a matter of opinion. That said, you seem to understand well enough that differing systems are best used in certain situations and vicky vercky. If we could all agree to stick to any given system at one time, we might, (might,) just mange a "reasoned" discussion!! Hope springs eternal!! cheers mate. EDIT : you've just fried me now Hama....Im not gonna read into this more than the question postulated. If you are suggesting that without said consideration, the framework evaluation is useless, then Id have to disagree. Refer to Hope brother!! We need not to be laughed off stage when we spew the kind of numbers we instinctively know to be right & proper because a) the system is subjective b) the system is bettered elsewhere by a more appropriate scale of evaluation c) The suits dont like it and just cos it happens to be opposed to the proposals they are trying to justify Value is Key no?

:lol: Sad but true.

First you gotta negotiate the minefield that is valuation frameworks..or am I being too cynnical? Tim

Terrific images in this here thread....Really makes for a good thread. I get to see these images on 37" HD screen. believe me!