Steven P

Coming back to this one. Recording studio owning friend suggests: Rockwool bats are good sound insulators (as is rolls of it, the batts are easier to handle) Depends on the frequencies you want to block she suggests 100mm as reasonable - this is for a church hall environment, cutting out talking noise so might be different for music and a full range of frequencies. Make a frame however big you want, 150mm deep with slats over the front, the slats need to be thinner than the sound wave... about 5cm for talking frequencies... less for higher frequencies. Spacing between slats up to you - the bigger the spacing the better but you might loose some structural strength in the insulation. Under the slats hessian sacking - to hold the front of the insulation batts in place. Then 100mm insulation, then another support and a gap to the wall. She hasn't got as far as saying how many I need for my needs but for a studio enough to cover all the walls? Wood facing and you will get echos so you need the gaps I think. She then went about sound insulation factor - sound equivalent of insulation 'U' factor, I think she said 70 and above was decent? I was surprised, just rockwool will work (rockwool - fire proof)

Thing is the Trans issue, affects about 0.1% of the population, something like that, with about 1/3 of that 0.1% considering changing... and yet the politicians are making it into a massive issue - disproportionate. It is his style, divide, conquer, sow disinformation and the seeds of fear, then ride in on his white charger "I can fix it (but by the way, forgive my earlier transgressions and I might be setting womens rights back 100 years to do so)"

Wasn't sure if that was a wind up question, Tate being a divisive figure and how this forum likes to squabble.

30 years.. been pretty much 50-50 split in that time... so all political parties have had a finger in how affluent they are over there... 2 sides you see. Current incarnation wants tariffs on everything by way of example, the importers into the US aren't going to be taking a cut.. which will mean price rises in the US. He wants to raise a trillion somehow... again.. that's not coming from my pocket but from the pockets of Americans - price increases.

Junior. (Point I'm, making is that you can be one sided, biased if you like but if we all stood back and looked objectively at all sides of politics, and in fact all sides of society, we can find an event or story to back up what we are saying.)

Work are going mental, it is going to be windy, so far I've had 5 e-mails and 2 texts to tell me this. See what it looks like in the morning but nothing outdoors planned

Could ask the same about George W Bush too?

Again... you can't use that defence "Ahh, 'I' have done a bad thing, but look over there, that man did bad thing too so 'I' am absolved of all 'I' have done bad" Still did bad thing. Imagine this defence "You did murder" "Yes, but that man did murder twice" "Good point, case dismissed"... see? 'I' and 'That Man' can of course be interchanged with many politicians names.

and likewise stories going about of jobs being cancelled just now out of fear they have hired the best candidate... but they were women or coloured... and the companies are afraid of being fined or sanctioned now. Lives being ruined - given up jobs to take the new one that is cancelled at a stroke. End of the day, businesses have to make money, no one will hire someone who will be a burden and unprofitable - they'd fire the job advert out again if there were no suitable candidates.

It was the 1965 discrimination bill he scrapped. Nothing to do with diversity targets, just plain scrapping the legal protections of that.

But back on topic, the equal opportunities acts - and similar around the world are to stop basic discriminations, basic racism and to allow all to have a fair crack at the whip, a fair chance at getting any job.. This is a good thing. Larger companies will have a HR department monitoring these things and should be quick to ask hiring managers for example "Why do you only hire white men"... 60 years of US protection for workers and in all those 60 years no one has been shouting that it is unfair... then up steps Trump, a rash swish of the pen and womens rights have gone back to last century (along with the inferred allowable racism that you can scrap all CVs from other races, only interviewing your own (which of course favours the white man)). Discrimination is still discrimination whichever way it goes, but... your workforce should be representative of the local employee pool for the roles: So perhaps in Tree surgery and arboculture, fewer women wanting this career so you'd expect fewer in the workforce.. but they should get an even crack at it if they do apply for roles, and opposite to that, office workers should see a 50-50 mix men-women and an ethnic blend close to the local workforce - in Aberdeen for example, might be 95% white, in London might be 80% white. Fair an even for all. The law -was- there to help ensure this. It was a good thing.

Yup, though I'd shy away from checking if they are virgins though, that is probably a whole world of pain - though they reckon that is a translation issue and what they meant was 'unmarried'.

Wow, that's a big iceberg!

No, in the UK that would still be religious discrimination, Jesus was a hippy, basis of a couple of religious books.

TV License... if they had a big squad out there enforcing them we'd know about it I think. Chances are the ones on the TV had been dropped in it by a friendly neighbour. Getting a high court writ for everyone? Probably not, Not sure though if shops have to report who buys a TV? Something in the back of my mind. Woodsure... probably enforced the same way, someone with a reason to lets them know and round they pop.

That's a point.... Obligatory Editty bit (Been missing these, whoops) 'That's a point' referring to Gareth, I need to make more of the First-Bestie being South African

I'm not an expert on tachometers, not GPS? So you'd only get time of day they were moving but not where even if they were working? It is another thing how you sneak an arctic down a country lane... twice... with no one noticing

Heat pumps will work for us... no gas supply... so heating electrically for the same price as gas has its merits. Add in a couple of solar panels... but while there is excess tax on electricity that isn't on gas (at the point of use) heat pumps won't make sense to most. Still need an immersion heater or under sink electric heater for hot water though.

...any layby generally (reports on the news yesterday of 2 arctic loads fly tipped - builders waste... any layby will do).

This is true... that is another issue... but one to consider also.

Word of mouth and visibility helps more. Go out in a white transit with no advertising logo on the side you won't get noticed, but have a fully liveried van, park up for morning coffee where the school run mums walk past, have business cards ready to hand out, use a real phone number - even if just for an answer machine plus a mobile, a simple website... can all help I can name about 3 or 4 local tree surgeons just from seeing them out and about in their vans, no need to look them up. However for what you are describing, letter boxing with some leaflets could help, but word of mouth when you start getting more work in

Gradual training maybe. Don't throw thousands at a new employee in the first week they join - do the ones to get them on site safely grafting, get that mostly paid off then throw in a chainsaw ticket, get that paid off and so on... the career minded will see regular training and hang about if they can see the next tickets coming along in a month or so. You'll soon know if they are only there to take you for a ride. After that keeping them is old fashioned loyalty - your personality and how you treat them. Buy a bacon bun 'thanks' after a tricky week with an earlier dart if possible, it is worth it's weight in gold

Do your tree work customers ever ask for the logs? Might be a handy extra days work "We can split them for you, bring the same ones back in a week or 2 or I can swap them for a random selection I have split ready in the yard this afternoon" type of thing - saves all schemes I think since you are not supplying the logs, only splitting them.

That her, yes. (one of Trumps ... many... discrepancies between what he says and what he does. Maybe he just doesn't realise - a horrifying thought - a bit like that scene in Trainspotting where Robert Carlisle is in the night club touching a man... wonder if Trump is angry cause he did the same?)

Considering that electric cars are a part of the solution to move away from fossil fuels.... I am sure it is you that gives a shit. In fact it is probably on a scale of taking a huge jobby on Union Street scale of giving a shit.