NEWS FROM SCOTLAND
Reports by Joe Murphy
Well the Scottish people have voted to stay in the United Kingdom after a massive turnout of voters; in fact we have never seen so many people at a polling station in my life. People who have never voted for a long time came out to vote and the police did not stop people from parking on double yellows lines and they watched as they got out of cars and using their Zimmers went into the station to cast their vote. That is how important an issue this was for Scotland and it was quite ironic that the result from the Kingdom of Fife (where I live) made it a mathematical certainty of a ‘No’ vote. This has been such an important issue with everyone and has gone on for weeks and weeks that to be honest I am glad that it is all over and we can now move on. The whole world has been watching Scotland and it has already caused a rise in the FTSE 100 share index and the pound rose against the euro and the US dollar as soon as the banks opened half an hour ago at nine o’clock.
Space Weather
Throughout the year I forward the Space Weather to the News in Brief feature. Some people follow this while others don’t even look at it. However many of you may noticed the feature on the BBC News regarding the report of Solar Storms and how it can affect us on earth. This item was also reported in many newspapers throughout Britain and if it is disturbing our weather pattern then what damage is it doing to our pigeons? A short snippet from these articles emphasises the following: A solar flare in the middle of the sun on the 10th of September see photograph from NASA/Reuters. The twin magnetically charged solar storms will arrive at Earth on Thursday and Friday, raising concerns that GPS signals, radio communications and power transmissions could be disrupted, “space weather” officials in the United States have said. Individually the storms, known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, would not warrant special warnings but their unusually close timing and direct path towards Earth prompted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Centre to issue an alert. The first CME burst from a magnetically disturbed region of the sun on Monday (8th) night and other erupted on Wednesday, said centre director Thomas Berger who said, “We don’t expect any unmanageable impacts to national infrastructure from these solar events at this time, but we are watching these events closely”. The sun is in the peak of its 11-year cycle, though the overall level of activity is far lower than a typical solar max. Storms as powerful as the ones now making their way towards Earth typically occurred 100 to 200 times during a solar cycle, Berger stated. “The unique thing about this event is that we’ve had two in close succession and the CMEs could possibly be interacting on their way to Earth, at the Earth’s orbit or beyond, we just don’t know that yet,” he said. The highly energetic, magnetically charged solar particles could hit Earth’s magnetic field and disrupt some radio communications and degrade GPS signals, said NOAA. Past storms have affected the power grid, and operators and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) had been notified “just in case”, said Berger. The storms might also trigger beautiful aurora displays along northern latitudes as electrically charged solar particles hit the atmosphere. I keep highlighting the fact that we should be listening to these scientists as they have more knowledge than me or the majority of pigeon fanciers plus the fact they are working for NASA who spends Billions on this type of work and we should be taken advantage of it. But the majority of us know that we pigeon fanciers know more about the weather forecasts than all the scientists put together.
A solar flare in the middle of the sun
Young Bird National
The SNFC young bird national was flown from Buckingham on Saturday 13th September with 112 members sending 1552 birds liberated at 10-35am into a light north east wind. The winner was to the partnership of G A & L Firth of Lockerbie in the south section with a velocity of 1361; this was a good winner and won by over 20 yards per minute so well done. 1st section B 2nd open is C Crees from Coldstream with Billy Bilsland of Ayton again having a great race timing in 29 of his 48 entries to win the following positions: 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 13th 32nd 33rd 34th 40th 41st 43rd 48th 49th 51st 53rd 54th 62nd 63rd 67th 70th 78th 99th 100th 101st 111th 131st & 140th Open. I have done an article on Billy for the Stud Book & Squills 2015 Year Books and there are some interesting snippets to be had from Billy. However from this race his 3rd open winner is a blue hen and her sire is a direct son of Billy Holland’s 1st west section 15th open SNFC Tours 2011 winning cock, while the dam is ‘Isla’ Billy’s 1st open SNFC young bird national Leicester winner from 2012. As a matter of interest ‘Isla’ won 155th open SNFC Ypres in 2014. The 4th open winner is a blue bar cock 307 whose sire was bred by John Barlow from Chainbridge Loft stock and he won 89th open young bird national and was 197th open SNFC Ypres in 2014. He was paired to a hen who has won 17th open SNFC young bird national 2013, 14th open SNFC Maidstone and 62nd open Ypres 2014 and she is a direct daughter of ‘Isla’ mentioned above. The 5th open is a chequer cock 305 whose sire is a red cock that has flown the full young bird and old bird programme without setting the ‘heather on fire’ but is a very consistent cock. Dam of the 5th open is ‘Alexis’ a winner of 34th young bird national 2013, 3rd open Maidstone and 5th open Ypres 2014 all with the SNFC. The 6th open winner is a chequer hen 322 whose sire was bred by Billy Holland and flew the Alencon race in 2014 and the dam is a Chainbridge bred hen who won 82nd open SNFC young bird national in 2013. The 7th open is a blue bar white flight cock 5445 bred by David Reed of Chainbridge Lofts whose sire is ‘Welltower Neil’ winner of 1st open SNFC young bird national 2013 and the white flight cock’s dam is 1817 who won 1st Tyne & Tweed federation from 4.756 birds. Both these birds were bred by David Reed of Chainbridge Lofts and Billy gave both back and David bred youngsters for Billy and 5445 is one of these.
Alexis
To have 5 birds in the top 10 in any national is brilliant but to have 50% of your entries on the open result is truly staggering especially when you consider the amount of young bird losses suffered this year. I think Billy Bilsland has proved without doubt that he is an outstanding fancier and envisage we will hear more about this man in the years ahead. ResultsAlmond Valley Federation The federation were at Thirsk for their final race of the season this being the young bird open with 304 birds entered the convoy were liberated at 09-45am into a light north west wind. Dougie Bald of Balerno timed the winner with a flying time of 3 hours and 52 minutes but have no details of his pigeon he is also 9th open. John Burnside of the Armadale club is in second position timing in 4 hours 6 minutes John kindly phoned me to state that his bird is a Cattrysse pigeon acquired from D Sloan from Airdrie and was flown on the darkness system, John also tells me he has flown the darkness system for 2 years now and thinks it is the best young bird flying he has ever done. In third position is yours truly Jimmy Yong and Claffey of East Calder with a blue pied hen who has been really consistent to the loft, she was our first pigeon from Consett and from the 1st Otterburn race, her nest mate has also been consistently regular in the first birds to the loft, the breeding of these birds is Galaxy lofts breeding down from ‘Main Man’ who is a Koopman cock crossed with a Van Loon. Fourth 6th 7th & 8th places go to Tam Gavin from the Armadale club (sorry no details) and in 5th spot is D McBeath also from the Armadale club and again no details. A McCalley and son of Armadale are 10th with no details of their bird either. When I emailed you and asked if it would be alright to send in our federation results on a weekly basis NEVER for the life of me did I think that I wouldn't be able to get the details from the members so it just makes you wonder if it is worth all the effort. Thanks Joe for publishing the Almond Valley Federation results Joe but I don`t know if I will be continuing doing this job in the future, yours Jimmy Young’. This is a sad state of affairs that the members have not cooperated with Jimmy however I thank him for his time and effort JM. Scottish Central Combine news from Bernie Britton who informs us that 30 member’s sent 321 birds to Wakefield on 6th September after a one day holdover the birds were liberated at 09 00am into a north west wind. 1st club 1st federation 1st open Combine is Gordon MacKenzie with a blue bar hen a Gabby from M & D Evan’s she is a great granddaughter of Benetton’, Gordon also had 4 other birds on the open result. 2nd club is John McNeill with a darkness chequer cock his sire is a bird on loan from J Frood from Lanark the dam is a granddaughter of Sanny’s memory full sister of this pair won in the young bird national race of 2013 also had 5 birds on the combine result. 3rd is Gordon MacKenzie with another Gabby from his stock loft. This information Joe was taken of the combine result on ‘pigeon basics’ just in case there any mistakes. Hope the family are all well yours Bernie. Pentland Hills Federation news from Andy Miller who informs us that 30 members sent 305 birds with 204 entered into the SNFC 204 and the other 101 only entered into the Federation. The race was from Buckingham with the SNFC young bird national race flown on Saturday 13th September with the convoy of 1557 birds liberated at 10-35am into a light north east wind. Winning 1st Federation open is the form loft of J & T Young from Danderhall who timed their Blue Bar pied hen on a 1300 velocity, Tam forwarded me the following details. Just a wee note about my winning bird she is a blue pied hen and is nest mate to our federation winner of a couple of weeks ago at Tow Law. I fancied her last week but lost her mate and I made my sheet out on Wednesday and on Thursday prior to basking noticed that she had taken to an old cock. (This was all the motivation she required Joe M) The partnership are also 8th open federation. 2nd & 10th are Willie Kinnear & son Barrie from Danderhall. Nolan & Farwell of the same club are 3rd 7th & 9th with yours truly Andy Miller of Sighthill club in 4th & 5th positions just ahead of club mate Stevie Girdwood in 6th place. Well Joe that is it for another season, list of trophy winners to follow once they are made up kindest regards to the family yours Andy’.
Joe’s Joke - Wales' turn this week for the joke!!!
Three friends married women from different parts of the world The first man married a Greek girl. He told her that she was to do the dishes and house cleaning.
It took a couple of days, but on the third day he came home to see a clean house and dishes washed and put away. The second man married a Thai girl and he gave his wife orders that she was to do all the cleaning, dishes and the cooking. The first day he didn't see any results but the next day he noticed it was better. By the third day he saw his house was clean, the dishes were done, and there was a huge dinner on the table. The third man married a girl from Wales and he ordered her to keep the house cleaned, dishes washed, laundries washed and have a hot meal on the table every day. The first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see anything either, ...... but by the third day some of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye and his arm was healed enough that he could fix himself a sandwich and load the dishwasher. He still has some difficulty when walking.
SCHOOL - 1950s v 2014
Scenario:
Johnny and Mark get into a fight after school.
1950s - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up best friends.
2014 - Police called, and they arrest Johnny and Mark & charge them with assault.
Both expelled even though Johnny started it.
Both children go to anger management programmes for 3 months.
School governors hold meeting to implement bullying prevention programmes.
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Scenario:
Robbie won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
1950s - Robbie sent to the office and given six of the best by the Principal.
Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2014 - Robbie given huge doses of Ritalin becomes a zombie. Tested for ADHD result deemed to be positive. Robbie's parents get fortnightly disability payments and school gets extra funding from government because Robbie has a disability.
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Scenario:
Billy breaks a window in his neighbour's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1950s - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2014 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care; joins a gang; ends up in jail.
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Scenario:
Mark gets a headache and takes some Aspirin to school.
1950s - Mark gets glass of water from Principal to take aspirin with, Passes exams & becomes a solicitor.
2014 - Police called, car searched for drugs and weapons. Mark expelled from school for drug taking and Ends up as a drop out.
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Scenario:
Johnny takes apart leftover fireworks from Guy Fawkes night puts them in a paint tin & blows up a wasp's nest.
1950s - Wasps die.
2014- Police & Anti-Terrorism Squad called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism; investigate parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated.
Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly in an aeroplane again.
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Scenario:
Johnny falls over while playing football during morning break and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. She hugs him to comfort him.
1950s - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing football. No damage done.
2014 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy and ends up gay.
Please continue to keep the news flowing; to Joe Murphy Mystical Rose Cottage 2 Flutorum Avenue Thornton by Kirkcaldy KY1 4BD or phone 01592 770331 or to my NEW EMAIL ADDRESS at;
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