In article ,
Sacha writes:
|
| | The sound quality is appalling now and I don't think it's *just* because
| | we're getting older and deefer! But there are a few things we wouldn't
| | want to miss and some we like to re-visit.
|
| I know that it's not. I can hear repeats of 1950s outside broadcasts
| and most earlier films (not all) without trouble. It's a deliberate
| policy on behalf of all current broadcasters and film makers (I have
| that in writing from the Beeb), and thus they have a policy of ignoring
| complaints (despite the fact that it is or was the foremost cause of
| complaints).
|
| I don't understand - or I hope I don't! You mean they set out to make
| inaudible programmes?!

Effecively, yes - seriously!

They deliberately introduce background noise and distort speech to
enhance the 'atmosphere'. Back in the 1950s, they would have found
a quiet location for an outside broadcast - nowadays, they will
report on news in a quiet location from the nearest noisy street.
Also, the 'background' musak and other noises off is now often
quite a lot LOUDER than the speech, and always continues straight
through it. Plus, except for the news and a few similar programs,
you rarely see the speaker's face at all clearly, and they often
don't even speak into a microphone.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Sat, 13 Sep 2008 11:31:46 +0100, Sacha
wrote and included this (or some of this):

I checked up on the Disability Discrimination Act, and
it carefully doesn't cover such things (or stations and airports,
which make even less attempt to make their information accessible).

I wish there was some organisation for the abolition of music played over
dialogue in tv plays and in films. AMPOD, instead of iPod! Nothing is more
infuriating than that. They appear frightened that the quality of the
script can't hold up on its own without the counterpoint of music to enhance
pathos - or more probably bathos.

It's not just plays and films. They can't give you the news
headlines without loud incessant bloody drums and repeated cymbally
chords and clangs, often drowning out the news reader and persisting
into the news proper before they deign to fade it out.

You know who you are, BBC and Sky particularly.

--
®óñ© © ²°¹°-°²

On 13/9/08 12:20, in article ,
"®óñ© © ²°¹°-°²" wrote:

On Sat, 13 Sep 2008 11:31:46 +0100, Sacha
wrote and included this (or some of this):

I checked up on the Disability Discrimination Act, and
it carefully doesn't cover such things (or stations and airports,
which make even less attempt to make their information accessible).

I wish there was some organisation for the abolition of music played over
dialogue in tv plays and in films. AMPOD, instead of iPod! Nothing is more
infuriating than that. They appear frightened that the quality of the
script can't hold up on its own without the counterpoint of music to enhance
pathos - or more probably bathos.

It's not just plays and films. They can't give you the news
headlines without loud incessant bloody drums and repeated cymbally
chords and clangs, often drowning out the news reader and persisting
into the news proper before they deign to fade it out.

You know who you are, BBC and Sky particularly.

Well, I suppose the answer is for a LOT of people to write in and complain.
Some of the programmes in which this background music is played during
dialogue are not going to appeal to a very young audience. They're made to
be watched by older people who now make up the majority of the population.
So let's make our own loud noise about it! They're supposed to be in the
business of communication, for heaven's sake!
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon

In article ,
Sacha writes:
| On 13/9/08 12:20, in article ,
| "®óñ© © ²°¹°-°²" wrote:
|
| It's not just plays and films. They can't give you the news
| headlines without loud incessant bloody drums and repeated cymbally
| chords and clangs, often drowning out the news reader and persisting
| into the news proper before they deign to fade it out.
|
| You know who you are, BBC and Sky particularly.
|
| Well, I suppose the answer is for a LOT of people to write in and complain.

Apparently that has been happening for so long that they just filter
out all such complaints.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 13/9/08 14:29, in article , "Nick
Maclaren" wrote:


In article ,
Sacha writes:
| On 13/9/08 12:20, in article ,
| "®óñ© © ²°¹°-°²" wrote:
|
| It's not just plays and films. They can't give you the news
| headlines without loud incessant bloody drums and repeated cymbally
| chords and clangs, often drowning out the news reader and persisting
| into the news proper before they deign to fade it out.
|
| You know who you are, BBC and Sky particularly.
|
| Well, I suppose the answer is for a LOT of people to write in and complain.

Apparently that has been happening for so long that they just filter
out all such complaints.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.


The reasoning is beyond me.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon

I wish there was some organisation for the abolition of music
played over
dialogue in tv plays and in films. AMPOD, instead of iPod!
Nothing is more
infuriating than that.

I'll drink to that. Send me a membership form.

And while at it, the abolition of voice-over translations with
the original language audible but not quite decipherable in the
background. Preferably they should broadcast the original
speech, with subtitle translations like Al-Jazeera does, but if
they can't won't do that, they should fade the original right
out altogether and just broadcast the translation.

In article ,
acha writes:
| |
| | It's not just plays and films. They can't give you the news
| | headlines without loud incessant bloody drums and repeated cymbally
| | chords and clangs, often drowning out the news reader and persisting
| | into the news proper before they deign to fade it out.
| |
| | You know who you are, BBC and Sky particularly.
| |
| | Well, I suppose the answer is for a LOT of people to write in and complain.
|
| Apparently that has been happening for so long that they just filter
| out all such complaints.
|
| The reasoning is beyond me.

It's beyond me, too.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In message , mogga
writes

I'm sure there's shed loads of useful prickly plant advice already so
here's my take on it:

What you can do is make sure your house isn't the one without the
alarm!
Also give your windows and frames a good clean so that if you have
SOCO out after a crime they can get good clear fingerprints.
Relevant to the garden - finely raked soil under windows that takes
good shoe impressions is useful too.

Our homewatch info says most are opportunist through open windows so
always lock all windows and doors. If you see people lurking then ring
the police. They won't mind. (Don't ring 999 unless you see something
actually happening though - ring the main number rather than going
through to a local office which is almost certainly unmanned for most
of the day. (eg: i'd ring 872 5050 which goes to the main switchboard
rather than ring Chadderton local office as I know my odds of getting
a pcso in there are slim to zero.)
That number will be in your phone book. Make a note of it somewhere
obvious if you don't already know it.
Also get to know your local pcso and get their collar number (it
starts with a 6!) and then when you ring up you can ask if they're on
by giving that number and then send them a message if they are.

If you've had 3 break ins then it's time to mobilise the neighbours
and start a home watch so people start taking notes on the dodgy
people lurking about (height, coat colour, hair colours, shoes etc)
and ringing it through to the police.
You can get a lovely pack from the homewatch man with a UV marker pen,
stickers and advice leaflets. Ours also do an over 25s sticker for the
cars.

I thought about writing something like the above advice, a prickly bush
might discourage kids and dogs, but not burglars!
The stone wall would be the easiest way in, I would think.

I fitted cameras after my fence was vandalised, and no further damage
has occurred (touch wood). I have since added two more, and they are
recorded to DVD every night and whenever the house is empty.
Apart from providing a tape of two youths who passed quickly through my
garden at 6:30am, trying doors along the row of houses, it has also
entertained me with clips of foxes and other creatures in the garden.
The cops caught and charged the two lads, who had committed a burglary
elsewhere the same morning.

My burglar alarm chap said that the fact that both my outside doors are
visible from the road is a good deterrent to casuals and professionals
alike. (I must get the Aucuba pruned back severely now the nights
are drawing in, as it could hide anyone at my front door).

I tried to start a Homewatch group in my road, and after a meeting
attended by 19 people from 100 houses I leafleted the whole road asking
them to contact me if they were interested in a further meeting.
On my way to deliver them, I found three front doors ajar, and the
response was so apathetic that I decided to maintain an informal
arrangement with a few neighbours who are able to observe each other's
houses, and make mine the least attractive to thieves.
An untidy garden helps.
I have 872 5050 programmed into my house and mobile phones.
:-)
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
"Robert \(Plymouth\)" writes:
| "tonyjeffs" wrote in message
|
...
|
| Aha!
| We have some of that struggling to grow in another part of the
hedge.
| I didn't know what it was.
|
| Nope my mistake. On closer examination it is something different. It
| only has single leaves. It has the thorns though.
| I'll ask at the garden centre about Poncirus trifoliata

It may be pyracantha.

| Surely you want Berberis, I forget the name but the orange flowered
| one is razor sharp. I expect Nick will come back with the name

Berberis vulgaris - the native species! It's rather tricky to get
and a bit slow to get established, but its spines are indeed exactly
like needles. Some of the other berberis are similar, but the most
common ones are only a little spinier than gorse.

There is also pyracantha, several roses, and probably some hawthorns
(but the native species aren't all that thorny). I can't remember
what else, but there are more.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Pyracantha's lethal.

We have one at the back of our garden that I tie in every year and the
thorns go through even strong leather gloves.


Stephen

The message

from tonyjeffs contains these words:
On 12 Sep, 16:11, Jennifer Sparkes wrote:
The message

from tonyjeffs contains these words:

Our house is on a corner. At the side of the garden is a privit hedge,
and at the end is a stone wall. *The corner where the two meet is very
vulnerable to burglars, and there've recently been 3 in the street.
So... we need either barbed wire (joking) or a nice thorny bush to
make that access route less attractive.

How about Poncirus trifoliata? The scent of the flowers is lovely
and it can become quite vicious ...

Aha!
We have some of that struggling to grow in another part of the hedge.
I didn't know what it was. And I didn't know it had a smell! I'll
transplant it to the corner.

Where it is, it has always been small, about 18". Perhaps smothered by
the privit. Can it grow to 7"

Only if you prune 5" off it...

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:
In article ,
Sacha writes:
|
| Berberis are good and so is Rosa rugosa. Not many people will argue with
| the many spines on the latter.

But do watch out for berberis! They vary between the vicious and the
cuddly.

With the balance towards the vicious.

A few months ago I could have provided a mature specimen - they
transplant well.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

The message
from Sacha contains these words:
On 13/9/08 14:29, in article , "Nick
Maclaren" wrote:
In article ,
Sacha writes:
| On 13/9/08 12:20, in article
,
| "®óñ© © ²°¹°-°²" wrote:
|
| It's not just plays and films. They can't give you the news
| headlines without loud incessant bloody drums and repeated cymbally
| chords and clangs, often drowning out the news reader and persisting
| into the news proper before they deign to fade it out.
|
| You know who you are, BBC and Sky particularly.
|
| Well, I suppose the answer is for a LOT of people to write in and
complain.

Apparently that has been happening for so long that they just filter
out all such complaints.

The reasoning is beyond me.

Feedback on R4 sometimes listens. I dunno about the haunted fishtank
though, I haven't had one since around 1970.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:


In article ,
Sacha writes:
| |
| | Berberis are good and so is Rosa rugosa. Not many people will
argue with
| | the many spines on the latter.
|
| But do watch out for berberis! They vary between the vicious and the
| cuddly.
|
| I have to find the name of one that Hyams planted here moons ago
and ask you
| about it, Nick. It's in his book about this garden so I've got to
go on a
| hunt for it. He was obviously rather fond of Berberis and planted
quite a
| lot of them down one particular path beside the church. Or perhaps
he was
| making a point about anarchism!

I'm not an expert! But they are a far more interesting genus than is
often realised.

I shall have to wait and see what my current spontaneous seedling turns
into. It doesn't match any of the descriptions, but it is possible that
young plants may have different leaf structure from old ones.


Somebody's newsreader is inserting an extra space between 'garden' and
'corner', resulting in this thread multiplying into 6 separate scions -
unless it's deliberate...

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

"Robert (Plymouth)" wrote in

Surely you want Berberis, I forget the name but the orange flowered one is
razor sharp. I expect Nick will come back with the name

I bought a berberis to plant under my grandson's bedroom window. I thought
it would stop anyone trying to get in (in the case of burglars) or out (for
when the grandson becomes a mutinous teenager).

In article ,
Rusty Hinge 2 writes:
|
| But do watch out for berberis! They vary between the vicious and the
| cuddly.
|
| With the balance towards the vicious.

Not really - most of the ones commonly planted (e.g. thunbergia, darwinii
x stenophylla) are little spinier than gorse.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.