I Can Take You To The Sun – The Misunderstood

Posted on | August 8, 2010 | 118No Commentshttp://www.jackharrybill.co.uk/?p=118I+Can+Take+You+To+The+Sun+-+The+Misunderstood2010-08-08+16%3A13%3A25JackHarryBill

The Rock Machine Turns You On

Posted on | August 8, 2010 | 117No Commentshttp://www.jackharrybill.co.uk/?p=117The+Rock+Machine+Turns+You+On2010-08-08+11%3A05%3A00JackHarryBill

Rock Machine I Love You

Posted on | August 8, 2010 | 116No Commentshttp://www.jackharrybill.co.uk/?p=116Rock+Machine+I+Love+You2010-08-08+11%3A01%3A32JackHarryBill

{Disarmed} The Rock Machine Turns You On

Posted on | August 8, 2010 | 115No Commentshttp://www.jackharrybill.co.uk/?p=115%7BDisarmed%7D+The+Rock+Machine+Turns+You+On2010-08-08+02%3A09%3A41JackHarryBill

The Rock Machine Turns You On

Posted on | August 8, 2010 | 110No Commentshttp://www.jackharrybill.co.uk/?p=110The+Rock+Machine+Turns+You+On2010-08-08+01%3A48%3A49JackHarryBill

In 1968 CBS released a sampler album called the Rock Machine Turns you on. I loved it but it is long gone from my collection. Thought I’d try and recreate it here on Youtube. Got 13 of 15 tracks. “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” by Bob Dylan and “Nobody’s Got Any Money In The Summer” by Roy Harper are missing as I can’t find them on Youtube. Later the same year they realesed “The Rock Machine I Love You”. I’ll try and dig that out soon.

Ann Cryer and the Digital Economy Bill

Posted on | April 14, 2010 | 1043 Commentshttp://www.jackharrybill.co.uk/?p=104Ann+Cryer+and+the+Digital+Economy+Bill2010-04-14+09%3A27%3A47JackHarryBill

Is it just me or would you wonder how it came to pass that an MP seemingly opposed to the Digital Economy Bill suddenly voted for it just as they were about to leave Parliament? My former MP Ann Cryer did just that.

I emailed her asking her to support the bill and got this as a reply:

Digital Economy Bill

Thank you very much for your correspondence regarding your concerns over the Digital Economy Bill currently under discussion in Parliament.

I signed Early Day Motions (1997 & 436) and have written to Peter Mandelson and Stephen Timms MP, Minister for Digital Britain raising similar concerns.

Thank you again for contacting me about this matter, I will of course, keep you informed of any progress made. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you would like to discuss this or any other matter further.

So we have an MP who on the 31 March has signed two EDMs around the subject and written to two Ministers raising concerns about the bill yet then dutifully filed into the lobby to support the government. I have absolutely no idea why she did this but I have written to her to ask for an explanation. If I get a reply from a now ex-MP I will update this blog entry. For information the texts of EDMs 1997 & 436 are below. If you want to check how your MP voted when the Digital Economy Bill was railroaded through with inadequate scrutiny you can find out here.

EDM 1997
ILLICIT FILE SHARING
12.10.2009
Watson, Tom

That this House notes with concern the Government’s proposals on file sharing which would allow rights holders to request internet service providers to disconnect for a period of time, or throttle, the internet connection of people who may be accused of copyright infringement via peer to peer networks; believes that disconnecting alleged offenders will be futile given that it is relatively easy for determined file-sharers to mask their identity or their activity to avoid detection; acknowledges that illicit file-sharing only costs rights-holders money when people download infringing content in preference to buying it; further notes that identifying offenders using the Internet Protocol address of a specific machine may punish those who share a web connection; and calls on the Government to ensure that any citizen accused of illicit file-sharing is given the right to legal redress in a court of law before sanctions are imposed.

EDM 436
FUTURE OF LOCAL RADIO
10.12.2009

Grogan, John
That this House is concerned that the Digital Economy Bill in its present form will threaten the future of local radio by creating a two-tier radio industry in which over 100 local stations, that do not have a clear digital migration path, are consigned to an uncertain future on the analogue spectrum once digital switchover has occurred; notes that, with 46 million adults listening to the radio every week and only three per cent. of listeners expressing dissatisfaction with their present service, radio is thriving in its current form; requests the Government to protect the future of local radio by ensuring that where appropriate, all local radio stations have a viable digital migration path; and calls on the Government to address this before committing the industry to analogue switch-off.

Flickr Photo Download: January 16 2010 – Melt water in the River Worth

Posted on | January 16, 2010 | 103No Commentshttp://www.jackharrybill.co.uk/?p=103Flickr+Photo+Download%3A+January+16+2010+-+Melt+water+in+the+River+Worth2010-01-16+21%3A00%3A23JackHarryBill

via flickr.com

Lots of water running down the River Worth at the moment. Melt water and a fair bit of rain have changed the river completely in a couple of days.

Posted via web from jackharrybill’s posterous

Photo of the day – for a year?

Posted on | January 11, 2010 | 100No Commentshttp://www.jackharrybill.co.uk/?p=100Photo+of+the+day+-+for+a+year%3F2010-01-11+16%3A50%3A24JackHarryBill

Have decided to do a photo of the day on Flickr. I will be trying to put one photo a day up for the whole year as a reminder of at least one thing I did that day. An idea unashamedly nicked from John Culshaw who I heard talking about doing this on the radio.

Some images will be taken on my trusty old D350 and others on my iPhone or some other device that is handy.

These are not intended to be the best shots but those that save the best memories.

Learnt feeding practices by birds?

Posted on | January 2, 2010 | 98No Commentshttp://www.jackharrybill.co.uk/?p=98Learnt+feeding+practices+by+birds%3F2010-01-02+14%3A59%3A04JackHarryBill

When I was a boy in Kent my parents often used to buy a coconut, saw it in half and hang half of it upside down in the garden for the birds. From memory the Blue Tits in particular loved this and could be seen hanging upside down pecking away at the coconut until it had all been eaten.

I have tried this a couple of times here in Haworth with no success. The birds just ignore it and it goes mouldy and eventually I take it down. In the recent cold snap I tried again with something similar, I filled a couple of yoghurt pots with fatball mixture and hung them from a tree in the hope that the Blue Tits would have something to eat that the other birds couldn’t get at. Over a week later a quick insepection showed that these have not been touched. I am sure that this would not have been the case with the Tits in Kent. Is this a learnt behaviour? Has anyone got any similar observations.

This did remind me of a short piece of video of Rooks on fatball filled coconuts that I took last summer in the garden. I have just uploaded it to YouTube:

Keeping the birds alive in Haworth

Posted on | December 21, 2009 | 521 Commenthttp://www.jackharrybill.co.uk/?p=52Keeping+the+birds+alive+in+Haworth2009-12-21+09%3A12%3A53JackHarryBill

While clearing snow off the car  just as dawn was breaking this morning there was a rapid tick tick tick tick noise coming from a nearby tree. It was a Robin seemingly asking for breakfast. Small birds are particularly affected by cold weather. The Robin sat there as the snow fell adding to a carpet that covered most of the normally available sources of food. I put out a few dried mealworms and sure enough a couple of minutes later the Robin was having breakfast.

It is easy to help keep birds alive in your garden and particularly important in winter if you want to see them in the spring. Having put out the mealworms I did a bit more than the usual topping up the seed feeders. I made some fatball mixture by grinding up some peanuts and sunflower hearts and mixing them with currants. Melted lard poured over the top and put into containers to be either put on the ground or hung from the trees supplies vital energy for a range of birds.

Some left over rice, multi-grain bread, old ham, more mealworms and extra currants along with some of the fatball mixture were then added to the bird table and put around the garden. Total time – about 10 minutes. Total cost – maybe a couple of quid. The result? So far visitors to the garden include a small flock of Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Coal, Blue and Great Tits, Starlings, Blackbirds, House Sparrows, Dunnocks, Rooks, Jackdaws,  Magpies, Song Thrushes, a pair of Collared Doves and the Robin of course. Although not seen yet a Pheasant will probably show up later along with a flock of Long Tailed Tits and a Wren or two. Maybe some Gold Finches and who knows what else.

It’s easy, simple and about the cost of a pint of beer to help keep this part of our wildlife alive which is well worth it by any standards.