Then join the Gardeners Group;Down to Earth loop:

https://www.scooploop.com/loops/gardeners-groupdown-to-earth

Then, if you are not a member, join the Pastime loop:

https://www.scooploop.com/loops/pastime

https://youtu.be/sGyRmUTR_sM

https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20160113-why-do-you-get-eye-floaters

https://www.bbc.co.uk/send/u193491675?at_objective=conversion&at_ptr_type=media

By Joshua Jones - The Sun

'THE absence of line judges at Wimbledon will be a sad sight.

For as long as I can remember, the men and women decked out in their Ralph Lauren outfits have been part of the furniture at the All England Club.

Yes, they provided some mild entertainment on the court when one would call "fault" with plenty of extra, and unnecessary, gusto and volume that boomed around Centre Court, prompting a snigger from the fans.

Then there was the ongoing game of dodgeball they had to play when a big serve nailed a mammoth ace down the line and they had to take rapid evasive action or take a whack to the top of the head.

And challenges provided some audience participation, excitedly joining in the clapping countdown before the inevitable "oooh" when the graphic showed just how close the ball was to landing in or out.

Purely objectively, Wimbledon's decision to replace line judges with Hawk-Eye Live makes total sense.

The accuracy and consistency of calls in real-time will speed things up, save time and should mark the end of arguments over the tight incorrect calls - well, until the technology malfunctions.

And Wimbledon's hand was somewhat forced to ditch tradition for their standing in tennis.

The Australian Open and US Open already use electronic line calling and the ATP Tour is adopting Hawk-Eye Live across all of its tournaments from 2025.

Wimbledon's refusal to comply would leave them lagging behind and exposed to the threat of needless controversy over human error.

But the impact - as is so often the case in these decisions - has ramifications further down, below the surface with very little impact on Wimbledon's Championships or the players.

It is on the line judges themselves.

Approximately 300 officials - aged from 18 to 80 - covered more than 650 matches at Wimbledon.

A fraction travel internationally with the circuit but the vast majority of those are part-time line judges based in the UK, earning up to £180 per day to work at the prestigious tournament and their chance to play their part at Wimbledon.

For many, they will help out at British tournaments throughout the year, spurred on by the possibility of taking to the lawns of the All England Club.

But it is understood many of those officials would be reluctant to work at the lower-level tournaments without the carrot of Wimbledon dangling in the summer.

That in turn will put a major stumbling block in the pathway for British tennis umpires, who grind up through the ranks to reach the pinnacle of the sport.

Like football with referees, tennis needs umpires and line judges.

So the inability to call "out" at Wimbledon could prove to be a major "fault" for the future of the UK's tennis officials and therefore the state of the sport on these shores.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN3Y_iKmgZA

I was ordering stuff on Amazon yesterday and decided to have a look at herbs and spices they were selling.

I came across dried, ground Basil.

What surprised me was that I could buy 100gms for £4.15.

Even more surprising was that I could buy twenty times that amount (2kgs) for a mere 15 pence more!

They had other amounts at different prices but I now have enough powder to last a couple of lifetimes. So if anyone needs any....

... I remember a dinner date with a girl who was a county champion chess player , and when I asked her to pass the salt , she took 20 mins .

The address you use to log on decides what you see at log on. If you just type/use click Scooploop. com, then if you have not made use of the settings at the top of the home page (shown below), then you will get the default view. If you have a favourite destination, then you can use its address to go straight there. An address (link below) that you may not be aware of is your personal hub. This shows all activity and settings for your account.

https://www.scooploop.com/hub/

I would like to share this link with you
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/articles/ckgj184pdrno

A few pictures from my recent Western Mediterranean cruise.
Sunrise as we arrived in Barcelona.
A shop in Barcelona Marina (which would need to be Reform(ed) otherwise Nigel wouldn't visit).
A street in La Spezia, Italy, home of Richard Wagner - where we had some delicious gelato.
A Seagull, one of many whipping past our balcony while we were in port.
A car ferry trying to overtake us and beat us in to Palermo (it succeeded).

https://jottacloud.com/s/095e81d0aa117ae424aaaee0c684f0b9179

Seeing that River Island is closing some stores, reminded me of my time at a clothing company. We ordered all the components for their clothing, packed them in boxes, then transported them to be shipped to Morocco where the clothing was made. The finished items were then shipped back to our warehouse. River Island then called for the items they required. If we did not have the size they wanted for trousers, we altered them!

I have taken to uttering a large groan every time I sit or get up from a chair.

I see there are lots of MSN 'news' links on the site. They just seem to be click-bait to lead you to the endless adverts. The 'news' may not even contain what is in the headline. Who do you use to see the news?

There will soon not be enough electricity in the world to power all the data centres. 55-90% of the data is never used!


https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002dc92

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/face-recognition-skills-of-the-memory-cop-achieves-mind-blowing-3000-suspects-found/

My wife and I had an excellent night last night at the O2 for a Lionel Ritchie concert. For a man of 75 he still has that Ritchie voice. A really brilliant concert.

I have been in pain around the groin area so have been to see my G.P. She has a sense of humour as asked me if l wanted the bad news or the bad news. The first bad news was she thought l needed a new hip. So I asked her about the other bad news, she answered you probably need 2 new hips one on each side. Hilarious 😢

After 50 years of marriage, I looked at my wife one day and said, “Half a century ago, we had a modest house, a beat-up car, slept on a sofa bed, and watched a small black-and-white television, but every night I was with a stunning 23-year-old woman.

Now, we have a £500,000 house, a £45,000 car, a comfy king-size bed, and a huge flat-screen TV, but I share it all with a 73-year-old woman. It seems you're not holding up your end of the bargain.

Being a practical woman, my wife calmly replied, “Go ahead, find yourself a hot 23-year-old girl, and I’ll make sure you’re back living in a ramshackle house, driving a junky car, sleeping on a sofa bed, and watching a small black-and-white TV.”

You have to love older women: they know how to handle an older man's problems!

I found a monkey wondering around Shepherd's Bush yesterday. I took him to the zoo.
Tomorrow I’m taking him to the cinema. I hope he likes it as much!

https://jottacloud.com/s/0956db84f0045ef4ca499833cacaea6d15e

Looking around Scooploop, I notice that some people are on here the whole day, I find this very sad. Edited at: 8 am, 9 am, 10 am, 11 am, 12 pm, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, 4 pm, 5 pm, 6 pm, 7 pm, 8 pm, 9 pm, 10 pm.

https://birdaware.org/solent/gulls-by-the-sea-but-thats-not-a-seagull/

tried to

If you are reading this and feel unseen, I hope you know your presence is a miracle. The world does not need you to be louder, or smaller, or less difficult to love, it only needs you to stay.

Somewhere, someone is quietly struggling to feel seen, to feel like they matter just as they are. If that someone is you, let this be a soft reminder that your existence is not an accident, nor is it a mistake to be corrected. You are not here to be more agreeable, less emotional, easier to understand, or harder to break.

You are here to be and that, in itself, is extraordinary.
The world may not always mirror back your worth, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. You don’t need to change your shape to fit into places that can’t hold your depth.

What you carry, your voice, your tenderness, your resilience is needed. You are needed, so if today feels heavy, if you’re wondering whether your presence makes a difference, please don’t go, stay, not because you owe the world perfection, but because your being here already matters more than you know.

How many forum members does it take to change a lightbulb?

1 to change the light bulb and 1 to post that the light bulb has been changed

14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently

7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs

27 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs

53 to flame the spell checkers

41 to correct spelling/grammar flames

6 to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb"

... another 6 to condemn those 6 as anal-retentive

2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is "lamp"

15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry, and that "light bulb" is perfectly correct

156 to email the participant's ISPs complaining that they are in violation of their "acceptable use policy"

109 to post that this forum is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a lightbulb forum

203 to demand that cross posting to hardware forum, off-topic forum, and lightbulb forum about changing light bulbs be stopped

111 to defend the posting to this forum saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant to this forum

306 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique and what brands are faulty

27 to post URL's where one can see examples of different light bulbs

14 to post that the URL's were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URL's

3 to post about links they found from the URL's that are relevant to this group which makes light bulbs relevant to this group

33 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add "Me too"

12 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy

19 to quote the "Me too's" to say "Me three"

4 to suggest that posters request the light bulb FAQ

44 to ask what is a "FAQ"

4 to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?"

143 to say "do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs"

1 new forum member to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again.

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/scientists-in-japan-develop-non-toxic-plastic-that-dissolves-in-seawater-within-hours/

https://www.instagram.com/thestartupcowboy/reel/DH64OWIpI44/?api=%E8%8E%86%E7%94%B0%E6%80%8E%E4%B9%88%E6%89%BE%E5%B0%8F%E5%A7%90%E4%B8%8A%E8%AF%BE%E7%BA%A6%E6%9C%8D%E5%8A%A1[%E5%9C%A8%E7%BA%BF%E9%A2%84%E7%BA%A6](%E5%A8%81%E4%BF%A11646224%E7%9C%9F%E5%AE%9E%E4%B8%8A%E9%97%A8%E6%9C%8D%E5%8A%A1)-%E8%8E%86%E7%94%B0%E6%8C%89%E6%91%A9%E5%B0%8F%E5%A7%90%E6%9C%8D%E5%8A%A1-%E8%8E%86%E7%94%B0%E6%80%8E%E4%B9%88%E7%BA%A6%E5%B0%8F%E5%A7%90%E4%B8%8A%E9%97%A8%E6%9C%8D%E5%8A%A1%E8%8E%86%E7%94%B0(%E5%A8%81%E4%BF%A11646224%E7%9C%9F%E5%AE%9E%E4%B8%8A%E9%97%A8%E6%9C%8D%E5%8A%A1).vmiq&hl=zh-cn

If you only use your phone to view Facebook, you may not be aware that computer users do not see the banner photo as you do. On a PC, the height is cropped, so may omit something you thought you were showing. On a phone, the sides are cropped.

One of my interests is aircraft tracking. I use two trackers: flightradar24(add .com on the end) and https://globe.adsbexchange.com/

There is much information available on these. Clicking an aircraft will show its track, type and flight details. You can zoom and move maps. Clicking the U top right in ads will show military aircraft. The photo below shows how many flights there are currently over the UK and near Europe.

On the occasion of another birthday approaching I rang my eldest son to request no gift other than he continues the annual subscription to "Private Eye" on my behalf.

He reminded me that he was introduced to it at an impressionable age, and he is glad I still have the marbles to continue my interest in the world by regular exposure to that venerable organ of truth.

Happy to report he will also visit and treat me to lunch!

What do you value or wish for next birthday?

25 and rising!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czel04jlp3ro

I have been going to this village for decades and every year apart from Covid year l have been planning, designing, picking petals for the yearly Infiorata. My Italian friends expect me but this year is my last year as we’re unable to come again due to health reasons.

Although this message was issued by the Thames Valley Police, the message is relevant to occupants of all police force areas.

Don’t get hooked: new warning urges the public to continue reporting phishing emails and texts with 41 million already reported

As of April 2025, the total number of phishing frauds reported to the Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS) reached over 41 million since its launch in April 2020. This has resulted in 217,000 frauds being removed from across 393,395 websites pages by the National Cyber Security Centre.

Insight revealed by Action Fraud shows the top industries impersonated in reported phishing emails were streaming services, tech, and telecommunication companies, with some posing as various UK government schemes.

Action Fraud, the national fraud and cyber-crime reporting service, launched a phishing awareness campaign to urge the public to beware of phishing frauds and report all emails and messages if they look suspicious.

Spam calls and suspicious text messages can be reported too. By using 7726, a free service offered by mobile network providers, customers can forward suspicious text messages, which helps the removal of fraud websites and allows networks to block users sending fraud text messages. Between April 2020 and April 2025, more than 27,000 frauds were removed because of being reported using 7726.

Detective Inspector Duncan Wynn, Head of Central Fraud Unit at Thames Valley Police, said:

“Fraudsters continue to exploit manipulative tactics to gain access to your personal information and money.

I urge you to become part of the solution by ensuring you forward spam calls and texts messages to 7726 and forwarding suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk

Every fraud starts through a route of contact which is covered in our Fraud Protection toolkit

Knowledge and collective action are our biggest asset when rising the challenge of fraud.

I encourage you all to start having conversations about fraud, especially with any vulnerable family members or those in your community.

Together, we will continue to rise to the challenge of fraud.”

Superintendent Amanda Wolf, Head of the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau at the City of London Police, said:

“We know it can be difficult to spot fake messages or tell if a call is genuine. Criminals can change tactics fast and use the technology available to constantly create genuine looking emails and messages or facilitate calls that feel authentic - all designed to trick us and try and steal personal and financial information.

“Every phishing email reported helps us gain a better understanding of the tactics being used and enables us to tackle it head on by identifying malicious URLs trending in phishing emails and texts - they can be taken down and disrupted, preventing further activity. The more reports received, the more people we can protect, preventing them from becoming victims.

“Do not get caught out, Stop, Think Fraud, and make sure you report suspicious-looking emails or messages if you receive them. You can forward emails to report@phishing.gov.uk, or forward spam text messages to 7726.”

Sarah Lyons, NCSC Deputy Director for Economy and Society Resilience, said:

“Since 2020, over 41 million phishing attempts have been reported to the Suspicious Email Reporting Service — a powerful sign that the public is staying alert to online threats, helping to protect themselves and others.

“But cyber criminals are not giving up - they are constantly finding new ways to trick people into clicking malicious links, sharing personal information, or handing over money.

“That is why it is more important than ever to stay alert. You will find clear, practical advice on how to spot and report frauds - and how to stay secure online - on the NCSC website.”

What is phishing?

'Phishing', ‘quishing’ or ‘smishing’ is when criminals use fake emails, text messages, QR codes, or phone calls to trick victims.

The goal of a phishing message is to encourage the victim to click a malicious link, or scan a fraudulent QR code, which usually leads them to a genuine-looking website, designed to make victims part way with their financial and/or personal information. Criminals will use well-known brands or organisations the victim already has a connection with, like a bank or tradesperson, to make fake emails seem genuine and more convincing.

How can you protect yourself?

If you have received an email that does not feel right, STOP!

break the contact – do not reply, click on any links, call any phone numbers, or make any payments check if it is genuine: contact the organisation directly using an email address or phone number you know is correct, e.g. from your utility bills, via a search engine, on the back of your card or by calling 159 for banks before you delete the email, forward it to report@phishing.gov.uk
If you have received a text message that does not feel right, STOP!

break the contact – do not reply, click on any links, call any phone numbers, or make any payments check if it is genuine: contact the organisation directly using an email address or phone number you know is correct, e.g. from your utility bills, via a search engine, on the back of your card or by calling 159 for banks forward the message for free to 7726
If you have received a call that does not feel right, STOP!

hang up check if it is genuine: contact the organisation directly using contact details you know are correct, such as those on a utility bill, official website, the back of your card or by calling 159 for your bank do not trust the Caller ID display on your phone – it is not proof of ID report it by sending a text to 7726 with the word ‘call’ followed by the fraud caller’s number
For more advice on how to protect yourself from fraud: https://stopthinkfraud.campaign.gov.uk/

If you have lost money or provided financial information because of a phishing fraud, notify your bank immediately and report it to Action Fraud at actionfraud.police.uk or by calling 0300 123 2040. In Scotland, call Police Scotland on 101.

Message Sent By
Jo Howland
(Police, Neighbourhood Administrator, Aylesbury Vale)

Name staff members past and present.
Top row: A1 A2 A3
Second row: B1 B2 B3
Bottom row: C1 C2 C3