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Royston posted this in Wales on December 30th, 2011
By Royston, on December 30th, 2011
Banking Crisis – Lloyds was a safe bank in 1825
The recent banking crisis and the failure of the Scottish attempts to take over the banking world in the UK two years back has set me thinking about the earlier attempts at setting up regional banks and in particular the setting up of the first real retail type banks in the UK. Many years ago numerous county banks were created in different parts of Britain, including Gods Country Wales. There were a number of so called drovers’ banks set up in mid-Wales at that time. Drovers as in ‘rawhide’, the famous cowboy series took the cattle (and sheep) to market and returned the money from the sale to the farmers – which could mean they had quite a considerable sum of money on their person. They would set off with chuck wagon, outriders etc. and fighting off Indians and Brumies would travel the some 180 miles to market to sell their stock.
This growing trade with London’s Smithfield market demanded a relatively secure way of transmitting bills of exchange – i.e. bank notes. One such example was the ‘Black Ox’ drovers’ Bank set up by David Jones of Llandovery in 1799 in the tap room of the Black Ox Pub where the deposits were kept in the coal scuttle behind the bar. The notes depicted the Welsh Black breed of cattle as the motif (shown below) – definitely a better idea than some second rate prince or monarch we now have to put up with nowadays. This Bank is claimed to be the first (real) bank in Wales founded by the drovers John Jones and David Lloyd although I cannot confirm both these names – The bank originally occupied The Black Ox at Llandovery, and later on had premises at The King’s Head inn from 1799 – 1848. An interesting side note on this bank is it later became the Lloyds Bank we all know and love as a main street player in the UK and taker of vast sums of tax-payers money in bailouts. A little earlier in Aberystwyth in 1762 there was a bank formed in the same year a customs office opened in the town, a bank called Banc y Llong (the Ship Bank), followed by a bank known as the Black Sheep Bank because of the picture of a sheep on its notes being chased by a shepherd with his trousers down. There is an example of a note shown below (no shepherd in this version).
In 1825 a crisis occurred which saw the collapse of many private banks across the country. A major factor was the over-issuing of notes and the allowing of debt to spiral out of control such that the sum total of the issued notes could not be honoured if they all came in for payment together. Other contributory factors included a tighter fiscal policy by the London banks a latter day ‘credit crunch’ and bad speculation in the booming industries in the north of the country coinciding with a slump in agriculture. I think this is surprising for the parallelism with what has gone on recently. The collapse of one or two banks caused a run on the others creating a ‘domino effect’ and general panic set in – there were runs on the banks! There are numerous stories from this period about the ruses used by the banks in an attempt to allay the panic. Staff would haul large sacks of scrap metal across the bank in full view of the customers, the sacks having a handful of gold coins on the top to make it appear that the bank had large funds. Nowadays we do this by pumping huge sums of taxpayers money by the European Central Bank to make out the banks in Spain for example are stable and we have Major Merkosy telling us not to panic as they have everything under control so the similarities could not be more obvious.
This is an Article I found on the Black Ox Bank
The Bank was called Banc yr Eidion Du in Welsh, because the notes issued by it were engraved with the picture of a black ox. This bank was opened in 1799 by David Jones *in rooms at the King’s Head, Llandovery. He was a*local farmer’s son and a former drover whose wife brought with her a fortune of £10,000. The business was very profitable, it was said that its founder “knew of more ways of making money than there are public houses in Llandovery.” There were a few !*When he died David Jones left an estate of £140,000 plus landed property. He was High Sheriff of Carmarthenshire in 1825, during the financial crisis of 1825/6, when 70 private banks in England and Wales failed, the reputation of the Black Ox was so high that customers had more faith in its stability than *in the Bank of England. He was followed in the business by 3 sons who opened branches in Llandeilo and Lampeter. The firm continued under the name of David Jones & Sons until 1909 when it was amalgamated into Lloyds Bank
Source: http://home.clara.net/tirbach/HelpPa…tml#Llandovery
Nice link to a post on the Welsh Pound
http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?p=523885
 A local provincial banknote from Wales  This is an example of a Black bull from Wales
Stephanie posted this in Psychology on December 21st, 2011
By Stephanie, on December 21st, 2011
Psychology-themed gifts:
Inception DVD – Jungian symbolism, action adventure and Leonardo DiCaprio!
A subscription to Scientific American Mind magazine.
“I’m statistically significant” and other stats-themed t-shirts.
Memento DVD - the best amnesia movie that we can remember.
The Force Trainer – Become a Jedi: wireless headset interprets your brainwaves and moves an object.
“Connect it” brain/usb t-shirt.
Mindflex brainwave game - go head to head with a friend.
A subscription to The Psychologist magazine.
Serotonin necklace.
Freudian slippers.
Dopamine t-shirt.
Inflatable brain.
Ramon y Cajal t-shirt.
Make a donation to Mind – the UK’s leading mental health charity.
The best psychology books of 2011 (and there’s always the new Rough Guide to Psychology by the editor of the Research Digest!)
Gift-giving research
If in doubt, give them what they want. A study published this year suggested people prefer receiving what they asked for, rather than a surprise gift.
Don’t bundle your gifts. Gift receivers rate a single high-value gift more positively than a big gift bundled with a stocking filler.
This study, from 2002, found that money was a poor gift because it doesn’t convey meaningful information about intimacy and can send the wrong message about the relative status between gift giver and receiver.
Be careful when buying a gift for your man. A study from 2008 found that men responded to dud gifts more negatively than women.
Given the choice, people seem to prefer receiving gifts of plenty and practicality over exclusivity.
Finally, don’t forget to say thank you, even if you don’t like the gift you’ve been given.
Merry Christmas!
–
Post compiled by Christian Jarrett for the BPS Research Digest. Many of the gift ideas were found via mindhacks.com
Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BpsResearchDigest/~3/jNWpuf1LMhE/our-xmas-special-gift-psychology-and.html
Royston posted this in Wales on December 20th, 2011
By Royston, on December 20th, 2011
The Red Lady of Paviland
As RoyMogg readers will be aware the ‘Red-Lady of Paviland’ currently resides in a box in Oxford and is the subject of action to attempt the repatriate the red-lady (actually red-bloke cos it is man!) to the land of origin Wales. The Red-Lady actually a red-ochre stained body of a man, is one of the earliest known Palaeolithic burials in the UK and quite rightly belongs as part of the heritage of the Welsh being an example of early occupation of this land some 25 to 26 thousand years ago.
The bones were discovered around 1823 by the reverend John Davies on a stroll and have been the subject of many false attributions as to what the remains were – not least that the body was of a woman not a man. One of the most colourful stories was that the ochre-stained skeleton had become a ‘painted lady’ as a consequence of the service she gave to the needs of the local Roman garrison in the camp on the hill just above the cave. It was a good story possibly dented by the fact that the woman turned out to be a man although this would have been no problem for the roman soldiers I am sure – particularly on a cold welsh night in some godforsaken posting in the south of Wales some 2 thousand years ago. This would also have given an alternative explanation to the bones being often referred to as the red queen of Paviland although for political correctness I cannot take this argument too far.
Anyhoo … in the early years of the 20th century this did not stack up as it could be seen that as well as not a female burial the mammoth ivories around the body were Palaeolithic. The red-lady has made a trip back to Wales in the meantime and is the subject of a campaign to get this fantastic artefact returned from the canny English but too no avail – there is even a campaign group dedicated to the cause called the ‘The Dead to Rights group’, set up by those who regard the removal of the skeleton as a “desecration” of a sacred site and mirrors the concerns of other groups dedicated to the return of plunder from the colonial era to their rightful place. I am not sure of their success but applaud their cause.
I have been to the cave myself some years back and it is a place of mystery especially when you are on your own – It does take you back and certainly grounded me as a modern day Welsh guy in the land where I was borne (ehh enough of this sentimental crap! ed.)
Royston posted this in humour on December 20th, 2011
By Royston, on December 20th, 2011
It’s that time of year again when itinerant panhandlers (i.e. carol singers) appear on my door-step attempting to sing a few strangled verses of some long forgotten carol before being sent away with a flea in their ear and a recommendation for a few singing lessons by yours truly. Last year some group of lads came around and made a vague attempt at Silent Night (oh I wish it was when they
Continue reading Christmas Spirit alive and well in East Grinstead
Stephanie posted this in Psychology on December 17th, 2011
By Stephanie, on December 17th, 2011
“Love begets love.” Proverb
French researchers say that adding the text “donating=loving” to a charitable collection box almost doubled the amount of money they raised.
Nicolas Guéguen and Lubomir Lamy placed opaque collection boxes in 14 bakeries in Brittany for two weeks. All the boxes featured the following text in French: “Women students in business trying to organise a humanitarian action in Togo. We are relying on your support”, together with a picture of a young African woman with an infant in her arms. Some boxes had this additional text in French just below the money slot: “DONATING=LOVING”; others had the text “DONATING=HELPING”; whilst others had no further text below the slot. Different box types were placed in different bakeries on different days and the amount of money collected each day was recorded.
The text on the donation boxes made a profound difference. On average, almost twice as much money was raised daily in
Continue reading Mention of the word "loving" doubles charitable donations
Royston posted this in Education on December 11th, 2011
By Royston, on December 11th, 2011
When I was a boy we learned to read and write by the old fashioned method chalk and talk. You talk or you get the chalk! When old Mrs Meredith (now sadly passed away to the rejoicing of countless generations of her former pupils – I just thought I can now slander her name with impunity) asked you to spell a word she followed it up within at most a second or two with a piece of chalk fired at your head . I used to marvel at the unnerving accuracy that this slight women managed to find the target (mostly Lyn Davies head as it happens) across a crowded classroom with rarely a off target projection. Strong in arm the chalk made its parabolic flight with ICBM accuracy to find the offending dim wits ear – there to explode in a satisfying plume of chalk dust. Such was the skill I often thought she should have made the first eleven she clearly had cricket in her blood – she must have been related to WC Fields – mainly because of the beard come to think of
Continue reading A Guide to Synthetic Phonics
Stephanie posted this in Psychology on December 10th, 2011
By Stephanie, on December 10th, 2011
Cruijff – the best ever player?Ask a friend to name the best ever footballer and they’re likely to pick someone who was mid-career when they (your friend) was aged around 17. That’s according to a new investigation into the “reminiscence bump”. This term describes the fact that when you ask people to name the most memorable events in their lives, they tend to refer to things that happened to them in their teens and early twenties. Recently it’s been shown that a similar effect occurs when you ask people to name their favourite music, books and films, with them tending to pick out content from their youth. Now David Rubin and his colleagues have extended this line of research to people’s judgement of the best footballers of all time.
Six hundred and nineteen people (aged 16 to 80) took part in the study online, conducted in Dutch and hosted on the
Continue reading What your choice of best ever footballer says about human memory
Royston posted this in society on December 10th, 2011
By Royston, on December 10th, 2011
A bit of controversy last week over the Very Reverend Sheik Rowan Atkinson (yes the ecclesiastical comedian) the mad Mullah of Lambeth (AKA the Archbishop of Canterbury or ABC as he is know to his dwindling flock) and his pronouncements about the incorporation of Sharia law into UK society – he didn’t really say this but its good to ham it
Continue reading Should Sharia Law be included as part of Common Law?
Stephanie posted this in Psychology on December 8th, 2011
By Stephanie, on December 8th, 2011
Newton worked hard and had an inquisitive natureScience suffers from an image problem. Many students see the subject as too difficult and they think scientists are aloof boffins with big brains. A new study out of Taiwan tests the benefits of teaching high-school physics pupils about the struggles of eminent physicists – Galileo, Newton and Einstein.
Over the course of three computer-based lessons during one week, 88 low-achieving students were taught not just about the relevant theories developed by these characters but also about their frustrations and perseverance. For instance, they heard about Newton’s hard work and inquisitive nature (including his comment “I keep the subject constantly before me, till the first dawnings open slowly, by little and little, into the full and clear light.”), and they heard about Einstein’s efforts, but ultimate failure, in seeking to develop a unified field theory – an endeavour that he spent the last 25
Continue reading Hearing about scentists’ struggles helps inspire students and boosts their learning
Royston posted this in outsourcing on December 7th, 2011
By Royston, on December 7th, 2011
In negotiation avoid shortcuts and set specific goals – and ensure they are delivered. Evaluate, clarify and frame negotiations to keep competition alive. Document all discussions and carry out frequent self-assessment and use a term sheet, this helps drive and track the discussion and allows apples to apples comparison -over time the term sheet can evolve into a contract. Good note taking then transference to the final document of the substantive requirement and agreements made during the discussion is important. Do not leave anything out of the agreement that important to you that was discussed and agreed elsewhere – if it is not in the agreement it does not
Continue reading The Five Steps to Outsourcing – Part Three
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