I had to wonder if Taylor Wimpey (trading under the Bryant Homes brand) was getting just a little desperate today when I received a hand-delivered leaflet offering me free beer at an event in Solihull.

The fellow on the front of this leaflet caught my eye as he appeared to be laughing hysterically at the ‘I’ of ‘If’ in an inebriated state. Clearly there could be mucho beverages on offer.

On opening the leaflet, we discover a woman who seems to be attempting the aspirational ‘look to the sky’ pose so beloved of developers but unfortunately appears more likely to be a drunken ceiling inspector.

The inner page offers you the opportunity to “Get a taste of our stylish homes and Beer Academy this weekend”. The beer academy seems to be a ‘mix your drinks’ tasting session for various obscure brands.

Of course, this event is being thrown by a property developer so at first glance it appears a bit weird. I can only guess the intention is to get the punters as inebriated as possible before attempting to get them to sign on the dotted line for one of their £120k to £235k developments. While this method is commonly used to get corporate clients to sign contracts, it is less commonly used with the general public as it tends to be prohibitively expensive to get that many people drunk enough to be persuaded.

If anyone is interested in attending, the event is apparently being held at a Bryant address on Wharf Lane Solihull on Sat 15th and Sun 16th September from 11:00am to 3:00pm.

There is even the chance to win a years supply of beer which would presumably come in handy when you’re trying to forget how silly you can be with your money when you’re drunk.

If you live in the UK, chances are you won’t have been able to miss the news that the Northern Rock bank are in just a bit of bother right now.

It was announced that the Bank of England was asked as a ‘lender of last resort’ to bail Northern Rock out as they could not raise funds (borrow) on the money markets (other banks). Most banks in the UK have been having trouble on the money markets due to the US subprime crisis but it is rumoured that Northern Rock may be deep into subprime in the UK.

Northern Rock customers were pictured queuing outside of most (if not all) of their branches. Presumably these are investors / savers trying to access their funds and close their accounts. Reportedly, internet banking services for Northern Rock became unavailable overnight Thursday and telephone banking calls were not being answered. Some branches stated they would remain open today until all the queuing customers were seen.

It’s worth noting that if you have money with Northern Rock, you are only fully insured for the first £2,000. The next £32,000 is insured at 90% by FSCS and beyond this there is no insurance. In banking runs, it can sometimes be the case that the number of people trying to withdraw their funds outstrips the bank’s liquidity.

In trading, Northern Rock lost a whopping 32% on their share value which has been falling all year. It was reported in the financial press that at least one major city funds manager withdrew their investment from Northern Rock.

I’d been looking for a video of a Eurofighter Typhoon scrambling since the TU-95 intercept.

I found this short one which shows the crew starting the aircraft and the aircraft departing the HAS. I’m sure the pilot officer will be reducing the amount of butter he applies to his fingers on future QRA scrambles

Early today, the Barents Sea NATO patrolling area was visited again by Russia. This time it was a marathon outing for the bears. No less than 8 TU-95MS Bears were reported to have been intercepted.

Norway scrambled F-16s as per their procedures in order to guard their airspace. As the Russian aircraft proceeded towards UK airspace, the RAF scrambled the QRA Tornado F-3s, 2 jets from RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire and 2 more from RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.

Obviously, 8 Bears is a large number of aircraft to be intercepting and they potentially represent 25 Megatons of nuclear weapons in the form of KH-55 ALCMs. The intercept sortie was successful and the Bears did not enter UK airspace.

During the cold war, the TU-95s would fly a constant nuclear patrol around the Arctic circle region. Apparently, the aircraft would be given designated targets and would proceed towards those targets until called back by radio. I understand that if no radio signal was received, the system was to ‘fail-deadly’ and complete the mutual destruction of both sides assuming a first strike by NATO forces.

Whether the Bears we see today are carrying out a similar nuclear patrol remains somewhat unclear.

It appears though, that my postulation that the Typhoon F2s of XI squadron sent to intercept the last Bear we saw was in fact just a photo-op may have been correct. Today’s intercept was carried out exclusively by Tornado F3s.