Castle Aching

[drmditch]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Oh, I don't know. There are several eligible Habsburgs about should you wish to revive the Holy Roman Empire. 22 grandchildren of the late Otto.

Not sure the HRE would be capable of revival having been abolished in 1806 (?) by Napoleon on the grounds of being neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.

As for the KuK Austro-Hungarian Empire, I think that's a bit unlikely as well. The Austrians I know are happy to view it with a kind of suffused romanticism, and take (took?) the tourist revenues. Not at all sure Hungarians would like it.

[Edwardian]

12 minutes ago, drmditch said:

abolished in 1806 (?) by Napoleon on the grounds of being neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.

 

 

Wasn't that quip Voltaire's?

 

Though, possibly, every Eighteenth Century quip was Voltaire's in the sense that every Nineteenth Century quip was Oscar Wilde's. 

 

1806 makes sense for formal abolition; Austria had had the kicking of its life in 1805 with Vienna occupied and the Confederation of the Rhine dates from 1806, IIRC.

 

Haven't the energy to look it all up in my weakened state, however.  Spent 3 weeks doing no modelling and little posting due to rather frail mental state, and shuck that off just in time for 'flu, day 8 of which I'm currently enjoying.  I don't think it's you-know-what, so comforting to think that I probably still have that to look forward to.

 

I do hope parishioners keep safe.  Given that the "plan" is to delay to spare the NHS but otherwise give up and wait for herd immunity (which, given that cannot be achieved by vaccination, one expert last week put at half a million deaths away) I worry about those most vulnerable; many hobbyists I know and my parents included.

 

Darlington MRC had wisely anticipated by some days HMG's delayed precautions; we are effectively disbanded for the duration. I had had that long talk with my parents; the one where I give them a long list of dos and don'ts and explain why I might not be able to visit for months. As long as the children are still at school, via them and me, the Aged Ps would be exposed.

 

I was. therefore, greatly irritated (I am greatly irritable at present) by the Quorn Bowls Club, which is a sort of Strength Through Joy cadre for the over sixties of the Soar Valley where attendance and match play is compulsory and in which my parents are remorselessly Bulleid into participating.  The Club stalwarts cannot face the prospect of not finishing this year's league, so three-line whip to keep turning up to play, and then they must have their recruitment day for next year's season  (Fools!  There won't be a Next Year's Season), and only then did they think they ought to get everyone together to discuss whether it is safe to keep getting anyone together.

 

Makes you realise what an intelligent past time railway modelling is.

 

Anyway, my parents thought it unwise to go and I hope I've helped to stiffen their resolve not to.  So, time to get Skype up and running and to keep the old birds amused. 

 

Keep safe everyone!

 

And so to bed 

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, drmditch said:

 

I never understood why Mr G so enjoyed chopping down trees.

 

 

Something to do between helping up fallen women

 

50 minutes ago, drmditch said:

 

As for the KuK Austro-Hungarian Empire, I think that's a bit unlikely as well. The Austrians I know are happy to view it with a kind of suffused romanticism, and take (took?) the tourist revenues. Not at all sure Hungarians would like it.

 

About as likely as Venice becoming a major independent maritime power again, or Britain becoming a second Singapore.

[Hroth]

It had to be done...

 

15 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

in which my parents are remorselessly Bulleid into participating.

 

Club colours Malachite green?

 

Anyhow, I hope you get over the bout of flu pronto. I can emphasise with you as whenever I get a chest infection, it knocks me for six so I keep up with the flu jabs every year.  I'm dreading encountering anyone with Corvid-19 because I know what I'd be in for....

 

Anyhow, I can positively say that we're in luck with being members of the only Self-Isolating model railway club in the UK!

 

Hurrah!!! 

[Annie]

The 'flu, I dread getting the 'flu since it absolutely knocks me for six with my narcolepsy symptoms.  

But on the other hand since I now never go anywhere or have any contact with people I haven't been afflicted by it for a good while now.  Possibly being entirely used to not going outside or going anywhere will stand me in good stead should the plague become more virulent and wide spread.

Presently anyone coming into NZ from overseas has to go into quarantine and so far that seems to be working. Driven by what they've read on social media people are going mad with hoarding, - and why on earth does everyone want to buy massive quantities of toilet paper?  Is that to be humanity's post-apocalypse epitaph? - 'We ran out of toilet paper'. 

[St Enodoc]

14 hours ago, brianusa said:

 

I dunno!  I thought his line on bugxer Bognor was rather good!

     Brian

He left that a bit late though...

[runs as required]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

Darlington MRC ... are effectively disbanded for the duration. 

... greatly irritated (I am greatly irritable at present) by the Quorn Bowls Club, which is a sort of Strength Through Joy cadre for the over sixties of the Soar Valley where attendance and match play is compulsory and in which my parents are remorselessly Bulleid into participating.  T

Anyway, my parents thought it unwise to go and I hope I've helped to stiffen their resolve not to.  So, time to get Skype up and running and to keep the old birds amused. 

Keep safe everyone!

And so to bed 

 

So sorry to hear of your turmoil James, but fortunately it doesn't inhibit you posting your elegant highly entertaining  posts, always eagerly awaited

I've just been charged with circulating next door's bellringers that we are abandoning Practice nights and Service ringing until further notice.

As one of the agnostic ringers (allowed to tip toe out during the first hymn) I felt (selfishly) miffed because it is excellent exercise for octogenarian  pear-shaped slobs like me. 

The bell and clock mechanisms have a lot of counterweights improvised from bits of signalling and pw kit still lurking in dark recesses  of the spire 'borrowed' from the N&C at the bottom of the hill and the narrow gauge lines in the 4 pits formerly in our old NW Durham UDC .

dh

[Edwardian]

55 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

It had to be done...

 

touché

 

auto-correct or Freudian slip?  Too ill to tell

 

55 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

I can emphasise with you

 

You can emphasise with the best of them.

 

I do hope you dodge the lurgy.

 

35 minutes ago, Annie said:

The 'flu, I dread getting the 'flu since it absolutely knocks me for six with my narcolepsy symptoms.  

 

I do hope you dodge the lurgy.

 

35 minutes ago, Annie said:

But on the other hand since I now never go anywhere or have any contact with people I haven't been afflicted by it for a good while now.  Possibly being entirely used to not going outside or going anywhere will stand me in good stead should the plague become more virulent and wide spread.

 

We hope so

 

35 minutes ago, Annie said:

Presently anyone coming into NZ from overseas has to go into quarantine and so far that seems to be working. Driven by what they've read on social media people are going mad with hoarding, - and why on earth does everyone want to buy massive quantities of toilet paper?  Is that to be humanity's post-apocalypse epitaph? - 'We ran out of toilet paper'. 

 

Why loo roll?  It's not even relevant to the commonly described symptoms.  Still, I'm not surprised; my expectations of the collective intelligence hves never recovered since June 2016.  This, then, is why the Star Trek concept of the Borg fails.  In reality, you could assimilate as many intelligent individuals as you like, but as soon as they start acting together as a group, they become morons.

 

To the Burghers of Barnard Castle:

 

When you reach the Pearly Gates, all full of righteous indignation because you washed your hands to 'happy birthday' many times a day, reflect that you probably caught the bug that did for you by touching something touched by someone who could not wash his hands because you'd panic bought all the hand soap in Morrisons. And now you're dead, with a cupboard full of hand soap that no one will ever use. 

 

 

 

[runs as required]

46 minutes ago, Annie said:

The 'flu, I dread getting the 'flu since it absolutely knocks me for six with my narcolepsy symptoms.  

But on the other hand since I now never go anywhere or have any contact with people I haven't been afflicted by it for a good while now.  Possibly being entirely used to not going outside or going anywhere will stand me in good stead should the plague become more virulent and wide spread.

 

Wife and I find we are both in the same 'over seventy with underlying health conditions, heart disease  and currently undergoing Chemotherapy'.

Most nights my young wife awakes with coughing and hot flushes. Come the morn all is well once more as we stir the porridge.

 

I heard an opera director on the wireless declare Prokofiev's most psychological opera was 'Peter and the Wolf' !

 

Quote

Presently anyone coming into NZ from overseas has to go into quarantine and so far that seems to be working. Driven by what they've read on social media people are going mad with hoarding, - and why on earth does everyone want to buy massive quantities of toilet paper?  Is that to be humanity's post-apocalypse epitaph? - 'We ran out of toilet paper'. 

I sneak out undercover of darkness (son tells me the Spanish police are using drones to spot curfew breakers) for essentials like Co-op yeast we run out of -  I remember my grandma always kept it going on the kitchen window ledge.

dh

[drmditch]

Re: Mr Edwardian's 'Flu

 

Do take care, and try to think of interesting things to do.

I'm sure that staying cheerful is very important for boosting the human immune system.

 

I look forward to reading the history of this pandemic in say, 30 years time.

(Subject to all the usual provisos and qualifications.)

 

I am about to launch a major appeal for help with my mysterious malfunction in a point-switching diode matrix.

I have been failing to identify and correct this for two months, and whereas I normally take pride in my problem solving abilities the time has come to admit my human inadequacies!

Photographs taken and diagrams prepared - what's the betting that when writing the text I find the problem?

 

Anytime you want a light-hearted exchange about historical irrelevancies (although I would not regard WEG as one of those) do feel free to make contact.

 

By the way have you read Roy Jenkins' 1995 biography of the Grand Old Man?

It's interesting to compare it with Magnus who I grew up with. 

 

Need to go out for possibly the last time this week, and then major concentration on railway construction and engineering!

Edited March 17, 2020 by drmditch

[Hroth]

12 minutes ago, drmditch said:

I am about to launch a major appeal for help with my mysterious malfunction in a point-switching diode matrix.

 

Perhaps Marvin the Paranoid Android might be in a position to assist?

 

13 minutes ago, drmditch said:

Photographs taken and diagrams prepared - what's the betting that when writing the text I find the problem?

 

Putting stuff down on paper often jogs the grey matter. 

 

Of course, a diode matrix is a type of digital logic system, so if your's is in any way complex, the employment of mind-boggling tools such as Karnaugh Maps might help pinpoint errors in the logic.

 

Or not!  Its 30 odd years since I've even had to fiddle with such stuff so I'm no help..... 

[sem34090]

I despair for a nation in which the population's only serious response is to stockpile bog roll. How ever did we ever manage to win wars and kick start world industrialisation...

[ian]

24 minutes ago, sem34090 said:

I despair for a nation in which the population's only serious response is to stockpile bog roll. How ever did we ever manage to win wars and kick start world industrialisation...

With very clean backsides my boy, that's how.

[Edwardian]

My irony meter has spiked again: The EU has closed its borders, banned free movement and lifted its ban on State Aid.

 

So, no need to have left after all.

 

I wasn't going to go out today (rather not, feel lousy) but realise I've bought all the wrong things!

 

My main concern is that I'll run out of work.  If I do, I'll starve. No salary or sick pay for Yours Truly; don't work, don't eat, don't pay the utilities, don't pay the rent. I count myself very lucky that I work at home, but what if the work out there shrinks due to the economy inevitably doing so?

 

Of course, that means that an awful lot of people will have suffered a very great deal more than me before I feel the impact.  That is an horrific thought.  How will they all survive economically?  The Black Death wiped out an estimated third to half of the population.  The economy shrank in line with the population. We will have a different problem.  Although a death toll of 250-500K is horrific, it is a small proportion of 66m.  The impact, then, will be most of the population surviving, but with much of the economy gone.  That sounds like a lot of misery to go round for a long time after the bug has gone.  if it goes. Having taken 10 years to recover my finances after the Credit Crunch of 2008, I'm thinking "oh no, not again!"

 

Ain't I cheerful today?

 

   

 

 

[Compound2632]

Well, you probably won't be able to take an Uber home from the pub. Heigh-ho for the service-based economy.

[Hroth]

Keeping the "cheerful" thing going, apart from the Black Death which killed approximately 20% of the UK population from 1347 to 1351 and then lingered until the late 17th Century, the other main pandemic that has had a significant impact on the general population was the Influenza outbreak in 1919 which killed over 220,000 in the UK. In global terms 10 to 20% of those infected died, with a total of "about" 50 million worldwide.

 

We're nowhere near that level of mortality yet, though I expect that the numbers will rise as we go through the year.

 

The interesting thing is what will happen when the Chinese try to get back to work, if there will be a rebound in the infection rates as those who were isolated but not infected come into contact with those who were infected.  This is what the recent talk about "Herd Immunity" is about.  Do we allow people to get infected and survive, building up a general immunity to the disease, or lock down everyone, try to stop it taking hold and then, when the worst is over hope that re-infection doesn't occur?

 

Is that Corporal Jones over there?

 

Edited March 17, 2020 by Hroth
Clarification

[Nearholmer]

The Black Death was before industrialisation and rapid trans-global telecoms, so the world will return to production and consumption pretty rapidly.

 

Spanish flu 1918. Roaring 20s.

 

 Very nasty blip in trade, but doubtless we will see a rapid recovery of gross consumption.

 

Then, people will need contracts, or will argue and cheat, and need other forms of lawyerly help.

 

 

[webbcompound]

8 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Oh, I don't know. There are several eligible Habsburgs about should you wish to revive the Holy Roman Empire. 22 grandchildren of the late Otto.

The current head of the dynasty is Karl von Hapsburg, who whilst (as you might expect) being a conservative is a very nice chap. He had no appreciable difficulty eating or drinking when I met him at a conference on Heritage and the Military in Vienna (he is President of the Austrian branch of Blue Shield, which is sometimes described as the Red Cross for Heritage). He was amused to let me have a photograph taken "with the Hapsburg Emperor" even though this is not legally possible as a title in Austria or Hungary). Unfortunately he is currently self-isolating with his family after testing positive for Covid19. His son, who would be next in line and is a racing driver, is the splendidly named Ferdinand Zvonimir Maria Balthus Keith Michael Otto Antal Bahnam Leonhard Hapsburg-Lohringen.

Edited March 17, 2020 by webbcompound

[ChrisN]

11 minutes ago, webbcompound said:

The current head of the dynasty is Karl von Hapsburg, who whilst (as you might expect) being a conservative is a very nice chap. He had no appreciable difficulty eating or drinking when I met him at a conference on Heritage and the Military in Vienna (he is President of the Austrian branch of Blue Shield, which is sometimes described as the Red Cross for Heritage). He was amused to let me have a photograph taken "with the Hapsburg Emperor" even though this is not legally possible as a title in Austria or Hungary). Unfortunately he is currently self-isolating with his family after testing positive for Covid19. His son, who would be next in line and is a Formula One driver, is the splendidly named Ferdinand Zvonimir Maria Balthus Keith Michael Otto Antal Bahnam Leonhard Hapsburg-Lohringen.

 

Whoever sings happy birthday twice with all those names will take a lot longer washing their hands than most people.

[Edwardian]

58 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

The Black Death was before industrialisation and rapid trans-global telecoms, so the world will return to production and consumption pretty rapidly.

 

Like the way we just bounced back from the Banking Crisis?  Our economies are more complex, which seems to make for greater fragility. 

 

Quote

Spanish flu 1918. Roaring 20s.

 

Only really roared in the US, though. 

 

Quote

 Very nasty blip in trade, but doubtless we will see a rapid recovery of gross consumption.

 

You 'glass half full' people, there you go again! 

 

Quote

Then, people will need contracts, or will argue and cheat, and need other forms of lawyerly help.

 

 

 

If I'm still solvent and in possession of a practising certificate.

 

My alma mater, founded after the Black Death to meet the natural concern that we might run short of lawyers!

 

29 minutes ago, webbcompound said:

He is President of the Austrian branch of Blue Shield, 

 

Do they still give out the stamps?

 

29 minutes ago, webbcompound said:

His son, who would be next in line and is a racing driver, is the splendidly named Ferdinand Zvonimir Maria Balthus Keith Michael Otto Antal Bahnam Leonhard Hapsburg-Lohringen.

 

Keith?

 

Really, how absurd! 

Edited March 17, 2020 by Edwardian

[webbcompound]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

(re Blue Shield) Do they still give out the stamps?

 

Only if you are a Denkmalgeschütztes Objekt. You stick it on the outside of your building. The idea is (was) that when the Warsaw Pact steamroller came roaring through it would see the plaque and refrain from damaging the building. Unfortunately no-one gave the Yanks the same instruction so when they steamrollered into the cradle of civilisation as was (now Iraq) they didn't have a clue. Despite a campaign of posters and playing cards, in 2005 the Yanks used the 9th century Great Minaret at the Samarra Mosque (which was depicted on the Six of Clubs) as an OP and vantage point for snipers. As a result the people being sniped at blew it up.  (I tried to upload an image of my pack but RMWeb doesn't seem to like it)

Edited March 17, 2020 by webbcompound

[webbcompound]

Hah.

[Compound2632]

48 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

My alma mater, founded after the Black Death to meet the natural concern that we might run short of lawyers!

 

Whereas mine was founded to meet the shortage of priests. Two areas of professional expertise in which the middle ages could knock spots off any other period were theology and the law.

 

51 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Do they still give out the stamps? 

 

That was Green Shield.

 

52 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Keith? 

 

His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty Keith, by the Grace of God Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria and Illyria; King of Jerusalem, etc.;
Archduke of Austria; Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cracow; Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Bukovina;
Grand Prince of Transylvania, Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Auschwitz and Zator, of Teschen, Friaul, Ragusa and Zara; Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca;
Prince of Trent and Brixen; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and in Istria; Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg etc.;
Lord of Trieste, of Cattaro and on the Windic March; Grand Voivode of the Voivodeship of Serbia, etc., etc.

 

It's the "etc"s that get me - there's clearly more than one petty kingdom that's being overlooked.

 

And one shouldn't overlook our very own Habsburg King of England: he of course was of the senior branch of the family; the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperors and Austrian Emperors were the junior branch.

[Buhar]

With that name is there any room on Keith's overalls for sponsorship? 

 

I do apologise to all readers named Keith, but it's just not sovereignly. 

 

Alan 

[webbcompound]

Excellent title list for an Emperor. What is more, as a result of the Long Depression caused by the Panic of 1873 the Empire had a single state railway system, under the Kaiserlich und Königlich Generaldirektion der Staatsbahnen ( the KkStB) which because the empire was mostly joined together on land was able to run across the entire thing (unlike the British Empire which involved an inordinate amount of sailing)

Edited March 17, 2020 by webbcompound