The Night Mail

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

He has only met me a couple of times in several years, but put his paws on my shoulders. Gorgeous creature! 

Have we met?

 

but I am!

[polybear]

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

I seem likely to be prescribed a daily self-injection, rather like diabetics. In the meantime, I will struggle manfully with the prospect of eating as much cheese as possible. Tough to do in France! 

 

A Doctor-prescribed Pizza diet   Wow.....

[Canal Digger]

21 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

That reminds me that I am patiently awaiting my BR railcar in O scale from Hatton's:

 

A GWR, AEC built, railcar please

[simontaylor484]

@rockershovel my degree is in Mineral Estate Management it was mainly based around quarrying sand and gravel and other aggregates and waste management. They watered the content down to more environmental and planning. I ended up graduating after 3 years instead of 4 and took the 1st job I was offered in a Bank but i hated every minute of the 6 month contract. Then I ended up working for a company that delivered Bison concrete products before going to another transport company.

[Canal Digger]

12 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

I'm afraid that the world is run by accountants none of whom, excluding the ones who post on here of course who can see beyond the year end accounts.

IMHO accountants mix value and (short-term) price

[Doncaster Green]

40 minutes ago, Canal Digger said:

IMHO accountants mix value and (short-term) price

That would be Finance Staff in the public sector - the accountants would not be allowed to make the decision.  I spent 30 years as a fully qualified management accountant in a major department of state trying to persuade unqualified ‘finance’ staff that value for money and cheapest bid were not synonymous - and banging my head against annual spending limits every time - you can only spend x this year, if you have to spend 2x next year because the contract is carp that’s next year’s problem!

 

John

[laurenceb]

A USN Officer  onboard a RN carrier in the Pacific after a kamikaze strike remarked that the old girl just shook herself down and carried on, whereas the USS Enterprise was effectively written off.

[BSW01]

The subject of education, (or the lack of) was mentioned earlier on. I noticed things changed in the late 90’s, I went back to college in the early 90’s, (all paid for my my old employer) when I spent 6 years completing my ONC, HNC and HND in electrical and electronic engineering. Initially we were all thought the subjects thoroughly, by tutors who knew the subject very well. We were given reasons and explanations as to what was happening and why. It was during the final 2 years that things changed. There was a dramatic shift in how we were taught, gone were the explanations and reasons and from then on, we only taught what we needed know to pass the exams, that was it. When asked about explanations and reasons, we were told that it now wasn’t on the curriculum! Getting results was all the college was now interested in, as that influenced how the were ranked and where they sat in the league table. To get my HND I had to take a couple of non electrical units, personally I struggled and only just scrapped my final unit, which was about epicyclic gears etc. Unfortunately the tutor didn’t know the subject at all, he was reading from a crib sheet, as according to his boss, he should be able to teach any subject!

[iL Dottore]

9 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I have always found that in such cases the level of pain is directly related to how much the doctor/dentist/nurse/interrogator likes you.

It’s not unknown for an A&E doctor, faced by a semi-violent, obnoxious and foul mouthed drunk, to inform said patient that they had drunk too much for anaesthesia to be used and would have to be stitched up without the benefit of a lidocaine or xylocaine injection.

(it’s one of those things that everyone in the biz knows happens, but no-one admits to. A semi-urban myth if you will)

[iL Dottore]

8 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Earlier this evening I stepped up to the corner of the field to see if there was a sunset. There really wasn't but instead i found this. 

 

 

He has only met me a couple of times in several years, but put his paws on my shoulders. Gorgeous creature! We - Sherry and I - call him Assis, because it's all his mum ever says. French for 'Sit!'

What a handsome boy.

I have certainly developed a very soft spot for dogs, especially those dogs that look like dogs and not like something that run into the back of a bus with its face! 
What I find truly obscene are the Brachycephalic (flat faced) dogs - like boxers, bulldogs and so on. Brachycephalia Is associated with numerous health problems – many associated with breathing and keeping cool through panting - both of which are significantly impaired by the shortened muzzle. How so-called “dog lovers“ can insist on breeding these dogs – many of which have wonderful characters- for looks alone: thus condemning them - at best - to a life of discomfort is beyond me.

Read (https://dogbehaviorscience.wordpress.com/2012/09/29/100-years-of-breed-improvement/) and be horrified!

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Evening all,

 

This showed up in the post today, a Nektar Impact LX-49 keyboard. Long story short, I’ve gotten back into making music again. More on that tomorrow though.

 

 

 

(if anybody spies the software and is wondering it’s BitWig Studio 4, 8 track)

 

 

Douglas

Edited February 12, 2022 by Florence Locomotive Works

[rockershovel]

6 hours ago, BSW01 said:

The subject of education, (or the lack of) was mentioned earlier on. I noticed things changed in the late 90’s, I went back to college in the early 90’s, (all paid for my my old employer) when I spent 6 years completing my ONC, HNC and HND in electrical and electronic engineering. Initially we were all thought the subjects thoroughly, by tutors who knew the subject very well. We were given reasons and explanations as to what was happening and why. It was during the final 2 years that things changed. There was a dramatic shift in how we were taught, gone were the explanations and reasons and from then on, we only taught what we needed know to pass the exams, that was it. When asked about explanations and reasons, we were told that it now wasn’t on the curriculum! Getting results was all the college was now interested in, as that influenced how the were ranked and where they sat in the league table. To get my HND I had to take a couple of non electrical units, personally I struggled and only just scrapped my final unit, which was about epicyclic gears etc. Unfortunately the tutor didn’t know the subject at all, he was reading from a crib sheet, as according to his boss, he should be able to teach any subject!

The old ONC/HNC and OND/HND courses produced a lot of good people - but they were dependent upon employer input and support. Once employers stopped supporting them, which started in the 1980s privatisations and accelerated rapidly during the general industrial collapse of the 1990s, they were not sustainable. 

 

The idea became general at a certain level, that it was possible to produce returns without investment, and that there was an indefinite supply of value which could be turned into cash. Neither was true. 

 

This isn't accounting, it is ideology. 

Edited February 12, 2022 by rockershovel

[AndyID]

45 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

The old ONC/HNC and OND/HND courses produced a lot of good people - 

 

Thank you 

[polybear]

7 hours ago, BSW01 said:

The subject of education, (or the lack of) was mentioned earlier on. I noticed things changed in the late 90’s, I went back to college in the early 90’s, (all paid for my my old employer) when I spent 6 years completing my ONC, HNC and HND in electrical and electronic engineering. Initially we were all thought the subjects thoroughly, by tutors who knew the subject very well. We were given reasons and explanations as to what was happening and why. It was during the final 2 years that things changed. There was a dramatic shift in how we were taught, gone were the explanations and reasons and from then on, we only taught what we needed know to pass the exams, that was it. When asked about explanations and reasons, we were told that it now wasn’t on the curriculum! Getting results was all the college was now interested in, as that influenced how the were ranked and where they sat in the league table. To get my HND I had to take a couple of non electrical units, personally I struggled and only just scrapped my final unit, which was about epicyclic gears etc. Unfortunately the tutor didn’t know the subject at all, he was reading from a crib sheet, as according to his boss, he should be able to teach any subject!

 

Several years ago Bear asked the father of a friend about changes in teaching; he was a retired Chemistry Teacher from a local school close to Bear Towers; when I was a young cub that school was a Grammar School and THE school to get into.  When I was at school (not that school....) you did well to get 5 O-Levels; nowadays it seems that kids are coming out with something like ten "0" Levels and 2 "A" Levels (or whatever they're calling them this week) - so I asked how this could be.  He confirmed that they used to teach the subject -whilst now they merely teach enough to pass the exam.  

 

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

What a handsome boy.

I have certainly developed a very soft spot for dogs, especially those dogs that look like dogs and not like something that run into the back of a bus with its face! 
What I find truly obscene are the Brachycephalic (flat faced) dogs - like boxers, bulldogs and so on. Brachycephalia Is associated with numerous health problems – many associated with breathing and keeping cool through panting - both of which are significantly impaired by the shortened muzzle. How so-called “dog lovers“ can insist on breeding these dogs – many of which have wonderful characters- for looks alone: thus condemning them - at best - to a life of discomfort is beyond me.

Read (https://dogbehaviorscience.wordpress.com/2012/09/29/100-years-of-breed-improvement/) and be horrified!

 

There was a story on the BBC News website about a doggie that had spent (IIRC) a thousand days in a rescue centre waiting for a home; I went looking for the link and found this:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/worlds-loneliest-dog-who-hasnt-26128066

I suspect that to re-home him now may well be a bad thing, as the rescue centre is all he's ever known and is in effect "home".

There seems to be an awful lot of similar stories on the net, though not quite a long as this example

 

2 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Evening all,

 

This showed up in the post today, a Nektar Impact LX-49 keyboard. Long story short, I’ve gotten back into making music again. More on that tomorrow though.

 

 

 

(if anybody spies the software and is wondering it’s BitWig Studio 4, 8 track)

 

 

Douglas

 

When Bear was a Cub a Stylophone was considered hi-tech....

[SM42]

SM42 Towers has got off to a noisy start.

Bathroom work continues with the floor and walls coming out. 

 

As a result of the chaos and that I may be needed to help fetch and carry at any point  all other domestic and hobby activity is on hold today. 

 

I may go and buy my birthday present later though.

 

Andy

Cam anyone else hear a hammering noise?

 

 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

He confirmed that they used to teach the subject -whilst now they merely teach enough to pass the exam.  

 

I suppose as a retired teacher I can make a comment. Exams for some time now (GCSE) require students to demonstrate knowledge, skills and understanding rather than just knowledge. If your retired chemistry teacher were really “teaching the subject” rather than just enough to pass the exam I would be quite surprised. At the kind of school you mentioned just passing wasn’t enough, you needed a good grade. In chemistry anyway, what you learn about for instance covalent bonding at GCSE is a much more simple model than during a degree course. At school our German teacher said he was teaching us to pass the exam, if we wanted to learn German, we should go there and stay a while. He had been there for a few years as a POW. So I don’t think “enough to pass the exam” is necessarily a bad thing, especially at age 16, there are many more stages to go to fully understand/study the subject. 

Edited February 12, 2022 by Tony_S

[Oldddudders]

9 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

At school our German teacher said he was teaching us to pass the exam, if we wanted to learn German, we should go there and stay a while. He had been there for a few years as a POW.

My German teacher was a Pole, Dr Wolff. He also did work for the BBC Overseas Service. He was particularly good at telling me I was "Der Klott!"

[jamie92208]

10 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

My German teacher was a Pole, Dr Wolff. He also did work for the BBC Overseas Service. He was particularly good at telling me I was "Der Klott!"

Clot, was my chemistry teacher father's favourite description of some of his pupils.  He must have been liked by them as 3 of them turned up at his funeral some 50 years later.

 

Jamie

[Happy Hippo]

12 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

 I was "Der Klott!"

It would appear we have much in common.

 

Nyda is coming back from N Wales this morning, so I've got to make sure that all the railway purchases made during her absence have been tidied away.

 

Wales v Scotland this afternoon so I'm looking forward to see Wales cling onto their hard won wooden spoon from last weekend.

 

If I start on the Penderyn now, I might be suitable numbed by the start of the match.

Edited February 12, 2022 by Happy Hippo

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Thank you 

 

And here.

[Canal Digger]

10 hours ago, Doncaster Green said:

That would be Finance Staff in the public sector - the accountants would not be allowed to make the decision.  I spent 30 years as a fully qualified management accountant in a major department of state trying to persuade unqualified ‘finance’ staff that value for money and cheapest bid were not synonymous - and banging my head against annual spending limits every time - you can only spend x this year, if you have to spend 2x next year because the contract is carp that’s next year’s problem!

Sounds like you were a rare bird in that department of state. From your location and your previous posts, I think I know which department and even which sites, we may even met. I spent many a happy hour trying to justify budgets, then have to franticly slash them when a neighbouring project overspent.  Also saw budgets being wasted,  because he/ she knew that next year's budget would be that much harder to justify if this year's allocation wasn't fully used (kerbstones replaced and buildings painted days before site closure!)

[Dunsignalling]

23 minutes ago, Canal Digger said:

Sounds like you were a rare bird in that department of state. From your location and your previous posts, I think I know which department and even which sites, we may even met. I spent many a happy hour trying to justify budgets, then have to franticly slash them when a neighbouring project overspent.  Also saw budgets being wasted,  because he/ she knew that next year's budget would be that much harder to justify if this year's allocation wasn't fully used (kerbstones replaced and buildings painted days before site closure!)

 

An unfortunate, but ultimately logical (and probably inevitable) defence mechanism against the regular (and definitely inevitable) shifting of goalposts by their political masters...  

 

Much public work done in March each year is, I understand, whatever can be started and finished in the window between the extent of spending headroom becoming known and the year end, irrespective of priority. 

 

John

Edited February 12, 2022 by Dunsignalling

[Doncaster Green]

18 minutes ago, Canal Digger said:

  Also saw budgets being wasted,  because he/ she knew that next year's budget would be that much harder to justify if this year's allocation wasn't fully used (kerbstones replaced and buildings painted days before site closure!)

Ahh!  The ‘March Handicap’!  ‘We have some spare cash, what ‘nice to haves’ can we buy and pay for now to use it up!’.  I could wax lyrical about the accountancy/finance battles particularly after the department was required to produce a commercial style annual account rather than a cash income and expenditure account.

 

At least two of the sites I worked on in my latter years are now housing estates.  On one, which I pass about once a week, the cheapest apartment is about £500k and the most expensive ‘town house’ is well over £1m!  Quite a premium to pay for a view of the city I got for free for a number of years!

 

John

[Winslow Boy]

I always thought that the landscape/grounds maintenance (other descriptions are available) budget was the go to budget for overspends. Do you mean to tell me they actually looked elsewhere as well cynasism off.

[Doncaster Green]

4 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

I always thought that the landscape/grounds maintenance (other descriptions are available) budget was the go to budget for overspends. Do you mean to tell me they actually looked elsewhere as well cynasism off.

Anything was fair game as long as it was within delegated purchase authority and could be paid for by 31 March!

John