Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

5 hours ago, Tony_S said:

When I was young the better ice creams were “dairy”, The cheap non dairy ones in those days contained all kinds of fats and they were not necessarily plant based. 

A local coffee shop chain recently made the decision that the default 'dairy' coffee addition would be oatmilk, since the majority of their customers ordered their coffee that way. Cow's milk (presumably offered in skim and full-fat) can still be specified.

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, polybear said:

I very much suspect that Harry would've been much happier if he could've been "ordinary" and stayed serving in the Army.

He described his ten years in the army as his "refuge" during an interview last night.

[Ian Abel]

2 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

However, does testing the Christmas tree lights before putting them away provide a statistically significant increase in the probability of finding them still working the following December? 🤣

 

No, but what it DOES do, is determine if I'm going to BIN them or not.

Often with some older strings of lights, they'll end up broken/damaged simply as a result of getting them untangled and off the tree. Since I'm moving over to all LEDs anyway, if a string deems itself "temperamental" it gets BINNED.  🤣

Edited January 11, 2023 by Ian Abel

[Ozexpatriate]

37 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Doesn't work for me anyway, on Premium.  Edit - answer to Ozex, not Winslow!

Similar to people who use tablets in "portrait" orientation, you can narrow the browser window. This will make the panel on the right snap to the bottom.

 

Personally this is still too narrow for me*. I am using RMweb as the only tab in a browser in full-screen mode, where I essentially get my old viewing experience - the panel to the right is there but the remaining space is 'good enough'.

 

* Amongst other things it makes scrolling take much longer - tedious with a laptop 'touch pad' pointing device.

 

The whole website design has been a yardsale ever since the floating pop-up advertising appeared.

 

I use separate browser windows for other websites since the full-screen form factor does not suit them.

 

Edited January 11, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

4 minutes ago, Ian Abel said:

if a string deems itself "temperamental" it gets BINNED.

And they must be binned. They are too unwieldy to be recycled - for a number of reasons.

[Ian Abel]

6 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

And they must be binned. They are too unwieldy to be recycled - for a number of reasons.

Actually, a few places here recycle old light strings, I used BIN rather too liberally, for BIN, read recycle 🤪

 

I think - though can't confirm as of right now, that Home Depot take light strings for recycle. Whether any of the places truly recycle them or not is up for discussion

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, polybear said:

I'm pretty sure that a 12-year old Bear wouldn't have been able to deal with walking behind Momma Bear's coffin with perhaps 100M(?) people looking on

Two of the first three interviews he has given in the US to promote the book (I only watched one) were with interviewers who lost a parent as a child. This didn't seem accidental.

 

Incidentally these two interviewers recently participated together in a very moving podcast on the nature of grief.

[Adam88]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Nail

Hit

Hammer

Head!

 

I couldn’t agree more. It’s one thing to respect the personal choices of a minority, but it’s another to allow the minority to dictate to the majority.

 

Although I’m a heavily carnivorous omnivore, I do enjoy proper vegan and vegetarian food. And when I say “proper” I mean natural foodstuffs not meat or dairy “substitutes”
 

I do object to “fake food” - highly processed, high in chemicals, often neither good for the body or the environment (Google “amount of water needed to make 1L of almond “milk” “)

 

My view is that if you eschew meat or all animal products (for philosophical and/or ethical reasons) isn’t eating fake meat and fake dairy a betrayal of your philosophical/ethical position?

 

 

Regarding 'genuine' and 'fake' foodstuffs I thought yesterday's Life Scientific interview on BBC Radio 4 was very interesting.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001gwyh

 

The interviewee was more concerned with detecting fake ingredients than identifying recipes which use permitted but non-traditional ingredients.  Examples given included oregano bulked with olive or strawberry leaves - herbs are very high value and this sort of activity can be very lucrative, horse meat substitutions and the detection of illegal growth agents fed to farm animals. 

[Coombe Barton]

... all of which have taken much longer than expected ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/01/11/maintaining-the-pattern/

[Ozexpatriate]

4 hours ago, polybear said:

"Posting a link to an article on vaccines earlier, he added: "As one consultant cardiologist said to me, this is the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust."

The first rule of Holocaust comparisons is "don't".

 

Never again.

[PhilJ W]

This seal must think he's in heaven.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/lake-owner-rages-after-hungry-28913183

[Dave Hunt]

21 hours ago, PupCam said:

 

Many a true word and all that 🤣

 

With the discussions here and also with a friend regarding "rockety" things I found myself bimbling around the internet today.  

 

I found a couple of websites that might be of interest to @polybear, @Barry O, @The Q others and if he looks very carefully at the Aberporth site even @Dave Hunt.     You've got to love a Hunter even if it is old, tired and un-airworthy but  fulfilling a useful role.    On another page the author mentions the smell of some very old artefacts in his possession.   Anyone who has ever worked in those industries/services will recall and be able to imagine the very distinctive smells of, say, a service aircraft cockpit or inside a radio/radar system etc.

 

Oh dear, I've come over all sentimental 😀

 

https://www.rafaberporth.org.uk/index.html

 

https://www.radarpages.co.uk/introduction.htm

 

Night All!

 

Alan

 

 

I've had lots of dealings with Aberporth over the years. Altogether I've fired about twenty A-A missiles in Cardigan bay, all under Aberporth control, and once managed to shoot down the Jindivik target tug. Not my fault as the missile didn't have a warhead but on its way to the towed target it happened to coincide with the Jindivik to the latter's disadvantage. I also spent two years at RAF Valley working at the A-A missile test establishment and used to go down to Aberporth to discuss the set ups for different trials. It was a fascinating place and I was always interested to see the FPS16 radar that was used to track missiles. 

 

As you say, Alan, the smell of a service aircraft cockpit is something never forgotten and can instantly bring back a host of memories. Mind you, nostalgia isn't what it used to be. 😁

 

Dave

[Barry O]

They tested a swignfire at Aberporth. Wrong! It crossed the cliff edge, flipped direction and ended up in someone's garden.. oops..

 

We nearly squad a Russian spy trawler with one test flight.. then a friend set the flight test programme on a skua.. nearly did for the lynx which had fired it..

 

Baz

[Ozexpatriate]

4 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

This seal must think he's in heaven.

Sea Lions sitting at the bottom of the Bonneville Dam fish ladder are now a perennial problem. They consume as much as 5% of the entire salmon and steelhead spawning runs. Non-lethal removals were inadequate. They just kept coming back and they're not eating because they are hungry. They're also becoming a year-round nuisance.

[PhilJ W]

8 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

I've had lots of dealings with Aberporth over the years. Altogether I've fired about twenty A-A missiles in Cardigan bay, all under Aberporth control, and once managed to shoot down the Jindivik target tug. Not my fault as the missile didn't have a warhead but on its way to the towed target it happened to coincide with the Jindivik to the latter's disadvantage. I also spent two years at RAF Valley working at the A-A missile test establishment and used to go down to Aberporth to discuss the set ups for different trials. It was a fascinating place and I was always interested to see the FPS16 radar that was used to track missiles. 

 

As you say, Alan, the smell of a service aircraft cockpit is something never forgotten and can instantly bring back a host of memories. Mind you, nostalgia isn't what it used to be. 😁

 

Dave

Here is a list of drones destroyed accidently.

http://www.ukserials.com/losses_drones.htm

[DaveF]

Another pigeon related update.

 

The local animal charity rang me to see how the pigeon was so I was able to tell them it had gone.  They reminded me that birds of prey often leave a badly injured bird they have attacked and return for it later.

 

Then at tea time a very pleasant young lady came from the RSPCA.  I explained I had expected a phone call not a visit, she wasn't bothered about having a wasted trip, just pleased that the problem had been resolved.  She too thinks the hawk had returned to pick up its lunch.  

 

I have checked the garden again and it really has gone.

 

David

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

Not a Model 20 after all - it's a 28K:

 

There's a website that lists all the serial numbers/models/where made/when etc.

Bear's was made between Jan & June 2010  1910 at Clydebank - and still going strong.

 

There are interesting videos on the 'tube of the Singer Factory at Clydebank - it was huge; 11000 employees, it's own railway line, foundry etc. on a 46 acre site. Unfortunately it closed in 1980 and was flattened in 1998 

A colleague's father-in-law was a fan of Singer sewing machines. He would buy them at garage sales and tinker with them to return them to running order. Presumably he thought there was a market for them and ended up with dozens of the things clogging up his storage.

 

I've lost contact with my former colleague and I don't know what has become of them all.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Not done a lot today except for a bit of shopping. SEERS track night tomorrow night and I've got some new acquisitions to test that I have to get ready tomorrow, basically wrapping them so that they don't get damaged. 

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

He described his ten years in the army as his "refuge" during an interview last night.

 

Its well-known that online bullying and stalking   has traumatic effects on young people - suicide is a too-often tragic end, no one here would condone it or say "Its all part of the life we live!"

 

Now think of Harry, growing up with endless media who are never not somewhere in your life waiting to pounce when your head pops up, hoping for some controversial shot that'll score them a payout...  following him around yelling at him to smile no matter what he was feeling whenever he is out in public, even when not on official public duties. His parents every indiscretion brought up and mocked or analysed and rubbed in his face,  all his friends pounced on for quotes or "inside goss", his phone hacked. And so much more. Its like online bullying but times a billion, is any of it right or justifiable because he is a public figure and therefore should just put up with it stoically despite the personal cost and trauma? 

And all this stared before he was even a teen, and just never ended, all through those sensitive teenage years, when you have enough to deal with. Imagine dealing with them and having all this on top. I couldn't do it like he has, especially when I was 14 or 15 and hit those teen angst years. And all  this from the same awful  awful media who piously spout the evils of teenagers harassing their friends online, the hypocritical vampires.

 

They killed his mum. They got him removed from active duty. They drove his wife to suicidal thoughts. No matter what you think of the Sussexes  personally I cannot see how anyone would find all this fair or arc up because he is out their now exposing it. In other jobs this is called "whistleblowing" and is condoned and defended.  Apparently if you do it to the Royal industry (which is all it is these days)  it is traitorous and should  be condemned by the world  and those responsible harassed even further. If  what he's written is bullsh!t they have nothing to fear and can call it out. If its true they should all be ashamed.

Freedom of expression is one of the five basic human rights, he has as much right to tell his story as anyone, surely?

 

 

Edited January 11, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[New Haven Neil]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

The whole website design has been a yardsale ever since the floating pop-up advertising appeared.

 

Ain't that the truth!

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

And they must be binned. They are too unwieldy to be recycled - for a number of reasons.

Two strings were binned here after their final year of service.  Both had lasted for around ten years so not too shabby all things considered.  

 

One bore no indication of whether or not it (or any of its parts) could be recycled.  The other still bore one of those stick-on labels around the wire - the sort which might tell you a few bits and bobs of safety information or some such.  This one managed to tell us that it was "Made in Taiwan.  Lamps - recycle.  Cord - recycle.  Battery - Not recycle".  No 5hit, Sherlock.  It went into the recycling bin minus its trio of rechargeable (and therefore re-useable) AA batteries and the folk who deal with that can sort it out.  I expect it to end up rejected and consigned to landfill but the effort and intent was there.  

 

Sometimes I feel a bit like a string of Christmas lights.  Sometimes on - sometimes off - sometimes flickering a bit - sometimes bright - sometimes dim - sometimes highly strung - sometimes a let-down.  And sometimes better off packed away out of sight for a while.  

[polybear]

11 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

I've had lots of dealings with Aberporth over the years..............It was a fascinating place and I was always interested to see the FPS16 radar that was used to track missiles. 

 

A shadow of it's former self, sadly.....

 

11 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

As you say, Alan, the smell of a service aircraft cockpit is something never forgotten and can instantly bring back a host of memories. Mind you, nostalgia isn't what it used to be. 😁

 

Dave

 

Bear gets those memories on those rare occasions when I enter a "proper" machine shop - the coolant/cutting fluid presumably.

[monkeysarefun]

6 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Ain't that the truth!

They havent abandoned us!

 

[Dave Hunt]

52 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Here is a list of drones destroyed accidently.

http://www.ukserials.com/losses_drones.htm

 

That list doesn't include the Jindivik that, unlike the drones listed, was designed from the outset as an unmanned target/target tug; quite a few Jindiviks were shot down over the years. They were an Australian design and I believe that Jindivik is an aboriginal word meaning little wanderer.

 

Dave

[Ozexpatriate]

6 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

One bore no indication of whether or not it (or any of its parts) could be recycled.

My recycling instructions from the County (sent in the mail on newsprint stock) are explicit:

Quote

Wires, hoses, chains, and electric cords jam up the machines that sort recycling. When worn out or broken, place in the trash at home or at work.