Early Risers.

[jamie92208]

5 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

You have 60 "M"s?!?!  

 

We are up to I think 9?   - and thats with skipping  M number  6, which  is being built ATM.  

I used to drive down the M621 to Leeds, allegedly so named as it connected the M62 and the M1. 

3 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

My dad was like that having served in Burma, he wouldn't even contemplate buying a Japanese car. I wonder sometimes what he'd make of my current car, a Nissan made in Sunderland.

I worked with a guy at BP in 1971 who was the same.  He wouldn't buy anything Japanese having been a prisoner on the Burma Railway.  He was a good bridge player but didn't play anymore because he had been forced to play against the camp commandant who liked a game.  His winnings were paid in rice which he reckoned kept him alive. 

 

Jamie

[Ozexpatriate]

12 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

up to US intervention in the Indochina war on the side of France

Điện Biên Phủ occured in 1954. JFK sent 500 'advisors' to the Republic of Vietnam in 1961. In the interim France was focused on the Algerian War of Independence (1954 - 1962). (A former colleague likes to humourously describe himself as "African". He is French and was born in Algeria at this time. His family are Provençal.)

 

I would not characterize the US as being on the "side of France". France had lost Indo Chine and the US, fearing the political vacuum (in a domino theory landscape) stepped in. With hindsight the results were of course disastrous for everyone.

 

Not unlike the UK, US relationships with De Gaulle were fraught.

[Ozexpatriate]

13 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

Bahasa Indonesia is a common language but it's perhaps surprising just how many speak it as a second language) and that diversity (ethnic and religious) has led to a lot of the internal tension. Which is no different to many other places in the world.

India comes to mind. The world's largest democracy is hardly monolithic. Hindi (while an official language) is not the mother tongue and is not even a majority language.

 

From an English-language website (but quite evidently Indian or expatriate Indian) the biggest languages after Hindi are:

• Bengali 
• Marathi 
• Telugu
• Tamil
• Urdu 
• Kannada 
• Odia
• Malayalam

I know a lot of Urdu, Telegu and Kannada speakers.

 

Edited February 24 by Ozexpatriate
Clarification

[Ozexpatriate]

10 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Our “self-censoring” is really a long-running in-joke

Sadly our friendly neighbourhood hippo (and others) didn't find it that way.

[Ozexpatriate]

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Between fibro toys and  psycho  horses, , its a wonder the Australian  Life Expectancy stats aren't in the low 40's. 

Don't forget sticking bungers* in cane toads.

 

(I can say I never attempted that. But others did.)

 

* I presume this term is understood. It is a largish firework available before such truly dangerous playthings were made illegal.

[Ozexpatriate]

9 hours ago, polybear said:

How on earth the WW2 Factories ever managed to turn out any Aircraft, Ships, Munitions etc. without such essentials is a complete mystery to This Bear.

There were casualties.

 

The autobiography of Sir Felix Pole (General Manager of the GWR from 1921 - 1929, who authorized the design and construction of some magnificent copper embellished kettles) is deeply informative.

 

In the marketing department at Paddington, he was the editor of the internal company magazine. How did such a 'minor' employee become GM one might ask.

 

He was a leader in elfin-safety - writing articles in the magazine about employee casualty rates on the railways and improved practices that would save employees from debilitating injury or death.

 

Edited February 24 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

7 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Many here hated the Japanese up until the 1970's, and it was nothing to do with racism.

Yes and no. They were awful and it was racism.

 

One has to imagine the life of Tetsuya (Ted) Fujita. He lived in Kokura when it was the primary target (diverted to Nagasaki due to smoke from firebombing nearby Yahata over the target zone) for the Fat Man plutonium device. Nevertheless he emigrated to the US to work at the University of Chicago in 1953. He lived in the US for the remainder of his life.

 

He is responsible for most of our understanding of the behaviour of tornadoes and microburst downdrafts. The Fujita* scale of tornado intensity is named for him.

[Ozexpatriate]

7 hours ago, Grizz said:

Sadly this was the spiders last mistake, as I was ordered to capture it (under a pint glass) and feed it to the chooks. 

I like to let my spiders go free in the garden but there is a certain 'circle of life' symmetry in feeding them to the chooks.

[Ozexpatriate]

7 hours ago, Flanged Wheel said:

Given that we have already established my dubious film taste, it may come as no surprise that I quite enjoyed the ‘new’ film version of HGTTG. I had low expectations but they were easily surpassed and I agree that it was well cast.

It was indeed well cast.

 

Parts of it were excellent. Parts less so.

 

It was problematic for years. Adams had been working on "the project" for donkey's years, living in LA (Santa Barbara), where he died, trying to get it 'right'. His death in 2001 essentially allowed others to make it happen without his final blessing. It was released in 2005.

 

The Wikipedia page has a canned summary of the back and forth on "the project".

 

I'm glad Dan Akroyd appeared as Ray Stanz in Ghostbusters rather than Zaphod.

 

[Ozexpatriate]

7 hours ago, BachelorBoy said:

But, as has been noted on the internet before, a lot of people do seem to lack common sense.

Even people who usually do have common sense may lapse. There is an embarrassing moment for myself.

 

I was at a racetrack where very expensive classic cars were driving quickly but not aggressively, with lots of separation, around a small oval circuit. The infield had a "safety" barrier - consisting of wooden stakes and bunting to enclose the paddock. 

 

I was photographing the cars going around and looking through the viewfinder lost track of myself and slipped under the bunting. Suddenly people started madly gesticulating and I realized my error with a burning sensation in my cheeks something like egg on my face.

 

Now I was never in 'danger', standing on either one side or the other of a string of bunting - which was still a long way from the actual track and was not going to save me from an out of control Ferrari GTO hurtling toward the infield, but the principle of staying away from the track was what mattered.

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, woodenhead said:

We think ourselves above everything else upon the planet but we are the ultimate example of Darwinism.

I liked your post - except for this bit. We're not evolving extra fingers to manipulate our mobile telephones - like "On the Origin of Species" would suggest. What you call "Darwinism" is not anything to do with the naturalist.

[Ozexpatriate]

4 hours ago, Grizz said:

One of the chooks, Babs, is poorly.

Hopefully not some karmic wheel of life thing related to eating the spider.

 

Oops, Mr Bear presaged me:

4 hours ago, polybear said:

You fed her a killer spider - what do you expect??

 

Catching up can be hard sometimes.

 

Edited February 24 by Ozexpatriate
Added quote

[bbishop]

6 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

I sub contract to a sub contractor who sub-contracts to a certain UK defence company who had a bit of a sticky situation involving brown paper bags and  Saudis. As a result I and my sub-contracting fellows have to undertake a yearly ethics training course. Which is a powerpoint presentation where we get to role-play the various characters. 

 

"Dianne notices that Bill is sending mysterious emails that contain classified documents  and also has recently bought a Lamborghini.

 

Should Dianne

A) Ask Bill where he got the money?

B) Tell Stan, her supervisor about her concerns?" 

C ) Ask Bill for a ride in his Lamborghini?"  etc etc ....

Got that question today.  On line course called "Counter Fraud".

[pH]

Having described our search earlier this week for Seville oranges to be used in making marmalade, here are the results of the making:
 

(One more batch still to go.)

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Now running a temperature and with no appetite so I'm going to have an early night.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[polybear]

The Parents did this - and still walked.....

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-68388320

 

FFS.

[Ozexpatriate]

14 hours ago, roundhouse said:

The moon looks very small this morning - its at its furthest point from Earth at present.

It looks 10% smaller than average - a so-called "micromoon".

 

A "Supermoon" is when it looks bigger.

 

CNN: This weekend’s full moon will be a ‘micromoon.’ Here’s what that means

[polybear]

Pretty poor taste in This Bear's Book:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5147pyen5qo

[Ozexpatriate]

14 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I really dislike umbrellas

Few people use them here - despite the weather. We tend to use raingear with hoods. I prefer a waxed hat with office wear.

 

With companies like Nike and Columbia Sportswear headquartered here, Portland is something of a sports/outdoor clothing corporate cluster. There is even an apparel start up focused exclusively on raingear - Showers Pass - focused on the intersection of cycling and rain - very Portland.

 

Because of the 'cluster' Addias America is also headquartered here. Baltimore-based Under Armor*, has an innovation hub here. Newish Swiss entrant "On" is opening a flagship store today (I believe).

 

* Originally base layers for football players.

 

Edited February 24 by Ozexpatriate

[jamie92208]

9 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I like to let my spiders go free in the garden but there is a certain 'circle of life' symmetry in feeding them to the chooks.

When we dig out compost heaps tey are full of beetle larvae that are not good for putting round the roots of plants.  We have to separate them out. One third went into the next compost heap and the rest to the chickens they lived them. 

 

Jamie 

Edited February 25 by jamie92208

[Tony_S]

7 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Gotta admit that   the Dick Turpin legend lacks a lot now  given that he'd be going all "Stand And Deliver!" on the M45 or something. 

I drove past the slip road to the start of the M45 at lunchtime. Didn’t see Dick Turpin. Probably sent to Coventry…

Edited February 24 by Tony_S

[Tony_S]

4 hours ago, PupCam said:

Does anyone actually understand the logic behind the current Shingles inoculation criteria because this (slightly immune suppressed) Pup doesn't!      As soon as you are 65 you qualify but if you are 65 then you have to wait until 70.  What's that all about?        Which reminds me the pharmacy said it was "quite expensive" @£13 a shot if I wanted to pay for it and not wait.    Seems like a good deal to me, I must go and have it done! 

Until recently in the UK people reaching 70  years of age were offered a shingles vaccine. This was a live vaccine , single dose. It was not suitable for people with compromised immune systems. I couldn’t have it due to being on immunosuppressive medication. So I was given the more expensive two dose vaccine, Shingrix. When Aditi went for her vaccine a few weeks ago she was a bit concerned about whether there was a risk to me if she had a live vaccine. No they said , because everyone gets the 2 dose product now. In some countries the vaccine is recommended for the over 50s. 
Here it can be administered privately for over 50s but £13 a shot seems rather different to the hundreds of pounds quoted at other pharmacies 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Few people use them here - despite the weather. We tend to use raingear with hoods. I prefer a waxed hat with office wear.

 

With companies like Nike and Columbia Sportswear headquartered here, Portland is something of a sports/outdoor clothing corporate cluster. There is even an apparel start up focused exclusively on raingear - Showers Pass - focused on the intersection of cycling and rain - very Portland.

 

Because of the 'cluster' Addias America is also headquartered here. Baltimore-based Under Armor*, has an innovation hub here. Newish Swiss entrant "On" is opening a flagship store today (I believe).

 

* Originally base layers for football players.

 

 I have somehow deleted my post about rainwear and only the umbrella quote remains. I did mention I had acquired a waterproof (windproof too) non bobble wooly hat. It really has been useful this winter. I was using a nice merino wool hat but it wasn’t waterproof. The new one is made by a company called Sealskinz but it doesn’t contain any animal products!

We are sorting out our rain wear ready for our summer trip to Iceland. I don’t want our days out to be spoiled by the wrong clothing. The official guides mention rain quite a lot. 

 

[zarniwhoop]

Since, it seems to me,I mostly post about food, "Today I have been mostly eating frites". I'm sure that @iL Dottore will be disgusted, because these are only cooked once and in groundnut oil (sorry, I forgot the warning if anyone here has a peanut allergy). And apologies to @polybear I've I've added to the pain of his diet.

 

The reason is that it's the start of the "real" cycling road season, De Omloop in Flanders. As a (veggie) ex-cyclist, I like to eat, and drink, in tune with the races if I can (while recording/watching them on Eurosport). Unfortunately, fans of beer will now be denigrating me because I'm drinking Stella. Get over yourselves 😄

 

Must remember to get myself some Mayonnaise.

 

At least I remembered not to watch the Calcutta Cup - as a self-identified Scotsman of a mixed marriage (Anglo-Scots) born in the deep South (Eastbourne), it never works for me to watch that.

 

Hmm, got to find time to catch up with the Ski-Flying too - this might be a very late night.

 

L8r