Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

8 hours ago, TheQ said:

Me thinks that graph must be for American factory beef.

The data would still be accurate. If the required water falls as rain on the cattle fields, great - they still need that water. A large portion of the water used to raise beef is in the feedstock. If that is just grass grown by the rain that falls on the grazing field - great.

[Ozexpatriate]

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

agriculture starting in the Middle East in Iran and Iraq centred on rivers such as the Euphrates which flooded annually due to the Monsoon.

Tigris and Euphrates is Mesopotamia/Iraq - not Persia/Iran.

 

The Karun River in Iran does join the Shatt al-Arab* (no tittering in the back please) a little downstream of Basra.

 

* Where the Tigris/Euphrates watershed heads to the Gulf - it is also the Iraq/Iran border.

 

Edited April 2 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

And they don't harvest  1.3 million tons  of them like California in 2022 for instance. 

Got to support all those double-shot, half-caff, almond lattes with a foam top somehow.

[Ozexpatriate]

The wheel on the tab goes round and round,

round and round,

round and round,

the wheel on the tab goes round and round,

while the page is grey.

 

Eventually the RMweb page loads.

 

Then it performs flawlessly until it doesn't.

 

Edited April 2 by Ozexpatriate

[BR60103]

I had a session on the phone with the Internet supplier today.

I've been getting requests to initiate extra authentication for my eMail but I've been putting it off by clicking on "will do it later".  Later came today.

They wanted to send me an authentication number to my wireless phone.  That I don't got.

Called service, sat on hold for 10 minutes, then talked to a nice chap who immediately understood the problem, put me on hold for a couple of minutes, and said that I'd never have the problem again.

 

The cargo ship Dali has been reported as having a length matching the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State building. Dayle didn't think it could be both. A bit of search and it's neither but it is less than twice the length of a standard Toronto subway platform.

 

[Ozexpatriate]

28 minutes ago, BR60103 said:

The cargo ship Dali has been reported as having a length matching the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State building. Dayle didn't think it could be both. A bit of search and it's neither

It's pretty close to one - certainly a first order of magnitude:

 

Eiffel Tower - 300m high (described as "Architectural height")

Eiffel Tower - 330m high with antenna

Empire State Building - 380m high at the top floor

Empire State Building - 443m (with antennae etc)

MV Dali (length) - 300m (299.92m)*

 

* Don't know if that is length at waterline or projected stem to stern linear distance.

 

Perhaps it should be described as three football pitches long? 😉

 

Edited April 2 by Ozexpatriate

[jjb1970]

Ship length for naval architects and technical purposes is normally that between perpendiculars (LBP). Unfortunately the fwd and aft perpendicular can become a bit of a rabbit hole. At the pointy end it is the fwd point at the loaded waterline, at the blunt end it tends to be the rudder stock. There is also length overall (LOA) which is length between extremities. For lay people I suspect LOA is the figure used.

[Ozexpatriate]

11 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

There is also a severe environmental disaster caused by the monoculture  with so many almonds. there isn't enough variety to support many bird and insect species Including the bees that are needed for pollination. 

Yes. The bird populations are particularly threatened - many point to monoculture as a root cause - either related to triticale* harvesting in the case of the tricolored blackbird, or pesticides killing their food (insects etc), or (inevitably) climate change.

 

* A wheat/rye hybrid for cattle feedstock.

 

Linked articles are not new. This was much more in the news some time back. I'm not sure populations have rebounded. Empirically I see fewer blackbirds here, but that's not a 'scientific' observation.

 

[pH]

9 hours ago, polybear said:

Shame Shame, know your name.....

 

Stealin' poor Yogi's din dins - you can nip down Tesco's.  Yogi can't (ok, he can - but they get the right 'ump when he does....)

It’s not like we strip all the bramble bushes. Plus our neighbourhood ursines just wade into the bushes, reaching brambles we have no chance of getting.

 

Don’t worry - by the size and condition of the bears we see around here, they’re not going short.

 

Now, if we were to talk about bears stealing cultivated fruit from humans’ gardens …

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from the Charente.  A very good evening g was had last night with some neighbours round for dinner.  They had just arrived back from the UK.  It's a custom to offer a meal in such circumstances as it saves them shopping and cooking when tired.  They do the same in return.  Beth made a lovely fish pie, and an apple tart with Bramley Apples.  As well as red wine Peter and I sampled a local artisan Cognac.  It will have to be sampled again. 

 

This morning we are due to head for Angouleme for Beth to see the Anaethetist and hsbpve an Xtay.  A meal will be had whilst in the city. 

 

Regards to all and of course Sundry. 

 

Jamie

[iL Dottore]

8 hours ago, DaveF said:

 

Then Satie Trois Gymnopodies this year at No. 148

 

 

I like his Gnossienne 1 - ir brings to mind a cold and rainy Paris weekend in late Autumn. A weekend ripe for either romance or intrigue.

 

Unlike many other solo piano pieces also works well on both classical and electric guitar.

 

Even by the standards of ER (and of musos in general), Erik Satie was pretty weird. But he had a French father and an English mother, which probably explains an awful lot!

[Grizz]

7 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Even by the standards of ER (and of musos in general), Erik Satie was pretty weird. But he had a French father and an English mother, which probably explains an awful lot!

So is that Curley Fires and Baked Beans with the Frog Legs and Snails then? 

[pH]

This came up in discussion after a family Easter dinner yesterday. Do you remember tubes in department stores which took cash from individual counters to a central cash office, and receipts and change back to the counters? Here’s a modern use of similar tubes:

 

https://youtu.be/eMTZvA8iFgI?feature=shared

 

Edited April 2 by pH

[Grizz]

Morning All

 

I have found that missing hour that has bugged my bank holiday weekend off…it fell down the back of the hot water heating system. Such that the little bar steward hasn’t heated the water in time for me leave at my intended 07:00 this morning, so no breakiefast for me this morning. 🤬🤬🤬

 

Off to do some inspections this morning as well as program a ballast drop.

 

It is due to raining again in Sussex today and tomorrow and the next day and then again the next day. 
 

Getting proper p*ss*d off with this now. Carol Kirkwood does seem to be quite on her game either as some days she has predicted no rain and yet we’ve had rain. So I’m going back to nailing a piece of seaweed to the shed door and seeing how we do with that. 
 

Have a great day all.

 

ATB Grizz

[iL Dottore]

A rather erudite set of posts as of late. Sometimes ER does come across as a den of knuckle draggers and then - as if out of nowhere - erudition and good taste bursts forth.

 

Anyway, as we are talking about “classical” music, on ER’s mirror thread (TNM) some posters have opined that much of “modern” (say post 1930) classical music is unmusical to the point of being unlistenable. And as much as I cherish music of all types, I would agree.
 

At one of my yearly visits to the Bregenzer Festspiele, they were celebrating a Benjamin Britten anniversary (birth or death, I don’t remember which). One of the pieces featured was his opera “Death in Venice“. It was beautifully staged, beautifully costumed and beautifully lit, but the music was painfully godawful – the usual jibe about such music, <sounds like cats being strangled>, was very apposite in this case. And one of the most frustrating things about the opera was that as soon as the music suggested that it might become tuneful, the tune was strangled at birth.

 

In the past, I have expressed my disdain for ecclesiastical “happy clappy, Jeezus luvs U“ music. However, there is a contemporary composer who produces not only beautiful and very listenable modern “classical“ music, but also superb pieces for ecclesiastical use. I include two links below for you to enjoy over your cornflakes this morning. 
 

It is the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. This is some of his ecclesiastical music Nunc Dimitis and The Deer’s Cry

A million times better than the usual “happy clapping” church music you far too often nowadays get. I am firmly of the opinion that any ecclesiastical music should reflect the power and the glory of the deity of your choice.

 

And now for the achingly beautiful Spiegel in Spiegel (which he has also scored not only for cello and piano, but also violin and piano)

 

Much, much more enjoyable than the Benjamin Britten style “cat strangling“ far too many modern so-called “composers“ go for.

 

Edited April 2 by iL Dottore
Typo

[iL Dottore]

33 minutes ago, Grizz said:

So is that Curley Fires and Baked Beans with the Frog Legs and Snails then? 

Good God, THAT’S a disturbing image for a Tuesday morning: a French @polybear
 

Edited April 2 by iL Dottore
Wording

[polybear]

2 hours ago, pH said:

Now, if we were to talk about bears stealing cultivated fruit from humans’ gardens …

 

Well if you will have Curly Fry Bushes what do you expect??

 

 

41 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Sometimes ER does come across as a den of knuckle draggers and then - as if out of nowhere - erudition and good taste bursts forth.......

 

 

....when the Baked Bean lovers come to the rescue........

[polybear]

Bear here.....

 

MIUABGAD methinks; I have a reminder to drain & refill the CH system with new Inhibitor - it's a bit of a PITA job but it'll feel good when it's done and crossed off the list so it looks like that'll be Bear's mission for this morning.  After that - who knows.....

 

BG

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, from a damp but drying rock, 8c and still.  The corresponding Fraggle is somewhat enamoured with the tall lady in iD's post of the Deer's Cry. Oooerr.

 

A day of silly little errands beckons, and the possibility of a delivery of a green device for perambulating along parallel lines to look forward to.  The b*llocking will come later when herself comes in from work!  An unplanned purchase but I have wanted one for some time, and one popped up on Rails used site (unavailable new).....oops.

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

No chance of catching up on here. Hopefully @Dave Hunt has had a successful op.

 

A busy weekend in York followed by an interesting drive back... ever been down the road into the Hole of Holcomb at 15 mph?.. total muppetry!

Now to catch up with my friends here.. my hand is still swollen from its meeting up with the solid stone paving flag last Friday.. but its getting better!

 

Time for a brew methinks!

 

Baz

[TheQ]

6 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

The data would still be accurate. If the required water falls as rain on the cattle fields, great - they still need that water. A large portion of the water used to raise beef is in the feedstock. If that is just grass grown by the rain that falls on the grazing field - great.

A large proportion on said liquid is recycled out of the rear of UK cattle, fertilizing the grass and the water content continues into the ground with only a slight delay. What the US does with the liquids in their factory farming I don't know.

[RobAllen]

Fantastic Easter weekend, but back to the grindstone today. Our eldest son was home so that he could use our driveway to update stuff on his car. He seems to have finally solved a rattling noise that had been annoying him!
 

 

He's back in early May to replace the some important belt or something (can you tell that I'm not a car person!)

[DaveF]

I was up early so today's washing is done, Morrisons have delivered the groceries, a few small jobs have been done.

 

Now I need to think of something to fill the day - perhaps the barbers, try to finish sorting out my funeral plan, work on the model or just relax.

 

It's dull again, the forecast is for bits of rain now and then.  When I got up everywhere was white with frost, that went as the cloud rolled in.

 

David

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

 Just couldn't get to sleep till well after midnight, then got about 4 hours sleep, then about a hour and a halves sleep.

Ben the I want out Collie then demanded out..

 

At first he seemed to want comforting, then bounded around and said " fooled ya",  he then had a good snuffle about, a deer or two had been right down to the house looking at The footprints .

 

The sleep thoughts were mostly about the jib, I've decided to make one myself, and have perused eBay ordering the correct material. As its in effect an offcut from a big manufacturer, it's only about 1/3 of a deltic delivered, whereas going to a sail manufacturer it's likely to cost 3 deltics or more. Sadly sail cost does not reduce in proportion to the size. Straight line sewing is cheap and easy. The complicated stuff at the corners takes time, and is needed whether the sail be 2.5 square meters on BM or 25 SQM on a big yacht.

 

I've been thinking of where I'll lay out the sail mark it up, cut and stick it together***. Then I realized there is the radar history room with a nice clean carpeted flooring enough to take a yacht sized jib. There is a 50/50 chance it will arrive in time for this week's museum session.

 

***Stick it together? Yep sails these days are often assembled using double sided tape, then sewn through. Must check on my stocks of double sided sail tape. Also need to find one of sail making books to remind myself on curves in a straight line...

 

Plans for today,

There is an event at Hellesdon School, Norwich Saturday  6th April, 10am to 4pm with 25 units of interest I'd like to see. So brownie points are needed.

Therefore very shortly it will be overalls time, then out the do more work on Swmbo's next loom.

 

But first 

Muggacoffee time.

[monkeysarefun]

10 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

@Dave Hunt - all the best

 

Of classical music - I'm not averse to some and hold my late father's 800-strong CD collection including a very wide range across the genre and somewhat beyond.  He was quite a fan of "earlier music" too.  I am slowly listening to them but at the rate of one or two a week I might not get through the mall.  I suspect he never did either as a few have turned up still in their sealed cellophane outers.  They are catalogued but listing composers and works means nothing to me if I haven't heard them.  

 

So the 3-2-1 goes like this 

 

Also-ran: Pictures at an Exhibition (specifically the Barry Douglas piano solo version or the electronic one by Isao Tomita)

Honourable Mention in Dispatches; Carmina Burana (which dad always insisted would bring about the end of the world if everyone on the planet simultaneously hit the strident D-major in "O fortuna")

3.  Rite of Spring 

2.  "Rach 2" piano concerto

1.  Saint-Saëns "Organ" Symphony with the volume turned up above 10.  

 

 

For me it'd be    "Anything Is Possible" By Lara Trump.

 

What a multi-talented family they are, thank you American Justice System  for letting them still be out of jail  so they can continue to  do things like this -  be the first "singer"  to  get autotune to throw its ams up in despair.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 2 by monkeysarefun