Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Another over the edge?

https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2024-05-10/18th-century-clifftop-home-teetering-on-the-edge-is-torn-down

Very common up and down the west coast of the US - perhaps Canada too, though there is less development (per distance)  directly on the BC coastline and much of it is slightly more sheltered (I'm thinking the inside passage / Queen Charlotte Sound). In some more northerly climes people wouldn't build anywhere near the waters due to things like calving glaciers.

 

This issue is very common on the west coast of Michigan.

[Ighten]

Just finished on the heritage... Too hot today especially for afternoon teas ...

 

Hoping for more of the same tonight but I think the weather may be against us...

 

Last night's highlights from the farm.

 

 

Edited May 11 by Ighten

[Coombe Barton]

... My other procrastination today was playing with a scientific charting package that works with Apple Numbers and seeing how I can baffle people more easily. I’m practicing that aspect on myself first. ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2024/05/11/covid-gp-visits-largely-down-sorting-material-from-the-office-a-new-charting-tool/
 

[Ozexpatriate]

3 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

playing with a scientific charting package that works with Apple Numbers

Considering abandoning* Microsoft Excel? 

 

* aka not purchasing Office for home.

 

From your blog post - yes the "somebody else's problem" notion is one of Adams' funniest insights (along with the total perspective vortex which I find to be closely related psychologically). They both speak to the ease with which humans willfully embrace cognitive dissonance - yet simultaneously identify as being rational.

 

One of the many aspects I enjoy about Star Trek is that this is the essence of Spock's character - his Vulcan side representing pure rational thought as distinct from literally everything humans (who are thoroughly irrational in every way) do.

 

Edited May 11 by Ozexpatriate

[polybear]

7 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2024/05/11/covid-gp-visits-largely-down-sorting-material-from-the-office-a-new-charting-tool/
 

 

"In my teaching of Excel one thing I’ve noticed I can’t say “calculate a percentage” and expect mostly right answers. Half the students struggle with that calculation and twenty percent say “what’s a percentage?”

This despite these things allegedly being taught at GCSE"

 

Jeez.....is this a Degree course?  When I was doing an HNC back in the early 80's we were expected to do Calculus - I sweated blood learning that and never used it since.

 

"When I was looking at the maths attainment gaps fifteen years ago I was shocked to learn that you could score 20% in a GCSE Maths higher tier paper and still get a ‘C’ grade."

 

That's obscene - they'll be giving them away in Tescos before long

 

ION.....

 

I started watching a Dr. Who (for the first time in years) whilst waiting for something half decent hopefully watchable to start - Jeez, wottaloadacrap......

 

BG

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

4 minutes ago, polybear said:

When I was doing an HNC back in the early 80's we were expected to do Calculus - I sweated blood learning that and never used it since.

You instinctively use it every day - without making the connection.

 

Relative to distance, velocity is the first differential with respect to time, and acceleration is the second differential. It is calculus that can analyze every second of Mickey the MG's motion. The power required and energy expended can all be derived - thanks to the former member of Parliament for Cambridge in 1689 and 1701 (or was it Leibniz?)

 

[New Haven Neil]

Evening orl.  Wow wot a scorcher, as the tabloids say - 22c on Fraggle Rock is a scorcher, by our standards.  A thoroughly nice day, wasted by gardening. Pah.  Well it does look a lot better, and the tip was filled up with a full carload of assorted green detritus.

 

We were too knackered to see the aurora but have seen some stunning photos, no light pollution here whatsoever after midnight when the street lights go out.  I might have well stayed up as I had a very bad night, firstly due to No1 port hip protesting, then Mrs NHN rivetting boilers, or so it seemed, as she was snoring so badly.  I was too tired to actually get up and go to the huffy bed.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I managed to get the dash cam working today. The problem was that it's designed to be attached to the windscreen but refused to attach to said windscreen. It's held on by a suction cup that won't suck, I finally gave up and stuck it on the dashboard. The problem is now that it is upside down, not that it matters too much as the screen is the right way up when viewed. The indicators for the controls also come up but they are so tiny that someone with 20/20 vision couldn't read them. I've written them down on a piece of masking tape and stuck that on the dashboard below the dashcam. Problem now is it doesn't like driving into a low sun, it dims to almost a black screen.

[polybear]

12 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I managed to get the dash cam working today. The problem was that it's designed to be attached to the windscreen but refused to attach to said windscreen. It's held on by a suction cup that won't suck, 

 

Unusual - have you tried wetting the suction cup before sticking it on?  Does it have a suction lever to increase the suction?

[PhilJ W]

27 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Unusual - have you tried wetting the suction cup before sticking it on?  Does it have a suction lever to increase the suction?

Yes both, and I've also degreased the windscreen but it still kept falling off. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

When I was looking at the maths attainment gaps fifteen years ago I was shocked to learn that you could score 20% in a GCSE Maths higher tier paper and still get a ‘C’ grade."

 

That's obscene - they'll be giving them away in Tescos before long

I really dislike differentiated exam papers. The higher paper was for testing grades C to A and the questions were set accordingly. If you didn’t get the C you failed , no D Or,E grade. Similarly if you had been entered for the Foundation paper the highest grade you could achieve was a C even if you got 100%.

Edited May 11 by Tony_S

[monkeysarefun]

6 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Fabulous. The suburban Portland metro saw nothing like that. I did go outside. It was 'visible'. Darker skies (available outside the metro) were needed. What I could see looked like very thin misshapen cloud and was barely evident. It was clearly indistinctly there, but not enough contrast with the ambient city glow.

 

 

 

I've seen a couple of shots of it taken from around here last night so the clouds must have parted briefly. Apparently it happened around 8:15 or so but it looks more like a pink sunset then anything, and I'd have assumed that was what it was.

 

The best shots from down  here are from southern Tasmania, especially given the clean air and lack of background light pollution down there.

Edited May 11 by monkeysarefun

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

It's held on by a suction cup that won't suck,

Here they all use double-sided tape, but Ive never found a brand that'll last a whole Sydney summer stuck to the windscreen.

Edited May 11 by monkeysarefun

[skipepsi]

Inverse hyperbolic functions the reason I didn't go on to an engineering degree. I blame modern maths at O level.

[pH]

The wildfire season has already started in western Canada. There have been 730 fires recorded as starting to date, with 87 still burning. Some of these are ‘zombie’ or ‘overwintering’ fires which continue to smoulder underground (and under snow) through the winter and become active surface fires again in the spring. The various fire services are not looking forward to what’s to come.

[AndyID]

8 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Considering abandoning* Microsoft Excel? 

 

* aka not purchasing Office for home.

 

From your blog post - yes the "somebody else's problem" notion is one of Adams' funniest insights (along with the total perspective vortex which I find to be closely related psychologically). They both speak to the ease with which humans willfully embrace cognitive dissonance - yet simultaneously identify as being rational.

 

One of the many aspects I enjoy about Star Trek is that this is the essence of Spock's character - his Vulcan side representing pure rational thought as distinct from literally everything humans (who are thoroughly irrational in every way) do.

 

 

Do not eff around. Just get Open Office.

[Ozexpatriate]

19 minutes ago, pH said:

The wildfire season has already started in western Canada.

How warm is it in SW BC? We've seen a record high yesterday (above 90°F / 32°C).  Very warm again today, but less so tomorrow - perhaps 27°C - still very unseasonable. 

 

Mountain snow is melting fast in these temperatures.

 

I attempted to mow the grassy verge today. The result (with a manual reel push-mower) was uneven. The battery for the electric weed-wacker / strimmer needed to go back on the charger. I will edge the verge tomorrow.

 

Edited May 12 by Ozexpatriate

[AndyID]

2 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

How warm is it in SW BC? We've seen a record high yesterday (above 90°F / 32°C).  Very warm again today, but less so tomorrow - perhaps 27°C - still very unseasonable. 

 

Mountain snow is melting fast in these temperatures.

 

 

It's 72F now in my shop at the moment. The lake is full.

[Ozexpatriate]

41 minutes ago, AndyID said:

It's 72F now in my shop at the moment. The lake is full.

78°F  / 25°C well after sunset here and much closer to sea level.

[pH]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

How warm is it in SW BC? We've seen a record high yesterday (above 90°F / 32°C).  Very warm again today, but less so tomorrow - perhaps 27°C - still very unseasonable. 

 

Mountain snow is melting fast in these temperatures.

Temperature reached 27C today, but won’t be that warm for the rest of the week. But the fires aren’t here - they’re generally in the  interior of the province, with the biggest in the northeast. The big problem at the moment isn’t the heat but the wind, driving fires once they’ve started.

 

Yep - fast melt, but snowpack is below average this year. How quickly will how much get into the rivers, and how much have the water levels in the dams been lowered in anticipation? 

[jamie92208]

7 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I really dislike differentiated exam papers. The higher paper was for testing grades C to A and the questions were set accordingly. If you didn’t get the C you failed , no D Or,E grade. Similarly if you had been entered for the Foundation paper the highest grade you could achieve was a C even if you got 100%.

I had a major row at a parents evening when this was partially explained to me. The F different levels were never properly explained. At least with O level you could get grades 11 to 9 with 7,8 and  9 being fails. 

 

It got to at least 29 here yesterday.  It was hot in the morning emptying the trailer at the tip and hotter after lunch mowing the three weed patches.  However it had to be done as we are promised rain for the next few days. 

 

We are off to a wine fair this morning.  A sack cart is being taken to get the purchases back to the car.  

 

Jamie

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

9 minutes ago, pH said:

Yep - fast melt, but snowpack is below average this year. How quickly will how much get into the rivers, and how much have the water levels in the dams been lowered in anticipation? 

Snowpack for the Willamette valley is at 144%. We had a dry April, but early May caught up. We're still above 'normal' precipitation for the 'rain year'.

[polybear]

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Yes both, and I've also degreased the windscreen but it still kept falling off. 

 

Sounds like a faulty cup or it was designed by an idiot - what make is it?

 

16 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

I had a major row at a parents evening when this was partially explained to me. The F different levels were never properly explained. At least with O level you could get grades 11 to 9 with 7,8 and  9 being fails. 

 

 

In Bear's day an O level (or GCSE?) was grades A - E (there may also have been an F?), whilst for CSE it was 1-5.