Ozexpatriate

You make a relevant observation. It's about a simplification of the arcana of Imperial measures. Distances less than a mile are almost always in feet. None of this yards, fathoms, rods, chains, furlongs, nonsense, thank you very much. In the same way pounds are used rather than stones and hundredweight. Tons are confusing. For "ton" the US would use the "short ton" of 2,000 pounds, which is quite close to the metric tonne (907 kg), rather than the Imperial ton of 2,240 pounds (and isn't 2,240* is such an obvious number to use?) * 20 cwt Similarly volumes are in US gallons - not firkins, hogsheads, tuns or butts or puncheons or tierces or runletts. Then there's barrels. The US oil barrel is 42 US gallons (39 Imperial gallons). The Imperial barrel is 36 gallons. They're all nonsense. Three cheers for Système international d'unités.

John, in retirement you won't give a toss what they do. I now hear the steady drumbeat of use "AI" all the time. People who use it do like Grammarly. (I don't have access.) I do hear people pushing hard for AI digests of meeting transcripts to produce a summary and action item list. I've seen how it* works (or doesn't). It impressively creates a 75% solution in almost nothing flat but the results are dodgy. What I saw varied from "that's not bad", to "that's just incorrect". * A Microsoft encapsulation of Open AI's Chat GPT in a private cloud (Azure).

In a similar vein to the cronut (cream filled, deep-fried croissant dough) - introduced in New York in 2013. They were all the rage for a while. The cruffin was 'invented' around the same time in Melbourne.

Yes Bull ants are nasty. Aussies Sand flies at the beach are a pain in the proverbial. The appear in Queensland too. Probably pretty much everywhere. I don't know what caused an increase in their concentration - weather, seasons etc. They were usually not a problem, but when present in large numbers very irritating. Another irritant at the beach is so-called "sea-lice" (not in this case marine arthropods): As reported on the Australian thread the South American fire ant (which had already spread through Central America to the US south) is now in South East Queensland - presumably by hitching a ride on a container. There is a band around the periphery of the urban area where mitigation will take place to hopefully stop its further spread. My cousin lives in this zone. Wikipedia suggests they are also in Sydney. They'll love the Aussie climate. Even flooding doesn't deter fire ants. They raft together and float.

Very commonplace now. It took a new post (top of this page - 13044) to sort it out. It usually does correct itself.

That nose and the offset fuel tank are indeed very suggestive of the DH9A. Another well thought out suggestion. Check the empennage 'holes' for the elevator wires and the rectangular panel behind the roundel - a very close match to this.

You've not encountered an Aussie horse fly? They bite and it stings - a lot. Far worse than mozzie bites. Can even bleed and raises a big welt. Bee and wasp stings may hurt more.

I'm pretty sure I saw that doing the rounds at animation festivals - it's from 1991. It instantly reminded me of a classic of the old animation festival circuit (also from the NFBC) - The Cat Came Back of 1988. I checked the animation credits and didn't notice any similar names but they are very similar in structure - animating a 'traditional' tune in a humourous way.

"dissimilar to"

I don't know if the 'transit lounge' is still a thing for international travellers anywhere. There was a point (1980s) where international passengers changing planes at an intermediate stop were not admitted into the regular part of the airport (or even the gate) and were kept in a holding area that was very spartan. I remember these all over the place - Hawaii, New Zealand and I'm pretty sure in Europe too. Deplaning you would take a different corridor than the passengers entering the country - there was no passport control station, and you never "entered" the country where you landed while waiting for the next leg. Much changed in transiting airports once the Schengen zone was implemented in Europe.

There was nothing 'disingenuous' in my use of wording. Call an "accomplice" a "partner in crime" if you like. It means exactly the same thing. It matters not and it's not confined to Britain. All the European colonizers used African slaves and most of them went to the Caribbean or South America. According to one search hit, 90% of African slaves went to the Caribbean and South America and 6% went directly to British North America. The Portuguese sent very large numbers to Brazil. Britain was the second largest exporter of slaves from Africa. From here: (1501 - 1866) Portugal / Brazil 5.8m Britain 3.3m France 1.4m Spain / Uruguay 1.1m Netherlands 0.6m USA 0.3m Denmark / Baltic 0.1m (Numbers are rounded) The Dutch did not abolish slavery in their colonies until 1863 - around the same time as the Emancipation Proclamation. The US stopped importing slaves in 1808 - though of course slavery would continue for another 55 years. In the 18th century only 25% of immigrants to the 13 colonies were 'free'. 50% were enslaved Africans and the other 25% were a combination of transported convicts and indentured servants.

In most places appointees have to be of the same party as the vacancy - for that reason.

Not as a 'rule'. "Different from" would properly be used. Blog post on the topic here. Strunk & White do not comment on "different than" - saves me looking it up. Theodore Bernstein - The Careful Writer - A Modern Guide to English Usage.

You left off 'comparable with'. 😉

Pre-"golden years" Rudolph Valentino: The Sheik, Son of the Sheik, etc. (The strong silent type - pun intended.) The Golden Years had Jeanette MacDonald singing with Nelson Eddie about Mounties or Errol Flynn fencing with Basil Rathbone. Gary Cooper was more worried about the family sapphire than slave girls in Beau Geste: per the opening credits: Unless your Golden Years encompass Marilyn Monroe spurning Charles Coburn in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Which would have been utter chaos had the majority party needed that one seat to form a government - the whole country would have been in uproar until the byelection. Australia has to deal with elections occurring at random times at the whim of the government - and consequently can run a byelection. In the US the elections are rigorously calendared - happening at the same time each year they are held. Federal elections are mandated as the Tuesday following the first Monday in November by statute. There would be a process to have an appointee hold the seat until the next calendared election - like any vacancy.

Curious, I looked up the name:

I don't know what narratives you are reading. The Island of Gorée is a UNESCO World Heritage Site - and visited by a sitting POTUS. The role of the slave ports in West Africa is not just well documented but well understood - certainly here. The white slave traders certainly had African accomplices. As to Mediterranean slavery and the Barbary Corsairs - their impact is well known to any US history student who paid attention. The hymn of the Marine Corps mentions the "Shores of Tripoli" in the first line. The Treaty of Tripoli (1796) is one of the first US treaties not involving the revolution and military actions of the US defending its interests as a sovereign nation.

With great consequence to Western religion. CNN was running the following around Easter: CNN: Opinion: How ‘God’s ghostwriters’ transform our understanding of the Bible The author extrapolates on the documented contributions of a presumed enslaved scribe name Tertius who wrote Paul's letter to the Romans. One can imagine literate Greek slaves doing the actual writing part of most of the New Testament.

It was covered by online news here, with a little blurb on national news after the final. It wasn't broadcast on any 'major' outlet (as far as I know) - unlike all the US-based 'talent' shows - "The Voice", "American Idol"* etc. * Replayed twice tonight - live and on tape-delay.

News outlets all over the US are showing an animation of the 'precision cutting' controlled demolition. You can find one (of many spliced into broadcasts) here at 50s. I haven't located the source - from "Unified Command'. EDIT: Here's the original.

Very true. Sony is a great example. Apart from all the CCD image sensors they sell into the camera value-chain (which includes mobile telephones) and the Playstation console system you don't see them like the brand leader they were 30 - 40 years ago.

Like I guessed. It was the recent primary. Non-YouTube story here We're about to have a primary election in Oregon - there are a lot of campaign ads on television. Had one of the candidates passed away, it would be all over the news.

This is not that unusual - not routine but states do have election law to cover it. A lot of time can pass between the filing deadline, the election and the winner taking office. It is quite plausible for this to happen. If your news source was recent - then it would have been a primary election to select the party nominee for the November election. Search provided me with this for the state of Washington: Obviously it results in a vacancy and that would be handled by the 'normal' procedure for vacancies which would depend on local law. Likely there would be an appointee until the first convenient election would be scheduled. Candidates may also be disqualified before an election.

How about a 3D one - a large statue - that would make the point obvious for everyone transiting it.