The Night Mail

[Oldddudders]

6 minutes ago, GMKAT7 said:

Sorry, this sounds more like an ERs post!

Not exactly. When I was last an ERs regular, modelling and associated matters were discouraged by a 5'14" lady, threatening to use her mighty awl!

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

The trick is to cater for both groups; I would’ve thought that all these “smart young things” with Degrees, Phd’s etc that seem to be running such places now should find little difficulty doing that….

 

Of course it’s quite possible that Bear may being a tad cynical there….

 

Only a tad, perhaps a tadette?🤔

 

The problem with the move to simplified "relevant" displays is that a large proportion of the target audience won't look at the animated diagrams and read the age appropriate information panels, but either run about screaming or trail after their minders with a sullen expression, immersed in their iPhones.

 

I'm visiting York this summer and was looking foward to a day at the NRM...

 

[Compound2632]

1 minute ago, Hroth said:

The problem with the move to simplified "relevant" displays is that a large proportion of the target audience won't look at the animated diagrams and read the age appropriate information panels, but either run about screaming or trail after their minders with a sullen expression, immersed in their iPhones.

 

That's your typical outraged middle-aged male enthusiast visitor...

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

What I should perhaps add is that all those non-middle-aged non-enthusiast visitors are subsidising the museum's ability to make its archives and collections available for serious middle aged enthusiast researchers. 

I don’t agree (but see below)

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

Perhaps it ought to be law that all museums have to cater for 'us' and have a nerd department.

 

1 hour ago, polybear said:

The trick is to cater for both groups; I would’ve thought that all these “smart young things” with Degrees, Phd’s etc that seem to be running such places now should find little difficulty doing that….

 

Of course it’s quite possible that Bear may being a tad cynical there….

I’ve mentioned this before in previous posts, but the people who run things in the UK all seem to have gone to the same schools and universities, taken the same degrees, circulate in the same social circles (more or less) and are all singing in the same opera – not necessarily singing the same Arias, but definitely singing in the same opera.

This is especially true of so-called “museum studies” which seems to instruct the “bright young things” (as polybear would put it) to dumb things down to try and attract a demographic that wouldn’t go to a museum in a million years 

 

To answer @Compound2632 and @polybear successfully catering to casual visitor and the more serious visitor can be done and IS done - but not very often in the UK (although there are - fortunately - quite a few museums that do manage that - such as the Wallace Collection*)

 

In comparison, when I visited the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo it was choc-a-bloc with kids (obviously a popular destination), yet none of the exhibits were dumbed down (thank you, Google Translate) and some exhibits would be considered as very definitely “too grown-up“ for British children (such as a series of display cases containing mannequins depicting how the Japanese developed as a nation from prehistoric times, with the figures in the first two display cases – representing the very beginnings of Japanese society – being completely naked). And there were plenty of hands-on stuff and audio-visual experiences for people of all ages (and all working as well!).

 

Two things struck me about the museum, apart from its quality, the first being how well-behaved the Japanese children were. They certainly weren’t quiet and were enthusiastically boisterous, but there was none of this whining and temper tantrums and whingeing so often seen in children at museums in the UK. The other thing that really impressed me, again apart from the superb exhibits, was the gift shop. In many UK museums, the gift shop (which always seems to spread like cancer and take over more of the museum than they rightly deserve [e.g  Science Museum in London]) rarely has much in the way of high-quality and durable souvenirs. In comparison, the museum shop in the Tokyo museum contained everything from pocket money friendly Gachapon* to beautiful scale recreations of dinosaur skeletons to - for visitors with deep pockets and a serious collecting bug – real fossils. And there was nothing there which resembled a cheap “made in China“ throwaway bit of tat. The museum shop was as curated as carefully as the museum collection.

 

* Gachapon (other spellings are available) are small plastic spheres containing a collectible of some kind or another. These are dispensed from what looks like an oversized bubble gum machine. The Gachapon at the National Museum of Nature and Science all contained miniature replicas of various topics covered by/seen in the museum; you could get miniature dinosaurs, miniature planets of our solar system, miniature bugs (quite popular as those Gachapon machines were almost empty) and so on. And the impressive thing is the collectables inside are incredibly high quality (and not just the Gachapon at the museum, either)

[Compound2632]

2 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I don’t agree (but see below)

 

Money.

[iL Dottore]

Just now, Compound2632 said:

 

Money.

Possibly.

 

Possibly not.

 

A number of posters, recounting their visits to small, well curated and well laid out museums, have mentioned how such things are run on a shoe string

 

In comparison, the Maritime Museum in Greenwich (which has been really dumbed down since I was a regular visitor as a kid) has a grant of £20 million with just under another £14 Million from other sources (22-23 figures).

The following is from the BBC. Good or bad news????

 

[Hroth]

56 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

That's your typical outraged middle-aged male enthusiast visitor...

 

No, thats your appalled observer.

 

[Happy Hippo]

10 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

 

The following is from the BBC. Good or bad news????

 

Saving up for the next re-build of a Gresley pacific, which I can't for the life of me think of it's name and number.

[Hroth]

11 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Possibly.

 

Possibly not.

 

A number of posters, recounting their visits to small, well curated and well laid out museums, have mentioned how such things are run on a shoe string

 

In comparison, the Maritime Museum in Greenwich (which has been really dumbed down since I was a regular visitor as a kid) has a grant of £20 million with just under another £14 Million from other sources (22-23 figures).

The following is from the BBC. Good or bad news????

 

 

A larger caff and museum shop? Perhaps a creche and buggy park?🤔

 

I'd like to think it would be better thought out displays and a thematic hall with significant exhibits being rotated every year or so.

 

What it will mean is that parts of the museum will be closed off for reconstruction for up to five years or so and exhibits will go into storage and never exhibited again or be sold off as surplus to requirements.

 

[Hroth]

5 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Saving up for the next re-build of a Gresley pacific, which I can't for the life of me think of it's name and number.

 

Section and plinth it, if its so iconic, people will come to look at its corroded innards.

 

[Tony_S]

We had a week away at the seaside and saw old houses, two castles, some excellent gardens, had rides on old trains,  visited a museum and also photographed Country Life’s “third best view in England”.  Everyone at all of the places we visited was helpful and really well informed. Any information sheets were appropriate for adults and there were often activity packs for children. We also went to a couple of beaches. The nearest thing to suspicious characters were gulls in Swanage.

Tony

[br2975]

WARNING – RANT ALERT

 

Below is a copy of an e.mail I have 'fired off'  today, in the direction of the local "Electoral Services"

.

.

I have cast my vote in every General Election since I came of age, in 1974.

 

Many months ago, my wife and I booked a foreign holiday.

 

We depart Cardiff Airport at 06:20hrs on Thursday, 27th. June, 2024, which means we will need to arrive at the airport sometime after 04:00hrs.

 

We return to the U.K. on Thursday, 4th. July, 2024.

 

Some months after we had booked the holiday, the Prime Minister, The Rt. Hon. Rishi Sunak M.P. made the decision to call a General Election.

 

The date set for the General Election is Thursday, 4th. July, 2024.

 

The date my wife and I are due to return to the U.K.

 

It is highly likely that we will return too late to cast our vote at our allotted Polling Station.

 

To this end, we took the decision to vote by post.

 

The relevant websites, namely “The Electoral Commission” and “GOV.UK” both stated that the closing date for applications to vote by post for the 2024

General Election was 17:00hrs (5pm), Wednesday, 19th. June 2024.

 

My wife and I submitted our applications on line, on 6th. June, 2024 almost two weeks before the 19th. June closing date for applications.

 

We both received e.mail confirmation of our applications, and were allocated unique reference numbers.

 

My wife was allocated the Ref. REDACTED

Whilst I was allocated the Ref. REDACTED

 

By Sunday, 23rd. June 2024 neither of us had received a postal vote pack.

 

I sent an e.mail to the Electoral Services, and also contacted the same office by telephone.

 

I have now been advised that postal vote packs are only sent out in two batches;

 

Postal vote packs for existing postal voters, and those whose applications were submitted before 5th. June 2024 were dispatched by post on 14th. June, 2024.

Referred to by staff as the “first run”

 

Postal vote packs for those electors who applied after 5th. June, 2024 will be dispatched en-masse on Wednesday 26th. June, 2024

Referred to by staff as the “second run”

 

Nowhere on either the “UK GOV” or ‘Electoral Commission’ websites can I find any reference to these ‘cut off dates’ and ‘first and second runs’

 

In a telephone call to the Cardiff Electoral Services office which commenced at 10:00hrs on Monday, 24th. June, 2024 I offered to attend at Cardiff County Hall, Atlantic Wharf in order to collect my wife’s and my postal voting packs in order to guarantee my vote.

 

I was told this course of action was not possible, we would have to receive them in the post like everyone else, even though the postal vote packs would arrive whilst my wife and I are out of the country.

 

To this end, my wife and I have been denied our democratic vote, not through any fault of ours, but due to the bureaucratic policies and procedures of the Electoral Commission.

 

Should this matter not be resolved by 12:00hrs (midday) Tuesday, 25th. June, 2024, and your organization can produce some means by which my wife and I may exercise our democratic right on Thursday, 4th. July 2024 I shall pass this and the other e.mails, together with a transcript of my earlier telephone conversation with your staff,  to media outlets of my choosing.

 

I await your response.

Edited June 24 by br2975

[Northmoor]

@br2975 Oh I bet Royal Mail are delighted to process mass mailings on two days, separated by twelve days, instead of processing six smaller mailings spread over the two week period.  But what would I know, I'm just an engineer who likes to find ways to get things done, not hide behind reasons why they can't be done.

[TheQ]

Luckily at the radar museum the building itself is listed and an exhibit, so the reinforcement required to raise heavy items to stupid heights is impossible. Many of the rooms are in themselves small, meaning all you can do is arrange equipment so people can wander around and see the items.

The nearest thing to " modern thinking" is the removal of some WW2 posters deemed sexist...

Other than fitment of a projector and drop down screen, the operations room is exactly as left when the RAF moved back down the underground bunker in 1993 ( it's fit out dates from 1966-73)

It's the lead picture .. here.

https://www.radarmuseum.co.uk/

 

Those switches the young lady is about to press, is one of the type I spend a lt of time repairing. The manufacturing dates on them are generally 1969, but the plastic  parts weren't designed to last 55 years, much deployment of  plastruct, plasticard, super glue and plastic magic.

 

[SM42]

As the forecast is set fair and I only have tomorrow off this week, I am planning an early start to fence painting. 

 

This will achieve two things. 

 

1 it won't be so hot

 

2 I'll have time later to do other stuff. 

 

There may or may not be a greater expanse of SM42 epidermis on show during this exercise. 

 

Fetch the factor 50 luv!

 

Andy

[figworthy]

8 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Not exactly. When I was last an ERs regular, modelling and associated matters were discouraged by a 5'14" lady, threatening to use her mighty awl!

 

The aforementioned lady has returned, and is posting from time to time.

 

Her first post on returning mentioned the aforementioned unmentionables.

 

Adrian

[Oldddudders]

31 minutes ago, SM42 said:

Fetch the factor 50 luv!

Make sure it's one that works. Story last week that Which? magazine had tested various sunblocks and found some leading brands wanting, while some supermarket own-brands, including Lidl, passed muster. 

[Happy Hippo]

Brian,  I suppose you could always give you brother the keys to the house and let him fill in your postal votes by proxy.

 

You know....

 

Better call Paul!

🤣

[Happy Hippo]

5 minutes ago, figworthy said:

 

The aforementioned lady has returned, and is posting from time to time.

 

Her first post on returning mentioned the aforementioned unmentionables.

 

Adrian

The reason that TNM was created.

 

Anything goes....

 

Even reputations

[Dave Hunt]

I suppose that were I a cynic I would see Brian's post above as illustrating yet another case of this country's descent into banana republic status run by bureaucratic apparatchicks supported by politicians whose primary aim is to further their own careers. 

 

And I have to admit that I am often accused of being a cynic.

 

Dave

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

Make sure it's one that works. Story last week that Which? magazine had tested various sunblocks and found some leading brands wanting, while some supermarket own-brands, including Lidl, passed muster. 

 

Bear used Boots Sultan in Malta; it's on their Tick List and the price is right.  Worked for me.

Edited June 24 by polybear

[Tony_S]

If a postal vote hasn’t arrived is it still possible for a proxy vote to,be applied for? Deadline for that is Wednesday I think.

[Dave Hunt]

A curate's egg of a day today. Much of the morning was spent wrestling with various web sites concerned with energy provision, broadband and mobile phone system providers as all of those things are due for renewing fairly soon. I narrowly avoided losing the will to live and have narrowed things down to a couple of providers but will leave it there until nearer the due dates. I was then elected from a shortlist of one to sort out the freezer and managed to reach the furthest recesses that seemed not to have been explored for some considerable time. Having done that I prepared to go down to the shed but heard the dreaded words, "Just before you go, there's a small job needs doing. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes." It didn't. It involved digging out took nearly two hours. Eventually, however, the shed was reached and some work done on the shearlegs for my layout but fate was not yet finished with me. After having a shower to wash away the grime of the day I reached for a towel that caught on the end of the towel rail and wrenched my thumb back. Said digit is now swollen and bluddy painful.

 

One of those days.....

 

Dave

[br2975]

10 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

If a postal vote hasn’t arrived is it still possible for a proxy vote to,be applied for? Deadline for that is Wednesday I think.

.

My issue there is that I don't have any relatives living in the same constituency as my wife and I, which would mean their travelling.

.

Plus, I still believe the ballot should be secret - albeit my nearest and dearest will have a good idea of my leanings.

[Tony_S]

4 minutes ago, br2975 said:

.

My issue there is that I don't have any relatives living in the same constituency as my wife and I, which would mean their travelling.

.

Plus, I still believe the ballot should be secret - albeit my nearest and dearest will have a good idea of my leanings.

That would be a problem. We have postal votes and they have arrived. For some reason our polling station has moved to somewhere further away from our house. There are two nearer polling stations but they are not for our ward.