Early Risers.

[Happy Hippo]

44 minutes ago, Barry O said:

 

TARget...hippo.....Lasing...firing..target stop......

Enemy tank

Dive, dive, dive!

 

Break wind,  and they'll think they sank us!

 

 

[polybear]

Following mention several days ago regarding trying out an Airbrush to paint some (large?)  non-modelling objects (apologies - can't remember what, or who mentioned it ) I thought I'd post some piccies of my previous exploits.  The paint used was Crown Solo One Coat Satin (solvent based, and sadly now only available in pure brilliant white ), thinned with white spirit.  The target was an MDF radiator cabinet, first primed two coats of mdf primer and sanded really smooth.

The airbrush was one of those ultra cheapo Badger external mix, single action jobbies that now seem to be discontinued (Humbrol had a similar variant).  Spraying was done using one of those 10-15 quid zip-up front beach shelters (like a mini tent, available on ebay; great for keeping dust and flies off wet paint).  All parts were painted separately, so they could be laid flat and sprayed, so very little risk of runs.  I can't remember how many coats I did - I waited a while and built up the finish "until it looked right".  Takes a little effort, but well worth it. 

 

[iL Dottore]

3 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Here's an interesting, and maybe rather worrying statistic.  On the latest information covering the full March to May period the death rate from Covid-19 in the town here was =198 (per 100,000 people).  Obviously the rate, used in its normal way as a measure, can be misleading and the actual number of deaths was 23 (almost treble the earlier reported number of 8 which covered March and, I think, a week or so into April)....

These are, of course, concerning figures. But I am wondering if that, because of how very nasty the disease is when it badly affects someone, we have lost our perspective on the threat of this disease on the general population (and overall). I recently saw some statistics put out by a Swiss Government Department that indicated that for the same assessment period more people died of influenza In Switzerland in 2015 than died of COVID-19 in 2020 . Unfortunately, I can no longer find the source for this data (it was published in a magazine).
 

I must add the caveat that in the absence of a recent re-read, I may well be incorrectly remembering the data, however it does make you think about how COVID-19 will compare, after everything has settled down, with the other great plagues and pandemics of history. We are fortunate that other Zoonotic diseases, like Ebola, which have a far greater lethality, are luckily not so easily spread. However before we get too complacent, we must not forget that our old friend Yrsinia Pestis (the charming little microbe behind the Black Death) still turns up in spots across the world. And we all know what happened when this little bu99er last decided to do a “Grand Tour of Europe”...

 

Certainly there have been in recent memory, (and since the 1950s) influenza pandemics that have had a far higher total mortality than COVID-19 has had (so far) and yet I found little evidence that countries went into “zombie apocalypse panic mode“ during those pandemics. And like COVID-19, influenza is particularly lethal in the elderly and vulnerable. I wonder how much of how and where we find ourselves today is down to social media, the 24 hour rolling news cycle (that has always to be fed) and the politicians of all stripes who “need to be seen doing something“
 

I consider myself fortunate, in quite a few ways, that I live in Switzerland and over the past months I have been quite grateful that the Swiss have been incredibly levelheaded about everything relating to COVID-19. I attach this link to a page from the Federal Office of Public Health on how the restrictions can be eased: https://www.bag.admin.ch/bag/en/home/das-bag/aktuell/medienmitteilungen.msg-id-79522.html (it’s in English). I think, from what I’ve read about the lifting of restrictions balls up occurring in the UK, the Swiss instructions are a model of clarity.
 

A belly of pork is roasting slowly in the oven, I have a nice amber beer to go with it, the Sun is shining but it is not too warm and tomorrow evening I have the final contract finalisation discussions. Life, at the moment, is reasonably adequate!
 

Stay Safe, Be Well, Stay Sane!

iD

Edited June 22, 2020 by iL Dottore

[The Stationmaster]

1 hour ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Strange that the midland isn’t portrayed as evil since it’s predominantly red?!

Your wish is my command sir, if I may quote, with slight rearrangement of emphasis and case -

 

Ah but in a logical world if you believe in God (and his Wonderful  Railway) you inevitably have to believe in Lucifer (and therefore acknowledge the existence of nuMerouS lesser railways)

[Ozexpatriate]

29 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I recently saw some statistics put out by a Swiss Government Department that indicated that for the same assessment period more people died of influenza In Switzerland in 2015 than died of COVID-19 in 2020 .

US CDC

Quote

Conclusion

CDC estimates that influenza was associated with more than 35.5 million illnesses, more than 16.5 million medical visits, 490,600 hospitalizations, and 34,200 deaths during the 2018–2019 influenza season. This burden was similar to estimated burden during the 2012–2013 influenza season.

To date US CoViD-19 cases are 2.32M with 122k fatalities (and still counting).

 

Very simplistically, CoViD-19 has almost 4x the total mortality in the US.

 

The biggest difference is that there are vaccines available for the most common H1N1 influenza strains.

 

The 2019-2020 influenza season was mostly over by the time of the CoViD-19 pandemic, but isolation practices in the pandemic will have a mitigating impact on total 2019-2020 influenza infections and presumably fatalities.

 

CoViD-19 infections in the US are accelerating in many states. Most of these infections are in younger people and may not linearly impact the fatality rate.

 

EDIT:

From this page:

Seasonal flu numbers are highly variable, but still not as dramatic as CoViD-19

 

 

Edited June 22, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[tigerburnie]

You lads must be a lot older than me, all the locos looked black when I was a nipper...………………...including the green ones...………………………..

[Compound2632]

7 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

My idea of heaven is a episode of 'Lucifer' where non believers  have their heads clamped, eyes pinned open and are subjected to continuous documentary evidence about all things GWR.

 

Too much information about the Great Western would merely confirm us in our scepticism. Middle chrome tinted spectacles and servings of chocolate and cream might make us at least more sympathetic.

[iL Dottore]

An informative post, indeed, Oz. But you can’t really compare the two populations, the US has far greater numbers of obese people (risk factor) and diabetics (risk factor) with sedentary lifestyles, in comparison the Swiss are (generally), thinner, fitter and with less comorbidities. As I posted, I may not have correctly remembered the data, but certainly Switzerland has been relatively “lucky” during this epidemic (although I suspect the Swiss being generally fitter, thinner and less sedentary has a lot to do with our “luck”).

 

COVID-19 currently does appear to be approximately 3 to 4 times more lethal than seasonal influenza, however I think that when we have a much, much better idea of how widespread the infection is within the general population, and how many of these are asymptomatic, COVID-19 may end up being not as lethal as it now seems to be. And of course an important point still remains: in comparison with some of the other Zoonotic diseases, COVID-19 is not very lethal (want to have nightmares? think of the implications of an airborne and aerosol droplet transmitted variant of Ebola)

 

Stay safe and healthy Oz!

[The Stationmaster]

34 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

You are obviously a person of impeccable taste.  I think the painting is a view of St Pancras looking west.

 

Jamie.

The full title of the painting is  'From Pentonville Road looking west evening, 1884'  by John O'Connor.  Oddly the  various reproductions of it have very contrasting colour casts and some have quite grey light while others are like the one posted - I wonder which most accurately reflects the original painting, which is in the Museum of London?  I suppose if it had been painted 100 years later we'd have been able to pick out Bernie Victor's emporium

[pH]

7 hours ago, roundhouse said:

Exactly. She was making scrambled eggs in the microwave. Apart from a huge amount of salt the sugar was definitely a first time I have seen that.

My late mother-in-law used to eat tomatoes dipped in sugar. Technically, she was correct, since tomatoes are fruits, not vegetables.

[TheQ]

5 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Ask yourself this:

 

The Reading stabbings are all over the  television news this lunchtime. But where are  the massive outpourings of grief  for the father, his two children and  their dog killed by by the drunk driver in Cumbria?

 

Does it mean that Southern lives are more important than Northern lives.

 

According to the BBC they are.

Big piece on this sad event, on the national BBC news main news today.. 

[JohnDMJ]

'Evening!

 

9 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

If the discomfort last for more than a few hours and doesn’t respond to over-the-counter analgesics (aspirin, paracetamol and the like) then you should get checked out. Ditto if, after resting, you have stiffness or dizziness when moving/getting up.

 

A couple of years ago, one of my colleagues tripped upstairs. He is between our ages and of similar build to you. When, after a few days, he finally presented at A&E, he was found to have cracked a few ribs and punctured a lung.

 

4 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Here's an interesting, and maybe rather worrying statistic.  On the latest information covering the full March to May period the death rate from Covid-19 in the town here was =198 (per 100,000 people).  Obviously the rate, used in its normal way as a measure, can be misleading and the actual number of deaths was 23 (almost treble the earlier reported number of 8 which covered March and, I think, a week or so into April).   It would be interesting to compare the rate with some of the figures for places where the actual number of deaths was much higher.  Incidentally although there quite a lot of older people with just over a quarter of the population over 60 only around 4% of the population fall into the various non-white ethnic groups which suggests that probably the main factor was age and associated heath conditions.

 

I think I'll carry on with 2 metre social distancing because there must be a lot of teh virus about here still.

 

198 per 100000 is 1980ppm (parts per million) or 0.198%. Expressed as a ratio thus is better for comparison than quoting 23 deaths since that might be of a population of 25 (=92%) Horrific!

[Ozexpatriate]

55 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

... in comparison the Swiss are (generally), thinner, fitter and with less comorbidities.

Which would surely result in fewer seasonal influenza fatalities as well?

[New Haven Neil]

It was Donk, not me, honest.

 

[AndyID]

Weather here is about as perfect as you might want so the windows are all open. That might have been a mistake because a robin heralded the dawn on a tree right beside the bedroom window at flipping 4:15 am.

 

(Robins here are more like UK blackbirds than UK robins.)

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I've tidied up the patio and while I was doing so the new wheelbarrow arrived. I started to assemble it, there were no instructions, but then I hit a snag. There is two bolts holding each handle to the body of the barrow but no way could I get the holes to line up. Looking at the holes I saw what was wrong and a quick check with the tape measure confirmed it. The holes in the body of the wheelbarrow are 4 centimetres apart but the holes in the frame are 6.5 centimetres apart. Either they've sent me the wrong frame or the wrong body. It wasn't helped by there being no instructions, not even a list of components. 

Edited June 22, 2020 by PhilJ W
fat finger syndrome

[Ozexpatriate]

15 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

The holes in the body of te wheelbarrow are 4 centimetres apart but the holes in the frame are 6.5 centimetres apart.

You'll need a really big hammer to fix that!

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Too much information about the Great Western would merely confirm us in our scepticism. Middle chrome tinted spectacles and servings of chocolate and cream might make us at least more sympathetic.

Sympathy, we acolytes of the GWR and it's BR(W) successor, need nothing of.

 

Watching certain parts of your anatomy getting copper clad, or merely brassed over, brings a smile.

 

Knowing that it's going to happen for  all eternity and  that you will be come intimately acquainted with Sir Felix's Pole...........................

 

Priceless!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 22, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[Ozexpatriate]

18 minutes ago, AndyID said:

Weather here is about as perfect as you might want so the windows are all open. That might have been a mistake because a robin heralded the dawn on a tree right beside the bedroom window at flipping 4:15 am.

At this point in the solar cycle my bedroom windows directly face the ~northeasterly rising sun. I have blackout blinds, but the light shines in the gaps between the blind and the window frame. When I have the windows open, the blinds move, variably admitting more light as they swing.

 

I'm about to close up the house for the remainder of the day with inside/outside temperatures close to equilibrium at 23°C. We're headed to 30°C later in the day and I will resort to the AC.   

[Happy Hippo]

1 minute ago, Ozexpatriate said:

At this point in the solar cycle my bedroom windows directly face the ~northeasterly rising sun. I have blackout blinds, but the light shines in the gaps between the blind and the window frame. When I have the windows open, the blinds move, variably admitting more light as they swing.

 

I'm about to close up the house for the remainder of the day with inside/outside temperatures close to equilibrium at 23°C. We're headed to 30°C later in the day and I will resort to the AC.   

The Obergrumpenfuher needs a blackout to sleep, I am quite happy to go to bed with the curtains open, and will sleep until I need to get up.

 

Such is the benefits of a military education.

[Happy Hippo]

3 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

 

 

 

Edit: the PRR also had a De Glehn compound,

 

 

So did the GWR, in fact they purchased three. 

Edited June 22, 2020 by Happy Hippo
My keyboard is failing to finish words off correctly

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

... you inevitably have to believe in Lucifer (and therefore acknowledge the existence of nuMerouS lesser railways)

I thought you might make a passing remark on Lucifer, Mephistopheles and Satan.

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

Big piece on this sad event, on the national BBC news main news today.. 

At last!

 

But you have to agree that it is now yesterday's news.

 

As you pointed out earlier, murder by motor vehicle is considered by the BBC and the rest of the media to be not out of the ordinary.

[iL Dottore]

50 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Which would surely result in fewer seasonal influenza fatalities as well?

Not necessarily, it depends on the affected population. CoVID-19 is cross generational, influenza less so. I  think the high mortality in that pandemic was in the elderly. Plus, I don’t think that obesity or diabetes is as much of a risk factor for influenza.

The point I wanted to make is that as terrible as CoVID-19 is, influenza can be equally lethal, yet we didn’t react to the severe influenza pandemics as we have to the Coronavirus. And I pondered if there was a reason for this beyond the purely medical/scientific.

[Happy Hippo]

54 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

It was Donk, not me, honest.

 

Donk is obviously thinking.........

 

Nice Brass