Early Risers.

[AndyB]

Until a couple of days ago I'd forgotten that I lived on the flight path of 3 airports/fields. 

One has been relatively quiet recently - I assume because a couple of regular travellers moved from Windsor to California. The other airport had a natural down turn in traffic. And finally my roof tiles rattling at night was not me snoring but the boys in blue practicing with their Chinooks. 

[NGT6 1315]

I am quite sure there are businesses where people are more likely to behave in an uncooperative manner to begin with. Public transport, for example, has, in my impression, long been a field where customers are more likely to challenge staff authority, and to do so in a way which leaves a lot to be desired as to common manners.

 

There may, of course, be varying levels to this tendency in different regions, but it is my impression, based on digesting numerous such reports (whether they be news, police bulletins and other) over the years on one hand and personal assessments from friends who are also working in public transport, that said tendency has, in fact, grown significantly at least over the past fifteen or so years.

 

I suppose the underlying causes will be complex, but I cannot help but wonder whether factors such as deregulation, competition and the concomitant promotion of a customer/provider mindset (where of course "the customer is always right"…er, nope…) may play a fairly important role in this context.

[81C]

12 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Just watching a police crash eejit programme, and there we were, right on Bod's and Baz's old stamping ground - Crimdon Dene.  

You can see why the local knuckle draggers do those things the Feds in that are a bunch of dorks a Moggy 1000 got away from a Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeemar pursuit car 

what a tonk driving it he seemed scared of damaging the car, we could not stop laughing thankfully no-one got hurt.

Btw what a cool cop who was holding a phone horizontal he looked the dog 8011ox. 

Morning All

overcast in sunny Essex 

I woke this morning wondering where the hell I was then one of the dogs jumped onto the bed, there is one of these new super duper matrasses being delivered today, the one on the 

bed only a year old has collapsed on the side I get in and out.

 

Must get on stay safe and mind the gap C.R. Ashtest-Dummie.  

[Chris116]

I woke up to find SWMBO had woken a little earlier than me, which is unusual. Mugatea and for her and muggacoffee for me started the day. 

 

She made a very good point watching the news. Why, if wearing masks in shops is a good idea, are the government waiting for ten days after the announcement before implementing the rule. Surely it should be brought in as soon as possible? 

 

I have noticed that on the buses I have been on the capacity limits are being totally ignored by drivers and passengers. Also masks are being worn by most people but a high percentage only have them over their mouth and not their nose. It also appears that the masks are removed so they can make a phone call! 

[Pacific231G]

2 minutes ago, Chris116 said:

I woke up to find SWMBO had woken a little earlier than me, which is unusual. Mugatea and for her and muggacoffee for me started the day. 

 

She made a very good point watching the news. Why, if wearing masks in shops is a good idea, are the government waiting for ten days after the announcement before implementing the rule. Surely it should be brought in as soon as possible? 

 

To give time for people who don't have them to get some. Remember that a lot of people are only going shopping once a week or less. I noticed last week that my local large Tesco had them on sale and bought a packet but that was the first time I'd seen them there (I bought some reusable cloth masks early on)

The problem with masks is that people seem to think that wearing one protects them from the virus so they can safely be closer to others.  It doesn't, it just reduces the risk by about 10%. That's not an argument against wearing them- I do in shops and on PT-  but it is one in favour of proper public education about the risks. That may be  a forlorn hope though. Even when TB had been a major killer for donkeys' years, buses and trams still had to have 'No Spitting' signs. 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Got to wait in this morning for the printer repair man but I now have the papers delivered and the fridge freezer is well stocked so no need to venture out.

3 hours ago, TheQ said:

 

 

At Norwich airport are a line of 6  HS146 aircraft marked up as BRA Airline, interestingly they are not listed as being part of the BRA fleet that I can find on the net, and BRA appears not to have any routes from Norway to the UK, they being a Norwegian company. While parked their tail cone airbrakes seem to open and close in the wind.

 

 

I checked up the company, they have recently renewed their fleet and have only just retired their 146's. Interestingly the 146 was the biggest selling British airliner and several interesting military versions were proposed including a carrier borne version. One version was one with a tail loading ramp with a kicked up tailplane rather like the Andover, one was actually built to show to military chiefs but it never flew. This was in conjunction with Grumman who carried out the alterations to an existing airframe. Also proposed was a marine patrol version and a carrier re-supply version equipped for deck landing on a carrier. As it had a relatively short range a large fuel tank was added on top of the fuselage above the wing roots. However Grumman were taken over by Boeing-Lockheed and the project was scrapped.  Those at Norwich are probably on their way somewhere to be refurbished/updated, Shorts in Belfast specialise in refurbishing 146's so thats likely where they'll end up. 

I wear a face mask when shopping, I have a couple of washable ones and a pile of the 'once only' ones. Though they only reduce the wearers risk by about 10% they do prevent the wearer from spreading the virus if they have it by a greater margin. Those who refuse to wear face masks are just being selfish IMHO.

[Barry O]

Yippppeeedddooo! Gras has been cut, cleaning duties complete, revision complete for this morning and nanoblock wombat model completed.

 

Now to do some bashing and bodging!

Baz

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Variable weather and yesterday evenings showers came to naught so I topped up some of the water butts but left room for more.  It subsequently rained but having just checked one butt it clearly hadn't rained enough.  More wet stuff is allegedly due today but i'll believe that when I see it.

 

Mes Stationmaster is very uncomfortable wearing a mask so maybe the shopping will be thrown back in my direction?  Hmm, that could be amusing but maybe I won't let her see the pork pies.  poor behaviour on the part of some individuals on public transport is nothing new - the first time someone took a swing at me at work was in September 1966 but I stepped back so she missed, she got most upset because of what I'd said about confusing timetables for ships to Ireland.  In later front line days we stood no. nonsense but had the benefit of a BT Police office on the station with a couple of good lads (and one useless one) so any folk who got out of line found themselves in the local Magistrates in a small Wiltshire town.  Being a small town all the locals knew each other and not only was BR the largest employer locally but the brother of the Chairman of the bench was a former Goods Guard who was then working for one of the quarrying companies.  Hence 'troublesome passengers'  tended not to be locals and others who did get up in front of the beak were usually there in a multiplicity of charges.  I think the record belonged to an Admiralty Civil Servant who attempted to join a moving train - as he ran after it he threw his briefcase in through an open window, he carried on running right down the platform ramp and as the train stopped he tried to climb aboard - until the station staff stopped him; he finished accused of a string of Byelaw offences ranging from attempting to join a train at other than a station platform to endangering life on the railway (throwing the briefcase) and he was convicted on all of them.   A definite change from the all too common bomb scares of those days which although they never hurt anyone but put us on friendly terms with the local Army bomb disposal chaps.  We also had a woman who jumped off the station platform and ran up and down the length of the platforms in the four foot - we posted someone at each end to stop her going further and achieving her intended Darwin Award.  Fortunately it was a Sunday morning with very few trains about but that didn't save her from being taken away in the custody of staff from a certain medical establishment which duly Certified her on admission.  All in the everyday life of a country junction, those were the days.

 

Have a good day one and all and stay safe.

[newbryford]

On ‎13‎/‎07‎/‎2020 at 07:48, TheQ said:

at least it's not the old days of sucking petrol or paraffin from a can...

 

Or a petrol tank.

 

 

Oops......

[Tony_S]

4 minutes ago, newbryford said:

 

Or a petrol tank.

 

 

Oops......

Have you ever seen the look on someone’s face who has just mouth pipetted bovine bile into their mouth? 
 

[newbryford]

16 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Have you ever seen the look on someone’s face who has just mouth pipetted bovine bile into their mouth? 
 

 

I'm guessing that you have....

[Gwiwer]

7 hours ago, chrisf said:

Where is the e-mail?  Ah, there it is, in Messages, for it is a text.

Ah.  I know that feeling.  My late father, never accustomed to current technology and who owned a laptop for the first time in his life in his 80s, referred to emails as "texts" which he had become adept at sending on his (unsmart) phone.  He never understood the difference.  

 

Afternoon all.  Happy Lunchtime to those in appropriate time-zones.  Eggzontoast was enjoyed here. 

 

A damp night and a dry day so far and one which dawned with the news that face-coverings will be required in English shops soon.  Unless exempt of course.  The exemptions are the same as for public transport users namely all on-duty staff plus customers with certain medical, physical and welfare conditions and for those under 11 years old.  There remains the difference across the Anglo-Scottish border in that north of it only those under 5 are exempt yet south of it those aged 5 - 10 are also exempted.  And as with public transport use it has been confirmed that staff are not expected to police this.  We have police for that, apparently.  Shop staff have had enough abuse since the panic-buying sprees to last a lifetime and don't need to be burdened with something not even remotely within their job descriptions.  

 

I wear a home-made face-covering on my trips to and from work out of respect for others though I am exempt.  I shall not be wearing one for the two-minute safari to the corner shop when the milk needs replenishing.  The thought of training the cat to run errands has crossed our minds but could he be trusted with a bottle of milk???  

 

Magazine article to write this afternoon.  Muggercoffy to be drunk.  Runner beans and courgettes to harvest.  Potatoes to check on as they could be ready.  Tomatoes fattening but not yet ripening.  

 

Best wishes to all and with special thoughts to our absentees hoping all is well.  

 

 

 

 

[iL Dottore]

Afternoon all, after doing some work on my project I am now taking an “executive lunch break”.
 

I was quite fond of flying in the Bae 146/Avro RJ, at the time I was doing a lot of short hops back and forth between London Heathrow and Basel airport CROSSAIR was using the BAE146 as well as the SAAB “Concordino” - enjoyable aircraft to fly in when in the hands of CROSSAIR, less so when in the hands of Swissair. There was a point when I was idly speculating that if my biotech investments had borne fruit, whether or not I would be able to afford to buy and run a SAAB “Concordino” as a private aircraft. I think that, at that time, I may have been unfairly influenced by Jeremy Clarkson who maintained, in one of his programs, that buying a second or third hand Boeing 737 and kitting it out as a mobile office/hotel/transport would actually be a significant saving on flying commercial and staying in hotels. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to test Mr Clarkson‘s claim.

 

I have been reading all the various comings and goings about mask wearing (and not just on RMWeb). Quite frankly, the degree of protection a non-HAZMAT style mask provides is irrelevant. What is relevant, is that it cuts down risk and reducing risk is very important in this context. I suppose a good analogy would be crossing the road at a busy intersection: if you look both left and right before crossing, the risk of you being run over is still there but is much less than if you did not look both ways and simply strode across the road. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of conspiracy theory type BS around the subject of wearing masks. And whilst it is true that wearing a mask can be uncomfortable, it doesn’t take too long to get used to wearing one. The first time I wore a mask for eight hours (working in the surgical suite) it wasn’t a terribly pleasant experience, but one soon got used to having it on and, eventually, I got to feel almost naked when not wearing a mask. Although, to be fair, with everything I had to do in the surgical suite, my attentions were firmly fixed on an awful lot of things other than mask wearing.

 

Whilst I think that it is never acceptable to verbally abuse any public facing member of staff (let alone use physical violence), there have been times when said “public facing member of staff” has been a less than stellar advertisement for his/her profession. Slovenly, sullen, foul mouthed - these are Just some of the attributes of some “public facing member of staff“ that I have encountered in the past. I wonder how much of the poor attitude and service I have encountered in the past is a residue or consequence of Britain’s class structure? In Asia, where serving your fellow man is highly prized, I have had nothing but positive experiences, whereas in Europe – and especially in the UK – there was at times the feeling that service was being provided with a rictus smile and through gritted teeth (and before anyone might think that it is my attitude that could’ve been the root of the problem, I have to say that I pride myself on always being polite, pleasant, calm and considerate to anyone providing me with any sort of service).

 

If I were to adopt my rarely used “super-villain” alter-ego CommanderTurpitude, I would go back to my Alpine Redoubt Lair(tm), hire a few really top-notch evil geneticists and biologists and then design a virus that preferentially and specifically targets C**kwombles and the criminally inclined. Of course the big problem in designing such a virus would not be in finding an appropriate genetic target in the target population, but what sort of infection outcome would be desired.
 

There is, of course, the immense temptation to make it fatal, but that could get messy rather quickly and make the place rather untidy with all the bodies strewn around. Perhaps a more appropriate goal of the virus would be for it to “flip“ their behaviour: so the inconsiderate become considerate, the criminal becomes law-abiding (and if I could tinker a little bit with the virus to also get them to “shop” other criminals. that would be a bonus), the miser would it become a philanthropist and so on. Individuals without the genes for Co**kwomblism would, of course, be completely unaffected.

 

One can but dream.  Oh well, back to work....

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. The printer engineer has called and the printer is repairable at less cost than replacing it. The fault lies with the imaging unit, one of the rollers (black) has worn out but as is usual the whole unit has to be replaced. The engineer gave me the parts numbers and suggested I find them on e-bay which I did. It works out cheaper and quicker than him ordering the parts himself. When they arrive all I have to do is give him a call and he'll come and fit them. After he'd left I went to do a bit of tidying up in the garden and now I'm cream crackered. Muggatee and then an eyelid inspection is called for, be back later.

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, newbryford said:

 

Or a petrol tank.

 

 

Oops......

And if its a mobile home make absolutely certain its the right tank.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

12 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

I do mean the interior, I haven’t got any photos unfortunately, it would have been rude to take any on my “shadow” day. The exterior just looks like a normal brick spire. Inside there is a large cast iron staircase to the all various floors. I would find some photos from the internet of the exterior but I don’t think the school would like that. 

I found a photo online, of the outside of the tower, taken in the frigid Oklahoma winter.

[Tony_S]

I have had a fairly active day. The chair I ordered so I can sit down when playing trains or cars in the garage arrived. I assembled it. Some purchasers have complained about the instructions. I suspect they were confused by the extra parts ( for alternative versions of the chair) . However there were pictures. 
I then cut the front lawn. This is not a stressful task, the mower is light and the tiny lawn is flat. Aditi has now taken the mower next door to tidy up their front lawn while they are away. 
I did a bit of tinkering with the slot cars. Adding bits to a couple of kits. A blue car will probably leave the production line next. I am awaiting a part I am sure I lost on first Inspecting the kit. Slot car manufacturers seem to be very good at making and supplying spare parts. 
Tony

[Coombe Barton]

Conference presentation completed

Now to listen to everyone else

[J. S. Bach]

10 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

 ...snip... Happy rubbish collection day. Mine is Wednesday.

Mine is whenever I take it to the inconvenient convenience center, what Chester County calls the trash transfer stations). For me it has become Friday as that is the day that I now do my shopping rounds; Walmart, trash drop-off, KJ's grocery store, and now Our Kitchen restaurant for a nice The Works Omelette*#. This is a system that I just might adhere to even after all of this is history.

 

*I would call it the Garbage Truck Omelette as it has everything in it, but I do not think that would be much of a selling point!

# Their omelettes come with buttermilk pancakes; no, they come with just one; and it is the size of Philadelphia! It fills the whole plate and then some and could be a meal in itself. In fact, it was for me last Friday, I brought the omelette home and had it Saturday for lunch.

Edited July 14, 2020 by J. S. Bach
Some word/punctuation changes to make it flow a little beeter.

[tigerburnie]

12 and a half mile bike ride completed as I still intend to bag a Munroe whilst it's warmer up there(for those who are unaware bagging a Munroe is climbing a small mountain in Scotland), so need to get fitter, both the legs and the lungs. Mixture of sun and cloud making for a pleasant day doing some of the "G" word and there's some urgent inspection of the inside of ones eyelids to attend to next.....................

[J. S. Bach]

1 hour ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

I found a photo online, of the outside of the tower, taken in the frigid Oklahoma winter.

Thank you, I was going to suggest Google street view as the school could not say anything about that. Winter photos are the best as there is little or no foliage to block a view; well, in most areas anyway as there are evergreens.

 

BTW: That tower does not resemble any bottle kilns that I have seen pictures of. here is a link to a Wiki article on bottle kilns (also called ovens):

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottle_oven

 

Those in the Wiki article are more like the ones that I mentioned the ceramic insulators were made in. Note that the bottle kilns were replaced/supplemented by a style called a beehive kiln (for very obvious reasons ). Both of those were batch-processing. The tunnel kiln was developed and that really simplified the firing process as it is a continuous feed.  The raw ware enters and slowly moves through the kiln and emerges as a finished product ready for shipping. Here are a couple of bottle kiln-fired insulators:

 

 Insulators (at least here in the US) were glazed in many colors; sometimes for circuit identification. Some power companies would use one color for the "hot" and a contrasting color for the neutral. Baltimore used brown for the phases and light blue for the neutral, Philadelphia was just the opposite.

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by J. S. Bach
To correct some bad punctuation erors!

[newbryford]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

 

If I were to adopt my rarely used “super-villain” alter-ego CommanderTurpitude, I would go back to my Alpine Redoubt Lair(tm), hire a few really top-notch evil geneticists and biologists and then design a virus that preferentially and specifically targets C**kwombles and the criminally inclined. Of course the big problem in designing such a virus would not be in finding an appropriate genetic target in the target population, but what sort of infection outcome would be desired.
 

There is, of course, the immense temptation to make it fatal, but that could get messy rather quickly and make the place rather untidy with all the bodies strewn around. Perhaps a more appropriate goal of the virus would be for it to “flip“ their behaviour: so the inconsiderate become considerate, the criminal becomes law-abiding (and if I could tinker a little bit with the virus to also get them to “shop” other criminals. that would be a bonus), the miser would it become a philanthropist and so on. Individuals without the genes for Co**kwomblism would, of course, be completely unaffected.

 

One can but dream.  Oh well, back to work....

 

Would such a virus be called Cockvid?

[BoD]

20 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Just watching a police crash eejit programme, and there we were, right on Bod's and Baz's old stamping ground - Crimdon Dene.  

It’s quite possible that my cousin’s husband was one of the ‘interceptors’.

[southern42]

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

Mine is whenever I take it to the inconvenient convenience center (what Chester County calls the trash transfer stations), for me it has become Friday as that is the day that I now do my shopping rounds; Walmart, trash drop-off, KJ's grocery store, and now Our Kitchen restaurant for a nice The Works Omelette*#. This is a system that I just might adhere to even after all of this is history.

 

*I would call it the Garbage Truck Omelette as it has everything in it, but I do not think that would be much of a selling point!

# Their omelettes come with buttermilk pancakes; no, they come with just one; and it is the size of Philadelphia! It fills the whole plate and then some and could be a meal in itself. In fact, it was for me last Friday, I brought the omelette home and had it Saturday for lunch.

 

Trash, garbage, not words I hear a lot these days.  Not since I used to sit and watch Sesame Street with (and without!) the kids many, many moons ago.

 

 

One could wonder why we love to dirty up any of our little things with flanged wheels, and the things that surround them...anything dirty or dingy or dusty....ragged, rotten or rusty...battered and worn...full of holes and torn...smelly and old...broken...

We love trash!

 

 

 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

Thank you, I was going to suggest Google street view as the school could not say anything about that. Winter photos are the best as there is little or no foliage to block a view; well, in most areas anyway as there are evergreens.

 

BTW: That tower does not resemble any bottle kilns that I have seen pictures of. here is a link to a Wiki article on bottle kilns (also called ovens):

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottle_oven

 

Those in the Wiki article are more like the ones that I mentioned the ceramic insulators were made in. Note that the bottle kilns were replaced/supplemented by a style called a beehive kiln (for very obvious reasons ). Both of those were batch-processing. The tunnel kiln was  developed and that really simplified the firing process as it is a continuous feed.  The raw ware enters and slowly moves through the kiln and emerges as a finished product ready for shipping. Here are a couple of bottle kiln-fired insulators:

 

 Insulators (at least here in the US) were glazed in many colors; sometimes for circuit identification. Some power companies would use one color for the "hot" and a contrasting color for the neutral. Baltimore used brown for the phases and light blue for the neutral, Philadelphia was just the opposite.

 

It’s only the inside that vaguely resembles a bottle kiln. I never bothered to think about how they made those insulators. Do they still glaze them in different colors? The ones around here are all a deep red, which might natural.