Early Risers.

[Pacific231G]

7 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

You make a fair point (and I was - really - a lot more reasonable than my post made out [it was written with a touch of black humour])

 

But being able to write coherently (which does mean correct spelling, punctuation and grammar) is a critical skill in the sciences. You can be absolutely brilliant and discover a cure for AIDS or cancer, but if you can't effectively communicate your ideas and findings, then your work is only partly complete.

 

I've read published scientific papers that tried to communicate simple findings and have done so in such a grammatically tortuous and incoherent manner that - at the end - you wondered what the point of the whole exercise was; I've also read scientific papers covering some incredibly complex material written with such clarity and coherence that I got to the end of and thought "damn, that really taught me something"

Benig  able to communciate well is clearly a valuable skill for any scientist (though clearly not considered a requirement at all for those who write insturction books and manuals!) I believe though that an overemphasis on very pedantic rule based grammar, with far more "rules" than necessary, is actually a barrier to good clear communication. I've come across (and had to edit) a lot of writing which is stilted and difficult to read precisely because the writer was desperately trying to follow a set of rules that they were told off for breaking at school. The same is true for maths (or rather numeracy) In the early 1990s I devoted over a year to devising and producing TV programmes that encouraged adult numeracy. The major task was to convince people that they really weren't hopeless with numbers, even though hat' was the firm belief they'd left school with having been told they were wrong far too many times. It was mostly about finding examples of where they were actually likely to be manipulating numbers with great alacrity (darts scores were a  good one)  even though convinced they couldn't.

[Pacific231G]

3 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

I would hazard a guess that better than 75% of Americans do not know the second, third, or fourth verses.

I'd be amazed if it was as many as a quarter from any nation who know the other verses of their own national anthem. But why would they?  One verse of any national anthem is quite sufficient and if you get more than that  it usually means that something is overrunning.

Zebedee says it's time for bed, Good night everyone.

 

 

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[BR60103]

National Anthems

Ankh Morpork

 

Terry Pratchett has a description of the contents.

wiki link

 

 

[BR60103]

We had a bad Saturday.  There was a major storm -- much like a tornado but straight.  Lots of trees down. Electrical wires, poles taken out and still not fixed.  Demolished towns. Gusts of 143 kph.  If it went from here to Ottawa, that's 300 miles and it probably started west of us.  Last I heard, there were 10 or more deaths.

 

[Ozexpatriate]

13 minutes ago, BR60103 said:

There was a major storm -- much like a tornado but straight.

Dorecho? They can be very nasty. Hope the recovery is underway soon. Do you have electrical power?

 

Here we had another day in paradise. Dry, but cloudy with a high of 18°C was forecast. The afternoon saw beautiful sunshine and 23°C. It was lovely. I mowed the grassy verge, washed the car and ate al fresco this evening. It is forecast to rain later in the week and over the Memorial Day long weekend.

 

Edited May 24, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[pH]

On Saturday, the temperature at the airport here reached 17C for the first time this year. That’s the latest date in the year that’s happened since records began in 1937.

[BR60103]

We didn't lose power but there was some disruption near us. Towns east of us are suffering.

I didn't know the term Dorecho before this weekend. I do now.

 

Edited May 24, 2022 by BR60103

[iL Dottore]

8 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

I would hazard a guess that better than 75% of Americans do not know the second, third, or fourth verses.

Terry Pratchett, that keen observer of the absurd (and much else besides), noted that most people know (at best) only one verse of their national anthem, “faking” the rest.

Accordingly, he took this into account when writing the second verse of the Ankh-Mopork Anthem:

 

We bankrupt all invaders, we sell them souvenirs
We ner ner ner ner ner, hner ner hner by the ears
Er hner we ner ner ner ner ner
Ner ner her ner ner ner hner the ner
Er ner ner hner ner, nher hner ner ner (etc.)

 

TP - still much missed!

Edited May 24, 2022 by iL Dottore

[TheQ]

I remember one of the American chat shows taking a camera on to the street and many questioned couldn't make it through the first verse of their anthem. I suspect many in the UK couldn't get onto the second line of ours either.

 

34 minutes ago, pH said:

On Saturday, the temperature at the airport here reached 17C for the first time this year. That’s the latest date in the year that’s happened since records began in 1937.

That's global warming for you..

 

The Canadian storm made the UK news if briefly..

 

Ah Ben the Alarm clock Collie is making his presence known, it's 05:00...

 

[chrisf]

I took a phone call yesterday evening from Barclays Bank.  What the caller said did not make a great deal of sense so I had better pop into the branch this morning and seek a translation into English.  With that and a necesssary fodder run, there may not be much opportunity for gardening today.  My back will be pleased.  More seriously, I need to rid myself of all aches and pains by the end of June so I will not need to take a walking stick on the Pride march!  Easier said than done, methinks.

 

Chris

[BoD]

54 minutes ago, chrisf said:

I need to rid myself of all aches and pains by the end of June so I will not need to take a walking stick on the Pride march!

I hope it’s not needed but if it is I am sure you will be able to get a good stick that matches the boots and tie.

Edited May 24, 2022 by BoD

[TheQ]

I'm sure Chris  must have tins of highly dangerous humbrol in the appropriated colours he could use...

[polybear]

9 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

 

Being you you've obviously established a root connection onto the tablet, hacked its kernel and modified the system calls to use a .dll of your own creation that bypasses the tablets internal AI.

 

Huh??

(Bear couldn't remove the 'tube clip - bluddy  tablet again...)

 

9 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Perhaps Pupcam’s Arduino homework had paid off at last. 

 

Shhhh, he'll hear you - fer chrissake's delete that post quick, before he reads it......

 

Bear here......

Just been reading about a load of Chinese files on the Uyghur prisoners apparently hacked - it's on the BBC News website.  B'sterds.  About time the West clamped down on China until it's stopped.  But they won't, cos' money talks.  As an example it seems they have arrested people for having a fone with no credit on it for too long as they must be trying to avoid being tracked....

MIUABGA day......

Bear gone.....

Edited May 24, 2022 by polybear

[iL Dottore]

Good Morning One and All,

 

Later today I will be meeting @jamie92208 and company in Brig for some serious “anorak activities” 🤣 😊 but first a rant:

[Rant Mode ON]

I am creating a little Japanese Corner in my garden to feature a Shishi-odoshi (deer scarer) water feature, a Tōrō (stone lantern) and a Ryouan-ji Chouzubachi (decorative basin). The Ryouan-ji Chouzubachi. I am making myself (I have already created a mould and just need to get some decent moulding/pourable concrete/stone - suggestions anyone?). But with a near total absence of affordable Japanese garden supplies in Switzerland I turned to Amazon (Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de and Amazon.it). I wasted a morning finding out the following:

1. Anything affordable is either “nicht lieferbar in der Schweiz” or they want an arm and a leg for shipping (£50 shipping on a £25 item? Seriously?)
2. There is no consistency in whether or not something can be shipped. Sometimes the same article will have three very different prices across Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de and Amazon.it; one Amazon site will ship the item to Switzerland, the others won’t 
3. Brand Name items have all but disappeared and/or are almost impossible to find. Type in something like @polybear‘s most excellent LDC and you’ll get a boatload of things like XYZK LDC like cake but  @polybear‘s most excellent LDC is nowhere to be seen.
4. And if you sort by price or customer rating, your 500 pages of “choices” suddenly shrink down to 3 pages (and still  @polybear‘s most excellent LDC is nowhere to be seen)
5. If you really want to find a named product at Amazon, your best bet is to go to Google and type in “Amazon(country) @polybear‘s most excellent LDC” and there is a reasonable chance of getting a link to the Amazon webpage for  @polybear‘s most excellent LDC
6. You have the same product photo used for multiple version of the same item across various price points. So the XYZK Mini tablesaw (£175) LMSBR Hobbyist tablesaw (£75) and GWSR tablesaw - (£25) will have the same photo and same product description.
7. Amazon has become a defacto subsidiary of the PRC’s Ministry of Commerce. No matter what the label says, the small print nearly always says “Made In The PRC” or “Made In China”

Don’t get me wrong, China makes a lot of very high quality goods - trouble is that sort of quality no longer turns up on Amazon (or so it seems!).

[Rant Mode OFF]
Submitted for a Beary on 24May22 at 08:23 CET

Edited May 24, 2022 by iL Dottore

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Very dull here and several shades of dark grey clouds.  I'm told there was a lot of rain in the night but I "slept through it, snoring your head off."   More showers to come today, possibly heavy and thundery.

The visit to the dentist went off fairly uneventfully.  He tried to pull my head off but as I'm a lot bigger and heavier than him he didn't manage that but did get the tooth out.  The excavation site was a bit sore once the Lidocaine wore off but parrotseatemall sorted that out.  Three stitches required but everything has settled down this morning.  Got to return in two weeks as one of the stitches will need to be removed by him and a discussion will take place as to whether or not I want an implant or can make do without.  The gap isn't visible under normal circumstances so I'll have a think about it.

The Boss is going out for a haircut this morning.  I did offer to have a go at it but surprisingly she declined. 🤔  While she's out I'm going for walk as we need some more bread.

Soon be time for some breakfast, boiled eggs and "soldiers" today.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Lovely morning here sofar,blue skies, fluffy clouds..a bit crisp but.. so what.

 

I have another appointment with the fang puller as a filling she did has "a small hole in it"..Pah!

 

Her indoors did get to see a doctor yesterday.He is a new trainee..he now knows he must ensure he reads a patients notes before seeing them..(Her indoors has a stronger bite than Sister Drac) . The outcome is.. a chest xray!! Not bad for having turned up as requested for a post procedure check up!

 

Enough of this ..Time for a mugatea!

Stay safe!

 

Baz

Edited May 24, 2022 by Barry O
Gramercy!!

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, from the breezy as usual (it would seem) rock that manages 13c. 

 

A twinge of jealousy occurs regarding the meet-up in Brig, I really enjoyed the time I had there for my 50th birthday rail-treat. Hell, 13 years ago.....where did that go.

 

I'm supposed to be meeting up with a pal for a ride out for lunch, arrangements are he'll 'contact me at 9am Belgian time', as he is indeed Belgian - that's about 10am to normal people, he's, er, laid back past horizontal to say the least.  He'll be looking at all the weather guesses first, he's got a very, very shiny Hardly-Abelson and doesn't like to get it dirty.  Nice guy though, solid bloke, met him as he's Mrs NHN's Pilates instructor.

[iL Dottore]

1 minute ago, New Haven Neil said:

I'm supposed to be meeting up with a pal for a ride out for lunch, arrangements are he'll 'contact me at 9am Belgian time', as he is indeed Belgian - that's about 10am to normal people,

Sorry Neil, but you’ve got that the wrong way around. 09:00 CEST (Central European Summer Time) is actually 08:00 BST (British Summer Time).

 

So when I say “I’ll call you first thing tomorrow from Zürich at about 6 am” be prepared to be woken up very early!

[simontaylor484]

Morning all 

Its sunny here but the wind is gusting quite strongly and dark clouds are gathering.

I am sat waiting for carpet fitters coming for the spare bedroom soon to become the eldest's bedroom.

@polybear has beaten me with the BBC article on China. It's scary what they are doing

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A bit grey and damp this morning, as it is predicted to be for the next few days. Not much trouble from Arthur Itis fortunately so I will get on with collecting together the items for the charity shop. Thats it for now, be back later.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

A dull, grey and wet art to the day here in England’s northwest corner. The rain that was falling during night has thankfully now stopped, but everywhere is wet, so I’ll stay indoors today, we’ll apart from doing a tip run that is! I’ve got enough stuff now to fill the boot, so once I’ve finished on the RMWEB, I’ll pack the car up and head off. This will clear a bit more rubbish from the cellar, thus giving me more space to work round. 

 

Back later. 

 

Brian

[DaveF]

 

I got a few more things sorted out yesterday, including redirecting Mum's mail.

 

I visited the solicitor's office to prove my identity and show them a copy of the death certificate ready for my telephone meeting with her next week.  They moved recently, their new office which is a couple of hundred yards from Mum's flat has a lovely view over the harbour and out to sea.

 

Most of the rest of the day was spent bringing Mum's PC home and making sure everything on it was backed up to her hard drives.  In due course I'll go through them and copy the useful bits onto my system - she had a lot of the family photos on it.  If anyone wonders about 97 year olds having a computer it is simple.  She was using computers back in the days of punched cards so when PCs came along she bought one, in her latter years she used it mainly for her photography.

 

A neighbour was having problems with his monitor so I took him a spare one of mine from my loft and set it up for him, that's one less thing for me to get rid of.

 

David

 

 

 

 

[simontaylor484]

Whilst waiting for the carpet fitters coming I have been perusing various newspaper websites those that aren't hidden behind paywalls are full of some Kardashian getting married to some bloke that looks like he has crawled from under a rock.