Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

I don't know, the man standing on the buffer looks like a Confederate General!

I was wondering if the seven guys in front were aviators. They look a little snappier than the rest.

 

The YouTube video (mentioned by @Tony_S ) has extensive details on the communications between aviators who spotted the fall of shot and the ground crews. Apparently they laid sheets on the ground as a form of semaphore to communicate they were ready to fire to the aviator. There was a separate 'control rail carriage'.

 

Along with the 'semaphore' the whole communications 'system' included wireless (from the aircraft), runners from the wireless kiosk to the control car, telephone to the railgun and a speaking trumpet into the breech.

 

The whole train (including munitions (14" shells), powder, crew accommodations etc) is quite huge. It seems that they would shunt the munitions car to the back of the railgun for loading and then move away before firing.

 

Edited November 27, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[monkeysarefun]

26 minutes ago, enz said:

What, you lot haven't claimed Chocolate Fish yet?!

 

 

 

No need to mate! We've got Caramello Koalas and Freddo Frogs.

 

Posh desert recipe:

 

make green jelly and pour it into a glass bowl. When slightly cooler drop in some Freddo Frogs

 

- Walla! "Frogs In  A Pond!" 

 

 

 

Oh -  for best results unwrap Freddos first.

 

 

Edited November 27, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[Coombe Barton]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

I know, and it was lurking under the Mac GUI when I had to do something to deal with an unknown password. It just reminded me of stuff from about 30 years ago. 

and me - from about 20 years

[Barry O]

Long day but successful in getting people to weather things.. a good night's sleep is now required!

 

Baz

Edited November 28, 2022 by Barry O

[jamie92208]

10 hours ago, pH said:

 

On a visit to the UK, we tried to convert an existing UK bank account which was in my wife’s name to a joint account. Despite two in-person visits to the appropriate branch, it was getting so complicated we just gave up and left it as it was.

Yes and Brexit has made it even worse. For historical reasons we still have 2 UK bank accounts which are now with Virgin Money. Most UK banks won't allow you to live outside of the UK now but a few, including Virgin allow us to maintain UK accounts. As a result we decided to keep the 2nd account, which sees little use, open.  I even get about £1.50 per month interest.  I use internet banking and am totally reliant on it. As a result I run it both on my Android phone and, using a little thing like a caculator, on my PC.  I do however now have to wait for codes to come by text.   At least our French bank sends the codes by email as mobile service is a tad patchy.

 

All good fun.

 

Jamie

Edited November 28, 2022 by jamie92208

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Apparently the bearings overheated at any speed faster than 5mph.

Never mind that - what about the recoil????? 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

Never mind that - what about the recoil????? 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/14-inch/50-caliber_railway_gun
The “operation” section of this Wikipedia entry explains the recoil action. 
The 14” guns I assume were the same as the ones I saw on USS Texas. That had been completed just before WW1 and been designed in response to the RN Dreadnought class. There was something of a naval arms race apparently. The next big step up was to 16” naval guns. 

Edited November 27, 2022 by Tony_S

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

I managed to get 2 coats of paint on the wall of the last remaining unpainted section of the underfloor storage area.

 

Earlier this year it looked like this.

 

Today, it looks like this. 

 

I can now start putting things back in there now. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[jjb1970]

26 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/14-inch/50-caliber_railway_gun
The “operation” section of this Wikipedia entry explains the recoil action. 
The 14” guns I assume were the same as the ones I saw on USS Texas. That had been completed just before WW1 and been designed in response to the RN Dreadnought class. There was something of a naval arms race apparently. The next big step up was to 16” naval guns. 

 

The naval arms race between Britain and Germany was a large part (but not the only part) of why relations between Britain and Germany deteriorated and Britain got entangled in the European alliance system. Tirpitz created a formidable fleet (ship for ship many German designs were superior to British equivalents, though that was not universally so) on the basis it didn't need to be able to defeat the RN but only to make defeating it so ruinous for the RN that Britain would avoid fighting Germany. The idea was a risk fleet, another perspective on it is it was a luxury fleet and the immense resources poured into it achieved very little other than to push Britain into bed with France and Russia and waste a huge amount of money that might have been better spent on the army. One of the odd things about the war at sea is that both sides made the same mistakes in WW1 and WW2. Germany built formidable capital ships which achieved little when their U-boat arm was much more dangerous and effective, and with U-Boats costing a small amount of the resources of a large surface ship. They also miscalculated the capacity of the U-boat arm to strangle Britain. On the British side the reluctance to adopt a convoy system.

The part of the US in the arms race is interesting. They were not a part of it in the way of the RN and German Navy but US construction was responsive to European developments and the growth of the Japanese fleet. 

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

The “operation” section of this Wikipedia entry explains the recoil action. 

An even bigger issue was that for long range gunnery the elevation was so high they had to dig a pit underneath the breech to accommodate the recoil - shown in the engineering drawing.

 

There is a footnote(7) on the Wikipedia page that notes that in practice the railguns were only used for longer distance gunnery, requiring the pits.

Quote

The pit was not required when firing at elevations up to 15°, where remaining recoil energy was absorbed by allowing the gun car to roll backwards until stopped by its brakes; but as the guns were never fired at the relatively short ranges achieved with such low elevation this was irrelevant.

 

Edited November 28, 2022 by Ozexpatriate
Clarification

[Ozexpatriate]

7 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

another perspective on it is it was a luxury fleet and the immense resources poured into it achieved very little other than to push Britain into bed with France and Russia and waste a huge amount of money that might have been better spent on the army

I don't think you can overlook the 'big gun envy' of the Kaiser. He was an avid student of naval strategy* and reputedly his favourite book was Mahan's "Influence of Sea Power Upon History - 1660-1783"). The Kaiser wanted a fleet to rival the RN.

 

* Queen Victoria had let him (her grandson) play dress up as an honorary admiral in the Royal Navy for a review of the fleet in his honour at Spithead in 1889. Medals were struck for the occasion.

[Ozexpatriate]

38 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

The part of the US in the arms race is interesting. They were not a part of it in the way of the RN and German Navy but US construction was responsive to European developments and the growth of the Japanese fleet. 

Official US policy of the time was the Monroe Doctrine - focused on hegemony over the hemisphere encompassing the Americas, but T. Roosevelt had muddied that with his "Great White Fleet" (whose capital ships were largely obsoleted, like everything else, by HMS Dreadnought).

 

Even as late as the 1920s "War Plan Red" was a precautionary contingency plan in the eventuality of a war with the British Empire.

 

Edited November 28, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[jjb1970]

10 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Whilst the Singaporean penal code seems to be less than enforceable in respect of activity between males in theory both parties can still be publicly flogged before imprisonment.  Australian major cities have been very much more accepting of such things though rural and bush communities remain of different mind in many areas despite current legislation.  

 

That's not something I'd defend about Singapore, but they're amending the penal code and legalizing homosexual relationships. Currently they apply the sort of 'don't ask, don't tell' approach that was a widely used intermediate step in many Western countries not so long ago. When the PM announced the change there was some criticism from similar people to those who still don't like the idea of same sex relationships in Europe and the US but most people seem to have approved of it as a positive development. 

[jjb1970]

I just paid my taxes for last year😥 Singapore doesn't have PAYE, you are assessed and then get a bill. However, you can do a 12 month interest free payment plan which pretty much amounts to the same monthly deduction as PAYE but paid the following year in arrears. I do that through the Singpass app too. 

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

That's not something I'd defend about Singapore, but they're amending the penal code and legalizing homosexual relationships.

In a speech on March 31, 1968 at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC (entitled "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution") the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said:

Quote

We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

He was assassinated four days later in Memphis.

 

He used the line in many speeches over the years earlier including some commencement addresses but it resonates all the same.

[jjb1970]

MLK's last speech is incredibly moving, he may have used the speech many times before but listening to him talk about how he might not make it to the end of the journey, anticipating his death, still moves me after all these years. I think the world desperately needs leaders like MLK today, who promote tolerance, reconciliation and inclusivity. For all that all politicians now pay lip service to inclusivity the whole political establishment now practices politics of division in which we no longer have political opponents, we have political enemies and a manichean world of right and wrong. 

[jjb1970]

Delivered the night before he died, the closing section of Dr Martin Luther King's final speech:

 

And I was looking down writing, and I said yes. And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that's punctured, you drown in your own blood—that's the end of you.

It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states, and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. I've forgotten what those telegrams said. I'd received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but I've forgotten what the letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I'll never forget it. It said simply, "Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School." She said, "While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I am a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I'm simply writing you to say that I'm so happy that you didn't sneeze."

And I want to say tonight, I want to say that I am happy that I didn't sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream. And taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been down in Selma, Alabama, been in Memphis to see the community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I'm so happy that I didn't sneeze.

And they were telling me, now it doesn't matter now. It really doesn't matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us, the pilot said over the public address system, "We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we've had the plane protected and guarded all night."

And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

[AndyID]

3 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

I just paid my taxes for last year😥 Singapore doesn't have PAYE, you are assessed and then get a bill. However, you can do a 12 month interest free payment plan which pretty much amounts to the same monthly deduction as PAYE but paid the following year in arrears. I do that through the Singpass app too. 

 

Do NOT get me started 😀

 

We are retired with a few investments but the tax laws in the US are so complicated that we shell-out $500+ a year to a tax accountant. If I tried to do it myself it would be two months of pure hell.

 

One year some peon in the IRS threatened to take us to tax court because he/she had no idea what they were doing. They only backed-off when our accountant sent them a "bring it on, see you in court" letter.

[jjb1970]

6 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Do NOT get me started 😀

 

We are retired with a few investments but the tax laws in the US are so complicated that we shell-out $500+ a year to a tax accountant. If I tried to do it myself it would be two months of pure hell.

 

One year some peon in the IRS threatened to take us to tax court because he/she had no idea what they were doing. They only backed-off when our accountant sent them a "bring it on, see you in court" letter.

 

My view is that at a certain point complexity becomes dishonesty. In many countries (including Britain) the tax code is so complex that it is all but impenetrable to most people and designed with 'loopholes' designed to be advantageous to those in a position to apply them at the same time as virtue signalling politicians denounce people exploiting provisions created by legislators in a perfectly legal way.

Singapore is no better really, but for regular tax payers the assessment system is very straightforward and filing a return is a few minutes work.

[Gwiwer]

Good morning all. Welcone to Moanday 

[AndyID]

14 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

 

My view is that at a certain point complexity becomes dishonesty. In many countries (including Britain) the tax code is so complex that it is all but impenetrable to most people and designed with 'loopholes' designed to be advantageous to those in a position to apply them at the same time as virtue signalling politicians denounce people exploiting provisions created by legislators in a perfectly legal way.

Singapore is no better really, but for regular tax payers the assessment system is very straightforward and filing a return is a few minutes work.

 

Yup. It's hopelessly distorted in the US, and, I suspect, just about everywhere else. In the US there are states that are the greatest recipients of federal financial support relative to their contribution but that does not stop their politicians convincing the voters the federal guv'mint is putting one over on them.

 

Apparently we are not strong on arithmetic. I have no clue how we ever got to the Moon.

[Ozexpatriate]

4 minutes ago, AndyID said:

Apparently we are not strong on arithmetic. I have no clue how we ever got to the Moon.

The laws of physics don't change like the tax code and there are no exemptions for gravity.

 

Edited November 28, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[iL Dottore]

47 minutes ago, AndyID said:

One year some peon in the IRS threatened to take us to tax court…

I’ve always seen taxation as one aspect of US citizenship that’s particularly onerous and unfair. The US, along with Eritrea, are the only countries which have citizenship based taxation - which means that no matter where you live in the world, no matter what (and how much) local taxes you’ve paid, Uncle Sam still wants his cut.

 

Because of this, many Americans living abroad are considering giving up (or have given up) their citizenship. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/01/taxes-may-be-top-reason-why-americans-want-to-drop-their-citizenship.html

 

Additionally, as this means that the IRS’s prying eyes are all over every expat American citizen’s entire financial portfolio, American citizens are considered as “risky” for certain top jobs that involve finance (the husband of one of Mrs iD’s friends works in banking and can attest how European companies with sensitive and highly confidential financial affairs [which is basically most large European companies] prefer to avoid the slightest risk of any IRS entanglement).

 

I think I can say, without much fear of contradiction, that the US Government has “weaponised” the IRS - because, as Al Capone found out to his cost - if they can’t “get” you any other way, they’ll get you on taxes…

Edited November 28, 2022 by iL Dottore