Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

12 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

Personally I don't agree with the death penalty. Part of it is ethical in that I do not like the idea of intentionally killing people, and perhaps a bigger part is that it's difficult to rectify miscarriages of justice after somebody has been executed.

Indeed so. An often overlooked aspect of executions is the traumatic impact it has on the prison system workers involved in carrying out executions.

 

The following is a long article (from November 2022) which I doubt many will have the inclination to read at length, but one of the topline findings is the following summary (graphically illustrated in the middle of the article):

Quote

After working on executions, most people NPR spoke with now oppose them

NPR found 26 people - executioners, wardens, lawyers and others - who worked on more than 200 executions in 17 states. No one who witnessed executions expressed support for the death penalty, including those who went into the chamber supporting it.

NPR: Carrying out executions took a secret toll on workers — then changed their politics

 

Oregon has (since 2011) had a moratorium on carrying out death sentences. The outgoing governor recently commuted all 17 death row sentences in Oregon calling the death penalty “both dysfunctional and immoral” and was, in part, informed by the experiences of prison staff.

 

In the article a former superintendent of the Oregon State Penitentiary who had switched his beliefs from supporting to opposing executions said the following:

Quote

It does no more than increase the number of victims while producing no positive outcomes.

...

"All of that was on our shoulders," he said. "My shoulders."

 

For myself, knowing how fallible the justice system can be* (particularly for the poor and racially marginalized) the notion of executing a person who did not commit the crime for which they were convicted is heinous state-sanctioned murder.

 

* Innocence project

 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, The Lurker said:

I am not particularly fussed about the dolci -

At one hotel we stayed in years ago in Italy, our waiter would get quite emotional if we declined the pudding course. 

[PupCam]

Good Evening

 

10 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

Thunder and lightning here, a proper deluge. 

 

Oh, that's a great website!

 

https://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/

 

Or did I misunderstand 🤣

 

In Other News

 

Well the brief bimble turned into more of a ~70 mile expedition and mighty fine it was too.   Quite a good turnout considering it was arranged at about 9:00 last night!  

 

A run round to the west and north of Bedford and a stop at a new little cafe for coffee and lunch.   The staff were extremely keen (well, its a new venture and no doubt they are trying to drum up business) and the scoff was "traditional and acceptable".   Then on to a little airstrip to poke around some "hangars" to look at various types of aerial contraptions and chat with some very interesting bods.   In fact they were so keen (and interesting) it was hard to get away!    Very nice indeed.    

 

The only slight downer was the more direct route home took us into and around Bedford.    If I'd have been leading it wouldn't have .....

 

 

 

Due to the late afternoon arrival home; Notalotelsehasbeendonetoday

 

Oh well, there's always tomorrow!

 

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

oh - CL175!

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The eczema is getting a bit sore now, probably due to my visit to Tess Coes this afternoon. I'm even considering getting one of those electric buggies some of which fold down for transport. It will have to be a small one unless I get a bigger car. Talking of cars, I noticed that the front n/s tyre was losing air so on the way back from Tess Coes I went in to my usual service centre and they kindly pumped up all four tyres for me without charge. I'll keep an eye on the tyre to make sure that it doesn't have a leak.

[PupCam]

26 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

oh - CL175!

 

I think it might be the 250 🤔

 

UPDATE:  Just looked at the high-res version of the image and it's a 200 (it says so on the badge 🤣)

 

 

Edited February 2, 2023 by PupCam

[pH]

2 hours ago, PeterBB said:

… Triggered anoither memory of driving to Scotland - the A66 that was single track ... 

Single track? I don’t remember that, and I was first over that road in 1963. Single carriageway, definitely. 

[New Haven Neil]

21 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 

I think it might be the 250 🤔

 

UPDATE:  Just looked at the high-res version of the image and it's a 200 (it says so on the badge 🤣)

 

 

 

Cam end cover's the wrong shape for 250/350!  I can rivet-count 70's Hodna Hondas.  200's the rare one, nice!

 

You'll have seen our 250's in RC?

[monkeysarefun]

56 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For some reason that pic reminds me of the movie " Stone" from 1974. This bit was filmed around Bondi and the eastern suburbs without official knowledge or permission, they just had a couple of spotters ("cockatoos" in Australiana ) to keep an eye out for the cops.

 

 

Back when the streets were empty, yuppies hadn't yet  discovered the eastern suburbs lifestyle and every car was a Holden.

 

Unless it was a veedub beetle!

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

Oh, trashed the Commando!

[PupCam]

21 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Cam end cover's the wrong shape for 250/350!  I can rivet-count 70's Hodna Hondas.  200's the rare one, nice!

 

You'll have seen our 250's in RC?

 

I may have done ...... Which issues?

 

[PupCam]

26 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

For some reason that pic reminds me of the movie " Stone" from 1974. This bit was filmed around Bondi and the eastern suburbs without official knowledge or permission, they just had a couple of spotters ("cockatoos" in Australiana ) to keep an eye out for the cops.

 

 

Back when the streets were empty, yuppies hadn't yet  discovered the eastern suburbs lifestyle and every car was a Holden.

 

Unless it was a veedub beetle!

 

 

 

That's almost nothing like my ride through Bedford on the AJ today 🤣

 

UPDATE:   The "almost" maybe superfluous

Edited February 2, 2023 by PupCam

[PhilJ W]

19 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

For some reason that pic reminds me of the movie " Stone" from 1974. This bit was filmed around Bondi and the eastern suburbs without official knowledge or permission, they just had a couple of spotters ("cockatoos" in Australiana ) to keep an eye out for the cops.

 

 

Back when the streets were empty, yuppies hadn't yet  discovered the eastern suburbs lifestyle and every car was a Holden.

 

Unless it was a veedub beetle!

 

 

I spotted a Bedford truck, a Mk. II Cortina and a Marina coupe.

[monkeysarefun]

2 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I spotted a Bedford truck, a Mk. II Cortina and a Marina coupe.

There were a few Chryslers and local Fords in there too, (and a lone Datsun 180B...) but the majority were Holdens.

 

The Marina was locally made here by Leyland - a guy I went to tech with in the early 80's had a baby blue one. We discovered that the fuel cap key for my (Holden!) Torana would open the door and start it up.  He'd always try  to be first out of class because if he was delayed he'd get to the  carpark to find us driving around and around in circles in  it waving at him.

 

Or we'd drive it into the middle of nearby  busy Parramatta Road and leave it in the middle lane. 

[Gwiwer]

3 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

anyone who has travelled the intercity routes from Sydney  to the central coast, the Blue Mountains or down to the 'gong will know of the NSW V sets, Ausiscion Models have announced their HO version is available on pre-order. Look pretty tempting.... (not sure how many deltics they are)

 

Oh very nice.  Very nice indeed.  Auscision are a quality manufacturer and those look the canine's spheroids.  The real things are superb to travel on as well; a shame that good things don't last for ever but they're very old now and mostly retired.  

 

I have enjoyed many a ride from Sydney to Newcastle, Lithgow and Kiama.  The fullest extent of the three routes they normally serve(d).  Only to Lithgow these days, and only there on a good week when landslip, bushfires and derailments haven't blocked the way.  

 

I'll have to think whether or not I can find a few Deltics and a suitable space for keeping one.  1:87 size, that is, not 1:1 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BoD]

15 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Unless something else comes up, I’ve decided to do a hybrid Tuscan/Emilia Romagna meal:

…..
……

What would you enjoy from the above?

 

Altogether now …

 

Well give us a bash at the bangers and mash me muvver used to make.

[monkeysarefun]

5 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

I have enjoyed many a ride from Sydney to Newcastle, Lithgow and Kiama.

 To illustrate that -  if  you start early enough   you can in theory  jump on one in  Sydney and go 160km  north to here to check out Nobbys,

 

Then return  to Sydney to  get  on another one  to go 100km west to here for the 3 sisters:

 

 

Then back to central  and to get on another one to go  120km South to the blowhole:

 

 

 Then back to Central - Adds up to  almost 800km and with the Opal card  it'll cost you all up $8.70 (just under 5 pounds) on a weekend  or $16.80 (just under 10 pounds..) on a weekday.

 

Take that, Singapore!😉

 

(though there'll more than likely be track works somewhere so you'll have to get a bus....) 

Edited February 3, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[jjb1970]

10 hours ago, Danemouth said:

 

Thinking back to my schooldays in the 1950/60s I swear kitchens of Fitzalan Technical High School had three taps - "Hot", "Cold" and "Custard" - we had it that often!

 

Dave

 

Sounds like my kind of place 🤣

[jjb1970]

9 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

That's as maybe but here we're heading in the direction of a more authoritarian state but without the benefit of the trains running on time. 

 

 

I really believe that if you are going to have a big government you might as well have one that works. British governments going back quite a number of years I have been embarrassing (both political flavours). And they have gotten away with it because of the hopeless ineptitude of opposition alternatives (again, true of all the parties). 

 

And it's not just Britain, looking at the EU it is shocking.

 

I met one of our ER members a few weeks ago. I think I mentioned that whereas a few years ago much of Asia looked at Europe to learn about governance and how to develop, now they look westward in bewilderment and ask the question of what have they got to learn from us? It's a fair point.

[jjb1970]

8 hours ago, Tony_S said:

One of the things that those of us who used to work in education were constantly told was that our attainment levels were poor compared to Singapore. So a friend from Singapore who was a qualified teacher was quite surprised when applying for teaching jobs in England (she moved here after getting married) to be told her qualifications were not recognised and she could only be employed as a teaching assistant. This was at a couple of state schools. So,she wondered if the same rule applied to private schools. At the interview the head said she had been misinformed. Singapore qualifications are not automatically recognised, you have to submit them. She did, accepted without problem. She took the job too.

 

Unfortunately this is too common. These sort of misconceptions take hold when people hear something and pass it on. My experience of professional qualifications (having been a hiring manager, and also worked overseas) is that most countries have processes to assess foreign qualifications for conformity with their own standards and recognize them. 

 

That's not an issue for inter-company transfers, as they just go through the process of submitting the necessary document package and payment and wait for a decision. However it can be a big barrier to employing outside candidates unless the candidate has done their own work in advance as it introduces an a layer of uncertainty. So my advice to people is to do their own research, usually the assessment is not especially expensive.

 

A twist on that was that when we came here my wife and I had to have a serology test to have our NHS vaccination certificate recognized by Singapore. At the time they accepted foreign issued vaccination certificates for 30 days but after that you had to either be vaccinated here or have a serology test for anti-bodies to validate the overseas certificate.

[Ozexpatriate]

I'm ready for it to rain. Air quality this morning was "unhealthy"* - related to temperature inversion and low winds (though most of the day it was in the "unhealthy for sensitive groups" range).  In mostly calm air, this morning saw a modest frost and freezing temperatures that lasted through much of my morning walk - with a telltale orange/brown pollution haze on the horizon indicative of a temperature inversion in the valley.

 

* US AQI of 157. "Good" is < 50.

 

The late afternoon skies were ugly. Hazy high cloud and ingressing dark grey cloud from the southwest such that the bright sky approaching sunset was in the east (rather than the west) with high thin cloud illuminated by the setting sun - hazy and orange/brown.

 

Rain is expected to move in overnight which should clean things up.

[NGT6 1315]

Moaning awl. Once more unto the breech, then...

 

I can assure you the weekend will be used for extended eyelid inspection, though!

 

Not a lot else to say ATM, so, enjoy whatever you're up to.

[BR traction instructor]

Mornin’, 

 

I’m not a political animal but seeing the childish waste of energy that is Prime Ministers Questions, I repeatedly consider the short term-ism…where is the incentive for any politician to think longer than four years…coupled with the ‘lets blame everything on those that happen to be the government of the day’ and think that it is well past time to look at examples of successful modern governance around the world and start learning from their approach.

 

BeRTIe

Edited February 3, 2023 by BR traction instructor