Early Risers.

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Jeez, that is seriously pig ugly.

 

 

 

 

Dont make me send them up there!

 

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

17 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

On a serious note, it’s sobering to note how many great British military machines were built despite the relevant ministry not because of it….

I can't speak to the experience of the Air Ministry staff, but it did illustrate that the entrepreneurial nature of the aircraft designers came up with 'better' designs* than those stipulated by Ministry specification.

 

* Spitfire, Mosquito etc.

 

The problem however with entrepreneurial builders was that they had great difficulty scaling up production to wartime demand even with wartime conditions where other companies were impressed to add capacity. They were all relatively small and struggled with volume manufacturing. The logistics of everything was exceptionally difficult not limited to availability of machine tools and even things like sufficiently large interior spaces with sufficiently large doors.

 

I suspect those experienced with engineering companies building to MOD specification will identify with these issues even today.

[monkeysarefun]

7 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I suspect those experienced with engineering companies building to MOD specification will identify with these issues even today.

If you have a spare hour or so then The Pentagon Wars is a fun watch when it comes to the folly of attempting to  fulfil military specs - even when they stay stable long enough. All about the development of the Bradley FV.

 

 

Edited March 28, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

12 hours ago, Grizz said:

Er Yeah……or more appropriately “Hell Yeah”…..with quite possibly a ‘Yeeeehi’ thrown in for good measure….

Definitely not Americans @Grizz

 

As noted:

10 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 Nascar? NASCAR? pfffff.

 

Because  Australians,  its  V8 Supercars,  Bathurst 1000, the Deniliquin Ute Muster  and the Summernats Burnout Competition!

The big clue was the Channel 7 (Australia) logo in the bottom right corner.

 

There are other clues. Perhaps the Budweiser was what threw you?

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Ozexpatriate]

A little out of routine today. I managed to get my walk in (accompanied by persistent rain*) before a doctor's appointment that involved a fasting blood draw.

 

* We are on the edge of a storm that will bring even more rain and snow to soggy, and in many places, flooded, California.

 

My anticipated package from "The Continent" arrived on the doorstep - much to my relief, though the box looked like it was the object of a vigorous game of post office football - with the underside gaping open. All the contents were investigated as 'present'. A second smaller one that was ordered at least a week later was also in the mail box.

 

The afternoon was spent sorting the contents and beginning to put them to use and should keep me entertained for a while.

[southern42]

6 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear predicts that 100% of all fellow ER'ers are currently displaying extreme signs of jealousy....

 

Purely out of interest, if you had a bottomless pit of money and all the staff & facilities required, which loco would you choose to own from all those currently preserved?

Jealous? Moi? Just say my favourite puff-puff colour is green...

 

and, purely out of interest, it would have to be the 1:1 version of this one (allocation 81C 1959-1964).

 

And on that chuffing note, it is ' night all and nos da.

Polly

 

Edited March 28, 2023 by southern42

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Whilst not disputing your statement I think limiting it to just the Bible Belt does a serious injustice to the rest of that Great Nation. So in the interests of harmony I think the last sentence should read as follows The Great cess pit that is the residence of Satin himself otherwise known as the United States of America is not short of bigots, whack jobs, weirdos, air heads , racists, narcissists, and anything else ending in ist, There that just about covers it.

Gotta say, we get a LOT of US personnel through here on exercise support, application installation and training. I have never met one I didnt like, and as a bonus they are easy legpulls when it comes to telling them what  wildlife they should look out for, and they always call me sir.

Edited March 28, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

9 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

IF it was bottomless then I could restore my own, which'd be a Victorian Railways S class - its what a Batloco  would look like if Batman was the Fat Controller. 

 

 

8 hours ago, polybear said:

Jeez, that is seriously pig ugly.

I'm a big fan of the 'batloco', even if it only ran on Irish Gauge. It was in many picture books in my youth. 

 

I quite like the inverted bathtubs.

 

There's a very nice shed up the road with a Lima GS-4, 4-8-8-4 (SP 4449) which is semi-streamlined. It's a magnificent beast. If I'm not mistaken, the trailing bogie is a separate steam engine - for reversing in the yard.

 

Edited March 29, 2023 by Ozexpatriate
Spelling

[Ozexpatriate]

I feel compelled to offer that I was a bit surprised to see so many posts today which strike me as being explicitly political.

 

Now I don't have any personal objection or take any offence to them, people are free to express any opinion politely as far as I am concerned, but I do find it curious that an abstract discussion on different methods of casting ballots is considered "political" yet comments on various state legislative salvoes in the culture wars here are considered interesting news that people want to share.

 

Sauces for geese and ganders come to mind.

 

Edited March 28, 2023 by Ozexpatriate
Spelling

[BR60103]

This was an early day for us.  We had an appointment for duct cleaning at 8:00 which is the time I usually start my morning coffee. So I was up an hour early.

 

Duct cleaning: we have forced-air gas furnace. This sucks air in from all around the house and heats it up. Over the last 20 years this has left much debris in the pipes.  Our filter, which has a nominal 6 month life, clogged after one month.

 

The tech runs a 6" or 8" pipe from his van. He cuts a hole in the duct work and attaches the pipe to it. With the vacuum started, he takes a compressed air tool to each vent and blows it. Later he pushes the air through a hole in the duct. This was repeated 4 times -- hot air, return air, both sides of the furnace. I could hear what sounded like gravel bouncing through the vacuum.

The job was preceded by my removing loads of obstacles (e.g.books) from in front of the vents.

The job was finished in 90 minutes.

 

[AndyID]

4 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I feel compelled to offer that I was a bit surprised to see so many posts today which strike me as being explicitly political.

 

Now I don't have any personal objection or take any offence to them, people are free to express any opinion politely as far as I am concerned, but I do find it curious that an abstract discussion on different methods of casting ballots is considered "political" yet comments on various state legislative salvoes in the culture wars here are considered interesting news that people want to share.

 

Sauces for geese and ganders come to mind.

 

 

Do not get me started! But I do have to say the thing that does get me most "irrigated" is political commentary regarding countries in which one does not live. I lived in the UK for over thirty years but as I no longer live there, and even though I do follow it with interest, I do not think it is at all appropriate for me to comment on UK politics in any way.

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, BR60103 said:

Our filter, which has a nominal 6 month life, clogged after one month.

Wow. Your duct cleaning was well advised. My house is going on seven years old. I've not had an issue with dirty filters (yet).

[jjb1970]

32 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Do not get me started! But I do have to say the thing that does get me most "irrigated" is political commentary regarding countries in which one does not live. I lived in the UK for over thirty years but as I no longer live there, and even though I do follow it with interest, I do not think it is at all appropriate for me to comment on UK politics in any way.

 

A universal truism I've observed wherever I have been in the world is that regardless of what people think of their own country or where they live, they don't appreciate being told about it by outsiders.

[jjb1970]

Another universal truism I have observed is that wherever I have travelled people allow for a generosity of interpretation to the actions of their own country which is seldom extended to others.

[jjb1970]

I try to separate what I think about countries from their governments. I still love Britain even though I'm struggling to remember the last UK government I could say much positive about. My current home has been described as a benign authoritarian state, I'm not sure that's really true though there is some truth in it but I love Singapore. It's not difficult to identify problems in the US yet Washington DC is one of my favourite cities, I love San Francisco and overall I have never found anything other than kindness and courtesy in the US, I used to go to Houston regularly and always found people there charming. You certainly don't have to be blessed with the greatest gifts of perspicacity to recognize issues with the CPC yet I'm a Sinophile and love China, I love the culture, the food and find Chinese people often have a dry but excellent sense of humour (they're masters of extracting the urine in a way which they person they're insulting completely misses).

Edited March 29, 2023 by jjb1970

[Ozexpatriate]

3 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

I try to separate what I think about countries from their governments.

Cultures do vary and there are degrees of formality, politeness and familiarity that can be influenced by cultural norms, but "people" are much the same everywhere, at least in my experience.

[AndyID]

7 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

Another universal truism I have observed is that wherever I have travelled people allow for a generosity of interpretation to the actions of their own country which is seldom extended to others.

 

Well, obviously, the country in which one lives clearly has all the answers. Otherwise, why one one even continue living there?

[monkeysarefun]

57 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Do not get me started! But I do have to say the thing that does get me most "irrigated" is political commentary regarding countries in which one does not live. I lived in the UK for over thirty years but as I no longer live there, and even though I do follow it with interest, I do not think it is at all appropriate for me to comment on UK politics in any way.

Not disagreeing with you in any way but the US is in the unique position of being overwhelmingly over-represented in most other countries news, social media and popular culture. It has a huge influence on people elsewhere, for  example the MAGA movement with its call of "rigged elections" and "fake news" has spread to many other countries, -  here during the height of the COVID epidemic there were ant-lockdown protests  where  confederate flags and Trump flags were flown and there were accusations of the last federal election being rigged (by a certain red-headed Queensland witch known to both @Gwiwerand @Ozexpatriate) , which were quickly shown to be ridiculous due to how our elections are undertaken. 

In return it is only natural that we take an intense interest in the US and its  internal machinations,  because what happens there one week usually pops up almost everywhere else  sooner or later. (except guns - no one anywhere else thinks letting everyone have guns is a good idea!) 

 

That said, comments that come across as insults or that  denigrate  should always be a no-go -  glass houses and all that. 

Edited March 29, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[AndyID]

3 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Not disagreeing with you in any way but the US is in the unique position of being overwhelmingly over-represented in most other countries news, social media and popular culture. It has a huge influence on people elsewhere, for  example the MAGA movement with its call of "rigged elections" and "fake news" has spread to many other countries, -  here during the height of the COVID epidemic there were ant-lockdown protests  where  confederate flags and Trump flags were flown and there were accusations of the last federal election being rigged (by a certain red-headed Queensland witch known to both @Gwiwerand @Ozexpatriate) , which were quickly shown to be ridiculous due to how our elections are undertaken. 

In return it is only natural that we take an intense interest in the US and its  internal machinations,  because what happens there one week usually pops up almost everywhere else  sooner or later. (except guns - no one anywhere else thinks letting everyone have guns is a good idea!) 

 

That said, comments that come across as insults or that  denigrate the US people  should always be a no-go -  glass houses and all that. 

 

The problem with that is equating the US with a single mind-set. That might be just great on a political forum but this is supposed to be an apolitical forum.

 

However much I might agree or disagree with the actions of the USA I will not defend or critique them here. Nor will I comment on the actions of Russia or North Korea, much as I might like to.

[jjb1970]

14 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Not disagreeing with you in any way but the US is in the unique position of being overwhelmingly over-represented in most other countries news, social media and popular culture. It has a huge influence on people elsewhere, for  example the MAGA movement with its call of "rigged elections" and "fake news" has spread to many other countries, -  here during the height of the COVID epidemic there were ant-lockdown protests  where  confederate flags and Trump flags were flown and there were accusations of the last federal election being rigged (by a certain red-headed Queensland witch known to both @Gwiwerand @Ozexpatriate) , which were quickly shown to be ridiculous due to how our elections are undertaken. 

In return it is only natural that we take an intense interest in the US and its  internal machinations,  because what happens there one week usually pops up almost everywhere else  sooner or later. (except guns - no one anywhere else thinks letting everyone have guns is a good idea!) 

 

That said, comments that come across as insults or that  denigrate  should always be a no-go -  glass houses and all that. 

 

The USA is probably the only country in the world in which outsiders take any interest in, or know much about (however limited that knowledge might be).

 

Yes, most of us know something about other countries, but to nothing like the detail we get of the USA. Even here, most Singaporeans are ethnically Chinese and proud of their Chinese heritage, many speak Mandarin or Hokkien as their first language yet in my experience most of them know far more about the US than China.

[monkeysarefun]

1 minute ago, AndyID said:

 

The problem with that is equating the US with a single mind-set. That might be just great on a political forum but this is supposed to be an apolitical forum.

 

However much I might agree or disagree with the actions of the USA I will not defend or critique them here. Nor will I comment on the actions of Russia or North Korea, much as I might like to.

Try being Australian on here sometimes!

Edited March 29, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

1 minute ago, monkeysarefun said:

Try being Australian on here sometimes!

Or an Australian who happens to live in the US! 😉

[Ozexpatriate]

6 minutes ago, AndyID said:

The problem with that is equating [the US]* with a single mind-set.

* Or anywhere for that matter. Countries are not monolithic and not everyone thinks the same way - even in authoritarian countries where it is not permitted to express dissent.

 

Generalities and sweeping assertions are rarely accurate and their inaccuracy can be grating.