Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

5 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

the excitement was very confusing to us simple folk not familiar with the 3D chess*  that is American football

This is 3D chess:

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Ozexpatriate
Upload fail | RMweb wobble

[Ozexpatriate]

RMweb is again v.e.r.y. slow when posting. Browsing is OK.

 

And what h!ll has happened to the f!!!ing close button on the pop-up video. It's gone again. If I want to listen to Mr. Wright in his garden, I can after the first post, and when he follows you down the page he simply won't be closed (though can be paused which obscures content) which is pointless.

 

Most irritating. Why do people who operate websites think that annoying their patrons (rather than just presenting something) will make them consider any any sort of purchase I wonder?

 

EDIT

I've subsequently discovered a way to make it go away.

1. Scroll down until the pop-up video appears
2. Scroll back up to the top and pause the video
3. Scroll back down to where you want to read/post and it does not reappear

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Ozexpatriate
Weird website behaviour

[Ozexpatriate]

5 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

The Jarryd Hayne fiasco is probably the extent  of who most people  here could name and that didn't end too well. 

Yes. It was farcical. It was obvious he hadn't a clue.

 

According to this dubious article which claims to be September 2023, but talks about the 2022/2023 season, there are 8 Australians in the NFL currently.

 

Punting however is an Australian specialty - thanks to growing up with Aussie rules.

 

This article from 2022 is a bit better. (NCAA is college football):

Quote

Five seasons later, 2021 saw 53 Australians occupying punting roster positions on 50 Division I FBS teams. Last season, the odds of seeing an Australian punter [in a college football game] trot out on 4th down was close to 40 percent.

 

[jjb1970]

On Web site annoyances, I  closed my FB account when it got to the point I had to wade through so much annoying clickbait and advertising to see the 'social' in social media stuff I wanted to view that I decided it was a pointless waste of time. RMWeb is now the only social media I participate in other than friend groups on WhatsApp.  

[Ozexpatriate]

1 minute ago, jjb1970 said:

RMWeb is now the only social media I participate in

This is true for me. I don't mind advertising at all. I do mind pop-ups that obscure content and cannot be made to go away.

 

Last time I thought it was an 'accident'. It was fixed. It might even be an 'accident' this time, but it sure is irritating.

[Ozexpatriate]

4 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

you'll have to  show your credit card to the paramedics as you lie trapped in your car or they wont take you to the hospital

Yeah that's not true. They take you to the hospital but then send you a bill with way more numerals than you are used to seeing for any other transport service. Orders of magnitude more than Uber 'surge' pricing. And if you need a life-flight helicopter well ...

 

There are infomercials on television that sell medical transportation insurance policies.

[Ozexpatriate]

4 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Incidentally the USA comes bottom.

I think you read that wrongly Phil. It was Ireland that came last with 51% of survey respondents feeling "let down". In comparison, the US was 33%. This is hardly a 'scientific' analysis.

 

3 out of 10 people were ticked off. Hmm. Not a reliable assessment.

[Ozexpatriate]

50 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

I've reinforced my own belief that the last people you should ask for advice about things are 'serious' enthusiasts and the evils of gate keeping this week.

Did you see this video on the perils of model railway 'gate keepers' by chance?

 

It's a nice summary of the issues you relate.

[jjb1970]

11 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Did you see this video on the perils of model railway 'gate keepers' by chance?

 

It's a nice summary of the issues you relate.

No, but I will, thanks!

[Ozexpatriate]

19 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

The Samoa match will be watched by most of The indigenous inhabitants of American Samoa, much to the annoyance of their rulers.

I'm not sure that their "rulers" give a fig about what they choose to watch, let alone be "annoyed". There's very little apparent 'duty of care' as to what goes on in US possessions - unless they have a strategic value - like Guam.

 

American Samoa does have a (non-voting) delegate-at-large in the US House of Representatives. The Congressional Representative does have committee assignments.

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[monkeysarefun]

19 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

When I was going through the very long winded and convoluted process of getting clearance to post some wedding anniversary cake to my No. 2 son and DiL in Australia, one of the things the officials were adamant about was that under No circumstances could moon cake be included in the parcel. No reason was given, just a warning not to try to send any.

 

Dave

 

if they contain any trace of meat product they wont be allowed in if they are sent from countries with any  incidence of  foot and mouth disease.

Edited September 23, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

Bob Ballard's* Ocean Exploration Trust has completed a submersible dive on three aircraft carriers sunk at Midway:

IJN Kaga, IJN Akagi and USS Yorktown. 

 

CNN: First time in 80 years, footage shows aircraft carrier sunk in WWII (Akagi and Yorktown)

 

* RMS Titanic finder

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

Today (Friday) is the Autumnal Equinox here in Oregon (at 11:50pm). Tomorrow (Saturday) is the Autumnal Equinox in the remainder of the continental US.

 

And Autumn is here. Next week is supposed to be significantly wet - for the first time since about May.

[iL Dottore]

12 hours ago, PupCam said:

….While I whole heartedly agree that an individual's well-being starts "at home" and can't be entirely outsourced to "the health service" whoever and however it is provided I think that the chosen "Life-style" argument can very quickly lead to a slippery slope.   Just to play Devil's Advocate, if you go down that route you can very quickly and easily get to the extreme, for example, "I see Mr Smith you smoked 3 times 53 years ago and now you've got lung cancer so sorry,  it's all your fault, we're not treating you off you go (to die)".      

Here I have to disagree Alan! Prevention of the so-called “lifestyle” diseases (an unfortunate term, but accurate enough) isn’t equivalent to not treating those who are affected by such diseases. Certainly, there should be a debate about how far society (which in the UK for the purposes of this discussion is the NHS) wishes to support self-destructive and nihilistic behaviour, I sincerely doubt that the public would countenance the withdrawal of medical services to addicts etc., but giving them endless “second medical chances” may be given a serious rethink.

12 hours ago, PupCam said:

…Is there actually anyone on here that can honestly claim to have never done, eaten, drunk anything potentially injurious to their future health and well being?    If there is, I might even go so far as to say that their view was at least misguided and at worst a lie.      Life style is a spectrum not a binary condition.

I never stated or implied that lifestyle is a binary condition. And of course, we all have eaten and drunk (or done) foolish things in our time (yours truly being no exception). The problem arises when the “occasional treat“ becomes a daily (or multiple times per day) habit. Disregarding alcohol and tobacco for the moment (which definitely are on a wide spectrum from lifestyle choice to uncontrollable addiction), just improving the average diet in the UK by ditching as much UPF and UPD as possible would have huge benefits for both society and the NHS. 
 

Unfortunately, industrial food manufacturers (and the supermarkets) have done a great job in persuading a huge swathe of the UK population that they have no time to cook from scratch and that should avail themselves of the plentiful chilled and frozen ready meals. 
 

12 hours ago, PupCam said:

On the contrary; such arrogance, indifference  and incompetence cost the world to those on the receiving end.   Coupled with the vast sums of cash piled in to the service to try and make it work in the first place it in fact becomes an even more expensive double whammy (cash and human cost)!

I was being caustically sarcastic, Alan. The point I was making is that you do not have to have funding in order to be arrogant, indifferent and incompetent. And I quite agree with your observation that this costs both society and the NHS huge amounts each year – not only on monetary terms, but also on human terms.

Edited September 23, 2023 by iL Dottore
PupCam isn’t Dave Hunt 😳

[jjb1970]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Bob Ballard's* Ocean Exploration Trust has completed a submersible dive on three aircraft carriers sunk at Midway:

IJN Kaga, IJN Akagi and USS Yorktown. 

 

CNN: First time in 80 years, footage shows aircraft carrier sunk in WWII (Akagi and Yorktown)

 

* RMS Titanic finder

 

 

I would love a private chat with Bob Ballard on the subject of Oceangate. People like Ballard have spent decades working on deep ocean exploration and the technologies and operational controls to mitigate risk, it must be painful to see what Oceangate were doing.

[iL Dottore]

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Checked the garden just before it got dark, still very muddy but hopefully it will have dried out by tomorrow.

 Is privatisation the answer? I think not, remember Railtrack?

The thing is Phil, privatisation does work if done properly and not handled and managed with the same degree of incompetence and cluelessness that now seems to be de rigour for UK governmental departments.

 

You mention railway privatisation: you only have to look to Japan to see how privatisation can work and provide the country with high quality affordable, clean, comfortable and modern railway transport. Ironically, Japan privatised their railway system almost a decade before Britain did. However, I suspect the Japanese cultural attitudes to providing the public with services (from serving people in shops to running a railway) have an awful lot to do with the differences.

 

In regards to “privatisation“ of the NHS. You have fallen into the same trap many Britons fall into when the future of medical services in Britain is a topic of conversation. That is “there’s only the US way or the NHS“, Apart from being blatantly untrue, the Bismarck model – used by most European countries in one form or another -  has proved very successful in providing countries with reasonably affordable medical care, ready access to that medical care and good outcomes from that medical care.

 

I’ve been on “both sides of the stethoscope“ (so to speak) in the US system, the NHS and the Bismarck system and I can tell you that from both sides of the stethoscope the Bismarck system wins hands down.

[polybear]

7 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Fitting a stepper motor to something like this would be an interesting challenge. 

I am afraid I cheated  when I felt the need for a turntable and got a Heljan one. It isn’t in use at present but I may dig it out and use it in some sort of engine shed layout.

 

I see a Puppers Challenge coming along......

 

7 hours ago, TheQ said:

My current pains are almost all caused by physical exercise injuries in the past..

 

 

 

That seems to be very common; P.E. might have benefits for the Engine but it risks wrecking the Airframe in the process

 

7 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

One problem seems to be that in many NHS supporters eyes there are  only binary options, the NHS as it is, or some fully privatised  US style system with those panic stories that it'll  send you bankrupt if you break your leg, and you'll have to  show your credit card to the paramedics as you lie trapped in your car or they wont take you to the hospital.

 

 

I wonder what the situation is for those in the U.S. that have no hope of paying in such a situation (car smash) or Tourists dumb enough to go there with no insurance?**  

 

**A fact all too common judging by the number of families who try the crowd funding route when Jimmy goes on a stag do to Torremolinos with the lads and falls off a Balcony etc. 

 

Bear has experienced healthcare in S. Korea (2001, ear infection) - phone for an appointment at 5pm and was seen at 9am the next day.  Cost?  Six quid.

And the next was in Malaysia (K.L) in 2008 - extremely modern hospital right in the centre, again in an ENT Dept. with enough fancy toys to make an NHS ENT Consultant cry with envy.  Again the lug 'ole was hoovered out (I got to see it all on telly - brilliant stuff) by a Malaysian(?) Doc who did his training in Stanmore, Middlesex.  Cost?  Eighty Quid.

BAeS picked up the tab for that one - and then spent MONTHS arguing with The Great Empire to get their money back.  FFS.

 

3 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

And then there is the endemic problem with budgets. There are two parts to a budget (well, there are lots but for the purposes of this post I'll use two), how much you have been allocated and how you spend it. I find government agencies are obsessed with their allocation and always 'need' more yet whenever I've observed government spending (as a civil servant and providing services in energy and defence) they very rarely seem to spend what they've been allocated efficiently and to good effect. This may sound harsh, but if a department can't spend what money it has efficiently and to good effect why should they be given more? 

 

In many businesses one of the golden rules is to always spend what you have + a bit, otherwise the bosses decide you didn't need it after all and reduce your budget for next year.

 

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

if they contain any trace of meat product they wont be allowed in if they are sent from countries with any  incidence of  foot and mouth disease.

 

I wonder if Moon Cake contains such traces - and what the chances are of cross contamination?  I would've thought a Farmer going on hols in Oz from the UK without changing out of his muddy wellies would be a much higher risk?

[polybear]

28 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Here I have to disagree Dave!
 

I was being caustically sarcastic, Dave. 

 

Just one question:

 

Who's Dave??  🤣

[Hroth]

1 minute ago, polybear said:

 

Just one question:

 

Who's Dave??  🤣

 

Isn't there a TV channel named after him?

 

[monkeysarefun]

I was sent on a photographic assignment by an anonymous RMWEber who wanted some photographic details of an item in The NSW Rail Transport Museum but was too tight to fly here from the UK to take them himself. Living 25 minutes from it  I kindly  took it on.  Took the opportunity to take a couple of pics of  "interesting things"

 

The original Paybus, used by NSWGR to transport employees pay along remote branchlines deemed not viable to send larger  railmotors along. Manufactured in 1937 and has a Ford V8 motor.  Between 1937 and 1967 8 paybuses were manufactured, the later ones looking a lot more like a standard bus. This one looks a bit like if Noddy or @polybear had a train to ride around in.

 

I needed the wideangle lens to get the Garrett in.

 

 

 

A trolley used at the  Cleveland Street Mortuary station to load coffins onto the mortuary train for the one way trip to Rookwood cemetery.

 

 

 

Impressively shiny (C)30T class on excursion duties. Originally built in Manchester in 1903 as a tank locomotive, it and 76 classmates were converted to tender  when the suburban lines were electrified and they were  sent off to do country passenger duties instead.

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[polybear]

Bear here.....

 

A carp night ending with a 5am crawl out of the Pit.  At least an early start is forecast.

 

At least both Moaning Myrtle at the Met. and Alexa finally agree that today promises to be "reasonable" for danglin' (the presence of bright sun this morning is less than ideal though - pm looks better); I should get at least one coat on window & frame 3, and if I really get my furry ar5e in gear I might just get the second coat done as well.  We'll see.

 

Apart from that it's MIUABGAD - which I hope will include soldering iron wielding.  It's all the Sqn Ldr's fault.

 

ION.....

Today sees Day 2 of "The Great Cake Famine".  Have I mentioned that?

 

BG

[jjb1970]

Japan disproves many things.

 

I was in an IMO working group on port efficiency and reducing congestion/waiting time. The representative of Europe's biggest port justified the mess they had by saying it's the same everywhere - except in Japan but there are cultural differences in Japan. I rocked the boat by pointing out that what he was actually saying was that Japan is the only place that considers port congestion to be a problem worth solving and making the effort to do it. If Japan can operate ports efficiently then so can anyone else if they make the effort.  That didn't go down well, made worse when someone else pointed out that although ports like Shanghai, Singapore and  Busan had problems they were nothing like as bad as European and US ports.

 

Another example is the Shinkansen and how the various Shinkansen operators  (JR West, JR Central and JR East) maintain an insane service intensity with a tiny number of platforms and train turnaround times that the rest of the world claims is impossible. And do it while keeping trains and stations immaculate.

 

I saw it in the shipyards. If yards like Imabari can deliver complex ships on time, on budget and which work from day one then rationalising why others deliver half baked catastrophes late and way over budget just looks like trying to justify incompetence and failure.

 

The Japanese way relies on razor sharp focus on quality and operational effectiveness and a ruthlessness in refusing to tolerate mediocrity. You see it everywhere, even something as mundane as buying something in a department store where the experience is first class.

 

The thing is a typical European or American manager would be horrified by headcount and convince themselves it was all dreadfully inefficient and desperately in need of improvement.

[Ozexpatriate]

19 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

Japan disproves many things.

Not in every space. I think we all remember the Japanese dominance of consumer electronics. Brands like Sony (and others) dominated. Not so any more.

 

Japan continues to lead the world in the manufacture of CCD devices (the core of semiconductor-based cameras) but have fallen behind terribly in most other electronics manufacturing where Samsung (Korea) and TMSC (Taiwan) lead the way.

[Ozexpatriate]

45 minutes ago, polybear said:

I wonder what the situation is for those in the U.S. that have no hope of paying in such a situation (car smash)

Hospital emergency rooms are required (legally obliged) to treat indigent cases - who present themselves at an emergency room (casualty).

 

So trauma cases, heart attacks, etc are treated yes. It gets more complicated when on-going visits to specialists are required - like oncology. There are government programs (Medicare - older/disabled and Medicaid - low income) that provide a level of health care insurance.

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[jjb1970]

7 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Not in every space. I think we all remember the Japanese dominance of consumer electronics. Brands like Sony (and others) dominated. Not so any more.

 

Japan continues to lead the world in the manufacture of CCD devices (the core of semiconductor-based cameras) but have fallen behind terribly in most other electronics manufacturing where Samsung (Korea) and TMSC (Taiwan) lead the way.

 

I think that's part of the evolution of manufacturing and how companies improve as others stagnate. However Japan routinely achieves levels of operational excellence in service delivery which are dismissed as impossible elsewhere.