Early Risers.

[The Lurker]

21 hours ago, polybear said:

Someone fitted a ULEZ Camera at lunchtime.

Someone else blew it up a few hours later - literally; judging by the damage to a van parked on the other side of the road and also a house I'd say they overcooked it just a tad.......

They'll be in deep, deep Poo if caught - the Anti-Terror Police are all over it.

If that is the one in Sidcup, that delayed Younger Lurker and I on the school run yesterday - the road we used everyday (Willersley Avenue) was blocked off with forensics boys and the gazebo things they set up. We didn't know what had happened - I just guessed it was an RTA but Younger Lurker could see all the forensics stuff and so we feared it was a stabbing or shooting.

[DaveF]

One or two of you may have thought you saw a post from me with railway photos here a few minutes ago.  I had made the mistake of having several threads open at the same time and of course posted in the wrong one.  The photos are now in the right place.

 

Today has been quite productive.  After dealing with e mails, house jobs  etc I went to the beach for a quick walk.  The breeze was cold so I didn't stay too long.  Then I remembered I needed to fill up the car so spent a few minutes looking at the dash display menu to find out the average mpg of the last tankful.  Once I had found that and reset it to the usual display of mpg per journey which takes a lot of button presses I drove to the garage and quickly filled up.  As you will gather, that bit of the display is not touch screen.  I am sure I will get used to it in time and will remember how to do it.

 

I got home just in time for coffee and very slowly did a Sudoku.  It took ages to get the first few numbers  then it became very easy.  That plus marking up the Radio Times to note things I might want to watch or listen to next week took until lunchtime which was a turkey salad.

 

This afternoon I went to the neighbours' house who are away to check their post and found a letter from the Dartford Tunnel which I had been told to open if one came.  They had a problem paying while in the area in the summer so they incured some penalty charges, they are all now paid but one letter still slipped through ariving today asking for money, when I checked the website it is down as paid so I am doing nothing except to send them a text in case they want to check it out for themselves.

 

Thern I thought I'd just do the rest of the Christmas shopping.  It was meant to be easy, a bottle of gin and a small biscuit hamper for a friend I've known since we were children.  She sends me malt whisky, I send her gin.  Of course the one I had intended to send is out of stock everywhere so ended up choosing one distilled in Northumberland (Hepple Gin).   The biscuits were relatively easy.

 

After that I got a number of odds and ends done, including moving plants round and bringing some more into the house from the garage as they are coming into flower.

 

I've read all the posts today but really know little about a lot of the topics so am not going to comment as it would betray my ignorance!  However I do have views on evolution and creation which I will not elaborate upon.

 

David

Edited December 8, 2023 by DaveF

[PupCam]

Afternoon!

 

13 hours ago, BachelorBoy said:

Yes, hence wearing masks to protect other people, whereas in the West, people tend to wear masks (before covid) to protect themselves from pollution, etc.

 

Which is precisely what the masking wearing by the masses was intended to do here.   But so many of the people I know had the misguided view that putting a piece of toilet paper with a couple of strings attached over their oral and nasal orifices was going to save them  from Covid.   No it wasn't, not by a long way.  What it was going to do (and all it could really) was to catch a significant proportion of potentially contagious material ejected at high speed from the wearer.      The wearer's protection came from everyone else wearing such masks.

 

8 hours ago, Barry O said:

As far as the Covid enquiries goes.. I just hope they get to real lessons learned and implement systems to stop it happening again. All parties ran away from working together on sensible responses.

 

Unfortunately us cynical old engineering types would generally  think such a dream is, well, just a dream!          The  squadron of pigs can be seen being fuelled and readied for flight as we speak.

 

At a "certain place" the chap responsible (at one point) for running "Lessons Learned" type activities announced that he no longer called them that and re-named them as "Lessons Identified"  because, as he said, we never actually learn the lessons.   I found his acknowledgment of that fact refreshingly honest.   He didn't stay long ....

 

6 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Way out of my pensioner budget.

 

It was suggested the specialist cardio nurses on a number of occasions that I could usefully increase the dosage of one of my non-cardio medicines on an occasional as-and-when-needed basis.    Unfortunately to do so involves a discussion with the GP.  Well, that's unlikely to happen anytime soon and I asked the nurse if she could include the review & increase the dose in the list of GP Actions in the notes.    Unfortunately not, demarcation and all that, being non-cardio they can only "suggest" it in the general notes.   I believe there is an over the counter version and I must get myself down to the pharmacy and have a word.   In this instance I would willing cough-up (surprisingly literal that statement) what in this case would be a token amount of my pensioner budget to get the additional safety net as it would only be required once in a blue moon and the drug is "cheap", unlike Neil's, by the looks of it anyway.

 

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

....... to Dr. SWMBO.  Who is firmly a scientist and has no time for religion.  Yet loves the peace and tranquility found in churches, church music especially choral masses and has been no stranger to meetings of the Society of Friends. 

 

I'm with SWMBO on that!     I adore large churches, cathedrals etc not because they are "places of worship"  but because they tend to be beautiful and in many cases stunning pieces of architecture with an atmosphere so heavy you can almost cut it with a knife.

 

Everyone is, or at least should be, free to believe & trust in whatever they like just so long that that belief does not materially harm the well being (in all senses of the word) of others.      There's been quite a lot of discussion lately about "us" and "them" type groupings and the damage they can/do cause.     I might venture to suggest that that some of the largest "us" and "them" gangs might be associated with various such beliefs.   I'd best stop there.

 

ION

 

 A good degree of  unspecified pottering (Chris_f ©) today including a little more data collection for the Life Book.    Also a trip into Hitchin for a number of errands and a quick thrash on the RD which was most enjoyable during the early morning sunshine.    A bonus was that all fuel pipes remained completely full of fuel.  Glory be!

 

I've been re-processing some of the most recent Jupiter data again.     I even managed a diffraction artefact (spiky cross)  on the moon with this.    This sort of detail seems to be about the best I can get but I don't know if I could/should expect better with my specific equipment with better technique and/or better conditions or whether this really is approaching the limit for such "modest" equipment?

 

Anyway, it's fun way to spend a wet afternoon and by all accounts there'll be an opportunity to do some more over the weekend.

 

 

Looks like it's time for me to getamoveonwiththedinner.   Apparently a G & T has been poured in order to assist this process 😀

 

TTFN

 

 

 

[pH]

5 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I have long come to the conclusion that it was only when, in Western Europe, the Deity of choice was removed from day-to-day matters by the separation of church from state that humans started to make progress in all aspects of the arts and sciences that have so benefited humanity.

I would probably disagree with the inclusion of “arts” in that statement. Many (most?) of the spectacular religious buildings, and their decoration, predate that separation. Sciences - little argument, though the Romans were pretty clever in some fields.

[Ian Abel]

POETS, and why not 😀

 

Good rehearsal yesterday, although I managed to have the only tenor who can't sing sitting next to me. Having an open and inclusive environment has its drawback.

 

Today, work and should be fairly peaceful, MRs has a 5-7pm interview for a study we're involved with, not sure how THAT particular time-slot happened!

This weekend is, as yet, fairly "free", however given the Mrs started hauling Christmas decorations up from the basement while I was at rehearsal, I've a pretty good idea of ONE task that'll be on the agenda.

 

Sunday evening is the second of our concert series, this one "Rainy Days and Mondays, the music of the Carpenters" by a local tribute band. They performed various concerts around town that we've attended and this should be a good one.

 

Weather here still defying the odds for December in Minnesota, 4c first thing, mostly cloudy, 8c the expected high. Ranging between -3c and 4c over the weekend.

 

Forward to the weekend activites...

[Tony_S]

35 minutes ago, PupCam said:

unspecified pottering

It has been a day of very specified pottering today. Our neighbours will be departing for Wales to spend Christmas there so we invited them round for a meal tonight. My tidying up last week was deemed to need doing again. I did suggest I could do the cooking and Aditi could tidy up but she thought otherwise. The main course will be an Alsatian recipe. Fortunately the place, not the name by which German Shepherds were known for much of the last century. The recipe used does deviate from tradition by using leeks instead of cabbage. 

[pH]

4 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

Crikey!

 

Are those things inflated after you put them on?

 

No, earpieces are always that size.

[polybear]

4 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

It does not allow "Old Age" either but again it can be a contributing factor.  Notwithstanding that I have a family death certificate in my possession dating from only a few years ago which states the only cause of death was "Old Age".

 

Many scientists stand with you.  I as a geologist stand with one foot in that camp.  But the other foot is closer to the camp of "There is still so much stuff we don't know / cannot understand / have lost the ability to know".

 

The ancients of the various nations from which we have authenticated historical records seemed to have a good grasp on matters without the technology we have today.  Many understood that the Earth revolved around the Sun and the Moon around the Earth for instance.  Healing and medicine were understood with some of the methods probably still in use today.  What unwritten knowledge and methods were required to build the pyramids?  Or Stonehenge?  

 

The Creation, as the Bible gives it, is more or less accurate in terms of sequence of events.  Not, perhaps, in terms of timeline although we are free to believe as we wish.  The flood of Noah has been ascribed to one of only a handful of known events but might have related to the Cenomanian Transgression (other events were available) which wiped out countless species and after which many new life-forms later developed.  These were the writings of well-informed people.

 

Even science cannot answer some fundamental questions.  Others remain arguably beyond human comprehension.  If the universe is in theory curved but finite then what lies beyond?  We cannot cope with "Nothing".  What existed before the "Big Bang" if matter can neither be created nor destroyed? For these and other questions it has been expedient for human-kind to create religion and to believe in an all-powerful creator or other being - who may or may not have taken human form - as a means to offer an "explanation".   And a "demon" of sorts by which to offer threats for misbehaviour or explain catastrophic but probably natural events.

 

I have never resolved this for myself.  I still stand athwart the abyss of the science-religion argument.  I am most certainly not advancing one option in favour of another.  Because we are (most of us where ever we live) free to choose and free to express our choice.  

 

Which reminds me.  The seasonally-appropriate illuminations are being switched on in town tonight.  I was going to go - it's only a two-minute stroll - but instead will be somewhere on the A30 offering a "rail replacement road service" to Dr. SWMBO.  Who is firmly a scientist and has no time for religion.  Yet loves the peace and tranquility found in churches, church music especially choral masses and has been no stranger to meetings of the Society of Friends.  

 

 

 

Blimey Gwiwer.... reading that has fried the Beary Bonce so much I needed an extra, extra slice of Cake.....

Yours,

A Befuddled Bear.....

 

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

It was certainly allowed when I registered the death of Beth's aunt in Sunderland a few years ago.  The cause of death was "Frailty of old age".A coroner once told me that cancer couldn't be listed as a cause of death.  It had to be some other event such as heart failure, due to cancer.  I once spent some time trying to prove that by I ter viewing the re

Atives of a guy who had died 3 momths earlier than the Doctors expected.  

 

Jamie

 

The Big C was stated as the cause on Momma Bear's D.C.

 

58 minutes ago, PupCam said:

........and a quick thrash on the RD which was most enjoyable during the early morning sunshine.    A bonus was that all fuel pipes remained completely full of fuel.  Glory be!

 

 

So what was the fix Puppers?

[Barry O]

Very old items have been fettled.. a bit more painting of the sides of parallel bits of  metal has been undertaken.

 

I believe a major way of describing what people die from is "A lack of breath"...

 

Death Certificates seem to be worded to fit into the way Insurers want them to say..

 

Me? Cynical? Serpently I am an Engineer after all!

 

Baz

Edited December 8, 2023 by Barry O
Spellung

[DaveF]

Thinking about death certificates Mum's stated frailty of old age together with ulcerative colitis, arthritis and pulmonary fibrosis.

 

David

[tigerburnie]

I'd quite like mine to say I died laughing...........................

[Coombe Barton]

7 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I have absolutely no time or patience for creationism.

 

On a similar topic - try teaching Geographic Information Systems with spherical geometry calculations a flat earther. This was for a council planning department.

The temptation to call them a f**kwit was resisted - just. Another ten minutes would have sent me over the top.

[PupCam]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

So what was the fix Puppers?

 

I can only assume that the different functional arrangement of the new petrol tap did it but I don't really know.

 

Looks like the weather might have put paid to the plans for the Sunday morning bimble or thrash 🙄

 

21 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

I'd quite like mine to say I died laughing...........................

 

I'm reminded of the wonderful Spike Milligan epitaph 🤣

 

TTFN

[New Haven Neil]

2 hours ago, PupCam said:

Everyone is, or at least should be, free to believe & trust in whatever they like just so long that that belief does not materially harm the well being (in all senses of the word) of others.   

 

We'll be having (weather permitting, and to stop it, it will have to be REALLY bad!) our annual New Years Eve extreme BBQ with friends, attendance will be atheists, devout Catholics, Jews, CoE regulars, agnostics and really don't knows - all will have a great time and remain friends for yet another year.  It's not hard.....if only....

[Coombe Barton]

6 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

It does not allow "Old Age" either but again it can be a contributing factor.  Notwithstanding that I have a family death certificate in my possession dating from only a few years ago which states the only cause of death was "Old Age".

That was what was on the later Queen's death certificate.

[Sidecar Racer]

21 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

On a similar topic - try teaching Geographic Information Systems with spherical geometry calculations a flat earther. This was for a council planning department.
 

 

 He needs to be taken here for educating.

 

 The Burj Khalifa  is so tall that we can observe the sunset at the base of the building, then rush to the upper floors and watch the same sunset again for the second time on the same day. This phenomenon can only happen if the Earth is a sphere.

[monkeysarefun]

6 hours ago, Tony_S said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

How do you know that it isn't in fact actually a thin nylon coat and that  his body underneath is   providing  all the bulges?

 

 

 

 

[Andy Hayter]

9 hours ago, Andy Hayter said:

 

From day 1, reporting of Covid deaths has been an issue around the world.  The basic issue is that AFAIK not one single person has died from Covid.  They have however died from pulmonary failure, heart issues, organ failure and so on all exacerbated by Covid.  So if someone with breathing issues catches Covid and dies, was it Covid or the pre-existing condition?  An autopsy might help determine but given the daily death rates, how many autopsies were carried out.

 

And yes some countries have made political points by ensuring low reported rates.

 

Bad form to quote yourself, but I Think there has been some fairly widespread misunderstanding because I did not explain properly.

 

So lets go back 100 years.

 

An outbreak of flu started in1918.  It developed and started causing thousands of deaths.  It spread worldwide and ended up with millions dying in 1919 and 1920.  The estimates of those that died ranges from as little as 25million up to perhaps 100million.   Record keeping then was rather less good than today hence this wide range of fatalities.  Like Covid, one problem is that flu, in  itself, does not kill people, but those susceptible to a range of conditions when attacked by flu can find those conditions are exaggerated and can then lead to death.  This can include many conditions and people that had not been identified as being at any way as being at risk.

 

That situation of uncertainty of whether flu was or was not responsible for a death led to a statistical way of saying how many people died as a result of ( not - not from) flu.  The average rate of deaths over 5 years was taken, and anything above that was called "excess deaths" and these were largely attributed to flu.  Typical UK excess deaths (attributed to flu) in the UK would run at 5k to over 40k in recent years.  Some of that has to be attributable to the success of flu vaccination and would otherwise have been higher.  Do note though that this method identifies how many died as a result of flu but not whether that applies to an individual.

 

Then along came Covid and frankly the same issues apply.  Telling if an individual has died from Covid is difficult - often impossible - but without  doubt many died with Covid and of those many deaths would not have happened in the absence of Covid.  However at an individual level telling if an individual would/would not have had problems/survived is largely impossible with current techniques.  Hence today we can say that an individual died with Covid but largely cannot say that they died because of Covid.  Statistically however we can see the thousands that have died as a result of (but not directly from)  Covid.

 

Exactly the same 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2023 by Andy Hayter

[polybear]

11 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

 

How do you know that it isn't in fact actually a thin nylon coat and that  his body underneath is   providing  all the bulges?

 

 

 

 

 

Now that is WEIRD.....

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon/evening all from Estuary-Land. After shopping at Tess Coes and after unpacking and putting the shopping away I took a little eyelid inspection, thats why I'm late on parade. Time to put the kettle on and attack the mince pies.

[Hroth]

13 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Afternoon/evening all from Estuary-Land. After shopping at Tess Coes and after unpacking and putting the shopping away I took a little eyelid inspection, thats why I'm late on parade. Time to put the kettle on and attack the mince pies.

 

Carruthers!  The mince pies are revolting!!!

 

[monkeysarefun]

17 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Now that is WEIRD.....

 

 

Injecting oil into the muscles. Sure is - the male equivalent of injecting crap into your lips so you look like a fish, or silicone into your bum!

[Coombe Barton]

... It really is trying my patience. (Which is why you should not study medicine and law at the same time - that really does try your patients.) ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/12/08/sounds-of-the-season-2023-06-covid-hospitalisations-up-a-bit/

[monkeysarefun]

Todays forecast still set for low to mid 40's. Currently 28 deg at 8AM so its on track.

 

Hot weather defence system  initiated (house shut up, blinds lowered, misting fan set up on the aviary, dishes of water out on deck for the wild birds.)   I'll get my outside jobs done early then spend the afternoon inside in the airconditioning  watching cool stuff on the telly like "Scott Of The Antarctic". 

Edited December 8, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[polybear]

8 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

Injecting oil into the muscles. Sure is - the male equivalent of injecting crap into your lips so you look like a fish, or silicone into your bum!

 

"Morris had been accused of injecting patients with mixture of Fix-a-Flat, cement, silicone mineral oil and Super Glue"

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4355326/Transgender-woman-injected-cement-buttocks.html

 

One question:  WHY??

 

4 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

... It really is trying my patience. (Which is why you should not study medicine and law at the same time - that really does try your patients.) ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/12/08/sounds-of-the-season-2023-06-covid-hospitalisations-up-a-bit/

 

How many actually manage to get an acceptable Pass?