Early Risers.

[Dave Hunt]

10 hours ago, Barry O said:

As it happens we are confined to home all day as access by road will be difficult due to a kotbof people raising funds for various charities undertaking marathons/ half marathons/ ?fun? Runs around these parts.

 

Although we had a 10K run here, Baz, the roads were only closed from 1000 to 1300. Trouble is, that left plenty of time for going to a garden centre but at least I got some of the plants I wanted for the pond.

 

Dave

[polybear]

Bear here….

 

Dross day - as expected; there is method in Bear’s madness, however😉

 

ION…..

 

I see that a couple of Austrian nutcases have flown thru’ Tower Bridge wearing Wingsuits after diving out of a Helicopter - another Red Bull stunt n’ all that; the video is on the ‘tube.  All clever stuff - but can’t help but think it’s  not a patch on putting a Hunter thru’ the same gap (50 years ago?)

 

BG

 

[New Haven Neil]

Evening orl.

 

The rallyists have left, the roads covered with rubber where they were performing, and the spectating vantage points full of litter. 🤬 One of the things about this island is the lack of litter, there's very little (what there is tends to be McDonalds thrown out of Vauxhall Corsas) about, but the rally fans just leave all their crisp packets, pop bottles and sandwich wrappers where they were standing.  The bikers don't litter when they come for TT and there's a hundred times more of them - what's with it rally guys n gals? /rant.

 

More gardening today, it's looking a lot tidier now, the bikes cleaned, the cars washed, and a few jobs given a coat of looking at and thinking about.  Plus some pottering on in the garage/layout room, re-decaling that loco I ruined a few days ago - it's going to need a lot of weathering on that side.

[Tony_S]

We have had a scenic tour of Essex minor roads today. We were heading towards the M25 and as we approached the A128 where it crosses the London Arterial the traffic slowed rapidly and stopped. The sat nav then suggested we exited which was good advice but we were a few yards past the slip road exit. A reverse of trapped vehicles was organised and we went via a village and an industrial park back to the main road. Smoke from the accident was blowing across the opposite carriageway so there was a tailback both ways. We phoned Aditi’s Mum to say we would be delayed (we were bringing lunch) and she should have a snack. Anyway she had the snack and lunch too when we arrived. On the way back on the Arterial Eastbound this time the sat nav advised us to leave the route. So, again a road round an industrial area and rural roads different ones. However the exit to this route became closed too, so all the diverted traffic had to turn round and find another way. The suggested sat nav and Google Maps options seemed a bit extreme but Aditi’s knowledge of alternative routes to her hairdresser in Brentwood and assorted rural pubs she used to meet friends at helped a lot and we eventually rejoined our normal route home. 
Tony

[PhilJ W]

26 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

We have had a scenic tour of Essex minor roads today. We were heading towards the M25 and as we approached the A128 where it crosses the London Arterial the traffic slowed rapidly and stopped. The sat nav then suggested we exited which was good advice but we were a few yards past the slip road exit. A reverse of trapped vehicles was organised and we went via a village and an industrial park back to the main road. Smoke from the accident was blowing across the opposite carriageway so there was a tailback both ways. We phoned Aditi’s Mum to say we would be delayed (we were bringing lunch) and she should have a snack. Anyway she had the snack and lunch too when we arrived. On the way back on the Arterial Eastbound this time the sat nav advised us to leave the route. So, again a road round an industrial area and rural roads different ones. However the exit to this route became closed too, so all the diverted traffic had to turn round and find another way. The suggested sat nav and Google Maps options seemed a bit extreme but Aditi’s knowledge of alternative routes to her hairdresser in Brentwood and assorted rural pubs she used to meet friends at helped a lot and we eventually rejoined our normal route home. 
Tony

There was two incidents today on the A127. A collision and a breakdown, I wonder if the collision was caused by someone rubbernecking the breakdown?

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. A load of carp on the TV this evening. TV awards ceremony on BBC and Britains got (no) talent on ITV. Fortunately yesterday I brought a couple of comics (c.ChrisF) so I've got them to read this evening.

[PupCam]

Evening!

 

On 11/05/2024 at 19:57, Ozexpatriate said:

Relative to distance, velocity is the first differential with respect to time, and acceleration is the second differential. It is calculus that can analyze every second of Mickey the MG's motion. The power required and energy expended can all be derived - thanks to the former member of Parliament for Cambridge in 1689 and 1701 (or was it Leibniz?)

 

I have to say I struggled a bit when I was originally taught calculus as it was done in an entirely abstract and theoretical manner which meant very little to this Puppers because I just didn't see the point.  At the GE when using accelerometer outputs to derive such useful things as velocity and displacement of certain "Objects" all became crystal clear and so the usefulness of such mathematical shenanigans became clearly evident.     Later in my computing days when  I was involved in some more advanced digital signal processing activities I have to say implementing Fast Fourier Transforms and other related functions certainly stretched the grey cells.     Unfortunately I never did get to the stage where, as some do, I could actually see the intrinsic beauty in mathematics.   Anyway, it aint going to happen now ....

 

ION

 

The recent lurgyfication now seems to have mostly departed for which I am most grateful.  I've now dropped back to just some unexplained aches and pains for which I might have to gird my loins and attempt to see the GP in the first instance.    The very thought of "going through the new process" to do so is making me feel decidedly depressed and the WTP* bit has been firmly set in Puppers' status register.    Oh well, needs must I suppose.

 

*  What's The Point

 

A chug over to Woburn on the AJ was enjoyed where Pure Triumph's cafe has now started opening on Sundays.    It would have been rude not to try it out.    The ride through Woburn Park was especially pleasant due to the fact that the Rhododendrons were beginning to look quite spectacular.

 

I think I may have mentioned previously that the authorities have spent something like 18-24 months and  £7M  "improving" a roundabout on the A6 at Clophill in a far off corner of Puppershire causing considerable inconvenience and frustration to the local population.   The point of the exercise was apparently to "improve traffic flow through the junction and enhance safety".   To the layman what appears to have been done is to provide some very wide nice new pavements and pedestrian crossings to mostly nowhere and introduce 30mph speed limits on the approaches.   Oh yes and to provide two lanes of traffic on the roundabout which reverts back to single lanes mere yards from the roundabout.  Merge in turn?  I don't think so with no significant length of lead-in.

 

Anyway, apparently some wag has christened it the "White Elephant" roundabout and labelled it as such on Google Maps 🤣

 

 

 

I do hope we can have  a large 2D White Elephant erected in the centre of it in the style of a certain large Black Cat not a million miles away on the A1 🤞

 

I live in hope!

 

TTFN

 

 

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

4 minutes ago, PupCam said:

I do hope we can have  a large 2D White Elephant erected in the centre of it

How about a 3D one - a large statue - that would make the point obvious for everyone transiting it.

[PupCam]

7 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

How about a 3D one - a large statue - that would make the point obvious for everyone transiting it.

 

A precedent for a 2D "sculpture" on the Black Cat roundabout was set many years ago.   After numerous public consultations and enquiries into the suitability of such a thing, endless delays and the cost of actually commissioning and producing a 3D one and itwould probably match that of the white elephant it was seeking to highlight!   

 

No, a simple 2D one would be just fine but of course it wouldn't happen because it would represent a very large dollop of "Egg on Face" for the local council but I can dream.

 

 

 

Night All

 

 

[Coombe Barton]

... Tomorrow is more marking. ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2024/05/12/covid-and-flu-positivity-excavating-the-car-removing-ivy/

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

I didn’t post this morning as I decided to make the most of the sunshine and hopefully beat the predicted thunderstorms and get a bit of gardening done. I clipped some of the hedge in the back garden, but stayed well away from where the dunnock’s are nesting. Once done, I took a full wheelbarrow of clippings round to front to put the green bin. Thankfully, the thunderstorm didn’t happen until after 6 o’clock this evening, but boy did it chuckitdarn then, but it’s stopped now. 

 

Once that was done and I’d put away my gardening tools, I then went into the workshop and completed the electrical work on the micro layout. This entailed fitting a small socket for the 12v dc supply, a 5 pin DIN socket for the controller and wired it all up to the frog switch. This is now all done and I can now carry on with the building work. 

 

I went outside last night at around 12:30, but as I feared, there’s far too much backlight to see anything here, so after about 20 minutes or so, I called it a day, came back inside and then went upstairs to bed. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

I have to say I struggled a bit when I was originally taught calculus as it was done in an entirely abstract and theoretical manner which meant very little to this Puppers because I just didn't see the point.

110%

 

I failed to see the point of most maths at that level but accepted the need to pass O-level if I was to make any academic progress beyond school and for almost any worthwhile career opening.  

 

Calculus caused me stress and headaches well beyond the level of "reasonable".  It didn't help that our high school maths teacher was a hot-tempered Welshman whose career was ended after he threw a pair of dividers across the room spearing a lad in the web of his thumb and pinning his hand to the desk.  

 

 

 

 

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

Anyway, it aint going to happen now ....

And that is what I shall say when I head off to bed in a moment.  And then the aurora alarm goes off.  It's looking possible on screen but it's not looking possible outside with cloud at 8/8.  

 

It's also dark so I wouldn't be able to see anything anyway 🤣

[zarniwhoop]

Assumed I'd missed the Aurora (forecast for Saturday night was much less powerful), but noticed on BBC news mid-evening that there was a possibility between 11pm and 2a.m. They also showed coast cloud down here. Went out a few minutes ago - they were right about the cloud, total cover.

 

 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Typically, we were away so missed all the Northern Lights excitement on Friday.

Yesterday, I kept going outside but could see zilch, though heard foxes having a barney in the woods.

Just been out in my slippers, as you do. Now not sure if these are just reflections from the ground,  or whether I'm seeing something not really there, but could these be the Northern Lights?

 

 

 

 

[jjb1970]

9 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Both the Swiss and the Japanese - neither adverse to making a few bob prioritise quality and safety over "cheap".

 

There's a different conception of efficiency and performance in business in those countries. In the anglo-sphere and now much of Europe it's about headcount, minimum cost and shareholder value. Unless a government agency like DfT is involved in which case I am not sure anyone knows how it is supposed to work. In Japan (and I suspect Switzerland) it includes delivery and a much greater awareness that the best way to make money is to offer a product or service people want to buy.

 

Japanese industry has gone through a hard 20-30 years in the face of competition from lower cost countries and from the Republic of Korea which has been eating their lunch at the high quality/high value end of the spectrum, many of the great names of Japanese industry are a shadow of what they were. Despite that, they still have a razor sharp focus on quality and delivery and things tend to work with a precision and dependability which is unusual in much of the world. 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

38 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

Japanese industry has gone through a hard 20-30 years in the face of competition from lower cost countries and from the Republic of Korea which has been eating their lunch at the high quality/high value end of the spectrum, many of the great names of Japanese industry are a shadow of what they were.

Very true. Sony is a great example. Apart from all the CCD image sensors they sell into the camera value-chain (which includes mobile telephones) and the Playstation console system you don't see them like the brand leader they were 30 - 40 years ago.

[BR60103]

We have too much cloud and too many lights for any aurora to get through.

I bought some household oil today as the garage door is squeaking.  My oil collection seems to be entirely from the hobby shop, in small tubes with small applicators and not so small prices.

My exposure to Eurovision is entirely through E.R.  It gets no media coverage here (not broadcast that I can see) but there was a half page in the paper showing the winner.

 

[Ozexpatriate]

7 minutes ago, BR60103 said:

My exposure to Eurovision is entirely through E.R.  It gets no media coverage here (not broadcast that I can see) but there was a half page in the paper showing the winner.

It was covered by online news here, with a little blurb on national news after the final. It wasn't broadcast on any 'major' outlet (as far as I know) - unlike all the US-based 'talent' shows - "The Voice", "American Idol"* etc.

 

* Replayed twice tonight - live and on tape-delay.

[Hroth]

7 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. A load of carp on the TV this evening. TV awards ceremony on BBC and Britains got (no) talent on ITV. Fortunately yesterday I brought a couple of comics (c.ChrisF) so I've got them to read this evening.

 

There was a programme about trying to read the Herculaneum scrolls (charred to carbonised swiss rolls by Vesuvius in 79AD) on Ch5 at 9pm.  It would have been a decent half-hour programme, but was padded out by programme makers dross to an hour.

 

The big reveal was that after much effort, one word was deciphered....

Then the programme ended!

 

[polybear]

7 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

It didn't help that our high school maths teacher was a hot-tempered Welshman whose career was ended after he threw a pair of dividers across the room spearing a lad in the web of his thumb and pinning his hand to the desk.  

I bet no-one messed about in his lessons though….could do with a few of those today….

 

5 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

Japanese industry has gone through a hard 20-30 years in the face of competition ……..from the Republic of Korea which has been eating their lunch at the high quality/high value end of the spectrum, many of the great names of Japanese industry are a shadow of what they were. 

Natural justice?

 

53 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

There was a programme about trying to read the Herculaneum scrolls (charred to carbonised swiss rolls by Vesuvius in 79AD) on Ch5 at 9pm.  It would have been a decent half-hour programme, but was padded out by programme makers dross to an hour.

 

 
There seems to be a growing number of such programmes that repeat what they’ve just told you just before the adverts 🤬

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Off to the barbers today to get my ears lowered.. great!

 

Put our bird feeder out yesterday. One in the front has been toppled.. and not by a bird ..Will investigate on the way to the Barbers. Pah!

 

A relative completed the marathon in support of the hospice who looked after his sister in Scarborough. Hopefully they will be receiving a bitnof money for his efforts.

 

Tidying up is listed for the day once I return. Pah!

 

Eurovision.. well its awful.. so bas even the radio commentator found a lot to say about it all.

 

Timetogetamoveon!

 

TTFN.

 

Baz

 

 

PS I loved Calculus and much preferred pur mathematics to applied.. and still managed to become an engineer

 

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

 

There was a programme about trying to read the Herculaneum scrolls (charred to carbonised swiss rolls by Vesuvius in 79AD) on Ch5 at 9pm.  It would have been a decent half-hour programme, but was padded out by programme makers dross to an hour.

 

The big reveal was that after much effort, one word was deciphered....

Then the programme ended!

 

 

5 minutes ago, polybear said:

There seems to be a growing number of such programmes that repeat what they’ve just told you just before the adverts 🤬

It seems that amongst programme makers there is a growing contempt for the intelligence and attention span of the average viewer.
 

Despite the popularity of such dress as the various talent competitions, convoluted but ultimately pointless soap operas and unfunny "comedy" programmes, I don't think the average intelligence of the UK TV viewer has changed much from when such excellent programs as Civilisation, At Last the 1948 Show, Monty Python and The Ascent of Man (amongst many others) were made.

 

However, I would argue, TV is just following the same "dumbing down" and concentration on totally irrelevant, but "flavour of the month", political ideology that we have seen in museums over the last decade or so. 
 

There are possibly two reasons for this: 1) the monetisation of everything and 2) the dominance of London in - well, just about everything. Not "London" itself, but a subsection of London that have all gone to the same schools, have had similar career paths (often involving nepotism or cronyism), frequent the same social circles and events and subscribe (loosely) to the same world view.
 

I am, of course, referring to the luvvies, the mediarati and the political (ahem) "elite" Who despite their often wildly divergent, but ultimately superficial, differences are much more alike than they care to admit. 
 

And such people do seem to have disdain, if not contempt, for "the little people", the rustics, northerners - basically anything and anybody outside of the M25.

 

Do I exaggerate? Possibly. But consider the amount of air time given to London-centric matters versus that given to Manchester or Birmingham.