Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

7 hours ago, Tony_S said:

It could be complicated. West Indies compete internationally but each island sends teams to the Olympics. Then there is also the UK home nations status. The USA T20 team is unlikely to be high enough in the ratings to take part. 

49 minutes ago, pH said:

Cricket is alive and well in British Columbia: ... and in other parts of Canada. It is mostly played by immigrants from other cricket-playing countries.

As Tony points out, much will depend on T20 standings a couple of years from now and who will be invited to compete at the Olympics.

 

Currently the US men's team is at 18 and Canada is at 23. The IOM is ranked 44th. The big wild card is how the WI get fractured into independent IOC nations. While Jamaica will be strong, once the WI gets split into Grenada, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, etc they are much less competitive.

 

If the US team doesn't get to play I suspect LA Games organizers would be happy to have the Olympic competition in New York.

 

[Coombe Barton]

... we got the mists today ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2024/08/10/postcards-from-the-periphery-2024-14/

[BoD]

3 hours ago, DaveF said:

 

 

Coastguard exercise

 

Whenever I have watched a coastguard exercise I have always been impressed by the smooth, precise and speedy way in which they deploy and then use their equipment. They seem to simply fly up and down the cliffs here.
 

Sadly, I have also seen their skills used in anger on more than one occasion.
 

Whatever the role, paid, volunteer rescue service or part of the National Coastwatch Service (yes, you Rick) we owe them a huge vote of thanks.

 

[Ozexpatriate]

14 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Why frisbees and not boomerangs?

Because frisbee golf and ultimate frisbee players have a big chip on their shoulder that their pastime is not considered a "real sport" instead of something to pass the time at a church picnic.

 

They have a "Pinocchio" (not a real boy) complex and want recognition, so do a lot of lobbying.

 

Frisbee golf and ultimate frisbee (like football, only you matriculate down the field by passing a frisbee) do at least have scoring that is not related to 'style' points.

[The White Rabbit]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

.... Thanks to a post on "Sir's" (TW's) thread it seems that a rather careless Bear may just have clicked on a "pay now" button (J69 - Liverpool Street jobbie); the Hawthorn Leslie might be getting scared as well.....

Oops....

 

Those buckjumpers do look nice. I've resisted so far but when someone whose an SM32 modeller has succumbed and another is talking about a 'Minglenook' (Inglenook + Minories) diorama to show off one of these ... help .... I must be strong, I must be strong ... 

 

I'm also in danger from: https://www.platewaymodels.co.uk/shop/sleepers 

 

a) They are delightfully insane.

 

b) They enable me to exercise my innate creativity and recreate Mr Emett's whimsical trains. 

 

(There's no need to be kind, I know it's (a) .... ). 

[Ozexpatriate]

The US is currently playing France in men's basketball in the gold/silver medal round. I am sure that television tonight will be full of 'gold medal totals' discussion vis a vis China.

 

I am reminded of my 'issues' with this sort of thing. Australian athletes did very well at these games.
 

At time of posting, ordering nations by "Gold medals per million of population" looks something like this:

 

Which lessens the impact somewhat. How about those kiwis?

 

EDIT:

That list might be incomplete. I didn't compute all countries.

 

Edited August 10 by Ozexpatriate

[polybear]

6 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

"I'm afraid I have some bad news..."

 

 

Not any more - the Brits are back to 3rd when you use the sensible method.....

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I did watch some of the limp wicks this afternoon while waiting for another program. The event was the ladies climbing (an artificial rock wall). There was no handicap system which seems unfair as there was a tiny Japanese girl under four feet tall competing with an American girl over six feet tall. (The American took gold).

Edited August 10 by PhilJ W

[Gwiwer]

9 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

Cloud base has lifted considerably - and it's unexpectedly warm

Cloud base has been down and up like the proverbial nightworker's underwear.  

 

I took the early evening bus along the coast to St.Ives - the open-top bus which is intended for the visitors but is used by as many locals just because it's there.  We left here in dry but slightly misty conditions and emerged from the fug into clear air not a mile along the road.  I watched as the cloudbase lifted from the surrounding hills only for it to descend again very rapidly as we left civilisation at Morvah (lately of Pasty Day fame) and snaked along the single-track road towards Bosigran.  Into and out of thick fog we went every couple of minutes.  Visibility was alternately several miles or several yards.  

 

On the return leg into Penzance it was all clear until Marazion which was very thickly shrouded in wet fog.  Penzance by contrast was clear and the top of St. Michael's Mount stood darkly above a low-lying fog bank across the Bay.  And back home?  It's thick and the mizzle has returned once more.  Not that any of this has stopped a number of folk from sitting around the square and outside its numerous pubs with pint-glasses in hand chatting about what ever.  Outside because it remains very warm and very humid.  Even the cottage walls are damp to touch with condensation from inside; we haven't had to deal with that before.  

 

7 hours ago, PupCam said:

Dod you have a system fault when looking out the window?

It did say "This community is temporarily unavailable" when I tried to look down the road.  😂

[Ozexpatriate]

17 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I did watch some of the limp wicks this afternoon while waiting for another program. The event was the ladies climbing (an artificial rock wall). There was no handicap system which seems unfair as there was a tiny Japanese girl under four feet tall competing with an American girl over six feet tall. (The American took gold).

Why should there be a handicap? Should shorter basketball players be offered a ladder? Should less muscular weightlifters have lighter weights or shorter high jumpers get to lower the bar?

 

The motto is "Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together" - it's not about evening the playing field so everyone gets a better chance. 

 

China swept the diving medals with very slim almost-clones. Based on the system of scoring - evidently they were the best.

[Gwiwer]

In other news.  

 

Some small screw-in feet have arrived for the new and unmentionable creation in the office.  The threads on them are 7mm diameter.  They even thoughtfully included a drill bit in the pack just in case the purchaser didn't happen to already have a suitable one.

 

 It's 12mm diameter ......... 🤦‍♂️

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

 Well the Aussie 'Breaker' didn't do to well .

 

 https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/29798055/breaking-routine-toddler-olympics-raygun-rachael-gunn/

 

 

Other countries populations learn to do  moves like those - rolling around and around on the floor etc,   to be used  when they are playing soccer and get a love tap on the ankle.

 

We are at a natural disadvantage.

 

Edited August 10 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Not any more - the Brits are back to 3rd when you use the sensible method.....

 

 

 

Your "all medals are equal" method?

 

`Sigh.

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe a picture of the men's tennis doubles will help you to see the problem with that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 10 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

2 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Your "all medals are equal" method?

Right now, Australia is actually doing "better" on a table of "Total medals per million population" than "Gold medals per million population" - behind the kiwis on a per-capita total medals.

 

We'll see how it turns out tomorrow night.

 

If the bronze and silver medals aren't important, they shouldn't give them out. The do give them out so they are important and should be factored in.

 

If you create a weighted score (3 for gold, 2 for silver, 1 for bronze) the ranked weighted scores don't vary too much from the ranked total medals - it is mathematically equivalent with an even distribution of medals per country.

 

When a margin between gold and silver is measured in single digit milliseconds, (5 ms in the men's 100m) surely the silver medal matters.

[BSW01]

Goodnight everyone 

[monkeysarefun]

18 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

If the bronze and silver medals aren't important, they shouldn't give them out. The do give them out so they are important and should be factored in.

 

Nothing wrong with silver and bronze medals, as far as ranking countries by the number of medals won they are the best way of breaking a tie when two or more countries share the same number of gold - as they are used. 

 

I didnt intend to become the defender of Olympic tallying methods, I only mentioned the Olympics to start with because on day one we were "winning", which seemed rather incongruous.   Also,  I fully expected us to be in our usual 8th - 10th place by now!

Edited August 10 by monkeysarefun

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Sidecar Racer]

 

 So @monkeysarefun , something you've been hiding .

 

 

 

[monkeysarefun]

 

 

Personally I don't understand the attitude of the white car that didn't just let him in as the car filming did.  They'd have lost  maybe 1  second of their time and probably  got a cheery wave to make them feel good about themself.

 

Many slip roads here bank back for hundreds of metres in peak hour and its easy to suddenly find that you've accidentally driven past the end of the queue especially if its a long way back from the actual exit  so your only option is to "push in" as above.   I've done it more than  once but thankfully never encountered a selfish dick like that white car. 

 

 

 

That said, he shouldn't have turned the traction control off!

Edited August 10 by monkeysarefun

[Sidecar Racer]

9 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

Personally I don't understand the attitude of the white car that didn't just let him in, they'd have lost  maybe 1  second of their time and probably  got a cheerful wave to make them feel good about themself.

 

 

 But people get fed up of doing that for obvious regular culprits ,  So Mr Ute eventually gave way

so as not to scratch his lovely paintwork .     🤣

Edited August 11 by Sidecar Racer

[monkeysarefun]

10 minutes ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

 But people get fed up of doing for obvious regular culprits ,  So Mr Ute eventually gave way

so as not to scratch his lovely paintwork .     🤣

 

My driving philosophy is that if the ute bloke is a dick, I'd rather let  him in front of me so he can be off and away to annoy someone else, rather than being  stuck on my ar5e being all resentful. 

 

And if he isnt a dick but genuinely missed the end of the queue then he'll be grateful and give me a cheerful wave. 

 

Its a win for me  either way!

Edited August 10 by monkeysarefun

[Winslow Boy]

5 hours ago, polybear said:

 

It's a green one with dinky little yellow flowers.

It's Sedum or it was in my day. I believe the botanist's got bored and started counting chromosomes or something. As a result it got renamed to something begining with an 'x' - which I'm not going to attempt to spell, but sufficient to say that everyone still calls it a sedum.

[pH]

The Martin Mars is going to have an escort for part of its final flight. It should make for some great photographs:

 

https://www.globalair.com/articles/last-martin-mars-to-take-final-flight-alongside-canadian-forces-snowbirds?id=7784

[Ozexpatriate]

19 minutes ago, pH said:

The Martin Mars is going to have an escort for part of its final flight

Nice!

[Ozexpatriate]

Not apparent on the thermometer (32°C today), but the summer is waning.  My evidence? Not sunrise getting later and later - it is, but today sees the start of NFL preseason games.

 

Nothing* in the US says "Fall" (aka Autumn) like football. And it is now here. (Well the preseason is here.) The summer games (Olympics) were on television this morning and the afternoon sees football.

 

* There are people who might say "Pumpkin Spice Latte"** but lets ignore them. (I have already seen "PSL" flavoured coffee in the supermarket.)

 

** A very popular seasonal item from the corporate coffee empire that devotees flock to. It is a big topic on the morning infotainment television shows when it reappears.