Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

12 hours ago, polybear said:

One of the very first emails opened today mentioned Amazon Prime and those dreaded words "Important Changes to Your Terms and Conditions".  ... they're bungin' the price up from £79 quid a year.

How much by? 20 effin' Percent

They need to pay for their "Lord of the Rings" derived television project "The Rings of Power" - the most expensive television series ever made and likely to be excoriated by die hard Tolkien fans - whether they do a good job or not.

 

The wild west days of streaming are coming to an end. Netflix is struggling. Consolidation is coming.

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[simontaylor484]

Re the fires in London 

 

The BBC website was reporting on one of the families that had their house destroyed they are now searching for their Fathers ashes in the garden.  I do hope they can seperate them from the rest of the detritus left from the fire

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-62307515

[AndrewC]

42 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

They need to pay for their "Lord of the Rings" derived television project "The Rings of Power" - the most expensive television series ever made and likely to be excoriated by die hard Tolkien fans - whether they do a good job or not.

 

The wild west days of streaming are coming to an end. Netflix is struggling. Consolidation is coming.

 

Once the greed took over and every bloody network and distributor decided to create their own service (I’m looking at you Paramount) the writing was on the wall. To get the shows I want to watch used to be about £40 for a basic HD Sky package. Now it is around £50 for Sky and another £70 for all the streaming services. I’m more inclined to wait, pick up several whole series at Fopp on Blu-Ray for a fiver each, then donate it. Likely cheaper in the end. 

 

I can see the Paramounts failing and crawling back to the bigger ones to distribute their programmes once people really start cutting back. My prediction is that in 18 months we will be down to 3 survivors. Prime, Netflix, & Disney. The Acorns, and others will just lose too many subscribers to survive. 

[monkeysarefun]

13 hours ago, polybear said:

What does yer average Aussie shop worker, bus driver etc. earn, and what does a miner earn?

 

 

Mining distorts the pay scale, especially in mining towns.

 

Low paid jobs cant be filled in mining towns   because they can get jobs pushing a broom or washing up in a mining camp for twice what they earn in Mcdonalds.  As a result Mcdonalds has to pay more or import workers from other areas. This produces a worker shortage in those other areas and they in turn have to up pay or import workers from more other areas, and on and on.

 

. This example is from 2011, the only thing that has changed now is the pay is even higher because workers nationwide are in such short supply due to the 2 years of border closures, and the huge infrastructure projects that are being undertaken elsewhere - Western Sydney Airport, Inland Railway, Urban road renewal etc which is competing for construction and associated trades jobs.

 

 

(Not sure if the originals are behind a paywall/region locked so I'll cut and paste the relevant bit. Currently $10,000AUD is 5760GBP).

 

(Figures a re 2011, remember - average pay here has gone up 25% since then, so adjust things accordingly.

 

HOW much would you pay someone to wash your dishes?

At one Bowen Basin mining camp near Moranbah, kitchen hands can make an astonishing $85,000, and they're not the only ones cashing in.

Camp housekeepers, maintenance employees and receptionists can also earn twice the salary they would get in a city cafe or hotel.

Job agencies say a standard mining camp rate for unskilled kitchen work is $32 an hour about $61,000 for a 40-hour week.

MAC Village business development manager Jim Cook revealed the amazing salaries earned in some camp kitchens, with pays rising to $125,000 (plus a $50,000 bonus) for an experienced head chef.

Mr Cook said high pays were designed to attract staff and hold on to them.

Like other Bowen Basin businesses, mining camps face intense competition from the mines themselves, where pay packets are astronomical. 

 

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/wa/mcdonalds-cant-attract-teenage-burger-flippers-due-to-high-paying-mining-jobs-ng-92441a78e5fe3ff0f7f8c336251f74f3

 

 

As a result of mining hoovering up jobs, a knock on effect through the whole economy occurs,  as other industries are forced to pay more to keep workers. 

 

This nationwide ripple  effect is going to spread globally when it comes to staff in high demand jobs. For instance Nursing shortages are acute now and both NSW and Victoria have announced huge sums to get more nurses.

 

In the enlightened days this huge sum  would be spent on a noble sandstone nurse school with gargoyles and stuff, which would be staffed by the most experienced nursing teachers that money could by in order to produce  generation after  generation of highly skilled nurses for ever more. In these days however, they just use it as a big carrot to attract nurses away from other countries.

 

They're looking to poach 10,000 over the next 4 years, so lockup your nurses or pay them more!

 

From nursingnotes.co.uk - Comparison nursing UK and Australia   2018 figures though.  (i added the last one to pre-empt any   polybear venomous  beastie snake crack!)

 

Average Salary

 

UK: NHS Nurses in the United Kingdom are subject to the Agenda for Change pay structure which gives nurses an average annual salary of £25,653 ($42,535). Nurses working in London receive up to an extra 20% due to increased living costs.

 

Australia:  Nurses in Australia have an average annual salary of $65,000 (£39,201) – however, this can be can vary significantly by location and sector. (a minimum  additional 12.5% is paid by the employer into the workers pension/superannuation scheme. This is a minimum amount, many employers will pay 17 to 25% as an additional incentive).

 

Patient Ratios

 

UK: In general, the UK has a nurse to patient ratio of 1:8, however, will usually depend on patient acuity, place of work, location, number of beds. High dependency ratios are usually 1:2 and intensive care 1:1.

 

Australia:  Nurse to patient ratio, on average, is 1 nurse to 4 patients, except during night duty and intensive care patients are usually 1:1.

 

Regulatory Bodies

 

UK: In the United Kingdom, nurses are regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and pay an annual fee to practice of £120 ($215). Nurses wishing to transfer their international registration to the UK would be subject to an application fee of £1415 ($2515).

 

Australia: In Australia, nurses are regulated by The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency’s Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) and pay an annual fee to practice of $150 (£85). Nurses wishing to transfer their international registration to Australia would be subject to an application fee of around $515 (£290).

 

Work-life Balance

 

UK: ‘Full time’ nurses work 37.5 hours per week which as usually spread between days, nights and weekends – which unsocial hours being at a slightly higher rate. The majority of healthcare organisations in the UK use a 12.5-hour shift regime, however, shorter 7-hour shifts can be negotiated. Overtime is usually paid at the standard rate with minimal enhancements.

 

Australia: ‘Full time’ nurses will be expected to work around 40 a week. The majority of healthcare organisations in Australia use a short shift regime. This is usually made up of days, nights and weekend shifts. Overtime shifts rates are usually between time-and-a-half to triple time.

 

 

Gender Ratios

The United Kingdom and Australia have very similar numbers of male to female nurse ratios with around 12% of all nurses identifying as male.

 

Healthcare Rankings

 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) rates the United Kingdom as the 18th best healthcare system in the world while Australia ranks slightly higher at the 9th –  comparatively, the United States ranks as 37th.

 

Education

 

UK: Nursing in the UK has been a graduate profession, requiring a bachelors degree, since 2013 and are required to complete 35 hours of CPD, however, this can be spaced across the three year period since their last revalidation.

 

Australia: Nursing in Australia has been a graduate profession, requiring a bachelors degree, since the 1990s and are required to complete a minimum of 20 hours of CPD as part of their yearly registration renewal.

 

 

Employment

The United Kingdom and Australia have very similar job opportunities for nurses, these can include; primary and secondary care, care homes, hospice care and community nursing. The United Kingdom is currently experiencing a significant nursing shortage so work will be freely available, while Australia is having similar issues there may be slightly more competition for jobs.

 

Chance of being killed by the wildlife:

 

UK: Badgers cause an average of one death every 10 years, its a war zone out there.

 

Australia: Just don't walk in the long grass, swim anywhere north of Brisbane in the summer months or pick up anything in the garden without looking under it first, and you'll be right. No one has ever been killed by a badger in Australia.

 

 

LOck 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

There was a nasty grass fire in the Dallas, Texas area yesterday. It was believed to be started by a mower and torched 20 homes.

 

 

So that'll be the mower operator all lined up to be sued for $200M then.  At least....

 

40 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Re the fires in London 

 

The BBC website was reporting on one of the families that had their house destroyed they are now searching for their Fathers ashes in the garden.  I do hope they can seperate them from the rest of the detritus left from the fire

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-62307515

 

The son was on the TV news earlier - it sounded like he was successful (buried in the garden maybe?).

 

In other news........

ARGHHHHHHHHHH...........
😱

[Ozexpatriate]

36 minutes ago, AndrewC said:

Once the greed took over and every bloody network and distributor decided to create their own service (I’m looking at you Paramount) the writing was on the wall.

Paramount is a Johnny come lately. Theirs was a case of "Monkey see, monkey do". They got into streaming because "they had to" to play catch up with where the market was perceived to be going (meaning to 'streaming'). Paramount (CBS) had their offerings on cable (or broadcast on cable) for years.

 

I don't have a subscription to any streaming service (except HBO-Max, and that's because I have an HBO subscription on cable*). The whole cable model was to provide aggregate content for a fixed fee. Then along came streaming, and all the 'noise' was about "cutting the cable" but all content had to be independently purchased per streaming channel - inevitably costing more in the long run than the volume discounts in aggregation on cable, which is where we are now.

 

* Originally free because of a mistake made by a cable technician who wrongly disconnected me. When the free period ended I paid for it because of a couple of on-going programmes I was watching.

 

I did decide that I would purchase Disney+ (for Pixar and new Star Wars content) but still haven't actually done it. I am considering Prime for the LOTR:Rings of Power project. We'll see.

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[PupCam]

For those that were always interested in how clocks & watches work but were afraid to ask.   This blog Junior Puppers pointed out to me would appear to answer all your questions.   I haven't worked my way through it all yet but it looks like it might be most educational.

 

https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/

 

Night Awl!

 

Alan

 

 

 

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

Re the fires in London 

 

The BBC website was reporting on one of the families that had their house destroyed they are now searching for their Fathers ashes in the garden.  I do hope they can seperate them from the rest of the detritus left from the fire

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-62307515

I understand that they are in an urn buried in the garden. The marker for were they were buried is destroyed

[PhilJ W]

One for NHN?

Was he on the poop deck?

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Re the fires in London 

 

The BBC website was reporting on one of the families that had their house destroyed they are now searching for their Fathers ashes in the garden.

36 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I understand that they are in an urn buried in the garden. The marker for were they were buried is destroyed

Here we regularly see on the news the aftermath of fires devastating people's homes and lives. It is very sad.

 

I will admit that I was a bit confused by the notion of looking for cremains (ashes) in the ashes of a house fire. (Now clarified.) I do understand the desire to find *something* / *anything* personal not destroyed by a fire. Sadly it seems to feature in every news story on the aftermath of wildfires.

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[andyram]

Evening all. Many thanks for the congratulations. Like I said last night, much of the dozen years have been good, but we have battled through some rocky and difficult spells in the last couple of years.

 

Today we headed off to Cromer, visiting the Amazona Zoo in the morning. It is always a favourite when we are in this part of the world. Nice to see that they still have the big cats with a new male Jaguar occupying the enclosure that was vacated by the deceased elderly females of the same species. The jaguar really is a fine looking creature.

 

In the afternoon we drove down into the town and I did have a visit to Buoys Toys - always good to check out other model shops. Amber went off to have her ears pierced. This was attempt number three after a couple of failed attempts. Sarah had decided to have them done when she was six, much against my wishes. The process had really hurt Amber and she had taken the studs out and allowed the holes to heal up. Now, much older, it was her own choice but the memories of the earlier pain lingered and she had not been able to go through with it. This time she managed to have them done and was very happy with the result.

 

 Afternoon refreshment was taken in the bar on the pier and we were back in our favourite pub tonight for an evening meal once we arrived back in Hunstanton.

 

 Meanwhile, on the subject of railways, it appears that there is conflicting information on the Bure Valley. Their Facebook page, three days ago, suggested daily steam services and the timetable leaftlet indicates hourly steam hauled departures from both ends of the line. I have checked their website and it is showing a special timetable with just three non-stop diesel hauled trains each day. It appears that they have also succumbed to the fire risk.

 

Take care all.

 

Andy

[Ozexpatriate]

As the temperature is rocketing through 34°C in the early afternoon the weather dashboard on the Windows taskbar lit up with an air pollution warning in effect through tomorrow. Last night's weather forecast did include a warning about high-altitude smoke from northern California fires*.

 

* The third large Mariposa County fire this season.

 

I did notice a hazy horizon - not inconsistent with the heat, but the skies remain a slightly hazy blue. After checking, air quality is apparently "moderate" and particulates are actually down a little from when I was out walking. It won't stop me from opening windows tonight, presuming there is some indoor/outdoor temperature equilibrium before my (late) bedtime.

 

Meanwhile this widget  keeps popping up on the taskbar.

 

Having returned from collecting the mail, it's really hot outside. (Inside too.)

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Just realised that a program I wanted to watch this evening has been and gone, I forgot all about it, I'll have to watch it on catch up.

14 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Here we regularly see on the news the aftermath of fires devastating people's homes and lives. It is very sad.

 

I will admit that I was a bit confused by the notion of looking for cremains (ashes) in the ashes of a house fire a bit confusing. (Now clarified.) I do understand the desire to find *something* / *anything* personal not destroyed by a fire. Sadly it seems to feature in every news story on the aftermath of wildfires.

I possess quite a few family heirlooms as well as some other antiques that are irreplaceable and I would hate to loose them. I just can't imagine losing everything like that. 

[Barry O]

Good day at the office. Yorkshire Ridings over 60s knocked off 221 runs for the loss of nowickets..amazing!

 

Excellent tea!

On the way back to Leeds we were caught in a very,very heavy rain storm..everyone except an idiot driving a   Range Rover  classic slowed down. The road was awash.

 

Then..the rain stopped like a tap being turned off.  Damp patches on the paths at home...

 

Time for some sleep!

Baz

[Ozexpatriate]

9 hours ago, AndrewC said:

I can say the First Nations people have been treated like sh*t since day one. That discrimination is always in the background.

Sadly the legacy of empire and colonialism the world over. I can't think of a single counter argument to the statement that it is present everywhere that colonialism has touched. Best if I say no more.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well despite having to stop a couple of times due to some light showers, I’ve finally managed to get all the plants we bought last week in the ground. I also managed to apply a second dose of nematodes too! Whilst it was raining I took shelter in the workshop and prepared a couple more pieces of stripboard. 

 

This evening we had a and a chat with Vickie, this is the norm for a Tuesday evening, but we also had a chat with James, he’s going to call round tomorrow evening and drop off a watch that he’s had repaired for me. It’s only taken about 18 months, but it needed a new movement as the original was us. But, as it was under warranty it’s cost me nothing, I’m really pleased about that, as it was a  very expensive watch

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[Winslow Boy]

 

Well all that I can say is that was not a day I would want to repeat and the annoying thing was that it started of so well.

 

Managed to get DD walked without having to use an umbrella. Being English I took no chances and had it with me just in case but it made a change from the last couple of walks.

 

Then got my ears lowered with time left over to read the paper and get something to eat.

 

But at this point it started to go a bit pear shaped. Went to the dentist, not enthusiastically as I've got a new dentist and I'm still trying to work out if I like them but still I went. What's more I arrived spot on time to find the receptionist deep in conversation with someone on the phone. So having stood in front of her and tried to make eye contact I hoped my arrival would have been noted. I then sat down suitably isolated from my fellow attendees-mini rant here why o why do we have to sit six feet away from another? Yes I know not everyone admits/knows if they are infectious but really if they are going to carry on with this then a lot of waiting rooms are going to need to be redisigned. Anyway where was I. Oh yes I was sat sitting joking that perhaps we had been forgotten when who should appear as if on queue but the receptionist to say I'd not been booked in. You can see where this is going can't you. Yes you've guessed it can't see the dentist now because I'd missed my slot and would sir kindly rebook his appointment. I made the last bit up did you spot it. So after a considerable amount of 'I can't believe this' we managed to find another date when I was free.

 

Well after that saga I thought what else is going to happen and yes I was right. Got home, changed clothes and went outside to rout some fence posts and after a couple of goes what happens motor burns out. 

 

So there you have it boys and girls. Saved or rather postponed some money at the dentist only to have blow it on a new router.

 

I'm going to bed and I don't care if the roof blows off or the car gets nicked I'm not getting up until I've had my full seven hours.

Edited July 26, 2022 by Winslow Boy

[monkeysarefun]

9 hours ago, AndrewC said:

Summer on the Canadian prairies. The b*stards would just carry off the electric bug zappers for some late night kinky fun. Driving more than 100km meant stopping at the next town's self serve car wash to power jet wash the front of the car. Seriously, they'd block the grille and cause overheating. Grass hoppers the size of eagles. Mosquitos  show up on the Flight Radar app. horse flies that were about the same size as a palomino. Those up side down people ain't got nothing on our prairie bugs. 

 

Actually, I've been getting worryingly few insect strikes lately . 30 years ago I'd wash the car every couple of weeks and have to get out the bug and tar remover to get all of them off the bonnet front, headlights, number plate etc -  it'd be a splattered mess.

 

Nowadays even my ute which  is bright yellow rarely has a bug splat on it even after weeks between washes. Doesn't bode well for the rest of the food chain if it is a thing and not just my skilful driving avoiding them.

[Darlington_Shed]

2 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Nowadays even my ute which  is bright yellow rarely has a bug splat on it even after weeks between washes. Doesn't bode well for the rest of the food chain

 

Canary in the coalmine, I think. Scary indeed!

[monkeysarefun]

21 minutes ago, Darlington_Shed said:

 

Canary in the coalmine, I think. Scary indeed!

Koalas and the other cuddlies  get all the concern about their plight  but its the moths etc that will potentially cause a catastrophe if they go.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/18/a-995-decline-what-caused-australias-bogong-moth-catastrophe#:~:text=In 2019%2C after decades of,counted on just one hand.

Edited July 27, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[iL Dottore]

Good morning all,

 

Firstly, a very pleasant night was had (in my bed instead of on the sofa) as yesterday was relatively cool (less than 30°C) and so my bedroom was just about the right temperature at 10pm.

 

Secondly, somewhat of a surprise for me. You will recall that I bought some cheap and cheerful solar powered lights to tinker with, well I put them out in the garden and saw vastly different performances between them. I have a very cheap all plastic lamp with “candle effect“, a set of four directional down lighters and a set of three metal and plastic pathway lamps.  I noted that  even within a single set of lamps there are considerable differences on when the lamp turns itself on and how long each lamp will burn. Having taken them all apart before installing them in the garden, superficially the rechargeable batteries and circuit boards look the same within a given set of lamps - so, theoretically, they should all perform the same. They don’t. I wonder if any of the electronic wizards on ER can illuminate me (no pun intended). And quite unexpectedly, the very cheapest solar powered lamp of all is the best performing!

 

@monkeysarefun made a very interesting post about what awaits a trained nurse in Australia versus the UK. What I find appalling about this is that the average salary for a UK nurse is merely a fraction over £25,000, whereas some NHS trusts are advertising for “non-jobs” such as “diversity awareness officers“ (or similar) at salaries starting in the mid 30s. Whatever your views on the NHS, there is something seriously wrong when a “non-job“ gets paid more than a patient-facing role.

 

The other thing that is very evident from @monkeysarefun posts is (a) how poorly paid people are in the UK and (b) how professional body fees are much higher in the UK than elsewhere (I have direct experience of this: my membership fees of the Royal Society of Medicine – as a non-UK domiciled member – is about half the membership fee of a UK domiciled member). 
 

Fortunately, I have yet to take the plunge into the murky waters of online streaming entertainment – Not having a Netflix or Amazon prime subscription. We do have a Swisscom TV and Internet package – which gives us about 400 channels of TV plus Internet and telephony, which is certainly more than we could ever watch. Granted, some of the TV channels provided are of no interest (wall to wall sport, for example) whilst others are so appallingly bad that they transcend their awfulness and become watchable (albeit for very short amounts of time) just to see if new depths of awfulness can be plumbed (and usually they are). 
 

Of the English speaking channels, Channel 4 has to be the one that is the very definition of tasteless, crass and vulgar. Their “hit show“ Naked Attraction, not only is a perfect definition of tasteless, crass and vulgar but it is also the modern equivalent of the Victorian Circus’s freak show. If anything can be held up to be a shiny example of “car crash TV“, then this program is it.

 

Lord Reith must be spinning in his grave so fast that he could power the entire Southeast region of the UK!

 

Have a happy hump day!

[Ozexpatriate]

The migratory North American Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus plexippus) is now endangered.

 

There may be several causes like declines in milkweed abundance and monarch populations between 1999 and 2010 are correlated with the adoption of herbicide-tolerant genetically modified corn and soybeans and illegal logging of the oyamel trees in Mexico.

 

Agricultural pesticides in the Western US have had a big ecological knock-on to bird populations.