Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

7 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Apparently its been put down.

One presumes 'toadzilla' will end up in a jar at the museum in Brisbane.

[PupCam]

53 minutes ago, The White Rabbit said:

That sounds like an insinuating suggestion you should not be let out by yourself. What happens if you are on your own and don't have the latest piece of shiny tech, with no friends or relatives to 'turn to'?

 

Well you can't park your car  at Hitchin railway station to use the train for a start!  

But then, you won't be able to buy a ticket with cash from a human there soon and so you wouldn't be able to legally get on a train anyway.

 

Now come on everybody we've all got to save the planet and use public transport ......

 

22 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Actually Andromeda arrives as early as 4.5 billion years. The sun is expected to run out of hydrogen in about 5 billion years. 

 

Galaxy collisions don't destroy all the stars. One assumes there's some possibility that some of them might bump into or attract each other. It is a big gravitational rearrangement.

 

Yes I'm getting slightly concerned about this impact.    I expect they'll be a new version of the tremendously helpful UK Government's Protect and Survive leaflet issued.  Won't there?

 

Oh now look, Puppers is getting all wound up!   I must go and read another chapter of the Grumpy Gits Guide to Life 🤣

 

TTFNQ or maybe Night All!

 

Edited January 20, 2023 by PupCam

[Ozexpatriate]

6 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Oh now look, Puppers is getting all wound up!

Perhaps there's a tremendously helpful "UK Government's Protect and Survive leaflet" for that too?

[Winslow Boy]

40 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 

Well you can't park your car  at Hitchin railway station to use the train for a start!  

But then, you won't be able to buy a ticket with cash from a human there soon and so you wouldn't be able to legally get on a train anyway.

 

Now come on everybody we've all got to save the planet and use public transport ......

 

 

Yes I'm getting slightly concerned about this impact.    I expect they'll be a new version of the tremendously helpful UK Government's Protect and Survive leaflet issued.  Won't there?

 

Oh now look, Puppers is getting all wound up!   I must go and read another chapter of the Grumpy Gits Guide to Life 🤣

 

TTFNQ or maybe Night All!

 

 

Well I suppose that'll make the green 's...t'  easier to photo at least. Mind you you'll probably have to wait a bit say 3 to 4 billion years.

[Winslow Boy]

38 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Perhaps there's a tremendously helpful "UK Government's Protect and Survive leaflet" for that too?

 

As it happens there is but it's out of print at the moment. I believe it's being updated by the Government's Home office. However as there all working from home at moment it might take some time 4 billion years should be enough.

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

Can't be website previously visited - they don't have my size. :)

Or my colour they don't seem to have Crimson Lake wit snazzy gold and black lining.

 

Jamie.

[Adam88]

3 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

"It's not @PupCam, but it is

   pupcams Chilean cousin!"

 

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/milky-way-photo-shoot-captures-3-billion-stars-20230120-p5ce7d.html

 

(The southern hemisphere is the place to be for star gazing)

 

No it isn't.  All the constellations are upside down, that is if they can even be seen.

[TheQ]

Evening Awl

Don't think my ankle would take to them shoes, they'd probably collapse under my weight anyway.

 

And the other thing just doesn't go with my kilt Dear.

 

Tis not a chilly as the last few nights because all the ice has melted and not reappeared.

 

Traffic back to normal for a Friday, Ie busy.

Our roads has sprouted white markings round most of the pot holes, I wonder how many years it will be before they get filled in.

 

More fencing,  lobster Pots, and Heather was hair sprayed so as not to leave the layout, she didn't burst into song either. The layout smells nice though.

 

Just finished a book called "living in the past" mostly about reenactment groups at historic places round the country.. it contains such howlers as" Hadrian's wall was built by the Romans on the England Scotland border"......

This book bears the mark of English Heritage!!! You really wonder if they read it before giving it their stamp of approval...

 

Muggachoccy drunk,

Goodnight Awl..

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I take it you've seen the 'documentary' where a VW van swerves down the road trying to hit as many as possible going pop, pop, pop, pop, etc?

 

 

True, but funnily enough, from *home* you are closer than he Airlie Beach vicinity where that toad was found.

 

True, and the Crocs are getting nearer to me to with a credible sighting last week of a 3metre Saltie off Stradbroke Island....

[Sidecar Racer]

10 hours ago, PupCam said:

Morning (pre-munch) All!

 

Psst!    Don't mention it to Winslow Boy but there's been more activity in the Puppershire Observatory.   

 

 

 

 

Puppers still need to up his game . We need pictures like this .

 

 

 

Edited January 20, 2023 by Sidecar Racer

[Ozexpatriate]

1 minute ago, monkeysarefun said:

a 3metre Saltie off Stradbroke Island

Plenty of good mangrove habitat in Moreton Bay, though very over-fished. I never heard of crocs locally - even the QLD state government shows their range stopping around Gladstone.

 

Had a school camping trip (no amenities) on South Straddie in grade 7. We never even thought about salties. 

[monkeysarefun]

4 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

That sounds like an insinuating suggestion you should not be let out by yourself. What happens if you are on your own and don't have the latest piece of shiny tech, with no friends or relatives to 'turn to'? 

 

I agree, it's discrimination against many in our society, including those who think for themselves and decide (for whatever reason) not to buy the latest shiny toy. State

You can be as tech savvy and equipped as you like but if you don't have a signal you are in the same boat as those with neither, which again those in charge of these things don't seem to realize from the comfort of  their 5G encased offices because you get treated the same way.

 

For instance our government website for Medicare, tax, car rego etc sends you a code to your mobile to authenticate your login. There's a button that says "I can't access my mobile" which when pressed just  tells you to call their help desk Mon to Fri, 8 to 4. I did do that back before a mobile tower went in down the road, when I had zero signal here and wanted to do my tax return. I wanted to see if they could make  emailing the code an option. The reply was no, instead I should just use their mobile app rather than my laptop, and drive to a location with mobile  coverage.  Problem solved.

 

Similarly the previous government wanted to slash funding to the ABC local radio network which does vital service during emergencies like fires and floods by transmitting evacuation warnings etc. The reason for the proposed cuts was that the warnings etc were being SMSed to every phone in the affected areas so no need for the radio. No thought that many areas have no coverage, those that do, often  lose coverage when towers are burned down, flooded etc or that mobile batteries go flat pretty quick and many people are to busy fighting fires or moving their stuff from flood waters to pause that and go plug their phone into a charger if they even have power for it, then sit beside the phone while it charges waiting for possible texts. 

In comparison everyone has a battery powered transistor they can keep tuned to the local ABC.  The issue went away when we voted them off the island for that and other stupidity.

Edited January 21, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

7 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Plenty of good mangrove habitat in Moreton Bay, though very over-fished. I never heard of crocs locally - even the QLD state government shows their range stopping around Gladstone.

 

Had a school camping trip (no amenities) on South Straddie in grade 7. We never even thought about salties. 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jan/18/exceptionally-rare-reported-crocodile-sighting-in-south-east-queensland-sparks-investigation

[Ozexpatriate]

9 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

You can be as tech savvy and equipped as you like but if you don't have a signal you are in the same boat as those with neither, which again those in charge of these things don't seem to realize from the comfort of  their 5G encased offices because you get treated the same way.

...

... No thought that ... mobile batteries go flat pretty quick and many people [can't] go plug their phone into a charger if they even have power for it. 

Access to power is a big equalizer. At home I don't have good mobile telephone reception without WiFi and using any internet is essentially impossible - particularly with websites bloated with graphics, advertising and videos - where the important text-based payload is a tiny fraction of the total traffic.

 

Under many disaster situations, electrical power is often the first thing to go and even the battery backup on cellular telephone towers only lasts for a little while.

 

Battery operated AM/FM radios will run for ages before needing new batteries.

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Busy day here involving taking Hovis out, mil, food shopping and domestic engineering which didn’t finish until 8.00pm. On the bright side bil called around after his business trip to Hanover with a carrier bag advertising ‘TRIX’. 
Getting late so Goodnight.

 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The day seems to have disappeared again. At least the eczema has calmed down ans Arthur Itis is quiet. Time to watch Amanda and Alan on catch up.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

 

Good evening everyone 

 

Despite living in the suburbs of Manchester, the night skies aren’t as bad as they could be. There is a lot of light pollution, but we are not overlooked at the back of our house, so on a clear night you can see quite a few stars and all the planets that can be seen with the naked eye, using binoculars or a telescope you can seen the large  moons of Jupiter or the rings of Saturn. To spot Mercury, you need to look out of the attic sky lights, which I’ve done on more than one occasion.  

 

This morning we had a bit of a spending spree, we ended up buying a new iPad and a desktop computer to replace ageing old devices that were either not supported anymore or couldn’t be updated. So I spent the afternoon setting up the iPad, tomorrow I shall do the same with the desktop computer. 

 

Here are some phots I took yesterday of the finished 3D seascape and the Tiger Moth in its almost finished state, all I need to do now is make a pair of windscreens and fit them. I’m not 100% sure about the finish on seascape, but as a first attempt I don’t think it’s too bad, but the Tiger Moth definitely needs a bit more weathering. 

 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[BR60103]

We bought a new Internet radio today. This has been a long time in the works.

Due to deterioration of the music provided by the CBC, we now listen to American PBS classical music stations over the internet.

Last spring when I was changing the clock in one radio, I managed to lose 2 stations (by overwriting them).  I then found out that the radio would not search for stations as the company that provided the list was no longer providing it.  A couple of new radios would still find them.

Then something went wonky and the first radio would no longer talk to our modem.

We had a backup in the main room as the cable TV carried the nearest station. Then, over Christmas, our TV black box stopped working and the replacement never worked.  The cable co. said that they were obsolete technology that they were phasing out. So we went to the new technology. But that system doesn't have the radio stations in its lineup.

Last night I found that one store has a small stock of radios. So this morning was spent driving halfway across the big city and back again.

Setup took about half an hour.

Everything is wonderful again.

 

[jjb1970]

6 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

 

That sounds like an insinuating suggestion you should not be let out by yourself. What happens if you are on your own and don't have the latest piece of shiny tech, with no friends or relatives to 'turn to'? 

 

I agree, it's discrimination against many in our society, including those who think for themselves and decide (for whatever reason) not to buy the latest shiny toy. State sanctioned peer pressure? Pah! 

 

I use online banking (I find the apps my banks use excellent) and am an enthusiast of on-line shopping (trudging around shops has little appeal for me). I never watch broadcast TV and as an Englishman living abroad and with an Asian extended family and friends all over the world (a side effect of working in an industry like shipping and as a lobbyist) so I love things like WhatsApp which have been transformative. I even used to like Facebook until my feed became so clogged up with upper carp I had zero interest in that I lost a lot of interest in the platform. I never carry much more than $10 as cash as I use paywave for everything when I do go to the shops and in restaurants (what people call contactless here). So I like technology.

 

BUT, I agree with your point. There are applications for which physical transactions should still be available, and if people like going to the shop and using cash I don't think they should be forced to move to payment platforms. Even in a high-tech place like Singapore (people here are obsessed with having the latest toys) MRT stations have manned ticket offices open between first and last services and banks still offer branch services (and they seem to be well used).

 

And if you end up without a phone or tablet, or lose connection, have an issue with roaming overseas etc then there needs to be an alternative. In fairness, these businesses do seem to have provision for such scenarios, the problem is few know what they are (either customers or people within businesses) and if you lose connectivity how are you meant to find out? 

 

[zarniwhoop]

2 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

And if you end up without a phone or tablet, or lose connection, have an issue with roaming overseas etc then there needs to be an alternative. In fairness, these businesses do seem to have provision for such scenarios, the problem is few know what they are (either customers or people within businesses) and if you lose connectivity how are you meant to find out? 

 

My bank keeps encouraging me to use its online app. In the end, I had to (needed to pay a new bill while my cable connection was broken). Normally I use a browser on my desktop, I have low confidence that a phone will not eventually be stolen, lost, broken or just with a flat battery (or lacking signal, of course). But recently I wanted to cancel a Standing Order (remember them ?) and discovered I can only do that via the online app.

[jjb1970]

We're off to Indonesia for Chinese new year, I'll be properly attired in a pith helmet, jodhpurs and swagger stick (we English need to maintain standards overseas) and will have a supply of essential supplies (pork pies, mini cheddars, kendal mint cake and bottled tap water) for the trip.

 

We're going into the Central Javan highlands which is beautiful and really rather idyllic. The climate there is perfect, warm enough not to need more than light pullover, dry (I mean humidity rather than rain) and with clear air. We're away for a week, I will try not to over indulge in the local food (Indonesian food is excellent) and try to avoid the political and hierarchial labyrinth that seems to be normal for Chinese families (I gave up on trying to understand all that shortly after getting married 20 years ago.

 

So, it remains for me to say Xīnnián hǎo!!

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, BSW01 said:

Here are some phots I took yesterday of the finished 3D seascape

Looks great!

 

The biggest challenge I would have is deciding on the colour. Grey-green is more 'prototypical' for most stormy weather/heavy seas, but most people associate 'blue' with the colour of water so that is always a good choice - viewers will recognize better it as 'water'.

 

Looking into the depths in the Pacific around Hawai'i (from a dive boat where the dolphins were playing in the bow wake) I was surprised how much indigo I could see.

 

Do you propose to carve out a spot for your Walrus to float?

 

Edited January 21, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[pH]

58 minutes ago, BR60103 said:

Due to deterioration of the music provided by the CBC ….

 

No kidding!