Early Risers.

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I saw this tidbit in an article today:

 

CNN: As the Olympic flame heads for Los Angeles, what can we expect from the 2028 Games?

 

Sounds a lot like a surf-boat race from an Aussie life-saving carnival - but not quite. Apparently it's a variation with small two rower boats and is called "beach-sprint rowing".

 

 

 

Will they have to pull their swimmers up their bum like the surf life savers do in that event  for some reason?

 

[southern42]

On 11/08/2024 at 00:12, Winslow Boy said:

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.

 

Thanks for that.

From my searches, it looks like I have Sedum Reflexum, Blue Spruce Stonecrop (or a close relative!). 

 

I also have this growing on a dry stone wall though the flowers are past their best now.

.

The closest I could find to this is what they call "orange" stonecrop Phedimus kamtschaticus ( syn. Sedum kamtschaticum ) https://www.perenual.com/plant-database-search-guide/species/9000/guide

 

[southern42]

With all this talk of biology dissections, I am glad I changed my mind and did geography instead.

Erupting volcanoes, tidal and current erosion, meandering rivers, and spewing, smelting, and smokey industries were much more up my street.

[Coombe Barton]

... integrating social history with mining history, building history, archaeology, - exactly what Sandy was doing. I’m delighted that her legacy of knowledge will continue ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2024/08/12/postcards-from-the-periphery-2024-16/

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. This afternoon I went upstairs, sat on the bed and dozed off for a couple of hours. The heat and humidity are so soporific. The temperature peaked at 33C. but now its dropped to 26C but the clouds  are now  keeping the humidity bottled up.

[PhilJ W]

Breaking news, Los Angeles has just been hit with an earthquake. 4.4 on the Richter scale.

 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/earthquake-rocks-los-angeles/story?id=112784649

[Gwiwer]

6 hours ago, The Lurker said:

You didn't do Biology A Level then?

No I didn't.  Having failed O-level the first time around the school wasn't prepared to put me forward for A-level.  I was more suited to Earth Sciences and did quite well at Geography and Geology.  The former at both O- and A-levels and the latter only taught at A-level to those clearly keen and displaying suitable aptitudes.  

 

We were pressed to take at least three A-levels and I started Economics but withdrew very early on.  It clearly didn't like me and the feeling was mutual.  "Only" two A-levels was considered a failure and would never get you into Oxford or Cambridge.  The school was largely a conveyor-belt to those establishments and if you fell off you might as well have given up hope there and then.  No-one who did not achieve an Oxbridge entry was ever invited to join the Old Boys Association, to which admission was by invitation and open-wallet only.  

[Hroth]

33 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Breaking news, Los Angeles has just been hit with an earthquake. 4.4 on the Richter scale.

 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/earthquake-rocks-los-angeles/story?id=112784649

 

Its the 4 year warning for the next lympics....

 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Andy Hayter]

42 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Breaking news, Los Angeles has just been hit with an earthquake. 4.4 on the Richter scale.

 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/earthquake-rocks-los-angeles/story?id=112784649

 

Rocks LA!  Journalistic hype.  4.4 is not far above a tea cup rattler - hence no injuries or damages.

 

Shortly after the Christchurch earthquake, a friend went to New Zealand and days later a hyped up press announced a 4.1 had hit another part of NZ.  Consternation among her friends until I pointed out that in the previous year NZ had been subjected to around 320 Richter 4 or less earthquakes.  

.

 

 

Edited August 12 by Andy Hayter

[polybear]

7 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

 

How did you manage that? Didn't Tesco get cross, you selling bits of their store? OK - I know I'm probably missing something but you've got me puzzled. 

 

I had some shares in Tess n' Co - I decided to flog them.....

 

ION....

 

The Big River delivered tonight - the usual stunt, ring and scarper......

It was a holder for Izzy the iPhone - so I can use it for navigation in the Warehouse Vans should I need to.

 

BG

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

... integrating social history with mining history, building history, archaeology, - exactly what Sandy was doing. I’m delighted that her legacy of knowledge will continue ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2024/08/12/postcards-from-the-periphery-2024-16/

Mention of Crowns Mine - indeed the most-photographed in Cornwall - reminds me of one of my little snippets of tourist-type information which I share when the situation arises.

 

Those mines - for which the engine-houses stand right on the edge of the raging ocean (OK - it's called the Celtic Sea these days) - wwere dug by hand and worked by hand.  Men - never women - toiled with hand-tools by candle-light as they dug down beneath the sea-floor for copper and tin.  And it was wet.  If your candle went out you had no light at all and relied on your fellows to come to your aid.  Mr. Davy developed a lamp which reduced the reliance on candles and improved the reliability of your personal illumination below grass but it was still a risky operation.  

 

To this day - despite the mines having closed - there are hand-drilling contests in the area.  You hand-bored a hole into the rock face, inserted powder which you had hopefully kept dry, laid a fuse, stepped back and lit the fuse whilst hoping all would go well. 

 

It often did.  A small blast would loosen more rock and if you were lucky there was valuable ore to raise to the surface.  If you were less than lucky it blew a hole in the sea bed above and all was lost; I cannot recall reading that this ever happened but you needed male-parts of steel to do that sometimes so close to the sea bed that you could hear the boulders being rolled around above you.  Or sometimes so deep that it took you an hour or more to negotiate slippery wooden ladders and endless adits and winzes to reach your work-face.  And even longer to get back up.  

 

And as I have mentioned to a fair number of visitors to this region Cornwall is a land of post-industrial beauty; had they been here perhaps 100 years earlier they might have found it noisy, smoky, dirty and the now-clear streams heavily polluted.  Red River, which reaches the sea near Godrevy Lighthouse at Gwithian, gained what is now its common name from the pollutants which discoloured it.  What you see now is the remains and ruins of an industry known to the Romans and Bretons, probably also to the Spanish and other Mediterranean traders of old.  In often stunningly beautiful clifftop settings with the ocean crashing onto rocks far below.  Insterseprsed with some wide sandy bays and beaches which were hazards to navigation then but are adored by many a holiday-making family now.  

Edited August 12 by Gwiwer
Auto-flippin-corrupt. Will it please go to sleep already.

[southern42]

Hooray! Found something on the TV to watch this evening! Death in Paradise.

Dishwasher sorted to bring me back down to earth.

Time for bed said Zebedee.

 

' night all and nos da.

[southern42]

And before I disappear - one of those old cotton mills with once smokey chimney oop norf* I learnt about so long ago (on t'right).

*East Lancs

 

 

Edited August 12 by southern42
rogue word deleted

[Winslow Boy]

27 minutes ago, southern42 said:

And before I disappear - one of those old cotton mills with once smokey chimney oop norf* I learnt about so long ago (on t'right).

*East Lancs

 

 

Rawestale - least ways I think that's how you spell it.

[BSW01]

11 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

Rawestale - least ways I think that's how you spell it.

Rawtenstall is the correct spelling 

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

I’ve finally put all the plants that needed to be planted, that leaves just the few that stay in pots. I also did a bit of dead heading and weeding, another wheelbarrow full was taken round to the garden waste bin. I did plan to permanently fix the 2 bird houses to the back of the house, but the wind picked up after dinner, so I decided that going up ladders in gusty winds was NOT a good idea, so I decamped to the workshop and began putting stuff away, as most will not get used now for several weeks. 

 

As has now become the norm, I did the Sainsbury’s Grand Prix late this afternoon, as it’s normally quieter, but for some reason, it wasn’t today, ho hum. 

 

Late this afternoon the postie dropped the details of my bladder operation, along with admission time and pre-op date too, the day after my birthday! 

Edited August 12 by BSW01

[BSW01]

Goodnight everyone 

[pH]

On 10/08/2024 at 16:40, pH said:

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

Here’s the Mars, with Snowbird escort, doing a pass before landing (for the last time) at Pat Bay:

 

https://youtu.be/8zYcTsRvdy0?feature=shared

Longer version:

 

https://youtu.be/Ol07yTMlM_c?feature=shared

 

Edited August 12 by pH

[Grizz]

Amazing day….

 

this evening was delicious food, wonderful ale and lovely company…..totally hygge.

 

Topped of with a dozen shooting stars and this….

 

 

 

 

 

Although it might not really have been there…. It might have been the Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) in the food.

Edited August 12 by Grizz

[Ozexpatriate]

5 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Breaking news, Los Angeles has just been hit with an earthquake. 4.4 on the Richter scale.

They don't use the "Richter scale" any more. "Magnitudes" are similarly logarithmic - usually the Moment magnitude scale.

 

4.4 is certainly something people will feel but it's a 'baby' in terms of damage.

Quote

Earthquakes of magnitudes 4 to 5 generally bring light shaking and very light to no damage.

It was in the basin and only 7.5 miles deep so it was an 'impulse' (jolt) rather than a long roller.

 

Things get nasty around 5.0 - four times as strong as a 4.4.

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, pH said:

Here’s the Mars

Marvelous. Thank you. 

 

While I'm glad it never happened (despite what many attest precipitated the end) we would have seen a lot more of this aircraft and others like the F7F Tigercat along with the Midway Class carriers had Operation Downfall been necessary in late 1945.

 

The end of the piston engine era produced some impressive machines. By 1950 they were all but obsolete - mostly thanks to German cleverness.

 

(Yes I know about Whittle, but I said what I said.)

 

Edited August 13 by Ozexpatriate

[zarniwhoop]

After commenting about my dreams on reworking my personal website, it is now online. Most people here will have no interest (it aims primarily to help people using Linux systems use screen fonts which are more to their taste (e.g. shape of letters, or coverage of other alphabets).

 

It also now aims to show a few approaches I've taken when using the xelatex typesetting engine, but I assume the number of people here interested in that is as close to zero as makes no difference. So, in the interests of repeatability I've including all the source files I have.

 

Just in case, it is at https://typosetting.co.uk

 

Unfortunately, it is like painting the Forth Bridge and I found yet another font to revise a few hours ago. I recall that a certain Swiss Doctor here has an old Linux system - I will warn him that of the CJK fonts (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) only the various Noto CJK fonts are up to date - the others I refreshed in 2024 are correct for what they contained and for how I formatted the example UDHR Article 1, but are  not necessarily the current versions (at least one Japanese font is slowly adding more ideographs).

 

And if anyone wants to look at other alphabets, my files from before 2024 may give mistaken impressions. Working through what I was uploading, I can see that I might  able to give better representations of some of the arabic or indian writing systems - but that is far down the track.

 

So, if you look, I hope you can treat it as 'Share and Enjoy' but maybe you will regard it as 'go stick your head in a pig'.

[Hroth]

5 hours ago, southern42 said:

And before I disappear - one of those old cotton mills with once smokey chimney oop norf* I learnt about so long ago (on t'right).

*East Lancs

 

 

 

Apart from the mill chimney, at least there's a proper locomotive in the photo! 🙃

 

 

[jjb1970]

6 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

No-one who did not achieve an Oxbridge entry was ever invited to join the Old Boys Association, to which admission was by invitation and open-wallet only.  

 

Sounds like a reason not to go to Oxbridge to me. I'm not sure any of the educational establishments I attended have such things, even the university alumni associations of the ones I attended are basically complete nothing burgers.