Author Topic: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own (Read 3006079 times)

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #22250 on:** 16 February, 2018, 07:33:56 pm »

Never run over the end of a stick, always go for the middle. But I'm sure you knew that.

Giraffe · « **Reply #22251 on:** 18 February, 2018, 08:26:04 am »

On a TV in a pub, no sound on so the weather forecast had surtitles: "...Chile in the east...". My first thought was that surely Chile is west(erleyish) from here.

Beardy · « **Reply #22252 on:** 18 February, 2018, 10:19:45 am »

After three days in Berlin with ‘da boys’ I am completely and utterly knackered. Having taken a cold with my which has now reached the stage of making me cough every 5 minutes, I’m also irritable.

I did have a good time thobut

Kim · « **Reply #22253 on:** 18 February, 2018, 11:24:21 am »

Quote from: Giraffe on 18 February, 2018, 08:26:04 am

On a TV in a pub, no sound on so the weather forecast had surtitles: "...Chile in the east...". My first thought was that surely Chile is west(erleyish) from here.

Hmm, do re-spoken live subtitles count as craptions? (A term used by the Deaf community to refer to YouTube automatic captions and related technology.) The accuracy isn't all that different these days.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #22254 on:** 19 February, 2018, 11:46:43 am »

Quote from: andytheflyer on 16 February, 2018, 03:27:04 pm

Quote from: Kim on 16 February, 2018, 01:35:49 pm
Perhaps bicycle lights should have the extra wedge above the horizontal, like car dipped headlights do? Of course, I can't imagine the manufacturers being enthusiastic about making a left-handed version for the UK...

Ah. I bought a diffuser for my eBay cheapish Cree bike headlight - you know, the £15 jobbie. Can't remember where I got it, but it was only a few quid - and it does just that. You get a flat topped beam with a wedge off to the left - it took a bit of furtling to get the alignment right, but at night the beam pattern looks just like good car headlights on dip.

You swap out the std lens for the new diffuser and the job's a good 'un.

I don't think we need a wedge, even if we did get it on the ~~right~~ correct side. Partly because the correct side isn't always the side where the dangly branches are (I'm thinking particularly of railway paths, towpaths and similar). We'd be better served with an area of full intensity up to (or possibly just below) the horizontal and a glow above. It only needs to illuminate objects pretty close. Roadsigns will take care of themselves as they're usually reflective (or white on country lanes).

CrinklyLion · « **Reply #22255 on:** 20 February, 2018, 10:09:09 pm »

The EldestCub was just getting very frustrated with a problem (cylinder in a cone) on a GCSE maths sample paper and I was looking at it and thinking 'I'm sure I can figure this out', but am utterly brain-fried (partly because I got basically no sleep last night due to impending Special Visitors at work and the resultant massive anxiety spike) and just couldn't see what it was I wasn't seeing. So I sent him to go and have a bath so I could stare at it in peace and doodle and stuff. I've never been particularly good at the visualisation of 3d stuff but generally if I can make maths be flat and number-y I've always been pretty handy at it. Similar triangles were the answer, and I'd forgotten how much fun algebra is. We've had a shouted conversation through the bathroom door and he kind of groks what I mean and there's diagrams n'evryfink (although not the answer - he can blimming work that out and then compare with mine) waiting for him when he gets out.

Beardy · « **Reply #22256 on:** 21 February, 2018, 07:53:03 am »

I've made it into the office today as I'm not quite the germ vector I was at the beginning of the week. After spending two days working at home, I'm not sure whether a day in the office will be a GOOD THING^TM or a BAD THING^TM

T42 · « **Reply #22257 on:** 21 February, 2018, 09:48:10 am »

Quote from: CrinklyLion on 20 February, 2018, 10:09:09 pm

The EldestCub was just getting very frustrated with a problem (cylinder in a cone) on a GCSE maths sample paper and I was looking at it and thinking 'I'm sure I can figure this out', but am utterly brain-fried (partly because I got basically no sleep last night due to impending Special Visitors at work and the resultant massive anxiety spike) and just couldn't see what it was I wasn't seeing. So I sent him to go and have a bath so I could stare at it in peace and doodle and stuff. I've never been particularly good at the visualisation of 3d stuff but generally if I can make maths be flat and number-y I've always been pretty handy at it. Similar triangles were the answer, and I'd forgotten how much fun algebra is. We've had a shouted conversation through the bathroom door and he kind of groks what I mean and there's diagrams n'evryfink (although not the answer - he can blimming work that out and then compare with mine) waiting for him when he gets out.

Several yonks ago I had the same experience t'other way about after the ray-tracing equations for representing a plane reflected in a sphere defeated me. Son did maths to a level at which I get altitude sickness.

Ham · « **Reply #22258 on:** 26 February, 2018, 01:29:02 pm »

In my facebook feed

"Perhaps, ironing boards are just surfboards that have abandoned their dreams and got a proper job"

Guy · « **Reply #22259 on:** 26 February, 2018, 01:41:25 pm »

Quote from: Giraffe on 18 February, 2018, 08:26:04 am

On a TV in a pub, no sound on so the weather forecast had surtitles: "...Chile in the east...". My first thought was that surely Chile is west(erleyish) from here.

Not according to Mr Kipling:

"It's North that you may run to the ring-rimed sun
Or South to the blind Horn's hate
Or West all the way to the Mississippi Bay
Or East to the Golden Gate"

As Chile is on the same side of the Americas as the Golden Gate one would assume that East is the direction for Valparaiso too (though that new-fangled Panama Canal may change this).

Hope this helps

citoyen · « **Reply #22260 on:** 26 February, 2018, 01:55:08 pm »

Quote from: Guy on 26 February, 2018, 01:41:25 pm

Not according to Mr Kipling

With geographical insights like that, he should stick to the cakes.

clarion · « **Reply #22261 on:** 26 February, 2018, 02:05:21 pm »

I suppose it all depends where you're starting from. East is the most logical direction to the Golden Gate from India, for example (though Cape Horn would not be South).

But no...

Quote

t’s North you may run to the rime-ringed sun
Or South to the blind Horn’s hate;
Or East all the way into Mississippi Bay,
Or West to the Golden Gate—
Where the blindest bluffs hold good, dear lass,
And the wildest tales are true,
And the men bulk big on the old trail, our own trail, the out trail,
And life runs large on the Long Trail—the trail that is always new.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #22262 on:** 26 February, 2018, 02:20:40 pm »

Surely Kipling's starting point was somewhere in America. That would tie in with "the trail" even though the trail here is obviously on the sea.

Guy · « **Reply #22263 on:** 26 February, 2018, 02:51:31 pm »

Surely the starting point is somewhere on the east coast of Dear Old Blighty

"..down by the lower Hope dear lass
With the Gunfleet sands in view.."

and

"Fly forward, oh my heart
From the Foreland to the Start..

I'm under the impression that Lower Hope is a reference to Hope Reach in the Thames estuary. Gunfleet Sands are in the North Sea near Clacton-on-Sea, the Forelands are in Kent, and Start Point is in Devon so, without the benefit of a short-cut via the Panama Cana,l Kipling's directions would be correct. You'd either have to sail south-west to Cape Horn and then north to San Francisco, or east via the Med and Suez Canal and onwards across the Pacific. IIRC the preferred route to SF in the early years of the C20th was via Suez and the Indian and Pacific Oceans

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #22264 on:** 26 February, 2018, 02:56:16 pm »

That wouldn't make it east to the Mississippi Bay, but east via the Indian Ocean, across the Pacific and round the Horn to Mississippi would seem in keeping with the idea of going across the sea for going across the sea's sake.

clarion · « **Reply #22265 on:** 26 February, 2018, 03:14:50 pm »

I think you're right about the reference to UK coastline, and there is a direct mention of English summer, but the third verse cites Cadiz before we get to the NEWS, and there are also mentions of NE Trade Winds, as well as the Southern Cross. So I think we're talking evocations of worldwide nauticalation.

Guy · « **Reply #22266 on:** 26 February, 2018, 03:58:47 pm »

Or Kipling could have just been" tired and confused" after a night on the sauce

Ham · « **Reply #22267 on:** 27 February, 2018, 10:15:39 am »

There is information going about that "gypsy" signs are being seen on pavements to indicate potential targets for theft. I saw this on a local "Neighbourhood Watch" whatsapp group and I found an online image (god bless the daily mail). In the WhatsApp group it was semi-attributed to the Met Police, and link was provided to their Twitter. I checked and could see no reference to that from the police feed.

Without wishing to make light of it, it always seems to be "seen on pavements in adjoining borough" and appears to me to be out and out fearmongering.

So, why repost? Well, many in the group have suggested they will draw the symbols for "Nothing Worth Stealing" and "Too Risky" outside their house. I wonder if they realise that they will be drawing a CD cock and balls in front of their houses?

citoyen · « **Reply #22268 on:** 27 February, 2018, 10:19:52 am »

Do not tumble dry this house?

Ham · « **Reply #22269 on:** 27 February, 2018, 10:27:40 am »

Oh my. I really need to get on with work, but thought I'd try to get to the bottom of this.

Turns out that it appeared to start in 2013, with the DM article that pic was use in

However, three years later the Mail itself de-bunked the story, as it turns out the symbols were being used by a utilities company.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3406114/Da-Pinchi-actually-markings-used-utility-firms.html

citoyen · « **Reply #22270 on:** 27 February, 2018, 10:41:37 am »

Quote from: Ham on 27 February, 2018, 10:27:40 am

However, three years later the Mail itself de-bunked the story, as it turns out the symbols were being used by a utilities company.

Do they give you cancer?

I find the best position to take with regard to pretty much anything in the Daily Mail is not to believe it from the start rather than wait three years for them to admit they made it up.

Beardy · « **Reply #22271 on:** 27 February, 2018, 10:48:15 am »

Quote from: citoyen on 27 February, 2018, 10:41:37 am

Quote from: Ham on 27 February, 2018, 10:27:40 am
However, three years later the Mail itself de-bunked the story, as it turns out the symbols were being used by a utilities company.

Do they give you cancer?

I find the best position to take with regard to pretty much anything in the Daily Mail is not to believe it from the start rather than wait three years for them to admit they made it up.

I don't think the Daily Hiel make much up themselves, that would require a modicum of imagination. No, I think they get this stuff from other sources and if it aligns with their belief system they publish it. A more responsible approach would be to research, or at least validate, the information before publication but that would involve work, and thus reduce the profits.

ian · « **Reply #22272 on:** 27 February, 2018, 12:02:25 pm »

By turning every story into gives you/cures cancer, they effectively get two stories for the price of one.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #22273 on:** 27 February, 2018, 12:05:34 pm »

It would be moderately surprising if the Daily Mail has not run a "gypsies give you cancer" story.

ElyDave · « **Reply #22274 on:** 27 February, 2018, 03:56:04 pm »

made my first post on faceache for over a year today.