A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own

[Kim]

Meanwhile, a taxi load of traditional drunken zombies has turned up.  One of them is coughing like Patient Zero.

[Cudzoziemiec]

On a totally different note, I like the way the woman on the right in this photo has managed to turn the Black Panther fist into something very Indian.

[Giraffe]

The one on the left is using the Usanian spelling of sushi.

[T42]

My mum said that growing up, there was a culture in her poor, working class household of never seeing the doctor - presumably a hangover from the days when you had to pay for the privilege, even though they were precisely the kind of family the NHS was supposed to benefit.

When my mum was in her early 20s there was a fashion, vogue or whatever for getting all your teeth out at once and getting dentures, so that you'd have less bother and expense in the long run.  So she did, and for the rest of her life she had to hold her top set in every time she laughed.  As a result, my sister and I grew up thinking that putting a knuckle to your front teeth when something was funny was the polite thing to do.

[hellymedic]

Dental clearance and full dentures was a common 21st birthday present for young women (I think) in England.

I started medical school in 1976. At the time, one in three adults over 16 in Britain had no natural teeth.

[ian]

It crossed my mind, in a way that it hasn't before: three of my siblings were born before the NHS was established.

Same happened yesterday while discussing this over lunch with my parents - they both realised they were born before the NHS was established, which they had never considered before.

My mum said that growing up, there was a culture in her poor, working class household of never seeing the doctor - presumably a hangover from the days when you had to pay for the privilege, even though they were precisely the kind of family the NHS was supposed to benefit.

I am trying to remember going to the doctor as a child, but am failing to recall. I'm sure my parents didn't treat everything with lashings of TCP* (what do you mean your stomach aches, get it down you). I do recall going to the dentist and having some teeth pulled – mostly because you were not supposed to eat the evening before, so what I'd do is pretend not to eat, and then when the dentist asked 'did you eat?' I'd say 'sure, loads' and they'd send me home. My mother was incandescent by the third time. The four time they yanked them regardless of what I'd eaten. I karmically redecorated their surgery post-operatively with my sneaky breakfast. Got my head rattled for that.

There was generally working-class view that you shouldn't 'bother the doctor' what with them being busy and all. Limbs would grow back.

*I once fell out of a conker tree and into a hawthorn bush. One the branches went right through my armpit and out the other side. It was horrible. A&E you say. Nope, my dad yanked the branch out and poured TCP in the hole. Don't knock it, it could have been worse, the standard gipsy cure for everything was piss on it.

[ElyDave]

It crossed my mind, in a way that it hasn't before: three of my siblings were born before the NHS was established.

Same happened yesterday while discussing this over lunch with my parents - they both realised they were born before the NHS was established, which they had never considered before.

My mum said that growing up, there was a culture in her poor, working class household of never seeing the doctor - presumably a hangover from the days when you had to pay for the privilege, even though they were precisely the kind of family the NHS was supposed to benefit.

I am trying to remember going to the doctor as a child, but am failing to recall. I'm sure my parents didn't treat everything with lashings of TCP* (what do you mean your stomach aches, get it down you). I do recall going to the dentist and having some teeth pulled – mostly because you were not supposed to eat the evening before, so what I'd do is pretend not to eat, and then when the dentist asked 'did you eat?' I'd say 'sure, loads' and they'd send me home. My mother was incandescent by the third time. The four time they yanked them regardless of what I'd eaten. I karmically redecorated their surgery post-operatively with my sneaky breakfast. Got my head rattled for that.

There was generally working-class view that you shouldn't 'bother the doctor' what with them being busy and all. Limbs would grow back.

*I once fell out of a conker tree and into a hawthorn bush. One the branches went right through my armpit and out the other side. It was horrible. A&E you say. Nope, my dad yanked the branch out and poured TCP in the hole. Don't knock it, it could have been worse, the standard gipsy cure for everything was piss on it.

RAF Doctors and dentists came in handy, good for queueueue jumping as well

[Cudzoziemiec]

I've never been to Ireland but I discovered this place when I was checking a name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Barn
It reminds me of paintings of the Tower of Babel.

[Mr Larrington]

So there's been a message on the rnsering machine for ["Quite a long time" – Ed.] which I declined to listen to on the grounds that it was bound to be my grate frend Mr Woolrich and I hadn't phoned him back because doing so robs one's day of at least an hour and I really couldn't be arsed.  Awakened this ack emma by the phone.  "Aha!" I thought.  "That will be PC World telling me that I can come and collect my delcious present to myself!"

Bound^* down stairs, press button.  Ah.  If it was PC World they neglected to leave a message, so it was probably someone with a strong sub-continental accent pretending to be from BT, Microsith or Nozama.  And instead of Mr Woolrich I hear the dulcet tones of Professor Larrington

* peotic licence

[Mrs Pingu]

Posted to see how many people this irritates...
2020-07-16_06-27-56 by The Pingus, on Flickr

[ElyDave]

Doesn't irritate me, but looks like the ear loops are 90-deg out?

[Mrs Pingu]

They're designed to go round the back of the head apparently but it should be easy enough to convert to ear loops if required.

[hellymedic]

I am unfamiliar with many of these but I suspect they aren't right.

[Kim]

It looks like the stuff that appears when thingy on Numb3rs is using his MATHS BRANE to solve P=NP using minesweeper or whatever.

It's also small enough text that those of a SCIENCE disposition^[1] are going to get sub-optimally close in order to work out whether it's bollocks or not.

Anyway, now I want a mask with an infinite grid of resistors on it...


_{[1] Microbiologists excepted.}

[nicknack]

As you come out of Newport (IoW) on the East Cowes road there's a large advertising hoarding with the message "PoS in a box". There's a lot of small writing too but, since I was propelling a motor vehicle at the time, I was not able to decipher it. Is this astounding naivety on the part of the advertisers or is it just my mind wot has been corrupted by yacf?

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Point of Sale is a thing but just what sort of thing, I don’t fully understand.

[robgul]

Point of Sale is a thing but just what sort of thing, I don’t fully understand.

Assuming it's "point of sale" (not "piece of shit") is it perchance an ad for something akin to the POS boxes that the likes of PayPal and and I think some of the banks/card companies are promoting for businesses that want to obviate cash and take card payments easily?   

[The local very traditional barber shop (haircut for £7) has a sign in its window announcing that it now takes cards - with presumably a simple phone connected gizmo]

[Cudzoziemiec]

This could go in so many places (nom det?) that here is best: A new name for Kim to, perhaps, get email for

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Ponders

[citoyen]

As you come out of Newport (IoW) on the East Cowes road there's a large advertising hoarding with the message "PoS in a box". There's a lot of small writing too but, since I was propelling a motor vehicle at the time, I was not able to decipher it. Is this astounding naivety on the part of the advertisers or is it just my mind wot has been corrupted by yacf?

POS (as per robgul's explanation) is something that's part of my world* these days, so it took me a few moments to work out what alternative definition you might mean... and then I laughed heartily.

I imagine it's entirely deliberate on the part of the copywriters.


*part of what I do is producing POS displays for use in a retail environment, both print and digital. What robgul is referring to is more usually called EPOS (electronic point of sale). I presume that "POS in a box" is indeed some kind of affordable hardware solution for small business to take card payments via a phone/tablet app.

[Ham]

Doncaster Council, still rockin' Twitter https://twitter.com/MyDoncaster/status/1284115637191749632

[hellymedic]

Dead cat was the answer. No feline life lost.
Twitter friend happy...

[Tim Hall]

My job takes me to various construction and civil engineering sites, the more remote of which are protected by robotic alarm things, painted to look vaguely police like.  They are not, unfortunately, fitted with frikkin lasers, but I did find out the other day that when triggered a robotic voice shouts in its best Norn Iron accent saying "The police and landowner have been informed."  Sadly it doesn't say to "fuck off ye wee shite" or "TEETH WILL BE PROVIDED".

[Jasmine]

My job takes me to various construction and civil engineering sites, the more remote of which are protected by robotic alarm things, painted to look vaguely police like.  They are not, unfortunately, fitted with frikkin lasers, but I did find out the other day that when triggered a robotic voice shouts in its best Norn Iron accent saying "The police and landowner have been informed."  Sadly it doesn't say to "fuck off ye wee shite" or "TEETH WILL BE PROVIDED".

Ooh. There are a set of these near where I live. They are on a public footpath, so they get set off every time someone walks past. They may not have lasers, but they do have a little blinky light and rotate on their stick. Anyone know why they have a (strong) Norn Iron accent? Are they repurposed from something else? I can confirm that the police and landowner do not turn up though - it's halfway up a mountain so if you are going in the up direction you can turn around to see it for a long time after passing.

[Steph]

Evidence based medicine
https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k5094

[Steph]

Guardian confusion
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/boxing/uk-rowers-attempt-to-sail-around-uk-in-record-time/ar-BB170yiy?ocid=msedgntp


The clue is in your headline.
Let me describe "rowing" and then "sailing"