Author Topic: what I have learned today.  (Read 847262 times)

Basil

  • Um....err......oh bugger!
  • Help me!
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4100 on: 21 February, 2020, 07:41:25 pm »
From that Twitter.

The word ‘didgeridoo’ doesn’t exist in any Aboriginal language – it was first recorded in an Australian newspaper in 1908 and is thought to be onomatopoeic.
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4101 on: 21 February, 2020, 10:02:50 pm »
Also from that Twitter, about Ida Cook https://twitter.com/garius/status/1220711078100897793

Awesome story and amazing read, if if I do I fucking hate Twitter as a medium for imparting information.

Auntie Helen

  • 6 Wheels in Germany
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4102 on: 22 February, 2020, 06:35:14 am »
The German for thimble is Fingerhut = Finger hat.

This is also their name for a foxglove flower.
My blog on cycling in Germany and eating German cake – http://www.auntiehelen.co.uk


ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4103 on: 22 February, 2020, 08:10:31 pm »
That claiming a false mileage when advertising a car, or on an MOT certificate is not a DVSA issue, it's trading standards.  A very suspect low mileage and iffy progresssion on a car I saw online.

Secondly, that if you sell a car privately and return the V5, then DVSA automatically refunds the tax, had a cheque in the post this morning.  Previously It'd always been a case of take the tax disc back to the post office in my experience
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4104 on: 22 February, 2020, 08:15:01 pm »
That claiming a false mileage when advertising a car, or on an MOT certificate is not a DVSA issue, it's trading standards.  A very suspect low mileage and iffy progresssion on a car I saw online.

Aye, I looked into it after I had a speedometer failure in the last SAAB I had, basically at sale if you state clearly enough that it's not a genuine mileage then as seller you're covered.
The mileage stated on the MOT certificate is a function of what the car is displaying.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4105 on: 22 February, 2020, 08:28:10 pm »
On this one I've seen a) it's a suspiciously low mileage, 2) it's been up and down like a yoyo if you look online at the MOT history
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4106 on: 22 February, 2020, 08:43:52 pm »
My late father used to get a one year old car at auction every two years. It seemed to be accepted practice that any car from Scotland which came through a dealer had had its mileage set to zero. Mind, this was a few years ago, not sure if that's still the case.
Rust never sleeps

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4107 on: 22 February, 2020, 09:06:46 pm »
That claiming a false mileage when advertising a car, or on an MOT certificate is not a DVSA issue, it's trading standards.  A very suspect low mileage and iffy progresssion on a car I saw online.

Aye, I looked into it after I had a speedometer failure in the last SAAB I had, basically at sale if you state clearly enough that it's not a genuine mileage then as seller you're covered.
The mileage stated on the MOT certificate is a function of what the car is displaying.

Or what the tester entered into the system - I had the wrong mileage entered into the system in 2015. As MOT paperwork shows only the mileage at the time of testing and the previous three years, the anomaly disappeared last year, but I am surprised that nobody ever said a thing, as if it was naturally assumed to be finger trouble.
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4108 on: 22 February, 2020, 09:25:15 pm »
The online record goes back much further. I only found an error on my own car's record when I came to sell it, a ffe which was corrected next time round
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4109 on: 23 February, 2020, 08:42:12 am »
Quote from: ElyDave
... if you sell a car privately and return the V5, then DVSA automatically refunds the tax, had a cheque in the post this morning. 
Yes, all very convenient.  Now sit back and wait for the reminder to tax the car you have sold.  See earlier rant/grumble.
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4110 on: 23 February, 2020, 01:31:31 pm »
That 'pony-painting parties' are, to some indeterminate extent, a thing.

Other than the petition that drew the concept to my attention, I've only found news sites reporting the petition, a poorly-written article in Horse & Hound, and a Mumsnet thread.  Which I've taken as a warning to end my futile quest to determine whether they're real or satire and to run away from the internets before they irrevocably rot my BRANES.

It's only a matter of time before somebody attempts to combine one with a gender-reveal and everyone involved dies of aggravated horse bites...

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4111 on: 23 February, 2020, 03:41:17 pm »
The German for thimble is Fingerhut = Finger hat.

This is also their name for a foxglove flower.

Fingerhut was the surname of one of the famiiles that attended my school. They were high-flyers...

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4112 on: 23 February, 2020, 03:50:56 pm »
And Verhütung is contraception. Put a hat on it.

Curiously, hatters used to use a lot of mercury, and mercury was what you got if you engaged in risky pursuits without Verhütung.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Beardy

  • Shedist
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4113 on: 23 February, 2020, 03:56:18 pm »
From the Podcast Scientish about sharks. The most effective predator ever is the humble Dragonfly with a kill rate of 95% (ninety five percent!) of all prey it targets. From the same recording this is apparently in part due to the fact it has a second branes in its wing bump, a flight computer if you will, that is solely responsible for effective wing configuration.
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4114 on: 24 February, 2020, 03:09:01 pm »
That a EURion constellation is a pattern on some banknotes designed to stop you photocopying them.
“There is no point in using the word 'impossible' to describe something that has clearly happened.”
― Douglas Adams

Basil

  • Um....err......oh bugger!
  • Help me!
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4115 on: 25 February, 2020, 11:45:24 am »
Not so much Learned, as forgotten and then re-learned.
Welsh old buggers bus passes work at any time of the day.
English ones (which I'm not supposed to have retained - shhh) only commence at 9:30.
Hence an embarrassing doh moment in Reading at 9:10 this morning.
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4116 on: 25 February, 2020, 01:33:07 pm »
The expression "leck mich im Arsch" has a noble history involving a medieval German knight, Mozart and Goethe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leck_mich_im_Arsch
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4117 on: 25 February, 2020, 01:46:26 pm »
That drumsticks wear out, and do so surprisingly quickly.  The future Mr von Brandenburg posted "before" and "after" pictures of a pair of Vic Firth 5a sticks on FB with about eight hours use on the latter.  They look like pencils :o
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4118 on: 25 February, 2020, 08:27:12 pm »
Various isolated words of Swahili, the only one of which that's ever remotely likely to be any use to me is maji, water, but my favourite has to be imechekua, "the boss has taken it away". Probably rather pidgin...
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4119 on: 26 February, 2020, 02:25:29 pm »
Various isolated words of Swahili, the only one of which that's ever remotely likely to be any use to me is maji, water, but my favourite has to be imechekua, "the boss has taken it away". Probably rather pidgin...

I like it that the Swahili word for the rich/powerful/corrupt is "Wabenzi", from their habit of buying a Mercedes when the money first starts to roll in.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

rr

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4120 on: 26 February, 2020, 03:10:42 pm »
That a EURion constellation is a pattern on some banknotes designed to stop you photocopying them.
See also first direct cheques, at least in the good old days.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk


Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4121 on: 27 February, 2020, 03:06:24 pm »
There is SCIENCE built into copiers, scanners etc that prevents them from scanning banknotes.  Which is a pain if you want a picture of a fiver or a ten dollar bill for joke comedy purposes.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4122 on: 27 February, 2020, 04:24:10 pm »
Given the Internet of Things they could well shop you into the bargain.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4123 on: 27 February, 2020, 05:19:30 pm »
There is SCIENCE built into copiers, scanners etc that prevents them from scanning banknotes.  Which is a pain if you want a picture of a fiver or a ten dollar bill for joke comedy purposes.

You're just going to have to do it J. S. G. Boggs1-style, or offer a drawing of a spider2 in lieu of the intended comedy prop. ;)


1 Unfortunately now unavailable for commissions on account of being DED since 2017.

2 See: http://www.27bslash6.com/overdue.html
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4124 on: 29 February, 2020, 06:45:24 pm »
That Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated on 9th Nov 1918, and went to exile in the Netherlands who then refused to extradite him for war crimes, partly on the basis that despite asking, the British weren't really that enthusiastic about it.

Also hadn't realised that he lived until 1941
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens