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

[Tim Hall]

Today I bought some Orange Cardboard, railway travel for the use of.

It's a stack 14mm thick.

Local excursion?

Almost. Scout camp. 6 adults, 22 kids to the New Forest and back a week later. Starting point is Three Bridges, end point Beaulieu Road. Place your bets for a per capita rate.

[Jurek]

Today I bought some Orange Cardboard, railway travel for the use of.

It's a stack 14mm thick.

Local excursion?

Almost. Scout camp. 6 adults, 22 kids to the New Forest and back a week later. Starting point is Three Bridges, end point Beaulieu Road. Place your bets for a per capita rate.

That seems quite a high adult/sprog ratio - but I know nothing of these things.
Remind me to tell you about my Camping-In-The-New-Forest-And-Ponies-Incident, the next time we cross paths.
No laws were broken.
At least none of this country.

[Beardy]

I took my troop and the associated cub pack to the New Forest a mumble of years ago.

One morning I was giving the troop a bollocking for their atrocious behaviour the day before in Portsmouth McDonalds when my then GSL* (the partner of the pack leader as it happens) sabotaged me by sending my then 3yo daughter towards me shouting out ‘quack quack daddy’. That she was wearing a bright yellow poncho with orange peaked hood didn’t help in not making the whole thing rather cute and somewhat derailed the aforementioned telling off. Git.

*He is also the drinking buddy mentioned up there who has just been diagnosed with T2 diabetes.

[Mr Larrington]

Was that a power cut that made the light flicker briefly?  If it was it wasn’t long enough to crash the Great Hall's PC or any of the NAS drives.

Hurrah!

[T42]

Was that a power cut that made the light flicker briefly?  If it was it wasn’t long enough to crash the Great Hall's PC or any of the NAS drives.

Hurrah!

Around here it usually means that the electricity supplier is doing a bit of crafty switching to cover a load or a dropout somewhere.  Or that there are thunderstorms in the offing and something of theirs got struck and the network is compensating.

Driving home from PBP UAF in 2006 I stopped off in a lay-by for a nibble and a bit of a kip as it was just starting to rain.  About 5 minutes later there was a crash as if God had dropped his deck-chair and a big puff of yellow smoke erupted from the power line that went over the lay-by about 10 metres ahead.  A post a couple of hundred metres up to the right had been struck.  I drove on.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The North really does begin – or the South begins, depending which way you're going – at Watford Gap!

The AI-based approach places the critical dividing line at which avocado wraps give way to sausage rolls close to the M1 Watford Gap services and concludes that Birmingham, Coventry and Leicester, which often fall into a disputed grey area, should be considered “northern”.

So no more Midlands. Not even a no man's land, it's simply the North.

Norfolk is disputed territory.

Researchers used an artificial neural network model to identify the “optimal” north-south line dividing the most Greggs from Prets. The analysis was adjusted to take into account the larger number of Greggs in total. This produced a diagonal line running from just above Poole, via Watford Gap, to just below Skegness and then dipping down to take in the north coast of Norfolk, with King’s Lynn falling north of the divide and Norwich lying to the south.

And Cornwall is... exceptional.

Despite being geographically the southern-most point of England, the algorithm, categorised Cornwall as “northern” based on consumption habits, but this was put down as an anomaly due to the lack of data: there are only two Greggs and no Prets in the county.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jun/07/greggs-pret-index-north-south-divide-england-scientists

[Mrs Pingu]

The joiner that is going to fit our bathroom asked that we buy all the big stuff ourselves. So now our garage and my office are full of shower tray, enclosure, 800mm vanity, basin, tall cabinet and 7m2 of tiles. And I've still got to purchase a radiator, mirror cabinet, light and mixer shower. And it's not getting fitted til August.

[geoff]

"The quack thinking of a member of the public..." saved the day?

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jun/08/three-rescued-after-inflatable-duck-drifts-out-to-sea-off-devon-coast?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

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[T42]

The joiner that is going to fit our bathroom asked that we buy all the big stuff ourselves. So now our garage and my office are full of shower tray, enclosure, 800mm vanity, basin, tall cabinet and 7m2 of tiles. And I've still got to purchase a radiator, mirror cabinet, light and mixer shower. And it's not getting fitted til August.

We got a plumber we've known for years to do ours, and he stage-managed joiner, electrician, tiler etc. We just had to go to a showroom and pick out the stuff we wanted.

[sam]

What have you got, if you have a moth ball in one hand and a moth ball in the other?

The undivided attention of a giant moth. I thankeryew.

Q. What insect eats nothing?
A. A clothes moth. It eats holes.

By popular demand, apparently.

[Basil]

7 Dutch cyclists have just turned up in my local, having ridden from Machynlleth.  They're staying here.
I was sitting with the landlord, who is a mate, and asked him where he would store the bikes.
"Oh they can lock them up round the back" Quoth he.
After a short conversation with me, he has moved his car from his garage to the car park and the bikes are now moving into the garage.
 

[ian]

Aliens definitely sighted in Nevada (always) again and the US definitely has spaceship bits. A man said so.

Honestly, flying across the bloody galaxy, what are the odds you'll crash in Nevada every bloody time.

Still to give the aliens some credit, their advanced technology ensure that an Earth filled with cameras can only take the most ludicrously pixellated photos and videos of them. There are two things on this planet that can't be adequately videoed or photographed: aliens and that drone over Gatwick.

[Mr Larrington]

If you're an alien on a mission to rescue your pals being held prisoner by the USAF you’re not going to go to Disneyland, are you?  No, you'd head straight for Area 51.

[woollypigs]

I'm sure there's a graph out there. Showing the amount of easy to use and ready to hand cameras (going up) on one axis and on the other axis UFO sightings (going down)

[perpetual dan]

Maybe the drone over Gatwick is the aliens? Like the pyramids, they are a gift from the aliens to provide cover for their activities.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The current claim is that other countries have them too.

Maybe the drone over Gatwick is the aliens? Like the pyramids, they are a gift from the aliens to provide cover for their activities.

And fusion power. Don't forget the fusion. They just had to go back to their home planet for a spare part...

[perpetual dan]

...
And fusion power. Don't forget the fusion. They just had to go back to their home planet for a spare part...

We've all had rides like that, I'm sure.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Mr Larrington]

I'm sure there's a graph out there. Showing the amount of easy to use and ready to hand cameras (going up) on one axis and on the other axis UFO sightings (going down)

TV's Nice C Boardman made this very point during the TdF a few years ago.  Long flat stage, two headbangers ten minutes up the road, pelican not interested in chasing = colemanatators forced to improvise.

[Wowbagger]

Is there a wormhole directly from Gatwick to Nevada? People need to know, then they wouldn't have to book those expensive flights.

[rafletcher]

The Red Arrows just flew overhead our village, it seems en-route from Northampton to Reading and points South, in formation and at about 1000ft altitude. Spectacular and quite noisy.

ETA It was a flypast for RAF Halton, about 2 miles away.

[ScumOfTheRoad]

Mrs Scum and I were walking in london town yesterday and came across the World Naked Bike Ride.
Mrs Scum was distinctly unimpressed and commented that there were much more men than women.
Me - more meat and two veg than any branch of Sainsburys

[mrcharly-YHT]

Aliens definitely sighted in Nevada (always) again and the US definitely has spaceship bits. A man said so.

Honestly, flying across the bloody galaxy, what are the odds you'll crash in Nevada every bloody time.

Still to give the aliens some credit, their advanced technology ensure that an Earth filled with cameras can only take the most ludicrously pixellated photos and videos of them. There are two things on this planet that can't be adequately videoed or photographed: aliens and that drone over Gatwick.

Add Bigfoot and Nessie to the list.

[mrcharly-YHT]

I spent a very wet 1.5hours clambering over a shore, trying to find a seal.

Several reports and a photo of a very sick looking seal, so we are given permission to capture and uplift (ie, catch, carry to car and put in a special crate, then care for overnight and hand over to someone on tomorrow's ferry at 6:30am).

Seal nowhere to be seen. 3 people searched, many large seals found, but not a poorly one.

[IanDG]

I am now on the payroll for DumGal council active schools as a Bikeability trainer. Zero hours contract, I will get remuneration for the time spent teaching kids to ride safely that I've currently been doing voluntarily.

[Kim]

I'm sure there's a graph out there. Showing the amount of easy to use and ready to hand cameras (going up) on one axis and on the other axis UFO sightings (going down)

IIRC it shows UFO sightings going down while racist abuse of police power goes up...