Author Topic: what I have learned today.  (Read 847443 times)

Andrij

  • Андрій
  • Ερασιτεχνικός μισάνθρωπος
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1275 on: 27 July, 2016, 09:54:15 pm »
According to Wikipedia, sticking a finger up your arse cures hiccups.  Does anyone care to try it and report back?

Perhaps something a bit simpler?
;D  Andrij.  I pronounce you Complete and Utter GIT   :thumbsup:

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1276 on: 28 July, 2016, 07:19:09 am »
That the river Teifi formed one of Britain's Retreat To And Defend lines in the second world war. 
I always wondered at the pill box which still exists.
I sometimes wonder how they decided where to put those pill boxes. They don't always seem to be in particularly strategic or defensible places. For instance, there's a line of them along the Fosse Way just north of Malmesbury, at which point it's just a gravel byway, and others on the Frome south of Bath, which is a small river with little villages. I guess there might have been important structures though and also it's a matter of chance which ones have survived.

Bath was home to the Admiralty wasn't it? Other government depts removed from London?

Plenty round here along the line of the Cam and out on the road to Peterborough. Looking at them the only reason I can think of them still being here is because getting rid of that munch reinforced concrete would require an assault gun or a log of explosives.

I assume we were just a delaying line for an invasion from the east
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1277 on: 28 July, 2016, 05:03:02 pm »
Hobgoblin stocks shruti boxes.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1278 on: 28 July, 2016, 06:11:17 pm »
That the river Teifi formed one of Britain's Retreat To And Defend lines in the second world war. 
I always wondered at the pill box which still exists.
I sometimes wonder how they decided where to put those pill boxes. They don't always seem to be in particularly strategic or defensible places. For instance, there's a line of them along the Fosse Way just north of Malmesbury, at which point it's just a gravel byway, and others on the Frome south of Bath, which is a small river with little villages. I guess there might have been important structures though and also it's a matter of chance which ones have survived.

Bath was home to the Admiralty wasn't it? Other government depts removed from London?

Plenty round here along the line of the Cam and out on the road to Peterborough. Looking at them the only reason I can think of them still being here is because getting rid of that munch reinforced concrete would require an assault gun or a log of explosives.

I assume we were just a delaying line for an invasion from the east
The Admiralty was in the Empire Hotel opposite Parade Gardens but I don't know about other depts. I'd presume they all had further fall back locations in the event of an invasion though there must have been a point beyond which the practical options were reduced to Dublin or New York! 
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Vince

  • Can't climb; won't climb
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1279 on: 03 August, 2016, 01:55:17 pm »
That Witham is pronounced Wit-ham.
216km from Marsh Gibbon

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1280 on: 03 August, 2016, 02:16:14 pm »
That Witham is pronounced Wit-ham.

I find that a bit of a joke

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
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Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1281 on: 03 August, 2016, 06:18:35 pm »
That Witham is pronounced Wit-ham.

Unless it's the river that flows through Lincoln...
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1282 on: 04 August, 2016, 12:25:42 pm »
That the Dutch for cellar isn't keller.
Move Faster and Bake Things

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1283 on: 04 August, 2016, 09:08:54 pm »
Kelder, isn't it? (Alternately, 'The Dutch don't have a word for it because all their cellars would be underwater'?)

[ETA: silence, puny autocorrect! (correct term added)]

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
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Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1284 on: 04 August, 2016, 09:13:44 pm »
I've been to enough good Belgian bars to know that  :P

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1285 on: 04 August, 2016, 09:36:57 pm »
That the river Teifi formed one of Britain's Retreat To And Defend lines in the second world war. 
I always wondered at the pill box which still exists.
I sometimes wonder how they decided where to put those pill boxes. They don't always seem to be in particularly strategic or defensible places. For instance, there's a line of them along the Fosse Way just north of Malmesbury, at which point it's just a gravel byway, and others on the Frome south of Bath, which is a small river with little villages. I guess there might have been important structures though and also it's a matter of chance which ones have survived.
They were planned & built in a great hurry when many other things also needed the attention of the people who knew most about defensive lines, & mistakes were made. I recall reading about complaints at the time that many pillboxes were badly built & worse sited.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1286 on: 05 August, 2016, 04:32:11 pm »
Actually a thing I learned last week, but it's an important thing that bears repeating:

Children don't wake up to the sound of smoke alarms.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110311121842.htm
https://www.strath.ac.uk/press/newsreleases/2013/headline_728294_en.html

There's some evidence that a recording of a parent's voice is more effective (but far from reliable).  No idea about low-frequency alarms, flashing lights or vibrators, which are the off-the-shelf (if expensive) alternatives.

TimC

  • Old blerk sometimes onabike.
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1287 on: 06 August, 2016, 02:10:51 pm »
That the Iron Maiden stage crew stay in my local before and after every tour because the warehouse they use is close by, and that we have a number of friends in common!

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1288 on: 06 August, 2016, 02:23:11 pm »
Actually a thing I learned last week, but it's an important thing that bears repeating:

Children don't wake up to the sound of smoke alarms.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110311121842.htm
https://www.strath.ac.uk/press/newsreleases/2013/headline_728294_en.html

There's some evidence that a recording of a parent's voice is more effective (but far from reliable).  No idea about low-frequency alarms, flashing lights or vibrators, which are the off-the-shelf (if expensive) alternatives.
I didn't know that but it does seem to me that smoke alarms are less loud than burglar alarms (both seem equally liable to false triggerings). Why did they stop the test at 30 seconds in the Australian research? That's not how smoke alarms actually behave. And do they wake up adults? Because surely any parent's initial reaction to a fire in the night is going to be to get the kids out?*

*After the bikes, obvs.**
**Ob cycling content.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1289 on: 06 August, 2016, 03:21:12 pm »
Burglar alarms are outside though, smoke alarms are in the room with you - or at least an adjacent one.

I can imagine plenty of situations where adults might expect to rely on older children waking to smoke alarms - adults with hearing or mobility impairments, for example.  It also seems likely that residential institutions would have fire procedures that begin with "when you hear the alarm..." rather than designated adults waking all the children manually.


Anyway, this was brought to light by a friend of a friend with a faulty smoke alarm outside the kids' bedroom wondering why they hadn't woken up in the time it took to kill it...

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1290 on: 06 August, 2016, 04:12:17 pm »
I think most burglar alarms have sounders inside and outside. I hadn't thought of the other points you raise though. And thankfully it was "it" that was killed in your friends' case.  :o
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1291 on: 07 August, 2016, 04:55:00 am »
do not go to bed at 9.. you´ll wake up 5 in the morning and cant sleep anymore :o

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1292 on: 07 August, 2016, 08:08:21 am »
If I could get 8 hours' uninterrupted sleep I'd be delighted no matter when I awoke. One or two piddle pauses and the fabrikratten heading off to Germany at 4 am, that's what I get.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Ruthie

  • Her Majester
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1293 on: 07 August, 2016, 05:09:18 pm »
There's a single Kakapo parrot on mainland New Zealand, he's only 19 and he could live to be a hundred.  World's loneliest parrot  :'(  He goes out every night calling for a mate.  Aw  :(
Milk please, no sugar.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
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Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1294 on: 07 August, 2016, 05:22:45 pm »
You'd think that they might employ the local freelance kakapo tracker and the local freelance kakapo tracker's kakapo tracking dog to round up the unhappy example of the world's fattest and least able to fly parrot and haul him off to one of the islands with lady parrots.  On it.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Ruthie

  • Her Majester
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1295 on: 07 August, 2016, 05:24:23 pm »
That would be the kind thing to do, wouldn't it? 
Milk please, no sugar.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1296 on: 07 August, 2016, 05:37:55 pm »
I love kakapo <3
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Torslanda

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  • Just a tart for retro kit . . .
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Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1297 on: 07 August, 2016, 06:02:10 pm »
The explanation above notwithstanding I still wouldn't admit to that.  :o

Especially on the internet . . .  :hand:
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
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Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1298 on: 07 August, 2016, 08:28:41 pm »
Penguins, parrots?  Nah, it'd never work ;D
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Vince

  • Can't climb; won't climb
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #1299 on: 07 August, 2016, 09:00:48 pm »
That 'Shed of the Year' is a thing.

I'm not impressed with the entrants in this edition - Not one Seekrit Bunkah to be seen.
216km from Marsh Gibbon