what I have learned today.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Today I are learning that Daylight Saving Time was first implemented in Thunder Bay ON in 1908.

It must be a very sunny place now they've been saving daylight for 114 years.

[Mr Larrington]

P9220038 by Mr Larrington, on Flickr

2022-09-22, about lunchtime.

[Efrogwr]

That Walthamstow is the seventeenth coolest place in the World...


According to a bollcks survey in Time Out.

[joy of essex]

I assume that mainly refers to the " Village".

[Mr Larrington]

I certainly doubt it refers to the area around Larrington Towers

[Jurek]

It certainly cannot refer to the business estate on which I work.

[Cudzoziemiec]

That the average age of cars in Denmark is 8.4 years, in Finland 12.5 years and in Poland 17.3 years.

[Kim]

10.7 for Norway, which is perhaps surprising given how enthusiastic they are about electric ones.  7.5 in Oslo, thobut.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I have 10.5 for Norway:

Number of cars: 4,8 MN
Average age of car fleet: 9,9 years
Population: 10,2 MN
Sweden

Number of cars: 2,8 MN
Average age of car fleet: 10,5 years
Population: 5,5 MN Norway

Number of cars: 2,5 MN
Average age of car fleet: 8,4 years
Population: 5,7 MN
Denmark

Number of cars: 3,1 MN
Average age of car fleet: 12,5 years
Population: 5,5 MN
Finland

Number of cars: 22,5 MN
Average age of car fleet: 17,3 year
Population: 37,9 MN
Poland

Number of cars: 0,7 MN
Average age of car fleet: 16,7 years
Population: 1,3 MN
Estonia

Number of cars: 0,6 MN
Average age of car fleet: 14,1 year
Population: 1,9 MN
Latvia

Number of cars: 1,1 MN
Average age of car fleet: 16,9 years
Population: 2,7 MN
Lithuania

Copied off a powerpoint hence formatting

[Kim]

Your figures are probably more up to date than the ones I was struggling to find by googling.

[Cudzoziemiec]

It's also striking how the Baltics and Sweden have much lower car ownership than the others (and Poland the highest).

[Basil]

Figures for UK? 
I spose I should JFGI, but can't be bottomed.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Then that would be a thing you have learned today. It's not a thing I have learned today.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Figures for UK? 
I spose I should JFGI, but can't be bottomed.

8.4 years according to SMMT.

Total vehicles in use on UK roads falls to 40.35m units – the first drop since 2009.
Average age of car rises to 8.4 years old – the oldest on record – with almost 10m vehicles from 2008 and earlier still in service.
Vans reach historic highs, up to 4.6m, but declines recorded in truck, bus and coach numbers.
Number of BEVs and PHEVs increase by more than 168,000 cars, but account for just 1.3% of the parc – demonstrating scale of task ahead to meet ambitious green targets.

https://www.smmt.co.uk/2021/05/britains-cars-getting-older-but-van-ownership-reaches-historic-highs/

Meanwhile, these figures for the EU slightly contradict those above:
https://www.acea.auto/figure/average-age-of-eu-vehicle-fleet-by-country/

[T42]

There are around 3,000 independent traditional bakeries in the US, and around 30,000 in France, according to a USAnian yammering about disgusting American bread on YT.

I can believe the first figure, but the second seems a bit low.

[rafletcher]

Courtesy of my wife, who heard it on the wireless, that 200,000 people died in the English civil war.

[Canardly]

That ducks love to eat garden peas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JX7F9yJlaQ

[fimm]

That my husband distinguishes between Christmas Lights, which may be put up before Christmas, and the Christmas Tree, which should only go up on Christmas Eve.

[T42]

That my husband distinguishes between Christmas Lights, which may be put up before Christmas, and the Christmas Tree, which should only go up on Christmas Eve.

Ditto.  Dunno why, my parents didn't. Well, it is the German tradition and Christmas trees are German Albert's fault, but in my case it's laziness and Albert's my excuse.

[Cudzoziemiec]

That in the 1970s BMW motorcycles had handpainted pinstriping on their tanks and, Carradice style, each tank was signed by the individual responsible for the brushwork.

[citoyen]

That TfL has a messaging system to communicate directly with London bus drivers called DRIVE - which stands for Driver Realtime Information Vehicle Experience.

[citoyen]

That my husband distinguishes between Christmas Lights, which may be put up before Christmas, and the Christmas Tree, which should only go up on Christmas Eve.

When I was a small person, putting up the Christmas tree was something we did as a family when my dad got home from work on Christmas Eve. This is perfectly normal behaviour.

The clue is in the name: Christmas tree, not The Whole Of Frigging November And December tree.

I really don't see why the "Christmas period" has to take up nearly 20% of the whole year.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Halloween and Christmas between them seem to have squeezed Poppy Season* this year, judging by the number of poppies I've seen so far (one). That Guy Fawkes Day has also gone is obvious.

*Senior readers may know this as Remembrance Day.

[Mr Larrington]

Poppymas, and the inevitable War On It, has been ramping up steadily over the past Several of years.  There is a strong correlation between those getting exercised over tEh   WaR ,,,,,,,,,,,, oN pOpPeEz and fleg-noncers, veterans of The War On Christmas and other things that rile the Gammonariat.

[Kim]

Probably a good time to make the most of https://twitter.com/giantpoppywatch while the birdsite still works...