Posts by Rich 11 4583 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Jul 2009
Speaking as someone who hasn't actually flown since 1981, and that was in a very basic Dan Air HS748 :-)
The last aircraft I flew in was a Dragon Rapide. I remember looking out of the window over the lower port wing and thinking, "That engine is smaller than a motorcycle". Afterwards I looked up the engine's power and found that it produced twice the BHP of a Kawasaki 1100, which was a bit more comforting.
I started work at a site the same week that some incompetent in the Finance department was put on gardening leave for allegedly covering up some expensive cockup he'd made in a finance spreadsheet; it was my job to do a bit of basic forensic work (IT, not the accounting type) on his PC and the server share hosting some of the spreadsheets. I also searched the office for floppy disks (this was in the time of Windows 95) and found some unofficial backups tucked away which contained incriminating versions of the covered-up files.
There was a suspicion that Mr Incompetent would have wanted to get rid of those floppies if he hadn't been frogmarched out by Security, so it wasn't a surprise to hear the following day that he'd been spotted on camera trying to break into his office in the middle of the night. His office window was hidden from the main walk by bushes and they found jemmy marks in the woodwork, plus burn marks where he'd attempted to start a fire once he failed to break in (presumably he chose not to break the glass because it would have made too much noise). He'd clearly given up and walked away, because he was on two of the security cameras, with a hoody and baseball cap obscuring his face. Mr Incompetent lived up to his name by pulling down his hood and taking off his cap the moment he stepped off the property, providing an absolutely perfect mugshot to the camera across the road watching the gate.
The only times I have ever needed to use a fire extinguisher has been when builders are around. One summer there was so much renovation work going on that once you heard an angle grinder start up you just knew the fire alarm was going to sound within the next five minutes.
Me (empty extinguisher in hand): "Why the fuck did you leave all that waste piled up against the wall when you knew you'd be throwing sparks into it?!"
Builder: "The skip's full and isn't due to be emptied until tomorrow."
I always cheer when I'm watching a film where the bad guy gets smacked in the face with a fire extinguisher.
I got a colonoscopy as 55th birthday present from the NHS
I was looking forward to mine (as best as you can look forward to these things, for peace of mind) since I was expecting that the huge central hospital or one of the several supporting clinics nearby in town would be the location of the auspicious event. For reasons best known only to the NHS, I was told to attend the hospital in the county's main city instead. Given the instructions regarding timing this left me with the choice of, post laxative, running the risk of accidentally shitting myself on the 50-minute bus journey or of accidentally shitting myself on one of the two 20-minute walks to or from train stations. I asked for an appointment closer to home, which they were able to set for eight months later, but which of course has now been cancelled. I'd be only too happy to provide a sample instead.
I've still got the cheap wardrobe and chest of drawers I bought when I bought this house 29 years ago. I'd intended to replace them after a few years because they were all I could afford at the time, but they're still going strong. They look like tat but they still function, so I don't see any point in replacing them.
And before you can ask, no, I'm not married. Probably because most of my furniture is second-hand tat!
and allegedly the same result can be obtained at over half-a-mile using the air-search radar modes of the MiG-29.
There's a story from the Czech Air Force that the MiG-23's radar was capable of killing rabbits from a kilometre away. They used to test the scan/lock on a ground range; any bunny nibbling grass just in front of the target shed would end up in the evening meal.
she'd have parents turn up to parents evenings and sit quaking in their seats
One of my mates moved back to our home town, kids in tow, to learn that a couple of the teachers who'd taught us back in the 70s were still there and were now teaching his son.
He went to the first parent-teacher evening with justified trepidation. He sat down in front of one of his old teachers, introduced himself and asked about his son's progress. The teacher gave him a long look, tipped his head to one side and said laconically, "He's his father's son."
"because this other department are not co-operating"
Been there, done that, was ignored. Got so pissed off with the clusterfuck that I resigned for the sake of my sanity. Eight months after the original go-live date I'm told that it has finally gone live, to what might best be described as low acclaim. Now several former supposed colleagues are being forcibly resigned. I won't weep for them.
a custom-built wheeled cart that the jet lowers to the ground as it is flying 20' above the ground
I respectfully suggest that this would be worse.
Can we just say that, as a general principle, a supersonic aircraft in ground effect would not be a safe vehicle in which to ride?
When we went on holiday, my dad just flipped the Master Switch on the fuse box in the pantry, and turned the gas main knob all the way off before locking the front door.
Did he also unplug the TV aerial in case there was a thunderstorm? Mine did.
(We didn't have the problem with the freezer. It was in the garage, on a separate circuit. I suppose the local scallies could have tapped into that while we were away, but generally they didn't have the nous not to fall off ladders or stab each other with screwdrivers, so the lecky was comparatively safe.)
At least you get to train for those deeply worrying (but mostly rare) events.
With the advantage of decades of hindsight I do wonder if my hands-on HND shouldn't have included a module describing techniques for handling 'oh shit' moments and for covering up any consequences or reallocating blame. Would the 17-year-old me have been intrigued to see that in the college prospectus?
Maybe advanced user management (blackmail and cattle prods) should also have been in the module.
Apparently the lawyers have been getting nervous and their bosses are starting to sweat too. Some of the radio networks have been getting their right-wing talk-radio hosts to read out statements declaring their recent statements as not being necessarily true (for some veteran hosts, 'recent' will go back to 1987 and the end of the Fairness Doctrine!).
Maybe there is an advantage to living in the most litigious nation on the face of the planet, even if it takes the tragedy of an attempted coup and five deaths to get anyone to consider the vitriolic drip of little lies as a contributor to cause and effect.
there's a whole lot of rot to cut away
The US could start by performing a dickectomy on itself and cutting away Florida. They're going to lose the state to climate change anyway, so best just to make the cut now and save some money.
You can work on reason all you like, but if your underlying assumptions are wrong you're not going to be able to reach a valid conclusion. You've already demonstrated that you had the wrong idea of what constitutes trickle-down economics and you've already been given a link to the recent paper which assessed that it doesn't work as its proponents have claimed for the last forty years. It was always a contentious claim too, so the paper doesn't come as a surprise.
It's up to you what you do with that information.
Apparently the medical profession is shocked that there are fewer flu deaths than would normally be.
No, they're not shocked. This is an obvious and expected result of social distancing, mask-wearing and quarantine (self-isolation or lockdown). It's hardly a surprise that generic measures put in place to limit the spread of one infectious respiratory disease would also help restrict the spread of other infectious respiratory diseases. Greater awareness has also helped increase the take-up of the annual flu vaccine.
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