Seemingly trivial things that intrigue you

briantrumpet

First.Aspect said:

briantrumpet said:

First.Aspect said:

I'm re watching The Wire.

I am warned at the start about strong and frequent language.

What's frequent language?

Is it words like often?

I really do need to get my copy back from a friend and see it for the fourth time from start to finish.

I frequently reference the crime scene that uses only idioms using the word 'fvck' to tell the story of how someone was shot, as a way of illustrating how adaptable words can be, and how much information is transmitted by the way you deliver words. Fvck yeah.

That was used frequently, I agree.

And I go to the cinema regularly.

Once every 15 years, on average.

photonic69

Interesting - one of our suppliers have just submitted a quote for many thousands of pounds worth of kit we need but they can only honour that quote for 7 days! It used to be at least 30. This is what they said.

"Due to uncertainty in exchange rates we have seen a number of price increases from manufacturers and are
expecting more over the coming weeks.
We aim to price as competitively as possible and to commit to those prices for 7 days from quote. In the
circumstances this is much more difficult to do and we may have to requote within the 7 day period. Where this
happens we will back it up with letters from our suppliers confirming their price increases."

veronese68

photonic69 said:

Interesting - one of our suppliers have just submitted a quote for many thousands of pounds worth of kit we need but they can only honour that quote for 7 days! It used to be at least 30. This is what they said.

Not unusual these days unfortunately, when I first moved from sales to buying we used to get 30 or 40 price changes per week. Now it's more like 2-300 every week! Things aren't as volatile as they were a couple of years ago, but still changing frequently.

rick_chasey

I do wonder why school admin staff are also off for the half term...

Pross

rick_chasey said:

I do wonder why school admin staff are also off for the half term...

It will be taken into account in their contract I think i.e. salary gets prorated. When my wife was a nursery nurse / teaching assistant in a school her contracts were term to term or school year to school year and she didn't get paid for the holidays over and above standard leave. She used to have to do other work through the holidays and hope there'd be a new contract the next year. It's the reason she stopped doing it in the end.

morstar

First.Aspect said:

I lived in Canada when indoor smoking was banned, other than private homes.

Given the climate in a lot of the country (albeit not where I lived) outdoors wasn't an option in winter, so all these vented smoking boxes appeared in the corners of pubs. They looked grim. At least the parts that weren't obscured by the smoke.

Anyone remember the airport smoking areas that were around in some terminals a decade or two ago? Whatever happened to them? I used to enjoy watching the inmates.

There is one in Athens airport. Flew from there two weeks ago and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Which is a sign of how things have changed. People smoking indoors is so totally alien nowadays.

Stevo_666

morstar said:

First.Aspect said:

I lived in Canada when indoor smoking was banned, other than private homes.

Given the climate in a lot of the country (albeit not where I lived) outdoors wasn't an option in winter, so all these vented smoking boxes appeared in the corners of pubs. They looked grim. At least the parts that weren't obscured by the smoke.

Anyone remember the airport smoking areas that were around in some terminals a decade or two ago? Whatever happened to them? I used to enjoy watching the inmates.

There is one in Athens airport. Flew from there two weeks ago and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Which is a sign of how things have changed. People smoking indoors is so totally alien nowadays.

There was a smoking room at Munich Airport when I was there in June this year. Not many people in it.

briantrumpet

There were ones at Paris CdG till a few years ago. It still amuses me how many people get out of the TGV at Lyon PD for a few deperate puffs while the train doors are open.

briantrumpet

Why in floods apparently very able-bodied people are carried or put in boats pulled by people just walking in knee-deep water. I think keeping my calves and socks dry would be low on my list of priorities in such circumstances.

rick_chasey

Being in a business which does well when there's a lot of strife really f*cks with your head.

I used to cover the physical commodity trading world around 10 years ago and eventually got out of it following a huge deal for me that fell through as a result of the Russian invasion of Crimea. Slept a lot better since.

Colleague in my current place covers it now and has done for 20 years and you can see how messed his head is.

Unsurprisingly, oil trading is much more profitable when there's big wars on, especially in oil producing countries, and consequently there's been a lot of hiring in that world with big profits.

https://www.economist.com/business/2023/10/19/why-big-oil-is-beefing-up-its-trading-arms

Said to me unironically this morning "yeah it's great for business, long may it continue".

500,000 estimated deaths so far in that war, mate.

He's an otherwise pretty conscientious guy, but christ alive.

Like, you know it's bad objectively, but in your day-to-day life, the world is much improved.

I certainly don't have the head for it.

First.Aspect

It's a juggling act in other sectors. For example, working as a lawyer for a tobacco firm or representing one.

rick_chasey

Yeah, I guess in law you can (and should) hide behind the fact that everyone needs legal representation for the system to work.

First.Aspect

rick_chasey said:

Yeah, I guess in law you can (and should) hide behind the fact that everyone needs legal representation for the system to work.

True. It is still something I would struggle with, depending on the arguments I was running.

The closest I get is working for petrochemical or aerospace clients. Hand on heart I don't know where my personal line is, but it seems to be well beyond saving the planet.

rick_chasey

First.Aspect said:

rick_chasey said:

Yeah, I guess in law you can (and should) hide behind the fact that everyone needs legal representation for the system to work.

True. It is still something I would struggle with, depending on the arguments I was running.

The closest I get is working for petrochemical or aerospace clients. Hand on heart I don't know where my personal line is, but it seems to be well beyond saving the planet.

Having had genuinely bad organisations as clients, I took a conscientious turn around 6 years ago; I turned down a big piece of work from a middle eastern sovereign wealth fund largely on ethical grounds. Left around £20k of personal income on the table.

Would do it again, tbh.

surrey_commuter

rick_chasey said:

Being in a business which does well when there's a lot of strife really f*cks with your head.

I used to cover the physical commodity trading world around 10 years ago and eventually got out of it following a huge deal for me that fell through as a result of the Russian invasion of Crimea. Slept a lot better since.

Colleague in my current place covers it now and has done for 20 years and you can see how messed his head is.

Unsurprisingly, oil trading is much more profitable when there's big wars on, especially in oil producing countries, and consequently there's been a lot of hiring in that world with big profits.

https://www.economist.com/business/2023/10/19/why-big-oil-is-beefing-up-its-trading-arms

Said to me unironically this morning "yeah it's great for business, long may it continue".

500,000 estimated deaths so far in that war, mate.

He's an otherwise pretty conscientious guy, but christ alive.

Like, you know it's bad objectively, but in your day-to-day life, the world is much improved.

I certainly don't have the head for it.

If it helps then casulaties does not equal deaths.

The best estimates of deaths are 200,000 the balance is people no longer fit to fight.

rick_chasey

Wehay, I'm sure he'll sleep better at night.

briantrumpet

Out of interest, are people bothering to test for covid when they've got a sniffle/sore throat now? I've not tested, mostly because I'm not sure what I'd do differently if it came back positive. As it is, I've mostly stayed home or outdoors whilst I've had the sniffles, and wore a mask when I went into a couple of shops yesterday. But if my pupils are anything to go by, we're back to "Sorry, I've got a cold, but didn't want to miss any school" as the norm.

FWIW, I'm still doing as much ventilation as I can get away with, even if it didn't stop me catching something.

verylonglegs

I became ill halfway through last week and have tested twice, both came up negative, but my reasoning for doing so was I've still never knowingly had covid after all this time and it was mere curiosity, I'm not sure I would have done so otherwise.
As you say most people aren't bothered, even if it comes up postitive it doesn't really change anything, we are now back to being ill is just being ill, labelling it as covid doesn't add anything.

pblakeney

briantrumpet said:

Out of interest, are people bothering to test for covid when they've got a sniffle/sore throat now?
...

Mostly treating it as a cold. No point in testing as that knowledge now changes nothing. That said, I minimise the chance of spreading whatever I do have.

First.Aspect

My wife has to for work, other than that, no.

Most of the great unwashed seem to think that either 1. Passing on a cold is okay but giving someone Covid is not 2. Anything like a cold or Covid is a cold unless proven otherwose or 3. It doesn't matter because covid is mild now.

Very few people think it was always kind of w@nk to give someone else a cold, such that it doesn't much matter whether it's covid or a cold because you shouldn't be mixing.

veronese68

I had a nasty covid type bug a couple of weeks ago, did a test because we still have some. It was negative, which I expected as wife and son had the same bug before me and had tested negative. As mentioned it didn't affect my behaviour anyway, I worked from home so as to try and avoid sharing it, when i'd stopped coughing and felt up to it I went back to the office, but had to drive in as I still felt completely drained. Thankfully back to normal and wobbling to work on my bike, slightly irritating there's less traffic as it's now half term.

carbonclem

We came back from holiday late August and I fell ill. I did feel quite stupid in a shop with a running nose and heavy cold buying a couple of packs of Paracetemol etc and three Covid test kits. However, tested positive and stayed away from people until I felt better. I just wanted to know for myself really.

Pross

I tested a few weeks ago. The wife had tested, although she no longer has to, as she works with vulnerable people and was positive. I wasn't feeling great so tested too and was negative. The main reason I tested was that if it had been Covid I would have given my planned long run a miss but it didn't make much difference in the end as I turned back 2 miles into the run as I didn't feel up to it. Both kits were left overs and past their use by date (had to use 2 sets of the fluid to have enough). Working from home it doesn't make any difference really to me as I'm either well enough to sit at my desk or I'm not but it does still feel like employers are more inclined to accept an employee being off with Covid than with a common cold.

focuszing723

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djzOBZUFzTw
In a hundred, thousand years..?

briantrumpet

Quite how Judi Dench can do this with a sonnet written over 400 years ago, in the middle of a TV chat show.

https://twitter.com/wychstreet/status/1718033113564008703

rjsterry

briantrumpet said:

Quite how Judi Dench can do this with a sonnet written over 400 years ago, in the middle of a TV chat show.

https://twitter.com/wychstreet/status/1718033113564008703

Practice. She's been doing it a long time.

briantrumpet

rjsterry said:

briantrumpet said:

Quite how Judi Dench can do this with a sonnet written over 400 years ago, in the middle of a TV chat show.

https://twitter.com/wychstreet/status/1718033113564008703

Practice. She's been doing it a long time.

Absolutely, but there's something deep in her experience which allows her to use her voice and facial expressions to get deep into your soul too, and it's no more analysable than how great art or a great musician can do the same.

rjsterry

USB-C cables and what the difference is between cheapo and expensive.

https://youtu.be/AD5aAd8Oy84?si=25JO2_n9wfQSdwV2

rick_chasey

Can someone explain why wet weather on its own causes big potholes.

I always thought it was the water freezing which cracked and popped the surface.

pblakeney

rjsterry said:

USB-C cables and what the difference is between cheapo and expensive.

Very interesting. Nerdy, but interesting.
There was me thinking they were just cables with a connection at either end.