Things you have recently learnt

briantrumpet

fenix said:

That sign language is different in each country and even has regional variances. This seems a shame.

But no more surprising than the world having many spoken languages: sign language evolves (both in vocabulary and grammar) to suit the needs of its users, just like spoken language (this is one of the key features of all living languages), so it's only natural that the various varieties evolve differently in different places.

bompington

My favourite sign in BSL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es807RyK4sI

Tashman

Stevo_666 said:

Tashman said:

rick_chasey said:

Some of the stats coming out of international men's day were quite eye opening.

In the UK, 1 in 8 men say they have properly 'no friends' and 1 in 5 say they don't have a friend close enough to discuss personal issues.

All sounds perfectly normal to me

Do 'friends' on bike forums count?

On a serious note, I've had great advice and people "listening" to me vent on here. i think the faceless nature of it helps to a degree. I'm just not someone who's ever managed to keep in touch with friends over time.

Wheelspinner

Tashman said:

Stevo_666 said:

Tashman said:

rick_chasey said:

Some of the stats coming out of international men's day were quite eye opening.

In the UK, 1 in 8 men say they have properly 'no friends' and 1 in 5 say they don't have a friend close enough to discuss personal issues.

All sounds perfectly normal to me

Do 'friends' on bike forums count?

On a serious note, I've had great advice and people "listening" to me vent on here. i think the faceless nature of it helps to a degree. I'm just not someone who's ever managed to keep in touch with friends over time.

Ditto.

Since we (a) moved interstate and (b) I retired, I've found that despite my efforts via messages, calls and emails that I have less to do with my (former) friends than I'd wish for, and been slow to make new ones here.

Online "conversations" via these pages and some others I visit are very definitely a benefit to me.

Longshot

Train drivers are touchy when you suggest (on Twitter) that the their job can be boiled down to. "That's the go pedal and that's the stop pedal. The guard does the rest."

elbowloh

longshot said:

Train drivers are touchy when you suggest (on Twitter) that the their job can be boiled down to. "That's the go pedal and that's the stop pedal. The guard does the rest."

Hence the strikes about the TOCs trying to get rid of guards and making them "train managers".

rick_chasey

Wheelspinner said:

Tashman said:

Stevo_666 said:

Tashman said:

rick_chasey said:

Some of the stats coming out of international men's day were quite eye opening.

In the UK, 1 in 8 men say they have properly 'no friends' and 1 in 5 say they don't have a friend close enough to discuss personal issues.

All sounds perfectly normal to me

Do 'friends' on bike forums count?

On a serious note, I've had great advice and people "listening" to me vent on here. i think the faceless nature of it helps to a degree. I'm just not someone who's ever managed to keep in touch with friends over time.

Ditto.

Since we (a) moved interstate and (b) I retired, I've found that despite my efforts via messages, calls and emails that I have less to do with my (former) friends than I'd wish for, and been slow to make new ones here.

Online "conversations" via these pages and some others I visit are very definitely a benefit to me.

Sorry to hear that mate but glad the forum helps.

Longshot

elbowloh said:

longshot said:

Train drivers are touchy when you suggest (on Twitter) that the their job can be boiled down to. "That's the go pedal and that's the stop pedal. The guard does the rest."

Hence the strikes about the TOCs trying to get rid of guards and making them "train managers".

I'm advised (no doubt by a card-carrying member of the RMT) that it takes months of intensive training for train drivers. Even if you had to repeat what I wrote above a few times I'm struggling to see how it takes months. Is there a lights on/off switch as well do you think?

elbowloh

longshot said:

elbowloh said:

longshot said:

Train drivers are touchy when you suggest (on Twitter) that the their job can be boiled down to. "That's the go pedal and that's the stop pedal. The guard does the rest."

Hence the strikes about the TOCs trying to get rid of guards and making them "train managers".

I'm advised (no doubt by a card-carrying member of the RMT) that it takes months of intensive training for train drivers. Even if you had to repeat what I wrote above a few times I'm struggling to see how it takes months. Is there a lights on/off switch as well do you think?

Yeah, it's a lot more than just operating the train itself. You have to know the routes you are driving on, about the quirks of individual lines, stations, signal sighting / lines etc.

Then there's emergency protocols, communications etc. You probably also have to do PTS (personal track safety or equivalent) which is a week's course in itself about safety working on or near the tracks, actually a driver would have to do what used to be called IWA (individual working alone) as they may need to walk along the track in the case of an emergency.

Longshot

elbowloh said:

longshot said:

elbowloh said:

longshot said:

Train drivers are touchy when you suggest (on Twitter) that the their job can be boiled down to. "That's the go pedal and that's the stop pedal. The guard does the rest."

Hence the strikes about the TOCs trying to get rid of guards and making them "train managers".

I'm advised (no doubt by a card-carrying member of the RMT) that it takes months of intensive training for train drivers. Even if you had to repeat what I wrote above a few times I'm struggling to see how it takes months. Is there a lights on/off switch as well do you think?

Yeah, it's a lot more than just operating the train itself. You have to know the routes you are driving on, about the quirks of individual lines, stations, signal sighting / lines etc.

Then there's emergency protocols, communications etc. You probably also have to do PTS (personal track safety or equivalent) which is a week's course in itself about safety working on or near the tracks, actually a driver would have to do what used to be called IWA (individual working alone) as they may need to walk along the track in the case of an emergency.

Interestingly I was given PTS training for a rail-enabled site and it took 2 hours.

Ben6899

That wasn't PTS then. Probably a TVP - which is usually just a form to fill in, but if you're not savvy with how railways work then I can see why a 2hr training session might accompany it.

elbowloh is correct (I'm not a train driver, btw).

elbowloh

Yes, it certainly wasn't PTS you did. You would have also have had to undergo a full medical, including a hearing test, sight test and a D&A test. You would have then later received a Sentinel card displaying your competencies and restrictions that would need to be checked at the start of every shift on site (actually scanned nowadays i think?).

I am not a train driver either, but have worked on the railway, having done both PTS and IWA.

If i remember rightly, one of the reasons why we had all those delays from the introduction of the new timetables earlier this year was it), was because the timetables didn't come out in time for the TOCs to train the drivers in the new routes, which takes weeks.

Longshot

Obviously I'm not being serious about the ease of driving trains. I've been inside the cockpit (or what was left of it) of the Virgin Pendolino that derailed in Cumbria and it still looked pretty complicated then.

I'm not sure what the acronym was for the training I received. I used to take people round a site that still had live 3rd rail on it and needed the certificate to be able to turn the power off and what to do/not do with anyone unfortunate enough to step on it

bompington

I don't really know how long it takes to train the most skillful and safe train drivers, but with modern hardware the upload should only take about a hundredth of a second.

Ben6899

longshot said:

Obviously I'm not being serious about the ease of driving trains. I've been inside the cockpit (or what was left of it) of the Virgin Pendolino that derailed in Cumbria and it still looked pretty complicated then.

I'm not sure what the acronym was for the training I received. I used to take people round a site that still had live 3rd rail on it and needed the certificate to be able to turn the power off and what to do/not do with anyone unfortunate enough to step on it

You were on site at Grayrigg, following the derailment? I'm intrigued to know what you do for a living.

orraloon

Could be he's a pikey scavenger picking over the debris looking for copper wire and the like? 😉

pinno

orraloon said:

Could be he's a pikey scavenger picking over the debris looking for copper wire and a wife. 😉

ddraver

rick_chasey said:

Wheelspinner said:

Tashman said:

Stevo_666 said:

Tashman said:

rick_chasey said:

Some of the stats coming out of international men's day were quite eye opening.

In the UK, 1 in 8 men say they have properly 'no friends' and 1 in 5 say they don't have a friend close enough to discuss personal issues.

All sounds perfectly normal to me

Do 'friends' on bike forums count?

On a serious note, I've had great advice and people "listening" to me vent on here. i think the faceless nature of it helps to a degree. I'm just not someone who's ever managed to keep in touch with friends over time.

Ditto.

Since we (a) moved interstate and (b) I retired, I've found that despite my efforts via messages, calls and emails that I have less to do with my (former) friends than I'd wish for, and been slow to make new ones here.

Online "conversations" via these pages and some others I visit are very definitely a benefit to me.

Sorry to hear that mate but glad the forum helps.

I've moved around a lot in the last 10 years and, if it helps, it's nothing personal. Everyone says they will come and visit you...but they don't. Again, it's nothing personal, it costs money and time which people don't have much of nowadays. How do they want to spend your holiday? Visiting a mate in a random city or doing the one thing you want to do that year (whatever that is).

My advice, for what it's worth, is to get out and - as cliche as it sounds - join a cycling club, take a life drawing class, learn Mongolian or whatever. something that puts you in contact with people you'll get along with. When you've had friends handed to you on a plate (which sounds horrible, but think to where you met your wife, bestie, drinking buddy etc. it was likely they happened to be in the same school year, uni course, work department etc...) it can be a struggle, even feel like a failing. But screw that, get out there!

(no issues were triggered by your post, none whatsoever, no 😭)

pinno

Friends: they come and go. Enemies: they accumulate.

pblakeney

pinno said:

Friends: they come and go. Enemies: they accumulate.

Excellent!

thistle_

tailwindhome said:

ballysmate wrote:

tailwindhome wrote:

That percentage calculations can be flipped and give the same answer



30% of 50 is the same as 50% of 30





I have GCSE maths, A level maths and a professional accounting qualification and had never been taught this.

And they say exams have not been dumbed down. :?

Every day's a school day my friend.
You probably got taught that multiplication is commutative and thought that's a complicated way for saying you can do it in any order.

slowbike

ddraver said:

But screw that, get out there!

Er - not sure you should be going out and screwing all your friends ... or "to be friends" .... well - not if you've already got partner anyway

awavey

surrey_commuter said:

Tashman said:

rick_chasey said:

Some of the stats coming out of international men's day were quite eye opening.

In the UK, 1 in 8 men say they have properly 'no friends' and 1 in 5 say they don't have a friend close enough to discuss personal issues.

All sounds perfectly normal to me

+1 a proper friend would know not to talk about their personal issues

well maybe stating the obvious to say it but thats cause & effect right there of why they even bring up that stat in the first place.

a proper friend would know how to talk about personal issues with you and encourage you to share/discuss simply be being someone who can offer to listen, they would instinctively know something was troubling you but would let you discuss it at your pace.

that to me is what being a proper friend is about, and Im not saying that because women spend all their time chatting about their intimate stuff with each other, those close bonds of friendship are just as hard to form and life can be just as lonely if you cant make them, and when they go wrong it can be spectacularly devastating, but I think the difference is we try to form those types of friendships, whilst blokes just seem to want someone to share the cost of buying a beer with

pinno

awavey said:

...whilst blokes just seem to want someone to share the cost of buying a beer with

Err...

Mt two pence worth: True friends, you can count on the finger of one hand.

I have friends I made at College years ago, and I am still in touch and even if a month or three passes by that I don't speak to them, we pick things up like it was the day before.

No, i'm terrible at small talk so the friends I have made over the years all have the same trait and there's little we don;t talk about.

mouth

bompington said:

I don't really know how long it takes to train the most skillful and safe train drivers, but with modern hardware the upload should only take about a hundredth of a second.

If you can get through the interview and testing process (or even just get an interview) I wouldn't expect to be driving a train unaccompanied and with passengers inside the next 15 or so months. It's an incredibly complicated process, and you also have to learn fault finding and trouble-shooting on each of the model types your company operates. This is aside from route learning, signalling, laws and legislation, track safety...………….

East Midlands Railways for instance probably recruit and train a maximum of 20 drivers per year, and there are 15 or so Government tender companies (ie privatised offerings) and then companies offering goods services - EWS/DB Schenker, Stobart Rail, DRS. Getting into any of these companies from outside to be directly trained as a mainline driver is roughly akin to clearing up rocking horse poo. So long as you have the financial means, you're more likely to fly a BA aircraft.

chris_bass

Man United are averaging 1.25 points per game (past 20 league games), over 38 games that equals 48 points (i rounded up - feeling generous!).

that would have achieved 8th, 9th and 13th in the past 3 seasons!

Similar for Spurs puts them on 51 points (51.3 if you want to be precise) - Arsenal 2 points ahead of that.

The standard of the league this year is awful

Stevo_666

chris_bass said:

Man United are averaging 1.25 points per game (past 20 league games), over 38 games that equals 48 points (i rounded up - feeling generous!).

that would have achieved 8th, 9th and 13th in the past 3 seasons!

Similar for Spurs puts them on 51 points (51.3 if you want to be precise) - Arsenal 2 points ahead of that.

The standard of the league this year is awful

Or maybe Man U, Spurs and Arsenal are cr@p?

Pross

chris_bass said:

Man United are averaging 1.25 points per game (past 20 league games), over 38 games that equals 48 points (i rounded up - feeling generous!).

that would have achieved 8th, 9th and 13th in the past 3 seasons!

Similar for Spurs puts them on 51 points (51.3 if you want to be precise) - Arsenal 2 points ahead of that.

The standard of the league this year is awful

Isn't it showing the standard is higher this season than in the last 3 seasons as the same points (pro rata) are resulting in a lower position?

48 points for 8th seems extremely low, I always thought 40 was the number talked about to be safe from relegation.

Ben6899

Slight tangent, but the game has changed beyond recognition for me. I support United (not a plastic, before anyone starts)... heard a rumour that Saudis are interested in a buy-out.

I'm out, if that happens. Completely out. Not interested.

Pross

Going back to the train driver issue, I'm intrigued to know what learning the route involves as I'd always assumed that the train ends up going where the points send it and that the points are outside the driver's control so other than knowing which stations they need to stop at what does that part of the training involve?