Seemingly trivial things that intrigue you

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  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,217

    Tashman said:

    elbowloh said:

    So, was watching Octonauts on Cbeebies earlier and the episode featured a creature that had a crab and an anenome living together in a symbiotic relationship and they explained what symbiosis was (using that term).

    Now, is it me or has kids tv (this is aimed at very young kids) come on a very long way?

    Is the Captain still a smug bar steward?
    You spelt Barnacles wrong :) - But yes
    I used to worry that I was cracking up by developing such a dislike for him. I also used to wonder why Fireman Sam did not murder Norman Price until I figured out he was their best customer
    Have you seen the kit they have at that station now? Even the biggest London station would be chuffed but this is a little town in the valleys (although it seems to also be by the sea somehow).
  • elbowloh
    elbowloh Posts: 7,078

    On that note, Postman Pat (modern version, "Special Delivery Service") seems to be the worst delivery man on the planet. Consistently late, always has his customers worried about everything, regularly loses the parcel or deliverable and has to rope in half the town's emergency services to save them, and yet he's consistently awarded "best postman ever" awards and claims he's never late with a delivery.

    Sounds fairly standard to me.
    Felt F1 2014
    Felt Z6 2012
    Red Arthur Caygill steel frame
    Tall....
    www.seewildlife.co.uk
  • veronese68
    veronese68 Posts: 27,252
    The worst thing about kids TV in the mornings is that the theme tunes are inevitably stuck in your head for the commute to work. Makes cycling with headphones seem like a better idea.
    Obviously this was in the olden days when my kids were young and people used to go somewhere away from home to work.
  • elbowloh
    elbowloh Posts: 7,078
    How about this?

    When you lose weight, most (84% by weight) of the fat is converted to C02 that you exhale. The rest is converted to water which you wee/sweat etc out.

    https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/where-does-your-fat-go-when-you-lose-weight/
    Felt F1 2014
    Felt Z6 2012
    Red Arthur Caygill steel frame
    Tall....
    www.seewildlife.co.uk
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,217
    elbowloh said:

    How about this?

    When you lose weight, most (84% by weight) of the fat is converted to C02 that you exhale. The rest is converted to water which you wee/sweat etc out.

    https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/where-does-your-fat-go-when-you-lose-weight/

    So I need to stay fat as losing weight is bad for climate change?
  • rjsterry
    rjsterry Posts: 27,487
    elbowloh said:

    How about this?

    When you lose weight, most (84% by weight) of the fat is converted to C02 that you exhale. The rest is converted to water which you wee/sweat etc out.

    https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/where-does-your-fat-go-when-you-lose-weight/

    Makes sense. Fat is a compound of C, H and O, so when you break it down you just return it whence it came.

    https://www.britannica.com/topic/fat/Chemical-composition-of-fats
    1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
    Pinnacle Monzonite

    Part of the anti-growth coalition
  • elbowloh
    elbowloh Posts: 7,078
    Yes, but I just assumed it would come out in your poo or wee, not that almost all of it comes out your mouth!
    Felt F1 2014
    Felt Z6 2012
    Red Arthur Caygill steel frame
    Tall....
    www.seewildlife.co.uk
  • pinno
    pinno Posts: 51,196
    I dunno. Does corn syrup and sugar have a bigger carbon footprint than lettuce?
    seanoconn - gruagach craic!
  • pinno
    pinno Posts: 51,196
    On that previous tack; Bob the builder. Turns up, cleans up and never mentions cost. He's giving kids the wrong impression of builders.
    seanoconn - gruagach craic!
  • First.Aspect
    First.Aspect Posts: 14,498
    Should have been on ITV. Then he could have asked for payment for the final and break, and then not turned up for the final scenes.
  • elbowloh
    elbowloh Posts: 7,078
    pinno said:

    On that previous tack; Bob the builder. Turns up, cleans up and never mentions cost. He's giving kids the wrong impression of builders.

    Don't get me started on sodding builders. We had our drive done first week or so in December. They were supposed to put in a new toilet sink under the stairs at the same time. They still haven't finished it. As part of that works, they had to move the fuse box, which also meant a new box. The fecking thing keeps tripping out. Finally get the sparkyto come back this morning to have a look (i wasn't in). He didn't put is mask on, then had it under his nose. then he bitched about my wife on the phone saying she said one thing then something else (she overheard), said he couldn't access the panel and someone needs to sort it out before he can do it. It was him that put the panel in and his workmate who then boxed it in and put an access panel in to it.

    Felt F1 2014
    Felt Z6 2012
    Red Arthur Caygill steel frame
    Tall....
    www.seewildlife.co.uk
  • pinno
    pinno Posts: 51,196
    elbowloh said:

    pinno said:

    On that previous tack; Bob the builder. Turns up, cleans up and never mentions cost. He's giving kids the wrong impression of builders.

    Don't get me started on sodding builders. We had our drive done first week or so in December. They were supposed to put in a new toilet sink under the stairs at the same time. They still haven't finished it. As part of that works, they had to move the fuse box, which also meant a new box. The fecking thing keeps tripping out. Finally get the sparkyto come back this morning to have a look (i wasn't in). He didn't put is mask on, then had it under his nose. then he bitched about my wife on the phone saying she said one thing then something else (she overheard), said he couldn't access the panel and someone needs to sort it out before he can do it. It was him that put the panel in and his workmate who then boxed it in and put an access panel in to it.

    You are literally, up to your elbows in it right now.
    seanoconn - gruagach craic!
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,244
    elbowloh said:

    pinno said:

    On that previous tack; Bob the builder. Turns up, cleans up and never mentions cost. He's giving kids the wrong impression of builders.

    Don't get me started on sodding builders. We had our drive done first week or so in December. They were supposed to put in a new toilet sink under the stairs at the same time. They still haven't finished it. As part of that works, they had to move the fuse box, which also meant a new box. The fecking thing keeps tripping out. Finally get the sparkyto come back this morning to have a look (i wasn't in). He didn't put is mask on, then had it under his nose. then he bitched about my wife on the phone saying she said one thing then something else (she overheard), said he couldn't access the panel and someone needs to sort it out before he can do it. It was him that put the panel in and his workmate who then boxed it in and put an access panel in to it.

    How did you get hold of them, out of interest? Did you use Chekatrade or something like that?
  • elbowloh said:

    pinno said:

    On that previous tack; Bob the builder. Turns up, cleans up and never mentions cost. He's giving kids the wrong impression of builders.

    Don't get me started on sodding builders. We had our drive done first week or so in December. They were supposed to put in a new toilet sink under the stairs at the same time. They still haven't finished it. As part of that works, they had to move the fuse box, which also meant a new box. The fecking thing keeps tripping out. Finally get the sparkyto come back this morning to have a look (i wasn't in). He didn't put is mask on, then had it under his nose. then he bitched about my wife on the phone saying she said one thing then something else (she overheard), said he couldn't access the panel and someone needs to sort it out before he can do it. It was him that put the panel in and his workmate who then boxed it in and put an access panel in to it.

    How did you get hold of them, out of interest? Did you use Chekatrade or something like that?
    Those sites are all run for the trades not for their customers
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,244
    Yeah? Interesting. I've had good experiences with it. How does the customer lose out?
  • pblakeney
    pblakeney Posts: 25,597
    edited January 2021

    Yeah? Interesting. I've had good experiences with it. How does the customer lose out?

    Surprisingly sh!t work from someone with excellent reviews.
    It shouldn't come as a surprise that reviews can be manipulated.
    The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
    I am not sure. You have no chance.
    Veronese68 wrote:
    PB is the most sensible person on here.
  • elbowloh
    elbowloh Posts: 7,078

    elbowloh said:

    pinno said:

    On that previous tack; Bob the builder. Turns up, cleans up and never mentions cost. He's giving kids the wrong impression of builders.

    Don't get me started on sodding builders. We had our drive done first week or so in December. They were supposed to put in a new toilet sink under the stairs at the same time. They still haven't finished it. As part of that works, they had to move the fuse box, which also meant a new box. The fecking thing keeps tripping out. Finally get the sparkyto come back this morning to have a look (i wasn't in). He didn't put is mask on, then had it under his nose. then he bitched about my wife on the phone saying she said one thing then something else (she overheard), said he couldn't access the panel and someone needs to sort it out before he can do it. It was him that put the panel in and his workmate who then boxed it in and put an access panel in to it.

    How did you get hold of them, out of interest? Did you use Chekatrade or something like that?
    Yeah. I only use checkatrade (or equivalent) or personal recommendations.
    Felt F1 2014
    Felt Z6 2012
    Red Arthur Caygill steel frame
    Tall....
    www.seewildlife.co.uk
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 20,511

    Yeah? Interesting. I've had good experiences with it. How does the customer lose out?

    The bad reviews are deleted, because the trades are the ones that pay.
  • elbowloh
    elbowloh Posts: 7,078

    Yeah? Interesting. I've had good experiences with it. How does the customer lose out?

    The bad reviews are deleted, because the trades are the ones that pay.
    the guys i went with were something like 9.8 out of 10.

    I wouldn't score them more than a 4. I'm constantly on at them to actually do what they quoted for and not cut corners.
    Felt F1 2014
    Felt Z6 2012
    Red Arthur Caygill steel frame
    Tall....
    www.seewildlife.co.uk
  • Yeah? Interesting. I've had good experiences with it. How does the customer lose out?

    The bad reviews are deleted, because the trades are the ones that pay.
    exactly this

    if you have a street whatsapp group ask on there

    be realistic about the size and attractiveness of your job and find somebody for who it is in their sweet spot -
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,217
    Yeah, personal recommendation is the only real way to go. The problem is that you get a bit of a Catch 22 as any decent builder is booked up for months in advance, you may also have to accept that they will have to juggle a few jobs which I don't have a problem with as long as you are warned in advance. The only criticism I would have of the one we had do our kitchen and garage conversion recently was that there were two days where he didn't show up which then stretched the work over an additional weekend (we had advanced notice of the first day but only found out they weren't coming the second day when I sent a text asking where they were). It was frustrating as had they done it a day earlier, before the kitchen base units were in, we could have got the walls painted more easily while waiting for them to come back. They did an excellent job though and were straight back with the one minor snag I found.
  • bompington
    bompington Posts: 7,674
    Questions to which the answer is always "no"

    I'm sure we all know that when a headline is framed as a question you can save yourself the trouble of reading any further by just assuming "no".

    "DOES THIS PROVE THE ROYAL FAMILY ARE LIZARDS?"
    No.
    "IS THERE A FORTUNE IN YOUR ATTIC?"
    No.
    "SHOULD I JOIN THE REPUBLICANS TO VOTE IN AN UNELECTABLE PILLOCK JUST FOR A LAUGH?"
    No.

    There are other questions to which the answer is always "no", and yesterday on a rare drive to work I had cause to ponder one of them:

    "should I overtake this snowplough?"

    ... since, like many such questions, sometimes we can't help answering "yes".

    Still, it was fun.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,217
    Why does the Local Legend feature on Strava have an overall leaderboard and a women only leaderboard? I understand it with KoM / QoM but there is no logic in having a split for something that is based purely on the frequency a person runs or cycles a segment. There are quite a few running segments around my area that are dominated by women so they get the overall and womens list whereas the top male doesn't get a mention.
  • pblakeney
    pblakeney Posts: 25,597
    Pross said:

    Why does the Local Legend feature on Strava have an overall leaderboard and a women only leaderboard? I understand it with KoM / QoM but there is no logic in having a split for something that is based purely on the frequency a person runs or cycles a segment. There are quite a few running segments around my area that are dominated by women so they get the overall and womens list whereas the top male doesn't get a mention.

    Sexism is a one way street.
    #cueflaming
    The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
    I am not sure. You have no chance.
    Veronese68 wrote:
    PB is the most sensible person on here.
  • First.Aspect
    First.Aspect Posts: 14,498
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-55760673

    Not sure what to make of this.

    Would it be:

    a. Completely pointless because "news" can't be defined.
    b. A really rather clever way to start regulating the internet and force big tech to define "new" vs. "fake news" by giving them the option of not negotiating.
    c. A really naive way to start regulating the internet, at the very least because even if every Australian quite their job and became an arbiter, there still wouldn't be enough of them to cope with the volume of carp on the internet that might be "news".

    Comments welcome. My tiny brain can't quite follow what the ramifications might be.
  • pblakeney
    pblakeney Posts: 25,597
    Point b) is very interesting.
    Google would have to pay off news sources for all stories or state that the stories are fake.
    The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
    I am not sure. You have no chance.
    Veronese68 wrote:
    PB is the most sensible person on here.
  • First.Aspect
    First.Aspect Posts: 14,498
    I wonder.

    The only way out of that by arbitration, to stop google from having to pay QAnon conspiracy theorists for "news" would be to declare it isn't news. You would then have "All" hits including nonsense, and "News" that wasn't.

    For those old enough to have seen the creeping dilution of content on the internet, and who cling to older trusted news sources and ignore the rest, this would be more or less status quo.

    It would also be a revenue stream to preserve these news sources.

    I can't see it working. But nor am I techy enough to know what I'm talking about really.
  • morstar
    morstar Posts: 6,190
    edited January 2021
    I think there’s a sensible idea behind the moves but I agree it seems totally unworkable.

    Problem is the distributors are making a killing while the content providers are losing out.

    There’s parallels to professional cycling where the teams that make the race get peanuts whilst race organisers earn an income.

    Admittedly in most cases it’s not a huge income but the one giant organisation is doing really rather well off the back of teams with precarious finances.
  • pinno
    pinno Posts: 51,196
    I am now very wary of these huge companies - from Amazon to Google.
    They're raison d'etre is to make money. Lets not be fooled into thinking that there motive is in any way philanthropic.

    They have huge power. They can filter news that suits their agenda. In any Google search, most people ignore anything after the first page and most results are sponsored.
    This means that the companies who pay the money to be in amongst the first list of results get disproportionate trade.
    Same with Amazon. There will eventually be just a few big fish controlling the net, software, spending habits and they all have access to and can save a helluva lot of personal data.
    It's all a bit Big Brotherish but sugar coated and based on commerce not state control.
    Until they start to impinge on politics because simply, these tech companies are huge and globally omnipresent.

    Where do we go with it? Can we actually draw a line or are we simply resigned to Google having more power than the state?
    seanoconn - gruagach craic!
  • orraloon
    orraloon Posts: 12,612
    Who do you trust more? Spaffer or Jeff Bezos?