patham

One more thing on the Anzac Day rememberances today. I cam across this poster someone made on my lockdown walk around the suburb. So here's a topic for a new discussion - who has or had relatives in Bomber Command in WW2? When I have a bit of time I will compose my own distant family history.

Today in Australia and New Zealand was Anzac Day, a localised rememberance day for servicemen and women, which is taken very seriously. Because of the various lockdown rules, the normal dawn services could not be held, but we did participate in a driveway dawn rememberance, when people would walk to there driveway to pay their respects. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-25/coronavirus-queenslanders-mark-anzac-day-in-wake-of-pandemic/12132618 Having an early morning walk just afterwards, I was lucky enough to see a bootleg flyover by a Spitfire and Mustang. Bootleg because the authorities did not want to see such flights go ahead. They were going pretty slow and relaxed, but the sound of those Merlin engines is so distinctive as compared to the normal general aviation piston engines. Goosebumps. Picture is from the article linked - I was nowhere no close enough. I could make out the Spitfire, buy could not ID the Mustang.

Page back 60 or a 100 pages in this thread (I'm just guessing - use the search function). I asked that exact question and got helpful feedback from the usual suspects.

The Mitsubishi Mu-2's pictured have such clean lines and the design just looks right - another favourite of mine from the looks perspective being a Beechcraft Duke. But yes, probably diamonds. A gazillion years back I did a few skydives at Carltonville (I think) and noticed that the security company engaged by the gold mines there used a ex SAAF Albatross to do the gold transport to Johannesburg.

I need a marketer ! Maybe I can say this on my CV after all: Awarded frontrunner status in the 2020 merit based accolades program of the IFCCA (international focussed communications community association).

Oppo-who ? Is that a cellphone make and model ? Never mind. I can hardly write "Deemed as second smartest person on internet forum, as voted by one other random forum member" on my CV.

Unfortunately, in the realm of twitter judging and public opinion, speaking out against the consensus herd can be damaging. This economist (story below) brought up the concept of the "cost of a statistical life", only to be mobbed. Luckily, the same did not happen to me when I brought that up a few weeks back on the Hub. I don't think she even made the point that it was the only way to look at things, but it is just a tool to help provide some insight. https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/current-affairs/coronavirus-australia-economist-gigi-foster-shares-blunt-lockdown-view-on-qa/news-story/e8fafd0e4c268c45cbb5133b767f0863

Really, I don't know how you can expect police to do their jobs without coffee and donuts. It's like PPE for their soul.

Don't bring logic onto my studio ! (obscure saffa reference). Its like over here in Queensland. You can only exercise with one other person. However, you can have two people visit your house. Hence, if your two visitors parked down the road, you could not walk back to the car with them, lest be accused of breaking the exercise rule.

The aspect that clouds matters is that politicians live for the day, not for the future decades. So minimising deaths today provides a better chance of good publicity and re-election than minimising the same or more number of deaths next year, and the economy is 10 years time is some-one else's issue to fix. Political NPV works on a very high discount factor !

Also - is a landing slot at Heathrow as valuable as what is was a few months ago? I gather Heathrow has shuttered one runway and two terminals, and traffic won't be picking up soon.

I fear the postage for a 6 m length of 2 by 4 , or a sheet of ply would make it impractical for me to send you the necessary supplies ! In a similar vein, we checked the Australian Post website recently. It is impossible to post anything to the sub-Sahara Africa at the moment due to border shutdowns and no flights. Who would have thought that society could regress 200 odd years in a month, as you could mail stuff back then. Surface mail is obviously no longer a "thing." Post to the first world is still possible, but they say to expect limited delivery spaces and unknown delays in the order of several weeks.

I was mailing a NZ based buddy and told him that your Level 3 is still worse than our (Aus) hodge-podge collection of make-it-up-as-we-go-along rules.

For the best story in that vein read this: where a SR-71 Blackbird at Mach 3 and 80 000 ft disintegrated around the pilot who was not able to eject. https://theaviationist.com/2015/03/17/sr-71-mid-air-disintegration/ Even better for Blackbird fans, read the book that is mentioned in the article - it's truly outstanding.

TMI ! Just be careful you don't get up to fetch your tea cup when you are on that company video call. But yes, I am working harder than ever, just at home. The library book stockpile is not even dented - no time for reading.

KSC is an awesome destination. On a road trip in the US I was hoping to get there in time to watch a Delta rocket launch, but the timing didn't succeed. Anyways, after doing the Florida coast, Keys and Disney we swung past to KSC on a random day (2001 - if you wanted internet access to do any research you needed to find a public library), and were lucky enough to be there, and on the runway grandstands, when one of the shuttles landed. Largest glider ever - so quite an eerie sight to see this thing come in silently. And the double sonic boom as it slows down (quite high up and far, far away) was also pretty cool.

Seeing the youngest DC8 must be just under 50 years old it's not too surprising they are becoming scarce. They had more of a run than the civilian 707s, although the KC-135 Stratotankers and ilk are probably going to outlive us all (just like the B52s).

I like the looks of the re-engined DC-8s as compared to the original slimline engines.

Yep, disappeared without a trace, just like those two escapees from Alcatraz. Although I think the money made from various books and media about him, and a few people who claimed to be him probably generated much more cash than his original ransom.

I second that - until now I had only thought of the 727 airstairs as the DB Cooper exit.

They are, but I have always found the DC-10 to be the most attractive jetliner ever built. In the KLM blue livery it just looked stunning. Its just a shame that they are becoming very scarcely seen on the tarmac these days.

Phillips do really nice IPS monitors that have great, rich colours. The youngster has one as his secondary screen, for a primary screen he went over to Samsung 144 Hz LED as the IPS refresh rate is crummy for gaming.

I prefer the alternative KZN term of a "larney" !

A big post, and it may take a while for me to digest it. The one thing I will comment on is that from a macro-economics viewpoint we are likely to have massive deflationary and inflationary pressures on at the same time. The deflation comes from the fact that discretionary spending will be way down, no-one will be buying stuff if they don't have a secure income. So in theory prices should fall. However, with governments printing money worldwide, the value of said money should reduce, causing inflation. Who knows what the end result is from those. I just know that the government money is not free and that some-one will end up paying for it.

It has already deteriorated into a much higher degree of entropy. Loose cables for headphone and mobile charging, papers, keys and other detritus have piled up rapidly.