patham

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.

A fairly recent upgrade. Our little business unit was doing quite well last year, and some-one requested to swop out their collection of random assorted monitors. The budget request was approved and it turned into an Oprah-fest of "Here's two monitors for You, two new monitors for You, new monitors for EVERYONE !!!!" We were surrounded by cardboard boxes and styrofoam for a few days.....

No, you are just seeing double Actually, you are very observant, and they are indeed the same source image. I just swept all photos on the ledge to one side, ruining the artistic effect of the earlier arranging. Although having said that, if I look at the same combination of pics now in real life, from the right angle it looks pretty cool- like a stereographic image.

You guys are too quick - I would have blown you away with my guess of a standard 707, over somewhere like Cairo. But at least I know in my heart I was right

Home office in the corner of the lounge just set up a few minutes ago - note the congratulatory mug of tea. Not perfect ergonomics, but better than a kick in the pants.

Well said Wayne, great move. I will echo that for Aussie contingent. Although our federal government has not made any similar big calls they are bound to be coming. It's interesting as I have a sister in law in California, they have been in lockdown for about a week now, and have just had their lockdown conditions made more stringent (i.e. no visitors to your house allowed). Their tips: Try and go for a walk each day for fresh air. Make time for board games and cards. Family cooking. And encourage everyone to do all the activities together, don't leave anyone behind to stew by themselves. Our state premier in Queensland has stated she does not want to see people venturing out of their own suburb, although that is not yet an "official" position. My foresight in living right next to the mtb trails pays off although who would have guessed these conditions.

This was a good set. Looks much nicer in real life than the box art. The Defender was purchased for the youngster this week in case of lockdown.

I was just thinking to myself last night that there are going to be a few people who are really caught out by this. I was thinking that one of the worst outcomes would be (and this is Australia specific): 1. Just come over here on a temporary work visa, but have sold up fully in SA. 2. Get made redundant here in Aus. 3. Can't find a firm to take you on, so under work visa conditions you need to leave. It used to be 28 days, then 6 months, then I think changed back to 28 days. Who knows? 4. Can't even fly out because there may be no more international flights. 5. Get some form of criminal record for overstaying your visa. That would be truly hard to recover from. Maybe the govt will give some form of bridging visa so that point 5 does not occur, but still.....

Looks like all of us in Brissie (who have squatter's rights in this thread) are in the same boat which is a bit of a co-incidence. I had arranged for my mother to fly out from the UK to stay with us for 2 weeks in late April, and then fly on to NZ for 2 weeks to visit my sister. Early last week we phoned her up and told her this trip is not likely and she should postpone. She was a bit upset at that, we backed off and said let's evaluate in a few days time. The respective government announcements were a relief as otherwise we looked like the bad guys ! It certainly would not be fun holiday, a 2 week lockdown in both of the countries, then who knows if the UK is letting anyone in by then......especially as she is not a citizen.

Goes for Aus too. A traffic light goes down and its all pear shaped. Well what generally happens is "might is right". If it's an intersection with say 2 lanes crossing a road with 3 lanes - the drivers on the larger road just will not stop to let the people in from the side street. The issue is in Aus is that 4-way stops are not defined in the various highway codes, so they are not taught how to do them.

Cool story and pics - thanks for sharing. About the concept of scale.... A gazillion years ago as first year engineering students, we went on a site trip to Kendal who were finishing the last of their units at the time. We went to the top of the boiler house unit and walked around on the roof. You can see in the picture of the boiler pressure gauge the sides and roof are just IBR sheeting, like any old carport. So there we were, walking around on top of what is just a ginormous 100 m high shed, with the tin sheeting creaking ominously underfoot. I was glad to be back inside on the structural steel staircases after that. Anyways, a visit to one of the 6 packs is pretty educational in that you can see how complex these things are and how much maintenance is required to keep the hamster wheels going. And short-changing on that maintenance has a serious bite.

I only realised just recently that the 747-8 freighters have a very short upper deck as per the original 100/200/SP series, and do not have the passenger oriented stretched upper deck as shown in the graphic. I would have thought it would have been cheaper to standardise the construction and give everyone the same shape regardless of usage, but obviously not.

I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but there is always a risk of over-capitalisation, where the money invested is not perceived by the market to be of good value, and as such will not be recognised by potential buyers. For example, friends were looking into extending their house, new bedroom and en-suite, the building costs (expensive Australian labour) were priced far in excess (i.e. multiples) of the improvement in market value. As they do not see it as their "forever" house, they shelved the idea, obviously if you plan to live in it (or use it as a business) for 20 years a different set of drivers and economics comes into play. I'm not saying it will be the case in your endeavour, but I suppose I just wanted to put in my Z$2 worth that developing property is not always a guaranteed thing. Moral of the story, those solid gold toilet bowl sets you were thinking of getting probably isn't a good idea for resale value. PS.I still wish all the best for your plans though !

You need 200 PR people to be able to come up with enough positive spin for the masses as to why a council needs 200 PR people in the first place. A perpetual motion machine as it were......

And HE payloads are now all they can carry (ALCMs excepted). https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/31825/the-air-forces-b-52h-bomber-force-has-said-goodbye-to-its-nuclear-bombs

Another sucker loses their shirt in BrisVegas !

Nice one. Historically I have always thought the RAV4 was overpriced for what is was - a Camry/Corolla on high heels. But the new hybrid drivetrain is a pretty cheap upgrade that does give you something unique. The motoring journo's here have had nothing but praise for the new hybrid - in fact it is hard to find them reviewing a normal drivetrain one.