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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 20, 2020 22:20:45 GMT
Maybe a positive side effect will be to get rents in NYC & elsewhere into the realm of reality.
Something I learned yesterday is that routine vaccination against smallpox stopped in 1972 in the United States. I didn't realize that it had stopped that long ago, nor that soon after my only child was born in 1970.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 22, 2020 15:30:33 GMT
In most of the big cities of Europe, the lower class areas are in the northeast. That's because the wind usually blows from the southwest, and all of the nasty, stinky factories were situated in the northeast so as to not offend the wealthy classes.
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Post by Kimby on Dec 22, 2020 18:24:05 GMT
I learned what a "hamburger menu" is on a computing device. I've been using it readily without knowing its name. It's the three bars you click to get a drop down menu. Now it seems obvious, but I hadn't a clue when I saw the term in directions for using our new Kindle Fire.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 22, 2020 19:11:26 GMT
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Post by questa on Dec 23, 2020 0:26:53 GMT
Today I learned that the dishwasher was invented by an upper middle-class housewife who felt the servants weren't turning out clean dishes quickly enough for her entertaining needs. So she invents a machine that takes 2 hours to do what maids should do in half an hour.! She should have employed better maids or (cough, cough) nice young men to do her bidding.
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Post by mickthecactus on Dec 23, 2020 17:25:54 GMT
The Sahara is only 20% sand. The remainder is rock and stone.
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Post by mossie on Dec 23, 2020 20:01:28 GMT
From what I remember of the outcrop we were dumped on the sand gets blown away by the khamsin whenever it shows signs of getting too thick. Lovely weather, I recall stumbling against it when at times I couldn't see my feet for blowing sand.
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Post by onlyMark on Dec 23, 2020 21:12:19 GMT
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Post by mossie on Dec 24, 2020 8:31:55 GMT
Thanks for the book link Mark
Another memory is while flying over the Sinai desert of seeing what looked like a cliff 3 or 4 hundred feet high moving slowly across the desert, the whole thing was boiling.
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Post by onlyMark on Dec 24, 2020 13:09:19 GMT
You know the khamsin/khamseen is named after the number for fifty, which is the number of days there is a likelihood of those types of sandstorms?
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 24, 2020 17:06:31 GMT
Another memory is while flying over the Sinai desert of seeing what looked like a cliff 3 or 4 hundred feet high moving slowly across the desert, the whole thing was boiling. Wow! I would love to see that. It's right up there with my dream of being able to fly over an active volcano.
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Post by tod2 on Dec 24, 2020 18:41:12 GMT
Bixa - NO volcano flyover for me! I can just imagine the turbulence from the rising heat. It was bad enough flying through the Grand Canyon although the pilot of our little puddle-jumper re-assured us this was quite normal and we were having it quite good. I mean our heads were'nt hitting the roof of the craft.....'
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 24, 2020 19:20:13 GMT
I envisioned that flyover in a helicopter, especially as I'm still waiting for my dream of a helicopter ride to come true.
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Post by mossie on Dec 24, 2020 19:25:55 GMT
Thanks Mark, I did know that it referred to 50 days in spring when these events blew up. Our worst one occurred a few months after we arrived in the dump and 4 of us were sharing a large room. One of the lads had his bed under a window which had a crack in the glass, when He woke his bed was covered in a fine layer of sand dust, we also had a miniature sand dune a foot or so inside the door which had a gap no more than a quarter of an inch at the bottom.
The light relief was provided up at the squadron, the aircraft had all been put to bed in the hangar, but there was a fault with the doors at one end with the result that they left a gap of about 18 inches at the centre with the result that the whole place was a few inches deep in sand. The aircraft all had to dragged out and swept off. then a line of airmen started to sweep the floor. We had prop driven aircraft at the time and one of the bright sparks had the brilliant idea to back an aircraft half into the hangar and run the engines full blast to help the sweepers. That worked a treat and we had a lovely little sandstorm out of the other end of the hangar. Unfortunately not far away was the big boss' office which had lost its roof, his erks were just finishing sorting out his paperwork when our sandstorm hit. Our boss got a rocket for their efforts which quietly amused us all.
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Post by Kimby on Dec 25, 2020 2:05:06 GMT
Today I learned that the dishwasher was invented by an upper middle-class housewife who felt the servants weren't turning out clean dishes quickly enough for her entertaining needs. So she invents a machine that takes 2 hours to do what maids should do in half an hour.! She should have employed better maids or (cough, cough) nice young men to do her bidding. Dishwashers didn’t always take 2 hours. I had one that did just fine in 1/2 hour. The problem was that with people turning their water heaters down to save money and energy, the water wasn’t hot enough to sanitize the dishes. So they added heater cycles to warm the water. And pre-rinse cycles, and a 2nd wash and or rinse, then the timed drying cycle. Drives me mad that it takes so long, but it is what it is.
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Post by Kimby on Dec 25, 2020 2:19:55 GMT
I learned that the North American beaver (Castor canadensis) is so attuned to the sound of running water as a cue to repair a leaking dam, that if you place a speaker that plays the sound of running water in beaver territory, the beavers will cover it with dam-building materials.
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Post by questa on Dec 25, 2020 12:02:06 GMT
I found that info about dishwashers interesting. Amazing how some machines (eg typewriters) have to be handicapped by design to achieve their task. Maybe the beavers would cover a dishwasher with building materials if they were given long enough!
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 25, 2020 20:05:46 GMT
Beavers are far more evolved than I. The sound of running water for me only triggers a desire to pee.
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Post by Kimby on Dec 26, 2020 20:59:28 GMT
Questa and Bixa, you are too funny!
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Post by casimira on Dec 27, 2020 20:16:56 GMT
I learned that the North American beaver (Castor canadensis) is so attuned to the sound of running water as a cue to repair a leaking dam, that if you place a speaker that plays the sound of running water in beaver territory, the beavers will cover it with dam-building materials. Maybe he was worried about his dishwasher over flowing!!!
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 5, 2021 15:13:15 GMT
I apparently have one more great niece/nephew than I thought I did since 4 names were mentioned in my brother's letter. Maybe the fact that three of them have weird names prevents my brain from registering them: Asher, Merick, Hudson and Lily.
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Post by bjd on Jan 5, 2021 16:26:31 GMT
I apparently have one more great niece/nephew than I thought I did since 4 names were mentioned in my brother's letter. Maybe the fact that three of them have weird names prevents my brain from registering them: Asher, Merick, Hudson and Lily. At least you can guess that Lily is probably a girl.
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Post by htmb on Jan 5, 2021 19:41:15 GMT
It’s been a popular girls name since the advent of the Harry Potter series.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 5, 2021 20:08:15 GMT
Which leaves the other three. I seem to recall that Asher is a boy. Or is it Merick?
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Post by bjd on Jan 5, 2021 20:12:34 GMT
Wasn't Merick the name of the Supreme Court judge put forward by Obama that McConnell refused to allow hearings for? So maybe male?
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Post by htmb on Jan 5, 2021 20:20:12 GMT
Merritt Garland? Close enough.
All the other names sound like boys’ names.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 5, 2021 20:49:11 GMT
I don't think I've received any photos of them since they were asexual babies. It didn't take long to understand that I was not at all interested.
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Post by questa on Jan 5, 2021 22:12:48 GMT
From Cecily Dynes well researched book of baby names...
Merrick- a form of Emory, Emeric, "Industrious Ruler" (Teutonic from Latin.) St Emeric son of St Stephen. First Christian king of Hungary
Asher= Hebrew "Happy, Straight-forward"
Hudson= son of Howard "Brave, Hardy" (Germanic) or son of Hugh "Heart, Mind" (Germanic)
When I was doing the clinics in the USAF base in the desert (see "Red Sand Dreaming" thread page 1 in Compass Points / Oceania), I was fascinated by the way the African Americans had a whole heap of names that I had never heard before. I made a list of given names but unfortunately it has been lost.
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Post by patricklondon on Jan 9, 2021 10:01:02 GMT
Despite Covid, there have been games of soccer in England, and the FA Cup knockout competition third round has pitched up, as it usually does, a match between a very lowly club, at home to the very grand Tottenham Hotspur. What intrigues me is that, along the fence backing on to the gardens of the adjoining houses, the house numbers are painted, so that the club's ballboys know, if necessary, where to ask for their ball back. My blog | My photos | My video clips | My Librivox recordings"too literate to be spam"
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 9, 2021 19:24:13 GMT
70% of the French say it would be unbearable to be "unconnected" for more than 24 hours. 70% of the French think they are connected too much.
In the good news department: 8% of the French say that they get their news from social media.
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