Search found 505 matches

by Mistik-ka
3 Jan 2024, 2:43pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Bi-Focal Contact Lenses & Alternative Tricks? Anybody Experiences/Knowledge
Replies: 35
Views: 1790

Re: Bi-Focal Contact Lenses? Anybody Experiences/Knowledge

thirdcrank wrote: 3 Jan 2024, 10:12am
Bonefishblues wrote: 2 Jan 2024, 6:13pm My optician advised a different lens in each eye (one long, one short iyswim) and let the brain sort it out. Still can't get my head around that so have never tried it, I'm afraid
Isn't that how prescription spectacles work?
Quite the opposite. Most prescription spectacles adjust the entering light (often differently for each eye to compensate for different deficits in each eye) so that the image formed on the retina at the back of each eye is 'correct' and the brain gets the same information from both eyes and doesn't have to sort it out.
by Mistik-ka
13 Mar 2023, 4:44pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Bicycle commuting and mental health
Replies: 16
Views: 2223

Bicycle commuting and mental health

This morning the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC to us locals) website has a heartening little first-person article on the importance of commuting on two wheels:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british- ... -1.6765084
by Mistik-ka
10 Mar 2023, 9:40pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: How's your weather?
Replies: 1939
Views: 93963

Re: How's your weather?

thirdcrank wrote: 10 Mar 2023, 1:00pm We had about 8 inches of snow on our car roof overnight. I've quoted that because the car roof isn't affected by drifting. Thirdcrank towers is about a mile from J27 of the M62 and a tad lower. It seems conditions were bad on the M62 overnight, with some people reportedly stuck for several hours
Yikes! And here we are in Saskatchewan (a Canadian prairie province with a village actually named "Winter") pining for more snow to enhance soil moisture for this year's crops.

The forecast predicts a big overnight blizzard 150 miles south of here, but tells us we can only hope for a piddling two to four inches of the white stuff.
by Mistik-ka
21 Nov 2022, 7:38pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: new / rare road signs
Replies: 26
Views: 2734

Re: new / rare road signs

thirdcrank wrote: 21 Nov 2022, 4:38pm
Mistik-ka wrote: 21 Nov 2022, 4:27pm
thirdcrank wrote: 20 Nov 2022, 10:09pm
Q What is the meaning of the sign in Diagram 7020?

A The sign ahead is not in use
.1

To quote The Goon Show, "You rotten swine, Neddy!"

(I bit, and scanned the whole document before I caught on :roll:. Had it been the first of April, I would probably have twigged sooner :oops:. )
AFAIK, the sign meaning "The sign ahead is not in use" is genuine. "Camera not in use" is very commonly seen near speed detection cameras
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PS

It's In Schedule 13 Part 6 where it is item 52 ie the final item in Part 6 "Additional temporary signs"

Under the heading "You couldn't make it up" the first sign in that part at item 1 is the sign displaying the Highways Agency number to ring with queries about road works - on motorways

It's worth noting that an earlier part deals with Signs for use in temporary situations where Item one is Diagram 551.1 "Migratory Toad Crossing ahead" I think that means a crossing for migratory toads, rather than warning of a single migratory toad

Screenshot (52).png
I scanned the legislation numerically, and found in Schedule 14, Part 2 "Light signals, signs, and road markings for the control of traffic" #60 — Diagram 7019, followed immediately by #61— Diagram 7021. I thought I'd been caught in a classic policeman's joke like the old theatrical stagehand's prank of sending a befuddled new apprentice to "Go and fetch the stage rake." (For the uninitiated, the stage rake is the angle at which proscenium stages were tilted down at the front to provide better viewing for the audience in the front rows of seating.)
by Mistik-ka
21 Nov 2022, 4:27pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: new / rare road signs
Replies: 26
Views: 2734

Re: new / rare road signs

thirdcrank wrote: 20 Nov 2022, 10:09pm
Q What is the meaning of the sign in Diagram 7020?

A The sign ahead is not in use
To quote The Goon Show, "You rotten swine, Neddy!"

(I bit, and scanned the whole document before I caught on :roll:. Had it been the first of April, I would probably have twigged sooner :oops:. )
by Mistik-ka
11 Nov 2022, 4:10pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Our Future Health
Replies: 15
Views: 2009

Re: Our Future Health

What a massive undertaking. It has the potential to make a massive contribution to the understanding of health and disease. … if not left to languish without support when results are not immediately apparent.

My mind boggles at the thought of sifting through the unprocessed ore in search of precious metal …
by Mistik-ka
28 Jul 2022, 7:09pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: bad week...
Replies: 20
Views: 919

Re: bad week...

thirdcrank wrote: 28 Jul 2022, 1:43pm I was only in his presence once on a police war duties course around 1990, held at Northumbria Police Training School near Billingham. He was both a distinguished medic and member of the TA. He opened with something like "I am to speak to you about the effects of exposure to nuclear weapons but I will talk about something to cheer you up." He then gave us some insight into the advances made in dealing with childhood leukaemia and it still cheers me up
Thanks tc, that little story cheers me up.
by Mistik-ka
2 Jul 2022, 5:30pm
Forum: Fun & Games
Topic: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??
Replies: 2256
Views: 126183

Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Bmblbzzz wrote: 2 Jul 2022, 1:28pm What about spoken sentences or those that are written in alphabets which don't use capital and full stops?
I thought this discussion concerned contemporary English grammar — contemporary English generally being written with an alphabet that accommodates capitalization and is modified by punctuation marks including full stops. (In Canadian or American English the full stop is unknown. Writing in Canadian English I close this sentence with a period. See what a difference it makes? :wink: )
by Mistik-ka
18 May 2022, 3:40pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: View from the bridge
Replies: 283
Views: 35563

Re: View from the bridge

thirdcrank wrote: 16 May 2022, 6:02pm Nothing to do with bridges, but quite recently I discovered that a riding is an electoral district in Canada
Yes, as a Canadian perusing old British maps I was astounded to see that a county as large as Yorkshire was represented by only three Members of Parliament.
by Mistik-ka
3 May 2022, 3:27pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Food poverty-the way out
Replies: 756
Views: 27921

Re: Food poverty-the way out

Dripping? The best part of the roast.

As part of a large Canadian farming family with an English war-bride mum, I grew up on the stuff. Mrs. M-k encountered it for the first time at une petite auberge in rural Quebec the day we were married. Going on fifty-one years now… :D
by Mistik-ka
28 Apr 2022, 7:29pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Public Index linked pensions - Affordability
Replies: 36
Views: 1285

Re: Public Index linked pensions - Affordability

thirdcrank wrote: 27 Apr 2022, 10:00am National Insurance is simply another form of income tax, dressed up to sound a bit more palatable.
What's unpalatable about income tax? It may not be collected in a manner which balances income disparity while supporting the needs of the community at large, but the concept itself seems valid. For my first two decades as an adult my income as a self-supporting artist was minimal and I paid little or no income tax. There followed two-and-a-half decades during which I was gainfully employed and was delighted to pay income tax because I had (comparatively) so much income. Paying taxes was a sign of new-found wealth and I felt privileged to have so much money that I could afford to share it. (And as for paid annual holidays — unbelievable!)

Now retired with an adequate pension (and following a lifetime aligned with the economic principle spelled out by Wilkins Micawber and adhered to by thirdcrank) I still shake my head to realize how much money I have left over after paying income tax. Clearly some should pay less than they do; others should be paying a lot more than they do; my spouse and I could afford to pay a bit more and will do so cheerfully when others —including the obscenely wealthy— are required to pay their fair share.
by Mistik-ka
24 Feb 2022, 10:35pm
Forum: Fun & Games
Topic: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??
Replies: 2256
Views: 126183

Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Mick F wrote: 24 Feb 2022, 8:55am Tribal Class frigate.
Eskimo, Nubian, Zulu, Ashanti, Mohawk.

I'm willing to bet that in this day and age, they wouldn't have a "tribal class" anything. Correct me if I'm wrong, but those names aren't of tribes at all.
"Eskimo" is probably derived from non-Inuit First Nations language, meaning 'eaters of raw meat' or 'people who wear snowshoes'. In either case the term is generally considered offensive by the Inuit people to whom it is applied. "Inuit" is the term used by Inuit people, meaning 'the people' or in its most casual usage 'us'.

One might stretch the term "Mohawk" to apply it to a tribe, but the Mohawks are a very large group to be so described. A better term might be 'nation', the Mohawk nation being a founding member of the extensive Six Nations Confederacy.

(Aren't you glad you have a Canadian member lurking on the forum? 8) )
by Mistik-ka
17 Jan 2022, 2:24pm
Forum: Health and fitness
Topic: Dupuytren's contracture
Replies: 141
Views: 17363

Re: Dupuytren's contracture

thirdcrank wrote: 17 Jan 2022, 2:02pm While adding my good wishes for successful treatment, the significance of a surgeon called Vlad - presumably short for Vladimir - went over my head.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_the_Impaler :wink:
by Mistik-ka
30 Nov 2021, 12:43am
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: How's your weather?
Replies: 1939
Views: 93963

Re: How's your weather?

Thanks, I have learnt something useful today :)
The quickest way to type a degree sign ("º") on my 11-year-old Mac laptop is to type the number "0" while holding down the "option" key. It's possible that "0" and the "alt" key on Microsoft keyboards would do the trick as well.

(In Canada we have many opportunities for minus xº discussions.)
by Mistik-ka
18 Nov 2021, 2:55pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Hypertension - any good news stories?
Replies: 56
Views: 2458

Re: Hypertension - any good news stories?

Mick F wrote: 17 Nov 2021, 8:01pm Remember what I said about the device they strapped to me for 24hrs?
They said to carry on my normal life, so I went for a bike ride! :lol: :lol:
My G.P.'s eyebrows shot up when he looked at the data from my 24-hour blood pressure monitoring.
"It gets pretty high in the middle of the afternoon," he said. "Do you remember what you were doing around 2:30?"
"Chasing a porcupine through knee-deep snow."
"Hm," he said after a pause, "I'm not sure there's an established normal range for that … at least not for your age group." :roll:

My response to that miserable monitoring device was the same as yours, Mick.