Rant of the Day v2.

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llondel
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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6801 Post by llondel » Sat Dec 31, 2022 5:02 pm

Gas is not charged by volume, it's based on calorific value. For retail, you get the average, but if you're a large industrial user, there's usually a gadget measuring the value at the intake, usually by burning a small amount, and the bill is calculated based on the results from that gadget. I guess kWh has superseded Calories.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6802 Post by OFSO » Sat Dec 31, 2022 5:43 pm

I've had enough. Mary Poppins Thru the Looking Glass Bang-Bang. An endless procession. Please no more American crappy adulterated fairy tales.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6803 Post by OFSO » Sat Dec 31, 2022 7:39 pm

Writer Alexi Duggins in today's "Guardian" writes of 'the fatal crash that brought (Concorde's) reign of the skies to an end in 2003'.

Might want to check some dates there, Alexi.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6804 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Sat Dec 31, 2022 7:58 pm

Manufacturers and retailers who use the same model numbers, SKUs and descriptions for things which have been substantially changed (and never for the better).

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6805 Post by 4mastacker » Tue Jan 03, 2023 1:57 pm

The ploughed field that is Ermine Street in Ancaster has just been featured on the local TV news because someone has "highlighted" the potholes and painted some naughty words on the road. All Lincs Highways can do is criticise the "vandalism and graffiti" whilst failing to grasp the fact that the road has long needed repairing. They also claimed the damage was due to recent bad weather, which is a load of bolleaux - the road has been badly potholed for at least a couple of years and was in bad condition before Lincs Highways resurfaced a stretch of Ermine Street just north of Ancaster which was in a much better condition than the road through the village.
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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6806 Post by PHXPhlyer » Wed Jan 04, 2023 6:57 pm

Just got back from grocery shopping.
1st Wednesday of the month is Senior Day. A 10% discount for those over 55. :-bd
As I was putting the groceries away I went to put the frozen goods in the upright freezer in the pantry. When I opened the freezer door I was struck by a blast of relatively hot air. :-o
The freezer was better that 3/4 full with now ruined food. Hundreds of dollars worth of food to be thrown out. ~X(
Plus the cost of another freezer. Appliance repair is very expensive here and would probably cost more than I spent on it originally. :((

Edit to add: Temp. of contents recorded at 83o F by laser thermometer. [-X
PP

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6807 Post by Karearea » Wed Jan 04, 2023 9:42 pm

PHXPhlyer wrote:
Wed Jan 04, 2023 6:57 pm

The freezer was better that 3/4 full with now ruined food. Hundreds of dollars worth of food to be thrown out. ~X(
...
Bad luck, PP. Is the loss of food covered by your Household Contents insurance?

I may have mentioned before the neighbour across the street who can't seem to leave well enough alone and is often building and tinkering: demolishing a brick chimney on Christmas Eve a few years ago was a highlight.
Last Saturday, New Year's Eve, he had a circular saw or similar whining and buzzing away all afternoon and then was hammering at 9:15pm 8-|
And with the morn, those angel faces smile...

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6808 Post by PHXPhlyer » Wed Jan 04, 2023 10:48 pm

Karearea wrote:
Wed Jan 04, 2023 9:42 pm
PHXPhlyer wrote:
Wed Jan 04, 2023 6:57 pm

The freezer was better that 3/4 full with now ruined food. Hundreds of dollars worth of food to be thrown out. ~X(
...
Bad luck, PP. Is the loss of food covered by your Household Contents insurance?

There is no upside to filing a claim.
Unfortunately, from hard experience, unless it is a major loss, this one would not exceed the deductible, it is not worth filing a claim.
If you file more than two claims in a certain amount of time, I think two years, (no matter if they are paid or denied) you are deemed a risk and are put into a different category, with double or or more premiums for five years. You must have no claims in that five year span to get back to normal rates.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6809 Post by CharlieOneSix » Wed Jan 04, 2023 11:08 pm

Our 12 year old freezer in the utility room failed in the evening a few weeks back but luckily we also have a day to day freezer in the kitchen so we stuffed the expensive stuff in there. Currys delivered a replacement within about 30 hours and we hardly lost anything. It wasn't worth claiming on the insurance but then I noticed that food loss in freezers over 10 years old was not covered unless the freezer had an annual maintenance after that age. How do you do maintenance on a freezer and who would do it anyway! Never heard of such a thing.
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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6810 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Wed Jan 04, 2023 11:46 pm

Any commercial refrigeration engineer can do it - it's the compressor and such that needs a look. The maintenance is either a refrigerant top-up, compressor replacement, and/or a leak repair. It's always cheaper just to replace a domestic freezer.

The clever bit, if you have the space, is to keep the old freezer available as a backup.

The really clever bit is to have some warning of freezer failure. Mostly, you would have to build your own system. Or, like the Ex-As, you can work out if the freezer is working normally from a sophisticated electrical power record (which is standard with their big solar system).

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6811 Post by PHXPhlyer » Thu Jan 05, 2023 12:08 am

Since my freezer is located in a pantry accessed through the garage and the fact that it is not accessed on a daily basis, I was looking for some sort of alarm system to warn of either a tripped breaker of an alarm to alert to just the problem that I had, failure of the unit itself.
Obviously, I didn't find anything.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6812 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Thu Jan 05, 2023 12:26 am

There are certain basic alarms with which all houses should be fitted, but there is no straightforward systems which can do them.
Water pump frequently running is another, which would warn of potential flooding from a burst pipe.

The Ex-As' system shows that is is usually possible to work out what is or is not working from a detailed overview of the electrical power usage, coupled with a few general sensors like room temperature.
I am designing a system for my own house which uses power sensors and basic environmental sensors coupled to a simple microprocessor. I hope to have it up and running by this Fall. Should be under $100.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6813 Post by Pontius Navigator » Thu Jan 05, 2023 7:33 pm

4mastacker wrote:
Tue Jan 03, 2023 1:57 pm
The ploughed field that is Ermine Street in Ancaster has just been featured on the local TV news because someone has "highlighted" the potholes and painted some naughty words on the road. All Lincs Highways can do is criticise the "vandalism and graffiti" whilst failing to grasp the fact that the road has long needed repairing. They also claimed the damage was due to recent bad weather, which is a load of bolleaux - the road has been badly potholed for at least a couple of years and was in bad condition before Lincs Highways resurfaced a stretch of Ermine Street just north of Ancaster which was in a much better condition than the road through the village.
On Sunday reported a line of 2 dozen potholes on the High Duke near the Grantham sports ground. All repaired today.

Mind you the trench near Morrisons has not been done though I believe it is scheduled.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6814 Post by Pontius Navigator » Thu Jan 05, 2023 8:43 pm

Today I volunteered to put up two curtains at my mother-in-law's. We started Saturday but I needed my big drill to fix into concrete beams. Mrs PN said this morning "you don't want to go, do you?"

I could hardly say no. After a 2 hour drive and 3 hours to hang the curtains we were driving home. Mrs PN said "We're not doing that again".. I said "who volunteered me?"

Philip Larkin couldn’t stand being nagged....... . In his poem Self’s the Man he contemplates with horror the life of a man who
“married a woman to stop her getting away/
Now she’s there all day… And when he finishes supper
Planning to have a read at the evening paper
It’s Put a screw in this wall
He has no time at all…”

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6815 Post by 4mastacker » Thu Jan 05, 2023 8:54 pm

Pontius Navigator wrote:
On Sunday reported a line of 2 dozen potholes on the High Duke near the Grantham sports ground. All repaired today.

Mind you the trench near Morrisons has not been done though I believe it is scheduled.

...and how long before they are back repairing the repairs? It was five weeks for a group of potholes on the road outside our house - the first repairs were carried out at 11 o'clock at night using headband torches to illuminate the area.

The trench outside Morrisons has been there for so long I'm surprised English Heritage haven't declared it a historic site.
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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6816 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Thu Jan 05, 2023 10:06 pm

Think positive!
Maybe you can annex it when it's deep enough to use as a canal ;)))

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6817 Post by TheGreenAnger » Thu Jan 05, 2023 10:14 pm

Larkin was a miserable English, right wing, porn loving, cnut, whose poetry I adore...

Not so much a libertarian, as a librarian.

Larkin.jpg
I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.
Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare.
In time the curtain-edges will grow light.
Till then I see what’s really always there:
Unresting death, a whole day nearer now,
Making all thought impossible but how
And where and when I shall myself die.
Arid interrogation: yet the dread
Of dying, and being dead,
Flashes afresh to hold and horrify.

The mind blanks at the glare. Not in remorse
—The good not done, the love not given, time
Torn off unused—nor wretchedly because
An only life can take so long to climb
Clear of its wrong beginnings, and may never;
But at the total emptiness for ever,
The sure extinction that we travel to
And shall be lost in always. Not to be here,
Not to be anywhere,
And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true.

This is a special way of being afraid
No trick dispels. Religion used to try,
That vast moth-eaten musical brocade
Created to pretend we never die,
And specious stuff that says No rational being
Can fear a thing it will not feel, not seeing
That this is what we fear—no sight, no sound,
No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
Nothing to love or link with,
The anaesthetic from which none come round.

And so it stays just on the edge of vision,
A small unfocused blur, a standing chill
That slows each impulse down to indecision.
Most things may never happen: this one will,
And realisation of it rages out
In furnace-fear when we are caught without
People or drink. Courage is no good:
It means not scaring others. Being brave
Lets no one off the grave.
Death is no different whined at than withstood.

Slowly light strengthens, and the room takes shape.
It stands plain as a wardrobe, what we know,
Have always known, know that we can’t escape,
Yet can’t accept. One side will have to go.
Meanwhile telephones crouch, getting ready to ring
In locked-up offices, and all the uncaring
Intricate rented world begins to rouse.
The sky is white as clay, with no sun.
Work has to be done.
Postmen like doctors go from house to house.
My necessaries are embark'd: farewell. Adieu! I have too grieved a heart to take a tedious leave.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6818 Post by TheGreenAnger » Thu Jan 05, 2023 10:20 pm

How is that for a rant, you old buggers? :))
My necessaries are embark'd: farewell. Adieu! I have too grieved a heart to take a tedious leave.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6819 Post by OFSO » Mon Jan 09, 2023 7:57 am

Richard Madeley must be one of the more ignorant presenters on TV. Discussing the Virgin air-launch planned for tonight, he was bemoaning the cost, as in "who pays for all of this?" Obviously has no idea how profitable the spacecraft launch market is.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#6820 Post by Woody » Mon Jan 09, 2023 8:06 am

OFSO your second sentence is completely unnecessary, the first one contained all the required information :YMAPPLAUSE:
When all else fails, read the instructions.

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