'Owt else or Any Other Business

[plaques]

They say that there is a $250,000 guarantee on your investment. Unfortunately one lady says she's in for $10 million.
It looks like a lot of the 'Green' start ups are going to go bust. Its just as well that the UK wasn't worth investing in or we could also be in trouble.
Can't make my mind up if that's a win or a loss.

[Stanley]

That post shows how much news I miss by watching Youtube David. I have only one suggestion.... The aircraft carrier with the bent prop shaft is the Prince of Wales.
As for the failed bank Ken, there is no need for any panic..... I see this in this morning's news...
Speaking to reporters in San Diego on Sunday evening, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: "We will have something to say very shortly. "But we will continue to support our world-beating technology sector and all the high-skilled jobs that it supports and also you should be reassured that our overall financial system is sound and there's nothing to worry about there."
So that's all right......
(I don't know about anyone else but I find it pathetic that, when describing any UK system or process, government spokespersons feel obliged to add the descriptor 'World Beating'.)

[plaques]

"We will have something to say very shortly. "But we will continue to support our world-beating technology sector and all the high-skilled jobs that it supports and also you should be reassured that our overall financial system is sound and there's nothing to worry about there."

Early days in this saga. Jeremy Hunt and the BofE have been working 'at pace' to sort it out. It would look like The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) have taken over the day to day running until it all gets sorted out. To my mind its complicated beyond imagination of who owns what, buildings, debt and intellectual property. Then there is talk of 'Moral Hazards' should the UK be bailing out foreign companies with the tax payer picking up the tab for someone else's greed.
This is not going to end well.

[Stanley]

I agree Ken. It has all the hallmarks of a dodgy enterprise. If it wasn't how could it be in danger of failure in the first place just because of changes in interest rates?
We are not being told the full story and Sunak and Hunt have only acted because of the possible collateral damage to the UK firms relying on the bank for finance.

[Tripps]

I've just received a letter with a stamp on it. That's vanishingly rare these days. The stamp has a picture of a woman on it, and just "1st" in the bottom left hand corner. I don't recognise who the woman is - then it occurs to me that my prosopagnosia must be having an effect, and she is in fact our late dear Queen when younger. Yes - that's it - she must be. That's a relief.

[Stanley]

If the stamp said '1st' on it it's almost certain it was from a solicitor.....
I am still trying to work out why the Home Office workers who deal with passports have specified five weeks as the duration of their strike. Can anyone inform me?

[Tizer]

In the past, as well as collecting postage stamps I also collected postal history (old envelopes of significance) and postmarks (ink stamp marks, e.g. these: Postmarks. The postmarks are wonderful fun, ranging from, say, `Buy WW1 war bonds' to e.g. `Holiday in Bognor Regis!'. It's such a shame that most of the fun has gone out of modern postmarking. Why does everything have to be so boring these days?

[PanBiker]

My dad collected first day covers and my maternal granddad collected US postal service first day covers. Many of these are first flights of air mail services in the US. I have all of these and have checked my Grandfathers collection for an "inverted Jenny" which would have been a very good bonus indeed if there was one in the collection.

[Stanley]

I remember that when I was young we were always being reminded that there was such a thing as the Royal Stamp Collection. I think it was thought to be good that we could share our interest with the king.....
Same thing applied to the Royal Pigeon Loft. I wonder what has happened to it since Brenda popped her clogs.....?
(I think they sold her horses didn't they..... )

[Tripps]

If the stamp said '1st' on it it's almost certain it was from a solicitor....

Mercifully not It was from eBay and contained a new Sim card to replace one I damaged beyond repair. I'm quite proud of the fact that I managed to install it and transfer the old number to the new Sim. It only took all Saturday afternoon - catastrophe averted - total cost 99p.

Here's the stamp - I still think it has been photo shopped - I never saw that look before.

Stamp.JPG

[Stanley]

I agree. It doesn't look like a Post Office image.....

[Tripps]

Speaking of stamp collecting - the flash kids at school used to send for "approvals". I never did- seemed a bit risky to cautious me.

I find that the system is still going today. Approvals


I liked the stamps from Tana Tuva - no idea where it was but they were big and flashy - it sounded like a South Sea island but in fact was near Mongolia. Still available on the miracle which is eBay. Touva stamps

Worth a google. In the immortal words of Fred Kite "I won't spoil it for you".

PS - Remember when people used to say "the camera never lies"? I think we can safely ignore that one now, or perhaps substitute 'often' for 'never'.

[Stanley]

I looked at the Touva post and the items reminded me of the attributes that go to make a non-fungible token.....

[Stanley]

I have just heard an estimate that since Elon Musk bought Twitter for $40billion it has lost $20billion due to his mismanagement. This is a financial genius?
(Could this be the biggest April Fool joke of them all?)

[Stanley]

There was a question on Broadcasting House this morning..... Add four sevenths to one third. Almost everyone fell apart saying it was too difficult but an old fart like me did it easily. You need to look for a common denominator which is 3X7 so the question is actually 12 over 21 plus 7 over 21 which equals 19 over 21 which was the answer. Dead easy if you were taught the maths I was taught.....
Also a little known fact popped up on a religious programme. Over the centuries since Peter betrayed Jesus as the cock crowed thrice various Popes have said that a cock should be placed on churches to remind us of this essential fact. That's why a cock is such a popular image on weathervanes.....

[Tripps]

Dead easy if you were taught the maths I was taught.....

It used to be called "sums" - and no electronic calculator had yet been invented.


Try this one

beethoven.png

[plaques]

Or this one by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. If it takes four men one hour to dig a hole four feet square by four feet deep how long would it take four thousand men to dig the same hole? Remember he was a mathematician.

[Stanley]

Have a read of THIS for a similar way to waste time. The funny thing is that none of them cited this apocryphal story about Niels Bohr....
Bohr's tall story
A physics student at the University of Copenhagen was once faced with the following challenge: "Describe how to determine the height of a skyscraper using a barometer." The student replied: "Tie a long piece of string to the barometer, lower it from the roof of the skyscraper to the ground. The length of the string plus the length of the barometer will equal the height of the building." This answer so incensed the examiner that the student was failed immediately. However, the student appealed on the grounds that the answer was indisputably correct, and the university appointed an independent arbiter to decide. The arbiter judged that the answer was indeed correct, but that it did not display any noticeable knowledge of physics. To resolve the problem, it was decided to call the student and allow six minutes for him to provide an oral answer. For five minutes the student sat in silence, his forehead creased in thought. When the arbiter pointed out that time was running out, the student replied that he had several extremely relevant answers but could not decide which to use. "Firstly, you could take a barometer up to the roof of the skyscraper, drop it over the edge and measure the time it takes to reach the ground, but too bad for the barometer. "If the sun is shining you could measure the height of the barometer, then set it on end and measure the length of its shadow. Then you measure the length of the skyscraper's shadow, and thereafter it is a simple matter of proportional arithmetic. "If you wanted to be highly scientific, you could tie a short piece of string to the barometer and swing it as a pendulum, first at ground level, then on the roof of the skyscraper. The height of the building can be calculated from the difference in the pendulum's period.
"If the skyscraper has an outside emergency staircase, it would be easy to walk up it and mark off the height in barometer lengths. "If you wanted to be boring and orthodox, of course, you could use the barometer to measure the air pressure on the roof of the skyscraper and on the ground, and convert the difference into a height of air.
"But since we are continually being urged to seek new ways of doing things, probably the best way would be to knock on the janitor's door and say: "If you would like a nice new barometer, I will give you this one if you tell me the height of this building." The student was allegedly Niels Bohr. This story ties in well with an anecdote recounted in Abraham Pais' book Niels Bohr's Times, in Physics, Philosophy and Polity (Oxford, 1991). In his youth, Bohr played goalkeeper in soccer. On one occasion his team was playing against a German side, and most of the action was taking place in the German half of the field. Suddenly the German team counterattacked, and a spectator had to shout to warn Bohr, who was using the goalpost to write down a mathematical problem.

[Stanley]

Farming Today broadcast an interview with a farmer who had used a weather balloon to get a recorder near to a lark singing in flight and the lark attacked the recorder. This was widely believed to be an April Fool spoof but this morning they announced that they had investigated the story and found it was perfectly true. The amazing recording is 100% genuine....

[Big Kev]

I needed a new every day watch as my Citizen Ecodrive's rechargeable battery has given up, it's around £20 for a replacement battery and I fancied a change. I had a look on Fleabay and found a seller in India who refurbishes Seiko quartz watches. They have 100% positive feedback and further research revealed things have greatly improved from the sales of 'frankenwatches' (from India) of 5 to 10 years ago. It was only £20 + VAT so worth a punt I reckon. It'll take 2-3 weeks to get here and it'll be interesting to see if it matches the picture...

Screenshot_20230416-120811_eBay.jpg

[Tripps]

I needed a new every day watch

I'd look no further than a "Lorus" from ebay. They're Seiko's economy brand and spot on for value I'd say.

* * * * *

Now from the Glasgow Times - how on earth did I end up there?


On the other side of the scale, the dog breed with the most affordable ownership cost is the Patterdale Terrier.

With a 13.5 year life expectancy, these cute canines don't need professionally groomed and will cost £99 a year to feed.

The Border Terrier follows in second position with an average total ownership cost of £6365.

In the third spot, Jack Russell cost their owners £884 to buy on average, they don't need professionally groomed and their food bill typically works out to be £153 a year.

[Stanley]

I think they must have seen images of Jack..... Yes, they are a good dog as long as you can put up with having a stroppy teenager in the house! Much loved and of course now missed. (But I can manage without another one!)

[Big Kev]

Just been informed, by Fleabay, that my watch is now in the hands of the India Post International

[Stanley]

You're right about Lorus David. My last two watches have been by them. I gave the last one to my grandson after it had served 30 years with me and it's still going strong.

[Stanley]

I admit to having banged on about the lack of ethics and principle in everyday life and politics. The recent melt-down of the SNP and the CBI lead me to wonder if lack of principle has been a factor...... Is it eroding other spheres of society? (Yes, I am thinking of Raab and the public services.....)