On Wed, 8 May 2024 10:44:43 +0200, Bertel Lund Hansen
<gadekryds@lundhansen.dk> wrote:

>Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
>
>> Yes. To me sleet is very wet snow. "small ice pellets hard enough to
>> bounce when they hit the ground" constitute hail -- never a serious
>> problem in England, in my experience, to do much damage, but in France
>> it's enough story, when they are often the size of golf balls, or even
>> tennis balls. Grape vines don't like being battered by hail.
>
>Ten years ago I would have said that it's no problem in Denmark either,
>but within this decade we have had two occasions with seroius hail
>though not in the area where I was. The second one was not too bad, but
>the first one hit the car of a friend of mine so the roof and hood
>looked like a scateboard ramp. I think the pellets were about the size
>of a golf ball.

Growing up in the panhandle of Texas, I picked up a
stereotype of the standard hail stone being, oh, about
12 mm in diameter. Every year would bring a few storms, with
our TV station covering a huge area by European standards.
(At least 60 mi. x 60 mi., or 100 km x 100 km.)

They could destroy a ripe wheat field. My impression for years
was that they threshed out the grains -- maybe someone told
me that -- but today I wonder if the hail broke the stalks. Another
impression is that the area of destruction would be limited to a
few farms.

We also had one storm where the hail stones were described
as grapefruit-sized. The limited target area included the company
parking lot where my dad had parked our '58 Rambler station
wagon. It got dents on the roof, and the windows were broken
out on one side. The physics of breaking side-windows impressed
me, plus, that was the car I was driving a few years later.

--
Rich Ulrich

On 2024-05-08 16:51:09 +0000, Rich Ulrich said:

> On Wed, 8 May 2024 10:44:43 +0200, Bertel Lund Hansen
> <gadekryds@lundhansen.dk> wrote:
>
>> Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
>>
>>> Yes. To me sleet is very wet snow. "small ice pellets hard enough to
>>> bounce when they hit the ground" constitute hail -- never a serious
>>> problem in England, in my experience, to do much damage, but in France
>>> it's enough story, when they are often the size of golf balls, or even
>>> tennis balls. Grape vines don't like being battered by hail.
>>
>> Ten years ago I would have said that it's no problem in Denmark either,
>> but within this decade we have had two occasions with seroius hail
>> though not in the area where I was. The second one was not too bad, but
>> the first one hit the car of a friend of mine so the roof and hood
>> looked like a scateboard ramp. I think the pellets were about the size
>> of a golf ball.
>
> Growing up in the panhandle of Texas, I picked up a
> stereotype of the standard hail stone being, oh, about
> 12 mm in diameter. Every year would bring a few storms, with
> our TV station covering a huge area by European standards.
> (At least 60 mi. x 60 mi., or 100 km x 100 km.)
>
> They could destroy a ripe wheat field. My impression for years
> was that they threshed out the grains -- maybe someone told
> me that -- but today I wonder if the hail broke the stalks. Another
> impression is that the area of destruction would be limited to a
> few farms.
>
> We also had one storm where the hail stones were described
> as grapefruit-sized. The limited target area included the company
> parking lot where my dad had parked our '58 Rambler station
> wagon. It got dents on the roof, and the windows were broken
> out on one side. The physics of breaking side-windows impressed
> me, plus, that was the car I was driving a few years later.

Probably: hail is as local as tornados.

--
Athel -- French and British, living in Marseilles (centre of the world
today) for 37 years; mainly in England until 1987.

On 08-May-24 11:49, Adam Funk wrote:
> On 2024-04-22, jerryfriedman wrote:
>
>> Hibou wrote:
>>
>>> Le 22/xx/20xx à 08:31, Athel Cornish-Bowden a écrit :
>>>> On 20xx-xx-21 19:06:31 +0000, Sam Plusnet said:
>>>>>
>>>>> Didn't the ladies on the tills in French supermarkets once acquire a
>>>>> nickname which was derived from the beeping sound?
>>
>> (Piggybacking.) Are they still ladies? Around here the cashiers
>> seems to include an similar number of gentlemen.
>>
>>>> Maybe, but I don't think I've come across it.
>>
>>> Nor I, and I can find nothing online. It's not "Justine Caissière" anyway.
>>
>>> I not a fan of supermarket shopping, especially where one is pushed
>>> towards self-service tills. There always seems to be some problem with
>>> these - and I feel there should be a discount for our doing the work
>>> that the cashier would do - which there isn't, of course.
>>
>>> For some years now, we've had our groceries delivered. This is cheap and
>>> works very well, at least since we swapped from Sainsbury's to Tesco. A
>>> useful trick is to finalise the order the day before, by which time the
>>> computers seem to have a very good idea of what's going to be available.
>>> (I don't think the picking is done in a dark store, which would be even
>>> more predictable.)
>>
>> I hadn't previously encountered "dark store", a warehouse for fulfillment
>> of online orders, often laid out like a supermarket.
>
> No, but I have heard of "dark kitchens":
>
> “Dark kitchens” are places where meals are prepared entirely for
> delivery. They have been used for decades in areas such as catering
> for mass events, but the idea of gearing them towards home takeaways
> is relatively recent. It’s a leap that has only been made possible
> by the rise of food delivery platforms, and the global leader of the
> concept is Deliveroo, which opened its first dark kitchen in London
> in 2016. Today, the company boasts 250 in eight countries, each of
> them home to a fluid array of tenants, including international chain
> restaurants, tentative startups and virtual brands, some of which
> might “exist” on the app for just a few weeks.
>
> To many, the notion of a whole host of different cuisines emerging
> from the same kitchen – with a chef simultaneously preparing a pizza
> on one work surface and a Sichuan hot pot on another – feels
> unsettling, but it reflects the logic of the abstracted digital
> marketplace; the New Yorker recently described dark kitchens as “the
> culinary equivalent of a multicolour retractable pen”.
>
> <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/17/dark-kitchens-food-delivery-apps-inside-kitchen-work>
>
> <https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/apr/25/deliveroo-tech-delivery-restaurant-service-dark-kitchens>

You caused me to check what food delivery services are available here -
out in the sticks.

A couple of take-away shops of quite dubious quality (Signature dish -
chips) - and a somewhat better Indian Restaurant, 15 miles away, which
will deliver (presumably tepid food) for £10. Given the likely round
trip journey, that seems a quite reasonable charge - if they really
would deliver to here.

--
Sam Plusnet

On 09/05/24 07:40, Sam Plusnet wrote:
>
> You caused me to check what food delivery services are available here
> - out in the sticks.
>
> A couple of take-away shops of quite dubious quality (Signature dish
> - chips) - and a somewhat better Indian Restaurant, 15 miles away,
> which will deliver (presumably tepid food) for £10. Given the likely
> round trip journey, that seems a quite reasonable charge - if they
> really would deliver to here.

I live in suburbia, where there is no shortage of take-away food. All
the way from third-rate pizza (Domino's) up to some pretty good
restaurants. If I want take-away food, though, I go and get it myself.

The food delivery services are an offshoot of the "gig economy" that was
started by Über. Because I'm somewhat related to a taxi driver, I refuse
to patronise such services.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW

On 09/05/24 02:51, Rich Ulrich wrote:
> On Wed, 8 May 2024 10:44:43 +0200, Bertel Lund Hansen
> <gadekryds@lundhansen.dk> wrote:
>
>> Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
>>
>>> Yes. To me sleet is very wet snow. "small ice pellets hard enough
>>> to bounce when they hit the ground" constitute hail -- never a
>>> serious problem in England, in my experience, to do much damage,
>>> but in France it's enough story, when they are often the size of
>>> golf balls, or even tennis balls. Grape vines don't like being
>>> battered by hail.
>>
>> Ten years ago I would have said that it's no problem in Denmark
>> either, but within this decade we have had two occasions with
>> seroius hail though not in the area where I was. The second one was
>> not too bad, but the first one hit the car of a friend of mine so
>> the roof and hood looked like a scateboard ramp. I think the
>> pellets were about the size of a golf ball.
>
> Growing up in the panhandle of Texas, I picked up a stereotype of the
> standard hail stone being, oh, about 12 mm in diameter. Every year
> would bring a few storms, with our TV station covering a huge area by
> European standards. (At least 60 mi. x 60 mi., or 100 km x 100 km.)
>
> They could destroy a ripe wheat field. My impression for years was
> that they threshed out the grains -- maybe someone told me that --
> but today I wonder if the hail broke the stalks. Another impression
> is that the area of destruction would be limited to a few farms.
>
> We also had one storm where the hail stones were described as
> grapefruit-sized. The limited target area included the company
> parking lot where my dad had parked our '58 Rambler station wagon. It
> got dents on the roof, and the windows were broken out on one side.
> The physics of breaking side-windows impressed me, plus, that was the
> car I was driving a few years later.

Hail here tends to be pea-sized, but every now and then we get those
giant hailstones that do things like smash car windscreens and destroy
crops. As in your case, it can be very localised. Just a week or two ago
my wife had to pull off the road because of dangerous hail, when she was
about ten minute's drive away. At home, I didn't see any hail.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW

On Thu, 9 May 2024 10:03:56 +1000, Peter Moylan
<peter@pmoylan.org.invalid> wrote:

>On 09/05/24 07:40, Sam Plusnet wrote:
>>
>> You caused me to check what food delivery services are available here
>> - out in the sticks.
>>
>> A couple of take-away shops of quite dubious quality (Signature dish
>> - chips) - and a somewhat better Indian Restaurant, 15 miles away,
>> which will deliver (presumably tepid food) for £10. Given the likely
>> round trip journey, that seems a quite reasonable charge - if they
>> really would deliver to here.
>
>I live in suburbia, where there is no shortage of take-away food. All
>the way from third-rate pizza (Domino's) up to some pretty good
>restaurants. If I want take-away food, though, I go and get it myself.

A growing number of businesses in this area have switched to a credit
card terminal that totals the charge and then adds a screen asking if
the user wants to add a tip. The options range from 0 to 30% of the
after-tax total.

While I'm an American who has grown up in a society where tipping is a
normal part of dining out, these new machines irritate me because they
are also used in some fast food restaurants and where takeaway food is
ordered.

I expect to tip a waitperson when I get table service. I don't tip a
counterperson who does nothing more than take my order and hand it
over. I get pizza-to-go every Friday night, and don't like being
asked to tip the person at the counter.

It's a minor irritation that the suggested tip amount is based on the
after-tax total, but it's somewhat understandable that the amount is
calculated on the net total.

On Tue, 7 May 2024 10:06:48 +0200, Bertel Lund Hansen
<gadekryds@lundhansen.dk> wrote:

>Rich Ulrich wrote:
>
>> The really, really slippery ice is what we call 'black ice' -- and
>> it does not take much rain. What it takes is a cold road, and
>> just enough water to make a surface that is practically
>> frictionless. The rain hits the road and barely freezes, ready
>> to hit ultimate slickness when pressure is applied by a tire or
>> a shoe.
>
>Yes, we call it "sort is" as well. Maybe ten days ago there was a
>serious incident on the motor road (?). I think that about ten cars were
>involved, and two people were seriously wounded

I would say someone was "wounded" only if the injury was caused by a
weapon...a gun, for example. In the case of a car crash, the person
is "injured".

> several others less
>seriously so. The police had warned about the risk of black ice, but the
>problem was that we had had many days with fair weather - not warm, but
>not cold either. The ground, however, was not warm, so when a streak of
>cold wind hit the country, we had this dangerous condition.
>
>The drivers may not have heard the warning, or they may not have taken
>it seriously because the roads looked fine. I drove in the afternoon
>that same day on the same stretch, but the sun had long ago melted any
>ice.
>
>> The exact conditions are relatively rare in the US, I'm pretty sure.
>
>I remember some occasions in Denmark, but that covers several decades.
>
>> Black ice is what produces the occasional videos of cars or
>> trucks sliding sideways on roads that look pretty level.
>
>When driving with snow and ice on the road, I usually find a space and
>period where no other car is near, and then I break carefully to see how
>bad it is. Once I did that at a speed of maybe 30 mph, the car slowly
>spun 270 degrees, not reacting to my turning the wheel, ending on the
>grass section in the middle of the road. Cars coming from behind, that
>had until then kept a normal speed, suddenly began to go quite slowly.
>
>There was no problem for me, and I could easily drive on when the road
>was free.

Peter Moylan wrote:

> I live in suburbia, where there is no shortage of take-away food. All
> the way from third-rate pizza (Domino's) up to some pretty good
> restaurants. If I want take-away food, though, I go and get it myself.

Take-away was the way that many restaurants survived during the corona
lockdown. I presume that many of them have kept this as an option, but I
don't use it much so I don't know.

> The food delivery services are an offshoot of the "gig economy" that was
> started by Über. Because I'm somewhat related to a taxi driver, I refuse
> to patronise such services.

Uber had to leave Denmark because we have a taxi law and still a high
degree of union organisation that private drivers do not comply with.
Some tax evasion cases followed in their wake.

--
Bertel
Kolt, Denmark

Tony Cooper wrote:

> While I'm an American who has grown up in a society where tipping is a
> normal part of dining out, these new machines irritate me because they
> are also used in some fast food restaurants and where takeaway food is
> ordered.

I live in a country where we usually don't tip. I think that it was
usual when I was a boy, but soon after things were changed so the
waiting staff got regular salary. I do, however, tip ocasionally just
because it's a nice thing to do. I do it to show that the service was
more than just routine.

In a country where tipping is normal, I would have to get used to it,
and I would probably forget it many times.

--
Bertel
Kolt, Denmark