Watch this space, where Sam Plusnet advised that...
> On 16-Nov-23 19:32, bil...@shaw.ca wrote:
>> On Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 11:28:22 AM UTC-8, Sam Plusnet wrote:
>>> On 16-Nov-23 13:52, Hibou wrote:
>>>> Le 15/11/2023 à 18:17, Ken Blake a écrit :
>>>>>
>>>>> Why would it matter for rescue work what kind of steel it is?
>>>>>
>>>>> [...]
>>>>>
>>>>> All the descriptions imply it's the most common basic cheap steel,
>>>>> so I'm not sure why it matters to the reader that they're using it.
>>>>>
>>>>> Basically, it's easily worked steel.
>>>>> https://www.metalsupermarkets.com/what-is-mild-steel/
>>>>
>>>> It's the difference between "He had steel in his character" and "He had
>>>> mild steel in his character."
>>>>
>>>> Strangely, it's the first that suggests he was ill tempered.
>>>>
>>> I am now wondering about "Mild mannered Clark Kent". Did I miss something?
>>>
>> Wasn't he busted for exposing himself in a phone booth?
>
> Having a bust would make it more difficult to change in a phone booth,
> without undue exposure.

And I would choose plaster-of-paris instead of marble, on account of
weight.

/dps "even super strength has its limits"

--
And the Raiders and the Broncos have life now in the West. I thought
they were both nearly dead if not quite really most sincerely dead. --
Mike Salfino, fivethirtyeight.com

On 2023-11-17 18:21, Jerry Friedman wrote:
> On Friday, November 17, 2023 at 4:19:57 PM UTC-7, lar3ryca wrote:
>> On 2023-11-17 16:14, Paul Wolff wrote:
> ...
>
>>> A chain-link fence would have needed a rigid framework too. If you came
>>> to my garden now, you could see an emergency chain-link section of
>>> fencing where the neighbour's solid fence had collapsed in recent high
>>> winds, and appreciate what I mean. That chain-link section is mine, to
>>> keep out feral muntjac deer until the neighbour restores his fence.
>> Coincidentally, two bull moose were fighting in the back yard of a home
>> in Moose Jaw (Saskatchewan). Here's a link to the video:
>>
>> https://regina.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.6649807
>>
>> These two moose did an enormous amount of damage. near the end of the
>> video, you can see the damage in the daylight.
>
> My first reaction was "Oh, dear," but I revised it.
>
> No doubt sales of moose-proof fences will skyrocket in Moose Jaw. Um, are
> there moose-proof fences?

I suppose there are, but I have my doubts about whether or not any of
them would look good enough as a city house fence.

Moose are very strong and very dangerous. I have seen them run through a
barbed-wire fence, dragging it by the wire, all the while pulling 15 or
20 fence posts out.

A friend of my father had his car badly damaged one night. He was
driving in the interior of BC, and saw a moose ahead of him, running on
the road. It was running the same direction he was driving, and when he
got fairly close to it, the moose stopped. He stopped too, and the moose
turned to face him. He stopped as well, and when he got tired of waiting
for it to run off the road, he blew his horn.

The moose was not impressed. It lowered its head and charged the car,
impacting it directly on the front, then ramming it several times more.
The damage included two front fenders, the radiator, and the hood. The
car was not drivable.

They often cross roads at speed, including 100kmh-highways, and are
probably the worst animal in Canada to hit with a car. They weigh up to
about 600-700KG, and just about all that weight is carried on legs long
enough to be higher than the hood of a car, resulting (usually) in the
animal visiting you in the front seat.

--
When life gives you melons,
you might be dyslexic.

John Dunlop wrote:

> I bet a lot of your compatriots would distinguish flamenco guitars from
> classical guitars. They typically have narrower necks, lower strings,
> and a "sharper" tone than classical guitars.

I started playing guitar at the age of 15. I haven't before heard that
Flamenco guitars should be different from other classical ones, but I
have seen and played different guitars of all kinds (though perhaps not
a Flamenco one - I wouldn't know). I have mainly stayed in Denmark.

Come to think of it I must have tried one Flamenco guitar because I met
a Dane who just had come from a trip to Spain, and he was into Flamenco,
and I tried his guitar. But I didn't consider any difference (that might
have been there) as a fundamental one.

--
Bertel, Denmark

"Larry":
> > Coincidentally, two bull moose were fighting in the back yard of a home
> > in Moose Jaw (Saskatchewan). Here's a link to the video:
> >
> > https://regina.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.6649807

Jerry Friedman:
> No doubt sales of moose-proof fences will skyrocket in Moose Jaw. Um, are
> there moose-proof fences?

According to other sources, the actual location of that home was
Homer, Alaska:

http://news.yahoo.com/moose-fight-destroys-yard-car-175400290.html
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "In cyberspace, the lunatics not only run the asylum,
msb@vex.net | but they helped build it..." --Richard Kadrey

My text in this article is in the public domain.

Snidely <snidely.too@gmail.com> wrote:

> J. J. Lodder submitted this gripping article, maybe on Friday:
> > Kerr-Mudd, John <admin@127.0.0.1> wrote:
> >
> >> On Fri, 17 Nov 2023 11:15:31 +0100
> >> nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) wrote:
> >>
> >>> Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org.invalid> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> On 17/11/23 10:47, Paul Wolff wrote:
> >>>>> On Fri, 17 Nov 2023, at 10:25:53, Peter Moylan posted:
> >>>>>> On 17/11/23 06:25, Sam Plusnet wrote:
> >>>>>>> On 16-Nov-23 12:32, Kerr-Mudd, John wrote:
> >>>>>>>> On Thu, 16 Nov 2023 11:22:50 +0100 nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J.
> >>>>>>>> J. Lodder) wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> Certainly. But why not just admit that those glass shards
> >>>>>>>>> being found ten miles away are made of bullshit?
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> It's a way to see who's awake, I suppose.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Obvious nonsense. If it _was_ scientific information, it would
> >>>>>>> have been measured in kilometres.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Something that SF often gets wrong. Did you know that distances
> >>>>>> are measured in miles throughout Niven's Known Space, and that the
> >>>>>> Kzinti measure temperatures in Fahrenheit?
> >>>>>>
> >>>>> It's been a while since I read Niven. In the latter case especially,
> >>>>> are you sure you aren't reading a translation for the uneducated?
> >>>>
> >>>> Perhaps that one was a translation into English of the Kzinti word. Even
> >>>> so, it implies that Fahrenheit is still in use centuries after it went
> >>>> obsolete almost everywhere on Earth.
> >>>
> >>> It is also used by other species in known space.
> >>> I haven't verified whether they actually say so,
> >>> or whether it is just the narrator who uses Fahrenheit.
> >>> The latter seems likely, for it is also used in the Kzanol episodes.
> >>> (who lived a billion years ago)
> >>> Anyway, the values check: An ocean at 110 is described
> >>> as just right for a spa.
> >>>
> >>>> I picked on Niven because he's one of the best at constructing a
> >>>> self-consistent future history. (Many others have invented future
> >>>> history timelines, but they didn't do it as well.) Most SF authors are
> >>>> much worse in their use of anachronisms.
> >>>
> >>> His characters still use plastic ID cards,
> >>>
> >>
> >> Dan Dare's sidekick (aka batman) smokes cigars in a spaceship.
> >
> > I should be possible, I guess. Just go on puffing.
> > It would burn more rapidly in the oxygen-enriched atmosphere.
>
> What oxygen-enriched atmosphere? We aren't talking Apollo here.

Indeed, the ISS has a standard atmosphere, at about standard pressure,
but there is no knowing what other spaceships may be like.
As for Dan Dare, his spaceships look very much like WWII bombers,
and not like they could withstand atmospheric pressure,

Jan

Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org.invalid> wrote:

> On 17/11/23 21:15, J. J. Lodder wrote:
> > Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org.invalid> wrote:
>
> >> I picked on Niven because he's one of the best at constructing a
> >> self-consistent future history. (Many others have invented future
> >> history timelines, but they didn't do it as well.) Most SF authors
> >> are much worse in their use of anachronisms.
> >
> > His characters still use plastic ID cards,
>
> In "Oath of Fealty" (Niven and Pournelle) one of the executives has an
> extra-long phone cord, so that he can walk around his apartment while
> using the phone.
>
> That was published in 1981. Cordless phones came onto the market in the
> early 1980s.

Especially detectives and police procedurals age rapidly.
The often mentioned Kay Scarpetta for example (nineties)
is still completely dependent on pagers and answering machines,

Jan

Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org.invalid> wrote:

> On 18/11/23 05:09, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
> > On 2023-11-17 17:18:13 +0000, John Dunlop said:
> >
> >> Jerry Friedman:
> >>> On Friday, November 17, 2023 at 12:51:47?AM UTC-7, Bertel Lund
> >>> Hansen wrote:
> >>
> >> ...
> >>>> To me and most Danes, an acoustic guitar is either a classical
> >>>> one or a western guitar (with steel strings).
> >>>
> >>> Same for me, and for most Americans, I think, though as a
> >>> non-expert I might call that steel-stringed guitar a folk
> >>> guitar.
> >>
> >> I bet a lot of your compatriots would distinguish flamenco guitars
> >> from classical guitars. They typically have narrower necks, lower
> >> strings, and a "sharper" tone than classical guitars.
> >
> > Carelessly, I initially read this as a remark about flamingos. Same
> > word, of course. In French a flamant is a flamingo, and a flamand
> > (pronounced the same) is a Fleming, but they're easily confused (the
> > words, I mean, not the birds and Belgians). I'm always amused by an
> > explanatory sign in the ornithological park in the Camargue that
> > says that Flemings go to the Camargue to breed; it's silent on the
> > question of where Walloons do their breeding.
>
> In Belgian French, in my experience, the bird is always called a flamant
> rose. The adjective is needed to remove an ambiguity.
>
> Do you know the Jacques Brel song "Les Flamandes"? Its best-known verse
> (Les Flamandes dansent sans rien dire) is basically about the breeding
> rituals of the Flemings.
>
> The song has been called racist by some, but it's really a commentary on
> religious conservatism.

More about their religion-driven productivity.
By Brel's time they had succeeded in outnumbering the Walloons,

Jan

On Friday, November 17, 2023 at 3:33:30 PM UTC-5, TonyCooper wrote:
> On Fri, 17 Nov 2023 19:15:02 +0000, Sam Plusnet <n...@home.com> wrote:
> >On 17-Nov-23 10:15, J. J. Lodder wrote:
> >> Peter T. Daniels <petert...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> On Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 3:43:44?PM UTC-5, J. J. Lodder wrote:
> >>>> Peter T. Daniels <petert...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>>> On Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 8:42:25?AM UTC-5, HVS wrote:
> >>>>>> On 15 Nov 2023, Peter Moylan wrote
> >>>>> [mild steel]
> >>>>>>> For people who work with steel, the distinction is so basic that
> >>>>>>> they would just naturally used the qualified form in natural
> >>>>>>> speech.
> >>>>>>> I have a classical guitar. You probably understand why I didn't
> >>>>>>> just say "I have a guitar".
> >>>>> But is it acoustic?
> >>>>>> Indeed. The example I'd give is describing "wrought iron" or "cast
> >>>>>> iron" railings -- I'd be surprised to see them described simply as
> >>>>>> "iron railings".
> >>>>> Would you agree that wrought iron is decorative -- fences, gates,
> >>>>> patio furniture -- and cast iron is structural?
> >>>> No.
> >>> I didn't ask you. I asked someone who is an authority in historic
> >>> architecture and historic preservation.
> >> Your answer is so obviously and completely wrong that no special
> >> authority or elaboration is needed,
> >You can vaguely guess where his ideas come from, but it does highlight
> >how little he knows.
> >That would not be any kind of problem if he were not to keen to make
> >bombastic statements on topics he doesn't understand - and then defend
> >the barricades unto death, when he is corrected.

Has it never occurred to Sam that PTD might be _right_ and the stoogemaster
and especially the stooges might be wrong? In this case, JJ apparently can
only show a "wrought iron building" by redefining "building" to include "bridge."

> Are cast iron skillets structural components?

You really can't understand that "Some A are B " does not lead to
"All A are B"?

I refrained from putting it into symbolic logic notation for
obvious reasons.

Once again the stoogemaster has utterly fucked up by trying to
challenge a perfectly true statement with a bogus bit of "logic."

On 18/11/2023 04:03, lar3ryca wrote:
> On 2023-11-17 18:21, Jerry Friedman wrote:
>> On Friday, November 17, 2023 at 4:19:57 PM UTC-7, lar3ryca wrote:
>>> On 2023-11-17 16:14, Paul Wolff wrote:
>> ...
>>
>>>> A chain-link fence would have needed a rigid framework too. If you came
>>>> to my garden now, you could see an emergency chain-link section of
>>>> fencing where the neighbour's solid fence had collapsed in recent high
>>>> winds, and appreciate what I mean. That chain-link section is mine, to
>>>> keep out feral muntjac deer until the neighbour restores his fence.
>>> Coincidentally, two bull moose were fighting in the back yard of a home
>>> in Moose Jaw (Saskatchewan). Here's a link to the video:
>>>
>>> https://regina.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.6649807
>>>
>>> These two moose did an enormous amount of damage. near the end of the
>>> video, you can see the damage in the daylight.
>>
>> My first reaction was "Oh, dear," but I revised it.
>>
>> No doubt sales of moose-proof fences will skyrocket in Moose Jaw. Um,
>> are
>> there moose-proof fences?
>
> I suppose there are, but I have my doubts about whether or not any of
> them would look good enough as a city house fence.
>
> Moose are very strong and very dangerous. I have seen them run through a
> barbed-wire fence, dragging it by the wire, all the while pulling 15 or
> 20 fence posts out.
>
> A friend of my father had his car badly damaged one night. He was
> driving in the interior of BC, and saw a moose ahead of him, running on
> the road. It was running the same direction he was driving, and when he
> got fairly close to it, the moose stopped. He stopped too, and the moose
> turned to face him. He stopped as well, and when he got tired of waiting
> for it to run off the road, he blew his horn.
>
> The moose was not impressed. It lowered its head and charged the car,
> impacting it directly on the front, then ramming it several times more.
> The damage included two front fenders, the radiator, and the hood. The
> car was not drivable.
>
> They often cross roads at speed, including 100kmh-highways, and are
> probably the worst animal in Canada to hit with a car. They weigh up to
> about 600-700KG, and just about all that weight is carried on legs long
> enough to be higher than the hood of a car, resulting (usually) in the
> animal visiting you in the front seat.
>

C.f. Camels in Oz and Arabia.

--
Chris Elvidge, England
CURSIVE WRITING DOES NOT MEAN WHAT I THINK IT DOES

On Friday, November 17, 2023 at 5:21:16 PM UTC-5, Paul Wolff wrote:
> On Fri, 17 Nov 2023, at 06:43:01, Peter T. Daniels posted:
> >On Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 6:10:370 >> On Thu, 16 Nov 2023, at 14:17:16, Peter T. Daniels posted:
> >> >On Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 3:43:440 >> Peter T. Daniels
> >> ><petert...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >> > On Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 8:42:25?AM UTC-5, HVS wrote:
> >> >> > > On 15 Nov 2023, Peter Moylan wrote

> >> >> > [mild steel]
> >> >> > > > For people who work with steel, the distinction is so basic that
> >> >> > > > they would just naturally used the qualified form in natural
> >> >> > > > speech.
> >> >> > > > I have a classical guitar. You probably understand why I didn't
> >> >> > > > just say "I have a guitar".
> >> >> > But is it acoustic?
> >> >> > > Indeed. The example I'd give is describing "wrought iron" or "cast
> >> >> > > iron" railings -- I'd be surprised to see them described simply as
> >> >> > > "iron railings".
> >> >> > Would you agree that wrought iron is decorative -- fences, gates,
> >> >> > patio furniture -- and cast iron is structural?
> >> >> No.
> >> >I didn't ask you. I asked someone who is an authority in historic
> >> >architecture and historic preservation.
> >> That's not allowed. In Usenet, remarks sent to a newsgroup are not to be
> >> taken personally, but universally.
> >> I would have answered likewise if Jan hadn't beaten me to it. The two
> >> phrases "wrought iron" and "cast iron" explicitly refer one to the
> >> method of manufacture. Wrought iron has no need to be any more
> >> decorative than cast iron, and either may be structural.
> >I said _used_, not "available for use."
>
> I can't find where you said that.

I didn't even go that far. I asked a question. The only answer I got was
a very stupid one. Nor does "need" have any place in my question.

> >> [ObAUE - "either", or "each", or "both" - sometimes English has more
> >> workable alternatives than it needs.]
> >> Wrought iron may be not at all decorative, and may be structural, as in
> >> one of my garden gates. Elaborately structural, to be sure. But the
> >> closeness of the bands has a function, to prevent larger animals from
> >> wriggling through. Cast iron is just cheap, brittle, and rust-resistant.
> >Would that normally be considered a structural use of the iron?
>
> It's the medium with which the gate is made. It /is/ the structure.

Not in the ordinary contrast of "decorative" vs. "structural."

> >Seems
> >like an extra added available benefit, perhaps even an exaptation. You
> >wanted a pretty fence, and it occurred to you that you could make it
> >beast-proof. A chain-link fence could have achieved the same end but
> >been an eyesore.
>
> A chain-link fence would have needed a rigid framework too. If you came
> to my garden now, you could see an emergency chain-link section of
> fencing where the neighbour's solid fence had collapsed in recent high
> winds, and appreciate what I mean. That chain-link section is mine, to
> keep out feral muntjac deer until the neighbour restores his fence.

(FSVO "rigid." Our chain-link fences are usually supported with steel
pipes, vertical and horizontal, and the chain-link itself keeps it from
succumbing to wind, being mostly open spaces.)

> But to complete the picture : my wrought-iron gate is the pivoted
> closure of an opening - a gateway - in an otherwise solid fence of
> wooden boards.

Ah. Subject to wind.

> >> >Who has probably actually _seen_ a cast-iron building in his career.
> >> If you count a bridge as a building - which you should - the bridge at

No,. I shouldn't. For the most part, the engineers who design bridges
aren't architects, and the architects who design buildings employ engineers
to deal with the structural matters. Eiffel built the structure of the Statue
of Liberty, Bartholdi designed the sculpture. Amman designed the George
Washington Bridge, and it looked so good when the structure was completed
(and also it was the beginning of the Depression), the masonry cladding
designed by the celebrated architect Cass Gilbert was not added.

> >It's obvious from context that I didn't. You might even have trouble
> >finding such a usage in ordinary (non-technical) prose.
> >> Ironbridge in the English county of Shropshire is of seminal importance.
> >> That's where the 'structural' idea came from.
> >> >My father's business was on an upper floor of a cast-iron building
> >> >that was demolished ca. 1965, along with many others, to make
> >> >way for the World Trade Center

On 2023-11-18 08:06, Chris Elvidge wrote:
> On 18/11/2023 04:03, lar3ryca wrote:
>> On 2023-11-17 18:21, Jerry Friedman wrote:
>>> On Friday, November 17, 2023 at 4:19:57 PM UTC-7, lar3ryca wrote:
>>>> On 2023-11-17 16:14, Paul Wolff wrote:
>>> ...
>>>
>>>>> A chain-link fence would have needed a rigid framework too. If you
>>>>> came
>>>>> to my garden now, you could see an emergency chain-link section of
>>>>> fencing where the neighbour's solid fence had collapsed in recent high
>>>>> winds, and appreciate what I mean. That chain-link section is mine, to
>>>>> keep out feral muntjac deer until the neighbour restores his fence.
>>>> Coincidentally, two bull moose were fighting in the back yard of a home
>>>> in Moose Jaw (Saskatchewan). Here's a link to the video:
>>>>
>>>> https://regina.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.6649807
>>>>
>>>> These two moose did an enormous amount of damage. near the end of the
>>>> video, you can see the damage in the daylight.
>>>
>>> My first reaction was "Oh, dear," but I revised it.
>>>
>>> No doubt sales of moose-proof fences will skyrocket in Moose Jaw.
>>> Um, are
>>> there moose-proof fences?
>>
>> I suppose there are, but I have my doubts about whether or not any of
>> them would look good enough as a city house fence.
>>
>> Moose are very strong and very dangerous. I have seen them run through
>> a barbed-wire fence, dragging it by the wire, all the while pulling 15
>> or 20 fence posts out.
>>
>> A friend of my father had his car badly damaged one night. He was
>> driving in the interior of BC, and saw a moose ahead of him, running
>> on the road. It was running the same direction he was driving, and
>> when he got fairly close to it, the moose stopped. He stopped too, and
>> the moose turned to face him. He stopped as well, and when he got
>> tired of waiting for it to run off the road, he blew his horn.
>>
>> The moose was not impressed. It lowered its head and charged the car,
>> impacting it directly on the front, then ramming it several times
>> more. The damage included two front fenders, the radiator, and the
>> hood. The car was not drivable.
>>
>> They often cross roads at speed, including 100kmh-highways, and are
>> probably the worst animal in Canada to hit with a car. They weigh up
>> to about 600-700KG, and just about all that weight is carried on legs
>> long enough to be higher than the hood of a car, resulting (usually)
>> in the animal visiting you in the front seat.
>>
>
> C.f. Camels in Oz and Arabia.

Yikes! They get up to 1,000 Kg!

--
I had amnesia once -- or twice

On 2023-11-18 02:51, Mark Brader wrote:
> "Larry":
>>> Coincidentally, two bull moose were fighting in the back yard of a home
>>> in Moose Jaw (Saskatchewan). Here's a link to the video:
>>>
>>> https://regina.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.6649807
>
> Jerry Friedman:
>> No doubt sales of moose-proof fences will skyrocket in Moose Jaw. Um, are
>> there moose-proof fences?
>
> According to other sources, the actual location of that home was
> Homer, Alaska:
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/moose-fight-destroys-yard-car-175400290.html

That's probably right. I thought I heard the newsie say it was in Moose
Jaw, but he may have been making a joke about it.

Pretty scary stuff. Alaskan moose are even bigger than the ones in
Saskatchewan.

--
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is
obliged to stick to possibilities; truth isn’t.
– Mark Twain

Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> writes:
> On 16-Nov-23 12:32, Kerr-Mudd, John wrote:
>> I have (once) eaten a Swan Vesta curry. No actual swan content.
>>
>> Oh dear; still available!
>> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vesta-Beef-Curry-236gm/dp/B00I46DJKU/
>
> Which recipe had the crispy noodles? I still remember those.

Chow Mein. Thanks for reminding me! You can make the noodles easily
just with common rice noodles, there was nothing special about the ones
in the Vesta pack. I think I'll make some to accompany tonight's supper.

Phil
--
We are no longer hunters and nomads. No longer awed and frightened, as we have
gained some understanding of the world in which we live. As such, we can cast
aside childish remnants from the dawn of our civilization.
-- NotSanguine on SoylentNews, after Eugen Weber in /The Western Tradition/

On 19/11/23 02:37, lar3ryca wrote:
> On 2023-11-18 08:06, Chris Elvidge wrote:
>> On 18/11/2023 04:03, lar3ryca wrote:

>>> The moose was not impressed. It lowered its head and charged the
>>> car, impacting it directly on the front, then ramming it several
>>> times more. The damage included two front fenders, the radiator,
>>> and the hood. The car was not drivable.
>>>
>>> They often cross roads at speed, including 100kmh-highways, and
>>> are probably the worst animal in Canada to hit with a car. They
>>> weigh up to about 600-700KG, and just about all that weight is
>>> carried on legs long enough to be higher than the hood of a car,
>>> resulting (usually) in the animal visiting you in the front
>>> seat.
>>
>> C.f. Camels in Oz and Arabia.
>
> Yikes! They get up to 1,000 Kg!

Camels are not a problem in the southern parts of Australia, of course,
but we have our own hazards. Kangaroos don't mass as much as meese or
camels, but they have one unfortunate habit: if you meet one on a
highway, the kangaroo is more than likely to jump in the direction of
the oncoming car, so can hit the windscreen.

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

On 18/11/23 23:34, J. J. Lodder wrote:
> Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org.invalid> wrote:

>> Do you know the Jacques Brel song "Les Flamandes"? Its best-known verse
>> (Les Flamandes dansent sans rien dire) is basically about the breeding
>> rituals of the Flemings.
>>
>> The song has been called racist by some, but it's really a commentary on
>> religious conservatism.
>
> More about their religion-driven productivity.
> By Brel's time they had succeeded in outnumbering the Walloons,

Good point. That's also how the Irish became such a major force in
Australian politics.

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

On 18-Nov-23 1:27, Snidely wrote:
> TonyCooper explained on 11/17/2023 :
>> On Fri, 17 Nov 2023 19:15:02 +0000, Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 17-Nov-23 10:15, J. J. Lodder wrote:
>>>> Peter T. Daniels <petertdaniels@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 3:43:44?PM UTC-5, J. J. Lodder
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> Peter T. Daniels <petert...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>> On Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 8:42:25?AM UTC-5, HVS wrote:
>>>>>>>> On 15 Nov 2023, Peter Moylan wrote [mild steel]
>>>>>>>>> For people who work with steel, the distinction is so basic that
>>>>>>>>> they would just naturally used the qualified form in natural
>>>>>>>>> speech.
>>>>>>>>> I have a classical guitar. You probably understand why I didn't
>>>>>>>>> just say "I have a guitar". But is it acoustic?
>>>>>>>> Indeed. The example I'd give is describing "wrought iron" or "cast
>>>>>>>> iron" railings -- I'd be surprised to see them described simply as
>>>>>>>> "iron railings".
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Would you agree that wrought iron is decorative -- fences, gates,
>>>>>>> patio furniture -- and cast iron is structural?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> No.
>>>>>
>>>>> I didn't ask you. I asked someone who is an authority in historic
>>>>> architecture and historic preservation.
>>>>
>>>> Your answer is so obviously and completely wrong that no special
>>>> authority or elaboration is needed,
>>>
>>> You can vaguely guess where his ideas come from, but it does
>>> highlight how little he knows.
>>> That would not be any kind of problem if he were not to keen to make
>>> bombastic statements on topics he doesn't understand - and then
>>> defend the barricades unto death, when he is corrected.
>>
>> Are cast iron skillets structural components?
>
> Mostly decorative.
>
> But consider the chains holding up many a suspension bridge before steel
> cable took over the job.
>
> /dps "sometimes the links were eye bars, but not I-beams"
>
I was thinking about ships anchors, they were once made of wrought iron
(a brittle fracture might be exactly the kind of fluke you didn't want).

--
Sam Plusnet

On 18-Nov-23 16:38, Phil Carmody wrote:
> Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> writes:
>> On 16-Nov-23 12:32, Kerr-Mudd, John wrote:
>>> I have (once) eaten a Swan Vesta curry. No actual swan content.
>>>
>>> Oh dear; still available!
>>> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vesta-Beef-Curry-236gm/dp/B00I46DJKU/
>>
>> Which recipe had the crispy noodles? I still remember those.
>
> Chow Mein. Thanks for reminding me! You can make the noodles easily
> just with common rice noodles, there was nothing special about the ones
> in the Vesta pack. I think I'll make some to accompany tonight's supper.

Ah! but at that time, as a teenager living somewhere as un-cosmopolitan
as could be imagined, this was truly exotic dining.

--
Sam Plusnet

On 18-Nov-23 1:29, Snidely wrote:
> Watch this space, where Sam Plusnet advised that...
>> On 16-Nov-23 19:32, bil...@shaw.ca wrote:
>>> On Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 11:28:22 AM UTC-8, Sam Plusnet wrote:
>>>> On 16-Nov-23 13:52, Hibou wrote:
>>>>> Le 15/11/2023 à 18:17, Ken Blake a écrit :
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Why would it matter for rescue work what kind of steel it is?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> [...]
>>>>>>
>>>>>> All the descriptions imply it's the most common basic cheap steel,
>>>>>> so I'm not sure why it matters to the reader that they're using it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Basically, it's easily worked steel.
>>>>>> https://www.metalsupermarkets.com/what-is-mild-steel/
>>>>>
>>>>> It's the difference between "He had steel in his character" and "He
>>>>> had
>>>>> mild steel in his character."
>>>>>
>>>>> Strangely, it's the first that suggests he was ill tempered.
>>>>>
>>>> I am now wondering about "Mild mannered Clark Kent". Did I miss
>>>> something?
>>>>
>>> Wasn't he busted for exposing himself in a phone booth?
>>
>> Having a bust would make it more difficult to change in a phone booth,
>> without undue exposure.
>
> And I would choose plaster-of-paris instead of marble, on account of
> weight.
>
> /dps "even super strength has its limits"
>
You could use it to take a cast of someone's bust, to help with making
that bust you mentioned.

--
Sam Plusnet