Toadfish Monastery

Wondering around aimlessly, clutching head...spies Black Bart.  Yells...

Hey Bart!  Wotyer doin?  Why yer got those sticks tied ter yer 'ead?  An wotz Black Spot and Dave L doin over there?

• Quite tall
• Quite wide
• Have several HP printers, although main printer is a Canon
  
• Love Harry Potter
• Adore Terry Pratchett
• Other favourite authors include David Brin, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Verner Vinge, Stephen Baxter, umm, quite a lot more besides.

Bluenose

In most of Oz, we switched over to daylight saving time last Saturday night.  This leads to the old joke that now Queensland is twenty years and one hour behind the times.  (Ducks various projectiles lobbed by angry Queenslanders).

Personally, I would be more than happy to leave the clock set forward one hour all the time.

As a navigator in a former life, time is an important thing to me, but I do not confuse what the clock says with "real" time.

"Real" time in any locality can just as easily be determined by the local mean time.  Every place would have its own time determined by its longitude - it is noon, local mean time, when the sun is directly over a point on your meridian (line of longitude).  This is why mariners take a noon shot, to determine the local mean time, relative to Grenwich Mean Time, and thus calculate the longitude by the simple aritmetice of 15^o of longitude for every hour before or after Grenwich Mean Time.  BTW, that was the importance of Harrison's clock, it enabled seafarers to keep accurate time and thus solve the problem of determining longitude at sea.

Of course this would lead to chaos, so the idea of Standard Time was invented.  Thus the world is divided into 15^o (more or less) segments (time zones) and the time in each segment is set to the local mean time of the middle meridian of the segment.  It is an entirely arbitrary setting.  The time could just as easily be set to the west most meridian in the segment or the east most one, or some other.  By using daylight saving we are simply choosing another arbitrary setting.


What the point of this is it's a question of how we fit in our human activities with the daylight hours.  By setting our clocks ahead one hour in summer time we get the "official" day over with one hour earlier and so we can enjoy additional daylight at the end of the day.  At my lattitude (in Melbourne) in the midlle of winter it is dark when I get up to go to work and dark by about 5:30 pm, well before I get home.  I would much prefer it if daylight saving was kept all year round then I would at least see some daylight every day.

Just my personal opinion, of course.

Nick

Dear Auntie Backhander,

Oi bin tryin ter order sum supplies from a sertin pirate wot az gone all poncy loike and expecks me ter call 'im "yer grayce" and "yer lordship" and such 'an Oi doan fink it be propper.  'E sez 'e won't supply me wiv ani fish 'ead stew unless Oi place an order in writin to Captain B_______ R_______ OFH, HOC, SSDC, CEO B___ Industries (no names no pack-drill, loike), wen all Oi ever dun before was to send me cabin boy round an tell 'im ter deliver wot Oi need ter my victualling yard.

Jess coz 'e az added sum fake titles ter is name dosn't mean Oi gotta bow and scrape does it?

Cap'n Confuzed

 

I'll fix it.  Just shows that I should use the spell check a bit more often...



Nick

Just a little photo I took a couple of months back in my back yard.  It just appeals to me.

Made this one up last night, quick, simple and very yum.

Chicken with no name

Severs Serves 4

4-6 skinless chicken thigh fillets (quantity depends on size, you may need 8 if very small)
1 medium onion
1 tspn chinese five-spice
1/2 tblspn salt reduced soy sauce
1/2 tblspn ketchap manis (Indonesian/Malay sweet soy sauce)

Remove fat and gristly bits from chicken, cut into small bite sized pieces
Chop the onion and saute in a heavy pan until just starting to brown.  Add chicken and brown.  Add remaining ingredients and stir, turn down heat and cook slowly for about 15 mins until chicken is done.

Serve with rice, avocado. and salad.

Ummm,  wot 'it me?  Oi jess remember the tinklin o sleigh bells, a flash o red an whyte then blammo!  Ow, me ead urts'- 'ang on, where's me Gold pass?  Some blaggard's pinched me Madam Chantel's Gold Pass!  Now Oi really got me dander up.  Let me at em.  Oil murderaite the blaggards!  (With all due humility...)

YAAARRRGGGHHHHWWWWWNNNNNNNNN!!!!

Arr, Oi be feelin moightily refreshed afta me little kip.  Nuffin loike a fresh batch er tonic fer the makin a swab feel loike a bit of football. 

Oi've diskuver descovvert found owt that Oi can fuel me peg legs on the tonic, it seems that some sort o kemikle chamockil (you know wot Oi mean) reackshun took place between the left over Lucosade in wun o Barts bottels and me latest tonic which seems to be makin fer a very powerful fuel.  Oi'll need Bart ter 'elp me out wiv th testin fer the roight consentrashun - when it begins ter kick loike Bart's fishe hed stewe we got it about roight.  Oi know it be a moighty sakrifyce wot Bart an me will 'ave ter make ter taste all that tonic fer the roight strength jess before th game, but we be the pirates fer the job when it comes ter testing rum, err tonic.

Jess let any o them littel bunnies any where near me peg legs an Oi'l kickum into the middel o next week, in a humble toadfish pirate way o course, ye be unnerstannin.

Quote from: Black Bart on October 17, 2006, 01:50:44 PM
YYYAAARRRR....I has a cunnin, cunnin plan!

Err, Bart...  ye haven't bin talkin ter Baldrick again 'ave ye?

ZZZZ...Mmmmpppphhhh... 

Urrk...  Wassat Bart?  Djou saye sumfin?

To be honest, I like the idea of applauding people.  Can we not have it without the smite?

I suspect that it is possible that the odd smite that has been received could be a result of a misguided click.  I know I once clicked by accident on the report to moderator link, of course I did not go beyond that as I did not actually see anything that warranted reporting.  But the applause/smite thing is a one click is all it takes type thing, so an accidental click on the wrong option could do it.

Bluenose

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...Snnnnrrrrrffffgggg....ZZZZ...

ZZZZ....Grmmmph......Snork!.....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.....

Yo ho ho an er bottel o.......ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ....

I can't see the applaud/smite buttons any more.  Is there a problem, or have they been removed? Or is there something wrong with my browser?

BTW, I was going to applaud Bob the Unbeliever for showing me the Brightness.

Bluenose

Well, I'm off to bed, so I'll just take with me for safe keeping, the Last Post