Nobody Cares if it's Off Topic

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

As opposed to social driving, where you drive down the road, waving at everyone.

Why do the British hate freedom to be a fucking moron and endanger everyone around you?

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Because there's no bald eagles in the UK!

 

[Lexxi]

As opposed to social driving, where you drive down the road, waving at everyone.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

It's also known as vehicle nuisance. Anti-social behaviour is a low-level public order offence, defined as "conduct that has caused, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to any person."

Sounds like rush hour on any given freeway in California.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

We visited San Diego today, checking out some old haunts from back when we lived in Pacific Beach. I miss living there, but damn! I don't remember the traffic in the afternoon being that godawful! It took us nearly an hour to get from Del Mar to Murphy Canyon!

I'm pretty sure I waved at Jopsy Pendragon as we tootled down the 163.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

When a work colleague suffers from imposter syndrome because they really aren't up to their job ...

https://www.askamanager.org/2018/02/my-coworker-with-imposter-syndrome-actually-does-suck-at-her-job.html

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I don't know whether anyone here sees their own stuff, but just in case: the company that owns the four major brands of sewing patterns has evidently been sold to a liquidator. So if you need or want any sewing patterns, you should probably get them now, as they may not be available for very much longer.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

This is why I learned to draft patterns.

 

[Casey Pelous]

I don't know whether anyone here sees their own stuff, but just in case: the company that owns the four major brands of sewing patterns has evidently been sold to a liquidator. So if you need or want any sewing patterns, you should probably get them now, as they may not be available for very much longer.

Home sewing has made no economic sense for some time. For most garments, you literally cannot buy the fabric, much less the pattern and "stuff" ("notions") for the price of a similar finished garment. If you're into it as an art form, whether as a quilter or a creator of specialty clothing, great; but the days of mom sewing clothing items for the family are pretty much ancient history. Hence the ignominous end of JoAnn Fabrics.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Since there's no "No one cares about architecture" subforum (and I doubt we need one), this is what's happened to the old London US Embassy in Grosvenor Square

Link to Guardian article

The hotel belongs to the royal family of Qatar.

Eat your heart out, Donald Trump! This is how to do OTT gilded hotels.

 

[Govi]

Since there's no "No one cares about architecture" subforum (and I doubt we need one), this is what's happened to the old London US Embassy in Grosvenor Square

Link to Guardian article

The hotel belongs to the royal family of Qatar.

Eat your heart out, Donald Trump! This is how to do OTT gilded hotels.

That eagle overlooking the entrance side of the building is shockingly like that of a Nazi public building if my memory of photos of such buildings serves.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

This essay could have gone in the History forum, but it's about so many other issues, I'm putting it here. Worth reading.

Evernote Link

(I've finally cancelled my subscription to The Times and switched to the Financial Times. Whatever its title suggests, it's also a very good general newspaper with excellent arts and op-eds. And, as a journalist friend of mine once put it, its news reporting has to be accurate because it's read by the people who own the country, or at least those who look after their money for them.)

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Today I received from my bank a new debit card to replace the one that's about to expire. I read through the covering letter about how to activate it and was rather surprised to come across the instruction to "dust off" a pen and sign the strip on the back.

Dust off? I use a pen every day to jot down notes to myself -- reminders or phone numbers or drafting rough outlines for scripts or whatever. I might well transfer them to my contacts or calendar or Evernote, but I just find it easier to keep a notebook handy to jot them down manually first. That way I know where they are -- the big notebook that lives next to the PC or the smaller notebook that goes everywhere with me.

I can't imagine not using a pen -- quite apart from anything else, there's a tactile pleasure in writing with a decent rollerball gel pen on good quality paper.

 

[Free]

Dust off? I use a pen every day to jot down notes to myself

Deary, you're just not like the other modern girls.

 

[Free]

Useful tip.

 

[Free]

Something from “space” may have just struck a United Airlines flight over Utah

NTSB gathering radar, weather, flight recorder data."

arstechnica.com

The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed Sunday that it is investigating an airliner that was struck by an object in its windscreen, mid-flight, over Utah.

“NTSB gathering radar, weather, flight recorder data,” the federal agency said on the social media site X. “Windscreen being sent to NTSB laboratories for examination.”

The strike occurred Thursday, during a United Airlines flight from Denver to Los Angeles. Images shared on social media showed that one of the two large windows at the front of a 737 MAX aircraft was significantly cracked. Related images also reveal a pilot’s arm that has been cut multiple times by what appear to be small shards of glass.

The captain of the flight reportedly described the object that hit the plane as “space debris.” This has not been confirmed, however.

Must have been one of those birds that fly at 30,000 feet that I've never heard about before.

 

[Isabeau]

A giant paper clip from outer space

 

[Lexxi]

Something from “space” may have just struck a United Airlines flight over Utah

NTSB gathering radar, weather, flight recorder data."

arstechnica.com

Must have been one of those birds that fly at 30,000 feet that I've never heard about before.

This Rare Vulture Was Involved In The Highest Bird Strike Ever Recorded

Most commercial airplanes cruise at 30,000 to 40,000 feet—far too high for most birds, which is why bird strikes usually happen near airports. But one critically endangered vulture defied the odds.

www.forbes.com

On November 29, 1973, the pilots of an Air Ivory Coast flight—a commercial airline operating between Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire and Paris, France—were cruising comfortably over the skies of West Africa. The flight was proceeding as expected when a loud thud suddenly resonated through the aircraft.

Inside the plane, the crew was puzzled and curious, as bird strikes typically occur during takeoff or landing, not at cruising altitude.
Upon landing, the ground crew inspected the aircraft, particularly the right engine, which had sustained significant damage. Astonishingly, they found the remains of a bird lodged within the engine components. The altitude at which the strike occurred made the discovery even more perplexing.

Rüppell’s vultures have a massive wingspan of around 8 feet, which allows them to soar on thermal currents, which is a fancy way of saying they ride invisible columns of warm air rising from the ground, effortlessly gliding for hours. This carries them to incredible heights as they search for food across vast distances.

They also have an exceptionally efficient respiratory system, allowing them to extract oxygen from the thin air at high altitudes—a feature that gives them a significant edge over other birds. Their hemoglobin has a high affinity for oxygen, which means they can maintain physical function and stay alert even in the lower oxygen levels present at such altitudes

 

[Free]

NONSENSE

Why do you hate me?

 

[Lexxi]

Why do you hate me?

Eh, I even thanked you. Because your comment made me go down an interesting rabbit hole about how high birds can fly. Then spotted that the vulture I mentioned has the listed height because it was confirmed by a plane strike at that height.

Is neat that there's a bird whose blood/etc. allows it to breath in thin air. With wingspans larger than all but the height of the tallest humans.

(and now I've gone down a rabbit hole on tallest humans)