Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

silvercar

Sorry to hear your news, maggie.

Sue, everyone has driving that scares them, that surprises others. I will drive on the motorway but won't drive into London. Just as mad.

Pyxis

silvercar wrote: »

Sorry to hear your news, maggie.

Sue, everyone has driving that scares them, that surprises others. I will drive on the motorway but won't drive into London. Just as mad.

I won't even consider driving abroad if it means driving on the right.

Doozergirl

I'm sorry to hear that, Maggie.

My friend posted a video on Facebook on Tuesday about what we owe to the people we love who have emigrated to heaven. It's gone viral and has over 300k views now. I don't know how to share it outside of facebook, or I would.

Generali

Doozergirl wrote: »

I'm sorry to hear that, Maggie.

My friend posted a video on Facebook on Tuesday about what we owe to the people we love who have emigrated to heaven. It's gone viral and has over 300k views now. I don't know how to share it outside of facebook, or I would.

Right click on the video, select copy link and paste the link here using Ctrl+V (assuming it's a PC).

PasturesNew

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

...4am ...

Sorry to hear your news.
Tough times ahead.
Things are never the same "after".
*** special NP hugs ***

Generali

Sorry to hear that maggie, sad news even if on reflection it might have been for the best.

We have had the worst storms here while I've been away. The pool was about a foot below the top when I left 28 hours ago and now it's almost brimmed! I think that there was a big smash on the Hume Highway too as at least a dozen fire trucks and ambos went past me in the opposite direction.

ETA: Just seen your post viva. I drove the Generalissimos home from Canberra (a bit under 300kms/180 miles) most of which was through torrential rain. I was concentrating so hard I had to stop twice for a quick nap! All home safe and sound.

The power is out in a couple of local suburbs but it looks like we got away with it. The two huge gum trees I have in the front yard are still standing but they've shed a lot of bits of gum tree all over the place. The BBQ moved a few yards across the back porch but that seems to be the worst of it. Given that we live right at the top of the hill, if we flooded lots of our neighbours would be drowned!

Apparently there's still some storm to come through Sydney but I think we've had the worst of it go past. Some more trees will come down overnight as we've high winds forecast, the ground is sodden and gum trees put down shallow roots.

No casualties as far as I am aware. Some prat got drunk and drove his car into the flood waters! He was just arrested. Some stations and a couple of railway lines are closed and Sydney airport was mostly or even entirely closed (not sure which).

The SES will have a few busy days (State Emergency Service, a volunteer group that help out after storms/fires/problems) but we just deal with this stuff. QLD gets this sort of thing far worse than round here. It sounds like TAS might have had some pretty nasty weather so some more might come out from rural TAS: plenty of it is pretty remote.

Generali

Sad news about Ali dying, that quite touched me.

Was he the greatest boxer of all time? Joe Lewis would have argued otherwise as would at least one of the Sugar Rays. And maybe one of the Jacks (Johnson and Dempsey).

Was he The Greatest? Definitely.

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

Small bird pecking at my soffits etc.... he's clinging onto the bricks and pecking/tapping at them. I saw him yesterday flitting about "wiping" his beak on the top of my fence posts and fence.

I hope he's not planning on moving in as I've no experience of what you do when birds get into your loft (that'll be the loft I've never been in and never intend to).... I hate lofts. Creepy!

That sounds painful, NP! :D:D

Seriously, though, he's probably found some insects up there. I doubt he's looking to move in!

Is it a swift? It's a bit late for nest-building, though.


Never been in your loft? Ooh! There may be treasure up there!

vivatifosi

I thought Ali was great growing up. I used to watch the fights with my dad and remember both The Rumble in the Jungle and Thriller in Manilla.

It's only as an adult that I understand his principles. But I did as a child think he was pretty and loved the way he spoke. We'd look forward to his interviews on Parkinson and watch them as a family.

He was more than a great boxer, he was a showman, an activist, a poet, a marketing genius and in his later life a philanthropist.

I can think of very few sports people who carry their sport... Usain Bolt is perhaps the closest currently, but he doesn't do so under threat of prison.

So Gen, I agree, definitely the greatest. It is so tragic that the activity that brought him to our attention also caused his downfall.

hjd

Pyxis wrote: »

Following on from the chat about translations, I've just noticed that there was a prog on Radio 4 last Saturday at 11.00am "The Forum" where the discussion was "Machine translation: the end of the human translator?"
(Should be available on catch-up).

It also discusses the impact the development of machine translators might have on people's desire and ability to learn other languages.

Quite pertinent given PasturesNew's comments yesterday!



Edit. Just listened to it! You need iPlayer Radio app, not the TV app, but it's free and downloads quickly.

Haven't tried to listen yet - no speakers on my pc so it might be a challenge though!
Trying (for my sins) to sort out an entry for one of our club swimmers into the Dutch age group National Championships.
Obviously, everything is in Dutch.
Might as well be double Dutch.
Using Google Translate gives some words which appear to be English (mostly) but in a totally random order. It really is rubbish - can't rely on it!
Will be on the phone to the (Dutch) parent later to see if we can manage between us to comply with the requirements.
The software used is different from any of the ones we use, but I think I have managed to do the entries correctly. How to generate the entry files needed doesn't appear to be anywhere on the instructions, FAQ, wiki...
Just as well I do this for love!