Men-tal-elfs Actual Launch Night

 

Tonight is the first meet. 

Interesting. Cry offs ;-  one yesterday, then today 09:30, 11:50, 12:15 14:30, and some resounding silences. Watch this space for actual numbers of attendees. 

Not that I care, I will press on regardless, and my latest idea is to go monthly, regardless, & have a revolving cast. 

Excellent night had. Thx guys xxx

Will The Real Joker please stand up

Is it time Tony Blair auditioned for the role of the Joker in the next Batman film?

The resemblance is uncanny......

Turns out I was wrong. The actual Joker is Trumplethinskin 

I love (?) the smell of Physicists in the morning

What does a small room full of 25 Physicists smell like? Yup, BO, and stale sweat. My workplace this morning. Other subjects? Not so much. 

I don't think "The Big Bang Theory" would have been such a hit if we had Smell-O-Vision TV sets. 

Cwrw'r Wythnos tri deg

 

It pays to increase your wordpower

Following on from my post here

Bored whilst invigilating, I resorted to randomly opening a Collins dictionary, and to my delight, I found:-

What a great word! I bet you could get away with using this to describe someone, sounding like  praise, whilst actually slagging them off to those in the know, along the lines of "there we are then" - twat. 

It's bizarre that latin for sex worker sounds so worthy.

Another little gem is Myrmidon, it lives in your imagination as one of these guys, Achilles's posse, but now used as any kind of follower.

The English language and its etymologies never ceases to amaze. I wonder if this is the case in other languages?

Digested

A memory of my grandparents house:- in the back bedroom was a pile of "Readers Digest" - now sadly gone to the great publishing house in the sky. I loved these, & enjoyed browsing through them on sleepovers. There were jokes, general interest articles, and of course, "It pays to increase your wordpower".

It was:-

Reader's Digest was a popular American general-interest magazine, founded in 1922, known for its condensed articles, uplifting stories, humor, brain teasers (like Word Power), and condensed books, simplifying complex topics for broad appeal.

Why my grandparents subscribed to it, is too late to discover now, but I guess it's what people did for entertainment back in the 60's. Radio, 1 tv channel, records, newspapers & this. Were they pretentious middle class? I'd like to think not. 

Off to Cadiz?

 I wonder if we'll meet her?

The Girl of Cadiz

George Gordon, Lord Byron

O never talk again to me
Of northern climes and British ladies;
It has not been your lot to see.
Like me, the lovely Girl of Cadiz.
Although her eyes be not of blue,
Nor fair her locks, like English lassies,
How far its own expressive hue
The languid azure eye surpasses!

Prometheus-like, from heaven she stole
The fire that through those silken lashes
In darkest glances seeuis to roll,
From eyes that cannot hide their flashes;
And as along her bosom steal
In lengthened flow her raven tresses,
You'd swear each clustering lock could feel,
And curled to give her neck caresses.

Our English maids are long to woo,
And frigid even in possession;
And if their charms be fair to view,
Their lips are slow at love's confession;
But, born beneath a brighter sun,
For love ordained the Spanish maid is,
And who, when fondly, fairly won.
Enchants you like the Girl of Cadiz?

The Spanish maid is no coquette,
Nor joys to see a lover tremble;
And if she love or if she hate.
Alike she knows not to dissemble.
Her heart can ne'er be bought or sold,—
Howe'er it beats, it beats sincerely;
And, thought it will not bend to gold,
'T will love you long, and love you dearly.

The Spanish girl that meets your love
Ne'er taunts you with a mock denial;
For every thought is bent to prove
Her passion in the hour of trial.
When thronging foemeu menace Spain
She dares the deed and shares the danger;
And should her lover press the plain,
She hurls the spear, her love's avenger.

And when, beneath the evening star,
She mingles in the gay Bolero,
Or sings to her attuned guitar
Of Christian knight or Moorish hero,
Or counts her beads with fairy hand
Beneath the twinkling rays of Hesper,
Or joins devotion's choral band
To chant the sweet and hallowed vesper,

In each her charms the heart must move

Of all who venture to behold her.

Then let not maids less fair reprove,
Because her bosom is not colder;
Through many a clime 't is mine to roam
Where many a soft and melting maid is,
But none abroad, and few at home,
May match the dark-eyed Girl of Cadiz.

Logolicious

The sign on me daps intrigued me. 

Is it a bird? A plane? No! Its the Runbird!

The etymology/genesis? of the  logo?

 

So now you know, too! Planetary orbits my arse.

I seem to remember the Matties using this brand, until they crossed over to the Dark Side of "On" daps. 

YHIHF

Practical boat owner must have read my post yesterday about severe wind, and have come up with an improvement to the Beaufort Scale:-

Makes sense to me.....

World Meteorological Organisation?

Met office? Admiralty? International maritime agencies? Are you listening? I know the Chinese are, cos Dr. Bob told me they monitor this & my TikTok.

For people with wind

A very apt post in the lee of Storm Goretti, about wind scales. (Not Winscale, that's different)

The Beaufort Scale below, was created by the eponymous Rear Admiral Francis.

From www.rmets.org

Wind Force	Description	Wind Speed			Specifications	Probable Wave Height		Sea State
		km/h	mph	knots		metres	Max
0	Calm	<1	<1	<1	Smoke rises vertically. Sea like a mirror	--	--	0
1	Light Air	1-5	1-3	1-3	Direction shown by smoke drift but not by wind vanes. Sea rippled	0.1	0.1	1
2	Light Breeze	6-11	4-7	4-6	Wind felt on face; leaves rustle; wind vane moved by wind. Small wavelets on sea	0.2	0.3	2
3	Gentle Breeze	12-19	8-12	7-10	Leaves and small twigs in constant motion; light flags extended. Large wavelets on sea	0.6	1.0	3
4	Moderate Breeze	20-28	13-18	11-16	Raises dust and loose paper; small branches moved. Small waves, fairly frequent white horses	1.0	1.5	3-4
5	Fresh Breeze	29-38	19-24	17-21	Small trees in leaf begin to sway; crested wavelets form on inland waters. Moderate waves, many white horses	2.0	2.5	4
6	Strong Breeze	38-49	25-31	22-27	Large branches in motion; whistling heard in telegraph wires; umbrellas used with difficulty. Large waves, extensive foam crests	3.0	4	5
7	Near Gale	50-61	32-38	28-33	Whole trees in motion; inconvenience felt when walking against the wind. Foam blown in streaks across the sea	4.0	5.5	5-6
8	Gale	62-74	39-46	34-40	Twigs break off trees, generally impedes progress. Wave crests begin to break into spindrift	5.5	7.5	6-7
9	Strong Gale	75-88	47-54	41-47	Slight structural damage (chimney pots and slates removed). Wave crests topple over, and spray affects visibility	7.0	10.0	7
10	Storm	89-102	55-63	48-55	Seldom experienced inland; trees uprooted; considerable structural damage. Sea surface is largely white	9.0	12.5	8
11	Violent Storm	103-117	64-72	56-63	Very rarely experienced, accompanied by widespread damage. Medium-sized ships lost to view behind waves. Sea covered in white foam, visibility seriously affected	11.5	16.0	8
12	Hurricane	118+	73+	64+	Devastation. Air filled with foam and spray, very poor visibility	14+	---	9

From Wikipedia:-

The scale was devised in 1805 by the Irish hydrographer Francis Beaufort (later Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort), a Royal Navy officer while serving on HMS Woolwich. The scale that carries Beaufort's name had a long and complex evolution from the previous work of others (including Daniel Defoe the century before) to when Beaufort was a Hydrographer of the Navy in the 1830s when it was adopted officially and first used during the voyage of HMS Beagle under Captain Robert FitzRoy, later to set up the first Meteorological Office (Met Office) in Britain giving regular weather forecasts.

Yup, that's the same FitzRoy featured in Meeting 7 of El Grupo Libro's @ cdh’s 20/04/07 "This thing of darkness" as nominated by DSA, and, as usual, a corker.