GRIPES

[pmccarthy]

Americans talk about a high rate of speed. What the hell is that? Speed is speed, a measure.

[old man emu]

American and British English follow the same basic rules of syntax, which is the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language. Basically, this syntax is Subject > Verb> Object. Other languages use different syntaxes, so that when those whose Mother language is not English begin to speak in English, they retain their Mother  language's syntax, resulting is "scrambled " English. Also, in most other languages, verbs are more inflected that English verbs. Not knowing how to inflect verbs in English leads them to imply use the root of the verb. The verb root is the form of the verb without any endings.

 

Up until the mid-20th Century, most people in the United States lived their lives close to where they were born or had established new home areas, as did most of the rest of the world. This lead to the formation of dialects and accents unique to those limited areas. This is still as strong influencer on American English as we now know that only about 10% of Americans have passports, and their employment conditions (little or no holiday time) preclude much long distance travel. These dialects give rise to interesting language formations. 

 

Another factor has been the USA's military expansion which included conscription. Conscription brought together people speaking in all these various dialects and put them in a situation where clear and concise communication was essential. This lead the the widespread use of acronyms, a practice that carried over into civilian language.

 

One could also say that the American psyche is to gild the lily. This gives rise to bloated expressions such as "high rate of speed", as well as many expressions used that indicate an ignorance of the meanings of words. This sentence is mathematically incorrect: " Testing of school children in maths indicates that 50% are below average."

[old man emu]

Lock me up and throw away the key! That's the only way to deal with a highway hoon!

 

I just got this happy snap from the NSW preservers of motorists' lives. They want me to pay $128.00 for the negatives.  I got pinged in the same place for a similar small overspeeding a few months ago. 

 

At the time I was coming to the top of Victoria Pass. This is the start at the bottom of the pass. It is a very, very steep climb and 

 

It's a busy road and trucks just grind up it.

 

It even has this quant 19th Century two lane bridge to negotiate. 

 

I'll be going to Sydney in the first week of September, and this time I am going to sit on 40 kph all the way up and hope I cause a bloody long back up of traffic. Too bad that I'll be going down mid-week. I should di it about 1:30 pm on a Sunday afternoon and really piss people off.

[red750]

I got pinged for doing 45 in an 80 zone. It was 2:40 pm outside  school. School speed limits of 40 apply 2:30 to 4:00, even though schools get out at 3:15. My daughter has been a school crossing supervisor (at another school) for 15 years, and she never leaves home till 3:10.

[nomadpete]

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

I'll be going to Sydney in the first week of September, and this time I am going to sit on 40 kph all the way up and hope I cause a bloody long back up of traffic. Too bad that I'll be going down mid-week. I should di it about 1:30 pm on a Sunday afternoon and really piss people off.

So, it isn't always grey nomad caravans that invoke roadrage from angry wannabe speedsters?

 

Thanks for warning us.

[Old Koreelah]

2 hours ago, old man emu said:

Lock me up and throw away the key! That's the only way to deal with a highway hoon!

 

I just got this happy snap from the NSW preservers of motorists' lives. They want me to pay $128.00 for the negatives.  I got pinged in the same place for a similar small overspeeding a few months ago. 

 

At the time I was coming to the top of Victoria Pass. This is the start at the bottom of the pass. It is a very, very steep climb and 

 

It's a busy road and trucks just grind up it.

 

It even has this quant 19th Century two lane bridge to negotiate. 

 

I'll be going to Sydney in the first week of September, and this time I am going to sit on 40 kph all the way up and hope I cause a bloody long back up of traffic. Too bad that I'll be going down mid-week. I should di it about 1:30 pm on a Sunday afternoon and really piss people off.

I crossed that same old bridge on Wednesday in a truck loaded with classic motorcycles. 

[facthunter]

I rode my Veteran1918 Indian up there about 2014 and the dear old thing got up it quite easily on the Perth -Sydney  run. Only one other vehicle on the run did likewise.(an early BSA). The  rest went up some longer road somewhere north. Double lane of trucks  even then griding up the hill.  Nev

[old man emu]

The road from the bottom of Lapstone Hill near the Nepean River to the edge of Lithgow is a barnacle on the RS-ole of Progress. 80 km taking 80 minutes, with constant speed limit changes up and down from 60 to 90. 60 and 80 are sensible, but not 70. I'm OK with 40 around schools, but you have to be watching the clock.

[facthunter]

Always was slow and windey. Perhaps a tunnel is the answer but an accident with a tanker in one doesn't bear thinking about. Flying over it in a small plane has never grabbed me much either. . I always liked the BLUE Mountains  (except when there's bushfires). Nev

[spacesailor]

School zones ! .

Don't worry about the time time .

Play safe 40 klms ph , all the time .

You don't get pinged then .

spacesailor

[onetrack]

At the risk of sounding like a mean bastard, I was reading the news article about the crash of the USAAF Osprey on the Tiwi Islands - and while I can offer my sympathies and condolences to the U.S. personnel injured and killed - I was quite amazed that the Royal Darwin Hospital has gone onto Brown Alert (the highest alert level) and has had to accommodate and operate on the numerous injured U.S. personnel.

 

I think this is extremely unfair that our overworked and understaffed public health system has to cope with a major influx of injured U.S. personnel, from a country with a massive military force, staff, and equipment reserves - which should be responsible for treated their own forces injured in war games and training.

 

They surely have major medical facilities on their ships and bases, and I don't understand why these U.S. Forces medical staff and equipment wasn't on standby nearby, ready to treat and operate on - and if necessary, evacuate their injured force members - rather than relying on using the Australian overloaded public health system, as the backup for U.S. Forces injuries.

 

I know that during WW2, three new major Australian hospitals were turned over to the exclusive use of injured U.S. personnel from combat zones in the S.W. Pacific and the Islands to our North - and even then, this brought about a lot ill-feeling from a large number of Australians, who had to put up with less-than-stellar civilian health treatment conditions during the War.

However, in the case of the WW2 experience, I don't think we could begrudge the use of the three Australian hospitals for the U.S. personnel, as they were effectively fighting in the defence of Australia.

 

But this exercise with the injured personnel from the Osprey crash, has left me feeling that we're being used big-time, by a very large and prosperous Ally, when they should be wearing the cost of caring for their injured forces. What do you blokes think? Here ends my gripe.

[facthunter]

There's NO reasonable ways you could restrict use of the facilities. Nev

[old man emu]

Doesn't it seem logical that if you were going to run training exercises to test the application of your business that you would include all the support services? In this case, you would think that they would have included battlefield medical facilities.I bet the catering corps was there in strength. It's obvious that when you get a lot of people together doing things, there are going to be injuries, from the minor ro the major. Add to that various ways that a person can become unwell - stomach problems are pretty common.

[facthunter]

Trauma Injuries  can require complex internal surgery . and the best facilities..IF it was YOU or YOURs what would you want?   WAR is HELL.   Training can be a bit more generous. Nev

[willedoo]

I would think an agreement on using the Australian hospital would be the only practical way. Taking into account the number of U.S. troops based in Darwin on permanent rotation, it would not be worth the expense for the Americans to build their own hospital with operating theatres, ICU and full facilities for the rare times their troops are injured. There were reportedly five serious cases among the twenty or so injured in the Osprey crash. For sure, the Americans would have their own emergency evac, first aid and triage capabilities, but to expect them to provide their own hospital for serious cases is unrealistic.

 

The American carriers have hospital facilities but I don't know what upper level of care they can provide. Ship hospitals are only a stop gap measure in serious cases. In the case of the Osprey, the seriously injured troops probably needed a proper hospital asap rather than a time consuming airlift to Guam or somewhere.  My nephew was airlifted onto the USS Carl Vinson off Japan to use their medical facilities as his RAN frigate didn't have the capability. His case wasn't life threatening, but it was more than his ship's doctor could provide for. He got to sit in a wheelchair for a few days watching the F-18's launch and trap which he said was quite exciting. 

 

I don't know whether the injured troops were based here or only in Darwin for the exercise. There would be some hospital agreement for the permanent troops, so it's logical that visiting troops would also come under that agreement.

[old man emu]

Hospital emergency codes are coded messages often announced over a public address system of a hospital to alert staff to various classes of on-site emergencies. The use of codes is intended to convey essential information quickly and with minimal misunderstanding to staff while preventing stress and panic among visitors to the hospital. 

 

Australian hospitals and other buildings are covered by Australian Standard 4083 (1997)

Code Black: Personal threat

Code Blue: medical emergency

Code Brown: external emergency (disaster, mass casualties etc.)

Code Orange: evacuation

Code Purple: bomb threat

Code Red: fire

Code Yellow: internal emergency

 

I'd say that for Darwin's hospital to go Code Brown would be Ops Normal when a large number of injured patients arrive. I would guess that John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle went into Code Brown when the Greta bus crash happened. I believe that five or more deaths makes an incident a disaster (not applicable to natural disasters like cyclones and earthquakes).

 

[facthunter]

Deaths don't make the demands critical injuries do.   Nev

[old man emu]

Yeah, but.... There's usually a couple of injured people for every deceased person in an incident.

[facthunter]

No one alive in the Whitsundays event. Helicopters don't crash gracefully often.. It's WRONG to call the Osprey a helicopter.  a Helicopter has a throttle , cyclic pitch , collective pitch a controllable tail rotor L-R and auto rotation capability declutch . Gives you a fighting chance. Nev

Edited August 28, 2023 by facthunter

[Bruce Tuncks]

I sure understand onetrack's reservations, but I also reckon that it would not be worthwhile to protest officially. You would be seen to be mean to injured servicemen. But if I were a Darwin resident in need of the facility that had just been commandeered by the us, I would be really angry.

Are service people in the US spared having to be sent bankrupt by their "private" medical system? Even after they have retired?

[facthunter]

I'm pretty sure the account(S) would be paid. If there was a bus or train accident co incidentally you'd be in line as well.. It's not as if  armies crash everyday but IF they're active there's a chance of it. , An airliner crashing at the airport has potential to be far more demanding. My near miss at Mascot would have involved over 500 possible casualties. Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

Gripe of the week. I have to learn Python (programming language). Microsoft as decided to embed Python into Excel because Python is the new cool language. FFS, all modern languages can do the same stuff, so marketing decides what happens rather than tech. Python has been around for a while now, and it is no better than any of the other languages - it became popular as you could do AI and alogorthimic (trading) programming in it because there were pre-packaged libaries in it - but those libraries are written in another language which has been around since I started in the industry 40 years ago!

 

Another two weeks of my life spent learning a slightly different syntax to do the same thing. It is not like learning a new human language (nor as hard, I must admit).

 

First world problems, I know.

[rgmwa]

Doesn't Excel have Visual Basic embedded in it?  How will that work if they bring in another language?

[old man emu]

When you said you were having to learn Python, I thought that you must have done the Back to the Future act. I don't know programming languages, but I know my son abandoned Python when he still had pimples.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Python has been around for quite a few years now, but like virtually every other language, it takes time to mature. But, despite the hype, it does not offer anything any other modern language doesn't offer. It has taken the AI and algo trading world by storm because of the inbuilt libraries (pre-written code that supports, specific functions so you don't have to write them yourself) such as NumPy (Numeric libraries for Python), however, these are all written in C++ (an older language, but by jeebus, it is powerful) and these pre-written libraries can be called from any other language.

 

Excel does have VBA (Visual Basic for (Windows Office) Applications) - which is a cut down version of Visual Basic. But, it is quite a powerful language - if a little slow, and Excel has just about has every math, statistical, and financial function inbuilt, so why Python is needed, I have no idea. Languages these days are like car or real-estate sales people. They are largely a con in that they are the next best technology, but in reality, offer little if anything more than what is already there.

 

Here is my next, but related gripe.. New fangled software development frameworks. They are crap and as far as I can tell don't offer any productivity gains than, say Visual Basic, or even good ol' COBOL (well, except COBOL had no user interface capability built in).

 

Today, a developer working on a system I specified up called to say, the frameworks he is using won't allow him to build a simple database table. It was throwing an error and not one developer on his team, including the tech lead, could work it out. A database table is like a spreadsheet. It has rows and columns. My table was a whole three columns and in native mode (the way we used to develop), it was (and still is) as simple as anything and would have taken him all of, maybe 2 minutes. Think of it as a simple three-column spreadsheet.

 

A developer of another team came to me to say he has given up on... making a cell on a user interface window copyable. Think of highlighting some text on your browser, or wordprocessor, or a cell in Excel and pressing control-c (Windows/Linux or Apple=C on Macs/Winbooks). Pretty easy, huh? Well, not with these new found frameworks. Try as he might, he could not make a single selected cell on the window copyable - it copied the whole line.. A bit like selecting a cell on Excel, pressing control-c and it copying the whole row,  So the user has to copy the row to something like notepad or excel, and then copy what they want...

 

I just about threw the laptop out of the window!

Edited August 29, 2023 by Jerry_Atrick