La Flamme Rouge off topic discussion

magicbastarder · 04-04-2020 10:54am

nothing much bigger than a grapefruit - the pond is probably about 8 or 9 foot across its longest axis, so is certainly not a large one.
we live in the suburbs near DCU, a lot of that life probably came in on pond plants, but i have seen other creatures - such as diving beetles - which almost certainly made their way here on their own.
and i have to admit that the frogs were helped here - a relative had a pond which was punctured by a heron, so we rescued the spawn from that and translocated it to ours (which is actually illegal, you need a licence to handle spawn, unless you're a teacher).

a148pro · 04-04-2020 4:34pm

Lumen wrote: »

I love bats. They're adorable! Oh, wait...

The bats are out too, I thought it was early because it's still cold but have seen a few at dusk.

I love bats too. But it's not the bats that are the problem, it's the people who like to eat the bats, and pack them in alive in close quarters with just about every other animal that walks for live sale.

I can see a serious worldwide clamour to impose a ban on any country doing that in future, I can see the trump tweets already!

a148pro · 04-04-2020 4:38pm

magicbastarder wrote: »

interestingly in the back pond, the vast majority of the tadpoles have disappeared. so something is probably eating them.

You needn't tell the kids but apparently they're partial to each other!

Mod Note: backseat moderation snipped.

CramCycle · 04-04-2020 6:22pm

I thought the current thinking is that it's not bat related at all.

a148pro · 04-04-2020 6:30pm

CramCycle wrote: »

I thought the current thinking is that it's not bat related at all.

Not sure but last I saw there was a suggestion bats are the reservoir and then other animals, probably pangolins or civet cats are the "amplifier" that caused it to transfer into humans. I think sars was a similar route and there's some genetic similarity between the virus and other viruses known to be found in bats.

But that may well be theoretical. Will be interesting to see.

Lumen · 04-04-2020 8:46pm

a148pro wrote: »

The bats are out too, I thought it was early because it's still cold but have seen a few at dusk.

I love bats too. But it's not the bats that are the problem, it's the people who like to eat the bats, and pack them in alive in close quarters with just about every other animal that walks for live sale.

I can see a serious worldwide clamour to impose a ban on any country doing that in future, I can see the trump tweets already!

Unfortunately my cat eats bats and cats can pass coronavirus at least to each other and probably to humans.

Tenzor07 · 04-04-2020 8:54pm

Lumen wrote: »

Unfortunately my cat eats bats and cats can pass coronavirus at least to each other and probably to humans.

Not unless you eat your Cat for lunch!

Lumen · 04-04-2020 9:05pm

Tenzor07 wrote: »

Not unless you eat your Cat for lunch!

Unfortunately my cat has a habit of standing on the bedside table at 3am and sneezing in my face.

Cats are dicks.

Tenzor07 · 04-04-2020 9:55pm

Lumen wrote: »

Unfortunately my cat has a habit of standing on the bedside table at 3am and sneezing in my face.
Cats are dicks.

Easy solution

a148pro · 04-04-2020 10:29pm

Lumen wrote: »

Unfortunately my cat eats bats and cats can pass coronavirus at least to each other and probably to humans.

If you eat your cat first you'll be grand

Do cats actually eat bats?

magicbastarder · 04-04-2020 10:40pm

this is why we don't let our cats outdoors.

Lumen · 05-04-2020 9:35am

magicbastarder wrote: »

this is why we don't let our cats outdoors.

I'd just like to say how proud I am of the small part I had to play in bringing cat shaming to this thread after only around 1000 posts.

magicbastarder · 05-04-2020 10:12am

Our two cats are bizarrely obsessed with my pannier bag. Constantly trying to climb in, and I don't know why. I have to hide the damn thing. They don't do it with other similar sized bags.

magicbastarder · 05-04-2020 11:42am

a lot of the gardening/cats talk has been moved in here. apols if it's a little messy.

Eamonnator · 06-04-2020 6:28pm

President Trump has been talking about curing and preventing Covid 19 with hydroxychloroquine.This is a form of quinine.
There's quinine in Tonic Water and hey, it even has the word tonic in it's name, so it must be good.
Anyway, I've just had a pre dinner gin and tonic.
I feel better already.

Pigeon Reaper · 07-04-2020 2:21pm

Eamonnator wrote: »

President Trump has been talking about curing and preventing Covid 19 with hydroxychloroquine.This is a form of quinine.
There's quinine in Tonic Water and hey, it even has the word tonic in it's name, so it must be good.
Anyway, I've just had a pre dinner gin and tonic.
I feel better already.

G&T were traditionally drunk by colonists in malarial areas as the tonic water was believed to have medicinal benefits due to the quine. However there is a side effect called black water fever so make sure you use more gin to try and avoid this.

Eamonnator · 07-04-2020 7:06pm

Pigeon Reaper wrote: »

G&T were traditionally drunk by colonists in malarial areas as the tonic water was believed to have medicinal benefits due to the quine. However there is a side effect called black water fever so make sure you use more gin to try and avoid this.

I ran out of gin last night.
I had to to resort to Black Bush and water this evening.
Funny thing, it had the exact same effect as the G&T.
Should I ring Trump and tell him about the positives of Bushmills?

Boscoirl · 08-04-2020 11:37am

No Point, Trump doesnt have shares in Bushmills

tomasrojo · 10-04-2020 11:23am

This is probably a long-established thing I just never noticed, but you can get rear derailleurs that under minimum tension are on the big sprocket, instead of the little one:
https://bikesnobnyc.com/2020/04/09/1149/

magicbastarder · 10-04-2020 2:26pm

what are the benefits? i guess if a cable snaps, you might not find yourself grinding away. but i would assume that the standard we're used to is mechanically simpler or more reliable?

Idleater · 10-04-2020 2:33pm

magicbastarder wrote: »

what are the benefits?

For the MTB anyway, having the tension reversed means easier shifts when you most need it.

tomasrojo · 10-04-2020 3:10pm

It *is* a long-established thing:

Low normal or rapid rise rear derailleurs return the chain to the largest sprocket on the cassette when no cable tension is applied. While this was once a common design for rear derailleurs, it is relatively uncommon today. In mountain biking and off-road cycling, the most critical gear changes occur on uphill sections, where riders must cope with obstacles and difficult turns while pedalling under heavy load. This derailleur type provides an advantage over high normal derailleurs because gear changes to lower gears occur in the direction of the loaded spring, making these shifts easier during high load pedalling.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derailleur_gears

magicbastarder · 11-04-2020 2:09pm

bad experiences with PE in school can lead to people taking less exercise later in life.

http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/22163/

eeeee · 11-04-2020 6:37pm

magicbastarder wrote: »

bad experiences with PE in school can lead to people taking less exercise later in life.

http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/22163/

I went to an all girls convent school. PE was virtually non existent. There were no pitches, but there was one basketball court and a gym which was used for exams etc. I can't remember doing any physical exercise in there. For double PE once, we had a nun instruct us to walk up and down the school avenue without bending our knees :rolleyes: And we had to wear skirts and tights and weren't allowed wear runners! (and this was the 2000's, not the 50's!) :rolleyes::rolleyes:
There was a basketball team in fairness, and I got on it because I was taller than everyone else. I just stood by the net and popped the ball in because I couldn't run :pac::pac:

I really wish there had been decent PE. Thank flip for farming or I wouldn't have had a physical outlet at all as a young one!

Daroxtar · 11-04-2020 6:51pm

Postman arrived today with a package . "Draft Animals" by Phil Gaimon. 20 pages in and it's a cracker. He's one funny fkr

magicbastarder · 12-04-2020 9:06am

More in the 'at least they're not talking about us' change of focus to joggers.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/fitness/joggers-vs-walkers-as-a-runner-i-m-aware-of-everything-around-me-why-aren-t-walkers-1.4224053

I don't think I buy a lot of her argument. Joggers *should* be more vigilant than walkers.

cletus · 12-04-2020 9:44am

magicbastarder wrote: »

bad experiences with PE in school can lead to people taking less exercise later in life.

http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/22163/

That's interesting. As a PE teacher, I would say that anecdotally, those students I teach who do not do PE, would profess to have bad experiences of PE in school, or at least be of the opinion that they don't like PE. Most of these students are also sedentary in other areas of their life.

Perhaps a more accurate assessment would that people who don't like being physically active, dislike PE and have negative experiences (in their opinion), grow up as sedentary adults who remember disliking PE...all anecdotal and supposition of course

magicbastarder · 12-04-2020 9:52am

my PE teacher was an asshole (late 80s/early 90s). he was quite old school with a bit of a drill instructor approach, not exactly a man to give positive feedback to the kids at the back of the pack.

reminiscent of eeeee's story, my mother's PE teacher was known to take the class into the concert hall where she was at school and get them to jump off the stage onto the parquet floor about three foot below, and land without bending their knees. we joke with her that that's the reason why she's about half an inch shy of five foot.

cletus · 12-04-2020 10:01am

I could post an exhaustive list of the activities, sports and exercise we teach, along with the methodologies used, but I'm not going to bore anyone. Suffice to say, PE is a different animal now than it was when I was in school (I'm the best part of 40 now).

Despite that, we still have a sizeable number of students who have to be convinced every week to take part in class, because "PE is stupid, sir", or who pick and choose when they'll take part depending on the activity, or who don't take part at all.

Not unconnected, we run fitness assessments a couple of times a year with every class, usually group cardio testing. I have many students unable to get past, say, level 4.2 on the Beep test.

Level 4.2 when converted for age and sex to V02 max, would generally give a poor to very poor score

tomasrojo · 12-04-2020 10:11am

magicbastarder wrote: »

my PE teacher was an asshole (late 80s/early 90s). he was quite old school with a bit of a drill instructor approach, not exactly a man to give positive feedback to the kids at the back of the pack.

Yes, from your description, he was even making you do goose steps! (I mean, walking without bending your knees.)

tomasrojo · 12-04-2020 10:18am

I remember being admonished by a teacher in school for my lack of interest in sports, and yet I was reasonably fit at the time, and I've been fit ever since. It's been utility cycling all the time for me.

My school didn't do PE, and I really don't enjoy competitions, and I find physical activity in Ireland keeps getting turned into some sort of competition, or used to. Might be the case in all countries, I don't know. But in the Netherlands, for example, kids do seem to get a fair bit of exercise just getting to and from school.

magicbastarder · 12-04-2020 10:21am

i was never any good at team sports, but certainly wasn't unfit - i didn't and don't have the co-ordination or physical reflexes for it, and have never been competitive in that way. but most PE and sport back then seemed to be based around competition. the bit i liked was when the rugby trainers decided to make life easy on themselves and tell us to do a lap of the school, which i liked much more than most others.

LollipopJimmy · 12-04-2020 10:32am

Our PE was football against another class, class size of about 30 and one 11 v 11 match. So 22 out of the 60 got PE, well maybe 2 subs each too. The rest sat and watched.

RobertFoster · 12-04-2020 11:08am

In my school the last few years of PE turned into a weekly indoor football match for the boys, while the girls got to try out different sports at the other end of the hall. I think it was just easier for the teachers as the football was fairly self regulated so didn't require much supervision.

The lack of choice was a bit boring week in week out but it was still a nice break from other subjects. The facilities bothered me more than the PE itself. Our schoolbags ended up in the showers more often than the students. For some reason the boys showers were communal (the girls had cubicles) so no one ever used them. If it wasn't for the copious amounts of Lynx Africa I'm sure the remaining classes after PE would've been quite funky.

eeeee · 12-04-2020 11:19am

RobertFoster wrote: »

. For some reason the boys showers were communal (the girls had cubicles) so no one ever used them. If it wasn't for the copious amounts of Lynx Africa I'm sure the remaining classes after PE would've been quite funky.

Good jaysus :eek: :eek: :eek:

Pretty shyte they split the two, would they not just work as a whole class together? For the different sports and football?

magicbastarder · 12-04-2020 11:39am

is it not reasonably common for the showers to have been differentiated like that?

reminds me of the time we were getting changed after swimming (we had a swimming pool, but not used between halloween and easter due to the cost of heating it); our P.E. teacher walked into the changing room when we were starkers and boomed out in his north of england accent 'MY WORD, **** ****Y, I NEVER REALISED YOU WERE SUCH A BIG LAD'.

talk about killing the atmosphere stone dead.

RobertFoster · 12-04-2020 12:01pm

eeeee wrote: »

Good jaysus :eek: :eek: :eek:

Pretty shyte they split the two, would they not just work as a whole class together? For the different sports and football?

I don't think it was a deliberate gender split, it just occurred naturally over time. The (vocal) popular boys wanted just-football and the popular girls wanted not-football. Everyone else followed along (including the teachers) or did what their friends were doing.

magicbastarder wrote: »

talk about killing the atmosphere stone dead.

Oof. Are those the sort of things the "political correctness gone mad!" people miss? Back in my day you could compliment a sixteen-year-old on the size of his penis, now you can't even go into a changing room without another supervising adult!

CramCycle · 12-04-2020 12:12pm

Our PE teacher was an "alleged" gun runner for the IRA. Gardai raided his place and the school gym. He was fired and then rehired after he wasn't found guilty. He was actually a really good gym teacher and nothing in his demenaour suggested he was a staunch republican/terrorist. He got us to try different sports, made everyone do the class and was generally a good teacher.

magicbastarder · 12-04-2020 12:30pm

cletus wrote: »

I could post an exhaustive list of the activities, sports and exercise we teach, along with the methodologies used, but I'm not going to bore anyone. Suffice to say, PE is a different animal now than it was when I was in school (I'm the best part of 40 now).

i guess one of the limitations of the time window available to you with each class is that it's hard to work with or cater for kids who might tend towards long distance or endurance sports? i'd have possibly been one of those kids (though i never excelled at anything physically), who as mentioned, was not suited to team sports and didn't (and don't) have the physique for most field athletics.

cletus · 12-04-2020 12:34pm

magicbastarder wrote: »

i guess one of the limitations of the time window available to you with each class is that it's hard to work with or cater for kids who might tend towards long distance or endurance sports? i'd have possibly been one of those kids (though i never excelled at anything physically), who as mentioned, was not suited to team sports and didn't (and don't) have the physique for most field athletics.

We do athletics, but PE also includes dance, gymnastics, orienteering, Health Related Activities (basically showing kids how to train properly).

We've had instructors in to teach yoga, self defence, Zumba and meditation.

It's a long way off throwing in a ball these days

tomasrojo · 12-04-2020 12:49pm

Yeah, one of my daughters (seven) does Capoeira, which I think I'd have rather enjoyed, judging from her descriptions of it. In her version, it's rather more like dancing, and I do like to cut the rug.

Daroxtar · 12-04-2020 3:33pm

Capoiera??? Yoga??? Zumba????
We just played Gaelic or soccer and the girls played basketball. Flat out, both breaks, everyday. Won plenty of provincial and even an all Ireland. No one needed to be taught how to catch a ball

Seth Brundle · 12-04-2020 4:49pm

Daroxtar wrote: »

No one needed to be taught how to catch a ball

It's different nowadays...
Many children here can't run, throw or kick a ball properly by time they are 10
'Current generation say sport is not fun,' warns report

eeeee · 12-04-2020 4:57pm

Seth Brundle wrote: »

It's different nowadays...
Many children here can't run, throw or kick a ball properly by time they are 10
'Current generation say sport is not fun,' warns report

That's so sad

cletus · 12-04-2020 6:31pm

Seth Brundle wrote: »

It's different nowadays...
Many children here can't run, throw or kick a ball properly by time they are 10
'Current generation say sport is not fun,' warns report

It was never like that, really. There's always been kids who don't like sports, were awkward, picked last on teams. They were just ignored.

When we all remember our childhoods being outside kicking ball with all the other kids, really we're just remembering the other kids who liked sport.

dastardly00 · 12-04-2020 6:50pm

For the day that's in it...

2018 L'Enfer du Nord

eeeee · 12-04-2020 8:59pm

Anniversary of the liberation of the liberation of Bergen Belsen today.
Not a cheery one, but an important one to listen to IMO.

tomasrojo · 12-04-2020 11:11pm

Daroxtar wrote: »

Capoiera??? Yoga??? Zumba????
We just played Gaelic or soccer and the girls played basketball.

Yes, but we now have plenty of people in this country who hail from Brazil, India and Zumbabwe.

12-04-2020 11:31pm

Cosmic kids yoga on youtube :mad:

Made a pitiful attempt at the flossing followed by the other activities with the kids. They were disgusted at my flossing abilities , their mam walked in and joined in with ease like it was ****ing nothing and me there swinging my arms like an ape

Some of the stuff is physically taxing and they were ready to go again before bed the eldest was getting the remote out to go to youtube to put it on

Enduro · 13-04-2020 12:13am

magicbastarder wrote: »

i guess one of the limitations of the time window available to you with each class is that it's hard to work with or cater for kids who might tend towards long distance or endurance sports? i'd have possibly been one of those kids (though i never excelled at anything physically), who as mentioned, was not suited to team sports and didn't (and don't) have the physique for most field athletics.

Oh snap! I actually enjoyed it, despite being crap at pretty much everything we did over the years. Especially hurling, which was the go-to sport in our school (I remember getting away with point blank refusing to use a proper hurling grip on the grounds it could wreck my "golfing" grip for pitch and putt, the only sport I was any good at in my school years). In retrospect everything was speed / explosive power focused. Nothing for endurance. If you'd have picked who was least likely to be successful at sports as an adult I would have been near the top of the list for sure. Strange how things turn out in the end.

La Flamme Rouge **off topic discussion**

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La Flamme Rouge off topic discussion