Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[tikay]

3rd one I can't tell, speshly cos it's wet.

NOTHING is worse than old peeps trying to act & speak like the kids.

And LilDave will not be impressed at all, he hangs with the cool set.

You have just lost your street-cred. Prolly.

[tikay]

2 of the birds we took pictures of on our weddingmoon: The one with the spike we called Jedward. No idea of species.

The first is an orange weaver, ( I think) the second is a red-whiskered bulbul.

Tom, did you already know that - if so, very impressive! - or did/do you use a website to identify them?

I have tried a few sites which help identify birds, several books, too, but few really work well for me.

Left my house @ 5am this morning, I could hear the birdsong, loads of different birds singing away, & I know as sure as hell they were not pigeons, but that is all I see in my mini-garden so far. I've spread some niger seed around the ground, too, now, some grated cheese, & bread crumbs. Guess them plump pigeons will just get plumper.

[celtic]

I used to have a pigeon as a pet. It died on my 21st birthday. Sigh.

[RED-DOG]

2 of the birds we took pictures of on our weddingmoon: The one with the spike we called Jedward. No idea of species.

The first is an orange weaver, ( I think) the second is a red-whiskered bulbul.

Tom, did you already know that - if so, very impressive! - or did/do you use a website to identify them?

I have tried a few sites which help identify birds, several books, too, but few really work well for me.

Left my house @ 5am this morning, I could hear the birdsong, loads of different birds singing away, & I know as sure as hell they were not pigeons, but that is all I see in my mini-garden so far. I've spread some niger seed around the ground, too, now, some grated cheese, & bread crumbs. Guess them plump pigeons will just get plumper.

The web, (speshly google images) is great for confirming your identification, but useless if you don't have a starting place.

When I was young, I used to go to the annual 'National' bird show in London with my dad. There were hundreds of different spices there and, (as you do when you're young) I must have absorbed information without trying or even realising I was doing it.

I knew the orange weaver because I remember we spent some time talking to a man who was exhibiting them. (We were actually trying to sell him an escapee Zosterop that we had caught, but that's another story).

I also had a vague recollection of a crested bird called a bulbul. The name stuck in my mind because of a Val Doonican song which was popular at the time.

"We would like you to know, that you trod on the toe, of Mr Abdul Abul Bul Amir"

I put Bulbul Mauritius into google images and there it was.

[RED-DOG]

dreenie done me up like a kipper in the 20k gtd last night.

She has a great game, I wonder what her taste in diaries is like?

[RED-DOG]

Whilst it is certyainly true that you still owe the IRS tax on any earnings anywhere in the world it isn't quite as simple as that if you are working in a country that the US has a tax treaty with wehereby you don't have to pay full tax to the US but your US tax rate applies ie. if you are in the UK and working there is a tax treaty so if your UK tax rate is higher than you would pay in the States you actually don't owe the IRS anything.  If it is the other way around then you have to pay the difference  ie if you pay 38% income tax here but your US rate would be 40% then you pay the 2% to the IRS.  Surprised Mulhzz's mates in the call centre had to pay Uncle Sam anything as my missus never had to pay anything when she had a low paid job in the UK.  Also you do have to pay even if you only have a green card not just citizenship.  Basically when the great United States of America grants you a green card they are actually granting you the obligation to pay US taxes irrespective of where you live (excepting tax treaty countries as explained) for the rest of your life if you don't want to give up that right to US residency.  It has been a matter of some  consternation in my household as my wife has a green card and desperately wanted the option to US residency largely because, at the time, her entire family are US citizens or residents and her father had cancer.  It is a truly horrible situation the States puts you in then!!!

I'm truly amazed by all this. So if an American citizen travels to Nottingham and wins the Monte Carlo at DTD, he has to pay tax on his winnings when he gets back home?

What about the next time he goes and gets busted in the first round, can he claim some tax back against his losses?

[RED-DOG]

the video is 367mb and 4:14mins long. It is pretty boring and has some very dodgy narration consisting of my mainly taking the piss out of my better half. So i will just post a screenshot. I am guessing it is from the Kingfisher variety. Apologies for the quality. No more spamming from me.

The bird obviously likes the water and yes, it just looks very kingfishery in shape.

I reckon it's a pied kingfisher.

[Laxie]

You and yer birds have me busy all morning.  Not got a thing done around the place with all this carry on.

[RED-DOG]

You and yer birds have me busy all morning.  Not got a thing done around the place with all this carry on.

I'm a bit worried to be honest Dawn. Tony is going to have all the houses on his posh manor wick-walking with varmint if he doesn't stop throwing food all over the garden.

[Laxie]

You and yer birds have me busy all morning.  Not got a thing done around the place with all this carry on.

I'm a bit worried to be honest Dawn. Tony is going to have all the houses on his posh manor wick-walking with varmint if he doesn't stop throwing food all over the garden.

He might lighten up regarding your mole plight, in which case it's a good thing.

[Skippy]

Tom, did you already know that - if so, very impressive! - or did/do you use a website to identify them?

This is the greatest idea for a website/app of all time. BRB, off to make my fortune.

[kinboshi]

You'll like this one Tom. It's a maths fact.

If you took a pack of just 12 cards and shuffled them 1000 times, there's only a 0.1% chance two shuffles will be the same.

The human brain struggles to comprehend large numbers and probability, and I think I read something on blonde previously that said it's unlikely that two (proper) shuffles of a deck of cards have ever resulted in the same order of the 52 cards.

What do you think to those 'facts' Gatters?

[mulhuzz]

You'll like this one Tom. It's a maths fact.

If you took a pack of just 12 cards and shuffled them 1000 times, there's only a 0.1% chance two shuffles will be the same.

The human brain struggles to comprehend large numbers and probability, and I think I read something on blonde previously that said it's unlikely that two (proper) shuffles of a deck of cards have ever resulted in the same order of the 52 cards.

What do you think to those 'facts' Gatters?

that said, take two 52 card decks and shuffle accordingly. now turn over one card from the top from each deck in turn, making your way through the pack.

what do you think the chances of having at least one matching card (suit and rank) in those decks are?

[gatso]

well 52! is a pretty big number



that's the number of different possible shuffles, approximately 80 unvigintillion in the US apparently or 80 undecillion in the UK. the difference being the disagreement over how many are in a billion or a trillion

this is a nice thing to read

http://thebigblogtheory.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/s04e18-the-prestidigitation-approximation/

because it makes me think of this

[gatso]

You'll like this one Tom. It's a maths fact.

If you took a pack of just 12 cards and shuffled them 1000 times, there's only a 0.1% chance two shuffles will be the same.

The human brain struggles to comprehend large numbers and probability, and I think I read something on blonde previously that said it's unlikely that two (proper) shuffles of a deck of cards have ever resulted in the same order of the 52 cards.

What do you think to those 'facts' Gatters?

that said, take two 52 card decks and shuffle accordingly. now turn over one card from the top from each deck in turn, making your way through the pack.

what do you think the chances of having at least one matching card (suit and rank) in those decks are?

50/50. and not in that jokey 'either it happens or it doesn't' way