Chat

[AvastMH]

For anyone who is interested: there is a documentary series on Discovery Plus about an expedition team's mission of diving to the deepest points in all five oceans. It's called 'Expedition Deep Ocean.' Here is a trailer for the series:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/s_6q0GSk5L4

I'll have look and see if I can get to it Sandy. Might have to wait until it goes down a level to be accessible on something free. The deep oceans are finally getting a full scientific going over - and just in time given how the top part of the oceans are being knocked about by us

[Michael]

Well so much for spending $600 million for an unnecessary election! We ended up where we started.

Justin Trudeau was riding fairly high in the polls and leading a minority government, being kept in power by the NDP. He was hoping to turn those high polling numbers into a majority, but it turned out his support was softer that it seemed. The Conservatives started moving up in the polls and the Liberals began sinking. Two days before the election the Conservatives were slightly in the lead, and they actually got more votes than the Liberals. However, they win massively in Alberta, Saskatchewan and parts of B. C. whereas in other parts of Canada they and the Liberals are much closer. Think of it this way: three seats, the Conservatives get 10 votes in one and 4 in the other two. The Liberals get none in one seat and six in the other two. The Conservatives get 18 votes in total and the Liberals get 12, but they win two seats to the Conservatives one. It's not that one-sided: the Conservatives got 34% of the votes, and the Liberals got 32%.

Changes in standing:

Code: Select all

Liberal		+1
Conservative	–2
Bloc Québécois	+2
New Democrat	+1
Green		–1
People's Party	0
Other		–1

The Other was a Liberal, I think. who left the party to sit as an Independent. The People's Party is a very right wing party: anti-immigrant; anti-vaccine etc. The Bloc sort of pushes for Quebec Independence. The People's Party got about 5% of the popular vote, and they pulled enough votes from the Conservatives to allow either the NDP or Liberals to win a seat. It looks like they cost the Conservatives about 24 seats. They still wouldn't have had a majority government, but they may have had a minority. The Peoples Party had no seats in the previous parliament. The Greens went from three seats to two. A nasty fight between the new leader and the party's federal council just before the election killed their hopes. The leader, Anname Paul, came fourth in her riding, with only 9% of the votes. Nationally, the Greens got 2% of the popular vote, down from 7% or so in the previous election. All in all, a giant waste of time and money.

[Randi]

LOG BOOK
Today any bound record kept on a daily basis aboard ship is called a "log." Originally, records were kept on the sailing ships by inscribing information onto shingles cut from logs and hinged so they opened like books. When paper became more readily available, "log books" were manufactured from paper and bound. Shingles were relegated to naval museums -- but the slang term stuck.

[jil]

Nearly 10 years on OW and I'm only just finding out why they are called log books

[Michael]

You and me both!!!

[pommystuart]

You, me and I also.

[AvastMH]

Can you picture the logs of the Jeannette kept on slices of wood?
They were hefty enough on paper...

[AvastMH]

Well so much for spending $600 million for an unnecessary election! We ended up where we started.

That's exactly what the BBC had to say about it too. Bad luck!! I wonder who did make some bucks out of it. Presumably the pamphlet printers

[Hanibal94]

Got this via forwarded email, thought it was pretty fun (although the clear-wings are really tough sometimes!)

Hi everyone,
>
> In need of a pause in this busy month? Go on butterfly hunting for a few
> minutes!
>
> As part of a project led by researchers from CEFE (Montpellier, France),
> MNHN (Paris, France), and INRIA (Bordeaux, France) and the University of
> North Carolina (US), *we have developed a citizen science game to better
> understand camouflage* methods and their effectiveness against
> predation: https://findthebutterflyv2.cleverapps.io/
>
> If you have played the previous game "find the butterfly", no problem,
> just let us know by checking the box and play the new game! These are
> two independent games and your help will be precious this time too!
> If you have already played this very game, indicate it, but your
> contribution will not be taken into account. *We need inexperienced
> hunters to increase our sample size. *
>
> Play the role of a hungry predator looking for butterflies camouflaged
> in their environment and click as quickly as possible on the butterfly
> hidden in the image!
> To play, it's easy: take a card of the format of a credit card (so that
> we have an idea of the real size of the images on your screen), your
> favorite computer (the game is not designed to be played on a
> smartphone) and let's go: it will only take you about 10 minutes!
>
>
> Please share this link with your networks, friends, family, and
> colleagues...
>
> We need a lot of responses from all age groups, including children! The
> more players, the more consistent the results!
>
> Have fun and thank you for your contribution!
>

My average time was 4.13 seconds.

[AvastMH]

Boy - that was hard!
Nice science game to play. Thanks Chris. I averaged 8.16 seconds, though it felt a lot longer.

[pommystuart]

First time I got 8.16 average. (Forgot to maximize screen.)
Second time 5.41 at max screen.
I still could not find some of the ones I missed even when the circle showed me.

[Morgan]

This was fun! But my average time was 10.4 secs. My husband and I thought it was more of an eye test than a butterfly test. I will pass it on to younger folk.

[pommystuart]

Absolutely nothing to do with this forum but I found this 19min clip very interesting. We have been down one of the "Silo Trails" in Victoria. The trails have been developed to help dying towns attract visitors.
I hope you can get Australian Iview channel.

https://iview.abc.net.au/show/beautiful ... 108Q005S00

[Randi]

Happy Birthday
Mecordova

[Michael]

Happy Birthday Mecordova

[Hanibal94]

Happy Birthday, Mecordova!

[AvastMH]

A very happy birthday to you Mercordova !!!

I'm ready to serve you up a lovely floral cup of tea to go with Randi's beautiful blossom cake

[mecordova]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! Cheers to another year! Thank you everyone!

[Randi]

ALBERTA RUBBER DUCK MAKES INCREDIBLE 10,000 KM JOURNEY TO RUSSIA

[Michael]