mike carey

Here's one that won't fly again, at least not in its current incarnation. QF28, operated by B747-438 VH-QEE, landed in Sydney today from Santiago. This marks the end of an era as Qantas concludes 48 years of operation of the B747. The almost complete cessation of international flight operations has meant that the airline brought forward the retirement of the type.

I read that and thought, wait, don't you mean 7 Jan 2021? Then realised it says 1 Jul. That's not far away, so you may not have a chance to fly before then. I'm luckier, my PSP trip credit is good until 31 Dec 21. I make no comment on your post directed to me, lol. I'll just have to wait!

Hell, I haven't read Twelfth Night since I was in second form.

Maybe in some case, but I suspect you have that the wrong way around. I suspect mostly people don't use condoms because they take PrEP.

In Canberra, a relatively small, but not insignificant proportion of restaurants and cafés have switched to takeaway and delivery since the prohibition of sit down eating came in this week. Some are making a social contribution with their pricing to some customers. The ACT [Australian Capital Territory] government has eased the liquor licensing laws so that restaurants that are licensed can supply takeaway wines with the meals they sell, whereas previously they were not permitted to sell off licence alcohol. From what I've read, people buying meals are prepared to pay for their bottle of wine from the restaurant rather than buy a cheaper one at a bottle shop.

Sense when would anyone be their own grammer (sic) Nazi?

TL;DR, don't praise his blog, it'll only encourage him. Joking, I look forward to @Benjamin_Nicholas' all-too-infrequent blog posts. They are so evocative and well written, I feel like I am there. (Well, apart from the feeling of his ... No need for that level of detail.)

A footnote to my cancelled ticket. Qantas has extended the validity of all vouchers for cancelled tickets in the current situation from 12 months after the original ticket purchase to 31 Dec 21. So I have the cash for my ticket for next year's gathering there, and don't have to use it by February, although I expect it will be more expensive by then. That assumes that we'll be flying again by then, of course, and that they haven't gone broke.

I haven't been out and seen a service station for about a week and then it was in a rural area and in Canberra. Canberra is often more expensive than even rural towns. I mainly notice the price of diesel. I've seen reports that regular or E10 is getting close to $1/litre in some places, but not widely, usually in the $1.30 range. Diesel I've seen for $1.30 too. (AUD1 = about USD0.60 atm and we have a federal excise of AUD0.423/litre on both petrol and diesel, and 10% GST on the total price, including the excise part. In Australia the price on the sign at the service station by law has to be the total price, so the taxes are included in the pump price.)

@Rod Hagen, ain't nobody gonna tell me the CNN subeditor didn't know exactly what they were doing with that headline. I wouldn't say the story is boring though, except in comparison with the easy inference drawn from the headline. It offers a useful commentary on the way the current situation affects the way people do things. It reminds me of the accidental (staged?) photos of newsreaders wearing a suit jacket, shirt and tie ... and boxers.

This is a nice thing to have happen to you. [MEDIA=twitter]1243084390285979648[/MEDIA]

Benjamin! Be nice.

From what I've read, soap and water also removes a film of fat on the skin that helps viruses to adhere to it.

Thanks ArVaGuy, I hadn't seen that in my inbox, but checking just now, I have received it too. Qantas has cancelled my flight and left me with a credit that I can use with no change fees but I have to pay whatever the going price is for the new ticket I buy. And I have to spend it all on one RT itinerary. I hadn't tried to cancel up till now, hoping that a closure like this would force their hand on full refunds or credits. Early December sounds good for PS, @easygoingpal but I'm not sure that I want to travel elsewhere in the US in December, particularly the North East.

I'm not sure which phase I saw, but having done so, for me the 'very sweet guy' part would trump whatever the current body aesthetic was.

A deconstructed version of the Rotterdam Philharmonic.

Saw this on the TV this evening, and found the guy's twitter feed, it's worth having a look at, he's posted several videos. Nick Heath is a British rugby commentator and journalist, and with no sport on which to comment he's taken to doing commentary on daily life. Here. it's on two dogs (hence in this thread) chasing each other around a park. I saw another on two guys kicking a football in a park. [MEDIA=twitter]1241417950579634177[/MEDIA]

I have no idea, it's just standard British slang, and we share a lot of slang idiom with them.

To reinforce something I posted earlier, this is a thing. Plumbers here in Canberra are reporting an increase in blocked drains where people had flushed things like paper towels down the toilet. The only paper that is safe to flush is toilet paper. No tissues or paper towels. No 'flushable' wipes. Not even squares of Murdoch newspaper. (You might recall the line in the 'Honest Government' video posted in the forum, 'If you run short, Murdoch provides a range of bog roll replacement world-wide'.)

Transport for NSW reduces the things you have to touch.

There's one word in there that offers a clue as to why. It starts with C. Similarly in this country, you only hear the term when it's about one individual using it and his possibly self-serving motives. I had read a feature article about the CEO some years ago. His view is that if you don't pay people a decent wage they won't be able to buy stuff from the store. Not rocket science. Like @poolboy48220 the quantities they sell are too much for me. One of the few things I've bought in bulk (if you don't count a 10kg bag of rice) is canned tomatoes, and that from the outlet store for a cannery about 50km out of my way when I drive to Melbourne (they also sell other stuff that they don't produce, like bottles of pasta and curry sauces). That sort of driving is off the table right now. What you say is broadly true, and sometimes the restrictions that they apply have some effect if they reduce the prevalence of what they ban even if they don't eliminate it. The effect it might have on re-election differs between political systems. Here, the people out of government are on a unity ticket with the government on what is being done. Unlike the US, the political opposition here (and in Canada) is an organised group in Parliament not separate players from the opposition party jostling for attention or for votes for themselves. The oppostion here has individuals who shadow government ministers (it's called the shadow cabinet), and they aim to present a united and coherent alternative government. So far, they have quibbled about the details, and sought (and achieved) some changes to them, but have voted the legislation through Parliament. That has been the case at state level as well, with state governments from both sides of politics.

Thank you, I try. But I can't claim credit for the hashtag, Nigella Lawson used it in a tweet about eating more chocolate (which I posted elsewhere in the forum).

#fattenthecurve strikes again!

@stevenkesslar I wasn't suggesting that the age distribution of cases was changing, just that as the total number of infections increases, even a very small percentage of young people with the disease will become a large number of cases. 0.01% of 100 people is no-one. 0.01% of a million is 100. My purpose in saying this is to suggest that rather than it indicating that the virus may have mutated, it could be that the sample size is now large enough for cases of young people with serious disease to emerge.. Or put another way, the larger number of cases is improving scientists' understanding of the disease. Of course, that doesn't rule out the possibility that the virus is mutating,