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112 is the Europe-wide emergency telephone number, supplanting or supplementing (in the case of the UK, which still uses 999 as well) earlier emergency numbers. It is also the worldwide emergency number from GSM mobile phones, redirecting to the local emergency number depending on location.
(Of course, there may be other problems once you reach the emergency services number, but that is outwith the scope of this discussion.)
Universal public emergency services of are surprisingly recent in the history of urban living. According to Wikipedia, the first organized municipal fire brigade was established in Edinburgh in 1824. Sir Robert Peel is credited with establishing the Metropolitan Police in London in 1829. And although the history of the ambulance is much more gradual, civillian emergency medicine and transport seems to have been an innovation of the 1800’s.
Regular readers of this blog are of course aware that Jim Macdonald is an emergency medical technician. I, for one, would like to take this numerically convenient moment to thank him for what he does in that role, both online and in the all too real world. Jim, you rock.
It’s also appropriate to remind everyone reading this that the emergency number, and the services it reaches, are there for a reason. Call them at need, and let the vehicles by if someone else has done so.
Curiously (and I'd love to know the reason why), when Jamaica had its phone system taken over by the Continental Telephone Company in the 1960s, they introduced a standard emergency number: 119. Why they made it the inverse of 911 I do not know. I heard rumours when I arrived on the island that the company had associations with certain ethnically-connected, ahem, social associations in the US. But rumours should not be given credence, should they?
According to Wikipedia, the first organized municipal fire brigade was established in Edinburgh in 1824.
Dare I ask what if anything Conservapedia has to say about that very subject?
Serge #2: For maximum annoyance to Herr Direktor Schlafly, his pet project is best referred to as Conservapaedia, or even better Conservapædia.
I still have my DocWagon card just in case they really open franchises someday.
Two getting-out-of-the-way-of-ambulance stories:
1) Walking through downtown Baltimore, I hear sirens. An ambulance is working its way down a busy street, with a few drivers making half-hearted attempts to clear a path. I am irritated at the lack of effort. "Wow," says my friend visiting from Brooklyn, "cars are actually getting out of its way."
2) I'm taking I-95 into the city; the very long exit ramp is a two-lane parking lot, the product of having the Inner Harbor and the baseball stadium both at the end of it. An ambulance comes up behind us, because the same exit is for Shock Trauma. No way, I'm thinking. But...everybody -- and I mean everybody -- in the right lane pulls over so they're half on the right shoulder and half in the right lane. I was in the left lane, and we all pull over so we're half in the right lane and half in the left lane. The ambulance comes by half on the left shoulder and half in the left lane, and makes slow but steady progress all the way down. I am amazed at seeing well over a hundred cars participate in this effort to get someone to the hospital. I don't know that I'll ever see its like again.
I'm glad that here in Australia, people generally do make an effort to get out of the way of emergency vehicles - at least in Melbourne and Canberra, where I've lived for extended enough periods to notice the pattern.
And if you are ever in the land of Oz and need help, our emergency services number is 000.
Since it came up in the intro:
EMTs, etc. ARE wonderful people. My husband recently had to call 911 on my behalf. (My communication ability at the time pretty much consisted of HrghAARRGH!) They were at my house in 5 minutes-and this was at around 4AM!
So thank you, you wonderful people.
In the DC suburbs, most cars move quickly right and let emergency vehicles go by -- we always have a few [censored] schmucks who then tailgate the ambulance/fire truck to get ahead of traffic.
As a former firefighter (in my misspent yout', as we say), and daughter of still-active firefighters, I salute all emergency workers around the world. Thanks to your hard work, dedication, and tendency to run towards problems, thousands of lives are saved everyday. I raise my bottle of Hook & Ladder beer to you!
Two people have told me that you can tell which kind of Dutch emergency vehicle is sounding its siren by counting the notes.
2 notes = brand·weer (fire brigade)
3 notes = po·li·tie
4 notes = am·bu·lan·tie
I have since seen a police car singing the fire engine song, but it's a nice piece of urban myth.
Been waiting for a new Open Thread to post this:
"There's this belief that in order to stop poverty, we have to find ways to get people to stop being farmers," she says. "What we need to do is find ways to stop them from being poor farmers."
In Britain, 911 will also connect you to the emergency services. When I was a child, that would take you to recorded cricket scores, but apparently that was confusing for American tourists.
Melissa Mead @ 7... My communication ability at the time pretty much consisted of HrghAARRGH!
Isn't HrghAARRGH where the Holy Grail is supposed to be kept?
Serge @ 12: I thought that was the CamAARRGH...
arwel #13: Wild horses must have dragged that one out of you.
Abi posted: 112 is the Europe-wide emergency telephone number
And, if anybody isn't aware of it - 112 (and 911 actually) can be keyed in on any mobile phone without opening the keypad lock. And you can call it even if you can't connect to "your" network - and even if you don't have a SIM card in at all. (I presume the phone will have to search up a network though).
This means that if you really need to you can borrow a phone, any phone, even though you don't know the user interface for that particular type, punch in 112, and reach emergency services.
(Of course, this also means your phone may call 112 by being jostled in your pocket, but that's just a minor downside.)
Don't post here much, but I'm in full agreement that Jim rocks. :)
In late May my wife was thrown from a horse into a steel fence. Even though this was way out in the boonies, the local ambulance service was there in just a few minutes. Since her injury didn't seem life-threatening at first, the EMTs just C-spined and backboarded her as a precaution and drove off at normal highway speed with me following in the car; halfway to the hospital they suddenly flipped on the siren and sped up to 80mph. That was a scary moment, but I was glad to see other cars actually getting out of the way. Out here in Oregon, people are usually pretty good about that.
Once I got to the hospital (not being willing to drive 80 on an unfamiliar road and possibly make the ambulance come back for a second trip) I discovered that she had a broken pelvis, and that her blood pressure had suddenly taken a sharp drop halfway to the hospital.
Those EMTs saved my wife's life, so I raise a glass to them and all emergency workers everywhere. May you always have what you need to do your jobs, and the respect you deserve!
Re: #12
And now I can't remember how to get there! Darn painkillers. ;)
In the early 90's I was working on a movie in Duluth, MN, so I had a cell phone with a Duluth Area Code. We did the last week of the movie in Northern Maine and there was no reason to change phones.
One night, very late, I stopped for gas at a convenience store on a lonely highway. I pumped my gas and then went inside to pay. There was nobody in the store and one of the aisles had a bunch of merchandise on the floor. I thought something might be up, so I left money on the counter, went outside and dialed 911 on my cell. I couldn't figure out why the 911 operator couldn't figure out where this convenience store was, when finally I realized I was talking to Duluth 911. (Apparently at the time, you were connected by the area code of the phone, not by proximity to a cell tower.)
When we realized what was going on, she put me on hold and then connected me to a Maine State Trooper Barracks. I still have no idea what had actually happened though.
arwel @ 13... I thought that was the CamAARRGH...
I must heard of the place from someone who speaks with a French accent.
Quick! Fetchez la vache!
If you are in the US* and have a cellphone, it's good to program in the local fire and police numbers--emergency and nonemergency--for the cities in which you spend the most time.
Because sometimes cellphone 911 can have a wait time, and if you know you specifically need a particular department (you see a crime in progress, say), you can call them directly.
---------
* or other places where this could be relevant
In reference to the 100 niche search engines particle, here's one that's not on the list: ohnorobot searches transcribed web comics. It's what xkcd uses for its search feature.
Agatha Heterodyne and the Voice of the Castle has finally gotten from the distributor's shipping dock to at least one of the distributees.
There's the bell ringing system that reaches back some centuries in Europe.
Those bell towers were not only to call the community to worship in the local church / cathedral.
Bell ringing, which has been preserved, at least in England, was also signals. Those seemingly funny names given to different rhythms, came from somewhere. Sme of them meant fire disaster! Some signaled flood disaster imminent. And so on.
The church itself was the central gathering place for safety and from which to make sorties to rescue, from which planning to mitigate and so on.
There's a marvelous faded BBC Peter Wimsey from the early 70's that makes this all clear too.
As well as Robin McKinnley, who does do bell ringing these days, and blogs about it.
Love, C.
+++It’s also appropriate to remind everyone reading this that the emergency number, and the services it reaches, are there for a reason. Call them at need, and let the vehicles by if someone else has done so.+++
Just in the last couple of days there's been a bit of a media flap in Australia about "triple-0 taxis". Apparently pensioners, who don't get billed for their ambulance rides, are calling in with chest pains and so forth, riding the ambulance in to the hospital, then telling the paramedics they feel much better now and popping out the door to get their groceries at the shopping district just over the road from the hospital.
I know I should Disapprove of this (assuming it's a genuine problem and not just one or two incidents combined with a slow day at Murdoch Towers), but I couldn't help just a little chuckle when I read the story.
Yay! New Open Thread!
I've had a couple ambulance rides in my time. It's not just the competence of the crews I'm grateful for, but above and beyond that, emergency workers are so calming. One can believe they could fix anything, including the godawful mess I've apparently made of my person, just from the way they move and talk.
Constance @ 24:
Oh yes, The Nine Tailors. I love that book; haven't actually seen the video version though.
Constance@24: I haven't seen the 70's version, but I recall a later version (late 1980's?) which got real bellringers for the necessary scenes.
Debbie #959 in the previous OT:
People seem to be comforted by labels, including diagnoses.
At least part of being comforted is being able to name the enemy. Identifying the problem (provided it is a correct diagnosis) is the first step toward a remedy. There are few things worse than being unwell, yet all the tests keep coming back negative.
abi: Congratulations!
Dave Bell: My sympathies & best wishes on sorting out your mother's medical problems.
Joel Polowin @ 23... I received my copy two weeks ago. And I long ago acquired my very own Trilobite Pin.
Of course, then there's the fake paramedic who got caught working in our town last month.
OK, so I'm having an IM conversation with a friend, and he's watching The Tudors on TV and enjoying it (yeah, I know, I told him so). He sez
i love how the cardinal is so ruthlessSo I'm thinking of Cardinal Richelieu from The Three Musketeers and I sez
Cardinals always are.So then I figure I'd better say something about how Cardinals in fiction are what I meant, and how they wouldn't be appearing in the story at all if not to be wicked bad guys, but then I decide heck with it. I sez
That's why they wear red...so the blood of their victims won't show.
And red hats so you can't see where their brains have been taken out and replaced with eldritch creatures of no earthly origin.
And one—only one!—of them wears white. This is because his brain has been removed and NOT replaced. No, for he walks and talks by the power of the Elder Gods themselves, and only Great Cthulhu knows his mind—for it is Cthulhu's own mind! Scream in horror, puny humans! Cthulhu fhtagn!Hmm. Maybe you hadda be there.
The dear wife just gave me a Delany moment:
So she's over there scorching her lap working on a massive tome, and she said to me, "I'm beginning to covet that thing we gave mom for her birthday this weekend" (a laptop pad with a built-in fan).
So I say, "Why covet? You've got the keys to their house."
"And I know the security code," she added.
Then I frowned. "You know, it'd cost more to drive there to steal it than it would--"
"--to go buy one," she finished.
"That's kind of sad," I said. "It's like the ending to 'Time Considered As A Helix Of Semi-Precious Stones."
Oh, it's a laugh a minute at our house!
deathbird at #6 writes:
> And if you are ever in the land of Oz and need help, our emergency services number is 000.
And threadpropriately enough, 112 will get you emergency services on a mobile, regardless of whether the phone has run out of credit or is SIM locked etc.
Xopher @ 32... Cardinals (...) wicked bad guys
Xopher @ 32, there's a very simple explanation for watching "The Tudors" and enjoying it, and it can be summed up thusly:
Jonathan Rhys Meyers with his shirt off.
sadly, the rest of it got on my nerves enough that I didn't finish watching what was available on DVD from Netflix.
Did anyone else take a couple minutes to realize Rikibeth wasn't talking about the guy from Indiana Jones, LotR, etc? I'm sitting there thinking "I know it takes all types, but seriously, him? With his shirt off??"
Where I live, everyone always pulls over for the ambulance. It's the people who don't pull over for funeral processions that irriate me.
Rikibeth, wouldn't you be better served by watching Certain Scenes from Velvet Goldmine and Match Point?
Jeffrey Smith @ 5
I was in your #2 scenario a few weeks ago. Sitting on the onramp to eastbound 26 in Hillsboro, OR, with the ramp signals on (some days, possibly those whose dates divided by φ are mutually prime with the Euler number of Chtulhu's N-dimensional non-convex hull, which is to say, might as well be random, the ramp signals stay on much later, and I get caught in the ramp on the way home from work). The ramp is about 40 vehicles long, and was packed clear out onto the approach from the road that crosses the freeway just behind the ramp.
I was in the righthand lane about a third of the way in, when I heard a siren and looked in my mirror to see an ambulance trying to get onto the freeway. Everybody in the right lane pulled into the right shoulder and those in the left lane pulled onto the left shoulder, and the ambulance moved down the center of the ramp at about 5 mph average, with the cars behind it pulling back into the lanes neatly and without anyone trying to bump up a spot or two. Looked just like a zipper in operation.
I had an ambulance behind me a few weeks ago. It was two lanes on our side and people were dividing left and right onto shoulders. I was in the left lane and could just pull ahead into a left-turn lane, except the motorcyclist behind me buzzed to my immediate left (car in front of us) and I was stuck further out into the lane than I'd planned or liked. The ambulance blew their horn (maybe because they were passing through an intersection), but I kept thinking "they can't see the motorcycle!"
I haven't had to call the ambulance here in a few years now (used to be once a year, on average), but they usually came with two ambulances and I'd tell them, "I'm large, but I'm not divisible!"
Joel Polowin, #23, what, did they tell us this was out and my ad-blind eyes missed it? Spending more money, I am.
Serge, #30, I have Krosp and chibi Agatha pins, but I like the look of the winged trilobite.
I just got a copy of The Ghost Map from the library, and as Jim Macdonald said in his review at that link, it's fascinating. It makes me want to go find Peter Ackroyd's London: The Biography on my shelves to see what he said about the epidemic.
Soon Lee @29 -- oh, absolutely! I've just been involved in cases where there was a lot of pressure to attach a label, which ended up getting in the way of the process of finding useful interventions. And especially in behavioral areas, there are no cut and dried solutions attached to diagnoses.
I've only once needed the ambulance called on my behalf (I was four, it involved about two litres of boiling ater and a spillage, 'nuff said) but have called emergency numbers on the behalf of others a few times.
Once was a car that flipped over the nose end.
Once was a man, sleeping on the street, with his trousers pulled down, in -15°C. The kind people at the emergency services assured me that an ambulance had been dispatched some 10 minutes ago and should be there momentarily (no, there was no ambulance centre any where near, it truly was far from anything else, as it were) and while I was on the phone to them, could I check that he was breathing. He was.
Once I called because I was having water coming down from upstairs and my neighbour was not responding to knocks nor (indeed) had any lights lit. The kind firemen arrived and turned the feed to their washing machine off.
And once, memorably, a sauna burned down, on New Year's Eve. When the fire brigade arrived, the caleld around to other nearby services, because the building was past saving, it was surprisingly quiet for NYE and they wanted all the other firefighters to come out and play.
Good news and bad news.
My mother is OK at the hospital, not wonderful but no need for panic. We'll have more info in a couple of hours, after the Consultant (=senior doctor) has seen her.
Bad news: I'm thinking of buying a ukulele.
46: I can't help feeling those might be connected. "You're buying a ukulele? Aaarrgh..."(collapses on floor)
9 Two people have told me that you can tell which kind of Dutch emergency vehicle is sounding its siren by counting the notes.
Can't look it up at the moment, but it's on YouTube: the English comedian Bill Bailey improvising a French folk song from the four-tone siren of French ambulances...
Dave Bell - best wishes for your mother, but I'm now imagining you sitting in a hospital waiting room, playing this song.
Lance Weber @ 37... I never thought of the wrong Rhys shirtless. Until now. Thanks a lot.
Marilee @ 42... Didn't the the winged trilobite first show up in the 'imaginary' tale about the Weasel Queen?
#47:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PRyvsRAo8T8
Dave Bell--
You do know that Jeeves left Bertie for a while when Bertie became smitten by the dulcet tones of the banjolele...
and Xopher, @32.
I wish I could find on YouTube that Monty Python skit where Michael Palin is Cardinal Richelieu who participates in a talent show by singing one of Mireille Matthieu's hits.
Whee!
#32 and #33 are wonderful. Thanks for sharing them, I needed a lift.
#46, Dave Bell -
If a ukulele is the bad news, then I'm quite pleased.* My best wishes for continuing good news about your mother.
*I've never seen a ukulele in person. That might be influencing my reaction.
Sarah S @ 53
Are you an anti-ordinal bigot as well?
Serge @ 51: I gather that adding wings to one's coat of arms / sigil may be an indication that one has joined the "Baron's Peace". I've seen some references to this floating around, but I don't know if it's canonical.
Serge:
"And did you persecute the Hugenots?"
"I did that small thing..."
wintermute @11: Not just American tourists, also this expat German, who, under the 'fluence of the movies, wasn't sure about the British emergency number until she read abi's fine thread opener just now.
112 used to be reserved for fire brigade emergency calls, back at home. Wikipedia says it still is. And at the same time the Eurpean emergency number for EVERYTING. Is that odd? Won't that be confusing?
Bruce Cohen @56
I'd second that assumption, but first I must go forth and take the fifth.
The most interesting thing about 112 is that it's the opening of the Fibonacci series.
Pete Darby @ 58... "I have no enemies but the enemies of France."
James 61: The most interesting thing about 112 is that it's the opening of the Fibonacci series.
It's a sequence, actually, but who's counting?
*flees, pelted by rotten fruit*
Xopher @63
Since it's the Fibonacci series, shouldn't you be getting pelted with pinecones instead?
#61, Jim MacDonald.
Yes, that's what I was thinking. For some reason, I often incorporate elements of the Fibonacci sequence in my passwords.
It's been stuck in my mind since I was a little tyke watching Square One on PBS on the tiny black-and-white in my room after school.
To Cogitate and To Serve!
Open threadiness:
About 15 years ago I read a story in OMNI. The premise was, past-life regression was possible and reasonably easy, and one of the manifestations of this was in acting: if you wanted to play Juliet, one of your past lives had to have lived in Renaissance Italy. Macbeth required a past life in ancient Scotland. Etc.
So they want to do a play about Joan of Arc, and there's a famous actress whose past life was a French peasant during the Hundred Years' War slated to play the lead--until a girl shows up who was Joan of Arc. So they cast her instead, and change all sorts of things about the play, essentially rewriting it wholesale, based on how she says things happened. And she sucks, because whether she was Joan or not, she can't act.
I remember neither the name nor the author of the story, but I'd like to read it again.
Anyone?
Bill Bailey claims that French ambulances are actually playing a tune but everyone thinks it just a four note figure because of the speed of the vehicle. His performance of the full version (with lyrics) is on youtube.
38: It's the people who don't pull over for funeral processions that irriate me.
Well, it's not like he's going to get any less dead...
Ken #67:
The Doppler effect should cause the 4-note sequence to change for different observers, too. It will be shifted up or down when it's moving toward/away, and will give more interesting variations when it passes you going fast. (And the speed will matter, too, for how much the tone changes.)
I wonder if you could make an interesting tune just from limited number of tones (sirens, horns, etc.) plus plausible-speed Doppler effect sounds....
Fragano #1:
Wikipedia lists 119 as being common in Asia, as well as Jamaica.
It also gives an explanation for why New Zealand had 111 instead of 999 as its emergency number, having to do with their phones reversing the numbering of the rotary pulse dials, so that 9 gave one pulse, and 1 gave 9 pulses. Apparently, by defining their emergency number as 111, they could use the British equipment designed for intercepting 999 calls and routing them to the emergency operator.
I wonder if the same thing might have happened in Jamaica and Asia, with reusing equipment designed for 911 in the US. Do you remember anything about rotary/pulse dial phones from Jamaica?
Carries S. @ 66:
"With the Original Cast" by Nancy Kress, I think it is.
I did a ride-along with a Berkeley cop a while ago. I asked him about people getting out of the way of emergency vehicles. My perspective, as a pedestrian, bicyclist, and driver here was that people were pretty good about it. His perspective (as someone for whom it was a routine workday event) was that people were terrible.
I'd like to echo Kathryn from Sunnyvale's advice for cellphone users in the U.S.: look up the emergency services direct-dial phone numbers for the municipalities you frequent and program them in your cellphone. I have 'em all prefixed 911 so they're together at the top of the list. Otherwise, in most places, you'll be waiting to get to the top of the state police's 911 queue and then talking to someone who doesn't know the names of local roads. (A friend noted that anyone looking in my cellphone would conclude I'm a narc, but I can live with that.)
Carrie S. at 66:
I remember the story, but no more detail than you've given. Interesting premise.
Fragano Ledgister #3: I am all for annoying Herr Direktor, but was not aware how the diphthong/ligature works to that effect; does he find them isufficiently all-American, or what?
I find it utterly cool that successive terms of the Fibonacci sequence can be used to convert miles into kilometers. (The ratio of miles to kilometers being very close to the Golden Mean.)
Carrie S. @ 66: About 15 years ago I read a story in OMNI. The premise was, past-life regression was possible...
I'm pretty sure this is With the Original Cast by Nancy Kress.
Or, what James Moar @ 73 said. Doh.
albatross #72: They were bog-standard rotary-dial phones as far as I can recall. You may well be right. I've no idea. It could be that Continental had a deal on cheap equipment.
Jamaica, along with most other Caribbean countries is integrated into the Bell system now.
Jan Vanĕk, Jr #76: Conservapædia considers British usages and orthography un-American, therefore using them is one way of winding Mr Schlafly up.
Apparently, the use of International English spelling on Wikipedia was a sign of anti-American bias.
re: Marilee @ #42 and Serge @ #30
I received my winged trilobite pin yesterday (and my copy of Voice of the Castle, too). The pin is very nice, you should get one! Haven't read VotC yet, but I don't think I'll be disappointed.
Lila @70
A pineapple?! Where?
Oh, phew. Thought my number was up on that one!
For the benefit of those who expressed an interest in the "That voice in your head? It's not me. -God" T-shirt: it's in print. We'll have it on the tables this weekend at Conestoga, and at Denvention.
Serge @ 50 I'm reminded of the much younger friend who professed herself bewildered by my drooling over Sean Bean. Not only did she think he was unattractive, but he wasn't funny either. After some time, it emerged that she thought I meant Mr Bean. Now I am haunted by images of Rowan Atkinson as Boromir.
Also, on the subject of emergency calls for non-emergencies, this story came out as part of a UK campaign to prevent them. The tone of the responding policeman's voice is completely indescribable.
Hey Kids! Build Your Own Ukelele! Amuse your friends! Confound your enemies! Earn big $ putting on shows for your neighbors!
AlyxL @ 85: Blackadder: The Lord of the Whinge. Rowan Atkinson as Frodo, Tony Robinson as Samwise, Hugh Laurie as Aragorn...
Hugh Laurie would be better as Gandalf.
Though it's possible I'm projection from House here.
Miranda Richardson as Galadriel?
AlyxL @ 85... Confusing Sean Bean with Mr.Bean? Ouch. Could have been worse. She could have thought you were refering to Orson Bean.
Er, projecting from House.
Also, clearly Gabrielle Glaister must play Eowyn.
But who should Stephen Fry play?
Lord of the Whinge. YESYESYESYESYESYES!!!! Especially Tony Robinson/Baldrick and Miranda Richardson/Galadriel.
I am eternally grateful that Rowan Atkinson* wasn't cast as Voldemort.
*AlyxL @85, I feel your pain.
albatross #71: I wonder if you could make an interesting tune just from limited number of tones (sirens, horns, etc.) plus plausible-speed Doppler effect sounds....
I've actually been working on something quite like that for a few days now. I haven't gotten the technique down yet, and I don't know if it'll go anywhere, but I really like the idea.
I also would really like to record people driving by me listening to various different kinds of music really loud and make something out of that, but I don't know how feasible that idea is, particularly with my very limited recording capabilities.
I once wrote (for electronic values of the term) a piece which used only four notes (counting all octaves of e.g. A as one "note" for this purpose). It was minimalist, of course, but it did have a section at the end with a charming lumbering kind of quality. I called that part "March of the Dinosaurs."
Unfortunately, like many of my early pieces it exists only in the proprietary format of a software system that is now obsolete (wouldn't run on a modern computer OS even if I could get a copy) and unsupported. That is, it's lost forever.
Growing up in Germany I was taught that 110 was the number for the police and 112 the number for the fire fighters (and also ambulances), but each could also dispatch the other, which I'd always found rather messy, having always been a geek. Wikipedia tells me that nowadays 112 is for all these things, but apparently 110 still works for the old folks who hate progress and/or Italian mathematicians.
#26 Glinda #28 Chip
Part of what makes these these very early 70's Wimseys so interesting is that every scene pulsates with historical local color that mostly disappeared during the late 70's and the Thatcher and post-Thatcher eras.
One senses that outside of London there was less change from the between wars era until the middle 70's, than in many places. But after that, the acceleration kicked in, throttle wide-open and hasn't stopped, there or anywhere else, for that matter.
So the historic, local detail wasn't so much consciously chosen, as it was what it was, and that was what was available. This section of BBC was still very young, and didn't have the budgets that it achieved for its classics and drama series that it achieved in its funding heydays -- the Campion series for instance, cost an average of 1.5 million per episode. It's hard to see anything more lavish than a Campion series. You do see all that budget spent onscreen.
From what I understand budgets have been cut now, considerably.
Love, C.
albatross @ 72.
It also gives an explanation for why New Zealand had 111 instead of 999 as its emergency number, having to do with their phones reversing the numbering of the rotary pulse dials, so that 9 gave one pulse, and 1 gave 9 pulses. Apparently, by defining their emergency number as 111, they could use the British equipment designed for intercepting 999 calls and routing them to the emergency operator.
The part about the reversed dial is true.
We were told that the point of using 999 in Britain and 111 here was that having a lot of pulses in the digits reduced the risk that equipment glitches or flashhook jiggles could generate a spurious call (possibly without the "caller" being aware of it) which could tie up a line and an operator, and possibly have emergency services sent to investigate.
JHomes
Stefan @87,
Interesting. Especially the manuals.
Yeah, I think I could assemble a ukulele kit.
I'm pretty sure I've said this on a previous thread, but 999 and 112 work in the USA, and 911 works in the UK and the rest of Europe, 999 works in Europe - most modern systems have the several most common emergency numbers set up to work, so that the confused tourist/visitor can still reach the emergency services if needed, even if they can't remember what country they are in...
Debbie #94: There is a certain faction that would like Rowan Williamson cast as Voldemort.
On the BBC tonight, John Barrowman explored the science around being gay.
The evidence for gayness being something you're born with is very strong.
But there doesn't seem to be any single cause. Nobody has found a gene, not are there any clear signs of a single factor of the enviroment in the womb.
I anticipate the usual suspects to shortly begin frothing at the mouth.
Random open thread reference (from Emergent Chaos):
FISA Overview posted on Daily Kos.
I've read through it briefly, but not in as much detail as it deserves.
Dave 103: I certainly hope no one finds a way to test for it in utero. Watch right-wing loonies become pro-choice (at least for themselves).
Worse: sometimes keeping the secret is the only protection gay kids have. They don't come out until they're free of their psycho-loonie parentals. Imagine if the parents knew from day one?
I need to stop thinking about this. It's so horrible that it's literally making me sick.
WRT testing for sexual orientation - I think this century will see choosing that as just one of an array of choices for an unborn child. Along with potential intelligence, musculature, hair color, texture, etc., personality traits will also make it into the menu. To be sure, genes aren't destiny, but once the tools become available, would-be parents are going to use them.
It's going to be an interesting 100 years or so.
Dave Bell #46: Glad to hear about your mom doing better, and my condolences about getting a ukulele.
and #103:
ISTR that there was pretty good evidence from twin studies that at least male homosexuality had a noticeable genetic component. (It's a lot easier to see evidence of that than to figure out the mechanism!)
Of course, the only way to approach questions like that is to separate any moral or political questions from the empirical ones. People who want to justify treating gays badly will find support for doing so in any set of facts or theories. (There's no question that being black is genetic, and no question that conversion to a new religion is voluntary. But there are plenty of people willing to hate you for either or both of these.) Similarly, the moral status of homosexuality tells you nothing about whether it's partly or wholly genetic.
albatross @ 71
Well, there's the opening sequence of 'St Louis Blues', which is clearly Dopplering train horns.
xopher@96: Westminster Quarters?
(Also, while we're momentarily clanged by the subject of handbells, listen to Fantasy on Hyfrydol for a 'wow' moment.)
Had quite a celebration with other people from my agency and others earlier this week. They finally caught Radovan Karadzic. For those who may not remember, he was the president of the Bosnian Serbs and one of the prime movers of some of the worst war crimes since WWII. Now all we need to do is catch Ratko Mladic...
Oooh! Shiny!!
http://scienceblogs.com/stoat/2008/07/remember_the_good_old_days.php
http://pwnie-awards.org/2008/
http://www.ybo-interactive.com/blog/2008/03/30/wordpress-vulnerability/
Completely, Totally, 100%, Hypothetical Moral Dilemma
One's friends find a stray cat. Friends talk one into taking stray cat home as friends have dog that would pulverize cat. All no kill shelters in one's area are full. One has cat vaccinated and neutered. One's friends do not put up found cat postings they promised to. One becomes very stressed out sharing one's small apartment with another living being. None of one's acquaintances wish for a kitty. Would I one be a horrible human being if one "accidentally" left one's door open? The door a certain stray cat keeps trying to escape through? The door said cat has been meowing at for the past 5 minutes?
#113, could one put up found cat postings? Has one checked lost cat postings? (My boyfriend brought a cat home once that turned out to be owned by the guy a few houses down, and we had no idea until we saw the lost cat poster, at which point we promptly returned the cat.)
Is the cat likely to be hurt or killed if one lets it outside? Any large busy roads, coyotes, et cetera?
It was found about 4 blocks away. The friends who found it were supposed to put up posters over a week ago (I don't have a printer). Found out today they didn't put them up because they didn't want to deal with an owner who might be mad their pet got neutered. Sigh. I told them to put up the posters and contact me. I posted Found ads on Craigslist today and looked at the Lost ads. No luck so far. He had no collar, wasn't micro chipped, and wasn't fixed, so I think he may just be one of the many outdoor strays around here who are in fairly good shape due to food being left out for them, but not actually "owned". 25 mph streets with 35 mph close by, no known coyotes. But there will of course be other cats, dogs in yards, etc. And he is still meowing at the door. Of course, the neutering doesn't actually happen until tomorrow, so he ain't getting out today, no way, no how.
Given a choice between letting the kitten go free and going to a *non*-no-kill shelter, do the latter.
Loose kittens can get hit by cars, or preyed on by dogs or coyotes. Turning a kitten loose is *illegal*.
Better to risk a painless death than getting torn up or flattened.
Stefan at 116:
The local Humane Society actually runs a Trap Neuter Release program, so I'm not sure that he might not actually end up back outdoors anyway if I took him in. As well, I grew up around Outdoor Only cats. It is very hard for me to wrap my mind around putting down a perfectly healthy cat.
I'm not really planning on opening the door and letting whatever happens, happen. I'm just not sure I would be able to convince myself to run after him if he manages to get past me and make a run for it.
Jen B., I also grew up with semi-outdoor cats, so leaving the door open seems perfectly reasonable to me. After all, the cat is free to come back?
We feel terrible keeping our cat indoors, mostly because we live in an apartment building and we don't trust the other humans to treat him with respect. He in particular is so much more alive when he's outside, meeting other cats, chasing things! Not having to deal with fleas as much is small compensation.
I gather though that the indoor/outdoor cat debate is common flamewar fuel. I guess it's just safe and pampered life vs. being locked away inside palace walls: two ways of looking at the same situation.
Ralph Giles,
I just thought to myself, "Self... Google". Right away I found a messageboard about how many people in the community I currently live in have outdoor cats and it is practically unheard of for neighbors to call the Humane Society for pickups. I think all the healthy looking "strays" I've been seeing are actually pets. (This kitty was found in a nearby neighborhood across a four lane road that does not have the same visible presence of happy cats.) I think I'll just have him microchipped so if I ever do lose my patience and not run after him he can be scanned and returned if he doesn't come back for food on his own. I'm just going to have to keep fostering him until I find someone. Or until I run away myself.
As for the outdoor/indoor flamewar, I keep having it with myself. "He wants out, I should let him out." "No! There are pterodactyls out there!" "He sounds so sad, though. And he just pooped on the floor." "The pterodactyls have machine guns!"
My take on the subject is that it depends on the cat. We once ended up with a cat who *needed* to be outdoors— his original owner lived on a busy street. And of the cats I own now, one is clearly an indoor-only type. The other gets leash time and usually lasts only a few minutes. Both love balcony time, though.
The only argument for me is statistical: cats with regular access to the outdoors don't live as long as indoor cats.
I worried too much about my indoor/outdoor cat when she stayed out all night, so when I grew up and moved away, and got cats of my own, they all grew up indoors. For me, the equation boils down to "I'd rather pick up poop I'd rather not worry all night long". Instead of bad dreams, my sleep is disturbed by cats wanting attention, or kicking me. Or, rarely, sleeping next to my face and passing gas.
re 110: I was going to link to a really cool video of that, but it's been taken down. Darn.
Put up signs. Somewhere out there, someone wants a cat. Maybe even that one.
We have kept indoor-only cats for 20 years... Back in '91 while living in a mostly rural area, we trapped a cat that was outside in -25F weather. He didn't like being turned into an indoor cat, but thrived overall with our other seven kittehs. Six months later we found the owner (he found us). We gave him the now-neutered cat back with his promise not to let him back out.
He was outside our window the next night.
We didn't trap him again. Within weeks he disappeared, and we assumed he was hit by a car. I've always felt a little bad I didn't carry thru on my threat to the owner to trap him a second time and keep him.
Any cats we ever adopt will be indoors only. Nuff said...
#96 - Xopher - We have friends with friends that have preserved damn near every computer ever produced. They even have access to some old IBM and Control Data mainframes from the early '70's... What format do you need? I'll do some checking for you...
Serge, #51, I don't remember. But I like winged pins. (Not angels!)
Zed Lopez, #74, I live in a small city just outside an urban area and have never had trouble getting either the emergency or non-emergency operators on the first ring. However, they insist on addresses, which can be difficult. I had a situation where firefighters missed the place because they had an address instead of a description. I was at a Pizza Hut in a shopping center (only Pizza Hut in town) and an elderly woman became unconscious. I called 911 and checked her breathing and pulse -- they were both light and thready, but okay -- and told 911 that we were at the Pizza Hut in Wellington Station. The operator insisted on an address, which I got from a waitress standing fearfully by. So in a couple of minutes, the ambulance passes directly next to the Pizza Hut and goes out of the shopping center. I called 911 back (same operator, we are a small city) and told her that the ambulance had just gone by, to tell them to turn the corner and come back in the next entrance, which they did. As soon as they're in, the elderly woman became conscious and refused to go to the ER. I asked one of the guys why they missed it the first time through and he said "You should have just said it was the Pizza Hut" and I explained that I had. Hmph.
Dawno, #82, I ordered my winged trilobite last night, along with Voice of the Castle.
Lee, #84, do you have one that has:
O
MG
WTF
etc.
centered? I know someone who wants one.
Jen B. outdoor cats can learn to be indoor cats. Shiva insisted on moving in with us and then was surprised he wasn't going outside anymore. He's mostly gotten over it. What's the problem sharing with the cat? He hasn't learned to use the litterbox? He likes to sleep places you don't want him to? He walks on shelves and makes things fall? We can probably give you ideas on making that easier.
Hey all you p-r-o-fessionals out there... Eddie is totally confused by his search on the intrawebs and looking for one clear site that can explain copyright law to a noob writing a non-commercial, non-fiction work (new version of old role-playing game) that wants to quote other rule books that are 10 to 25 years out-of-print... Any suggestions? Danke!
Jen B., kittens often have accidents anyway, but the chance of poop on the floor will be reduced if you clean the litterbox every time he uses it. Some cats, especially if they've been outdoor cats, are too fastidious to use a dirty litterbox.
That's what I had to do to persuade my formerly-outdoor kitty to use a litterbox. Since I'm not home all the time, it works out to two litterboxes for the one cat, and I clean both of them once a day.
Good luck finding the owner.
Heh. Top 10 most scientifically inacurate movies, ever.
They really didn't like "day after tomorrow": "This movie is to climate science as Frankenstein is to heart transplant surgery."
Edward, #125, in Virginia, stealing a cat is a felony, which is why although I was the one who made friends with Smudge* (who Animal Control couldn't catch), he had to go through the shelter before I could keep him. His people had scared him to pieces -- he'd never been vaccinated or neutered, he had cigarette scars on him, and he continued to be afraid of everybody but me. He turned out to have a heart murmur and the veterinary cardiologist told me he wouldn't have lasted to the end of the year outdoors. He was with us for three years, on daily atenolol, which was longer than otherwise. Like all my long-gone cats, I miss him.
*I named him for the mark on his nose, which turned out to be a rare infection. It eventually went away.
Ed: explain copyright law to a noob writing a non-commercial, non-fiction work (new version of old role-playing game) that wants to quote other rule books that are 10 to 25 years out-of-print
How long it's been out of print doesn't matter. What matters is whether or not copyright has expired and the work has entered the public domain. The only point where it is "out of print" will matter is if it's so out of print that not even the publisher has the rights to it anymore to bother filing a lawsuit if they feel like you've infringed their copyright.
If the work is still in copyright (and I'd guess it is, given terms last over six hundred years*) then the only way you can quote from it is if you can use it in a way that qualifies as "Fair Use".
Unfortunately, I've yet to find a good website that gives a good rundown on fair use. Part of the problem is that you can't really define fair use in a purely objective way. You can't say "cut and paste 100 words or fewer is OK, 101 words or more is not OK".
If you can, you'll be better off taking the idea within the rule book that you like, boiling it down into some general principle or general rule, and then re-animating it using your own words, your own expression.
They can't copyright the ideas, they can only copyright the expression. Just don't hone too close to all the ideas, or they still might decide they can sue.
If you can't do that, and you really need to quote the book, then you'll just have to start reading up on Fair Use.
(*) give or take
All but one of my cats (over the last thirty-five years I have lived with nine cats) have been indoor-outdoor cats, including the ones I have now. Two of those nine were killed by cars, which is one of the things that can happen to cats who like to cross streets. :-(
One was attacked by a pit bull. He survived and is still with me. He's a ginger short-hair, neutered male, nine years old, he weighs eighteen pounds, he's polydactylic, and yes, he still goes out the cat door whenever he wants to, though not as frequently as he used to... The one who was an indoor cat was semi-feral, blind and mildly retarded. He didn't particularly want to go outside.
Edward Oleander @128:
Normally I just direct people to EFF's FAQ on IP for Bloggers, particularly the fair use section.
In your case however, it's important to know that games have some very interesting copyright limitations so you may actually need some rea
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