Comments by "" (@redtela) on "Fast Jet Performance"
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I'm a "bushcraft" kinda dude, have taken the kids camping in hammocks etc for years. I also live on a farm. For my birthday this year, one person gave me a beautiful folding knife. The blade itself is damascus steel, the inner tang is titanium, and wrapped in a walnut finish. The walnut itself is inscribed with a few things that are intrinsically personal to me, and the maker has a certificate produced verifying that the wood comes from a very specific tree, which was sentimental to my father.
Since both the blade and tang (individually) are under 3 inches long, and it's non-locking, it's perfectly legal to carry daily in the UK. Being that it's a very short blade and I have quite large hands, I've added a paracord "dongle" through the titanium loop at the end of the tang. It just so happens that I'm quite a handy chap with paracord... pull the "dongle" in the right place, and it's quick release and becomes useable paracord (see point on bushcraft, redundancies are good). I also happen to know how to basically throw paracord into the air, and catch it so that pulling your hands apart forms it into a useable pair of handcuffs (useful on the farm for tying animals legs together quickly). Having tried it, from the paracord being attached to the tang, to me wrapping it around a sheeps front pair of legs takes about 6 seconds.
I have no plans whatsoever to ever take it out of my pocket on a public street - but doing so would be infinitely better than trying to look my loved ones in the eye knowing I stood by and watched some atrocity happen.
Re staying safe, another tip for you (and others) Tim... tell the wife to keep the de-icer spray in that little pocket in the drivers door. Still quite nippy out early in the morning and that's a handy little pocket for de-icing the car in the morning. ;)
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In my younger days, I was in the St John Ambulance, and something no-one really talks about, is that to be promoted within that organisation, you have to go to (and pay for) "NCO training" after a certain point. I remember the course well... amongst the daily teachings of first aid, "crowd control," map reading... etc etc, every morning, they come and inspect your room, and run a white glove along surfaces like the top of the window frame (and it's your fault if it's dusty).
I remember getting there, first day and seeing a sign on the payphone "out of order" - in the days before mobile phones. Over the course, the tutors/organisers/staff at the hostel start having whispered conversations, slowly the rumour mill starts between the students, other subtle things are dropped in along the way until everyone is "ordered" to gather in small groups to finally be told what is going on, and why all the staff seem so worried.
"There's no easy way to tell you this, but a terrorist has escaped from the nearby prison and was observed stealing clothes off a washing line in the village. The police asked us to keep you all in here, and to minimise panic we didn't say anything. But new information has come to light, and we need volunteers..." - my hand gets raised - "... to try find the IEDs - turns out he was an explosives expert and we're told he's left multiple devices around as a way to avoid getting caught."
Of course, it was all poppycock, the "IEDs" were decorated bottles of washing up liquid... but none of us teenagers knew that it was all part of the leadership tests for the course.
Taught me a lot about observations and being depended upon by others, and was multiple decades ago.
EDIT: Oh, and the payphone worked perfectly fine, they confessed afterwards to them simply wanting to stop us phoning parents about what was going on.
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Tim, on your point about humans helping other humans, couldn't agree more. I understood your "no-one is coming to save you" video, the way you intended it.
A buddy of mine is active over in Ukraine, and I was talking to him today. He was telling me that other folks in his unit don't like to wear their body armor when running drills on the range. To paraphrase him, he also says they're over-weight. I told him just to laugh in their face constantly. When they complain about it, the answer is easy.
"One day, a grenade might land near both of us. I KNOW I can outrun you in full gear. You my friend, are going to shield me a little from the explosion. I also know I can reload a weapon faster than you. So if things go south and we end up toe to to with bad dudes, I know which one of us is alive. Do me a favour though, do some more PT. I'm going to swear at you a lot while I'm dragging your sorry a$$ away from people pushing lead in the wrong direction."
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Tim, I'm only a couple of years behind you - literally - but I grew up on the outskirts of Leeds/Bradford. Racial tension - and indeed rioting - is an old tale. I walked down the road during the Bradford riots (profile pic is genuinely me, a white dude). I don't really care for modern facts. Your message is on brand - at least ish. It's just late.
No Muslims in the government? Sorry, I disagree - no politician is a good politician. Doesn't matter what race they are.
I was taught about Islam, among other faiths, at school - a very proud CofE school. But our RE teacher was also a hippie - so we could go in with a "Miss, can we meditate today in class?" - and we laid under the tables and pretended not to fall asleep.
As I've said since college - over 20 years ago - if you're not speaking out against the problem, you're part of the problem.
But lets not forget, that list of former Christian countries that are now Islamic - were Christian because we - British, conquered them, by force.
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Tim, it's funny to me, I've never served and never been through a filter interview for the forces. But I have been on both sides of the interview table, and knowing how much the candidate side sucked, I set about making that better from the employer side. I fell somewhere on what it seems the Air Force do for filter interviews. I've hired people for Software Developer positions (at all levels), my junior intake interviews went as follows:
- Can you hold a conversation? Even though HR freaked out about it, I had one guy talking about Thatcher era politics - I didn't care what his opinion was, I just wanted him to have one and be able to express it, and be receptive to a different point of view.
- Do you know the basic language that we write software in? This test was as simple as being able to write your own name in English. I wasn't expecting anyone to be Van Gogh, but if you can paint by numbers and stay within the lines, you get the next test...
- How quickly do you admit you don't know something? This one was a 1 line bug in some software I'd written specifically for the test, but the problem was described in language that would require a PhD to understand. If you understood the problem and fixed the bug, you fail, because you have a PhD and you're applying for a junior seat.
- If all of that is done within 1hour and conversation is still flowing - does my best guy like you as a person?
And then at the end of the hour, if I'm not shouting YES enthusiastically, it's a no. But for showing up & putting the effort in, I always doubled the time allocation to write feedback. Spend an hour talking to me, I'll spend 2 writing up my opinions to help you in the next interview.
The best person I've ever interviewed ticked all those boxes within their first 15mins, so I stopped the interview there and then with a "give me a number, no BS, how much to make you say yes to come work with us? If I have it in the budget, you get the number you say."
More senior level positions, I think I put one person through 9 rounds of interviews, but we paid them an hourly rate equivalent for the role, their flights, accommodation, food & drink, before any decision was made. Since they had to relocate, we were also paying 6 months rent in with the contract... so I wanted to be DAMN sure.
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Tim, I too check wheel arches, look for CCTV, sit facing the door at restaurants etc. As a moderate, I question the underlying premise of it all.
Back in the early 2000's I worked at a hotel that chose to employ immigrants, and the owner put me in charge of their settlement. This was primarily young ladies from Spain, a couple of guys, a couple of people from other countries, but the majority for whatever reason were Spanish ladies that barely spoke English. Getting them a bank account was difficult, dealing with immigration was difficult, but I operated a FAFO policy with them. The Finding Out was that I would buy them a ticket home and put them on a plane myself - it wasn't my job to babysit them, but if they did anything that would jeopardise their legal stay in the UK, they were going home. I never had to send a single one home.
Then maybe early 2010's, I helped a now good friend move from Ukraine with his wife, as I'd learnt how to navigate the system.
My fundamental question: ONS stats say 745,000 immigrants arrived last year, up by 184,000 the year before. Lets round that down to 1.3million in 2 years. ONS also say in 2022 our nation had 67.6 million people. So that means that now, 1 in every 52 people are immigrants (and I'm just using 2 years worth of data, and assuming that they all stayed, of course). Where the hell are they all hiding? Back when I helped people legally migrate and get work, I knew where they were, because I set them up with board & lodgings. But where are all these immigrants that are coming over?
Has anyone checked the bean counters maths? I mean, if there's a reason I'm not tripping over immigrants walking around Tesco, I'm on your side about it all.
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No lecture heard here Tim.
The old man, being ex REME, raised me with the "get comfortable being uncomfortable" mantra. Life ain't meant to be easy.
"Next year should be uncomfortable" - excellent timing. I've never struggled with alcohol, luckily, but starting Jan, I'm leaving the PAYE world and starting up in business for myself, self assessment for taxes. Wohoo! So with my income being unknown (and if I don't get my rear up and bring 100% in a morning, will be ZERO!) - I figured a few days ago that alcohol was one of a few easy things to cut out of the budget. Another is processed foods, which, living on a farm, why the hell am I driving to town to buy processed food anyway?!? Might as well save some diesel while I'm at it!
I've got my own demons too, luckily not alcohol, but I'm working my way through 'em.
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I'll also add, in my boot year round, are snow chains, survival shovel, chainsaw, axe, fire extinguisher and a first aid kid good enough that I've used it when I've stumbled across random crashes on the road, an ambulance has shown up less equipped. I also have tow rope, compressor for the tyres, jack, coolant, oil and a warning triangle (I'm probably forgetting some things).
I was helping a neighbour recently with his car, he saw in my boot and commented "F me, if the zombies ever attack, I know who's door I'm knocking on!" I replied "good luck, we won't be in. I have a plan for that." 🤣
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Tim, I get the "legalese" response, especially in America.
Consider for a moment that some institutions like to encourage debate - and American's do love their "free speech" - in some cases, a student can say things that they do not believe in / believe should happen, in order to stimulate debate. In that context, to get other people to realise how horrible calling for genocide actually is, saying a thing you don't believe in can be a good thing - and in legal terms, such students would not be deemed inappropriate.
That is why they won't give a yes/no answer - because a "yes" is the RIGHT answer, but being trapped in a binary situation has negative consequences elsewhere. Same as your rowing club story.
In the context of students calling for genocide of any population of people, by protesting on campus grounds... kick those students off the courses, please. That should be the same as employment clauses "you don't bring the employer into disrepute."
The folks answering questions should have said "I can't give a simple yes/no answer, but here is an example that would be unacceptable, and here is an example where it MIGHT be acceptable." There is a line in the sand, but a yes/no Q&A is not where the line exists, because someone will twist it no matter which way the yes/no goes.
I don't think you're out of line on it, I think you've just responded a little "off the cuff."
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I disagree about the style of noble death. Well, more accurately, there's probably a few types of noble death.
My old man was former REME, great service record. After leaving, he was a lorry driver, a bus driver, a driving instructor - and when age got the better of him, he retired and continued working for charities because it kept him busy. Then society took a big dump on him, and in his 70s he found himself behind bars for a thing that he said he didn't do, and no-one that knows him could genuinely believe he might have done. The man had never even had a speeding ticket.
His last day was under HMPS guard, though he was in a hospital. His health had deteriorated to the point that he couldn't walk, couldn't sit up in bed unassisted, and I fed him his last meal. His memory was also patchy at best. Thankfully HMPS had relaxed the normal visitation rules because the hospital staff were predicting he would not have survived past the Tuesday, but it was Friday, so he was surrounded by those that loved him, comfortable, and talking (after 2 days of being unconscious).
I look back on that day quite a lot - I would happily walk through what he went through, if I was guaranteed as good a last day as he managed to have. His legacy was respected by those that it meant something to.
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Tim, the lads serving, and some of the government think you're a nationalist? Have any of them got a copy of the dictionary? If not, here's what mine says: "a person who strongly identifies with their own nation and vigorously supports its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations."
Now, I may be wrong, I often am, but that... errr... sounds almost patriotic. (Again, for those without dictionaries on shelves, patriotic: "having or expressing devotion to and vigorous support for one's country.")
I guess the hang up is on the latter part of nationalism, the exclusion or detriment of other nations. Quite easy for people without dictionaries to get confused though, it seems.
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The distraction story I saw, wasn't that one, it was the kid on the Scottish border that chopped down a tree. Yes, tress are important. Yes, it was an important tree. But F me it's not a news story.
Tim, I think it's wise to remove the "black on black" aspect - not because you're wrong in any way, but what we actually have is the local population stabbing each other (sometimes it's a kid, sometimes it's a 30 year old dude). It just so happens that the local population is majority black. In just the same way that a fast jet doesn't care about the colour of your skin, neither does a knife (and as you can see from my profile pic, I'm a white dude).
There is however a reason that Mr Khan can't control his city - he's too busy implementing ULEZ, which by all reports, everyone hates. Much like the 20mph speed limit in Wales.
The issue, to me at least, is that most people aren't speaking out about this stuff. Maybe that's because government policies, and the mainstream media, have us all too busy arguing with each other about skin colour, feminism, trees being chopped down or whatever other nonsense they think will sell a newspaper or make someone click a link. If we slow down information flow, this problem probably goes away. Call it OpSec for civvy street, if you will.
I fear we're scarily close to Universe 25.
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