Zombie

Numbers People think “maths” and maybe shudder at the thought? But numbers are all around us all the time so we shouldn’t be scared of them But many of us are Which is bad news in the job world where numbers are everywhere from spreadsheets to getting the coffees Is it because of upbringing? Education? A bad experience? perhaps all these things and more Numbers can become less threatening if we know some fun facts about them, or ways we use them in everyday life So this thread is for that purpose for anything about numbers, or a particular number, that’s fun interesting or we use or do all the time without even noticing the number(s)

Brum - shortened version; also colloquial name for the city Brummie - folk from the city; also the accent (Ozzie Osbourne )

If you can remember same names and places and unusual words that might help a Google search Are you sure it was on GA?

It’s a Sin starts in 1981 Three of the young lead guys escape their provincial family homes to live in London, starting work / college, making friends, having sex (or not) Sharp script from RTD and great cast - period-authentic, shocking (the attitudes, the ties, the first death), the humour, the hedonism, the innocence, the ignorance, the rumours (gay flu, GRID), the denial, the fear, the shame - and the fun Recognisable, but also alien Like a parallel universe Our past but largely forgotten Because so many died First gay pub scene has the mandatory 1981 hit Tainted Love iconically covered by Soft Cell (Marc Almond and David Ball) with a fabuloso video

Update I’ve been digging around the iPad’s settings: Settings>Safari>Experimental Features> select “HTTP/3” - On select “Automatic HTTPS upgrade” - On The URL image posting issue now seems fixed (don’t know which of the above did this) so any other iPad users with this issue should try these settings too

thanks for the widget explanation - understand now Yes, it seems this is an issue with ipads Safari is the browser provided by Apple and recommended for security (banking passwords etc) so I’m reluctant to use others Another issue I’ve just found with the new GA software upgrade and text editor - it won’t let me post image links: here it asks for image URL I enter Wikipedia image link Wikipedia image link is rejected ??

Still can’t see a “widget” - there used to be a little cog wheel giving access to tools but not seen that for some time Just tried this and still no strike out button for Status Updates Good news - the forums now have this, so I’m guessing you were able to make a change - thanks for that Bad news, still not there for Games / Last Post Wins

I must be hopeless Safari browser is set to Desktop as per Settings (previous post) Safari GA webpage also confirms set to Desktop: Can’t see a “sidebar widget” anywhere: Can’t see an option in my “profile” Don’t know what to do

Just checked Settings and it has been selected Settings>Safari>Request Desktop Website>All Websites On iPad 6 iOS 14.e Like I said, this feature is available to me now as I type this in the Help forum text editor (to the right of bold italic and underline) and it always used to be available before the recent update - but I can’t remember if that was by default or I had to select “Full text editor” mode which no longer seems available

Can’t find the “strike” button in forum thread or Status Update text editors - it’s here in the Help forum (I’m looking at it ) but not elsewhere . I think I remember there used to be an option to go to “full” editor or something but I can’t see that either

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Well 22 January is the day It’s a Sin premiers in the UK Friday on Channel 4, and next day in Australia In a radio interview on Monday RTD said it’s taken him 5 years to write this. As Marty said, he has used his own experiences of “growing up” in the 80s together with his friends (many of whom are now dead) so it’s going to have that authentic thread of a “personal life” that no writing mass production team can ever replicate, and there’ll just be five episodes. That’s it. This is the key difference with UK v US shows - UK shows are generally written by one person or a writing partnership, while US shows are written by teams to keep the money rolling in for the production companies. So if there is a US “remake” then it will be a totally different show and probably run for 5 seasons Interestingly (controversially?) RTD said he feels strongly that gay parts should be played by gay actors. One of the three leads, Olly Alexander, would probably qualify as a 100 footer, but I don’t know about the others.

Just posted one and still showing “No Recent Status Updates” on Forums page ipad 6 iOS 14.3 Edit - it’s working now!

Well the only good news is vaccines. The UK now has two in use and a third, from the US Moderna, was approved last week (but won’t be delivered until Spring) but getting the numbers is a massive challenge. The target is to hit 2m a week to get, say, 50m population vaccinated in 6 months. But that means each healthcare worker doing, say, an 8 hour shift delivering say 6 an hour (I’m guessing that’s a realistic target with prep, identity checks, database records etc) = around 50/day per person. So if you do the maths that needs 80,000 people in 3 shifts 24 hours a day, all working flat out and doing nothing else and - realistically - some will get sick so we will need probably 100,000 healthcare workers doing nothing but stick needles in people (I think! Tell me if I’m wrong). And the UK is small and densely populated compared to the US which helps! But the question is how are you coping, keeping physically fit and mentally cheerful?

The UK is once again in lockdown awaiting vaccination and hoping the NHS can withstand the immense and appalling pressures that have been forced on it. In England we’re allowed one walk a day, otherwise required to stay home unless buying food, getting medicine, caring for others or going to “essential” work (the devolved governments of the other UK countries set their own rules, so I’m not too sure what they are). There’s a real issue with mental well-being not just from health and financial worries but loneliness caused by enforced isolation. So how’s everyone coping? Me, I hardly dare watch, read or listen to the news. I need to escape. Into fictional worlds. Can’t go to the library - closed since last March. Can’t buy a book - bookshops not essential. So thank goodness for the internet. Stumbled across this audiobook yesterday of Tom Sharpe’s novel, Vintage Stuff, read by Stephen Fry in 1987. The kindly uploader explains this has been unavailable for a long time, so he’s done a public service putting it on YouTube. I’m only on chapter 4 but so far it’s a marriage made in heaven , Sharpe’s peerless prose read with marvellous mellifluousness by Fry. Whether you enjoy his style or not is personal choice but Sharpe was an exceptionally skilled writer, carefully constructing each sentence with not a wasted word, alliteration and assonance being deployed with exquisite precision to enhance the comic absurdity of his ghastly characters. His writing must have been influenced by an earlier humorous writer, P.G. Woodhouse (they both went to the same appalling public school of the kind savagely satirised in this novel ), but Sharpe’s satire shows no mercy on his targets where Woodhouse is content with amiable buffoonery

quiz shows always liked ‘em Mastermind’s one of the best - 4 contestants tested on their specialist subject sitting in a spotlight against the clock. Then they’re tested on general knowledge. After many qualifying rounds, quarter rounds etc of this torture their prize? A glass bowl

This should probably be in “Writer’s Circle Writers” but since I’m not a writer I can only post here Anyway, I came across this table which sets out the various publishing options, including GA (“Social” column on right), and might be helpful. It’s produced by Jane Friedman, who works in publishing, and there’s more detailed information on her website here, including a pdf link to this table if you want to print it off https://www.janefriedman.com/key-book-publishing-path/ She’s obviously updating this information so it should be current Hope it’s helpful

Jodie Whittaker quits as 13th doctor not before time

Hi Just noticed a post with more than 6 “angry” reaction response icons - there was no “popular” heart icon I’ve previously wondered if this icon and others like “Wow” are neutral (don’t count) or are “negative” and reduce accumulated “likes”. The post wasn’t bad or nasty but simply explained something bad that happened on another site. On LPW I often use this in a playful way and I wouldn’t want to think i was penalising other players Cheers

Johann Schop - Werde munter, mein Gemüte (1641) Music is universal. Throughout WWII Myra Hess gave lunchtime piano concerts, free to anyone walking in off the street, mostly at the National Gallery, in London every day of the week for the duration of the war from 1939-1945 The one piece she always played - because the audience demanded it - was her sublime piano transcription, Jesu Joy Of Man’s Desiring, of the German composer and violinist Johann Schop‘s Werde munter, mein Gemüte melody, composed in 1641 and then arranged 83 years later (1723) by JS Bach (who had liked the melody so much) for the chorale movements in his cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (BWV 147) Hess’s piano transcription is so full of delightful details, like the tiny little countermelody at 2:32, that reward repeated listening or playing. For me it is the most beautiful piano arrangement of this melody (there have been many). Myra Hess also did a piano arrangement for four hands (below). OK, there’s a small mistake at 2:20, but Dr Ricardo de la Torre is very easy on the eye and, hey, it was a live performance, these things happen, and all that matters is the ability to recover and continue seamlessly (perfectly done) and the performance itself

Johann Schop - Werde munter, mein Gemüte (1641) Music is universal. Throughout WWII Myra Hess gave lunchtime piano concerts, free to anyone walking in off the street, mostly at the National Gallery, in London every day of the week for the duration of the war from 1939-1945 The one piece she always played - because the audience demanded it - was her sublime piano transcription, Jesu Joy Of Man’s Desiring, of the German composer and violinist Johann Schop‘s Werde munter, mein Gemüte melody, composed in 1641 and then arranged 83 years later (1723) by JS Bach (who had liked the melody so much) for the chorale movements in his cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (BWV 147) Hess’s piano transcription is so full of delightful details, like the tiny little countermelody at 2:32, that reward repeated listening or playing. For me it is the most beautiful piano arrangement of this melody (there have been many). Myra Hess also did a piano arrangement for four hands (below). OK, there’s a small mistake at 2:20, but Dr Ricardo de la Torre is very easy on the eye and, hey, it was a live performance, these things happen, and all that matters is the ability to recover and continue seamlessly (perfectly done) and the performance itself

A Christmas cracker for Christmas Day Sergei Prokofiev’s Troika from his Lieutenant Kijé suite is a traditional Christmas favourite (in the UK anyway) and this fabulous piano arrangement is by the American classical concert pianist Frederic Chiu

Percy Grainger was many things Australian born, British folk song enthusiast and American citizen Friend of Grieg, Gershwin, Delius and Duke Ellington A unique composer, arranger and virtuoso concert pianist, with a “Liberace” style A meticulous exponent of piano pedalling - so important yet so overlooked - and, in particular, of the sostenuto pedal, which (uniquely) he used in all of his piano compositions to add extra harmonic resonance to the music. This is the 3rd movement of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2, transcribed by Grainger for his solo piano concerts, which combines his exceptional arrangement skills and mastery of pedalling right from the very opening “silent” chord which is held down with the sostenuto pedal to add tonal richness to the opening bars. It is played here by Martin Jones

Percy Grainger was many things Australian born, British folk song enthusiast and American citizen Friend of Grieg, Gershwin, Delius and Duke Ellington A unique composer, arranger and virtuoso concert pianist, with a “Liberace” style A meticulous exponent of piano pedalling - so important yet so overlooked - and, in particular, of the sostenuto pedal, which (uniquely) he used in all of his piano compositions to add extra harmonic resonance to the music. This is the 3rd movement of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2, transcribed by Grainger for his solo piano concerts, which combines his exceptional arrangement skills and mastery of pedalling right from the very opening “silent” chord which is held down with the sostenuto pedal to add tonal richness to the opening bars. It is played here by Martin Jones

Hmm, disappointing the three leads all seem to be gay stereotypes That wasn’t so with RTD’s 1992 original and groundbreaking Queer As Folk Have to wait until airs on Channel Four