Weekly Chat, Sunday, January 24 2010

Unknown said:

Let's help our friends the BBCT help our friends the Bees

I thought some of you may be interested in this (rspb together with BBCT- bumble bees) and  would like to vote.

Tnanks for the link BrendaH have voted and it looks as though there are lots of votes coming in.

Hazel b said:

Alan  Here is a video of the Starr Ranch Owls. See   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeXJKCQBkzg

Thanks Tiger another video for my ever growing favourites.

Been looking up origin of AQ’s “Furphy”, and it’s rather interesting.  Two possible derivations, and they are actually brothers!  I have summarised info from several sources.

Joseph Furphy 1843 - 1912 (who mostly wrote under the pseudonym Tom Collins) is widely regarded as the "Father of the Australian novel”.  His popularity and writing genre may have influenced the usage of the word furphy, meaning a "tall story". However, it is more likely that the word originated with water carts, produced in large numbers by a company owned by Joseph's brother John.

John Furphy founded J Furphy & Sons in Shepparton , Victoria, making water carts, with the company name on the side, used to take water to Australian Army personnel in WW1.  This source of water was used as a gathering place where gossip, rumour and fanciful tales (furphy) were exchanged, much like today's water cooler discussion.

Thanks everyone who looked at the bumble bee project and voted. I agree Alan, some of the other projects are so worthwhile, but I thought the bees definitely need our help, because of the decline they are suffering at this time.

Tiger,  fantastic owl videos.

We looked at the moon and mars at 9pm. They were extremely clear and mars appeared to be pink. The moon was so bright, that through the binoculars we could see markings on the surface but the brightness hurt our eyes. (needed a filter).

DjoanS, sorry you have had so much snow overnight. I notice parts of Scotland are to continue getting more today. We had rain, hail and sleet yesterday but a beautiful sunny but cold day at the moment, after a very cold night.

Hope all your birds stay around for the BGBW.

Saturday – constant sunshine, brilliant blue sky - and just creeping up to zero from minus 3!

AQ – thanks for furphy – gave me an interesting time researching the term!  If your maggies produce young, maybe you need to put a calcium supplement into their food.

Annette – looked up buying the Steinway DVD, but could only get it from US, and not sure it would play here due to different “regions” – needs more investigation.

Tiger – enjoyed your owls for Diane!

DjoanS – sorry you have heaps of the white stuff yet again!

BrendaH – voted for the bees – like Alan said, had to prioritise as they were all deserving cases, but felt bees were most important.

Tiger : Thanks for the links especially the Starr Ranch owls. They are due to hatch any day now.

Hi y`all. Re Magpies, I like them. I think they are funny, clever and beautiful especially when sunlight hits their feathers: all those glorious colours

Paul, remember to avoid the telly tomorrow ( you know we will find out if watch LOL)

Diane, I was going to ask the same question about the pronunciation of furphy. Got a new word to my vocabulary, previous learned shuftie here, very educational site :) And interesting info by OG of it`s origins, thanks

Lindybird, hope you pampered yourself yesterday after all that boring "must-do-things"

DjoanS & Patriciat, sorry about your uncomfortable weather

TerryM, glad to hear that you like Sibelius. I love his work too. His sinfonies are wonderful and that violin concerto, oh my. Some say that Valse Triste is too syrupy, but I don`t think so

OG, I have the same tendency with accents. Even when I was in Kirkcaldy in mid 90s and doing my training in the hospital and one morning asked an elderly gentleman how he was feeling, he asked which part of Ireland I was from LOL So much about my "Scots"-skills. Of course when we chatted more he heard my foreign accent, but we had a good laugh!

Cirrus, so nice to "see" you! Hope you get your bullfinch in your BGBW. Bullfinches are so beautiful, they are quite common here. Especially in February/March they can be seen in towns not just in forests

AQ, what can I say `bout your temps... we should really try to figure out how to do some trading: You send here few plus degrees and I give you some minuses

Must have "forty winks" now, slept only two hours this morning after nightshift. Take care all and have a nice Saturday!

Auntie: Speaking of bullfinches. I have just returned from a walk with Hamish and when I was out I saw a beautiful male bullfinch in the hedgerows. Quite a rare bird around here. When I used to work nights a long time ago I could only manage about 2 hours sleep in the morning. It really messes with your body clock.

Have you have ever had one of those moments when you realise that not only have seen the future it has arrived.

I bought a memory stick with a 16GB capacity. Well I thought I was buying something that I could carry my backup in my pocket. What I did not realise until recently is that it is much more than that. You can load programmes on to it. Thus you can carry the right programme for the data you have which is often one of the most frustrating aspects of backed up data.

But the real beauty comes in the password manager. Yes you can carry all those passwords for your endless login names. It takes a bit of practice but it is fantastic.

So all you need to do is make sure you remember the password to the stick and the one to the password manager and everything is great. All you then got to do is find a PC or laptop to plug it into.

Do not forget the password to the stick as no one can help you with that one!

See   http://www.u3.com/default.aspx