Just...................whatever

Had to look up Babymetal. Yeah, they're adorable. Can't imagine sitting through more than about 10 minutes of that though.

Watched the coronation. High point, VIVA! VIVA! VIVA!

Penny Mordaunt channelling Sansa Stark

{{ First time that woman has actually impressed me, those swords are bloody heavy and she held that one up for what, better part of an hour? Thats impressive upper body strength, and she also dressed the part it has to be said, like she was expecting Henry VIII to catch her eye at any moment. }}

{{ Hey Amarie, you know about shippy design things for when you Fjordians go raiding, saw this photo taken the other day of the paddle steamer Waverely on her pre-season trial runs, passing the MSV Preziosa, a modern ginormous cruise ship.



And I know which one I think looks better. The Waverely is sleek, exciting to look at, beautifuly designed with an eye to not just its efficiency in the water but to how it looks on the water. She doesnt look like she was built for the water, she looks like she naturally belongs on the water, as if Mother Nature just happened to design a ship.
The cruise ship looks like a kid designed it, in lego. Whats happened to ship design? Why is it so crap looking? Modern ships look like floating bricks. }}

I agree Petty, your ship looks elegant like a beautiful swan, whereas the cruise ship looks like a fat ungainly hippo. The Waverley looks like it was built in the age when things like that were made to be a pleasure to look at, maybe Art Deco? the age of elegant travel.

{{ She's not as old as people tend to think, she was launched in 1946, but her design and engines are a lot older, she was built as a direct replacement/copy for another paddle steamer of the same name and design launched in 1899 and sunk in ww2 (yeah we used every ship we could in the war covering about 100 years or more of sailing). So her design is Victorian even if her manifucturing was not. }}

That's not a tour ship, it's a barge.

Ah, on googling the MSV Preziosa I see what the problem is: we are viewing the ass end in that photo. The front of it (not seen) looks like a proper ship.

{{ Even seen full and cutting through the water-



it still looks like an ungainly box with a pointy bit stuck on the end

I watch them going up the Clyde in the morning from work, and they do impress with their sheer scale and magnitutde, when they go past the Gantocks Lighthouse and you relaise the top of the lighthouse is only the bottom row of portholes its hard not be impressed.
But adjectives like 'beautiful', or 'pretty' or 'sleek' 'elegant' 'majestic' just dont spring to mind when looking at one. They somehow dont look natural in the water, too big and bulky, they impose themselves on the environment rather than seem to fit it in a natural way like Waverely does. }}

Yeah, it was a good job when Venice banned them from the Grand Canal. Seeing those damn thing juxtaposed against the ancient buildings of Venice was just too much.

Those cruise ships were all about packing as many people in as possible, and they all flew out each morning like locusts, then returned to their hive at the end of the day. That kind of tourism is having its last hoorah, because the locals have had enough. Its unpleasant and unsustainable.

I think Venice should have repelled them with missiles, like you would a pirate ship. I wouldn't have batted an eye.

That's just wrong. how can anyone have thought it was in any way ok.

I hate those huge monsters when they do that. 

On their own, out at sea, I find them fascinating and beautiful in their way. Floating cities. I'm amazed it can be done. It's a ship for a different time and a different purpose, with different materials and knowledge. But it's like comparing city skyscrapers and hotels with a cosy cottage.

Showing up at major ports that already have container ships and the like is okay. New York City or Brindisi is great...but Cinqua Terra should mine their harbors.

hey can anyone recommend a free video editing suite that can chop up youtube videos? I have never done it before so it needs to be idiot proof. I want to make a short intro of my topic using better filmed stuff than I can manage. Its for educational purposes so its probably ok to do this although I will credit the originals. I thought of doing this rather than standing in front of a load of bored fellow students.

You can start youtube videos where you want, then just stop them when they get to the point you want.  Easier than trimming and embedding.

You can manually link to a specific time in a video by adding ?t=00m00s to the end of a short YouTube link. Replace 00m with the minute marker and replace the 00s with the second marker. For longer URLs that already have a question mark in the URL, add an ampersand (&): &t=00s.

thanks, there's too many numbers in that I have number dyslexia. I want to just press one thing and it runs merrily until the end rather than twiddling about with timing. I would be bound to make a clusterfuck of timing.

Awright, let me demonstrate.  Here's a youtube video about the Etruscans, with the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40hk_vktP64

Now I'm going to start it after 1 minute, 7 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40hk_vktP64&t=01m07s

Note that the only difference between the two is that I've added "&t=01m07s" to it.  

How about if you want to stop it a few seconds later, say 1 minute 15 seconds?  You'll have to convert everything to seconds and use a different format:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40hk_vktP64&start=67&end=75

Now it turns out only the start time will work in the above, so what you have to do is replace the "watch?v=" with "embed/" and replace the first "&" with "?": https://www.youtube.com/embed/40hk_vktP64?start=67&end=75

I know that seems complicated, but you've got four simple things to think about:

"https://www.youtube.com/" +
"if you have  'watch?v='  replace with   'embed/' " +
"40hk_vktP64 (gobblygook video code)" +
"?start=ss&end=ss"

Don't fret, it's pretty simple, really. So you just put the links in your presentation, they will start and stop as you want them to. The nice thing about the embed/start/stop/ is that it gets rid of the damn commercials. It's an option which I honestly think is easier than trying to figure out video editing.

thanks that looks cool, I will try it. I may have to launch the pc through the nearest window but in theory that looks ok. How do I check they will all run before, I mean, where do I check if you see where it all fits together if you see what I mean, because I don't have access to the universities thingie. zoiks, its doing my head in already.

Just click on the link you created and see what happens....

(Or paste the link. The scroll bar of course tells you the times.  To get the start and end thingy working I had to keep dorking with it multiple times because nobody told me to replace "watch" with "embed", until I noticed the difference.  Lots of advice out there, all a little different. Only works for youtube, but that's where 90% of the videos are anyway.)

This is very cute - watch to the end.

{{ Well off to have another endoscopy this morning, think its worse knowing whats coming }}

Good luck Petty. This too will pass.

{{ Thanks Figg- was pure torture, actually worse than the first time somehow and left me with a very raspy sore throat, was also super painful at time which it wasnt first time, not sure why. But no, would not wish it on anyone, not even a Tory.
Good news is the ulcers ae gone, still got an bacterial infection than Im taking antibiotics for- but on the mend!
And the lasses that did the procedure and took care of it, every one of them was the exemplar of NHS service; kind, helpful, caring, understanding. I dont know how they manage it day in and out, but very glad they do. So thanks the lasses of the endoscopy unit at Inverclyde Hospital, your bloody amazing every single one of you.}}