Magere Hein

On dope?

OOH I know! (said in a Sybil style, obviously) Just cheching the walls, dear.

Damn it, his Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance touched me deeply. I don't recommend it to non-techies, but a book that's quite dear to me.

Bad sleeper, are you?

indeed. I've had my dirty fingers on dozens of boxes running Debian. This forum may well run on one. ETA: A bit of delving with my Super Admin Powers taught me that the forum host runs CloudLinux, a Linux I don't know the family history of. More ETA: According to Wikipedia CloudLinux has its ancestry in Red Hat, so this forum doesn´t run on Debian.

For a drink at the bar: Gazza To share a spliff with: Chong. For conversation: Carter, Hawking and Pirsig ETA: Hmm, interesting dinner party, although I'd put Gazza in the room next to the bog and instruct staff to keep him wet.

Congratulations to the winners, especially Spade. Such lists of who?s hurt my romantic eyes, but the industry invested evidently paid off.

I count myself among those, but Turkic literature and culture is one big hole. His Wikipedia article describes a many-talented man.

That is an unfortunate by-product of these secular times. I prefer to be cremated to my remains being buried in a grave with a tasteless headstone for a decade or two, then being moved to a mass grave. Saves time, room, effort and money.

Finally you found the right way. Done.

Did anybody mention that there's a new year on? Have a good one.

Good gods, they're as ancient as the members of the Politburo in the days of Brezhnev.

Graham, New year, new hope.

I have been doubting a long time about Johan Cruijff for my theme team. I decided to leave him out, I think he'll see 2017. No details about his condition have been reported, I went by the statistics. I could be wrong, and DDP-approved obits are a cert for him.

You're not that new. You've been a member for almost a year. Well "Piss" still stands at least I guess he was on it, considering his poor performance.

Today in 1960 Dutch autor Chris van Abkoude died in Portland, Oregon, aged 79. He emigrated to the USA in 1916 after his discharge from conscription. He wrote several books about my childhood hero Pietje Bell:

Damn, and I´m complaining about my baccy for 40g @ EUR 7,60 (NZ$ 12). There's cheaper, but that's horrible stuff.

I think he'll last a few more years. PS: I REALLY hope that the Peter Falk joke doesn't last longer than a few more years. Problem is: we keep forgetting.

Certainly. Then again: The Deathlist regularly scores hits with ridiculous candidates.

Eh, yes...

3 teams sent by email. Your PM box is full, TMIB!

Ok, here go Magere Hein's Couch Potatoes 2016: 01 - Joey Feek 02 - Martin Crowe 03 - Helmut Kohl 04 - Joost van der Westhuizen 05 - Rev. Billy Graham 06 - Rob Ford 07 - Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington 08 - Muhammed Ali 09 - O.J. Simpson 10 - Boutros Boutros-Ghali No subs.

With or without help, vou mean? The thought occurred to me, yes. Apparently it's been legal in California for a few months. Well, according to the article you linked “the law will take effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns its special session on healthcare, which may not be until next year — January at the earliest, November at the latest.” (Presumably, they mean November 2016.) Even if you count 90 days from the day the Govenor signed the bill (5 Oct 2015), it couldn't have been legal just yet. However, I don't think I'd care if I was in excruciating pain and could access the right pills. Oops, I didn't read that far and stand corrected.

With or without help, vou mean? The thought occurred to me, yes. Apparently it's been legal in California for a few months.

I saw a few lines from an interview with PM Cameron on the floods. He denied government responsibility or neglect with an ease that made me think: mostly labour voters there, IIRC. Well here is a case in point, Hein lives in a country that doesn't appear to have the kind of flooding we get yearly..........Those Dutch are clever buggers. A few more remarks: in 1953 a high spring tide and a severe European windstorm over the North Sea combined to overwhelm the sea dikes in Zeeland, Holland and Brabant and flooded 1,365 km² of land and killed almost 2000 Dutch people in an event many Dutch still refer to simply as De Ramp (The Disaster). Part of the cause was neglect of dikes and natural water barriers for economic reasons during several decennia. No politicians were lynched, but the events did put the fear of god in them. Keeping the water out has been, by law, a government responsibility since 1953. It´s one of the few things all Dutch agree on. Building the Delta Works went to the tune of 10 billion guilders and 30 years, an economic effort comparable in scale to the Apollo program. Efforts to keep river dikes safe were reduced though, for which the bill arrived in 1995; fortunately no lives were lost then. The scale of flooding is massive and we've been lucky that there's been no deaths. Areas in Cumbria that can take a deluge or to have been flooded three times in a fortnight, compared to the normal once a year frequency of these floods. The Foss river barrier in York is designed to withstand a once in a hundred year flood, similarly the barrier on the river in leeds and the river Ouse. The floodwater should, as has happened in Selby, run onto local farmland - submerging it - to prevent flooding in the city centre and damage to urban areas; I believe farmers are compensated for loss of crops. Three Dutch rivers cause problems: Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt, and the problems are predictable many days before they cause danger, when rainfall in Switzerland, Germany, France and Belgium causes the rivers to rise. AIUI the situation in the UK is different, with many short rivers which may flood in a short time. IANA civil engineer, but I can imagine that effective measures to curb flooding involves much more money and effort than the Dutch had to spend. That's not an excuse for neglect, of course, but planning for solutions may take some creative thinking. The picture below sketches a typical Dutch river. It shows the situation in summer (upper drawing) and winter (lower), when the river carries much more water. The flood plains (labeled 'Uiterwaarden') are used for farming and digging up clay for bricks. Notice that the water level in the rivers is higher than the surrounding land. Permanent buildings in the uiterwaarden are discouraged, and done at the risk of the owner. In 1993 the river Meuse flooded and home owners who had built in its uiterwaarden and whose properties were flooded were laughed at when they complained.