Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 5]

[Rusty Old-Banger]

StevieBee said:

Rusty Old-Banger said:

Speed 3 said:

The flipped ones with symmetrical plates are obvious, I didn’t think they’d be CGI’ing the hell out of everything tho’.

Disclaimers are one of my pet hates of the modern marketing world. Peugeot have one at the moment where the whole pitch is about 400 mile range and then the disclaimer states capability for 400 mile range not yet available. Not a caveat about real world performance, but simply that they don’t sell the thing they’re selling….

Yeah Ive seen that one too. Made me laugh.

Like me promising the ladies a 12 inch willy, but with a disclaimer that a 12 inch willy isn't actually available.

CGI..... used much more than you realise. It's well suited to 'global' advertising because it lessens the production cost. Back in the day, an ad agency would shoot one advert for each territory, in each territory. Now you can shoot the core content in one place or even in a studio and adapt it to fit each market. Much cheaper and with some pleasing effects if done right.

I made a couple of short films the other week for a drink-drive campaign. There was a short sequence that needed a taxi. I hade one lined up but the guy never showed so I ended up collaring a mate and his Skoda, adding a taxi sign in using a bit of creative thinking and an £80 plug in for my editing software.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbZOrx_Zi7E&t=... at around 0:31

Not perfect by any means but works well enough.

(This is the other one if you're interested - bit of Inbetweeners action https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXSz0BlJAJE) Managed to 'liberate' a taxi roof sign for that one!

Regarding the disclaimers..... you cannot make false claims in advertising. Every ad that gets broadcast has to go through clearing. Several agencies exist for this and they verify everything. By way of example, a few years back I made some TV ads on the subject of food waste which included the government published stat that a third of the food we buy is wasted. I was required to provide the base report and research methodology from which that statistic was drawn.

Companies get around this by promoting brand over product even though it appears like a product advert. 'Brand' can be aspirational and you can state pretty much all you like when it is aspirational provided it's presented as such.

Domestos is the classic example of circumventing this.... 'kills all known germs dead'! Germs is an informal term for bacteria of which there are near infinite types not all of which are known. They can't say 'kills all known bacteria dead'! - not least of which is because they would be selling the most deadly substance on earth! So the use of the word 'germs' keeps it sufficiently vague to pass clearing but sufficiently strong a statement to encourage sales.

Boring fact - if you look left from that pub, about 50 yds away, there's a zebra crossing. I put that in.

[borcy]

hidetheelephants said:

borcy said:

Why are so many oranges from the supermarkets dry and tasteless?

For the same reason the tomatoes so often taste of nothing; they're optimised for cosmetic appearance and shelf life, flavour is well down the priority list.

Is there anywhere that sells oranges that taste like an orange and not dry and tasteless?

[hidetheelephants]

borcy said:

Is there anywhere that sells oranges that taste like an orange and not dry and tasteless?

Not terribly helpful right now but when in season I buy a box from a place in Spain via crowdfarming.com. I've never tasted nicer oranges except when I've been in Spain or Greece and been able to pull the things off the tree myself.

[Doofus]

borcy said:

hidetheelephants said:

borcy said:

Why are so many oranges from the supermarkets dry and tasteless?

For the same reason the tomatoes so often taste of nothing; they're optimised for cosmetic appearance and shelf life, flavour is well down the priority list.

Is there anywhere that sells oranges that taste like an orange and not dry and tasteless?

A greengrocer.

[borcy]

I shall try the local greengrocer see what they are like from there.

I get the lets grow them for looks on the shelf but if there rubbish who is going to keep buying them?

[Clockwork Cupcake]

borcy said:

I get the lets grow them for looks on the shelf but if there rubbish who is going to keep buying them?

People who don't know any better.

Never underestimate the ignorance of your average person.

[popeyewhite]

Buy a tomato or peach from a Mediterranean country and you realise just how tasteless much our mass produced fruit has become. And how far the big supermarket chains will push profit.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

popeyewhite said:

Buy a tomato or peach from a Mediterranean country and you realise just how tasteless much our mass produced fruit has become. And how far the big supermarket chains will push profit.

This is partially driven by the consumer expecting things to be available all year round, rather than seasonal, and also having an unrealistic expectation of how long things should last.

An apple from my apple tree has a shelf life of a matter of hours (couple of days at most) yet supermarket apples last for, what, weeks? But that's what consumers want.

[popeyewhite]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

popeyewhite said:

Buy a tomato or peach from a Mediterranean country and you realise just how tasteless much our mass produced fruit has become. And how far the big supermarket chains will push profit.

This is partially driven by the consumer expecting things to be available all year round, rather than seasonal, and also having an unrealistic expectation of how long things should last.

An apple from my apple tree has a shelf life of a matter of hours (couple of days at most) yet supermarket apples last for, what, weeks? But that's what consumers want.

They don't want tasteless fruit though, do they? Although I agree the consumer might like seasonal fruit all year round the manner in which the supermarkets mass produce the stuff in vast British polytunnels is what kills the taste.

Supermarket apples/fruit lasts longer because they're chemically treated.

I too have my own apple trees, three cooking and three eating. The season is short for the eating apples - about three weeks on the tree but the taste is sublime. I'd sacrifice availability for taste any time. If people were actually asked I suspect most would prefer succulent, sweet fruit and less availability.

[blueg33]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

This is partially driven by the consumer expecting things to be available all year round, rather than seasonal, and also having an unrealistic expectation of how long things should last.

An apple from my apple tree has a shelf life of a matter of hours (couple of days at most) yet supermarket apples last for, what, weeks? But that's what consumers want.

When I was a kid, my parents stored Cox’s apples from our tree for months, as did our neighbours.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

blueg33 said:

When I was a kid, my parents stored Cox’s apples from our tree for months, as did our neighbours.

Cool story bro. I will print that out and wave it at my apple tree and tell it to do better.

[Doofus]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Cool story bro. I will print that out and wave it at my apple tree and tell it to do better.

Our apples last for months, too.

[Pit Pony]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

audi321 said:

How do people wipe their arse sat down on the seat? Never knew it was a thing!

By contrast I have now learned that not wiping whilst sitting down is a thing!

Actually, I seem to recall that a stand-up mentioned it in a set and then observed that two opposite halves of the audience were now saying "Wait... that is a thing?"

Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Saturday 8th June 22:27

I've never stood up to wipe. Too much sharing ?

[Pit Pony]

Doofus said:

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Cool story bro. I will print that out and wave it at my apple tree and tell it to do better.

Our apples last for months, too.

My apples last months, but cut one up to make apple sauce, and within seconds before I get it into the pan it's all turned brown.
My apple sauce is always brown.

[paua]

Pit Pony said:

Doofus said:

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Cool story bro. I will print that out and wave it at my apple tree and tell it to do better.

Our apples last for months, too.

My apples last months, but cut one up to make apple sauce, and within seconds before I get it into the pan it's all turned brown.
My apple sauce is always brown.

Did you wipe it standing up?

[Pit Pony]

shirt said:

StevieBee said:

The price of a house is determined by the level at which the market is willing and able to pay. For as long as there are people willing and able to pay a high price for one, a high price they will remain. This, obviously disadvantages some/many first time buyers.

What is to stop a local authority commissioning a builder build some homes and sell those homes at an affordable price?

I think it costs around £120k to build an average 3-bed home (excluding the land) but let's assume it's council land:

They could then choose to sell that home for, say £200k. This makes it 'affordable', the council gets some coffers to spent on potholes and first time buyers get a house. If they commission a local builder, they're also supporting local enterprise, boosting local jobs, etc.

Seems simple enough so what am I missing?

Edited by StevieBee on Thursday 27th June 13:34

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_utopian_communities

Property is theft, cost the limit of price, etc.

Nothing to stop a council doing it if they wished to. Would be an interesting experiment, doesn’t seem like anyone’s tried it for a good while.

My son was looking at some affordable homes in a village near Macclesfield near where I grew up in the 70s and wondering why so cheap.
Can't rent it out, can't sell it to anyone without an agricultural job or in an industry related to agriculture, with 5 miles, can't extend, can't can't can't.
My son was working in Pharma. About 9 miles away.

Worse is shared ownership though.

Council allows planning, thus making a worthless plot worth something. House builder (os social housing charity) builds a £120k house on it, and prices it at £300k, but you can buy a 50% share for £150k so making £30k profit.
You have to pay rent on the other 50% and pay 100% of the maintenance costs, so the rent to the housing association is pure greed) when you finally want to buy that 50%, they will tell you the value has gone up and you need to pay £200k

There will be admin fees too.

If we want a reset.
Councils have the right to buy up any land with outline planning that isn't finished for peanuts, and build the estate, selling at cost plus 20%, offering 25 year fixed rate mortgages, with no deposit.
Any spare council land is also developed. There's land in front of our local school, not used. This is not the playing fields. You could get 20 houses on it.

The back of the playing field has a bit of road access, if you chopped off the corner, no child would be impacted by that, and you'd get another 20 houses in.

There's a field, used by dog walkers. At the end are 2 houses. Sell off the last 50 metres and build 5 houses. No impact to anyone really. I won't mention the allotments. Perhaps we need more.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

My apple tree suffers from Brown Rot so most of the apples are inedible anyway.

Also I was very drunk last night and am quite hungover this morning. Thank you for going easy on me.

[hidetheelephants]

Given how much of the stuff is fed to livestock I'd argue Pharma is a agriculture-related trade.

[audi321]

Bees - if honey bees produce honey in hives, what do normal bees do? Do they just not produce honey?

Also, Queen bees. What determines that they’re a queen? What does being a queen actually mean?

I find in all very intriguing

[GIYess]

StevieBee said:

The price of a house is determined by the level at which the market is willing and able to pay. For as long as there are people willing and able to pay a high price for one, a high price they will remain. This, obviously disadvantages some/many first time buyers.

What is to stop a local authority commissioning a builder build some homes and sell those homes at an affordable price?

I think it costs around £120k to build an average 3-bed home (excluding the land) but let's assume it's council land:

They could then choose to sell that home for, say £200k. This makes it 'affordable', the council gets some coffers to spent on potholes and first time buyers get a house. If they commission a local builder, they're also supporting local enterprise, boosting local jobs, etc.

Seems simple enough so what am I missing?

Edited by StevieBee on Thursday 27th June 13:34

You forget that if it costs the private sector 120k to build a house, it will cost the councils at least 360k.