woodenhead

Might be helpful if your diet has been lacking in fibre and you need some assistance....

The question is, with Bachmann now offering it's 016.5 models, will you be widening the roster on this layout despite them being different parts of the UK, or will you be doing a little slate mine as your next project?

It's not criminalising, I've not mentioned anything about punishing. This to me feels more like protecting someone from danger that they might not be able to perceive.

And childhood doesn't end arbitarily at 17 years old, pushing the boundaries in a fast moving vehicle is not a good way to learn where that brick wall, lamp post or other solid obstacle is.

@kevinlms https://www.brake.org.uk/get-involved/take-action/mybrake/knowledge-centre/young-drivers https://www.rospa.com/resources/hubs/young-drivers/after-the-test/young-drivers-at-risk https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a80782ded915d74e33fa9b6/young-car-drivers-2013-data.pdf

So on that analogy, let young children out in traffic to get a few glancing blows from passing cars so they understand cars are dangerous and to be treated carefully? We all learn what's good and bad when we are young, we get that from our parents, our peers and educators. But the teenage brain is a fast developing vessel that unfortunately thinks doing certain risky activities is a great idea regardless of previous experiences and even more so when it is to impress friends and potential companions.

I think the issue is that males are not aware of the perceived risk because they have not developed that part of the brain, so they don't know they are being reckless. Obviously there is a spectrum of those who are sensible and drive carefully right across to those who are extremely reckless and a massive curve between the two where there will be people who unconscious of their lack of awareness. The black box clearly has an impact as it is an external monitor that they are aware of and if it believes you are being reckless will result in you losing the insurance and ability to drive. Sadly it is not possible for people to discriminate between those who will always be sensible, those who don't give a stuff and those who simply don't know, so all come under the same banner and have to accept the black box. My son recently passed his test and drives his wife's car which used to be ours. As he was mid twenties when he passed, and married he was not asked to install a black box and neither was his wife for her previous car. It might feel like a form of big brother but I believe there is sound reasoning behind the need to control the driving of cars for males under a certain age. I was one of them once, and I can vouch it's easy to stray under peer pressure or the desire to show off. Luckily I never came to grief and typically after doing something stupid I would not do the same thing again. And thank goodness I never purchased the original Suzuki Swift GTi pocket rocket I test drove or the Peugeot 205 1.9 GTi, I would have been lethal. These days I am happy to use the speed limiter on all roads, let my car guide me on efficient foot use and get there when I get there.

That curfew is set because they know the most dangerous time for a teenage male driver to be on the road, from what I have read it is a male thing with the brain not maturing as fast as the female brain leading to more risks being taken. I think it is the mid twenties when the male brain catches up. So in some respect we might think the black box is constraining on the person, but perhaps what it is actually doing is acting as a helping hand or aid to stop the person doing some excessive because their mind may not be up to the challenge yet of calculating the true risk. In the example given, the driver saw it was better to rush home than leave the car somewhere and use a taxi or some other alternative, it's that risk awareness that is lacking because the brain has not developed to full maturity.

Such as 5mph on a motorway because it didn't see any signs before the motorway and didn't notice this time the motorway symbol, but sometimes it does. When we first got the car I wondered if it was using something more sophisticated such as a gps/satnav (but we hadn't paid for it so we couldn't see it), but then I realised it was simply a the forward looking camera reading the signs. Lots of times it does not know the actual speed because it missed the sign that we saw with our mk1 aging eyeballs.

I'm not sure what the backlogs are like now for new drivers trying to get their test, can you imagine how bad it would be if everyone at licence renewal needed a test to renew and who do you prioritise with a risk of people losing a licence because there is no test available even with an allowance period to get the test done. Sounds like a rather good little money earner for HM Government though.

Mrs W's car does all that for free and no black box, we get a report of our driving at the end of every journey in the name of driving efficiently which also goes back to Toyota and is accessible from other devices. You can imagine over time those black boxes will extend to other age groups especially as the younger ones age and are used to being constantly monitored. It's a slow creeping surveillance, without going down the conspiracy theory blackholes, ANPR detectors all around the country, growing use of average speed zones and more and more motorway cameras monitoring/enforcing the 70 mph limit. Clearly good at maintaining the law, aids serious incident evidence gathering and lets the police deal with other matters, the genie is out of the bottle.

I'd argue the manufacturers are pushing ever bigger cars, rather like in the US where car sizes are ridiculous and dangerous but the more of them there are the more people need them to feel safe by being in a car of comparable size. Look how Ford for example have dropped Fiesta and Focus models in favour of larger (though not the largest) SUV type vehicles. The numbers of Range Rovers / Land Rovers and similar large SUV I see on the road and in shopping centre car parks in the middle of a city are ridiculous. I get the benefits of a small/medium SUV, when the kids were young we had CMAX and Picasso MPV, and as you say they they are easier to get in and out of, sit higher on the road for visibility and are generally a useful mode of transport.

Whilst I accept there is a case that future road schemes both local and national will have to take into account the weight of EVs over ICE vehicles, I am of the mind that the current state of local roads cannot be pinned on EVs alone. There are not enough pure EV vehicles compared to ICE and Hybrids (with less batteries to carry) to be the sole reason for all the pot holes. It's rather like it's easy for those in control of purses to blame the motorists for their car choices when in fact it's simply that road maintenance is taking a back seat to pay for social care and other priorities when funds are tight. And we also should consider the ever increasing numbers of large SUV vehicles that manufacturers like to push now over small lightweight vehicles that are a dying breed in the UK.

From the company that brought us till free shopping powered by 10000 Indian remote checkout assistants. 🤣

I tried it using the persona of a man of malachite Review Heljan Class 47 Locomotive It's kind of the same boxy shape as CC1 and has the same number of wheels, but the shade of green is all wrong and it wasn't designed by Bulleid. So it's not for me and I cannot recommend this model to any of my friends down at the club.

So Boston Dynamics have retired the 'old' Atlas and now we have a new Atlas anyone think he looks a little like him

We don't play with AI, we play with large language models. As a developer I am confident there are many ways to skin this particular cat, but I used AI because as you'll probably know it is the answer to every question these days and my days are numbered, even more so since Microsoft announced their latest product that is claimed to removed the developer from the development cycle......

Ahh, the fervent enthusiast persona. Have tried it using a persona of a typical jaded cynical modeller 🤣 But it actually looks like the persona of Heljan's Ben Jones.

I am sure I could sell you an AI tool that would help, are you a senior project manager with 20 years experience as that helps apparently with getting the style of the output right. But I am sure we can find a persona that would suit from somewhere within GPT4

Except if that loco is behind another loco that hasn't started up as well to move out of the way. Gonna need some AI to sort that one. And I've seen you cheat at cards 🤣

Nice and bright presently, can feel the warmth of the sun through the window. Tooth extraction news, residual bleeding has stopped, I've cleaned my teeth much to the joy of Mrs W and after three meal replacement type drinks I am starving for some real food. Also pleased that after a couple of doses of paracetemol through yesterday I don't feel I need them now so we are rocking and a rolling. I guess I will be in London next week too for a working day trip so I might need to think about booking a red eye.

Saw the oral surgeon today, it was just an extraction, he didn't need to do any packing or stitching. Was in and out in 15 minutes and didn't feel a thing apart from the obvious pushing/tugging. Hopefully this is the end of the extractions.

The broken tooth that my dentist couldn't remove has been removed by the oral surgeon. Was he efficient - appt 11:45 and I was outside again at midday. Excellent with the needle, careful with the tuggy/pushy bit and best news he said he saw bone between the cavity left by the extraction and my sinus so unlikely to have punctured the membrane. Said if I notice anything odd in a couple of days I can go back to have it looked at and if necessary stitched, but he said 90% of these sorts of extractions don't break the membrane so I should be fine. Taken a couple of paracetemol ahead of the final bit of the anesthesia wearing off. So glad this tooth is out, it's been 4 years or more of anxiety trying to keep it in when it really needed to come out. My fault entirely, but the three dodgy teeth are now all out so everything is good.

Yeah, plenty of conversions before nationalisation, wasnt there a big push after WW2? Apparently it's Vera Lynn that's trialling it first https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2024/04/yorkshire-railway-announces-partner-to-convert-steam-locomotive-to-oil-burning.html

It's an interesting conundrum - I agree it doesn't feel authentic but as they explained, no more UK coal, imported coal is getting expense, harder to source the right stuff and then there is moving it when the world is moving away from that sort of transportation. They are not limited to one sort of oil, it can even use vegetable oils in the solution being proposed so lots of options and plentiful UK supply and if waste product helpful too. Ovoids don't appear to cut it unless you are investing in specially made ones for steam loco use and that might be a dead end or even more expensive. Then there are the running benefits over the moors as much less risk of fires being cause as no cinders dropping. I guess it's this or a lot less steam running, more diesels and potentially more engines sitting idle meaning less and less time spent maintaining them to the point they are no longer able to run.....