Early Risers.

[AndyID]

56 minutes ago, JohnDMJ said:

 

Was I just trying to clean up the post?

 

You could have hoovered it

[Chris116]

4 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

You could have hoovered it

Or spent three times as much and Dysoned it!

[JohnDMJ]

 

9 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

You could have hoovered it

 

4 minutes ago, Chris116 said:

Or spent three times as much and Dysoned it!

 

You're just suckers for clean fun!

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, JohnDMJ said:

 

My car is used so infrequently that I have to be careful starting for the first time to allow the handbrake to release and for the first few miles, the pads to remove the rust from the discs.

 

 

If possible don't set the handbrake if you are not going to be driving it for a while. Leaving it in first or reverse should be quite enough, or "P" if it's an automatic. If it is on a slope you could also chock the wheels. You'll still get a layer of rust on the disks/drums but at least the brakes won't seize.

[Ozexpatriate]

10 hours ago, pH said:

The 'big one' Brian's referring to is the inevitable massive subduction earthquake in the northwestern US and western Canada. Apparently they happen every 200-500 years, and the last one occurred in 1700. The Pacific tectonic plate is subducting under the North American plate, building up stress which will eventually be released in an earthquake. 

Indeed so. If you'll permit me to be pedantic, the Pacific plate is bullying a rather small plate (Juan De Fuca Plate) that is subducting under the North American Plate and forming the Cascadia subduction zone. It is why the Cascadian volcanoes run through Northern California to British Columbia, but not further south into central and southern California.

 

Based on the damage resulting from the 1700 Cascadia subduction zone earthquake we anticipate that a Pacific Northwest earthquake could be much larger than "the big one" long hypothesized for the San Andreas fault.

[AndyID]

Our daughter in New Jersey just told us that the wife of one of her company's engineers has succumbed to the virus. They reside in Westchester, NY. She was 36 and they have a young daughter.

 

On a slightly more cheerful note I was reading that there are indications that the severity of the illness does seem to be related to the extent of exposure to the virus. Apparently this is not uncommon with other viruses. Those who only experience mild symptoms are more likely to only have received limited exposure.

 

I hope that's true but please do not assume it is. Best to do your own research.

[pH]

24 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Indeed so. If you'll permit me to be pedantic, the Pacific plate is bullying a rather small plate (Juan De Fuca Plate) that is subducting under the North American Plate and forming the Cascadia subduction zone.

 

Yes, you are right. What I wrote was the Coles Notes version. But is the Pacific plate not going directly under the North American plate north of Vancouver Island? There have been some big quakes around Haida Gwaii in recent years, and the 2012 one at least looked like a subduction one.

Edited April 3, 2020 by pH
Spelling

[Tony_S]

4 minutes ago, AndyID said:

Those who only experience mild symptoms are more likely to only have received limited exposure.

This is I think why the medics in the family are somewhat concerned about “viral load” , as they stand a good chance of being more exposed. 

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[Coombe Barton]

... and conspiracy theories.

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/04/03/survived-the-shopping/

[Coombe Barton]

A tectonic plate is dying under Oregon

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/07/tectonic-plate-dying-oregon-why-matters/

[J. S. Bach]

On 03/04/2020 at 11:10, iL Dottore said:

...snip... is a mixture of cream, egg yolks, vanilla bean seeds and sugar cooked fairly slowly in a bain marie. ...snip...

Stay fit, stay healthy

iD

Except for the "bain marie" (whatever that is ), that is the way that Mother made custard. It was (usually) made in a large ceramic bowl and then when done, served in much smaller matcing ceramic bowls. I believe that they were sold as a set; one of the small bowls still survives somewhere here.

EDIT: I just remembered that "chassè marie" is/was some kind fishing(?) boat. Maybe there is a connection. BTW, the English called them "chase marys".

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by J. S. Bach

[Barry O]

Goodnight all!

Baz

[AndyID]

6 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Long way further south than here...

 

I think Tigerburnie is the furthest North. He's ten degrees North of here. We're about level with Zurich and the climate is probably similar although we are at a higher altitude.

[The Lurker]

9 hours ago, 45156 said:

Almost as good as saveloys - in fact, there are a few (very few) chip shops which serve spam fritters, and even fewer which serve them AND saveloys - One of these few was South Street fish bar in Lewes, before it changed hands - excellent chips, a saveloy done in warm water, and a spam fritter fried to orde, a carton of mushy peas - really good stuff.  I have asked one of the chippies round here which is really good whether they could at sometime make me one if I supplied the Spam, but they declined as they have a lot of Muslim customers and don't put any pork in their fryer as it would contaminate the oil.  They are also the only chip shop I know who do their sausages in an oven for the same reason.

My order from our local chippy (Turkish run) is 2 saveloy chips and curry sauce. Mrs Lurker is never impressed by that!

[J. S. Bach]

6 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Sounds like there'd be enough to share with a young Bear Cub.  Hold the mushrooms on mine.....

Put his mushrooms on mine, please!

[The Stationmaster]

The Good Doctor had a not to bad day at work but one lady patient carted off to the JR as a 'positive' plus one probable still on the ward as of this evening.   And now the problem of hospitals looms because there seems a strong possibility that the lady who has positive symptoms contracted the virus on the ward.  No doubt proper PPE (apparently called Level 2 at the Oxford Trust) might help to make a difference to transmission rates particularly from infected members of staff?

 

Apart from that the GD seems to be coping well and at least she had s plenty to provide a rest for her mind when at home.

[figworthy]

15 hours ago, TheQ said:

Ben the music critic Collie was hiding in his cage for the 06:00 news as they had played bagpipes just before.  So I got to realise for longer,  till the 06:30 news at which music intro he gave me the stare. 

 

 

 

 

Years back we had a "Heinz" which was basically Border Collie.  One one occasion some one nearby started playing the bagpipes, and our four legged friend came out in sympathy.

 

Adrian

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

The cellar door had its first top coat applied this morning, I then went to do some gardening but it started to rain, so I went to the workshop instead. Although I didn’t do an awful lot as it was getting quite late by then. But I did sort out some of the components I want for the turntable control circuit, namely the momentary push buttons, the rotary selector switch and the drive motor. The later item is a precision PORTESCAP motor gearbox (not the loco type, much bigger) 

which I picked up for about £5 of Ebay a few years ago. The gearbox has a ratio of 582:1, I tested it today and at 12V does about 5rpm and draws only 220mA, so I don’t need a big power source for it, but I put some sort of speed control in it so I can run it a lot slower than that. I then tested the rest of the items, which were then put aside until I actually start to build it all. Later this afternoon I redrew the circuit diagram, but I made 2 different types, one a standard circuit diagram, the other a more modern type ladder schematic diagram. The latter is far easier to use when fault finding. I’ve included a couple of photos, one of each diagram for those who are interested. 

 

Wiring diagram

there are some omissions on this drawing, button top left is the start button, the second row of switches on the selector are the stop limit switches, one for each of the entry/exit roads. 

 

Schematic diagram

the omissions on this are the button top right, which is the emergency stop and the same limit switches as the above. 

 

 

Goodnight all 

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Farcebook is getting busier by the hour it seems. But I just managed to catch up but it starts again in the morning.

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, pH said:

But is the Pacific plate not going directly under the North American plate north of Vancouver Island? There have been some big quakes around Haida Gwaii in recent years, and the 2012 one at least looked like a subduction one.

Apparently the Mount Meager massif in BC is considered the northern end of the Cascades (built by the Juan de Fuca plate subduction). 

 

The Explorer plate is a microplate that is another fragment of the ancient Farallon plate, like the Juan de Fuca plate. It sits between Juan de Fuca plate and the Queen Charlotte "triple junction" which extends to Alaska and the Aleutians. Vectors for the Explorer plate appear to be pretty complicated and might impact the Haida Gwaii area, though at least one Wiki page has it moving west (not subducting under North America now, but historically has). 

 

Further north (perhaps like Haida Gwaii)  in the Queen Charlotte fault would normally be a different mechanism (strike/slip faulting like the San Andreas fault where the Pacific plate slides alongside the North American plate). It is interesting that the Wikipedia page for the Haida Gwaii 2012 earthquake describes it as being like a subduction zone quake but in a strike/slip zone. 

 

I think the tectonics are pretty fragmented there.

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

... and conspiracy theories.

I watched a documentary this afternoon* about the influenza epidemic of 1918, specifically how it effected the US.

 

At the time, there were widespread conspiracy theories that influenza "germs"** were being deliberately spread in the US by the Kaiser's minions as a weapon of war. Evangelical preachers preached about it being the "wages of sin". 

 

In some ways humans seem to be very predictable - when presented with similar but unfamiliar circumstances they do the same things, irrespective of time. Most of the response to the influenza epidemic was to hope it would go away, though eventually people were wearing masks (now being called "face coverings" to distinguish them from medical grade PPE) and trying to stay separate from each other. Coincidentally (or déjà vu?) today, the POTUS suggested the voluntary use of "face coverings". 

 

* The local public television station has changed it's normal afternoon programming of children's shows. Today they had documentaries on the 1918 influenza epidemic and the fight against poliomyelitis.

 

** Yes, I know it is a virus.

 

When at last a COVID-19 vaccination is finally available, it makes me wonder what will happen to the anti-vaxxer movement.