Early Risers.

[monkeysarefun]

9 minutes ago, PeterBB said:

At the time,1976, it was a very hot summer and ladybird.  Seem to remember a previous rat plague in OZ a few years ago that hit our newspapers.

 

We're always having plagues of things, rabbits, cane toads, Leo sayer.

 

WE even have plagues of things that are meant to be here like roos.

 

Most famous one you've never heard of was the Western Australia Great  Emu War of  1932.

 

 

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[Coombe Barton]

... and plastic ducks ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/03/18/progress-with-work/

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The Zoom talk went well despite a few technical glitches at the speakers end. A very interesting talk and a discussion afterwards about more local transport such as the new Southend pier trains. Now to catch up on Farcebook, be back later. 

[Barry O]

Goodnight to most, good evening to some and good morning to others.

 

Baz

[PeterBB]

18 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

... and plastic ducks ...

 

Was expecting the story of the plastic ducks that were lost at sea and the scientific information that came about because of where they floated and how long it took.

Noted that France is going in lockdown and that our own levels are levelling rather than actively 'decreasing'.  Always nice when a colleague says 'thanks'

 

Triggers.  On one occasion I was asked to give a session in another college as their lecturer was ill. I was given a handout by them to use ... one that I had produced for my team but with their heading!  Must have done something right at some time.

[andyram]

Evening all. I hope today has gone well. I was right and wrong this morning. Wrong that the student would fail the big assignment, but right about the Teams meeting. The student had submitted the best example of the assignment I had seen and passed with flying colours. It started a run of very good assignments. Lots passed today so it has been profitable.

 

As expected, the meeting was difficult.  The agency are casting doubts over whether we would be able to foster in the future. They simply don’t think we have the time.  Whilst I appreciate their concerns, it does not feel like they are listening to us and see everything as a negative. A misunderstanding between the social worker and Sarah resulted in Sarah leaving the room leaving me to finish up and don the diplomatic hat.

 

At least there was some laughs this evening. Whilst Sarah caught up on “Line of Duty” ahead of the new series, I dug out an old copy of the PlayStation 4 game “Call of Duty” and joined my best mate online for an hour or so. With a beer to accompany the action, a pleasant time was had with plenty of jokes and banter over the headsets. It may have only been a virtual catch up but it was long overdue and much needed.

 

Night all. Sleep well.

 

Andy

[Tony_S]

11 minutes ago, PeterBB said:

Triggers.  On one occasion I was asked to give a session in another college as their lecturer was ill. I

I was away ill for a while and the school couldn’t cover my CSE Physics class so asked the local technical college if they had a lecturer they could borrow. He came for one session. Years later I taught his daughter physics at another school. She told me what had happened. Apparently one lad had objected when his bag was thrown out of the first floor window. While the bag owner looked out of the window someone else tipped him out too. The lecturer was not impressed with the school response to this and walked. 

Edited March 18, 2021 by Tony_S

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, PeterBB said:

Doesn't take much heat to actually ignite Mg to produce the blinding light emission.

If I remember my 'o' level chemistry correctly Magnesium is one of a group of metals that react when they come into contact with water producing a bright flame. The oxidised outer layer makes the metal stable in air.

[Coombe Barton]

7 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

If I remember my 'o' level chemistry correctly Magnesium is one of a group of metals that react when they come into contact with water producing a bright flame. The oxidised outer layer makes the metal stable in air.

Are you thinking of sodium?

[Winslow Boy]

6 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Are you thinking of sodium?

If my memory isn't playing tricks, which might be possible, I think sodium and lithium were in the group. Lithium being the most reactive. Just remembered that it wasn't water that caused the reaction but rather it stopped it by oxidising with the metals  surface to form a protective coating. Amazing to think that I learnt that over forty years ago.

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[Coombe Barton]

12 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

If my memory isn't playing tricks, which might be possible, I think sodium and lithium were in the group. Lithium being the most reactive. Just remembered that it wasn't water that caused the reaction but rather it stopped it by oxidising with the metals  surface to form a protective coating. Amazing to think that I learnt that over forty years ago.

Very clean magnesium reacts mildly with cold water producing hydrogen. But most magnum in a lab is well oxidises.

Magnesium is one reason why aluminium is not allowed in coal mines, as aluminium is virtually impossible to make without some magnesium still in the mix. If you strike aluminium with steel, and in the dark of coal mines you can;t see what you're hitting, and if you do this you stand a chance of producing a very high temperature spark, and coal mines are not the best place to have that happen, (Spark + oxygen + methane = mega bang)

When we did any hydraulics we had o make sure all valves had brass labels

Edited March 18, 2021 by Coombe Barton

[The Stationmaster]

Another laguage story.  Back in the late 1990s it was decoded to send a Eurostar unit to an exhibition of modern rolling that was to be held in Cologne and a suitable crew of Traction Inspector and Driver and a pair of Train Managers were selected to take it - the Traction Inspector and driver could both speak a reasonable amount of German and would be showing people over the power car and cab etc during the exhibition.  I presume the two TMs would be doing something similar on the train and they were also probably German speakers (we had several quadrilingual TMs in those days as at least one on a train working to Brussels had to be able to speak Flemish so we had mainly Belgian or Dutch nationals for that job because it was difficult to find anyone else who could speak it..

 

They duly worked the train to Brussels where an SNCB Traction Inspector and Driver joined on the front end to conduct the Eurostar UK Driver through to Aachen and I think all four in the cab shared the driving between them.  On arrival in Aachen they reached the limit of how far the train could work under its own power so a DB loco duly arrived to tow it the rest of the way to Cologne.  The DB traction inspector asked the SNCB Inspector about the coupling procedure but it rapidly emerged that the SNCB Inspector couldn't speak German and the DB Inspector only spke German.  So the English Traction inspector duly acted as the interpreter for that conversation until he decided he might just as well deal with it all directly with the DB bloke.  The train was then towed to Cologne.  On the return journey a similar thing happened at and at Aachen the English Inspector found yet again that the DB and SNCB people couldn't understand each other so he dealt with everything apart from the SNCB chap arranging the traction current changeover in order that the train could carry on under its own power once the DB loco was out of the way.  Reportedly a good weekend was had in Germany.

[Winslow Boy]

Yes it's the hydrogen igniting that produces the bright light. Never knew about aluminium not being used in coal mines.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

This morning’s diabolical eye test that Sheila had seems to go well from what the ophthalmologist said during the process. It didn’t take long either, she was in and out within 30 minutes and we were back home for just after 10:15. So I had plenty of time for a second muggertea of the day, before I headed out once again, this time to Costco. The provisions that I went for were obtaining and the cupboards are now groaning. 

 

After dinner I did a bit more calligraphy practice, the pen I use is a rather heavy pen, by the German Pen Company LAMY. I must admit that I’d never heard of this company before, but it’s very nice to hold and writes beautifully, I test drove quite a few in the ‘Pen Shop’ at the Trafford Centre and this one felt the nicest. It’s quite a chunky, weighty pen and the nibs can be changed very easily. It wasn’t the dearest in the shop, but at just a shade over £50 around 8 years ago, it wasn’t the cheapest either. Regardless of the price I paid for it, I’ve never regretted buying it, it’s a lovely pen to hold and use. 

 

Once I’d done practicing, I produced 2 A4 sheets, each with 11 names done in 4 different styles. They are basically the same script, but the style and spacing of the letters differs slightly, there is also one in cursive (joined up) writing as that’s how they originally wanted it. But I personally think they look better separate, as the are easier to read from a distance. These will be given to Mike when him and Sarah call round next week. 

 

After a mid afternoon muggertea, I did a spot of eyelid inspection, they both passed!

 

Below is a photo of some today’s work,

 

plus mine and Sheila’s name in Celtic script. 

 

Edited March 19, 2021 by BSW01

[BSW01]

13 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Very clean magnesium reacts mildly with cold water producing hydrogen. But most magnum in a lab is well oxidises.

Magnesium is one reason why aluminium is not allowed in coal mines, as aluminium is virtually impossible to make without some magnesium still in the mix. If you strike aluminium with steel, and in the dark of coal mines you can;t see what you're hitting, and if you do this you stand a chance of producing a very high temperature spark, and coal mines are not the best place to have that happen, (Spark + oxygen + methane = mega bang)

When we did any hydraulics we had o make sure all valves had brass labels

It was the same in the gas industry, aluminium ladders were banned as we had a lot of stainless steel pipework in governor houses and there was always gas in those places. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[pH]

This afternoon’s entertainment was fixing angle plates to concrete using concrete screws. Having borrowed an appropriately-powerful hammer drill from my son (my own feeble one was making no impression), I got holes drilled for the first plate. Trying to screw the screws in was not going well till I put some thin oil in the holes - first plate successfully mounted. Same process for the second plate. Halfway through screwing in the second screw - the tip on the Phillips screwdriver snapped. That stopped play for the day!

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, BSW01 said:

After dinner I did a bit more calligraphy practice, the pen I use is a rather heavy pen, by the German Pen Company LAMY. ... It’s quite a chunky, weighty pen and the nibs can be changed very easily. It wasn’t the dearest in the shop, but at just a shade over £50 around 8 years ago, it wasn’t the cheapest either. Regardless of the price I paid for it, I’ve never regretted buying it, it’s a lovely pen to hold and use. 

 

... 11 names done in 4 different styles. They are basically the same script, but the style and spacing of the letters differs slightly, there is also one in cursive (joined up) writing as that’s how they originally wanted it.

Brian I like your Uncial lettering very much. Thank you for sharing it. Cursive shows itself best in 'Copperplate' (rather like what you see in 18th century quill-based writing). It is elegant but find it quite fiendish to attempt. Italics are more forgiving for me. I will often join Italic letters to the next letter when the letter has a 'tail' (like a, c, e, g, h, i, j, n, m, etc), but this is not truly 'cursive'. I also like to extend the tail on the last letter with a long sweep up and to the right.

 

Mostly I use a Pelikan pen (also German) with an Italic nib which is about 1.5mm wide. It was quite pricey and the nib cannot be changed like your LAMY. I do have some specialty calligraphy pens with a variety of nibs of different widths but they either use cartridges or cheap suction fillers to load the pen and are fussy to use. These nibs have sharper edges and can produce crisper results. The piston filler in the Pelikan means it is usually charged with ink and ready to go.

 

This is pretty representative of what my birthday cards look like:

 

It's better with a little more practice. I also do better when I use guidelines (like I did here), but always feel like erasing them is a bit of "Russian roulette". You never know when you might hit a damp ink spot and make a big smear.

 

This is fun too:

(my signature)

Edited March 19, 2021 by Ozexpatriate

[Gwiwer]

6 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

Are you thinking of sodium?

Na

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

Hope you are all fairing well.

 

We have a damp morning in this part of the world.  However, there are signs of spring and the mornings are getting lighter (slowly).

 

Have a good day everyone...