Early Risers.

[polybear]

9 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I think that I have to (partly) disagree. Certainly most DIY grade power tools do not undergo the sort of heavy use that power tools get when used in a professional capacity, but there’s the issue of replacement parts and set up.

 

Many tradesmen in the UK (in particular those working on Site) prefer cheapo stuff nowadays - the pro stuff gets nicked far too quickly to be worth the (much) extra outlay.  The cheapo stuff is worth buggerall so doesn't get nicked so often.

 

9 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Now this, I think, is something that should be clearly labelled (and in large print). If people buy (say) a Captain Cynical Industries Cake Safe, they are expecting a CCI GmbH quality Cake Safe, not something from 北极熊工业（中国) - Polybear Industries (China).  Rebadged/third party products should be clearly labelled - in this case < Cake Safe. Made for CCI GmbH by 北极熊工业（中国) - Polybear Industries (China).>

 

I'll have you know that a Polybear Industries (China) Cake Safe has NEVER, EVER been broken into or stolen, despite holding the "Crown Jewels" of Cake.  Nuff Sed.....

[Hroth]

But does the Cake Safe(tm) sometimes start to whiff because Bear has forgotten the combination to open it?

[Winslow Boy]

6 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Very popular here - this brand in particular: Ego. Lots of models, readily available.

That's interesting. Bosch are the dominate one here with very little competition. Whether that's due to the size of the market, or possibly the size of gardens, I'm not sure. Price does also play a factor.

[RobAllen]

9 hours ago, woodenhead said:

Am I mad to consider paying nearly £300 for a map update on my Ford satnav?  The current one is about 9 years old and some new roads have appeared since then...

 

I could use my phone but I am averse to having to put it in a holder attached to the windscreen.

 

Irritatingly, they have you over a monopolistic barrel if you want to use the nice large screen for sat nav. Car manufacturer navigation systems aren't especially good in my experience though and don't seem to route as well or know about heavy traffic patterns like Waze, Google Maps or Apple Maps do. Also, that £300 update is out of date in a year or so too if you happen to travel to somewhere where the roads have changed. The phone maps are updated for free, much more regularly.

As a result, we use our phones in holders attached lower than the windscreen using ProClip holders in each car. These are not cheap as they are per-car model, but in our view they "fit" the car better. https://www.brodit.co.uk

The "real" solution is to get a car with Android Auto or CarPlay and then you get the nice big screen with the decent maps.

[woodenhead]

8 minutes ago, RobAllen said:

 

Irritatingly, they have you over a monopolistic barrel if you want to use the nice large screen for sat nav. Car manufacturer navigation systems aren't especially good in my experience though and don't seem to route as well or know about heavy traffic patterns like Waze, Google Maps or Apple Maps do. Also, that £300 update is out of date in a year or so too if you happen to travel to somewhere where the roads have changed. The phone maps are updated for free, much more regularly.

As a result, we use our phones in holders attached lower than the windscreen using ProClip holders in each car. These are not cheap as they are per-car model, but in our view they "fit" the car better. https://www.brodit.co.uk

The "real" solution is to get a car with Android Auto or CarPlay and then you get the nice big screen with the decent maps.

Mine does do traffic diversions, quite well actually but yes it doesn't take long for new roads to appear, though in 10 years of having the car only a few roads have changed out of recognition where I travel (the A556 is the main one where I drive through a 2 mile field).

 

Mrs W's car has car play but she still keeps her TomTom with infinite map updates close by for when it decides to have no signal.  Tried to get her to use Google with offline maps downloaded but she prefers the Apple map / voice.  Ironically it's my10 year old car which she prefers for longer journeys as it is more comfortable than her 6 month old Yaris.

 

So is it worth 2 Deltics (or for me one Rapido sound Peak and another shunter), difficult really - I like the bigger screen and generally I plan my route offline and the car is there as back up so even a 10 year old map will get me home.

 

The one recent journey where I went wrong I cannot blame the satnav on - on leaving Holmfirth I missed where the A635 veered off and carried straight on - towards Woodhead, in damp conditions, going dark at rush hour!  Trying to turn right onto the A628 was a nightmare, luckily a lorry stopped to let us out or we might have been there all night.

[TheQ]

Is it Mooring Awl?

A very bad night's lack of sleep.

 

Ben didn't get me up, so I was late taking up swmbo's muggatea, she's now rushing around getting ready for her art group. I've just taken the muddling tool box out of the car which I used last night as I'm not trusting the landrover at the moment especially in the dark and rain..

 

Ben has gone out on patrol, he kept coming back to me  for a pat on the head and encouragement.

 

We have a similar view outside to the Grizz, dull misty, much restricted vision. There was light rain last night, so everything was damp anyway. Visibility is just under 1/2 mile, as I can't see the sand dunes.

 

As for power tools, I have a professional sander bought in Saudi to build Blue Moon, much used, it still keeps going, I wish I'd bought more Makita stuff out there, as it was very much cheaper than in the UK. 

Then there's a Parkside minidrill the one with the built in battery,

A Parkside hand drill, and a DeWalt hand drill.

An Einhell power plane,

A Bosch nanoblade saw, which I love, but blades are now very expensive, so I keep it for where the finished work needs to be of a high quality.

A Neilson jobsite mini scrollsaw, something I've found very useful, I've used it a lot lately on fine work on unmentionable baseboards and ply / MDF buildings. There appears to be only one type of blade available I could do with a less aggressive base sometimes.

There is a cheap BQ palm sander that has proved to be remarkably reliable.

The worst is a cheap BQ jigsaw, it's blade holder was never that good and now holds the blade slightly out of true.

 

None of the above will be used today as I'm too tired, when swmbo has gone a snooze will be had, followed by a look at the landrover starter.

 

 Time to snooze.

 

 

 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

But does the Cake Safe(tm) sometimes start to whiff because Bear has forgotten the combination to open it?

 

A Polybear (TM) Cake Safe is far more advanced to require a mere combination.......

 

ION.....

Contractors have arrived rather unexpectedly to cut/trim the bluddygreattree outside Bear Towers.  Oh good - it'll make life rather hard for the rats with wings to sh1t all over Mickey for a year or two.

 

BG

[Hroth]

Talking about sad comedowns for brands, Eumig used to make nice 8mm projectors.

 

The last time I saw a Eumig branded product, the logo was attached to a portable beachball/airbed inflator being sold by Aldi.

 

And for connoisseurs of former British radio and TV brands, Alba and Bush are now applied willynilly to rebadged Chinese stuff sold by Argos.

 

[woodenhead]

It does seem that many of us on ER all suffer with lack of sleep and it seems I am one of them.

 

Waking at least twice a night, one of them usually after a rather vivid dream that draws on memories of past failures and it takes some time to bring the mind back to peace and sleep.  Sometimes this will be joined with a need to visit the little room especially if I have partaken in a hot chocolate after 9pm the evening before.

 

Then lots of disturbed sleep, tossing and turning and generally annoying Mrs W for the remainder of the morning, until it's nearly time to get up when I am so comfy I aint arising for anyone.

 

Is this an age thing, once you are past mid fifties or am I not doing enough, I go to bed around 11pm each night and seem to drop off quite happily, it's later that the difficulties start.

[RobAllen]

43 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

Mrs W's car has car play but she still keeps her TomTom with infinite map updates close by for when it decides to have no signal.  Tried to get her to use Google with offline maps downloaded but she prefers the Apple map / voice.  Ironically it's my10 year old car which she prefers for longer journeys as it is more comfortable than her 6 month old Yaris.

For what it's worth, the latest Apple Maps has offline maps. I've not needed them yet, but have set them them up Yorkshire ready for my trip to the NYMR later this year in case I forget closer to the time.

Funnily enough, my wife also prefers my larger car to her Aygo for longer journeys.
 

[jjb1970]

7 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Your 'issue' is that you live in a politicized world* of acronym-named organizations and consequential willy waving with an agenda.  It's not accurate to extrapolate it everywhere.

 

* Climate science and immunology come to mind. They're still a microcosm and not necessarily representative.

 

I certainly live in a politicized world of acronym organizations, I am more tolerant of nonsense from NGOs, lobbying groups and government departments as in those cases you know they're pushing an agenda and you adjust your expectations. the problem is a lot of this stuff is not from that world but from academia and academic conferences where I'd expect better. That said the same individuals are often on various governmental and NGO advisory boards, provide consulting services to policy makers etc. I have no issue with scientific investigation taking us wherever it takes us in knowledge, that's pretty much what science is meant to do. I don't even have a problem with basic errors in methodology if honestly made and if people admit and correct mistakes (correcting a mistake is commendable and what any of us should do if such is pointed out). If I attend an academic conference where those presenting papers and findings are supposed to be presenting research and findings I have a much lower tolerance as such conferences are supposed to be knowledge focused.

 

I think a lot does depend on the field of science. I used to attend a metallurgy conference. Those who attended were metallurgists and, generally working in the field of boilers or turbine blades. That is a very important but rather unglamorous field and tends to be by-passed by most. The result is I found the quality of papers tended to be very high and the discussions rigorous. Most of the funding was from the likes of GE, P&W, RR, Alstom, Siemens etc to develop new turbine blade and steam plant alloys but the nature of the work meant the source of funding didn't have the same effect as grants were issued to investigate and develop new alloys, advances in welding, heat treatment etc which very few will ever be aware of. Unfortunately it was hard for me to justify continuing my attendance when I no longer work in the field of power plant and turbines so I now mainly attend conferences based on emissions. Because it's a trendy area of science with more sources of funding than you can shake a stick there seems to have been a corrosive effect. If someone speaks under a banner of Greenpeace or Exxon that's one thing, if they speak under the banner of UCL or Manchester University it is something else. Something that has struck me is just how little of the papers are primary research in upper atmospheric science, combustion thermodynamics, alternative fuels production etc, most of it is modelling emissions pathways to tell us we need to reduce emissions. I often feel like standing up and saying 'it's a good job you have discovered we need to reduce emissions, nobody knew'. I point the finger at an over reliance on some of the wealthy philanthropic organizations as there's a lot of chasing of the major grant disbursements on offer. That said, I find conferences in places like the Republic of Korea and Japan very different, those ones are much more focused on primary research and solutions development.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

It is a fairly dull morning here. Not raining or windy though. We cut the grass yesterday. The blade on the mower needed replacing so one has been ordered, ready for the next cut.  
I recently purchased another 3 years of satnav map updates. They are updated every month . I think it was about £130. Maps cover Europe and Russia. 
Not a lot planned for today but I expect some of the interior window cleaning will be subcontracted to me.

Tony

 

[jjb1970]

41 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Talking about sad comedowns for brands, Eumig used to make nice 8mm projectors.

 

The last time I saw a Eumig branded product, the logo was attached to a portable beachball/airbed inflator being sold by Aldi.

 

And for connoisseurs of former British radio and TV brands, Alba and Bush are now applied willynilly to rebadged Chinese stuff sold by Argos.

 

 

Unfortunately it is rampant. Nakamichi made one of the finest examples of audio engineering ever with the Dragon casette deck. Despite the limitations of the format the depth of engineering and sheer quality of the Dragon was quite staggering. Now the name is used on cheap throwaway BT earbuds and such like by a company which bought the name. There's a company using the Yashica name now, Yashica made some fine cameras under their own brand and some of the finest 35mm cameras of all under the Contax brand. Which highlights an interesting point, we whinge about low end companies using great names, but less so at the other end of the spectrum. Yashica used the old Contax name for their high end stuff and despite using the old Zeiss brand name and marketing the lenses as Zeiss  despite their production being with Yashica and Cosina (though Zeiss did do design work) nobody worried about it. 

[Winslow Boy]

8 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

 

I certainly live in a politicized world of acronym organizations, I am more tolerant of nonsense from NGOs, lobbying groups and government departments as in those cases you know they're pushing an agenda and you adjust your expectations. the problem is a lot of this stuff is not from that world but from academia and academic conferences where I'd expect better. That said the same individuals are often on various governmental and NGO advisory boards, provide consulting services to policy makers etc. I have no issue with scientific investigation taking us wherever it takes us in knowledge, that's pretty much what science is meant to do. I don't even have a problem with basic errors in methodology if honestly made and if people admit and correct mistakes (correcting a mistake is commendable and what any of us should do if such is pointed out). If I attend an academic conference where those presenting papers and findings are supposed to be presenting research and findings I have a much lower tolerance as such conferences are supposed to be knowledge focused.

 

I think a lot does depend on the field of science. I used to attend a metallurgy conference. Those who attended were metallurgists and, generally working in the field of boilers or turbine blades. That is a very important but rather unglamorous field and tends to be by-passed by most. The result is I found the quality of papers tended to be very high and the discussions rigorous. Most of the funding was from the likes of GE, P&W, RR, Alstom, Siemens etc to develop new turbine blade and steam plant alloys but the nature of the work meant the source of funding didn't have the same effect as grants were issued to investigate and develop new alloys, advances in welding, heat treatment etc which very few will ever be aware of. Unfortunately it was hard for me to justify continuing my attendance when I no longer work in the field of power plant and turbines so I now mainly attend conferences based on emissions. Because it's a trendy area of science with more sources of funding than you can shake a stick there seems to have been a corrosive effect. If someone speaks under a banner of Greenpeace or Exxon that's one thing, if they speak under the banner of UCL or Manchester University it is something else. Something that has struck me is just how little of the papers are primary research in upper atmospheric science, combustion thermodynamics, alternative fuels production etc, most of it is modelling emissions pathways to tell us we need to reduce emissions. I often feel like standing up and saying 'it's a good job you have discovered we need to reduce emissions, nobody knew'. I point the finger at an over reliance on some of the wealthy philanthropic organizations as there's a lot of chasing of the major grant disbursements on offer. That said, I find conferences in places like the Republic of Korea and Japan very different, those ones are much more focused on primary research and solutions development.

Reading your post I recalled seeing a program on TV a few years back where they were going round a RR engine manufacturing plant. When they got to the part of the plant where the turbine blades were manufactured they weren't allowed in because it was a trade secret. They did though give a rather generic description of the process - growing crystals if I recall, but it was fascinating to reveal some of the science needed.

 

I wonder whether the lack of 'basic' research is a reflection of the demise/reduction of the engineering base of some countries. It is notable that the two countries you cite, South Korea and Japan both still have sizeable engineering bases.

[jjb1970]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

In the news:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68381160

 

It includes this:

 

"Its owner, Drax, receives money from energy bill payers because the electricity produced from burning pellets is classified as renewable and treated as emission-free."

 

 

"In fact, the power station emits about 12 million tonnes of carbon a year, but under international rules the UK doesn't have to count these emissions.

All of the 6.5 million tonnes of wood pellets burned by Drax each year are produced overseas. Many come from Drax's 17 pellet plants in the US and Canada."

 

Huh?  And what about all the emissions generated by the ships transporting the pellets to the UK?

 

FFS.

 

The worlds of biofuels and biomass are not especially edifying. The ship emissions are probably the least of the concerns, there are multiple issues around biofuels in terms of both sustainability (land use change, potable water demand etc) and GHG emissions (depending on system boundaries some are worse than just burning oil). However there's a lot of money to be made from them. Even in industry a lot of companies are highly sceptical because of the risk of being named and shamed when that 'sustainable' fuel is outed as being palm oil grown on land which was cleared of rain forest and such like (despite having all the right certification).

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

I'll have you know that a Polybear Industries (China) Cake Safe has NEVER, EVER been broken into or stolen, despite holding the "Crown Jewels" of Cake.  Nuff Sed.....

How do you dispose of the severed fingers of those who have dared to invade your cake safe?😁

[DaveF]

I had hoped never to mention Mr. Hernia again but the after effects are causing some bladder problems so I go very little and too often.  This morning I'd had enough so I rang the surgery at 08.00,  I was number 8 in the queue.  By 08.07 I had been given a telephone appointment for this morning.  The GP rang me at 08.45 and went through my symptoms, thinks it is probably just a temporary problem but will come to my house this afternoon as he wants to examine me. It will probably around 14.00 as I can't drive yet and the friends who I can ask to give me lifts to the surgery are out today.   Last night there was a sudden sharp pain under a bruised bit of me, after that I felt a lot better.  Certain parts are still very big, bruised and colourful but so far today I've not needed painkillers - I wonder if that will last.

 

I had a poor night's sleep because of the problem above so am feeling a bit tired, I will have a quiet day yet again.  So it will be reading, TV etc and perhaps a walk once the GP has been and gone.

 

Apart from that all is fine, I feel almost back to normal and am doing a lot of little things in the house which do not need any lifting or straining.  I think it might have something to do with being 74 years old but mentally about 34.

 

David

 

[skipepsi]

1 minute ago, PhilJ W said:

How do you dispose of the severed fingers of those who have dared to invade your cake safe?😁

You haven't seen his finger bone necklace?

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Well, it's raining again, but that doesn't matter as I'm staying inside again today. Although I'll have to keep going to the workshop to cut the flooring regularly. Anyway, best getamoveon. 

 

Back later. 

 

Brian 

[polybear]

17 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

How do you dispose of the severed fingers of those who have dared to invade your cake safe?😁

With the rest of the body…..

[polybear]

BH…..

 

Dental Hygenist time 😱

Bye bye 1/3rd of a Deltic.  Oh Poo.

 

BG

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Not a bad night last night, more than six hours sleep despite a few interruptions from bladder control. Not a lot to do today except finish the dashcam installation. 

[PhilJ W]

3 minutes ago, polybear said:

With the rest of the body…..

Ah! Sweeney Todd's pies.😁

[PhilJ W]

On my car there is a flap* that opens up in the centre of the dashboard that seems to be ideal as a smartphone holder, however my friends young son has just discovered the sat nav on his smartphone and uses it at every opportunity so I just give him the address where I'm going. *Something to do with the in-car entertainment. 

Edited February 28 by PhilJ W

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, woodenhead said:

It does seem that many of us on ER all suffer with lack of sleep and it seems I am one of them.

 

Waking at least twice a night, one of them usually after a rather vivid dream that draws on memories of past failures and it takes some time to bring the mind back to peace and sleep.  Sometimes this will be joined with a need to visit the little room especially if I have partaken in a hot chocolate after 9pm the evening before.

 

Then lots of disturbed sleep, tossing and turning and generally annoying Mrs W for the remainder of the morning, until it's nearly time to get up when I am so comfy I aint arising for anyone.

 

Is this an age thing, once you are past mid fifties or am I not doing enough, I go to bed around 11pm each night and seem to drop off quite happily, it's later that the difficulties start.

I generally wake at least once a night to, pump the bilges ©NHN,  if it's before 06.00 I can usually get back to sleep.  I do have quite vivid dreams in that shorter sleep period.  For some peculiar reason I was at Schloss ID in a huge room with a mezzanine and boarded wooden ceiling.  I can't remember who I was with. 

 

As to getting g money from grants, there was once a series of grants for urban improvement on a estate that a prominent councillor represented.  I submitted a bid for a policing project using a team of 4 PC's and a Sergeant.  I even selected the officers, most of whom had family connections to the estate.  I went along to the meeting where we were questioned about our bids.  Most of the other bids were aski g for money for health, youth projects etc. The ones I heard all wanted money for a 6 month scoping study.  This would obviously have been done from their office.  I was asked how soon I could start.  I replied, how about 06.00 the day after tomorrow, I just need to tell the officers that their shifts have been changed.  Rather surprisingly I got all the money I asked for. 

 

Jamie