jjb1970

I remember the RV Triton which was built to trial a catamaran future frigate concept. At the time there was a lot of advocacy that the T23 replacement should be a multi-hull, the problem was that as with the 'short fat' advocates those promoting it stressed the virtues without also considering whether those virtues were necessary in a sub-hunter or compatible with the fundamental performance need of a sub-hunter (to be quiet and provide a good sonar platform/towed array carrier). The BMT penta form seemed to evolve from all the work they did on multi-hull combatant concepts which led to Triton.

I was once told by an environmentalist that plastic bottles and card 'tetrapak' type packaging for liquids should be banned and replaced by glass bottles as glass is biodegradable. She started screaming at me as I asked if she'd ever watched stuff like time team or visited a museum and saw the ancient glass ware they discover after hundreds of years in the ground? og yes. OK, it's a good job it was biodegradable. I also remember the quite splendid energy supply contracts we had when I worked in electricity for glass works, it's a pretty energy intensive process to make glass.

The Trump case will be a nightmare for jury selection and the judge will be walking on eggshells in terms of the potential for a mistral given his notoriety, the strong emotions he invokes and some of the media/commentariat stuff around it all.

On a lot of cars white is now a 'premium' colour. It became very popular, and as it did so the manufacturers did the honourable thing and made it expensive. I've had a couple of white cars and like it as a colour (though it depends on model, like any colour).

No idea what this is.

One of thoe old faithful MOL vehicle carriers entering Tanjong Pagar today and turning around to go alongside Stbd side to.

For comparison, an LNG tanker with membrane tanks.

An LNG tanker with Moss tanks (the big spherical things), I like these. Most modern LNG tankers use membrane tanks which are just big rectangular boxes so the ships look more normal.

In Britain the speed limits are generally 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 or 70 depending on road. What is called 'national speed limit' is 60 or 70 on a dual carriageway or motorway. The annoying ones are roads where the speed limit is all over the place, it'll be 60, then 50, then 40, then 60 then a few miles on 50 again and so on. A lot of roads are generally 60 out of town but drop to 30 when going through villages or small towns. Another issue with arbitrary speed limits is they can be woefully inappropriate for a given road. Cumbria has loads of 60mph roads for which I'd say 40 is pushing what is safe let alone 60 given the geometry, narrow surface and limited visibility ahead. A problem on many British A roads is they're quite twisty so often it's difficult to get a safe overtaking space, and drivers tend to think they're a lot better than they actually are which can lead to some pretty stupid over taking manoeuvres. Ultimately, speed limits are statutory, so whether or not they make sense is moot in the eyes of the law. In my last car, an Audi A6, I found 60 - 70 the sweet spot. Dropping below 60 didn't make that much difference at steady speed until dropping right down (30 - 40 constant) while going above 70 )...ahem....not that I did such a thing) saw fuel use start to go up significantly. So quite aside from the legal argument I found cruising at 70 on the motorway (where 70 is achievable......) was the best balance of journey time and cost as well as not having to worry about speed cameras etc.

Something commuting on the A595 really highlighted to me was the pointlessness of speeding. I sat at either 60 or behind whoever was ahead as fuel use spiralled up above 60 and unless the vehicle ahead was really really slow overtaking happened in slow motion (the disadvantage of a 1.0lt engine geared for urban performance). I would see the usual suspects driving at crazy speeds and in the evenings the Evo/STi/hot hatch organ donor fraternity and as often a not after overtaking me and disappearing into the distance I would see the same cars a few vehicles ahead at traffic lights in Carlisle. Use way more fuel, risk your license (the A595 was a favourite for mobile speed cameras) and ultimately it doesn't even get you there much quicker.

They're often my favourite bit when I bother to visit such sites, the entertainment value can be splendid. The thing I find interesting/amusing is just how many comments conform with the stereotypes for their readers.

The thing that has always put me off many NA outline O gauge models is the pilot arrangement where it is often part of the bogie. Some models look pretty decent then I notice that and it just destroys the illusion a model tries to create. Atlas O was much better, or the likes of Overland if you have deeper pockets however that segment always seems to be on the fringes as the market prefers the Lionel style of model.

The arguments for catamaran designs are nothing like as clear cut as advocates insist, it's down to use case which makes more sense.

I remember the Ballantyne proposal, which was sort of reminiscent of the Thornycroft Giles short fat frigate thing of the 80's which smells might remember.

Many years ago I bought a s/h Daihatsu Charade as a cheap car to commute between Carlisle and Sellafield. Oh how everyone laughed and derided it. Yes it was a tiny metal box with a tiny engine, but it cost peanuts to buy, cost peanuts to run and sat at 60mph on the A595 very happily. And despite the laughter it had air-con and a decent stereo. Around town it was surprisingly sprites as the gear ratios were well set up for that environment, albeit at the expense of highway performance. Which was eminently sensible for such a car.

When VW bought Lamborghini I suspect it resulted in better cars and higher quality, but they also seemed to lose the over the top bonkersness and flair that made them so attractive.

When it comes to legal disputes details matter. Was the order with a UK company or a Canadian one? Might be worth going to trading standards for advice, and considering whether the sum involved is worth the stress. Sometimes it's better to take these things as a learning experience and move on, though I have a character flaw that the amount is less important to me than pursuing these things, call me a hypocrite for counselling caution while having a different attitude if it happens to me. However, delays are just a part of model railways. Maybe they shouldn't be and we can whinge about it to the end of time but it is what it is. I like the way Bachmann do it, they were one of the worst for delays but now announce when models are en route. Much better IMO.

Just had a good humoured and enjoyable argument about pho. A local friend is a purist and is adamant that the noodles must be cooked separately and added to the broth, otherwise it colours the broth which should be clear. My view is that while this is true, there's so much flavour in the broth that while cooking the noodles in it is not correct and does colour it I consider it an acceptable deviation. Although I will happily eat either way of doing it.

Israel's calculation has been that the ruling families and political establishments of the Middle East value the financial and trade benefits associated with good relations with the US and normalising relations with Israel much more than any emotional feelings about Palestine. They tend to see the Arab world as sharing their own views about Palestinian people. I think that's a pretty accurate assessment for the Royal families (Qatar may be different) and was validated by the Abraham accords under Trump. The danger is that royal families and political establishments aren't necessarily representative of the general population. Regardless of the benefits of maintaining good relationships with the US and Israel at some point the risk of being butchered by a mob or fleeing into exile and living as washed out has beens will come to the fore. I think the elastic is being stretched to breaking point on how far they can go in offering rhetoric to appease their own people while accepting what is going on with the intent of returning to business as usual after a decent interval.

Looking at this (I've never really thought about it too much) I wonder if the problem for EBay is intermediaries using some sort of aggregator software to effectively list Yahoo items as a buyer to sell onto a third buyer? I hope that makes sense. So they in effect list other peoples listings, and add a percentage. Looking at some of the listings I can see on both sites, on Yahoo they're listed by people with a normal number of listings, some appear to be private sales and almost all the sellers are primarily selling model trains or at least models. The listings on EBay are sellers with in some cases 10'000's of listings for absolutely anything and everything. The issue there is mark up. If you use a Japanese buying service such as Buyee their charge is small, for Buyee is is 300 yen and I go for a 500 yen service to check the items prior to shipping on to me which is the princely sum of S$7-8 or about £5 which is trivial. Those doing it on EBay are doubling prices.

I think there are two probable alternatives: We're seeing something choreographed to allow Iran to satisfy 'honour' after Israel launched an air strike against a diplomatic post killing 13(?) Iranians including senior military officers; or We're seeing the escalation many have been terrified of since October 7th in which case the world is about to go bat **** mad. I guess we'll get an idea for which it is in the coming hours. My fear with the former is that regardless of negotiations beforehand (there's been a lot of chitter chat about backdoor talks between Iran and the US on what would constitute an acceptable response) once this starts rational thought leaves the room. A bit problem with the idea of game theory for example is it assumes rational thought by state actors and ignores all other influencing factors and the importance of political pressure. In the latter we risk a conflagration which will make the war in Ukraine look like a minor inconvenience as pressure on neighbouring Arab states risks boiling over. This is genuinely scary.

On the corrosive effects of soft drinks, coca cola was quite effective in softening the crud that built up around o-rings in some systems, making it a lot easier to open stuff up. Pour a couple of cans of coke in, have a break and hey presto, much easier to pull apart.

My advice is to ditch chicken breast and go for thighs, much better flavour. Chicken karaage, deep fried chicken thighs, is tremendous.

Off to my favourite Vietnamese place for lunch, I hesitate to say this but I suspect even Uncle Roger would approve of their pho.

Next week is shipping week here, a monumental junket (or rather series of junkets over the week) which will see 100's (perhaps 1000's) fly around the world to do some 'networking' and no doubt make a lot of presentations about the importance of emitting less. At the risk of sounding cynical, I'd guess 90%+ of the 'networking' will be people having the same conversations with the same people they see at all of these events and will achieve nothing. I'm trying to avoid but unfortunately can't fully avoid. I know this is highly hypocritical as I fly a ridiculous number of miles, but I do try and limit my excursions to things like IMO meetings which do have a real purpose and which need in-person interaction to work, I really try to avoid flying and travelling for junket type stuff as aside from the obvious point about the hypocrisy of preaching about emissions while flying around the world for no real purpose I fly enough to have zero interest in adding more flights (and I say that as a keen airliner enthusiast).