Andy Hayter

Fish definitions are always a minefield and not only in English* but my understanding of rock salmon is a member of the small shark family whereas hake is a member of the cod and haddock family.

* have had the same issues in German and French

Pretty sure it was the vitamin D rather than C and today of course as a source of Omega-3 oils - not sure that was recognised at the time.

32 minutes ago, pH said:

Results of a week of driving in the interior of BC, mostly on highways. 
 

 

The roads are treated with a salt/grit mixture. (I believe at lower temperatures they just use grit.)

Below -8C salt stops working - hence the switch to pure grit or alternatives

Put some boiling water in a container - about 2-3 inches worth.  Stand the container upside down un the water and with luck the cap will expand faster than the neck of the can and loosen the seal.

Got something similar when Lidl had a set of 3 for a good price.  2 sets and the current project is off the ground - with a modelling table to spare!

My sympathies Richard.

Having moved in the summer of 2008, I have only this autumn found my tray of Precision paints pre-grouping selection.   I think with care I ca3n still resurrect the majority.

Chapon (capon), pigs in blankets  with all the trimmings yesterday and Aberdeen Angus with Yorkshire pudding this evening.  Too full for plum pud* both nights.  

* and we do have

Agree

Enjoy

Then look forward to the drive back.  🤥

Well compared with some of the posts here our shopping for the festive period would seem to be something of an epic covering 160km (100 miles), 4 food stores and two days.

Yesterday a descent into the Rhone valley firstly to a large deli/greengrocer store for fruit and veg - better quality and choice than the local supermarkets.  Then on to the big super/hypermarket for a fresh capon, English cheeses to accompany the European ones from the deli, etc..  Followed then by the "little" supermarket for their Deluxe items and then back up the hill.  By this time I had had enough and we went home so this morning saw a trip down the hill to the local supermarket for locally sourced fresh items.

At least we should now be set until the New Year with the possible exception of fresh milk. 

6 hours ago, Dunalastair said:

 

If weight is the limit, then dense foam based boards might be better for standalone boards (and help avoid ricked backs), though edges (or at least corners) might need protection. A downside is that power feed droppers can be more difficult to arrange - grooves in the surface might work better. I'm not sure about joining multiple foam-based boards - any suggestions?

Wooden ends protruding below or out of the sides where bolts and or dowels can be used to hold tight and align.  This also acts as protection for the foam board.

5 hours ago, Philou said:

 

I don't suppose it will matter much as I shall be tucked up in bed at that time!

 

I never knew that the leap years affected the solstice - do they also affect the summer ones as well?

 

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

It won't affect me either but it can affect which of the two days will be the shorter.

Yes it can affect the longest day as well.

We mentally fix the solstices as 21st December and 21st June.  So we fix the occurrence of these events as being respectively every 365 days.  The Earth however goes around the sun in 365days and a tad under 6hours.   So the solstice (both of them) goes forward nearly 6 hours every year and can end up being on the day after the 21st.   Then along comes a leap year and resets the calendar with the astrological movements and we go back to the 21st being right again.  

My probably flawed logic says that the hours of daylight in the Northern hemisphere will be getting shorter until 04hrs whatever on the 22nd, so the amount of time for the daylight to lengthen compared to the 21st is reduced by those 4 hours so the 22nd will be the shorter.

No box for both.

In the past I have used cork underlay between the track and a ply base.  The current layout is built on expanded foam and further most of the track is buried to represent dockside track so an underlay to represent the built up track is pretty pointless.

Point of order:  The solstice is actually on the 22nd this year - curse of the leap year and all that.  It is at something like 04:20 CET so I am not sure whether the 21st or the 22nd is the shorter day. 

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Noted, but those on the top of the list nearly all have hydroelectric power. Also there are new technologies being tested such as tidal power. 

https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/how-tidal-range-and-tidal-stream-projects-could-play-a-key-role-in-uk-energy-mix-03-02-2023/

But given the hoo-ha over building a short bit of rail line between London and just north of Birmingham, can you not see the problems of flooding  valleys all over the country?   Some of the more obvious candidates in England (Yorkshire and Derbyshire dales) would rule themselves out by virtue of the limestone rock, which would provide massive leaks to any storage facility.

17 minutes ago, Porkscratching said:

But makes a fair point nonetheless 

Not here where fossil fuels accounted for 7% of electricity production in 2020

It did it again Tony and I have no idea why.  I assume my fat fingers are somehow hittung two keys at once.

The post has now been updated.

2 hours ago, Andy Hayter said:

 

 

The defence is one that I well understand many cannot get to grips with.  

 

Having worked with teams in the UK, France and Germany, it has been interesting to observe the differences in  the way that teams work.

Given a typical problem that the team are asked to find solutions to:

 

The UK team would get on with the task.  Difficult issues would be brought to me for adjudication or a group get together to try and resolve.

The French team would go away and work with the problem but would request regular meetings where progress 

Sorry for some reason my machine seems to post randomly when  the "a" key is pressed   The full post should have read in reply to just following orders.

The defence is one that I well understand many cannot get to grips with.  

Having worked with teams in the UK, France and Germany, it has been interesting to observe the differences in  the way that teams work.

Given a typical problem that the team are asked to find solutions to:

The UK team would get on with the task.  Difficult issues would be brought to me for adjudication or a group get together to try and resolve.

The French team would go away and work with the problem but would request regular meetings where progress would be discussed as well as ways forward.

The German teams would frequently ask first off if there was a work instruction.

Having rules and following them seems top be deeply embedded i n the psyche.  Not an excuse for what happened but perhaps an explanation.

4 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

  At the time the world still largely bought the post-war argument that the killers were not only just 'obeying orders'

The defence is one that I well understand many cannot get to grips with.  

Having worked with teams in the UK, France and Germany, it has been interesting to observe the differences in  the way that teams work.

Given a typical problem that the team are asked to find solutions to:

The UK team would get on with the task.  Difficult issues would be brought to me for adjudication or a group get together to try and resolve.

The French team would go away and work with the problem but would request regular meetings where progress 

All this talk of abstemious use of the airways makes me feel very guilty - albeit that the vast majority were done as part of my work.

I was once accosted in Frankfurt Airport by one of these folk doing surveys.  When we got to the question, how many air trips had I done in the last year, she was shocked when I answered about 50.  No, No.  Trips - there and back is just one trip.  Yes indeed I  replied and I haven't included the extra flights where I have had to change planes en-route because there is no direct flight. 

However, because these were all short haul and because of the routes meant I had to use different airlines (including low cost), I never accumulated a mass of air miles.

On 10/12/2023 at 22:38, 45125 said:

Those are lagged tanks so will be used for products which require to be kept warmish. Coming from Salted they could be Gas Oil, Methanol,  Isopropanol or Isopropyl Acetate.

 

Al Taylor

Gas Oil possibly but Methanol, Isopropyl Acetate and Isopropanol do not need to be kept warm.  Indeed due to their flammability it is preferable to keep them at ambient temperature.  Or perhaps lagged tanks were used to keep cold material below ambient temperatures.

We seem to have drifted a long way from the subject but as one who has left the UK over 25 years ago, something intrigues me.

After some tragic road accident or  major disturbance on the streets, there is often an appeal for dashcam footage.  I assume these devices are mounted looking out of the windscreen and as suggested by some are therefore illegal.  Could any of the resulting footage than be used in court if it has been obtained through illegal means?

Could we now get back on topic please.

There is a wide range of model plants available from Noch.  Not to everybody's taste but they may be of use

https://www.noch.com/plants-laser-cut-minis

The talk of ventilators reminds me that Robinson was a fan of forced ventilation - whatever that was.  The consequence being that many of his coaches had no window ventilators - look at the original Barhams versus the LNER modified ones.  I assume such changes meant that the forced ventilation was lacking in some respects.

I agree that Malay and Indonesian food deserves to be better known than it is but in the Netherlands you can find some good Indonesian restaurants and in the past PO North Sea Ferries used to have a good Rijsstafel - much better on the Dutch crewed boat than the UK crewed one.

9 hours ago, Andy Hayter said:

 

From day 1, reporting of Covid deaths has been an issue around the world.  The basic issue is that AFAIK not one single person has died from Covid.  They have however died from pulmonary failure, heart issues, organ failure and so on all exacerbated by Covid.  So if someone with breathing issues catches Covid and dies, was it Covid or the pre-existing condition?  An autopsy might help determine but given the daily death rates, how many autopsies were carried out.

 

And yes some countries have made political points by ensuring low reported rates.

Bad form to quote yourself, but I Think there has been some fairly widespread misunderstanding because I did not explain properly.

So lets go back 100 years.

An outbreak of flu started in1918.  It developed and started causing thousands of deaths.  It spread worldwide and ended up with millions dying in 1919 and 1920.  The estimates of those that died ranges from as little as 25million up to perhaps 100million.   Record keeping then was rather less good than today hence this wide range of fatalities.  Like Covid, one problem is that flu, in  itself, does not kill people, but those susceptible to a range of conditions when attacked by flu can find those conditions are exaggerated and can then lead to death.  This can include many conditions and people that had not been identified as being at any way as being at risk.

That situation of uncertainty of whether flu was or was not responsible for a death led to a statistical way of saying how many people died as a result of ( not - not from) flu.  The average rate of deaths over 5 years was taken, and anything above that was called "excess deaths" and these were largely attributed to flu.  Typical UK excess deaths (attributed to flu) in the UK would run at 5k to over 40k in recent years.  Some of that has to be attributable to the success of flu vaccination and would otherwise have been higher.  Do note though that this method identifies how many died as a result of flu but not whether that applies to an individual.

Then along came Covid and frankly the same issues apply.  Telling if an individual has died from Covid is difficult - often impossible - but without  doubt many died with Covid and of those many deaths would not have happened in the absence of Covid.  However at an individual level telling if an individual would/would not have had problems/survived is largely impossible with current techniques.  Hence today we can say that an individual died with Covid but largely cannot say that they died because of Covid.  Statistically however we can see the thousands that have died as a result of (but not directly from)  Covid.

Exactly the same