bimble

11 hours ago, manna said:

G'Day Folks

It's not just children who make that mistake, if we're working out in the public it's a quiet day if we're not asked if we're taking photos at least three times a day. Or what the TV show it's for. And at one school the kids decided we must of been making a music video...

Of course, the newer machines can also take a photo of what you're taking a shot of, so you could be taking a photo...

Two most excellent dudes get a tutor to revise for a history exam

well, there is a branch on the Western leg, that branches off the HS2 mainline into Manchester at Knutsford, and rejoins the West Coast up near Wigan. If the call for direct trains north from Manchester is there, it would probably be easier to have a link there to allow trains to head to Scotland. Certainly cheaper than several miles of tunnelling under Manchester to have it as a through station.

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

 

Whether or not that comment was tongue-in-cheek, and I think it wan't, I personally would rather take a needle in the arm once (when available) than support an ever-active app which shared any of my information with others and has the potential to expect that I will lock myself away for two weeks.  Other opinions may be available.  

1) it wouldn't be sharing information with others, only letting you know that you may have come into contact with someone who's tested positive and that you should consider getting yourself tested (unless you mean the NHS, who already have your entire medical background on record)

2) now we have testing available you can be shown to not have COVID19, so wouldn't need to self-isolate for 14 days.

But otherwise I agree, a vaccine is by far and away the best option, and anti-vaxxers are the reason why people are still dying of things like measles... "oh, most people recover..."

When they had that mini-outbreak associated with a cluster of nightclubs in South Korea, they were able to get in touch with ~36,000 people inside of 24hrs to let them know that they might have come into contact and that they should get tested.

This is the advantage of a smartphone based app has, unlike the trace & contact, if you come close to someone you don't know the app is aware and if one of you records a positive test it can let you know that you should be checked. But someone calling and asking that person who've they seen, they wouldn't know to give your contacts, so you'll never know.

The government complaining that phones couldn't tell the difference between 1m and the phone in the pocket, and 3m and the phone out in the open really shouldn't matter. I'd rather accept that I might have been slightly too far away to have actually have a high chance of catching something and being tested, than having no idea because the person I was queuing next to didn't have contact details for me. 

On 05/06/2020 at 22:31, StevieD71 said:

I've been to the Steam Whistle brewery and done the tour. It is indeed a top notch pilsner.

Same, and it's in the same roundhouse as the Toronto Railway Museum, and there's a rideable miniature railway there as well...

1 hour ago, lmsforever said:

Pity we couldnt make the tunnel machines in the UK ?

Do we even have a tunnel boring machine company in the UK?? Herrenknecht machines are used around the world, including Crossrail.

Using this down time to go through some old photos and came across a few from a job at Old Oak Common back in Jan 2010

57603 Tintagel Castle

57604 Pendennis Castle

and in the shop, 57605 Totnes Castle

sorting through some old photos in this down time and came across a couple of 08483 "Dusty" from a job we did at Old Oak Common at the start of 2010

tis a prime (minister) example of when you preach social distancing, to actually practice social distancing... let's hope that this helps  get the message to the idiots that are still using the lovely weather we're having to mingle...

23 hours ago, ejstubbs said:

Reports from friends locally suggest that the newly quiet suburban roads are being taken advantage of by certain impatient/arrogant/antisocial folks, who would in normal times regard themselves as being "held up" by other traffic, to treat speed limits with even less respect than usual.

Well, I've seen a few speed traps out this week, so I look forward to those toerags also coming across them!

I popped into my local brewery (Hogs Back) to stock up on a few essentials just in case...

11 minutes ago, Zomboid said:

If they're prepared to claim Worcestershire Parkway is in Worcester, then claiming that OOC is a form of London (given the easy Crossrail connection and Zone 2 or 3 location it wouldn't be a ridiculous claim) wouldn't be out of the question and would actually reduce the headline journey time. Paddington itself is nowhere near anything that you'd want to go to in London anyway...

 

We have 'London Oxford Airport', and that time in 2006 when RyanAir was offering flights from Oslo to London Prestwick... compared to them, OOC is certainly London... after all, it's well inside the M25!

for when there's that bug in the electrics that you just can't chase down...

On 23/02/2020 at 20:39, PhilJ W said:

Captions please.

Like. A. Glove!

1 hour ago, Silver Sidelines said:

There are no technical obstructions to construction, only the cost.

I very much doubt that is the case... unless you're just suggesting that if you're willing to throw enough money at it anything can be done...

SWR are putting a 50mph restriction between 1100 and 1900 and recommending travelling on the Sat or Mon instead.

In non-motorway complaining, I have been annoyed today by people turning right into a side road, but only half pulling into the lane provided for turning right, and therefore blocking the main carriageway until they are able to cross the oncoming traffic

32 minutes ago, melmerby said:

It's not sparks per se but Theoretically the radio waves from the phones can cause problems that could start a fire.

That's utter nonsense.

What it seems mostly likely is that in countries where people can start the pump going, then get back in the car to get out of the cold (such as the US), the driver would get out to put the pump back and due to a build up of static cause a spark when they earthed themselves. Right next to the open petrol cap. Boom.

Petroleum Equipment Institute - Stop Static Campaign

I do think an important point was the change in the distance between safety laybys, if there is one close by you might be tempted to try to make it. But if there's no sign of somewhere "safe" to stop you might well be tempted to come to a stop. Then you're relying on the people come up behind you to notice that you've stopped.

I am more of a fan of the other smart motorway design with the smart hardshoulder, though I disagree with the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps when he says they're too confusing for drivers. If you can't understand the difference between "Use Hardshoulder" and "Hardshoulder for emergency use only" you probably shouldn't be driving.

most of our equipment dates back to when there was only GPS and GLONASS, so we just shortened it to GNSS because there just weren't all the options that there are these days. With the others now available we probably should differentiate... though we probably won't as most of our gear only collects data from GPS/GLONASS and not also Galileo & BeiDou

7 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

 

Very probsbly, but I was referring to the RAF providing lifting capacity for French troops in Mali. 

 

Speaking of which, I see that three British born astronauts (one Dual National, and two naturalised American citizens) have flown with NASA, only one with ESA. Tim Peake, the ESA astronaut is a vocal and high-profile advocate of the EU project, which is understandable. 

 

 

Don't forget our first, Cosmonaut Helen Sharman, who went up in a joint British/Soviet mission.

48 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

 

I’ve heard other reports of this sort. The situation is complex, but I think it likely that the EU intends to exclude GPS based systems and switch to Galileo. Galileo is open-access, free to all users (funded by the EU taxpayer) and there is an obvious commercial incentive for a European manufacturer to adopt it. 

 

The EU is threatening to exclude UK from Galileo, UK is taking legal advice about reclaiming its investment, so it all goes. Personally I’d rather have GPS, it works much better than Galileo, but as with many things about Brexit, reason and function aren’t in the driving seat. 

 

Most things will use multiple systems, We make use of GPS, Galileo and GNSS at work.

And it's not Galileo per se that we would be losing access to, but the military grade encrypted signals that were developed for EU members (we chose to leave the club after paying our money) that Galileo would be providing. We could still use it to position ourselves.

2 hours ago, Flittersnoop said:

A tunnel under the centre of Birmingham. If we are clever enough to build Crossrail under central London, avoiding all the tube lines, sewers, etc, then a tunnel under Brum must be possible, to take trains on towards where lots of people actually live, like the Black Country, the South West and Wales, and make HS2 what people on here seem to think would be A Good Thing, i.e. part of the national rail network.

Perhaps you should go read the Crossrail thread to see how well that is going... delayed and over budget...

in theory people in lane one shouldn't be travelling so close together that a car can't slip in between them... especially if they've managed to get up to speed on the slip road. Merging requires space.