John Harris

They have a new website. jh

Apparently there is a shortage for small orders as the big building companies have bought up stocks in bulk, according to my neighbour who is a self-employed plasterer. jch

My neighbour is a plasterer, he was paying three times the 'pre Covid-19' price for sacks of plaster. He usually works for local builders renovating empty houses, so happily works alone in the property. On one job, he was loading an unused sack of plaster into his van and another van stopped and the driver offered him £10 over what he paid for the sack. jch

I am reminded of those 'converters' that someone used to sell in Exchange & Mart, designed to make old B&W TVs look like the (then new) Colour sets, basically they had a blue tinge at the top and green tinge at the bottom. Any software to automatically convert B&W photos must either be a 'state of the art' artificial intelligence that can work out what the subject is and what colour it should be OR makes inspired guesses, the results are "colour", but not always the right colours. Imagine a locomotive like "Flying Scotsman" that has been in several colours over the years, unless the software can know the date of the photo how can it get things right. jch

Track matters? Does any manufacturer offer correct "period" track for the Hornby Rocket in 16.5mm gauge? While my Rocket runs nicely on standard Hornby track, I intend to display it most of the time and it would be nice to have the correct track. I also have an "Adler" and a couple of coaches, which will make a nice companion piece, but again some suitable track would be welcome. It would be nice if there was running track in the right configuration, but a yard (or metre) of the right design would be great. Thanks in advance jh

You don't mention the age or models, but new (19 reg onwards) Fiestas and all the latest Focuses (Focii?) have key-fobs that shutdown after around 30 secs if they stop moving (or strictly being moved), so once you go indoors and put the keys down the scallies with the range extenders cannot use them to open the cars without a key or forcing it. For recent Fords there is also the option of opening with the Ford Pass app on a smartphone, I assume that would have worked as it uses Wi-Fi signals. As my late Dad (who worked at Ford for 40+ years) would have said, "too clever by half". The slightly more sinister explanation is that someone was actively trying to capture the signals when you experienced the issues. jh

Those who visits WHSmiths to read magazines, I've encountered blokes sitting on the floor reading mags, is the one exception to my opposition to the death penalty. jh

This lot would know. jh

"Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave, When First We Practice to Deceive!"

The science jh

I understand that particular quote is referring to written works, so someone cannot write a story containing Daleks (owned by Terry Nation's estate) or a book with Thomas the Tank Engine in it, without obtaining the appropriate permissions. jh

I don't see any risk at all. To quote from the BL site :- "As an exception to British copyright law, fair dealing is governed by Sections 29 and 30 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, which outlines three instance where fair dealing is a legitimate defence: If the use is for the purposes of research or private study; If it is used for the purposes of criticism, review or quotation; Where it is utilised for the purposes of reporting current events (this does not apply to photographs)" If anyone has an example of legal actions as a result of posting an old photo on the internet, I'd be interested to know of it. Obviously, as I said, it's really up to the person posting and if they are comfortable with posting, but realistically do you think every picture posted on these forums has the express permission of the copyright holder? jh

My other interests include military modelling and like railway modelling there are numerous photos regularly posted on forums and Facebook. There is a concept of 'fair use' within copyright law, there is a detailed explanation on the British Library site, but in short (to quote) "It’s a framework designed to allow the lawful use or reproduction of work without having to seek permission from the copyright owner(s) or creator(s) or infringing their interest.". Obviously it's ultimately up to you, but I personally feel that posting to forums such as this or Facebook can legitimately be regarded as 'research', some people explain this by captioning the photo "Copyright Unknown, reproduced for research purposes" (or something to that effect). I know in military research the same photo often appears in several museum's collection, so the copyright is contentious anyway. Obviously, you can't print off copies of the Athena poster of the girl playing tennis scratching her bum, but putting a photo of a locomotive on a forum falls within the 'research' remit. jh

Having seen a few reviews this looks like a decent EV, sadly there are no plans to export it, though as the Chinese home market is so large I can understand why the priority is there. A review here It is interesting, though I suppose unsurprising, that XPeng actually have a Tesla on hand at the presentation to potential customers. By the way, Tesla might have a UK factory soon too, judging locally they are selling well. jh

Sadly, I suspect such vehicles are years away. Several companies have cars with self-driving systems that could achieve what you want, but (you knew there was a but coming), I don't think any could cope with safely sharing the road with human drivers. If you have an idle moment, go to YouTube and search for 'driver fails', you will be presented with numerous dashcam videos of drivers doing such irrational things that no computer could cope, other than slowing to 5mph 'just in case'. jh

I can remember Pocher car kits in the 60s, but the range grew in the 70s & 80s. Even then, though I thought they were attractive models, they seemed so big that a collection was impractical. That said, I'm sure the older kits (and cars) would sell well enough these days. Back in the day there was quite a cottage industry of extra detailing parts for these kits. jh

Pocher are actually part of the Hornby Empire now, though oddly they only do modern 'supercars' nowadays and motorcycles. jh

Some people have a lot more Lego too.

There is a thriving "L Gauge" community with the AFOL (Adult Fans Of Lego). Most display their extensive layouts at Lego shows. Some samples of the models, sorry about the fuzzy Mallard! jh

The furore about contract tracing is mildly amusing. The NHS and local authorities already do contract tracing for TB and certain STIs, all perfectly efficiently and without some fancy app. Of course, there might be more cases of Covid-19, but unless the person in question has been to see a few known individuals some sort of app is required, saying they went on the No.25 bus or the 8:35pm train from town is not much help. jh

Does any one make figures of protestors to suit? jh

I guess that the discovery of the tombs of other pharaohs were not as well documented as that of "King Tut", who managed to find his way into popular culture. Obviously in 1939/40 much of the world had other concerns. It's never really been covered in a documentary, but given the amount of goods in these tombs through to building the pyramids, the economy of Egypt must have been dedicated to the production of grave goods. We are told that in the UK manufacturing has declined to be replaced by service industries, it occurs to me that the death of a pharaoh was greeted with relief by the manufacturing industry of the time. jh

The answer to your question is no, there was another last night, the USP being that this one used colourised and cleaned-up versions of the photos and films. Last night's also mentioned the narrow gauge railway (on temporary track) used to clear the excavated spoil in tipper trucks. They also used the "railway" to shift the boxed-up finds to the Nile, though the limited amount of track meant that the sections had to be raised / laid along the route. I think the interest in the subject is because there is an exhibition touring the world, I visited it at the Saatchi Gallery in December. jh

It depends where it was originally published, in the news media it's just laziness. The sub-editor wants a picture of earth works, so grabs the first picture with yellow things digging a cutting, we should be thankful it was in the UK. jh

In the "dim & distant", I guess the 60s & 70s, the Ilford Model Railway club show was Friday/Sat/Sun in the old Ilford Town Hall (I say, old but I've not been to the area for a while so it might still be) on the High Street. The show was in November, so it always seemed to be inclement weather. I remember a large scale tram layout in front of the stage every year, but that's the only layout I recall (perhaps I was too short to see the others!). I remember a local shop called "Page's" had a stand every year. jh