The Night Mail

[Hroth]

14 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

It would appear that I only converted 9.5 wagons to steel links last night and not ten.

 

Don't ask me how I found out

 

One end parted under load?

 

[Happy Hippo]

Just now, Hroth said:

 

One end parted under load?

 

Nothing so exotic: I forgot to bring the shunting pole fitted with a brass magnet.

[Happy Hippo]

I have come to the conclusion that the combined brainpower of the 'furious because the BBC....'

 

Is less than than a raw Chicken Nugget. 

 

[Hroth]

6 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I have come to the conclusion that the combined brainpower of the 'furious because the BBC....'

 

Is less than than a raw Chicken Nugget. 

 

 

More damaging to the public health too?

 

[Dave Hunt]

20 hours ago, pH said:

We used to live next to the church in an English village. In a thunderstorm one evening, lightning hit the church spire, maybe 25 yards from the front door of our house. As you say, that sort of thing is inclined to make you sit up and take notice. The stone cone on top of the spire was moved about a foot sideways after that.

 

When I was living in the mess at RAF  Valley in 1967, my room was next to a small sort of courtyard where during a thunderstorm one night a lightning strike hit. The bang was unbelievably loud, sounding like a bomb going off and it cracked a window in my room as well as breaking one next door.

 

Dave  

[Dave Hunt]

10 hours ago, PupCam said:

 

And in recent years the "Small & Medium Enterprise"  companies have been seen by "customers" as the solution to all their woes created by those big, allegedly evil traditional companies like the GE.    It is of course complete folly and, just like cars, in many cases there's no substitute for cc's.      Of course, both the "all big" and "all small" philosophies are clearly and demonstrably too simplistic and flawed.  It's just another bandwagon jumped on by organisations clutching  at straws because they haven't really got a grip.    

 

In the last 10-15 years of my working life I was involved quite heavily with a very wide variety of SMEs many of whom were remarkable, innovative and one in particular (no names, no pact drill) punched far, far above it's weight achieved by some exceedingly good and novel work, more front than Sainsburys and helped no end by a humongous wedge of "the old boys network".    Whilst many SMEs are very (so called) agile and innovative operators, many actually lack the wider experience and background knowledge that is essential to operate in a heavily controlled and regulated traditional environment dictated by the customer's overall requirements.     I'm sure @polybear, @Barry O, @Dave Hunt and no doubt others will recognise those wider requirements to which I refer.

 

One size NEVER fits all .....

 

One SME I had dealings with made a significant part of the Tornado F3 weapons system and when I was part of the weapons & tactics standards and training unit we used to visit them fairly often to suggest modifications, look at their suggested updates etc. They were always ready and eager to listen to what we had to say and their responses were invariably sensible and co-operative as well as usually quick without being sketchy or ill considered. They did have the advantage of employing several ex-service engineers and front-line operators that contributed to the the essential wider experience and background knowledge that Puppers refers to but I would imagine that was more by judgement than luck.

 

Dave 

[pH]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

"Beans Beans are good for your Heart...the more you eat the more you f@rt"

 

That was the tune when Bear was a Cub.

 

 

 

Beans, beans the magical fruit - the more you eat, the more you toot.

[Dave Hunt]

Cabbage is good

Pickled eggs better 

But beans on toast

Makes you fart the most

 

Dave

Edited July 11, 2023 by Dave Hunt

[SM42]

The middle school I attended was built around a  small central quadrangle ( I never did work out how you got in there) 

 

This was laid to a garden with a weather station in the middle 

 

Ironically the weather station  was struck by lightning one weekend. 

 

The white paint was a little scorched.

 

Had it been during the school day, I'm sure there would have been more than a few drops emitted from the inmates 

 

Andy

Edited July 11, 2023 by SM42

[Dave Hunt]

My entry for the 'Most Ba**saching Job in Railway Modelling' is doing the flooring for a 4ft 6in x 2ft 6in loco shed. Currently day four, no sign of scurvy, crew still in good spirits.

 

Goodnight/morning /day according to your global position.

 

Dave

[Hroth]

Lightning is often referred to as an "Act of God".

 

I have often wondered why church towers and spires are fitted with them as a quick chat with the head man by the incumbent should surely prevent lightning strikes.

 

I suppose its the godless insurance companies that insist they be fitted, or insurance premiums will be higher...

 

[Compound2632]

24 minutes ago, Hroth said:

I have often wondered why church towers and spires are fitted with them as a quick chat with the head man by the incumbent should surely prevent lightning strikes.

 

The wise understand the relationship between reason and revelation...

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

My entry for the 'Most Ba**saching Job in Railway Modelling' is doing the flooring for a 4ft 6in x 2ft 6in loco shed. Currently day four, no sign of scurvy, crew still in good spirits.

 

Goodnight/morning /day according to your global position.

 

Dave

When an army officer gets a building commissioned, he specifies that the contractor starts with the floor.

 

When an air force officer gets a building  commissioned, he specifies the contractor starts with the sky.

 

And since you have to build from bottom up, the contractor has put the sky down first and then built up around it.

[Darlington_Shed]

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Currently day four, no sign of scurvy, crew still in good spirits

 

You need to increase the flogging, Dave. Everyone knows a productive crew is founded on regular flogging*

 

* This may be untrue but is the basis of management in every organisation I've ever worked in.

[AndyID]

An entertaining essipode today.

 

I thought I better get more of the welding rods I'm using to make the railings for the deck. I bought some at the big farm store in town last week (a pretty amazing place BTW) but I thought I might get them for less at the local welding stuff store. That turned out to be a bust. The assistant tried to tell me there was no such thing. In fairness they are a bit unusual because they are only 1/16th inch diameter. So, back to the farm store, except I could not find IDSPIDY's keyless ignition thingy.

 

I knew it wasn't far away because I was able to start her (turned out to be in the pocket of my jeans all the time but it was vertical and at the back of the pocket). Anyway, in the process of hunting for it I found a "NEWS STAFF" pass for a certain Sue Kelley at at TV Station in Salt Lake City. It was down between the driver's seat and the drive-shaft hump.

 

In retrospect it's just as well I found it. The pic on the pass shows a rather attractive young lady. Had Lorna found it before me the consequences might have been a bit unpleasant. It must have been there for a while. I bought the car at Salt Lake four years ago.

 

The aforementioned Ms Kelley is now a DJ a rock radio station at Salt Lake. I've sent an email. As they say, Stay Tuned 😄

[AndyID]

Too good to miss.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/asked-ai-europeans-think-americans-201700212.html

[iL Dottore]

9 hours ago, pgcroc said:

On Beans

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12286693/No-proof-ultra-processed-foods-definitely-bad-Governments-dietary-advisers-say.html

 

So all the Bean lovers are safe!

Errr, not quite!

 

Reading through the article with a professional eye. I noted a number of statements that are best translated as “it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, but we’re NOT going to commit ourselves to saying it IS a duck”. There is an abundance of data - from large well controlled longitudinal studies to case histories - that clearly indicates UHPF really aren’t good for you.

 

A few things do ring true - notably that matters are complicated (in the UK and elsewhere) by an unfit, unhealthy population whose tobacco and alcohol use and sedentary life styles contribute significantly to the overall (avoidable) disease burden.

 

Finally, another confounding factor is the make up of the review board. Even the most best intentioned and neutral observer will carry with him/her some innate bias, which will colour is/her interpretation of the data. For example, having @Dave Hunt on a committee to evaluate the possibility of resurrecting, the GWR, or having @Happy Hippo on a task force to evaluate increasing RAF funding would mean that the conclusions of said committees/task forces would need to be carefully scrutinised and not taken at face value.
 

Fortunately, in the scientific and medical world, committees and task forces are usually big enough and independent enough to contain a wide range of perspectives leading to conclusions being made by consensus.

[jamie92208]

6 hours ago, Hroth said:

Lightning is often referred to as an "Act of God".

 

I have often wondered why church towers and spires are fitted with them as a quick chat with the head man by the incumbent should surely prevent lightning strikes.

 

I suppose its the godless insurance companies that insist they be fitted, or insurance premiums will be higher...

 

Many years ago my father was on a committee that was trying to close small and uneconomic Methodist chapels.  One of them was built near the first Emley Moor TV mast.  The mast was cable stayed and one winter a large icicle came off on of the cables and removed a lot of the chapel roof.  This was classed as an Act of God.  The elders of the chapel had the temerity to have the chapel rebuilt.  My father's comments were priceless.  As an aside the mast fell down not long afterwards and was rebuilt in concrete without guy wires 

5 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

When an army officer gets a building commissioned, he specifies that the contractor starts with the floor.

 

When an air force officer gets a building  commissioned, he specifies the contractor starts with the sky.

 

And since you have to build from bottom up, the contractor has put the sky down first and then built up around it.

Quite what have you been smoking Richard?. 

 

Jamir

[AndyID]

51 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Quite what have you been smoking Richard?

 

 I don't think hippos smoke much but I understand smoked hippo is yummy.

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

Many years ago my father was on a committee that was trying to close small and uneconomic Methodist chapels.  One of them was built near the first Emley Moor TV mast.  The mast was cable stayed and one winter a large icicle came off on of the cables and removed a lot of the chapel roof.  This was classed as an Act of God.  The elders of the chapel had the temerity to have the chapel rebuilt.  My father's comments were priceless.  As an aside the mast fell down not long afterwards and was rebuilt in concrete without guy wires 

Quite what have you been smoking Richard?. 

 

Jamir

Well I thought it was obvious.

 

DH is having a real problem with the floor of a small shed if the time he is taking to put it down is anything to go by.

 

When you realise he is trying to glue the floorboards to the sky, so has nothing to grip to, you can understand his frustration.

 

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Finally, another confounding factor is the make up of the review board. Even the most best intentioned and neutral observer will carry with him/her some innate bias, which will colour is/her interpretation of the data. For example, having @Dave Hunt on a committee to evaluate the possibility of resurrecting, the GWR, or having @Happy Hippo on a task force to evaluate increasing RAF funding would mean that the conclusions of said committees/task forces would need to be carefully scrutinised and not taken at face value.
 

Fortunately, in the scientific and medical world, committees and task forces are usually big enough and independent enough to contain a wide range of perspectives leading to conclusions being made by consensus.

I'm sure that my right honourable colleague who wore light blue would immediately have seen the benefit of such a resurrection.  A fully autonomous railway with it's own infrastructure, a superb in house manufacturing capability and the ability to increase or decrease the capacity of trains to meet fluctuating demands might also be a winner with Joe Public. Apparently Joe is sick to the back teeth of overcrowded trains that are either late or breakdown.  Services that are just cancelled with no explanation, and having a disjointed series of franchise operators who if stood in a barrel would have difficulty in peeing in the corner.

 

Likewise, if the ugly obnoxious brown job were to carry out a review on the  funding of the RAF, then the first thing that would have been addressed was the Government's ignorance on what is known as capability gap.

 

P3 Orions would have been bought in as a stop gap to replace the failed Nimrod rebuild until a suitable replacement was sourced.  The Harrier fleet would not have been thrown on the scrapheap to massage the Royal Navy's ego (and finances) when they wanted two aircraft carriers  The C130H would have soldiered on in service until it's proven capability was matched and exceeded by the A400M Atlas which has replaced it in service.

 

Then having  excited all the fighter jocks with promises of many more shiny new toys to play with, which would see an expansion of RAF front line fighter squadrons, the Army would be given the entire support helicopter fleet.

Edited July 12, 2023 by Happy Hippo

[polybear]

3 hours ago, AndyID said:

Anyway, in the process of hunting for it I found a "NEWS STAFF" pass for a certain Sue Kelley at at TV Station in Salt Lake City. It was down between the driver's seat and the drive-shaft hump.

 

In retrospect it's just as well I found it. The pic on the pass shows a rather attractive young lady. Had Lorna found it before me the consequences might have been a bit unpleasant. It must have been there for a while. I bought the car at Salt Lake four years ago.

 

The aforementioned Ms Kelley is now a DJ a rock radio station at Salt Lake. I've sent an email. As they say, Stay Tuned 😄

 

Bear has just Googled Ms. Kelley.

WOW......

[newbryford]

6 hours ago, AndyID said:

Too good to miss.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/asked-ai-europeans-think-americans-201700212.html

 

 I know I previously mentioned about my bucket list of trying to visit as many US states as I can.

West Virginia is on that list, but not too sure if I want to go there after seeing that......

[Happy Hippo]

26 minutes ago, newbryford said:

 

 I know I previously mentioned about my bucket list of trying to visit as many US states as I can.

West Virginia is on that list, but not too sure if I want to go there after seeing that......

David Cameron has allegedly booked a flight to West Virginia on receipt of Andy's post.

[PhilJ W]

8 hours ago, AndyID said:

Too good to miss.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/asked-ai-europeans-think-americans-201700212.html

I wonder if there is a similar article of what Americans think of Europeans.

[newbryford]

16 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I wonder if there is a similar article of what Americans think of Europeans.

 

Americans think?

 

😀