Early Risers.

[Happy Hippo]

 

Also as we know, as we get ever more decrepit, that 90% of anything technological or coming in the future we were taught at school, has turned out to be carp, I can remember being taught every home would have it's own tiny nuclear reactor producing all the energy we would need, nearly for free...

You mean you don't have yours yet?

 

I'd complain to your local energy supplier!

 

On a more serious note, as someone who worked in a D&T department at a local secondary school, I would concur with your comments about the lack of practicality, at least during my time at the school.

 

For example:

 

A food technology project was to make a sandwich and design a box for the sandwich to be presented in.

 

The kids spent more time a*sing around being told to design interesting shapes and patterns for the boxes, than they did looking at the nutritional factors.

 

Everything was about design.

 

Being a bolshie old git, I raised this with the county D&T adviser, who told me it was to stretch their minds.

 

I pointed out that if he really wanted to stretch their minds, then he ought to look at the engineering processes required to make a machine capable of producing the sort of boxes they had in mind.

 

Fortunately he and I got on very well together as I was his 'floating tech' who would often go to other schools in the area to fix broken machines, which was a lot quicker than the official repair system that was in place.

 

I also had a very lucrative side line ((brownie points) in machining pine and ply into kits of boxes for the year 12 pupils to make and take home!

 

I'm sure their parents must have been so proud of their offsprings obvious ability to match Ikea's prowess with flatpack with mere hand tools!

[shortliner]

For those interested in useless stuff, the there used to be distinct divisions as to whom dealt with what in the exotic world of bomb disposal.

 

The Navy dealt with anything below the low water mark such as torpedoes, mines etc.

The RE did anything above the high water mark, usually uxb.

The RAOC (now RLC) handled ammunition and the IED threat.

The RAF dealt with expended fireworks.

 

However it's a bit less insular these days as the team dealing with this incident proves, as it is a joint RE/RLC disposal unit.

 

The procedure used to be to uncover the fuse housing and remove the fuse.  If that was not possible then the bomb was 'steamed' to melt the high explosive and thus remove it from the casing, rendering the bomb harmless.

 

The old fashioned method of removing the fuse was rather fraught with difficulty and risk.

 

The more up to date method it to fit an extractor driven by a, wait for it............................

 

0.50" blank round!

 

When fired it removes the fuse faster than the fuse  can activate.

 

A small bang to prevent a big bang.

 

A lot of these bombs were manufactured using slave labour, so it it perhaps not surprising at the number of duds, as a little bit of poor manufacture was the only way these people could do their bit and so help sabotage the Nazi war effort.

On the Range here in Northern Scotland we frequently got called out to look at found items  - one was a very rusty tube about 2 or 3 feet long, and about 2½"/3" round (I had a photo but can't find it) - both ends closed and a weld mark around the middle  (which dated from WW2 as we found out later) found on a local beach by a tourist, that I had driven about 10 miles back to camp in the back of a land-rover!. - the bang was bloody loud!!! The RAF BDO was not amused at all, and I got a right b0110cking! 

Moral of the story - if you find something on a beach and you aren't certain what it is - leave it alone and report it - better safe than sorry! Things are still appearing, 70+ years later

Edited March 3, 2017 by shortliner

[BSW01]

I'm there on Saturday as guest operator on Towcester. Quite looking forward to playing with someone else's trainset.

 

Cheers,

Mick

I'll drop by and say hello, not sure what time that'll be though. Edited March 3, 2017 by BSW01

[Ian Abel]

POETS arrives, works for me I hope.

 

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I don't find getting old as onerous as some, maybe because I'm still working and still feel generally pretty good.

Quiet day and a home cooked meal with the Mrs. We have more celebrations over the weekend, tonight with friends and same for Sunday. Gone are the days of wild parties

 

Had a brief struggle with JMRI after dinner, whilst I like the project overall, some of it is sadly lacking in any form of sensible explanatory documentation <sigh>

 

The local legislature have finalized our Sunday liquor sales, agreeing on the last sticking point, so the hours will be 11AM-6PM on Sundays. Scheduled to start July 2nd. <hic>

 

The wildly roller-coaster weather is on the downward track again, -9 and partly sunny this AM, high to reach only ZERO today but back up to 15 by Sunday!!

 

Planning for sure a POE as I will visit our local wine purveyor to obtain the necessaries for both tonight and Sunday.

Hope those attending the various train shows have a good time, I'm envious, as I'd love to attend and spend some birthday cash  ...

Edited March 3, 2017 by Ian Abel

[AndyID]

That is what I expected Baz but my point was that I have not worn them day in day out in that period. The tread is still good. The concern was that the material between the external surface of the sole and the leather fabric of the shoe is granulating/breaking down and the soles are being destroyed from within.

Its not a hole in the sole allowing the insides to become affected.

Whilst 9 years is a lengthy term the uppers are in good condition as I would have expected them to be.

There was 1 hole in the sole 2 months ago and now both soles have been badly eroded away.

This might explain it.

https://www.polymersolutions.com/blog/why-does-rubber-dry-rot/

[iL Dottore]

Rick, my condolences.

iD

[Happy Hippo]

On the Range here in Northern Scotland we frequently got called out to look at found items  - one was a very rusty tube about 2 or 3 feet long, and about 2½"/3" round (I had a photo but can't find it) - both ends closed and a weld mark around the middle  (which dated from WW2 as we found out later) found on a local beach by a tourist, that I had driven about 10 miles back to camp in the back of a land-rover!. - the bang was bloody loud!!! The RAF BDO was not amused at all, and I got a right b0110cking! 

Moral of the story - if you find something on a beach and you aren't certain what it is - leave it alone and report it - better safe than sorry! Things are still appearing, 70+ years later

From the descrition it sounds like a Bangalore torpedo.

 

Slid under wire obstructions and then detonated to destroy the wire and create a passage through.

 

They also had a secondary use of tending to set off any AP mines that were in the immediate vicinity.

 

Finding one on a beach, especially where troops may have been either training for commando ops (lots of such took place in Scotland during WWII) or any beach assault on the run op to Overlord would not be unusual, although they are getting less likely to be found now.

 

As is usual with these objects, it's not the explosive that is the problem, but the degradation of the detonation system which as they age is more likely to be unstable thus making it more likely to go off.

 

I never used to like dealing with blind grenades. Very unpredictable, especially the one which went off as we approached it after we had waited the requisite safety time, after which is was deemed safe to deal with.

 

Still, it saved mucking around with making a shaped charge out of the lump of PE4 we had.

 

Come to think of it how about making a model building out of such, the way one would use and then scribe DAS clay?

Edited March 3, 2017 by Happy Hippo

[Donw]

The trouble with Interpretational comes when you are expected to agree with the teacher's (or some official) interpretation. People should be encouraged to learn to think for themselves. How to marshal arguments and draw conclusions are valuable skills. Learning about the nature of materials and how they can be modified by tools and which tools to use can also be valuable. I seem to remember little of this was covered in school. I do find using a bit of basic trigonometry comes in useful for building work calculus rather less so.  I used analysis and logic quite a lot in IT work again not specifically covered in school. My Grandfather taught me a lot about tools woodworking and building, my father was very good at logic. Cooking I suppose I must have learnt quite a bit from watching Mun and Gran in the kitchen but on joining the scouts I had as part of the team to cook a roast chicken dinner on a camp fire and although the youngest had more idea than the others apart from the patrol leader.

Don 

[The Lurker]

Didn't Ted Hughes anonymously sit and fail an English Lit A level which majored on the interpretation of his own work. He described what it was he was thinking and feeling when he wrote the poems, but this was not what the official answer was so he failed? source - Mrs Lurker so it must be true

[Ozexpatriate]

History

Meanwhile swmbo has been delving in to the curriculum for GCSE options; she read social history for one of her degrees so took an especial interest in the History topics.

 

These are: Henry VIII, Crime and Punishment, WWII and the Cold War (1941-1991). 

When I was at school A Level History ended 52 years previously - in 1914 - and that still strikes me as a reasonable distance in time to have allowed for some rational reflection and the emergence of some well argued, and hopefully not wholly convergent, lines of thought and writing.

And of course as a dose of reality 52 years ago was 1965, so the Malayan emergency and Johnson's escalation of the war in Vietnam were in scope, and the Six Day War almost but not quite makes the window. 

 

In the mid 80s when I did History I think we were taught up to beginning of WW2 at O level and then I think a bit of post war history was taught. At degree level it mainly ended with death of Tamerlane (1405) but then that was my choice. I did do some more modern East Asian history (1840 onwards).

I had no idea what we teach here at Derby so I thought I had better check.

 

Details here (open the folder 'What you will cover')   http://www.derby.ac.uk/history-courses/history-ba-hons/   some examples below to show the range of subjects covered

 

Renaissance and Enlightenment: Europe, 1453-1789

 

Behind Closed Doors: Gender and Sex, 1685-1870

 

France: Conflict and Society, 1940-1962

 

Yugoslavia and After: 1980 to the present

 

Not much about the Roman Empire or the Dark Ages . . . .  !

And even less about the country they are living in, I also notice much of it is "interpretational" ie the effects on society with less on what actually happened... 

 

Whilst I applaud the efforts at what they can do with machinery, that would be taught by a company wanting them to use it in the future, as every equipment is different. I still worry that they are left with no practicality around the home where they will spend up to 128 hours out of 168  a week. 

 

MInd you, We had no careers training or being a boy no cooking, sewing or anything else useful like that.

 

Also as we know, as we get ever more decrepit, that 90% of anything technological or coming in the future we were taught at school, has turned out to be carp, I can remember being taught every home would have it's own tiny nuclear reactor producing all the energy we would need, nearly for free..

An interesting conversation gents. It raises the question of what is the purpose of teaching history?

 

Personally I believe that the first priority is to teach critical thinking. Then almost any history anywhere can be examined. Students will learn that humans then behaved like humans now - except for those that have learned the lessons of the past.

 

What I don't like is doctrinal history that glorifies a particular tradition. Personally I feel lucky in that regard based on my formative years. In addition to units on topics like classical antiquity and the second world war, my high school education included a large dose of Australian history. Covering Australian history you just can't avoid the glaring fact of the convict period. There's no way to polish that up into the great and glorious past and I think that encourages a more objective approach to other histories.

 

The teaching of history is a contentious topic in the US. It turns out that the State of Texas is a huge consumer of text books The publishers of text books prefer not to absorb the cost of making different text books for different states. This gives the Texas board of education an unusually large influence. In recent years that board has complained about liberalizing influences that introduced women and people of colour into the curriculum and have wanted to reinstate a history composed entirely of dead white men.

 

Lest I get on my soap box, I'll close with my continued bewilderment that American history, as taught to Americans begins, with 1620 (the New Plymouth colony, which in my opinion is mostly irrelevant given that it was subsumed by the Puritan colony in Boston a scant ten years later) and then leaps without irony to 1775. So much of what makes the US culture what it is happened in the intervening century and a half. It is rarely covered here, perhaps because it is too "English".

 

A thin tissue around patriotic propaganda is not the way to teach history (in my opinion).

 

If we're lucky we'll get a break from the intermittent rain today, but by the look of the sky, not the overcast.  More rain tomorrow.

Edited March 3, 2017 by Ozexpatriate

[Tony_S]

All the practical subject skills I learned at school are very useful as at least I know I am misusing a tool or that it was silly to place my hand where I did before screwing it to a fence. It isn't ignorance in my case, it is well informed carelessness.

My father was quite happy to let us use his tools and shed but he would be disappointed if we didn't tidy up or misused a tool.

I just taught myself to cook. It didn't seem difficult. Though I had been doing simple meals at home for years during the holidays when parents were at work. My younger brother was somewhat critical.

Tony

Edited March 3, 2017 by Tony_S

[PeterBB]

Interesting education topics.  On a personal note I think that all youngsters should be taught to read, spell, write and add and subtract.  Once they have the basic skills they can then use them appropriately thereafter in critical thinking and its application.  The basic skills are a primary school responsibility not late secondary and FE.  It's fine that children can play, an important part of their learning to think and work out scenarios, and do this and that but to have to teach teenagers how to write both actually and in proper sentences on courses leading to professional qualifications where some form of report  writing will be part and parcel at FE time  ... well.  I have to admit that D&T did not exist at my school - we were not expected to have to do woodwork, metalwork and of course there were no computers, mobile telephones but we did have log tables to assist calculation.

 

So what do I think now?  Well more of the best of todays youngsters are academically far better than we were but what we have gained with 'technology' we have lost the qualities that made good engineers and society seems more like 'take as much as you can but give as little as you can to get it'. Rant over.

Edited March 3, 2017 by PeterBB

[jamie92208]

It's funny what we use from our education.  I've used Trig quite a lot in modelling and other bits of work. Algebra and geometry as well.   French is now coming in very useful and Latin, though I dropped it before O level, has been very useful in Spanish speaking countries.   The less said about my university career the better as I had too good a time and didn't complete my Chemical Engineering degree.  However what I learned was enough one night when we had  an explosion at a chemical plant that contained phosgene.  I was the duty Inspector and attended to be met by the duty manager, who was the finance director, who told me that hydrogen didn't explode.  I used my policing skills to have a quiet chat with a rather shaken plant operator and had worked out what had happened in 5 minutes.   I submitted a rather strongly worded report to the local emergency planning office about the company and it's staff.  

 

Anyway I hope that the UXB is extracted safely.

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

After the introduction of National Curriculum, GCSE history became quite interesting. More about analysis than learning dates of Kings and Queens.

Some of the people who were responsible for such things did try to make it more British or their interpretation of British recently. I think the main proponent of this has gone back to being a journalist.

Tony

[Gwiwer]

My mother Grace, my sister Ros and myself wish to thank most sincerely all ERs who have offered messages of condolence and support after yesterday, both in the topic and privately.

 

So many people have commented that Dad seemed to hang on until I was there and it has been something Sharon has also said many times in recent weeks as time ticked away for him and towards our visit. It kept me going. Yesterday affirmed all of those thoughts as I had barely an hour with Dad before he passed. He was unable to speak but responded with slight changes in his very weak grip of my hand. He acknowledged the news that Sharon and myself have returned to live in London. And he acknowledged my thanks for all he has done for me and for the family over 60 years.

 

Cause of death is recorded as colonic cancer. Old age would also have played a part.

 

At this stage I am quite at peace and calm with everything. My mum and sister live minutes apart and are supporting each other though so far neither has suffered any great distress. We have, after all, had some months to prepare and this was not at all unexpected.

 

I shall take a short break from RMweb over the next few days because much has to be done both to finalise our new home and to arrange a farewell which does justice to a long life which has not always been easy nor happy but throughout which the character of the man, his determination and his love shone above all adversity and misfortune. He would have given his last penny to see his family happy if that is what it took. And I owe so much of who I am to his guidance, discipline, patience, knowledge and love for his fellows.

 

Thank you one and all

 

RIP Dad. You've earned it.

[Horsetan]

....society seems more like 'take as much as you can but give as little as you can to get it'....

Sounds like the world of RTR.....

[lightengine]

I wonder if the London UXB will be explained in the US as "Have you seen what happened in Europe yesterday? The Germans bombed the British."

 

Geometry since school, I used it with a group of year 7's at Rochester castle as they had to find how tall it was.

[AndyID]

You can take a horse to water......

 

Recently I spent a considerable amount of time working on (though I say it myself ) a brilliant method of making diesel locomotives more efficient, particularly those that have to climb over mountain ranges. The idea is to take a supply of liquid nitrogen in the train and use it to recover waste heat from the diesel engines and use the super-heated nitrogen gas to drive a gas turbine coupled to a generator. When the turbine isn't required to assist the locomotives (e.g. while descending), braking energy is used to liquefy and store atmospheric nitrogen. Essentially, the liquid nitrogen is acting as a energy storage medium - a sort of battery.

 

Now for the horse bit: If I had been paying more attention when they were trying to teach me Thermodynamics I might not have cocked-up the calculations and realized a lot sooner that the system would require an awful lot more liquid nitrogen than I originally thought. Doh!

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

POETS day was achieved, getting home just before 2:00pm lots done so that should keep my manager happy.

 

It being Friday, once again we had No1 son, his daughter and our daughters 3 youngest were here for tea, pizza had been the request and they really went done well.

 

Like 1 or 2 others I too learned to cook when I was in the scouts. But I also learned a lot watching my Mum and my Gran in the kitchen. After our parents separated, we lived with my Mums parents for a while. But I think I honed my skills when I lived on my own in my late teens, back then it was either cook or starve, but on a Friday evening I treated myself to fish and chips. I usually had time to put my washing in the machine, call into the chippy, pop back to my flat to eat tea, then return to the laundrette just in time to get my washing out of the machine!

 

I went to a secondary modern school, where I learned to use tools in both the woodwork and metalwork lessons. When I started my apprenticeship we all learned the basics of hand tools, but I was well ahead of those who went to a school that didn't teach metalwork. As a 16 year old, I took great delight in showing off, as I was the only one who filed a radius correctly on a piece of square bar, the trainers face was a picture!

 

It seems to me that kids today are not taught manual skills that they can use in the big world, instead are taught how to pass exams, what bloody use is that, if they don't understand what they are learning? Mind you, there are not the manufacturing jobs that were about when I was 16!

 

The grandkids have now all gone home, so that must make it wine o'clock, hic!

[PhilJ W]

Now that using a handheld phone in a car whilst driving is £200 and 6 points(and quite right too!) I'm not sure of the legality of this in UK - but on the basis that it may prevent a fine and loss of licence, I offer it for consideration - BTW a great firm to deal with.  http://www.banggood.com/2-in-1-Universal-Magnetic-Stand-Suction-Cup-Car-Air-Outlet-Holder-Mount-for-iPhone-Samsung-Xiaomi-HTC-p-1103535.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc_elc&utm_campaign=Capp-RM3-Holder1&utm_content=vivian&utm_design=35&gclid=CK2XrdLKutICFW0A0wodiCsJDQ

I'm not sure that that would be completely legal, by 'hands free' I think they mean something like Bluetooth. Not that the tougher penalties seem to be making much difference. I saw at least five people using phones while driving today, and that was on a shopping trip of less than 5 miles. The only way to stop people using mobiles whilst driving would be to have even stiffer penalties, including an automatic ban. On the subject of selfish drivers the item in the news today about the number of fines for car drivers using bus lanes amused me. Most reports followed a 'hard done by drivers' line, tough, if you break the law you should expect the consequences. 

[Happy Hippo]

I see the formal AAIB report into the Shoreham air crash has now been published.

 

For those who are interested it can be accessed here:

 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/58b9247740f0b67ec80000fc/AAR_1-2017_G-BXFI.pdf

 

These reports never directly apportion blame, but it is interesting to see that the display organisers, the maintenance organisation for the aircraft and the CAA are all seen to be lacking in certain procedural aspects which contributed to the aircraft being airborne when it shouldn't have been!

[Tony_S]

I frequently get drivers making rude gestures to me when I drive in the bus lanes in Benfleet. I don't feel guilty though, they aren't actually bus lanes at the time I drive in them.

Tony

Edited March 3, 2017 by Tony_S

[Happy Hippo]

I'm not sure that that would be completely legal, by 'hands free' I think they mean something like Bluetooth. Not that the tougher penalties seem to be making much difference. I saw at least five people using phones while driving today, and that was on a shopping trip of less than 5 miles. The only way to stop people using mobiles whilst driving would be to have even stiffer penalties, including an automatic ban. On the subject of selfish drivers the item in the news today about the number of fines for car drivers using bus lanes amused me. Most reports followed a 'hard done by drivers' line, tough, if you break the law you should expect the consequences. 

There is nothing wrong with using one of these mounts, as long as you are not poking and prodding at it.  As Phil says, the interpretation of hands free does appear to be the bluetooth system.  A lot of drivers already use this type of mount for their smart phones as it enables them to use the Google Maps system (probably others are available) instead of a satnav system.

But if you start with 'gerfingerpoken' of the device whilst in motion, I suspect you would still be pulled over and fined.

 

Also please remember that as from 01 Mar 17, it is an offence to have such a phone or satnav unit stuck to the windscreen within the swept zone of the windscreen wipers.

Edited March 3, 2017 by Happy Hippo

[Happy Hippo]

I frequently get drivers making rude gestures to me when I drive in the bus lanes in Benfleet. I don't feel guilty though, they aren't actually bus lanes at the time I drive in them.

Tony

I got stopped by the police whilst instructing a pupil in the use of bus lanes in Wolverhampton.

 

Talk about a look of glee on her face when she swaggered up to the car to book me.

 

So I directed her to observe the nearby data plate recording the times of operation.

 

She didn't even come back to apologize,  but was too busy slinking away trying not to look like a prat.

Edited March 3, 2017 by Happy Hippo

[edcayton]

My mother Grace, my sister Ros and myself wish to thank most sincerely all ERs who have offered messages of condolence and support after yesterday, both in the topic and privately.

 

So many people have commented that Dad seemed to hang on until I was there and it has been something Sharon has also said many times in recent weeks as time ticked away for him and towards our visit. It kept me going. Yesterday affirmed all of those thoughts as I had barely an hour with Dad before he passed. He was unable to speak but responded with slight changes in his very weak grip of my hand. He acknowledged the news that Sharon and myself have returned to live in London. And he acknowledged my thanks for all he has done for me and for the family over 60 years.

 

Cause of death is recorded as colonic cancer. Old age would also have played a part.

 

At this stage I am quite at peace and calm with everything. My mum and sister live minutes apart and are supporting each other though so far neither has suffered any great distress. We have, after all, had some months to prepare and this was not at all unexpected.

 

I shall take a short break from RMweb over the next few days because much has to be done both to finalise our new home and to arrange a farewell which does justice to a long life which has not always been easy nor happy but throughout which the character of the man, his determination and his love shone above all adversity and misfortune. He would have given his last penny to see his family happy if that is what it took. And I owe so much of who I am to his guidance, discipline, patience, knowledge and love for his fellows.

 

Thank you one and all

 

RIP Dad. You've earned it.

 

Rick, that was beautifully put. I am so glad for you that he waited for you. My friend's Dad also waited for her brother to come home from Oz, although he went back soon after. Don't be a stranger to your Mum and sister, they are going to need you.

 

I am going to miss your thoughtful contributions to ERs for a while, but fully understand your reasons. I wish you well and look forward to your return. Wish Sharon all the best in the new job.

 

Cheers

 

Ed