Early Risers.

[Dave Hunt]

11 hours ago, TheQ said:

Remember the car park yesterday..?

The local water company here has the sewage  problem in reverse...

the rivers and sea enter the system from above...

 

About 30 years ago I stood on the same spot as the people with the dog in the photograph when the water level was the same height. Ironically we were waiting to go out on a friend's boat but couldn't get to it until the tide receded.

 

Dave 

[TheQ]

BMWs yep again, this time a big 4x4, rounding the corner in the middle of the road with me coming the other way. It obvious a BMW driver thinks if there's no white line you drive down the middle on a blind corner...

 

Twas also slightly misty on the way to the MRC, how much muddling achieved? Nil

A committee meeting that ran on for ages...  Supposedly about our last show but mostly about website problems.. our site was written with software that's now obsolete and unobtainable, it's beginning to throw up errors....

 

Driving back fatchy pog, very dense fatchy pog, the road kept disappearing, worrying when there's a ditch either side of a single track road...

 

Choccy not yet gone 

 

Goodnight Awl.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Once again the weather has been glorious and I’ve had another productive day working on the workshop. All the windows now have got 2 coats of primer/undercoat and are now ready for top coating. This will be started on Thursday, as tomorrow Sheila and 8 are having a day out at Dunham Massey Hall, we haven’t /even there for years so now that the schools have reopened, there should be less kids about! 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[AndyID]

11 hours ago, The Lurker said:

There was another one around 80,000 years ago too - affecting all but sub-Saharan Africans, who have a greater genetic variation than the rest of us

 

The great thing about studies based on DNA variation is it's basically applied arithmetic. I suspect bookies would be pretty good at it 😀

[AndyID]

12 hours ago, PupCam said:

 

Excellent!

 

Took me back to my first days at work.      I could smell it!

 

Some people like to spend an arm and a leg on tube (valve) audio amplifiers. They claim their ears can detect the difference from solid-state amps. But I think it's their noses that are really detecting the difference. Valve amps emit a very distinctive aroma. It transports me right back to the sixties when I was the DJ at the discos we ran at our Scout hall 😆

 

I'd be surprised if someone isn't already selling "Valve Amp Aroma" in a spray can.

[Ozexpatriate]

5 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

We had our patio relaid with porcelain slabs

What is this magical porcelain that does not fracture easily? Normally when I think of porcelain (toilets, other bathroom fittings and tiles) they are quite susceptible to being struck (like with a hammer or a load of rocks).

 

Google did provide a lot of hits for porcelain pavers.

[Ozexpatriate]

I had never heard of RAAC before. I looked it up, but it does seem to be a (mostly) British thing. It wasn't in my civil engineering concrete class.

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I had never heard of RAAC before. I looked it up, but it does seem to be a (mostly) British thing. It wasn't in my civil engineering concrete class.

 

I had to google it too and had to search through mainly   hits for the Royal Australian Armoured Corps before I found anything about concrete!

 

It has some  limited  use  in Aust apparently  in the form of lightweight concrete cladding panels, rather than used structurally or for load-bearing walls.

Edited September 6, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[polybear]

5 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Some people like to spend an arm and a leg on tube (valve) audio amplifiers. They claim their ears can detect the difference from solid-state amps. But I think it's their noses that are really detecting the difference. Valve amps emit a very distinctive aroma. It transports me right back to the sixties when I was the DJ at the discos we ran at our Scout hall 😆

 

I'd be surprised if someone isn't already selling "Valve Amp Aroma" in a spray can.

 

I wonder if anyone is still manufacturing Valves anymore?  ISTR that Russia** is/was the place for Valves, but I'm guessing that's no longer an option for the West anymore.

 

** I believe the Ruskies favour them for use in certain Aircraft, such as long range Bombers as they are less prone/immune to the effects of a Nuclear Blast, whereas IC's etc. can get very upset by it all.

 

[jjb1970]

11 hours ago, polybear said:

 

On the subject of headaches.....

 

There was just a feature on the TV News about a guy that went to A&E with a very bad headache....

....and they told him it was because he had.....Appendicitis 😲 Something to do "referred pain" or summat.

So next day they whip his Appendix out, only to find there's n'owt wrong with it - and promptly discharge him.

The headaches continue, so he goes back - this time he's treated like a time waster and a Doc tells him it's because they'd found opiods in his blood and he's been doing drugs.

Er, perhaps it's cos' they'd given him pain relief when doing the Appendix?

He's kicked out again.

 

So this time he goes to a different Hospital and they diagnose - an inoperable Brain Tumour...

 

I don't recall over what timescales all this happened but it has meant that (a) treatment to prolong life has been delayed, and (b) he's had unnecessary surgery.

 

Unbelievable.

 

My father was told he had an ear infection and pretty much told to stop wasting his GPs time when he went back because it was getting worse. He had a terminal brain tumour. As it happens, earlier diagnosis almost certainly would not have altered the outcome, but the specialists who looked after him after it was finally diagnosed were horrified his GP just waved him off as they said his symptoms were classic indicators of a brain tumour. It was a family friend who was a theatre nurse in the local hospital that decided there was no way it was an ear infection and took matters into her own hands and called an ambulance out and had a doctor at the hospital look at him properly.

[Erichill16]

Morning All, 

Just having breakfast as I didn’t sleep very well and as a busy day ahead thought I may as well make an early start. Still a few things to do before we set off and ideally, with the dogs I want to to arrive before lunchtime as there’s no air conditioning in the van and it gets too hot.

Right, action!

 

[jjb1970]

On valve amplifiers a good engineer should be able to design one which matches a good solid state amplifier (at least for audible performance, if not measured), but a lot of audio enthusiasts want badly designed valve/tube amps because they want the distortion. I'm the first to admit that euphonic distortion can add to the sound in a good way (which is why electric guitar amps are so grungy) but I think that it should be captured at the performance and recording stage. Unfortunately the audio hobby can have some strange ideas and associates audio reproduction with art. 

 

My own view (others may differ) is that musical composition and performance is art. Recording and mastering is a mix of art and engineering as recording engineers need both musical sensibilities and a good understanding of recording and mastering technology to capture the performance. Audio reproduction is engineering, an amplifier should be the equivalent of a wire with gain, in theory it shouldn't add or take anything away other than the gain which is the whole function of an amplifier. In practice some equalisation (tone control) is necessary to compensate speakers for room effects but that's not the same as adding 'niceness' to recordings which is what euphonic distortion is supposed to do.

 

I used to be an avid audio enthusiast (and still listen to music more than I probably should) but I arrived at a conclusion that provided it was music and a performance I wanted to listen to then the next most important thing by far was how it was recorded, and after that using decent (not necessarily expensive) speakers and making the effort to set them up. Other than that I concluded the audio gear doesn't really matter as long as it works.

[AndyID]

1 minute ago, polybear said:

 

** I believe the Ruskies favour them for use in certain Aircraft, such as long range Bombers as they are less prone/immune to the effects of a Nuclear Blast, whereas IC's etc. can get very upset by it all.

 

 

 Probably a load of complete borlocks. It's all about induction.

 

Induction is the result of a change in a magnetic field (like a rotating magnet) "inducing" an electric current to flow in something conductive, like for example, a wire. (Which is how alternators work.) The length of the wire has a very great effect on the amount of "induction". (Just because you can't actually see it it doesn't mean it's FM) but the rate of change of the magnetic field has a lot to do with it too.

 

That pretty much describes ALL methods of transmitting radio energy anywhere including lightning strikes and EMP weapons.

 

EMP weapons (atomic bombs) produce gigantic and very rapid changes in the Earth's magnetic field (TBH I'm not sure why) and those changes are entirely capable of inducing sufficient sudden current changes in the rails of railway lines to buckle the carp out of them (a technical expression) but that's because the rails are long.

 

The interconnections in today's semiconductor chips are unbelievably short which means that it would require an unbelievably fast EMP event to actually damage them. (We know this because it's quite easy to simulate even more potentially destructive events with a simple static discharge gun.)

 

I could go on but I better not 😁

 

 

[polybear]

Bear here.....

Yesterday marked the completion of the Great Deep Clean Mission at Bear Towers - Huge Ticks Awarded and Bear rather pleased to see the back of it at long last; I even got really, really reckless and washed the net curtains - in the washing machine, no less (I had visions of them coming out of the machine with big holes in, but it seemed to work pretty well).  At some point soon (maybe today) I'll do the same with the curtains (fortunately there's only two pairs to do).

 

Postie failed to collect the Amazon return (the plastic storage box that was delivered damaged), which is a bit of a PITA 🤬; it's all well and good advertising a collection service but it's not so good when it doesn't happen.  Ar5ebadgers.  I'll take it to the P.O. myself, rather than have another day where I may have to wait in all day.

 

Today?  MIUABGAD methinks; it won't be anything too strenuous cos' it'll be 30C apparently - and more of the same until Sunday at least.  I do have a couple of mats that were made out of offcuts from the stair carpet remnants so I may well take them down to the carpet shop and get the edges whipped - I suspect that it'll be a case of dropping them off and collecting at a later date.

 

A Buddy phoned to ask if I'd heard anything about the Muddle Engineering Group and a restart date - I'm making enquiries at the moment but have heard nothing back as yet; it's very much a case of "No news is bad news at the moment, as there's things going on behind the scenes that will no doubt complicate things considerably - we're all pretty worried that it might not restart at all, but all we can

do is wait & see ☹️

 

BG

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Apparently there will be 3 deliveries to the house today.. woopppiiiiddddddoooooo!  One is from the Wine Society.. a much needed replen of red wine.

 

We still await any sort of communication from the insultants.. thisbis getting beyond a joke..

 

Mugatea time!

 

Baz

Edited September 6, 2023 by Barry O

[jamie92208]

7 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Some people like to spend an arm and a leg on tube (valve) audio amplifiers. They claim their ears can detect the difference from solid-state amps. But I think it's their noses that are really detecting the difference. Valve amps emit a very distinctive aroma. It transports me right back to the sixties when I was the DJ at the discos we ran at our Scout hall 😆

 

I'd be surprised if someone isn't already selling "Valve Amp Aroma" in a spray can.

I once suggested that someone should produce the aroma of a steam loco as a perfume, coal smoke, steam and hot oil.  It certainly is a very attractive smell for many men.  The females in the family didn't think I was on to a winner. 

 

 

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

I wonder if anyone is still manufacturing Valves anymore?  ISTR that Russia** is/was the place for Valves, but I'm guessing that's no longer an option for the West anymore.

 

** I believe the Ruskies favour them for use in certain Aircraft, such as long range Bombers as they are less prone/immune to the effects of a Nuclear Blast, whereas IC's etc. can get very upset by it all.

 

I believe that there is a shortage of valves.  The Long Wave transmitter at Droitwichis due to be shut down next year. Allegedly this is to to a lack of spare valves. 

 

Jamie

[polybear]

10 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

 Probably a load of complete borlocks. It's all about induction.

 

Induction is the result of a change in a magnetic field (like a rotating magnet) "inducing" an electric current to flow in something conductive, like for example, a wire. (Which is how alternators work.) The length of the wire has a very great effect on the amount of "induction". (Just because you can't actually see it it doesn't mean it's FM) but the rate of change of the magnetic field has a lot to do with it too.

 

That pretty much describes ALL methods of transmitting radio energy anywhere including lightning strikes and EMP weapons.

 

EMP weapons (atomic bombs) produce gigantic and very rapid changes in the Earth's magnetic field (TBH I'm not sure why) and those changes are entirely capable of inducing sufficient sudden current changes in the rails of railway lines to buckle the carp out of them (a technical expression) but that's because the rails are long.

 

The interconnections in today's semiconductor chips are unbelievably short which means that it would require an unbelievably fast EMP event to actually damage them. (We know this because it's quite easy to simulate even more potentially destructive events with a simple static discharge gun.)

 

I could go on but I better not 😁

 

 

 

Bear once worked in a facility that specialised in squirting Radar RF (amongst other sources) at various aircraft (very accurately - such as targeting a particular avionics bay); I witnessed one event where the engines of a Tornado went throttle-up unexpectedly and for no reason, causing the guy in the front seat to wake up quickly and throttle back.  ISTR they couldn't repeat the episode though.

 

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a still warm Charente.  Yesterday young Emily started school.  Where has the last 4 years gone.  She looked adorable in her uniform.  Apparently the teacher survived the event unscathed.  I did remove some jungle in the morning before it got too warm.  Some visitors came to collect something and we ended up running things in the shed.  Lunch last night was mussels.  Yummy. 

 

Various admins type thi gs to do this morning then some work on Beth's burthday surprise while she is out. 

 

Ttfn. 

 

Jamie

[TheQ]

A aircraft iirc a Buccaneer flew over RAF Locking many years ago and there was an undemanded opening of the bomb bay doors. It was thought to be caused by the fact Locking had several radars for training without aerials. The radar horns pointed straight up "for safety"

 

I know the AI 24 radars in the front of DH's Tornados had vast amounts of work put into them for EMP protection. There was a test bay lined with transmitted power protection, so as well as testing the radar itself , it could be tested against things being transmitted against it.

 

Mooring Awl,

A better night's sleep of 5 hours plus 1.5 hours of reasonably solid sleep.

 

Still fisty and moggy out there, visibility down to one to two hundred yards, this means the grass is very wet... 16c at the moment

The national seaweed inspectors say the temperature drops by the weekend. My favourite weather website says for here it goes up by the weekend to 31C 

 

Ben I'd sort of like to go out Collie enjoyed his patrol, though he had nothing to chase. Disneyland scattered soon as I opened the door..

 

I forgot to get fuel for the mower, so I can only do a small bit of the jungle today. Must put the cans in the Landrover, might go out and gets some, if I can't find enough dregs..

 

I've had an explanation of why according to my calculations we had 133.333333333333333333etc visitors, for the last hour of the show they had discounted the entry price !! So the sums just didn't add up.

 

Time to go make a muggacoffee and breaky for SWMBO.

 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by TheQ

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Still warm here too and a very sunny, dry and hot day is promised.  18°C now and 32°C is possible.

After breakfast I will head for The Shed until lunchtime or it gets too hot down there.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[TheQ]

There is at least 1 manufacturer of electronic valves in the UK

https://brimaruk.com/valves/brimar-tube-range/ the most common ones of course.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

A bright, sunny and cloudless start to the day here in the northwest corner of England. The temperature is currently 14C and is expected to reach 27C later on. As I mentioned last night, we are going to Dunham Massey Hall today, we’ve never been in the hall itself, the last time we went the hall had only just been opened to the public, but was closed on the day we went. So we’re going to make a day of it by first talking a walk around the grounds and garden, then having some dinner. Then taking a walk around the house in the afternoon. 
 

Back later. 
 

Brian

[grandadbob]

Oh dear me, Bobby is in the doghouse.  Took The Boss up a muggatea earlier and a little while later there was a scream and a loud shout "There's a gigantic spider in my tea!"  Gigantic in this case was actually about a 50mm leg span when I hooked it out.  It is unfortunately now an ex-spider.  Must have been in the mug when I stuck a teabag in it and I didn't notice.

Not sure how long it will take to regain the lost Brownie points.  Anyone would think I did it on purpose.  I wouldn't do that to a spider! 😂

Edited September 6, 2023 by grandadbob