Early Risers.

[BSW01]

When I started work at the Steel Works, the steel making department was close but still there. It was slowly being dismantled and land sold off. In one corner of the lower ground floor of the steel plant was a stationary steam engine. A lot of items were sold for scrap and they were hoping to sell the steam engine, but they couldn’t get it out, so they gave up and it got buried! It’s under the car park of Bowlers Indoor Cricket Centre. 

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

they had the festive goodies on display, including STOLEN!

I am a big fan of Christstollen / Weihnachtsstollen. And Panettone. etc. Sadly forbidden these days. Old Panettone makes excellent French Toast. (The stuff packaged for the holidays is already 'old' by bread standards by the time you get it home anyway.)

 

It would make excellent bread or bread-and-butter pudding too.

[PupCam]

 

17 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

The stuff that makes bangs is ordnance as in Ordnance Survey. The maps were originally for accurate artillery fire should someone naughty like the French invade. Though I suppose some religious ordinances could be a bit noisy. 

 

56 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Funny old thing the English language.  

 

Shame I never got the hang of it ! 🤣

 

[Tony_S]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

And whilst the British government is fretting about what pronouns to use

I really don’t think they are. They have plenty of stuff to keep,them busy at the moment. If someone does make a statement about how people can choose to be referred to as, or are not permitted to be so, it seems to generate lots of critical stuff on those newspapers who want everything to be as they imagined it to be in Queen Victoria’s time. 

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

a blue Volkswagen Golf allegedly travelling 280km/h

He must have been pushing that hard - and from the photograph it looks uphill.

[Tony_S]

18 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I am a big fan of Christstollen / Weihnachtsstollen. And Panettone. etc. Sadly forbidden these days. Old Panettone makes excellent French Toast. (The stuff packaged for the holidays is already 'old' by bread standards by the time you get it home anyway.)

 

It would make excellent bread or bread-and-butter pudding too.

We made a pannetone in our bread machine once. It tasted ok, but was loaf shaped. It did make nice toast too. 

[Tony_S]

2 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

He must have been pushing that hard - and from the photograph it looks uphill.

My old Astra went better/faster up a slight incline. It didn’t have the sophisticated traction control my Evoque has!  

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

I have learned today why we use the term "heavy rain".  It was falling so violently and heavily at 6am that it actually hurt my (covered) head.  Some of the most aggressive rainfall I have known in these lands though in places Downunder it can be very much worse and last for longer.  

What Texans would call a "frog choker".

 

They get rain that is at least the equal of what I have experienced in the subtropical antipodes. I remember crossing a quiet street (no waiting for traffic) in Austin from my hotel to a restaurant. Completely saturated in the space of perhaps 30m.

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

... he'd  have had to leave his car there and either walk back to town from the middle of nowhere, or wait about 2 hours for a mate to get there and pick him up.

I would have thought the friendly and accommodating NSW Police would have immediately given him a lift - to their local establishment where he would get one telephone call to have his mate to pick him up, for a fee.

 

Edited November 8, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[zarniwhoop]

21 hours ago, zarniwhoop said:

FWIW, I'm now suspecting that the infernal bluetooth (aka "eats battery charge") might have been turned off although I'd selected an option over the weekend that claimed to turn it on - some suggestions it needs to be on when the sensor is initialized, and that alarms for loss of signal require it. Currently running with bluetooth on and alarm for low reading set, but alarm for loss of signal turned off. Not sure if that will work (currently nowhere near a low reading).

Charged it up before bedtime, took a reading to determine what, if anything, to eat. Turned on low alarm.  Came back some while later, red indication (that normally means it is charging), warning about alarm not available. Phone apparently has two battery-saver modes, I thought I'd overridden something from the monitoring software, but it was actually intending me to go into system settings - fixed that. Got an alert at maybe 2:00, scanned (4.5mmol which is "ok"), tried to read the message (something about 'low'), puzzled. Ate anyway (level had plunged from earlier), then remembered I'd been advised to try 4.5 as level for low warnings, to have time to react. Slept. Got another warning, this time for 4.2. Those were both with 'loss of signal alert' set to off. Ate rather more, with the result that the level was higher than desired when I eventually woke up.

 

Summary: luser error in this case :-(

 

But the bluetooth is eating battery charge. Running with alerts off while I'm at home.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

Just after 9.30am (Monday 7 November 2022), officers attached to The Hume Traffic and Highway Patrol Command detected a blue Volkswagen Golf allegedly travelling 280km/h in a 110km sign-posted area on the Hume Motorway

Does the Golf not have a speed limiter fitted for the Australian market? My Evoque has a 150mph (240kph) limiter. I haven’t tested it. In the past in Germany we were often overtaken by exotic cars.  Last time in 2018 it seemed to be Golfs and Sprinter vans. 

[zarniwhoop]

14 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Assuming the overall gear ratios are the same (taking into account any difference between the rolling radii  of the tires) the width should not make too much difference although narrow high pressure tires do consume less energy. Make sure your tires are at maximum pressure or even a bit higher. Soft tires do produce a lot of friction. When they are soft you are putting a lot of energy into flexing the tires which produces heat and you are the source of the energy that produces the heat 😀

I haven't ridden a bike for over 20 years, but the construction of the tyre can make a big difference to the rolling resistance.

Many 'City Bike' tyres probably prioritise fewer punctures (glass, bumping up and down kerbs, potholes) over ride quality.

People in the wheeltappers 'Cycling chat' thread can probably say more about that.

[Ozexpatriate]

A winning ticket was finally sold (in California) for the Power Ball lottery which had rolled over (and over) to US$2.04 billion, with a one-time cash payout of US$997.6 million.

 

I had a ticket (actually two and nothing matched) but I wonder just what such winnings would do. Some states permit anonymous winners, but Oregon does not. It is presumably possible to create some sort of LLC to be the winner, but it seems like something of that magnitude would attract the wrong sort of attention.

 

It is open enrolment season for health insurance and the spam calls happen daily. You'd have to immediately change all your telephone numbers from the deluge of solicitation.

 

[BoD]

I’m away for a few days and so may not be up to date with ERs or even life in general.  I will try to catch up on return.

 

Where are you? I here you ask.

Or perhaps not.

Here’s a clue anyway …

 

[The White Rabbit]

6 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

As I am seeing the message "Sorry there was a problem reacting to this content" too often I have opened a topic in the Faults area.  If I can rate at all it is often only a "Like"; only very occasionally can I select anything else successfully... 

 

3 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I sometimes get the same message but I can select an icon from the list that appears but just the. icon. However if I wait a few minutes it works OK.

 

I had intermittent similar problems earlier today, sometimes even responding to two posts by the same contributor, one would and one wouldn't (🤔) though usually giving it a minute or two and trying again worked. My glitch doesn't seem to differentiate between like/other response, for me if it's going to sulk it will whichever rating I pick. 

 

[zarniwhoop]

2 minutes ago, The White Rabbit said:

 

 

I had intermittent similar problems earlier today, sometimes even responding to two posts by the same contributor, one would and one wouldn't (🤔) though usually giving it a minute or two and trying again worked. My glitch doesn't seem to differentiate between like/other response, for me if it's going to sulk it will whichever rating I pick. 

 

The forum was down for a while a few hours ago.

[Ian Abel]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

 

 

 

Shame I never got the hang of it ! 🤣

 

To clear up any confusion ❓ 🤪

 

 

noun: ordinance; plural noun: ordinances

1.

NORTH AMERICAN

a piece of legislation enacted by a municipal authority.

"a city ordinance banned smoking in nearly all types of restaurants"

 

noun: ordnance

1.

mounted guns; artillery.

"the gun was a brand new piece of ordnance"

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

He must have been pushing that hard - and from the photograph it looks uphill.

 

 

Given that Commodore and Falcon V8's are no longer available so the cops are forced to drive around in BMW 5 series diesels, thats probably the only place they could catch up to him.

 

Diesels.... Diesels!   Know which Highway Patrol officer would be spinning in his grave? This one! (if he was actually dead rather than "still out there ....somewhere"!)

 

Lucky they also run Chrysler 300C's SRT's with the 6.4L V8, or no one would join up. 

[New Haven Neil]

I have stopped mining Bitcoin, and moved on to the new currency of Deltics.  More likely to hold value....nice to own as you get something you can actually see and hold.

[monkeysarefun]

46 minutes ago, Ian Abel said:

To clear up any confusion ❓ 🤪

 

 

noun: ordinance; plural noun: ordinances

1.

NORTH AMERICAN

a piece of legislation enacted by a municipal authority.

"a city ordinance banned smoking in nearly all types of restaurants"

 

noun: ordnance

1.

mounted guns; artillery.

"the gun was a brand new piece of ordnance"

 

 

Australian addendum:

 

 

"Hello, I'm the wife of former US President Ronald Reagan and I've never been to this region of Western Australia before, I was wondering if you could tell me the name of that river over there please?"

 

""thats the Ord, Nance...."

Edited November 8, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[Ian Abel]

THAT'S IT!!!!!!

I DEMAND the re-introduction of the GROAN button ASAP!!!

 

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I would have thought the friendly and accommodating NSW Police would have immediately given him a lift - to their local establishment where he would get one telephone call to have his mate to pick him up, for a fee

No, they handcuffed him by the ankle to an ovrturned ute that had fuel dripping from it into a broken headlamp, placed a lighter under the slowly filling headlamp and dropped  a hacksaw beside him then told him it would take 10 minutes to cut through the handcuffs but he could probably cut through his ankle in 5  then drove away as in the background a giant fireball erupted. Or was that Mad Max again? 

Edited November 8, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

Does the Golf not have a speed limiter fitted for the Australian market?

Does anything have a speed limiter fitted for the Australian market?  

 

The legal maximum out of town is normally 100km/h, on key interstate routes where posted 110km/h and on outback highways (mostly in the Northern Territory) it is "Open Road" - no limit.  

 

I have legally driven a hired camper van at 176km/h between Alice Springs and a large red rock; it would have gone faster but there was the first hint of flutter on the wheel at that speed.  Melbourne to Perth should take three days at legal speeds allowing for at least a little rest but many a truckie will do the round-trip in five days no questions asked and still be home for a feed and a cold beer on Friday.

 

A mate drove for Skybus in Melbourne - the business which runs the high-frequency, tightly-timed and high-pressure run between city and airport.  Traffic volume often meant that the 20-minute timing could not be met and the 80km/h freeway speed limit there was very much wishful thinking.  But he assured me that none of the coaches were fitted with a speed limiter and would "open up" if given the chance.  He still drives coaches but not for Skybus and still enjoys getting his toe down at times.  

 

Our cars - a Ford Falcon and a Kia Rio - were certainly handy at the top end of the speed range.  The Falcon was a 4-litre which you might expect would cruise happily at full freeway speeds.  Even the humble Rio, at 1497cc, would cheerfully cruise at 110km/h though took a little longer to reach it than the Falcon.  Both took day-long interstate trips in their stride including the Falcon flattening the hilly inland route between Cann River and Bateman's Bay via Cooma.

Edited November 8, 2022 by Gwiwer

[polybear]

2 hours ago, PupCam said:

Fat tyres (especially but not exclusively if under-inflated ) = More drag.   More drag = More work done to achieve and maintain 'X' velocity

 

Thinner tyres, correctly inflated to reduce contact patch size = Minimise resistance to motion.

 

Bear concurs;  one look at the bikes in the Tour de France will show a complete lack of wheels with big fat tyres fitted.  There's a clue there somewhere.....

 

2 hours ago, PupCam said:

 

In Other News

 

After a somewhat unsuccessful attempt at splitting one of my replacement cranks for the Beeza with a view to inspecting and possibly re-using the big-end yesterday

 

Bear has a sledge 'ammer......

 

2 hours ago, PupCam said:

Talking of Deltics.   I happened to note the other day that there was just one Deltic left on the Accurascale website.   Not my favourite member of the class but it was in two tone green, no yellow warning panels (small yellow panels are the definitive scheme in Puppers' eyes) and equipped with sound.    I have to tell you that my wallet was open, the credit card was poised ready for action with a hit of ~ 1.75 Deltics and I was just about to Add to Basket.     I then thought, no, I'll do it tomorrow (Puppers doesn't need a Deltic and particularly a 4mm one!).   The next day I went and had another look; some bxggxr had bought it!    Oh well, as I say, I didn't need it.

 

Bear kept pondering when they had plenty in stock - and didn't do anything about it.....

I've just emailed them to enquire about a second run.

edit:  I've had a response already:  "............we will be scheduling a second run once other outstanding locomotive projects progress through the manufacturing stage".

 

2 hours ago, PupCam said:

Parked in the hospital car park, walked to the phlebotomy department, handed form in, waited, called in, "done" and out in 10 minutes!   Went to pay for the parking and I still had 19 minutes free parking left.    Now that was a result!

 

 

More than a "result" if the establishment in question is just up the road from The Fun Factory - their parking charges are daylight robbery.

 

1 hour ago, BSW01 said:

On the subject of buried items. Unbeknown to next door, there is a Ford Engine buried beside the front door. A previous owner had changed the engine in a 1961 Ford Cortina and the old engine was put besides the front door, where it sat for about 4 months. His wife was getting p!ssed off having to walk past it every time she came and went. Finally, she gave him an ultimatum, get rid of it, or I’ll lock you out! So, once she’d gone to work, he moved the engine, dug a hole and then rolled the engine into said hole and the back filled the hole. When I came home from work I noticed it had gone, so I asked him what had happened to it, he told me what he’d done, but said don’t tell the missus, as she thinks a mate to take it to the tip!

 

A previous neighbour of Bear's (over 20 years ago) decided that burying a mattress in the (small) back garden was a good way to get rid of it.  F'wit.

A later owner of the house had the fun of digging it out (just a spring by this point) and getting rid of it.  They were less than impressed.

 

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

On one of my Grandads final voyages on the Aircraft carrier it was used as an aircraft taxi. He told me that they ended up pushing crated up aircraft over the side as they were no longer required.

This was in the far East somewhere iirc

 

There's film of the US doing the same thing with Huey's as they were bailing out of Vietnam in rather a hurry.  What a waste.  The Carriers were simply too small to be able to carry them all home.

 

In other news.....

Bear received a tip-off that there are numerous "how to" videos on the 2mm Scale Association Website regarding how to drive Templot.  That's a result.

 

And finally....

I saw a turntable at the weekend that used one of these 12v motors (2rpm) running on 4v; excellent - very, very smooth and hugely powerful (the builder has a friend that used the same motor/gearbox to raise & lower an 8ft blind).  Bear will have one on order in the next few minutes....

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403590735990?var=673545571925

[monkeysarefun]

8 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Does anything have a speed limiter fitted for the Australian market?  

 

Some hire cars seem to, going by our experiments on the unlimited Stuart Highway between Darwin and the RAAF base at Katherine.

 

The Hertz Ford Falcon with the 4L straight six Barra motor in it  had a limiter that cut in at 180kmh, and  very dramatically , the car just pulled up - we though at first we'd stuffed the motor. The Eurocar Mitsubishi Magna with the 3.5L V6 didnt, we got to 220kmh but the wind noise from the chunky side mirror was overwhelming. Likewise the Eurocar Toyota Camry got to 190 but felt dangerously "floaty" over 140kmh which slowed us up.  The most interesting was an Avis  Ford Territory, a Ford Australia designed SUV with the same motor as the Falcon. It got to 200kmh then the limiter cut in -  the fun thing was having the trip computer set to show instantaneous fuel consumption which showed that at that speed we were using 22 Litres per 100km (10.6miles per gallon in Ye Olde countrye numbers)

 

Had to slow down because we were a bit worried about running out of fuel before we made the next fuel stop at  Pine Creek

Edited November 9, 2022 by monkeysarefun