Author Topic: what I have learned today. (Read 858595 times)

Pingu · « **Reply #450 on:** 30 March, 2015, 02:03:29 pm »

Quote from: Feline on 27 March, 2015, 10:51:52 am

Quote from: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 27 March, 2015, 07:16:09 am
If you're lying on your back in bed, and there is a cat standing on your chest demanding attention, turf him off before you start to stroke him otherwise you'll get cat drool in your mouth.

I had an unpleasant awakening this morning when my cat actually licked my tongue while I was asleep with my mouth slightly open
I am not quite sure what I have learned from this.

Saturday and Sunday morning I got a lick on the nose from Pumpkin

David Martin · « **Reply #451 on:** 31 March, 2015, 10:12:50 pm »

The nut securing an oven fan is reversed thread. It would have been useful knowing that a little earlier.

Also my cake recipe is currently making it's presence felt by rising aout of the tin and oozing across the kitchen floor. I think it may be starting to become sentient.

Tim Hall · « **Reply #452 on:** 31 March, 2015, 10:21:42 pm »

Quote from: David Martin on 31 March, 2015, 10:12:50 pm

The nut securing an oven fan is reversed thread. It would have been useful knowing that a little earlier.

Neff?

I discovered that once. Why don't they just make the fan spin the other way, if the problem is of an unscrewy nature?

Kim · « **Reply #453 on:** 31 March, 2015, 10:23:53 pm »

Quote from: Tim Hall on 31 March, 2015, 10:21:42 pm

Quote from: David Martin on 31 March, 2015, 10:12:50 pm
The nut securing an oven fan is reversed thread. It would have been useful knowing that a little earlier.

Neff?

I discovered that once. Why don't they just make the fan spin the other way, if the problem is of an unscrewy nature?

Because the food would get colder, obviously.

I think it's a good rule of thumb to suspect any fan of having a widdershins thread until proven otherwise.

David Martin · « **Reply #454 on:** 31 March, 2015, 11:24:03 pm »

I had got the other one off turnwise with some effort so presumed the replacement would be the same. It did seem quite tough so I probably did trash the thread in the process.

Anyhow, I baked a cake for the final winter track meet tomorrow. My estimates (9x12" pan being 3x the batch needed for a 7.5" round tin) whilst mathematically correct appeared to have ignored depth. It took some time to clean up the overspill, and the cake is a bit uneven, having been cooked in the top oven (no fan) whilst waiting for the insulator pad that I didn't know I needed till removing the old fan and having it crumble to pieces on me.

£75 in parts and delivery to repair the oven.

CrinklyLion · « **Reply #455 on:** 02 April, 2015, 01:08:52 pm »

Mordor Central has a bigger, slightly uglier, sibling and their name is New York Penn.

Honestly, I felt right at home ;-)

Kim · « **Reply #456 on:** 02 April, 2015, 01:10:40 pm »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Station_%28New_York_City%29

Wow, it really is. Hints of the old Manchester Piccadilly (Platforms 13/14) there too. There should be a law against 60s rebuilds of perfectly good stations. Probably a bit late, thobut.

PaulF · « **Reply #457 on:** 02 April, 2015, 01:23:37 pm »

Quote from: CrinklyLion on 02 April, 2015, 01:08:52 pm

Mordor Central has a bigger, slightly uglier, sibling and their name is New York Penn.

Honestly, I felt right at home ;-)

Grand Central is far nicer, but probably doesn't have trains going where you want to go...

Kim · « **Reply #458 on:** 02 April, 2015, 01:25:15 pm »

Quote from: PaulF on 02 April, 2015, 01:23:37 pm

Quote from: CrinklyLion on 02 April, 2015, 01:08:52 pm
Mordor Central has a bigger, slightly uglier, sibling and their name is New York Penn.

Honestly, I felt right at home ;-)

Grand Central is far nicer, but probably doesn't have trains going where you want to go...

The Moor Street Effect™

The Seldom Killer · « **Reply #459 on:** 02 April, 2015, 01:35:51 pm »

The last time I visited New Street Station I felt as if I was in some kind of John Malkovitch as the bad guy future dystopiann corporate institution. Alas a burly but short-arsed lunatic in tight black didn't come in to liberate our moral freedoms with the assistance of romantic interest and a quirky and/or diverse friend.

New Street definitely needs some liberation of moral freedoms, preferably with extreme prejudice.

hellymedic · « **Reply #460 on:** 02 April, 2015, 01:40:49 pm »

Nuking Mordor Central from orbit seems somewhat impractical and might create much collateral damage.
It might be the only way...

The Seldom Killer · « **Reply #461 on:** 02 April, 2015, 01:56:03 pm »

I think the risk of creating a sentient, glowing Bull Ring is too high. Perhaps just using a SOL Cannon and accepting some secondary localised devastation is the way foward.

Kim · « **Reply #462 on:** 02 April, 2015, 01:59:59 pm »

Alternatively, they could bury it inside an enormous reinforced concrete sarcophagus.

davelodwig · « **Reply #463 on:** 02 April, 2015, 02:00:29 pm »

Quote from: hellymedic on 02 April, 2015, 01:40:49 pm

Nuking Mordor Central from orbit seems somewhat impractical and might create much collateral damage.
It might be the only way...

Please don't as horrible as it is I need it to get home this evening.

Just some sort of device to stop people with suitcases bigger than my last car would be a start.

D.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #464 on:** 02 April, 2015, 02:08:53 pm »

Quote from: Kim on 02 April, 2015, 01:59:59 pm

Alternatively, they could bury it inside an enormous reinforced concrete sarcophagus.

Surely that's what they did when they built it?

ian · « **Reply #465 on:** 02 April, 2015, 03:01:19 pm »

Quote from: CrinklyLion on 02 April, 2015, 01:08:52 pm

Mordor Central has a bigger, slightly uglier, sibling and their name is New York Penn.

Honestly, I felt right at home ;-)

The benefit of Penn Station is that it's NYC outside. But yes, it's a station modelled on the British 1960s train station experience. Though with more net curtains for some reason. I regularly travel between Philadelphia and NYC on the train, so that's my NYC arrival experience (30th St Station in Philadelphia is far nicer, if a bit neglected over the years). It's quite odd taking the Amtrak down south, through the grand stations of Philadelphia and Union Station in Washington DC, and then suddenly to get off you pretty much have to jump into a ditch by the side of the train.

L CC · « **Reply #466 on:** 14 April, 2015, 09:47:56 am »

A little of B.R.Ambedkar (who I had never heard of), thanks to Google Doodle.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #467 on:** 15 April, 2015, 11:05:21 am »

He was a remarkable man. It's interesting to contrast him with the Dalit woman currently (or very recently) leading Uttar Pradesh (I've forgotten her name for a minute - but her main contribution to UP and Dalits seems to be putting up statues of herself).

fuzzy · « **Reply #468 on:** 15 April, 2015, 11:16:14 pm »

That if a company that has supplied some equipment forgets to pack some fixings, then says on being notified "We'll overnight them to you so they will be with you tomorrow", don't plan your tomorrow around the missing bits actually arriving in time to be useful that day

Ashaman42 · « **Reply #469 on:** 15 April, 2015, 11:36:25 pm »

I started learning how to weld and didn't set myself on fire at any point. Yay.

David Martin · « **Reply #470 on:** 15 April, 2015, 11:40:46 pm »

Quote from: Ashaman42 on 15 April, 2015, 11:36:25 pm

I started learning how to weld and didn't set myself on fire at any point. Yay.

Cool (or not). Gas, arc, MIG, TIG?

Ashaman42 · « **Reply #471 on:** 15 April, 2015, 11:52:20 pm »

First week of a six week taster course.

Did a little bit of MIG, seven of us each did three lines of weld along a little sheet of metal and then half of us (not me yet) did an external corner weld on two sheets that had been tacked into place by the instructor. Then we ran out of time so the rest of us will have a go at that next week.

Ultimately we will all have a little go at MIG, TIG, arc and gas.

I was the opposite of everyone else in that I was running too close to the work rather than too far away. I was also moving along the weld a bit too fast but part of that was being watched by a bunch of people. Once we've had a go at everything we'll be able to separate to different sections rather than all standing around watching the one person welding which should help.

fuzzy · « **Reply #472 on:** 16 April, 2015, 10:06:48 am »

Quote from: fuzzy (retd.) AAGE on 15 April, 2015, 11:16:14 pm

That if a company that has supplied some equipment forgets to pack some fixings, then says on being notified "We'll overnight them to you so they will be with you tomorrow", don't plan your tomorrow around the missing bits actually arriving in time to be useful that day

Today I have learned that, if you were waiting for something yesterday, it is worth asking the contractors working near the entrance if they have taken a delivery for you whilst they were causing access problems.

As I cycled in this morning, the contractor boss fella said "I've got a parcel that was delivered yesterday morning".

tiermat · « **Reply #473 on:** 16 April, 2015, 04:12:12 pm »

Today I have not necessarily learnt, but by doing the sums I have realised that I can save myself a) nearly £200 and b) the hassle of trying to sell a unused set of STIs and caliper brakes. This I can achieve by buying the parts of a groupset, from Merlin, that I want instead of taking the easy path and buying a whole groupset and then buying the brakes (R685s).

I now have to i) decide what wheels to get and ii) what frame to hang it all off (the only thing I do know is that it WILL be baked soot and will have clearence for 35mm (preferably 40mm) tyres)

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #474 on:** 20 April, 2015, 09:18:41 am »

That my immediate neighbours, the friendly couple who never seem to do anything, are multimillionaires through some patent sold to Apple. That a little further down the street is a man convicted of manslaughter (recently released) and the woman opposite us once danced with Stevie Nicks.