what I have learned today.

[rogerzilla]

That the very last bikes made by Raleigh in the UK were randomly specified but quite well made.

I have here a Made in England BSA Westcoast for SO to commute on.  Fairly light ladies' steel frame with a rear mech hanger.  Very good blue flam paint.  Cartridge bearing headset - but it's threaded - yet a steel cup and cone BB!  Reasonable Joytech one-piece hubs and alloy rims.  Good cable cutting to length (although, like all ladies' frames, there is a U-shaped piece for the rear brake which I know is going to fill with water and freeze in winter).  Decent SKS mudguards.  Alloy seatpost but satin chrome steel bars.  The fork steerer and the inside of the head tube and seat tube have been painted white, possibly to prevent corrosion, but there was no grease on the quill or the seatpost - luckily this has been kept dry and nothing was seized.

As a utility bike it's quite satisfactory, and better than most of the crap I've seen with a heron badge on it over the years.

[Chris S]

This weekend, I have learned the term "Limp Mode"¹, where it pertains to motorised vehicles.

Driving a (laden) van from the Western Isles of Scotland to Yorkshire, in Limp Mode, is this: Fucking Stressful. Pulling away at a busy M9 roundabout? Don't count on ANY help from the engine: 0-40 in 30 seconds, tops.

I've previously never noticed any of the hills on the A1 between Edinburgh and Darlington, but today - I noticed every single one.

I'm frazzled.

------------------
¹The engine management computer decides something is Wrong with the engine, and in attempt to protect the engine from damage, turns said engine into a 1950 Ford Popular.

[rogerzilla]

VW Group cars are all in limp-home mode before their PDI at the dealer.

[Diver300]

VW Group cars are all in limp-home mode before their PDI at the dealer.

I suspect that is called transport mode.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Wearing Polaroid sunglasses means that your camera viewing screen turns black if oriented one way. 

[Kim]

Wearing Polaroid sunglasses means that your camera viewing screen turns black if oriented one way.

In my day we learned this by playing with calculators.  (Hacking them open and flipping the polariser so the display was white-on-black was the height of cool in my second year year 8 maths class.)

[rogerzilla]

You can still buy new Panaracer Smoke and Dart amberwall tyres.  No 1.9" Smoke Lite, though, which was noticeably better for not spinning out on muddy climbs.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Wearing Polaroid sunglasses means that your camera viewing screen turns black if oriented one way.

In my day we learned this by playing with calculators.  (Hacking them open and flipping the polariser so the display was white-on-black was the height of cool in my second year year 8 maths class.)

We tried that but all the beads went everywhere.

[Mr Larrington]

That fretful porpentines do not always curl up into spiky balls when threatened by predators.  Sometimes they climb trees.

Neither strategy appears to work when the "predator" is a Chevy Silverado

[Torslanda]

Kinnell! I didn't know that a Chevy Silverado can climb a tree...?

[Mr Larrington]

In Montana, the small white roadside crosses almost outnumber the actual trees.  I think crystal meth may be involved.

[Nuncio]

I was born at typical.vision.mats (or it could have been instance.mild.ditching or etching.poodle.lasted depending which bedroom I was born in)

https://what3words.com/about/

what3words provides a precise and incredibly simple way to talk about location. We have divided the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares and assigned each one a unique 3 word address.

 

[rogerzilla]

I was born at typical.vision.mats (or it could have been instance.mild.ditching or etching.poodle.lasted depending which bedroom I was born in)

https://what3words.com/about/

what3words provides a precise and incredibly simple way to talk about location. We have divided the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares and assigned each one a unique 3 word address.

Presumably there's some sort of filter to prevent someone getting donkey.felch.cloaca?

[Kim]

Presumably there's some sort of filter to prevent someone getting donkey.felch.cloaca?

Or at least make sure it goes to someone who really deserves it...

[Jurek]

I was born at typical.vision.mats (or it could have been instance.mild.ditching or etching.poodle.lasted depending which bedroom I was born in)

https://what3words.com/about/

what3words provides a precise and incredibly simple way to talk about location. We have divided the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares and assigned each one a unique 3 word address.

Presumably there's some sort of filter to prevent someone getting donkey.felch.cloaca?

F*ck!
You know where I live.

[Nuncio]

I think there is a limited set of fairly straightforward words.  Searching for those three returned

donkey.fleshed.clock near Sint-Pieters-Voeren, Belgium, donkey.flesh.cloaks near Maribondo, Alagoas, Brazil, and donkey.fetch.cloaks near Chegdomub, Khabarovski Krai, Russia.

donkey.fetch.coats is in Queensland, monkey.fetch.coats near Wilmslow and donkey.fetch.coast near Havana, Florida.

[ElyDave]

Overture.pines.season for the living room
Alarm.roughest.camped for my office at home

[orienteer]

Appears to be 2-D, so doesn't work well for blocks of flats 

[T42]

empire.chap.enlisted => my office

[Wombat]

I am sat at marked.splash.intervals, but if our vendor hadn't screwed us about I'd be at decompose.united.policy right now.  I was thinking that might be a way to tell delivery drivers where we will be, in a village that just has a house name and the village name by way of an address.

[Cudzoziemiec]

That yesterday was the 334th anniversary of the Battle of Vienna.

[rogerzilla]

Presumably there's some sort of filter to prevent someone getting donkey.felch.cloaca?

Or at least make sure it goes to someone who really deserves it...

Richard Littlejohn or Piers Morgan CBE?*  Choices, choices.

*colossal bellend

[PeteB99]

The British army has 501 horses and 334 tanks.

OK a horse is a lot cheaper than a tank and looks slightly better in publicity type parades but you wonder what type of conflict they are being equipped to fight in.

[Cudzoziemiec]

A horse probably has a shorter military career, though, so 501 horses don't last as long as 334 tanks. OTOH I wouldn't be terribly surprised to learn a good proportion of the tanks are out of use due to missing parts or something.

[ScumOfTheRoad]

Pete, I believe the British Army has more generals than tanks.