what I have learned today.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I had no idea she was the voice of Teletubbies, but "Decadent Days" is worth remembering, if not for the song itself then for the stomping at the teenage discos.

[Beardy]

I used to 'have a thing' for Toyah back in the day.

[T42]

He King Crimson guitarist; she early-80s squawker and voice of Teletubbies.  You're not missing out on much.

Ta. Won't look then.

[Tod28]

"Decadent Days" is worth remembering, if not for the song itself then for the stomping at the teenage discos.

Wasn't that Hazel O'Conner?

[Legs]

"Decadent Days" is worth remembering, if not for the song itself then for the stomping at the teenage discos.

Wasn't that Hazel O'Conner?

She's performing at The Eyes Have It, as part of this year's Duffield Carnival...

[rafletcher]

That post war caravan parks resulted from an oversupply of temporary housing destined for European countries.

[rogerzilla]

That British railway snowploughs - the sort propelled by a pair of diesel locomotives - were built in the 1960s on the chassis of redundant steam locomotive tenders.

[Torslanda]

That a nautical mile is 1.15-something miles.

That the circumference of the earth is 24,901 miles around the equator.

360^o is 21600 minutes. Which divided into 24,901 gives 1.15-something.

So a minute of latitude is one nautical mile at the equator.

Probably not a revelation to some people.

[T42]

The metre is defined in a similar manner, taking the distance from the North Pole to the Equator as baseline.

What I have just found out right now is that NASA released high-resolution SRTM data for most of the world in 2014, so that routing programs that used it to inject altitudes into generated GPX files had (or will have) to be updated to take it into account.

Previously, most of the world was mapped in 3" squares, 90 metres on a side, and the altitudes given were the averages over each square. That meant that if your GPX went through a gorge the altitude of the road might flip from being that of the road to being that of the cliff-top and back within a couple of hundred metres. Mapping to 1" should noticeably reduce this effect.

[Cudzoziemiec]

"Decadent Days" is worth remembering, if not for the song itself then for the stomping at the teenage discos.

Wasn't that Hazel O'Conner?

Of course. My bad. That means I can't actually remember anything Toyah did, but I do remember her name.

[Legs]

The metre is defined in a similar manner, taking the distance from the North Pole to the Equator as baseline.

It's certainly not the current definition, which is the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/~300,000,000 of a second. (A nice, handy yardstick, eh?).

I remember having to remember the SI unit definitions for A-Level Physics - the best, I think, was the amp, which is "that constant current which when maintained in two straight parallel perfect conductors of infinite length, positioned one metre apart in a vacuum, induces a force of 2×10⁻⁷ newtons per metre length of each on the other." (for which, also see the definition of 'metre', and of 'kilogram', 'metre' and 'second' to understand the derived unit 'newton'.  It's useful, because everyone has ready access to caesium-133, infinitely long conductors in vacuums, and Parisian kilograms. )

[Torslanda]

What kind of bastard creation is that? 'a scale of 3":90m'

It's like Concorde all over again . . .

[ian]

The metre is defined in a similar manner, taking the distance from the North Pole to the Equator as baseline.

It's certainly not the current definition, which is the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/~300,000,000 of a second. (A nice, handy yardstick, eh?).

I remember having to remember the SI unit definitions for A-Level Physics - the best, I think, was the amp, which is "that constant current which when maintained in two straight parallel perfect conductors of infinite length, positioned one metre apart in a vacuum, induces a force of 2×10⁻⁷ newtons per metre length of each on the other." (for which, also see the definition of 'metre', and of 'kilogram', 'metre' and 'second' to understand the derived unit 'newton'.  It's useful, because everyone has ready access to caesium-133, infinitely long conductors in vacuums, and Parisian kilograms. )

I think they're still working on the redefining that Parisian kilogram so weights are based on a physical constant rather than lump of steadily eroding metal. They might have sorted it out. I'm trusting you guys to tell me.

[Beardy]

"Decadent Days" is worth remembering, if not for the song itself then for the stomping at the teenage discos.

Wasn't that Hazel O'Conner?

Of course. My bad. That means I can't actually remember anything Toyah did, but I do remember her name.

It's a Mystery, huh?

[Beardy]

The metre is defined in a similar manner, taking the distance from the North Pole to the Equator as baseline.

It's certainly not the current definition, which is the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/~300,000,000 of a second. (A nice, handy yardstick, eh?).

I remember having to remember the SI unit definitions for A-Level Physics - the best, I think, was the amp, which is "that constant current which when maintained in two straight parallel perfect conductors of infinite length, positioned one metre apart in a vacuum, induces a force of 2×10⁻⁷ newtons per metre length of each on the other." (for which, also see the definition of 'metre', and of 'kilogram', 'metre' and 'second' to understand the derived unit 'newton'.  It's useful, because everyone has ready access to caesium-133, infinitely long conductors in vacuums, and Parisian kilograms. )

I think they're still working on the redefining that Parisian kilogram so weights are based on a physical constant rather than lump of steadily eroding metal. They might have sorted it out. I'm trusting you guys to tell me.

They have sorted it out, a kilogram is now defined by electricery. One moment, let me go and find a citation

ETA Planck's constant. https://youtu.be/Oo0jm1PPRuo

[T42]

The metre is defined in a similar manner, taking the distance from the North Pole to the Equator as baseline.

It's certainly not the current definition, which is the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/~300,000,000 of a second. (A nice, handy yardstick, eh?).

Sorry, used wrong tense. That was the original definition. The metre was one ten-millionth of the Pole-Equator distance.

I remember having to remember the SI unit definitions for A-Level Physics - the best, I think, was the amp, which is "that constant current which when maintained in two straight parallel perfect conductors of infinite length, positioned one metre apart in a vacuum, induces a force of 2×10⁻⁷ newtons per metre length of each on the other." (for which, also see the definition of 'metre', and of 'kilogram', 'metre' and 'second' to understand the derived unit 'newton'.  It's useful, because everyone has ready access to caesium-133, infinitely long conductors in vacuums, and Parisian kilograms. )

The cgs/SI switch didn't happen until a few years after I got my degree, fortunately. Switching halfway through would have been hell.

[T42]

What kind of bastard creation is that? 'a scale of 3":90m'

It's like Concorde all over again . . .

It's not a scale: 3 seconds of arc is the angle subtended by a distance of 90 metres on the Earth's surface.  NASA originally mapped as much of the world as they could to an accuracy of 1 second, but only released the bits outside the USA as 3-second squares, presumably to confuse the Russians.

Don't tell the Orange Twat or he'll have the lot taken down or scrambled.

[Beardy]

What kind of bastard creation is that? 'a scale of 3":90m'

It's like Concorde all over again . . .

It's not a scale: 3 seconds of arc is the angle subtended by a distance of 90 metres on the Earth's surface.  NASA originally mapped as much of the world as they could to an accuracy of 1 second, but only released the bits outside the USA as 3-second squares, presumably to confuse the Russians.

Don't tell the Orange Twat or he'll have the lot taken down or scrambled.

It's probably as well that he's as thick as pig shit. If he knew about how GPS works he'd probably have turned selective availability switched on again!

[clarion]

... That was the original definition. The metre was one ten-millionth of the Pole-Equator distance.

Except, as we all now know, the earth is flat, and the Equator has no relevance!

[T42]

Now there's a thought: a flat world à la Pratchett but peopled by Trumpesque creatures and worked by extreme right-wing religious physics.

[Beardy]

... That was the original definition. The metre was one ten-millionth of the Pole-Equator distance.

Except, as we all now know, the earth is flat, and the Equator has no relevance!

It's half way between the hub and the rim isn't it?

[Torslanda]

What kind of bastard creation is that? 'a scale of 3":90m'

It's like Concorde all over again . . .

It's not a scale: 3 seconds of arc is the angle subtended by a distance of 90 metres on the Earth's surface.  NASA originally mapped as much of the world as they could to an accuracy of 1 second, but only released the bits outside the USA as 3-second squares, presumably to confuse the Russians.

Don't tell the Orange Twat or he'll have the lot taken down or scrambled.

Apologies. I haz a stupid.

[T42]

Ancient birds couldn't sit on their eggs without smashing them.

Daisy May take note.

[Efrogwr]

... That was the original definition. The metre was one ten-millionth of the Pole-Equator distance.

Except, as we all now know, the earth is flat, and the Equator has no relevance!

It's half way between the hub and the rim isn't it?

Half the radius or the line between a circle and an annulus of equal area?

[JennyB]

That a nautical mile is 1.15-something miles.

That the circumference of the earth is 24,901 miles around the equator.

360^o is 21600 minutes. Which divided into 24,901 gives 1.15-something.

So a minute of latitude is one nautical mile at the equator.

Probably not a revelation to some people.

"We're flying west along the Equator at a speed approaching 1000 knots and, as you may have noticed, the Sun is now standing still."