what I have learned today.

[Tim Hall]

That BAT Man is a job,

Working for British American Tobacco...

There is (or used to be ) a road surfacing company called Belmont Asphalt.  They had a traffic management division called Belmont Asphalt Traffic Management. Their kit was marked "BATMAN". Which was nice.

[Ham]

I have very large wasps nest in my attic.  I thought we were getting a lot of wasps this year - but people have been saying that it's a wasp-y year so didn't think that we were having anything but a few more than usual. 

There were a few wasps in the attic when I went up a few weeks ago-but I just put it down to the then hot weather.  A couple of days ago the single halogen recessed downlighter above my shower seemed to get dim, and then this morning it didn't come on at all.  Oh, well, needs a new bulb, thought I.

Pulled the fitting down out of the ceiling plasterboard and was showered with dead wasps.  This is not normal, I thought.  Then I noticed that the woven heat-resisting insulation on the wires to the bulb connector was partly missing. 

Now this really set the bells ringing.  Opened the attic trapdoor to go up and have a look at the wiring.  A few wasps about, and then I spotted a white mass, about 15" across, attached to the rafters above the shower room. 

Shut the trapdoor pronto and found a man who does infestations.  He's coming round later.  It's like I imagine having an alien in your house.

Just as an aside, a few years ago it looked like we might have wasps in our attic, there were quite a few flying in, but not THAT many. Called a wasp-a-rator he had a look and said, no you don't have a wasp nest, but hang on a moment.... walked outside and spied intense wasp action about 6 doors down (in a line of Victorian semis)

Turns out wasps aren't that bright and often end up trying to find their nest in the house nearby that looks the same. Bit like coming home late from the pub, really.

[Tim Hall]

Atilla The Stockbroker and Mark Thomas both went to the same school, Christ's Hospital.

[ElyDave]

I have very large wasps nest in my attic.  I thought we were getting a lot of wasps this year - but people have been saying that it's a wasp-y year so didn't think that we were having anything but a few more than usual. 

There were a few wasps in the attic when I went up a few weeks ago-but I just put it down to the then hot weather.  A couple of days ago the single halogen recessed downlighter above my shower seemed to get dim, and then this morning it didn't come on at all.  Oh, well, needs a new bulb, thought I.

Pulled the fitting down out of the ceiling plasterboard and was showered with dead wasps.  This is not normal, I thought.  Then I noticed that the woven heat-resisting insulation on the wires to the bulb connector was partly missing. 

Now this really set the bells ringing.  Opened the attic trapdoor to go up and have a look at the wiring.  A few wasps about, and then I spotted a white mass, about 15" across, attached to the rafters above the shower room. 

Shut the trapdoor pronto and found a man who does infestations.  He's coming round later.  It's like I imagine having an alien in your house.

Just as an aside, a few years ago it looked like we might have wasps in our attic, there were quite a few flying in, but not THAT many. Called a wasp-a-rator he had a look and said, no you don't have a wasp nest, but hang on a moment.... walked outside and spied intense wasp action about 6 doors down (in a line of Victorian semis)

Turns out wasps aren't that bright and often end up trying to find their nest in the house nearby that looks the same. Bit like coming home late from the pub, really.

we thought we might have a nest a few years back, with hordes of wasps in the front garden. Turns out the nest was in a hedge about 200yds away, but the wasps were making a beeline waspline stright for a tree in the front that had loads of small flies around it that the wasps were predating on.

[andytheflyer]

Apropos of the wasps nest, I decided against having a shower this am, knowing that there would be bare wires at 240V a couple of feet above my head. I then removed the bulb holder by releasing the 2 wires from the terminal block.  The little bugg*rs had not only eaten most of the insulation, they'd also severely frayed the multistrand lead to the bulb holder.  How could they do that?  Do wasps have wire cutters?

Was able to re-insulate with some heat shrink, for now at least, and re-assemble.  Once I feel it's safe to go back into the attic I'll have a look at the rest of the light fitting from above the ceiling and decide if the fitting needs to be replaced.

I'll also have a look at the various other downlighters we have mounted in the upstairs ceilings.

[TheLurker]

That the nose shape of the current generation Shinkansen is based very heavily on the shape of the kingfisher's bill.

[ElyDave]

That the nose shape of the current generation Shinkansen is based very heavily on the shape of the kingfisher's bill.

that came up on a documentary of some kind I saw the other day, buggered if I can remember which

[TheLurker]

That the nose shape of the current generation Shinkansen is based very heavily on the shape of the kingfisher's bill.

that came up on a documentary of some kind I saw the other day, buggered if I can remember which

Impossible Railways perchance?  That's where I heard it today.

[Jakob W]

Was that an aesthetic or engineering decision? At a guess there's some similarities between birds diving into water and trains heading into tunnels?

[TheLurker]

Was that an aesthetic or engineering decision? At a guess there's some similarities between birds diving into water and trains heading into tunnels?

It was an engineering decision as per your guess.  The head bod. twigged that kingfishers go head first into water at high speed and create very little disturbance.  FWIW If you can stand the truly dreadful narration the "Impossible"  engineering series can be interesting to watch, at least when the Engineers are allowed to talk about what they've done.

[ElyDave]

That the nose shape of the current generation Shinkansen is based very heavily on the shape of the kingfisher's bill.

that came up on a documentary of some kind I saw the other day, buggered if I can remember which

Impossible Railways perchance?  That's where I heard it today.

No, it was something else, but I can't for the life of me remember what, but it also made the point about the engineer having watched kingfishers splashless-ly entering the water.

[Jurek]

Was that an aesthetic or engineering decision? At a guess there's some similarities between birds diving into water and trains heading into tunnels?

It was an engineering decision as per your guess.  The head bod. twigged that kingfishers go head first into water at high speed and create very little disturbance.  FWIW If you can stand the truly dreadful narration the "Impossible"  engineering series can be interesting to watch, at least when the Engineers are allowed to talk about what they've done.

Having read your post, I've just watched Impossible Railways.
Loved it and yes, the narration is pretty awful - like someone trying too hard to sound like Clarkson.
But a couple of observations which  stand out:
1) That so much, in cutting edge engineering, is derived from nature - Biomimetics- as Wiki choose to call it.
2) The top end people involved in these high speed projects, the Japanese, the Italians and the Americans, all appear to be fluent in English.

[mark]

2) The top end people involved in these high speed projects, the Japanese, the Italians and the Americans, all appear to be fluent in English.

How many of them were educated in British and American universities? Too bad all that education isn't being used to build better railways in the UK and the US. the US could certainly use some improvements in its passenger rail system.

And yes, quite a few Americans speak reasonably good English.

[Jurek]

2) The top end people involved in these high speed projects, the Japanese, the Italians and the Americans, all appear to be fluent in English.

How many of them were educated in British and American universities? Too bad all that education isn't being used to build better railways in the UK and the US. the US could certainly use some improvements in its passenger rail system.

And yes, quite a few Americans speak reasonably good English.

Mark, in case it isn't obvious, it was a deliberate prod on my part 
No offence meant.
I hope none was taken.
If it was, I apologise.

[mark]

No offense taken.

[TheLurker]

2) The top end people involved...all appear to be fluent in English.

Not just the "top" engineers.  The conductor on the Italian "Red Arrow" service spoke fluent, idiomatic English.  I was left wondering how many people in a similar position in a UK TOC could speak a second language so well.  Not throwing stones, I'm in no position to as my foreign language skills are pitiful; fragments of French & German and functional/rudimentary Greek, but it did drive it home how atrocious our approach to teaching and learning foreign languages is.

[Jurek]

2) The top end people involved...all appear to be fluent in English.

Not just the "top" engineers.  The conductor on the Italian "Red Arrow" service spoke fluent, idiomatic English.  I was left wondering how many people in a similar position in a UK TOC could speak a second language so well.  Not throwing stones, I'm in no position to as my foreign language skills are pitiful; fragments of French & German and functional/rudimentary Greek, but it did drive it home how atrocious our approach to teaching and learning foreign languages is.

Indeed.
A good spot.

[Giraffe]

In the mid-70s a couple of us took a ferry across the ditch the that Hook, then the Rheingold Express to Munich. 7 of the 8 seats were occupied. It wasn't long before we'd ascertained that there were 4 languages spoken among 7 people.
About an hour in a passenger opened the door and in a heavy accent asked, in English, if the seat was taken. Everybody answered in English.
So, how many languages do English-speakers need to learn? Much easier for all the others to learn English.

BTW, as an aside, the UK seems to be almost against foreign students and foreign STEM personnel. Looking at items re. STEM research in the USA, there's a hell of a lot from Asian people - we're really missing out.

[Beardy]

BTW, as an aside, the UK seems to be almost against foreign students and foreign STEM personnel. Looking at items re. STEM research in the USA, there's a hell of a lot from Asian people - we're really missing out.

It wouldn’t matter who did the STEM research in the U.K., we’d still need to give away any discoveries or inventions for them to be realised as a useful product or service.

[SteveC]

I was once staying in a hotel in Belgium where all the conversation in the restaurant was in English despite my colleague and I being the only English people there.
But as Giraffe says, which language do we learn? It does put us at a disadvantage.

[andytheflyer]

When I started working in Turkey, knowing that I would be there for maybe up to 5 years, I asked one of the local girls on our engineering team, who had lived in the UK and was fluent in English, to teach me enough Turkish to get by.

Why? she said.  Thwere are 80 million Turks and 70 million of them live in Turkey, and most of the rest in Germany.  Why would you want to learn Turkish? Well, I did, enough to get around, buy meals and drinks, and follow enough of a conversation to know what it was about. 

But all, everyday engineering discussions, specifications, drawings, calculations etc were in English.  My Turkish engineer colleagues had all been taught at least part of their courses in English, and sat technical exams in English.  They were more keen to converse with me in English, a native English speaker, to sharpen their language skills. 

I did need to talk to the site labourers in Turkish though, which prompted a number of on-site and time-consuming discussions, them with a Turkish-English dictionary, me with an English-Turkish dictionary.  It took time, but we got there.  Great fun too.  Lovely people.

[T42]

I found that music lessons at an early age and a liking for opera gave me quite a few handy Italian expressions.

Useful note: the phrase "mai più, mai più", often sung by distressed female characters, does not refer to their reserved places in church.

[Tim Hall]

I learnt this one earlier in the week, but had to keep it under my hat until now, as I used it as a Thing of Interest on my Tandem Club ride today.

Jomo Kenyatta, Prime Minister and first President of Kenya lived in Storrington during World War 2 and was employed growing tomatoes at a market gardeners in nearby Thakeham.

[chrisbainbridge]

I understand fromDutch colleagues that all Dutch medical school teaching is in English as nobody can afford to print Dutch medical textbooks.  Fluency in English is apparently a requirement for university entrance.  Perhaps we should make fluency in English a requirement for University entrance here?

[Torslanda]

The four Avro Lancasters loaned by the RAF for filming The Dam Busters cost £130 per hour to run and aperational costs amounted to 10% of the film's overall budget.