And on the 'Seaview' (the sub in the TV series I mentioned, a queer name because it seems to me the last thing you want to view as a submariner is the 'sea.' :p ) diverter valves weren't in the script.

:big_tongue:

Both points taken! The leak, however, is always in the most inaccessible place!

We had a valve that had to be replaced in the purifier room - Again, a job for me! It involved removing a plate and working "blind", upside down, like an ostrich for most of a "day work" day! Bluddy 2/E kept coming past and saying things like,"Haven't you finished yet!". The worst thing was it was surrounded by steam trace pipes for the fuel oil. 54 degrees in the ER, more in purifier room and even more below the plates with that all pervading HFO smell! I really had to rehydrate in the bar that evening!

Rgds.
Dave

Don't fiddle with things that don't belong to you: .... :eek:

Or things you don't understand! I remember a Cadet cancelling an alarm on Stand By. The C/E asked the Cadet what the alarm was - He couldn't remember! The C/E went ballistic and sent the Cadet to the corner with orders not to move or touch anything for the duration! He certainly learned his lesson!
Rgds.
Dave

I did exactly the same as a Cadet and got a good kick up the arse. Texaco didn't do corners.

I don't know. Doesn't a tangentially fired boiler have corners?

I always said it was a mistake to educate the Marconi Sahib.
We could link-out the PLC's.

Jeez I'm in the company of dinosaurs ... :jester:

(I've always wondered at the use of the word 'dinosaur' to indicate people who haven't moved with the times. Consider that those fellahs were around for nearly 150 million years ... far longer than us naked apes, and it took a big slam dunk to put them down.)

Bremer Vulkan produced a Corner Tube boiler in the '70s. Have no idea why it was so called :really_mad:

Get back into the Shack or I'll hit you with my Ticket. And set Lecky on you. Upstart.

There are still a few 'terrible lizards' knocking about to this day.
So the anthropologists tell us.
Less so in China, they tend to eat them, and anything else that moves come to that.

Scribbled the following during the SARS outbreak:


Our latest predator is SARS
Released from Machiavellian Jars?
Or leaping out of civet meat
And stranger things the Chinese eat.

Having noted FG86's post about ship's names, I got to thinking about such in fact ... and in fiction.

When I worked for CP Ships they had a number of ships named after former CP chairman. Hence you had names like: W. C. Van Horne and E. W. Beatty. Awkward names at best. They also named some after Canadian cities and towns. I did two trips on the Fort Assiniboine, once or twice I was picked up on the name and asked to repeat on the Morse Key.

For me the best ships names came from the pen of Scottish science fiction writer Ian M. Banks (sadly no longer with us.) In his 'Culture' series of books, the ships operated by this Galactic organization are fully sentient AI's that name themselves on construction. They are considerably more intelligent and have much faster thought processes than their builders. They are in fact so advanced as a result of AI evolution that they're not fully understood by mere human beings.

The 'Culture' are not believers in warships as such, (at least so they say.) However my favourite name for a ship comes from what the 'Culture' calls an 'Abominator Class General Offensive Unit.' The name it has given itself is: "Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints." Known to Ian M. Banks fans as FOTNMC.

Is this a warship ? The 'Culture' might deny it, but it's best described as a phenomenally armed, totally psychopathic, completely independent and self-contained attack vessel that does and destroys whatever it pleases.

Hence its name is very suitable.

Somebody made this video, which is a bit on the Flash Gordon side, but does demonstrate the sort of behaviour of FOTNMC.

https://vimeo.com/258709785

Dark Star?

The scene with intelligent bomb discussing theology with its operator.... And let there be light!

A big bang, certainly, but 'the' big bang?

Well not sure what 'the' Big Bang is. Some modern theories suggest there maybe an infinite number of Big Bangs occurring deep into the past and future. I guess this is 'our' Big Bang which according to some other theories, may itself contain a vast number of other Big Bangs.

Of course those other Big Bangs would be somebody else's rather than ours. (You could drive yourself to the drinks cupboard just thinking about this stuff.) :eek::pint:

Since we're musing and thinking here.......
In Scotland we're having an Alba Party.
This should be just the job for the dancing and singing. (Let's not get into politics, I'm just taking the p155):yawn:

Very good of you, Bob. I think I will.

I have less trouble understanding the concept of an infinite number of Universes than I do of politics. :sweat:

Big fleas have little fleas,
on their backs to bite em.
Those little fleas have smaller fleas,
and so ad infinitum.

https://www.spaceweather.com/images2...1/restored.png

Is the Alba tuned into The White Heather Club? Alex and Nicola are the image of Andy Stewart and Moira Whatshername.
What a gay Gordons.

Wasn't "Alba" the name of a range of very economically priced radios and stereo systems in the 1980's??

No. Dansette was the brand.
I was all set for a Dansette record player then I went and failed my 11 Plus. Well Radio Luxemborg would have to do. (For all my Sparky friends that was 208 metres on the Medium Wave and very many kilocycles).

Alba, the trading name of Alfred Balcombe - I always thought it was Bascombe but I just looked it up and I have been wrong all these years.
Without the inter web it would still have been Bascombe.
The company goes back to the 1920s

No. It was switch position D on the Redifussion box. :sweat::chuckle:

You're just running away from the Kilocycles. Treat them like a Hertz, only smaller. OK? Or perhaps bigger.

Spot On !!:thumb::thumb:

Watching the test flights of the Ingenuity, small helicopter currently on Mars, somebody mentioned to me it wasn't very exciting.
Well let's see, controlling the helicopter by hand is out, unless you're happy with a 30 odd minute delay between applying a control and then observing the response. So it has to be autonomous, a fully pre-programmed flight with inputs from sensors should it require modification in real time.
As if helicopters aren't weird enough without throwing in an atmosphere just a few percent of the density of Earths.

Then there's the usual helicopter rules to be considered, (especially one that's about 180,000,000 miles away):

"If you're wing is moving faster than you are, you're in a helicopter."

"If there's nothing broken on your helicopter, don't worry, there soon will be."

"That big fan over the pilot's head is there purely to keep him cool. You don't believe me ? Just watch how he breaks into a sweat if the fan stops."

Although rule three might be less of a problem. But remember, there's no ground crew or crash services, at least as far as we know. (You can't rule out Tripod Machines I suppose. But they tend to be hostile.) :smoking:

This is a marvellous achievement. But beware of retreating blade stall.

Mechanical palmtrees on Mars! An odd sort of planet-forming with which to commence the process.

Perhaps the clear line between autonomy and remote control this demonstrates will spread to the marine industry where the topics are presently inter-confused.

I think it uses similar technology....

Is there a remote mechanic to tighten up the "Jesus Nut"?

(That's the nut that stops the rotor from parting company with the aircraft. So called because if it does, you start praying, according to an old acquaintance who served in Viet Nam.)

At the risk of upsetting Dave ..... (well come on, the Uilleann Pipes are better anyway.) :sweat:

Musicological heathen. They may be less forte than the proper sort but what price that in piping!

(E-S will be in on the act with a Hibernian Lambs-leg before you can say Tone).

I don't see how anything about the pipes can upset anyone - he said deliberately missing the joke.:wave:


Anyone remember seeing the piper on the dock at Key West playing just before sunset dressed in nothing but a kilt and boots?

#102 My mother passed away about 5 years ago (she was 98) and on clearing the house I came across my old Ferguson record player bought in 1969. Tried it yesterday still works fine.

Here in Oz once you get to three score years and fifteen (ie beyond the red line) Medicare offers us oldies a review of one's health with a nurse who will test your mental as well as basic medical health more comprehensively than a normal GP consultation allows.

I had my test last Wednesday so for anyone here in Oz contemplating it here is a few of the questions:

• What city is this?
• What day is it?
• What month is it?
• What season is it?
• What is the date?

Then tests blood pressure and blood sugar.
Holds a piece of A4 paper towards you with words 'take this in your right hand'.
She then says 'fold it in half and throw it on the floor'.
A whole heap of questions on lifestyle questions follows:

• Who does the cooking?
• Who does the shopping?
• Who does the washing/housework etc?
• Who does the garden?
• Do you exercise?
• How much water do you drink?
• Do you drink alcohol?
• Do you have your own teeth?
• Do you walk with a stick?
• What is 7 x 2 followed by plus 7, plus 7 plus 7 (up to 35)

Might give a few clues to anyone contemplating such a test.

I got 30 out of 30 but made me even more grateful for my health and life at 77. There are a hell of a lot much worse off.

Are you pulling my plonker?
You now think you have an Adelaide PhD.

How dare she suggest a gentleman would wear stolen teeth!

These questions look very much like the ones that my late Mum was asked when she was slowly deteriorating with dementia, later confirmed as Alzheimer's. I used to take time off work to accompany her to the clinic every six months. What I found slightly worrying was that the person asking the questions seemed less sensible than Mum!

One for the economists and cyclists here on SH.

General Director of Euro Exim Bank Ltd. got economists thinking when he said:

A cyclist is a disaster for the country's economy:

• He does not buy cars and does not borrow money to buy.
• He does not pay for insurance policies.
• He does not buy fuel, does not pay for the necessary maintenance and repairs.
• He does not use paid parking.
• He does not cause serious accidents.
• He does not require multi-lane highways.
• He does not get fat

.
Healthy people are neither needed nor useful for the economy:

• They don't buy medicine.
• They do not go to hospitals or doctors. Nothing is added to the country's GDP (gross domestic product).
• Every new McDonalds, on the other hand:
• Creates at least 30 jobs, 10 cardiologists, 10 dentists, 10 dietary experts and nutritionists plus the people who work at the restaurant itself.

Choose carefully: cycle or McDonald's? It is worth considering.

P.S. Walking is even worse. Pedestrians don't even buy bicycles.