learning curve – Page 212

Blog Name Change

Posted on June 19, 2015June 19, 2015

After carefully considering the media reports of the stowaways on the BA54 flight from Johannesburg to London Heathrow, I have come to the conclusion that I obviously need to rename this blog to more accurately represent just how far I actually am from civilisation:

Sky News:

Guardian:

Henceforth, 6000 miles… will be known as Oops, my mistake. Apparently, it’s actually more than 8000 miles from civilisation…

I’ll sort the URL as soon as I get the new domain name registered.

It seems that the plane must have taken a 2500 mile detour. As some wit remarked:

The deceased probably would have survived the standard length journey.

It’s actually 5645 miles from Joburg to London Heathrow (and 6022 miles from Cape Town).
Flightradar24 reports that the flight in question left JNB at 21:17 and landed at LHR at 07:02. That’s 10¾ hours (allowing for the 1 hr time difference), meaning that if the distance was “over 8000 miles”, the plane must have been supersonic for more than 95% of the journey. Pretty impressive for a 747. (Actually, pretty impossible for a 747.)

Please note my neat sidestepping issues of desperate emigration, airport security and any other serious and awkward issues that this story raises.

UPDATE: The Independent as well

And the BBC:

“Churnalism”.

Subdued hound

Posted on June 17, 2015June 17, 2015

Not 24 hours after this now infamous video was shot, the beagle was at the vet. Which wasn’t good news for anyone concerned – save for the vet’s bank manager, I suppose.

The diagnosis? A poor diet over the weekend. We’re guessing sand, fish, bones, seaweed and some more sand. That sort of thing is going to irritate your colon and it seems that the colon of the beagle is indeed irritated. We do try to watch what the dog eats, but it’s impossible to be there 24/7. We have prevented any previous episodes of this nature, which, given the desire of this breed to eat anything and everything, surely deserves at least some praise.

Despite appropriate medication, Colin remains rather subdued this evening, so we’re left hoping for an overnight turnaround before more serious measures need to be taken tomorrow.

Confluence

Posted on June 12, 2015June 12, 2015

“I love it when a plan comes together,” said Hannibal, although for me, something better than a plan coming together is a series of other things which aren’t plans coming together and making a blog post.
Like this sort of confluence, for example:

A visit to Sheffield. (I just did this.)
A shot I took in a pub toilet on Sunday. (Careful now.)
And a pocketed article on the demise of Working Men’s Clubs in Sheffield, featuring this line:

We did have a young band called Drenge who filmed a video here recently, but other than that we don’t have much interest from students and the like.

Two mentions in a week of a (local to) Sheffield band that I didn’t know about?
About time I knew about them, I think. And wikipedia will assist:

Drenge are an English two-piece alternative rock band, from Castleton, Derbyshire, based in Sheffield. The band is made up of Eoin Loveless, on guitar and vocals, and his younger brother Rory, on drums. They take their name from the Danish word for “boys”, although it is pronounced differently.

And the Drenge video shot in the Sheffield Lane WMC was for We Can Do What We Want – an anarchic, punk-rock effort with rather too much gratuitous Clockwork Orange-style ultraviolence for my liking.

Not that this video is ever so much better, although at least the main victim is a W-reg Citroen Saxo rather than a bingo crowd. Starting with some teens drinking in bus shelter in Bamford (I was there on Tuesday), continuing with some joy-riding in the Hope Valley, and finishing with a jealous girlfriend and her mate beating up a lad and chucking his body onto a moorland fire (actually, it’s not better at all), this is Backwaters:

It’s pretty good music though, with hints of Arctic Monkeys, Joy Division, The Wildhearts and even The Smiths, as well as the more obvious comparisons with that heavy, grungy punk backdrop. Maybe something for walking along the beaches of the Southern Cape in wintertime.

And so I will, as the pub toilet ad suggested, give the album a go and I will report back.

Cut off low

Posted on June 3, 2015June 3, 2015

*tuts like an expensive plumber or garage mechanic*

“Well, there’s yer problem, innit?”“See, what you’ve got ‘ere is that Sarf Atlantic ‘igh forming a ridge of raised pressure, which is cuttin’ off that low pressure area, isolatin’ it over the Cape coast, innit?

I’d say you’re buggered, squire.”

Full explanation.

For next summer…

Posted on June 3, 2015June 3, 2015

I’m already planning how I can get a FloWave into my back garden ready for use next summer.

“What’s A FloWave?” I hear you ask (I have an acute sense of listenage).
Here’s all you need to know:

Conceived for cutting edge academic research into wave and tidal current interactions, the FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility is also an amazing tool for commercial developers to ensure their technologies and projects perform ‘right first time’ and are de-risked as much as practical before cutting steel or going offshore.

So why do I need one in my back garden? Because, well – look at it – JUST LOOK AT IT!

Yes, it starts slowly, but how good is that single spout (aka a “Concentric Wave Singularity”) going to look in the Cape Town sun? And how big, as well? There’s not much in that video to give a sense of scale to the FloWave, but given that the diameter of that pool is 82 feet (25 metres), that water spike must be somewhere around 15 metres in height. Imagine the freefall.

So yes, I’m going to need a new, bigger back garden (or I suppose I could just remove a bit of house?), but it’s got to be worth it. I’m off to find a tape measure and a loan company.

Longer demonstration video here, and some technical stuff here.