I have questions: “that guy carrying on around Broomhill” edition

Spotted on Reddit, this:

There’s a lot going on here for a three-line post.

First off, let’s put the serious baby to bed: mental illness is no joke, and there are too many people wandering around our societies that could do with help. The guy shouting and fighting invisible assailants in his underwear at the bottom of Alphen Hill is one.

Wait. Let me rephrase that.

The guy in his underwear shouting and fighting invisible assailants at the bottom of Alphen Hill is one.

Same words. Different order. Different meaning. More accurate. Better.

But that aside – because I can’t do anything about the need for more social care here or in Sheffield – lots to dig into.

First off, then: Broomhill or Broomhall? This is a local point of interest, but I’ve always considered that the Botanical Gardens were sandwiched between Endcliffe and Broomhall. Unless you mean the electoral ward of Broomhill and Sharrow Vale, in which case absolutely, fair enough.

But who talks about electoral wards outside of local elections?

And you’re saying that this guy is “weird” and “very strange”.

Next up. That’s a lot of information to have picked up in just a quick jog past. And that suggests that the poster here had his interest piqued enough that either a) he stopped and listened for a while, or b) he jogged past several times in order to pick up more details.

Either way, that doesn’t seem fair, given that we are warned in the title of his post to “stay away”. What is he really concerned about: our safety in the presence of a (quite literally) raving (quite literally) mad (quite literally) man, or that we might actually find out where Atlantis is?

I know we’ve all been wondering.

And he says it was weird (yes) and incoherent, but he’s clearly gained a lot of detail there about the gold guilder and the wizard. Sadly, judging by the post, which suggests that the subject of the tale was entirely visible, the guilder – golden, nogal – was wasted because the wizard was a fake.

Never trust a wizard. Or rather anyone anyone saying that they are a wizard.

I think we’ve all been duped at some time or another.

“He made some good points”

Wut?

Did he? What were they, then? Because checking the post above, you don’t mention anything that – for me, at least – might fall into the relatively broad category of “good points”.

Once again, we’re left with more questions than answers. Not least the location of Atlantis.

Very frustrating.

UPDATE: This comment in response to the post:

Oh, I have seen him in the cemetery off Ecclesall Rd, saying pretty similar things whilst also dancing to some fabulous 90s techno

Wow. I’ve got new found respect for the guy now I’ve read that. Clearly he is trying to get the message across, through the medium of dance. Keep it up, fella!

6 months in a leaky boat

With apologies to Tim Finn and Split Enz for borrowing stealing their title.

The ISS (you may remember it from posts infinatum on here) has sprung a leak.

[brief pause while I spill coffee all over my laptop]
[that wasn’t a good idea]

Look. We all have problems and they affect us all in different ways. There are levels here. My laptop may have just taken a hit of Nespresso to its power switch, but all the oxygen that I rely on for breathing isn’t disappearing into space.

Which is nice.

Apparently, the leak was likely caused by a MicroMeteoroid and Orbital Debris (MMOD) strike to one of the windows. A MicroMeteoroid is exactly what it sounds like: a very, very small meteoroid, but it was the Orbital Debris bit that got me interested.

Orbital Debris is also exactly what it sounds like. Debris in orbit around Earth. But what I didn’t realise was that it is often man-made. Yep. We’ve dumped shedloads 0f litter in space too. Great. Is there actually anywhere that we have f**ked up yet?

And MMOD strikes aren’t even unusual:

Although spacecraft are designed with a level of protection from such impacts, MMOD was the third biggest threat to losing an orbiter during her mission – second only to launch and re-entry.

During the Space Shuttle era, all of the orbiters would receive flesh wounds from MMOD strikes.

And because things in space generally go much faster than on earth, the damage is… well… here’s an example of what those MMOD strikes look like:

Eina.

But it was this line that amazed me:

Atlantis and Endeavour both suffered “bullet hole” impacts to their radiators, with Atlantis’ damage was sustained when she was hit by a tiny piece of circuit board on orbit – likely from a destroyed satellite. The damage held no mission impact and was only noticed once she had returned home and was in post flight processing inside her Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF).

Of course, NASA did a whole risk-analysis, debriefing, scientific investigation technical report paper on the whole thing. During the investigation, they tried to recreate the incident (in a lab on earth) by firing a bit of circuit board at a space shuttle panel at 4.14km/sec (that’s about 15,000kph). The entry hole on the original space shuttle panel was 2.74mm in size. The fragment of circuit board was only 0.4mm long, but when it’s going that fast, even little stuff is going to hurt.

There’s no evidence that the ISS window strike was from a man-made object, but it’s a proven fact that we’re literally putting astronauts in danger by putting them in the firing line of plastic rubbish that we’ve put into space and which is now hitting the ISS and other spacecraft.

Bonkers.

Oh, mate…

Today, in the world of “well-respected” South African Sports “Scientists” (and cookbook co-authors), this:

Tim Noakes on Twitter Did Atlantis really exist Free book httpt.codRpSkFQcFy - Google Chrome 2015-08-31 113555 AM.bmp

Has he finally gone full potato?
Never go #fullpotato. (Too many carbs, see?)

Next week, on the anniversary of 9/11, expect a link to “what really happened that day (and it’s not what the mainstream media want you to believe)”, or some such.

Thanks, you-know-who

Atlantis

Wow. More brilliance from Jack & Harry – the Seafret boys (you may remember them from such posts as Seafret – Oceans). Here’s the new video for Atlantis, filmed in Ireland with the assistance of Brendan Canty, who did the video for Hozier’s Take Me To Church. (Ellie Goulding cover version here)

It’s lovely, lovely stuff.

Also, go and listen to this – Sinking Ship – my personal favourite of their tracks.

So far.