On 28/10/09 19:42, Derek Geldard wrote:

Anybody over about 55 will remember huge coke fired classroom stoves

Over 45 if brought up in Lincolnshire.

David WE Roberts wrote:
"Bill Wright" wrote in message
news

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
Tim W wrote:

It's the subtle introduction of "though crime" that's most
worrying. You try
to start a reasoned and balanced debate on "Is excessive
immigration bad for Britain" without being instantly labelled as
BNP.
WEll that is changing. Its not immigration per se, its too many
people full stop.

No, it's immigration. There's too many foreigners in this country.

Mind you, the other thing is that the current system encourages the
workshy and the stupid to breed like rabbits. When these lasses get
pregnant just to get a council flat they should be send back to mum
and dad with a flea in their ear. Child benefit should be abolished.

Back in your cage you dolts!

All the NHS dentists I have found in the last five years have been
Polish or South African.

Long live immigration :-)

I had one "once". The practice had been sold on without informing patients!
A Polish lady who in practice and result reminded me of the Swedish Chef
from the Muppets!

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:21:28 -0700 (PDT), Owain
had this to say:

And without cattle there'd be no leather so that would mean oil based
plastic substitutes for footwear, clothing and furniture.

Footwear - wooden clogs.
Clothing - cotton, wool or linen.
Furniture - wood and possibly cotton and/or wool.

Of course, not all 'plastic' stuff is oil-based - think bakelite.

--
Frank Erskine

dennis@home wrote:
"T i m" wrote in message
...

Speed limits and then cameras are primarily there to manage trap
those who can't make decisions on their own (and in that process also
trap those spending more time actually driving attentively and not
staring at their speedo or circles on sticks). I'm not saying most of
us can't do both of course but speed and safe driving can be two
different things.

I would say that if you can't control your vehicles speed correctly
then you are not driving safely.
The excuse used by poor drivers that they spend all their time
looking for hazards and can't see the speed limit signs or the speedo
is just plain cr@p.
If you can't keep an eye on your speed and know what the signs say
then you are already driving too fast for your abilities.

dennis, you will no doubt expect me to disagree from our previous
conversations.
Please do read the section of the link entitled "Modern erosion", then
perhaps you will see my point.

It's an interesting site by the way if you have not come across it.

http://www.safespeed.org.uk/roadsafety.html

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:11:11 +0000, geoff wrote:


I very rarely concentrate on my driving, its almost exclusively handled
in the subconscious, the same with e.g. skiing or other occupations
where automatic responses are better and faster than conscious thought,
even when driving at speeds over 100mph where you wake up a bit

Another example of that is my Mrs when she's clay shooting. If she
takes advice she's crap. If she's ready and looking for them she's ok.
If they surprise her she's brilliant. ;-)

When I have to start concentrating on my driving, I'll prolly hand my
licence back, as I'll realise I've become as bad as dennis and clive
(what a name for a comedy duo)

Don't ;-)

Cheers, T i m

T i m wrote:
On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:23:57 -0000, "dennis@home"
wrote:



"T i m" wrote in message
...

Speed limits and then cameras are primarily there to manage trap
those who can't make decisions on their own (and in that process
also trap those spending more time actually driving attentively and
not staring at their speedo or circles on sticks). I'm not saying
most of us can't do both of course but speed and safe driving can
be two different things.

I would say that if you can't control your vehicles speed correctly
then you are not driving safely.

Agreed ... or you are being punted up the arse by a lorry ... ;-)

The excuse used by poor drivers that they spend all their time
looking for hazards and can't see the speed limit signs or the
speedo is just plain cr@p.

Yup. Not sure anyone here has said that though?

If you can't keep an eye on your speed and know what the signs say
then you are already driving too fast for your abilities.

For most of the time and circumstances I'd agree. But consider how
long it might take to miss a repeater sign when turning onto a main
road and 'concentrating' on the parked car you are overtaking and the
kids feet you have seen on the road underneath. Or the sign hidden
behind a parked lorry or buried in the undergrowth [1].


ie, They have speed limits in the pits on race tracks but not on the
track yet not everyone dies?

Put them all in normal cars without safety cages, harnesses, crash
helmets, etc. and a lot more would die, they have far more accidents
than most drivers but survive them through engineering.

Well maybe but whilst doing far more miles 'on the edge' in a few
minutes than most drivers will do in a lifetime. But we weren't really
talking about crash survival. ;-(

A 30 mph GATSO will trigger when you go past it on an otherwise empty
road at 2am and at 40 mph if you saw the speed limit or camera or not.
It won't trigger as you knock a school kid off their bike when doing
30 mph.

I'm not defending poor 'care' here, just that it is possible to be
driving carefully and still miss 'information'.

FWIW, part of why I like and have used a GPS for many years before
they became 'cool' was because I can ignore the general mess of
confusing road signs and therefore try to focus on those signs that
are important (like hazard warning and speed changes).

Cheers, T i m

[1] Dad was stopped years ago for 'speeding', similar to the OP story,
just inside a 40 after a 60.

Plod: You know the speed limit is along here?
Dad: Yes, it's 60 mph.
Plod: No, it's 40 mph.
Dad: Oh where does it say that?
Plod: Back there (points to the back of a circle on a stick)
Dad: Oh, that said 40 did it Officer?
Plod: Yes.
Dad: Well I couldn't see it, let's look.

Plod and Dad walk back up the road and they both look at the circle on
a stick. Dad walks back to his car and drives off leaving plod trying
to clean black circle with his hanky.

I agree with your general approach. It is driving safely under the
conditions such as you describe not foolish adherence to limits to avoid
technical transgression and more importantly not creating danger by driving
at the speed limit when conditions do not allow.

I smiled at your father's anecdote and then pondered....

geoff wrote:
In message , Clot
writes
As a person that got caught speeding in exactly the same situation,
I have a great deal of sympathy with your mate. In my instance, I
had been diligently keeping to a 40 mph limit (despite a queue of
cars up my tail) and was slowing down as I came into the 30mph zone.
They had just been moved (which I had forgotten). Low and behold
there was a camera van parked just within the 30mph zone. I swear my
rear bumper was still in the 40mph when they got me!

Got caught (33 in a 30 zone - I thought that was within the limit of
the limit) coming out of Much Wenlock just before it changed to 40
mph and well after the village had finished

I should have challenged it, but CBA

Fixed camera? Unlikely by the sounds of it. More likely the van on it's
collection round.

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:52:28 -0000, "David WE Roberts"
had this to say:

All the NHS dentists I have found in the last five years have been Polish or
South African.

My dentist is Chinese (well, from Hong Kong), but not NHS. Others that
I'm aware of are Scottish or English.

My only objection to my dentist is that he chats (usually teasing his
assistantess) to me while he has my mouth wide open whilst
wire-brushing or whatever, so that all I can respond is 'urgh urgh'
(OWTTE).

--
Frank Erskine

Andy Burns wrote:
On 28/10/09 19:42, Derek Geldard wrote:

Anybody over about 55 will remember huge coke fired classroom stoves

Over 45 if brought up in Lincolnshire.

The timewarp was still true in the early 80s. My wife and I ( both from N
Wales which was quite behind the times) experienced life in Leeds,
Manchester and Birmingham before moving to Gainsborough. What is it about
the Trent Bridge?

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:10:49 GMT, The Medway Handyman wrote:

The premise is that fossil fuel use causes freak weather conditions.
The black swan is that freak weather conditions have always exsisted.

Weather is not climate.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:08:42 GMT, The Medway Handyman wrote:

So why did the Thames freeze over 200 years ago then?

Bloody volcano IIRC. Krakatoa?

1883 - 83 years after.

Tambora and others gave the world "The year without a summer" but
that was 1816.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer

Interesting graph, general cooling until the mid 1800's then rather
rapid warming...

--
Cheers
Dave.

Frank Erskine wrote:
On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:52:28 -0000, "David WE Roberts"
had this to say:

All the NHS dentists I have found in the last five years have been
Polish or South African.

My dentist is Chinese (well, from Hong Kong), but not NHS. Others that
I'm aware of are Scottish or English.

My only objection to my dentist is that he chats (usually teasing his
assistantess) to me while he has my mouth wide open whilst
wire-brushing or whatever, so that all I can respond is 'urgh urgh'
(OWTTE).

They certainly seem to enjoy doing that, don't they!

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
wrote:
On 28 Oct, The Natural Philosopher wrote:


Coal doesn't need a forced draught.

I've come across coal that needed forced draught, and even then hardly
worked.

anthracitye is teh only pone. and to an exteng dry steam coal. Thse have
low hydrocarbon content compare with lignite of normal bituminous.


Coke does.

How did the braziers used by nigh****chmen in the 50s work? They were
coke in
a can with holes in and natural draught. Coal would have been stolen.

If coke was so easy to use, coke would have been stolen too..

I THOUGHT they were coal actually. I guess coke must just about burn
without forced draught, but is hard work. WE used to buy anthracite, coke
and steam coal for a closed stove/fire. All were a devil to light compared
with normal bituminous coal. Coal is a cinch in an open fire.


W used to use some steam coal or coke in the open fire, but it wasn't self
sustaining - always needed ordinary coal.


There was a small gasworks near where I live. The site is still there, and
the old coking furnace and chimney are still in place, and form a 'feature'
of the use that the building is now put to. The coke that was produced from
the gas making process, went to a car engine casting plant nearby, and was
also bagged and sold to the general public, so there must have been a demand
for it for 'household' use. I seem to remember my parents buying both coal
and coke, and I have a dim recollection of a fire being 'made' with coal,
and then banked with coke, which burnt much more slowly, and gave off a more
steady heat than a roaring fire up the chimmally ... I also seem to recall
the fire being 'calmed' at night by banking it up with powdered and chipped
coal that my old dad used to refer to as "nutty slack" I think it was ??

Arfa

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:11:11 +0000, geoff wrote:
When I have to start concentrating on my driving, I'll prolly hand my
licence back, as I'll realise I've become as bad as dennis and clive
(what a name for a comedy duo)

Barking Toads as far as the eye could see!

In message , "dennis@home"
writes


"T i m" wrote in message
.. .

Speed limits and then cameras are primarily there to manage trap
those who can't make decisions on their own (and in that process also
trap those spending more time actually driving attentively and not
staring at their speedo or circles on sticks). I'm not saying most of
us can't do both of course but speed and safe driving can be two
different things.

I would say that if you can't control your vehicles speed correctly
then you are not driving safely.
The excuse used by poor drivers that they spend all their time looking
for hazards


The flashing light and the words "Dennis at the wheel" ?

--
geoff

In message , Clot
writes
geoff wrote:
In message , Clot
writes
As a person that got caught speeding in exactly the same situation,
I have a great deal of sympathy with your mate. In my instance, I
had been diligently keeping to a 40 mph limit (despite a queue of
cars up my tail) and was slowing down as I came into the 30mph zone.
They had just been moved (which I had forgotten). Low and behold
there was a camera van parked just within the 30mph zone. I swear my
rear bumper was still in the 40mph when they got me!

Got caught (33 in a 30 zone - I thought that was within the limit of
the limit) coming out of Much Wenlock just before it changed to 40
mph and well after the village had finished

I should have challenged it, but CBA

Fixed camera? Unlikely by the sounds of it. More likely the van on it's
collection round.



Yup - I saw it, looked at the speedo and my speed looked OK to me


--
geoff

"Clot" wrote in message
...
David WE Roberts wrote:
"Bill Wright" wrote in message
news

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
Tim W wrote:

It's the subtle introduction of "though crime" that's most
worrying. You try
to start a reasoned and balanced debate on "Is excessive
immigration bad for Britain" without being instantly labelled as
BNP.
WEll that is changing. Its not immigration per se, its too many
people full stop.

No, it's immigration. There's too many foreigners in this country.

Mind you, the other thing is that the current system encourages the
workshy and the stupid to breed like rabbits. When these lasses get
pregnant just to get a council flat they should be send back to mum
and dad with a flea in their ear. Child benefit should be abolished.

Back in your cage you dolts!

All the NHS dentists I have found in the last five years have been
Polish or South African.

Long live immigration :-)

I had one "once". The practice had been sold on without informing
patients! A Polish lady who in practice and result reminded me of the
Swedish Chef from the Muppets!


Same happened to a friend of mine. He said that his looked like a Russian
shot putter, dressed like the bad-arsed ones in Hostel - plastic apron, the
lot ! He said that her English was less than satisfactory, and the thing
that finished him off with her was that after she had finished 'examining'
his teeth - and apparently he thought at the time that she was going to lug
a couple of fillings out, she pulled on them so hard with the hooky thing -
she then started saying "extraction, extraction" and pointing at the back of
his mouth ...

He now goes to my dentist. English, slightly eccentric, as all of the best
dentists and doctors are, and the gentlest most caring practitioner you
could ever wish to meet. And he's NHS, and he doesn't believe in making you
have a dental health insurance policy that costs you more per year than the
actual costs of your treatment.

Arfa

"geoff" wrote in message
...
In message , Clive
George writes
"T i m" wrote in message
. ..

So you were (effectively) fined for a lapse of memory, not
concentration or attention or because you were driving familar ground
but not driving dangerously?

"Sorry, I forgot the road had a corner here"

You aren't actually driving the road by memory, you are prioritising
the important stuff, like what that kid on a bike is about to do not
if the number on a stick is the same as it was yesterday.

If you're overloaded by that information (kid on bike, number on sign),
you
either need to take steps to reduce that load or increase the amount of
information you can take on. The latter means concentrating on driving,
not
going on autopilot.

I very rarely concentrate on my driving, its almost exclusively handled in
the subconscious, the same with e.g. skiing or other occupations where
automatic responses are better and faster than conscious thought, even
when driving at speeds over 100mph where you wake up a bit

That's good. Others are claiming they don't have sufficient processing power
left to handle all the things they need to. You're not. Which means you can
handle all the things they claim they can't.

There is another alternative, which is to slow down to a
level where you can cope with the amount of information coming in, but
that's clearly a ridiculous idea.

Which tells me that you shouldn't really be driving, there is no natural
ability there

But you just said you're already driving at a level where you can cope with
the amount of information coming in. That's fine - you're not the one who'll
be getting caught out by new speed limits or other unfamiliar situations.

Or are you now telling me that you do drive beyond your abilities?

"T i m" wrote in message
...

The excuse used by poor drivers that they spend all their time looking for
hazards and can't see the speed limit signs or the speedo is just plain
cr@p.

Yup. Not sure anyone here has said that though?

'fraid so.

Oh look - it was you:

"You aren't actually driving the road by memory, you are prioritising
the important stuff, like what that kid on a bike is about to do not
if the number on a stick is the same as it was yesterday."

Ok, so that's a subset of what dennis said, but the excuse he mentions is
one which is used rather too many times.

Arfa Daily wrote:
"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
wrote:
On 28 Oct, The Natural Philosopher wrote:


Coal doesn't need a forced draught.

I've come across coal that needed forced draught, and even then
hardly worked.

anthracitye is teh only pone. and to an exteng dry steam coal. Thse
have low hydrocarbon content compare with lignite of normal
bituminous.

Coke does.

How did the braziers used by nigh****chmen in the 50s work? They
were coke in
a can with holes in and natural draught. Coal would have been
stolen.

If coke was so easy to use, coke would have been stolen too..

I THOUGHT they were coal actually. I guess coke must just about burn
without forced draught, but is hard work. WE used to buy anthracite,
coke and steam coal for a closed stove/fire. All were a devil to
light compared with normal bituminous coal. Coal is a cinch in an
open fire. W used to use some steam coal or coke in the open fire, but it
wasn't self sustaining - always needed ordinary coal.


There was a small gasworks near where I live. The site is still
there, and the old coking furnace and chimney are still in place, and
form a 'feature' of the use that the building is now put to. The coke
that was produced from the gas making process, went to a car engine
casting plant nearby, and was also bagged and sold to the general
public, so there must have been a demand for it for 'household' use.
I seem to remember my parents buying both coal and coke, and I have a
dim recollection of a fire being 'made' with coal, and then banked
with coke, which burnt much more slowly, and gave off a more steady
heat than a roaring fire up the chimmally ... I also seem to recall
the fire being 'calmed' at night by banking it up with powdered and
chipped coal that my old dad used to refer to as "nutty slack" I
think it was ??

Indeed. But you are surely teasing us with your alleged ignorance? When I
were a nipper, t'was me duty to maintain the central heater boiler which
thrived on coke. To get it started, I'd use them wooden boxes which were
used to import items. I had to use the axe and ensure that the sticks were
of the right dimensions to fit int' 'ole and elp combustion. Then some
suitable quantity of appropriately sized coal to git the bsggsr goin'.

Eh up, I forgot the paper that were stuck on the nail ont' door of the small
room that I put in the boiler before the wooden sticks.

Then, the main fuel, coke.

Now, if you wished to avoid excessive work, you learnt when and how to
riddle the grate to ensure that all the clinker went through. If you failed
to keep it goin', mum was not best pleased, especially on a Monday!.

To keep the backboiler going in the fire in the dining room, what helped the
boiler to heat the water, you needed to make sure that Dad got a roaring
fire going before he went to bed then closed down the admission of air and
placed on the slack or nutty slack. Where we lived was windy and slack was
advisable being smaller in dimension and ensured the fire survived the
night.

We did have fire guards!

Would this be allowed by the blxxdy Elfin Safety these days?

The flat bed coal wagons on the streets with loose sacks on the back. The
poor buggers carrying 1 cwt of coal.

Them were the days?

geoff wrote:
In message , Clot
writes
geoff wrote:
In message , Clot
writes
As a person that got caught speeding in exactly the same situation,
I have a great deal of sympathy with your mate. In my instance, I
had been diligently keeping to a 40 mph limit (despite a queue of
cars up my tail) and was slowing down as I came into the 30mph
zone. They had just been moved (which I had forgotten). Low and
behold there was a camera van parked just within the 30mph zone. I
swear my rear bumper was still in the 40mph when they got me!

Got caught (33 in a 30 zone - I thought that was within the limit of
the limit) coming out of Much Wenlock just before it changed to 40
mph and well after the village had finished

I should have challenged it, but CBA

Fixed camera? Unlikely by the sounds of it. More likely the van on
it's collection round.



Yup - I saw it, looked at the speedo and my speed looked OK to me

Hmm! Though Brainstorm has left, just watch that none of the contents of his
horseboxes crosses the border. Offa's Dyke has sedimented up over the years
and is penetrable.

Frank Erskine wrote:
On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:21:28 -0700 (PDT), Owain
had this to say:

And without cattle there'd be no leather so that would mean oil based
plastic substitutes for footwear, clothing and furniture.

Footwear - wooden clogs.
Clothing - cotton, wool or linen.
Furniture - wood and possibly cotton and/or wool.

Of course, not all 'plastic' stuff is oil-based - think bakelite.

And the sheep which grow the wool wouldn't fart?

--
Rod

Clot wrote:


The flat bed coal wagons on the streets with loose sacks on the back. The
poor buggers carrying 1 cwt of coal.

Them were the days?


Or 2cwt before WWI.

--
Rod

On Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:40:41 +0000, Rod had
this to say:

Frank Erskine wrote:
On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:21:28 -0700 (PDT), Owain
had this to say:

And without cattle there'd be no leather so that would mean oil based
plastic substitutes for footwear, clothing and furniture.

Footwear - wooden clogs.
Clothing - cotton, wool or linen.
Furniture - wood and possibly cotton and/or wool.

Of course, not all 'plastic' stuff is oil-based - think bakelite.

And the sheep which grow the wool wouldn't fart?

Sheep aren't cattle.

--
Frank Erskine

On Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:17:32 -0000, "Clive George"
wrote:

"T i m" wrote in message
.. .

The excuse used by poor drivers that they spend all their time looking for
hazards and can't see the speed limit signs or the speedo is just plain
cr@p.

Yup. Not sure anyone here has said that though?

'fraid so.

Oh look - it was you:

"You aren't actually driving the road by memory, you are prioritising
the important stuff, like what that kid on a bike is about to do not
if the number on a stick is the same as it was yesterday."

Ok, so that's a subset of what dennis said, but the excuse he mentions is
one which is used rather too many times.

But you are (or are choosing to) miss the point. If you regularly
drive a route you 'know' all the signs so don't look for them. Even
less so if you are concentrating on something more important (kid on
road).

No one has said you can't see kid AND sign but most people would
assume the sign read today the same as it read for the last 10 years.

Or maybe your memory is so bad that you would (always)? What if the
sign was obscured by a lorry. Would you park up and go back and read
it, in case it's changed (if we are being silly).

T i m

Frank Erskine wrote:

Of course, not all 'plastic' stuff is oil-based - think bakelite.

Casein, oops! Derived from milk, the eco-loonies don't like that.
Cellulose
Nitrocellulose
Cellulose Acetate Butyrate (CAB)
Rubber (incl vulcanised and chlorinated)

And I'm sure there are many more. Mostly however they tend to be crap.
Would people really want to have highly flammable/exploding knife
handles in their kitchen for example? stares in cutlery drawer at
collection of "bone"[1] handled knives Umm other than me, that is.




[1] nitrocellulose.

Frank Erskine wrote:
On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:21:28 -0700 (PDT), Owain
had this to say:

And without cattle there'd be no leather so that would mean oil based
plastic substitutes for footwear, clothing and furniture.

Footwear - wooden clogs.

Or sneakers made of rubber and cotton.

Clothing - cotton, wool or linen.

Mine is mostly anyway.

Furniture - wood and possibly cotton and/or wool.


no need for animal stuff in furniture at all. Leather is the exception.

Horsehair is useful tho.


Of course, not all 'plastic' stuff is oil-based - think bakelite.

Mind if I dont'? :-)

On Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:07:29 +0000, Frank Erskine
wrote:

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:21:28 -0700 (PDT), Owain
had this to say:

And without cattle there'd be no leather so that would mean oil based
plastic substitutes for footwear, clothing and furniture.

Footwear - wooden clogs.
Clothing - cotton, wool or linen.
Furniture - wood and possibly cotton and/or wool.

Of course, not all 'plastic' stuff is oil-based - think bakelite.

Phenol Formaldehyde innit ?

Whereja get the phenol ?

Whereja get the formaldehyde ?

Derek

Steve Firth wrote:
Frank Erskine wrote:

Of course, not all 'plastic' stuff is oil-based - think bakelite.

Casein, oops! Derived from milk, the eco-loonies don't like that.
Cellulose
Nitrocellulose
Cellulose Acetate Butyrate (CAB)
Rubber (incl vulcanised and chlorinated)

And I'm sure there are many more. Mostly however they tend to be crap.
Would people really want to have highly flammable/exploding knife
handles in their kitchen for example? stares in cutlery drawer at
collection of "bone"[1] handled knives Umm other than me, that is.


plastics can be made from any number of hydrocarbon feedstocks. Oil is
of course an organic vegetable based material.Its just been pre
processed by a few million years.





[1] nitrocellulose.

On Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:45:07 +0000, (Steve Firth)
wrote:

Frank Erskine wrote:

Of course, not all 'plastic' stuff is oil-based - think bakelite.

Casein, oops! Derived from milk, the eco-loonies don't like that.
Cellulose
Nitrocellulose
Cellulose Acetate Butyrate (CAB)
Rubber (incl vulcanised and chlorinated)

And I'm sure there are many more. Mostly however they tend to be crap.
Would people really want to have highly flammable/exploding knife
handles in their kitchen for example? stares in cutlery drawer at
collection of "bone"[1] handled knives Umm other than me, that is.


DIRC ...

As a 10y.o. kid playing around with fire during half term at Bonfire
Night, once you got them lit you couldn't put them out ?

Derek

Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:08:42 GMT, The Medway Handyman wrote:

So why did the Thames freeze over 200 years ago then?
Bloody volcano IIRC. Krakatoa?
1883 - 83 years after.

Tambora and others gave the world "The year without a summer" but
that was 1816.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer

Interesting graph, general cooling until the mid 1800's then rather
rapid warming...

Yes. The dust, which cools, settles out quicker than the CO2 which warms..

All this gotr me looking at historical volcanoes., and the last great
mass extinction. I wonder if there is any coincidence that a large
asteroid hitting the planet coincided with a massive volcanic
eruption..never thought to study the stresses on a planet when hit hard
with a cosmic bullet. I wonder..

The other thought that occurs, is that whilst we may technically have
the means to prevent climate change, as a species we don't have the
supra national political structures, the educational sophistication, and
the general mental outlook, to make it realistic.

I suspect what in fact will happen, is that lots of people will in fact die.

On Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:43:16 +0000, Rod
wrote:

Clot wrote:


The flat bed coal wagons on the streets with loose sacks on the back. The
poor buggers carrying 1 cwt of coal.

Them were the days?


Or 2cwt before WWI.


Jesus H Christ on a bike. No wonder *all* the men (meaning all the
dads) in the street I grew up in were played out sometime between 50
- 55.

I was just thinking to myself "He's got that wrong, they were only
half a hundredweight".

Remembering that the "coalman" would carry sacks of coal right
throught the house to where the coal was stored even upstairs or down,
and leaving a trail of coal dust and black smears on the decorations
wherever he went.

Derek

"geoff" wrote in message
...


I very rarely concentrate on my driving, its almost exclusively handled in
the subconscious, the same with e.g. skiing or other occupations where
automatic responses are better and faster than conscious thought, even
when driving at speeds over 100mph where you wake up a bit

So you admit to having so many incidents that it has become a learnt
response.
You really are a pratt.

"Dave" wrote in message
...

I entered a 50 MPH zone that did not have the obligatory warning that it
was coming up and I entered the first camera zone at 70 MPH. I'll let you
know if I get a ticket.

I believe they are average speed cameras so if you do get done you would
have had to drive at 70 for long enough for you to realise you were in the
wrong.

Derek Geldard wrote:

Would people really want to have highly flammable/exploding knife
handles in their kitchen for example? stares in cutlery drawer at
collection of "bone"[1] handled knives Umm other than me, that is.


DIRC ...

As a 10y.o. kid playing around with fire during half term at Bonfire
Night, once you got them lit you couldn't put them out ?

Oh indeedy, you could make loverly stink bomb using old knife handles.
Like making them from ping-pong balls or old nitrocellulose film stock,
you wrap in silver foil, scrape away a bit of foil, light it and blow it
out immediately and it then creates huge clouds of choking smoke. The
foil retains enough heat to cause the nitrocellulose to smoulder and
vapourise but doesn't let it get hot enough to burn.

Derek Geldard wrote:
On Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:07:29 +0000, Frank Erskine
wrote:

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:21:28 -0700 (PDT), Owain
had this to say:

And without cattle there'd be no leather so that would mean oil based
plastic substitutes for footwear, clothing and furniture.

Footwear - wooden clogs.
Clothing - cotton, wool or linen.
Furniture - wood and possibly cotton and/or wool.

Of course, not all 'plastic' stuff is oil-based - think bakelite.

Phenol Formaldehyde innit ?

Whereja get the phenol ?


Trees?

Its a naturally occuring substance in many plants. And a constituent of
creosote IIRC.

Whereja get the formaldehyde ?


Methanol. Otherwise known as 'wood alcohol' Guess where it comes from.


Derek

Derek Geldard wrote:
On Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:43:16 +0000, Rod
wrote:

Clot wrote:

The flat bed coal wagons on the streets with loose sacks on the back. The
poor buggers carrying 1 cwt of coal.

Them were the days?


Or 2cwt before WWI.


Jesus H Christ on a bike. No wonder *all* the men (meaning all the
dads) in the street I grew up in were played out sometime between 50
- 55.

I was just thinking to myself "He's got that wrong, they were only
half a hundredweight".


No a cwt.


which isn't that much. 50kG appx.

Elfin Safety puts a limit of 35kg on what you may lift regularly.

I can do 50kg, but I'd rather not.


Remembering that the "coalman" would carry sacks of coal right
throught the house to where the coal was stored even upstairs or down,
and leaving a trail of coal dust and black smears on the decorations
wherever he went.


Yup.

Derek

"T i m" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:23:57 -0000, "dennis@home"

If you can't keep an eye on your speed and know what the signs say then
you
are already driving too fast for your abilities.

For most of the time and circumstances I'd agree. But consider how
long it might take to miss a repeater sign when turning onto a main
road and 'concentrating' on the parked car you are overtaking and the
kids feet you have seen on the road underneath. Or the sign hidden
behind a parked lorry or buried in the undergrowth [1].

If you turn onto a main road with a different speed limit they are signed
before you turn.

ie, They have speed limits in the pits on race tracks but not on the
track yet not everyone dies?

Put them all in normal cars without safety cages, harnesses, crash
helmets,
etc. and a lot more would die, they have far more accidents than most
drivers but survive them through engineering.

Well maybe but whilst doing far more miles 'on the edge' in a few
minutes than most drivers will do in a lifetime. But we weren't really
talking about crash survival. ;-(

You mean they die without crashing?


A 30 mph GATSO will trigger when you go past it on an otherwise empty
road at 2am and at 40 mph if you saw the speed limit or camera or not.
It won't trigger as you knock a school kid off their bike when doing
30 mph.

Gatso cameras perform a useful function, they get drivers that habitually
speed points, fines and onto the police database.
These drivers seldom only speed but do other things like running lights,
drive too close, and generally be idiots.
he sooner they attract police attention the better.


I'm not defending poor 'care' here, just that it is possible to be
driving carefully and still miss 'information'.

If it happens often then I suggest you take some lessons or stop taking the
drugs.
Of course you wont know its happening until you have a few fines + points.


FWIW, part of why I like and have used a GPS for many years before
they became 'cool' was because I can ignore the general mess of
confusing road signs and therefore try to focus on those signs that
are important (like hazard warning and speed changes).

I have a gps with speed warning.
It tells you if you exceed the speed limit not if there is a camera there.
Its a tomtom like many people use to avoid cameras.
It shows that they intend to commit a crime if they only have it set to warn
of speed cameras.

On Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:37:41 -0000, Clot wrote:

The coke that was produced from the gas making process, went to a
car
engine casting plant nearby, and was also bagged and sold to the
general public, so there must have been a demand for it for
'household'
use.

The house I was born and dragged up in had a coke grate in the front
room but I don't remeber it. It had cannon gas miser fire installed
before my memory started working.

I seem to remember my parents buying both coal and coke, and I
have a
dim recollection of a fire being 'made' with coal, and then banked
with coke, which burnt much more slowly, and gave off a more
steady
heat than a roaring fire up the chimmally

I remember collecting quite a quantity of coke ater some road works
on the street. This was put on the backrooms coal fire, that coke
didn't half whack out some heat compared to the coal.

... I also seem to recall the fire being 'calmed' at night by
banking
it up with powdered and chipped coal that my old dad used to refer
to
as "nutty slack" I think it was ??

Aye, shut all the dampers down and cover the fire with small coals.
We used the dust/bits from the coal cellar rather than buying slack.

The flat bed coal wagons on the streets with loose sacks on the back.
The poor buggers carrying 1 cwt of coal.

Still have flat bed coal wagons round here, but the sacks are only
25kg these days. Sign of the times maybe but the local pit is
starting production again after being mothballed in 2003.

--
Cheers
Dave.

"Clot" wrote in message
...

I agree with your general approach. It is driving safely under the
conditions such as you describe not foolish adherence to limits to avoid
technical transgression and more importantly not creating danger by
driving at the speed limit when conditions do not allow.

What stops the speed limit being the maximum speed you drive at?
Just because you think it is safer to drive above a speed limit doesn't mean
you have to.
Doing so just puts you in the class of drivers that don't care.
The next thing you will be doing is jumping lights because you can see
nothings coming, or driving the wrong way up one way streets because you can
see nothing coming, or ignoring turn restriction, etc.
You will be like geoff where everything that happens on the roads is someone
else's fault.