A vaguely on-topic one :-)

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This was done with a Ukranian Arax lens…

Or you could jailbreak it…

BoP covers pretty much anything – including causing distress or annoyance. Worst case, the police could just say you’re annoying them.

I’ve been charged with BoP.

Ramps don’t normaly line up with anything. Sometimes turning the mech slightly, so the back end is closer to the wheel , helps with fussy shifting.

You would be trespassing – not a criminal offence. However the police, after they had to chase you down, might well go for Breach of the Peace or something similar in compensation for wasting their time.

That’s not really anthropomorphising, though, is it? It’s presenting things in a way that works for human viewers. You could equally say that using a television screen (visual, in full colour) is anthropomorphising as most animals don’t see in colour, it should really have been done in smellovision.

In the half mile it took to get to the shop this morning, one road was almost closed by flooding and another had half a tree across it. So I think it’s sensible not to run school buses durning the worst of it.

If you’re anywhere near Glasgow, I can probably squeeze a cassette onto my lathe – or do it on the mill instead…

I use the same grease on everything – Lubrimatic trailer wheel bearing grease. It’s meant for boat trailers so it’s very tough, and it comes in handy cartridges for a grease gun.

I also loved the outcry about Jamie Oliver when he was criticised for wearing a Tamil Tigers T shirt. He said he thought they were an American Football team. Genius!

Many years ago, I was going through Boston Logan airport, wearing an old bike race t-shirt with the sponsor on the front, and I got a lot of attention from the security staff. It took a while to convince them that Scottish Power wasn’t like Black Power :-)

Definitely not fan – they can suck in fluff which can then catch fire, I’d never leave one unattended. Oil-filled is probably the safest and most efficient.

The Carrera is a Dahon – what they do (well, used to, not sure about the latest ones) was use last year’s Dahon jigs to make the bikes for other brands. So a 2010 Raleigh would have the same frame as a 2009 Dahon, for example.

Go for a Brompton, definitely :-)

We go for the completely opposite technique – she sleeps in with us, there’s the occasional small snuffle in the middle of the night, but usually she sleeps right through. Well, at the moment she’s decided tht it’s more fun to go to bed at 10-11pm and wake up at 9am, but the plan usually works :-)

I didn’t notice that one :-)

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True, I’m thinking of the extended ASCII :-)

Bytes do still make some sense, as each ASCII character is one byte.

He’s just been on radio 1, but this Tim Minchin song has always been a favourite. And now I have a daughter, it makes me all emotional too, which is a bit pathetic :-)

I’ve built bikes with Rohloff and Schlumpf – a Rohloff plus a High Speed Drive gives you a gear range of 13″ to 135″.

Which is a bit silly :-)

Simply, a small wheel falls further into a hole than a big wheel. Same with logs and other obstructions – larger wheels roll more easily over things. I’ve built and ridden 20″-wheeled bikes off-road, and the wheels just won’t go over anyhitng bigger than about kerbstone-size.

Downside of big wheels is more inertia, so slower steering response and slower acceleration, and they’re not as strong.

If you ever needed a reason to like wind turbines, arch **** Donald Trump doesn’t like ’em:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/28/donald-trump-scottish-offshore-windfarm

I like ’em – especially that view you sometimes get of just the blades chopping over the top of a hill. Elegant.

First single was Star Trekkin by The Firm. Can’t remember the first album – it might have been Billy Joel…

We’ve compeltely avoided the whole pram thing – they’re just such a pain to take anywhere. We’d have had to strap it to the roof or something when going on holiday. Just went through a selection of slings – first on the front, now on the back.

Preclearing doesn’t happen with bank transfers – but if your worried just leave it a few days before shipping.

The way the preclearing scam works is:

– You sell something for, say, £500
– Buyer says his mate owes him £1000, so his mate will send you a cheque for £1000, and you will send the buyer the goods and a cheque for £500.
– cheque from mate arrives, you put it in the bank, bank preclears it and it shows up in your account, so you send the goods and £500
– a few days later, the paper trail catches up, the £1000 cheque bounces, and you’re out the goods and £500.

Not dodgy at all – I give them out all the time, it’s often better fro international payments, and I insist for customers from some countries.

It’s like a letterbox – tell someone your address and they can post you a latter, they can’t get into your house and steal your telly…

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Would you swerve to hit something that looked like it might be tasty?

That would be going too far – but I might not swerve if something tasty happened to be in the way ;-)

No, that was a few months ago.

Yeah, I know ;-) I’m a vegetarian because I don’t like the idea of animals suffering to feed me, but if they’ve already died and would still be dead if I didn’t eat them, may as well eat them. I’d have no problem eating roadkill, for example.

I’m vegetarian, and a Muslim friend often hands out food at Ramadan – I’m afraid my philosophy is “well, it’s dead now so I may as well not let it go to waste” ;-)

Oh yeah, there’s one on the top of the plate to stop the screw falling out when it’s off the camera, but there shouldn’t be any force on that when it’s on – plate presses on the camera, screw screws in, locking collar on the screw tightens down.

They’re called E-type circlips, by the way…

Um, you eat it?

They do? My Manfrotto has a ****-off big screw that holds the plate to the camera. It’s the hex plate – I know they do others…

Warehouse Express, you’re thinking of?

Have a look at Adorama and B&H – often cheaper even though they’re in the States…

Wow, are Slingshot still going? I’ve got Jo Burt’s old one handing up in the workshop waiting for a spare day to build it up ;-)

It made me very happy to find out that those little conical springs you get on quick releases are called volute springs. In our house, the remote control is called the doofer.

Such things have been done on bikes before – it’s an interesting idea, the main problem is that, unless you live in Manhattan, most riding isn’t stop-start enough for it to work well.

disposable incomes set to be lower in 2016 than 2006

You see, this is where I begin to lose the plot. Does anyone remember being especially poor in 2006? I certainly don’t remember selling fewer bikes than I do now. So while it might be a drop in disposable incomes, it’s not exactly getting us back to post-War levels, despite all the hyperbole.