the UK govt did not mandate this (making DRI with H2) was included in the $500m subsidy it is giving to TATA

for a H2 DRI steel plant in Wales a $500m subsidy would not have
touched the sides.

no gravitational acceleration in the interior and anyone on the inside would just float around aimlessly.

Interesting situation. But I don’t agree – except of course in the dead centre. Somebody falling in would experience gravitational deceleration once they had passed the thin shell because most of the nearby mass would now be above them. So they would slow down, stop and then accelerate back out. They would continue to oscillate in and out, assuming no friction or rotational effects.

Even somebody who starts randomly floating inside, but not the dead centre, would be attracted to the nearest piece of the shell and fall upwards towards it.

0.1% of GDP but 2% of our annual pollution

I suspect that is because we have already outsourced most of our heavy industry, and so much of our pollution, to Eastern Europe, the Middle East,  India and China.

Consequently en-route to the exact centre you’d start to decelerate at some point, as all gravity at the centre must be negative,

No – at the centre the gravity is exactly zero: the same mass of the earth above and below you. So you no longer accelerate but haven’t started to decelerate.

as you come out of the other side.

Well, not so much out the other side as just reaching the surface before falling back in again.

You’d oscillate.

Yes.

Would it make a difference how fast you entered the hole?

Yes you would leave the hole on the far side with the same kinetic energy as you had when you entered on the near side.

It strikes me as a missed opportunity for ‘Green’ steelmaking using hydrogen. If we had invested into the R&D (which is surely available at UK Universities + industry) say 20-30 yrs ago, we could be as far along as Sweden.

There is a lot wrong with this comment, in particular:
– “Green” steelmaking means converting to electric based processes. That’s what they ARE doing in Port Talbot.
– “ Green Hydrogen” is little more the vapourware today: a tiny fraction of the world’s H2 production is Green (ie from non CO2 electricity), whatever the industry hopes about the long term.
– North Sweden has huge advantages as a place to develop electricity based steelmaking, namely a good combination of nuclear, hydro and wind power. So it is not a simple matter of just “the UK did not invest in the R&D” but Sweden did”.

Decarbonising the world’s big heavy industries is a massive and difficult endeavour, not a just a simple matter of “using green Hydrogen”. The political and social impacts, like the job losses in Port Talbot, are just one of the barriers.

I’ve never heard of the books, but I can confidently say this:

LOL this is TV series, they won’t follow the book or give you any closure for 5 series then have a rushed completely unsatifying finale when the money runs out.

we’ve all got similar levels of humidity in our houses

what is the evidence for that claim? Just considering the variables that affect the humidity added to the air in a house (and we are talking absolute humidity not RH?), all these can vary a lot:
– the number of people living in the home
– the amount of boiling water cooking
– the number of showers taken
– the use of extracts in the kitchen and bathroom
– the amount of natural ventilation
– the amount of clothing that is air dried indoors

So it is quite possible that a lot more moisture ends up in the air in some homes compared to others, so that a de-humidifier can be very useful in condensing the moisture before it reaches a cold window.

The problem is that by any analysis, driving is incredibly dangerous.

Really?

Out of 577,000 deaths in 2022 just 1,711 were road fatalities: so you are over 99% likely not to die in a road accident.  In the grand scheme of things, effort on reducing heart diseases, strokes, cancer, dementia, and suicides  is much more effective on avoiding death in the UK.  So in comparison to most ways to die, driving hardly a big deal.

The European average for driving is 10 deaths per 100k, per year, i.e. as dangerous as farming.

Really?

The EU death rate for traffic related fatalities was 4.9 per 100k.  But of course the UK is by far one of the safest places to drive in the world, and in Europe, with a death rate of 2.8 per 100k. That’s much safer than being an agricultural worker and similar to the fatality rate of a water industry worker.

And the farmer (and fishermen) are out there working very long days, you drive 30min each way to work.

Some very dubious statistics and logic there.

So “The problem is that by any analysis, driving is incredibly dangerous.” – err, no. Just more risky than sitting around at home doing nothing.

Why pay for an expensive annual contract? I just call out a local plumber in the very rare occasions we have a boiler fault. It’s the same as insurance – only get it for things you can’t afford to replace or legal requirements.

Have we had a stable period in the last 30 years? Maybe the late 90’s before 9/11…

The early 1990s were being billed as “the end of history”: since the western liberal democracy had won, nothing much would happen in the world from then on.

Abel Archer was arguably pretty close: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Archer_83

Very much so. The German drama Deutschland 83 is largely a fictionalised account of this event, and hits home with how lucky we were that the east did not launch a nuclear attack.

But we’ve been stuck talking about the same tiny part of that picture for at least 4 pages and it’s not even directly relevant to these issues with Boeing

Time to stop feeding the troll?

Also Trump, if he gets in, is more Putin’s poodle than likely to get into a fight with him. And as has been reported recently on the BBC his attitude to Europe was “you’re on your own”.

As the bike was invented well just before tarmac I think we can assume it started with gravel

I think the first bike was developed in German about 1817, whereas tar sealing of “macadam” surfaces didn’t start until the 1820s. But stone paved roads have been around a lot longer, back to Roman times at least, so gravel riding did not necessarily originate from the birth of the bicycle.

Yes it would be nice to have a thread about the recent 737 incident, given the number of people on this forum who have experience in the industry.

But no tin foil, please.

I’ve been several times and would endorse lots of the suggestions above, especially from ihn and voodoo.

A few suggestions from me would be:
– book tickets to St Peter’s and colosseum in advance: they are the 2 key sites.You don’t need to pay for a guide, just read the guide book/use the audio guides.
– Rent bikes and ride around, it’s good fun and lets you see more different places than walking.
– Catacombs, The Forum and The Pantheon are all fascinating and worth a visit.
– Don’t get hung up about booking the best restaurant, all the ones we enjoyed the most we had just stumbled on by strolling around the back streets, all the food is good.
– You will see a few places for gelato/sandwiches/lunch with massive queues. They are not the best places to eat, they just have big queues because some influencer put it on their blog and they have gone viral, so loads of people suddenly think spending an hour in a queue is an essential part of their holiday experience. (Rant over)

And I’d repeat the previous comment about don’t over think it. You could spend 2 weeks there and not nearly see it all, so in 3 days you will be tripping over fascinating things to see and wanting to come back again.

@thols2 please just put down the spade and walk away from the hole.

There is a fascinating discussion being had about this incident, but “do pilots avoid their voices being recorded” is not it.

every single one of them is on some form of ebike now

60+ year old here, who uses an Orange Five, as well as a Tallboy and a fat bike. Not considering an e-bike for a while yet.

But to be fair, your underlying point is probably right.

Hi guys, could you give me some advice please. I’ve been using my bass through a Zoom B2.1u effects unit for at least 10years – for home practice and occasional gigging. I was thinking about replacing it, to get lower noise and some better real life usable tones, especially for gigs.

I have seen the Zoom B1 Four gets some good reviews, so is that a good choice or will it just give me more or less exactly the same tones with just the same level of noise? Or is there a clearly better option available now?

PS

someone who’s been interested in bass since discovering Yes and Chris Squire. . . in the 1970s

Me too.

some little-Englander decided they wanted to build a bike made from bits made in Britain

What a gratuitously unpleasant comment. Surely you are better than that.

I never see them down South

I see a few in the Surrey Hills, but not remotely as many as Spec and Santa.

Surrey, where the locals are rude, you can’t get a proper cooked breakfast (avocado with everything!) and beer is expensive. Makes us glad to be at home in our MTB-desert.

It all true, every word. Especially about all us locals being rude. And the bacon, sausage, egg, beans and avocado doesn’t have much avocado in it.

My mama never bought olive oil, so I just use the Extra Virgin I buy for cooking. I figure that if it’s good enough to eat it’s good enough to go in my ear. I’d be interested to hear why that is not the case.

Of course, IANAD.

Almond oil drops can help loosen the wax.

Other oils work too and cost less – eg Olive oil.

When I was a kid I had a doctor who said the biggest smallest thing you should put in your ear was your elbow.

So especially no cotton buds.

To contrast, after I’d ridden the Surrey Hills for the first time, at around the same time, a bunch of my riding mates went up there for the weekend on my suggestion.

Please keep quiet about the Surrey Hills. Nowt to see here, move along now.

Surrey Hills (if you can afford it)

Nothing to see here. Move along.

GiffGaff uses the O2 network, but I have no idea if they offer WiFi calling or how good it is.

They don’t – so I had to dump them and switch to Smarty, despite their otherwise good service. But Smarty have been good too, including the WiFi calling.

For a winter bike at that kind of money I’d be looking at carbon, and getting a Domane or a new Defy I reckon

I’ve got a Domane as my only road bike, but I think it makes an excellent winter bike: has 32mm tyres with room to go wider, happy to take mudguards and the carbon frame isospeed system is at least as good as my old Roubaix.

Obviously opinions differ on this subject, which should tell the OP there is not much in it. So get the SPDs if you value walking being easier and safer%

Completely the opposite opinion to benman: I would hate skittering around while walking around at cafe stops (on some surfaces it is plain dangerous), I have adjusted my cleats to the right tension so I don’t get unplanned releases, and overall I can’t see any point to road cleats since the much more robust and versatile SPDs became available.

Also you can pretend you have a clashing meeting to go to in 10 minutes. Then ask them what they want to get out of the time remaining

Is this not a helpful strategy from el boufadour? Ive had to use it at work and it could be a good way to get focus on the real point of their call in the time remaining, or just get out of sitting through a rambling monologue.

Thanks for this thread. It’s reminded me I have to finally embrace the trend and order a Mudhugger to replace the old floppy mudguard on my hard tail.

Why would anyone eat Pringles – chemical filled ultra processed pap – when potato crisps taste so good?

I think I’d feel safer going direct with credit card legally defined protection, rather than whatever EBay T&Cs say.

separate policy or home&contents

. . . or self insure.

If you can afford to do so, this is usually cheaper than paying an insurance company.

Surrounding areas are quite posh/middle class though

Middle class and posh are not the same thing. Many people are middle class: about 40-60% in the UK depending on definition. Very few indeed are posh.

You might think Middle class people may shop at Waitrose. But posh people have housekeeping staff to go shopping at Waitrose.

I’ve enjoyed both heading south from Warwick to Alvechurch and back for a few days and the spectacular Llangollen and back from Wrenbury near Chester for a week. The Warwick was easier and calmer as a novice, but the Llangollen had some stunning views. Both were enjoyable.

Thanks all. I’d not heard of Family Link so that’s very helpful.

And thanks @nixie for your comments – an especially good point about them being able to talk to their mum about unwelcome stuff they may come across while using the phone. 

I simply can’t bring myself to gamble so I’ve never done the lottery. Makes me feel like a winner every week.

Whatever conclusions you come to DrP, isn’t the overriding factor:

But of course, She’s 17 so knows everything and i’m just an idiot!

what you are actually doing is shortening the phase “Will his knife”. The apostrophe replaces the missing letters (“hi”)

really – where does this belief come from?

I suspect we use s at the end of a possessive word from old English. Before the Normans invaded and brought in a lot of French words and grammar English was very similar to German, from which it was descended. Even now written German uses s or es to show possession, like “Das Haus des Mannes” to mean “the house of the man”.

Later the apostrophe was used when people tried to standardise the language, partly to indicate the missing e where es had been used (lambes became lamb’s) and partly to distinguish lambs plural from lamb’s possessive.

It is nothing to do with replacing “his” – otherwise we would all be saying “Alice’r knife” to replace “her”.