As a teenager I stayed in a convent in Rome.They nuns were very nice, but none too chuffed when we rolled up at 3am after a big night out….

@RustySpanner I’m guessing thats was because you hadnt invited them along…

If that was blown up on purpose it looks like a mix of desperation or stupidity. IIRC the dam was pretty much the only remaining crossing of the Dnipro until you go far north east to the other end of the lake so with that gone there’s basically no chance for Ukraine to do a ground assault into eastern Kherson unless their sappers are very good at (re)building bridges.

Of course the key water supply into Crimea is borked too, the Kursk bridge is damaged (some nice big cracks appeared in it a few weeks back) and I’m wondering if the Russians are unsure that they can actually hold Crimea agains a sustained ground assault…hence the desperation.

The Nuclear power station in Zaphoriza is pretty much on cold shut down except one reactor that is still warm (but on near shutdown) and there’s a separate lake for cooling water so it should (fingers crossed…blimey are we really thinking about this…) be ok.

If the dam was blown up (its been heavily shelled and mined over the last 15 months) and then regardless of who did it (timing is very convenient/suspicious…cough*russia*cough) thats a clear breach of the Geneva Convention.

Probably won’t find out what really happened for years yet though.

“use $50 to buy 10 Tomato plants”

then spend next couple of hours wondering why you spent so much on tomato plants when, lets face it, they probably are worth $2 each, tops, and if the owner of the garden centre/DIY store/bloke in pub carpark saw you coming and really did fleece you good and proper…

One of my friends named my car M,m,m,my Corolla!

The name has stuck but you do have to sing it for proper effect.

47mph on the A469 Thornhill road (south of Caerphilly mountain) from the Travellers Rest pub towards Cardiff on a Spesh Hardrock back in the day (so about 1991). Two of my mates (Spud and Dibs where are you both now?) were going faster and headed off into the distance after I started to consider my own mortality about halfway down the hill.

First time using a cateye cycle computer so I was either truly awesome/stupid when younger or, more likely, I didn’t manage to do the wheel diameter setup properly. It did feel really rather flippin’ fast though.

Best since then with a decent Garmin, my road bike and a strong desire to live is about 45mph.

Not sure about Black metal but if perhaps you want something lighter, then how about some Light Metal

OP, just remember it will be moving into late Autumn/Winter in NZ soon so a 2 season bag (even with a liner) might not cut it, especially if your son is going anywhere near mountains.

My twopenneth would be something like a Vango Cobra 400 or 600: length would be ok but its a tapered mummy-style bag so might be a bit constraining

So, Eurovision in Helsinki next year methinks

Is the Swedish entry really a trailer for 2 Dune part 2?

94 minutes eh?

I know it takes all kinds but I’m really struggling to see the point of doing this in a HUGE open world game.

I mean, how many times during that did they drop rocks on the heads of Koroks? I’ll bet its NONE! Must say I was dancing round the room last night when I did that for the first time (of hopefully many, many bringing me the same perverse level of joy when I hear them say “ooof” when you do it) in TotK…

3hrs late last night was spent just exploring the first area around the temple of time and its associated shrines

Oh, and the eyeball guided arrows are awesome, haven’t tried the keese wing arrows yet but this will come. Hmm, I wonder if can you make a fan arrow? Boulder arrow? Log arrow? etc 🙂

Ocarina of Time was the game the game that allowed me to forgive my wife for buying me an N64 instead of a playstation. Who cares about Grand Tourismo when you have the Water Temple, Chicken-assisted long jumps, fishing…

Every Zelda game since then has been something rather special, just completing my 4th play through of breath of the wild and im still finding things I had missed previously. Tears of the Kingdom is on order for Friday.

It had better have the hookshot though, I really miss that.

The website is useful but not perfect. A few have noted that they get a “hard to call” recommendation. Looking at it this seems to be because they have one or more Independents currently as sitting councillors in their wards which will screw up the algorithm a bit.

FWIW I inputted where I am and it recommended I vote the way that I did when I completed my postal vote yesterday. I’m not holding out much hope though as where I live has been a true blue tory stronghold for so long that that most of the people round here think that Proletariat is a kind of cheese.

Yes – from fossil fuels – because an increase in electricity consumption means an increase in fossil fuel burning in the UK right now. ( not 100% perhaps )

This is not even wrong!

yesterday fossil fuels supplied about 18% of the UK energy needs National Grid live.

What will sending humans to Mars achieve beyond satisfying curiosity about whether it can be done? What benefit will the vast majority of the human race derive from it? Almost nothing in both cases.

You do understand that this is complete bunk don’t you?

The standard complaint about the Apollo missions is that all it gave us was non-stick frying pans while casually avoiding all the minor things like decent computers (it supercharged research into electronics and micro-computers which is part of the reason why we all started to get home computers in the late 70’s and early 80’s….YOURE LITERALLY USING SOMETHING THAT IS A DIRECT RESULT OFTHE SPACE RACE RIGHT NOW!!!!!), global telecommunications (how do you send live sound and video across very long distances? hint:microwaves), medicine (so much in this one), fuel cells, ergonomics (technically from aircraft research in the 50’s but again, the process was supercharged by the space programme) , fly by wire aircraft (indeed, we’ve also got planes that don’t crash, thats very nice isn’t it…) etc and then the very small matter of the overview effect (jeez, where do I begin on that one) oh, and ecology…and thats just a few things.

what about things like GPS? Weather satellites?

So yes, nuffin useful there whatsoever…

Human spaceflight give us some truly incredible technology, long duration spaceflight teaches us a great deal about things that happen to the human body as it ages like osteoporosis, muscle loss, cancer etc

What about really efficient Solar panels? Yup, completely useless, who on earth would want that?

Etc, etc, etc.

Mars: go. Find out something new. I can guarantee we’ll get some very surprising and incredibly useful results from this that will benefit almost everyone and change the world for the better, most probably things we would otherwise have never thought of.

Ok, rant over 🙂

how do we blur backgrounds

Squint, or alternatively, rub vaseline on your eyeballs, that works a treat.

Or you could use the “rub vaseline on your eyeballs” function in PhotoshopCS as it has an undo function.

Or just use one of the lens effect or blur tools

Not sure about the security line thing as it generally tends to be ok but Gatwick South Terminal departure hall on a normal day is a hell-hole. On a bank holiday weekend its probably doubly so:

£5 to (hopefully) avoid the 10000 people trying to get a reassuringly/staggeringly expensive Costa/Cafe Nero/Pret/Wetherspoons etc bespoke order coffee and croissant then having to go to another long queue in Boots to replace all of the toiletries that had to put in a bin before security, then queue up again to get a load of food for the flight that is ever so slightly less expensive and depressing than the airline will make you pay through the nose for while playing a 2 hour long game of hurry up and wait for the easyJet flight to anywhere else, sounds like a bargain.

Or perhaps you’ll just be in a slightly smaller crowd of very annoying people…

Fully understand the “out of office” settings on your work email and use it. Understand the “Do not disturb” settings on your mobile phone/slack/teams etc. and use these too.

For further information, look up the Peter Principle or, alternatively, the works and achievements of Arnold Judas Rimmer BSc, SSc

I suspect this isn’t an exclusively EV/hybrid issue.

correct, this applies to any kind of car/vehicle etc

Lockwood and Company was a bit of standout on Netflix this year, so I guess that means seasons 2 and 3 won’t happen…

Bosch:Legacy is somewhat hidden on FreeVee (after really enjoying the Bosch series on Amazon Prime), I’ve only watched episode 1 but it feels like its a good next step in the series. I do wonder a bit at Maddie being an LA cop though…

Clarkson’s Farm leaves me conflicted: it’s a truly great series, he makes some valid and very important points, and he obviously both loves and cares deeply about what he’s trying to do. However he also seems to be his own worst enemy and is occasionally a total pillock of the highest order.

Picard Season 3 is definitely making up for the total snore-fest that was season 2…

Oh, and Everything Everywhere All At Once was just flipping brilliant: Frankfurter fingers anyone?

Whilst yes, I could technically walk 500miles, I would most likely take the car or perhaps the train instead as it would be quicker.

I think Gary Lineker should follow Suella Braverman’s excellent example by resigning in disgrace and then getting his job back a week later…

TBH if someone like Nadine Dorries is having a pop at you you’re almost certainly doing something right.

OP: Toyota GT86.

(Or a Scooby BRZ)

FTFY

Cancelling HS2 now is a great idea…

Except for the minor fact that you’d very suddenly have to work out what to do with 30000 unemployed construction workers plus the entire supply industry (sorry, you cant just send them elsewhere and get them to do something else, you need a clear plan thats finianced and able to be put into action right now otherwise theyre all on the dole so thats a HUGE impact on the national economy) , what would you do with a huge ammount of half-constructed infrastructure, the issue of binning 25+ years of planning and land buy up. etc etc etc.

Oh, and the minor thing of trying to work out what to do on the core railway from London to Birmingham (very highly congested and the last upgrade carried out 20 years back was an expensive sticking plaster solution) , Crewe and Manchester that depearatley needs to be upgraded as its been operating at over max capacity for the last 15 years. Euston is long overdue a full rebuild and this still needs to happen, OOC, Birmingham Curzon street etc have been started so construction is fully underway.

Oh, and we still need to fully electrify the entire national railway system which was the original plan in the 1950’s, er sorry whoops, 60’s, 70…er 1980’s (on a shoestring..) then 2000’s er, oh, hang on, the 2010’s… instead of going half measures and chickening out of this every time to “save” money.

I mean, how do you think you will get all of that freight off the roads and onto rail? How do create additonal capacity? How do you decarbonise transport?

Face it, infrastructure is expensive. Done well it lasts a very long time (the core railway network is 180 years old) , done in half measures you need to go back and do it again and again…For some reason in the UK everyone likes to scream white elephant at the top of their voice while conveniently forgetting that we have precisely ZERO large transport infrastucture projects in living memory that have failed to deliver a clear economic and strategic benefit.
Doing infrastructure properly involves hard work and long term investment and vision that produces a tangible asset and a clear benefit so treat it as such.

In the words of Yoda: Do, or do not do. There is no try.

Or alternatively just give up and convince yourself that that is a viable long term, cost effective solution.

Hadn’t cottoned on to the Inspector Sands announcement was actually an easily ignored fire alarm, you learn new thing everyday.

I particularly enjoy the “Listen mate, If you see somthink that just don’ look right, someone who looks like a right likely lad up to no good or perhaps their eyes are too close together, you know the routine: See it. say it. Sorted, strike a light, Blimey guvnor, get ‘I’m… NOW SHUT IT*!” station tannoy announcements that seem to be by an extra from a Guy Ritchie movie or perhaps someone who was partnering Carter and Regan in 1974 (I assume Network Rail couldn’t afford Ray Winstone, John Thaw regrettably is no longer with us and Dennis Waterman would probably want to sing something instead).

*ok I may have made up some of that but you get the general idea.

Er, to remove splinters? Always a hazard of those wooden toilet seats 8-0

Currently reading this thread with somewhat detached interest while listening to Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets.

FWIW their take on Obscured by the clouds is nice tonic to toxicity and hey, isn’t that Gary Kemp…

Things to remember are that SUV’s in UK/Europe are different to SUV’s in the US. A lot of people confuse them with 4×4’s such as Landrovers, Land Cruisers etc

What we’d likely describe as an small/medium SUV here is a high H-Point Hatchback. Basically you repackage a family hatchback to sit a bit higher on its wheels (but not that much compared to a proper 4×4), raise the seating position a bit to get a higher driving position (but again, not that much compared to a proper 4×4), crucially ditch the 4×4 system and use a stock fwd drivetrain (as 4×4 systems are heavy, complex and expensive and basically pointless for motorway, urban and city driving where most cars are used). The looks a bit more chunky so looks like it can protect the occupants and looks more tough (hey guys, there this new thing called mountain biking/snowboarding/kayaking/hiking other outdoors activities and its social trend…). Its not that much heavier or super high on its suspension so drives more like a “normal” car, a slightly bigger car is easier to get through new more stringent crash testing requirements…etc

So to explain SUV”s (in the European sense) :

Once upon a time a company called Nissan is wondering about what to do to replace the 2nd generation Primera (which is rather good but not a Mondeo/Vectra, 3 Series or Passat) and poor selling Almera, consider all the above ,say, “lads, I have an idea…” and lo…

Qashkai is born in the early 00’s . Rapidly becomes a bestseller because of all the above. Rest of industry, after mumbling “but, but, but the Mantra Rancho…” takes note and marketing, sales and product development teams start talking. Nissan makes a lot of money with what is basically a high riding mk2 Primera in drag.

BMW build the X5 as they had recently bought LandRover, realises the products are great but not great however there’s a lot of knowledge and potential (there were a lot of LandRover technicians in the staff canteen in Munich when I was working there in 1997…).

Later, the bottom will fall out of the traditional European family saloon/estate car market (with the notable exceptions of the BMW 3 series and STW fave, the Octavia).

Family hatchbacks become small and tough and a bit more practical. Bigger more sporty estates get tougher. Only BMW drivers and taxi drivers by saloon cars until the mk3 Prius turns up. Customers are getting older and realise they don’t actually like sitting low down in vehicles. Crash test regs get far, far more stringent as customers realise that it’s nice to survive a crash unharmed. Plug in hybrids appear which demand a load of battery package space requiring a bigger vehicle and an SUV form is ideal. Dog owners stop buying estate cars. Everyone realises that while MPV’s were a good idea but frankly, if you really want to drive a Van/Minibus, simply just go the whole hog and get a VW T4/5/6 etc. EV become a thing and its far easier to package these new LiIon batteries into a a single block on a skateboard type chassis so normal cars have to get taller. And the rest, as they say, is history…

A 3yr old Corolla Estate would still have a couple of years manufacturers warranty on it. 60 mpg, good load space, not quick but not slow either and don’t let the cvt gearbox put you off, its actually really good to drive and about the most reliable car on the road at the moment.

And as a bonus you can moonlight as an Uber driver in your spare time… 🙂

I thought that there was one on the A36 somewhere around Charmouth/Chideock area (haven’t been there for years though) and as I think Spooky b329 mentioned, there is a very overgrown one on the A259 heading into Eastbourne which looks more like one of those water saving drought gardens than an escape road.

There one on the A380 Telegraph Hill heading towards Kennford/A38. Always seemed to catch unsuspecting mk1 Ford Escorts trying to turn off the dual carriageway for the petrol station back in the day.

Ah, the 70’s when cars were a bit dire, cross-ply tyres, vague steering and drum brakes were std fit and escape roads were required to capture the occasional Hillman Avenger and trailer combo. Obviously nowadays my Shadenfreude fix can be gained by the joy of seeing a spanking new BMW M5 or McLaren P1 up to its wheel arches in a gravel trap at a track day…

Plenty of youngsters in my local.

That’s what THEY want you to think. They’re really shapeshifting aliens…

@5lab I’m not sure where you are south of London but we used Home Smart Energy based in Burgess Hill for a 3.6kWh 10 panel, inverter and battery installation last year.

Flightradar shows 2 USAF Awacs jets currently circling right on the Poland-Ukraine border. I’m guessing that there are a LOT of NATO combat aircraft currently on flying around on full alert in Poland too with their transponders off.

I would love to see the US diplomatic communications to Russia this morning. Probably something along the lines of “Don’t. Even. Think. About. It.”

Starship appears to have got FAA clearance for a launch from March onwards (I’d reckon late April/May with no major issues) so a very exciting year ahead. A successful Starship launch means that the manned mission to the moon is likely within 5 years and the manned mission to Mars might even be feasible with the next decade.

Really interesting manned launches later this year: The First Axiom space (ie fully private) mission to the ISS and the Polaris Dawn mission featuring the first commercial spacewalk for a privately funded manned space mission. Axiom are planning to add privately-funded modules (to be rented out to businesses/governments) to the ISS with a view to building a new space station later in the decade.

Scott Manly’s YouTube channel is well worth a look, always interesting weekly-ish space news roundups, very knowledgable even if I still don’t understand anything that mentions Kerbal Space programme.
Another good channel is Everyday Astronaut which is bonkers cool/nerdy insights into historical and current Rocket engineering. His series. of interviews with Elon Musk are very good indeed with great insights into Starship and the Boca Chica launch site and absolutely none of the Twitter etc. stupidity. The guy that does that channel is going on the Dear Moon mission too which adds to his generally high level of nerdy engineering cool

Yes, delete and block.

Reasons why this happens? No idea. Guess it can’t be anything to with the fact that some interweb algorithms know that generally we’re a bunch of middle-aged men with slightly offbeat/nerdy hobbies and a left field fashion sense and that messages pertaining to be from attractive, single young ladies with uninhibited and outgoing attitudes will possibly get our attention…yeah, right!

Now, obviously if they added that they are willing to discuss tyre pressures, mowing, optimum tread patterns, sheds, how to set up tubeless, Brexit, what hair clippers to buy, have a clear opinions on 160mm forks, flats or SPD’s, 26 ain’t dead/650b/29’ers and “Are E-bikes are the spawn of satan or the future? Discuss”, then I’m sure they would attract far more followers and likes.

I use an Alpkit Soloist tent in XL size which is really, really good (cost about £120 last year on special offer). Its well made, very light, packs down incredibly small and has survived high winds, torrential rain and my bike-packing buddies pelting it with fir cones all night… The only downside is the entrance zips are lightweight and can jam in the flysheet so you have to open and close them with a bit of care.

TBH I’d seriously doubt you would get a decent 3-4 season lightweight sleeping bag for under £100. Someone will probably correct me on this though.

IMHO you get what you pay for and cheap tends to equal low performance. Also, sleeping bags are such personal things and the seasons ratings are down to personal comfort so the ratings are just a general guide. I use a Vango Cobra 200 which is a good 2-3 season bag so thats UK (but probably not Scotland) spring to mid-autumn. I use a liner to take it to reasonable kinda sort-of 3 seasons level but I wouldn’t use it in anything under +5/+7 degrees. Cost about £150, but again, was bought in a sale last year.

@ shermer75, ISW and Mick Ryan (@warinthefture) are both very good indeed for intelligent, reasoned analysis.

And then there is Bellingcat which is, frankly, awesome investigative journalism and goes very deep into a lot of inner workings of Wagner etc.

Thanks @ Sui: Every time I read about E10 causing huge drops in fuel economy (Daily Mail clickbait headlines) I get a bit of a nervous tic.

OP a 1.6 Grand C Max (ecoboost) will cheerfully drink any kind of E5, E10 or a supposedly “performance” 95octane fuel.

TBH youre better off just making sure your car is properly serviced (new oil filter and clean, new oil makes a huge difference), the tyres are both in good nick and inflated properly (if the car is to be fully loaded take the pressures up to the full load recommendation) and FFS dont sit on on a motorway at 80-90mph+….

Using anything other than normal pump fuel is pretty much pointless unless you strongly feel that the oil companies need some additional support during these hard times.

Watching that I was struck with several thoughts:

Eh?

What??

Seriously????

And, finally, why not go all in and create a ghetto 4WD system using the Citroen engine to power the front axle and the Porsche flat six powering the rear? A bit like the original idea for the MG Metro 6R4 powertrain (before some degree of sanity prevailed). Just planting seeds…

Good luck,

Well, you’ve gotta admit she is sort of correct.

It really is possible to put out a fire by running towards the flames and throwing a can of petrol over it.

Water? Fire Brigade? Common sense, thats for wimps.

Obviously you risk losing your eyebrows and your dignity but hey ho…

OP, your daughter should highlight her concerns to the Registrar and the SU rep(s) on campus. The Students Union will almost certainly be doing this anyway but its good to make her feelings clear to the college as well.

Best advice is start by talking to the course Student Rep who is the primary link between the year/course students group and the Course. The Student Rep (if they are taking their responsibilities seriously) will be liaising with the Students Union on this.

It’s a fair complaint as there is a contract, as detailed in the course handbook, between the student (who has paid fees for studying) and the academic establishment that needs to be honoured on both sides. If the college cannot hold up their side of the contract due to strike action they need to have a recovery plan in place for the students and/or an acceptable alternative.