I have no particular loyalty to petrol, diesel, electric or even chip fat or Lpg. I’ve used it all, except electric, and that’ll likely change soon. But in my mind it’s the bizarre pricing of fuel that’s the issue. You’ve got petrol and diesel being priced and therefore compared by volume, despite diesel being 15% more energy dense by volume. You’ve got electric being viewed as the efficient saviour of humanity, yet if it were priced (taxed) comparably to other fuels it would be just be a less convenient, massively less energy dense white elephant. The biofuel boom a few years ago only succeeded in putting some food crop prices up as there’s a finite capacity to grow oily crops.

Noes the time to go electric, if you can. As soon as the government coffers start to take the hit from widespread uptake of electric transport, they’ll have no choice but to tax it similarly. S’maths, innit?

Not quite sure whether cooperative adaptive cruise control is the same thing as driverless trucks. Seems that there’s a vast gulf between that peloton video and huge robotic autonomous convoys thundering up and down the country. It’s not the middle bit of the journey that the driver earns his keep, it’s the nadgery bits at each end. That’s going to take something vastly more clever than the cruise control demo above to computerise.

Awake yes. For the fight? No. Night shift 🙁

My capitalisation is entirely appropriate and correct. Stop trolling

Lol at the ironing :lol

Still waiting for someone to show me how its possible.

well, you’re just gonna have to stump up your tuition fees like every other poor sap in this this country then, aren’t ya? (Unless you live in the more highly evolved Scottish part, that is..)

Creationism is most definitely a theory crack pot idea with no evidence to back it up whatsoever..

FTFY. Actually read Cougar’s post ffs.

Look; OP wants TL:DR on Entire scientific field of evolutionary biology. Is that too much to ask?

@Cougar, thanks for posting the difference between Scientific Theory and common usage of theory. The ‘it’s just a theory’ (non)argument PROPERLY boils my piss…

My kids, a boy and a boy, are wired very differently.

Boom! Problem solved. Or at least deafened…

I’ve always found that if you take the ball out, then get your finger in the hole and scrape the crud off the rollers the pointer behaves much better.

WM, not NW 😉

That’s only a hypothesis.

Absolutely, but it’s a compelling one, and it fits with my experience as a parent and an adult who has long been interested in gender inequality.

Again, they are only small. We are vastly more alike than we are different.

The differences emphasised (at age 7!) by the programme were NOT small however. And they rang true.

Men and women develop in vastly different ways after puberty – does that mean that this must also be nurture?

Obviously not. This is about prepuberty. However, character traits and internal belief and understanding of how the world works will have been largely formed PRE puberty.

boys and girls ARE actually different

The position of the experts involved in the program is that pre puberty, they really aren’t that different at all, but WE, as society, make them different. It’s an interesting and compelling argument, and quite tragic for the girls. 7 year old girls already internalising the ‘fact’ that boys are better leaders, stronger, cleverer etc; FFS 😡

Looking forward to this. Filmed, in part, at my place. Dodged the cameras (I’m not photogenic), but some good friends and colleagues feature. Should be excellent!

Well, after all that, a really enjoyable 20th run. Still a little sore, but one of my best so far 😀

Looking over the edge of high drops. And more oddly, watching other people (esp loved ones) looking over the edge of high drops. Must be some sort of empathy test.

I have NO idea about stretching, although I do try to stretch the painful bits for 10-15secs per painful muscle. Wouldn’t know what to do with a foam roller tbh.

Have had gait analysis done and the verdict is that I over pronate quite pronouncedly. Hence I have some comfy new Brooks adrenalines, which may have helped a bit, but still pain pain pain if I run (at any pace; let alone a reasonable pace) for more than 10 minutes. It’s frustrating tbh.

I’ve been ‘couch to 5k’ing for 19 sessions now. It still bloody hurts! Ankles, shins and calves mainly, crampy, achey pain that increases in intensity during the run, but is 90% better by the next day, do not injury as such. I’m determined to keep going, but I’m increasingly wondering if I’m just not cut out for running. It’s not been horrendous heart n lungs wise, mainly legs.

Should I give up, or will it get better?

Hockey stick man better watch his back when the AI takes over… 😯

You won’t get a shock from 12v battery. Your internal resistance is too high. Most you’ll get is a slight tingle.

This is from experience. The spark when a battery shorts is irrelevant; you’re comparing massive impedance with zero impedance.

Well, the one occasion I accidentally put a screwdriver across the terminals of a 12v car battery and got a blinding flash and a chunk blown out of one side of the screwdriver

Thats not you getting a shock though (except for maybe emotionally :lol:) I really don’t think that 12v has sufficient voltage ‘pressure’ to force many amps through non metallic materials. I’ve often had a battery box on a landrover full of muddy water and it’s all continued to work perfectly, not shorting or rapidly discharging. More than can be said for the rest of the truck…

Stick your tongue across both terminals and get back to us.

Said I’m clumsy, not daft! (Plus, how long is your tongue??? 😯

I’m pretty sure you can’t get a shock off a 12v battery, no matter how hefty the thing.

(This is not from theoretical knowledge, this is from practical experience, I would certainly have received a belter of a shock by now as I’m a ham fisted and clumsy mechanic with several scars to prove it…)

The little thing that grieved me slightly was the burning spitfire at the end; totally missing the engine! And an obvious pole holding the prop in place. Sometimes it sucks knowing how things are put together in real life; obvious physics and mechanical ‘nopes’ in films really jar with me but seem to pass most people by.

On second thoughts, maybe the lack of a Merlin would explain the Spit’s exceptional glide slope moments earlier? 😆

Will ‘North Korea has a miniaturised nuclear warhead capability’ be this decade’s ‘Saddam has WMDs’?

Smells fishy to me. Only time will tell. Scary times ahead.

I’ve had good experience with a Lidl cheapie; 39.99 and very capable so far.

I’ve taken up running recently, (not anywhere near with the same enthusiasm you have, fwiw) and I’ve found similar, that my HR takes longer to go up and is harder work to get up to the old maximum. I’m not sure whether this is permanent or temporary, but I’m not worrying about it too much and just taking it as a sign that my training is having an effect, which can only be a good thing.

Mate of mine bought a T5 and had it converted by a soecialist – 9 (?) month wait and £50k +

It’s those damn soecialists again isn’t it! First Venezuela, now camper vans. The bastards!!!

Damn. Too slow. Was a gift I suppose 😉

I notice now on the listing there is no mention of hardwood.

Absolutely. An admission of guilt, if ever there was one…

Missed the eBay dispute process due to my lackadaisical actions combined with the sellers initial stalling tactics (can you PROVE it’s not hardwood?). Closes after 30 days, PayPal you have 180 days.

Anyway, driver turned up, got a consignment number and signed slip from him, and PayPal have accepted the tracking info. Still looking for a scam angle but cautiously optimistic…

Have just sent this as a reply to the above

I’m having a problem with trusting your company. Early on in this situation some very odd and seemingly evasive questions were asked of me, with the seeming aim of putting off giving me a refund for this substandard product. Now I am being told that you will refund once collected today, but from my point of view, this could either be a) a time wasting exercise designed to time out the PayPal dispute, or b) that I could send the parcel today, and I never see either the item or my money again as I have NO proof of delivery, which is a requirement for PayPal to refund me.

Please help me with the above trust issues.
Apologies for the consecutive postings

Let’s just say your great long lost aunt dot who you never knew existed drops dead and leaves you the million quid she’s been stashing in old biscuit tins around the Knightsbridge home she’s lived in since 1932 which she’s also left you. Bet you’re wishing you’d got that consent order now aren’t you.

No, you miss my point. I’m not saying that a consent order isn’t a good idea, it obviously is. What I’m asking is why hold up a divorce for it?

So after lots of back and forths with this vendor, I have an open PayPal dispute with a ruling that I am eligible for a refund. However, PayPal say that I need to pay for p&p, which on his item will be pricey, no doubt. Meanwhile the vendor seems to have caved slightly and has offered to send a courier to collect. However, PayPal require a tracking number, and the vendor won’t provide one, as “it was done over the phone with TNT”. I’m worried that if I send the item back without a tracking number, I’m going to end up without a table OR a refund. Can I get a consignment number for tracking from the driver? Am I right to be suspicious? Or is this all going to end happily?

Edit; Just had a reply to my “surely you must have a consignment number?” email; cutnpasted below.

“As their online system is down we had to phone up and a lady has to manually
put this in her system so we do not have the consignment number. ”

it seems crazy to allow it but…

Just curious; why does it seem crazy to allow a divorce without a final financial settlement in place? The way it was explained to me is that the divorce changes nothing regarding whether either party has a financial claim over the other, and whilst holding up the proceedings can be a bargaining tool for one party over the other, when both parties just want out it may as well be done whether or not financials are sorted.

(Posted as a newly divorced (absolute) dad of two, who’s ex wife is still living in the matrimonial home, and is currently selling his half to her, all civil(ish) like).

Crikey; ironic given roadie’s predisposition towards hairlessness 😆

Ladies of BC

Birmingham City? British Columbia? Bit of a strict local government edict, that

Edit; ah; British Cycling. Sauce? 😆 😛

You can replace it yourself but the batteries you can get on amazon and ebay are trash might be slightly lower quality than OEM, but are pennies so worth a go.

FTFY. 😉

Posted from my venerable 5s running on a trash bargainsome shiny new battery…

Seriously; £3.59 delivered direct from Hong Kong. It probably comes from the same factory as the £50 Duracell one, and spend (some) of the difference on some really nice iFixit tools. Gain an enormous sense of self satisfaction at doing Apple et al out of their planned obsolescence profit.

I just bought a new battery for my 5s from eBay; it’s made a massive improvement. May not be quite the quality of a genuine apple product, but for about £4, I’m not arguing. Satisfaction from giving the phone a new lease of life was obtained, too.

Absolute blame vs pragmatic solutions and never the twain shall meet. Bizarrely you lot don’t actually disagree (mostly) you’re just arguing parallel points. 😆

DK states that people who are incompetent lack the ability to comprehend that they’re incompetent. It’s similar I grant you, but it’s relating to self-perception rather than external perception.

Aye, and whilst I don’t allude to any competence at town planning or traffic flow management, I’m very competent at driving through adversely set traffic lights. I’ve got a certificate and everything! 😉