Author: Ian

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Stupid Comparisons

The following picture was tweeted by BBC Radio 4 this morning as an explanation for the scale of the new Gotthard Base Tunnel. I have a few things to say but initially I would like to let you know that the genius of man never fails to surprise me. We have been so successful in being brilliant. The things we can do to overcome problems are stunning. An irritating by-product of this is that our ingenuity has also been used to create ever more bizarre ways of killing our own species.

comparisons

I have a few things to say:

  • I am not even aware of Nicaragua’s GDP and I care not a lot. How about comparing it to teachers employed, or even the cost of other tunnels. 12.5 billion seems reasonable to me in terms of EU budgets.
  • I have never understood the football field comparison. Surely people understand that football fields are roughly 100m long anyway. It’s not necessary.
  • This is the one that really bugged me. 4,000,000 cubic metres does NOT compare to a height. One is a volume and the other is NOT. Apart from reservoir engineers who can picture or comprehend this volume anyway.
  • Because I know exactly how much a freight container holds???
  • Why do I need a diagram showing me the distance between London and New York. They haven’t even used the Great Circle. I get it 3200km is a long way.

At least they didn’t mention double decker buses.

The ONLY comparison that should be made is country area and Wales because it leads to countries being described in KiloWales [thanks to More Or Less for that].

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Trash Talking Firefly

Firefly is an awesome Sci Fi television series created by Joss Whedon. It’s funny, touching and full of great characters. Also, it’s made by nerds and so they put in little cookies here and there. One I spotted during the episode Trash was an SR-71 flying through the background while a shuttle was coming down to land.

Firefly Blackbird

What a wonderful thing.

Also in this episode Kayleigh has a model of Han Solo in carbonite next to her hammock in the engine bay.

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Don’t Be A Dick

I am going to be hypocritical here. I am going to lecture about not being nasty and trying to keep the discussion calm and then I am going to rage about things on my most public of forums.

The big message and thing I try to remember is that when tackling the issues that I disagree with or know are wrong then it’s very hard not to be a dick. It’s too easy to get angry and want to shout at people. I have written about this before, I follow some people on Twitter and various other internets because I want to know the sort of things they are saying. I want to try to listen to their points of view and to see where they come from.

Don’t Be A Dick started with Phil Plait giving a talk at TAM:

Phil Plait – Don’t Be A Dick from JREF on Vimeo.

I often have to remind myself of this. My instant response when reading tweets like these below is to scream FUCK OFF at these arseholes. I don’t think I am made for being nice when such hatred and misinformation is spread.

Ken Ham is currently building an ark in Kentucky.

Answers in Genesis use confirmation bias to “prove” the bible.

Matthew Lawrence is religious and believes hell is expanding.

The pope continues to seem reasonable until you realise that he won’t endorse contraception, gays or hand over kid-fucking priests to the police and justice system.

“Pastor” Alex Rivas should be all about love and forgiveness, unless you are gay or LGBT.

Lifeforce claim to cure many things using a method that doesn’t work.

Dana Ullman talks bollocks.

All these people are cunts.
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Screw

I walked along the river Medway today from Allington Locks to Maidstone town centre. I should point out that the river walk is delightful, I recommend it. The only issue was the obnoxious music beingplayed by the Beefeater Inn called the Malta Inn. Why they have to pump music outside I don’t know. It spoils the peace and calm of the river.

N51 17 14.3     E00 30 30.25

This is where I was when I spotted an awesome thing of engineering. On the other side of the river was a very large Archimedes Screw. I say large because I have never seen a screw this big before. I’m used to the screws that you can play on in kids water parks and things but this was impressive!

Archimedes Screw
Archimedes Screw

I don’t know what it’s there for. Obviously it raises water and brilliantly so but why just there? I am going to have to ask around to find out.

screw map 1

screw map 2

It can be seen using images on Google earth. I was hoping to have some company or website pop up and declare what it does but there was none. It is rather an object of wonder.

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Psychic News

As part of Bullshit Saturday I went to a psychic and holistic fair. I have written some information on the linked communication. While I did not verbally interact with anyone at the fair I did pick up a copy of Psychic News and offered to pay, but was allowed the copy for nothing.

Psychic News Front Cover
Psychic News Front Cover

I have read this. I have to say, obviously, that I’m not impressed. It’s full of bullshit. I was going to spend time breaking down individual articles as this would give me plenty of future communications. I may still look at a couple of them and a few of the adverts. It is a fascinating read as I enter the world of people who really believe this stuff.

One other thing for now, this is issue 4138 and assuming that they number sequentially and in base ten then these guys have been publishing for over three hundred years!

Oh, the church of spiritualism was started after two sisters made shit up and didn’t back down about their lies. They later confessed but the church was already unstoppable. This is much like the Miracle Of The Sun. The moral shouldn’t be that god or the afterlife exists but more that “kids make shit up”.

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My Favourite Brands

This afternoon I went to Brands Hatch to see some Club Car Championship races. It was very agreeable and a good way to spend the afternoon. I had forgotten the smell and sounds of the place!

As usual I took the camera to this place and got a few shots. There are a number of communications within this site with pictures of cars, but if that’s what you like then so what!

A Supermarine Spitfire flew over twice, once on the way to a show and once on the way back. It was lovely to see even though I couldn’t hear it!

This is the sound of Lotus cars, mostly Exige, racing down the Brabham Straight.

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Numbers Say So

According to the Daily Mail, with which I could write about 5 communications a day ranting, the Manchester Police have been accused of racism after a terror exercise in the Trafford Centre.

Training

The article is here. This is quite amusing as slightly further down the front page of the Mail Online is the following headline:

Real

The article is here. Is it racist to use a realistic scenario when training? The majority of current terror threats come from Islamist terrorists. Would there be outcry if the police had someone in an Irish accent twenty years ago? This is not racism or offensive.

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