Category: Vague – where should it go?

Where vague stuff is placed for filing

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Bridge Construction

When I was in America I did some running. On my last day in the USA I ran past some bridges. While running up to the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge I noticed a curious linkage design in the side of the bridge.

TRMB

In the UK the majority of bridges are built on rollers so that when they expand in the summer, warmer months they don’t crack and break apart. These rollers can be observed from under the bridge and the expansion joints can be seen on top of the bridge.

This particular bridge in Washington DC is hanging from the cantilever end parts of the bridge to allow expansion in the structure. A close up below:

Bridge Expansion

A close up with my annotations:

Extra

This is quite a clever solution to bridge expansion. I also think it is quite clear that I would make an excellent dinner guest, not boring at all! One of the things I love about civil engineering is that it is Meccano but just bigger. Big bolts, big nuts and big cables!

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Cold Morning

It was a touch cold the other morning. I know it gets colder elsewhere in the world but I live in the south-east of the UK where it’s not often this cold. The worst I knew was -10 Celsius, both the dog and I felt a bit cold that morning!

Car in the cold (spot the engine insulation lines):

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I Think It’s A Porsche

Although I understand the connection between sponsorship and sport, especially in the USA, I was somewhat surprised to see a Porsche on the tennis court at the ATP Delray Beach Competition. If you look carefully you can see two people sitting in the car. I guess they are either the dealership owners or winners of a competition. I guess they’d be ok if they have the air conditioning on!

I thought I’d seen it all!

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Crocus

Saw this earlier today in the sunshine and it warmed me through. So nice to see spring flowers and sunshine. It’s been rather grey for the last few months.
A garden in Kent:

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Wow, A Castle!

This morning I might have been having a cheeky couple of laps on Gran Turismo 5. I was possibly attempting to win one of the seasonal events (which for some reason I find quite tricky).
While racing around the GT Original track I noticed a castle in the background. I was so fascinated by this that for a few laps I couldn’t really concentrate on the track. The castle is a rather good looking building and really adds to the atmosphere. Sometimes I wonder whether game designers have bets about the most ludicrous things they can add!

 Screen #1:

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Screen #2

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These two screen grabs were taken using the LG remote app on my iPhone that has a capture function!

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The Country

Here’s some photographs I took while walking the dog yesterday morning. I think next time I want some really good shots that capture the look and feel of what I see I’ll have to take my D-SLR.
Problem is that by the time I have set the D-SLR up properly the moment will be lost!

WW2 Barrack Ruins

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Sunrise

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The Path

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More Sunrise

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Even More Sunrise

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Not Really Necessary

Snuck into a Costa Coffee this morning to while away the time before attending a course. This was at the Costa inside Tesco’s in Faversham.
Now, I’m quite impressed with Faversham really. It has a crazy road system and a lovely provincial feel and look. Very nice and a little weird! Perhaps this phenomenon is just a Kent thing but they were selling super size biscuits in Costa! They are your classics; a bourbon, a Jamie dodger and a custard cream.
This picture tells you all you need to know! For scale, the bourbon is about 13cm long. Crazy times. I’m pretty sure it’s a ploy to make the world (or at least Faversham) a fatter place.

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Vindication

The BBC News website carried a story yesterday about a high speed yacht that broke the world record. I was instantly interested as my final year project at university was the conceptual design of a high speed yacht.

The major design innovations of my yacht were:

  • outrigger
  • hydrofoils
  • aerofoil shaped sail

Here’s a picture of my concept: 

High Speed Yacht Concept - Drawn By Richard Oussedik
High Speed Yacht Concept – Drawn By Richard Oussedik

Here’s a technical drawing of the main body of the yacht:

Conceptual Yacht - Drawing

And so, to compare, here’s some pictures taken from the Vestas Sailrocket website.

High Speed 1

High Speed 2

So, the sail is in a different place and at an angle but I think my original choices for my final year project have been vindicated. I feel quite pleased that I managed to conceptualise a design that, in general, has worked.

Well done to the Vestas Sail Rocket Team.

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Sandy

My Shatism on Storm Sandy.

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Phantoms

Is this a reflection of Star Wars fans since the Disney buy out? Personally I don’t care. Star Wars has been bad since Episode 1.

Read into this whatever you want. But then, that’s the point isn’t it?

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