MYSTERY OBJECTS

[David Whipp]

I think it says 'silica gel' on it; I'm guessing a device for absorbing moisture?

[Marilyn]

That was my original thought, David! ( but I have only seen ones with a blue tinged bottom )
And the ones I have seen are smaller but still with the "X" on top...

[chinatyke]

To put on a tap as a filter?

[Tizer]

It looks like a pot of those little metal beads that you can pour into a jug etc and then swirl around or shake with water to abrade off the dirt. But that doesn't match up with the words silica gel. So David's probably right, a pot containing silica gel beads for absorbing moisture.

[Whyperion]

You don't find many of those on average model railways. They are expensive but are used by modellers who must have everything authentic. The usual point switch motors on models flick the point blades back and forth but on the real railways the heavy blades move slowly across, especially when its a signalman pulling a handle in his signal box that operates the blades through a series of linking rods. The Tortoise is named so because it is designed to mimic the slow movement of real point blades. These are usually the same modellers who buy model rail and sleepers separately and build their own track to custom specifications. In comparison, the track used by most hobbyists is far from authentic even in its most modern form.

The pneumatic hiss of London Underground points gives a nice generally constant movement, and is a little faster than the signalman's rod systems, always fascinating to watch at terminals, particularly the Waterloo end of the W&C, where all arriving trains progress onto roads within the depot area before setting off to the departure platform.

[Cathy]

Is the mystery object used in a wardrobe or maybe a pair of shoes to absorb moisture?

[chinatyke]

Tip for a walking stick?

[Stanley]

David got it right away. It's a desiccator and was in the big jar of enteric aspirin I bought in the US. Didn't know it was in there until it popped out the other day.

Next one clever clogs?

[Marilyn]

Dare I ask what decade you bought said Aspirin?
And what use by date may be displayed on the container?

You know it worries me that you don't regard use by dates on medication seriously...

[Stanley]

Expired 2000 but still work perfectly Maz...... Good as the day I bought them!

[Marilyn]

Stanley Graham! You should know better!
(And they are cheap enough, for goodness sake!)

[David Whipp]

[Wendyf]

An aerial survey of some sort going on, but was it at 23.20? I suppose they can do ground radar "stuff" in the dark!

[plaques]

Flight path of the Lancaster Bomber that flew over Barlick last year. I seem to remember a backup plane coming over as well.

[PanBiker]

I have seen a two engine aircraft quite regularly circling the town over the last two or three months. Usually during the day though and when I am out on Weets. I would agree with Wendy that it is some kind of survey.

I have just looked at the blog on Flight Radar and it seems that a common nightime use for this aircraft is searching for the heat signatures from illegal marijuana farms.

[Wendyf]

You aren't a Flightradar24 addict then Plaques.... All the details about the plane are in the left hand panel of the screen.

[Marilyn]

Could be tracking out-of-date Aspirin

[David Whipp]

Another one, a little later.

Wendy is virtually spot on; I'm told it's a LIDAR survey by the Environment Agency.

Given the area being scrutinised, I think this is in connection with the study underway to come up with options to alleviate flooding in Earby.

[Wendyf]

Or John Clayton has won the lottery and commissioned his very own LiDAR survey.

[Tizer]

That's interesting about the Lidar survey for flood works. Here in the Somerset levels there was often an aeroplane slowly circling after the bad floods a few years ago when they were planning defences. It was white-painted, high-winged, twin-engined and had a high tailplane, well suited to slow flight.

Maz, tracking out of date aspirin might be more real than you think. In the 1990s I was reporting on developments in packaging technology. There was beginning to be much interest in the use of radio-frequency (RF) technology to create smart packaging - packs that had RF tags attached. These tags could carry information such as identity of the pack's contents, origin, date of manufacture etc and could be read at a distance using an RF detector. The main objective was better stock control but they could also control pilfering and shoplifting more easily. Then the press got wind of it and realised that the technology could be extended so that if a tag wasn't inactivated at the supermarket checkout it could still send data from your fridge (theoretically). So a Mars bar in your pocket could allow you to be tracked wherever you went with it. Now if Stanley's object was an RF tag disguised as a desiccant the FBI could have tracked him from the US and monitored him for the last 16 or more years!

[plaques]

You aren't a Flightradar24 addict then Plaques....

Spot on again. No interest in Aeroplanes, F1 motor racing, Steam trains, Football, Cricket, the list is endless. Just concentrating on staying alive. Mind you some people would consider that I'm already dead!

[Marilyn]

That is quite scary Tiz...when you think of the bigger picture!
Gosh...imagine if the sizing tag in the back of your knickers was actually a tracking device? Or the label in your slippers?
Nothing is safe!

[Tizer]

But if you think about it Maz, no scarier than us carrying around smartphones that can monitor much more than the RF tag and have much more powerful communications capability. There might be aliens out there in space listening to all our conversations, watching all our TV programmes, teasing apart all our data...on second thoughts that might be a good thing, it will deter them from invading Earth!

[Stanley]

Maz, they only sell aspirin and similar tablets in packs of 32 and charge a fortune for them. The reason given is that it stops people using them to take their own lives..... In olden days the chain chemists sold bottles with 500 in them and in the States they still do the same.
Impressed by the radar....

[Marilyn]

A pack of 32 would probably last you 5 years...

The thing with swallowing out of date medication is that it can either have lost its potency or, in some cases, can have changed so much chemically that it can poison a fellow!