WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

Just noted that Pastor Mick's PR company is earning it's corn, he's on Saturday Live this morning.

[Stanley]

A nasty little legacy of the flu jab I suspect.... I have a sore throat for the first time for years!
A trip to Bancroft today.
I'm enjoying my new cotton cord trousers.... Joseph Turner did well!

[Wendyf]

We were woken at about 12.45am by the sound of vehicles roaring over the tops in the Skipton direction. At first we thought it must be kids risking life and limb at high speed but gradually realised that it must be a time trial stage of some event. There was a start point at the Lothersdale junction just below us before they roared up the hill towards Pinhaw. It lasted till after 1.30am.
Facebook to the rescue this morning and it turns out to have been The Clitheronian Rally which has been running for many years.....just wish we had known!

[Tizer]

I was once driving my A35 in the Shropshire countryside lanes and trying to find a camp site. Darkness fell and I was lost but then saw someone ahead waving a torch so I stopped to ask directions. As I wound my window down a voice said `My goodness you're doing well, you're way ahead of everybody else!' I'd wandered onto the line of the local night-time road rally!

[Stanley]

Tony Nixon showed up at 13:30 and took me to Bancroft. The Mayor must have heard I was coming because he was there as well to welcome me....
The engine is running well, I gave them the chain warp from Ellenroad so that they can replace the waste in the gutter on the bed of the engine and four nice matching little drip oilers to fit to the head of the air pump bell crank instead of the big ugly cups they have on at the moment.
Tony knows more about clocks than I do and he's well on top of the Riley Street clock. I'm glad it's going to be installed there, Johnny would be pleased I think......

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report of NASA hitting a football sized asteroid millions of miles away. Quite amazing!

[PanBiker]

Indeed, the navigation aspect is quite remarkable. However, I am uncertain about it's worth as an effective experiment for countering future "killer asteroids" that may threaten the planet. Unless my limited understanding of physics is seriously flawed I think the main problem that will rear it's ugly head is relative mass. OK they have chucked, (extremely fast) the equivalent of a washing machine at a 150m diameter rock hoping to alter it's orbit around it's larger mate. All well and good but it has no bearing on what would happen if any future planet killer happens to be a few miles in diameter! Scaled up forces required to deflect such an object would be fantastically huge. It should also be noted that any missions to counter such threats would have to be launched years before any projected arrival at our third rock from the sun.

[Tizer]

And if you manage to break up the big asteroid there will still be very large fragments some of which will remain on the same path to Earth. You're also faced with the possibility of only knocking off a chip but slightly shifting the path so that it hits a different part of Earth. NASA devastating China or Russia, perhaps? Or those countries doing the same to us?

[Whyperion]

Would not the best idea to land an object on the bigger item, dig into it with a fireable rocket system and steer it away from earth ?

[plaques]

And if a foreign power, no names mentioned, set up a satellite station round the moon with weapons pointing at its enemies it could be nudged out of the way without any resultant debris. Not me gov.

[Stanley]

My attention was fully occupied by what is happening down here and the train wreck I can see coming......

[Tizer]

We've seen a big drop in ambient temperature recently so I checked my tyre pressures and they were down by 3psi so I topped them up. It's not just a matter of safety but under-inflated tyres result in greater fuel consumption - something to be especially avoided as prices go up.

Mentioning that reminded me - didn't we used to have an OG topic specifically for useful tips, tricks and reminders in general? I can't remember what it was called and whether it's still on this version of OG. It would be very appropriate in view of the present rising prices, shortage of energy, fuel and food etc.

[Big Kev]

Mentioning that reminded me - didn't we used to have an OG topic specifically for useful tips, tricks and reminders in general?

Was it this one?
viewtopic.php?f=389&t=358&hilit=Useful+tips&start=5175

[Tizer]

Yes, that's the one Kev, thanks. I've posted my tyre pressure reminder in it to get the topic going again. LINK I'm sure Stanley will have some tips!

[Stanley]

Quite right..... I shall post on it!

[Tizer]

I've just seen this video on the BBC News site - scary!....
`Car crushed by tractor in crash caught on CCTV at RAF Mildenhall' LINK

[Stanley]

I often think Peter, as I stand on the side of the road waiting to cross in the middle of Barlick, that the miracle is that there are not more accidents. Vehicles up to 40 tons pass within a foot of you but as long as they stay on the road all is well. Even cars are lethal weapons and if that nice Mr Shapps is to be believed so are bicycles.... (I wonder where that initiative is now......?)

[MickBrett]

What attracted my attention today is that my sore throat is easing up after talking too much. Well my daughter Sonja and her husband Tony stayed for 3 days and we hadn't seen each other for 6 years so...

Actually, Sonja used to live on the same street as you, Stanley.

Here they are just ready to depart on the last leg of their road trip, leaving Oklahoma for Kansas and a 3 day concert at the
Firewater Music Festival

[Stanley]

What a small world it is Mick. I hope they have a good festival!
How fast the weeks fly by these days, or is it just another consequence of being old?
A descendant of James Nutter has contacted me. I think I shall be questioned!

[Tizer]

Can any of you remember how we used to make paper aeroplanes out of sheets of A4 paper back in the 1950s? I don't mean simple darts but ones with wings, a diamond shaped cockpit area and a tail. As I recall, we folded the A4 sheet to make a square and cut off the excess to be folded down the middle and inserted as a tail. The square part was then folded through triangle shapes to get the wings and cockpit. I've tried to do it but can't quite get it right. I looked on google but none of the shapes are anything like the one I remember.

[Big Kev]

Can any of you remember how we used to make paper aeroplanes out of sheets of A4 paper back in the 1950s? I don't mean simple darts but ones with wings, a diamond shaped cockpit area and a tail. As I recall, we folded the A4 sheet to make a square and cut off the excess to be folded down the middle and inserted as a tail. The square part was then folded through triangle shapes to get the wings and cockpit. I've tried to do it but can't quite get it right. I looked on google but none of the shapes are anything like the one I remember.

This one? Not that I was around in the 1950s but my mother folded them like this.

[Tizer]

Thanks Kev. That must be it. I got as far as the last folding over of the small triangles but I don't recall it as being the way shown in the video. I'll wait for Mrs Tiz to try it she's a bit more origami-friendly than me!

[PanBiker]

I have always used a slightly different method for the tailed version. Its basically the same up to about 3/4 of the way through when finishing the nose. Hard to describe but there is an extra stage that does not involve tucking the tails into the folds. I will try to find an example, we always called them bluebirds.

[Stanley]

I remember making the ones like the one illustrated above. We made ordinary triangular ones as well but always called them 'darts'. We made the tails with a point on and after pushing it into the nose we folded the nose back to lock it in place.

[Stanley]

A piece in Private Eye detailing the enormous salaries being paid to the CEOs of the major water companies. Even the ones dropping sewage in our rivers. They should get no bonuses at all until that practice is stopped.
No sooner had I written that when I heard about to fines Offwat is imposing on some water companies.
THIS BBC article gives the details......