Re: i got trapped in Wales because

Whiskers <catwheezel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Whiskers <catwheezel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Whiskers <catwheezel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Whiskers <catwheezel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Whiskers <catwheezel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Whiskers <catwheezel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[...]

On yes, and I've heard it's dangerous in the workshop with him around
when things aren't going well. Armoured vehicles don't mind spanners
being flung at their bodywork, you see - but the mechanic stood nearby
isn't keen on being hit by the re-bound or the occasional miss.

He doesn't miss when he's shooting, apparently.

[Note to self] if starting war against HM Tank regiment, make sure they
only have spanners for ammo.

<http://www.theregister.com/2007/07/03/explosive_doorstop/>

Hmmm. "There is a time delay on these type of shells. A brass ring could
be turned on top which gave them enough time to fire it to go off in the
air or on the ground." Or in some innocent front parlour after 100 years?

Nah - back then, such timers were crude affairs (I don't know the
details, but they were still pretty crude in the second world war and
I've read about that stuff). If they don't go off *fairly* soon,
they're not going to go off as a result of their own controls, sort of
thing. I mean, I suspect one could convince me that the timer might
suffer a failure that caused it to blow the thing up after one year, but
not 100 years.

What makes these things blow up when they're old is the fact that
explosives just get unstable when old.

People do do the silliest things.

Yep - I read the comments on the story from readers. Apparently, a
lecturer at Cranfield got blown up in 1997 by a `dud' shell that he'd
been keeping in his office.

[snip]

I use a satnav thingy in the car, and on foot too sometimes. She is a lot
more patient than a human when I misunderstand her directions, and she
hasn't hit me once (yet). I've never caught her holding the map upside
down either, or thinking that the blue bits represent the sky. (There is
a setting to make the map display rotate so that 'we are always going
towards the top' but I hate that so I have north at the top all the time,
and the little arrow that is 'us' rotates to show which direction we are
going in). She does sometimes have very odd ideas about what constitutes
a 'road', though, so you have to keep your eyes open and brain in gear.

That last `issue' is one reason I don't use the things. I'm dreadful at
`finding my way around places', so I *really* like a proper map. If
I've got to figure out a route on my own in any way shape or form
without a full on map available, I'm sure to get horribly lost, and I
don't like the idea of having to second-guess the machine, you know?

I do use maps too, to plan routes and find places. The GPS is just a very
useful adjunct. I can 'orienteer' the old fachiioned way quite well, and
I did once learn the rudiments of astrolabe - quadrant - sextant usage. I
really do like to know where I am.

Me too - but I'm bad at it. Having said that, I'm pretty good with a
map and compass and all that - I get lost when out on my bike, not when
I'm out on foot. I've been known to sit there and do formal
triangulation when others have been hand-waving - `Oh, can't be bothered
with all that, it's too slow'. Oh yeah? Well, before you lot had a
clue where we were, I had us pinpointed.

I've got an uncle who can use a sextant, but I can't - he had
professional reasons for learning.

I've also met the things taking you the `long way round', which I'm not
keen on. And I just don't trust 'em - what happens when GPS gets
switched off? Nah, I'll stick with maps - they always work.

They can be quirky, mostly from human error in setting up the data they
rely on.

As one would expect.

Mine is utterly certain that the posh hotels in Park Lane (the
one next to Hyde Park in London's posh bit) are in fact in Park Lane (the
dodgy one near the Spurs stadium in Tottenham).

<chuckle>

Such quirks can be
over-ridden or circumvented using the manual settings available - once you
are aware of them. I always double-check the route in advance for any
important trip. The voice and the screen display are a big advance over
trying to navigate town centres or motorway junctions for the first time
using only a paper map and notes and no reliable human navigator.

Well, yes - that's where they're dead useful, and okay *I* could do with
that kind of help quite often. Thing is, it's less troublesome on a
bike than in a car, getting lost in that fashion. I never get stuck
anywhere awkward without space to turn round and all that. The number
of times I've thought something along the lines of `Hmm - well, I know
where I need to be, that road just the other side of those bollards.
Okay, no pedestrians, no coppers, clear of traffic, let's just nip
through...'

You do
not want to stop to read the map half-way round Hangar Lane Gyratory!

Well, no - nor any of the magic roundabouts, either. Hanger Lane
Gyratory was awful on my CZ - it just didn't have the acceleration I
needed to slot into the traffic nicely.

The way the machine will calculate a revised route very quickly if you
deviate from the pre-planned route, is also very useful if you are
confronted by diversions or traffic-jams and aren't familiar with the
bye-ways in the vicinity.

Uhuh.

GPS is very useful when off map, too; eg indicating whereabouts in a
confusing and crowded Victorian cemetary a particular memorial is, or
locating a particular caravan in a sea-side caravan park, or even just
getting back to my car in the car-park at the Blue Water temple to
shopping. (Or was it Lakeside? I always get them confused, although I've
only been to either of them once).

True, true. I'd still rather stick with maps - I have this irrational
fear of the entire edifice of modern civilisatoin going belly up, and I
want to keep my hand in with some of the old skills. Okay, map reading
and remembering telephone numbers wouldn't be as useful as say spinning
or weaving, but still...

You'll be telling me
next you don't need a match to get your headlight going.

All the acetylene lamps I've met have had built-in ignitors; then again,
they're all been designed for cavers.

To be honest, I've never actually used a 'carbide lamp', but the ones
meant for vehicles that I've seen lacked any sort of 'lighter' of their
own. Paraffin lamps almost always need a match or something.

Match /and/ something - with a lot of 'em. Well, those made by Optimus,
at least - ISTR Tilly (or Tilley) lamps having a `starter thingy' with a
wick, but Optimus lamps just have a trough for some meths. Or, if
you're me, a trough for paraffin and a burnt match by way of temporary
wick, if you see what I mean.

Yes indeed. Vehicle lamps tended to be yer basic wick type, though ;))

Really? Coo. I'd somehow got the idea that the non electric ones were
acetylene lamps - or was acetylene reserved for the fancier models?

I've had a few singed eye-brows and sooty moments with Primus-stoves and
Tilley lamps. I particularly like the effect of an over-heated fuel tank
on my little petrol stove; the safety-valve vents the excess vapour and
with a bit of luck it ignites and you get a lovely loooooong thin yellow
flame.

Yers... I first met petrol stoves in the 1980s. Cavers used 'em. I
heard the stories - more than one had exploded. I have a Primus
paraffin stove and I'm sticking with it. Paraffin's a much nicer fuel
than petrol in any case - non-volatile at normal temperatures, high
flash point, non-toxic, /and/ a higher energy density, not to mention a
higher mass density too so you carry a lower mass and an even smaller
fraction of the volume. Wins all round - just so long as you don't mind
the bother of starting them, which I don't.

That's possibly one reason the instructions say 'only for use in
an unenclosed area' or something like that. (It's one of those really
neat things that is built into a sort of folding metal box; the fuel tank
is right next to the burner, shielded only by a shiny reflector).

I've seen 'em, and other rigs. All the petrol stoves I've seen have
scared the living daylights out of me.

One of whom, when I was sharing a
house with him, decided to keep his shell case (umm - the big plastic
screw-lid container that the shell is packed in for transport, not the
metal can of the shell proper) full of calcium carbide outside his room
with the lid loose `Because I don't want to burn to death or get blown
up'.

<sigh> Nor do I Marc, nor do I. So yes, you've got to keep the lid
loose, but you've also got to store it somewhere well ventilated with
low humidity if possible and no chance of it getting water spilt into
it. Silly boy.

[...]

That sort of thing is likely to help spread the use of LED lamps; they can
run for a very long time on batteries so the main advantage of 'carbide'
is less significant these days. Of course, spelunkers will probably find
ways to abuse their lithium or cadmium cells, to restore the balance of
terror.

I suspect that carbide lamps will be around for a long time regardless:
they're quite robust, and can be made to work even after being bashed up
badly.

They're low-tech too. Bean-tins and piss have been used to make a light
in an emergency, I've heard tell - as long as you have some good carbide
to hand. But that carbide is nasty stuff, and the residue isn't too
eco-friendly either.

I can't help feeling it's less nasty than electrical power cells. I
mean, calcium, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen generally don't arrange
themselves into substances that are *really* nasty, do they?

On the other hand, it ought to be fairly straightforward to build LED
lighting into the body of the helmet in a very robust fashion.

I'm sure someone is designing something of that sort right now, if it
isn't already in the shops.

I expect you're right - it's just such an obvious idea.

LED head-lamps are certainly widely
available,

Oh yeah, but just think: instead of having some easily-dislodged lamp
held in place by a strap, you get a little `light pane' built into the
front of the lid - out of the way, and impossible to dislodge.

and dynamo hand-lamps seem to be making a come-back with LEDs
in place of the traditional filament bulbs.

I keep meaning to look into that sort of thing and get a good one with
some sort of built-in energy store, be it `big capacitor' or whatever.

Rowland.

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