The Lemon Fool

kiloran wrote:I definitely went "Oooh!" this morning.
My wife made an online application to renew her driving licence late on wednesday evening. We expected a delay since it's her first over-70 application.
10am this morning, the replacement was delivered by the postie. Just 60 hours after the application.

What the hell is going on? I thought Royal Mail were having big problems, and it's common to moan about the DVLA.

--kiloran

And there's been similarly surprisingly good service for passport renewal experienced recently: viewtopic.php?p=635914#p635914

kiloran wrote:I definitely went "Oooh!" this morning.
My wife made an online application to renew her driving licence late on wednesday evening. We expected a delay since it's her first over-70 application.
10am this morning, the replacement was delivered by the postie. Just 60 hours after the application.

What the hell is going on? I thought Royal Mail were having big problems, and it's common to moan about the DVLA.

--kiloran

I've just done my licence renewal this morning. I wasn't expecting to have to cut my old one in half and send them the pieces by post.
I hope the new one arrives with a postage paid envelope. Is that wishful thinking?

World record for energy from nuclear fusion set

Wow!

The result came from the lab's final experiment after more than 40 years of fusion research.

Hmmm. Sounds like they've just screwed everything up to max. If it breaks, well it's ok because it's all going in the bin tomorrow anyway.

The experiments produced 69 megajoules of energy over five seconds (11 megawatts of power). That is only enough energy for 4 - 5 hot baths - so not a lot.

They don't say how much power went in to produce the 11 megawatts of output. In any case, I can fuse brussel sprouts, turkey, roast tatties and a Cadbury's selection box in my digestive tract and produce more power than that on any given Boxing Day.

Oh well. Best get on with those renewables chaps, cos that thing they're building in the south of France ain't gonna happen for a loooooong time yet.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68233330

Dicky99 wrote:

kiloran wrote:I definitely went "Oooh!" this morning.
My wife made an online application to renew her driving licence late on wednesday evening. We expected a delay since it's her first over-70 application.
10am this morning, the replacement was delivered by the postie. Just 60 hours after the application.

What the hell is going on? I thought Royal Mail were having big problems, and it's common to moan about the DVLA.

--kiloran

I've just done my licence renewal this morning. I wasn't expecting to have to cut my old one in half and send them the pieces by post.
I hope the new one arrives with a postage paid envelope. Is that wishful thinking?

Unlike your old passport, they're not bothered about getting the old driving licence back.

You're supposed to send it back, but they won't chase you for it.

I still have my last two expired ones as souvenirs.

Steve

Tedx wrote:World record for energy from nuclear fusion set

Wow!

The result came from the lab's final experiment after more than 40 years of fusion research.

Hmmm. Sounds like they've just screwed everything up to max. If it breaks, well it's ok because it's all going in the bin tomorrow anyway.

The experiments produced 69 megajoules of energy over five seconds (11 megawatts of power). That is only enough energy for 4 - 5 hot baths - so not a lot.

They don't say how much power went in to produce the 11 megawatts of output. In any case, I can fuse brussel sprouts, turkey, roast tatties and a Cadbury's selection box in my digestive tract and produce more power than that on any given Boxing Day.

Oh well. Best get on with those renewables chaps, cos that thing they're building in the south of France ain't gonna happen for a loooooong time yet.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68233330

That's a bit 'spinal tap'. They turned it up to 11

A fire......at SeaWorld?


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-68279358

Sorry

Tedx wrote:A fire......at SeaWorld?


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-68279358

Sorry

A fire?
At a Sea Parks?
It's the weirdest thing I've ever heard!

and there was this in the news too... https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/01/hello-kitty-claw-machine-rescue-queensland-australia-capalaba-shopping-centre-footage

seeing as things happen in threes
perhaps I should check if there are any new musicals out?

Tedx wrote:They don't say how much power went in to produce the 11 megawatts of output. ... that thing they're building in the south of France ain't gonna happen for a loooooong time yet.

This chart from their press pack puts it in context :


Nature's report (paywall) goes into details about the Q value - the ratio of energy out to in.
JET’s latest experiment sustained a Q of 0.33 for 5 seconds, says Rimini. JET is a scaled-down version of ITER, at one-tenth of the volume — a bathtub compared to a swimming pool, says Proll. It loses heat more easily than ITER, so it was never expected to hit breakeven. If engineers applied the same conditions and physics approach to ITER as to JET, she says, it would probably reach its goal of a Q of 10, producing ten times the energy put in

The 1997 experiment at JET managed a Q of 0.67, but for a shorter time.

Farming with Dyson....

https://youtu.be/n0miKj4UOiA?si=unUTyey0gucKxGMt

Fascinating Tedx, thanks for a very interesting 6 minutes.

Tricia

Ditto...............what she said.

Tedx wrote:Farming with Dyson....

https://youtu.be/n0miKj4UOiA?si=unUTyey0gucKxGMt

Let me get this right. Up front Dyson mentions one of the most important land improvements he has carried out is improving drainage, digging out the ditches and clearing the streams so as to carry the run off away quickly. Meanwhile in Herefordshire, the Environment Agency has successfully imprisoned a farmer for doing the same thing, in contravension of their policy of leaving streams to silt up, degrade and thus allowing the land to flood when it rains.

Nimrod103 wrote:

Tedx wrote:Farming with Dyson....

https://youtu.be/n0miKj4UOiA?si=unUTyey0gucKxGMt

Let me get this right. Up front Dyson mentions one of the most important land improvements he has carried out is improving drainage, digging out the ditches and clearing the streams so as to carry the run off away quickly. Meanwhile in Herefordshire, the Environment Agency has successfully imprisoned a farmer for doing the same thing, in contravension of their policy of leaving streams to silt up, degrade and thus allowing the land to flood when it rains.

It seems weird doesn't it!?

Trying to explain it.. I'd probably take something like building a house as an example. There's nothing innately wrong with building "any" house, but build one where you shouldn't, in a way you've been told not to and you'll get in to all sorts of trouble.
Part of that IS just paperwork nonsense , but there are often valid localised reasons for preventing some works from going ahead... and houses have much smaller "downstream" considerations.

With all the talk about climate change and rising sea levels, I found it interesting that Google Earth will give you the altitude of any given point on land (or sea....but I guess that's zero...)

Anyway, you just find your house (say), right click on it and click info.

FWIW, I'm 16.11m above sea level. The Houses of Parliament are 2.42 meters above sea level.

'mon the global warming!

Tedx wrote:With all the talk about climate change and rising sea levels, I found it interesting that Google Earth will give you the altitude of any given point on land (or sea....but I guess that's zero...)

Anyway, you just find your house (say), right click on it and click info.

FWIW, I'm 16.11m above sea level. The Houses of Parliament are 2.42 meters above sea level.

'mon the global warming!

You can probably rely on your 16.11 for your lifetime, but do you have children?

UncleEbenezer wrote:

Tedx wrote:With all the talk about climate change and rising sea levels, I found it interesting that Google Earth will give you the altitude of any given point on land (or sea....but I guess that's zero...)

Anyway, you just find your house (say), right click on it and click info.

FWIW, I'm 16.11m above sea level. The Houses of Parliament are 2.42 meters above sea level.

'mon the global warming!

You can probably rely on your 16.11 for your lifetime, but do you have children?

F*ck no.

We're the greenest people I know. Apart from the single guy down the road who drives the old v8 Jag.

UK targets Russian military with further sanctions

Well they tried a Trident missile first but.....


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68371974

Germany is investigating the apparent interception by Russia of army officers discussing supplying Ukraine with long-range missiles - and possible targets.

Audio of the video-conference meeting was posted to social media by the head of Russia's state-run RT channel.

The officers discuss how the missiles could hit the Kerch Bridge, which links Russia to the illegally annexed Crimea.

Russian politicians said the audio proved that its "sworn enemy" was planning attacks.

Germany's chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday called the apparent leak "a very serious matter and that is why it is now being investigated very carefully, very intensively and very quickly".

According to Der Spiegel magazine, the videoconference was not held on a secret internal army network but on the WebEx platform.

*Vladimir has entered the chat*

*Host* Guten abend. Now ve mus discuss ze giving of ze missiles to Ukraine...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68457087

There would be a sense of schadenfreude if weren't so serious a gaff

Dicky99 wrote:There would be a sense of schadenfreude if weren't so serious a gaff

The major surprise is that Russia published this intercept. So it will now get closed down. Surely it would have been much more productive to continue to listen in to future conversations.