I can just imagine you fetching the post in wearing your morning coat and hallooing to Herr Hoeness across the hedge
Just my vision of an old guy living with his dug in a wee town in the Bavarian Alps. Also, when I was maudlin' from 'the drink' I tended to watch three fillums: Goodbye Mr Chips ........ The 39 Steps ...... The Magic Box.
Bloodhound's progress in South Africa. This trip is a testing process for the jet engine. The rocket probably won't be ready for another year yet, so it's a slow old process. But I suppose if you want to chase down 1000mph, you have to cross all the Ts and dot the Is. From what I gather, somewhere around the 500 mph is the limit of the jet.
Blood Hound has again been trotted out for anther run. The way that Green has to work the wheel at these speeds is scary stuff, but what a lovely beastie she is.
Can't remember where you are Cyc but I think you are a good 11 hours away with no chance of the fires spreading your way. Would that be (almost) right?
Nice to see some good news Oddy. I presume when they say they will send them back, they do mean by boat
We live on the Sunshine Coast, about a 100k North of Brisbane Ron. Most of the really bad stuff is in New South Wales, but we're getting hit in Qld as well. The Northern parts of the Sunshine Coast, about 20ks from where I live is also on fire. At the moment there are 60 fires in Qld and things are expected to get worse over the weekend. There are 3600 fire fighters on the ground who are being worked into the ground. Fire fighters from interstate and overseas are here and on the way. Four have lost their lives. Houses lost as it stands, 250-300 and god knows much wildlife and stock. Huge tracts of land went up.
Eddie Stobart on verge of collapse. As far back as 40/50 years ago we used to look out for the names on their lorries. Every lorry had a name. Cleanest lorries on the road. Seems a shame to see them go under
This is not horseracing related but it is horse related: apologies to anyone who is already familiar with this story. Do you know why the gauge of railway tracks in the USA is 4 feet 8.5 inches? That is a strange measurement to choose but the simple answer is that the first railways in the USA were built by English engineers, so they used the gauge that they were familiar with from home. Do you know why the gauge of railway tracks in England is 4 feet 8.5 inches? That seems like a very stupid measurement to choose for the spacing apart of wheels on a train. The answer is, once again, an historical one. Before the train was invented, the main form of transport was horse-drawn wagons. In the early days of the railways, the people making the railway stock were the same people that made wagons, so the rails were set at a distance apart to fit. So why was the gauge of a horse-drawn wagon 4 feet 8.5 inches? Again, this is an historical one. In the centuries before the Industrial Revolution, we relied upon the network of roads that were left to us by the Romans. Those Roman roads had been used for centuries and there were ruts in the roads, so to avoid breaking the wheels on your wagons, you made them so that the wheels were as wide apart as the ruts in the road. Roads were almost an inverse railway – running in the grooves not on the rails. So why were the ruts in the road effectively 4 feet 8.5 inches apart? The Romans did not do feet and inches. But the Romans did build their wagons and chariots with practicality in mind. They built them wide enough that they could be drawn by two horses side-by-side. So in Roman times, the width of two horses’ arses was 4 feet 8.5 inches (seems like skinny horses to me...). As a further illustration of the impact of history, this peculiar measurement also impacted on the Space Shuttle. As the solid fuel booster rockets travelled by rail from the factory in Utah to the launch site, they had to be able to pass through railway tunnels, the size of which was dictated by the size of trains, dictated by the gauge of the railway.
“Among artists without talent Marxism will always be popular, since it enables them to blame society for the fact that nobody wants to hear what they have to say.” Clive James, 1982 RIP, Clive – a great Australian export.
Some sort of joke, QM ? We're going to relegate Brecht, Zola, H.G. Wells, Tressell, Steinbeck and a lot of others on the strength of a throwaway quip by an Aussie expat with a talent for TV-review one-liners ? Nice enough bloke, but a discerning literary critic he wasn't. And as political thinkers go, he's right up there with Les Patterson. (No offence, Cyc, and I hope the fires left you and yours unscathed).
you’re being generous , qm has some weird fixation with marx , he cant acknowledge the influence the man has had , so he seeks to try and ridicule from any angle . clive james had a very comfy life toeing the line , rocking no boats and self serving his ego . in a hundred years nobody will ever know who he was , marx on the other hand .........
If I were looking to draw up a list of great political thinkers, Brecht, Zola, H. G. Wells, Tressell and Steinbeck would not feature on it; although Zola was a half-decent centre forward for Chelsea.