Mike Collins

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• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  You don’t get the point of this. You don’t want to remove the dishes in an easy batch because there are no cupboards to put them in. One dishwasher is a partly filled dirty dishes cupboard. One is a clean...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  'If a cupboard is designed like a dishwasher, and moreover the plates and cups are of standard sizes to match it, then a not terribly agile robot and an arthritic old man both can place dishes into it without breaking...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  You have heard about BBC verify? Tell me about how RT verify their news!...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  Perhaps the problem is that you are typing with your fingers. Paradoxically it’s more accurate to type with your thumbs on a smartphone. When I got my first smartphone I trained my fingers by playing Scrabble but I still find...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  This works OK with most links but with Amazon you get a dialogue box which is mostly above the top of the screen so you can’t select it. It used to work OK but the latest update seems to have...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  You may be interested to know that the latest iOS and iPadOS update now shows the autocomplete suggestion in the document itself in grey. It’s helped with my typing. You see what you typed normally but with their suggested completion...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  A levels don’t work like that. It’s not “getting a unit in high school. Any of the lessons or topics in the two year course can appear in the final exams which must be passed. So you don’t just take...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  Then you need to change the system. There’s no such thing as pre- med in the UK. Medicine is an undergraduate degree. The students probably studies ecology and evolution from the age of eleven. They specialised early in science and...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  Medical education in the UK without learning about ecology and evolution is not impossible but not very likely since it’s hard to get into a medical school without A level biology or the Scottish equivalent. That means they already have...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  English and Welsh universities teach science, engineering and medicine at undergraduate level. To get into these universities you have to have A levels in suitable subjects. These are done in the last two years of school or in a sixth...
• Commented on I should blog more, but ...
  The US fluid ounce is based on the volume of one ounce of wine and is therefore bigger than the Imperial fluid ounce. Imperial 28.413 mL US Customary 29.573mL...
• Commented on I should blog more, but ...
  The next one’s already announced. Trump University 2 https://youtube.com/watch?v=SrBxsX8rY1o&si=RkSwTedad27cZDk9...
• Commented on I should blog more, but ...
  Greg I ought a second hand electric car to replace my eight year old petrol car. How am I creating more pollution?...
• Commented on I should blog more, but ...
  Since you already have a Hyundai you could consider a second hand Hyundai Kona which is probably superior to the basic Volvo since it has a 64Kw battery and is more efficient. It also has buttons. And will be much...
• Commented on I should blog more, but ...
  The new Volvo EVs are made in China. It’s perhaps the main reason for their cheapness. I rejected the Volvo without a test drive because the range is too low at 220 miles. But they’re not that cheap. I’ve been...
• Commented on I should blog more, but ...
  GMT is a time zone. UTC is a time standard. And for most uses they are the same. https://www.timeanddate.com/time/gmt-utc-time.html Don’t overdo the vodka....
• Commented on I should blog more, but ...
  I don’t see how precession of such a gyroscope would affect the trajectory of a spacecraft. Ok it won’t point in the same direction but a centrifuge for simulating gravity will only be necessary when the spacecraft is not under...
• Commented on I should blog more, but ...
  Creatine monohydrate powder is cheap. At my local Tesco supermarket 317g (63 days supply at 5g a day) costs £20.00 which is 32 pence per day. 5 grams is a slightly heaped teaspoonful and can be mixed with water or...
• Commented on I should blog more, but ...
  I was a local council grammar school pupil in the early 1960s. I hated all team sports but particularly rugby which we all had to play in the Autumn term. But the games teacher didn’t fit with of the description...
• Commented on I should blog more, but ...
  Thanks for this. I subscribe to The Conversation but somehow missed this one....
• Commented on I should blog more, but ...
  Greg I suspect the high birth rate is due to the usual factor. Education of girls is the proven way to reduce high birth rate....
• Commented on I should blog more, but ...
  That wouldn’t work too well where I live. The floorboards, joists and rafters would be under a pile of bricks, tiles and flint....
• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  NASA is already working on refining in a vacuum. They’ve already succeeded in making oxygen from molten simulated lunar soil in vacuum conditions. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-successfully-extracts-oxygen-from-lunar-soil-simulant...
• Commented on Announcement: 2nd edition Laundry Files RPG is coming
  GP link failed but you can select home to see the menu. Your local GP commissioning group should be informed if such a basic service as appointments is not available on the website....
• Commented on Announcement: 2nd edition Laundry Files RPG is coming
  A few local GP websites I checked all have a the same services as my local one on the homepage. This is the appointments menu. https://www.hinghamsurgery.co.uk/sp_footfall_rooms/consulting-room/ There is also a calendar showing when individual GPs are available if you want...
• Commented on Announcement: 2nd edition Laundry Files RPG is coming
  No. He wrote “- and removing the ability to just use any old phone as a phone and make the appointment by talking down it, so the only alternative is to make another visit to make the appointment” That’s just...
• Commented on Announcement: 2nd edition Laundry Files RPG is coming
  “The NHS is trying to shove people into using some horrid opaque software blob on a mobile phone to do basic things like making an appointment to see the doctor - and removing the ability to just use any old...
• Commented on Announcement: 2nd edition Laundry Files RPG is coming
  Or the Fred Pohl/Cyril Kornbluth version https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfbane_(novel)...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  Sorry! Replied to right person but on the wrong thread....
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  Greg In 1960, aged 12, I went on a school holiday based in Rothesay. I have very vague memories of most of the holiday but very sharp memories of the steam railway journey from Manchester to Glasgow and then Wemyss...