Phill

Phill

  • Commented on A message from our sponsors: New Book coming!
    I think the trick is to be so surprised at suddenly being airbourne, you just ragdoll until everything stops moving....
  • Commented on A message from our sponsors: New Book coming!
    I reckon there can be times a motorbike is safer, at least overall. For learners, you're highly unlikely to have 3 of your mates on the back distracting you and egging you on to do something silly. If you do...
  • Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
    Other problem with shifts is "other shift syndrome". People who work with each other, but not together, can develop deeply unhealthy rivalries and hatreds. They don't see enough of the other to feel comfortable raising problems, or to have robust...
  • Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
    I'm both amazed, and yet not surprised, that, 2 years into the Ukraine invasion, the UK seems to have done very little to built up our armed forces and solve the logistics issues highlighted above. But then, when it all...
  • Commented on Crib Sheet: Season of Skulls
    Mention of Werewolves and knots together...is this going to get a bit X rated? And have nothing to do with rope?...
  • Commented on Do my Laundry
    I stood on the station platform, as a filthy, black, stinking 8F lumbered through on a heavy freight train. There had been some changes since the 80 year old loco was revived. The fireman was a gorgon, staring through the...
  • Commented on Do my Laundry
    In one of the books (I forget which, sorry), you mention the strategic reserve of steam engines......
  • Commented on Finding true love in the cosmos
    You start writing a Laundry civil service bureaucracy parody, Brexit happens. You were going to use some kind of pandemic in a future Laundry book, Covid ruined it. If you're going to make a third attempt at accidentally predicting major...
  • Commented on Finding true love in the cosmos
    "... I speak neither dog nor Chesterfield" The latter is just Yorkshire-adjacent North Derbyshire. Does the sex need to be physical? Could the race be telepathic? I seem to remember Anne McCaffrey featuring an alien mind who the main character...
  • Commented on Shrinking the world
    True, but America is already 4' 8.5", so to replicate Japans jump from 3' 6" you might as well go b-r-o-a-d. Most importantly, we could get the replica Firefly out of Didcot and run it on the mainline...wibble, etc......
  • Commented on Shrinking the world
    "like the Shinkansen lines in Japan, which are a different gauge standard to regular Japanese railroads" Make Brunel Broad Gauge Great again! The 7ft shall rise again!...
  • Commented on Shrinking the world
    Back when I were a lad, late 90's, we'd go to visit Grandparents travelling by HST. Smoking carriages were still a thing, obviously Mum booked us non smoking. We found out the hard way that some utter cretin at BR...
  • Commented on Shrinking the world
    As has been said, toilets discharging on the track on the UK mainline was only just banned in the last couple of years. I think there's still an exemption for heritage railtour stock on the main line, but that will...
  • Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
    Wallace written by Stross would be breathtaking......
  • Commented on Decision Fatigue
    Having commuted a 40 mile round trip on a CG125 (tiny Honda L plate legal motorbike), I can assure you that decent acceleration is pretty crucial for little vehicles. Otherwise, everyone is pretty much describing why we need electric motorcycles...
  • Commented on London Bridge
    Imagine the confusion "The Queen is dead! "Nah mate, she's over there, can't you smell her pheremones?" "No, the human one. Charles III is king now" "A king? What? Who will lay eggs to make more British people now?" Also:...
  • Commented on London Bridge
    "look at how the rumours about William have been squashed." Aye, I heard they got a right rodding over it......
  • Commented on The ends of education
    Sounds like another case of violently swinging between the extremes whilst completely missing the problem. My generation (I'm 33) were sold a huge lie on universities. They were meant to be the guarantee of a good job, you absolutely had...
  • Commented on Books I will not write: BIGGLES!!
    I've just been machining some beryllium copper a few months ago. Making contact fingers for a little electric truck of my Dads. When heat treated they'll be suitably springy, yet conductive. Apparently machining it is pretty low risk, if you...
  • Commented on Abolish the monarchy!
    It would make for some entertaining blog posts. "Latest book is delayed again, had to go open a swimming pool and wave at some peasants. On the bright side, punched Johnson on the nose and there's bugger all he can...
  • Commented on Abolish the monarchy!
    Yes, agree on Harry and Meghan, hence my comment about their whinging. But then, that's Americans for you. I reckon when he divorces her he'll fake his own death, and become a brickie in Tyneside called Dave....
  • Commented on Abolish the monarchy!
    Whether or not the monarchy should exist, the death of Brenda is probably not the time for abolishment. The task of working out what replaces it will fall to the government, and I shudder to think what the current lot...
  • Commented on Behind the Ukraine war
    I hope I'm wrong too, but I doubt it. You forget the US is up to their nuts in Russian dealings too. (Everyone loves to think that only their opponents are supported by unfriendly powers. I firmly believe that Russia,...
  • Commented on Behind the Ukraine war
    What worries me is who is learning what from this conflict. It seems clear that good old Russian corruption and lying is Ukraines biggest ally. Without it, I get the impression Ukraine would have had it even worse. This will...
  • Commented on Yokai Land Q&A
    You reckon? There's qualified healthcare professionals who went very anti-vax, and not even just the wait and see, slightly cautious types. I think we forget just how lax a lot of things were barely 25 years ago (when the book...
  • Commented on Quantum of Nightmares: spoiler time!
    Military Academy you say-like Welbeck College? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welbeck_Defence_Sixth_Form_College My mental image of Angleton is based on one of my maths teachers from there. Although, I actually quite enjoyed my time there, even though I was terrible at anything vaguely sport or...
  • Commented on Oh, 2022!
    There's been a few bits in Private Eye, mostly Old Sparky's column, about how bad Drax actually is. I seem to remember the wood pellets are shipped over from Canada :) If I remember rightly, while it can in theory...
  • Commented on Oh, 2022!
    The physics checks out, how many people were actually daft enough to try it is another question. OHL maintenance on tramways was done live, on a wooden tower. I have personally been up one and touched the 550V DC wire,...
  • Commented on Oh, 2022!
    Looking at other photos makes it a bit clearer. The running rails each sit in channels formed by two girders. I assume that this is done in part to catch anything the derails. This photo makes it clearer: https://www.nms.ac.uk/media/1154129/forth-bridge-maintenance.jpg?width=700&height=464.84375 This...
  • Commented on Oh, 2022!
    My Dad worked at Eastleigh in the 80's servicing the southern EMUs. Apparently, the party trick of the track gangs was to jump on to the third rail and walk along it, tightrope style. Perfectly safe as long as you...
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