Clive Feather

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• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  Depends. The Dartford Crossing sends hazmats through the tunnel. They wait at the entry point until things are quiet, then one of the tunnels is closed to normal traffic and the vehicle in question is escorted through. Once clear, the...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  It just sits at an otherwise empty platform with the engine running. I suspect it's the rescue engine. Known on British Rail as "Thunderbirds". Some dedicated to this role were even named after characters from the show....
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  Of the four legs of each pier of the Forth Bridge, only one of them is fixed to the base. The other three sit on metal plates that allow them to slide (two on one axis, the last on two...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  source of fiddly bits to keep others of same model operational On the railways that's a "Christmas tree"....
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  Tickets booked in advance are cheaper, sometimes half the price of walk-up fares, but they tie you to one particular train. I've seen advance tickets a lot cheaper than half the standard. Let's see, at first attempt: Euston to Manchester...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  Really? You don't occasionally buy a snack, or leave a tip on a table (so that the server gets it)? Yes, I buy snacks. With credit cards using contactless. I patronise restaurants which I know give the tips to the...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  Yes, the UK's existing network can in principle be upgraded to take express trains running at about 160mph (old money applies, the network was built out in 1830-1860). But fast trains take much longer distances to come to a stop...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  I’d never run across the term ground rent before, but it comes from feudal English law, apparently. Possibly originally, but it's a very current thing. When you buy a house, there are three basic options. One is freehold, where you...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  There are legit businesses who mostly deal in cash - the two that readily come to mind are "flea market" dealers and small farms with roadside fruit/vegetable stands. I can't remember the last time I used cash. For anything. Covid...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  Arthur C. Clarke wrote a short story about an attempt to nobble a soccer referee using match programmes with a glossy cover. Ah, yes: "A slight case of sunstroke"....
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/23699236/Kate+Bush/Mrs.+Bartolozzi...
• Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
  Also a similar idea in "Marooned in Realtime"....
• Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
  As you say; it was changed when episode 5 came out. And I can remember being at a showing at Leicester Square and the huge "huh?" when "Episode V" came rolling up the screen (a few of us SF fans...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  357: every address in the UK has a unique identifier made up of the postcode and an additional 2-digit code known as the Delivery Point Suffix - this limits the number of delivery points/mailboxes in a postcode to ~80) Actually...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  Monthly things that start on the 31st. Annual things that start on Feb 29. Ugh. There's UK case law on this. One month from 31st March is 30th April. One year from Feb 29 is Feb 28. Move the correct...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  That can be an irritation. Mismatch your names on your passport or other ID and an airline ticket in the US some time. Why? All of us use the names on our passports and I'm fairly sure my youngest...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  Another source of confusion: if you buy a railway ticket for use today in Britain, it will say "MCH" and not "MAR". You'd be amazed how many forgeries that catches. (Only five months - JNR, FBY, MCH, JLY, and DMR...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  Data point from England: out of myself, spouse, and six children, NONE of us have the same name on birth certificate and passport....
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  Search for: Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Addresses Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Time Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Time Zones Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Phone Numbers Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Gender Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Geography Falsehoods...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  Going back to the original topic, a friend claims that someone has proposed a "Dune Experience" ... ... a warehouse with a pile of sand containing a couple of earthworms....
• Commented on A message from our sponsors: New Book coming!
  I have an RCD (actually, three of them for complicated reasons) at the consumer unit, which is what we used to call the fuse box. That's normal practice in the UK. It's not normally to have RCDs at the individual...
• Commented on A message from our sponsors: New Book coming!
  Assorted comments ... I learned to ride a motorbike (only a 50cc Honda) and passed my test on it before starting to learn to drive a car. Got a 90cc one and drove unreasonable distances to my summer job and...
• Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
  @1582 Which is why when I'm feeling particularly pissed off with the "everyone is the same" bullshit from the far northern wastelands I ask "how is your third female leader different from her predecessors. She's the one who broke the...
• Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
  @1514: Many/most of those "grievances" were copied directly from the Bill Of Rights 1688: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/WillandMarSess2/1/2/introduction...
• Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
  the tower can easily (with today's tech) determine the round-trip time to the nanosecond. (Modern cell phone towers may also be able to roughly determine direction, but I don't know that). It's been a few years since I was...
• Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
  1419: UK law requires (full-time) employees to get at least 28 days of leave per year. 20 of these can only be taken in the leave year; the other 8 can be carried forward to the next year, but only...
• Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
  I learned somewhere (I forget where) that the reason that child benefit was not means-tested and went to the mother (who collected it from the post office during the day) was to ensure that it didn't get spent by the...
• Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
  I've seen news items from wherever it was that someone stole a massive great steel girder bridge and weighed it in for scrap. (And we thought we had it bad with railway signalling cables...) I've been told by a...
• Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
  Sounds kinky to me. "Kinky is using a feather. Perverted is using the entire chicken."...
• Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
  712 Polish women have an advantage in that they're a relatively short train ride or drive away from Germany (and six other states with land borders, of which two are in the EU) Charlie: Poland has land borders with 7...