Craig Sawyers

That is a hell of good story Steve - I'm massively jealous! We saw Emmy Lou in concert around 6 months ago in Birmingham Symphony Hall (UK). She's 79, and made it clear that was the last time she'd tour outside the US - because of her age she finds it difficult now on endless long hauls. She was superb - lost the clear as a bell high notes, but still absolutely awesome. Back in the late 70's and getting seriously into audio, standard albums that showed off the quality (or not!) of a system was Linda Ronstadt albums. And one of my favourite albums even now is Trio - Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmy Lou Harris - released in 1987 (nearly 40 years ago - eek). Like you said the quality of the harmony and the way their voices complemented each other raises goosebumps. They actually spent well over a decade after the TV show you remember, Steve, trying to follow up with an album. But their personal tour commitments got in the way until Trio was finally recorded.

Carole suffered more angst than me when our kids went to college; Rob to Warwick and Liz to Essex. But the thing to remember when this happens is "Job done". You bring these little creatures into the world totally helpless, they progressively grow up - then they are adults, and quite rightly fly the nest. Now at 41 (Rob) and 37 (Liz) they both keep in touch regularly, and with each other. By phone and WhatsApp. Rob lives in the NE of England, and Liz is on the Gold Coast in Australia with a permanent residence Visa (so she can apply for citizenship). WhatsApp is a wonderful tool.

We did three nice things in London yesterday. Theatre, matinee at the Old Vic. "How the other half loves", a farce by Alan Ayckebourn with a stellar cast including Roger Allam. Absolutely laugh out loud hilarious https://www.oldvictheatre.com/stage/other-half/ Followed by an Indian meal at the famous Cinnamon Club https://cinnamonclub.com/about-us/. Canapes, starters, main course and pudding, two glasses of wine and coffees UK£115 for two. Stunning value for money in London; had to pre-book of course because it fills quickly. If any of you all get to London and like really subtle Indian fine dining - go there. Followed by this https://luminiscence.com/london/ at Westminster Cathedral (Catholic). Narrated (recorded) by Hugh Bonneville and sung live by the renowned Cathedral choir. The cathedral, built in the late 1800's to early 1900's is huge, seating 2000 .

Curiously, the Romans actually mainly spoke Greek. But who can forget "He's not the Messiah, he a very naughty boy!" And:

Although I never saw Dolly Parton in concert, we were lucky enough to see Emmy Lou Harris earlier this year in Birmingham Symphony Hall (UK). At 79, she'd lost her highest notes, but she was absolutely awesome. After a couple of mumbly numbers she said to the sound mixer at the stage side "Can you please rebalance the sound, and bring my voice up" That did the trick!

Well that is a shock for sure. RIP the legend Dolly Parton.

There was a guy on another thread who recently bought some cable from China, and randomly found that a magnet stuck to it. It was iron wire with a thin copper coat. And what a stoopid idea of them using braided cable, and ridiculously short. High capacitance (usually around 50 to 100pF/m, or even more) and very low inductance (sub uH/m). Oh and use the hardback version of Art of Electronics 1.5m would add at least 75 - 150pF!!!

This is a not so funny incident locally around 10-15 years ago, where an elderly lady put the car in reverse instead of forward, and pushed the pedal. Shot back and pinned someone by the legs against a brick wall. Life changing injuries.

Usually nothing wrong with Chinese product, unless you pay top dollar. The actual FOB price will be rather low - which is why most of everything now comes from China. Top UK brand toaster and kettle here are both China made. Goes on and on....

That, good sir, is a thing of beauty!

Happy birthday Todd!

Wow! Really glad you are all safe. Our only brush with destruction on that scale in the UK was the hurricane that supposedly wasn't. On the BBC weather forecaster called Michael Fish said: "A few hours before the Great Storm of 1987 broke, on 15 October 1987, Fish said during a televised weather forecast: "Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way. Well, if you're watching, don't worry, there isn't!" When it hit, the severity of the storm, which was in fact the worst to hit South East England for three centuries, caused record damage and killed 19 people. From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Fish

Yes I know. But it is nonetheless exceptionally persuasive. There is a time oddity though. The AI Feynman talks about dark matter (which was around as a measured thing well before he died) and Dark Energy, which postdated his death. I'd clearly forgotten that Feynman died aged 69 (from cancer). Reputedly his last words were "This dying is boring"

Here's a fascinating (at least to me) series of lectures by one of my heroes - Richard Feynman. These are all about an hour long, and I was enjoying his engaging talks about diverse topics. For example, below. You get a flash at the beginning that I missed. But at the bottom it is Feynman Reborn, an AI Feynman, along with unmistakably his voice. There is a list of publications at the bottom (for example the Feynman Lectures on Physics). There is a series of these, and the only real hint that something is up is if you look at the background. I think that the authors of the AI Feynman left a really weird background to give a sense of the unreality of the superb AI Feynman.

I can't believe I'm going to bore you all about Newton. Although English, he wrote Principia and Optiks in Latin. An that is a real problem - translating back into English is a tickly thing, particularly the more fundamental stuff which is to do with what we learn as Newtons laws of motion at school. What is the precise translation of momentum for example? After that the translators have an easier job. Newton derived all his proofs in his long book Principia geometrically, step by step. He finishes off by meticulous measurements of the motion of the planets etc. At one stage he says that a chunk of the measurements was lost, but he can recall the basic idea behind the measurement. By "lost" he actually meant that his dog ate some of the sheets, or knocked a candle over and set fire to some sheets. Accounts vary. As professor at Cambridge University, his lecture course was so unpopular that no students attended. But part of his job was to give lectures. So he'd turn up and give the lecture to an empty theatre. In later life he spent most of his time studying alchemy. I'll shut up now