Craig Sawyers

You telling me it arrived Naaman? If so that was bloody quick. UK to Arkansas in three days!

? I can't open that? What is it?

Hear hear!

Shit that is sad news indeed. RIP.

My cousin Roy was a set designer and head carpenter for Pinewood Studios. His two most famous ones were the original Superman movie (the ice palace was one of his), and A Fish Called Wanda. Alas most sets were (and perhaps still are) made from MDF. A lifetime breathing in MDF dust did him no good at all, and while working on a Bond movie maybe 20 years ago in the Philippines, had a recurrence of a breathing crisis and sadly died. Before breathing safety for lifetime professional woodworkers was a thing.

Amid all the impressive stuff on this list, I offer up the chopping board. My son phoned on Sunday, and asked if I could make one for a good mate of his, explaining that he was jealous of the one I made for him some years ago. So, although my preferred wood for a chopping board is beech, I could only get oak, Picked up a raw plank on Monday, and made this:

There is also Cleo

This is not CGI. Called AMECA, and currently not mobile, it is a state of the art in everything else. British company called Engineered Arts. You can hire one. Or buy one; best not ask the price.

And you are 'merican. Imagine arriving in the dark after a 7 hour flight, picking up a hire car, and driving on the wrong side of the road. And immediately thinking WTF is this road system? I just want to go to Lexington FFS. Mind you in the opposite direction, visitors arriving at Heathrow are also in for a road system treat. Our daughter's husband Oscar (he's from NZ) compares driving in the UK to driving on goat tracks.

Hope you had a superb spaced out day!

Joni Michell was awarded a Kennedy Centre Honor yesterday. This is a seriously prestigious award (which bizarrely I had never heard of before) https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/kennedy-center-honors-lorne-michaels-joni-mitchell-1.6274668

My hated Garmin was so screwed up that it thought that a new road we were driving was still a field. "Turn around when possible". Then after an update it started announcing E road numbers (At the next junction join the M4, E9). When it finally died I really enjoyed tossing it in the recycling. Now use google maps on the phone.

I used to go to Boston fairly regularly on business, and I well remember trying to navigate the road system. The thing that really screwed me up was coming to an intersection and all it said was a route number and North or South. So give me a hint by at least mentioning a place name. Or in the pitch dark, stair rod rain, zero visibility, unable to see the white lines, on a deserted road. Such fun 😉

14 Peaks on Netflix. About Nimsdai Purja climbing all 14 mountains over 8000 metres. All in the Himalayas of course. In 7 months. Previous record: 7 years. In the process he broke 6 mountaineering world records. Stunning. One of these massive mountains he did with a stinking hangover! https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81464765 By the same production team that did Free Solo https://films.nationalgeographic.com/free-solo about Alex Honnold free climbing El Cap in 3 hours. Full thing on Amazon Prime. I defy you not to grab the arms of the chair and curl your toes for that one.

Frank was life president of our running club - Abingdon AAC - and used to run with us back in the day. He was a real nutcase runner, and used to take his drivers for a run around a F1 circuit so they could "understand" the circuit better. He was fast! Then, aged 44 and on his way to the Airport in the South of France, focusing on a half marathon he was going to run he next day in London, lost control of the car, broke his neck and became tetraplegic, living the last 35 years wheelchair-bound. He was always very accepting of what happened to him, with a ready smile. Born in South Shields, and a Geordie like me. RIP Frank, you were a real character on all sorts of levels.

Yes that is so true. My dad died at the too-young age of 71 in 1994 and my mum at 85 in 2008. I'd give a whole lot to have them back to chat to over a few beers. Still miss them after all this time.

Happy birthday!

I somehow read that post completely differently 😆

RIP the dead when an SUV ripped at speed into a Christmas parade in a small community in Wisconsin. At least five dead and 40-odd injured. He first hit schoolchildren and then a parade of dancing grannies. The police have the bastard in custody,

Another of Cameron's stunning photographs. Charles Darwin in 1868

Actress Ellen Terry, aged 16 - photographed in 1864 by a wizard of early photography, Julia Margaret Cameron in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight. I've visited the museum in her house and studio. (Apart from Cameron's astonishing work, there is a bronze statue outside of Jimi Hendrix)

That is why it is half the number of orderings for ones not mounted on a heatsink - 3, as I said above. That assumes you are not twisting the leads out of a straight line.

For a transistor mounted on a heatsink there 6 possible lead orderings, 3!. For a small signal transistor that you can insert either way round, that reduces to 3 effective orderings. 3!/2. I'll get my coat...

Roubo would absolutely have approved of that bench! A thing of beauty.