Craig Sawyers

No-one in the US will likely have heard about this guy, but in the UK this is a major league loss - Terry Wogan http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26957941

The blizzard that hit you East Coast guys made it across the pond, warming as it came. So at 12C it is hitting us as torrential rain and high winds. Yummy.

Fuses are fine for safety, but I usually find that the silicon blows before the fuse does.

^I made the awful mistake of pressing play

For a completely different project I have a couple of Chinese ones, via eBay. Two secondaries are rated at 17.5VA each - so 35VA total. Looking at the product datasheet for Kitamura, the physical dimesions (including fixing hole spacing etc), the Chinese one correspinds to Kitamura's 25VA, so the 35VA chinese rating looks a bit hopeful.

In a sense I'm kind of relieved that Minsky made it to 88; that is not a bad innings. Everyone else on the list in the last month hasn't made it out of their 50's or 60's.

All the best, Adrian - have a great one!

Have a great day, Mike!

Have a great one!

The map of the UK and South Ireland is so close to the truth. I come from Shirtless Men - they breed them tough where I was born. Mrs S comes from Hartlepool, where it says "Elected a Monkey". That is actually wrong - they hung a monkey. At the time of the Napoleonic war, the French fleet was running up the coast of England, and one of them was shipwrecked of the North East coast, and all the sailors were killed. The only thing that washed up on shore alive was the captain's monkey. It was the way of things that the monkey was dressed in a little suit of clothes. Of course the somewhat isolated community of Hartlepool (at that time) had never seen a monkey, and assumed it was a midget French spy. So they put it on trial, and since the monkey refused to say much they found it guilty by default and hung it. Until relatively recently if anyone wanted to provoke a fight, it only took "Hey lads - who hung the monkey?" Just noticed that it even got onto Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_hanger

Bloody hell. it just doesn't seem to stop. I though it was bad when Lemmy went in December - but it hasn't stopped since then. Saw Lemmy in Hawkwind at the Newcastle City Hall in 1972 when they played support band for Black Sabbath. Now THAT was a gig. Back in my denim, shoulder length hair head banging days. And still got my Eagles black vinyl on the shelf - that is going to get listened too again.

^That had me laughing along - there is nothing so infectious as the laughter of a small child!

That is hilarious. My sister-in-law and husband have lived in Copenhagen for many years, and have failed miserably to learn Danish. As soon as they try to say anything the other person switches to English.

Oh dear. Oops indeed.

^^^Oh yes! In a sequence which must have lasted only a few seconds, the range of facial expressions packed in one after the other is truly astonishing. What a loss. I forget which father and son actors I heard being interviewed on the radio a couple of years ago, but their technique was totally different. The son basically just turned up and acted in an uncomplicated way. But he was describing his father's attention to detail, and described one of his dad's notebooks which was full of descriptions of different ways of opening a door. The bookshelf was full of such notebooks. I suspect Rickman was a notebook sort of guy judging by that video.

Never heard of the leidenfrost effect until now, and had to look it up. Although it is clearly the correct name for when I could plunge my hand into a bucket of liquid nitrogen for half a second without ill effect.

Wine? Enhances high temperature superconductor performance too http://phys.org/news/2011-01-hot-booze-material-superconductor.html

Happy birthday to the Deacon!

^Aagh! I think I posted this before - Russian nutters. How do I stop this new software "merging replies"? I post one reply in response to a post, and then follow up with a post of my own - and it merges both of them, which makes no sense.

Bugger, bugger, bugger - two massive losses within a few days. Both at 69, both from cancer. Remember Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham? "When we get him I'll cut out his heart with a spoon" "Why with a spoon?" "Because it will hurt more!" One of the best interviews with Bowie, by Johnathon Ross - Bowie, at that time 55 and looking great and relaxed, with a whole bunch of music.

Have a great one fellas!

Listened to Rick Wakeman being interviewed on Radio 4 (UK). He played keyboards as a session musician on the early Bowie albums, was a lifelong friend and it is clear that he was in total shock. He knew Bowie was ill, but not to the extent he clearly was.

So I woke up and turned the radio on, and am just stunned. Best example for me of Bowie reinvention was the side-long instumental Warszawa from Low (1977). A late night track, in the dark with a drink. I honestly thought he was immortal. Shit.

The blinking lights would give me nightmares