Things Noticeable this week

[Greenman]

Originally Posted by squigg58

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17884897

I've heard a rumour that Greenman's attic has also been shortlisted as a possible missile launching site!

I don't think so, it is far too far away from the stadium let along East London and I've promised the Police they can land their helicopter on it if they need a break from buzzing this area during traffic jams.

[scoundrel]

Noticeable right now...the sound of my washing machine. It hasn't been used for a while. I knocked a hammer off the worktop above it and the machine door was open...exit one glass door shield.

It is an English Electric machine and English Electric hasn't existed since the bankrupcy of GEC, way back when. The obvious answer was to just buy a new one; but the quality standards are much lower now, and besides, I have no money to waste. This EE machine was a fairly basic model, but to obtain one built even as well as this I would be looking at a Bosch or a Siemens, not cheap.

So, after a lot of digging, I discovered that the English Electric brand was acquired by Hotpoint, who rebadged the best selling EE models and put them out as Hotpoints; same machine, same parts, different name on the front. Hotpoint still supports my machine, even though it must be at least 10 years old, and they haven't been making that model for quite a while.

I was able to get the new glass bowl for my door direct from Hotpoint; though once VAT and postage were added it cost me nearly £60. Fitting it myself was less difficult than I expected; but you do have to take off the door, you will certainly bend the flimsy hinge if you try to change the glass with the door still on the machine. The bolts holding the door to the hinge were a problem; my 8mm socket was too big and I couldn't find my 7mm (must have eaten it) so I was stumped until I thought of trying my imperial sockets and found that the 9/32" socket was a decent fit.

The actual glass is clamped into the door with posi-drive screws. When I opened the case for my adjustable screwdriver to find the right head, I found where I had put my 7mm socket. After that, it all went surprising well (for me; I am generally hopeless with anything but motorcycles). The construction of the door is refreshingly simple. but I noted the way in which the metal screws go straight into recessed plastic threads; cross-thread that and you will be sorry.

No more laundrettes.

[Greenman]

More noticeable is the amount of technology we have that can go wrong or won't do what we want it to do. For example just this weekend, our new television take 6 attempts to switch to satellite from tv mode, my computer has been making back-ups without me knowing(until I disabled it as it was telling me my virtual memory was almost used up) and having only charged it up a day or so ago I looked at my mother's Ipod Shuffle and noticed the battery was almost empty-and all we had done was look at an item on the BBC website via Safari built into it-god I hate technology-yet I remember the excitement of getting my very first computer ZX Spectrum and even before that the first VHS video-recorder by Philips-how times have changed and I suspect so have I.

[otokonomidori]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

Noticeable right now...the sound of my washing machine. It hasn't been used for a while. I knocked a hammer off the worktop above it and the machine door was open...exit one glass door shield.

It is an English Electric machine and English Electric hasn't existed since the bankrupcy of GEC, way back when. The obvious answer was to just buy a new one; but the quality standards are much lower now, and besides, I have no money to waste. This EE machine was a fairly basic model, but to obtain one built even as well as this I would be looking at a Bosch or a Siemens, not cheap.

You can get a 2nd hand machine , guaranteed for 6 months and never raced or rallied, from an excellent shop on the High St of my town called Sunshine Electrical Appliances. I haggled the guy down a tenner on a fridge.

[TCO95]

I feel sorry for anyone who would think this is an appropriate response to "possible" trouble. How could anyone even consider setting off a high explosive in a crowded neighbourhood? I'll guarantee no one involved in this insane plan lives anywhere near the launch site. These are the kinds of people who check their toothpaste for explosives before removing the cap.

I'll side with George Carlin on this one. He once said "The cruelest thing anyone could ever do to me would be to make me see the world through Ronald Reagan's eyes." Amen.

[otokonomidori]

Originally Posted by Greenman

day or so ago I looked at my mother's Ipod Shuffle

The only shuffle my poor old deranged mother ever had was when we took her round to the Post Office to get our hands on her pension.

[Mal Hombre]

Originally Posted by TCO95

I feel sorry for anyone who would think this is an appropriate response to "possible" trouble. How could anyone even consider setting off a high explosive in a crowded neighbourhood? I'll guarantee no one involved in this insane plan lives anywhere near the launch site. These are the kinds of people who check their toothpaste for explosives before removing the cap.

So, if a hijacked aircraft is heading for the Olympic Stadium,Are They going to bring it down in one of the most densely populated cities in the Country ?

[squigg58]

Originally Posted by TCO95

I feel sorry for anyone who would think this is an appropriate response to "possible" trouble. How could anyone even consider setting off a high explosive in a crowded neighbourhood? I'll guarantee no one involved in this insane plan lives anywhere near the launch site.

Originally Posted by Mal Hombre

So, if a hijacked aircraft is heading for the Olympic Stadium,Are They going to bring it down in one of the most densely populated cities in the Country ?

Logic says that it would be far to late to bring down an aircraft if it got that close to the Olympic site, and of course, if you lob a SAM sited in London at an aircraft flying over London, big lumps of said aircraft are going to fall on London.

I was a bit baffled by these reports at first, but I now think it's more a case of it all being a show of force. "We're taking security seriously". It's a bit liked armed police wandering around UK airports when there's a hightened level of security. Realistically, no police officer is going to open up with an automatic weapon in a crowded terminal buliding, but at least everyone knows they're there. By coming up with "proposals" (and they are only proposals) to site SAM's in London, the news is guaranteed to hit the headlines. My guess is that SAM's have been quietly moved to every RAF base in the SE of England ... assuming they weren't there already!

[Greenman]

I've learnt that the MoD have named somewhere in Enfield for one of their missile batteries, that is not so very far away from me but far enough for us to be concerned-it is one thing to be in Central London but when it gets so close to home it becomes a worry-like when the council mounted an air-raid siren on a pole in our high street-at a time when it was possible it might happen especially to London. It remains to be seen if this and other missile battery positions prove to be the deterrent wanted during the Games.

Wettest April since 1910 and the sun is out at the moment. Consider last year when we had the warmest April since 1949-what a contrast!

[steve40]

on the news they are still saying about sites where they are considering setting surface to air missiles, all i can say is i dont think they have really thought this idea through properly.