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Notre Dame on Fire


matty40s

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12 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

Is that worse than the clockwork laptop I use? 

 

Yes. Far worse. 

 

Mr Athy purchased his PC in 1846, IIRC. 

 

 

Clockwork laptops are a relatively recent invention, by Trevor Bayliss IIRC. Or more accurately, 'wind-up' laptops.

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16 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

Mr Athy purchased his PC in 1846, IIRC. 

 

 

Ok back in the day when Mike first bought his PC, he was so very proud of it that he sent me a photo. I've just dug it out from my archives:

 

 

 

steampunk-computer-steampunker-8.jpg

 

 

 

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12 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

 

Ok back in the day when Mike first bought his PC, he was so very proud of it that he sent me a photo. I've just dug it out from my archives:

 

 

 

steampunk-computer-steampunker-8.jpg

 

 

 

And he claims never to have heard of Steampunk... 

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6 hours ago, Mike Todd said:

 I assume that in today's climate, a plastic spire would be unacceptable.

 

Fibreglass seems to have worked well for the spires in Disneyland Paris. 

 

Light and capable of looking like stone or wood from the distance the tourists see it from.

 

Damn, CarlT got there first

 

 

 I assume that in today's climate, a plastic spire would be unacceptable.

 

 

2 hours ago, carlt said:

 

Courtesy of The Daily Mash:

 

America to gift France hideous new plastic church

17th April 2019
disney-castle-667x400-667x375.jpg
 
 
 
 

AMERICA has decided to revive its old friendship with France by giving it a garish plastic megachurch for the middle of its capital city. 

The US has remembered the lovely metal statue that France gave it for New York harbour and decided to return the favour with a huge church by the designers of Disney World.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: “The best thing is, because it’s plastic, we can prefabricate the whole thing off site. They’ll just wake up in the morning and it’ll be there.

 

“We’re thinking something like a fairytale castle but with big neon crosses all over it to show it’s a church, and of course the various sponsor’s logos.

“The spire will look just like a 300ft baguette – those dudes love baguettes – and the roof will be retractable, so it can host open-air church services and two NFL games per season.

“And just wait until they see the Hall of Animatronic Jesuses, all the way from baby Jesus through Teen Preacher Jesus to his final, climactic battle with the Romans on Golgotha Hill. It’s a real thrillride.”

President Emmanuel Macron said: “Wow. This is, as we French say, trés merde.”

 

Damn, CarlT got there first ?

 

Edited by cuthound
To remove a duplicate of a duplicate post within this post. (Reminds me of the film Mulitiplicity)
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On 18/04/2019 at 16:06, carlt said:

Perhaps you're right considering the French with their wishy-washy engineering but if they'd given the job to Hartland & Wolff... 

Throughout the industrial revolution, the French were far in advance of us technologically, and were using calculus decades before British engineers. However, they did not have the necessary appreciation of craft skills and their engineers had problems communicating with craftsmen. Ironically, as technical education developed in the UK from the last half of the 19th century, the same thing started to happen in this country. All education seems to do today is test people's ability to remember things, ignoring their ability to make things. Serving my time, I meet people on the shop floor who were just as intelligent as those I met at university latter, they were just skilled in different ways.

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4 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

So you think Mike will resume posting in two hours? 

 

I predict not. I've an idea Mike only posts from the coal-fired PC on his desk, at home.  But we shall see!

 

 

 

 

Coal? It powered by single malt whiskey. He always has a glass in hand when ever I pass his place in Outwell.

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1 hour ago, Pluto said:

Throughout the industrial revolution, the French were far in advance of us technologically, and were using calculus decades before British engineers. However, they did not have the necessary appreciation of craft skills and their engineers had problems communicating with craftsmen. Ironically, as technical education developed in the UK from the last half of the 19th century, the same thing started to happen in this country. All education seems to do today is test people's ability to remember things, ignoring their ability to make things. Serving my time, I meet people on the shop floor who were just as intelligent as those I met at university latter, they were just skilled in different ways.

To qoute the late Fred Dibnah 'It's all book learning nowadays'

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21 hours ago, StationMaster said:

I disagree with this (the underlined bit). Why cut down ancient oak trees when in reality modern materials would suffice. Grrrrrr.... Maybe I should join the climate protesters...

The trees will be from an area planted for timber will not be ancient or veterans and will be replaced.

 

Most ancient or veteran Oaks will be hollow and useless for timber anyway 

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1 hour ago, tree monkey said:

The trees will be from an area planted for timber will not be ancient or veterans and will be replaced.

 

Most ancient or veteran Oaks will be hollow and useless for timber anyway 

But, but, but...

 

If we cut them down they won't turn into ancient oaks and over time there will be no ancient oaks left. ?

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2 minutes ago, StationMaster said:

But, but, but...

 

If we cut them down they won't turn into ancient oaks and over time there will be no ancient oaks left. ?

I sorta agree ;)

We should value our ancient trees more and be managing our trees to allow the creation of future ancients .

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1 hour ago, StationMaster said:

But, but, but...

 

If we cut them down they won't turn into ancient oaks and over time there will be no ancient oaks left. ?

Forestry is, arguably, one of the quiet but strong new-ish investments. A number of larger funds have, in the past decade, invested significantly in this sector which produces good returns. Of course, it  bucks the 'get rich quick' trend but does come with some positive environmental factors. The reality is that without the investment element, far fewer trees would be planted as they do not otherwise bring too many benefits to the landowner. Better a forest than a housing estate? (Yes if you focus on the green side of life, no if you are desperately looking for a decent home which is way out of reach of minimum wage households)

 

Trees do have a carbon capture aspect that is not (yet) factored into the investment calculation. One option for climate change abatement might be to encourage further planting by subsidies. As has been said in another post, old trees are not that valuable other than as part of a pretty picture. Once they die they are less likely to be replaced.

 

Thankfully, the commercial trends have taken us away from the universal swathes of conifers that grow quickly and are felled equally soon. Wood as a commodity has regained ground and a greater variety of species are now viable.

 

 

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There is a lot of recent history behind planting trees for profit and subsidies, look at parts of Caithness/Flow Country for an example of where things went wrong.

 

I'd still much prefer to visit an ancient woodland than an ancient cathedral though.

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9 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

Forestry is, arguably, one of the quiet but strong new-ish investments. A number of larger funds have, in the past decade, invested significantly in this sector which produces good returns. Of course, it  bucks the 'get rich quick' trend but does come with some positive environmental factors. The reality is that without the investment element, far fewer trees would be planted as they do not otherwise bring too many benefits to the landowner. Better a forest than a housing estate? (Yes if you focus on the green side of life, no if you are desperately looking for a decent home which is way out of reach of minimum wage households)

 

Trees do have a carbon capture aspect that is not (yet) factored into the investment calculation. One option for climate change abatement might be to encourage further planting by subsidies. As has been said in another post, old trees are not that valuable other than as part of a pretty picture. Once they die they are less likely to be replaced.

 

Thankfully, the commercial trends have taken us away from the universal swathes of conifers that grow quickly and are felled equally soon. Wood as a commodity has regained ground and a greater variety of species are now viable.

 

 

Just this point.

Old trees are more than a pretty picture, they have a massively important environmental benefit,  think of them like a fast food restaurant for wildlife.

Additionally there are specific insects that depend on this sort of habitat and survive no where else.

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Best forestry policy is to grow them to near maturity, cut them down and plant again.  Just don't burn them - build log cabins or cut them into structural baulks instead.  Unsurprisingly trees absorb the most CO2 when they are growing rapidly, and need to extract the carbon which is the basis of their anatomy.  

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On 19/04/2019 at 14:23, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

So you think Mike will resume posting in two hours? 

 

I predict not. I've an idea Mike only posts from the coal-fired PC on his desk, at home.  But we shall see!

 

 

 

 

We shall indeed - got back last night (we were blown home quite quickly) after 9 days on the boat.

Mr. Dell, who built my computer, would be surprised to learn that his range (?) included a solid-fuel model.

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