RayWright

Written in 1965, Herbert was using Spice as a metaphor for Oil.

Noticed on the usual download site, Series 1 of the BBC's 1972 Colditz. The David McCallum character of Flight Lieutenant Simon Carter was based on real Colditz inmate Flight Lieutenant Dominic Bruce, who became famous for the Tea Chest escape. Overall he made 17 attempts at escaping during the war. Had the honour of meeting him in 1977-1979 as he was my College Principal, he wouldn't have fitted into a Tea Chest then, but you knew not to mess with him. Off at O'Silly 'O Clock to the Lucky Country tomorrow morning, so that's my entertainment sorted.

This was Swampy last year. Was about to buy some for a mate in AUS, however doubled checked the Australian Duty Free allowance and they've gone all anti smoking since 2017. Max allowance is 25 cigs or 25 grams. If you exceed your quota, current tax is AUS$1,893:57 per Kg, so $474 for 250g, or £245!

Go green and wear a grass shirt.

Also in Man's Welsh Prog Rock/ Phychedelic Rock lineup is Deke Leonard on guitar. Was also in his own band Iceberg at the same time, and would jump between Man and Iceberg to keep the money rolling in. Be Good To Your Self At Least Once A Day (1972) which Bananas is on, and produced by Dave Edmunds unfortunately was one he missed out on. This from Deke's 1973 Album. Another off shoot of Man was The Neutrons, which was more keyboard / synth oriented. This from their debut album Black Hole Star in 1974, recorded at Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire, Wales. Rockfield was setup by a couple of farmers who were looking to diversify. Rockfield was the world's first residential recording studios. Still working today, and if no one is in residence, the accommodation is available to book on AirBnB. In fact, Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody was recorded there. @bannork, thanks for the inspirational trip down memory lane.

Thought I would continue the Devil conversation theme, but no one does a decent cover of Frank Zappa's Live in New York classic. On the other hand, two classic performers who can bring a tear to your eye. Italia 90, the original Three Tenors concert at the Terme di Caracalla in Rome on the eve of the World Cup final. And Eric Clapton's 2010 Crossroads Festival from Bridgeview, Chicago. Narada Michael Walden, Rhonda Smith and Jason Rebello line up.

Surely TF?

Let me know how you get on, as a trip to Fortune Town can get quite expensive, as could do with saving a few penny's.

Factually incorrect : "Academics at the University of Kent, in the UK’s south" University of Kent is in the Southeast.

Bought a "GLINK DL-015 USB 3.0 To RJ45" adapter. Front of the box says "Adapter for Macbook / Notebook / PC". The small print on the back shows "Compatible with Windows, MAC OS, Linux; Driver-free (MAC OS, 10.8 and above; Win8, Win10 and below). Being a bloke just plugged it in (manuals, nah), LED lights lite up, but no connectivity. Went to D/L the latest drivers of the GLINK website and noticed no option for Win11, so D/L the Win10 versions instead. No connectivity still, LED showing connection. Read the box, then saw Win10 or below, no Win11. You could also argue there was no reference to Laptop. However did notice the adapter was very hot. As Lazza can be a game of Russian Roulette, hence why I went to TukCom. Popped back a couple of days later and checked, no Win11 adapters anywhere. Will be up in BKK in 2 weeks, so will visit Fortune Town by Rama 9 and see if they have any. In the meantime have had to use WiFi or SneakerNet to shuffle the data on and off.

Here's one to practice your French on: -

For computers to work its basically hardware and software, however you need to have the correct versions / types. Picked up an i7 Dell Laptop in Singapore last year, looked the part, worked okay in the hotel over WiFi. Get home try and plug the Laptop into the LAN, no socket. Been using Dell's Notebooks and Laptops since 1989 and all have had LAN ports. Solution was to get a USB to RJ45 adapter, popped over to TukCom, get home doesn't work. Laptop is Windows 11, adapter only rated to Windows 10 (my fault didn't check the specs). Getting IT to work is never simple, and I've been doing it for 45 years! On the subject of DataComs and throughput, couple of rules of thumb. 1) LAN cabled overheads are approx 5%, so if you have a 1GHz link, you'll get 950 MHz. 2) WiFi has many variables, environment, i.e. walls, furniture, electrical interference (microwaves, mobile phones, lighting, radio etc) plus the reflective properties of all the various materials / objects. Unlike LAN, WiFi isn't Full Duplex (separate channels for Transmit and Recieve), plus there is shared traffic, mobiles, other tablets/ laptops, IoT stuff etc as well to consider. In summary expect 35 to 50% overhead. So with a 2.4 GHz WiFi connection that gives you a typical 400MHz connection speed, then expect 200 MHz or above performance.

One of my favorite pieces is Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures of an Exhibition. Written in 1874 for piano, however the 1922 adaption for orchestra by Maurice Revel remains the most popular. The piece is inspired by the paintings of Viktor Hartmann who was also an architect and designer and friend of Mussorgsky. In fact Hartmann gave Mussorgsky a couple of paintings which were to become the early inspiration for his piano suite in 10 movements. When Hartmann died in 1873 at the age of 39, the music and art critic Vladimir Stasov organised an exhibition of 400 of his works, to which Mussorgsky lent his 2 paintings. Wandering through the exhibition at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg Mussorgsky was taken by the sheer variety of the images and wrote the 10 part piece in 3 weeks. Regrettably most of Hartmann's pictures have now been lost. Despite scoring the piece in 1874, it wasn't until five years after his death in 1881 that his friend Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov published the works, admittedly with a number of errors and omissions. It was a further 50 years before the works were 'officially published' as intended by Mussorgsky. Sir Henry Wood wrote an adaption in 1915 which was recorded onto 78, however he banned the playing of it after hearing Revel's version a number of years later. To date the biggest selling version is the 1979 version by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Enjoy: - Original version. https://youtu.be/rH_Rsl7fjok?feature=shared Ravel's 1922 Orchestration. And if you fancy a bit of Prog Rock, then :

So you're a fortune hunting Irish rogue.

Okay, semantic point noted, water and air powered. Ammonia is a combination of Hydrogen, so via electrolysis sourced from water and Nitrogen which is 78% of the air we breath, hence air sourced.

Steel or PVC-U is used commercially for Ammonia storage, so readily available. Agree it's toxic, hence the limited number of options as a storage vessel. In terms of not ready, then here's a pic of the first commercially available car, launched last November. Rated at 161HP.

Water is H2O, so break down into H and O by electrolysis (you'll need a source of electrical energy, e.g. a battery). Then you've got 2 options, use Hydrogen as is, i.e. H2 as in hydrogen gas, or use an additional step (Haber-Bosch process) to mix the H2 with air sourced Nitrogen (N) to create NH3. Admittedly Ammonia doesn't have same flame effect as traditional fuel (hydrocarbons), however adding Oxygen (by product of the electrolysis process) will improve the combustion effect. By product of Ammonia combustion is Nitrogen oxide (NOx), which apart from being un-environmental, could be looped back in part into the combustion process for added Fast & Furious performance, or use of a catalytic converter to remove it. The other by product is water, so use it as a top-up. The really clever bit is fitting this into something the size of a car.

Also check the comfort factor, especially if you're into a streaming or movie marathon.

Know the feeling. I tend to use a set of Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones, so drowns out any local noise as well. Do have a cabled Sound bar setup + Sub-Woofer, but being slightly Mutton Jeff; tend to crank it. Have agreed with my neighbour to only use it during F1 races. Roll on Bahrain on the 2nd March.

Toyota have made a couple of interesting announcements in the last 2 months over their Water Fueled and Ammonia Fueled engines as alternatives to Hydrogen or petrol engines or EV propulsion systems. Remember back in 1976 spent 3 days at the Patents Office in London researching Solar Energy as part of my Diploma, however after a day got bored and spent the remaining time looking into the various Water based engine designs that had been patented. Turns out all were 'owned' by the common known household branded petroleum companies. Hence why their exposure was curtailed. Could Water be the future?

Use Bolt in and around Patts and Na Jomtien. Only use car, never bike. However have noticed since last December wait times are a lot longer, was typically 10 to 15 mins, now more likely 20 to 25 mins. Not sure if Bolt is busier, or less drivers.

No, but he was sued once.

Has gone up in the last couple years, was 1100THB early 2022 for the seafood smash & grab. The food's good, Sushi chef on hand if you want something special, also you can Surf 'n Turf, so not just a sea food buffet. Desserts aren't bad either. At £33 it's a bargain to back home equivalents.

Not done a 100m high fill before, but would use a fire rated expanding foam over insulation wool. Logic being, easier for weathering to remove the wool on the outside creating a niche for further avian erosion for nesting. Would second @sandyf's trowel idea or wear a plastic glove to build up the hole rather than just nozzle it.

Thanks for posting, didn't know Golden Earring covered this, or the 1995 album Love Sweat it came from. To me the best cover version, or just version (sorry Bob) is by Jon English on the 1982 double live album, Beating The Boards by Jon English & The Foster Brothers, they use to drink a lot of that beer! Also on the album is the classic Jon English track Hollywood Seven, which technically is also a cover. The first commercial released version was by Dennis Waterman on his debut album Down Wind of Angels.