JWU1997

@LikeGoinThisWay it's as common as wearing a hat down our way - in the winter the phrase "steams rising" is the usual way of confirming lots are sitting in their warm water bins whilst they have breakfast... JW.

@aakashgupta why not just build some little sail mechanisms into the hub/bearing assembly to catch some draft as deployment begins - would get some spin going for "free" and reduce some tyre wear ?!? - I would have thought compressed air could do the trick too!?! JW.

The physics of what's happening in that 0.1 seconds of contact should bother you. Those tires are completely stationary when they hit the ground. The plane is moving at 250 km/h. For the first fraction of a second, the rubber isn't rolling. It's skidding. Pure friction has to accelerate 22 wheels, each weighing 120 kg, from zero to 155 mph in roughly a tenth of a second. The tread surface goes from -50°C at cruising altitude to over 200°C at the moment of contact. A 250-degree temperature swing in 0.1 seconds. The smoke you see at every commercial landing is rubber vaporizing off the tire surface. Studies at Manchester and Heathrow found that tire smoke at touchdown produces a greater magnitude of particulate emissions than the jet engines themselves. The tires are inflated to 200 PSI, six times your car's tire pressure, and they're filled with nitrogen instead of air. Regular air contains moisture that would flash to steam and oxygen that could combust at those friction temperatures. Nitrogen eliminates both risks. Each tire costs $5,500 and lasts about 250 landings before replacement. The A380 carries 22 of them. At max landing weight, those 22 contact patches are distributing 391 metric tons across roughly 15 square feet of rubber. That's 57,000 pounds per square foot. The reason they don't pre-spin the wheels before landing, which would eliminate the skid and save millions in tire wear, is weight. Adding electric motors to 22 wheels increases fuel burn on every single flight. The math says it's cheaper to vaporize rubber 250 times and buy new tires than to carry the motors.

@davepl1968 sorry for my dullness - is that hard drive mechanical activity or data movement around said device? JW.

Hard Drive activity indicator for the Mac: my first Swift app. Wrote it this morning because I wanted it. It monitors disk queues at 120Hz and triggers the LED for 10ms, which seems pretty realistic. What should I do with it? I pay the $100 Apple Developer tax, should I put it on the app store for $1 or just stick it on my GitHub and hope people can figure it out?

@chrisdean129 can't be uk - it's not raining... JW.

Alton Towers today

@elonmusk It's the Life pattern which must be husbanded thru' Nature's turmoil - the ability to promulgate pattern thru ' SpaceTime in defiance of Nature's natural erosion / laws of entropy is the trick...Maths doesn't change - it's our job to sustain Life - no pressure. Good luck. JW.

Mostly true. What matters is securing the long-term future of consciousness, both on Earth and other heavenly bodies. We cannot just focus on Earth, because there are irreducible external (eg massive meteor) and internal (eg global nuclear war) cataclysmic risks. The Moon is faster to make self-growing, but is more susceptible to problems on Earth. Mars will take longer to make self-growing, because it is so hard to reach, but is more secure from Earth disasters for that same reason. Both the Moon and Mars should have self-growing civilizations. Making this happen is the prime directive of SpaceX.

@onthepineriver @Rainmaker1973 so i assume deformation of the con rod is the interface between the motion of the piston and that of the crankshaft - which obviously does not "stop" - if it did - an engine running at say 4000 rpm would have to re-accelerate the crank/flywheel from 0 to 4000 rpm... JW.

@Rainmaker1973 What’s amazing is that every time a piston changes direction the engine comes to a complete stop. (for a micro second, but it does stop)

How fast pistons move inside an internal combustion engine.

@xAviation ...what kind of an approach is that ??? - oh, I've just about lined my props up with the far end of the strip, I'll land now...oh, wow - unexpected - no more strip...surprised !?!?! JW.

Welcome to St. Barts where the runway is short, the approach is steep, and "go around" is free... unless you forget to use it. This Piper Aztec touched down 3/4 into the strip and ran out of both time and tarmac. No reverse thrust. No margin for error. Just beach. 📹: AIRBOYD YT

@elonmusk Deep Thought ?

Boring Company’s goal is to solve traffic in cities and one day build Hyperloop high-speed transit between city centers

@FUDdaily Also - remember we're increasingly not allowed to "do anything" - we can't go on the grass, own a gun, make a firework or buy a minirocket, avoid a camera, buy a powerful vacuum cleaner, use proper weed killer, use toy steam engine fuel tablets... JW.

Winding down the Red Arrows is part of a broader retreat of the armed forces from public life. The Royal Tournament was once a pillar of British culture, as was the great British airshow. There used to be a dozen RAF station open days, but now there is only one official RAF airshow - at which the F35 makes only a cursory appearance, and most of the line up is classic aircraft in private hands. We have stopped showcasing our military. It plays no real part in boyhood anymore - and then the same pinheaded accountant class wonder why nobody wants to join the forces and any sense of national unity is collapsing. They stopped the Royal Navy's Yeovilton Air Day because of Covid and then never re-started it, and I struggle to think of any military events north of the M62. The BBMF seldom ventures north of Bradford, and the main RAF presence is RIAT which is hundreds of miles away for most people, and costs £70 per adult. The airshow tradition is mainly upheld by small independent events, and though they are excellent, young people don't get the experience of being on an active military base. By the time I was of military age, I'd already been to RAF Valley, Cosford, Leeming, Culdrose, Alconbury, Finningley and Waddington. Because of this, while I never joined the armed forces, I have maintained a lifelong appreciation for the armed forces and take a keen intertest in defence affairs. Politically, we suffer from defence illiteracy, and we're making it worse because defence of the realm is not integrated into public life. cc: @thinkdefence @UKDefJournal

@FUDdaily So a question - how can one of the preeminent technical economies on the planet still be utilising display aircraft which are so ancient they "can't get the bits anymore" - literally what the flip is that !?! - how can one of your key showcases be using museum kit??? JW.

@FUDdaily I guess we could paint 9 jets on the underside of some redundant Hercules and with a bit of smoke and a few drones, who'd be any the wiser ??? That's it ! - the Red Drones - I mean, they'd get hacked now and then to display a rude shape in the sky but what price exhuberance?! JW

I have two opinions on the Red Arrows. A pragmatic one, and a sentimental one. The pragmatic argument is that the Arrows showcase UK flying proficiency, serve as a warehouse to retain pilots, and showcase British manufacturing and aerospace prowess. They are also of ceremonial and diplomatic value. All of those arguments are now completely redundant. We need fewer pilots, F35 pilots mostly train on simulators or on the real thing. Moreover, we don't make a jet trainer now. (We let that market slip through our fingers). But then we don't really need one. Advanced turboprops are as good as any light jet. As to national ceremonies, I kinda think that all died with Queen Elizabeth. For remembrance, we have the BBMF - which has more aircraft than it needs - that would still be flown in private hands. The sentimental argument is that they've been there for sixty years and are part of the great British summertime tradition. Nothing beats the announcer saying "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome... THE RED ARROOOOOWS" - to then have a nine-ship, with full smoke on, gracefully painting the skies overhead with red, white and blue. I've seen the Reds at least three times a year for the last forty years, and even in my bleakest moods, it always lifts me up. It never gets old. If you ask me, it only works as a nine-ship formation. If we can't put nine up then none should go up. Mass is part of the spectacle. It's one British tradition that should be spared the immiseration and indignity of austerity. For me, the thought of a British summer without the Red Arrows is a genuinely saddening thought. The Hawk is a gorgeous little aeroplane. Spotting the Reds while out on your travels is always a treat. I remember last year, driving home from a day out, the Reds flew over my village on their way back from Blackpool airshow. You get an immediate warm feeling of familiarity and friendship. That is irreplaceable. In recent years, as everything else has turned to shit, the presence of the Arrows is a little morale booster, and a reminder that some British traditions still thrive. Some part of my Britain still lives. But now we're going to see them pruned to seven birds and gradually phased out, only for some soulless bureaucrat in the treasury (probably foreign, who has no attachment to them at all) will one day pull the plug, leaving no opportunity for the British public to say goodbye. A final act of contempt. If, then, this chapter of British excellence is coming to a close, then let's just be done with it. One more season as a nine ship, and then stand down honourably - leaving Britain just that little bit more diminished, and the skies a little emptier.

@guyadams Very fair facts - my comments were purposely "unrefined" to try for a point - I always see the premium/elite/expensive event of a type rammed, but ZERO of those people at the local / small / low key event next week - e.g. how many at Chelsea ARE gardeners??? Thanks, JW.

@jwwjnr Wimbledon isn’t. Ticket prices are artificially capped and distributed via ballots largely to people who play and support tennis. Also it remains a great day out (weather permitting)

The Chelsea Flower Show is consistently one of the most shit events of the summer but no-one calls it out because of the celebs/journos/influencers etc are getting free tickets to the opening night thing that civilians are banned from

@realBigBrainAI So i think vintage steam is popular partly because it seems "alive", heat and motion an huffing and puffing - feed it + water etc...but we know it's a thing - ditto A.I. - it apes some characteristics - but that's all - humans and their minds have been in dev. a LONG time... JW.

Roger Penrose, Nobel Prize-winning physicist and mathematician, explains why we should stop calling it AI and start calling it "artificial cleverness": He believes the entire field is mislabelled, and the label itself is doing damage. His objection is simple but cuts deep: "The name is wrong. It's not artificial intelligence. It's not intelligence. Intelligence would involve consciousness. Well, if it's a machine, it's not conscious." For Penrose, people have confused raw computing power with genuine understanding. "People have lost the plot. They've lost it in the power of computing. The thing is that computers have got so powerful that they've lost the thread of what they're doing. But I think consciousness is something different. It's not computational." He believes the term itself has hypnotized people into a category error: "People are so hypnotized. The trouble is that AI is a bad term. It means artificial intelligence. Now intelligence in my view is conscious. That's what intelligence is about." So he proposes a rename. Artificial Cleverness. AC instead of AI. To illustrate the distinction, Penrose draws on his experience teaching mathematics: "You have mathematics students. Some of them understand what they're doing. Some are just clever. They can repeat what they've learned. They know how to do it very cleverly. They can calculate very well, but they don't necessarily understand what they're doing." That gap, between calculating well and actually understanding, is the gap Penrose sees between today's machines and genuine intelligence. Cleverness can be manufactured. Consciousness, in his view, cannot. So the question worth sitting with: when we call a system "intelligent," are we describing what it does, or quietly assuming something about what it is?

@jstanton8869 @guyadams ...or move it to S. Wales???... JW.

@guyadams Having worked and exhibited there for several years in the early 2000's the show has outgrown the site for well over two decades. Why they don't expand over the river to Battersea Park is an interesting question ......

@xAviation "it doesn't look too hard".... JW.

MISSION: Land on a ship. That's a different level of piloting. 📹: alitas_pilot(IG)

@clark_aviation me being me I'd want to check the release clip really carefully, no play, plenty of grease etc...would not want that little lot doing its party trick when MR 177 gets all hot and bothered... JW.

Britain's smallest (and most unlikely?) Nuclear 'bomber', the tiny ship-borne Westland Wasp helicopter. This Royal Navy Wasp is carrying a WE.177 tactical nuclear bomb that was in service from the 1960s to the 1990s.

@ProfBrianCox ...launch attempt...you can't know when an actual launch takes place in advance...of course... JW.

20 minutes to next Starship launch ….

@davepl1968 yep, the only I.T. in my Toyota Carina was likely the kit in the radio - it was a carb machine - 40+ years old - got rid of it - someone keeps it on the road...talk about fault tolerant - what a machine !!! JW.

Have you taken apart and recurved a dual advance distributor? Have you looked inside a Quadrajet carburetor? One time, in the Old Testament, Moses rebuilds one, and even he has a few parts left over. You'd be crying for your microcontroller in about 3 minutes.

@gamesyouloved I've always found it sad and strange that the main brilliant genius behind the main guts of this machine is not a UK household name... JW.

If you are old enough - what are your memories of this? #BBCMicro #retrocomputing