Off Topic The Goodhand Arms

Indeed it does. I'd like to have a hack at the hacker that hacked my account the klootzak zalupa.

 

Oh my goodness yes!!!

I feel the need.... the need for speed! Great soundtrack!

 

I can only vaguely remember the moon landing in 1969 (aged 9). Wish I had a better memory! but just WOW

 

The greatest achievement of mankind ever.

 

It has been said that the astronauts accepted that the chances of being successful and returning safely was as low as 50%...such courage, though no doubt early aviators and sailors took similar risks. An amazing achievement...especially when you consider the technology at the time.

 

That's a good point, Fran. Whilst I'm pretty confident that NASA didn't run as low as a 50% chance of failure, one of the reasons why the USA didn't quickly return to the Moon after a decade or so was because the cost of pretty much eliminating risk altogether was too much. Then, after a few decades they simply didn't have the skills to do it. Whilst they were in a race with the Soviets they were prepared to accept a slightly higher degree of risk - they had all been test pilots or aces - but they still operated on 99% [plus a couple of point 9s that I can't remember] machine reliability. That might seem hugely impressive, and is, until you realise that still leaves around 2000 parts in the Saturn V/Apollo Space launch system to go wrong. In practice, of the vehicles that launched, [apart from Apollo 13's cryo-tanks failure] they just had the odd failure here and there, like a rocket engine shutting down early during escape velocity, and they compensated. So they even had a measure of redundancy in the system. Not much, but acceptable. The 'elephant in the room' problem with all these space exploration adventures is that nobody can be rescued in the event of failure.

 

And we mustn't forget the courage of early sailors as well...after all they feared that they might fall off the edge of the world and they faced more unknown dangers. Though I suppose some of it wasn't courage, but a desire for their next meal. If you were poor in those days you probably worried less about the future than about surviving the next day or two.

A better comparison may have been early aviators in planes made of wood, wire and fabric. Only difference was that they faced a quick death rather than the risk of days of knowing you would die because rescue was impossible.

The curiosity and bravery that drives all these people is probably the same characteristics that made early H. sapiens ancestors (other hominids are available ) spread out across the world from Africa.

 

Just been over the bridge for the first time since they raised the toll.

Fecking robbing ****s.

 

I go over it 5 days a week for work. They must be making a killing...

 

Hello again everyone, think I'm back for good now - that's not a threat!

Just been a busy few months (again!) with work, volunteering, my Mum, Wimbledon and lots of summer birthdays and celebrations.

I do want to say a huge "Thank you!" to everyone who sponsored me for the Race for Life. I collected £400 which I was really chuffed about and equally chuffed to walk the 10km with absolutely no problems. managed it in 1hr 45min on a very warm day (yes, we do get them here in west Wales ) A work colleague passed away from cancer a couple of weeks ago and his wife is still getting over breast cancer so the walk was done for them and the millions of others affected by this horrible disease.

Looking forward to catching up with everyone and experience the excitement for the new season. There is excitement, yes?

 

Good to have you back H

 

oh **** off, a seagull cannot carry off a 2 Kg dog!

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-49070562

 

Was it an African seagull?

 

"That's no ordinary seagull!"