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Air India Flight 171 - Flawed EE Bay Water Ingress Theory

Air India Flight 171 - Flawed EE Bay Water Ingress TheoryRichard Godfrey, in many videos on the...

Air India Flight 171 Accident Summary - Key Findings

Air India Flight 171 Accident Summary - Key FindingsThe purpose of an air accident report is to...

Air India Flight 171 - Ask The experts

Air India Flight 171 - Ask The expertsAn open letter to H. Lawrence Culp, Jr., Chairman and Chief...

Air India Flight 171 - The Vital Seconds

Air India Flight 171 - The Vital SecondsThe Timeline - Vital Seconds.This timeline is constructed...

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Patrick LockerbyRSS Feed of this column.

Retired engineer, 79 years young. Computer builder and programmer. Linguist specialising in technical translation. Interested in every human endeavour except the scrooge theory of accountancy. Interested... Read More »

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Defrosting The Freezer

There are many ways to defrost a freezer.  You can just switch off the power and wait for room temperature to permeate the ice.  You can use a heat source such as a hair-dryer or hot air gun.  Or you could chip away the ice and dump it where it will melt naturally due to local atmospheric temperature.

As I write this, Britain is shivering in its worst winter for 30 years.  A temperature has been measured in Scotland insignificantly different from the current temperature at the South Pole. Supplies of grit, salt and gas are being rationed.

A large number of comments have been posted on newspaper websites claiming that our current U.K. weather disproves the theory of global warming.
Law and Science : #2 The Chicken Little Mentality


Fiat Justicia, Ruat Caelum


Fiat justicia ruat caelum is often expressed as: 'let justice triumph or else the sky will fall'.  It may be more literally translated as 'let justice triumph: let the sky fall'.  More loosely, it expresses the notion that justice must be done even if that is counter to the desires of people with power or vested interests.  It is an ideal which is only rarely achieved.  It is far more common for the judiciary to favour the cause of continuity of method over and above the cause of justice.
Law And Science : The Injustice Of Confessions


Confession may be good for the soul, but it is, I submit, positively harmful to the establishment of scientific truth in any legal venue.  It is a notorious fact that some people will confess to crimes which they never committed, or which never happened.  It is another notorious fact that confessions extracted under torture are extremely likely to be false.  A plea of 'guilty' in court amounts to a confession, but may be a result of plea bargaining by an innocent person.
The Voynich Manuscript Part 9 : An Amateur's Work?

Random Noise #17 : They Sure Fooled Me!


Well, they sure fooled me!

I like to think that I know a thing or two about science and engineering.  Quite apart from that, I have read enough court transcripts to know when someone is telling porkies1.  Or so I thought.
Steaming To Success

A hundred year old steam car speed record has just been broken by a British team. 

Edward’s Air Force Base, California: Tuesday August 25th:

Today at 8.19am (California time) Charles Burnett III successfully broke the land speed record for a steam powered car - which has stood for more than 100 years - achieving an average speed of 139.843mph on two runs over a measured mile.