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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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Open Source For New Hydrogen Powered Car


A new hydrogen powered car unveiled in the UK is to be developed using open source methods.
The Riversimple Urban car was unveiled in public for the first time at Somerset House in London on 16th June 2009. 


Image source: Riversimple.com
From the Rugbyologist's blog:  St. Louis Hero Needed

There is a 14 month old child in St. Louis in desperate need of an AB negative blood donor.

Hospitals in St. Louis are in desperate need of AB negative blood.

If you have this rare blood type, please contact Josh Witten immediately either by email or facebook or twitter (@rugbyologist).
Random Noise #16 : Dangerous Knowledge

... holding the paper with one hand, and jumping up and down as she works the pumping-handle with the other, she pushes dynamite down the tube till the paper cylinder is filled to a depth of about three inches.
...
To see this operation - the brass rods flying up and down, damp with nitroglycerin, and dynamite being forcibly jammed down a brass tube - entirely destroys your appetite for further knowledge.
H. J. W.  Dam
From a description in McClure’s Magazine, August 1897, of the Ardeer explosives factory founded by Alfred Nobel.
The Bookworm And The Encyclopedias


A simple math puzzle.

A set of 10 encyclopedias is sitting on a bookshelf in left-to-right numerical order.

Each single volume contains 1,000 pages.    

A bookworm eats its way directly and linearly through them in a straight line.

It starts on page 1 of volume 1.

It ends on page 1,000  of volume 10.

Question:    Not counting any covers, flysheets, etc., how many pages does the bookworm eat ?

I intend to post my answer next Monday,
or before that if anyone comments with a solution that I agree with.
The Silent Ape : On The Origins Of Language

This article is a highly speculative account of how our distant ancestors evolved the capacity for speech, together with the evolved capacities that would later be exapted to the behavioural functions of reading and writing.

I shall not pretend to be an infallible guide. Whenever you have a chance, take counsel with other travelers who have passed along the same route before. Compare their observations with mine and if this leads you to different conclusions, I shall certainly not be angry with you.
The Brightest Candles #2

The brightest candles are the people whose light remains long after they are gone.

Imagine all the people
living life in peace
you may say I'm a dreamer
but I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
and the world will live as one.
John Lennon ( 1940 - 1980  ) Imagine