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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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Wilhelm Sinsteden - Inventor Of The Lead-Acid Battery

Wilhelm Sinsteden - Inventor Of The Lead-Acid Battery

May 16 2013 | comment(s)

Most people, including many scientists and electrical engineers, have never heard of Wilhelm Josef Sinsteden.  He invented the lead-acid battery and published his findings in 1854.  In 1860 an improved construction by Gaston Raimond Planté was the first commercially viable version.  It is probably the wide marketing and adoption of the Planté cell which has led to so many books and articles - even a majority of scientific papers - stating that Planté invented the first of these batteries, usually giving 1859 as the date. 
Giant Leap Surplus To Requirements Say Evolution Scientists

Giant Leap Surplus To Requirements Say Evolution Scientists

May 15 2013 | comment(s)

Giant Leap Surplus To Requirements Say Evolution Scientists


I must confess that to the best of my knowledge, no scientist used those precise words.  However, the research does indicate that what was previously thought to be a large change is the result of a few small steps.

It appears that, in evolution, small steps can lead to giant leaps.

In a newly published paper, scientists show that the human hip could have evolved from the equivalent bone structure of an ancestral fish in a few steps.
The funniest thing I have read lately.

The funniest thing I have read lately.

May 13 2013 | comment(s)

The funniest thing I have read lately.

Ben Elton's new Britcom 'The Wright Way' has been panned by critics.  It is about a health and safety team in the fictitious borough of Baselricky.

One review I read, by The Guardian's Charlie Brooker, makes mock of 'The Wright Way' and then goes on to wax lyrical about 'elf n'safety' in general.  It is a very good read: I literally laughed out loud.
One of the major criticisms of The Wright Way, apart from the title and scripting and performances and set design and soundtrack and ambience and positioning of each individual pixel making up the overall image, is the main character's chosen career.

...
Pollution And Parliament

Pollution And Parliament

May 12 2013 | comment(s)

Pollution and Parliament

Is carbon dioxide a pollutant ?

I am old enough to remember the great smog and the 1953 flood.  There is nothing like a first-hand view of nature in the raw to make a person environmentally aware.  It was in the 1950s at the age of about 6 or 7 that I learned how coal was made out of vegetable matter in nature's own pressure cooker.  The origin of coal was so widely known that it was often called 'bottled sunshine'.
Hornswoggled With A Boondoggle

Hornswoggled With A Boondoggle

May 12 2013 | comment(s)

Hornswoggled with a Boondoggle

Etymology isn't a true science, but any etymologist worthy of the name needs to adopt scientific methods if he or she is to avoid falling into the trap of producing another piece of false etymology.

That's etymology, but if you mouth entomology, as many of your peers do, I had as lief an insect spoke my lines.  
(Hamlet  Act 3, Scene 2 - almost.)

I had as lief an insect spoke my lines
The Atlantean Triangle

The Atlantean Triangle

May 11 2013 | comment(s)

The Atlantean Triangle

Atlantis is in the news once more, and then some, so I thought I'd cash in on it analyse the stories scientifically to see what is being claimed.