Great British Sell-Off (cont)

News today of the takeover of one of the UK's few remaining independent airlines ~ albeit started by a Greek shipping rich-boy in London ~ to US capital alongside ITV or Independent (ha ha ha) Television Studios.

At the outset of television some Scottish guy invented it, although his system was a bit crap and was rapidly improved upon by GEC in the US, as here. But the British were among the first to public broadcast, albeit with a crappy dancing puppet that no-one in their right mind would watch. Then at the outset of war, we figured radar might be the more useful pursuit.

But the start of TV in the UK was with the wholly-government sanctioned BBC until we decided we ought to have two channels. Yes, you read that right. Independent TV was thus born, and funded by commercials instead of the licence nobody pays for anymore beside me.

It was replete with colourful characters like a fat Jewish man called Lew Grade who we loved for being larger than life. Best joke being someone calls Lew as soon as carphones are introduced to say that they've got one too, so Lew in his limo says he must go as someone's on the other line. Nonetheless his like would go on to give us, for instance, the world's longest-running TV soap viz. Coronation Street.

I used to fly its regulars between London Heathrow and Manchester's studios, its busty barmaid (played by Sally Lindsay) catching a captain's eye across a crowded departure lounge. Reader, as Jane Austen used to write, I could have had those tits.

Cards on table, I watch their remarkable drama content and view the remainder as plebeian shite... which will alienate at least 10% of my followers. Nonetheless it was free-to-air, which Comcast assure us will be so 'til 2030 when it will be up against Netflix.

But you're talking here to a Netflix acolyte who likes nothing more than to watch docs on box-of-frogs Americans shooting neighbours or ripping babies from another's womb, instead of using dolls like normal people.

Ed. Tonight's post was sadly sponsored by Aldi Steffanof Vodka and Coca-Cola Zero. Below, the legendary embonpoint, posted here at considerable risk to the author's testicles. Tho' lager and tits... what's not to like? Sally went on to a successful TV career, Colin drives containers around Liverpool Docks.

Strip Show #7

With both of the lats attached ~ which help support the mighty hydro-skis ~ and a bead of silicone finishing off the buoyancy packs, this baby's good for bed for now.

Foam provides not just buoyancy but the shear-resistance to keeps things in shape. Remember we've yet to fit fasteners to each deck, and as yet it's held together by leftover adhesives that were lying round the 'shop.

You can still smell the pinewood resin off those booms, which is nice, and as things dry off the laterals will come to love the shape their in, as timbers do in time.

We'll be using this mock-up for three separate tasks:

(1)    Tidying up our patent drawing, which is decidedly ropey.

(2)    Undertaking static flotation tests, sadly with my waders.

(3)    Fitting the motors and props for static run-ups in the ARPs*.

Also we need something to look at besides a sketch, to know whether or not we can live together in a loving relationship; for boats are not for Christmas, they're for life.

Jury's out on whether we'll need a tensioner like that spar at the front end, because the lats will want to pull the booms apart. This however will be compensated for by the hydro-skis, which act like joists in the perpendicular plane, and by the fact that the seat will bind the whole together.

Those booms will need trimming too... but that's probably a job for a rabbi.

* Not sure what they are, but used to be quoted a lot in briefings at RAF Finningley.

Strip Show #6

I like to finish things off as I have done here with a wedge or two that has been lying around the garage. Eventually this will be 3D-printed... but not in wood.

There's an argument for extending the size of these at the prow in order to provide buoyancy at the forward end; they would not need much material at all to do so, given the leverage at that distance from the centres of buoyancy and gravity.

We're talking moment arms here, aren't we, beloved by both aviators and mariners?

Strip Show #5

At this stage we need to provide clearance for fitting lateral spars and I like to sing that well-known hymn, You raise me up, so I can stand on lengths of scant... at this stage of the game.

The spars are fixed with screws down the side of each deck, and should ideally be glued as well but as I explained to our quality guy, I couldn't really be bothered.

Strip Show #4

Here I've popped a stretch of extruded (not expanded) polystyrene insulation in the 'picture-frames' that'll form the deck of the catamaran: together they displace over sixteen kilos or thirty-five pounds.

We're moving away from the fixed volume of 'vessels' here that has held sway since the first dug-out canoes, offering the punters a choice of thicknesses of foam resulting in a variety of displacements.

To fix them in place I ran a bead of silicone round the margins, and spray-glued the remainder. As this is 25mm foam within a 20mm base, too, later we shall run a filet of silicone around the margins topside too in order to neaten things up, and to prevent scuffing.

Recticel ~ which sounds like a colonic complaint ~ is a firm in Belgium which started out in 1778 by making gunpowder. Turning to peaceful pursuits like lining walls and floors, they'll probably be annoyed at me using the product in maritime drones.

I've also fixed a temporary spar at the far end in order to keep things aligned. 

FIF...Arsing Around

In a shock move after discovery of a little-known sub-clause, FIFA announce that in the event of a referee sending off a player, hosts are to be consulted with a view to overturning the decision with the remaining fixtures in prospect.

In a fix-frame Cristianus 'Bigus' Dickus, red-carded for merely killing defenders with a gladius, sees the decision reversed by a downturned thumb on the part of FIFA's Emperor Infantino.

Holy Batshit, Robin!

Like me you'll have been thrilled during the spectacle Mexico v. England was, with a glimpse of a less-heralded success story from among these shores!

To a menagerie that features a brush-footed spider-cam (see previous post tho' not sure where in this phantasmagoria of a blog) we can add a batcam; sadly grounded by adverse weather on the evening in question.

The company based in Epping combines the talents of one man and his drone, with one with a background in broadcast... areas in which the UK is considered to excel.

Their means of aerial footage ~ check the website ~ has been the go-to choice for practically any event that's been any event at all.

As we saw earlier, flying drones are disallowed from within the stadium itself; used instead for those dramatic aerial shots of it during the pre-amble.

They'll have been grounded by the team in view of thunderstorms in the area that present two conspicuous threats to a drone. They can produce downdraughts that will bring down an airliner, and lightning strikes that whilst rarely discombobulating airliners  ~ I've known several ~ would likely knock out a drone.

This is not least because an airliner is effectively a Faraday cage on the one hand, and includes electronics tested to the Nth degree ~ as yet luxuries among the fledgling aerial drone industry.

Ed. The author can still recall practically every member of Brazil's team from the '70 World Cup at the same stadium, though the less said about his 'World Cup Willy' the better.