Monomania #2: Coining It

Here I am reinforcing the hull with the tried-and-trusted insertion of kebab-skewers.

I have driven a half-dozen in with a two-pound coin, though foreign currencies work equally well; drive sticks fully home with the edge of the coin, so that they lie flush.

If you do it wearing anything but a dressing-gown then you're already ahead of me.

Topical fact: a confession was forced from Guido Fawkes using this same method.

The BYD Playbook

Not necessarily what they'd have wanted to hear in Detroit, but consider this: every emerging empire is based upon the manufacture of automobiles in particular.

In the 1950s the UK produced something like a third of the global export market, since which both the Japanese and Germans rebuilt their economies on innovative production of cars, whilst the US did so into the 1960s under not nearly so much of the pressure.

UBS now point out that BYD build their own dreams as well as ours, sourcing close to 100% of their own parts as against nearer 30% for rapidly-expiring competitors.

Swiss bank USB report how not only are cars such as theirs better, but that they will remain cheaper not least for sustainable 25% cost benefits at point of manufacture.

US hegemony rode upon what happened in Detroit, and they're not going to enjoy the status of underdog as the century marches on; tho' take it from the UK, you do get used to it.

For much of what makes the US great currently as against 'again' is industry based on software which is readily replicated, as Tim Tok demonstrates... and having been in China for some time, I know that they already have their own versions of all else from search engines and online market-places upward.

Why China is set to lead the field in AI: because manufacturing is and will ever be a bed-rock of leadership in all else.

As we showed here in Lancashire, long long ago.

And Lwinner Is..

Fortune mag describes how Havoc AI raise $85 million on top of $100 million prior, most notably because of the president's Big Beautiful Bill that sets aside $3.3 billion (and you read that right) toward rapid prototyping of autonomous vessels of a small and medium-size.

Co-founder Paul Lwin says it is not about reinventing the boat, but connecting it...

... but then no-one gets everything right.

Electronic and software invariably cheapens, whilst costs in hardware tend to rise: for there's a finite supply of everything except love and digits.

1.9 Litres and 2.4 Kids

Life however is like a box of chocolates and occasionally something new does come along to surprise the world of boating, and it comes from Yamaha who have (beside the imagination) revenue from beyond boating with which to experiment.

It's hard not to like, with room for four border enforcement agents of varying sizes and everything you could want from a boat except possibly a cabin for operating in places like the UK if you've not had the sense to leave for sunnier climes.

Doesn't come cheap though, with a suggested price of around $30,000 being about double the going rate for a jet-ski (that originated with another motorcycle maker).

Would I like one? Yes. But then I'd like the waterfront villa and the Mercedes C class too, and they won't happen either.

Border Farce

Little of excitement at the shrunken boat-show trolling by Southampton, tho' there is this part of successive governments' failed attempts to have any impact on illegal migration by sea. It's armoured ~ bizarre given dummies like that here won't be. 

If you wanted to monitor the situation then a drone would surely suffice... but that wouldn't be nearly as much fun, would it? I'd ask how much it cost, but that would  be too embarrassing: suffice it to say the fleet of cutters and jet-skis taken together feature a budget of £200 million.

As Liberace used to say of his jewellery: 'I hope you like it, because you paid for it'.

Monomania #1

Let's carry over what we've learned from the part-built cat, as regards a sheet of laminated foam and bag of kebab-skewers. I've always thought that the cat was the most practical in operational terms in that it could stand on its own two feet... quite literally. Here though is a pattern for a single sheet that offsets the advantage when it comes to building a monoski.

What I've done is to cut the 1200 x 600mm in half, a portion of which goes toward the deck. The remainder is divided in half again between the keel seen here that will support the ski itself, and a pair of outriggers. Although I've cut these substantially on a diagonal, I have still left the forward end of each outrigger with a 5mm inset so that for one thing it is not unduly sharp, and for another so that it is easier to bind it to the deck as we shall see at a later stage.

I made a mistake by not running a squirt of adhesive between the underside of the keel and that of the deck, but we shall be able to rectify that prior adding a filet to the other side by easing it over to enable adhesive to be applied from underneath.

And anyway kids, what else would you want to do with a Sunday afternoon?

25mm foam sheets are available but not so commonly as the 20mm here.

Sunday Sermon: Alien Philosophy

A Republican has been making electromagnetic waves in the US this week with her suggestion that aliens may be fallen angels, or in a word: evil. Which is interesting, because the notion of evil in the West (especially Europe) has fallen from favour. It is one of those things like ghosts that are considered real by most people, who are nonetheless not prepared to give it any form of credence in public.

But here's the thing. Documentaries about the Pentyrch UFO incident often include an expert witness since deceased whose exhaustive investigations came eventually to an end... because he felt there was a decidedly sinister connection with a source that was not necessarily human.

Not overly far from here too is the case of Zigmund Adamski, a miner whose death was the most confusing the coroner had come across: which was more easily explained in the circs by him having fallen victim to an alien autopsy prior being left on top of a slag heap in Todmorden with no clue as to how he might have got there.

Now call me Mr Picky, but it doesn't look like there are consent forms being signed prior these abductions, of which there appear to be legion worldwide. And what these creatures do to cows is considered bad taste even in north-west England.

It gets worse, as professors of philosophy like Sam Ruhmkorff suggest the existence of aliens is incompatible with a belief in an over-arching God of any sort. He goes on to point out, cheerily, that if aliens do exist then statistically some will be our moral superiors whereas some will be evil beyond what we could possibly imagine: worse for instance than the Ford Edsel.

This sits well with alternative encounters where aliens communicate kindly thoughts with just a gaze; as I do so often, although it frightens small children.

On balance though it is best to simply keep calm and carry on, as I plan to with an omelette.