Why do circuit breakers go up for on and down for off?...

[Commander Kinsey]

On Sun, 26 Feb 2023 18:55:43 -0000, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:

On Sun, 26 Feb 2023 14:42:55 -0000, Commander Kinsey wrote:


So if it\'s just the French word for derailer, we should call it a
derailer in English. Otherwise we\'re no better than the frogs doing
silly things like buying \"le fast food\", when they already have a word
for fast and a word for food.

https://sheldonbrown.com/derailer.html

Sheldon Brown has had a bicycle website forever. In the US the French
pronunciation is rarely used. The area where I grew up abutted Quebec.
French Canadians were rather low on the totem pole so people would go out
of their way to mispronounce French words.

They should send them all back to Europe.

https://www.nps.gov/acad/planyourvisit/isle-au-haut.htm

Locals call that isles-a-hot, with isles as in British Isles.

\"protect peregrine falcons from human disturbance or harassment\"
How do you harass a peregrine?

> Speaking of which you must have picked that up from William the Bastard.

Picked what up?

 

[rbowman]

On Mon, 06 Mar 2023 04:33:16 -0000, Commander Kinsey wrote:

Speaking of which you must have picked that up from William the
Bastard.

Picked what up?

Isles, as in British Isles.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/island

 

[rbowman]

On Mon, 06 Mar 2023 04:29:46 -0000, Commander Kinsey wrote:

The lines aren\'t vertical.
http://www.vidiani.com/maps/maps_of_the_world/
maps_of_time_zones_of_the_world/large_time_zones_map_of_the_world_2015.jpg
At least we don\'t split our country into 4, that\'s preposterous.

Six, actually, if you count the Hawaiian Islands. When you live in a
little bitty country you don\'t have to worry as much about time zones.

 

[rbowman]

On Mon, 06 Mar 2023 02:50:24 -0000, Commander Kinsey wrote:

> Do you have to wrap URLs?

That\'s between you and your newsreader.

 

[Peeler]

On 6 Mar 2023 05:37:48 GMT, lowbrowwoman, the endlessly driveling,
troll-feeding, senile idiot, blabbered again:


> That\'s between you and your newsreader.

More interesting: what\'s this between you and the insane smelly Scottish
wanker, lowbrowwoman? <BG>

--
More of the pathological senile gossip\'s sick shit squeezed out of his sick
head:
\"Skunk probably tastes like chicken. I\'ve never gotten that comparison,
most famously with Chicken of the Sea. Tuna is a fish and tastes like a
fish. I will admit I\'ve had chicken that tasted like fish. I don\'t think I
want to know what they were feeding it.\"
MID: <k44t5lFl1k3U4@mid.individual.net>

 

[Peeler]

On 6 Mar 2023 05:31:10 GMT, lowbrowwoman, the endlessly driveling,
troll-feeding, senile idiot, blabbered again:

Isles, as in British Isles.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/island

What off topic senile shit is this now about, you endlessly blithering
senile blabbermouth?

 

[Peeler]

On 6 Mar 2023 05:35:26 GMT, lowbrowwoman, the endlessly driveling,
troll-feeding, senile idiot, blabbered again:

Six, actually, if you count the Hawaiian Islands. When you live in a
little bitty country you don\'t have to worry as much about time zones.

MORE of your usual idiotic and off topic senile shit, you abnormal
troll-feeding senile bastard?

--
Gossiping \"lowbrowwoman\" about herself:
\"Usenet is my blog... I don\'t give a damn if anyone ever reads my posts
but they are useful in marshaling [sic] my thoughts.\"
MID: <iteioiF60jmU1@mid.individual.net>

 

[The Natural Philosopher]

On 05/03/2023 19:57, rbowman wrote:

On Sun, 5 Mar 2023 10:59:12 +0000, Max Demian wrote:

When driving licences were little books with multiple pages, courts
would stamp details of speeding convictions on the pages. That was
called \"endorsing\" the licence. When you had more than three (I think)
endorsements you lost your licence for a period, equivalent to the
modern \"totting up\" of points. That\'s why the word \"endorsement\" is used
when you get points.

That explains it. In the US and endorsement is a positive thing. For
example my license has a motorcycle endorsement. When I had a CDL it had
hazardous materials, double/triples, and tanker endorsements.

Endorsement really means no more than \'write on the back of\'


--
There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale
returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.

Mark Twain

 

[The Natural Philosopher]

On 05/03/2023 19:03, rbowman wrote:

On Sun, 05 Mar 2023 18:56:37 -0000, Commander Kinsey wrote:

On Wed, 22 Feb 2023 14:48:36 -0000, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:

On Wed, 22 Feb 2023 09:23:56 -0000, NY wrote:


Nasty. A teacher at my school, 40 years ago, had a blotchy face and
bald patches in his hair. He told us that he\'d been working on his car
some years before and a spanner slipped and shorted across the battery
terminals. The battery exploded, showering him with acid.


Like many companies we sometimes had summer employees that happened to
be related to someone up the hierarchy. One managed to explode the
battery on a forklift trying to jump start it. Fortunately he wasn\'t
injured. Returning a vice president\'s favorite son worse for the wear
isn\'t a good career move.

What did he do, jump start it from the mains?

Possibly hooked it up backwards; we weren\'t sure. The forklift was an
older gasoline powered model that tended to mark its territory. He was
lucky the whole thing didn\'t go up in a ball of fire.

In the case I witnessed, the thing had been on charge all night and
still wouldn\'t start so they tried to jump it and the spark ignited the
hydrogen.

Split the battery wide open and dropped sulphuric acid on the floor

--
Canada is all right really, though not for the whole weekend.

\"Saki\"

 

[jon]

On Mon, 06 Mar 2023 09:11:50 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 05/03/2023 19:03, rbowman wrote:
On Sun, 05 Mar 2023 18:56:37 -0000, Commander Kinsey wrote:

On Wed, 22 Feb 2023 14:48:36 -0000, rbowman <bowman@montana.com
wrote:

On Wed, 22 Feb 2023 09:23:56 -0000, NY wrote:


Nasty. A teacher at my school, 40 years ago, had a blotchy face and
bald patches in his hair. He told us that he\'d been working on his
car some years before and a spanner slipped and shorted across the
battery terminals. The battery exploded, showering him with acid.


Like many companies we sometimes had summer employees that happened
to be related to someone up the hierarchy. One managed to explode the
battery on a forklift trying to jump start it. Fortunately he wasn\'t
injured. Returning a vice president\'s favorite son worse for the wear
isn\'t a good career move.

What did he do, jump start it from the mains?

Possibly hooked it up backwards; we weren\'t sure. The forklift was an
older gasoline powered model that tended to mark its territory. He was
lucky the whole thing didn\'t go up in a ball of fire.
In the case I witnessed, the thing had been on charge all night and
still wouldn\'t start so they tried to jump it and the spark ignited the
hydrogen.

Split the battery wide open and dropped sulphuric acid on the floor

Yes, a well known effect. Should have had the final connection on remote
battery.

 

[Commander Kinsey]

On Sun, 26 Feb 2023 19:01:00 -0000, Max Demian <max_demian@bigfoot.com> wrote:

On 26/02/2023 13:26, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 25/02/2023 14:39, Max Demian wrote:
Derailleur, from the French /dérailleur/ because the chain is
\"derailed\" onto different sprockets.

(Why did I go through a time of thinking it was named after a
Frenchman called \"M. De Railleur\" who invented it?)

Moi aussi. I always assumed it was a name, not an action.

Maybe we both heard someone jokingly say it was named after a Frenchman
and didn\'t realise it was a joke - presumably on the radio.

No, reality has been adjusted. We are all correct with our memories.

Another example is \"soft rinse\". It was always called that, everyone called it that, now hardly anyone remembers it and thinks it was always fabric conditioner.

I know I originally thought it was related to \"derailing\".

There\'s a BBC Radio comedy programme

Now there\'s a Frog spelling.

called \"The Unbelievable Truth\"
which I have to avoid as it mixes truth with lies and I may pick up a
fact and not register whether it\'s true or not; the way it works the
fake facts have to be quite convincing.

There\'s some websites like that (on purpose). Snail news or mushroom news or something? It\'s got a weird name.

 

[Commander Kinsey]

On Sun, 26 Feb 2023 19:14:14 -0000, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:

On Sun, 26 Feb 2023 14:46:08 -0000, Commander Kinsey wrote:

The point is they\'re shit, the chain falls off. The whole basis of it
is about knocking the chain off and hoping it catches the next cog and
not somewhere inbetween. Then hoping you have all the the little
grubscrews just right so it doesn\'t fall off the end. A typically
French so what it sort of works design.

When the Japanese, chiefly Shimano, got through with the basic design it
works rather well.

They do not, the chains is always falling off, usually when you\'re stood up on the pedals, and end up with your groin on the crossbar.

There\'s another thing, why do women\'s bikes have a lower crossbar? It\'s the men who don\'t want to land on it!

The hot new thing is 12 speed cassettes with 1 chain
wheel. It was getting rather ridiculous with 3X10 setups where many of the
30 speeds were redundant. However they still are slightly more efficient
since you can minimize the chain angle.

How does 1 to 12 work then? The angle must be absurd.

What we really need are legs like motors with a wider range of speeds.

> You could go with a fixed gear for ultimate simplicity.

They should have a gearbox like a car or motorbike.

 

[Anthony William Sloman]

On Tuesday, March 7, 2023 at 12:55:29 PM UTC+11, Commander Kinsey wrote:

On Sun, 26 Feb 2023 19:14:14 -0000, rbowman <bow...@montana.com> wrote:

On Sun, 26 Feb 2023 14:46:08 -0000, Commander Kinsey wrote:

The point is they\'re shit, the chain falls off. The whole basis of it
is about knocking the chain off and hoping it catches the next cog and
not somewhere inbetween. Then hoping you have all the the little
grubscrews just right so it doesn\'t fall off the end. A typically
French so what it sort of works design.

When the Japanese, chiefly Shimano, got through with the basic design it
works rather well.

They do not, the chains is always falling off, usually when you\'re stood up on the pedals, and end up with your groin on the crossbar.

Chains stretch in use. You need to move the back axle back in its slot from time to time to keep the chain from finding enough slack to be able to jump of the gear wheels. You are too dim to bother. eventually you have to shorten the chain by a link, or buy a new one.

There\'s another thing, why do women\'s bikes have a lower crossbar? It\'s the men who don\'t want to land on it!

It was a modesty thing. For a woman to get her leg high enough to get it across the crossbar she had to get it high enough to briefly reveal her underwear

The hot new thing is 12 speed cassettes with 1 chain
wheel. It was getting rather ridiculous with 3X10 setups where many of the
30 speeds were redundant. However they still are slightly more efficient
since you can minimize the chain angle.

How does 1 to 12 work then? The angle must be absurd.

What we really need are legs like motors with a wider range of speeds.

You could go with a fixed gear for ultimate simplicity.

They should have a gearbox like a car or motorbike.

You can buy them - they are called hub gears but they are less efficient. More of your effort goes to keeping the hub warmer than ambient.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[Commander Kinsey]

On Sun, 26 Feb 2023 19:24:47 -0000, John Larkin <jlarkin@highlandsnipmetechnology.com> wrote:

On Sun, 26 Feb 2023 18:59:37 +0000, Max Demian
max_demian@bigfoot.com> wrote:

On 25/02/2023 20:55, rbowman wrote:
On Sat, 25 Feb 2023 07:54:04 -0000, Commander Kinsey wrote:

Don\'t they have twist grips on derailers? (However you spell that, my
newsreader doesn\'t know)

Grip shifters were big in the \'90s although I think SRAM has introduced
them again. I can\'t remember ever having them. I transitioned from the old
friction levers on the downtube to thumb shifters.

British kids enthused about the Raleigh Chopper, which had a gear knob
between their legs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh_Chopper#Handling_and_safety

\"The position of the gear lever could also contribute to injuries
sustained in a crash - especially on the Mk I because the gear knob
could easily be removed and lost, turning the gear lever into a metal
spike.\"

I don\'t know how many boys had their marital prospects damaged.

I always thought that girl\'s bikes were safer for boys.

Indeed, some prat thought girls were the ones who didn\'t want a wedgie? WTF?

I once gave someone a cracker (perhaps literally). He was climbing a tree and fell astride a branch. I was on the ground and laughed, then saw an opportunity to get him back for damaging my bike I\'d leant him the other week. I grabbed both of his feet and hung from him. I\'ve never heard a boy scream so girly since.

 

[rbowman]

On Tue, 07 Mar 2023 01:55:18 -0000, Commander Kinsey wrote:

There\'s another thing, why do women\'s bikes have a lower crossbar? It\'s
the men who don\'t want to land on it!

Modesty, a forgotten concept...

> How does 1 to 12 work then? The angle must be absurd.

The chain wheel is centered relative to the cluster. I often stay on the
middle chain wheel and it works fairly well across the cluster, unlike the
little chain wheel and the outside gear on the cluster. I believe the
chains are narrower allowing the cassette gears to be closer too.

> What we really need are legs like motors with a wider range of speeds.

There\'s a fairly wide range. I\'m generally in the 70 - 80 rpm range. I\'m
not in the Clydesdale class but I\'m not a gracile sort that can crank out
110 rpm.

> They should have a gearbox like a car or motorbike.

The Sturmey-Archer planetary hubs are sort of like TorqueFlite
transmission. I\'ve taken both apart. Lot of little bits and pieces.

 

[Commander Kinsey]

On Mon, 27 Feb 2023 13:34:21 -0000, tony sayer <tony@bancom.co.uk> wrote:

In article <op.10yhxu2nmvhs6z@ryzen.home>, Commander Kinsey
CK1@nospam.com> scribeth thus
On Sat, 18 Feb 2023 16:45:52 -0000, charles <charles@candehope.me.uk> wrote:

In article <tsque4$2ecm$3@dont-email.me>,
The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
On 18/02/2023 15:05, Max Demian wrote:
On 18/02/2023 13:14, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 18/02/2023 12:43, Max Demian wrote:
On 18/02/2023 00:29, Commander Kinsey wrote:

Mains was always AC wasn\'t it?

If course it wasn\'t (in the UK). Mains was AC or DC, and 120V (or so)
to 250V (or so).


Mains was always AC post WWII and probably post the advent of consumer
tube radios and IIRC was always 240VAC post WWII.

\"The Electricity (Supply) Act 1919 merged the 600-odd local generating
companies into area boards, who in turn were centralised into the
Central Electricity Board by the Electricity Supply Act 1925. That is
when the voltage was standardised at 240V, and the National Grid created.

And then the EU stole ten of our good, English volts!

Have we got them back yet?

(But DC persisted, in some areas as late as the mid 60s.
Refrigerators, Vacuum Cleaners, Sewing Machines, Electric Drills,
Radios and TVs were available with universal input. They would all
work on AC or DC 240V (one or two DC areas were only 180V, like Dundee
or Exeter))\"

That rather contradicts your first para.

DC and non 240V was highly localised and never part of the National Grid.

The National Grid was for higher voltages. Local boards distributed at 33kV
and below.

Doesn\'t the \"national grid\" include the pylons at 400kV, 275kV, the smaller
poles at 132kV, 33kV, 11kV, the 240V on wires underground to your house or
overhead, and all the transformers inbetween?

Depends how you define it. Ownership? Or do exclude the branches to any lower
voltage? Are you still connecting your TV to the ring main in your house if
it\'s a spur?

National grid is 400, 275, and some 132, all below that local
distribution company..

A third company? No wonder electricity costs so much.

 

[Commander Kinsey]

On Mon, 27 Feb 2023 18:33:30 -0000, Bob F <bobnospam@gmail.com> wrote:

On 2/27/2023 7:35 AM, John Larkin wrote:
On 27 Feb 2023 03:49:10 GMT, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:

On Sun, 26 Feb 2023 11:23:31 -0800, John Larkin wrote:

The new thing is motor-generator transmissions, which will be
automatics, with optional battery assist. Two-wheel drive maybe.

It will be interesting to see where that goes. The trails in a couple of
popular hiking areas already have signs banning eBikes. So far they
haven\'t been a problem on the paved multi-use trails but it will only take
a few idiots scattering pedestrians on a 20+ mph bicycle before they\'re
banned there too.

Or they will be allowed. I remember when ski areas banned snowboards.

Idiots can go fast on any bike.

Posted speed limits are common here.

A speed limit for a bicycle is beyond a joke. Most of the weight of a bicycle is the rider. Are you going to have speed limits for people running too? Perhaps police monitoring if you lift two feet off the ground at once?

The only people afraid of speed are those with slow brains that can\'t handle someone else doing things quickly.

 

[Commander Kinsey]

On Mon, 27 Feb 2023 21:05:08 -0000, NY <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:

\"Commander Kinsey\" <CK1@nospam.com> wrote in message
newsp.101feqq6mvhs6z@ryzen.home...
On Sat, 18 Feb 2023 18:57:02 -0000, Mark Lloyd <not.email@all.invalid
wrote:

On 2/17/23 15:08, charles wrote:

[snip]

It is now a legal and recognised sign to following drivers, on a fast
road, such as a motorway or dual-carriageway, that you are approaching
standing traffic and slowing quickly to a stop. As such it needs to be
activated quickly and without having to take your eyes off the road.

I\'ve never done such a thing. If someone hits the back of me they should
have been paying more attention. And since I\'m not one of those cunts who
blacks out their windows (should be illegal), the person behind can see
what\'s happening in front of me and gets an earlier warning I\'m likely to
slow down.

True, it\'s their *fault* if they hit me from behind, but if I warn them far
enough ahead, I might be saving my car from being damaged: the car is just
as crumpled no matter whose fault it is ;-)

When the front of car A hits the back of car B, car B is damaged 10 times less then car A. Might cost you a little bit, but it costs them a lot.

In my last car, braking hard (emergency breaking) brought on the
flashers.

That\'s just what I was thinking would be a good idea.

It\'s a bloody stupid idea - I can see the car is braking due to the red
lights. Or I could if they didn\'t have such bright tail lights nowadays.
And what\'s wrong with variable brightness brake lights? I don\'t want to
flash my hazards without my permission, showing everyone I braked too
late.

It\'s well known that flashing lights attract the attention more quickly than
steady ones: that\'s why ambulance lights and \"wig wag\" red lights on level
crossings flashing, and why \"important\" warning lights on an appliance
flash.

Only if you\'re completely unobservant.

As long as it\'s not confusing, I don\'t have a problem with giving extra
\"force\" to a warning than the minimum which might be sufficient.

And then that won\'t be enough, and we\'ll have hazard lights which flash through all the colours of the rainbow. Where does it end?

And do you know why ambulances have much more lights than they used to? Because cars do, so they no longer stood out.

However I\'d want to give the warning long before I was braking so hard that the
automatic hazard flashers were triggered. I\'ve not had to do an emergency
stop in either my car (registered in 2008) or my wife\'s (2015) because I
usually manage to anticipate hazards far enough ahead, but AFAIK they don\'t
have automatic hazard flashers.

If you\'ve seen the accident far enough ahead so you don\'t have to brake hard, why would you need to warn the car behind you? You\'re braking gradually after all.

Maybe I should find a deserted bit of dry
straight road and try braking as hard as I dare (which is probably not as
hard as an emergency stop!) and see if the lights trigger.

If you\'re on a dry straight road, why would \"as hard as you dare\" not be maximum braking?

There may be a
limiting speed: for the same degree of braking force, they may only trigger
if you are going over (for example) 50 mph, and I don\'t want to brake in an
emergency from such a high speed unless it really is essential, not just as
a test.

Don\'t you trust your car to stay in a straight line? Maybe you should use a taxi from now on.

 

[Commander Kinsey]

On Tue, 28 Feb 2023 02:18:38 -0000, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:

On Mon, 27 Feb 2023 20:21:41 -0000, Commander Kinsey wrote:

On Mon, 13 Feb 2023 13:36:18 -0000, NY <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:

\"Max Demian\" <max_demian@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
news:tsddr3$25g75$1@dont-email.me...
Then why do I remember seeing a blue light?

Green signals are a /bit/ blue I suppose. I think they use blue glass
for green signals with incandescent bulbs. I\'ve seen that with traffic
signals.

Apparently Japanese traffic lights are blue although the word for
\"green\" is used. There\'s some convoluted reason for using blue and for
calling it green.
https://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/articles/japans-blue-traffic-
lights-reveal-an-interesting-linguistic-quirk/
-
Japanese didn\'t have a word for green for a long time: vegetables and
grass are called \"blue\" as well.

So they couldn\'t explain the difference in colour of a lettuce and the
sky? WTF?

I smell bullshit. The ancient Greeks supposedly couldn\'t see blue because
there was no word recognized as \'blue\' in extant texts. The white statues
furthered the idea until someone noticed the very colorful paint jobs had
worn off a couple of thousand years ago.

Nobody realised paint wears off? [facepalm]

 

[Commander Kinsey]

On Tue, 28 Feb 2023 13:46:56 -0000, Max Demian <max_demian@bigfoot.com> wrote:

On 28/02/2023 11:38, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Sun, 19 Feb 2023 12:47:36 -0000, Max Demian <max_demian@bigfoot.com
wrote:
On 18/02/2023 21:48, NY wrote:
On 18/02/2023 12:43, Max Demian wrote:
On 18/02/2023 00:29, Commander Kinsey wrote:
Mains was always AC wasn\'t it?

If course it wasn\'t (in the UK). Mains was AC or DC, and 120V (or so)
to 250V (or so).

I knew that mains was sometimes DC, but I didn\'t know that it was
sometimes as low as 120 V. I that, AC or DC, it was always around 240 V
(actual for DC, or RMS for AC).

Old mains radios had a switch at the back to set the voltage. Easier
with AC than DC as it just switched the tap on the mains transformer.
For DC there was a dropper resistor. If it had to work on 120V AC/DC the
set was designed for the lower voltage and had to dissipate the extra
power in a resistor, often built into the mains lead.

What no buck convertors?

I don\'t suppose they had been invented. Anyway, they need transistors.

Don\'t valves do the same job?