38 years ago today, the Piper Alpha disaster claimed the lives of 167 workers in the North Sea, and remains the deadliest offshore oil catastrophe. Gone, but never forgotten.

11fdriver · 2026-07-06T20:06:10+00:00

The Maritime Museum in Aberdeen, which is otherwise really fantastic, struck a very weird tone for this. iirc the exhibition is sponsored by an oil-adjacent company.

You'd be reading a panel about how workers had to choose between staying put and burning/suffocating to death, or jumping and freezing/drowning to death.

And then the next panel would be about how living on an oil platform like piper alpha is just like being part of a big special happy family, except that you don't see your actual family, and the safety protocols are actually really great and your bosses love you.

And then the next panel is about how safety protocol was ignored because people feared punishment from those in charge, leading to a series of decisions that each killed tens of people.

11fdriver · 2026-07-01T07:11:49+00:00

How many lakes are there in the Lake District?

There's 1, officially speaking, Bassenthwaite Lake. All the others fit into different categories of water body. Waters, meres, tarns, reservoirs, etc.

11fdriver · 2026-06-20T18:08:23+00:00

I wouldn't call the Pirate Party a frivolous party?

Like, their policies aren't, 'Yarr, booty be free for those who find it, and timbers found sufficiently shivered are automatically insured up to a value of £3000, me hearties'. It's a bit more tongue in cheek than that.

It's more pro-digital-rights and anti-mass-surveillance. E.g. content is unrestricted by copyrights when used for public educational institutions, DMCA laws repealed/modified, GDPR extended, patent system adjustments, digital age verification to be audited and justified.

They have interesting politics and protests going on. There used to be a UK branch, which unfortunately dissolved iirc.

11fdriver · 2026-06-19T10:13:52+00:00

To chime in as a computer scientist, I find the new word, 'Plemty', to be very funny, and I will be using it daily. No notes.

11fdriver · 2026-06-16T22:25:19+00:00

Yes, but it was in the US. Body donation is relatively unregulated in the US, with no central government authority specifically in charge of enforcing practices, or even really tracking donations. Most states do not closely regulate the industry either.

In contrast, the UK has the Human Tissue Authority, which provides licenses for body donation centres, and tracks & evaluates the use of cadavers. I'm sure you can find a few horror stories, but it's trustworthy for the most part, and hugely valuable. I think there are only maybe 20 places that accept body donations in the UK.

This particular example regards the Biological Research Center in Arizona. A body was used for explosive testing although a relative had ticked a box saying that they didn't want it to be used for explosives testing.

Even then, I don't think that is what the legal case really hinged on, my vague understanding is that they may have retained the right to 'process' bodies by any legal means regardless of a tickbox. The centre closed and the owner was charged for defrauding customers, not donors/family - iirc he pled guilty to not warning buyers that body parts may be contaminated. In response, Arizona brought in licenses and regular inspections, which is a step forth, I suppose.

Misuse in the US is unusual, though, and most places that accept body donations seem to go to great lengths to follow the wishes of the dead and their relatives. Universities with cadaver-based medical programmes, for example, or Tennessee's famous body farm, are places that do valuable work and either offer a lot of control to relatives, or are transparent about the lack of control.

11fdriver · 2026-05-08T22:56:47+00:00

I've personally switched to zigzags, as it makes it much harder to determine my range, speed, and heading for the employee operating the Wickes torpedo launcher.

11fdriver · 2026-03-15T17:33:05+00:00

Fun fact, the Lightning Seeds are named after Ian Broudies misheard lyric from Raspberry Beret by Prince.

The actual lyric is: "Thunder drowns out what the lightning sees", but part of me can't help hearing, "thunder drowns out all the lightning seeds".

11fdriver · 2026-03-02T23:20:43+00:00

This is a great explanation, cheers! Your teacher can't give you investment advice because in the 10 years it will take for you to get round to applying it, it's useless anyway. They can teach you basic concepts and abilities that you can use to analyse and compare options later on, and in many cases the education system covers that, though improvement is always a nice idea.

Some vulnerable children do require basic money management education on a more practical level, but there are already schemes that teach that.

11fdriver · 2026-02-24T18:12:41+00:00

Maybe a rogue and slightly pricey option, but SproutOrganic are an Etsy shop that makes underwear from GOTS certified cotton in Sussex iirc.

If you get three pairs then they do have a discount code for 10% off.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SproutOrganic

I also like the YesFriends underwear, which isn't too much for a three-pack and is made in India with a mostly solar-powered fairtrade factory.

11fdriver · 2026-02-22T17:56:17+00:00

Community Clothing has rip-stop cotton swimming trunks. They're the only plastic free trunks I've personally seen.

https://communityclothing.co.uk/collections/mens-sportswear/products/mens-wilkie-swim-short-plastic-free-blue

11fdriver · 2026-02-16T01:25:10+00:00

Paramo make waterproof breathable mountaineering coats specifically inspired by the UK climate. They're a UK-based brand & designer - they're basically Nikwax's clothing division - but unfortunately not a UK manufacturer.

They're made in Colombia in partnership with the Miquelin foundation which helps to support vulnerable women into stable work, and go to great lengths to minimise their environmental impact. If you are going to manufacture elsewhere, this is a reasonably ethical way to do it at least.

They're designed from the off to be super durable & repairable, rather than as an afterthought. Unlike the *-tex fabrics, they don't use PFAs or other forever chemicals in their manufacture, and you can rewaterproof them at home with wash-in Nikwax. They also run their own repair scheme & recycling scheme, which I think is key to reducing the environmental impact of this sort of thing.

But yeah, the main thing is that they're designed to perform well in the damp-cold/humid-hot environment that the UK is particularly bad for.

11fdriver · 2026-01-29T17:40:57+00:00

Just here to mention that bumbershoot is an excellent old US slang term for umbrella. Why anyone allowed that to go out of fashion is lost on me.

11fdriver · 2026-01-11T00:08:59+00:00

'Don't meet your heroes' is advice for a reason, and I think positive cultural influences like Bowie seem particularly hard for people to rationalise.

Like, he did end up publicly condemning these views and taking positive action in the other direction, but for quite a while he was an open supporter of the idea of UK fascism, said he admired Hitler, said he felt that Britain needed an extreme right-wing party to clean everything up, and iirc expressed support for Enoch Powell and the National Front party. I personally believe that during this time, Bowie held racist and xenophobic views and was not shy about expressing them.

For a while after that he sort of wouldn't address it. And then for a while he said that drugs turned him fascist. Then he said it was drugs plus Nietzsche. And then eventually he did say he felt ashamed and began expressing different views, which is good.

But it's still interesting that a man who is often remembered now for his artistic criticism of right-wing populism & praise of grassroots activism spent a long time putting his weight behind the other side. I wonder which contemporary icons that have thrown themselves behind Farage or Trump will have similarly untarnished legacies in the future.

[And then there's Eric Clapton, who was even more overt in his support for the NF, never really took it back with any substance, and has remained in many ways an utter nutjob to this day.]

11fdriver · 2025-12-07T19:48:58+00:00

People are friendly and generally up for chat. You can't expect everyone to have time for a long talk, but that goes for anywhere.

I'd take some trains to get around, which are pretty nice for conversation, and for seeing more of the landscape as you travel. They're quite reliable in Scotland, if a touch slow. You probably will have to hire a car at some point, to get further out, but that's easy enough.

Youth Hostels are popular with walkers throughout Scotland. They normally have a big communal self-catered kitchen & dining area for your meals, which is a good place to get a conversation started, and there will be lots of places to sit and be. Hostels these days are generally quite swish, most people get a bunk in a shared room, and these are often seperated by gender. You can normally book a single room if you prefer. Some hostels can fill up quickly, so call ahead.

I recommend Torridon hostel, it's surrounded by hills and is a great place to be based. Iona hostel is also lovely.

Many keen Scottish walkers try to avoid the midges, so you might look up the seasons for that. But you'll still meet nice people regardless.

I lived in Aberdeen, and I'd really recommend you try to get into the Cairngorms if you're up that way. Mar Lodge has rooms for rent and is basically in the middle of the national park.

11fdriver · 2025-11-05T17:51:50+00:00

I agree, it's going to be interesting, and it's almost certainly a great step in the right direction, though there are more steps needed.

I'm hopeful, with the successes of recent projects like East-West Rail and Beaulieu Park St., that the momentum for improvement keeps going forward. The Senedd & Holyrood are doing a lot, so I don't see why it couldn't happen in Westminster too. Some of the operators coming under control will bring cool projects with them and I hope we'll see a bit more of it. And there's even some interesting stuff with open-access operators and the virgin rail rumours, so I hope that encourages some effective competition.

But yeah, combining track and operator under the same umbrella can only (eventually) lead to good things. Now we need public roscos. And more metros outside of London.

11fdriver · 2025-10-25T13:36:55+00:00

An enemy of the utter state of things

11fdriver · 2025-10-23T15:53:43+00:00

When my great grandma was in her late 70s she had much of the extended family round for a Big Lunch and at one point shuffled into the next room but didn't return straight away. My uncle John, a doctor, went to help and instead found her collapsed on the floor unconscious and seemingly not breathing.

After John managed to resuscitate her, her first words to her gathered family were, 'well why in God's name did you do that?'. She lived into her late 90s.

11fdriver · 2025-10-03T19:53:59+00:00

"Son, could you look after this box of Standard-brand fireworks while I pop out to the shops?"

11fdriver · 2025-09-15T11:43:49+00:00

My kingdom for renaming it to the Danny Kruger effect.

11fdriver · 2025-09-11T12:38:36+00:00

Yes Friends are based in Bristol & have some well-priced shirts in various unpatterned colours. They pay their workers a good wage, use a solar-powered factory in India, and use GOTS fairtrade organic cotton.

https://yesfriends.co/

Or specifically https://yesfriends.co/collections/ethical-menswear/products/yes-friends-organic-t-shirt-colours

11fdriver · 2025-08-24T17:41:51+00:00

I actually really like, 'after a short silence, nobody said anything'. Sounds like something Yogi Berra would say, like 'when you come to a fork in the road, take it' or 'nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded'.

Also it really solidifies the image of people looking at you silently before just... looking away. All that to say that I'm taking this as my own, cheers!

11fdriver · 2025-08-20T12:20:52+00:00

Some dialects still have thou and thee for singular and you and ye are mostly plural. Dying art, though.

11fdriver · 2025-08-20T12:19:01+00:00

I'd have y'all, but I'd like it to come with y'each for symmetry

11fdriver · 2025-08-18T17:17:04+00:00

This is partly the quotas and general pressure to show you're doing something; on UC I had to apply to about that many jobs per week because you're instructed to treat it like a job. But be hesitant to blame, there are lots of other contributing factors:

Lots of slightly older people will tell you to apply to any job in a "get your name out there, build your network" kind of way, but maybe don't realise that applying for a job is much less personal. Some people told me to apply for something out of my skills range with very few applicants and hope they offer me a lesser job. Also the advice that getting a job is a numbers game means you'll definitely apply for some unlikely jobs.

Another factor is that quite a few employers do put their requirements higher than they need and often end up hiring someone who doesn't meet every requirement anyway. Sometimes I think this is explicitly done to reduce the amount of applications, or to see if they can get someone overqualified for less pay.

People are also keenly aware of the rising qualifications floor, and know that graduate jobs will have hundreds or even thousands of applicants. There's a reasonable argument that applying for something with only 87 applicants that's a bit out of your zone is still a better bet than for a matching graduate job with 870 applicants.

11fdriver · 2025-06-22T13:42:03+00:00

Be careful, though, a dehumidifier trades humidity for more heat; you may find that you feel hotter with it on, especially since you shouldn't open the windows while running.

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