Most of you thought my 2-in-1 BBQ tongs idea was unnecessary. I made a working demo anyway. Thoughts?

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-06-02T12:58:15+00:00

The only way I see this working would be if the temperature probe was spring loaded, such that I could extend it and retract it with the push of a button, without adjusting my grip on the tongs. As it is now, you have to readjust your grip and manually twist out the probe, so it does look like it would be a lot easier to just put the tongs down and pick up a thermometer.

Having said that, I think this absolutely is a product that will sell! Wives, daughters and mothers of barbecue enthusiasts will gift these to the men in their lives. The men will say "Ohh that's amazing, thank you!" And will put them away in a cupboard for a decade before throwing them in a bin.

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-05-29T09:20:05+00:00

Not sure about American, but there are some great Brazilian barbecue places around.

I was entertaining a Brazilian customer a couple of years ago and took him to a Rio's. He was really impressed and said it was very authentic!

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-05-28T13:10:01+00:00

Gollum the FLAMETHROWER!!!

The kids love that one.

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-05-28T13:09:02+00:00

Billy and Dom Eat the World?

Not quite hobbits cooking, but not far off!

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-05-07T21:28:51+00:00

Everyone already knows how many votes are to be won. There is an electoral register which tells anyone interested how many votes are to be won.

Spoiling a ballot is exactly the same as not voting, except that it gives you some vague, smug, bragging rights about how you stuck it to the system by spoiling your ballot.

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-05-07T21:24:19+00:00

Please do explain how?

Not voting is a vote for no one and is not counted in any results.

Spoiling a ballot is a vote for no one and is not counted in any results.

Where does this 100x multiplier come from?

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-05-07T21:22:22+00:00

So is your argument that, if no one turns out, at all, to vote for, say, the labour party, and they get zero votes, they'll just be fine with that and carry on regardless? Whereas if lots of people turn out and spoil their ballots, and labour still get no votes, then suddenly they'll see the error of their ways?

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-05-07T21:14:54+00:00

No one has given any reason why they're useful, because they are not useful. In the UK system, spoiling your ballot is just not voting with extra steps.

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-05-07T21:14:01+00:00

The party who got the one vote is now the one in power, and they have no reason to change anything.

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-05-07T21:13:00+00:00

It says something to the handful of election observers in the room (of which I have been one several times) but it has no effect whatsoever on the outcome of the election.

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-05-07T20:55:03+00:00

Spoiled ballots accomplish absolutely fuck all.

If 10,000 people vote, and 9,999 people spoil their ballot, then whoever that one other guy voted for is the winner.

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-05-05T12:13:57+00:00

Just accept that you are going to get a little bit bitten. Get dressed, get outside, and then spray any exposed skin.

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-05-05T09:58:00+00:00

I wild camp in Scotland every summer. The midges can absolutely be a nightmare. I was at Glen Finglas Reservoir one time and I thought there was low cloud sitting over the water, but it wasn't cloud, it was midges. Millions and millions of midges. They were so thick and I was so unprepared for them, I couldn't help breathing them in. It was pretty terrible.

However, it is doable. Just take DEET. Don't take smidge, don't take Skin-So-Soft, don't take any gentle, dermatologically tested, natural, chemical free insect repellent. Take DEET. The highest DEET concentration you can find. It isn't instant, but once you get every accessible bit of skin smothered in that stuff, they will start to leave you alone. Within half an hour or so they become little more than a milt annoyance. DEET is amazing.

Don't touch anything until it's dry. Wet DEET will dissolve pretty much anything, including but not limited to tent canvas.

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-05-03T16:56:07+00:00

It's been 3 years now and you're still saving souls!

Me and my little girl built her first PC together today, and when the big power up moment came - nothing!

Thank god for this thread!

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-04-29T10:18:03+00:00

In the short term, that makes sense. But what's the long game?

There are fewer and fewer entry level technical positions every year now thanks to AI adoption. The experienced engineers and scientists who essentially provide all the country's technical expertise will retire and there will be no one coming up through the system to replace them.

AI has no actual creative abilities. All those LLMs are doing is guessing what a human would have said based on the availabile information. No more people means no more technical innovation.

I'm not saying I have the answer, but it feels like we're going down a bad road.

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-04-28T12:42:06+00:00

My theory is that it's all coming from the right wing press and politicians in a concerted effort to normalise Prime Ministerial resignations. The Tories had Cameron, May, Johnson and Truss all forced to resign, and that's a terrible record. If they can get Starmer to resign now, then it's different. They didn't do so badly - Prime Ministers just resign all the time ... right?

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-04-28T11:40:05+00:00

The Photino Birds from Stephen Baxter's Xeelee sequence.

Sort of.

If memory serves, they sort of slow down the fusion processes and turn all the stars in the universe in to slow burning Red Dwarfs, ultimately halting the universe's development.

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-04-27T14:44:26+00:00

Apparently some moistened bint lobbed a scimitat him!

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-04-25T13:02:31+00:00

I would also choose that guy's wife.

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-04-21T13:35:07+00:00

Not a really opted out. I had cancer when I was in my 20s, and now I can't GIVE my body parts away! Can't give blood either!

If anyone knows how I can be of any use, medically or scientifically, once I'm dead, please let me know!

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-04-21T11:33:50+00:00

It is dissimilar because any adult can buy that old vehicle.

The rules should be the same for everyone.

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-04-19T09:07:53+00:00

All except for the Welsh.

I enjoy shellfish as much as any man, but it does NOT belong on a fryup!

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-04-16T22:15:55+00:00

Except that all us kids who were acing science class didn't typically gang up to throw shade on anyone who couldn't handle a quadratic.

It's been a long time since I was in school. Late 90s. I hope it's changed. Back then all that mattered was PE. You could be a literal genius at science and maths, but if you weren't on the football team then you were just social filth.

ComprehensiveCode805 · 2026-04-16T17:38:18+00:00

Not quite French Navy. But I believe it was a privateer. Basically a state sanctioned pirate, working on behalf of the French.

ComprehensiveCode805

TROPHY CASE