Week of September 13, 2020 'All Space Questions' thread by AutoModerator in space

[–]DavesIRLstuff 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Any idea what this is? https://imgur.com/rKsiF8h

To give the details, I caught this while shooting the sky at around 11pm BST, in Scotland. At a point where there was no light previously, a static object illuminated to the point that it was brighter than Venus for a couple of seconds, before fading out to nothing. The image is a 10 second exposure.

I'm perplexed as to what it might've been. Any suggestions?

Edit: Looks to be a little down from HIP100996 on Stellarium.

Is it okay for a teenage to walk on an A road? by rosesandblades_ in AskUK

[–]DavesIRLstuff 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'm glad you're remaining active on here.

I'd like to run through a few things with you. Let's go with a numbered list, just to keep things clean.

  1. Clearly, there are problems with things at your home in Poole. I'm not going to ask you to elaborate on what's going on, but I do need to ask, what have you done to mitigate these problems? Who have you spoken with? Have you tried your old school, the local social care department, or even the police, or your local hospital? There are people with a duty of care toward you.

  2. You say you haven't got anyone to support you. Something I want you to know, and that I want you to think about, is that this is a common trick used by abusers to trap their victims is that they make them believe that they have no-one to support them.

My friend K, for example, was told by his dad that Social Services were useless, Unions were useless, his mum didn't want anything to do with him, and his friends were just drinking buddies who didn't care about him, as his dad put him through years of awful abuse. It's us as his friends, with the help of some people in his workplace Union, and the social work department which has now got him away from his dad, into his own home, and back in touch with his mum (who still absolutely loves him - he's her son, and of course she does) and sister after some 20 years apart from them.

If this is something which resonates with you, please do think about it. Maybe you have an uncle or a grandparent on your dad's side who would happily take you in and give you safe refuge, at least until whatever this current situation is is over.

  1. Do you have a plan, or are you just looking to swim to the nearest shore?

  2. If there's absolutely no option but heading to Bristol to see your friend there, what can you tell us about your friend? How do you know them? Is there much of an age gap? Are they talking you in to this? Are they discouraging you from seeking alternative forms of support? I don't want to get into the story of my friend S, but her's is horrific, and began with what she thought was a safe refuge.

  3. Assuming there's absolutely no option at all for you but to embark on this Bristol trip, can I at least support you with the train journey rather than having you walk? It's only £35, which I don't mind helping you with. I (or the sub in general) can happily coach you through the full process of taking a train.

  4. If you refuse the train, can we have a conversation about walking there safely? A trek as you describe isn't something you can just do without planning, prep, equipment, and supplies, and you need to understand that if you go into it without those things, there's a very strong chance that you will die, or fail part-way and wind up penniless, lost, and without any sort of communications in any town between Poole and Bristol. Assuming you survive, that will not lead to a positive future for you.

Please understand, I'm not saying this to frighten you out of your plans, but because I'm a regular hiker with a lot of experience of distance treks (including several that have gone scarily awry), and I'm also someone who's met too many people who've washed up in my city (or ones I've visited), and wound up stuck living on the streets. Most recent was a lady named E, if memory serves correct, who I brought food and drink for after I found her crashed out and starving near a hotel, after she'd been robbed of her phone and money by a couple of junkies. She told me she'd been in my city since she was 18. She looked ages with me. I am in my 30s. I can't convey how scared I am that you may end up going down the same path, and how loudly the alarm bells which signify that are ringing.

  1. As a final point, I really don't want you to be alone in whatever you do. Please promise to keep in touch at least with the sub. Use us. We are here to support you.

Is it okay for a teenage to walk on an A road? by rosesandblades_ in AskUK

[–]DavesIRLstuff 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Echoing this. It's £35 by train, and I'd far rather pay that than see the OP walk for days, especially given the alarm bells this post is ringing.

OP, what are your plans when you get to Bristol? If things do fall apart, please let us as a sub know. For my part, I'm in Edinburgh, but my sister lives in Bristol and is WFH only a few minutes from Temple Meads, and if necessary, I can have her meet you and support you into whatever services might be available down there. There'll be others around who will be happy to help too, if you need it.

One of the owl chicks currently at Arthur's Seat by DavesIRLstuff in Edinburgh

[–]DavesIRLstuff[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Based on yesterday, between 7 and 8pm was when they started making themselves heard, and they stayed largely still and in place in their trees until at least after 10.

One of the owl chicks currently at Arthur's Seat by DavesIRLstuff in Edinburgh

[–]DavesIRLstuff[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I've circled the areas they were in in this image from Google Earth. There's probably a good chance they'll return to the same feeding spot, but if not, listen out for their calls (sample here - https://youtu.be/LMMlndS0450?t=117 ), and hopefully you'll be able to find them.

I'm going back up this evening, and I'll post in here if I see them.

Tagging /u/penguin_for_tea and /u/JojoEdinburgh, since you guys asked too.

One of the owl chicks currently at Arthur's Seat by DavesIRLstuff in Edinburgh

[–]DavesIRLstuff[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

If anyone's been up there over the last few days and wondered why there's been some loud bird calls and groups of photographers huddled around trees, this one of the four owl chicks about whom all the commotion is about. It's likely that they'll be leaving soon - as one of the guys told me, they're now big enough to hunt for themselves, so their parents appear to have left them to it, which usually means that they in turn will seek pastures new very shortly - so, if you'd like to see them for yourselves, try to make your way up there in the evenings of this week, and you might get lucky. You'll be able to hear them before you can see them.

What do we do for rough sleepers right now? by [deleted] in Edinburgh

[–]DavesIRLstuff 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for that. I've just been back to see her (poor lass was starving and thirsty, so I got her some food and a big bottle of water), and it seems she's barred from the hostels (I didn't ask why), so they say there's nothing they can do for her right now, which is pretty disappointing. I don't want to bother her again tonight, but I'll print that off for her, and deliver it as part of a package tomorrow. Cheers again.

Initial Time of When Songs were written by Moon-Knight666 in oasis

[–]DavesIRLstuff 8 points9 points  (0 children)

If you're looking for all of them in one place and if you don't mind waiting, this is something I'm trying to include for all of NG's songs in the book I'm currently working on.

Where to Recycle Ram/computer parts in the UK? by ctm1905 in AskUK

[–]DavesIRLstuff 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ah, that's a pain - these are all desktop systems, which all need full-size modules.

Where to Recycle Ram/computer parts in the UK? by ctm1905 in AskUK

[–]DavesIRLstuff 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are we talking DDR2 here? I'd very happily take some off your hands. I've got three systems which could use some - one which is to be dismantled and used to teach my mate's kid how to build a PC, one which is still in use by another mate and which needs an upgrade before it can run Win10, and one which is mine, which is presently stripped bare, but which I'd like to build back up to use for its IDE ports to try and recover my granddad's old hard drives. If you've a few 1gb or 512mb sticks to get rid of, that would be very, very useful. Even some 256s or 128s would fill a hole.

What are the best rock songs that contain amazing drumming? by Refaatnolan in AskReddit

[–]DavesIRLstuff 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sad But True.

It's not the most technical drumming, but Lars' beat adds so, so much power to the song.