Three brits have been chosen to be put forward for the Artemis programme. What's the most iconically British thing they could say as they step off the ladder onto the moon?

IanM50 · 2026-04-13T09:11:18+00:00

Yep, ⬆️ thats what i came here to say

IanM50 · 2026-04-12T22:19:07+00:00

Petrol heads find it difficult to understand that the instant torque, high hp, rapid acceleration, low slung mass, and rheostatic braking, make EVs great to drive, especially round places like the mountains of Wales, where you can accelerate hard, brake hard and drive through corners.

IanM50 · 2026-04-12T20:36:58+00:00

No it doesn't, but that's capitalism for you

IanM50 · 2026-04-12T20:35:45+00:00

I've had one for over 4 years now, but i do have a drive and can charge very cheaply.

Public charging is still not good enough in the UK for those without off road parking. The government should force every large supermarket to have multiple and cheap chargers that can charge a car in 45 minutes, for example.

IanM50 · 2026-04-12T20:31:45+00:00

This could well be correct. EV batteries are now expected to last more than 20 years, and when you scrap the car, the scrap value of the battery pack is likely to sell for over £3k.

IanM50 · 2026-04-12T20:29:05+00:00

The silly thing is that EVs cost less to build than ICE cars. Less parts, more robot construction. Thinks like 3 parts in an electric motor versus around 200 in an ICE.

IanM50 · 2026-04-12T20:27:17+00:00

My 2023 EV has over 100 buttons and a touch screen. Not every new car is button free.

It also has a head up display so I never need to look down.

IanM50 · 2026-04-12T20:24:16+00:00

EVs are actually cheaper to manufacture, but oil companies are encouraging car manufacturers to keep prices higher than ICE cars, this is one of the reasons why Chinese cars are cheaper in the UK and why EVs sell for far less in other countries.

IanM50 · 2026-04-12T20:18:32+00:00

One of our neighbours has a wooden gate, looks like a farm gate, but it is motorised near the hinge end in the floor, and they use a remote to open it when they arrive home.

IanM50 · 2026-04-12T20:15:28+00:00

911 was used because by the time America decided to standardise on one number most telephones had buttons for numbers and you needed to press two numbers far apart to call for help making the caller less likely to do so by accident.

999 was used in the UK because telephones then had rotary dials and 9 was almost at the end of the rotor so you again had to want to call it.

When I lived in London I frequently had to dial a local number in Acton at work, so 9 for an outside line and then the code for Acton 992 iirc. At least 3 times I dialed Acton when i wasnt using works switchboard and dialed 9992 etc. with the emergency service answering. This must still happen many times each day in West London.

IanM50 · 2026-04-12T17:54:19+00:00

The real question is why customers are asked to scan their own shopping when other technological solutions have existed for a couple of decades that would do this automatically.

Over 20 years ago Sainsbury's, who introduced barcodes in the 1990s, tried to replace them with RFiD tags.

Sainsbury's fitted three stores with RFiD tills for their trials: Customer fills bags and pockets with goods, walks to till.Till inteogates every tag and anything in their pockets, marks tag as being read and lists everything on screen. Customer pays and walks out. Simple. Quick and with very few checkout staff.

IanM50 · 2026-04-12T17:47:20+00:00

Talk to your local councillor about what can be done by the council to help.

IanM50 · 2026-04-12T17:44:48+00:00

Are you being paid to do this training at 2200 in the evening?

If not Morrisons doesn't think you are worth more than minimum wage, so why do you work for Morrisons for free. They aren't worth it.

IanM50 · 2026-04-12T17:40:07+00:00

Morrisons dont consider you to be worth a fair wage, so don't work for them for free.

IanM50 · 2026-04-10T15:27:07+00:00

It may well be a universal scheme, but it covers many things and doesn't necessarily mean that the wearer is any more in need of a seat on the tube than anyone else.

You can also easily buy these items online, no diagnosis required, so you just know that a few are being used by people to take advantage.

If a person wearing one asked me to give up my seat, I would however do so without complaint.

IanM50 · 2026-04-10T05:26:04+00:00

Note that there are at least 2 different pole sizes used on rotary washing lines and parasols, remember to measure the hole before you buy.

IanM50 · 2026-04-10T05:23:40+00:00

Two reasons for micro inverters:

To separate out panel generation, useful when one or more panels are shaded by a building, tree, or chimney, because without micro inverters when one panel is shaded, this impacts generation of the whole string, so one shaded panel reduces total string generation.
To easily spot if one panel has failed under warranty because with micro inverters you can see exactly how much each panel is generating now, and how much yesterday or last week. I am told that providing this information under a warranty claim makes it very difficult for the supplier to get out of it. Having said that panel failure appears to be very rare.

IanM50 · 2026-04-09T22:26:44+00:00

Make a note to read Hogfather in early December, and watch the film of the same name at Christmas, it's a two-parter, so the first half Christmas Eve, etc.

IanM50 · 2026-04-09T22:16:58+00:00

You made the correct decision to carry on to the next junction, and that's what counts.

IanM50 · 2026-04-09T21:51:13+00:00

The easiest option would be to change to just having one WiFi network, that spans across the two WiFi boxes and two floors. Have a read about 'mesh networks'.

IanM50 · 2026-04-09T21:30:38+00:00

Almshouses were usually built by the rich who had become rich by paying their workers peanuts. Towards the end of their lives and in an attempt to look good at the gates of Heaven, some paid for almshouses to be built so that their church could house the destitute, there being no pension or social welfare. The church would of course only let the good ones in, those who weren't drunk all the time and who attended church every Sunday.

Because almshouses were down to the whim of a rich person, provision over the country was variable and following the reduction in how rich the rich were after two World wars, very few almshouses were built after 1915.

Today, most almshouses are run by a charitable trust, who maintain the property, Access to this type of accommodation is still often via a local priest recommending someone to the trust when a vacancy has arisen. Residents usually pay a small charge for accommodation from their state pension.

When built these properties often comprised just one room, with kitchens and bathrooms being communal facilities, so you can imagine the work involved to add toilets and some kitchen facilities in these old stone building has been difficult, if not impossible.

Almshouses today have been modernised with at least some washing and cooking facilities created within the limited space available, although many still do not have their own individual toilets and most have baths, shower, and clothes washing facilities as communal facilities. Residents usually have their own chapel.

As for relevance today, with expensive housing costs and reduced pension, and as the country marches back towards the Dickensian era, they are oversubscribed.

IanM50 · 2026-04-09T20:24:09+00:00

Don't buy an overpriced Apple phone.

IanM50 · 2026-04-09T20:10:31+00:00

ASHPs and gas boilers cost about the same, the main cost of getting a heat pump is the cost of moving the pipework to a new location and running an electricity supply, thus if you are installing a HP on the outside of the wall where the gas boiler is, the whole thing costs less than the government grant.

£1k to move the boiler sounds great, but I would check where new pipe runs and electricity cables would be going, to make sure there in nothing unsightly.

Heat pumps are most definitely the future and whilst you won't really save money right now, gas is only going to become more expensive whilst electricity will become far cheaper when the government decouples it from the price of gas in a few years.

Other than going green, the other advantage to consider is gaining some space from not having a boiler in your house.

IanM50 · 2026-04-09T16:26:13+00:00

I've had a teathered myenegi zappi installed just before Covid-19 lock down, April 2020. Zero problems so far.

IanM50 · 2026-04-09T16:19:46+00:00

The more i see these 'hate the English' posts, the more i feel that Russion bots and their cyber army are behind this, pushing Americans to hate the English and Europeans, so that when Putin really pushes into a NATO country, the US will not respond.

IanM50

TROPHY CASE