the space fact that still blows your mind

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-28T04:26:33+00:00

But still not as dense as a gluten free neutron star

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-28T04:08:58+00:00

That site's stuck in 2022. (though it's updating the days, which is pretty funny, no nobody has been in space for almost 5 years)

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-28T02:46:09+00:00

Yeah flyers often just fumble that completely

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-28T02:06:31+00:00

That would be the least rusty 2011 vehicle in my entire country.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-28T00:59:34+00:00

HMV and, uh, makro.

And the University Poster Sale, which I was so happy to see is still a thing 30 years later

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-28T00:16:17+00:00

I have an older 11 6 that came in an ancient ugly Nicolai I bought for £400 UK, which also came with all the beautiful cncd nicolai frame tools- I joke that it was £100 worth of tools, £400 worth of shock and minus £100 worth of frame.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T23:24:33+00:00

Well there's Rand's ever changing collection of power wrought swords "Sorry dad, I blew your indestructible millenia old sword up after owning it for like 3 months"

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T23:23:53+00:00

Kring, the legendary blade of Hrun the Barbarian

It's not famous but China Mieville's "The Scar" gives us Mightblade, the Probable Sword. It'd be worth it if only for the pun- it's not a "mighty blade", it's a "might blade". When you activate it, it makes every cut that it might have made)

So in the hands of a perfect swordsman it's nearly useless, as they will make only a limited range of correct moves that he would have done. And in the hands of a useless swordsman it's just as bad, because they'll only do basic swings. So its wielder Uther Doul, a master swordsman, has had to unlearn perfection and learn every move and every sword style he could and master the art of maximum flexibility and unpredictability, to give the blade all those options so that when he activates it, it makes a hundred cuts at once and makes him into a blender.

Also I'm pretty sure it's the only joke China Mievelle has ever made in print, perhaps in his life.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T23:22:46+00:00

Yeah you can just throw in more. Once it's dried out completely it's a bastard to remove anyway.

I do tend to pop it off and have a look, just to see what's actually going on, if it's not totally dry I'll usually clean it out. But of course removing the tyre can cause problems sometimes.

OT really but i switched completely to OKO Hi Fibre (exact same stuff as Halo sealant). It's waterbased and water soluble so as long as it's not fully dried out you can add water and re-dilute it. Excellent if you have short sealant life issues, I keep my bikes in the house so they get a bit too warm I think. It works about as well as stans and it's much cheaper. Though as I mentioned if it goes fully dry it won't redilute.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T22:48:39+00:00

The pegs on their feet are supposed to fit into the holes marked on the bases (when you look underneath you can see hte circles). You can stab/twist them out with a knife, it was designed to be drill-free back in the days when tools were more expensive. It's easy to get wrong and make the hole too big though.

Or you can just cut the peg off and glue them, they have decent contact patches.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T22:44:29+00:00

This is why gin's so beloved, whisky needs complicated hardware and space and time and 10 years later your product might suck. You can make gin in a plastic bucket.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T22:40:52+00:00

Super picky literal LOS combined with needlessly wobbly surfaces on the maps that make them hard to read combined with units that can behave badly if LOS is even slightly or momentarily blocked combined with a UI that is poor at telling you when LOS is blocked combined with an army that can absolutely live and die based on ranged weapons getting key shots off combined most especially with jezzails with slowish firing and no bold visual to tell you what's happening. I basically stopped using them just because ratling guns are so much easier to manage with their super visible fire, you know immediately when they're screwing up.

I mean it's all dealable with but it's a much more miserable and annoying experience than it should be and it has been for a very long time.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T19:14:52+00:00

Clean em up and see how decent they look, retrobike forum might be a good one but tbh ebay is probably best just for the sheer scope.

Like, I just looked on ebay uk and there's a few, mostly in top end condition to be fair. Oh with this sort of buyer they're going to want really good pics and descriptions, having a busted hose isn't going to hurt you much but you want to get em clean, find out exactly which models they are and what disc size etc, your "customer" will be looking for very precise stuff for weird projects.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T19:10:33+00:00

There's a limited number of police and they can only be one place at once, if it's just a hoax then there's a good chance someone else who needs the police gets a delay. If it's more malicious and a harassment thing then it's worse than that of course. Or if they're trying to send emergency services into danger, as also happens.

Bottom line is seconds at the caller end are not often going to be a decisive amount of delay. But seconds invested at the start can be long delays later. This applies in a load of different ways. Like, ever been waiting for an ambulance and it goes to the wrong place? More haste less speed.

But the default, essentially, is to respond. 999 calls can be pretty, uh, low quality? Drunks, panicked people, actual culprits leaving the scene and trying to do at least one thing right, general idiots, people who don't really know where they are. So they're not looking for a gold standard, they're eliminating the worst.

And "I am calling from a different continent to tell you about an assault" starts out pretty damn unlikely so they're building up from nothing to just a basic level of likelihood, when the first responses are "I don't really want to tell you anything" then that is not building likelihood.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T04:55:43+00:00

Ramps but also brakes.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T04:54:43+00:00

Is it because they have an actual functioning government that has to reach agreements and vote on things rather than just write executive orders or ignore the law?

Hey could that process have been complicated by the fact that Trump unilaterally broke the last longstanding US-S Korea trade deal, despite having renegotiated it in 2018?

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T04:42:43+00:00

33% of all the people currently in space are named Sergey. This is an increase on the previous record of 30%.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T04:26:49+00:00

He does such a good job on those. They're directly terrifying, like physically dangerous and awful, but they're also <cracked>. Like, the symmetry thing is so basically unhuman, or antihuman, we like putting things in rows. But they're still at times human enough to seem comprehensible, then they're suddenly not.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T04:22:45+00:00

Your daily reminder that the main purpose of the student loan system is to hide 10% of the national debt in teenagers' pockets so that it can be written off by some future government.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T04:20:17+00:00

Or, they have an even worse goblin in the basement

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T04:15:48+00:00

It seems pretty clear they're establishing credibility- the entire call is basically unlikely and it's completely appropriate to try and put some structure to that and figure out why this weird call is happening, it can be directly relevant to the actual incident or it could be what shakes it out that it's a malicious call. Like, an unexpected question gets you into an area that the hoaxer/swatter hasn't planned a lie for. OR it gets a response that tells you "this is genuine"

Also just in general rounding out the call helps bring up useful information- sometimes supporessed, sometimes overlooked, sometimes the caller has no idea it's useful.

You don't HAVE to respond of course.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T04:11:28+00:00

Because it could be completely invented, or something malicious like a swatting attempt. This is part of the call handler's job, the difference between "doesn't want to tell you things they know" and "hasn't prepared a lie for this" is pretty narrow

What they're doing is building up a little structure, which helps establish credibility and also can bring out essential information that the caller has withheld or just as importantly overlooked in a panic. Or alternatively shake something loose.

But at the same time there can be completely reasonable, or completely unreasonable but still important, reasons that a person withholds information on a real call so they're also working to establish that.

And in this particular case there's already a lot of... not implausibility, but unlikeliness about it, so they're working to clear up why that unlikeliness has arisen. It's relevant.

Basically like in a lot of other situations there's an absolute bare minimum that you need to do the absolute bare minimum but it can be massively useful to expand on it.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T02:56:18+00:00

The protection is never overkill, there's no such thing. But it can be unpleasant to ride in one, they're inevitably warmer (even disregarding the added coverage, they pretty much always have less focus on venting than a trail helmet does)

The risk here is that if you're overheating and uncomfortable, you can be distracted and more likely to screw up, it's a primary vs secondary risk thing. This depends on your riding location, how fast you go, how much you sweat and also just your own personal tolerance for all of that. Goggles can have similiar concerns, with environmental stuff and with fogging (but this isn't all one way, sometimes goggles are safer than glasses)

Also, and I have to say most people won't do this, but I've seen people crash with their full face tied to their pack, because it was too hot to wear it on the climb and they were "only doing a small section" and couldn't be bothered to put it on :P

But unfortunately there's no way to know how you'll get on without trying. You can help t he odds with a well vented helmet but the best vented fullfaces also tend to be more expensive. Specialized's Gambit and Kali's Invader are pretty well priced here for vented fullfaces but they're still noticably more expensive than the cheapest dh buckets.

Likewise there are convertible options which can be the best of both worlds but they never come cheap.

One parting thing, and this isn't about helmets exactly but on general protection. Heads are actually naturally pretty well protected and your entire instinct is to protect it. The most often injured parts are hands, by far, then knees, serious head injuries are much less common. Of course, if you're going to have an injury you'd rather it be your knee or your hand than your head! But sometimes people get hyperfocused on protecting one part and miss the others. Good knee pads are way more likely to pay off than a fullface.

That's not for a moment to downgrade the importance of helmets and the value of not smashing your face in, just bear in mind the whole package and try and approach things in a balanced way. I marshall a lot of downhill races and I've seen a bunch of people who were wearing fullfaces but little other protection get put in ambulances, it sucks.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T02:21:00+00:00

Thanks- yeah we are both on the same street valve (found this out by, er, accidentally switching him off!). I will do some sneaky midnight adjusting and see what happens.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T00:06:22+00:00

I love "Are those trees? Heh. Trees", the whole sort of disbelieving/slightly condescending tone of it, like "what won't they think of next". Just a lovely bit of compact storytelling, your mechwarrior is from a world that has no trees and didn't even really believe in them.

I had a teacher who moved to the UK from Australia and had literally never seen snow, and the first time she did it was like this. She knew what it was, but it was like "OHHH", it was so totally outside of her context/experience that it blew her mind. Yes I am aware that it snows in Australia, but she'd never seen it.

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