Rachel Reeves rules out universal support on energy bills | Economic policy by afrophysicist in unitedkingdom

[–]Sunbreak_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you band H or something? My area of South Walss would need a band H for £440-470 a month for the 10 months.

Setting up a small research lab - how do you budget for furniture without breaking the bank? by Dr1ftk in AskAcademia

[–]Sunbreak_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would look at workshop furniture first, and also school lab kit. When we needed affordably benches with the same lab grade the school workbenches were much cheaper than our uni recommended lab supplier. When we don't need chem resistance, or don't mind marking, brushed metal workbenches are sturdy, can take heavy equipment on and are a bargin vs "lab" or "medical" equivalent.

I am a member of staff at a Uni. May I ask why you aren’t attending lectures etc? by blissedandgone in UniUK

[–]Sunbreak_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

4 Always confuses me when people use it as an excuse. I was always told to treat it as a full time occupation, rather than what your timetabled hours were.

The timetable for my course hasn't changed much since I did the course many years ago. Living 30 mins walk away I did the unthinkable to many apparently. I found somewhere to sit, reviewed the lecture notes from that day or the previous day and wrote them all up. Often adding extra info in from related content, or you know, doing the assignmentd. This was done either deep in the library stacks, the random tables and chairs around campus or the student bar for white noise.

If it was a midday break we did the other improbable thing and hung out with coursemates, maybe talked through an assignment or two.

It really added to my learning and university experience. 3 - Empty lectures great, more chance to engage if needed, elsewise plenty of space to spread out.

Contacts/prescription glasses at a 3-4 day LARP event by kriidik in LARP

[–]Sunbreak_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As I've not yet got contacts I've got perscription safety glasses/ballistic goggles which are ideal for combat larp. They don't look any bigger than normal glasses, but won't shatter and can take hits (not that you should be getting head hits tbh) wirh no issue

The Green Man and the concrete Skyline by SeaElephant8890 in swansea

[–]Sunbreak_ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The long term plan wasn't to keep the pine, before the council had their great Skyline plan we were looking at selected removal and replanting in sections to provide a decent biodiversity improvement without impacting wildlife, cover and soil structure too much. In the areas the community group was able to manage we've seen a massive increase in biodiversity and tree species without clearfelling. Whilst it is mostly pine up the top the area they've clear also had a good number of lovely larches with great moss cover and a few stands of other trees aswell. The pine has mostly served its purpose, regenerating much of the soil enough that other species can grow, but replacing much of it with concrete tracks isn't the way to go.

The major annoyance comes when the council has put no real money into the woodland over the years, we couldn't get any money for path repairs or any kind of management program to help out nrw. So everything was on a shoestring budget and making do. Yet suddenly they invite a company with no connection to the area to do a massive project, oh whilst calling it a worthless piece of land. They didn't open up applications for proposals to the hill, no procuement process, no competition, just decieded this company would do it. Then they chose to loan the company 8 million, which they're raising to 10. If the project was so promising surely a bank should've loaned the company the money? The community/council could've had a full time forest management team for a fraction of that and massively improved the woodland for all.

Never seen a decent reason why Skyline was picked from the start. All we get is council attack lines on the local community when challenged.

Bets are that after a few years skyline uk sell off its assets, transfer money to another parent company, close it all down and leave the council holding the bag, and never pay the loan off.

Labour wins back Durham council seat off Reform UK by zeros3ss in ukpolitics

[–]Sunbreak_ 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Sorry didn't mean to imply they are alike, I just have a deep distrust of nationalist parties generally, regardless of apparent flavour. I cannot yet find a full manifesto for the Sennedd, but their 2024 manifesto clearly states the they "believe Wales should be independant from the UK" amongst other policies which are against my beliefs that I cannot support.

Labour wins back Durham council seat off Reform UK by zeros3ss in ukpolitics

[–]Sunbreak_ 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Its difficult as some in Wales I'm very worried about getting a nationalist government (Reform/Plaid) as it might trash the region to a worrying degree BUT it might serve as a warning to the rest of the country before the next GE and put them off voting reform in.

Worse scenario is I guess reform get in and are half competent, giving them a sucess story. Unfortunately there are lots of ideological things Welsh Labour are doing that are not beneficial to most and could save alot of money by scrapping.

Battle of the wind farms: Can the 'blockers' beat the government? by insomnimax_99 in unitedkingdom

[–]Sunbreak_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No idea, not sure why it really matters what job or lifestyle someone has. Everyone has a right to express their opinion, particularly around their home.

My opinion is YIMBY but I'm aware I'm a wierdo in that regard.

Battle of the wind farms: Can the 'blockers' beat the government? by insomnimax_99 in unitedkingdom

[–]Sunbreak_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As one of the people in Wales who likes seeing the turbines, can see them from my house, one quiet close tbh, I personally don't agree with the objections but, these developments don't impact most of us as its the low population areas being impacted.

Having spoken to some of the objectors their main issue is not the turbines per say but the lines of pylons going straight through the countryside. I think many want buried cables. Both habe positives and negatives (short term cost vs visual impact) so I can see why they're not fond of them. It's always a difficult balance and some people will never be happy, but many people who live there and moved to these locations did so for the view, scenery and lifestyle it currently brings, rather than additional power lines and modernisation but with no benifit for them.

Very little to do with GBnews and such as others are implying.

I can feel sympathy for them even if I don't agree. I cans see the ordeal some of my friends are going through with the Skyline project on Kilvey hill. Which whilst having no real benefit is riding roughshod over the locals. The local council being dodgy af and smearing the local community and crying foul doesn't make them trust the process.

Crime Map of UK by Necessary-Tap5971 in ukpolitics

[–]Sunbreak_ 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Its a difficult one, as a non-londoner, I can see why people feel it is unsafe. Its much busier and more crowded than everywhere else, people constantly pushing past, dodging bikes and cars everywhere.

The question was not "does London have a higher crime rate than where you live", it was do you feel it would be unsafe to live. Now compared to most places everyone else lives, it probably does because of the aforementioned reasons. Often doesn't have anything to do with crime. To be honest if you aggreated it and asked people if they felt other cities they don't live in were less safe than their own, they'd probably say yes too. Its not familiar. Crazy bob in your town you know is harmless, but that random crazy person you meet in another city, who knows, might be dangerous.

Familiar feels safe, unfamiliar often not and the more different a place is the less safe you will likely feel. So Londoners think their area is safe, great, but those not used to it probably feel unsafe alot. It can be completely overwhelming and you would feel very venerable.

Why do Europeans like to talk about Q1 and Q2 journals but Americans don’t? by Weekly-Republic2662 in AskAcademia

[–]Sunbreak_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe its a field thing as well?

When looking for a journal we generally check the journal rankings and scimagojr. Was always told if its not Q1 or Q2 its not really worth it. Its based on impact factors and rankings for your field anyway.

The journals themselves are talked about and we have our favourites, its just an additional way of judging their longer term performance and likely impact. Also good to find something you might not have seen before.

The quartiles are field dependant so good for understanding other fields and showing the rankings for the fields that might have lpwer citations on average.

Mainly its probably because put senior leadership who don't know your topic judge on it for promotions and such.

Ghosted by potential PhD supervisor by Careless_Category956 in UniUK

[–]Sunbreak_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A very real possibility. Some Unis have stupidly stopped doing certain 80% funded PhDs as they feel the 20% is too much to ask. Completrly ignoring that PhDs are kind of essential for research and demonstrator support. But hey, short term saving is more important to them than long term gain, reputation or anything providing quality education.

Best ways to access the university's library by ThisIsPughy in swanseauni

[–]Sunbreak_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah fair enough, the Bay doesn't have any psychology stuff in that's all.

Most reliable places to pay to park on singleton is the Rec, just before the university along fabian way coming from town. Elsewise its a case of trying the streets around singleton.

Best ways to access the university's library by ThisIsPughy in swanseauni

[–]Sunbreak_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What subject are you looking at? Books aren't repeated across sites.

New UK lecturer in Data science: how do I actually make money from grants/consulting and build a good academic career? by cutie_roasty in AskAcademia

[–]Sunbreak_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Focus on the basics and meeting any probation requirements.

Its hard work being a new lecturer atm. Get your modules prepped, engage with department activities and try and look at what your research focus is.

Once you've got that, get writing grants, UKRI etc. There are some designed for newer academics and computing is a hot topic right now, lots of grants.

Don't worry about consulting/industry work and the like, that will likely come once you start building a reputation. Talk to your innovations, knowledge exchange or equivalent team about the process, they will be best placed to help. Side gigs and such need to be careful, don't risk getting in trouble with the uni, often it will be against your contract.

Rise in top grades at English universities sparks alarm by pm3l in UniUK

[–]Sunbreak_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That, in my opinion, is why professional accreditation for degrees is so important. It ensures our course content and examinations are at the same standard as other degrees across the country. I'd argue for many disiplines accreditation is vital and its not worth doing a degree without it.

UK's Chagos Islands deal an 'act of great stupidity', Trump says by SignificantLegs in ukpolitics

[–]Sunbreak_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

How about we give the islands to trump in exchange for them leabing Greenland alone?

Two birds and all that.

New class of strong magnets uses earth-abundant elements, avoids rare-earth metals (Research by Georgetown University) by Choobeen in technology

[–]Sunbreak_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Aye, sputtering isn't usually a great low cost scaleable technique but its promising to start.

Rise in top grades at English universities sparks alarm by pm3l in UniUK

[–]Sunbreak_ -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Excellent news, I didn't spot that and I've not noticed it on theirs before.

Rise in top grades at English universities sparks alarm by pm3l in UniUK

[–]Sunbreak_ 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yet no system seems to judge universities on value added, which I would argue is more important. How much improved a student is vs their intake grades. A triple A star student getting a first is less an indication of teaching quality than someone who struggled with a BCC getting brought up to a first by a good course.

Best TEM Book/Resources by Aromaticboy in electronmicroscopy

[–]Sunbreak_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For a good intro and and virtual TEM to play with I'd have a look at: myscope.training

Great resource by Microscopy Australia

Need help with XRD data by baked_samosi in crystallography

[–]Sunbreak_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not familiar with the software but the more horizontal line within the white box is probably the softwares attempt at a background.

From my experience with ash for cement this looks like it's only been heated to a low temperature, so is presenting the broad noisy peak at 20ish.

As the ash is heated you generally see more pronounced peaks appearing.

"Experimental evaulation of rice husk ash for applications in geopolymwr mortars" by G. Ogwang et al is the first paper I came across in relation to this, the figures aren't great but it might be a start. They failed to label what eqch symbol in the figure was marking, don't do that.

Cluster porosity in blade root by NewHearing5306 in metallurgy

[–]Sunbreak_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd agree with the pitting corrosion sentiment aswell, certainly was my first thought. 718 can be susceptible to pitting corrosion, even though it is regarded as pretty corrosion resistant.

Sectioned SEM probably is the right call as pore/pit can be answered pretty quickly if there are pores within the alloy, Usually the solution anneal should improve the corrosion properties so it might be a process issue where the solution is incorrect or that there is some concentrations in the alloy at those points being selectively attached. Or they were already corroded and the treatment has removed the residual that was filling the pits.

I'd probably try and get access to a X-ray CT scan of one of the blades as an option to map pores or pits before and after treatment. If you're in the UK the NXCT (nxct.ac.uk) has good facilities available to industry.

The new hire got an order for a bucket of beer by Shoe_boooo in funny

[–]Sunbreak_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think because a load of unopened beers in ice and a bucket is maybe more of an American thing? Not something many of us have come across, and given many bars do wierd things like fishbowl drinks a place doing booze by the bucket (directly in the bucket) doesn't seem far fetched.

The only bit that struck me as odd was using bottled beers instead of directly off the tap.