The Anything Thread that is Never off subject.

[saneagle]

Man who found smooth Mars bar gets £2 compensation
“I think £2 is great, it will be two free Mars bars. Maybe they could have sent me more but I’m not being ungrateful. I think it’s amazing after everything that’s happened that I got the £2 voucher.”

Smooth Mars bar man gets £2 compensation from chocolate giant

Mars Wrigley UK says the smooth bar "slipped" through and confirmed the swirl is being kept.

www.bbc.co.uk

True fact. I was training a student about quality control, when I went to the vending machine to get a Mars bar and it delivered one that was about an inch shorter than normal. To get the exact evidence, I took it into the lab and weighed it on our calibrated equipment. This gave me the opportunity to explain to the student about variance, process controls and measurement errors. As part of that discussion, I bought another 5 bars from the vending machine and we weighed them. They were all a few grams short of the stated weight on the wrapper of 65g, except the short one, which was around 50g.

I told the student that it would be a good idea to find out about the Mars production line process controls, so I wrote a long letter addressed to the Mars Quality Manager that explained our findings and asked about what sort of statistical controls they used and what sort of variation was normal and why the results we had seemed to indicate defective products. I returned the short Mars bar with the letter, so the postage was about £1.

A week later, I got a letter from Mars, addressed to me as the Quality Manager of Keiper Recaro. It was from the customer relations department. "Dear sir, We're sorry that you're unhappy with your Mars bar. Here's a £1 postage stamp to cover the cost of a replacement."

This was about 1995, so nothing has changed. Unfortunately, I ate the remaining evidence and Mars didn't return the short one, otherwise I would have referred the matter to trading standards so that they would have taken the issue seriously.

This also reminds me of an incident at Avondale Caravans, where I had just joined as their Quality Manager. A guy, who was the type to wear an anorak, wrote in to say that he noted that our caravans were certified to meet various electrical standards, but from his expertise in the field, he could see that they didn't. The Customer Service guy replied to him that the certifications were done independently by the Caravan Council, and Avondale was happy with the standard of the caravans, plus the blue litmus statement that nobody else had complained. He therefore gave his evidence to Trading Standards and asked them to investigate. I won't bore you with the details, but that created a massive problem for both Avondale and the Caravan Council that took around a year to sort out and cost them all a lot of money. There was also a knock-on effect to all UK Caravan manufacturers because they all used the same electrical equipment and certification. All the guy wanted was recognition that he'd spotted the anomaly. He didn't even want it fixed.

 

[Tony1951]

True fact. I was training a student about quality control, when I went to the vending machine to get a Mars bar and it delivered one that was about an inch shorter than normal. To get the exact evidence, I took it into the lab and weighed it on our calibrated equipment. This gave me the opportunity to explain to the student about variance, process controls and measurement errors. As part of that discussion, I bought another 5 bars from the vending machine and we weighed them. They were all a few grams short of the stated weight on the wrapper of 65g, except the short one, which was around 50g.

I told the student that it would be a good idea to find out about the Mars production line process controls, so I wrote a long letter addressed to the Mars Quality Manager that explained our findings and asked about what sort of statistical controls they used and what sort of variation was normal and why the results we had seemed to indicate defective products. I returned the short Mars bar with the letter, so the postage was about £1.

A week later, I got a letter from Mars, addressed to me as the Quality Manager of Keiper Recaro. It was from the customer relations department. "Dear sir, We're sorry that you're unhappy with your Mars bar. Here's a £1 postage stamp to cover the cost of a replacement."

This was about 1995, so nothing has changed. Unfortunately, I ate the remaining evidence and Mars didn't return the short one, otherwise I would have referred the matter to trading standards so that they would have taken the issue seriously.

This also reminds me of an incident at Avondale Caravans, where I had just joined as their Quality Manager. A guy, who was the type to wear an anorak, wrote in to say that he noted that our caravans were certified to meet various electrical standards, but from his expertise in the field, he could see that they didn't. The Customer Service guy replied to him that the certifications were done independently by the Caravan Council, and Avondale was happy with the standard of the caravans, plus the blue litmus statement that nobody else had complained. He therefore gave his evidence to Trading Standards and asked them to investigate. I won't bore you with the details, but that created a massive problem for both Avondale and the Caravan Council that took around a year to sort out and cost them all a lot of money. There was also a knock-on effect to all UK Caravan manufacturers because they all used the same electrical equipment and certification. All the guy wanted was recognition that he'd spotted the anomaly. He didn't even want it fixed.

I think that behind the scenes there is a vast amount of complex work going on in just about every enterprise servicing the public, to ensure standardisation of products and quality. Most people never give that sort of thing a second thought and a lot of people think of themselves as being of a far better sort than the people who are doing those jobs. Total snobs - but very common in my experience. I remember once, a long time ago having a tour behind the scenes at a large supermarket where we were shown their ordering and stock control systems. I think some of the people on this tour thought themselves 'a cut above' people who worked in supermarkets.... I'll just say that their systems were a marvel of complexity and effective control. Every item sold was registered on the system as it passed through the check out and re-ordered when a certain number had been sold, so that there was always stock in store at the right amount.

Production quality is a bit different, but just another aspect of how we have all come to take for granted that what we want to buy is available and functional and of the correct standard. Does it go wrong sometimes - obviously, yes. But not as much as it would do without a lot of careful people doing a good job.

 

[MikelBikel]

Geoff sums up all the current stories so we don't have to post them separately..

 

[Woosh]

Geoff sums up all the current stories so we don't have to post them separately..

Do you know that the world adds 1GW of solar every other day? Thorium molten salt reactor is on schedule? Hydrogen can now be transported as powder in trucks under atmospheric pressure and ordinary temperature?

 

[Woosh]

If you have any doubts about the future of renewables, here is the recent share price of Rolls Royce, since they got a grant to develop SMR

 

[soundwave]

yeeha but can i buy one and what happens if it blows up ?

 

[Woosh]

yeeha but can i buy one and what happens if it blows up ?

They cost about 1.5 billion pounds each. Delivery in 10 years or less. What happens if it blows up? Nothing. It's designed with automatic shut down, not to blow up when no one is around.

 

[Tony1951]

New signs found of giant gas planet in 'Earth's neighbourhood'

The possible planet is just four-and-a-half light years away and may have moons that sustain life.

www.bbc.co.uk

Ha ha ha

Nearby, giant gas planet?

Alpha Centauri is 26 trillion miles from here.

Our most rapid space craft would take about 75,000 years to reach it.

It is the nearest star system to the Sun, but saying it is 'just four and a half light years away' and that it is in our 'neighbourhood' doesn't really tell it like it is.

The human species has only existed in its current form as opposed to some shambling ape like thing for about twice as long as it would take our fastest probe to get to this system.

 

[Tony1951]

Do you know that the world adds 1GW of solar every other day? Thorium molten salt reactor is on schedule? Hydrogen can now be transported as powder in trucks under atmospheric pressure and ordinary temperature?

How are they making the hydrogen?

Last time I looked - 99% of hydrogen available to industry and domestic users (and that includes hydrogen injected experimentally into gas mains) was made by steam reformation of methane gas. This is a vastly more carbon intensive process than simply using methane gas directly for whatever process the hydrogen was used in.

Methane gas CH4, is simply 4 hydrogen atoms attached to one carbon atom. It is a very clean fuel. Wasting energy removing that one carbon atom from the methane and then sending it up a smoke stack, and in the process burning a lot more methane to generated the necessary heat to get off that carbon atom is a VERY STUPID kind of idiocy. The outcome is more carbon emission than just burning the methane in the first place.

If we had endless supplies of free and carbon neutral electricity, using surplus power to electrolyse water into hydrogen and oxygen (H20) might be useful, but as a fuel we would be wasting energy because the process produces perhaps 60 - 70% efficiency. Better to have simply used that electricity as electricity. Why chuck away 30% to 40% of the power in an inefficient process if the hydrogen is to be used as a fuel anyway?

 

[Woosh]

Hydrogen economy is unimportant at the moment. I only mentioned it as worthwhile area of research. The main efforts of research are still on nuclear reactors of all types and nuclear fusion. The main development of renewables is solar and wind, onshore and offshore. I invest a fair bit into renewables so try to keep informed.

 

[MikelBikel]

Do you know that the world adds 1GW of solar every other day? Thorium molten salt reactor is on schedule? Hydrogen can now be transported as powder in trucks under atmospheric pressure and ordinary temperature?

So why is UK electricity so expensive?
Surely the renooaballs should make it cheaper..
None of these reactors are online yet, and
hydrogen powder power is only theoretical !
"Don't get high on your own supply"

UK Energy Prices are the Highest in the WORLD

"We now have the highest electricity prices in the world... it is lethally economically suicidal to have pushed electricity prices up to the degree that w...

youtube.com

 

[Woosh]

So why is UK electricity so expensive?
Surely the renooaballs should make it cheaper..

Profiteering. Those investors into renewables got an excellent return since the war in Ukraine.
Do you see a correlation between high tax items and expensive items? This is because our political system can't run any service directly. If it does for example public transport, it can't raise much taxes on it. You end up with protected sectors like energy, housing and the FTSE100.

 

[MikelBikel]

Profiteering. Those investors into renewables got an excellent return since the war in Ukraine.
Do you see a correlation between high tax items and expensive items? This is because our political system can't run any service directly. If it does for example public transport, it can't raise much taxes on it. You end up with protected sectors like energy, housing and the FTSE100.

Profiteering yes, gouging, arranged between gov and corp. What do we call it when these 2 work together children? 1 name begins with Comm.. and the other with Fasc... but both end up the same, bankrupt nation.
Also obvious is that if we pay for Legacy generation, and Wind, and Solar, whether they generate or not, it becomes 3 times more expensive. And since we must have legacy for grid to remain stable, the other 2 are redundant. What a genius system! When SMR's come along, will it become 4 times more?

 

[Woosh]

Profiteering yes, gouging, arranged between gov and corp. What do we call it when these 2 work together children? 1 name begins with Comm.. and the other with Fasc... but both end up the same, bankrupt nation.

Tax money has got to come from somewhere. What better place than something everyone has to pay for? The bad part is no government raises enough taxes to keep up with spending and it's not only in the UK but all of the EU as well. I follow US politics a lot since brexit and I can't see any thing to be cheerful about where the West is going.

 

[Woosh]

Apparently, Trump demands universities to pay billions to settle his investigations into their wokiness, 15% of Nvidia's and Amd's sales to China for export licenses. The money is put into a special pot for trump's projects.
This is something you'd believe of a third world country.

 

[MikelBikel]

Tax money has got to come from somewhere. What better place than something everyone has to pay for? The bad part is no government raises enough taxes to keep up with spending and it's not only in the UK but all of the EU as well. I follow US politics a lot since brexit and I can't see any thing to be cheerful about where the West is going.

"And the poli-tic-shuns say
More taxes will solve everything
And the band plays on.."
The Temptations - Ball of Confusion - 2001

This video taxes my patience.. less taxes, less wars!
Tho it does suggest the simplicity and economy of having ONE FLAT TAX RATE, say 10%, no exceptions.

 

[Woosh]

"And the poli-tic-shuns say
More taxes will solve everything
And the band plays on.."
The Temptations - Ball of Confusion - 2001

This video taxes my patience.. less taxes, less wars!
Tho it does suggest the simplicity and economy of having ONE FLAT TAX RATE, say 10%, no exceptions.

The elephant in the room are the economists. When I was a child, they were a rare species. Now universities churn them out in thousands every year.
They twist facts into statistics which are supposed to be scientific and must be trusted. Statistics are then used by politicians to divide people into wokes and orange supremacists, create emergencies, crisis and wars. They tell us that they, and only they, have the solution and it's very simple.

 

[Tony1951]

I am well aware that this guy is something of an eccentric, but his view of why UK government fails (and it fails whichever party is in power, time and again) is right on the money.

He KNOWS who really runs government, because he has been there, and he explains why time after time ministers can never get things done that need to be done.

Well worth watching.

 

[Woosh]

Cummings will always remind me of his interview by the BBC sitting in the garden at the rear of no 10 and no 11 explaining why he went for a drive to test his eyesight. Little believable, entitled a little self agrandising as he kind of believed he was among low IQ people. He may be right on the last point though.
Did you read his ad for weidos and misfits?

 

[Tony1951]

Cummings will always remind me of his interview by the BBC sitting in the garden at the rear of no 10 and no 11 explaining why he went for a drive to test his eyesight. Little believable, entitled a little self agrandising as he kind of believed he was among low IQ people. He may be right on the last point though.
Did you read his ad for weidos and misfits?

I've read a lot of his material. Some I find tiresome, but often he is right on the money about what is wrong with the way this country is governed. ANYONE who thinks the way the civil service works against ministers in this country is Ok, needs their head examining.

I am VERY keen that the democratic mandate of government is respected and facilitated. To deliberately frustrate elected governments in the way our courts and civil service do all the time, is a monstrous betrayal of democracy. I didn't vote Labour, but THEY are our elected government and their policies must be carried out efficiently and effectively - otherwise we are a sham democracy.

I suggest that you actually watch the video and make up your mind about what he says rather than talking about Barnard Castle - which was a matter of complete triviality anyway. While Cummings was being lambasted and hounded for taking his family out of London when his home was under siege from extremist demonstrators who were making threats, so he could leave his family at his parents farm in the North (perfectly allowable under the regulations at the time) - the great author of lock down regulations and doom scenarios Professor Neil Ferguson was entertaining visits from his married lover, who drove a considerable distance to be with him. Nobody brings that up though.

Anyway - why not watch the video. It deals with real obstacles in doing anything decent in this country - the massive dead weight of quangos, foreign courts, planning rules, civil service ineptitude and deliberate frustration of government policy. Yes Minister was a mild version of the reality. We all pay dearly for this shambles.

There is a LOT more to Cummings than you obviously know.