Monday Links from the Recliner vol. DCCLXXXI

[DoctorStrangelove]

Oh the Polo - I had a Canary yellow one that lasted forever, it was an MOT write off until we fixed the Sills. The Garage claimed they didn't like the welding until we told them it was done by a friend, who used to weld nuclear fuel containers). Lasted years, gave it to my little brother.

Yes it was rather more impressive than the Passat in which I did less than 10k.

I was particularly impressed by the dipstick tube breaking off in my hand, the failed driver's door window, and the failed antilock breaking controller. Had to tow the fecking thing out of the garage for the scrap man to take it away.

At 158k I traded the Polo for a Fiat Tempra, another nice car: if only I'd realised there were only 20 of the 2 litre version in the uk.

[vetran]

55W apparently for main beam.

I remember the dim glow of the 40W non halogen bulbs on my VW Polo of blessed memory. Did 110k up & down the M4 in that thing.

Oh the Polo - I had a Canary yellow one that lasted forever, it was an MOT write off until we fixed the Sills. The Garage claimed they didn't like the welding until we told them it was done by a friend, who used to weld nuclear fuel containers). Lasted years, gave it to my little brother.

[DoctorStrangelove]

It was in watts i.e. inputs. They need to change to lumens/Lux. A straight calculation of X watts of halogen=X lux. Add that to the MOT & roadside via mobile phone (then refer to a test site).

55W apparently for main beam.

I remember the dim glow of the 40W non halogen bulbs on my VW Polo of blessed memory. Did 110k up & down the M4 in that thing.

[vetran]

There used to be a limit on the halogen bulbs you could fit IIRC.

However xenon arc & now led has made that go away.

It was in watts i.e. inputs. They need to change to lumens/Lux. A straight calculation of X watts of halogen=X lux. Add that to the MOT & roadside via mobile phone (then refer to a test site).

[DoctorStrangelove]

Alignment yes, Lumens no.

There used to be a limit on the halogen bulbs you could fit IIRC.

However xenon arc & now led has made that go away.

It's a remarkable that a £5 lightbulb can be replaced by something that costs thousands to fix (though IIRC VW had arranged things on some vehicles so that half the front of the car had to be removed to change said bulb).

[vetran]

Isn't it part of the MOT?

Alignment yes, Lumens no.

[ladymuck]

I read that, or a very similar, article about headlights recently. I do find the newer LEDs far too bright and I now dislike night time driving much more than I used to.

[DoctorStrangelove]

It really can't be too difficult to create an automatic camera that could fine people.

Isn't it part of the MOT?

[vetran]

Had a few conversation about bright headlights recently, think lot of people see them as a problem, makes it harder to actually see the road. Same with headlights on too early when the natural light is quite sufficient.

It really can't be too difficult to create an automatic camera that could fine people.

[xoggoth]

Had a few conversation about bright headlights recently, think lot of people see them as a problem, makes it harder to actually see the road. Same with headlights on too early when the natural light is quite sufficient.

[vetran]

I like the way I've "liked" and "thanked" for this thread before actually doing so. It's filled them in for me so I don't have to bother. .

Nick promised improvements!
Now at least I can post things.

[DoctorStrangelove]

I like the way I've "liked" and "thanked" for this thread before actually doing so. It's filled them in for me so I don't have to bother. .

Ah. It's changed its mind so I'll have to do it mandraulically.

[NickFitz]

I've finished with work for the year, and I strongly recommend you do the same as it will give you more time to read stuff like this

• Asleep at the Wheel in the Headlight Brightness Wars - ”The crusade against bright headlights has picked up speed in recent years, in large part due to a couple of Reddit nerds. Could they know what’s best for the auto industry better than the auto industry itself?” They are annoying - the headlights, that is.
• What Is Entropy? A Measure of Just How Little We Really Know. - ”Exactly 200 years ago, a French engineer introduced an idea that would quantify the universe’s inexorable slide into decay. But entropy, as it’s currently understood, is less a fact about the world than a reflection of our growing ignorance. Embracing that truth is leading to a rethink of everything from rational decision-making to the limits of machines.”
• Flesh-eating human parasite sweeping across Central America is raising concerns in US — what to know - Another good reason not to go to America: ”New World screwworm was largely eradicated from the U.S. and Central America in the 1960s and 1980s, respectively. But the potentially fatal parasite is starting to make a comeback, U.S. officials say.”
• Confronting risks of mirror life - We’ve found yet another way to destroy ourselves: ”DNA and RNA are made from ‘right-handed’ nucleotides, and proteins are made from ‘left-handed’ amino acids. Driven by curiosity and plausible applications, some researchers had begun work toward creating lifeforms composed entirely of mirror-image biological molecules. Such mirror organisms would constitute a radical departure from known life, and their creation warrants careful consideration.”
• A Genetic Time Machine Is Responsible for Chimps Evolving Like Humans - HT to DoctorStrangelove for this one: ”A new study from the University of Zurich uses markers of genetic similarity, or what they call a ‘genetic time machine,’ to analyze chimpanzee populations and tool-use culture over thousands of years. They discovered that migrating females often introduced cultural advancements into a new population.”
• NASA believes it understands why Ingenuity crashed on Mars - Air crash investigation on another planet: ”The helicopter's on-board navigation sensors were unable to discern enough features in the relatively smooth surface of Mars to determine its position, so when it touched down, it did so moving horizontally. This caused the vehicle to tumble, snapping off all four of the helicopter's blades.”
• SEPA confirms Dalgety Bay remediation work is complete - HT again to DoctorStrangelove: ”An object recovered from the beach was returned to the Rosyth dockyard laboratory for analysis and was found to contain radium-226, which is unrelated to dockyard activities. Contamination originates from the residue of radium-coated instrument panels from military aircraft incinerated and land-filled in the area at the end of World War II.” In related news: Radioactive contamination stops Highlands project
• Interstellar’s Most Enduring Quality Is Exactly What People Used to Hate About It - ”It might be hard to imagine now, but for much of 2014, many awards pundits considered Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar to be that year’s Oscar front-runner… There was just one problem: No one had seen Interstellar yet.” Film critic Bilge Ebiri looks back at Nolan’s film ten years on.
• Zen and the Art of Aibo Engineering - The story of Sony's robot dog, now twenty-five years old: ”When Sony’s robot dog, Aibo, was first launched in 1999, it was hailed as revolutionary and the first of its kind, promising to usher in a new industry of intelligent mobile machines for the home… Since Aibo’s debut, the company has sold more than 170,000 of the cute little quadrupeds—a huge number considering their price of several thousand dollars each.”
• Planet of the Apes: Face-to-Face with the Laboratory Chimps of Liberia - ”Liberia, a remote west African country, has a secret placed called Monkey Island. Too dangerous for people to set foot on, it is fiercely protected by dozens of infected chimpanzees released from a controversial US virus testing laboratory. It’s a story that seems straight out of a movie, so I decided to search for this place and see if any was real. What I eventually found was spectacular.” I have to say, the apes don’t look particularly diseased. More importantly, they seem to be thriving
  
  

Happy invoicing!