I saw a racing trike going down the road recently. Looked rather cool. No chance of catching it - the dude was draughting a truck and easily doing 55 km/h

I am loving the "preheat torque wrench" question. Partly the radio show, but mostly I think because my mind is not following the approved path.

@Móż - ?

I have now left a comment to make it clear why I shouldn't be allowed to answer questions

Also, responses to the "my cousin died" question perplex me. Ritchenby and gschenk are getting upvotes for making what seem like really stupid points in comments. Are people really struggling to understand that just because "everyone does it", you can't necessarily ask them to do it for a study when "it" is known to be dangerous?

FFS, heaps of people get shot every day, but surely no-one would question why a study of gunshot injuries can't ask for volunteers to get shot?

@Móż I thort I'd add to the silliness :-)

@andy256 - " physics student learning scientific glass blowing" ; how old are you?

(in the US, we haven't had that for over 30 years)

@Batman 60. In the '70's, in Applied Physics, we learned glass blowing 'cos we made our own equipment. Amazing what you can build with some glass and a torch!

Yep, my class was the last in Australia also.

No as old as DRH, who claims to be as old as dirt!

makes sense. afaik, only caltech and rochester institute of technology and maybe 2 or 3 others still have glassblowers on staff.

of major research unviersities

We used to make all sorts of lab equipment, and some pretty amazing scientific analysis stuff ...

Our lecturer was recruited to work in Germany on top secret projects, that turned out to be the Vn projects.

He'd peer at your work, grunt, and say

Vn ?

It's gunna crack!

And walk away ...

a moment later he'd turn and point his mangy cigarillo at your work, and ...

CRACK!

@Criggie V1, V2, V that never saw the light of day, ...

heheh so the pyrex glassware used now is a lot better ?

the main problem as far as i understand it is that if you need specialized glassware, you can't get it anymore

since you don't have a glassblower on staff at most places

Someone will make it for a price surely ?

but the price won't be cheap

well, you need someone who has knowledge of both chemistry/physics and glass blowing.

cause they have to do a lot of the glassware design details for lab use

@Criggie Pyrex is glass, and was invented many years before I studies glass blowing. It always has to be annealed after heating.

there aren't many glassblowers left to begin with (or places training them)

annealed with tears? SO-BRUTAL

add in the lack of experience with it, and lack of science knowledge and the pool becomes much smaller

glassshop.chem.cornell.edu

looks like a medievel torture rack

I think the prevalence of stainless steel is the main cause of the decline.

yeah, a few schools can have it. cornell is very close to a major glass manufacturer so they're a bit better off

or radleys.com/products/our-products/scientific-glassblowing "Bespoke custom scientific glassware to meet your specifications"

And a lot of the glass in the pic is cast.

@Criggie Yep, so small places that are a real niche.

but most of the people who do this are generally in their 70s now

which makes it harder for more technical pieces

hmmmm yeah understandable.

I was pretty good at it.

Had to decide if I wanted to die of emphysema or not ...

well H&S wasn't such a thing back then

which is a prevalent disease among glass blowers.

is it the fumes ?

No, it's the temptation to blow just a bit harder :-)

Stretches the lung tissue ..

what they don't use canned air nowdays ?

I'm stunned and surprised

Yes, you can, but the control is not there.

no. the pieces you ask your glassblower to do are generally pretty intricate and are usually one-off pieces.

but i suppose its not glass BLOWING for no reason.

Lots is done that way.

A lot of industrial glass casting is done that way.

But fine work ...

you need more control.

The big upside and downside of lungs is the finite capacity.

And you can feel when the work is hardening.

Hence the urge to blow harder.

ahhh makes sense now.

speaking of lungs, having pneumonia sucks

You should see the looks on the faces of high-end shop staff when I hold their wine glasses or crystal to the light, and mutter things like poor quality glass ... not annealed properly ... too much iron ...

haha

@Batman Do you?

yep. =(

Sorry to hear that. Too much work? It's just coming into winter for you too ...

dunno. been taking codeine for the cough, but it just doesn't go away

Take it seriously. It's a serious disease.

yeah

On that uplifting note, I gotta go. Look after yourself ...

thanks cya

@andy256 bye, andy of the entertaining anecdotes :)

@Móż Just let me know when I start getting garrulous, not to mention telling the same one again and again and again ...

@andy256 hey, is that Andy's cat now that andy has gone?

It beats having the new co-worker rant about bicycle riders breaking the law and refusing to even listen to any counter-argument. I think I can write that fat fuck off now. Yay, two of them in the office.

You know people were saying not to get too upset because we hired yet another overweight, late middle age white male? Yep. That.

smh.com.au/business/workplace-relations/…

Limited transport is a big barrier to young people getting jobs ... newspaper article is interesting

@Móż Must be ... coz I'm not really here ... or maybe not there ...

That reminds me that i need to true my bike wheel. :-|

how does that remind you to true your wheel ?

cause i'm a youth. and if i don't do that then i'll need to use my car

which needs gas.

ahhh

wait I thought you were a crusty old fart like andy and pete

nope. i'm 26.

@Criggie I bet Pete would be insulted by that!

heh. on positive news, my chest x-rays were clean today but the doctor says ill likely be coughing for another month due to asthma stuff

Positive news is good

indeed.

hey @Móż. Still thinking about the trike. But they are quite few and far between. Add to that I want something secondhand, to keep costs down. Add to that I want it to weigh 15-20kg. So, the total? I'm basically looking for rocking horse shit! If it gets to springtime, and I still feel the urge, then I can buy a trike conversion kit, new, at 1000GBP

But that's a whole lot more than I want to pay!

I did hear of a stroke survivor riding a bicycle, which would obviously be a cheaper option provided my balance could hack it. To this end, I've been finding out about local-ish classes to improve my balance. But all strokes are different - I know nothing about this cyclist guy so have no idea how his stroke affected him. After all, they say that all strokes are different.

@criggie - crusty old fart? you young bloody whippersnapper!

@PeteH - trike conversion kit?

@Batman Afternoon! Good to hear rhe Xray was clear.

@PeteH Hi Pete! Long time no chat!

At least in the US, the Terratrike Rover x8 is 20 kg for 1000 USD. Dunno about the quality but i'd guess it might be sdoable under there (esp. since bikes seem to be cheaper there)

@PeteH Is there any assistive-techology funds you can apply for? My grandad had his bathroom redone to give a zero-lip shower, cos he was legless and in a wheelchair.

@PeteH isn't that why we have physiotherapists? Years of training just so they can deal with "help Pete not fall over"? At least that's better than "help Pete learn to wipe his own arse again" :)

Remember, it's supposed to hurt.

You might find that a power assisted shopping trike is the other way to go, and down here they're about 1000 quid equivalent (2000 south pacific pesos, to quote our former prime munster)

oh an electric gocart chair ?