Ipswich Gets A New Porn Shop
As I walked to Portman Road, I saw a store, I’d not seen before.
Ipswich Gets A New Porn Shop
I’ve no idea how good it is, but it certainly looks the place to get some good engineering pornography.
Ipswich used to have a wonderful shop in Martin and Newby, which was opposite my office in Fore Street, in the early days of Artemis. One memory is the van from Royal Volker Stevin arriving each morning during the construction of the Orwell Bridge. Apparently Martin and Newby made a fortune out of that job, as so many expensive tools were dropped into the river. One suggestion was that they use wooden spirit levels, so that they floated, but they found the current in the river took them out to sea.
A Flying Boat From Norway
This was also pictured in today’s Times. It’s an escape life boat for an oil platform being tested by dropping from sixty metres.
There’s a video here, that is really worth watching.
The Times says that the boat can carry seventy passengers and is made of plastic.
Clever Tricks Improve Breast Scans
I like this story from the BBC’s web site.
One of the keys to fighting cancer is good diagnosis and the article shows how being clever with scientific, engineering and mathematical tricks, X-rays can be improved.
We’ll see a lot more of this type of innovation in the next few years and it’ll help in all sorts of fields and not just medicine.
Liverpool University Electrical Engineering and Electronics
One of the purposes of the day was to open the refurbished foyer of the Liverpool University Electrical Engineering and Electronics building.
In some ways it surprising how well the building has fared, since I arrived in 1965, when it was almost brand-new. To me it is one of the better 1960s buuldings, but I can’t find out who designed it.
One major change outside, is that there is now a pedestrian crossing, something that fifty years ago, the University couldn’t get the council to install. In fact classically the council did a survey in the summer and concluded that it wasn’t needed.
A Golden Age Of Engineering?
Evan Davis asks this question in this piece on the BBC web site. It’s linked to a two part series starting on BBC2 tonight.
I think he could be right and have said so on this blog about tunnelling.
I shall be watching tonight.
Are The Best Ideas Started In Garages?
The storage of electricity has always been a problem and it’s one that will get worse as we get more renewables like wind-power, that tend to produce electricity at variable times.
So this article on the BBC web site caught my eye. I particularly like this bit.
The technology was originally developed by Peter Dearman, a garage inventor in Hertfordshire, to power vehicles.
Just like Hewlett-Packard, which started in a garage.
What is the most significant fact, is the IMechE have got involved.
This might be one of those ideas that runs and runs.
It has a lot of things going for it.
- It’s all technology we have had around for years.
- It doesn’t require large amounts of land.
- The plants could also be used to say produce liquid carbon dioxide, nitrogen or oxygen, where they are needed, instead of bringing it in by tanker. On the other hand liquid oxygen is dangerous stuff to have around.
I shall be watching this story in the future.
It’s Open House Weekend!!
I’m following an engineering theme this weekend.
Saturday
- Bond Street Crossrail Station
- TUCA – London’s University of Hole Digging
- Limehouse Accumulator Tower
Sunday
Obviously, I may add some more.
Is This The Best Microwaveable Gluten-Free Sunday Lunch?
I wasn’t feeling too well this morning, as I probably got too hot in the sun at the Paralympics yesterday. It seemed to make my hand and arm go rather cold. So I picked up one of Marks & Spencer, roast pork loin with apple & cider sauce dinners from their Fuller Longer range, as I didn’t want the hassle of cooking properly.
Roast Pork Loin With Apple & Cider Sauce
It really is rather a nice meal for something that you just put in a microwave. I wonder whether when John Randall and Harry Boot, invented the cavity magnetron in 1940 at the University of Birmingham, ever visualised, nearly everybody having one in their homes.
And Now The Bouncy Bus
The Czech House is at the Angel and this bus is outside.
It is an interesting piece of engineering art by David Cerny. I like it a lot better than some of his other works.
I suspect some fans of Bristol buses will find it sacrilege.
