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Monthly Archives: June 2010
The Half-Time Kettle Effect quantified
The Half-Time Kettle Effect (HTKE) is an oft-reported part of the football season. The idea is very simple: at half-time, a large number of people watching the match will make themselves a cup of tea, using an electric kettle to … Continue reading
Tagged football, nationalgrid
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The problem with the bulb ban
You might not have noticed, but the sale of standard filament lightbulbs has been banned since last September.* Current proposals are to replace standard incandescent bulbs with more efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. Fluorescent lights work by passing a current through a … Continue reading
Tagged efficiency, energy, lightbulb
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Abbreviations and full stops
Which of these is correct? The correct answer is “Mr Reid”, without a full stop. When abbreviating a word, if the last letter of the abbreviation is the last letter of the word then no full stop is required. Thus “Saint” becomes … Continue reading
Tagged language, psa
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A BP anecdote
You might have noticed that BP is in the news at the moment. Some people have accused it of taking a rather lax approach to safety. Every year I support a team taking part in the Engineering Education Scheme run by … Continue reading
Tagged BP, safety
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Drill, baby, drill!
Many in the US, mainly from the Republican side of the political spectrum have used “Drill, baby, drill!” as a mantra for increasing US production of oil, and for less reliance on foreign sources of oil. The absolutely awful Sarah … Continue reading
Tagged oil
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How to make an extension cord
Sometimes the cable that comes with the device just isn’t quite long enough. In most situations you can just make do, but what if you don’t want to? Making a short extension cord isn’t really difficult at all; all the … Continue reading
Tagged plug
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