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On your marks.
Get set.
Onions.
Three loose onions, just over half a kilo, 46p.
A net bag of three onions exactly the same size as the loose ones, 85p.
No difference.
Other than twice the price for the bagged ones.
It's no wonder supermarkets generally don't have weighing scales, they're playing psychological games with you.
Selling a myth that the 'hand selected and bagged' onions have other mystical properties.
Be prepared.
Know your onions.
For official/internal use only:
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Or perhaps more appropriately these might be called droppings.
Hornbeam?
Rowan?
Cherry - Japanese, Spring?
Field Maple?
Sycamore?
It's that time of year where they decide to call it a day - apart from those that have a little help from a passing hand.
For official/internal use only:
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No previous owners.
High mileage.
Very blurry.
Going for a song.
Honestly, it's in there somewhere.
For official/internal use only:
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Right under your feet, everywhere you go, perhaps even under your bath.
The street mole rat is with you.
Behind the wainscoting of society.
In fact here's one now, peering at us from its lair.
Actually not as impressive in real life, and rather like a plastic bin for delivering groceries.
For official/internal use only:
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In, in, out, out - in, out, in, in.
For best results it would be ideal to be in rather than out.
In the case of the DE9 or DB9 subset of the RS232 standard the pins are configured like this:
| 1 | Data Carrier Detect | in |
| 2 | Receive Data | in |
| 3 | Transmit Data | out |
| 4 | Data Terminal Ready | out |
| 5 | Signal Ground | - |
| 6 | Data Set Ready | in |
| 7 | Request to Send | out |
| 8 | Clear to Send | in |
| 9 | Ring Indicator | in |
Interestingly the 'ins' outnumber the 'outs' by a ratio of 62.5:37.5
Surely it ought to be more equitable however you look at it.
For official/internal use only:
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This should have been obvious, hard disk drive spindles have balance weights added to ensure smooth running.
It never occurred to me that they would have balance weights, but then I've never thought about it in any particular depth. But hey, when did ignorance of a subject stop people from making massive assumptions.*
So why are there balance weights and why should it be obvious?
An imbalance can occur in a rotating object when there is a disparity between the centre of gravity of the rotating system and the centre of rotation for the rotating system. An imbalance in a rotating system causes vibration.**
Let's consider this in the context of motor vehicles and their wheels. A vibrating car wheel can be felt through the steering column and will be noticeable in uneven wear of the tyre, there is also a strong likelihood of earlier than normal failure of a wheel bearing due to the increase in stress and wear.
In a system such as a hard disk drive assembly, where there is are very fine tolerance of distance between read/write heads and the disk surface, a few nanometers,*** any vibration of the disk surface will lead to an increase in data read and write errors. Over time there will also be greater wear on the hard drive spindle which will exacerbate the existing imbalance and lead to premature failure of the disk drive.
In both the case of the motor vehicle and the disk drive spindle small weights are added in places appropriate to remove the imbalance in the rotating system. When you next walk along a pavement take a look at the shoulder of car wheels, just next to the tyre, and it won't be long before you start to spot the lead balance weights attached to the wheel rim.
If you've ever heard of wheel balancing before, for cars, bikes, buses, etc, then why would it not be obvious after a small amount of consideration that there might be a similar requirement in other types of rotating system. Of course it would only be obvious if you have a particular amount and type of prior knowledge.****
The tiny weights below shown removed from the disk spindle, presumably colour coded to indicate different mass.
* You know what I'm getting at.
** Don't take my word for it, here are some experts explaining this at great length in a patent application.
*** Don't take my word for it, here's an article from IEEE Transactions on Magnetics where some experts explain it at great length and in great detail.
**** I actually went "oh look, balance weights!" and was momentarily (a few nanoseconds) surprised, thus giving me an excuse for an overly verbose blog.
For official/internal use only:
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Here it is, an off-track, on-roller, turbo-trainer tyre.
I have no idea whether any of the hyphenated words above needed hyphens or not.
It should probably be 'turbo trainer'.
However, it doesn't really matter does it.
Just get on and ride off.
Although essentially there is no 'off' as you will be stationary.
Unlike an envelope.*
* e for envelope - stationery.
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