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Happy 16th Birthday

fuzzyundies says...

Going off of the name "Róisín" and their accents, I suspect this is Ireland or Northern Ireland. That said, you have to be 17 in both to get a learner's permit.

Unless this is a particularly stylish tractor...

Near miss

fuzzyundies says...

This looks like a game of high-stakes chicken. There are a set of international collision regulations (COLREGS) that every cadet all over the world has to learn by heart to gain a certificate of competency.

Sometimes these rules are inaccurately reduced to "right of way" rules. In fact, the rules oblige actions on all ships in a potential collision situation: one will be the "stand-on vessel", and the other will be the "give-way vessel": obliged to make an early and obvious maneuver to avoid the collision, in a prescribed direction (generally turn to starboard). The ships involved can instead get on the radio and negotiate a different plan, but absent that, these are the rules.

One rule governs overtaking, where the vessel being overtaken is the "stand-on vessel" and the vessel overtaking is the "give-way vessel". Another governs crossing, where in a crossing path situation the vessel which has the other ship to port (on the left, looking forward) is the "stand-on vessel" and the other is the "give-way vessel".

So in the situation we see in the video, the ship in which we are standing is clearly to port of the other vessel and so would be the "give-way" vessel. It should have made a slight starboard turn much much much earlier to pass behind the other vessel.

Except what if the other vessel overtook this ship and passed in front? This happens sometimes, where a vessel in a hurry and in the "give-way" position decides to make an early change to put it in the "stand-on" position and force the other ship to move. This is what's known internationally as a "dick move" and probably criminal.

Unless we have the full radar track for both ships we can't know who was at fault. Since they thankfully didn't collide, the MAIB won't have to figure this out and send anyone to jail.

Container Ship Collision In Pakistan

fuzzyundies says...

Can be! It depends on the contents of the container and how air-tight its construction and materials are. Generally materials packed for transport are supposed to be strapped or otherwise held in place so that they don't shift and upset the transport vehicle (see the 747 that crashed in the Middle East when its cargo shifted...). But that's just the stuff that was meant to be in the container. Every ship has to contend with the risk of water ingress. Un-contained water in a vessel forms a "free surface" and the so-called free surface effect applies. That's where that material can and will move based on gravity, often making a bad situation much much worse. Imagine water in a tank (itself a free surface) vs. water sloshing around the cabin of a plane. This is what usually causes ships to capsize: water gets in and isn't contained, so it can move tremendous amounts of mass anywhere it wants to go -- usually in the direction it's already going. Calculations of ship stability for things like cargo loading and ballast assume minimal free surface in the ship, because you have to. That's how ships stay upright and afloat.

How does this apply to lost containers? Depending on how watertight the container is and how well strapped in the contents are, some amount of water may get in and form a free surface. This free surface will move around until the container finds its equilibrium which may or may not be watertight and less dense than the water around it, which defines whether it floats or sinks and what direction it faces when it does.

A container with a lot of weight on one side but otherwise watertight will stand upright and perhaps still sink (like the one at the end of this video). A container with well-distributed weight would tend to end up flat. Whether it sinks or not depends on whether it's watertight and what its density is -- the weight of the container displacing ocean vs. the weight of the ocean it displaces.

Sadly, a significant number of containers end up at the worst possible density/displacement where they float just at or near the surface and lay in wait to devastate passing ships, regardless of the orientation of the container itself.

Container Ship Collision In Pakistan

fuzzyundies says...

As a tall ship sailor, I'm horrified by events like this. I personally know a sailor whose ship sank at 2am in the Bay of Biscay, apparently holed by a partially submerged container. They're the modern-day version of icebergs except much harder to spot and they can occur ANYWHERE.

Ho, Ro, the rattlin' Bog - Irish Wedding at 5am

Ho, Ro, the rattlin' Bog - Irish Wedding at 5am

fuzzyundies says...

I just heard this song for the first time a few weeks ago and it's been in my daily set ever since. Something about the way it brings people together just lifts my mood no matter what shit's going wrong.

Disassembly Of a Wind Turbine

I will murder you

FizzBuzz : A simple test when hiring programmers/coders

fuzzyundies says...

Simple tests like this are meant to reveal how comfortable an applicant is at interpreting a problem and quickly translating it to code. It's analogous to how math tests in school required you to translate word problems to algebra. If someone struggles at this stage, they probably won't be a good coding hire. Or instead they might show some foresight into likely problems, gotchas, scalability, or testing.

I've been whiteboarded in a few interviews, and I've been hired based on a phone call. I don't know what the best method is, but I really hate the idea of "instant-fail" questions with a narrow "correct" answer. It's better to ask a few relatively easy, open-ended questions and see how comfortable the applicant is.

Trump Makes One Last Try To Patch Things Up With Comey

He's from the Future?

Rick and Morty - Strawberry Smiggles

Amazing Data Entry

Amazing Data Entry

Ahoy's Iconic Arms S3E6: P90.

fuzzyundies says...

I ran with an airsoft P90 for years as my primary and an MP7 as my secondary. The integrated reflex sight isn't great, so the first thing you usually do is pull it out and replace it with a triple rail (left, right, top) module. Also, reloads in combat are tricky: you want to keep the weapon aimed and sighted but you have to lean your head way back to pull the magazine out and slap a fresh one in.

Such a cool weapon though!



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