Britain from Above

[Bibs]

This is on this Sunday, looks fascinating to me!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7539529.stm

[molemot]

I've spent the last two weeks wombling back and forth across the Channel and the North Sea to France, Belgium and Holland...brilliant fun.. any boat owners who haven't sampled the inland seas of the Netherlands, get over ther straight away, great people, boats, yacht clubs.. and you can run all the way from the south to the north of Holland on the "Standing mast route" with the mast up ( obviously) or with one of the taller motor cruisers. Compliments to all the great folks in Middlesburg, Veere and Zierksee. Will be coming back from Calais in the next few days...watch out for my blip!!!

[lrg_machine]

Britain from Above

Is on BBC 1 Now

[Iain]

Enjoyed that!

Good, thought provoking, intelligent TV for once!

[Tentenths]

Great television!

As was the preceding programme - Jimmy Doherty (of Jimmy's Farm fame) with the wild bee hunters of Nepal. Being suspended from a rope ladder half way down a 200 foot cliff face while collecting honey from the hives of 2 million giant bees wouldn't be my idea of fun, but made for a fascinating insight into a very different way of life.

Two hours of cracking TV!

[Iconic Ride]

This is on this Sunday, looks fascinating to me!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7539529.stm

Bibs, was able to watch the "teaser" via your link, but the BBC main site says the "iPlayer TV" is available only in the UK. Any way to spoof it so a curious colonial can view the entire program?

p.s., the chicken flavored pellets are quite yummy, thanks.

[Katie]

Fantastic! Good to see them spending the licence money on something worthwhile for a change.

[snuffy]

I watched it - very weak TV I thought. It said nothing but the bloody obvious.

And as for that bloke that balances the national grid - what a load of cock. People dont sit about waiting for East Enders to finish and then click a mouse and bring a powerstation on line.

a) A powerstation can't come on line that quickly

B) the power demand is modelled to predict demand

c) Software would intervene to take control anyway

Why they tried to give the impression that anything other than software runs the grid is beyond me.

Edited August 12, 2008 by snuffy

[oneshot]

Apart from the stations running in hot standby mode - fired up and ready to go but just not producing any electricity - these are mainly the nuclear ones although the hydro electric can be run up very quickly.

We are talking a matter of seconds to start generating - they are running with the generators already running just not at full capacity.

There is generally about 1.5 GW of so called spinning reserve