may i suggest - in a high inflation scenario - to NOT pay the ferryman in advance, but DO fix the price
There just has to be a story where the ferry crosses the river and then the passenger challenges Charon to a game of poker in an attempt to get out of paying.
Explains Bertie Wooster’s membership in the Drones Club. Although Bertie usually avoids nuptial flight like the plague.
Admittedly, those rails are heavy. About 1,500 pounds each.
Even heavier if, as is common, they leave the factory as ¼-mile lengths. You can find videos online of the special trains carrying these going around curves and the long rail sections carried over multiple cars bending to follow the curve - like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4kC262exiw.
The ghoti = fish is bogus
“Gh” is never pronounced “f” when it’s at the beginning of a word.
“O” is only pronounced “I” in one word.
“Ti” is only pronounced “sh” if it’s followed by “-on.”
Just the fact that those are valid pronunciations ever is the point. I’ve got a first grader learning to read and write. I find a new example of how stupid the English language is every day.
This may have been applicable for old-school jointed track, but most railroads these days use continuously welded rail:
If not restrained, rails would lengthen in hot weather and shrink in cold weather. To provide this restraint, the rail is prevented from moving in relation to the sleeper by use of clips or anchors. Attention needs to be paid to compacting the ballast effectively, including under, between, and at the ends of the sleepers, to prevent the sleepers from moving. Anchors are more common for wooden sleepers, whereas most concrete or steel sleepers are fastened to the rail by special clips that resist longitudinal movement of the rail. There is no theoretical limit to how long a welded rail can be. However, if longitudinal and lateral restraint are insufficient, the track could become distorted in hot weather and cause a derailment.
.
.
.
After new segments of rail are laid, or defective rails replaced (welded-in), the rails can be artificially stressed if the temperature of the rail during laying is cooler than what is desired. The stressing process involves either heating the rails, causing them to expand,[35] or stretching the rails with hydraulic equipment. They are then fastened (clipped) to the sleepers in their expanded form. This process ensures that the rail will not expand much further in subsequent hot weather. In cold weather the rails try to contract, but because they are firmly fastened, cannot do so. In effect, stressed rails are a bit like a piece of stretched elastic firmly fastened down. In extremely cold weather, rails are heated to prevent “pull aparts”.
something i learned yesterday
Thank you.
Yes, but if you want to prove that, you need to some up with actual examples, not cherry pick things. It’s like saying all Americans are mass murderers and pointing to Jeffrey Dahmer as an example.
English can be difficult mostly because the spellings were developed by people who spoke French and before the sounds changed. The classic is the
-ough. It was pronounced the way it is spelled (the “gh” represents the – a guttural lick the German “ach”) when it entered the language. English lost the and the words with “-ough,” which pretty much rhymed at first, started changing.
I’m sure your kids don’t pronounce “ghost” as “fist.” The “ghoti” example would indicate they do.
I did not know this fact. Ignorance fought, once again.
And that is a very cool video! Thanks for sharing.
Still, it’s presumably about the same amount of weight per tie.
When they’re laying new track, how do they shape the rails for curves? I get that there must be a special machine for that, but it still seems like it must be a very awkward process at times, for example when traversing hills.
In the past decade or two they’ve done a lot of track work between L.A. and San Diego, and I can tell the ride is much smoother now with the longer rails than ir used to be.
Watching QI the other night (don’t know how the US schedules for the show work, you may have seen the episode in question already) - the subject of snowboarding crows came up. Yeah, it was mentioned, briefly discussed, but there was no actual evidence provided - so do crows snowboard?
Well, I’m here to provide you with the evidence:
j
Does anyone show QI in the US? I’ve been curious about it, but thought it was strictly a UK show.
Posters who I have assumed (maybe known) to be US based have discussed it, so I assumed that it was shown over there.
j
I just looked it up. Not only is it on Roku, but apparently it’s on Brit Box, which my wife watches. I’ll have to check it out.
In addition to the listings you found, they have a QI channel on YouTube.
Hubs and I always enjoy that video, thanks for the reminder to watch it again 
This probably won’t surprise any of the parents here, and even I as a nonparent am aware of how observant babies can be. But I was amazed to learn just now that, in a home where someone uses a sign language, a baby will babble with its hands. Both deaf and hearing infants do this.