Random Musings

[tryg]

When you sneeze, particles of snot can exit your nose at up to 50mph. That’s the official and scientific belief, anyway. Sadly, because this is a good pub fact, the true velocity of nasal egress has been exaggerated over time, and now people will happily tell you that a bogey can reach mach 3.4

Some years ago, somebody, somewhere pointed out that it was essential to drink water every day. He or she was probably a doctor or dietician, an authority of some sort, and was undoubtedly right.

Whoever it was also suggested a quantity for daily consumption, and I suspect it was something like ‘two glasses’ or ‘half a litre’. I can’t remember drinking more than that throughout my whole childhood, and I’m still alive and not drying up around the edges.

Sadly, though, this bit of wisdom made it to the pub somewhere and thus turned into folklore, with the result that it’s been embellished. In the retelling, by the sort of people who love to say, ‘Your mouth is actually the dirtiest part of your body’, the recommended daily intake has grown, until you’d now be forgiven for thinking that you’ll die unless you drink a gallon of water every hour.

The cult of water drives me up the wall. On TV shoots, people now come up to me after I’ve completed maybe three minutes of talking to a camera, and say, ‘Do you need a water?’ I’ve never needed a water. TE Lawrence went across the Sinai peninsula on half a canteen of the stuff, so why would I need some after talking briefly? On a train last week, the man in the buffet car announced over the tannoy that he was selling tea, coffee, a range of sandwiches and ‘a selection of waters’. There has never been a selection of waters, only water. And no one actually needs any at all.

Which doesn’t really bring me to carbon fibre, but sort of does in a way, because it, too, is being foisted upon us when we don’t really need it.
Yes, yes, yes, yes I know, I know, I know: it makes sense for racing-car tubs, aeroplane wings, the shafts of golf clubs and fishing rods. But I’m talking here about carbon fibre as an adornment, which you will find in your car and other inappropriate places. I’m driven to this by the discovery that the carbon-fibre roof of the new BMW M3 is standard and not painted, so everyone can see it.

Why?

What we tend to refer to as carbon fibre is usually, in fact, carbon fibre reinforced plastic, or CFRP (or CRP,if you regard carbon fibre as one word, which I don’t). On the face of it, it’s a great material. It weighs roughly 1,800kg per cubic metre, which compares well with mildsteels at around 7,800kg per cubic metre. Aluminium alloys weigh inat somewhere in the 2,600kg region. So carbon fibre really is very light.

However, no one is driving around with a cubic metre of steel in the car and lamenting its devastating impact on handling. Obviously, a carbon-fibre roof will lower the centre of gravity a bit, but so will having a haircut or removing the loose change from your pocket. It doesn’t matter but does make you look a bit of a berk.

If you make the whole bodyshell out of the stuff – Enzo, for example – then it makes a significant difference. The downside, though, is that it’s difficult to paint. Worse, once you’ve had a few, you might inadvertently tell people that your car is made of carbon fibre, and then they’ll think you’re a big chump.

Because the true worth of carbon fibre has been debased by its use as a sort of phoney high-tech jewellery. It has become a fashionable trim material, and fashion is bollocks. Carbon-fibre dashboard, carbon-fibre pedals, carbon-fibre instrument faces – none of this is a legitimate engineering application of the stuff, it’s just drawing attention to yourself. You can buy stick-on carbon-fibre sheets for motorcycle frames. I don’t care how light it is, this must surely be adding unnecessary weight.

There are carbon-fibre pens, carbon-fibre carving-knife handles, carbon-fibre mobile phones, carbon-fibre briefcases. None of this stuff was ever deemed too heavy, was it? What am I to make of a man with a carbon-fibre briefcase? That he’s deeply in touch with the technological zeitgeist? Or that he’s suffering from consumption and can’t lift a leather one?
I’m reminded of the early Eighties’ elevation of the word ‘turbo’ to denote excellence in everything. The Saab Turbo was a cool car, therefore turbos were; and it was a short step from that to turbo vacuum cleaners, turbo sunglasses and turbo disposable razors. It’s all nonsense.

Drink beer. Drive a metal car. Don’t be a ponce.

[aspir3]

Wow I found that hard to read, don't know how you wrote it.

I agree with the water.
I had a migraine and went to my local doctors surgery, but had to see another doctor then normal.
She said I did not drink enough water.
I said wow that is amazing you can diagnose my migraine down to not enough water. How much should I drink a day, I asked?
How much do You drink now, she replied?
6-7 litres a day I replied.

Quite shocked she said ah, that should be enough.

Stupid Doctor!!!

[StrkEagle]

I sit on the fence re: daily water intake. I work in a heavily air conditioned office... for months I was ending up with massive head aches, then I started downing about 2L of water each day and the headaches did stop, so the jury is still out on that one.

as for 6-7L, that would be rough going !

Pete

[LZY_EYE]

I have a jug of water on my desk at work. The aircond tends to dehydrate you.

I drink water and have CF on my car some fake.... seems I am still a ponce... ah well I don't care I like my car as it is....

[aspir3]

I sit on the fence re: daily water intake. I work in a heavily air conditioned office... for months I was ending up with massive head aches, then I started downing about 2L of water each day and the headaches did stop, so the jury is still out on that one.

as for 6-7L, that would be rough going !

Pete

I drank almost 20 Litres one day of distilled water..

[Blakey]

i dont drink straight water so to speak. only time i do is when I'm out in heat, never had a problem, can go full days with out drinking actual water. albeit i drink stuff that contains water but it not straight water.

and some people like to have Carbon fiber as a fashion thing, it looks nice, I'm sure if you asked almost everyone that has it or likes it, they dont give a Sh** about what it weights, just that it looks good. only people that would use CF in a weight saving way is track car engineers, I'm pretty sure everyone else, doesn't give a donkeys ass what it weights

[tryg]

Blakey, build a bridge and get over it.. this was not my musings, it was RANDOM...

the idea was to read it and have a laugh...

but, whoever wrote it must be a lot like me... a practical person...