Posts by Ross Mason

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  • Hard News: A GCSB Roundup,

    Thanks for paraphrasing Russell, I’m wondering if we should all chip in to get Scoop a decent audio setup.

    Bradley Ambrose could give them a transmitting microphone. Probably hasn't been used for a while.

    Oh wait......John Banks was at the Select Committee table wasn't he? Was Bradley around too?

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report

  • OnPoint: Government Portfolios for Dummies,

    It could have been worse. Twink the screen and take a picture.

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report

  • Capture: Upside Down, Inside Out,

    Reflection from the biggest puddle, near Lake Ellesmere.

    "Biggest mud-puddle" isn't it?

    Nice pic though. Surface effects hide a multitude of sin.

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report

  • OnPoint: Government Portfolios for Dummies,

    PDFs are scanned and not searchable, etc.

    YES!

    I have complained all the way to the Government IT Guru about this. They will not standardise an OCR package "because they would be stepping on commercial toes".

    Thus the reason Keith has undertaken this wee project no doubt!

    Knobjobbers.

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report

  • Hard News: Kitchen Hacks, in reply to Carol Stewart,

    My favourite kitchen tool is apparently known as a French oven.

    Only if it emits a pong is it a Dutch Oven.

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report

  • Hard News: Kitchen Hacks,

    So...our final Kitchen Hack is:

    Boil the water faster with the lid on and save money!

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report

  • Hard News: A Capital Great Blend (update), in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    “Things were better in the old days,”

    If it were Winnie turning up it would be:"“Things were bitter in the old days,”

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report

  • Hard News: Kitchen Hacks,

    Ben:
    I think you might be doing the wrong experiment. Once the pot is boiling - which I assume you meant when you said you boiled the pot for 10 minutes - the pot temperature, lid and anything the steam touches on the pot will be 100 deg and thus bugger all water condenses. This means that all excess steam generated won't stay in the pot. Thus your result of bugger all difference in what was boiled off.

    So if you just want to boil of the water and make something thicker, then it doesn't matter in your experiment. But if you want to gently reduce the stuff in the pot, then leave the lid off.

    I think you might like to consider how much power is required to just keep the pot at 100 deg. One with the lid on, two with the lid off.

    I'll punt for the lid on needing less power.

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report

  • Hard News: Kitchen Hacks, in reply to linger,

    ebullioscopy

    Stephen:

    but you are cooking for vegetarians

    Do they cook for you? A meat lover?

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report

  • Hard News: Kitchen Hacks,

    Sorry Ben, you are using the wrong tables and theory.

    While there is a puddle of water in a pressure cooker the pressure follows the saturated steam tables. Note the pressure at 100 degC is 101kPa. At 120deg C it is about 200kPa. Twice atmospheric pressure.

    When there is no water left the pressure follows the gas law pretty much. But it takes 600 degC to double the pressure of any gas from room temperature (300Kx2 = 600C near enough). So that's why the pressure cooker venting slows down after a while, it runs out of liquid water. The water vapour is then obeying the gas law P=nRT. It's then time to NOT burn what is inside the pot!

    The temp of the steam in a covered pot is pretty close to the boiling point. Very close! When it is boiling the air is driven out of the pot and it leaves only water vapour. It is then acting like a heat pipe. A pressure cooker is a really really good heatpipe! Their effect is to try and keep the inside walls of the containment vessel very close to the boiling temperature. Within the odd 0.001 degC. They also have a thermal conduction of the order of 1000 times copper.

    I build and use them for controlling the temperature of detectors and sciencey things.

    Now back to my mulled wine on a cold, windy and rainy night...... :-)

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report

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