Gotthard Base Tunnel

The Swiss have a history of timekeeping and with their trains its no different. So when everything everything was getting delayed they build a tunnel through the mountains. The Gotthard Base Tunnel is an incredible feat of engineering will allow trains to speed through the mountain unaffected by rain, wind, snow or ice.

As of December, the trains will traveling zoom through the world’s longest railway tunnel at up to 200 kilometres per hour. The 57-kilometre journey will take around 17 minutes.

The Swiss have created a special website for the tunnel http://www.gottardo2016.ch

and produced a promo video which can be viewed at  https://vimeo.com/128889839

Got to have a bit of fun in life

All I ask is the chance to prove that money can't make me happy.

Spike Milligan

 

Every since I was a child I've loved comics, but over the years its not been going to the comic store and buying comics or anthologies. I've been mainly looking at comics on the web. But as with music the access to the tools to make something doesn't mean its good and it harder and harder to cut through the chaff to find the wheat.

Some great examples of web comics are out there and made a name for themselves Nick Seluk series http://theawkwardyeti.com/, Girl and Monkey and of course The Oatmeal  by Matthew Inman. But its always been a struggle to find new comics and remember where you found them, and as every supporting these creative people who spend so much of their time making wonderful work. I've bought books and plushies when they come out of the characters in the past.

So I was happy when I found Taptasic which connects readers with artists to showcase the best webcomics.

Discover new comics and artists, or publish your work and reach a larger audience. They have an app for Android and Apple Ios. This app lets you bookmark and subscribe to comics and also pings you when there is a new comic. But one of best aspects of the app is you can donate and help these web artist keep making content. So if you like comics check it out

Accidentally stealing someone's identity

As you probably know I'm Kevin King and I've using the email address Revkev@major ISP for a long time now. But over the years it seems I've been accidental steal other peoples identities and I can't do anything about it.

This is starting to become a major problem as the volume of email traffic which is mis-send is growing. So it seems my email address very close to other peoples maybe with the additional number or letter. So people have been missing out these additions and  I have been accidentally getting sent other people email. You might at first think "whats the hassle?" just delete it and move on with your life.

Well there lies the rub, Everyday I get at least one email but because these are address to Rev Kev some of the details are very personal maybe asking for relationship advice, electricity company usernames or password, confirming a private or personal chat or even asking for help in time of grief for a relative. So I've always had to be polite or point out they emailed some very private information to the wrong person  and for them to check the email address and resent the message. But even when I do that they still keep on coming at regularity that I know its not going to stop. I did at one point think about setting up a blog called "This is not the Rev Kev you are looking for".

Which is when I read an article in the guardian the other day  http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/15/help-im-accidentally-stealing-peoples-identities-and-i-dont-know-how-to-stop 
It really struck home that I've been doing the exact same thing all these years. I thought it was just me but no they are others out there to who are  accidentally stealing someone's identity without being about to do anything about it.

Dahab Video

Sometimes a picture tells the story of a thousand words! If I ever have to tell people why I love Dahab, Egypt. I can just show them this video.https://vimeo.com/48561076 
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

UK Election Playlist

So today is election day in the United Kingdom so I've created to playlist to get you through all those boring political debates while trying to stay awake to hear the results.
The playlist is on Spotify General Election 2015 playlist 
The playlist is collaborative so you can add any songs you think I missed.

TECHNICALLYINSPIRED - An Apeks Film

I've used Apeks Tek3's first stages, Apeks DST for my deco stages along with XTX regulators throughtout my diving career. Nice to see Apeks have made a video showing off some of their kit and great UK diving.

A year in the making and filmed in the depths of winter on a Scottish island, #TECHNICALLYINSPIRED is a short Apeks film exploring technical diving through the eyes of Apeks Tek Team Diver, Adam Wood.


#TECHNICALLYINSPIRED - An Apeks Film from Apeks Diving on Vimeo.

M061-1312-340 Underwater Waterproof Housing Case For Canon Powershot S110 O-Rings

A few years ago I obtained an underwater waterproof housing case for my Canon Powershot S110 this wasn't the WP-DC47. This was an Unbranded housing the housing from Citiwide-Online and is labelled M061-1312-340 on the front. It came with 2 x silcone O rings which was great but given the amount my girlfriend and myself dive the O ring soon became loose after about 6 months so we used the spare and I set about trying to acquire some more.

This was when they problems started I contacted citiwide and they could not provide me and spares to buy and when i tried some branded O rings they were loose and didn't make a good seal the most important thing with an underwater camera. So I was at a loss on what to do, I searched the web and tried to find anyone who had O rings that would fit  but all I found were people who had the same issue is me and I just hit a lot of dead end in my search,  so it looked like I has two choices:

1) Throw the housing away and buy a branded housing (Expensive and wasteful)
2) Find somewhere that could supply me some O rings which fitted the camera. which was tricky and time consuming as I didn't know the size and all I had was the loose yellow O ring.

Well I decided to do number 2 and went after a bit of google-fu to http://www.polymax.co.uk to source the silicone and nitrate O rings trying to see if I could get the correct diameter,  length and material,

As you can see I went through quite a few different materials lengths and sizes but after many weeks till I found the correct size. It was very much a trial and error process.

Which does mean I have a massive amount of spare silicone
I can use for technical diving for my harness.










So as I said above I found an O ring which works in the camera and seals well for the M061-1312-340 underwater camera housing. The O ring is a British Standard O-ring, 110.72mm Long with Cross Section Diameter of 3.53mm its labelled as BS245SR70.

You can find them on the link here on the Polymax site.

O-rings BS201 to BS284 in Silicone

British Standard O-rings, Cross Section 3.53mm

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This is a document to prove that I exist!

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

 

This is the first test post for the new blog. Trying out new layout and format!