Rat's blog

The Reverend Rat has been acting as a hyper-local "citizen journalist" photographer again.

Here are a couple of images of today's as yet unconfirmed (gas ?) explosion in Macbeth Street in Hammersmith.

Apparently there are bricks and other debris which were blown out at the back of this block of flats - numbers 172 -179, next door to the Hope & Anchor public house (a "gay pub").

The explosion blew out several windows at the front and even damaged some windows and brought down ceiling plaster etc. in the school building across the road.

Amazingly, nobody appears to have been hurt.

Macbeth Street (gas ?) explosion - flats 172 - 179

School windows damaged across the street

(click the images above for a larger versions in a new window)

N.B. for those of you looking for another possible explanation, not connected with a seemingly likely, but so gfar as yet unconfirmed gas leak, this part of Macbeth Street was used , in the past (1998) as an filming location for Dr. Who - Remembrance of the Daleks when the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and his companion Ace (Sophie Aldred) see the Dr Who Locations Guide - Macbeth Street

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The Reverend Rat is getting ready to resume blogging about London street life and technology etc.

Has he discovered a secret plan by Maplin the high street electronics store, to move into the Restaurant business ?

(click the image above for a larger version in a new window)

All of these items, such as

• Corned Beef
• Milk Shake
• Tuna Melt
• Grilled Cheese
• Hash Brown
• Fish n Chips
• Surf n Turf
• French Toast
• Bacon n Eggs
• Lunch Box

are genuinely available from the Maplin's product catalog and high street stores.!

They are mostly electric guitar accessories.

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Hello to all of you and thanks for dropping in.
I have been quite busy lately but due to persistent nagging about when am I going to post again? here it is :-)

"Banksy" on Hammersmith flyover

How not to liven up a Bar-B-Q

McDonald's unregistered software

September London 2600 meeting

Nigella Lawson celebrity TV chef filming at the fish stall

Trashing Karma

Cloud photo

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Hi to all of you,

I was tipped off (thanks Mark) that William Gibson, author of "Neuromancer", "Count Zero", "Mona Lisa Overdrive", "The Difference Engine" (with Bruce Stirling), "Virtual Light", "Idoru", "All Tomorrow's Parties", and "Pattern Recognition", was going to be signing copies of his latest book "Spook Country".

A couple of years ago armed with my trusty security bit screwdriver I managed to obtain a London transport CCTV poster.

It turns out that William Gibson had put on his blog that he was after the very same poster. So...I went to the book signing with my poster and traded it for a hardback copy of his book which he then wrote a dedication in it to me :-)

The dedication says:

To Reverend Rat with extreme gratitude for his generosity and security tool!

W M. Gibson
29 Aug '07
London

That's it for now, thanks for dropping in, speak to you all soon.
Yours
The Reverend Rat +:-)

More pictures from the Forbidden Planet book signing event on Wednesday 29th August 2007:

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And finally for those of you that remember the blog a couple of years ago "Bimbo kiss and tell woman" here's the other photo ;-) It seems that the previous photo is one of my most often downloaded pictures.

Thats it for now
thanks for reading.
Yours
The Reverend Rat +:-)

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We got a bit flooded in Hammersmith with all the rain, I am going to let the photos show the story.

- note the car with the lights still on under water

This is the headline in all the local Gazettes.newspapers: Ealing & Acton Gazette, Fulham Gazette, Greenford & Northolt Gazette, Southall Gazette, Hammersmith & Shepherds Bush Gazette.

FIRESTARTER Arsonist's high street rampage.

I was on my way to the Doctors when, I noticed that the door of Barclays Bank was cracked with smoke damage to the night deposit box. And then I saw Lloyds and Halifax had been attacked with the front of Lloyds burnt out and that was before I noticed a dark stain on the two ramps into the Police station all cordoned off, I could see that the tarmac had dissolved a little and the area ponged of petrol.

I took a few photos and rang a contact I have at the Gazette, no-one there knew anything about it and sent their Head Photographer to see my photos.

(Hammersmith Police Station)

(Barclays Bank)

The guy said he expected to see crap pictures i.e. mobile phone or shaky out of focus ect, pictures that don't meet the standard for printing. Mine he said were the best he had seen and used one on the front page :-)
also he said that my flood pictures would have been used if I had contacted them.
If I get four more published I can get my N.U.J. card.

- click for a larger image of this photo of Lloyds bank which was published on the front page of the Gazette

The 40 year old male Arsonist got nicked trying to light the petrol at the Police Station and was done under the Mental Health Act.

Thats it for now
thanks for reading.
Yours
The Reverend Rat +:-)

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Hello again.

Smoke alarms ...most of you have come across the alarm that goes off at the slightest thing, ie you can't even boil a damned kettle with out it going off, just like the alarm I have....so...

I made a Remote fire alarm switch.
I pulled open the alarm and saw that the silence button was a blob of metal and a springy metal strip, the two touch and the alarm goes quiet for ten minutes, I turned over the circuit board and soldered a piece of bell wire to the two points and connected the other ends to a doorbell push switch, this was mounted in the kitchen near the cooker.

I put the alarm back together and back to where it lives in the hall.
I tested it out making a fried egg sarnie and it works :-)
Next thing I want to do is try making it work with a remote control device.

Recycling gone mad...

Thats it for now
thanks for reading.
Yours
The Reverend Rat +:-)

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Hello to all of you,
It's been a long time, but I now have lots of time :-)

A lot has gone past since I last blogged...Water mains exploding in Hammersmith and flooding the High street, Heh, it even made the telly and the big newspapers.

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The Reverend Rat is promising to update his blog soon...

In the meantime his new email address is:

thereverendrat @ hushmail.com

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How To Work Out Wavelengths
---------------------------

Speed of light % by Frequency = Wavelength in Metres

Ie,
0.3 % 2.4gHz = 0.125 metres (12.5cm) % by 4 to get 1/4 wave....0.03125 metres or 31.25mm

Or for 1.2gHz,
0.3 % 1.2 = 0.250 (25cm) % 4 = 0.0625 or 62.5mm

0.3 was used as that is the speed of light in air.
Also try to use the full frequency Ie, 2.43 instead of 2.4 it makes a small difference to look at at quarter wave but it would be more noticable at full wave,

0.3 % 2.43 = 0.123 or 12.3cm....2mm difference

HTH.
The Reverend Rat +:-)

Ps,
% = divide by, and yes,
For the purists if you are running a length of cable you need to add a few more equations, but Heh, lets show people how to walk first :-)

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