Another Scottish First

[Мастер]

Read about an innovation which Scotland brought to the world.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29661446

[Lianachan]

Microbrachius dicki fossils are common - but nobody noticed the sexual organs until now

Not looking very closely, clearly.

[tubeswell]

maybe they're too difficult to see?

[Lianachan]

First it was adhesive postage stamps, anaesthetics, antisepsis, artificial diamonds, the reaping machine, the Bank of England, latent heat, Brownian motion, Buicks, chemical bonds, penicillin, the decimal point, documentary films, the Encyclopedia Britannica, engineering sciences, fax machines, the first cloned mammal, flailing machines, geosciences, golf, historical novels, hypodermic syringes, the Kelvin scale, percussion powder, logarithms, Maxwell's equations, marmalade, mackintosh raincoats, macadamised roads, electromagnetics, microwave ovens, colloid chemistry, the breech-loading rifle, tubular steel, quinine, Sociology, pneumatic tyres, radar, paleobiology, polarisation, a cure for scurvy, refrigerators, bakelite, iron bridges, solitons, telephones, thermos flasks, the telegraph, television, the stereotype, sulphuric acid, the steam-hammer, a cure for insomnia, paraffin, the US Navy, the Chilean Navy, Economics, the cloud chamber, and the electric clock - now shagging as well.

[Мастер]

Buicks

Scotland must be very proud of that one.

[Lianachan]

Buicks

Scotland must be very proud of that one.

OK, happy to drop that one. The guy was barely in Scotland after all, although born here. I'll substitute Maxwell's three colour process, which led to colour photography, instead.

[Arneb]

Pah! Where was Scotland when the important things, like Kardashians, Big Brother and Jerry Springer were invented. Logarithms! What did scientists ever do for us?

[Мастер]

Logarithms! What did scientists ever do for us?

I use them all the time, so it's a good thing for me that Scottish fellow stole the idea from Euler.

[Enzo]

RATS!!!

OK, so I wanted to make the obvious pun on log rhythms by putting up a scene from Airplane where newscasts all over the world were reporting the ongoing air tragedy. We saw some American TV reporting, then maybe from France, or Moscow, and one little snippet was a guy in the jungle, looking at the camera while beating on a log, and as a nice touch, half way through he turns to the other camera and the director took the shot.

But I couldn't find it.

[Heid the Ba]

Now we'll never know what happens in it.

[Heid the Ba]

Logarithms! What did scientists ever do for us?

I use them all the time, so it's a good thing for me that Scottish fellow stole the idea from Euler.

Napier predated Euler, though who invented what and when logarithms came into being is not an argument I am qualified to participate in. For what it is worth one of Edinburgh's less esteemed seats of tertiary education is named after Napier, and none after Euler.

[Мастер]

Napier predated Euler, though who invented what and when logarithms came into being is not an argument I am qualified to participate in. For what it is worth one of Edinburgh's less esteemed seats of tertiary education is named after Napier, and none after Euler.

Hmm, you are right. I've got my story wrong :(

There will be a "Napier" train station opening here in 2016. Not sure after whom that is named.

[Lianachan]

There will be a "Napier" train station opening here in 2016. Not sure after whom that is named.

Possibly William Napier, the first lawyer in Singapore? He has Napier Road named after him.

[Мастер]

OK, I did some checking. Apparently Napier invented base 0.9999999 ( ) logarithms. It wasn't until Euler that we had civilised logarithms.

[Мастер]

There will be a "Napier" train station opening here in 2016. Not sure after whom that is named.

Possibly William Napier, the first lawyer in Singapore? He has Napier Road named after him.

Quite possibly. I'm not finding too much information about it on-line, as I was mistaken here - it is not on the Downtown Line, which will open in 2016 (actually, part of it is already open, but not the part over there), but rather on the Thomson line, which will open in 2019-2021. This particular station will not open until 2021 according to the current schedule.

[Lianachan]

Looks like he was born in Edinburgh, so we'll have that railway station too, when it's finished*.

* Unless it's actually named after some other, non-Scottish, person of course.

[Мастер]

Looks like he was born in Edinburgh, so we'll have that railway station too, when it's finished*.

* Unless it's actually named after some other, non-Scottish, person of course.

You don't want to see how the train station turns out before you claim credit for it?

[Lianachan]

Nah, I'm sure it'll be fine.

This is the last railway station I was at:



It's changed a lot, though. I took this picture when I was there:



The first time I was there, in 2006 it was completely overgrown by forestry, having closed in 1933.

[Lianachan]

If Napier station can get sent across, it can probably get put to use somewhere on the pointless and expensive fucking train set down in Heid's neck of the woods.

[Heid the Ba]

From Haymarket the trams are quicker since they are off the roads and don't dick about with traffic. It was a remarkably large sum of money for one line though.

Which derelict station is that?

[Heid the Ba]

This is the last and next station for me.

[Мастер]

I took a bus past this one the other day.



The platforms and roofs are still there; the tracks are long gone. This was the railroad to Malaysia, which used to run from the south end of Singapore, all the way across the country, into Malaysia. Rather bizarrely, one cleared Malaysian immigration at the station, road the train for a while, and then went through Singapore exit controls just before the bridge.

But now there's a new station, just across the river from Malaysia.

This was the last station I was in.



The picture is a few years old though; note that in the one direction, the signs are pointing towards Marymount. This line opened in 2009, with Marymount being one of the termini. However, the line was extended in 2011, and the new terminus is Harbourfront.

[Мастер]

And since we've moved from Scotland to trains, what's up with this station? It's supposed to open in the 4th quarter of this year, but we don't have a date yet.

[Lianachan]

Very cool! I love abandoned railway stations. Heid - the one in my post is Invergarry Station, on the long dismantled Spean Bridge - Fort Augustus line. I'm involved with a project to restore Invergarry Station, have walked the entire 26 mile length of the track-bed (which exists in good condition in places) and have carried out loads of research into its construction and history.

[Heid the Ba]

I'm presently at Dunfermline Station using their wifi. I know the other end of that line better, I have spent some time round Spean Bridge.