gftChris

How long do you think it would take to do Yosemite? I get you could spend forever (and trust me, I'd love that but no time) but is a day enough, a week, a month?

Well, Croydon's almost London I suppose By american standards the rest are definitely not. If you're around, give me a shout and I'll buy you some cold fizzy tasteless piss, or a real beer.

I hope you're planning to grow a suitable moustache in that time.

For sure. London's not cheap though!

Potentially. At the moment, London to Detroit is around £450. Haven't checked Toronto.

Thanks gip. I had toyed with the idea of a lake erie tour, I think if I go from one end to the other (detroit to niagara), and have to drive back again, I might as well go the other way around.

Nice. What kind of things do you normally look for? We went to an event at the royal observatory in Greenwich (as in Greenwich mean time) where they had a few scopes set up, and binoculars to hand out to everyone, plus looking through the great equatorial telescope - that thing is massive! 28-inch refractor, the scope is 28 feet long. Not as powerful as modern telescopes of course, but still pretty impressive engineering for 150 years ago. http://www.rmg.co.uk/see-do/we-recommend/attractions/great-equatorial-telescope

Cuyahoga valley looks very nice.

Were I on my own I'd take you up on it for sure, but I'll be bringing a couple of friends at least. What telescope do you have? I'm relatively new to the field and just recently got my first proper pair of binoculars (and mount). Didn't want to go full on scope for hundreds of pounds if I wasn't sure I'd use it a lot. In London we have 'issues' with light pollution... The last 4 years or so a few friends and I have been visiting different theme parks, once per year. Started with the two biggest in the UK, then the two biggest non-disney ones in Europe (Port Aventura, Europa Park), but now we're short of ideas. It's either step down in size/quality and stay in Europe, or just fuck it and go big. My GF has always wanted to go to Cedar Point, so that ties in nicely with Cleveland football.

And maybe a visit to put in bay to see our resident musician in concert

People - I have tentative plans to visit Cedar Point for a few days later in the year (may get pushed to 2017). Obviously, swinging by for a Browns game is a must, but is there anything else in the area? I suspect we would end up flying in to detroit as it's direct for us, picking up a car and going from there, in a round trip. I suspect Niagara is on the list as well, and maybe Toronto. Anything I might not know about worth taking a look at? Nature and astronomy would be a big plus as well.

Yep, that's the one.

Yeah it's not a great picture, as I say. IRL, the orange spreads out across most of the sky, particularly when the clouds are sparse, you get reflection from the river (as well as the building on the right). Not saying it's the best, but it's a decent standard every day.

You don't get the full effect since it's a shitty phone camera, but with a decent camera you'd get some pretty stunning views.

Mostly. But because of all the cloud, we do get some gorgeous colours. Here's one I took the other day (from my phone, just for impressions):

That's pretty. Looks like the contrasts have been played with - no way the water is that blue with the sun that low. But still, pretty. As I said, that as just last week. It's a bit unfair as I get to watch the sunset across London every day now for a couple of months from my desk on the 40th floor in canary wharf.

Meh? Just last week I watched the sunset from Bali over the eastern volcanoes of Java. It looked something like this:

I'm sure we're not the first people to ask these questions.

How is the top not the same as the road surface? I think the top layer has been tested thoroughly enough that as a proof of concept, it works fine. Sure, it's been tested in warm weather, so the snow melting capacity hasn't been exposed to Alaskan conditions, and that's something they'll need to do. As for the cracks/potholes, I think it's a lot less likely than in a tarmac/concrete road. Whereas that is one rigid inflexible slab, this would be a series of individual components that are themselves relatively flexible and the connections probably make the whole thing a lot more flexible. Potentially a factor when thinking about paving in earthquake prone areas I guess.

Honestly, I was expecting a lot more push back on this, on the 'where will the money come from?! Typical left-wing nonsense to get us to get more money from us' - glad I was wrong

They've been tested to industrial standards, and aren't just made of the same solar panel material you have on the roof.

So we'd better get started now, rather than delay? Yes, the funding issue is a real one, and not a simple one to solve. But there's money available to repair roads, to repair the energy infrastructure and all the rest. It might mean that we scrimp on some other area for the next 10 years to get this installed (maybe less military for a start), but the rewards if and when it's installed are massive.

Absolutely. I posted this in another thread somewhere, but these are amazing. So, if they get installed on every tarmac surface in america, you produce about 3 times the national requirements of energy? Then why the fuck are we waiting? Money has to come from somewhere, I suppose. But these things will essentially pay for themselves. Who stands to lose from that? Oh, right, oil companies. Good job they don't have any influence anywhere in policy making... Pub for lunch, feeling cynical!

Atmospheric conditions as well - you can get some truly spectacular sunsets if the conditions are right like:

Ok, we don't really have those! They're quite american. Nearest I can think of is probably the horse or angel of the north: