Seano

Perfectly usable to charge your phone in any of the cafes, shops or hotels where they've thoughtfully put a little plastic "safety" device in the socket you can just whip out and shove back in upside-down. :)

Long gone I'm afraid - but this is what some of their old team are doing these days: http://nononsensegroup.com/

Apparently so, because there are lots of situations in lots of jobs where somebody suddenly and unexpectedly losing consciousness would result in deaths and injuries and there's no effective control measure against that. That's why there are health requirements to hold a driving licence, which are somewhat stricter for bus and truck drivers. Epilepsy, diabetes, heart disease and so on can all disqualify you from driving. If you find it upsetting that a trapeze artist who faints might not survive and the only control measure in place is that they're healthy enough that they probably won't - how do you feel about bus drivers? ps: With feigned apologies for pedantry (see what I did there), please note the spelling: faint/feint

Well I don't care what everyone else is saying I'm with you. Stunts shouldn't be allowed if they look dangerous, and circus performers should definitely be banned from doing anything that couldn't be done by an overweight 50 year-old electrician.

On a slightly less larcenous level, in some venues they have an irritating habit of wandering away from the stage and propping doors open all over the place.

I just had a go (using version 2.8) - no apparently not, it seems to work fine. GIMP is free and open source, available for download here: https://www.gimp.org/

A pair of gravlocks and a short piece of scaff, then hang your projector exactly as you would from a truss or a lighting bar.

PRG have done it too, based on a Bad Boy or Best Boy fixture. Their controller mimics a traditional followspot more closely than the Robe (including the unfortunate 'legacy' feature that it's a profoundly right-handed device that makes no concessions to lefties). Traditional short-throw truss spots are already almost obsolete, I can't remember the last time I saw a truss chair* on an arena tour. Just as well probably. Apparently truck drivers can't climb ladders any more and we've been through a bit of a transitional period of spot-ops being winched up to trusses on Limpets which was frankly just embarrassing. Edit to add: * - Pah. Bloody luxury. When I were a lad you were lucky to get a bit of foam and some gaffa tape to soften the plank of wood ratchet strapped across the top of the truss. </four yorkshiremen>

For rigging purposes? You want a vertical dot, not a horizontal line? The Topcon PLS3 has been the 'industry standard' for a good few years. Sadly, since their buy-out by Fluke the design has recently changed and the new one is rather bulky. If you think you'll be needing a 'proper' one any time soon, I would try to snap up one of the 'original' PLS3's while they are still (just about) available - they're no longer being made so when existing stocks run out that's it, they're gone! (UK Rigging still have a few red ones in stock.) If you're just wanting a relatively cheap one that'll do: Stanley SPL3 I bought one online last week for £80 inc VAT to have a play with. Can't comment on durability as I haven't really given it any use/abuse yet but otherwise it seems rather good. Not as good as a PLS3, but seems to be great value for half the price.

Several things immediately spring to my mind.. PPE needs to be issued, maintained and inspected. Using it correctly requires training and competent supervision. Anchor points should be fit for purpose, which is not trivial if they're to meet the required standard for fall-arrest and a rescue plan (and appropriate kit) may be needed. (Which in turn requires more training.) If the harness is to be used as 'work restraint' does it allow sufficient freedom of movement to do the job efficiently, or does it introduce new problems as far as manual handling is concerned (or exacerbate current ones)? The use of PPE sits at the bottom of the so-called "hierarchy of controls" and in most cases it really should be pretty much the last resort when it comes to controlling the risk of falls from height. Top of the list for addressing an "unprotected edge with a significant drop" would be to take it away, perhaps through the use of guard rails, cages, kick boards etc. If there really is a risk of falling from the loading gallery, PPE is not the answer until other solutions have been carefully explored and ruled out as genuinely impractical.

And let's not forget how this, in one of the worst aspects of our industry for many of the more poorly paid, has spread to many other industries as unscrupulous employers rush to take advantage of "freelance" staff, successive governments smile on the practice and the tax-dodging billionaire press barons have convinced so many working people that unions are their enemies. Jobs that need doing day in day out, jobs that clearly ought to be providing someone with proper, regular employment are on a 'zero hours' basis. No holiday pay, no sick pay, no overtime, no security, no structure. They even call it "the gig economy".

Aw, diddums.

Draftsight 2019 beta is free to use indefinitely on macOS or Linux too.

They're not hiring a cleaner or a company manager, it's casting. Of course it's legal.

Well that about covers it. What a refreshingly excellent article.

He described Victoria Beckham as the strongest member of the group. Posh! Should have rung at least a little irony bell. (I mean, I'm sure there are some big Ringo fans out there, but if someone told you 'Octopus's Garden' is the best thing in the Beatles' catalogue you would have to at least suspect they're taking the piss.) Ok, the bar isn't super high, but fwiw I thought Mel C was really rather good as Mary Magdelene in the big ol' arena touring version of Jesus Christ Superstar a few years back. Not having followed her career I was a wee bit surprised - can sing, can act, as it turns out. Nah. The complaints were all from the periphery of the venue - the stage layout is irrelevant really, it's delays that failed to deliver. See the post above your last for a likely explanation, but then there's also the possibility of some technical failure of a system that seemed fine at soundcheck. I don't think any show, of any size large or small, would usually be stopped because the outer delays have conked out. Carry on and deal with the complaints from the 'cheap seats' later.

Just to add to the above - if there's a gel frame, you want to avoid that dropping out too.

Something along those lines was the first idea that came into my head. But a bit simpler still. Two square or rectangular plates, each with two 6mm holes and perhaps a slight groove between the holes. Sandwich the wire between the plates, one 6mm bolt each side of the wire goes directly through both plates and into the extrusion in the back of the unit. I imagine it would need to be a custom fab, but v simple so shouldn't be expensive in anything other than tiny quantities. You'd need to do a bit of due diligence, some testing possibly, perhaps consult an engineer. All a bit of a faff possibly, but I doubt you'd find a neater solution off the shelf. "Zip-clip strut-lock" might be a search term worth bunging into google. Not totally unlike a much smaller, much cheaper Reutlinger. I think it's only for 2mm wire though.

A three-phase inverter powered by a chunky drill battery or two, light and portable enough to be comfortably carried with a shoulder strap like a handbag, that outputs enough power to run a hoist. Doesn't need enough power to lift a load, as long as it'll do to run the chain through and float the hoist itself.

If the winches remain synchronised. Will your floaty light structure withstand hanging on 3 or 2 (or 1?) of it's hanging points if they don't? (Otherwise a DMX glitch could mean self-destruct.) Don't know, but think PRG might have something along those lines.

Apparently these counterfeits are unusually convincing, but the problem of counterfeiting in general isn't new. So this is good advice for all PPE all the time, not just Petzl. By the by, regarding the DMM thing: DMM make excellent gear, and some of their karabiners are *miles* better than the Petzl equivalents imo.