Dak

You could always have nukes, generating electricity, which goes through wires to local hydrolysis plants, where the electricity (created remotely by the nukes) is used to liberate hydrogen from water. these could be at, say, petrol stations. as a bonus, that would also make the switch to solar easyer if and when more effective solar panels are created (local small companies with huge electric bills will be more inclined, and more able to afford, buying solar panels to lessen their reliance on the expensive nukes). not only would this be 'greener', but i'd wager (in the uk at least) it'd be cheaper than petrol I think i heard something about the UK planning to massively nuclearise, and build loads of plants with the new safety improvements. i'll try and find something on it later (remind me if i forget)

me either. ---------- hmm... i thought kebabs/kebops were of greek origin. were i to base my reasoning on things like this, i would now have a slightly lower oppinion of muslims.

hmm... my avitar accurately represents the fact that i like dragons, and the colour blue. also, that i'm too lazy to crawl the web to find a descent picture of a blue dragon. hope that was vauguely in the direction of what you were after?

i dont really get what you mean by 'choosing' a design... contrived over-simplification alert! basically, any of the random altereations to a species' design that increase that individuals ability to pass on it's genes (including: increased ability to survive to mating age -- increased fertility -- increased sexyness -- increased ability to look after it's young etc), will, obviously, increase that individuals ability to pass on it's genes. therefore, advantageous mutations should spread throughout a population, till eventually all of the population have that advantageous trait, whilst bad ones should have trouble being passed on. so... say the environment gets hotter. any individual that randomly has mutations that increase the effectivenes of it's heat loss (eg, increased ability to sweat, less hair etc) will be more effective in general and thus more likely to survive to mating age, and so more likely to pass on it's genes (including those that confur above advantages). any of it's offspring that inherit said genes will also have this increased ability to pass on their genes, thus continuing the above-average passing on of the genes for as long as it stays hot.

the operational safety issues can be ameliorated significantly by following adequate safety protocols (chernobyl only happened once), the question of 'rougue states' is somewhat irrelevent, because 1/ i doubt that they're any more happy about us having nukes than we are of them having nukes, and 2/ i doubt that third world countries will be amongst the first to develop hydrogen power (itll be the well developed countries, which allready have nukes, that adopt it first), and the disposal issues, whilst problematic, are a lot less environmentally damaging overall than coal-burning plants. so... i still think that switching petrol-burning cars for more nuclear plants that split hydrogen from water to fuel either hydrogen-cell or hydrogen-internal-combustion-engine fueld cars would be more environmentally friendly. plus, if a new, greener, power source is developed, it'll be easyer and quicker to replace the nuke plants rather than all the cars... H2 power, by putting the actual power generation all in one place, makes it easy to manage.

whats wrong with using nuclear plants?

lvl 9 is up now (10 is the 'youve reached the end') stupid americo-centric lvl 6

whilst i'm not saying this about individual people who consider that HIV isn't/may not be the cause of AIDS, most of the people/sources that have been most prolific in spreading 'awareness' of the HIV 'myth' have been religous fundies. I guess they like having some 'evidence' that god is punishing sinners (read: fags, the sexually promiscuous, and drug users. possibly its a sin to be african aswell?) I would think that the fact that HIV is used as a gene vector to infect white blood cells would lend significant weight to the claim that HIV infects white blood cells, as would the fact that its use as a CD4+ cell infector is avoided if possible, as the CD4+ cells tend to die, en mass, after gene vectoring that uses HIV. I will say one thing tho: AIDS is aquired immunodeficiency syndrome, and a syndrome is just a collection of symptoms; as such, it need not be exclusively caused by one factor. look at Downs syndrome -- a collection of symptoms with, broadly speaking, one cause (something bizzare happening in a region of chromosome 23), and several things that create that condition (trisomy at chromosome 23, mutation of the genes on chromosome 23 etc). its the same with AIDS -- the collection of symptoms are, basically, the aquisition of a non-functional adaptive immune system -- the broad cause is a crappification of the adaptive immune system -- things that make that condition true include: irradiation, immunosuppressants, Human-T-Lymphotrophic-Virus (look at early papers on HIV and you'll see it reffered to as HTLV-III), and anything else that massively suppresses or annhiolates white blood cells, espescially the ones involved in initiating/regulating the adaptive immune system (macrophages, helper-t-cells, or B-cells), which includes the CD4+-trophic(read: helper-t-cell and macrophage distroying) HIV. so, yes, there are other causes of AIDS. the survivors of chernobyl had short-term AIDS. people with HTLV-I or HTLV-II have AIDS. people undergoing treatment for leukemia are intentionally given AIDS by being given immunosuppressants. but, mostly, people with AIDS have HIV. unless the definition of AIDS includes HIV as etiologic agent, in which case i guess the above isn't true, but you know what i mean

R.I.P Dak 1982-2??? If you can read this, you are standing on my grave. you bastard.

ah, gotcha (i think). i was going to do it the other way round: i've got a cryptography program that im wrighting (mainly for the learning), and i was going to include the menu data in that file with the code, but keep the actual menu class in a seperate file (so i could reuse it in other programs, or replace it easily). would that be equivelent?

actually, i've just realised how large the code is with the top-bit and the menu data, so if anyone else wants to comment, for convienience the main bit is: """ useage: blah = Menu('description', [submenu], 'text', 'help') (note: to ignore any perameter, leave it blank like this: '', or for the submenu: []) blah: menu items can be named anything, as long as they are more than one charactor long. menu items name's must be registered in the list 'listy' as strings description: this gets displayed by other menus when linking to this menu item. [submenu]: list of functions/menu items to link to text: introductory text to be displayed at the top of the menu help: displayed if h is pressed on that menu. default is 'there is no helpful information associated with this item' the submenu = ['item1', 'item2', etc] an item can = 'submenu item' or ['submenu item', 'discription override', 'condition'] eg: ['item1', ['item3', 'discription override', 'condition'], ['item4', '', 'condition']] item: another menu, function, or short snippet of code to be included in the menu. description override: text to be displayed whilst linking to a menu item. if blank, self.description is used conditional: entered as a string, eg 'x == 4'. the menu item will only be displayed if this condition is true. """ class Menu: def __init__(self, description, submenu, text, hellp): self.description = description #for use in other menus (submenu description) self.submenu2 = submenu # list of other menus/actions self.submenu = [] # this will be the submenu used. generated on the fly. self.text = text #introductory blurb to menu self.hellp = hellp # help item def display(self): # main bit self.backshift() self.mutate() self.write() self.enact() def backshift(self): # handles the 'back' command global backwards, current, goback, back, back2, back3, back4, back5, back6, back7, back8, back9 if backwards == 1: #if we're going backwards, dont refresh the go-back list. backwards = 0 #incase we start going forwards goback = current # for starting to go forwards again elif goback != current: # refresh the backwards list, except upon menu refresh back9 = back8 # ^ eg on invalid input back8 = back7 back7 = back6 back6 = back5 back5 = back4 back4 = back3 back3 = back2 back2 = back back = goback goback = current def mutate(self): # removes conditional menu items who's condition is not met self.submenu = [] # reset submenu loop = 0 while loop < len(self.submenu2): try: if len(self.submenu2[loop][2])!=1: # if there's actually a conditional if str2con(self.submenu2[loop][2]) == False: #and it's not met loop +=1 # dont include menu item else: #otherwize self.submenu.append(self.submenu2[loop]) #do loop +=1 else: # if theres no conditional (double-entry menu-items, [[a,b]]) self.submenu.append(self.submenu2[loop]) loop +=1 except:# if submenu2[loop][2] isn't a conditional (single-entry menu-items: [a]), ie self.submenu.append(self.submenu2[loop]) # ^ submenu2[loop][2] will be a single loop += 1 # ^ character def write(self): # displays the menu print self.text, '\n'*3 # print the intro blurb loop = 1 for n in self.submenu: # print the menu itself print loop, ': ', if len(n[1]) != 1 and len(n[1]) != 0: # if theres an override text entry... print n[1] # ...display it... else: #...otherwize... try: print str2var(n).description #...display the default description except: print str2var(n[0]).description loop += 1 print 'b : back a screen' print 'm : main menu' print 'h : help' print 'q : quit' print '\n'*2 def enact(self): # grabs input and reacts global backwards, current, goback, back, back2, back3, back4, back5, back6, back7, back8, back9 x = raw_input('') x = x.lower() try: x = int(x) except: pass if x == 'q' or x == 'quit': loop = 1 while loop == 1: x = raw_input('are you sure you want to quit? (y/n?)') if x.lower() == 'y': raise SystemExit elif x.lower() == 'n': loop = 0 elif x == 'b' or x == 'back': current = back back = back2 back2=back3 back3=back4 back4=back5 back5=back6 back6=back7 back7=back8 back8=back9 backwards = 1 elif x == 'm' or x == 'main': current = mainMenu elif x == 'h' or x == 'help': if self.hellp == '' or self.hellp == ' ': print 'there is no helpful information associated with this item :-(' #default help menu entry else: print self.hellp pause = raw_input('\n\npress any key to continue') # should return to loop else: # check if the selection is valid try: #check if it's a single menu entry menuitem = 0 loop = 0 while loop < len(listy): if listy[loop] == self.submenu[x-1]: menuitem = 1 current = str2var(self.submenu[x-1]) loop +=1 #check to see if it's a multiple menu entry loop = 1 while loop < len(listy): if listy[loop] == self.submenu[x-1][0]: menuitem = 1 current = str2var(self.submenu[x-1][0]) loop += 1 # otherwize, try to execute it. if menuitem == 0: exec(self.submenu[x-1][0]) except: # if the selection is invalid if x == ' ' or x == '': x = 'that' print x, 'is not a valid selection. \n\n' def genlisty2(): #generates listy2 from listy. x = '' for n in listy: x = x+', '+n x = x.replace(', ', '[', 1) x = 'listy2 = '+x+']' return x def str2var(x): # changes strings into python-recognisable variables via menu registrys (listy # ^ and listy2) x = listy2[listy.index(x)] return x def str2con(x): # changes strings into python-recognisable conditionals try: x = 'y = bool('+x+')' exec(x) if y == True: return True else: return False except NameError: #if a var in the condition isn't set return False #####################Menu data goes here########### #blah = Menu('description', [submenu], 'text', 'help') #submenu: [['menuitem', 'description override', 'conditional'],'menuitem2'] ####################Menu registry################## #listy = ['mainMenu, ] #<-------- register all menus here as strings: ['a', 'b'] etc. exec(genlisty2()) # generates listy2 from listy ################################################### #### global declorations and functions for the menus### # # stuff for the 'go back' function. current= mainMenu backwards = 0 goback = mainMenu back = mainMenu back2= mainMenu back3= mainMenu back4= mainMenu back5= mainMenu back6= mainMenu back7= mainMenu back8= mainMenu back9= mainMenu # mainloop while 1 == 1: #do = crash #generate linecount try: current.display() except SystemExit: do=crash #crash . easyer than clicking 'no, i dont want to completely exit' each time in idle

hehe, guess that does look rather odd. there was a method to my madness, but i guess if it's not apparent, its not good commenting. cheers for the other comments on the comments aswell. by-the-way, ultimately it was your help in irc, followed by yet another read of the tutorial, that helped me finally 'get' the OOPage, so thanks again not quite sure i follow? when you say menu-construction code, do you mean the lists with the menu data in?

should i be conserned that the only comments it eliceted were about gay porn

granted, but it happens tomorrow, so you, too, have the hampster dance inflicted upon you. i wish that someone else would make my wish for me, because, again, im hungry and can only think of pork

to humanise the middle east

Oh, the question is valid. the only validity problems here are in some of the answres. hopefully, by contrasting the aquet/islam thingy with the more familiar ira/catholisism thingy, it should become more apparent that, without decent support, answres such as 'yes', 'not always but still yes' etc really dont cut mustard. this is not a clear issue that needs cursory corrobaratory evidence/supporting arguments. in addition, the fact that we can switch islam for catholisism and get the same result is telling, adding weight to the 'certain aspects of religion' as opposed to 'islam' argument, tho i realise it's not that simple. maybe 'switching fundamentalist islam for nationalistic catholosism' would be better, and, obviously, the societys are different. the politics -- a proportedly percieved evil and dictatoral enemy that is percieved as only defeatable through violence -- is the same in both cases. actually, now i think about it more, the evidence that 'catholisism' causes violence is actualy quite relevent, as it lets us compare the two and seek out common denominators, which, as suggested by lucascipidia in another thread, might be the best way of pinning down the actual cause of terrorism. religions dont kill people, people kill people. espescially if those religious people have guns ========= two more quick points: maybe the racism/valid commentry issue would be somewhat ameliorated if people clarify what they mean in statements such as 'islam is the problem'. do they mean 'islam, by containing islamic terrorists, is the problem' (same as if a box contains a bomb, the box is 'the problem', even tho boxes, in general, are unproblematic), or do they mean 'islam is the cause'? both very different, but both expressable as 'islam is the problem'. secondly, having grown fond of the word, i move to formally adopt 'aquet' as refferring to islamic terrorists

at least you tried. sorry if that sounds patronising, but lots of people have wants and ideas, but dont bother enacting them, which is stupid imo. its better to have tried and failed than not to have tried. not trying = auto failure. harsh same advice as above. its better to try, and fail, to make friends -- or make then loose friends -- than to not have try atall. so, dont give up! when i was a kid, i was, to be frank, a complete asshole, so i didn't have any friends. now, i'm not a complete arsehole, and i have friends. im actually pretty inclined to be really shy, so i guess that's quite an accomplishment. Not saying your situation is directly analogus, just that these things can change, so dont give up hope of making friends. and, being 'inportant' doesnt mean anything. do you hold hitler in higher reguard than a nice dustbin man? phone her dude

aquet = Al QUaeda Et Al My problem with the above lists is that they both point (ok, pangaloss didn't offer it as such, but i've seen similar argument offered enough times that im going to address the argument here) to terrorist members of a religon mainly from a certain regon/society, and says 'see, isn't religon x bad'. islamic terrorists, mainly centred in the middle east, prove that islam is violent. catholic terrorists, mainly centred in ireland, prove that catholisism is violent. I have many problems with the above arguments: firstly, by homing in on the terrorists, we are of course going to find evidence of violence. any terrorist subgroup, of any group, are, by definition, violent. secondly, the location and society are ignored. with the IRA, another unifying fact, as well as being catholic, is that they are mainly centred in ireland; the culture and society could easily be more relevent-a-cause than the religon. with aquet, they are mainly centred in the middle east, hardly the nicest, most gentle of places. this can basically be summed up as correlation/causation: if most of the problematic religos people are centred in a certain regon/society, then any other aspects of that society could be to blame for the terrorism. thirdly, the politics are being ignored the ira, whilst catholic, are not fighting because they are catholic, they are fighting to 'free ireland'. aquet are not fighting because they are islamic, they are fighting to 'free islamic states'. fourthly, other, exasperating factors are overlooked. in the ira's case, i think its very arguable that nationalism plays a large part in the origin of the violence. with aquet, fundamentalism would, imo, be a cause (which is significantly different from saying that islam is the cause). fithly, the skill of the groups involved is overlooked: the IRA/PIRA and aquet are both very competent terrorist organisations. this in-and-of itself could contribute to the high insidence of terrorist acts perfomed by the members. note that there are several other terrorists of all religos inclinations (including atheism) that have not attained above notoriety, not through lack of numbers nor trying, but through simply not being as good at what they do as PIRA/al quaeda et al. and, finally, the condemnation of the religon is overlooked. the pope, and several high-ranking muslim clerics, have condemned the violence, hardly lending support to the claim that catholosism/islam are inherently violent; it does, however, add support to the claim that the regon/society are highly relevent -- afaict, most muslims outside of the middle east, and most catholics outside of ireland, are opposed to the violence being commited by members of their religon. basically, i have never seen any evidence nor argument that satisfactoraly places a significant amount of blame for terrorism on islam's (or catholisism's) sholders, as opposed to religon as a whole (religon binds people together, so seeing it used to form terrorist groups doesn't really suprise me; in addition, using religon to justify personal oppinions and rally others is hardly an unpresedented phenomenon), fundamentalism (allways a problem), the society/region from which the terrorism mainly originates, the politics of the situation, or any number of other possible/probable factors. in short: islam may be a contributing cause of terrorism, but 1/ its unlikely to be the cause, and 2/ i've never seen it satisfactoraly argued that it's even a cause, at least not a significant one.

And this is the argument that catholosism is a violent religon. unless otherwize stated, these refer to acts performed by the IRA or PIRA. note that it coveres a shorter period of time than the previous list. taken, and editied quite a bit, from wikipedia. * 26 June 1970: Three IRA members and two young girls killed when a bomb being assembled explodes accidentally in the Creggan, Derry. * February 1971, Three off duty British soldiers abducted and shot and killed by IRA * 11 December 1971: IRA killed four Protestant civilians in a bomb attack on a furniture shop on the Shankill Road in Belfast. Two of those who were killed in the explosion were children * 4 December 1971: The McGurk's Bar bombing by the ulster volunteer force kills 15 people * 1972:Bloodiest year of PIRA campaign, over 100 British soldiers killed, 500 shooting attacks and 1,300 bombing attacks. 94 IRA members die in this year. * 4 March 1972:The Abercorn Restaurant in Belfast was bombed without warning. Two Catholic civilians were killed and over 130 people injured. * 24 June 1972:The IRA killed three British Army soldiers in a land mine attack near Dungiven, County Londonderry. * 21 July 1972: On "Bloody Friday" 22 bombs kill nine and seriously injure 130. * December, 1972: Mother of ten, Jean McConville, is abducted and killed by the Provisional IRA, allegedly for informing the British Army of IRA activities, although her family contend that she was killed for comforting a wounded British soldier. The IRA would deny any involvement in the killing until the 1990s, when it would acknowledge its action * 31 July 1972: Three car bomb explode in the Claudy bombings, in which nine people are killed on Claudy High Street near Londonderry. * 22 August 1972:A bomb that was being planted by the IRA exploded prematurely at a customs post at Newry, County Down. Nine people, including three members of the IRA and five Catholic civilians, were killed in the explosion. * 8 March 1973: IRA exploded two car bombs in London and killed one person and injured over 200 people. * 4 February 1974: M62 Coach Bombing: A bomb planted on a coach carrying British Army personnel and their wives and families explodes as it is travelling along the M62 motorway at Birkenshaw. Twelve people are killed; nine soldiers and the wife and two young sons of one of them. [England] * 17 May 1973:The Irish Republican Army (IRA) carried out a booby-trap bomb attack on five members of the British Army who were off duty at the time. The attack occurred in Omagh, County Tyrone. [Four soldiers were killed on the day and the fifth soldier died on 3 June 1973.] * 5 October 1974: The Guildford pub bombing kills five and injures 182. The motive for the bombing was that the pub attacked was frequented by off-duty, unarmed soldiers. * 7 November, 1974: Two people are killed when a nail bomb containing 6lb of gelignite is thrown through the window of the Kings Head pub in Woolwich * 21 November 1974: In the Birmingham Pub Bombings bombs in two pubs kill 19. * 1974: In December a bomb explodes on the first floor of Harrods department store in Knightsbridge. Part of the store is gutted but there are no injuries. * 21 January 1975: There was a series of bomb explosions in Belfast in attacks carried out by the IRA. Two members of the IRA were killed when a bomb they were transporting by car exploded in Victoria Street, Belfast. * 10 February 1975:The Irish Republican Army leadership declare a Truce. The ceasefire was to last officially until 23 January 1976, however it was not respected by all IRA units and violence continues throughout the year. * 27 February 1975: Off-duty police officer Stephen Tibble is shot and killed as he joins in the chase of a suspect on his motorbike in Barons Court, London. The suspect had been spotted by a detective coming out of a house which was later discovered to be an IRA bomb factory. * 17 July 1975:The IRA killed four British soldiers in a remote controlled bomb attack near Forkhill, County Armagh * 13 August 1975: The IRA carried out a bomb and gun attack on the Bayardo Bar, Shankill Road, Belfast killing five people and injuring 40 others. One of those killed was a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) the other four were Protestant civilians * 1 September 1975:Five Protestant civilians died and seven were injured as a result of an attack on an Orange Hall in Newtownhamilton, County Armagh. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by a group called the South Armagh Republican Action force (SARAF) which was considered by many commentators to be a covername for members of the IRA. * 3 November 1975: Several people were injured by a car bomb planted by the Provisional IRA in Connaught Square, London W2. * 29 October 1975:The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) shot and killed Robert Elliman (27), then a member of the Official IRA (OIRA), in McKenna's Bar in the Markets area of Belfast. [between 29 October 1975 and 12 November 1975, 11 people were to die in the continuing feud between the two wings of the IRA. Most of those killed were members of the 'official' republican movement.] * 27 November 1975: The killing of businessman and TV personality Ross McWhirter, who with his brother Norris McWhirter, had offered reward money to anyone who would inform on the IRA. * August 1975: Caterham pub bombing. * 5 January 1976: IRA kills ten Protestant workers in the Kingsmill massacre, county Armagh in retaliation for loyalist killings of Catholics. * 23 January 1976, IRA ceasefire officially called off. * 21 July 1976: An IRA landmine kills Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the newly appointed British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, resulting in the declaration of a State of Emergency in the Republic. His secretary, Judith Cook (25), was also killed in the explosion. The IRA also threatens to kidnap or kill Irish cabinet ministers and the President of Ireland. * 2 February 1977:Jeffrey Agate (59), then Managing Director of the American Du Pont factory in Derry was shot and killed by members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) outside his home at Talbot Park, Derry. [This killing marked the beginning of a series of attacks on businessmen. There were further killings on 2 March 1977 and 14 March 1977.] * 2 June 1977:Three members of an Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) mobile patrol were shot and killed by Irish Republican Army (IRA) snipers near Ardboe, County Tyrone. Part of ongoing attacks on Police and Army. * 17 February 1978: La Mon Restaurant Bombing-Twelve people, all Protestant civilians, were killed and 23 badly injured when an IRA incendiary bomb exploded at the restaurant of the La Mon House Hotel, Gransha, near Belfast * 14 November 1978:The Irish Republican Army (IRA) carried out a number of bomb attacks in towns across Northern Ireland. Serious damage was caused in attacks in Armagh, Belfast, Castlederg, Cookstown, Derry and Enniskillen. Thirty-seven people were injured in the attacks. [This series of bomb attacks represented a renewed bombing campaign and over 50 bombs were exploded in the following week.] * 5 January 1979:Two members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) were killed in a car in Ardoyne, Belfast, when the bomb they were transporting exploded prematurely * 4 February 1979:Patrick MacKin (60), a former Prison Officer, and his wife Violet (58), were both shot and killed by the Irish Republican Army at their home in Oldpark Road, Belfast. Part of an escalating campaign against prison officers, co-inciding with the Dirty protest and Blanket protest in the Maze prison. * 22 March 1979:Members of the IRA killed Richard Sykes (58), then British Ambassador to the Netherlands, and also his Dutch valet Krel Straub (19), in a gun attack in Den Haag, Netherlands. The IRA carried out a series of attacks across Northern Ireland with 24 bombs exploding on same day. * 17 April 1979:Four Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers were killed when the Irish Republican Army (IRA) exploded an estimated 1,000 pound van bomb at Bessbrook, County Armagh. * 2 August 1979:Two British soldiers were killed by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in a landmine attack at Cathedral Road, Armagh. * 27 August 1979: An IRA bomb kills Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the British Queen's first cousin, members of his family and a local child off the Irish coast. On the same day the IRA kill 18 British soldiers at Narrow Water, near Newry, County Down; in an attack described by the British government as "a classic guerrilla attack", they first plant one bomb, which kills six, and then begin firing with sniper rifles at soldiers, driving them to cover at a nearby gate where a second bomb explodes, killing 12 others. During an Irish visit, Pope John Paul II calls for the IRA campaign of violence to come to an end. The IRA rejected his advice and declared that it had widespread support and that Britain would only withdraw from Northern Ireland if forced to do so: "force is by far the only means of removing the evil of the British presence in Ireland ... we know also that upon victory the Church would have no difficulty in recognising us". * 16 December 1979:Four British soldiers were killed by a landmine bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) at Ballygawley Road, near Dungannon, County Tyrone. Another soldier was killed by a booby-trap bomb at Forkhill, County Armagh. James Fowler, a former member of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), was shot and killed by the IRA in Omagh, County Tyrone. * 1981: The PIRA kill Ulster Unionist Party Belfast MP Rev Robert Bradford along with the caretaker of a community centre. * 10 October 1981: a bomb blast on Ebury Bridge Road in London kills two people and injures 39. * 26 October 1981: a bomb explodes at a Wimpy Bar in Oxford Street London killing the bomb disposal officer trying to defuse it. * 20 July 1982: The Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings: In Hyde Park, a bomb kills two members of the Household Cavalry performing ceremonial duties in the park. Seven of their horses are also killed. The deaths of the horses received almost as much coverage in the English tabloids as those of the men. On the same day another device kills seven bandsmen the Royal Green Jackets as it explodes underneath the bandstand in Regents Park as they played music to spectators. * 1983: A Harrods department store bomb planted by the IRA during Christmas shopping season kills six (three police) and wounds 90. * 1984: In the Brighton hotel bombing a bomb in the Grand Hotel kills five in a failed attempt to assassinate members of the British cabinet. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher narrowly escapes. Five people are killed, and one woman permanently disabled. * 1985 February, IRA mortar attack on RUC police station in Newry kills 9 Police Officers * 1987: In the Enniskillen "Massacre" the IRA bombing of a Remembrance Day parade kills 11 civilians and injures 63. Among the dead is nurse Marie Wilson, whose father, Gordon Wilson, would go on to become a leading campaigner for an end to violence in Northern Ireland. * 1989: Ten Royal Marine bandsmen are killed and 22 injured in the bombing of their base in Deal in Kent. * 1990: Car bombings in Northern Ireland kill seven and wound 37. * 27 May 1990: Two Australian tourists shot and killed in the Netherlands, having been mistaken for off-duty British soldiers from a base across the German border. * 20 July 1990: The IRA exploded a large bomb at the London Stock Exchange causing massive damage. * 30 July 1990 Ian Gow MP is killed when a device explodes under his car as he is leaving his home. * 19 September 1990: The IRA attempted to kill Air Chief Marshall Sir Peter Terry at his Staffordshire home. Sir Peter had been a prime target since his days as Governor of Gibraltar, where he signed the documents allowing the SAS to pursue IRA terrorists. The revenge attack took place at 9pm at the Main Road house. The gunman opened fire through a window hitting Sir Peter at least 9 times and injuring his wife, Lady Betty Terry, near the eye. The couple's daughter, Liz, was found suffering from shock. Sir Peter's face had to be rebuilt as the shots shattered Sir Peter's face and 2 high-velocity bullets lodged a fraction of an inch from his brain. * 24 October 1990 IRA forces innocent civilian Patsy Gillespie to deliver explosives to a British Army checkpoint in a Proxy bomb attack.The bomb blows up and killd him and five soldiers * 1990: A British Royal Artillery officer is killed by the IRA in Dortmund in the then West Germany. * 18 February 1991: A bomb explodes at Victoria Station. One man is killed and 38 people injured. * 1991: Mortar attack on members of the British Cabinet and the Prime Minister, John Major in Cabinet session at Number 10 Downing Street at the height of a huge security clampdown amid the Gulf War is launched by the IRA. The Cabinet collectively got under the table to protect themselves. * 1991: Two IRA members are killed in St Albans when their bomb detonates prematurely. * 28 February 1992: A bomb explodes at London Bridge railway station injuring 29 people. * 10 April 1992: A large bomb explodes at 30 St Mary Axe in the City of London killing three people and injuring 91. Many buildings are heavily damaged and the Baltic Exchange is completely destroyed. * 12 October 1992: A device explodes in the gents' toilet of the Sussex Arms public house in Covent Garden killing one person and injuring four others. * 1992: Eight builders are killed by an IRA bomb on their way to work at an army base near Omagh. * 1993: Two IRA bombs at opposite ends of a shopping street in Warrington, timed to go off within minutes of each other, kill two children. * 1993: The PIRA detonates a huge truck bomb in the City of London at Bishopsgate, which kills two and causes around £350m of damage, including the near destruction of St Ethelburga's Bishopsgate. * 1993: The Shankill Road bombing at a fish and chip shop underneath a UDA office on the Protestant Shankill Road in Belfast detonates prematurely, killing ten, including one of the bombers and two children. * 8 March 1994: Heathrow Airport, four mortar shells were fired toward Heathrow Airport from a car at night following telephone warnings in the name of the IRA, * 10 March 1994: Heathrow Airport evacuated staff and passengers from Terminal Four and closed its southern runway after the second attack on the airport in 30 hours. four mortar shells were fired. * 13 March 1994: Heathrow Airport, the IRA launched their third mortar attack on Heathrow defying tightening security. They fired four mortar bombs from a heavily camouflaged launcher buried in scrubland close to the southern perimeter. Later that night both Heathrow and Gatwick airports were closed for 2 hours after renewed coded telephoned bomb threats were received. * 1 September 1994: The PIRA declares the first of two ceasefires in the 1990s. * 10 February 1996: The IRA ends its 1994 ceasefire, killing two civilians in a bombing adjacent to the South Quay DLR station in London's Docklands. * 15 February 1996: A 5 lb bomb placed in a phone booth is disarmed by Police on the Charing Cross Road in London. * 18 February 1996: An improvised high explosive device detonates prematurely on a bus travelling along Aldwych in central London, killing Edward O'Brien, the IRA operative transporting the device and injuring eight others. * 15 June 1996: The IRA detonates a 3,300 lb (1,500 kg) bomb in Manchester, injuring 206 people and damaging 70,000 square metres of retail and office space. * 7 October 1996: the IRA kills one soldier and injures 31 people at the British Army's Northern Ireland HQ, Thiepval Barracks. * 19 July 1997: The IRA declares a second ceasefire. * 1998 January, IRA kills loyalist UDA paramilitary Bobby Dougan in retaliation for killings of Catholics. * 1999 Former IRA man Eamon Collins killed by IRA near Newry for testifying against Thomas "Slab" Murphy, leader of South Armagh IRA in a libel case with the Sunday Times. * 10 February 2005: The Independent Monitoring Commission reports that it firmly supports the PSNI and Garda assessments that the PIRA was responsible for the Northern Bank robbery and recommends financial and political sanctions against Sinn Féin.

by that logic, i may as well live in a chimney shifting it isn't ideal, but it's better than crapping on our own doorstep. i'd also wager that effective waste-managment/pollution-limitation would be easyer in a big plant than in x cars (as would scrapping a plant and replacing it with a fusion plant be easyer than getting x people new fusion cars) skepticLance why not just make and store electricity when the wind's blowing, and use it when it's not?

Some kind of refference system, what with this being a science forum. typing [ sup][ url=ww.blah.com]1[/sup][/url] all the time is annoying, on the admittedly rare occasions when i do. I was thinking something simple like [ ref]ww.blah.com[/ref], being automatically superscripted, linked to the url, and replaced with 1, 2, whatever.

as a bonus, if you coded it in either of cap'ns ways, im pretty sure you could easily include full utilisation of the next res up from 1k*8c aswell. after setting it up to convert by a base number, youd just need a few lines of code. if res = the one above 1k*8c then base = whatever tada! this, afaict, is why flexable coding is cool. from cap'ns link, it looks like nearly as many people have res's above 1k*6c as have below, and the number will presumably increase with time. also, i only d/l'd slimbrowser to have a savvy. i wouldnt count me as a user of it

cool, and convienient. Oh, i see where your coming from now. i dont think so. i couldn't actually find any concrete figures, but if we over-generously assume: average maximum solar power electrisity generation speed to be about 0.375kwh/h/m21, and say that you could squeeze about 1m2of solar cells on your car, then you'd generate 0.375kwh/h. assume the car uses approximately 0.1kwh/mile2 assume 100% solar power conversion youd get enough h2 to go 3.75miles every hour, or 90 hours every day. pretty sucky. not enough for many people, but not entirely unworkable i suppose. however, thats if we make the above unrealistically over-generous assumptions (solar cells are waaaaaaaaaaaay off of 100% efficiency). current solar power conversion efficiency is approx 15%1, so i guess we'd be looking at about 13.5 miles/day. i guess if everything was more efficient, it might be usable for light town use, or as a cool auto-refill feature on a car that can be manually refilled at a petrol station, but at our current level of efficiency, ie ~15% solar conversion, not really feasable. (if anyone wants to tinker with the above calculations/assumptions, go for it) notes: i realise the above is a bit crappyly done not sure what the efficiency of the theoryoretical 1kwh/m electric car is, so i'm not sure how much room for improvement is there obviously, youd have to take into account that much less mileage would be gained in winter.

true, but we're moving towards more hippy power solutions, such as nuclear, or the ultra-hippy wind/solar/hydro power. in the uk at least, wind farms are popping up in quite a few places. (2% of UK power is green, going up to 10% by 20101 looking towards the future, the switch to hydrogen power would be good, to take advantage of any future, green energy sources. also, now it would at least get the pollution away from the people. if we are going to pollute, i'd rather it be done somewhere away from me. one thing thats always concerned my about the idea of hydro powered cars: say you have a full tank and crash, rupturing your tank. wouldnt that be an almightily big explosion?