gcol

I am with Azure Phoenix, but was wary of being accused again of flippancy. Tempted now to go further, how about proactive lethal injection to save the lives he seems destined to take as he moves into adulthhood? But then must not take the bread from the mouths of the trickcyclists.

My experience is that faulty pump bearings and gasket will result in an obvious leak in that area, even when the engine is cold and idle. Look for all the devices that are driven by the knobbly rubber belt that drives lots of things around the front of the engine. one of them will probably be the waterpump.

I would not automatically suspect the temp gauge. Depends on where in the cooling circuit it is. It will only go off the scale when affected by steam only, not liquid coolant. I think the overflow reservoir will only begin spewing when over-pressurised by steam. The crack may have been caused by over-pressurisation. The event that caused the overpressurisation may have been a one-off, even just letting coolant get too low. Knackered: as when a broken down end of life horse is sent to the knackers yard.

Why not a forum for "logical argument" or perhaps "illogical argument" in which to dump those endless religious threads that seem to revolve around things like whose responsibility is it to prove/disprove God, semantic wrigglings, and are often just a pulpit for certain people to preach from. Might solve the too many religious threads problem. A sort of no holds barred arena for the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable.

Is that the 11th sept, or 9th nov?

I have said a similar thing about English politics. I often vote differently at local and national level. The type of politics needed for international affair is not, I think, the same as needed to keep the dustcarts running.

Grovelling apologies for veering off-topic (possibly), but following this argument leads me to an uncomfortable train of thought: By supporting a partisan group, or a political party, we are in fact signing away our rights by a sort of power of attorney. Puts a new, for me, spin on the real world meaning of democracy. Perhaps this is the real purpose of the constitution then, to claw back some of those signed away rights? Perhaps all Americans know this, but for me a little light has switched on. Right or wrong?

I think arrogance is the wrong word to use for whatever quality of youth is, according to some, getting up their noses. Every new youthful experience is a bright new splash of colour on a fresh white canvas that suggests a newly inspired image, and they want to eagerly discuss it and show it off. My 64 year old canvas is a real mess, but I can look back and identify many of those youthful daubs and the thought adventures that accompanied them. In a bad mood, I might yawn and say "oh yes, been there, done that, got the teeshirt". In a good mood, as my granchildren re-tread some old paths of my life, I am pleased at how fresh they seem to them. I just know that to fresh eyes the old paths can spring new surprises. The oldies should quietly encourage the young, but most importantly, try to understand and forgive their occasional daft foibles. (But then some of the youthful opinions voiced here stretch even my patience past breaking point!)

Not an easy question, what with Scotland Wales And Northern Ireland (sometimes) having extra mini-parliaments. Then there have been changes in local elections, where we only get a chance to kick out half of them at a time now, Mayoral elections for some, and parochial elections. Depends on where you live, then. Personally if I have to vote more than three times in two years, as a guess, I find it tedious. Dont forget that we dont vote for the PM, thats in the gift of the party great and good.

My plan was to stay in England until everyone else had emigrated and it would be quiet and peaceful, but the way things are going I may as well go to Pakistan.

Only just got that, so slow and stupid too.

. Written in jest, hopefully: ...Or drank the household bleach, drain cleaner, metal polish, oven cleaner. What about all those chemicals and electrical toys you play with at home. Are all these things non-lethal compared to kitty litter? I presumed this was one of your joke threads. If not, and kitty litter cake causes you serious concern so that you think someone ought to ban it, You ought to keep a sense of proportion, or perhaps others might start to agitate against the storage and use of dangerous chemicals at home.

Wonderful. One of those things I have often thought but dare not say.

That was my train of thought too, but I did not want to display my ignorance too far. The hard oxidise layer on the aluminium might provide just the right amount of abrasion, too

What a hoot! laughing while being sick is seriously uncomfortable, and not to be recommended for someone with a weak heart. Could the consumer be prosecuted? Dont know, but in the dying days of Blairism, he might consider a new law against it as a final fling to create a legacy. Just imagine, going down in history as the anti-pooper scooper cake crusader. Better than Bush's poodle, perhaps. (Oh, wait, there is a connection there somewhere)

Agree. The labour party was originally the voice of the "downtrodden working man" against the child-eating bloated capitalist Tories. After their years in the wilderness, Blairism was invented to seize the middle ground, which meant pinching lots of conservative ideas and rebranding them as New Labour. It fooled some of the people for quite a while and left the Tories with nowhere to go. I remember the "rivers of blood" speech by Enoch Powell (RIP) in relation to uncontrolled imigration so long ago. Not exactly a river now, or should that be yet ? The official spin on (in practice uncontrolled) imigration is that it is a good thing because: 1. It fills the lowly unpaid jobs that others dont want. A good thing. 2. There is therefore some constraint on wage inflation, a government good thing.3. They consume, therefore grow the economy and produce more tax revenue, another government good thing. The fact that this fuels inflation is played down because it is a bad thing. In practice, the imigrant vote is important, and becoming even more important, because there are so many of them. They are a big political thing. If they all banded together and formed a united party, well, I shudder to think...... I could go on, but essays are tedious. One last thought though. Do I not hear exactly the same arguments from accross the pond regarding, especially, Hispanic immigrants? Same problems, different continents. Did you not send out a general invitation along the lines "send me your huddled masses.........." Unfortunately they all accepted. Not being on appro, unfortunately you cant send them back again. Probably seemed a good vote winning idea at the time.

Snail: No, young ones fortunately. They were softer, pliable and altogether more fun. The older ones were sort of brittle and broke easily. In those days, the young ones worried abot being sexually assaulted. Street mugging had not been invented then, so the older ones being generally less sexually desirable had less to fear. I guess things are different now.

I did judo, kendo, and karate, And helped teach self-defence to "fragile" females. They were vicious, never pulled their punches. Men mostly had respect for each other, even if only because they realised that if they damaged their sparring partners, they wouldn't have anyone to play with.

Phosphoric acid?

Haven't found one yet! But in my own workshop if I need a special tool for a job and dont have it, I know I'll have to find one or make it, or scrap the job. Apart from that, I admit privately to being a bit inflamatory just for the hell of it.

A scheme for tidal turbines in the Severn estuary between England and Wales is constantly being proposed here. It appears to be an ideal site with tidal range in the region of 40ft. Technical problems, reliability, and cost seem to be the stumbling blocks. google 'severn tidal turbine'

In order to get some background to this topic, I googled phrases such as 'google scientific content/ranking' The results seem to reinforce this view or to indicate a change in parameters for the ranking algorithm away from discussion and 'homework help' towards new work and citations.

That had the flavour of a Dr. Johnson quote about it. But as he might have said: A man who would reach first for the tool of mathematics without first having considered its suitability for his purpose, is a man in pursuit of aimless endeavours. But then the word mathematics does not, I believe, appear in his lexicography.