gcol

Not my complete meaning. I was alluding obliquely to the notion that in any investigation the tools used can constrain the result. Stated another way: Using these tools, this is the best result I can achieve. To investigate the properties of a "nut" a sledgehammer might be an unsuitable tool selection.

Because they don't have your tunnel vision, and perhaps maths is an imperfect and incomplete tool? Oh, heresy, burn me at the stake!

None of the above, in absolute terms. Just a guy trying to earn a living, have some fun, and provide some insights and entertainment along the way. Having earned a good living, he seems to have ploughed a lot of his loot back into conservation projects so overall more beneficial than not. As for Germaine Greer, whose views as a TV pundit we in the U.K. at least, had to regularly suffer, was she not the arch champion of bra-burning? I wonder what contribution to atmospheric pollution that heated feminist activity made. Certainly no conservationist, was she

You must be too well brought up to understand such vulgarity.

Overheard a group of students discussing the connection between eating too much Kentucky Fried Chicken and having peculiarly sweet-smelling flatulence. Just a coincidence?

A personal view from the U.K. Should have gone ten years ago. Brown is no shoe-in, either. There are plenty of dissafected MPs waiting to challenge. I suspect a stalking horse will emerge to start the ball rolling. My own prediction (wrong) was that if he wanted an orderly handover, this summer recess would have been a good time. He seems more concerned about leaving a bigger footnote in history than Maggie Thatcher. Fat chance! I never liked him, always thought of him as an oleaginous little toe-rag, all spin and no principles. The rush is on for labour members in marginal seats to save their bacon in the face of declining poll poularity trends, to find a new saviour before the s**t hits the fan next election.

Perhaps it's nature's way of telling him he needs a dump not a jump.

To which us pessimists/realists might reply "ah yes, just putting off the inevitable and leaving our kids to pay the bill".

Dear auntie YT. Recently, after sex, while relaxed but still a bit excited, I noticed the smell of performing seals. Do you think I should renounce sex and take up chem book sniffing instead? Signed : Worried, U.K.

Exactly as expressed in the general tone of your posts.

You might try this for some general news on the world of homecured tobacco and its future restriction and taxation: http://www.coffinails.com/tobacco_newsletter_2002.htm

Would that be the mens loos or the womens loos? I relate this thread to the one about women not doing poos in public loos. Just another excuse for the anally retentive to prevaricate, perhaps.

I think it is legal in the U.K., but only for your own use (not for sale). The problem is not growing it, but curing and processing to make it palatable. Rather like home brewing or good cooking, there is a lot of art, craft and knowhow to it. Googling 'home grown tobacco' produces lots of background information on the legal position in different countries, and even between different states in USA.

I thought the question of whether there is such a thing as absolute space had been well chewed over previously, the concensus being that there is no such thing. If so, then whatever is in it, however small that makes it less than absolute, must surely have some momentum?

And also remember the two types of sailboat wind turbines, the horizontal and the vertical axis designs. The horizontal being pivotted into the wind, and the vertical being fixed. It seems likely that the 'into wind' performance of each will be different. I seem to remember that a moderate size tanker had two verticals, but it almost certainly had conventional standby engines too.

My avatar is definitely misleading. I dont have one, but I am sure I actually exist......

Man may not be from the cretaceous, but the movie appears to be from the cretinous. Is it a simple misprint?

Indeed, a given, but I was stubbornly attempting to stick loosely to what I understood to be the original question. However, a google for "rotary sail" shows what has already been achieved commercially with wind-powered fan type sails driving a water-propeller.

Interesting' date=' but it seems to me the fan just alters rhe direction of wind flow relative to the boat by [i']pushing[/i] on the sails/rigging, an effect achieved in practice and far more efficiently by the time honoured method of pulling on the rigging with ropes on the opposite side to the fan. I.E, instead of having a fan, you might as well have the crew pushing on the booms and yardarms with long poles from the windward side......

Another stupid stupid question: If the early objects although appearing larger, still occupy the original portion of their space, does this mean they and the space between them have as it were maintained the same mark/space ratio? And if so, can I attribute the same properties to what we perceive as matter and the supposed empty spaces between matter? This is leading me onto dangerous ground now, and flights of fancy: For example if what we perceive as matter and space are essentially the same, and what we perceive as matter is an optical illusion caused by a density boundary between them, then possibly gravity would seem to be a natural property of a continuous medium. I hesitated a long time before writing that, it seemed daft and far-fetched. But fear not, tell me where I am wrong if you have the patience.

I dont think the general term "plastic" is specific enough. Are the cuts through the entire thickness? The extremes of the cuts may in fact be cracks, which may tend to grow and creep beyond the point of actual repair. Possibly obtain pieces of similar "plastic", cut pieces larger than the damaged area, trim back damaged hull to exact size of repair pieces, insert and fix with correct solvent/adhesive. Add oversize patches to inside and outside of hull to reinforce edges of inserted patch. After that, get a handpump, buoyancy bags, and inflatable lifesaver, and dont ask me to sail in it!

If that was to me, Rocky old chap, then there is a double misunderstanding. If not, ignore.

Now you're tuning in. Some 60million in the U.K, for example, at £50 a go, that makes a nice little earner. A few thousand more govt. employees all paying taxes, reduction of unemployment, slush funds to the security services, then after a few years privatise it and stuff the profit made with our money into their pockets, etc. etc...... But now you know the game, you will have to be "disappeared". P.S. From what age will this start? At birth, same as a birth certificate? Another thought.... I invite you all to carefully consider how many pieces of identifiable documentation all accessible by the government you already have. If all this info could only be collated and configured by "joined up" computing perhaps under the aegis of something like Bascule's Singularity, I might even consider converting

Stupid stupid layman's question: If something were far enough away, would it in fact appear to occupy a goodly part of our sky, ( not bright enough, I know) or even would enough of them form some kind of barrier to further observation? If true, what are the ramifications for standard cosmic models and astronomocal observation?

Well' date=' not being a mathematician, I ould not [i']possibly[/i] begin to work out the cost of a few contraceptives against the cost of feeding, clothing and housing all those rug-rats. If the state picks up the tab, then one could say the state is to blame by encouraging his activities. Er, uncharitably, perhaps, but is it a little possible he actually comes out in credit? Free condoms rather than child support after the first dozen or so?