gcol

Nicely argued, Mr.d. Having once been told by an acolyte of the scientific faith that a dictionary is not a technical resource (it dared to contradict him) I suspect Wiki will now be sentenced to destruction by fahrenheit 451 as heretical. It is not the conclusions of science that counts as religious faith (in the broadest possible terms), but the methodology. It is probably the healthiest religion though, because doubting and questioning are among its Holy Tenets. Sadly the seminary trained high priests sometimes get a bit snotty if the peasants, forgetting to be ever so humble, doubt and question the hierarchy itself

There never will be an answer to the specific question as worded, because "the" chicken and "the" egg presumes one specific instance of each, so one might ask, which particular chicken and which particular egg? If this is not specified, there can be no answer. Now if the question concerned a chicken and an egg in general terms, the question is reasonably debatable. The riddle only becomes insoluble in terms of the wording either cunningly or carelessly used.

Would that not also tie in with his liking for Nietsche, man and superman, etc? A Nietschian Christian, perhaps.

Not easy to find quotes by the man himself, but how about this one from Mein Kampf: "I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.." I make no comment on it at the moment, but does this alter anyone's views? i think it should.....

Hitler was rather partial to the writings of Nietsche. Nietsche was atheistic. I guess Hitler was at least sympathetic with that philosophy.

Womens loos Are not for poos They're only used for peein', And doing their hair And doing their nails, And mostly just for gossippin'.

Help! They are everywhere! Fetch the DDT! Seriously though, I worked with many. After a while they were just another workmate. Some I got on with better than others, but that's the way it is in any workplace. One did extoll the virtues of genital shaving, though. He said "When you are having Ziggy Ziggy (his euphemism for sex) and the little hairs rub together, it is extra yummy". Later he had a dispute with a tenant, beat his head to a pulp with a hammer and threw the hammer into a passing lorry. You can never tell.

My mother insisted she merely glowed. But I have observed some energetic ladies definitely glistening at moments of heightened sexual pleasure. Perhaps when pooing, too?

I had in mid that a nuclear strike would would unleash such woldwide approbrium that it would be unthinkable. But a conventional payload delivered by ICBM could arguably be merely an escalation. The difference between short, medium and long range conventionally armed missiles is but one of degree. Would it make any difference to the target if it was hit by a scud or an ICBM?

Or perhaps it is the sort of weapon to be used against Iran's nuclear fuel enrichment facilities?

Nearly right. Horses sweat, gentlemen perspire, and ladies merely glow. Ergo, ladies dont sweat. But perhaps it was another ofthose OP's that seemed hilarious to only me, and I am guilty of flippancy again. No smilies in Quick Reply. Did not think it necessary Propper english with two p's? had you spelled it "pooper" english, that would have been funny in this context.

There are at least two types of female, women and ladies. Ladies don't sweat and their poo don't smell. (old folk wisdom). If a woman is not sure of her status, she won't poo in public for fear of being found out and being relegated to the lower division.

Doors open inwards so that Hollywood toughguy cops can shoulder-barge their way in. If they opened outwards, they'd have to tie their pantyhose to the doorknob and pull. No scope for macho posturing there. Now in Startrek they have sliding doors....death to hinges. How oldfashioned.

Another factor, certainly on external doors, is weatherproofing. an outward opening door would have all its egdes exposed. Inward opening protects door edges by the doorframe rebates. Much sounder and more practical.

If a house is primarily a place of shelter and refuge, it seems somehow welcoming for it to open towards warmth and comfort. On a practical note, opening out towards the elements means it could be caught by strong wind, wrenched from your hand and slam against the door frame. In strong rain, it will become soaking wet on what would be the inside when closed and the wetness brought in the house. In hallways, outward opening doors would restrict the corridor width, inconvenience passing traffic, and if the openings were not staggered, would probably clash in narrow walkways. One can always find possible exceptions. I have a small bathroom opening onto a generous landing. I have often considered compromising by reversing the door to gain a little extra bathroom space.

Why ask here? are you lazy? Just google emp generator for all the answers, ready-mades, kits and diagrams.

Your phrase friction gears puzzles me. you either have a gear drive, or a friction drive. They are entirely different, though may be mixed in a compound mechanism. It is not easy to answer your first question without becoming long winded and probably boring, but basically I wanted to see if I could make gear wheels by hand without a lathe, like the old time clock makers and wooden millwrights. Lack of precision meant they were a bit rattly and had oodles of backlash, so I thought I was wasting my time until I came accross an old Victorian industrial revolution engineering handbook that described a gearform designed for one-way continuous movement that had so much backlash that you could measure it with a standard ruler! Then using a falling weight drive system that I could vary from kilos to grammes, I compared my gears to standard commercial metal gears.....guess what? mine beat them hands down for low friction. Second question: no, not commercially. Can't afford it, and they want to sell you what they have, not what is best for your job. My satisfaction comes from using materials which are to hand, or available easily and cheaply, then finding their strengths and weaknesses, and occasionally stumbling on something interesting and useful. As for bearings, if you dont run them too fast so they judder and chatter, nor overload them so they overheat, it is surprising how loose and easy a fit (and thus low friction) you can get away with. Have you tried googling plastic gears, cycloid and epicyclic gears, clock gears?

"civilian shield lebanon" Having assumed it was common knowledge that part of the Hezbullah tactic was to camouflage its launch sites and other military activities amongst civillians, I was surprised at how vehemently it was denied. So I googled the above keywords, and got so much confirmation that any one link would be unnecessary. Some justify it, some explain how in international law it is illegal, and some say so what, all is fair in love and war. I found none that deny it. On the balance of evidence, case proven for me.

Yep, realise all that, but Big Oz continually referred to friction losses as being important. The best he can do is keep those losses to a minimum, and there is more than one way to skin that cat. If his idea relies on absolute lack of friction, then whatever his theory, that is where it will fail. A completely frictionless mechanism that does some actual useful work? Now that would be some scientific breakthrough!

Oh dear, you must have thought I was talking about machinery designed to move boxes! I use good old muscle power for that, or get the wife to do it. Wars have been fought over even smaller misunderstandings.

. Yes, but: 1. Backlash is reduced by closer fitting teeth, which increase the sliding motion which causes friction which for the purposes of this thread is completely undesirable. Backlash in a mechanism whose rotation is always in the same direction, and where there is no stop-start motion or overrun,is irrelevant. Remarkably friction-free gear tooth forms are available which are designed for one-way rotation only. 2. If an important design criterion is minimal friction, then the commercial technology developed for box-shifting and volume sales production is completely unsuitable.

Fascinating things, mechanical devices. Not being rocket science, it involves areas of technical expertise often regarded as low tech and not worthy of serious attention. From my own practical experience can I point out a couple of "obvious" things worthy of consideration: 1. There are self-lubricating plastics that obviate the need for any additional lubrication whatsoever. 2. Gear tooth profile design is important. Commercial gear design concentrates on smoothness, quietness, compactness and minimum production cost. Low friction often has a low priority. My lowest friction gear trains are the noisiest, using unlubricated metal to plastic bearings, and gear teeth that push rather than slide, and have very generous backlash. Lubricating the bearings and teeth raises friction losses considerably, no matter how thin the oil. Water is quite good, if everything is rustproof, of course.

A big "hear hear" to Martin. The whole storm in a teacup is a semantic nonsense. More than one discussion in these fora has become heated by accusations of semantics. For such a supposedly august body to waste time over it is laughable. And did you see the televised voting procedure? That was a real disorganised circus, hilarious, even the commentators were snorting with derision. (India is a sub-continent, I believe, so I can meet the astronomers halfway and possibly agree that Pluto is a "sub-planet")

Considering the idea that if we all reduce our energy consumption by 50%, the effect will be greatly alleviated, I am trying to persuade my wife to live in a grass-roofed, unheated mud hut and to eat home-grown raw food. I have bought her a bike and promised her an arctic survival suit for the winter months and some oil lamps and candles too. If she does this and more, thus reducing her energy consumption to pre-industrial revolution levels, I reckon I can move out to somewhere comfy and warm with all mod cons, as our joint consumption will have fallen by at least 50%. Good idea? What do you reckon on my chances of success?