Joatmon

You could use it in the production of gun powder - sadly, you would probably have little difficulty in selling it, http://www.wisegeek.com/can-you-really-make-gunpowder-from-urine.htm

I think you are wise - it would probably not be a good idea to be wearing more expensive clothes than your interviewer(s)!

The same principles apply to aircraft wings.

If the ass went on strike you could have a colostomy. Perhaps the true moral of this story is that no-one is indispensable.

Perhaps sometimes we just have to go along for the ride. Enjoy the journey and not worry too much about the imponderables.

I went to 2 grammar stalags when I was a kid. I don't remember armbands with swastikas being part of the school uniform.

You might like to use punctuation so that this makes a sentence - "James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher".

I feel inclined to make a small comment. Some people refer to their time away from the forum as "in real life". I consciously avoided this term because anything I spend time on is part of my real life. I guess I see the forum as a kind of hobby/interest thing. It is as real as any other hobby I have had which have been part of my "real life" such as karting, rock climbing, gliding, chess and poker. Like it or not - you are all part of my "real life"!

Nice to know a sense of humour has its place here. The replies to this topic have got me doing a bit of self analysis - me being me I'll probably post it (publish and be damned!). Hi handsome! Make the best use you can of it now - it doesn't last for ever.

In UK colleges, certainly in my day, most lecturers worked wearing sports jacket and tie (not a suit). The interview was "sudden death" where all the selected suitable candidates were interviewed together. Part of the interview was being taken round the college by the head of the relevant department. On my interview we had to move between buildings in the pouring rain and I remember the man who was to become my head of department saying to us "I know we have all got our interview suits on, but we shall just have to dash through the rain to the next building". This demonstrates that we had been expected to "dress up a level" from our usual working dress (as in fact we all had).

As I suspected, I treat my posts rather differently to the majority of you. Most of you seem to present well thought out posts in a formal manner. Most of you seem rather guarded about what you reveal of yourselves. Probably, and I think it has a lot to do with my age, I treat the forum in a much more casual way. I post almost immediately what I am thinking without regard to how much of myself I reveal. In my posts I can be serious, particularly if trying to help a student with a homework problem. However, I spend a lot of time in the lounge where some of my posts can be tongue in cheek or even jocular; these can easily be misunderstood. I think there is a paradox in that forum members, who I don't know, sometimes see more of my innermost thoughts (or soul) than people who really do know me well. BTW swansont must be quite old if he has a 24 year old bot!

Some time ago I spoke to someone on the phone who I hadn't seen for many years. We agreed to speak again and I told her of my interest in the forum and how to see what I had posted saying she would get some idea of my present day thoughts and interests. After I put the phone down I thought about this and had doubts about whether I had been wise! I think, because of the general anonymity, I am much less inhibited than I am in my everyday life. I tend to say and do things without hesitation when in contact with forum members. Anything I do or say is genuine in the sense that it is what I am thinking at the time - but often beyond what I would do or say in my everyday life (such as writing, no doubt technically dreadful, poetry). Does this ring any bells with you? If I met you in everyday life might you come across as someone with a different personality to that which you show on the forum?

I have had to interview people in the past and there is no doubt in my mind that first impressions count. The first impression, before anyone speaks, is visual. Also, logical or not, prejudice cannot be avoided. I last had the task of conducting interviews about 30 years ago so things may be a bit different today - but human nature doesn't change and so I doubt it. I would expect someone seriously wanting to make a good impression to err toward the formal rather than the casual. Definitely wear a suit and tie. Make sure you have a clean shirt and clean shoes - not sandals. Don't worry about lapel width, pleats or not, and tie width - be more concerned with personal cleanliness paying attention to details such as finger nails. Make sure your hair has been recently had attention from your barber. As I've admitted, prejudice cannot be completely ruled out and I would find today's fashion for metal studs and face tattoos a real turn off. Just as important as dress try to look your interviewer(s) straight in the eye, smile and look confident. now accept the offered chair and let the interview proper start!

I'm wondering whether your body odour, if at all noticeable, has actually changed. Perhaps what you are experiencing is either some sort of lingering memory of your closeness. Perhaps if your wife does have a noticeable odour whatever is causing it (e.g. bacteria) has infected your nose. Has any of your friends mentioned you smell like your wife? Perhaps not because you would have to wonder how they knew.

As I say, I've no experience in this field. I would think you are right about wood and similar materials because (IMO) unless the oxygen was completely replaced with the nitrogen for long enough to completely stop the burning process plus time for cooling below a certain temperature the wood could easily reignite. If the oxygen was not completely replaced then it seems to me you would have the conditions to slowly change wood to charcoal. I don't know, but can smouldering wood continue to smoulder without oxygen? I've just googled charcoal production and it seems that oxygen is not necessary - this even more supports what you say!

I wouldn't disagree with you about the effectiveness of Halon 1301 - apart from anything else its something I don't really know anything about! I started commenting simply because I remembered the earlier nitrogen based system we used in the 1970's. This led to me reading the link in my earlier post which claims it has just about been banned in the UK. It is likely that, due to its effectiveness, it is still used in the US.

Although Halon 1301 is an extremely efficient fire suppressant, it does have environmental and possible health issues and I believe it is beginning to lose favour for those reasons. To get some idea of how much inert gas you might need see the picture in the link! http://www.wi-ltd.com/fire/Suppression_and_Extinguishing_Systems/Gas_Extinguishing/Nitrogen_Inert_Gas_Extinguishing_System

I think this is how most men view most women!

In a computer suite in which I worked in in the 1970's there was an automatic system that rapidly flooded the rooms with nitrogen. There was an alarm because the system would also extinguish your life if you wasted time getting out. Also the rooms (computers were that large in those days) had doors that would automatically close as the gas was released! I doubt that something as small as a grenade could contain enough gas to do the job especially if the area in which the fire existed was not enclosed.

There seems to me to be a place for conjectures. That is to say accept with caution what seems to be very likely true and which has not been proved to be untrue. Sometimes ideas seem to run out of logical extension and then someone has a "brainwave" which allows a jump over a gap in logic. I think that sometimes working on the assumption that the "brainwave" is true is fair enough until such time it can be proved false. While you are using the conjecture you are in effect accepting someone's personal opinion. To remove this use of opinion would IMO slow the advancement of science.

I realise what you are asking (and that I'm nit picking) - but I'll just mention that light travels slower in a fibre optic cable than it does through air. "It's actually a light signal that travels through a fibre optic cable. The speed is the speed of light divided by the refractive index of the material. This works out to around 200 million metres per second." h ttp://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_speed_of_electrical_signal_in_optical_fiber_cable

Seeing the term "shift and add" reminded me of a mechanical office machine common in the 1950's called a comptometer. This machine had several columns of keys, each column numbered 1 to 9. They used a form of shift and add (perhaps in this case add and shift). In the example attached an operator would start from the right and press keys 8 and 7 simultaneously six times. They would then move their fingers one row to the left and press keys 8 and 7 five times. The result (87 multiplied by 56) would appear in the display. What the machine did in this example was add 87*6 to 870*5. The operators of these machines could usually produce results faster than the early electronic devices and remained in use for many years. http://www.vintageca...omptometer.html

Actually you are all getting much too fanciful and dreaming up unlikely explanations. The obvious answer lies much nearer home (during daylight hours) - Count Dracula is on the prowl again! I'll bet if asked then we should find that iwasbitten was bitten whilst asleep in the night with his right foot out of the covers. He possibly heard the Count muttering to himself "feel foot feed, feel foot feed".