French.At school: a compulsory part of the curriculum, but in the upper school's Fifth Year (ending at or approaching age 16) we could choose which subject to drop from the menu of national school-leaving examinations called the General Certificate of Edu...  moreFrench.At school: a compulsory part of the curriculum, but in the upper school's Fifth Year (ending at or approaching age 16) we could choose which subject to drop from the menu of national school-leaving examinations called the General Certificate of Education 'Ordinary Levels'.* I dropped History and French, largely through thinking I would not be able to remember enough for passing examinations, and it gave me more time to revise for the other subjects. I struggled with all those irregular verbs and gendered nouns, too. Our family had never had holidays abroad and I honestly saw myself never visiting France - its nearest coast across the English Channel, was less 100 miles South of our home. (Though the ferries all used ports at least that distance to our East.)Only a few years after that decision, I visited France for the first of I think about ten holidays there...
Actually I don't need go abroad for a "foreign" language. A drive of about 100 miles would take me into Wales, whose own language is still very ...    less

VTOL vehicles... See the discussion elsewhere on parking, and that's in two dimensions, not three!Is he serious with his idea? It looks all very futuristic and misses the point that you might build factories, homes, shops etc but still need attract compan...  moreVTOL vehicles... See the discussion elsewhere on parking, and that's in two dimensions, not three!Is he serious with his idea? It looks all very futuristic and misses the point that you might build factories, homes, shops etc but still need attract companies to them; and you also need address why you import so much from the Far East (Far West?). It's no good building big mass-production plants if they can't sell their products at below Chinese, Indian or South American prices. No employment prospects means no incentive for couples to move there, and to breed (no future work for the fruit of their loins); but even if the places are established they would need far smaller work-forces than in the past for the same output of similar products. Or rather than one or two big firms, a plethora of smaller, highly-specialised, trades might work.Someone elsewhere sent me a link to photos of the derelict Packard(?) car factory - I forget the city - but it remains a ruin because the city cannot afford to clear the site, and ...    less

I know! More to the point, same word with two very different meanings. :-)

Money into my bank account.....

I'm surprised someone didn't pick you on "the best", of two! :-)Me? I'd not worry about either. I'd probably buy by price though the Haagen-Dazs does seem the better value by proportions of main ingredient. Most of the other ingredients are only vegetable...  moreI'm surprised someone didn't pick you on "the best", of two! :-)Me? I'd not worry about either. I'd probably buy by price though the Haagen-Dazs does seem the better value by proportions of main ingredient. Most of the other ingredients are only vegetable extracts but their presence does dilute the title fruit proportion. I think the corn syrup Livvie avoids is there as a thickener.  

March 26th here in the UK, where it is called "British Summer Time". 1 hour of ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, based on noon at the Greenwich Meridian (0º Longitude).Depending on which change, many people witter about an hour less or more in bed, but I...  moreMarch 26th here in the UK, where it is called "British Summer Time". 1 hour of ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, based on noon at the Greenwich Meridian (0º Longitude).Depending on which change, many people witter about an hour less or more in bed, but I have never bought that because the hours of day and night do not change, only the clock time, so the supposed loss or gain is taken up on the first night of the new time setting. I let myself sleep naturally then adjust the clocks after getting up.  

Never really thought about it but I suppose I reverse into a parking space far more often than driving in forwards. Then exiting is easier and safer.I live in a fairly narrow street with no parking spaces on each home's land, so like everyone else need pa...  moreNever really thought about it but I suppose I reverse into a parking space far more often than driving in forwards. Then exiting is easier and safer.I live in a fairly narrow street with no parking spaces on each home's land, so like everyone else need park parallel to the kerb, very often with very little room to manoeuvre. In that situation, and compounded by having a front-wheel drive car, parking parallel forwards is virtually impossible when there is not much room fore-and-aft between cars already there, so you have to reverse in.I fitted a reversing-camera above the rear window to help me.  less

Not strange, British spelling too, and two different words!The Kerb is the raised strip along the edge of the road, Curb means to stop, hinder or reduce.As in: Use the brakes to curb the car's speed when approaching the kerb!

It's pretty much the same across the major social-media trade; and there has been a lot of trouble with some sites refusing out of hand to give back deceased users' material to the families, or to close the accounts.   Interestingly, that YouTube lic...  moreIt's pretty much the same across the major social-media trade; and there has been a lot of trouble with some sites refusing out of hand to give back deceased users' material to the families, or to close the accounts.   Interestingly, that YouTube licence says it not only has it assumed the right to do whatever it damn' well wants with your material, however destructive; but it also has no qualms about anyone else using it. So it is not taking copyright, unlike some photographic sites that use anti-copying protection.That may be because it does not make money from your contributions, but nor is it ever going to pay you anything for them. Instead it makes money from chopping them into one-minute segments and selling the interruptions to the vast number of advertising-agencies there are, to fill with childish, meretricious guff of no relevance to the video at all.  less

Is that clothing for individuals who are mainly men, or mainly men's clothing that is surplus...?If our local charity shops are any guide, it's women's clothes that form most of the surplus!

I am usually careful to dismantle things so I can re-assemble them, but.... It is certainly not my drawing-board, a whacking great professional-size thing with a very heavy board mounted on a parallelogram link motion balanced by a massively powerful spri...  moreI am usually careful to dismantle things so I can re-assemble them, but.... It is certainly not my drawing-board, a whacking great professional-size thing with a very heavy board mounted on a parallelogram link motion balanced by a massively powerful spring, and locked at the height and angle you set by a very complicated brake mechanism. I took it apart without making any notes because I'd tried to convert to using CAD (Computer Aided Draughting), thought I would no longer need a space-hungry and extremely heavy drawing board, but failed to find a buyer for it so decided I may as well scrap it.Then discovered the word "Aided" needs be taken with a very generous pinch of salt.... "Hindered" is more appropriate. I thought learning to make MS 'Access' databases hard but this is even worse.So I tried to re-assemble the thing. No joy. I could not work out how it should be, nor how to adjust it; ended up with not only small parts but also holes left over. It's still in bits, and I have to be content with using t...    less

A TikTok user?

I had no idea until hearing an essay on it during last week's edition of the BBC Radio Four programme From Our Own Correspondent, why the town of East Palestine is the unfortunate focus of attention in the USA. The journalist was commentating on the after...  moreI had no idea until hearing an essay on it during last week's edition of the BBC Radio Four programme From Our Own Correspondent, why the town of East Palestine is the unfortunate focus of attention in the USA. The journalist was commentating on the aftermath of the tanker-train derailment there.  

I've visited neither but I would hazard a guess that the East Palestine, only four or five thousand miles West of Palestine the country, is at least peaceful.Oh, and the River Jordan is in England.I kid thee not: a stream all of two miles long if that, ne...  moreI've visited neither but I would hazard a guess that the East Palestine, only four or five thousand miles West of Palestine the country, is at least peaceful.Oh, and the River Jordan is in England.I kid thee not: a stream all of two miles long if that, near the Southern English town of Weymouth.Bethlehem? South Wales: a hamlet near Llandovery.  

Not as far as I know; but it an air-gas mixture that is "explosive" and each flammable gas need its own ratio mix.Hydrogen is not intrinsically any more dangerous than natural-gas, town-gas (which was toxic as well as flammable) or vapours such as from pe...  moreNot as far as I know; but it an air-gas mixture that is "explosive" and each flammable gas need its own ratio mix.Hydrogen is not intrinsically any more dangerous than natural-gas, town-gas (which was toxic as well as flammable) or vapours such as from petrol; but all flammable materials need air as well to burn. Its problem is that people will still keep waffling on about the Hindenburg and R101 airship disasters to show how awful hydrogen is, instead of asking what might have caused those accidents. That use of hydrogen was indeed extremely risky, but the Hindenburg fell in flames after something ignited a lot of leaking hydrogen: the awful newsreel of the disaster is often foreshortened to the fire only, so does not show what was happening before the fire first broke through the hull fabric. The R101 flew too low and crashed into a French hillside - then caught fire - on its maiden flight, because for political reasons its contemporary government rushed it into service poorly-designed, not properly tested and...    less

Still at school, in the Upper Sixth Form. (I was 17.)

Radar or sonar so you won't bump into lamp-posts etc. when you are walking along the street; which as we all know is where you spend the entire time gazing at, and tap-tap-tapping away on, the thing.

There is a somewhat similar policy in the UK.This is not to ban gas appliances per se, but to no longer fit gas-mains into homes built from a certain date in future, possibly 2035, but that may change.Meanwhile, trials of blending natural-gas with hydroge...  moreThere is a somewhat similar policy in the UK.This is not to ban gas appliances per se, but to no longer fit gas-mains into homes built from a certain date in future, possibly 2035, but that may change.Meanwhile, trials of blending natural-gas with hydrogen are underway, and I am told by a friend who is a registered gas-fitter, that the domestic boiler manufacturers are now making them simple (for an accredited professional) to adjust to burn the blend or even, in future, just hydrogen.The policy was formulated a few years ago, and part of cutting down on using mineral fuels for purely environmental reasons; nothing to do with the war in Ukraine. Nor with those rather specious claims about health, since if the gas is burning properly, its products are carbon-dioxide and water. Also, gas-stoves have been so universal for so long in so many countries, that any illnesses from using them in properly-ventilated kitchens would likely have been identified long ago.   less

It most likely can't because it will probably have various safety-devices to ensure it can only turn on via its internal control circuit that monitors such actions as water-flow, fan and finally verifying ignition and continuing flame.My central-heating a...  moreIt most likely can't because it will probably have various safety-devices to ensure it can only turn on via its internal control circuit that monitors such actions as water-flow, fan and finally verifying ignition and continuing flame.My central-heating and hot water to the taps and shower uses a gas-fired combination-boiler, but if we have an electricity power-cut, it will not work for either function! I could still heat kettles of water, and cook, by gas-stove... unless the power-cut would also turn the gas off at the so-called "smart"-meter. Luckily, power-cuts are rare where I live, and don't normally last more than a few hours.     less

They've still to find, salvage and analyse the wreckage, haven't they? (On 13th Feb.)

Hard to see what, if anything, the USA would gain by physically breaking the pipeline; but anyway has anyone actually said they would do that? It would probably have more to lose than gain; especially as purchases or refusals of purchases of, Russian gas ...  moreHard to see what, if anything, the USA would gain by physically breaking the pipeline; but anyway has anyone actually said they would do that? It would probably have more to lose than gain; especially as purchases or refusals of purchases of, Russian gas do not affect America - except perhaps cynically by increasing exports of American LNG. In the end the Germans and other European allies of the USA, and Ukraine, would be the ones to suffer; not Russia, not the USA.   

A steel rule.Though since I am not likely to use one in Death Valley or at the South Pole, I doubt the theoretical error is enough to worry me!

I do use the computer for more than messages and sites like this, including CAD, and occasional spreadsheets and documents, so need a reasonably large screen. Also my typing is so ropey I doubt I could cope with a tablet or "smart"-'phone. At work once I ...  moreI do use the computer for more than messages and sites like this, including CAD, and occasional spreadsheets and documents, so need a reasonably large screen. Also my typing is so ropey I doubt I could cope with a tablet or "smart"-'phone. At work once I was tasked with listing hundreds of documents on an archive spreadsheet, already on a lap-top isolated from the main system. Despite putting it on a ring-binder as an improvised writing-slope, I found it physically very awkward to use.  Most of my 'phone calls are social ones by land-line on a free evenings and weekends tariff; but a few people I know, including one of my sisters, use portable 'phones so it makes sense for me to follow suit when telephoning them.  less

Probably about £40 for a pair of safety-shoes, for work; though about £70 for a pair of walking-boots.

As many as are provided, as I tend to eat in establishments that give you the cutlery for each course wrapped in its own paper serviette.

Just re-read the OP. You have or had a land-line, so did you not use the Internet by computer and broadband account?(I'm writing this on a PC connected to the same line as my telephone. My portable 'phone is not really suitable for Internet use, although ...  moreJust re-read the OP. You have or had a land-line, so did you not use the Internet by computer and broadband account?(I'm writing this on a PC connected to the same line as my telephone. My portable 'phone is not really suitable for Internet use, although that is theoretically possible.)  

I find you can partly unfold the top then cut the corner off with scissors.I don't know if you see them where you live, but I sometimes buy little, single-portion cardboard cartons of fruit-juice, each with a straw attached. You don't open the box but pus...  moreI find you can partly unfold the top then cut the corner off with scissors.I don't know if you see them where you live, but I sometimes buy little, single-portion cardboard cartons of fruit-juice, each with a straw attached. You don't open the box but push the straw through a small aluminium-foil disc in the top. So far so good. It works very well.... but if you inadvertently squeeze the carton, the straw emits a squirt of juice over you or the surroundings! I rather miss the little "Innovations" mail-order catalogues that used to be packed inside magazines like Radio Times. They offered a wonderful assortment of all sorts of things, including many you don't really need but can't do without. Noise-hair clippers, "sonic" mole-repellers, humane spider-traps, bust-enhancing pads (well, I can do without those), roof-gutter grids to trap leaves.....  less

'Velcro' closures.Double-sided adhesive tape and its cover-paper.A coffee-percolator, to fill it.

Cardboard milk cartons - designed to be almost impossible to open without splashing, to pour cleanly until at least a third empty, and to re-close when you use only some of the milk at a time.
 
Flashing headlamps for bicycles - probably not legal, b...  moreCardboard milk cartons - designed to be almost impossible to open without splashing, to pour cleanly until at least a third empty, and to re-close when you use only some of the milk at a time.
 
Flashing headlamps for bicycles - probably not legal, but usually far too intense, tightly focussed and poorly fitted, so far more a danger to oncoming road users than a real way-finding and warning lamp. Electric scooters - not proper motor-scooters with their petrol engines replaced by electric motors and batteries; but the powered version of the children's old toy scooter.Big-bore (car) exhausts - resonators designed so car owners wanting but not having the skills, means or maturity to make a decent custom-car, can make their run-of-the-mill sales-rep trolleys sound like tractors with broken silencers. In the UK they may be illegal, but anyway would fail the car's MoT tests and probably void the insurance if the company has not agreed its use! I once saw not one, but two, of these contraptions on one small car; n...    less

They complain about being "dehumanizing" but such mangling of the language is at least as bad.  I wonder who exactly has been so offended personally (not self-appointedly on the supposed behalf of random third-parties) that they have had to go runni...  moreThey complain about being "dehumanizing" but such mangling of the language is at least as bad.  I wonder who exactly has been so offended personally (not self-appointedly on the supposed behalf of random third-parties) that they have had to go running to Associated Press about it? Indeed, has anyone been so offended? Where it will it end?It makes one aspect of George Orwell's 1984 rather prescient: diminishing and corrupting the language to suit narrow political ends. I am white, I am British, specifically English. If someone on a foreign (to me) forum refers to "the whites", "the British / Britons", "the English", would I be offended for myself, or my entire nation or my race? NO, unless the text is being nasty; and then it would be the message rather than individual words that matters.  I do mean ordinary, innocent words and grammar, not ones themselves are intended from the start to be rude.It is context that counts, and if some American calls me "a Limey", I'd object only if he was being sarcastic...    less

Oh, it's one's gas flabbered. And here's me thinking it's the flabber being gasted.

I do but since I rarely need do so more than once or twice a year, and never had to wear one at work, I am not very good at it!

Wind Chill: the effect of the wind on the human body, extracting heat from it by removing the thin layer of warm air that would otherwise surround you. The real air temperature is still that quoted - the 23º in this case - and that would be also...  moreWind Chill: the effect of the wind on the human body, extracting heat from it by removing the thin layer of warm air that would otherwise surround you. The real air temperature is still that quoted - the 23º in this case - and that would be also the temperature of exposed, inert surfaces once they have stabilised to the air temperature.  

I can think of many uses for Plane and Solid Geometry, and their friends in Mensuration, Trigonometry and co-ordinates (Graphs and Vectors), and I do use some of them.Sacred Geometry though? That's a name new to me.I know the term Pure Geometry, which exa...  moreI can think of many uses for Plane and Solid Geometry, and their friends in Mensuration, Trigonometry and co-ordinates (Graphs and Vectors), and I do use some of them.Sacred Geometry though? That's a name new to me.I know the term Pure Geometry, which examines the properties of lines and shapes qualitatively, not numerically. That was part of the School Maths syllabus I was taught, with such problems as Proving length AB = length CD in some irregular plane figure by their relationships, not by calculating units of measure. We did also learn numerical geometry: areas, volumes and trigonometry; and on to graphs of equations whose geometry yields to basic Calculus. Well, we were taught them. Not sure I learnt much... (The Advanced Level Maths syllabus included 3D Graphs, Vectors, the Conic Sections and the Calculus of Solids of Revolution.)"Sacred" though...? Many of the Theorems and Proofs in Pure Geometry were established by the Classical Greek philosophers, and they did imbue their studies with much mysticism an...    less

15-20 ya.... I've an idea that may have been before I started using the Internet!I was used to using computers at work, having been introduced to them there around the time that Microsoft MS-DOS was changing to WIN-3.1. I'd also bought my own first PC, an...  more15-20 ya.... I've an idea that may have been before I started using the Internet!I was used to using computers at work, having been introduced to them there around the time that Microsoft MS-DOS was changing to WIN-3.1. I'd also bought my own first PC, an Amstrad PCW9512, in about 1990.Yet although my works use included the company Intranet I was wary of putting my much later, home "confuser" on-line for quite some years.My first use at home? Using Google Maps' photographs to determine the location hence National Grid Reference of a particular, small, local geological feature..I have a discreet sat-nav instrument, a TomTom, in my car but don't own a "smart"-'phone so can't use the Internet for navigation or any other purpose away from home. I use a printed road-atlas to plan long journeys to unfamiliar places, with the "sat-nag"* to home in on the destination. If walking in unfamiliar countryside I would use an Ordnance Survey map - which unlike a simple digital display shows you the terrain and obstacles betwee...    less

I live on part of the so-called "Jurassic Coast", of Southern England; a Geological World Heritage Site for its unbroken succession of rocks younging West to East up through the entire Jurassic sequence and into the Cretaceous.The name is a bit misleading...  moreI live on part of the so-called "Jurassic Coast", of Southern England; a Geological World Heritage Site for its unbroken succession of rocks younging West to East up through the entire Jurassic sequence and into the Cretaceous.The name is a bit misleading because it is the rocks that are of Jurassic Age. The coast that exposes them, is geologically very young.As well as the scientific interest it is also very beautiful, attracting many tourists generally as well as visiting geologists.  

Never mind the nuptials... It's the cave that interests me!

Not very well but I think I can summarise it from memory.It did not really have much of a story, certainly no plot. Really it was musing on what ghosts think of humans, and telling each other of the frightening encounters they'd had with the living.It des...  moreNot very well but I think I can summarise it from memory.It did not really have much of a story, certainly no plot. Really it was musing on what ghosts think of humans, and telling each other of the frightening encounters they'd had with the living.It described how the ghostly residents of a particularly haunted house felt as dawn approached and humans started to wake up. They were as frightened of that as we are supposed to be frightened of ghosts.  ...When I was only about 11 Ii suppose, my Dad bought an anthology of ghost stories. I should not have read it at that age: some of the tales were very frightening, others were very strange but obviously frightening, but I was too young to spot the literary trick that made them all seem real!I do enjoy a good ghost story now; but I am also interested in what people do report. Real experiences that are alarming and inexplicable at the time, though harmless and not supernatural. Some are quite common, I have experienced one or two, and they do crop up as "ghost s...    less

Re-written because you had me worried I had made the mistake, and had replied as such!

Ummm. "Seen". "Cold".Is there a flaw there somewhere?

That reminds me of a rather touching ghost story I once read, that neatly turned the fear tables.

Blimey, if it took me twenty years to sell a car I've no hope of selling it.Errr. Oh. Um, my last relationship ended twenty-two years ago!OK. Ditto, pro-rata.

Oh the irony.I am not bothered which celebrity or ex-politician is advertising it. If I were a practicing Christian, possibly even if a Jew or Muslim, I would regard that as at least foolish, if not offensive or even blasphemous. The Bible's aim is to pro...  moreOh the irony.I am not bothered which celebrity or ex-politician is advertising it. If I were a practicing Christian, possibly even if a Jew or Muslim, I would regard that as at least foolish, if not offensive or even blasphemous. The Bible's aim is to promulgate a message above and beyond shallow politicians, politics and nations; and for any nation to use it to claim itself as some sort of God's Chosen Own above all others..... Any but especially nations founded by English, Dutch, French, Spanish, etc. colonists escaping monarchies and religious divisions at home, or just looking for plunder; then who worked hard to oppress both continents' original inhabitants, cultures and religions. While blaming poor old God for their actions.Isn't overweening pride a sin or something?Render unto Caesar, etc. I can't quote it verbatim but it's a well-known point.  less

Thankyou! I didn't know if the shrub is wide-spread or confined to NW Europe.Oh, no co-incidence! Given half a chance it spreads like mad!

Yell? Yell???If were that perfect I would be above such unseemly outbursts!

The MatressThe Sound Of MuzakBrass FingerThe Good The Bad And The OrdinaryThe Watercress File  ('Ipcress')The Olympic    (One for the maritime historians, there!)One-Hundred-And-One MongrelsFour Weddings And A FunfairThe Exercise ('Exo...  moreThe MatressThe Sound Of MuzakBrass FingerThe Good The Bad And The OrdinaryThe Watercress File  ('Ipcress')The Olympic    (One for the maritime historians, there!)One-Hundred-And-One MongrelsFour Weddings And A FunfairThe Exercise ('Exorcist')Monty Python & The Holy GruelSmouldering SaddlesTiler On The RoofThe Lambshank RedemptionThe Titfield Spark  ('Titfield Thunderbolt')Teamwork On The BountyThe Puns of Navarone  

Oh very much so....

Clearing nettles or picking blackberries*, in the nude.....*Does the wild Bramble with its edible fruits, the blackberries, grow anywhere in the States?

Isn't that the wrong end, though....?Seriously, I hope the two cats were not affected adversely in their respective ways.

Continuing Malizz' point, many UK shops do now offer heavy-duty bags that can be used many times if you are careful with them. Examining one from Aldi, it looks as made from some sort of woven plastic fabric given an outer coating; and it is quite rugged....  moreContinuing Malizz' point, many UK shops do now offer heavy-duty bags that can be used many times if you are careful with them. Examining one from Aldi, it looks as made from some sort of woven plastic fabric given an outer coating; and it is quite rugged.Also the goods' own packaging - of any material - has to be recoverable as far as possible, and the makers put basic advice on the labels, along with the standard triangular "recycling" symbol where appropriate. At work I had sometimes to put in the salvage skips, used computer packing. These were typically heavy-duty cardboard boxes containing moulded polystyrene-foam "nests". However, many other items arrived with the shock-absorbing parts now as ingenious cardboard origami; or with those polystyrene foam "maggots" replaced with ones made from vegetable material - and reputably edible though I did not test that!   We do have extensive "recycling" systems in the UK but they vary in detail from County Council to County Council, possibly depending partly on ...    less