3 buildings all collapse as in a perfect demolition from an "attack"?

something don't add up

I'm not one for 'conspiracy theories', but that one does intrigue me. How did the third World-Trade-Centre building collapse so neatly without the influence of a plane hitting it?

I'm 32 & don't define myself by what I do to pay the bills.

I'm still looking for my ideal career and will, no doubt, be doing the same when I retire.

Mostly cheerful, inquisitive, enthusiastic and will argue a point because I believe it.

I've nothing much to complain about, but often feel like an under-achiever due to my lack of focus -I'm more of a shotgun than a sniping rifle 🙂

You don't need a pit for most DIY car jobs. It might be easier for some things, but hardly worth the effort or danger.

Brakes and CV joints are approached from the side.

Oil changes aren't that difficult using a jack.

Ramps Like these are handy, but the ones I borrowed from my Dad are too narrow for modern tyres and too steep to drive low-bumpered modern cars onto.

I'm no expert, but I've changed the rear suspension on the drive-way using a couple of trolley jacks and some wooden blocks to lift the back of the car.

I'm probably out-of-date, but anyway…

Subjects to be dropped:

Art
-it was a pointless, waste of time at my school and 'taught' by cr'ap, bohemian teachers.

Combined Science
-and any other wishy-washy, vague 'science' that includes no maths or scientific methodology. Real Science only.

Media Studies
-and any other pseudo-subjects that can easily be incorporated into others.

Subjects to be improved:

Maths
Expand the syllabus and make it more difficult.
What is wrong with having a population with a good grasp of maths and arithmetic? Understanding and knowing how to manipulate numbers is a very useful skill that many people seem to struggle with. Admittedly, undergraduate engineering maths was a bit of a chore at times…

English Language
My knowledge of language was gained from Latin, which is ridiculous. Teach pupils English grammar -The younger teachers may struggle these days though…

Physics/Chemistry/Biology
Include the maths and make them difficult.

Languages
This is difficult. As English people (not the Welsh) we are not exposed to foreign languages in the way that many other countries are exposed to English (TV, Film, WWW, books) and so we do not grow up with a second language in the background. Having now actually been to French-speaking and German-speaking countries (and picked up a passable, tourist level) I now wish I'd learned more at school at at time when visiting these places seemed very unlikely.
Foreign exchange trips for all would be a good start.

Overall:
Raise the standards, not just the number of pupils passing a lowering standard. Lower standards benefit nobody.

Who cares how many pass 5 GCSEs if those qualifications aren't actually indicating a good level of education?

What amazes me is that so many people have exceeded the speed limit and survived.

He said Christmas was being sentimentalised into a fairy story, which he said was "tragic"

The rot set in years ago. It was that Jesus-following cult breaking away from the jews and then hijacking our winter festival that started it.

He added: "If we sing nonsense, is it any surprise that children grow into adults and throw out the tearless baby Jesus with Father Christmas and other fantasy figures?"

Not at all. Christianity without the nonsense -that's the way forward. It makes for a very simple belief system 😉

and a few days off work

In our case, 3 days of compulsory leave!

I'd been thinking of sticking with Gore-Tex for trousers and Paramo for the jacket.

I think I'll check out the jackets in a shop.

..That wasnt staged man, no way!

Of course it was. You're not telling me that 'The Stig' -a skilled racing driver (who can recover neatly from a 360) didn't manage a lap without spinning. He'd have quickly sussed-out where he could and couldn't push it and then gone out and put in a reasonable time -that's what racers do.

Granted, the front dampers looked to be shot and short wheelbase like that would make for twitchy handling.

What was the point of doing a Power Lap in a worn-out kit car at all though?

Not the Howgills, but not far away:
Ingleborough Webcam[/url]

Doesn't look like much at the moment.

I'm interested in Paramo, but what I'd like to know is:

On a typical day walking up a steep hill in heavy rain in a saturated (when the water has stopped beading after the first 10-15 minutes …) membraned waterproof jacket the inside will become wet through condensation -I do get fairly hot.

How does Paramo compare?

Gore-Tex etc. work brilliantly in cold, dry/powdery snow conditions, but that's not ideal for the UK.

Do you believe that the spins were both 'accidental'(The second one, especially, was very neatly executed…) and on the same lap and that all the tail-sliding was necessary?

Don't believe everything that you see on TV.

It was a much better episode this week, more-so for me watching on iPlayer and missing out the 'balloon' and 'the News' bits

Remember folks, blind faith in an unproven creator is a virtue and will help one avoid an eternity in hell-fire and brimstone.

Who are we to question the current, and decidedly man-made, beliefs of powerful, domineering religions such as the Catholic church or slightly wishy-washy ones like the C of E?

For every piece of evidence, somebody has thought up an alternative, implausible explanation. How can you doubt this?

I'm sickened.

Next thing you'll be saying that the monarch is not in place due to divine intervention….

If people read my original post, they'll see that I included both left and right-wingers in what I was saying.

I just find people behaving in the way that Melanie Phillips did on QT unpleasant. I too have heard her on the Moral Maze.

Having such a blinkered, conspiracy-theorist view with a constant right/left-wing (as if these things were clearly defined)agenda, often fuelled by loathing (if not actual hatred)seems, to me at least, totally irrational.

Melanie Phillips' blog[/url]

I'm also confused by the frequent references to anti-semitism. Who, other than very fervent, serious jews, even thinks about Judaism? It's not a subject that come up very frequently. In my case, as a non-believing gentile I am indifferent to their faith.

-'Muslims' certainly get a much harder time these days, from what I can see.

In my case, the driver's door was unlocking intermittently and making clicking noises. From memory (it was 5-6 years back) it wouldn't unlock the outside handle, even with the key. The other doors/boot were fine.

I'd disconnect all door and boot connectors then replace the fuse. Connecting them up one at a time and locking/unlocking before connecting the next might highlight which is causing the problem.

My old '00 Focus driver's door lock solenoid failed. The lock mechanism was a single unit so I replaced the entire mechanism.

It was a bit awkward to remove the original, but not too difficult.

Busters/M&P

I laughed at it on the show and then imagined that lots of people would be asking this question on the www today…

…and they are.

Let's spell it out:

It made Gavin feel as if he was in a different country (or principality…)
-There is no 'meaning', which is why Gavin was heard asking Smiffy if he got it later on.

Remember the "fishing trip" thing?

I know its not a direct comparison, but I am comparing a top of the range FWD SAAB, with a bottom of the range RWD BMW.

A bottom of the range Fiesta would handle better than the Saab.

Is Brother Binners now a tee-total, non-drug taking monk?

The only car I've ever driven that has anything hear the immediacy of a bike

So, it has poor traction and you have to be very careful in the wet and over tram tracks?

Can you get the door handles down?

we have a SAAB 93 Aero with 250bhp and the BMW will run circles round it.

That's not much of a comparison though is it? Wheelspin and under-steer are a Saab speciality.

If it's cheap, go for it, although they're only hatchback-sized.

The Audi does tend to ride very hard, and is made even worse when everyone insists on S-Line spec and big wheels…

On most cars, very BIG wheels and rock-hard suspension are over-rated (unless constantly on a smooth track).

Go for the standard setup and gain a bit of comfort, suppleness and point-to-point speed, if that's what you want.

LOL if you only new the truth

Did you really "laugh out loud"?

Many foods are prepared on an industrial scale in ways that would be considered 'disgusting' by the squeamish.

A Big Mac won't generally make you ill or want to retch.

All Bran -horrible
Big Mac -reasonably tasty, but not great cuisine.
Cardboard -dry, fibrous and fairly unpleasant

As I've said, though, I very rarely eat them.

Nowt up with Big Macs once in a while, although I rarely go to McDs myself.

They're full of fat, salt and sugar(like many foods), but they're not disgusting, horrible or puke-inducing, despite the lefty wish to believe it.

Excellent stuff. I hope it makes people think.

There are are few reasons for girls not cycling:

Perceived danger
A real issue, due to the volume of traffic and the ignorant & in some cases, extremely aggressive, attitudes of drivers in the UK. Being squeezed off the road and cut-up are constant hazards.
UK Cycle lanes are generally pathetic -I rarely use them.

The physical effort involved
Despite Many towns being very flat and easy to ride, people in the UK are typically lazy, especially women (not everybody obviously). The possibility of 500g of mascara and eye-liner being dis-lodged by perspiration is also an ever-present possibility.

The weather
The perception that it rains more often than it actually does.

Clothing
the less practical the better, in most cases…

The helmet hair issue
Having spent about half an hour preparing their hair, to wear a helmet will then negate all of the beautification.
-Watch women driving cars, they check their hair and re-arrange it without any obvious improvement about once every minute, unless they can check it more often.

Actually, this is probably more suited to the discerning STWer:

Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillon

I would never be without mine.

Some of these on Ebay look ok

I'd never go to a dealer and ask for a £XXX anything. They'll give you something for £XXX -that may be worth much less.

The thing with watches is that a quartz digital watch does fulfil the same function as a mechanical chronograph and will probably be more accurate.

An expensive or classic car/motorbike/yacht/gun etc. etc. will be different in use to another item, but a watch is a bracelet that tells you what time it is.

Admittedly, I like an analogue dial for the visual aspect of time (like a pie-chart).

If you want a non-dressy watch that's waterproof and tougher than your arm (not sure how useful that is), then what more can you need?:

G-shock

ps. I've a Raymond Weil that I was bought for my 18th birthday. It looks quite nice, but it is less robust than my Casio and doesn't tell me what day of the week it is.

Having friends and relatives who live within the M25 (outer London), the inconvenience-of-life in the Big Smoke is, to my mind, not worth any extra money at all. What will having twice the cash allow you to do? Of course, being well-off would allow you to fly to the Alps on a regular basis, but squeezing it into a weekend wouldn't be too pleasant and how many holidays would you get?

Unless your life revolves only around your vocational occupation, then Edinburgh must be many times more appealing.

Occasionally.

I can usually get a fair few correct.

Is it me or is the Mastermind General Knowledge round easier than it used to be?

I'm going to bury mine in the garden if we have a winter like last year.

At first I thought that you were talking about a DIY ground-source heat pump.

We found that trips to Innerleithen were becoming a bit of chore due to the lack of a proper visitor centre. Given that most of our time on an uplift day is spent in the car park, we decided to go for some relative comfort -rather than sit in the back of an old Mondeo or Civic like most of the chaps there, where it is difficut to manage a proper warm-up massage. Father worked hard so I think we deserve it.

We'll hopefully re-coup some of what we paid for it when we sell, but you can't really put a price on luxury.

Has anybody ever checked if their tyres have actually been filled with only Nitrogen?

Does the content of your tyres support combustion?

Considering that a lot (I suspect the majority) of people have under-inflated tyres and don't notice, it will make f-all difference to most people.

The performance at somewhere like LeMans may be improved, but for Joe Average who bashes up kerbs and drives fast over speed humps, I suspect not.

"We're all middle-class now"

Anyway, who really cares that much about a refrigerator?

The same people who buy an Aga because it's just sooo much, er, less convenient?

Why would a house need an enormous refrigerator? Just because Americans have them, doesn't mean that we do.

We chill far too much of our food these days. In most cases it is just not needed.

Correct. The far North consists of pack-ice, the area of which gets larger and smaller depending up on the season. I have heard that it may soon be viable to take shipping around the NW passage due to reduction in pack ice.

Greenland has become more green in recent years by all accounts. The temperature in Antarctica can become fairly 'mild' at the coast.

There was on of those non-news stories on the BBC about how even Antarctica was warmer than the UK at some point last winter -ie. A coastal research station in the middle of the Antartic summer….
Last winter there was a BRIEF period of heavy snow when a cold front met a warm front. This, of course, brought THE COUNTRY (ie. London) to a stand-still as it is not worth the investment to prepare for such infrequent events in a mild, wet country like ours.

It stands to sense that if the temperature rises then the areas covered constantly with ice will become smaller.

The interior of Antarctica is a high mountain plateau which contributes to the lower temperature.

If you travel to the Alps it can clearly be seen how far glaciers have retreated in recent decades. Glaciers in other ranges may have advanced, but I've not seen any.

There's nothing wrong with a bit of dirt, but….

Don't forget that in The Good Old Days, infant mortality was much higher than now and people were struck down by diseases and injuries that are now considered fairly harmless.

It wasn't offensive, just a very lame episode -as was the previous one.

From the Producer's blog on the TG website:[/url]

"I think show one is strong and show two, where the boys build their own electric car is, I would humbly say, a belter – a little bit of magic happens when they’re all together in one car, Renault Espace convertible stuff."

Top Gear was really good in the past, but they've obviously run out of ideas, which is only to be expected.

Resorting to 'nob gags' and using 'rude words' is a sign of desperation by the producers.

It may be clichéd, but they are now flogging a dead horse.

"Show three is, gasp, for people who like cars, because we want to explore this question of which car company made the greatest number of great cars – and we’ll be asking you for your thoughts very soon on that one. So yeah, show three is a bit geeky,

Apologising for featuring cars?? Heaven forbid that there might be something technical…

I thought it was in some way a car show? It's supposed to be "geeky".

"…and to balance that out we’ve got James’s Caravan Airship film, which will take an exalted place in the pantheon of Cutting Edge Cocking About"

To balance out a car show they'll be showing a 'hilarious' Caravan Airship film… I may be being unfair, James might come up with something good, as he does on his solo TV programmes(and the first series with Oz Clarke)

If I watch the next episode it will be on iPlayer, so that I can watch the "geeky" bit and ignore the rest.

Poor episode, again.

Jumped

The

Shark