Sorry, this is a tongue in cheek thread after reading the thread about camping with toddlers 😀

My summer family camping plans have already been crushed and we are renting a cottage in Wales instead as a compromise. I will however be taking the kids camping sans wife at some point.

It certainly wasn’t WW2 fighters…

I can’t comment on the others but I have a 2013 XTC and like it. Climbs really well and is fun through the singletrack and seems to handle as well as the 26″ Stumpjumper HT it replaced.

The only niggle is that I run the seatpost a touch higher so getting right over the back wheel on steep technical descents isn’t as simple as it was on the Stumpy.

If you are using a windows laptop then Small Basic[/url] is a great place to start.

Coke, whisky and bio yogurt are probably your best bet. Up to you if you make some sort of weird cocktail or not.

I forgot about the virtual thing, best to think in terms of L or XL.

My XL works well for me at 6’3 but also works well for my brother who is your height, although he doesn’t like it with the 120mm stem it came with.

Either a large or extra large depending on your measurements and preferences. I suggest a test on one of each size.

Studying for them is helpful, it exposes you to new functionality not used in many environments and can give you something useful to talk about at interview. The only ones that were really worth something are the rare MCM and MCA qualifications, which are unfortunately no longer available to take.

I have two systems, my workstation has a 6850 (slower version of what you have) my gaming system has an MSI R9-270X Hawk.

There is a considerable difference if gaming at 1080p type resolutions and enabling anti-aliasing etc.

You might be able to find an nVidia 760 just about within your budget which would give similar or slightly better results than the R9-270x.

Chiro sorted me out a few times a few years back; they emptied the wallet in my back pocket I had been sitting on…

Rik,

I also purchased this progresive drum which at the time meant I got the more expensive rollers at a cheaper price 😀

I think they might have dropped the price on the pro’s now but you could still do that so you have a spare ‘normal’ drum.

I purchased a set of these recently.

SportsCrafters

It took about 10 minutes to get the hang of it although I still use a chair to help get going.

I’ve ridden off the side twice, no problem either time and no nasty falls or anything else a merchant of doom (who had never used rollers) said would happen.

Sounds similar to the old Hoover building in Perivale. Apparently drivers on the A40 used to see figures standing on the green in front of the building – it was used to store bodies during the blitz.

I don’t think that’s true. My nan worked in the hoover building through out ww2, it was used as a factory producing electrical components. The area was bombed a fair bit (RAF Northolt was a fighter base just a few miles up the road) but my nan’s stories never included people being killed in the hoover building or anyones bodies being stored there – and she loved a good blitz story.

ernie is not wrong, but the point of our nuclear deterrent is that HM government can launch a strike independently of the US and the US has no control on our bombers or missiles once deployed. If the US decided to stop supporting our nuclear deterrent (the warheads are ours but the missiles sit on missiles from a shared pool) that would cause problems and would probably lead us to building simple nuclear bombs for Typhoon to carry whilst we look at other options; which would probably be to throw our lot in with the French since they probably have less money than us to engineer their next deterrent.

I tend not to think of nuclear weapons as ‘military things’ – they are political tools and bargaining chips.

ah, just realised it has a 2 week use by date on it. It might not work, sorry 😳

YGM,

I can’t believe I spent £280 on there this morning forgetting I had a £5 voucher! Its yours now.

I only recently sold my a1200 with an 030 accelerator and 32mb card. Had a 4gb flash HDD too, very quick. I still play a few games with UAE, superfrog and alien breed are great.

My cd32 and dreamcast will be up for sale if anyone is interested.

Yes, Dellingpole. He did a great job pulling all the usual sceptic agw claims into a book which then goes on to say that the science behind passive smoking is weak, and that DDT should never have been banned and Carson is responsible for thousands of Malaria related deaths.

Pretty much every argument he makes is what you see on threads like this and each one is demolished in the second book recommended.

Do you see what I did there, I gave people a couple of easy to read books that can help people understand the nature of these debates and the all usual crap that gets spouted.

Two easy to read books I recommend if you are just getting into this and are an AGW sceptic:

WaterMellons by James Dellingpole
Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes & Erik Conway

Neither contain any real science but cover many of the usual topics that get thrown up when these sorts of threads appear.

@Richpenny read atlaz post and think about it.

If you go to some UK based far right website you will find on some of them complete guff posted stating that it was UK warmongers who started WW2, that Hitler was provoked into invading poland and that the holocaust just did not happen how the history books state it did.

To get to that you have to fail to acknowledge that history happened. I think we are actually close to arguing in agreement as you clearly think people globally should acknowledge what went on but you don’t think an country should. Surely if all people are to acknowledge the evils of the past it must a good place to start would be the homeland of the perpetrators, no?

With regards to comparing the British Empire of old with modern interventions; I think we should save it for another thread…

I think you misunderstand the point I am trying to make (probably badly) which is; a people who do not acknowledge their countries previous mistakes are perhaps doomed to repeat them.

I’m not suggesting that Putin or any other Russian should stand up and apologies for crimes committed by the Soviet armed forces in WW2 or even for a German teenager to feel they should apologise for the crimes of the SS. But if they refuse to acknowledge that the political systems in place led to these events, and that these events actually occurred then there is a greater chance of these political ideologies once again making an appearance should the socio-economic situation allow for it.

There is very little chance of this happening in the UK but in other European countries I am not so sure.

@RichPenny – I was talking collectively about the Germans and Russians as a people rather than as individuals.

In any case referring back to the OP’s question, it must have been obvious to themselves that they were the baddies;

@aracer – the Soviets didn’t specifically have extermination camps like the Nazi’s but some of the Siberian labour camps were not far off – being sent to one was pretty much a death sentence and many people were sent to them because of their nationality, religiousness or political views.

@Winston_dog, I wasn’t aiming any comments specifically at you. I have had plenty of pub conversations where people are totally unaware how evil the USSR was.

There used to be a train of thought that Russian war crimes could be excused – or at least explained by the fact that the Germans had committed gross atrocities against Soviet citizens during their march eastwards.

Antony Beevor says that this simply does not explain the systematic crimes of the Russians as they then swept westwards as they committed them against Soviet citizens, non-Germans and anyone else they encountered. First hand experience of this was witnessed by allied POW’s whose camps were liberated by the Russians first.

One point I will make is that whilst the majority of Germans acknowledge their war crimes, and most Brits will acknowledge that we went too far bombing Dresden very few Russians today will acknowledge that the Soviet Army committed any war crimes at all. In their eyes the Red Army single handedly defeated Nazism and saved the world.

I think anyone who thinks the Soviet’s were not as bad as the Germans during WW2 hasn’t read enough history. As for saying the Germans started it – which bit? The Russians are just as guilty for the 1939 invasion of Poland as the Germans – look up the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.

Perhaps to some Germans think that the real crimes were only committed by hard core Nazi SS units like the Einstatzgruppen? That way they can distance the crimes as something that average Germans and German military units had no part in? I’m not sure what they teach in German schools but I could imagine some people wanting to not believe that their grandparents could have been a party to such evil.

It’s been a while since I studied this period of history but for a good overview the old World at War series has a good episode on it.

Haven’t Giant now ditched 29er’s?

I managed to get a fantastic deal on a 2013 Giant XTC 29er hardtail, if you like the Anthem 29er maybe you can find one with a good discount?

I think Kipling had it right regarding the relationship between the public and those in the armed forces:

I WENT into a public ‘ouse to get a pint o’ beer,
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, ” We serve no red-coats here.”
The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:
O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ ” Tommy, go away ” ;
But it’s ” Thank you, Mister Atkins,” when the band begins to play
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s ” Thank you, Mister Atkins,” when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but ‘adn’t none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-‘alls,
But when it comes to fightin’, Lord! they’ll shove me in the stalls!
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ ” Tommy, wait outside “;
But it’s ” Special train for Atkins ” when the trooper’s on the tide
The troopship’s on the tide, my boys, the troopship’s on the tide,
O it’s ” Special train for Atkins ” when the trooper’s on the tide.

Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap.
An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit.
Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an` Tommy, ‘ow’s yer soul? “
But it’s ” Thin red line of ‘eroes ” when the drums begin to roll
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it’s ” Thin red line of ‘eroes, ” when the drums begin to roll.

We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;
While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an` Tommy, fall be’ind,”
But it’s ” Please to walk in front, sir,” when there’s trouble in the wind
There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,
O it’s ” Please to walk in front, sir,” when there’s trouble in the wind.

You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires, an’ all:
We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an` Chuck him out, the brute! “
But it’s ” Saviour of ‘is country ” when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
An ‘Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool – you bet that Tommy sees!

As someone who will be affected by this the sooner the whole underground is fully automated the better.*

*actually I don’t really mean that but its my first reaction when they announce they are striking again.

I imagine I am not alone in that and so the strikes are probably somewhat counter productive.

Windows 8 is solid, if she has a win 8 phone and isn’t a Luddite why bother with an older OS?

Hardware wise there is probably not much to worry about since its for office use. Save on the PC hardware and get a decent monitor with a good adjustable stand so it is easy to get comfortable in front of.

Really designed a few years apart when thoughts on the best strategy differed greatly.

The Americans stuck with the philosophy that bombers with heavy defensive armament would always get through right up until the end of the war. Bomber Command on the other hand learned early on (as did the Luftwaffe) that night bombing was really the only option. The Mosquito’s did a fantastic job as path finders setting the cities ablaze so the heavies could easily find them and annihilate the poor people below.

Well I’m certainly happy to spend money on older cars to keep them running but you do have to call a day when you could potentially buy another older car that has been well looked after.

At the time I had to take what the garage told me as I had a knackered car and not a huge amount of time available ergo – get it fixed as economically as possible or sell for spares/repair.

I’ve since learned that for my 407 the most likely cause was it running out of some fiendishly expensive liquid used by the DPF for a regen cycle – there is nothing on the dash to warn you this has all gone and its not a self service item either.

On the plus side I’ve also been told that as my car is a 1.6HDi the EGR bypass should help keep whatever bits cleaner that contribute towards turbo failure. Whether this is a fact I’m not sure, but sounds plausible.

The car now drives great and it’ll be kept until it becomes cheaper to buy something else than fix – hence my earlier comments about switching back to a NA petrol engine when the time comes.

Why do you think the DPF and EGR are supposed to be there OP?

Well, I now know exactly what they are there for…

When the car went wrong and the garage quoted £600+ to repair and warned that I could see another failure within a year or two (apparently thats not unheard of) they suggested I could bypass them for a lot less and get an improvement in economy that would offset the cost of the bypass.

When I asked what they did I was told it all lowered CO2 emissions, and given my car had quite low emissions anyway I was happy with that explanation.

The economics were simple though – would you pay £600-£700 on a 9 year old car with 90,000 miles plus on it knowing that you could face the problem again, or get them removed and plan to run the car into the ground over the next 2-3 years?

Even knowing what I know now about the EGR and DPF I believe I still made the right choice and saved a car from the scrap yard. IMO the technology as implemented on my car in 2004 was not proven and the move towards diesel by many on the basis of better MPG was poor judgement.

A dpf is not a filter in the usual sense, nor is it quite like a catalytic convertor. Even if you drive all long motorway journeys and warm up the engine they can still become clogged, fail and put you in limp mode.

One cause of this is that a regen (which is when you see all the soot blow out) uses a liquid, if that runs out you get no warning until you end up in limp mode.

My 407 went from a 48 mpg average to 60 mpg once the dpf and egr were modified. Throttle response also greatly improved because the engine could now breath better. My car now never produces clouds of soot but yes it probably does chuck out the tiny particles you cannot see.

Having now read up on diesels and owned one I will be going back to petrol once the 407 goes. Cleaner, simpler and IMHO nicer to drive.

Hi PePPeR,

Is that a fact backed by documentation, I’ve not seen anything yet? My MOT runs out in April so happy to MOT now rather than risk having a car that won’t pass without £600+ spending on it.

Cheers

I have a filter, but it was a drilled through. It would pass a visula check. Emissions tests on diesels are just a smoke opacity test as far as I know and it doesn’t sound like that is changing, but the doc is so woolly who knows?

I *think* the opacity test was tightened a couple of years back for cars built after 2008 but again is still pretty liberal.

Whatever happens I’m going back to a naturally aspirated petrol car, most of my mileage is expensed so trading in economy for reliability sounds like a good move.

If the test is going to be really tight I am tempted to get an MOT done before the end of the month and then run the car for a year or breaks. Once its 11 years old it won’t be worth much so selling for scrap or low trade in won’t bother me too much.

I’d definitely spend the extra on a 2012 vintage mac mini if you already have a screen, easily more powerful and can be upgraded to 16Gb and 2 disk drives.

Also not all Intel macs can run Mavericks, my 64 bit Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro can only go as far as Lion. So even if this iMac can run Mountain Lion or Mavericks it might not be able to run whatever comes next.

Article in this months Dirt – The Cost of Doing Business by Darren Roberts from Peak Performance Fitness. Talking about how when you get injured you need to find a specialist to help you recover properly.

He works with the Atherton’s so probably not cheap (or available) but maybe worth a look?

You need to find a specialist who deals with recovery for athletes from serious injuries. The NHS just put you back together, they are not necessarily going to help you get back to where you want to be long term fitness wise and how to stay there.

I wish I had seen a good sports physio after I torn ligaments in my knee 10 years ago.

I just got a pair of Scalpels for £31.50 reduced from £130 from the Aylesbury store.

They had a couple of other pairs still with 75% off, one of which had an original price of £345!

There was also a couple of pairs with 25% off; sorry I don’t know what model any of them actually were though.

I’ve no experience with this model but it sounds a bit like hydraulic lock – as in too much oil has been poured in!

Either that or the motion control unit in the right leg (I’m referring to my 2008 dual air SIDS) could be knackered. ON mine I can unscrew the unit and lift it out of the fork.

I’d give CRC a call and see what they say.