Not sure, but I think nerve damage can take several months to heal, and a blow to the elbow could well do that. Then again, maybe you broke something, did you get an X-ray?

2350 millimetres instead of 2035 millimetres.

Christ, you leave one foot gaps in walls? Jeez.

I'm not sure whether it's fair to describe the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as "green activists"

Read the link. They cut and paste a figure from a WWF report, in turn lifted from a New Scientist interview.

I'm still wondering how confusing a date 25 years from now with one 340 years from now is like a spelling mistake. It smacks of a typo being reproduced several times by people who should have had the common sense to spot jarring nonsense when they see it. The point is the IPCC should not be taking stuff fed to them by pressure groups on face value without thinking about it.

Let's take a similar example… suppose some other official body had lifted a figure from an unchecked source and used it in a a report used to inform policy… say, like, oh I dunno, re-arrange the words 'Iraq', 'WMD' and '45 minutes'.

When you misread a number…….like 2350 instead of 2035 ?

I'm constantly doing that at work……. I don't expect a backlash though.

If a scientist, engineer, builder, accountant or doctor made such mistakes with numbers on a regular basis, I would certainly expect some form of backlash… loss of job, buildings not standing up, fraud investigations, deaths, that kind of thing.

Hmm, yes, obviously putting numbers the wrong way round is _just_ like a spelling mistake. Do that when you're writing cheques do you?

Anyway Ernie you miss my point – green activists do the science no service by over egging the pudding – it invites skepticism.

If you over hype things, expect a backlash.

I don't care about your child

That's nice.

What I don't understand is people who argue that it is ok to wake up a baby at 6.30pm but not OK to make noise late at night. There's no difference, you either consider other people or you don't.

do you apologise to your neighbours for your screaming child?

Most people do, in my experience.

This thread is very instructive about some people's attitudes. If I was asked to be keep the noise down while a neighbour got their baby to sleep I'd be very happy to. What's wrong with a bit of consideration for other people?

EDIT: In fact I'd like to think I wouldn't need to be asked to keep the noise down in the early evening if there was a tiny baby next door. In fact I might use it as an opportunity to socialise my teenage son by expecting him to turn his music down and stop shouting at his mates on XBox Live for a bit.

What I really need is professional publishing software and a document management system.

LaTeX and CVS?

Unlike the OpenOffice format of course, which is.. errr.. oh XML.

That doesn't really mean anything, XML is essentially the syntax used to describe the format, not the format itself.

Not a popular choice I expect but I hate "Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate", because it's nonsense and doesn't sit well with the rest of the movie. Allegedly it was improvised by Rutger Hauer.

Great Apes by Will Self deserves a mention.

And personally I can't relate to anyone that doesn't love Douglas Adams.

Graham Greene also highly recommended.

+1 for OpenOffice. It just works.

Unlike MS Word for example which is broken.

I can recommend this place:

http://www.allcottages.co.uk/hoptonhouse

Lovely views over Carsington Water, with walks and child-friendly cycling nearby, short drive up to Matlock and the Peak District proper. Stayed there a couple of times with similar sized group to you. Not too far from A50 for easy access from M1 and M6.

Of course you realise Derbyshire is a lot closer to London than Edinburgh…

If you want to cite a reference from that magazine as a refutation of the IPCC report then I wish you all the best convincing anyone of its validity. Very poor source indeed – that was only 10 mins googling to get that.
magazine here
contents heremagazine here
british quote here from bonkers magazine

I know we're veering off-topic here, but this article from this "Executive Intelligence Review" magazine-for-nutters is superb stuff:

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2010/3701brit_follow_edward7.html

Jan. 2—As the New Year begins, there is an unmistakable pattern of British-provoked asymmetric warfare around the globe, particularly in the aftermath of the Monarchy's failure at the December 2009 Copenhagen conference on global warming. At the Commonwealth meeting in Trinidad & Tobago in November, Queen Elizabeth II stepped directly onto the world stage, to declare, on behalf of the British Monarchy, "We are in charge." But just weeks later, the British failed miserably in their attempt to use Copenhagen to strike a death blow against the Westphalian system of sovereign nation-states, and to depopulate the planet.

Since Copenhagen, the British have launched a new global "strategy of tensions," beginning with the physical assault against Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and then, against Pope Benedict XVI. A senior U.S. intelligence source warned that the targeting of Berlusconi and the Pope signaled a new round of British destabilizations against all of continental Europe. When London goes to war against continental Europe, it always starts with Italy, a U.S. intelligence source elaborated. Since the end of World War II, Italy has been the weak link on the continent. "Love him or hate him," the source explained, "Prime Minister Berlusconi has brought a degree of stability to Italian politics, that is unprecedented in the last half-century. The targeting of Berlusconi, followed by the assault upon the Pope, delivers an unmistakable message: Italy is in London's crosshairs."
I think I've found a new website to keep me amused on dreary days, it's simply inspired nonsense, hugely entertaining. ;-)

Tim –

Just because you dont want it to be true, doesnt mean it isnt

on the other hand you could be sceptical about the politics surrounding global warming and yet still think that consuming fossil fuels at the current rate is unsustainable – because, of course, it clearly cannot be sustained for very much longer.

So, compare a sceptic who changed their electricity supplier to a green energy co., tries not to drive too much (but won't have a wasteful hybrid or a polluting diesel) with, say, someone who thinks the government should do something about it, drives a vehicle with a large diesel engine on pointless small journeys, takes 3 or 4 holidays a year, one long haul the other short haul but they "offset" (their guilt, not their consumption) this by paying into a fund that pays people in the third world to stay poor (which on a larger scale is what western governments find so attractive about the global warming concept).

Which of these two people would be worse?

Hmm… competitive soccer scores 10, running at 5 minute per k pace scores 12… I must be trying too hard at football then 'cos I definitely find it harder, somebody on our team must not be pulling their weight!

as off t' pub = i'm going to the pub

its in '' fridge (the t is there, but silent) = it's in the fridge.

These are the same. Using your " symbol for the silent glottal stop (tiny pause) they are each

– I'm off to " pub

– It's in " fridge

Have they missed Edge of Darkness?

I might be sticking my neck out here, but I think he is a principalled, honest, open bloke.

Are we talking about Alistair Campbell here? I'm amazed.

Not someone you would want to be on the wrong side of, perhaps…

He's a bully.

…but someone who I believe thought he was doing the right thing.

That's Blair's defence as well… "I did what I thought was right". Well that's alright then. Clearly Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, Alexander, etc. etc. all thought they were doing the wrong thing. Glad we cleared that one up.

New ipod nano has radio (and can pause/record radio)

if some dude in those blue shorts had photographed my daughter

Will the camera steal her soul or something?

Thread summary:

1) Never venture on to thin ice

2) Thick ice on the other hand is fine

I blame that Ice Road Truckers programme…

Nice pic of Daresbury lab – I used to work in the NSF.

Glad I'm not the only one that thinks that snow isn't slippy, but slush and ice is. All the pavements near me are fine to walk on apart from the bit near the shops that somebody put salt on, which is causing people to walk on the road instead.

Good to see that Paul Hudson has caused a commotion amongst climate scientists, makes a nice change from the strained 'banter' with the other Look Leeds presenters before he tells us what the weather was like yesterday in the Yorkshire area.

Can I mention return to mean again yet or is everyone still looking at Pirate graphs?

have a look at Easter Island for an example of what the depletion of resources does to a community.

Although all the raids by slave traders and outbreaks of smallpox and TB brought by outsiders probably didn't help.

It's a glottal stop, there's no T sound.

It's hardly surprising that after a few mild winters, you eventually get a cold one…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regression_toward_the_mean

I don't think it says anything about global warming, other than that some people have probably incorrectly tried to hype up a short run of mild winters as evidence of a warming trend – which leads naturally to the counter argument that it must all be nonsense as soon as you get a cold winter. I don't think any scientists hyped GW in this way, but some in the media certainly did.

Perhaps they meant dual carriageways / motorways?

The Three Stags Heads, Wardlow Mires, Derbyshire deserves a mention. Two very small rooms, just like you've walked into someone's cottage. At first you might think of the Slaughtered Lamb from An American Werewolf in London, but it serves excellent beer and really good home cooked food. Just don't step on the dog, ask for lager, or use your mobile.

It's you.

I download it but I am a new Mac user. I have to unzip the file. In windows it is just that, right click and "unzip". No idea how to unzip with a Mac (that sounds wrong) When i try to install the updated software without unzipping, it goes on for hours.

How old is your Mac? On Snow Leopard at least, opening the zip file should unzip it automatically using Archive Utility. Alternatively use Finder, highlight the file, and use the File menu in Finder to 'Open With', you should then see what utilities you have to unzip with. If for some reason that doesn't work, try googling for "Stuffit Expander" which is free tool that handles all sorts of compression formats.

If the media hadn't decided that British casualties were the only story in Afghanistan, with no context about what is happening there, and concentrating on Wooton Basset, then these troublemakers (which is what they are) wouldn't have such an easy way to get the publicity they seek.

Psychologists are highly trained in knowing about running experiments where you say "red" if you see the word "red" written in green and you are supposed to say the colour. And having theories about vision that patently don't work and were thrown on the scrap heap the moment an engineer and computer scientist looked at the issue. But they don't know a whole lot about philosophy.

John Lennon's "life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans" is more interesting.

You'd be going some to cycle from Chorlton through Stockport to the Peaks in 30 mins IMHO… Manchester definitely has the feeling of taking some time to get out of, particularly down the A6. Sheffield on the other hand just stops dead 3 miles west of the centre, at the Peak District boundary.

Having lived in both, I'm torn.. Manchester is a big city with more opportunities, Sheffield is in some ways a nicer place to live in that the good bits are both nearer the centre and nearer the countryside – and it has hills.

If we can include places we've visited, I'm going to vote for Seattle. Though Cambridge, Mass. is nice too (less outdoorsy though).

It should be obvious by now that the Christmas episodes are always a bit pants, no?

With regard to Rob and cray-legs' arguments, does anyone think that the Whinlatter trails have had a negative impact on natural riding in the Lake District?

Personally I think that if someone were to add a few new trails in the woods around Ladybower and improve the facilities at Fairholmes a bit, everyone would be a winner. Currently there is nothing around there resembling a "blue" type trail for example – you can either go around the flat roads / fire roads around the dams or do the proper stuff – there's nothing in between.

Sunny and cold in Sheffield today, snow mostly gone, roads fine but many footpaths are still covered in very slippy packed ice (half melted a few days ago then froze again).

A57 Snake Pass was closed yesterday, went over the M62 instead and everything was green below about 1000 ft, and very snowy above that.

FC – do you avoid fruit then? Or is the sugar in fruit somehow "different"?

Yes it is. I sat there in the cinema wondering how they'd gotten away with it.