please tell me that justifies preventative culling

No, sadly, and neither does Trolling on the subject of the worth of vaccinations on a forum known to have a smattering of health workers present.

However, if there is any suggestion that this topic may snowball into another MMR debate I will happily revise my opinion on the merits of a preventative cull.

Fat Cyclist

Has to be the first 8 minute shot of Altman's The Player.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0epB5Z6ijpk

Very deliberately sets out to "beat" the previous record for a single take/tracking shot with no cuts whilst embarking on a comprehensive attempt to take the piss out of the Hollywood studio system. If you are in any doubt what he was up to then listen to the dialogue as the characters weave in and out of the shot.

The first cut of the movie is 8.03 in and comes as a jolt tp the senses.

I went with the On-one package including Kenda SB8 and paid a bit more than 99.99 and a bit less than the 149.99 they have them on for today (125 without tyres and tubes).

2 years ago, I couldn't get/build anything comparable for anywhere near the price. They have held up fine. I am on the heavy side so less worried about the grams and more worried about the strength. No issues.

47, physician

I'll be right out on it when if it stops raining!

Agree, 4 hens keeps us in eggs. I don't free range them round the garden for reasons given above, but keep them in an ark – house plus run – which sits on some weldmesh to keep foxes out and chickens from trying to scratch too big a trench. The ark I have is from Forsham Arks here[/url] who also have useful info on their site particularly an intro article worth a read, but are not the cheapest. Another with a good reputation is Littleacre. However, our ark has lasted well, currently 5 years old and on its second set of inhabitants.

You can make your own ark and there are good plans around, I used a pair of books by Michael Roberts called "Poultry Housing" and "making Mobile Hen Houses" to make a broody pen and the info was fine. Keep the feed in dustbins in the garage/shed or expect mice, apple cider vinegar in the water keeps it clean (find your local country shop/provider of all things horse) and you will need a supply of bedding – straw or I use a hemp derived material again sold as upmarket horse bedding, a sack lasts about 3 months and is fine ( albeit uneconomical as horse bedding). Daughter+pony = no chance of happening round here.

Finally, for the livestock get hold of some hybrids bred for free range/smallholder production e.g. Black Rock, Rhode Island/Sussex cross, Bovans Nera, Rhode Rock etc., get vaccinated Point of lay birds – about 16-18 weeks old so they don't need molly codling. clean out house every 1-2 weeks and move to new bit of grass every 4-5 days – wheels or a strong helper make this easier – view it as weight training for the riding. Agree that inside of run needs cleaning re-treating every year. Other than that they look after themselves.

Apart from this year when anno domini caught up with 2 of the original 4 and we had to restock, we haven't bought an egg in 5 years and the ark is a magnet for children – ours and their friends.

On the other hand I am fat and old and sticking to gears thank you. Agree with the above, there are some short steep bits and some draggy fireroad.

Ergons on two bikes and find them a lot more comfortable. Other bike came with Brant's Mary bars and the back sweep did the same job for me without the ergons. Also used the Specialized and ?Velo versions. Velo need big hands. Both are better than round grips on straight/riser bars but I prefer the ergons. Only other thing to say is that you are probably better off with the small ergons rather than the large unless you have really huge hands. If in doubt go for the smaller size. I wear an XXL glove and find the smaller size more comfortable.

Mrs Ratadog is the sewing machine user in this household ( as in uses for both business and hobby ). She has 3 Janome machines and they seem fine albeit two of them are at the semi industrial end of the range and the third is an overlocker.

Having been in the position of hunting for a machine for my spouse, with the added fun of knowing that intended user knew what she was doing, I would completely agree that your best bet is to get as good an idea as you can of what use it will have and then find a good local independent dealer. It may or may not cost you an extra 10-20ukp but it'll save you money in the long run and good dealers do their own servicing and will provide an excellent quality of service. It's not unlike biking, think LSMS instead of LBS but the premium you pay won't be anywhere near as great.

+1 for Islabikes

My 10 year old is nearer 5 foot so I went for a 26 inch wheel Beinn Small. Looks not unlike a slightly scaled down version of my 29er. The sizing charts were spot on and although the bike is rigid forked it is lighter than the 20 inch Kona she moved up from which has a front fork that doesn't move much but weighs a ton. She finds it a lot easier to ride and they get excellent reviews in the mags with one recent review suggesting that the larger framed Beinn was worth a look for some adults and a lot better as a starter bike than most other 300ukp bikes.

I am minded get my 6 year old an Islabike as well rather than passing the Kona on to him.

most diabetologists will tell you there is a definite link between type 2 diabetes and obesity. The link isn't if you are diabetic you are fat, it's if you are fat you have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Agree. One suggestion for the link between obesity and diabetes is that people with large amounts of body fat have a high level of a particular type of fats called NEFAs (non esterified fatty acids) in their blood, and high blood levels of NEFAs are in turn associated with decreased sensitivity to insulin which is the underlying process in Type 2 diabetes. This was the hot new theory when I was involved in research into the causes of Type 2 in the 1990s but since then there have been papers both for and against.

One of the problems with all the "x causes diabetes" theories is that Type 2 Diabetes as currently classified is almost certainly not a single disease with a single cause but rather a classification that seems to cover a similar outcome resulting from a multitude of contributing causes in different people. You see thin ones and fat ones, ones where the whole family has it and ones where they don't know anybody who has it, people who get complications despite their best efforts and people who seem to sail through life without problems.

Biggest improvement in care I have seen in the last 10 years has been from improvements in patient education through courses like DAFNE, DESMOND and Xpert. Pumps suit some people and not others and are fine if they are viewed as a tool for delivering insulin and not as items with intrinsic religious worth as seemed to happen at one stage in their infancy.

as I am so young and not fat

Oh would that my life was that simple.

Yes there are classical presentations for Type 1 ( as described by doctornickriviera above) and Type 2 and they are well known and useful because they are often correct, but the youngest Type 2 I have seen at diagnosis was 24 and thin (and there are reports of Type 2 in teenagers in USA) and the oldest Type 1 I have diagnosed was 78 and fat.

Glad somebody is now trying to sort this out for you.

+1 for the Hexus. Actually +3 because each member of the family has one in their pack/bag.

Double posting removed – I really have to get my linux set up working again – even XP is starting to get to me.

Heck, and I ride bikes and come on STW to get away from the day job.

Oh well. The advice here is good. Diagnosis is on the basis of a fasting blood sugar – appointment in the morning with GP and nothing containing calories from midnight the previous night – water allowed – plus or minus a second blood sugar taken 2 hours after a standard glucose load (75g of glucose or if I remember rightly 385ml of flat lucozade if you are a cheapskate running a research project circa 1990). Diagnosis on the basis of 2 abnormal blood sugars as per international guidelines or 1 plus classic symptoms.

If you do have it then it ain't the diabetes that kills people it is the complications so the management is about avoiding the complications. Best way to do that is don't smoke and aim for controlled blood pressure and blood sugar – good studies in both Types to show that – as well as taking advantage of local screening programs looking for early signs of kidney and eye problems ( blood and urine tests and annual retinal photos).

Insulin is a hormone involved in the control of food processing and food stores. Hormones are chemical messengers passing messages to groups of cells in the body. Type 1 is where you have stopped producing insulin – to use a radio analogy it is a transmitter failure, Type 2 is where you still produce insulin but the cells that should get the message don't respond as well as they should, in the radio analogy a receiver problem.

If you feel rubbish go and see your GP anyway. If it isn't diabetes it may be something else. Rather than me stopping to wax lyrical on the possibilities, forgive me if I head back to a cup of coffee and wondering when the front mech I need to complete my rebuild is going to finally arrive.

If you do find you have diabetes then Diabetes UK's website is a good place to start for further information.

I bought the book and built the Musson stand from mdf. I initially cut the dropouts from some bar I bought in B&Q using the drill and hacksaw method and they worked but were a bit rough around the edges so I cheated and got a neighbour who has a light engineering firm to cut me another set. I actually found cutting the acrylic to make the guages more of a pain until I got the knack. I reckon the book was 10ukp well spent, now on fourth pair of wheels.

+1 for the Hexus. Actually +3 because each member of th efamily has one in their pack/bag.

Fond memories of Northumberland, Corbridge with Newcastle within easy reach for when you need a big city but would suggest the Whitby, York, Scarborough triangle gets my vote.

Xmas treat is a 456 Ti frame to re frame my original 'that blue' 456 complete bike. As I paid for it, not the other half, I got on and swapped the kit over. Trade off is a spinning wheel for her that I haven't quite got round to buying yet, but look on the bright side, the impending onset of starvation should get my riding weight down nicely.

Having spent my early working years aware that my choice of career meant that my future place of abode was in the hands of luck ( about a thousand jobs nationwide and retired man's shoes for where and when ) and the random musings of appointments committees, I always tended to look around when I was in unfamiliar areas and never found a place without some redeeming features and somewhere decent to live within 10 miles. In fairness, I never seriously looked in the South East because I knew I couldn't afford the mortgage, but I have worked in or near a frighteningly large number of the towns that figure in this thread.

Middlesbrough is probably the only one where those who can do so choose to live in the next county – although that tells you more about the size of Cleveland and the proximity of North Yorkshire. Having said that I now live within 10 miles of the most deprived area in North Yorkshire and can see the road up to Dalby from my study window so deprivation is relative.

Singletraction are the volunteer builders and their map is found on their website here. along with other information. There are plenty of escape routes by bridleway if necessary. Map looks fairly up to date to me butinfo also available at visitors centre or the Purple Mountain Bikeshop near it.

Suspect you don't need me to tell you this but my advice would be ask the chemotherapy nurses what might help with the potential finger problem and more importantly what to avoid. I have no idea what the potential for cross reactions between your chemo agents and ginseng or gingko whatever are and I am sure that it has the potential for a fascinating experiment, but if its not been done already then much better that someone else does it not you.

My employer gave us the seasonal jab without waiting for the swineproof one, so I will have it, but not for another 10 days.

Yes, ebay always seems devoid of second hand copies of Zinn, which in itself speaks volumes, and even the previous edition seems to go for much the same as the current one with the exception of a couple of optimists trying to sell "new" copies of the previous edition through the Amazon marketplace for more than 60ukp a throw – clearly haven't noticed that Amazon will do the latest edition for less than a quarter of that.

Ratadog – how tight was the chainstay clearance with 113 and is a square taper BB fairly simple to fit?

It looks like somebody else got here with the answer before I did and good on them. My square taper is now on a standard inbred not a 456, but as far as I remember the clearance is much the same and it is as illustrated above. I have never had any problems with it.

Square taper/cartridge BBs are easy to fit provided you have a bottom bracket tool that fits, you take care to get your lefts and rights sorted and check the threads, and you grease the metal threads as instructed. I tend to use antiseize on the threads rather than grease but except on the Ti bike that is probably overkill.

Essentially, the main body is inserted and screwed in till the flange on the cartridge seats against the frame and you then insert the threaded adaptor in the opposite side (shimano says grease it if it's metal but not if it's plastic) and screw that up until it's tight. Then add crank. If I remember rightly you grease the crank bolts but not the square taper itself or the square socket in the crank as the two parts deform each other slightly to produce a decent interface and if you grease the joint you may be able to get the crank on further than shimano wishes.

Park tools page on bottom bracket insertion is here
with lots of links to other relevant pages and lots of insistence that the job can only be performed with their own tools – not unsurprisingly

The product page for shimano's square taper BB is here
and a nightmare to find in their website now they see it as less than mainstream. The pdf files top right are the product info and the fitting instructions.

Personally, I have invested in a copy of Zinn and the Art of Mountainbike maintenance which makes all these jobs seem straightforward and remains the book I have open when I am getting my fingers oily.

Hope this helps.

Built both an inbred with square taper which needed a 113 and a Scandal with Octalink which needed a 118. I bought a 113 octalink first off on the basis of the square taper and it definitely did not work.

Best wishes for Saturday and for many Saturdays in the future.

V70 4WD Turbo – Because it's effing fast, effing safe, handles well, is really comfy and has a simply massive boot. Perfect cyclists car.

Skoda Octavia 4WD Turbo – Because it is all of the above but about a third of the price

A further vote for A Matter of Life and Death

Only just stumbled accross this thread, and wish you both well.

Not my specialty so I can't help with the specifics, and in any case you are much better off with a face to face relationship with a doctor you trust as I am sure you are aware.

I agree with others here, who I suspect come from similar backgrounds to mine, that I am much more comfortable with a consultant who is prepared to admit he doesn't know all the answers and isn't prepared to take a punt on the basis of incomplete information. First do no harm.

Secondly, consultants tend to have highly specialised areas of knowledge and from my rapid perusal of your posts I can already see questions relating to heart, bone, bone marrow, connective tissue, possible cancer etc. which means potentially several different areas of knowledge which need to be, and will be, co-ordinated and tapped into.

I can understand your frustration, and it may or may not help you to know that your doctors are in all likelihood just as frustrated in their own way at not being able to advise, treat or reassure you. They will also be acutely aware that in the vast majority of cases it's this stage of uncertainty that is the worst part of any illness for patient and relatives.

There are good patient advice websites for most serious diseases, patient.co.uk seems a reasonable place to start and their info in my specialist area looks sensible enough. For cancer try Cancer Research UK

Finally, I agree with the advice about financial support. If you have a mortgage insurance or life insurance you may well find that in the event of cancer being diagnosed the policy pays out. Check now for peace of mind and if fate is kind you will never need to claim.

Second vote for the Hex, suited me so well I bought a second one cheap in a dodgy colour from CRC.

Had a 29er On-One Scandal for about a year. Use it as my ride out the drive and see where I get bike and so it does a mixture of tarmac, bridleway, forestry singletrack and Dalby red route. Started with a rigid fork – salsa cro moto not the carbon On-one – but too much for my tired old bones to cope with when going down rutted bridleway at 35kph. Bought an RST M29 from On-one and it has been fit and forget, although probably just as well as RST seem to have distributors everywhere but here and I am damned if I know who I would go to for service etc. I guess when it breaks I raid the piggy bank and get a Reba.

I went for the geared Scandal 29er for a combination of reasons – the steel ones were out of stock and my impatience outweighed the cost differential, I am too old/unfit for Singlespeeding so was happy to go geared (although now they seem to concentrate on selling frames with Brant's do it all dropouts more suited to your wish list), and I am 6'4" and wanted a bike that would fit in between the hardcore hardtail and the winter roadbike.

As such it has been great, and if I had to stick with only one bike this would be it.

I agree, I had SM8 on my 29er ( thus uniting 2 current threads ) and found them fine on the tarmac for an offroad tyre. I use the 29er for rides from my back door that are a mixture of backroad tarmac, bridleway, Dalby trail centre and moorland singletrack and they were fine in the summer/autumn last year. Subsequently swapped to Panaracer Rampage which have a beefier tread and thus have a slight advantage in the mud of winter and indeed this summer and haven't swapped back yet although I have got a set of 26 inch SM8's going on the other half's bike.

Size 12.5/13 feet and using Wellgo B25 sealed bearing. Like others I benefited from CRC’s flood but they still have them at 29.99ukp.

Its no worse than Egon Shiele most of which I can’t stand (except for Die kleine Stadt II), but then again I don’t really get on with Klimt either.

Entirely agree with you about Egon Schiele – didn’t get it when I saw some of his work at an exhibition at the Tate in Liverpool and then subsequently saw a major retrospective in Dusseldorf when I was at a conference there and began to suspect that actually I did get it in the sense that there wasn’t anything to get and it was an emporer’s new clothes phenomenon.

Klimt, however, may have been an old lecher and produced a lot of heavily gilded artwork that has now become somewhat debased by overexposure on the walls of surburbia but when he wanted he could produce detail in paint that defied my ability to tell it from high definition photography when viewed at a distance of 6 inches. That is technical skill beyond my wildest imaginings and the print of his on my walls is a landscape and not a gilded lady.

Hi Roughneck,

I have sent some pics to your visible email

Hi,

I have an Avenir Cleveland hardbase trailer that I bought on ebay a couple of years ago sitting in the Garage because my youngest has now graduated to a tagalong. Last time I looked it was functional and safe, but I’ll happily drag it out and inspect if you are interested. The important bit is that the garage in question is just outside Scarborough. The pics you will find on the web if you google are for the posh version that they still sell. Ours is similar but without the jockey wheel and bar that convert it to a pushchair. I paid around 60ukp for it about 2 years ago and it must have suffered at least 50% depreciation in the meantime. I did have 2 up briefly but my oldest was already on the tag along by the time that we got it and it covered the period between child seat and tag along for sprog 2.

Let me know if you are interested and I will drag it out, inspect and photograph.

Yes. Definitely in the affordable category, but several watercolours by a friend called Anthony Smith who is a wildlife artist and 7 or 8 different works by various New Zealand artists as my wife is a Kiwi.

I also started a charity about 9 years ago called Hospital Arts For North East Yorkshire which commissions artists to produce pieces for the local hospitals around Scarborough and we have purchased and commissioned around 100 individual pieces from 30 or 40 artists including a sound installation, ceramics, glass art and some fabric pieces. They don’t get to hang on my wall but then the money doesn’t come from my bank account either.

I have had 2 computers from MESH. First one was about 10 years ago and came with a duff sound card and after insisting that I ring their premium rate software support phone line to prove that it was not a Windows fault, they eventually agreed that I had a duff soundcard. Cost me 10ukp in telephone charges, but I had the last laugh because they prevaricated so long that their local engineer had gone off sick and the next local was on his hols so they finished up paying someone to drive up from Reading to North Yorkshire to swap the sound card. Even in the heady days of cheaper petrol I don’t think that they made on the deal. They were then very helpful in getting the drivers up dated etc. Second one sales and service were fine.

I think that with all these companies you will get the occasional lemon and I am aware that MESH did go through a period of problems with Customer Service about 5 years ago but by the time I purchased these problems seemed to be sorted out.