I think current observations indicate that the universe is flat and goes on for ever in all directions.

In that case each of us can claim to be at the centre of our own universe.

Which is sort of comforting.

I don’t think we’ve ever invaded or been at war with Australia the modern country.

So this map must include stealing other peoples land before there was a country to invade?

And isn’t Bolivia where all the lithium comes from for laptop batteries?

Scarce resource – you might find the yanks get there first

To be fair, I expect that map would look very similar for any nation state that had been around for more than a couple of hundred years.

I got the impression that he knew his number was up when he wrote the Hydrogen Sonata.

Its a sort of “no matter how exciting the journey, nothing you do makes any difference in the end” story.

And the whole civilization disappearing by metaphorically clicking its heels and saying there no place like home?

I like Ian M. Banks books, but they suffer from the fact that you know the Culture is usually going to come out on top. That’s why Excession is my favourite, as none of them really has a clue about what’s going on. Thre Hydrogen Sonata is second favorite as it links back to Excession and includes a lot of bored super intelligences that, in the end, achieve nothing.

I’ve just been reading some books by Paul Mcleary set around the moons of Saturn and Jupiter. The first book is called The Quiet War. I like them because they are full of fallible humans and almost believable technology.

Its no different to most towns in the south east – vast urban sprawl consisting of identikit housing estates.

Its the future you know.

I’d consider moving to Basingstoke just so I could be sure of never meeting anyone as unremittingly awful as Binners.

Basingstoke and Winchester are only 15 miles apart and are surrounded by the same sort of countryside. So the riding is pretty much the same: quiet minor roads, long unbroken green lanes and the very odd technical bit on bridleways. Its possible to go for long days out and hardly meet another person.

If you want to live in a big town,Winchester centre is prettier but there are some nice parts in Basingstoke (eg. Old Basing)

There are lots of nice small towns and villages within 10/15 miles of Basingstoke. Some are really pricey but others are quite reasonable.

How long have you had it and how much would it cost to replace?

If you want extreme weather disasters, don’t forget the ’52 Lynmouth flood. 9 inches of rain in 24 hours, 100 houses destroyed and 34 dead overnight.

What counts as a “natural crisis”? Is it just weather or can we include plagues? The Black Death was a bit more serious than flooded real estate and disrupted trains.

Grandad dead at 64 from a heart attack. Uncle dead at 68 from heart disease. Mother disabled at 70 with vascular dementia.

Despite a healthy, active lifestyle, there’s a good chance I’ll be dead or doolally before I reach retirement age.

There is a chance that Statins may reduce this risk. I haven’t noticed any side effects and they are a lot cheaper than those alternative remedies that consist of only water.

And thanks to Kimbers and his colleagues for actually doing the research

The BBC interviewed the head of the Indian Space agency when they launched their Mars mission last year.

India would appear to be a real case for the “shouldn’t you be solving your problems at home first” argument.

I found his reply quite interesting:

We spend in India about a billion dollars for the space programme. If we look at the central government expenditure, we spend 0.34% of its budget for the space programme. This goes primarily for building satellites in communications and remote sensing and navigation for space applications. Nearly 35% of it goes on launch vehicle development and about 7-8% goes on the science and exploration programme. So the Mars mission we’re talking about today is part of that 8% of the 0.34% of Indian central government expenditure. And if you look at the benefit that the country has accrued over the years, it has surpassed the money that has been spent in terms of tangible and intangible benefits.

[This can be expressed in terms of] the advantage that the people have got, the fishermen have got, the farmers have got, the government bodies have got for informed decision-making, the support the country has got for disaster management and by providing a communication infrastructure for this country using the INSAT satellites.

OK, he’s the head of the space agency so of course he would be pro-exploration. But most of their tiny budget is spent on Molgrips’ “making the world” a better place stuff. He goes on say that the difficult mission to Mars stuff actually makes the “beneficial” stuff easier and cheaper to do.

If only someone could come up with a plan, a timeframe and budget for ending war, banishing disease and learning to live sustainably.

That’s true, and a point I’ve made often, but it would still be the case if the money was spent on fusion power or cancer research etc.

Things is, if the money wasn’t spent on space exploration, it probbaly wouldn’t be spent on fusion power, cancer research, ending third world hunger or generally improving the planet. It would probably just result in slightly lower taxes.

Climate change couldn’t have been much fun for the Broze Age farmers on Dartmoor, and I doubt they cared too much why it happened.

These “theres always been climate change so get used to it” arguments are a smug rich westerners point of view. We’ve got lots of money, so it won’t affect us will it?

Well if your half million pound house in Staines is about to go under it will affect you.

Just less so than if you were a subsistence farmer in Bangladesh.

Is it still possible to make penalty free overpayments?

Saw a party political broadcast the other day.

Looked like that there Dave Cameron had paid a lot of actors to stand on a “typical” high street and spout off about how well they were doing and how optimistic they all felt.

It reminded me of that 1980s show “Whoops Apocalypse” were Breshnev was trying to convince the British ambassador that they had “dozens of steaks in Russia”

He used the phrase “hard working families” a lot too.

Its the “concealed carry” bit that gives the game away. (If it means what I think it means).

If you want to carry a gun to avoid become a crime victim surely the best way is to carry it openly. All the bad guys will see it and leave you alone.

If they can’t see it, what is to stop them starting on you anyway? You then have to draw your gun to either frighten them off, or shoot them dead.

So these guys don’t really want to avoid trouble. They want to get into a situation where they can “legitimately” draw a gun and shoot a (probably) unarmed crack-head.

Note the lack of helmets

Actually, that guy is wearing a bowler, which started as a form of protective headgear!

Imagine you were on a clock, and if you traveled away from the clock at the speed of light.
The time on the clock would always be still. Thus time will have stopped for you, relatively speaking

That doesn’t work form me. It just means you are keeping pace with the photons spreading out for the clock. It doesn’t mean that time for you is passing slower, relative to the clock.

My head hurts.

No. Because there is no ‘speed through space’, the speed of something is always relative to something else

How about

speed of particle through space relative to an observer plus speed of particle through time relative to that observer = constant.

Would that work? or do you have to factor in the speed of the observer, relative to everything else?

And I know space and time are supposed to be the same thing, but I also know I experience them differently!

I (in my non physics way) always understood it as:

speed of particle through space plus speed of particle through time = constant.

Therefore the faster a particle travels thorough space, the slower it travels through time.

The constant happens to be 186,000 mps. I have no idea why it isn’t say, 183,000 mps or 189,00 mps,

As a photon travels through space at the speed of light, it cannot travel through time, which means, from its point of view, it similtaneously occupies every point in the universe at once.

Probably a load of bollox, but I find it quite profund.

Bermuda shorts and a big white frankie says RELAX t-shirt. A jacket with big shoulder pads, or a denim jumpsuit for the missus – easy.

Mr Sutherland told the BBC it was his first family holiday for five years because his job as a Ministry of Defence (MoD) guard had prevented him from taking annual leave during the school holidays.

That sounds a bit odd as well. Are MOD sites at particular risk during the school holidays, so that all leave has to be cancelled?

You have to bang it into a leather pad ten times, so the water won’t have the memory of anything else.

Apart from a memory of being banged into a leather pad?

In a lot of sports, including cycling, most events are still put on by local clubs.

You don’t have to be in a club to compete, but if there weren’t any clubs, there wouldn’t be anything to compete in.

Does the dishwasher clean cassettes properly?

Sounds like a good idea if they do.

I think the tax on the 4×4 is the same as on the other Pandas. Depending on engine size either £30 or nil.

TV series rather than films, but how about the original (Terry Nation?) series of Survivors. And I think there was a pretty good verison of Day of the Triffids in the 1980s (Channel 4?)

And the 1979 Thames TV series “Quatermass”

I quite like his music

What would you call it? Road movie?

Gothic horror?

I’ve just remembered Waterloo. French Cavalry attacking the British Squares. Cast of thousands – one take.

And both Olivier’s and Kenneth Brannagh’s versions of Henry V.

Das Boot
A Bridge too Far
The Longest Day
Cross of iron
MASH

Apocalypse Now is great, but it isnt really a war film.

I’m very good at feeling inadequate

Don’t let all the talk of crashing put you off. I found it possible to ride several season of crits and never fall off. You need to ride smoothly, be aware of all the riders around you, avoid the dangerous ones, and occasionally be prepared to back off (even if that does mean forgoing 26th place in the bunch sprint).

And in answer to the thread question – yes it is fun.

“Journalist” without anything interesting to write about.

There are a lot of them about, mainly in the Sunday colour supplements.

what has fundamentally changed for the working class in south africa ?

You can walk down the road holding hands with a person of another race without fear of arrest? (I might be wrong there)

Shimano “M324 Combination Pedals” are SPDs that come with reflectors fitted. But they look like old fashioned touring pedals so are desperately untrendy.

I think Wellgo also make something similar.

Another option would be to start with a classical and learn to read music … and become completely obsessed about the state of your nails.

Exercise as a form of weight loss is stupid, just don’t eat the stuff in the first place

I dunno, according to that calorie tracker, it would take me 18 minutes to run off a pint of beer. That seems like a good trade to me.