I quite like the way this is going, although the suspense is starting to get to me as well.

Following a recent event I would go with the USB key as an intoductory source as well.

I recently attended a local government event concerning educational choices and at the end was provided with a 1gb USB key for completing a short questionaire on the event. Upon returning home I puched it into my daughters laptop just to see if they had included any presentation or further information. I was a little surprised to find that the only thing included was a copy of the conficker virus which wasn't what I was expecting. Fortunately I do like to keep the anti virus up to date on the kids computers so it didn't cause a problem. I did wonder how many of the hundreds of other USB sticks they gave away would have ended up in unprotected computers.

When I called the next day to advise them they didn't seems overly interested or concerned but then again I wasn't really talking to anybody who would understand.

Put me down for both the boots and gloves, and one of the rock cracking credit cards as well.

Whilst this does sound distinctly dubious science one does have to be careful not to lump all so called alternatives together. It's also worth remembering that science moves on and what was once considered clear fact is eventually discovered to be incorrect, and the wacky theories that were dismissed are proven (flat earth anybody? circulating blood? bacteria?). Homeopathy seems to have a concerted campaign against it at the moment but if you do a little research you discover that "there is no evidence" isn't true and there are randomised, double blind medical trials demonstrating positive outcomes, and that vetinary use and use with very young children rather dimisses the placebo response. The supposed science behind homeopathy sounds wacky but at least one physicist who designed trials to disprove it ended up proving that there are some strange principles at work in so called memory of water. I think the water has to be deionised and then exposed to materials in a specific manner to maintain effect or something. It is interesting to read up on and I suspect that science might find some new principles behind it even though Homeopathy might be a net loser as a result.

I also still await further discoveries concerning pyramid investigations which whilst there are outlandish claims there seems to be a glimmer of unusual principles somewhere at the back of it.

Maybe it's time to reconsider the BBFC rating or perhaps issue a health warning to all cinemagoers.

So what's next on the agenda? It might be interesting to see if he could get away with interpretations of a few other religious texts. I must admit that the Koran was the first to spring to mind, but Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jewish etc texts would probably be fun as well.

Of course he might want to find a safe house first, as one or two people might be a bit more upset about it than the Christians seem to be.

It all sounds pretty good, but I can't help feeling it also sounds pretty expensive.

I still worry about the increased damage these vahicles do to the environment compared to my old Land Rover. Which may struggle to get 30mpg but is currently just 15 years old and is likely to go on for a long time yet before being ultimately scrapped. When it is eventually scrapped I would guess that a decent chunk of it will be recycled as well, without releasing too many more toxic chemicals which might not be the same as the shorter lifetime hybrids with their dodgy cocktail of "interesting" materials.

It's all very well accelerating at ridiculous speeds to get to Mars in just over one month instead of a year. But I hope the brakes are good because you might want to stop when you get there!!

I have bought exactly on size and price. I accept some compromise on performance but the alternative "thin and light" notebooks are seriously more expensive for insufficient performance gain.

The form factor is appealing and the price is reasonable so people buy a "little notebook". If they are migrating from a mif range PC of 4-6 years vintage then the performance will be comparable or improved anyway.

I haven't got the time to check any details but since Sooty did check the link to find that he claimed an average salary as "additional costs" is this indeed a salary paid to a staff member as costs?

MP's are an easy target at the moment but some are not as bad as others.

"Everyone pulls a sickie at some point, its part of life and employers know this."

In your world this may be true, but don't drag us all down to your level.

In my world I am entitled to paid days off which I book as part of my annual leave entitlement, including ringing in on the day and asking them to book me on holiday. I do not decide to "pull a sickie" by calling in when this is not the case.

When I am too ill to work then I am entitled to sick leave and would have no qualms about calling in sick if this was the case.

Perhaps it's my age as I am now mid forties and don't understand the lack of pride and lack of self esteem that the "yoof" of today seem to exhibit.

Got one recently to partner an ASUS E901 SCC (not a Netbook, don;t want to be sued). It works great and is particularly neat and lightweight. It was just over £50 including delivery but the cashback deal took it below the £50 mark. It only gets carried around when absolutely necessary but is a convenient size when you do need to have one.

It's also useful for simply reading CD's of data from other sources and the kids have used it to play DVD movies or play games from in their bedrooms.

I like it and there are different colours but the reddish colour looks fine to me.

Keep up the good work.

Because to me that looks like one of those things that only a mother could love. I know these things are subjective but it looks like it took one too many hits from the ugly stick when that was put together.

Apart from style I still have a real problem with these electric sports cars that have a range of 100 to 200 miles. For a city car where there is a distinct possibility of short runs followed by charging time this seems acceptable. For a good day out driving somewhere then the range between charges has either got to be 300-400 minimum or the recharge time has to be got down to 15-20 minutes so you can pull in for a coffee and charge up whilst doing so. Of course exactly where you would plug in whilst in Starbucks/MaccyD's/cafeNero or wherever is a different question.

I confess that I have helped with the sales figure as I have just bought a Wii for Christmas. As it happens I got one through play.com using topcashback.co.uk to eke out the pennies a bit further. They seem to have plenty stock at the moment and at £169.99 including free delivery it looked like a fair price.

Didn't really consider either the PS3 or Xbox as it's a whole family present and with young kids the Wii just seems more appropriate. The graphics might be far inferior but I don't need detailed images of people being killed and maimed I just want some silly fun for 8-14 year olds.

Ferry boat seems to imply that Homeopathy is faith based and may not work. This seems to stem from a lack of knowledge and lack of critical thought. A thorough check of ALL the data would reveal that in general there is sufficient evidence of the success of Homeopathy but at best some very sketchy theories on how it actually works.

An understanding of how something works is useful but you don't need to understand how and why gravity works to appreciate that stepping of a high building is a bad idea.

One country sinking the ships of another country might be considered an act of war but not a global group of eco heroes/nutters (delete as appropriate) sinking ships. I think that would be considered an act of piracy, aarrrrhhh!

I am even more tempted by the dark side now as I had already pencilled in a mac as my likely next laptop. That seems to tick a few of the right boxes immediately and I have to say it looks quite sexy.

Am I now a lost cause or is there still time for me to turn away?

"We think we have a high degree of confidence of pinpointing the location where we're having our problem."

So if the quote is correct then they don't even know if they really know whether they are likely to be able find where the problem is. This seems to suggest to me that they have no idea what is going on. I am not sure I would want to be flying on top of that rather old and unstable bloody big bomb.

Perhaps an extension of the training idea would be a compulsory course before being issued with the devices. This would have to be repeated every year and of course would include the demonstration of the effects on the officer undergoing training. In other words all officers should be "Tasered" themselves on an annual basis just to ensure they are aware of what they are doing to other people. It might be interesting to see if there were any unfortunate deaths with a presumed greater incidence of controlled use during training.

but I think they do have a marine force of sorts. Some patrol boats on the bigger lakes I think.

I'm not complaining.

Quite a few famous quotes are actually famous misquotes or at best paraphrasing. What exactly is the famous phrase from Casablanca as an example? Which surprisingly doesn't appear in the lists above.

Basically it is just a cheap monocular and a plastic clip to fix it to a phone etc.

As others have pointed out you can get the same effect with any old binoculars you have lying around. Indeed about 25 years ago, long before digital I used a pair of binoculars to add zoom to a 35mm compact camera I had in order to get a shot of a nuclear submarine that surfaced near to where we were sailing. The problem back then was actually getting the subject in the frame as compact film cameras had neither through the lens views or a screen giving the final image. I has some success but the vignetting was as bad then as appears this time.

We must launch new irregular verbs to replace the dying ones! If we are not careful the English language could become simplified and easy to learn and that would never do.

There is some clever elektrickery involved so that they can generate at various speeds, in the same way that motors can run at variable speeds if they are inverter fed (actually the elektickery isn't that clever these days).

Since it tends to be a bit nippy up there I wonder how long the talktime will be before recharging is required. Which brings up the question of where you plug your recharger in when you are in a tent.

Satellite phones have been used up to now and of course radios for communication between climbers. There isn't much mileage in relying on the phone to call for help as there are a number of instances of transmissions simply being used as FINAL goodbyes. International rescue don't do rescues off Everest (Chumalunga), FAB.

Cliff's theory of the survival of the fittest brain cells now seems to be proven. The theory ran that alcohol kills brain cells, but of course it kills off the weak and unhealthy brain cells first (much as happens with grazing animals on the plains of Africa). This leaves just the fit, healthy and active brain cells left to run all your systems. Obviously the overconsumption of alcohol kills off more than just the weak cells and so gets the good ones which you need. This is also born out by this new study.

It should be interesting when they get to the cross examination.

Companies are not people but they are legal entities that have some of the same "rights". There are good reasons for companies to be treated as seperate legal entities in many instances, but there are occasions where resposible directors/managers have hidden behind this protection.

The driver slowed almost to a halt to assess the situation. As someone else paid for the vehicle he booted it and made as big a splash as possible. I would guess it is a diesel engined vehicle and so what stopped it was probably water in the air intake, if so then that's an expensive repair particularly if the water sucked into the cylinders whilst it was still turning.

A sensible approach at a slow steady speed would very likely have allowed them to drive through without incident.