inshallah

It's amazing the size of fish that another fish will try and eat. I had a tank with (regular native British) minnows and threw a small perch in with them. The minnows were longer than the perch. After a couple of days I woke up to find a minnow poking out the mouth of the perch. After a head count I realized this wasn't the first it'd eaten. What I'd do is set up an isolation tank. Do you have a spare? Always handy. Mostly fill it up with water from the main tank and then top up both tanks with fresh (to avoid too much water shock) and add a sponge filter or something. Swap out the big ones in turn until you find the culprit.

I've had it twice in B&Q in the last few years. The first time I was buying a small axe for chopping kindling. On the second occasion I was buying paint stripper, and I was asked if I was over 16. I'm over 40.

I'm with you on that. I discovered Penderyn when I lived in Wales briefly. My ex took me to a trip to the distillery a couple of years ago for my birthday. They make it with a column (reflux) still, unlike the Scottish pot stills. But it is very very nice. You can get it in Tescos in London now.

I think there might be something in this. I'm not saying that teh BTO/RSPB surveys are any less accurate than the GWCT, it's just that these 'general public' surveys concentrate on people's gardens. I had an airgun in the early 80s and I used to go pigeon shooting with my mate on his Dad's chicken farm.. I'd dream of getting a pigeon to shoot in my parent's garden, but never had one close enough to shoot, over a period of a cople of years. Now when I go and visit Mum, I could shoot half a dozen a day with an airgun, easy. (I don't). Woodpigeon, like many other animals, are just coming into gardens more, so it's not surprising that the RSPB surveys bias towards an increase. Where I live now on the canal in West London, we're practically knee deep in the things.

Aliens

I presume i'll be on the main campus, at moulton. I'll still be living at home on my narrowboat in west london, so I can still go to 'sporting targets', which is only a mile from my home. I'll be staying at mum's during the week because she's near kettering/corby. I'd just like to join in with any shooting activities at the college, if there are any. I went to school in kibworth, so I could have a look there too while i'm up there. What are the local grounds?

I'm going to moulton college this year to do the foundation degree in countryside and wildlife management. I'll be a mature student there. Anyone else going there? Anyone know if there's a clay shooting club, or other shooting clubs for students?

I'm a motorcycle instructor, and I taught a couple of these yesterday. They turned up with their never worn before nike gear, jewelry, and baseball caps on at funny angles, and they were doing all these funny hippity hop hand movements when they talked. They looked so ridiculous I couldn't take them seriously. Both had blonde hair. Brummie isn't an accent, it's a speech impediment I think girls with southern irish accents sound sexy.

Have you ever tried meditating? This may sound like ******** (and i'm the biggest cynic about new age b******* and crystal healing), but it can be very helpful. There are loads of resources on the interweb that will tell you how to do it. Concentrating on my breathing or on a word both work for me. Almost any resource that teaches meditation will come with an associated baggage of complete and utter nonsense, but if you ignore that and learn the technique (which is easy), you can get to a state of relaxation that is 100 times deeper than if you just sit down and try and relax. Learn to do it before you fly, then you know how to do it when you get to the airport.

I've had a taste of fresh naga. A piece the size of a match head. I was in pain for half an hour. Have you ever tried 'Dave's insanity sauce'? Mental. I'll have to check out that curry establishment. I'm starting at moulton college in northampton in october.

I've done software engineering, planetary science, glaciology, and now i'm a motorcycle instructor until I go to agricultural college in october. I want to work in game and wildlife conservation.

Finally got round to changing my immersion heater last week after a month of cold water and boiling pans for a bath. I kept telling myself i'd do it the next day I had off work, but somehow ended up at sporting targets instead. May seem like a trivial job, but last time I did it I ended up having to take the hot water tank out to do it. This time I got away with just taking the exhaust off the engine. Could only happen on a boat...

Yes. That's what I mean. Or a webasto www.webasto.co.uk

Yeah, living on a boat is really good fun, and there's a good community here. I have a squirel woodburner that does my hot water too, so I spend a lot of time scavenging wood. A chainsaw is essential. Have you tried a diesel boiler, like those you get for lorry cabs? I think you might get away with one of those in a fibreglass boat. I also use an oil filled radiator when it's not cold enough for the woodburner. Haven't seen the narrowboat programme on the telly. I don't have sky.

I live on one. 70 foot narrowboat, called 'inshallah' (hence the pw name). Also have a dingy to go to the pub in. It's called 'elsan blue'.

I used to enjoy catching a few freshly hatched fish fry from streams and rivers, and raise them to see what they grow in to. I've done minnows, and once, when expecting minnows, I ended up with 9 chub. Also kept a slow worm that I rescued from the cat, let it hibernate over winter in a fish tank, then released it when it woke up. I kept wild mice in a tank for a bit (cat again). Big mistake. The pregnant female escaped and I ended up with them everywhere. Another odd one was when I bought a pond plant and found an odd looking creature in the container. It had a head and a tail, and was completely transparent. Grew into a great crested newt. Probably illegal to keep it because they are protected, but I didn't know what it was, and it was only curiosity that stopped me just pouring the water (and tadpole) down the sink. Oh, and a pinktoe tarantula for an office pet, named after the boss.

Temperature: centigrade in winter, fahrenheit in summer.

I had the same problem. Now i'm a big cat love, and Tried water pistols, scaring it etc. for MONTHS. Still came back. So one night I filled the bath with cold water and set the catflap on 'trap' mode. The cat bolted when I got of bed, smacked into the cat flap and then panicked. I finally caught it, dunked it, yelled at it, dunked it, repeated several times and hurled it out the boat. It turned straight round came back in and went to the cat bowl again. Fortunately the owner has now left our mooring.

I'm listening to funkadelic - the electric spanking of war babies.

You've missed a bit. (boom boom)

>(defun post (n) (if (answered) t (post n))) >(post 2) Or something.

This decribes the effect and references the original paper. http://www.physorg.com/news5619.html

There is, in fact, a small change in sea level due to sea-ice melting. Something to do with salinity and density I think, becasue sea ice is less saline than the sea. Can't find the paper. I'll try and dig it out...

Hurrah. Someone who did some physics at school. Also, remember Archemedes? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoyancy#Arch...es.27_principle So any floating object displaces its own weight of fluid. The weight of an amount of water is the same if it's solid or liquid, but its volume will change. But as the previous poster said, ice is less dense than liquid water anyway.

OK. Last sciency post before I return to taking the exhaust pipe off my engine in order to replace the hot water immersion heater (boats will be boats). 1. Leave myanus out of this 2. The moon can't be made of cheese. It's 4.5 billion years old and would have been eaten by space mice if it was. 3. Floating ice doesn't change the level of the water, so sea ice melting has no effect on sea level rise. Ice sheets are on land, so when they melt or collapse the ice falls into the sea and so they DO make the sea level rise - just like the level of your jack daniels increases when you drop the ice cube in.