Craig Sawyers

That is because practically noone in Britain knows anything about firearms. Military, police, the shooting birds brigade, and a handful of crooks.

No-one needs that sort of shit. I've chased SOB's that gave me the finger from the safety of their car before now - but we don't have easy access to guns in the UK, so the risk is not high. One guy ended up so worried after I chased him for 5 miles he drove into his open garage and closed the door before I got out my car to confront him. Bet he was reluctant to poke a gratuitous finger after that. The bastard. Feisty, me?

Sherlock. Each episode gets better - but this first series is only three, so that'll be the last for a while. Was also listening today to Benedict Cumberbatch on Radio 4 in a series damatisation of John Mortimer's Rumpole of the Bailey, with Timothy West playing the older Rumpole and Cumberbatch the younger. And very very good Cumberbatch is in the role.

OK - I've talked myself into buying the uncut miniseries version of Das Boot - 2 DVD's worth - from Amazon.

What I didn't realise, but now do, is that there are several cuts of the movie and *two* miniseries (a 3 x 100 minute one from a 1984 BBC screening, and a 6 x 50 minute version from 1988 - that is the one I recall seeing). I watched the 3h29m directors cut last year. Any and all are well worth watching.

That is really shitty Brent - hope things settle down real quick and you can move on.

How about Das Boot? The German movie, not the series. Absolutely gripping - and long - the Director's cut is well over 3 hours. Watch it in German with subtitles (athough there is a version dubbed in English using the real actors to dub themselves).

Bloody hell - there is no way I'm paying that much. More than the cost of a chicken and a can of beer together. You're damned right about rip-off Britain. I'll keep balancing the bird without the help of a piece of welded wire framework. It was delicious, by the way.

OK beefy - tell me more. Is this a Weber gizmo, or a third party thing that fits a Weber, or.... I definitely need one.

Cooking beer can chicken. Recipe: Procure a Weber kettle BBQ, with side charcoal baskets and drip tray. Procure a chicken and a beer can. Open can and shove chicken onto can. Brush with olive oil. Balance (easier than it sounds) chicken on griddle and put on lid. 1 1/2 hours later golden chicken internally basted with beer steam. Beer rendered undrinkable...

Looking at the world's biggest structures (well, I just got curious, and Naaman is refuelling close by on the way back to Oz), and found that Burj Khalifa in Dubai is heftily the biggest by quite a way. 828m, or over 2,700 feet. Astonishing structure, with all sorts of records - like how about an open air viewing platform at 1400 feet. Plans are afoot (apparently) for a mile high building, so over twice the height of Burj Khalifa.

Way to go! Good luck to you both with the delivery

Wife opened the credit card bill with the casework and a bunch of other stuff to finish the BH.

On 19th June, Inu said he had a ton of them spare at 15 cents each plus postage.

Bet his fee is less than Rathbone's (corrected for the odd 60 years) by the odd couple of orders of magnitude. Daughter is just starting a year at at East15 acting school in "MA Acting for TV, Film and Theatre" East 15 Acting School at the University of Essex, MA Acting for TV . 6000 applicants for 16 places, so were all seriously happy bunnies.

It is just about my all time favourite, and the only cask strength that I drink without water - straight out of the bottle it is outstanding. But I was going through a list of distilleries earlier today, and was quite suprised how many I had drunk over the years. My wife's auny Jeannie and her husband are lifelong whisky enthusiasts, but the consequence of age has put paid to their tippling. I'm holding out for the hoard of 500 bottles.... Several times in years past I have tried to go drink for drink with Jeannie. That was always a mistake - she had an iron constitution for whisky. I always fell over before she was even tipsy.

I've fortunately got none in my Glenfarclas 105 cask strength I'm just drinking. But I like Laphroaig too...

Well that is truly great news! And so very like the chaos at every anodiser I've known.

I recorded it and watched it later. The BBC was in conflict with itself on Sunday - Final night of European Athletics Championship followed by Top Gear on BBC2, and bridging across those was Sherlock on BBC1. Why they could think that viewers who like Athletics and Top Gear would not want to watch Sherlock is a mystery known only to programme schedulers.

Well done sir! Bet that was what Tony Hayward said

Thanks for straightening that out! I dunno about the 3381's. But they all seems to be used as simple current mirrors, so probably not critical.

I think Inu had some initial problems getting the 740V batteries to lock, even after screening his BL's for low beta (at the high end of the GR range). Could be misremembering - so check back in the thread.

Since I'm still waiting for mains transformers, I'll hang on until it is complete. Give my regards to your anodisers

Anodisers never fail to amaze me. I use MetroPlating in Uxbridge Metro Plating - Sulphuric - Chromic & Hard Anodising - Alochrom - Aluminium Finishing Absolutely first rate, but I always drop off and collect, and check each piece. Good they are, very good, - but it is absolute chaos in there, a real bloody mess. This seems to be the standard way of working - I've visited several over the years. I'm lucky that I'm only about an hour's drive from Metro; god knows what would happen if they shipped. The only thing that would worry me about that is the delta cost of sending the final bits across the pond. How long will the replacements for the lost bits take?

Don't start me on a carrier rant - they are all as bad as each other. The Tekscopes mailing list is a regular litany of test gear bought off eBay that arrives looking like it has been thrown out the back of a moving truck (maybe it has). Or two identically labelled identical parcels I shipped to the La Palma observatory. One arrived OK, and the other was returned - somehow separated and the sender's address had been interpreted as the "to" address by some blithering idiot. Or the piece of gear coming from Ca to the UK. Never arrived. 8 weeks later it got back to the sender - our idiot parcels service Parcel Force (or Parcel Farce as it is known) failed to deliver the correctly labelled package, failed to leave a note three times (they are required to make three attempts, and leave a card if there is no answer), and then returned to sender using the cheapest and slowest method (pony ). And that is just for starters....