1

Just Chat! / How was Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri betrayed

« on: 04/08/2022 20:16:37 »

For the American assassination squad to kill him they had to know where he was and when he would be vunerable.
I understand that million $25.00 was offered for this information and it would be interesting to know if it was paid out.
Even if it included American citizenship and life long protection I cannot believe anyone receiving this money would live very long !

2

Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Many attemps have made to raise Chimpanzes as humans have there been any success

« on: 01/08/2022 19:29:25 »

These attempts have usually ended in disaster with the animal attacking its keepers when it becomes adult.

3

Physiology & Medicine / How often do multiple fertilization's result in only one birth

« on: 19/07/2022 09:03:08 »

On occasions more than one egg is fertilized but there is only one baby born.
I was born before the days of ultrasound scan but have often thought myself a little asymmetric  how common is this ?

4

Just Chat! / Are the concept of heatwavwes relative

« on: 14/07/2022 11:56:59 »

I recently met two visitors from Kuwait swaddled in their winter coats complaining about the chilly 30°C weather in the UK.

5

Just Chat! / Why the fuss about "neguinho" (nigger) common in English until 1960

« on: 02/07/2022 17:19:41 »

Used by a portugesse speaker about Sir Lewis Halminton

6

Physiology & Medicine / Is there any mechanism for getting expensive medication back into use.

« on: 22/06/2022 09:54:40 »

Occasionally NICE will prescribe a course treatment costing up to £200.000.00 if the patient dies before completing the course are the left over pills of any value and can they be put to any use ?

7

Just Chat! / why does the Grefell tower fire nonsence drag on ?

« on: 14/06/2022 20:05:15 »

it is now five years if the tenants had been prosperous they would have hired good lawyers and the tower would have  been torn down by now and rebuilt with them all compensated.
It seems because they were proles the tower will be left standing as long as the Battersea power station as some sort of memorial with the surving tenants in B&Bs.

8

Geek Speak / How good are modern computers at decoding WWII communications

« on: 29/03/2022 10:19:41 »

I would expect modern computers to easily decode traffic encodered with 3 disk machines but what of more complex encoders ?

9

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / what information about the solar system could be found from 1000 LY away

« on: 11/03/2022 10:32:39 »

At this distance with similar technology what could alien astronomers learn about our solar system

10

Technology / What does Motex do ?

« on: 20/01/2022 19:50:19 »

This gadget cuts your electric bill by 90% legaly How?

11

Technology / Can modern pacemakers survive in MRI scanners

« on: 19/01/2022 12:23:36 »

I have recently been fitted with a pacemaker will that prevent me from having a MRI scan ?

12

Technology / How do manufactured diamonds compare to natural diamonds?

« on: 03/01/2022 16:19:14 »

The market for diamond jewellery is a very manged one, can man made diamonds equal natural ones

13

Geek Speak / Is it still possible to run your vintage hardware?

« on: 31/12/2021 17:04:16 »

Many of the older correspondents may own much loved vintage scanners etc and would have found when trying to set them up on a new system they no longer work despite having the software that has worked fine for 30 years.
The reason for this is that the nice people at Redmond wishing us to use shiny new equipment no longer supply the feature NVDTM that enables equipment that uses 16 bit code on a 32 bit system to operate.
All is not lost the NVDTM feature can be downloaded from many sources and inserted into the system via DISM with instructions readily available how to do this after which everything works fine.

14

Physiology & Medicine / How long do the effects of local anethisetic last ?

« on: 25/10/2021 10:00:24 »

Six days ago I had a large's area of my upper chest numbed to facilitate the the fitting of a pace maker which has been a great success.
There is still much irritation in this area which makes sleeping difficult has this effect been reported before as I was not warned about it

15

Just Chat! / Is it possible to have a short discussion of history on a sciene forum ?

« on: 25/08/2021 19:25:15 »

Seeing the clear skies I expect to Hurricanes and Messersmits chasing each other round in circles being the oldest member there are many points I would like to discuss with fellow correspondents

16

Just Chat! / Why did the duke of York not accept a "I will keep quiet deal"?

« on: 12/08/2021 11:19:41 »

It is not unusual for VIP,s to be offered a financial deal by their sexual partners to not to publish was such an offer made to the Duke if so why did he refuse to pay up?
Was the offer such an excessive sum or did he think he could bluff it out ?

17

Geek Speak / Was the UK "405" line system superior to the German 180 line system

« on: 30/07/2021 16:20:29 »

The UK system had 377 active lines and was supposed to interlace but in reality only high grade monitors did infact interlace virtually all domestic receivers simply paired the frames up giving a 188 llne picture how ever carefully one tried to adjust them.
The worlds first TV system when we invented TV used a lot of German and American equipment

18

Just Chat! / Does anyone recall the heroic efforts to get live TV of the 1964 olympics to us

« on: 30/07/2021 05:54:08 »

There where many problems the only wide band channel was an experimental satelite with a band width of 5MB's and the original TV standard was 525 lines 60 frames and the UK standard was 405 lines 50 frames.
It was not a great success !

19

Just Chat! / Were spare versions of Hubble built?

« on: 17/07/2021 09:00:38 »

The Hubble telescope started life during the "cold war" as a modified version of a high technology reconnaissance satellite system.
I understud about six units were built but never put into service.
As the cost consists mostly of the research and develop time would it not have been expedient to have built at least one spare

20

Just Chat! / Am I the only one to find weather charts awusing?

« on: 21/06/2021 13:52:06 »

Each morning I am awakened to Sky TVs,s world wide temperature chart and it is interesting to compare temperatures between places such as Kuwait and Stanley for most of the year Kuwait is 40°C hotter but occasionally for one or two days of the year Stanley is hotter!.
Today is the summer equinox and it is a strange fact that the summer and winter ones in the UK  tend to have the same temperatures in the 10 to 12 degree range.
There are plans afoot to widen the orbit of the Earth to reduce global heating I hope nothing comes of it as it will spoil the eclipses