[OT] The three Rs

[whisky-dave]

and why is that important for the majority of the people to know.

So what is the answer to that question ? It is obvioulsy for someone studying the subject for teaching purposes. It might be useful in that it could teach certain people that we traded with Europe 2000+ years ago ;-) It might be useful to understand how the world wars came about, what caused them and how to avoid such things in the future but I'm not sure teaching latin would help.

I think they should teach wine making or making anything so we can be more self-sufficient rather than spend resources on teaching latin.

Perhaps you can tell me where this i before e except after c came form or how it works as I was told it has something to do with latin.

[whisky-dave]

e:

ytical skills required.

Did latin use binary, octal or hex systems ?. I remmeber that being explain ed to me while watching ball bearing go down a chute flipping wedges of woo d in one dirction or another don;t remmebr any latin involved

But that proper use died out when shakespeare kicked the bucket.

But is it better for schools to teach fortan/latin rather than perhaps fire safety or how to apply for a job or sign up for a credit card and what it means. I had to explain to an English teacher about credit as he was amazed that his CC company kept offering him more free credit he came to me saying that it was free money because they weren't charging him interest on it for the next 12 months so he went out and brought something he didnlt really need because he saw it as 'free'. He studied History and politics at university which could explain it, and I believe he voted UKIP, previously he voted Co nserative.

[Terry Casey]

cloc.

The clock was an elderly pendulum one on the mantlepiece and had to be in exactly the right position to work correctly so moving it to keep stopping and starting it again at frequent intervals would not have been an option!

Thinking about it logically, she must have had a watch - rather important if she/we went out anywhere that relied on catching buses and trains but nobody in those days would have dreamed of wearing one to do housework at home!

The most obvious thing, I think, is that she had the watch in her pinny pocket so that she could refer to it as required.

No. Normally this would only happen when I was playing in the living room anyway - she would just call out to me through the open door and after I'd reported what the clock said and return to what I'd been doing.

True but I favour the watch in the pocket explanation better!

[michael adams]

Indeed. She would have kept the watch in a pocket, rather than on her wrist so as to save it possibly getting wet when she was doing stuff at the sink, covered in flour when she was baking, or in ash when clearing out the grates etc. etc. Or possibly she might have kept it in a kitchen drawer.

michael adams

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[michael adams]

So its war, then ?

Again!

Anyway when does it start ? Any idea ?

michael adams

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[The Natural Philosopher]

Its alreday started. Been going on since te 70s.

[whisky-dave]

3rd time lucky perhaps. We've still got some near mint condition tridents to use up ;-)

I guess that depends on the negotiators if they turn up to the meetings. If it takes 7 years for a trade deal..... who knows.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

No country can join without all the others agreeing it. Odd, given unelected commissioners run everything, we're told.

[whisky-dave]

Are you saying you don't believe what you are told ?

[michael adams]

Eh ? We've already won the first two.

But who's to say if we win this one as well, that the Germans won't want best of seven ?

We need the permission of the US before we can launch those. Which the US won't give. They're targetted for use against Russia who are still regarded as the chief adversary for strategic purposes, and nobody else

michael adams

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[whisky-dave]

you call that winning remind me who basically runs the EU ?

Seems you believe ethings uo hear.

weapons/

Who controls Trident?

One of the most common myths around the system is that the United States ha s control over the UK?s Trident missile system, that is not the cas e.

It?s often said that the UK?s Trident nuclear weapons syste m is not ?independent? or that the UK doesn?t have the ability to use the system without the US agreeing to it, in reality the UK does retain full operational control over the system.

One common argument is that the US can simply ?turn off? th e GPS system and therefore can stop the UK using Trident, this is also a my th, Trident isn?t guided by satellite.

And the lochness monster like fried mars bars, yes we know

[michael adams]

you call that winning remind me who basically runs the EU ?

Seems you believe ethings uo hear.

One common argument is that the US can simply 'turn off' the GPS system and therefore can stop the UK using Trident, this is also a myth, Trident isn't guided by satellite.

Straw man. Of course Trident isn't guided by satellite. But its guidance system makes use of data provided by satellites. You might as well claim that your Sky TV system is controlled by a satellite.

As written evidence submitted to the Select Committe On Defence explains -

1. The UK's dependency on the USA has operational significance. For example, the UK's reliance on US weather data and on navigational data provided by the US Global Positioning System (GPS) means that, should the USA decide not to supply this data, the capacity of the UK's Trident missiles to hit targets would be degraded.

michael adams

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And the lochness monster like fried mars bars, yes we know

[Jeff Layman]

Agreed. It might give you an idea of the roots of words, but so does Greek, and, let's face it, a lot of Latin comes from Greek.

The only use I find for it now is reading epitaphs in old churches, etc. I can usually get the gist of what's written there.

[Huge]

It's handy for diseases, too.

[Steve Walker]

Degraded, not lost. They can still be fired and will still reach their targets, they just won't be quite as accurate and you don't have to be particularly accurate with nuclear weapons!

SteveW

[Jeff Layman]

Quite often the reason for the epitaph in the first place! :-)

[spuorgelgoog]

Also useful for filling in self-certify sick notes, as anyone with a nasty dose of crapula and ebrietas knows.

Owain

[Bob Eager]

I've found this quite useful:

[bert]

Not in my area. One grammar school and that was that.

[bert]

For some of my school mates the *nearest" secondary school was nearly an hour plus a couple of miles walk.