barryboys

Tents tend to absorb heat, and by 10am at a summer festival you're getting a rude awakening by the sun heating your tent to oven temperatures...

I'm not a physicist, so I may be wrong, but don't dark colours, like what most tents are made of, absorb heat? And wouldn't a white tent absorb heat? So should I get a tin of emulsion out of the shed and paint my tent white?

I know that nowadays many taxis do have satellite navigation, but I had a hackney carriage a couple of weeks ago who did not know the place I was going to in the town! I couldn't help either as I was a visitor, so the driver was stopping every so often to ask passers-by for directions-not what you need in a rush!

Is there any reason (other than cost, that would be recouped in the long run in time petrol from fewer incorrect routes taken) why licensing authorities shouldn't insist on sat nav for every taxi/private hire driver?

Just noticed something...

Going back to my mom's house (proper working class area), I noticed that people go out more... Pensioners walking dogs, kids playing kerbie in the street, people talking to friends, teenagers plucking up the courage to talk to the opposite sex etc. You actually see people on the streets.

Contrast this with when the bus travelled through the affluent treelined suburbs. Not a soul in sight. Not even someone walking on the pavements.

Why???

Surely it can't be the fear of crime - this would actually be lower in the suburbs

(UK question - don't know if it's the US is the same).

This is a phenomenon I've experienced in three different flats, so it's not a one off...

There is a 10cm high wooden skirting board, rather like a plank, which sits below the sink unit, cupboards etc, and rests on the floor. However in every flat I've lived in this plank isn't fixed, rather it wobbles if you brush a broom or vacuum against it, so that one end pops out and the other end goes inward. Very annoying to line it up straight again, plus it reveals all the 'crumbies' you missed last time...

My latest flat's a new build and has 'wobbly plank syndrome'! Why???

Apologies for being a little cynical, but has any charity disbanded after meeting its aims, or do they just change their aims a little?

Case in point, Barnardos, initially set up to care for orphaned children, has reinvented itself as a general childrens' charity.

Would Amnesty International think 'Right, that's our work done, let's go home' if all political prisoners were released?

I've become a bit posher and I've moved into a house with a laminate floor. (I know it's laminate 'cos I can see the pattern repeating in places) I've never had one before.

Should I use a vacuum on it or a brush? I know that you shouldn't wet-mop it, but what products should you put on the floor before dry-mopping?

I'm at a loss as to why anyone would buy a newspaper that treats its readers as idiots (i.e. the Diana stories on Mondays, the overexageration of weather stories, the obvious twisted headlines that most people can see through). The only reason I can come up with is that it matches their political beliefs, in which case there's a similar product in the Daily Mail. So why buy the Express?

(disclaimer: I have may have peeked in years ago to read Calvin and Hobbes on my paper round. But that is my only connection with the rag.)

I don't usually listen to Mark Thomas' shows on Radio 4, but I caught his show regarding the exclusion zone on protests on Parliament.

Is he a beacon of caring for liberties and free speech, or an annoying mockney?

I'll let you decide...

Call me sad, but I like to get all my goods packed up before the cashier asks for change. I can do it at all supermarkets but the aldi - the staff must be on caffeine pills! Plus as they don't have a huge area behind the tills to pack the goods, you hold up the person behind :-(

Has anyone managed to bag up a basketfull of goods before they ask for the cash?

I've noticed that adverts that aim for a 'lad mag' audience wear clothes with a nod to the 70's i.e. Y-fronts with the big Y on the front, Jarvis Cockeresque charity shop chic etc? It doesn't really reflect on their audience (who are more of the shirt jeans and shoes on the town sort).

So why do they do it?

(for reference, talking about UK ads for products like WKD, Rustlers etc.)

Does any modern day country practice what the British used to do (for definition, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_colony ). Just curious because many people, as a response to the question of what do do with criminals, respond 'put them on an island' as a solution.

Just curious, I know little about cars so I won't mess with things I don't know about! All I know is it isn't in a little box at the front like my previous car :-(