although having thought about it, maybe gragging is a nicer way to go - sort of a cross between being handbagged and groped- whatever

for "gragging" please read "grabbing" - ooops

We don't recognise your independence from the British Empire anyway so those seamen were still British citizens. :) You're all still a bunch of rebellious land-gragging, genocidal maniacs who wanted to destroy all native life and ignore all treaties with the true Americans.

= the act of U.S. agencies using a one-sided extradition agreement to take British citizens without due process or proof and to deny the extradition of U.S. subjects to the U.K. unless there is a mountain of exemplary documentation and lawyers have earned millions and the subject has possibly died in the meantime.

What has "virtual richard m stallman" got to do with this? Are the Bath Uni boxen running Debian?

I guess I could swing either way on this one.

It has to be "The Matrix" - who can believe there are that many long leather coats on the planet?

None of them; I don't have a computer you insensitive clods.

Just don't visit Australia with any "important information" then ;)

When I was a Christian (years ago before I met the great Gods Computerus, Codingux and Interneticon) I was taught at Sunday school that the only intercessor needed between man and God was Christ - it was a personal relationship without the interference of Mary, Rome, Pope or priest. Maybe they still only allow Roman Catholics to use latin bibles?

Frohike in Lederhosen? One of the best episodes of any series I've watched.

Does anyone have a decent picture of Admiral Grace Hopper around 80-85 years old? ;)

I'm not sure of the differences between UK and US (or maybe Canadian) ed systems, but even at an earlier age than starting primary school in the 60's I was on the head-mistresses "advanced reading group" and was educating myself through reading.

Your comment about babies is disengenuous and insulting to those of us that know how to read and assimilate that information - albeit that the books we were reading were slightly more basic than "Janet & John Discover the Nature of Black Holes and form a coherent theory of Everything".

I'd never have guessed that children could educate themselves, I was always under the impression that whichever book I read as a school-kid would only entertain me not educate me; how I missed out on so much. ;(

It does strike me that so much education is now based on parents or teachers beliefs and requirements rather than trying to give our kids an un-biased, stable view of history and science (as well as a damn good grounding in English spelling and grammar). All too often I see the politicians in the UK messing with the curriculum and tweaking things to get the best results, when all, in effect, they are doing is creating university entrants with biased positions on history and science, kids not knowing exactly what is is they excel in and a generation (after generation et. cetera) that is dominated by belief rather than proof.

I have no problem with any of the education I had in the 60's and early 70's as that was a full, unbiased and rounded education with no crap from religious groups or politico's trying to score points from voters; because of that I know I had a decent education, even though a lot has been re-written with new discoveries in archaeology and the disparate sciences.

Sorry.

And even with good clues we don't actually measure distance well.

Yep, just look at the quarterback for the Carolina Panthers.