Some are indeed as you describe, but many are what most folks would recognise as "soldiers" - the gendarmes have several divisons, with very different roles.

The US view of diesel cars is somewhat different to the European one!

These days the (possibly daft) 0-60 mph time of a diesel versus a petol engine is comparable (we're talking "normal" cars) Then look at things like the 50-70 mph time (more meaningful - you want to drag past that truck on the autoroute ASAP...) and see why diesel cars are so often preferred!

Oh, and since no one else has mentioned it yet: 2006 a diesel won the Le Man 24-hour race.

No mod points. So here to say to you "Spot on". Totally and completely correct.

Tricia Helfer. Poker. I know I would.

I have no mod points today, so I say "Well said!"

Spot on. I'm about as far from being a gay-rights activist as it's possible to be, but the way Alan Turing was treated and, in effect, hounded to his suicide, is something of which we should be deeply ashamed.

The man was brilliant, patriotic and saved countless lives. Yet because he fancied men he ended up dead. Apart from the personal tragedy for him and his loved ones, the world lost a man who still had years of potentially great work head of him. One can only be thankful that, in many countries today, this would not be repeated.

Unix passwords are, generally, not encrypyted. They are hashed. The distinction is often lost, as here. By definition you cannot "decrypt" a hash. You can merely check that it matches or does not match some other value.

I was going to ask what your point was, but after re-reading I think you actually make it quite well.

I suppose it all depends on what one understands by "taught". I suppose what *I* mean is "taught, such that the results are actually observable". As you rightly say, teaching depends on many things.

From first-hand experience of the UK education system (rather a lot...) and considerable exposure to the output, I maintain that the items I mention are not taught, at least in so far as the results are not there. Whether that is due to the teachers, parents, or, no doubt, some complex mix of those and other factors, is an interesting and important debate. But I maintain that, at the end of it all, the UK turns out a large number of people with a striking lack of education.

Fantastic idea! Since they gave up teaching children grammar, spelling, written communication skills, good manners, literacy and so on, this at least gives them something to do during all the free time they now have.

I just thank deity that my children are not in the UK...

Indeed take it a step further. Whenever I write a slightly "contentious" email, I park it in Drafts. However damn brilliant I think it is, I force a pause while I go have a coffee/walk/piss/whatever.

Then I come back, read it again, probably tweak it, and *then* send.

The Telegraph has an interesting article on this, plus the actual text message itself. Story is at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/3565928/British-surgeon-tells-of-how-he-carried-out-amputation-via-text-message.html

Text message was:

Start on clavicle. Remove middle third. Control and divide subsc art and vein. Divide large nerve trunks around these as prox as poses. Then come onto chest wall immed anterior and divide Pec maj origin from remaining clav. Divide pec minor insertion and (very imp) divide origin and get deep to serrates anterior. Your hand sweeps behind scapula. Divide all muscles attached to scapula. Stop muscle bleeding with count suture. Easy! Good luck. Meirion

When newly married other things normally keep you "up", if my fading memory serves me correctly. You sir are a true geek (albeit a married one, which knocks a few points off again, of course)