at9

He's jolly strong, and he normally keeps it fixed on a little pole in front of him.

That's racist And sizist. And probably politically incorrect

Megan, what you're describing is an emergency fanbelt repair. Won't help if the battery is flat. It's barely relevant to modern cars as the fan is usually electrically powered. Modern cars usually have at least one belt. One drives the alternator which charges the battery. The engine will run without it but the battery will gradually go flat. A red light will be illuminated on the dashboard to show this fault. I doubt if an improvised belt would actually drive a modern alternator.Another belt (sometimes the same one) usually drives the power steering pump. If that belt fails your steering will be exceeding heavy. Yet another belt may drive the air conditioning compressor. Not essential.

May I commend this book to all those interested in this fascianting subject. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ronald-Searles-Non-sexist-Dictionary-Searle/dp/0285628658

You will probably also need to replace the battery. Car batteries don't like being flattened and usually have a very short life after that, even if they appear to have recovered. You may also think it a good idea to spend £80 or so per year on a comprehensive assistance package including an option that will help you at home. AA and RAC charge rather more than this but there are better value packages, often as an optional extra with your car insurance. The best value I've yet found is here: http://www.autoaidbreakdown.co.uk/

Is there anyone here from MANchester? Sorry, meant PERSONchester. Or was it Kangaroochester? Or Qwlodzjslkjhsdjikgschester? Whoops!

It's the highest mountain in Wales, but I suspect as a Canadian you'd not be that impressed.

Megan, you might need to explain Wales as well

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=snowdon

In the UK there are many stories about daft folk going up mountains with grossly inadequate footwear or clothing. The montain rescue people save their lives despite their stupidity. I wonder if this sort of thing happens in the alps, rockies, or anywhere else where they have rather higher peaks.

I was just about to post about this article and found somebody had beaten me to it. PS: Why does the forum software appear to disallow mutliple capitals in thread titles? BBC, SLR and TUC have been changed in Bbc, Tuc and Slr.

In English this is Morton's Neuroma. I had a painful small lump in the ball of one foot. Didn't know what it was so went to the doctor who said it was Mortons Neuroma. He suggested using these: http://www.compeed.co.uk/compeed-footcare After a few days it improved a lot. ALthough I can still feel a slight lump there is no pain. Got the same iin theother foot now but that doesn't hurt. http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/mortonsneuroma/Pages/Introduction.aspx I was amused when the doctor said that the problem is far more common in women than men. When I sked why he mentioned high heels and badly fitting footwear. I don't wear HH all the time, probably only about 10% of the time so I don't think that was the cause for me.

The study referenced in this article should be in the running for an IgNobel prize: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/01/high_heels_are_hot/ http://www.improbable.com/ig/

Who are istr?

GIYF :-)

Apart from that, I can't recall seeing any ballet boots in shops in London. There might be the odd pair around Camden market if you look hard enough but that's likely to be a fruitless search. Not even sure that there are regularly any to be seen at London's 2 "alternative" markets, LAM and LFF. http://www.londonalternativemarket.com/ http://www.londonfetishfair.co.uk/ I think Alternative Footwear come to these markets sometimes http://www.alternative-footwear.co.uk/ and ISTR they are willing to bring down specific shoes if asked in advance.

ISTR seeing a few pairs in one of the fetish shops on Holloway Road. Possibly Atsuko Kudo, possibly not. I know one of the shops has closed since I was there a year or 2 ago. Sorry I can't be more precise.

Not the highest nor the most elegant but these 2" heels look very practical. The price is practical too, unlike the designer heels for men that have been available.

http://www.shoe-shop...0/invt/pav33286

PS: Quite a few of the women's styles from this company are available in UK9.

According to the UK Gender Recognition Act (2004) http://en.wikipedia....nition_Act_2004 a transexual (as defined in that act) must be treated for all purposes as their new gender identity. HHP policy therefore seems to be illegal. However this is of no practical consequence in most cases.

Those who are not fully transitioned M>F and are not legally recognised in their assumed gender are legally male. Period. Therefore HHP can exclude them from the girls' forum. Those M>F TS who are legally recognised as female can join HHP as female and nobody will know otherwise unless they say something. It would be wise for them not to.

That leaves a potentially tiny number of existing members, including one of the team, who have legally become female or are preparing to do so. I suggest that each of these is treated on a case by case basis and an individual agreement reached. I doubt this will involve significant effort for the team as the numbers are almost certainly tiny.

Not permitting guys on the girls forum is just as discriminatory as not permitting TG/TVs.

Don't think there's a problem with that particular discrimination under UK law, no more than having a "ladies only" area in a clubhouse, although discrimination based on gender is illegal in many respects. The problem is that in the UK a transitioned M2F TS is legally female for all purposes.Except apparently here at HHP. Those TV/TG folk who present convincingly as female when they are legally male are still legally male. If they are convicted of a crime they would go to a male prison, it says male in their passport. There is no problem with HHP barring these folk from the girl's forum. It's just that relatively small quota of transitioned TS people who are legally female. We may have one or more amongst us without even knowing it; we don't have a right to ask and if they don't tell there's no way of knowing.

I appreciate this is a complex and delicate subject for which there are often no simple answers. TG folk (of all types) can face unwarranted discrinination in many walks of life. On this basis, HHP's policy can be seen as a very minor thing,

I'm not really trying to influence HHP policy - it doesn't actually matter to me one way or the other - but it's possible that HHP's current policy could fall foul of UK law. HHP is based in the UK and hence has to abide by UK law. My understanding, which could be incorrect, is that a transitioned TS person must be treated as their new gender for all purposes. This includes passport and law enforcement. Hence HHP should allow a transitioned TS to declare themselves female. If they are a new member and say nothing about their TG history then nobody is any the wiser and I don't see a problem. The question arises when long standing member John Smith has become Jane Smith. I am fully aware that HHP is not a forum for TS/TV/TG issues and am entirely happy about that. In all other areas of life Jane is entitled to be regarded as female without question or prejudice. Except here at HHP. I'm really not sure of the best approach.

OK, cross the pond translation on this one please?

Is ' taking the piss ' comparable to ' talking trash ' or ' talking $hit ' or something like that? I honestly have NO CLUE and have never heard the term ' Taking the piss ' used before.

JFGI: http://en.wikipedia....Taking_the_piss

PS: Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Cuomo were most definitely not taking the piss when they warned you guys about the storm. My best wishes to all those in its path. I've been trying to contact a friend who lives in Manhattan (E 29th and 2nd) but his phone and cellphone are both out. No internet either Probably no power.. He's probably fine but it would be good to know.

I would recommend Lynn Payer's book "Medicine and CUlture" for those who wish to understand the US, UK, French and German healthcare systems. http://www.amazon.co...r/dp/0805048030 I would also recommend Ben Goldacre's books "Bad Science" and "Bad Pharma". I have just started to read the latter and it's more than slightly scary.

Living in the US without adequate health insurance seems pretty scary to me. In the UK we count it as part of being a civilised society that young and old, poor and rich, sensible and stupid, all have access to a decent healthcare system. It's not perfect, some of it is frankly poor, but it's there when we need it without worrying about being able to pay

PS: If you think things are bad with conventional medicine I ought to add that most if not all "alternative" therapies have hardly been properly tested in any way that gives respectable evidence for their efficacy and side effects. This article isn't really about medicine but serves as an example of how belief can influence health: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21628850.200-the-sickening-truth-about-wind-farm-syndrome.html

Not to inject politics into this ...

You just have. Do you really believe what you have just said about our NHS? Do you really believe that tabloid comments like this actually represent anything remotely like UK health policy? The NHS has plenty of problems but refusal to treat some patients because they have contributed to their own problems is not one of them.

As for stories about people wearing shoes that are a bit too high for them. When you put somebody in shoes like this, that they have never tried before, It's hardly surprising if they have trouble staying upright. Either a bit of fun or typical tabloid "newspaper" material depending on your point of view.

Gina, I'm not so sure I get the meaning of your last post. What was it about? Did you have a bad experience with them?

Some time ago (months?) Gina reported some very severe problems with those companies who I think she was using to supply her retail business. Not sure if she lost a lot of money too. Hardly surprising that she's p*****d off at the mere mention of their names. Remember that while Gina's English is excellent, it's not her native language and the exact meaning has got a little lost in translation. Her feelings come over clearly enough regardless of exact meaning.

The minuscule amount of computing power on the LM and command module is astonishing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer Even the total amount of computing power at mission control wasn't in the modern PC class. I could be wrong, but ISTR that the designers deliberately had the astronauts enter a lot of stuff manually that could have been sent automatically. This was to give them a measure of control and minimise the "spam in a can" attitude that sometimes affected early spaceflight. Armstrong demonstrated the true worth of a top class human pilot on that first lunar landing. Apollo 11 only carried a monochrome TV camera. Subsequent Apollos carried a colour camera which used a rotating colour wheel and a single tube. Similar in concept to the CBS colour system of 1948. Not many people had colour TV in the UK in 1969. It had been introduced in 1967 (first country n Europe, US started its NTSC colour service in 1954))

He's a very different guy to the late lamented Carlo Curley. CC's showmanship certainly brought the organ to a wider audience though they could hardly be more different in every other way. Don't think you would ever have seen CC's ample frame perched on high heels.

In the first Youtube clip shown in this forum the American organist Cameron Carpenter is giving a virtuoso performance on the organ while wearing heels.

http://orgue-libre.b...-trinity-church

Other clips also show the same heels as does a photo part way down the page.

At the bottom of the page there's a photo, presumably of him, wearing very high heels though I suspect they would not be ideal for playing the organ

Those of us who are old enough will have witnessed the moon landings with awe and wonder. Many years later nobody has been back nor are there any real plans to do so again. http://xkcd.com/893/ We all know that the motivation for Kennedy's vision was largely cold war based and it cost a vast amount of money but the results transcended all that. Let us also remember Grisson, Chaffee and White who died in a launchpad fire that could have easily scuppered the whole Apollo programme. RIP Neil Armstrong.

You meant "avoir du poids" or does "avios du pois" mean anything else ?

Usually "avoirdupois" in English. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoirdupois Literally: "having weight"