exCrossLad

Oh yeah! I'll be in the General Forum until the comedian comes on....

Have you got a thirsty snake in your petrol tank?

I'm not quite sure what you mean, or even if you mean me, but my Chevy pick up returns 20mpg overall, and thats with an automatic trans too!

 

You prefer automatics because you didn't have the intellect to pass a manual test? Just joking before you get your nickers in a twist.

 

If automatics were so superior then how come my licence - taken in a manual, allows me to drive and automatic, but the reverse is not true.

 

I really dont know the answer to that. Probably because historically the UK motor industry has never used automatic transmissions in its products. The overwhelming majority of British cars had small engines which didn't lend themselves well to auto transmissions, but that was years ago. Modern engines are very efficient, even small engines are compatible with automatic transmissions today.

I know you're only kidding about passing a manual test. I've held a British HGV Class 1 driving licence since 1970, and I got an equivalent American Class A Commercial driver license when I moved here to the USA six years ago. I passed the test and the truck had an 18 gear manual transmission, and believe me if you drove it for an 11 hour shift you would be begging for an automatic transmission! The company I worked for also had automatic transmission trucks which were much less tiring to drive, returned equal fuel economy, and needed far less replacements of the drive train components.

If you're happy with your manual transmission, thats fine with me, but please dont think that everyone who prefers automatic is somehow a lesser driver.

My wife's car is an automatic with a 6-speed box. It's quick, responsive and efficient. - You can also select the gearshift to the 'tiptronic' side of the box to 'lock up' the transmission or if you don't want to drive in full auto.

 

Exactly! Ferrari use two clutch "automatics" now with paddle shifts on the steering column because its simply impossible for a human to change gear fast enough! The transmission bangs off gear shifts in thousands of a second. It also ensures that the drivers hands are on the steering wheel all the time, where they should be.

Manual trans are old school. I dont own a Ferrari, of course, but my Chevy pick up truck with a 5.3 V8 is a pleasure to drive, tons of acceleration, and returns 20mpg.

Give me an automatic any day!

I have a manual as well - this is the only automatic I've ever had. It is good when you get stuck in traffic, but as I try to avoid that as much as possible it's not a benefit I appreciate very often. In normal driving it's slow, unresponsive and not very efficient. I've been driving more years than I didn't drive, and I've never felt the need to slip the clutch in traffic.

 

I'll definitely have a look for pipes that might be split. I suppose when the cat disintegrated the increased back pressure (it blocked the exhaust) could have caused something to split.

Maybe its because I havent driven in the UK for some years and my memory is fading but I remember going home to Crookes every day from work and having to slip the clutch all the time in bumper-to-bumper traffic from Redhill up past the Children's Hospital to Crookes. I've been driving automatics for six years now and my mpg is no worse than an equivelent manual, and its far more driver friendly. I drove an artic for a living up to a year ago, and changing up and down through 18 gears all day is hard work. I had a friend who drove an auto artic, got the same mileage (about 3.5 mpg), and didnt have left leg twice the size of his right!

Maybe not that old, I didn’t start work until 1976 and on the panel was still being used as a term for being off sick, I haven’t a clue where it comes from though.

I remember that too from the seventies. I also remember my dad calling the sick benefit the 'Lloyd George', which must go back even farther.

Would not dream of getting an automatic. Takes the fun out of driving for me.

 

Just done a check and someone suggests a split induction pipe. Could be a split anywhere - or perhaps as simple as the replacement cat was not fitted properly and there is a gap in the housing.

An air leak seems the most obvious cause of the problem to me too. But I disagree on automatics. Who needs to be changing gear endless times, and slipping the clutch in traffic, for God's sake?

Give me an auto any day!

I thought everyone had forgotten about that.....

Thanks for reminding us.

It was torpedoed with an 1930s torpedo. It was a very dangerous ship that would have caused havoc had it managed (as it intended) to meet up with the task force. It was also sailing with two destroyers which carried exocet missiles.

 

I think the ship was sunk to scupper the Al Haig peace plan which would have been detrimental to Thatcher's Falklands policies.

Out of the below, which is she guitly of:

 

Glibness and Superficial Charm

 

 

Manipulative and Conning

They never recognize the rights of others and see their self-serving behaviors as permissible. They appear to be charming, yet are covertly hostile and domineering, seeing their victim as merely an instrument to be used. They may te and humiliate their victims.

 

 

Grandiose Sense of Self

Feels entitled to certain things as "their right."

 

 

Pathological Lying

Has no problem lying coolly and easily and it is almost impossible for them to be truthful on a consistent basis. Can create, and get caught up in, a complex belief about their own powers and abilities. Extremely convincing and even able to pass lie detector tests.

 

 

Lack of Remorse, Shame or Guilt

A deep seated rage, which is split off and repressed, is at their core. Does not see others around them as people, but only as targets and opportunities. Instead of friends, they have victims and accomplices who end up as victims. The end always justifies the means and they let nothing stand in their way.

 

 

Shallow Emotions

When they show what seems to be warmth, joy, love and compassion it is more feigned than experienced and serves an ulterior motive. Outraged by insignificant matters, yet remaining unmoved and cold by what would upset a normal person. Since they are not genuine, neither are their promises.

 

 

Incapacity for Love

 

 

Need for Stimulation

Living on the edge. Verbal outbursts and physical punishments are normal. Promiscuity and gambling are common.

 

 

Callousness/Lack of Empathy

Unable to empathize with the pain of their victims, having only contempt for others' feelings of distress and readily taking advantage of them.

 

 

Poor Behavioral Controls/Impulsive Nature

Rage and abuse, alternating with small expressions of love and approval produce an addictive cycle for abuser and abused, as well as creating hopelessness in the victim. Believe they are all-powerful, all-knowing, entitled to every wish, no sense of personal boundaries, no concern for their impact on others.

 

 

Early Behavior Problems/Juvenile Delinquency

Usually has a history of behavioral and academic difficulties, yet "gets by" by conning others. Problems in making and keeping friends; aberrant behaviors such as cruelty to people or animals, stealing, etc.

 

 

Irresponsibility/Unreliability

Not concerned about wrecking others' lives and dreams. Oblivious or indifferent to the devastation they cause. Does not accept blame themselves, but blames others, even for acts they obviously committed.

 

 

Promiscuous ual Behavior/Infidelity

Promiscuity, child ual abuse, and ual acting out of all sorts.

 

 

Lack of Realistic Life Plan/Parasitic Lifestyle

Tends to move around a lot or makes all encompassing promises for the future, poor work ethic but exploits others effectively.

 

 

Criminal or Entrepreneurial Versatility

Changes their image as needed to avoid prosecution. Changes life story readily.

 

 

Some of the above personality traits I recognise in previous partners

Sounds like my ex wife.....want her phone number?

Just place on record what I wrote, as an ex serviceman I don't celebrate the of our soldiers.

What I can understand is the frustration of the Jewish people after all they had endured.

All they were asking for was the homeland that they had been promised in the land where there were already a considerable number of Jews.

Contrary to what some believe many Jews were already living in what now is called Israel; long before WWII

But you dont condemn the Irgun action. You can understand the frustration of the Jewish people, and thus the Irgun's actions are, by implication, regretable, but justifiable. Precisely the IRA apologists position. Personally I think blowing up a hotel, along with 91 people, after giving a warning or not, is indefensible, and no cause could possibly justify such an attack. Not the Holocaust, not any amount of frustration. The point I wanted to make is that the state of Israel was founded on, and is maintained by force , and Benhamin Netanyahu and his followers of today are simply the heirs to the bitterness of Menachem Begin and his Irgun faction in the 1940's. Netanyahu shows once again the dual standards that Israel always applies. He also neatly encapsulates the intransigence and irascibility of the Jewish people. Something unfortunately, which has been their hallmark down through history, and has, arguably, led to much of the persecution that they have experienced. The Holocaust was an enormous crime, but so was the genocide of the Native American people. Sadly, the Indians, unlike the Jews, dont have a movie industry dedicated to preserving the memory.

Nobody justifies those attrocities, but the Israelis were reacting to the renaging of an agreement promising them a homeland, after the terrible treatment during WWII displaced Jews in Europe wanted to go to their natural homeland and the British were trying to stop them holding many in camps in Cyprus.

Shall we place on record then that you consider these attacks on British soldiers in this case as acceptable? The British held the Mandate for Palestine and British troops were enforcing that Mandate. Doing their duty as they were required as British troops. The Holocaust could not justify these actions then, no more than it can today.

The IRA used the very same arguments during its campaign, (but substituting British Rule for Holocaust). Do you consider that they were justified in attacking British soldiers?

Certainly the King David Hotel massacre was an atrocity, as you say. But the present day leader of Israel, Benhamin Netanyahu, at the "Commemoration" of the attack in 2006 justified the attack because "a warning had been given". Precisely the same excuse used by the Provisional IRA after an attack had claimed lives.

Bear in mind the official Israeli position on the 60th anniversary of the attack was " to mourn Jewish losses , but not to mourn British military losses , because Britain had never mourned the loss of Jews during the Holocaust" The British ambassador to Israel, to his credit, did at least register a protest at this comtemptous slight to brave British soldiers, many of whom were, in 1946, only one year along from defeating the very ones who had carried out the Holocaust.

But should we be surprised when Ben Hecht, another Zionist "patriot", famously said during the Irgun and Stern campaign that " I have a little holiday in my heart everytime a British soldier is killed". The same zeitgeist exists in Israel today. The same bitterness pervades all their official thought, and sadly ensures perpetual warfare.

Well of course they're guilty. The Israelis continue to hold the Occupied Territories in defiance of international law and UN resolution.

What is all the more remarkable is that the state of Israel was founded on terrorism. Or has the world forgot the bombing of the King David hotel in Tel Aviv that killed so many British officers, or the five British sergeants killed by the Irgun and their booby trapped bodies hung in an orange grove, presumably to kill still more. Lets not forget that the leader of the Irgun was the bitter Menachin Begin, who later went on to become Prime Minister of Israel. A long time ago...? absolutely, but the Israelis are so fond of reciting episodes from the past but never seem to learn anything from them.

Who went to St.Peters in the early sixties?

Who remembers Mr. Farrell and Mr. Farmery? and Miss Johnson?

I left a job in Sheffield when we moved to California. We married in 2002 and lived in Sheffield for one year, but my wife wanted to go back to California where she had lived for 30 years. She was born in New Orleans, but found Sheffield people very friendly and still keeps in touch with some of the friends she made there. The USA is a great place to live and work I've found, but having an American born spouse is a decided advantage.

A bit harder for what...?

I moved to the US from Sheffield in 2003.Lived in LA for 3 years, and now live in Nashville. It all went very smoothly, but thats because I married an American citizen. I got my green card after 3 months, and I'm thinking of taking citizenship myself this year. I love living here and I'm glad I made the move, but unemployment is savage right now, so for anyone considering doing the same I would say think long and hard before you sell up your property in the UK and make sure you have the right documentation.

I would say that you dont need it, but theyre useful in an emergency, I suppose.

I cut all mine up last November and I've never regretted the decision.

Its all that link to The Telegraph

Naghme King, 39, and six months pregnant.

Some one said she had been slung out of her religion though. She must be very brave to walk about with a placard, in a bikini, with her 6 months belly out! Dont you think?>

I've just read of this woman's protest about a private school near her home in Milton Keynes, although I believe it took place a few months ago. Apparantly she paraded around town with a placard dressed in just a bikini,(I read that some one who was there said we was wearing a "old pair of knickers and and a skimpy top" rather than a real bikini, but never mind!) and six months gone!

Is she incredibly courageous, or what? OR just plain DAFT?