benzman

Some time ago I asked for my account to be cancelled. It appears that my forum membership is still active. could the mods kindly remove all my membership, accounts, etc.?

At the Sydney Olympics somebody said "Who would have guessed that the Dutch are the world's greatest party animals?" There is obviously more to the Dutch than meets the eye.

Different people have different tastes. I like coffee but tea does nothing for me. Many of my female friends like green tea whereas to me it is just dirty water.

I have heard of people with a 'death wish' but those guys have taken it to a whole new level.

Judith Durham, lead singer of The Seekers. Died of natural causes aged 79. Had the sweetest of voices.

Annie Lennox wears a man's suite better than ninety-five percent of men do!

James Lovelock. Born 26th July 1919, died 26th July 2022. He died on his 103rd birthday. Scientist best known for his book 'The Gaia Hypothesis'. but prolific in many other fields.

The cat is nature's masterpiece. - Leonardo da Vinci

Monty Norman, a British composer who wrote the iconic theme music for the James Bond films, has died, aged 94.

I've heard things like that about the military!

In this context 'best' means 'personal favourite'. After thinking for a while I want to add Barney Miller and The Big Bang Theory to my American favourites and Red Dwarf to my British.

I was a member of a group that was led by Niels Bohr, after the test in Alamogordo, that was very much opposed to the use of this new weapon on civilian cities. … But by and large we were in a minority, but a rather distinguished minority. -M ark Oliphant

PI works in all sorts of places!

I was being a bit flippant. I am aware of things like the ECKO project.

A balloon in orbit would go POP.

Do a Google image search and find the photos of Gladys Ingle climbing from one aircraft to another with no parachute.

My sister gave me a T-shirt that says 'Life is better with wine, cats and books'. Can't argue with that.

Whatever method they try, I will not be rushing to volunteer as a guinea pig.

I have a book called 'Life on Mars' published in 1965 and one called 'There Is life on Mars' published in 1955. I get childish amusement by having them side by side on my bookshelf.

I could listen to Carl Sagan's voice all day.

Years ago at an English airshow I spoke to a U2 pilot, a woman by the way, and she told me that at maximum altitude the U2 was flying on a knife-edge for the reason you state. Also it was difficult to land in any crosswind as the bicycle undercarriage meant that it always had to be landed dead straight. I read somewhere that if a U2 at maximum altitude started a turn the lower wing could could be stall buffeting and the upper wing, which is moving slightly faster, could be experiencing transonic mach buffets. It all sounds rather ugly.

As an old glider pilot my first thought was that in a turn those huge wings would generate a horrendous amount of adverse aileron effect, which would explain the big rudder. It would take a lot of rudder input to counteract the initial aileron drag. I suspect that the aircraft is not much fun to fly. I imagine that advances in technology would now enable us to make a much smaller, more efficient electric aircraft.

As I understand it, in an expanding universe the universe will always appear to be expanding in all directions away from you personally, and this effect will appear the same no matter where in the universe you as the the observer happen to be. So you cannot ask where the 'real' centre of the universe is because the universe is always centred on you. Try this for a bit of fun. Close one eye. The eye that remains open is the centre of the universe.

Colin Cantwell, who designed prototypes for Star Wars' infamous Death Star, the X-Wing fighter, the Star Destroyer and landspeeder, dies aged 90.