Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 3]

[TwigtheWonderkid]

SpeckledJim said:

The British God Squad might be fiscally leftist, but they are, like their American equivalents, still socially conservative.

Sexist, homophobic, anti-all-sorts.

The Church of England is essentially the Conservative Party at prayer.

[MarshPhantom]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

The Church of England is essentially the Conservative Party at prayer.

I remember seeing some Tory twunt on TV years ago who came out with the line, I'm a Christian first, a patriot second and a Conservative third.

[StuntmanMike]

Is there a politician, since say 1990 , who isn't a sniveling self serving two faced lying ?
Genuine question.

[Cliftonite]

StuntmanMike said:

Is there a politician, since say 1990 , who isn't a sniveling self serving two faced lying ?
Genuine question.

[Willy Nilly]

What would wine made from eating grapes taste like and what are wine making grapes like to eat?

[Fishtigua]

Willy Nilly said:

What would wine made from eating grapes taste like and what are wine making grapes like to eat?

One is left on the vine a tad longer to get extra sweetness into the grape bud, the longer you leave it, the more natuaral sugars' occurur.

That's why blokes only drink red wine, not honey sweet kack girls do.

[55palfers]

Why have most European Police cars kept the same two-tone siren for ever, when here in the UK we seem to have a never ending array of "noise"

Everyone can still hear French Plod approaching, so what gives here?

Ego trip? Want to sound like an American? Who can get the loudest?

[DickyC]

Manufacturers have to build new engines because they were unable to develop the old engine any further. What's that about?

An iron engine replaced by an aluminium engine? Okay, I can see that. But an aluminium engine replaced by another amuminium engine?

Take Aston's venerable V8 that soldiered on for years and was eventually replaced by Jaguar and Ford engines. Which bits of the old engine couldn't be developed any further? The principles of the four stroke cycle are still the same in a new block, crank and pistons. Isn't the development done with the induction, ignition, exhaust and management systems? ie the bits that bolt on to the block. If so, why not stick with the basics of the old engine and improve the cylinder heads, valves, exhaust and attendant bits and bobs?

[rohrl]

StuntmanMike said:

Is there a politician, since say 1990 , who isn't a sniveling self serving two faced lying ?
Genuine question.

Dennis Skinner.

[SpeckledJim]

StuntmanMike said:

Is there a politician, since say 1990 , who isn't a sniveling self serving two faced lying ?
Genuine question.

Lots of them, but they don't progress far enough for us to get to hear of them.

[scarble]

DickyC said:

Manufacturers have to build new engines because they were unable to develop the old engine any further. What's that about?
An iron engine replaced by an aluminium engine? Okay, I can see that. But an aluminium engine replaced by another amuminium engine?
Take Aston's venerable V8 that soldiered on for years and was eventually replaced by Jaguar and Ford engines. Which bits of the old engine couldn't be developed any further? The principles of the four stroke cycle are still the same in a new block, crank and pistons. Isn't the development done with the induction, ignition, exhaust and management systems? ie the bits that bolt on to the block. If so, why not stick with the basics of the old engine and improve the cylinder heads, valves, exhaust and attendant bits and bobs?

If you modify the fuel system, the ignition system, the head, the valves, the exhaust and attendant bits and bobs, what are you left with? Pretty much just the block?
Ok so what does the block dictate? Well, oil galleries and associate lubrication and cooling, water jacket and associate cooling, both of which have a massive impact on emissions (particularly for cold starts), these days they're increasingly using a split cooling system, one for the head and one for the block, whereas traditionally the water jacket would flow between the two with drillings in the block running right up to the mating surface.
In some cases the block will have included for example cavities or drillings for push rods, which may no longer be necessary and hence a weight and packaging saving can be made by removing this.
If the compression ratio has been upped a revised head mounting design will be needed for a higher clamping force.
Possibly a change from PFI to DI, or from sidemount to centre mount DI or a change in valve angles will mean the head is now a different shape and so the volume of the head changes which changes the displacement and compression ratio so then you need to change the crank and/or pistons and you're probably going to change your cooling requirements so you may as well have a whole new block..
Probably also loads of stuff attaches to the block, so you've got to have holes and flats and bosses and flanges in all the right places.
You'll probably find that in many cases the block design has been more of a slow evolution, although if you look at for example the Subaru flat four 2L, it's gone from a "closed deck" design to an "open deck" design, meaning a pretty big change in the cooling system, which has apparently reduced how much boost can go in before the head gasket gives up so the older engines are a better base for big power builds (I may be talking utter tosh here, I read something along these lines on a forum once)

[markmullen]

How do astronomers give the location of planets, galaxies etc?

On earth our co-ordinates are given in relation to the Greenwich Meridian and the equator, obviously that doesn't work when you're further out into space so how are they located?

[DickyC]

scarble said:

Learned things.

Thanks very much for that, scarble. It is clear and concise and pointed out many things I hadn't considered. Thanks.

[Einion Yrth]

markmullen said:

How do astronomers give the location of planets, galaxies etc?

On earth our co-ordinates are given in relation to the Greenwich Meridian and the equator, obviously that doesn't work when you're further out into space so how are they located?

Right ascension, declination and distance for distant things that are far enough away that they don't move much. For closer stuff google "orbital elements".

[Dr Jekyll]

If wine tasted and smelt exactly the same as it does, but didn't have the potential to intoxicate, would there still be wine buffs/experts/collectors etc?

[budfox]

rohrl said:

Dennis Skinner.

First name I thought of too. A fine man.

[V41LEY]

oceanview said:

In the sports world, if nutrition and training are improving all the time, how come there are still some world records that were set in the 90's?
For example, I believe Jonathon Edwards still holds the triple jump WR from 1995. High jump record was set in 1993 and the 400m hurdles record still stands from 1992.

My cynical self thinks maybe they had more "assistance" back then but who knows?

Womens 100 / 200 - Flo Jo - suspected drugs cheat
Womens 400 Marita Koch - suspected drugs cheat
Womens 800 Jarmila Kratochvilo (set 1983) - no one close to this record - suspected drugs cheat and/or sex male/female gender change.

You're right - plenty of 'assistance'

[V41LEY]

oceanview said:

In the sports world, if nutrition and training are improving all the time, how come there are still some world records that were set in the 90's?
For example, I believe Jonathon Edwards still holds the triple jump WR from 1995. High jump record was set in 1993 and the 400m hurdles record still stands from 1992.

My cynical self thinks maybe they had more "assistance" back then but who knows?

Womens 100 / 200 - Flo Jo - suspected drugs cheat
Womens 400 Marita Koch - suspected drugs cheat
Womens 800 Jarmila Kratochvilo (set 1983) - no one close to this record - suspected drugs cheat and/or sex male/female gender change.

You're right - plenty of 'assistance'

[popeyewhite]

V41LEY said:

oceanview said:

In the sports world, if nutrition and training are improving all the time, how come there are still some world records that were set in the 90's?
For example, I believe Jonathon Edwards still holds the triple jump WR from 1995. High jump record was set in 1993 and the 400m hurdles record still stands from 1992.

My cynical self thinks maybe they had more "assistance" back then but who knows?

Womens 100 / 200 - Flo Jo - suspected drugs cheat
Womens 400 Marita Koch - suspected drugs cheat
Womens 800 Jarmila Kratochvilo (set 1983) - no one close to this record - suspected drugs cheat and/or sex male/female gender change.

You're right - plenty of 'assistance'

Not sure how you can extrapolate from three WRs set in the nineties to all other WRs set in the nineties were assisted. Especially when we know a proven number consistently tested negative. What is easy to say is that there's more drugs used now.

The answer to the OP's question lies mostly in genetics.

[singlecoil]

Worth bearing in mind that just because somebody tested negative doesn't mean they actually were negative. New drugs need new tests, and the drugs are always in the lead as the testers try to catch up.