ianwilkins

Physics?

I have a few stories about the shower on *that* camp too. My poor English Roses when faced with a shower room full of spanish girls with next to nothing on and no personal space issues. I tried to be sympathetic and stifle the giggles. Yes. Though the beach might scupper our design that we more or less copied off the internet. If you wanted 6 people to hammock, six posts, set out in a hexagon, bashed into the ground at an angle (60o ish?) pointing out from the centre of the hexagon, rope strung around the top to join each pole together. Each pole had two guy lines pulling the top

You'll have to extradite me first!

We went on an international trip a few years back which has passed into unit legend. We spent a couple of nights on a visit to an island and sleeping accomodation was a gym floor. There was about 300 of us. Explorer Scouts from Spain, UK, France, and a few other places, all aged 14-18, male and female, and their leaders. You know those pictures you see when there's a natural disaster and a bunch of people get evacuated to a local school? Yeah, just like that. UK rules are that leaders and young people have separate sleeping areas. That is not, apparently, the spanish way. Fun, looking back at

Indeed. One of my ex-Explorer Scouts made them for a living for a while, not sure if he made a living from it though. Did think about renting one off him, but one more of those things you never quite get around to. And to add to your lexicon, we have 4 or 5 "lavvu", ours are 8 person tents that are octagonal, with one central pole, but we call them tepees because we got bored of everyone saying "you what?" when we said "lavvu". They're great because they pack down very small, one person can easily carry a tent for 8 people. Ideal for campsite camps not far off the beaten track.

Hi, I'd like to apply for grant funding of $2000 What do you want the money for? We'd like to give it to the local BSA Scout Council. We'll pass thanks.

Yup, every year since 2012* I take the UK membership stats found on page 46/54 of the annual report pdf and put them in a google spreadsheet, probably takes no more than a couple of hours, and that could probably be streamlined if I was keen as the layout requires a fair bit of formulae tweaking. Usually something interesting to be pulled out of the stats. When I did the 2019 numbers I posted it to the UK equivalent of here, and it triggered 6 pages of replies, some of which may even have been related to the membership stats in the spreadsheet. * and it goes back to the late 90s thanks to

Anyone else think that was going to go: Fear.... ....is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. - Yoda

I'm not surprised she was in shock, that was a hefty bill. (I'll see myself out)

Tallest tower: Spaghetti, marshmallows/jelly babies. Or 20 sheets of paper and sticky tape. Strongest bridge: Dried pasta lasagna sheets and cannelloni, sticky tape. Lego building communication game: Instructions at one end of the den, pieces at the other, one cub is builder, the rest of the cubs relay instructions to them. Jambowlree: Go ten pin bowling with them. Take part in an international competition (http://www.jambowlree.org)

That first part cannot be anything but true at any time, as it seems unlikely that there is infinite domestic oil. Maybe we'll all have hydrogen in our flying cars and hoverboards thanks to this clever lass and chums... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50841104

Sounds like your magazine is much like our UK one, well, in the reaction it provokes, flicked through by the frontline, eyebrows raised, maybe a tut, or an eyeroll, then put away/recycled. We look on in wonder at the achingly PC troops and packs, with their wonderful diversity and their happiness to do things that just wouldn't work for my lot and me. There's no grit. All is shiny. We had our problems but we overcame. Good for you but I can't even summon the energy to tidy the spare room where there's an ever growing pile of scout detritus. Never see that in the magazine! Easy to knock do

We have peppermint tea, in teabags, easily available. Though my only experience of it was on a scout camp, where someone made me a proper cuppa, and another leader a peppermint tea, and as the light wasn't so good, I accidentally took the peppermint tea and added milk. It was grim. That stuff in brackets, I'm lost mate, as lost as a Portuguese scout trying a Worcestershire sauce crisp, sorry, chip. *Sun* tea? Never heard of it. In a water bottle? [makes sceptical face]

Your wish is granted... https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/deplorable-boy-scouts-of-america-cuts-ties-with-rear-slapping-runner

Absolutely. I mean, they'd need a translator for a start. Chip? That's a crisp right? Or french fries?

"Oh no, I couldn't possibly, I err ummm no, I , well, no I don't have time to do that, full time job, kids, house, you know..." 🙄

Whatever happened to "turn the other cheek"? I'm joking. JOKING! I know, it's very serious, sorry. He didn't really think that through did he?

I don't even know where to start with that lot. Do you really think I should take seriously a text that describes our national religion as an "officially sponsored religious franchise"? It's a libertarian magazine, of course its opinion pieces are going to suggest that tightening up laws is nonsense. Anyway, honestly? The church is not the force it was. That they all signed a letter asking to take the pointy bits off of knives, doesn't mean it'll be enshrined in law tomorrow, doesn't mean politicians will take any notice. Too busy trying to get elected and leave/stay in the EU. It's setti

That's nice dear . I wasn't trying to stop you carrying anything. Just correcting you all thinking we're banning pointy things. I'm sure you all think we're mad, subjugated, oppressed, or something, but it doesn't feel like that, though I don't suppose it would.

"It's the UK folks" - what's that shorthand for? Genuinely interested, not getting snarky. I mean, I'm assuming you mean "It's the UK folks, where all the civilised people stayed" but... A quick google suggests lots of people have suggested to the government that they discuss it, but I can't find anywhere where it's actually been discussed in parliament. I mean, as far as I can work out, not much useful has been discussed in parliament since the 2016 moment of madness (Br***t). Anyhoo, there's a government petition site and more or less anything that gets more than 100,000 votes will be d

Oops! Yep, we have certain types of knives that are not legal in the UK. Flick knives, butterfly knives, stuff like that. This week we did some whittling with our Explorer Scouts, using sheath knives that are completely legal in the UK*, making some christmas tree ornaments. It was a good evening, of course, it was me that cut myself a bit, they were fine. * legal in the sense that it's legal to possess them, but carrying them around without good reason might get you in an uncomfortable conversation with the police. The rules are complicated. I have a couple of lovely opinel fol

Is it because A) he was not a fascist, and B) he was not a fascist. Imperialist I'll give you, at least in his early years. At some point he said this... "We should take care, in inculcating patriotism into our boys and girls, that is a patriotism above the narrow sentiment which usually stops at one’s country, and thus inspires jealousy and enmity in dealing with others… Our patriotism should be of the wider, nobler kind which recognises justice and reasonableness in the claims of others and which lead our country into comradeship with…the other nations of the world. The f

Let's have that diary quote in full shall we? You know, so that no-one misrepresents history or anything... "Lay up all day. Read Mein Kampf. A wonderful book, with good ideas on education, health, propaganda, organisation etc. – and ideals which Hitler does not practise himself."

In my limited and outdated experience, the German student will be happy with the large amounts of meat to consume.

Presumably, depending on whether said figures/events were on the winning side or not.