Yeah - really confusing. I worked it out as (c.) 6 inches and then further confused myself as to why I was thinking inches from metres. Wild. Luckily I’ve lived with both metric and imperial and am apparently bilingual.

Smoking (anything) close to non-smokers is a person problem. Like folk who play their music audibly on transport. It’s selfish and anti social.

3/20th of a metre is a wild measurement to read.

Elon Musk is the joke. It’s just not funny.

An actual, real, self-confessed, Hitler-loving Nazi? Yes. I’d punch them until my arm fell off and then I’d borrow my friend’s arm to punch them some more…

Couple of teeth, bit of an ear, part of a finger plus a couple of dents on my flesh. Something very big went “boom” near me. I’m also a bit deaf in one ear. I am incredibly lucky to have survived, let alone walk out. All of it will be patched up apart from the finger - even my hearing might come back. You might not notice if you pass me on the street but if you sat opposite me you probably would. It’s no big thing.

It’s easier for most people to believe that different coloured or dressed folk, or those that look the same but speak differently, are the reason your life is difficult. It couldn’t possibly be the people that look and sound like you that are your problem. In the UK it’s been said before that a white British guy in a factory job has more in common with a Jamaican bricklayer or a Polish chamber maid than they do with Boris Johnson. I believe that position.

That I’m missing a couple of body parts… nothing that big, major or important though so it doesn’t really hinder me.

I’ve told you countless trillions of times to stop exaggerating.

I’ve never heard of that bracelet (surprise surprise) - talk about a pipe dream. I just want to be able to view diagrams and plans on something bigger than a phone. Whilst on site and off grid. And yes, I know they’re available on paper but… reasons. We use tough-tablets sometimes but their pretty cumbersome when not in use.

More screen space in a smaller portable form is of tremendous use to some people - until projectors come of age at least.

This is impossible to answer. In one small city (pop c. quarter million) accommodation ranges from about 65k to a couple of million. Ostentatious opulence walks past homeless beggars. Some places have a choice of fibre optic networks whilst others are still using copper wire. (I pay approximately $13 a month for 100gb untethered 5g access, reasonably unlimited fixed access is probably c.$40 p.m.) There’s a choice of food at all qualities and prices. A choice of free public hospitals as well as a private fee-paying one too. There are areas where you can leave your bag on the table as you go to the bar and there are places that not even locals willingly choose to go. A massively mixed bag. The only major difference between Europe and the US (in cities) is that we can walk across ours, in any direction, crossing roads wherever and whenever we want to.

Honestly, where I operate, almost nobody uses (outgoing) sms/mms - unless their phone has actual physical buttons on it. It’s all iMessage for those who can or something like Viber for those who can’t. I can’t see why anybody would take a step backwards to RCS when it offered nothing that we haven’t already been doing for years - and it’s apparently network dependant.

In the UK they have two categories. One is Best Before and the other is Use By. A product will have one or the other but not both. One is a recommendation and the other is a command. And out of date cracker is different to out of date raw chicken. (eggs have a Display Until and a Use By date on the same pack).

Yeah, I’ve been told Tolkien is on record begrudgingly admitting that there probably were orc women (females?)… somewhere. My nerd friends (No offence, nerds) are ok with that it’s more the un-orc-like personality. Like having an irrational Vulcan. If it isn’t the (new) main story it looks lazy and amateur - to me. The other thing they complain about is that Gwadriol (sp?) - main woman - is written like a superhero and they reckon that’s massively out of keeping too.

I’m no fan of Tolkien / LotR’s but the revisionism of Orcs in the new series to be essentially humans that look a bit different is such a colossal change that it undermines everything in that world. Imagine if the tinfoil dude in Starwars (CPO?) unzipped his costume in episode XII and he turned out to be a human. Would that make a mockery of the franchise - or at least make it look stupid? Spock & Kirk in Star Trek are now the opposite of what they were. The film called Snow White might not even tell the Snow White story. Velma from Scooby Doo has become a deplorable bitch. If you don’t have the talent to write something original stick to the rules and lore of the people who did. Having said that, enjoy the rest of the series.

Honestly, zero is a good solid points haul for some Only Connect rounds… my girlfriend did a victory lap of the house the first time she scored anything.

I think the real problem here is being missed… probably deliberately so. Surely if you inherit someone else’s ip you have to play to their rules and law? If you don’t want to then you need to make an original ip that lets you do what you want. The lack of understanding, the entitlement and the disrespect it takes to tear-up existing law because you know better than the original author is insane. I’m gonna remake Sesame Street. I’m gonna place it on a farm and make that big yellow fucker into a small blue pony and have all the other characters hunt humans. B… b… b… but that don’t sound like Sesame Street anymore say all the (insert meaningless generic insult here)’s. The quality, or otherwise, of the finished product won’t matter if it has one foot in tradition and one foot in new made-up contradictory law. It will be a bastardisation whatever.

I found it tiresomely political and strangely dogmatic way too much of the time. I didn’t get the impression that there was a wide cross-section of people on there.

I believe what you say about networks using each other’s towers is incorrect for a large portion of the world. Where do you live?