calvan

An appalling response. It has been my experience that there are many individuals working in the system who hold to the bias, consciously in some instances and subconsciously in others, that female=victim and male=perpetrator and any circumstance that fails to comply with that model is to be disregarded. Unfortunately, it appears that this "principle" has been in full view in your case. I only wish I had something more constructive to add.

I can provide the context of this one. This picture graced the cover of the Summer 1969 issue of "Beautiful British Columbia", a tourism promo magazine of the time. The picture was taken on front of the Vancouver planetarium, which was featured in the magazine. I remember being quite taken by this pic back in the day, I was 15 at the time, and managed to get a copy of it a few years back. Still have it:

As I rapidly approach my 70th birthday I realise how important it is for we older fellows to build and maintain our self-esteem and feelings of self-worth. So I bought a bumper sticker that reads "Honk if you think I'm sexy". Now it only takes 7 or 8 seconds at a green light to feel much better about myself.

I share your fear in that regard. If Trump does win re-election a clear sign of that happening will be a "spontaneous, grassroots" movement arising to repeal the 22nd amendment to the US Constitution. That's the provision that sets the two term limit for holding the office of president.

Few things look better than short skirts.

There isn't one specific incident that I can point to, but it seems that over the past few days a lot of people have decided to increase the dosage of their Stupid Pills. I wonder if this is simply a local aberration or whether it is part of a more widespread phenomenon.

I sincerely hope that you are not referring to the suit.

Canadien, en Quebec

It's oddly encouraging to here that I'm not the only one like that.

I didn't know that Lego made Escher kits. Cool.

I can actually agree with the last two posts - watched Station 11 last year and am enjoying The Last of Us this year. I've always quite liked the "end of civilisation" stories ever since I started reading John Christopher novels in my teens. I will admit to having had some initial reservations about The Last of Us as my one exception to the post-apocalypse is that I have never liked the zombie genre. In fact, I have been known to comment with some frequency that I don't quite grasp pop culture's obsession with the zombie apocalypse. After all, it seems to me that if zombie's eat brains then most people are safe. I think what saves The Last of Us is that its zombie-plague has a quasi-reasonable premise and more importantly, monster-dodging is a secondary plot vehicle rather than the focus of the series. And if I have to live in a post-apocalyptic world I would prefer it to be more like Station 11.

@Dan Pantages, like I mentioned before you are welcome to take a comparison test drive of the V8 once the weather improves. That will give you one point of comparison to the SE, although you might feel some obligation to post your impressions for all to see.

Compare that to the Lotus approach where there are five engineers/designers assigned to every part. One to design the functional part. A second to simplify. A third to add lightness. And two more with the sole mission on ensuring that, once installed at the factory, the part is bloody near impossible to work on.

Dan, I don't know of any place locally that you can get the bulb, other than perhaps booking a visit with your doctor and swiping one from the blood pressure testing equipment. Before you check with the usual suspects such as JAE, have a thorough look under the seat as it is possible for the bulb and hose to get caught up in the seat structure or adjustment mechanisms. Mike

Is it an homage to a Bugatti Type 57 Atlantic - made of Elektron?

For a somewhat disturbing analysis of the effects of tribalism, and other factors, in the affairs of nations read this book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/624156/how-civil-wars-start-by-barbara-f-walter/ Like much of popularised academia it tends to lay it on a bit thick but is still thought provoking,

My family left Scotland for Canada when I was three years old - Harold Macmillan was the PM of the day. Maybe I should get @C8RKHto sponsor me for my birth entitlement of a UK pension . I'm sure the taxpayers there won't notice the difference😜

The damage on my V8 is to the left rear wheel arch extension. A woman backed an Audi Q5 into it in a parking lot and hit the arch extension absolutely square on, which in a way was fortunate. The main bodywork was untouched and when the arch extension was stressed the urethane adhesive holding the mounting bolts to the extension let go and didn't pull the fasteners out through the bodywork. I sourced a replacement wheel arch extension from Dave Bean Engineering. They have (or had in July) a right rear extension in stock and managed to find the left side in the UK. It should arrive at their place today and will cost me US$550 plus shipping to me from California. SJ Sportscars didn't have the extension I wanted in stock but can make them. As I recall the cost of the part was similar but I didn't check shipping from the UK to the west coast. I checked with JAE but didn't hear back so I don't know what availability is like from them. In fairness, I made the mistake of using the "contact us" feature on their website instead of a direct call and I'm never confident that those enquiries get through. I didn't ask about front arch extensions but Dave Bean, SJ and JAE will be the usual suspects to check with.

Thanks, Bill. This seems to be the summer of the invisible Lotus. Back in July a woman in an SUV "didn't see" my Esprit in a parking lot and backed into it. The ironic part is that when I took my phone out this evening to take pictures of the damage to the Elise I saw that I had an email saying that a replacement wheel arch for the Esprit has just arrived at Dave Bean. It will need to be prepped and painted so maybe I can ask for a two-for-one deal on fibreglass work.

Now I'm unhappy myself. About half an hour after making the previous post, my wife and I got in the Elise and drove down to the beachfront for fish & chips. I parked on the street, leaving at least 3 feet between us and the pickup truck already parked in front of us. We got out of the car and had walked about 20 feet when we heard a "crunch". The driver of the pickup had decided to back up before leaving his space and put his trailer hitch into the nose of the Elise. He apparently didn't see it because it is too low. Mow I have the joys of dealing with insurance and arranging the repair.

It might be worthwhile to spend a few pounds and consult with a solicitor to clarify just what your legal position is as against the X5 driver. I know that Scots law has its own idiosyncrasies and won't presume to say what your situation there is. But in other jurisdictions there is a significant difference in the degree of proof that the police would need to proceed with charges and what you would need in a civil action to recover damages from the X5 driver. Yes, the police will need to be able to establish fault "beyond a reasonable doubt" in order to make charges stick. That can be a tall order. But in many other jurisdictions you would only have to establish the X5 driver's fault on a "balance of probabilities", i.e more likely than not, in order to claim financial recovery for the damages caused. In an extreme position, you might be able to drop your insurance claim, pay for the costs out of pocket and then claim the money back from Mr. (or Ms.) X5. I'm not recommending that, of course, but I think you will be in a better position to decide on a course of action if you get professional confirmation of your legal rights and the required standard of proof where you are.

I haven't had lens replacement for cataracts but I did have Lasik vision correction back in '99, when I was 45. Prior to the surgery the correction factor for my "better" eye was -12.5 but the laser magic brought me to uncorrected vision. I still don't need glasses today, other than some mild reading glasses when looking at a computer screen. Technology can be great!

The illegitimate love child of a Bricklin and a Concorde.

Back in the period of 2000 - 2006 when I was working in Calgary I would quite regularly do the drive from my home base in White Rock BC, in the outer 'burbs of Vancouver, to where I was staying in Calgary. The door to door distance was about 990 km with a personal best time of a little under 9 1/2 hours. I couldn't do it non-stop due to fuel supply so it would be a 1, 2, or 3 stop drive depending on traffic, available time or how hungry I was. The longest stretch I did literally non-stop was on one westbound trip where I brimmed the Europa tanks in Golden BC and didn't stop again until I was sputtering into a gas station in Langley BC. Google Maps shows the road distance between the two stations as 664 km with an estimated time of roughly 7 hr 50 min. I don't recall my time from that trip but it was somewhat quicker than the Google estimate. That was back in the good old days when my bladder fill rate was still more or less the same as the fuel tank drain rate.

Thanks for the suggestion, it's not a bad idea. On the other hand, I tend to put myself in situations where my enthusiasm exceeds my skill level so I would probably find a way to half-kill myself anyway. 😵