Ken L

This is a bit of a shocker. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4936786.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4664884.stm

Ho Hum, Looks like "way back" goes all the way to medical research into treatments for mental illness. (Yep, being flippant again) I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

I believe that the animal testing of Thaidamide was described as inadequate and flawed by the public enquiry into it's use. The enquiry called for more animal testing, not less. Well, it was certanly flippant and deliberatly provocative but it was also misleading in that I used the term "Maybe we should". In fact, many drug companies do just that by staggering their global release of new products so that the places where their customers are wealthy and litigous will often get the products last - just in case. Where do you draw the line though Glenn ? How about Achne treatments ? It's only vanity until some kid blows his brains out because he can't stand to look at himself in the mirror.

Animal testing is well regulated. Not just by government but by the market. It is simply to expensive to use large numbers of animals to test anything unless those tests are both necessary and justifieable. No testing on animals for household goods, cosmetics, toiletries or clothing would see companies releasing products onto the market that might improve the quality of peoples lives but give them chronic health problems in the long term: Anyone fancy bathing their baby in a new shampoo that burns their eyes out ? How about a new air freshener that causes severe allegies and asthma ? Of course, you can avoid animal testing by simply saying that what we have is good enough - and never see another improvement in any product from wall paint to mascarra OR you can test it on people - but would you have it tested on you ? Maybe all new products should be tested in the third world just to be sure. I for one will support the rational regulated use of animal testing pretty much wherever the need for it exists.

Now that you mention it, I've not seen a post from tugmistress since I got back. Did I miss something ?

Well, if the PC was in a room at the back of the house, I'd be looking at it. It's about 200m from me. What did you do there Dean ? Ooh dear. I've just switched to satalite view of where I work/where Carpie lives and it's made feel a bit weird. It's stitched together from images where the satalite has been looking from various angles and looks like the buildings (Five Ways Tower anf Aukilnick House) are almost touching.

I'm on. Carpie. I could wave at you out of the window at work.

Well, it's all well and good searching the net for bargains but sometimes you just hit a wall. This is what happened when I tried to get some nice big swimbaits from http://www.outerbanksoutfitters.com/ 1st e-mail: Hi there. I've just surfed into your site and see that you stock the Mega Bait - Charlie Sr. Lure (Catalogue # 477601470) at $9.99 inclusive of US postage. As there is no picture, can you tell me whether this is the old version with the rear hook hanging from a solid bar underneath the lure or the new version with two hook hangers and the rear hook attached to a short length of cable ? Ken The relpy: Dear Customer, Thank you for providing an opportunity to be of assistance. This is with reference to your inquiry regarding the Mega Bait Charlie Sr. Lure. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused. We request you to contact the Pace Products-Mega Bait Customer Support Tean at (714) 773-4132 to inquire about the Mega Bait Charlie Sr. Lure, as we are unable to confirm the same online. We are sure they will be able to assist you in this regard. You can also call us at 1-877-690-0004 to place the order. Please feel free to contact us for further assistance. Lynette, Customer Service Not much use so I responded with: All you had to do was look at the packet ! If you couldn't work out whether it was the old or the new version from my description, you could have sent me a picture. I thought Americans prided themselves on customer service...... A little harsh I accept but justified in the light of the responce: Dear Customer, Thank you for providing an opportunity to be of assistance. This is with reference to your inquiry regarding the Mega Bait Charlie Sr. Lure. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused. We request you to contact the Pace Products-Mega Bait Customer Support Tean at (714) 773-4132 to inquire about the Mega Bait Charlie Sr. Lure, as we are unable to confirm the same online. We are sure they will be able to assist you in this regard. You can also call us at 1-877-690-0004 to place the order. Please feel free to contact us for further assistance. Lynette, Customer Service Ever get the feeling that "Customer service" consists of a machine that recognises the name of a product and then e-mails a responce that says "P155 off and talk to the manufacturer, here's their number" ? BTW, The original version of this lure seems to have a bad reputation for having the rear hook break off - hence the redesign that I mentioned. As to how the manufacturer is suposed to know which version of a lure a retailer is selling, well, go figure....

Snagging shouldn't be an issue 'cause I'll be fishing over sand but were there any problems casting the lure without popping the ties and was the action significantly changed ?

OK, so it was a daft thread title but as I understand it, a lot af game angers rig their trebles onto wire or heavy mono and then lightly tie or wire them to the body of the lure. I can see how this sort of rig would prevent an activly jumping fish from using the body of the lure as a lever (that's why I'm considering it) but suspect that it might create it's own problems. Has anyone given it a go ? Maybe on Nasser or other nile perch venues ? I'm particularly interested to hear whether the lures can still be cast.

Tried adding myself but it wouldn't work.

Peter, have you turned to the dark side ?

It plays games, music and movies. I do loads of travelling, so it's a one box solution. That'll do for me. But wait a minute.......... It only plays movies off UMD disks. You can only buy these from Phony so even if you've forked ot for the DVD, you'd have to pay another £15 for the privilige of watching it on a 4" screen. That's OK, I'll rip DVD's and record my own from my DVD's thinks you, but no, Phony don't sell blank disks. Ho-hum, it's a Universal Media Disk right, so I'll start buying those from now on and I can just stick it in my DVD player for that full on big screen experience. 'Fraid not, they only play in a PSP. Right !, I'll just have to buy UMD's from now on and plug the PSP into the TV to watch my movies. Hahar, Phony have got you there too. You can't plug a PSP into the telly.... Music then. Well actually, it will play music but only MP3's and some strange Phony format that nobody ever heard of (if you use WMA format, you've got no chance) and you have to record it to a memory stick (you have to cough up for those as extras) because (you should have thought of this already) you can't buy blank UMD disks and record to those. The upshot is that you're limited to the capacity of a cheap flash player with none of the advantages of price, flexibility, light weight, battery life and compactness that you'd have if you bought one of those for sixty quid. Games. It does play games rather well but battery life kinda sucks. No suprise that the second hand shops are full of PSP's at the moment. If Phony weren't so paranoid about piracy, and had integrated GSM and bluetooth with a slot for GPS and the like, they'd have had a killer machine on their hands but having looked into it's capabilities and limitations, I'm not remotely interested - even at second hand prices.

http://www.fishwrecked.com/videos/

I've used UK-Hooks several times and always had good service even if the old site only displayed a quater of the stock and was a bit clunky. Well they've upgraded the site and stuff should be easier to find and there should be no more messing about with printed catalogues. It's mainly sea stuff but there's plenty on there to interest lure nuts. BTW, no, I don't have any interest in the comany. Edit: I supose I should have included a link http://www.uk-hooks.com/

It's an Adder. Given the light colour, it's almost certanly a female. It's to fat for a grass snake (especially at this time of year), the head's the wrong shape (it has a classic heart shaped vipers head in the photo) and it lacks the charicteristic yellow colar of the grass snake.

I was using Ares to trackdown and download music and comedy that I couldn't find or buy in the shops. Unfortunatly, the site no longer seems to be working. Can anyone recomend a download site that doesn't mess about with .RAR and .RAW file formats ?

Yep, poisonous. A bite will ruin your day but unless yo're very small, very old or have a heart condition, you should make a full recovery.

I did read a report a few years ago that some fungi that were normally good to eat (but closely related to species that arn't) had suddenly mutated to start producing toxins. If it was reported here, I'd have said misidentification but in eastern Europe, they take their wild mushrooms seriously and know what they're picking.

St David. Fine man, fine man. Of course, he couldn't tell the difference between a dafodil and a leek so the Welsh had to adopt both as national emblems. Of course, if St George were about today, he'd be just another eastern European assylum seeker with a tall tale about a dragon. Bound to be a delusion so he'd be on benefits as a schizophrenic.

She'll easily earn the money to pay it back. she's got a job as a female Cyberman in the new Dr Who series.

You can download a crap french car ??????

You don't have to use a TV. A lot of big plasma screans and most projectors are just monitors.

Well done. They're not as common as some of the lucky bugg3r who have access to top water might have us believe.