Fullerene

Yes. If not for Harry it would 18 pages about Prince Edward and his ingrown toenail.

When they tried to annex Canada. At one stage, American forces occupied York (present day Toronto). At another stage, British forces occupied Washington DC. Apparently it is a myth that the White House is white because British forces painted it as a surrender colour. All happened around the same time as the British Empire was also fighting Napoleon (who was defeated and exiled to St Helena) so tends to be overlooked in history lessons here.

They didn't win the war of 1812 either!

You are half right. The North invaded the South and captured everything but an area near Pusan. After the Inchon offensive they were pushed back. Then the UN forces (or more precisely General MacArthur) kept going and almost captured all of the North. The Chinese did not like this so they intervened and pushed them back so the current border is roughly similar to where it was before the war. It also resulted in a comedy film and a tv comedy series about the war that last three or four times longer than the war itself.

You are referring to the explosion of Tambora which led to the following year being the one without a summer (living in Scotland I know all about that). Anyway it also led to some spectacular sunsets as illustrated in the paintings of J.M.W. Turner. So there is always an upside to any disaster.

When Mount St Helens exploded in 1980 it was the equivalent of one Hiroshima bomb every second. So planet Earth is capable of some pretty massive explosions without our help and still life goes on.

There were several enormous bombs that were tested last century before a test ban was introduced. The planet survived all of those. One reason the test ban was introduced was that the tests increased the presence of radioactive strontium, barium and radium. When absorbed into the body these go straight for your bones and kill you slowly.

The editor of one magazine, possibly Vogue or Cosmopolitan, said that every time they put a photo of Princess Di on the cover they would sell twice as many copies. What would Princess Di have to say about the drone strike on General Soleimani? Oh I really want to know.

The reason Princess Di's death was such a big thing was that at the time she was in the news every day. Pictures of Dodi and Di here, there and everywhere were on the front page of numerous papers. The photos were obviously selling papers. Then they died trying to escape from the people taking those photos. The irony is incredible.

Oh come on. Every day surrounded by smiling toadies "a teaspoon for your marmalade, m'am?", "another napkin, m'am?". "Oh f*** off and let me have my breakfast in peace." "Very good, m'am". Then some boring opening ceremony similar to yesterday and the one the day before that. She probably has ideas about going to see Harry in Canada and driving a motorbike through the Rockies.

Budapest has its own Columbo statue.

They can have ours!

It used to be a place where lots of strange men would drive around slowly looking for a decent restaurant and there were lots of women hanging about to provide directions for them. .. or something like that.

It was interesting that some of places in the Middle East shouting "Death to America" don't care that much for Iran either. Personally I don't think anyone in China or Russia cares a shit about Iran but sees it strategically useful to support Iran from time to time if only to dent America's sphere of influence and improve their own. I suspect both countries despair at the religious rhetoric of Iran and would not like it to spread in their direction.

South Korea may be a respectable country now but in the days of dictatorship it certainly was not. Kim Dae Jung was president between 1998 and 2003 and even won the Nobel Peace Prize in spite of the fact that previous leaders had tried to have him killed. On one occasion the CIA intervened just in time before he was about to be thrown into the sea with weights tied to him.

San Marino had the world's first democratically elected communist government between 1945 and 1957. Not heard anyone say anything bad about it.

Just tell them you are a volunteer fireman. Problem solved,

Is Vietnam having disputes with its neighbours where the USA has to pick sides? If so, why do we hardly ever hear about it? Iran has lots of murals displaying "Death to America" and can regularly get crowds to chant the same. Iran can define an alternative agenda to the one that America wants. In short, Iran can do its own thing without America's approval and often with America's disapproval. Similarly, America loved Saddam Hussein until he started doing his own thing without consulting them first.

One travel book about Paraguay is called "At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig" by John Gimlette. A travel book about Uzbekistan (and the rest of Turkestan a.k.a. "the five stans") is "The Lost Heart of Asia" by Colin Thubron. It is one of only two countries that is double land-locked.

I don't see anything wrong with making a point in an agreeable manner. In fairness, I am certainly not perfect here nor are several other posters.

Another problem for Scottish Labour was having one leader after another who was involved in a scandal or some controversy or lacked credibility altogether. Similar the UK Labour Party has had Corbyn in charge. While some might admire his idealism, others regard him as highly controversial and totally lacking in credibility. For both Scottish Labour and UK Labour the issue is to have a credible leader who gives the impression they would know what to do if they were put in charge.

The Lib Dems suffered in 2015 because too often they were seen sitting cosy with the Tories with a big smile on their faces (especially Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander). Similarly the DUP have suffered from their recent link to May's government. Nobody should dance with the Tories.

So maybe this tattoo of some Danish cartoon that I got because I found it amusing - well I guess I shouldn't be showing it to everyone when I take my next holiday to Helmand province. Oh well. Thanks for the warning.

Then again if together we were able to offer advice that stopped the whole thing escalating then that would be praiseworthy. IMO.