Fullerene

Basically it keeps the fanatical Brexiter quiet. If, for example, we reached a deal on teabags - there would be howls of protest. "What - this is outrageous. We voted out, and that means out - and that includes teabags. How dare they impose rules and regulations on us drinking tea. We have been drinking tea for centuries and don't need them to tell us what for about teabags. This is the thin edge of the wedge and before you know it we will be right back where we started. It's time the UK government stood up for the British people and told those interfering EU people to f*** off." Similarly for everything else.

Theresa May will accuse the EU of anything if it will get her more votes. However, that is a long way from the secret police taking you away in the middle of the night because you have the wrong opinion on Brexit or Scottish independence or anything else. Nor are you likely to lose your job, or miss out on promotion because you laughed at her attempt to eat chips. That would be commonplace in communist countries. In North Korea, the secret police would take your entire family because of guilt through association. People are even born in prison camps and must remain there because their grandfather or grandmother did something wrong. North Korea is threatened by the mere existence of South Korea, a country that speaks the same language - and seems to be a nicer place (even if that was not always so). In any case, a South Korean can travel to other parts of the world whereas a North Korean cannot. 200,000 people have defected from North Korea. You should really ask the question "Why is North Korea developing nuclear weapons?" Would China ever sit back if North Korea was attacked?

Not so much one book but two. I was reading "Hiroshima Nagasaki" by Paul Ham. No prizes for guessing what that was about. Anyway, the book keeps mentioning "Yoko's Diary" by Yoko Moriwaki. She is a 13 year old girl who on 6th August 1945 was less than 1 kilometre from the hypocentre of the Hiroshima bomb blast. Obviously she did not survive. So I got her book as well. Some compare it to Anne Franks but only as far as young people being exposed to a savage war. The book contains lots of historical notes, by Paul Ham and others, in addition to her diary. (For example it mentions that Hiroshima was very smelly due to night-soil being the main fertilizer used for growing things - similar to North Korea today. FYI: Nightsoil = human waste) It is difficult to know how to feel about it. I guess it adds a human element to a historic event. However cruel the Japanese were in that war (and I know they were) and however inevitable the bombing was - there is a tinge of sadness to this story.

You forgot to mention Kim Jong Un's half-brother. Too much of a threat. He had to go. North Korea is an old fashioned communist country that feels threatened by everyone and everything. You just have to read any book about Joseph Stalin or Enver Hoxha (to name just two) to realize that communist leaders are paranoid. If we ignored them, they would do more to attract our attention. They seek nuclear weapons as protection (from regime change) but also as a means to blackmail other countries into providing aid.

Yeah. York voted Remain. I was travelling around England last year just before the vote and everywhere I went voted Remain. Didn't realise I could be so influential without even trying - or maybe it was just a coincidence.

Sometimes I really miss Top of the Pops. With some catchy lyrics - this would surely go straight to Number 1 in the charts.

In Togo, there are no takeaway restaurants. Confusing!

The soap opera Dallas was originally set in Dallas in Moray and involved two feuding distillery owners called the Barnes and the Ewings. However the US producers decided to move the whole thing over to Texas and basically changed everything apart from the names of the two families and the occasional mention of Elgin City Football Club.

.. and the M8 was so named to indicate the friendship between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Trump is simply pointing out that a good sales model is to sell dairy products to everybody within a 100 mile radius. Sounds like a great plan but then suddenly this other country just appears from nowhere and that kind of complicates everything.

It means they want a PHOP image but they don't know how to spell.

An astrologer in Christchurch accurately predicted the last 5 election results in Canada, New Zealand, the USA, the UK and Australia. He claimed he read it in the stars. He was later convicted for fraud when they discovered he had a time machine.

Is that a fact you just made up and you really don't like it at all?

In some countries, some people will come up to you and say "Where are you from?" You say "I am from Scotland." They then say "Oh I just love Scotland." and insist on giving you a bear hug. Afterwards you discover your wallet is missing. I know somebody who had this almost happen to them. They said "I am from North Korea." and the pickpocket just waved his arm and then walked away.

They'll ask if you know me.

Then you'll get someone who thinks you sound like an Aberdonian who was originally from Fife. The question is usually asked as a polite question by people who can't be bothered with the answer. Just say you are from China or North Korea and that will shut them up.

I read about a man who was at Hiroshima train station at the time and went downstairs to take a piss. Bit of a surprise when he came back up again.

He got a mention on Q.I. Stephen Fry described him as the unlucky man alive. The BBC had to apologize to the Japanese Embassy for that one.

Yes, the Americans cracked the code before Midway but then the Japanese changed the code again. I think that was a constant game of catch up. On average, the second world war claim 35,000 lives a day. Killing 100,000 people in one go obviously sounds horrendous now but not compared to what was happening every day. Ask almost any American at the time to choose between 1,000 dead Japanese or 1 dead American - and I think you know how they would answer. The Russians got involved because the Americans ask them to get involved. Bizarrely, if the Japanese had surrendered a week earlier before the Russians got involved (exactly 3 months after the surrender of Germany) then it is possible that Korea would not have been partitioned and we not have this crisis today. Purely "what if" I know but interesting.

A tasty treat after the long pork surprise.

Isn't this already covered extensively in the Pie and Bovril Algebra forum?

B and Q were twins. After setting up the company, one of them went on to work with James Bond but I can't remember which one.

In all fairness, maybe he was trying to teach you about road rage. "Keep your hands on the wheel and concentrate while I think of everything I can to annoy you."

"The Thing". Presumably the John Carpenter film with Kurt Russell Have you seen the 2011 remake? Have you seen the original 1951 film "The Thing from another world."

Went to the local cinema and watched The Shawshank Redemption. Never seen it at the cinema before although I have probably seen it more than a dozen times before including once on an aeroplane without headphones (I can never sleep on planes!) What films have you seen more than a dozen times? My list would probably be something like: Alien Aliens Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Deliverance Fallen A Few Good Men Forrest Gump The Fugitive Ghost Good Vibrations In the Heat of the Night Jaws Life of Brian The Lives of Others Lincoln Lawyer North by Northwest Pleasantville Rock n Roll High School Shawshank Redemption Stalag 17 The Sting