PhilJ W

Goodnight all.

When I visited Malta a few years ago the ancient capital of the Island, Mdina had just recently been declared a world heritage site. Having received that status the overhead power supply had to be buried underground. Problem was it was only neccessary to dig down a few inches to find ancient archeology that had to be carefully excavated and recorded. It took about ten years to complete a job that was expected to last a few months.

As we share 99% of our DNA with African chimpanzees so its pretty certain that modern man originated in Africa. However when they left Africa 40,000 years ago they were not the only humans on the planet. There could have been as many as six species of human, the best of which known were the Neanderthals, of whom one in eight of us are descended. There was another couple of 'human' species in the far east that may have inter-bred with our Cro-Magnon ancestors. The Anglo-Saxons originated in Northern India and moved overland to North Germany before moving on to occupy England.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. When it comes to languages I even have trouble with English at times. I must admit that when I have tried to learn foreign languages I have found German and Dutch easier, after all English has its roots in Northern Europe and it is reckoned that a dialect spoken in Northern Holland is very similar to the English spoken before the Norman conquest. A study was made a few years ago about the root of languages spoken today and the English language was traced back to Urdu and Sanskrit as were other Germanic languages. Even further back most languages can be traced right back to African languages as you might expect with DNA evidence showing man originated in Africa. Some languages remain unique such as Basque, Finnish and Magyar which perhaps explains why the last two are more difficult to learn, though Magyar is derived from Mongolian. Thats it for this morning, spending some model tokens at a toy fair today, be back later.

Then there's the Bermuda Railway railcars.

Goodnight all.

The Daimler railcar I mentioned was the 1913 one that had the curved ends. There are drawings here http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/misc/railcars.htm#daimler_railcar Page down and click on the thumbnails.

I'm interested but I have just purchased your 'Ford' Bo-Bo locomotive and I am looking for a suitable chassis for it. Are you contemplating any similar vehicles? The near contemporary Daimler railcar would be a good choice.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Interesting point about marginal seats in the new parliament. The slimmest blue marginal is Richmomd Park where Zak Goldsmith made it by just 45 votes, the slimmest red marginal is Kensington and Chelsea with only 20 votes. But the slimmest of all is Fife where the SNP clung on by only two votes!

Taff Davies has said on Facebook that the recently introduced 1:76 Sherpas will be replicated in N but this is only in the planning stage at the moment.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Nice bright sunny day today and the seaweed twirlers say that its going to stay that way for the weekend. I had a little win on the Euro lottery yesterday £3:10p but I've decided not to push the boat out. A bit of news that made me smile, the Lizard of Oz apparently flew into a rage when the exit polls were announced, its about time he crawled back into the swamp he crawled out of. Have a good day all, be back later.

Goodnight all.

Said in a heavy Russian accent.

Oxford have a N scale Sherpa coming out next year.

But he had his offenders tag on.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I've no idea what colour my MP is this morning, probably the same one as before (blue). Many people that I know said they would vote tactically and this seemed to be the case in London in particular. I saw the writing on the wall, literally and metaphorically when I passed a bookies yesterday and they were giving odds of TM remaining at number 10 of only 20 to 1. Remember the bookies got it right last time whereas the polsters were so very wrong. I expect there will be another general election sooner rather than later but that is up to the opposition parties more than the PM and despite the bullish comments coming from the Labour party I think another general election is a couple of years down the line.

Goodnight all

FYI http://www.basildonbusrally.com

I have PM'd Andrew with that information, then I realised that he's not even in this country.

For 1930's prototypes check out some of the military kits. Roden produce an FWD lorry that although of WW1 vintage many survived into the 1930's and beyond. Ace models make a model of the GAZ AA Russian lorry which was a licence built version of the 1929-31 Ford AA lorry. Both these models are to 1/72 scale but the scale difference is hardly noticable.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Avoiding the TV and radio today for obvious reasons. Talking to many people it seems that there is a lot of tactical voting going on so the result might be a surprise. Perhaps that might explain the bookies ad I saw this morning giving odds of 20 to 1 of TM staying at number 10, and remember that last couple of elections the bookies got it more right than the opinion polls. Thats enough of politics thats why I'm here on RMweb.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Jamie, if you have a postal vote hang on to it you might never know when you might need it. I have had a postal vote since before they became the norm as I usually worked in the polling station on almost every poll since 1970. I posted my vote off as soon as I received it, I have always voted for the same party so I generally ignore the hype that goes with any election. I am back on my old computer for the moment but its dreadfully slow, I hope to take it in for a service early next week. The new computer is only for holidays and days out and as a back up if this one fails. Just waiting for the postman now to see if a parcel I'm expecting has arrived, the postman delivers around 11 most mornings so not too long to wait. Bye for now, back later.

Goodnight all.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. To be able to read the codes on my hub someone would have to break in to the house first. Whats slightly more worrying is that I have discovered that on Firefox there is a list of saved passwords that is easily readable! When I set up my new computer there was a list of codes and you just selected one then there was an instruction to press a button on the hub to link up to the hub, only I couldn't find the button so I had to look for the code. I am writing this on my old laptop as I have only purchased the new one as it is smaller and handier to carry about and consequently the screen is only about half the size and not so easy to read.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Just trying out my new computer, so far so good the only difficulty so far was reading the password of my hub to connect to the web. The password is in very small letters on the base of my hub, which is on a shelf below my computer table with very little light and can only be moved a couple of inches. So I need a torch and a magnifying glass to read the password whilst holding the hub in my hand. As you can see I eventually resolved the problem now all I have to do is remember my passwords for all the other stuff.