Charlie Babbage

If, say, one party gets overall majority in next eleection, could they amend the law so that they could stay in power for more than 5 years

This is a favourite Trivia question! The answer is that there are only a few stretches of water in the Lake District which have 'Lake' in their name. Bassenthwaite Lake is one but what are the others?

Ok, I know that arachnophobia is a fear or dread of spiders.

But is there a word for someone who loves spiders (I'm sure there must be someone out there!) It might be arachnophile but that is not in my dictionary.

The fan motor has failed in the large bottom oven.

I have been advised by Ransom (http://www.ransomspares.co.uk)/ that I need to remove the oven from the in-built unit to access the rear of the oven but how do I do that?

When open the small top oven door I see that there are two small screws to the left and right. I assume that these need to be removed?

However, there are also two screws behind the round heat element ring – these are not screws that secure the element. Do those screws need to be removed? Also, is it necessary to remove the heat element itself? Is there anything else that needs to be done before attempting to remove the oven from the unit apart from turning off the mains power? Presumably the wiring at the back of the oven would normally be sufficiently long to allow the oven to be removed without a problem?

For information, I live in the UK

I'm just considering ditching our old TV and getting a new High Definition (HD) ready set. I realise that there are not that many HD programmes at present but do you really notice a big difference watching HD?

Presumably this is done at the server end but how?

I wondered this watching the recent friendly England v USA. match. After all, the majority of immigrants to the US in the 19th C. were from England, France, Germany, Italy etc., all football crazy nations so why did the sport not continue once they got to the US?

My son has a bad habit of leaving the laptop on all night! Even when he is using it for hours on end it is always plugged in at the mains.

Obviously, the AC power adapter gets quite warm. It has now apparently failed, probably due to excessive use of the power adapter. I've had a quick look on the Net but cannot find any guidelines as to how long you can safely leave the AC power adapter connected .

I have a steam mop made by Home-tek in the UK. Despite several searches, I'm unable to find contact details for the manufacturer Home-tek - phone number will do!

I've had an email saying that X would like to be added to my Friends List.

The email contains a link which is meant to display X's profile. However, when I click on that it shows that there are no messages in my Friend Request Manager folder!

Does that mean that X may have changed her mind after requesting the Add? I don't know X's real name

I have just downloaded the trial version of Nero 8. I have also downloaded the Help files and unzipped them. Despite that, I cannot read the Help files - says web page not available!

I have one original DVD and wish to make multiple copies. How is that done? I can make one copy but once the copy is completed the disc is ejected and then have to start all over again! There must be a better way!

As a Brit, I'm confused regarding the US primary elections.

Do the voting papers list all the candidates, Democrat and Republican? If so is there any evidence of 'tactical voting' e.g. say a diehard Republican voting for Omaha hoping to 'spoil' Hillary's chances??

Is anyone else having a problem with the DVD on this question? I cannot get mine to enter any formula!

If you can give me the answer, I'll give 10 points for the first reply.

I signed up for [Encyclopedia] Britannica's 30 day free trial. They sent me a confirmatory email with a password but I can't login on their site with that. In their FAQ they say that one reason for not being able to log in is that you need to clear the browser cache. I've done that but still can't log in.

Their confirmatory email came from info@britannica.com but when I try to email that it bounces back with the following message:

- These recipients of your message have been processed by the mail server:

info@britannica.com; Failed; 5.1.1 (bad destination mailbox address)

Remote MTA mail199.eb.com: SMTP diagnostic: 550 No such user (info@britannica.com)

It is possible that I have been a victim of a phising (false) site as I had to give my credit card details for the 30 day trial - you have to make sure to cancel within 30 days to make sure you're not charged.

Any information provided will be much appreciated

The url I used to register was http://www.britannica.com/

I tried to email a friend recently but it bounced back to me with the following error message:

- These recipients of your message have been processed by the mail server:

username@yahoo.co.uk; Failed; 4.4.7 (delivery time expired)

Does anyone know what is causing this as it is the second time it has happened to me trying to email this person. Is it an error on my computer, on my server (Virgin .net), on the Yahoo server or on my friend's computer? Can anything be done to prevent it happening in future?

They always protrude at least 2" or more underneath the bowl! Ok, I realise that they have to allow for bowls of different thicknesses but surely there's not that much difference?

My lids are always coming loose and no amount of tightening the inner screws ever seems to hold for any length of time. Has anyone got any solutions (printable ones only please!)

Have just tried to install a phone extension kit for a friend. Only one problem - can't get a dialling tone on the new extension socket!!

Problem may be due to the fact that the colours of the wires in the cable provided don't correspond with the colours shown on the packet.

According to the packet, the colours should be

Terminal 2 - blue/white

Terminal 3 - orange/white

Terminal 4 - white/orange

Terminal 5 - white/blue

The actual colours and the terminals I've connected them to are:

Terminal 2 - dark blue (no white)

Terminal 3 - orange (no white)

Terminal 4 -white/orange

Terminal 5 - white/blue

Have I made a boob on the wiring or could there be some other fault? Most annoying as it took me over 3 hours to tack 20 meters of cable from the hall BT socket to the upstairs bedroom where the extension is required!

The house does have another existing extension in the living room but I would not have thought that would make any difference.

Recently on BBC TV news they featured a computer game I had not come across before - no it was not 'Second Life'

Basically you design an atavar and then have to complete various tasks to give it greater powers. However, some are prepared to pay others (mainly in China!) to play the game for them!

1. What was the name of the game?

2. Do you consider this to be cheating?

Go to http://www.rsc.org/AboutUs/News/PressReleases/2007...

You have until Friday 27th April to answer! It's too hard for me! I don't expect to see the answer here

I've just seen a question which has had a lot of stick thrown at it because it was obviously an attempt (which succeeded!) in getting help with a homework question - http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=200704...

However, I think those throwing the sticks are, perhaps, being a little unfair, in that there is a specific Homework Help subsection under 'Education and Reference'. Furthermore, many of the questions posted under 'Mathematics' are obviously homework which regularly get answered without a problem!

My own view is that 'Help' is the keyword. There's not much point in giving a full answer to a maths question because the person asking the question will not learn anything from that! However, pointers in the right direction are probably ok, although no doubt some will disagree!!