Stephen

When Radio 5 was first started, it was described as a channel covering news and sport.

At present the uk is experiencing unprecedented weather, with hundreds of people displaced by floods, and thousands of soldiers deployed to assist. Some people have lost their lives.

And the last few times I've listened to Radio 5, they seem to have been chatting about some game or other.

When did Radio 5 stop doing news?

(The BBC don't seem to have an email contact address for comments).

Whats the point of it?

I presume the sweeping up reduces friction a bit, but how much?

Can you play the game with any old brooms or does it need specialised equipment?

How did the game come about?

For example, Crewe railway station was evacuated last night when the roof came off.

The signs said there was an emergency evacuation, "please leave by the nearest exit".

Without knowing exactly what was happening, one can imagine that in some cases the quickest and safest exit would be for the train to leave, whilst providing some protection to the passengers with the roof of the train - Rather than losing that limited protection by de-training and searching for an exit.

Obviously moving the train is itself a risky manoevre in an emergency situation.

So if you are already on a train, what should you do?

Are there any recorded instances of a train evacuating or escaping a collapsing station?

The only incident I can recall is the Kings Cross tube station fire.

I recall from documentaries at the time that some tube trains went through the station, rather than stopping and evacuating passengers from the train.

The problem of ships sinking because they were overloaded were helped by the requirement to paint a Plimsoll Line on the ships.

Is it now time to introduce a sort of Plimsoll Line on our houses, to show how deeply they have been flooded?

Then it will be clear as to whether you ought to be surprised by the flooding, or fully aware of the risk of where you have decided to live.

Do you prefer the name used in the original Star Trek and most variants, or that used in Star Trek Enterprise?

(And goodbye to the fully working YA)

According to some newspaper reports today, Tony Blair believes that religious extremism is often a cause of war.

Is the catholic ex-PM, who invaded Iraq whilst in power, finally right?

The BBC report a proposal by the labour party that benefits should depend on skills.

They suggest a basic skills test within 6 weeks of claiming benefits, testing English maths and computer skills.

So how much should spelling stationary in the old-fashioned way (stationary is now more common than stationery in my experience) cost me?

If you want to compare tripods, how is the sturdiness of a tripod measured - and in what units?

The mass or kg would be one factor - the heavier the better, to minimise the effect of wind.

The material too .

What about the fastenings?

Is there a measure of a tripods sturdiness one can look up?

And how would you translate that into so many degrees or mm of shake at a given zoom?

Is there any difference in the infrared response of CCD or CMOS sensors?

Is there much difference between consumer cameras?

Either in terms of sensitivity, or ease of filtering visible light?

I'd be intrrested in having a play, but my budget for this would stretch to a cheap pair of 3d glasses as a filter - I'm not so interested that I'd buy a dedicated camera.

In the past I have found my limit to be about 12x for a handheld camcorder and ideally less.

What size of zoom might I expect a consumer tripod to support without too much shake?

Have just seen an 84x digital zoom camera but couldnt get the model number... I thought it might be a polaroid.

I tried a google but the first few pages are instead returning results about a 21x optical zoom.

The camera is not being sold at asda (a uk retailer).

That is to say, the camera is in the shop, but a search for 84x digital zoom returns 6 pages of cameras, trowels and stuff -

I lack the tenacity to plough through it all.

And their contact us page lacks both webmail and email as far as I can see.

So can anyone suggest what that 84x digital zoom camera might have been? Or must I make an unneccesary journey back to a shop thats not selling the camera?

(I know an optical zoom is more useful....but i just noticed the digital zoom as I walked by... there's no mention of an optical zoom on the box)

If not, what do you call someone that does that?

The Mercury reports that the local hospital issued a patient with the password CHARCOAL SHADE. (Two randomly selected words).

The patient complained, and the hospital/trust concerned apologised for its racist password.

Would you regard the phrase as racist?

Perhaps its because I arent charcoal, but it seems fine to me and i think the apology was not necessary. I wouldn't have used the word charcoal in such a sense without having first read about the complaint and apology.

Would you expect a password generator to inhibit this selection?

On the One show tonight (BBC1), I thought I heard them say that Blair MP the slaver was unrelated to Tony Blair MP. However the subtitles referred to Black MP, not Blair MP, so I may have misheard or misunderstood.

A brief Google brings up a report from the the Independent newspaper referring to Blair MP the slaver, who may have been related to George Orwell (a quick read of the report leaves me confused as to whether he was or whether he wasnt). And no mention of Tony Blair MP.

So

1 Is there a Black MP as claimed by the One show?

2 Is there a Blair MP as claimed by the report from the Independent?

3 were either of these related to George Orwell the author?

4 were either of these related to Tony Blair MP?

The Blair MP of the Independent and the Black MP (and Blair MP?) of the One Show were referred to as the largest claimants for compensation relating to the curtailment of slavery.

Just watched the One show on BBC and I think they said that Blair MP was unrelated to Blair MP.

I'm wondering wvhether I heard right, and not just because the subtitles gave the name as Black not Blair.

And if I did hear right, how reliable the absence of a relation is?

I'm curious as to how much villages such as Much-under-the-water, or Muchelney as I think the locals pronounce it, are costing.

Whilst I have no accurate information, the impression I have from recent news reports is that there about 100 villagers (or maybe houses/families), dependent on the fire service to operate a ferry using a volunteer boat several times a day. Special arrangements are being made for food and prescriptions. Schoolchildren are either beeing ferried across, or are not receiving their normal schooling.

The villagers suggest that dredging a local river may alleviate the problems caused by the annual flooding which turns the village into an island.

I'm not sure how much dredging the river would cost, but lets say £1 million, or £10 000 per villager - and thos will need doing repeatedly, though perhaps not annually.

Wouldnt it be much cheaper just to close the village - at a cost of about £150 per working villager per week (more for the disabled, but then they get that now). (About £90 housing benefit plus £60 income support).

Alternatively, elevate one of the access roads above water level - that keeps the community intact, and the road wouldnt need repeated dredging.

I'm hoping someone can explain the advantages of living below the water, or of repeatedly dredging the river rather than raising the road, because their must be some information I am lacking...what benefits do such villages provide?

BBC West this week showed footage which appeared to show a PC in uniform scaring an amateur photographer.

Apparently the incident took place in Gloucestershire.

Has it been confirmed that the person in uniform was a PC at the time?

Has he been identified?

I have a knowledge of simple sets in maths...

But i don't recall much about the theory of set definitions.

For example, the set (3,6,9) and the set (3, add 3, single digit) and the set (3n, n integer, single digit).

Considering the set members, one could consider all three sets equal, equivalent. But when taking into account the definition or algorithm, the sets are not identical, although they have identical members.

In computing terms, one can consider the difference between comparing the members of two sets, or comparing the algorithm or function used to generate the sets. (Some but not all computing languages allow a function as a parameter).

Do mathematicians consider this aspect of set theory?

Where might i read more about it.

I am thinking of the BBC report that some claimants weren't paid correctly today due to an "administrative error".

And wondering why the payments were made today, leaving very little time to correct the error.

I followed the suggested sequence but Ok t Ok doesnt toggle AM to PM or 24h.

I assume by t you mean telephoto button?

On my version of the manual the button indicated between the two OKs is a right-pointing arrow.

It cant be the one that takesyou from Years to Months.

The only other arrow key is the one that toggles between camera mode and playback mode.

And pressing that does toggle to playback rather than toggling AM.

What a are we missing?

If not what is the t button?

As you can see, the manual doesnt explain setti g the time well.