Jon H

I remember as a small boy living in Sheffield, my father frequently took me down town and past a place where brass posts were set into the pavement indicating old imperial measurements of length. I think there was a sign that said that it was accurate at zero degrees. If I revisit Sheffield then this a place that I would like to go past, just for the memory of it.

Recently I attended a meeting at work but later discovered that I was not formally invited owing to my position in the company - however, I found the subject very useful and learnt a great deal about the business. Will there be repercussions?

I know that the Earth's magnetic field reversals, recorded by solidifying rock from the Mid Atlantic Ridge (approx 2cm per year) coincide with mass extinctions and ice ages but: does an ice age cause the Earth's magnetic field to reverse or does the flipping of the magnetic field (due perhaps a pulse of solar activity) cause an ice age? This is a question that has been on my mind ever since a lecture I attended, there was no time for questions after as it over ran.

I would be grateful for a sensible reply.

I grew some tiny chillies, when the first one was ripe I decided to try it, for about one second there was a sort of tomato taste, this was followed by agony and burning pain! As they ripened I chopped them and fed them into a small bottle of brandy until no more would fit in.This bottle has moved house a few times, do you think it would be safe after twenty years to use it in a recipe? I have not even opened the bottle to test a tiny spot, bit scary really but I would love to make some use of it as I do like hot spicy things! I remember one night, even after washing my hands thoroughly, I rubbed my eyes, AHHHH! These were serious chillies.

I managed to get to the doctors (almost crawling), prescribed Diazepam (Valium) and Ibuprofen, told to come back if no improvement in one week. I have set my alarm clock for half an hour earlier than normal so that I can get to the train to work on time. I feel so rejected by my wife, I feel that she blames me for ruining her weekend, I am sure that I was supportive of her when she broke her wrist. She could have gone off and left me on my own, that would have been preferable to her taking the mickey and copying my "old man" posture, it is not funny and I have not had pain this bad before. She has shown me a side of her that I had not seen before, if I could afford it then maybe I should get divorced?! I would rather not go down this path, we do have a lot of shared stuff. Do you think that maybe she is just trying to get me mobile? Maybe she is trying to dome some good? Right now I am feeling bad and would prefer to be living in a squalid shack on my own, without someone shouting at me to stop shouting out with the pain.

I have tried isolating the oscillators, lots of decoupling and screening etc. Maybe someone has experience of this (the oscillators are both Colpitts, I have tried a common base stage for isolation) . My speciality is extreme voltages and I know that sometimes it can become more art than science!