Heres mine for starters, a genuine question...

Last November I stupidly ran out of petrol one night and so after walking for miles I had to buy a plastic "can" and fill it with one gallon of petrol, used it in the car, drove back to the garage and refilled the can thinking that I would never again be caught out with no petrol.

Six months later its still in the boot, and I'm wondering, and here's the question - does petrol "go off".

I mean, should I tip it in the tank now and go refill the can or can I keep the can in the boot for years in the sure knowledge that when I eventually have to use it in another emergency running out of petrol scenario, I won't just tip water into the tank and have the last quarter inch as sludge ?

Get rid. It's the octane gas levels inside the petrol which gives it it's ability to burn. Eventually over time the octane gas levels will decrease through evaporation and if you use it as the sole petrol in your car it may not work and could cause your engine to become sluggish. You could probably mix it in with your next fill up and be okay but I wouldn't guarantee it. It should be fine mixed with premium due to the higher octane levels in premium petrol but I don't think I'd risk it in my car.

On a side note, as petrol is an oil and therefore not water soluble it'll still look the same but will smell different because of the change of gas levels.

It does, eventually I think, based purely on the colour of the half tank we drained out of one of my fathers old cars that "went up the garden for a couple of weeks untill I can repair it" and it coming back down dor said repairs 20 years later.

Sorry only just noticed you said 6 months, should be fine to add it in gradually over a few fill ups instead of wasting it. You're looking at about 12 months before you don't really want to put it in your car as it will effect performance.

I've got a question, what language did the Normans speak when they conquered us?

If they spoke French then how come we didn't end up speaking French? Were they actually French?

The aristocracy did and certain French words filtered through into English, eg veal, beef, pork and mutton. however, the educated and upper classes also used Latin. The aristocracy had to pick up English to communicate with their peasants.

Re: Petrol.

I hope to god you don't smoke, petrol vapour will seep through any plastic container. You do know what sort of explosion even a cup full of it will make?

Try it some time (we did on a scooter rally for -drunken - fun, put me off storing it in ANY confined space!) and you'll not be so keen on carrying it in the back of your car.

Remember, it's the fumes not the fuel that ignites, and the fumes are explosive up to something like a 500:1 air/fuel ratio IIRC. I'd really not want to get rear ended with that on board.

always wanted to ask...

as a 16 year old with only 'above average - good' gcses and currently doing pretty abysmally at AS level, why do I keep getting told I'm 'overqualified' for weekend/part-time jobs in shops?

I guess they're just lying and don't want me but yeah, anyone on the other side of these sort of applications

You've better qualifications than me, and I had the same problem at that age. Now it's the opposite... I've a job that I'm barely qualified for but they won't get shut of me.

If you're applying to fast food places and such who try to give jobs to people who will stay on for as long as possible (ie, not go to uni) you won't have much luck. When I was at college I worked a weekend job at B&Q and they were great with me so might be worth applying there if they have any vacancies.

Who invented the deckchair?

The Egyptians.

...although John Thomas Moore took out a patent on the design in 1886.

What is the weight of 16 Brazilian Anacondas?

Don't know. What's the weight of one?

The average weight of a Brazilian anaconda is 148.5kg. Thusly, the combined weight of 16 will be 2,376kg.

At a football/rugby match, why is it always the fat bloke who takes his shirt off?

Sorry about that.

Norman French ... like French, only different.
Most "French" people as we now know them didn't speak "French" as we now know it but spoke their own local language.


Well, they were Norman ... descended from Norsemen who "settled" in the fertile limestone area now known as Normandy.
To communicate with the Lord of the Manor you'd speak French but, out in the fields, English was still the lingua franca (

sorry), so a sheep, which is Schaff in German, a word brought here by the Angles (or Saxons, not sure which) out in the field became Mouton by the time it got to the Lord of the Manor's table.
As Dally mentioned, many of their words entered our language.
For many centuries if you wanted to show you were "educated" or sophisticated, you'd drop a few French words into your conversations, hence Shakespeare used French-speaking as a theatrical device to show how a character had ideas above his social station.

EDIT - Forgot to mention, as late as the 1790's, only about 12% of French people spoke what we now call French.

Whats the frequency, Kenneth ?

Probably the closest you will now find to "old" French would be the patois spoken by Arcadians and Guernsey folk

There was a three-part comic documentary done by Eddie Izzard some years ago, [iMongrel Nation[/i, looking at the ethnic origins of the British.

Anyway, one of the segments had him going to Leicester University (IIRC) to learn to speak a little Old English. He then visited rural Holland and went in search of a farmer to ask to buy a cow from – using Old English. And that was an interesting way to show the links between English and Dutch.

I guess that depends on which of the French languages of old, is actually the "Old French" in question.

Why is it that when driving along the motorway, if you happen to glance across at a driver in another vehicle they more often than not can tell your looking at them and will glance back?

This also happens if someone looks at me, I can sense someone looking at me and will look back.

Is this telepathy?

... and of corse "Dutch" is basically the word the Germans use for their own language.