The actual reason that we don't is pretty much because of the invention of sewing machines. Once sewing machines were widespread, making coats became sooo much cheaper than they had been. Coats need a lot of tightly made seams which took time and so made coats very expensive. With sewing machines, making these seams was vastly quicker and more reliable.

Coats win over cloaks in so many ways because you can do things with your arms without exposing them or your torso to the rain and cold: impossible with a cloak.

Capes were the short versions - and intended to cover the shoulder and back without seams that might let the rain in, but with the new machine made seams, they were not needed either.

The really big change was when it became affordable to outfit armies with coats instead of cloaks or capes. At that point all the caché and prestige that was associated with military rank disappeared from cloaks and capes and they were suddenly neither useful not fashionable.

Nowadays, of course, they are no longer what your unfashionable dad would have worn: they are quite old enough to have regained a certain style.

I experience suboptimal viewing by having to watch ads. If I had to pick one or the other, I know which one I prefer.

Y2K.

I manage utility services - among other things - for a group of properties - and have had the mains water analysed for chemical and biological contamination at various times. The results have always been absolutely fine. Not just with EU limits, but far, far, far within them for almost everything and definitely well within them for all measures.

I've got no issues at all with drinking tap water in the UK, even given the state of the rivers etc.

I am - in the UK - and I think that it should be opt out rather than opt in.

An isolated shingle spit nature reserve. We'd lost mains power in a storm some while back and were running on a generator. Fuel deliveries were hard to arrange. We'd finally got one. We were pretty much running on fumes and another storm was coming in. We really needed this delivery.

To collect the fuel, I had to take the Unimog along a dump track and across 5 miles of loose shingle - including one low causeway stretch through a lagoon that was prone to wash out during storms. We'd rebuilt it a LOT over the years. On the way up, there was plenty of water around there, but it was still solid.

I get up to the top ok and get the tank full - 2000L of red diesel - but the wind is pretty strong by the time I have. Half way back, I drop down off the seawall and reach the causeway section. The water is just about topping over. If I don't go immediately, I won't get through at all and we will be out of fuel for days - maybe weeks. So I put my foot down and get through that section only to find that 200 meters on, another section already has washed out. Oh shit.

I back up a little but sure enough the first section has also washed through now. I now have the vehicle and a full load of fuel marooned on a short section of causeway that is slowly washing out. Oh double shit. Probably more than double. Calling it in on the radio, everyone else agrees and starts preparing for a pollution incident.

In the end I find the firmest spot that I can in that short stretch and leave the Moggie there. Picking my route and my moment carefully I can get off that 'island' on foot - no hope with the truck - BUT due to the layout of the lagoons only to the seaward ridge, where the waves are now crashing over into the lagoon with alarming force. I then spend one of the longest half-hours I can remember freezing cold and drenched, scrambling yard by yard along the back side of that ridge and flattening myself and hoping each time a big wave hits.

The firm bit of causeway survived and there was no washed away Unimog or pollution in the end - and I didn't drown either - but much more by luck than judgement.

These days I am in a position where I am responsible for writing risk assessments and methods statements for procedures like this. It was another world back then.

The original type of coat that would have been worn when riding was the Great Coat - which did cover the whole body, down to the ankles (and included the front of the body much better than a cloak). Those would have been worn by military officers, particularly.

Those were fine for riding, but then if you were off your horse and end up in the newly developed trench warfare - starting from around the US civil war onwards - you ended up wading through mud which got caked to the coat. So then they started cutting the coats shorter and they became Trench Coats.

"customers weren’t willing to pay for the added cost of cleaner fossil fuels." says CEO of company that made $36 billion in profits last year.

This is a noted issue with Ticks. When removing them, unless you do it properly, you may end up with the mouthparts left embedded in your skin.. However, even with those, the body will usually deal with it without too many problems.

Mosquito proboscii are much smaller and so I would not anticipate any issues for anyone with a functioning immune system to deal with without ever noticing.

Hell, that's going back a way. I don't think that I have heard one of those since the 90s. They really haven't aged well - not that they were exactly the height of PC humour back then.

What's the difference between a shopping trolley and an Essex girl?

A shopping trolley has a mind of its own.

This was a criticism that the Nazis used against liberal democracies. They saw this as a fatal weakness and used it as a justification for keeping in power themselves, once they had achieved it.

Various dictators have said much the same as well.

However, looking at the track record of democracies vs dictatorships or single party states, I think that the data will show that pluralist democracies typically last longer.

• At work - recruiting another team member, so we are not all constantly plate spinning and I might actually have chance to spend time planning.
• At home - finally getting the pictures etc up on the walls.
• Nationally - voting the Tories out.

I don't think that I ever did feel like a kid when I went back to my parents for Christmas. Instead, it felt cloying, cluttered and claustrophobic - and as far as I can tell, it is entirely coincidental that all three of those start with 'cl'. I felt out of place and constrained and it seemed irrelevant to anything else in my world. Mum and my siblings were all doing their usual things, but I felt in the same stiff, un-natural position that 'posh' visitors were always put in back when I was living there as a child. There was a sense that it was all a performance for my benefit - but one that never really convinced.

Without looking for sources - so I could be totally wrong - I believe that it did darken proportionately and that light meters would register that. However, human eyes are not light meters and adjust to the dimmer light without you knowing.

Relevant XKCD

You'd need to refuel at some point and I expect that refuelling whilst in motion would probably hit some legal issues.

And then, assuming that you overcame that, in the UK at least, you'd need at MOT test at some point, which would have to be at an approved test centre, so 3 years at the absolute max - although I expect tyres etc would need attention before that.

It would depend on the setting, I'd think.

In an SF setting, then maybe: it could be the chemical qualities of blood that they need.

In a fantasy setting, then probably not: what they need is life taken from another. Blood is simply the material component of that life force.

It's my birthday - same date as a close friend too. We are having a relaxed tea and cakes on the lawn thing with other friends if the weather is up to it. Tea and cakes inside if not. I'll probably get out for a hike somewhere on the other day too.

The following weekend I am having an 'official birthday' and my SO has arranged a mystery outing to somewhere that she tells me isn't often open - hence the delay. I'm guessing some kind of specialist museum-y thing but I have no idea what exactly. Looking forward to it anyway.

Awkward because encephalitis is caused by HIV.

From the NHS website:

Encephalitis is most often due to a virus, such as:

• herpes simplex viruses, which cause cold sores (this is the most common cause of encephalitis)
• the varicella zoster virus, which causes chickenpox and shingles
• measles, mumps and rubella viruses
• viruses spread by animals, such as tick-borne encephalitis, Japanese encephalitis, rabies (and possibly Zika virus)

Encephalitis caused by a virus is known as "viral encephalitis". In rare cases, encephalitis is caused by bacteria, fungi or parasites.

The first I thought of was Dead Horse, Alaska. Permanent population 25 - 50, I understand.

I really can't recall where I first heard of it though.

I have probably heard of a few other odd ones like this.

Do you really find it that baffling that people are choosing to provide help and advice in a setting that has millions of active users rather than a setting that has some thousands?

For complicated reasons over which we have had very little control, we have had to move house 3 times in the last 5 years.

In April of this year, thoigh, we finally found somewhere that we both really love and which should be pretty much permanent. I am very happy about that.

This presupposes that I am paying any attention to them, rather than trying to block, skip or otherwise avoid them - which is what I am usually doing.

A very under-rated pass-time.

All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

-Blaise Pascal

Not exactly an original thought though. This had been a staple of SF writers for decades. E M Forster's The Machine Stops from 1909 being a fine example.

There were 30 sheep involved in the original transaction.

The troll has 25.

His sons have 2.

The shepherds have the 3 that were returned.

To look at it the other way, the shepherd paid a net amount of 27 sheep. The troll has 25, his sons have the other 2.

You don't add the 27 and the 2 - the 27 is the total of the 25 and the 2.

Validate your child's feelings. Let them know that you understand that they are scared and that it is ok to be scared.

This article is from 2009, of course.

Since it is well established that Die Hard qualifies, by the same criterion so does Gilliam's Brazil from 1985, and that would be mine, for its gloriously nightmarish dystopia - closely followed by Klaus (2019), which is a far more conventional seasonal tale: an animation with a beautiful style of artwork and a great story.

I do and have for most of my life. I lived on an island where my SO and I were the only permanent residents for 8 years.

I have lived in the suburbs of a couple of large towns/small cities for some years too - and in the centre of an all-but-city and although there is some convenience in those, I'd choose rural any day. The peace, proximity to nature and the ease of getting out for enjoyable walks beats convenience every time for me.

I have had issues with the paper not feeding well and jamming as a result of high humidity in a copier/printer - but this was a cool/cold high-humidity site in the UK.

That was resolved by fitting an optional heated paper drawer.

Biggest one for me was swapping from setting the alarm as late as possible and then rushing to get out of the house, to setting it an hour earlier and using that to read, do a little qi gong and have a leisurely breakfast.

Humans have spent most of their evolutionary history not drinking juice or soda or anything. It is absolutely fine - as long as you are eating healthily.

These days it is once in a blue moon that I drink anything except water myself. I don't believe that the very occasional elderflower presse is the only thing standing between me and a hideous malnourished death.

Without more context (how well does your GF know the friend? How well do you know the friend? How long have you been living together? Have either of you lived with anyone else in the past? What else was said immediately after this exchange? What else has you GF said to you about living together? Whose idea was living together in the first place? Did one of you live in that home alone beforehand? What is your GF's sense of humour like otherwise? etc etc) it is going to be impossible to be sure about this, but living together is always going to involve compromises of some kind, so if this is relatively new for her, it is very likely that there is a grain of truth if she sounded like she has some reservations.

One thing that is definitely not going to help, though, whether it was a joke or not, is you getting all defensive about it.

She has told you it was a joke. I'd suggest telling her that even as a joke it has left you feeling hurt, and then ask her if there genuinely is anything that she sees as a problem and what she would like from you in order to make it better - and then commit to make those changes where that is realistic. And take the opportunity to so the same the other way around: what changes you would like from her - so that you are both communicating openly, and trying to grow and make the relationship better.

One of:

• I, Claudius (1976)
• Connections (1978)
• Band of Brothers (2003)
• Breaking Bad (2008)
• Better Call Saul (2015)

If Fred & Bob are talking and 'he told him x and he responded with y" then that is also unclear. This is not a problem that is unique to the word 'they'.

Of course, in either case, the answer to use phrase it so that you remove any ambiguity and communicate clearly: "Sam told them x and the board responded with y.", "Bob told him x and Fred responded with y".

From the article:

“The issue is not where the money is spent,” says Clark, now president of Defenders of Wildlife. “The issue is that there isn’t nearly enough of it.”

That is the most significant part of this.

However, single species conservation work is almost short sighted IMHO. The vast majority of the time the main issue for species that need conservation is loss of habitat.,You need to be conserving that habitat as a whole including the entire flora and fauna community from the ground up.

I am a pagan. There are pretty much no widely accepted texts within paganism that make any statements about subject. In my experience most pagans are quite happy to coexist with other religions in general - and given that in almost all circumstances pagans will be in a small minority that makes perfect sense. On the other hand, most pagans that I know are far less happy to coexist with the more bigoted and hateful varieties of religion.

There is a strong feminist trend within paganism and this - particularly linked with the ahistorial but often assumed heritage of witchcraft, and the associated history of hanging and burning of witches - does not lead the more patriarchal end of the Abrahamic religions to sit well with a lot of pagans - and I know a lot who are far happier about visiting the roofless moss-covered shell of an abandoned church, with a hawthorn growing in the apse than they are visiting an occupied one (unless it is in search of a sheel-na-gig etc).

On the other hand, there is a strand of Norse paganism that crosses into white supremacy and neo-nazism, so that brings its own hate, bigotry and patriarchy. I do not know what their stance on other religions is.

England: First recorded school c.600AD. First University 1096. Compulsory primary education through a series of acts in the 1870s & 1880s, compulsory secondary education 1918.

At the point where you and the AI can see someone straightening their tie in a certain way and you and the AI can exchange a single wordless glance and you both burst out laughing 'cos it was just like that thing that you both saw 6 months ago and found hilarious then - then maybe.

Not before.