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Yes, it's always 'I before E except after C' .............. as every SCIENTIST knows!

The first rule, I was taught by Miss Gair at Nedderton Village Junior School when aged about 10 years so it's not rocket science but it's amazing how many people I've talked too who were never taught the all important second line! The second rule is one they use here when teaching English as a second language to roughly the same age group. I think it's better. We are none of us ever too old to learn!

Spot on,Webtrekker! We learned the "I" before "E" bit also,Canny Lass,but not the last bit ...."Neighbour and Weigh"....mind,wor English lessons didn't gaan inti sum of these levels that you and others are quoting!....never heard of a "Paradigm" ....for example......or a pnuemanic...or whatever it was..A wuz gud at the level of English we were taught.[ mind....ye wadn't think se'...!]

Could be Radweld that your thinking about. Some people used to say they would pour an egg white, albumen, onto a hole in a radiator, so the hot water would boil the white and seal the hole.

You've missed the second line of the mnemonic: I before E except after C but only when it sounds like EE. OR a better way to get it right, according to me,is: I before E, except after C or when sounded as A as in neighbour and weigh. The spelling is related to the sound system

Where did these stones come from? If we accept the secret is in these stones then they could tell our own story. I wonder if anyone has a picture before 'the enclosure'. What happened to the Scoup Camp? Such a beautiful place to grow up. Cycling , swimming, freedom , now maybe lost to the profit motive. Once gone never to return. Innocence lost As Joni might have sung 'They paved paradise put up some ugly new build '

The #1 thing to know is exactly what powers it. If you don't find this out BEFORE you part with your money you are building for a disappointment, and could end up with something that's almost obsolete before you hit the on switch. If the device is Intel powered this is relatively easy: The site http://ark.intel.com/ has all the Intel products that you will ever encounter, even very old ones and ones that haven't been released yet. Get the CPU model number from the manufacturers specification and paste it in to the search window there. There's one thing - and really only one thing - you need to look for and that's the line that says Lithography. As of today's date if that line doesn't say 14 nm you are buying an obsolescent product with much lower battery life than you need to. The shop simply won't tell you this, as they need to move this product on quickly! Here 22 nm is NOT better it is worse, and 32 nm is an antique! There's another website (though it's not the only one here) that is good to check with, and that's https://www.cpubenchmark.net/ This site will give you a fairly good idea of how much performance you can expect from that CPU. They quote this as a PassMark figure. PassMarks of less than 500 are really poor these days, and even a tablet should have one going on towards 1000. This site helps you compare prospective purchases for computing power. Intel's own designators (e.g. i3, i5, i7, Core M, Celeron, etc.) are simply a marketing exercise, and not to be taken too seriously. Of course the car isn't just the engine, and there are other things to consider; particularly the amount of RAM memory (and whether it is permanently soldered-in or upgradeable). But, the above can help you rapidly weed out the stuff you shouldn't even be considering.

Heh heh! Cheers BB!,that's a big chinkaplonka! A was a bit hackley there,cos when a came oot thi pits,a worked wi yungings in factories who had nivvor done a hard days work in tha lives,and when they started wi thi yakka stuff....a had ti .....quiet them doon a bit.cos it wasn't banter...it was slaaver!![even a shop-floor forman tried it on,he was a toonie,and a quietened him doon an aal,he tuk thi huff for a a day or two,then we were aal reet after that.] As a said,me skins like bell metal,nowt,and a mean nowt,offends me personally,but a respect aal the aad ones..[and a lot of young ones] who died doon the pits, including close friends..... Friendly banter is wat kept us gaanin doon the stinking black holes we worked in,comradeship second to none! Just ti clear a point up,a was thinking t'otha neet,oot wi Little Black Jess,[me partner in crime!],aboot Choppington High Pit,the Power Loading Agreement wasn't in place,when aa worked there,they were still on piecework-bargain systems,where the men put in tenders for cutting,drilling ,hand-filling,stonework,etc. Ye wud gaan inti the pit-baths on a Friday afternoon,and see the coalfiller's spokesman,laying oot piles of pound-notes in little heaps,in a line!! They wud be laying oot each of thier marra's pay,from the bulk payment they collected from the pay-office. Can ye imagine that happening noo?! Aa was on a contract system at eighteen years aad,nearly nineteen,humping heavy-section steel girders in to the the whole pit,every roadway,along with the lad who nicknamed me Wilma,[Kieth Cooney...deceased..R.I.P. Kieth..which will be difficult as lang as HPW is knocking aboot.....nivvor a day gaans by withoot ye being taaked aboot,in the aad days!] Back ti Westridge,a saw Derek Wales at the weekend,in Rothbury,with he's Wife,also an old neighbour/friend,who a haven't seen virtually since we both left school,in 1959. It was a pleasure on both sides to see each other again,as we were brought up together from the infant school days,and played together. I mentioned the discussion we are having here,and he said straight out he started in 1956!...and his Wife spoke up also in agreement,cos she started a year or two later,but they grew up together also in my neighbourhood,and remembered clearly,when he left the Whitley!! Until I can access my school reports and other documents,which have been boxed up since moving here in 2000,in the dark loft,alang wi the xmas tree stuff and countless other items of stuff stored there!!!......aam thinking we'll hae ti put it on hold! A think aav even got the programme booklet for Julius Caesar in there as well,that wud be interesting ti lay hands on,wi the full cast on,and names aav forgotten! A said before, that Lynne Hayes played Portia,but after brain-searching,it came to that it was Calpurnia that she played,cos a can see her noo,plain as day,telling Caesar how ,in her bad dream,that.."Ghosts did shriek and squeal about the night..".etc etc. Bobby Cross had the hairs on us other cast members' heads,prickling on the back of our necks,and he had a very rousing standing ovation,rightly deserved,he was better than the Marlon Brando clip which I have seen on u-tube,and which,to me,was pretty bland and his eyes display the fact he is reading off a script-prompter!! I'm referring to his assassination,and burial speeches in particular,he made the audience sit up and take notice,when he screamed out...."Cry HAVOC!..and let slip the dogs of war....."....etc. It was funny,later on,when he was shotfirer in "The Stars Look Down",on the telly,the men had told the Pit-owner that there was water in old workings that they were driving towards,and he ignored their warnings. Bobby fired the shots and a disaster happened...they were all killed,in a roof fall,and inrush of water! His Dad was an Overman at Choppington High Pit,at the time,in the early 1960's,and I always used to be asking how Bobby was getting on. The day after that episode,I saw old Bobby,down the pit,and remarked how good Bobby had acted his part. Old Bobby,replied..."Aa divvent knaa aboot that,cos he fired one bliddy shot and closed the bliddy place!!!" Old Bob's kindly facial expression,as he said it,had me creasing up!! I heard later that young Bobby had went into Journalism,which had been his ambition from aboot 11,or 12 years old,when Mr Davidson quizzed all the class individually,what ambitions they had. I wanted to be a radio engineer,[before we all had telly's],but when it came to our final exams in 1959,HPW was near the top for all the important subjects,English,Technical drawing,Metalwork,....and rock bottom with Maths!! The results were pinned up in the Vestibule,[.....vestibule.....wat's wrang wi bliddy "corridor"?........fancy bliddy nyems..!],anywheh,Hpw had 4% ,no kid!![which gave the bullying gang a reet hoot,with mair bullying in the following days till thi day I left!] I had jumped from long division at the Whitley,to Algebra,Logarithms,simple and compound interest,at Westridge,with such a wide gap,it was impossible for me to catch up. No maths,No radio engineer's job![even though radio engineers generally never use maths!,that's what test gear is for!] So i went doon thi pit! Incidentally,I wasn't "chosen" to go into Upper Remove,me and other friends went in voluntarily,after requesting with Mr Hemming. He took me around all my class teachers,and they all gave me a glowing reference ,so into the Remove I went...halfway through a term syllabus,I didn't half make life difficult for myself!! The only reason I did that,was because the Remove classes had unlimited access to the school library,with two free periods a week from lessons,called "Private study periods". Books on Electronics were hard to get at the Station library,but they had a whack of modern[then!]books which I used to borrow constantl;y,and use my private study periods to bury my head in amongst ECC3,EL84'S,and 12ax7 valve specifications,as well as Short-wave radio circuit diagrams,formulae etc.... What a reason to subject yasell ti torture,bullying,homework,.....etc....etc!! Aye,a was a bit clivvor,on thi one hand,and mighty stupid,on thi other....live and learn eh?!! Maggie,aam sorry a didn't reply to your supporting comments straight away,thanks a lot as always!! BB,any of your escapades or memories wud be well appreciated!! Can ye remember the Dairy farm owa thi road from the school? We watched the whole herd of coos slowly making their way up to be milked,every day,at the same time,in a lang slow line!! Watched one coo give birth beside the road,owa from thi school main gate,one day,caught short,cos they normally kept well away from society,when giving birth,usually at the bottom of the field,in the corner.,but aal the otha coos stood thickly aroond the mother in labour,protecting her and keeping her and the caaf warm.[caaf=calf!]......Mighty powerful is Mother Nature! [on a closing note...I have always had a problem with "Their's"...or is it....."Thier's"?]

Not really my point, though (and they do frighten the horses! Terrible things! The insurance problem is a clear legal one; if a driverless car causes an accident, who is at fault?

No, no you can't! Please, the less links the better! I have no idea what this is about, but will wait for maggies answer rather than delve through links! If something can't be explained in a few sentences, without me having to watch seven, 10, whatever minutes of video footage, I - like most people - lose interest. I'm starting the No Links party tomorrow.

I said SOME things can be looked at in black and white terms; not all. I'm right, too. It doesn't pay to over complicate everything; much of life is quite simple. When the outcome is obvious- black or white - what's the point in prolonging the issue? This leaves us more time to sort the issues that need more attention. You stood up to Marxists teaching you? Good for you. What if they had been fascists teaching you?

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that you take a liberal-leftist view which takes everything at face value." You are wrong. I take the view that one should always consider all angles of a situation, a story, whatever we are dealing with. I take the view that picking and choosing the factors in a situation that inspire an individuals personal views is the wrong way to go. I don't hold the view that one particular political school of thinking is right or wrong, simply because it can't be. Nobody can, after all, get everything right. I follow politics and world affairs as you do, but rather than taking on board only some of what is being said/done/overlooked, I take the trouble to look at things from as many possible scenarios as I can (time, of course, permitting). This is why, for one thing, I can see no real reason why Putin would go to war; it simply makes no sense, and is scaremongering at its worst. It's the same reason I know - note, Know, not believe - that, contrary to the insistence of many, the UK is not going to become a muslim state. I could go on and suggest many other popular scenarios and terrible future developments that are regularly put forward in the popular press that are quite simply. utter nonsense, but I think you get the picture. Face value is, in many situations, actually a sensible measure; plenty of what we take to be complex and convoluted in life is, in fact actually black and white, and sometimes, simplifying a conundrum is the best way to assess it. Not in every scenario, of course, but in many. In truth, also, children should be taught to be liberal in their thoughts; any other option is indoctrination, and does not allow them to make up their own minds - as you and I have had the opportunity to do - in later life. Finally, I was talking about your intelligence, not that of the various world leaders! I posit you likely exceed many of them in that area. You are wrong

Indeed; I don't have any stupid cats. I instead have 17 carefully selected, very intelligent cats, who kill only needless, superfluous rodents - those that are over-populated in local terms - and shit in a set location, rather than 'all over'. Oddly, despite Monsta's protestations, they also play a strong part in keeping the local 'rat bastard' population at bay; I frequently clear rat bastard carcasses from my garden. I'm also not sure why Monsta urges me to dig up my veg (etc); not much of it is ready yet.

How are you supposed know that the cat is going to be stupid when you get it? What are the odds at the next one also being stupid ? I don't think we should start getting rid of "stupid" ....

You didn't write "get out of my face" which is a well known grade. You wrote "out there face" which is completely different. A 'of' would have helped. You're a little wide casting insults when your use of the native language is suspect. Unacceptable insults also, asterisks or not. I'm all for heady debate and banter, but let's keep it out of the gutter.

With so many people unhappy with the state of our streets and open spaces a group has come together to see just what can be done to help. They are holding an open public meeting at the Bedlington Community Centre on Front Street next Wednesday 4th May at 6.00pm. If you are concerned about the way our Town looks at times and want to actually do something about it please come along. You may already do a bit of litter picking in your particular area, if so we would like to hear about that too so we can make a map of the areas residents are already helping out with and areas which might need some sort of concerted community effort to get back into a good state.