James C. said:

On a side note, I hate cats and...

and James C. said:

Also "hate" is a strong word, I love all mammals and...

A Lying Hero. Way to Go Super Mammal Lover.

fO shO

' '

as well as Me(an Avowed Cat Lover)

I hear that Europeans can't pronounce "squirrel" very easily.

No, I think you are thinking of people who speak Japanese as a first language. Or perhaps you are thinking of groups of people who speak tonal languages?

The many faces of /r/ and /l/ are particularly challenging if they are not a part of your primary language. The phoneme /r/ in American English is really quite a variety of sounds, not just one sound. There is pre-vocalic /r/ as in "rabbit". There are /r/ colored vowels such as the "ar" in "car", the "ear" in "hear", the "ire" in "fire", the "aur" in "hour", the "air" in "bear", the "or" in "snore", the "oower" in "sure" (That last one is particularly "Californian".) Then there is the dreaded "er" sound which can be stressed as in "early" or unstressed as in "flower". And don't even get me started on how /r/ changes each time it is combined with another consonant in a blend (/br/, /pr/, /vr/, /fr/, /dr/, /tr/, /gr/, /kr/, "shr", "thr" etc)

Ok, now everybody try "The gray girl squirrel and her friend the early bird twirled and whirled around the earth."

Any of you who are parents of children who struggle with /r/, cut your speech pathologist a break if it seems like therapy for that sound is taking a looooooooong time. The phoneme /r/ is deceptively complex.

I'm still getting a "page is unresponsive" message. It was working last night. Fortunately I , like others just use it to communicate with certain members of my extended family.

Tended to tangle my epiglotis with my tonsils

O U C H ! I think us chaps had better NOT try that!

My rrrrrr's roll right into an s, I am so used to English.

It's hard for me to use the English r properly, let alone the French r!

What are all those poor facebook freaks doing without their social media?

Sorry, I will not apologise to Dull, I stand by what I said. His comments regarding animal welfare are not welcome here, he should stick to the politics thread, where he is more suited.

I still say well done James, I and others salute you. BTW any feedback on whether the kitten was owned or feral, and is happily ensconced back with it's siblings?

Not Bruce - but I hope you don't mind me posting this here James C. :)

Found the picture just now :) and awwwwwwwwwww...



Hope Bruce is doing well :)

Tended to tangle my epiglotis with my tonsils

O U C H ! I think us chaps had better NOT try that!

Geezy Peezy. How 'bout going to The Cern Web Site.

Safety at LHC

' '

I did think of that :) but I thought an independent review of the safety of the science being done there would help settle any unease for those who might distrust the official line :) but thanks for the tip :)

I was just wondering how others feel about the LHC or any other particle accelerator for that matter.
I think it's quite dangerous what they're doing. It's playing with the basic elements of nature.
For instance, they could produce anti matter by accident and thereby annihilate all the matter as we know it!
I really think we should not experiment too much with elements on that scale. It's messing around with the balance that nature built and is still obtaining.
I know I'm not a scientist and I don't know that much about what they're doing but it scares me a bit. Humans can be an intelligent species but we know far from everything and should be very careful with nature. We can read about it all we want but experiments on a level like that are very dangerous IMHO.

I like "Old James". Sounds venerable.

Has quite a ring to it:)

and ignore what's His name as Chris S said, you did good James.

Put The Kittens back with Their Mother? No? Hmmm. No Hero then.

Moving Kittens About, from One Possible Threat to Another. No Heroics at all.

Go Ahead, again, Pat YourSelf on the Back and Relish The Congratualatories of Everyone, 'cept me.

' '

I mark this as a win in my book. Also what kind of a$%-hat would put a cat on the roof of a building?

How do you know the kitties are saved? Your Interference may lead to their demise. Butterfly wings. Unintended Consequences.

Puff out your chest, Human, and Feel Proud.

' '

It is most likely it jumped on there from somewhere, but well done to you for retrieving it. You all know what I'm like about animal welfare :-)

Hi James C. I suppose Im going to be the Old James now:)