MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Tizer]

Cathy, it does if you make it cold enough - it solidifies at -39C. But my object isn't mercury. However to make up for your disappointment have a look at this video showing mercury being frozen and also a ball bearing being floated in mercury: LINK

Gloria, it's not tin ore but you're close enough to be declared the winner. It's called a `tin candle' and is pure molten tin that has escaped from the bottom of a stone tin smelter hearth in the old days and dripped onto the sand. If found they would have been thrown back into the smelter but sometimes they got buried in the sand and have been found in recent times. This photo is not mine but an image from the web site of Peter Trebilcock who is an enthusiast of Cornish mining, lives over an old mine and runs a web site called Mid-Cornwall Minerals. LINK

[Stanley]

Nice one and tin is of course a major constituent of Babbit bearing metal.

(That Gloria is bit of a whizz kid when it comes to these answers. Should we handicap her?)

[Gloria]

I got that through the clues.

[Marilyn]

No, don't handicap Gloria.
She is just amazing.

[Tripps]

Can anyone identify this 'piece of art'?

art.jpg

[plaques]

The result of Norman Tebbit's advise.

[Gloria]

No, don't handicap Gloria.
She is just amazing.

[Wendyf]

Bike share graveyard in China.

[Tripps]

Yes that was too easy - clever answer Plaques.

It chimed with me because I live near the Bike theft capital of UK.

A Chinese company called OFO (I think) has just set up a similar venture in the city. - You have to admire their optimism.

[Gloria]

An old Brillo pad??

[Tripps]

Sorry I should have put this link in Bike graveyard

[chinatyke]

These bikes sprung up everywhere in Nanning. You used your citizen card to unlock them from the cycle rack and got 60 minutes free hire in Nanning. I thought the different coloured bikes were just to give some variety and not representing different companies, and I assumed it was the government who was providing them and not private enterprises. They are very strong and well made bikes so I hope they are exported to a developing country and not just recycled as scrap iron. The idea was good and they were available in high use areas like subway stations, residential estates, shopping malls, etc. You could just take a bike and leave it near home or the subway station or where you worked. The downside was pedestrians having to negotiate many bikes on the roads and pavements. When things fail in China it is always in a big way with big numbers involved.

[Stanley]

I'd worked out it was an aerial view of a scrap pile but it's all bikes? Amazing.

[Tripps]

So every Chinese citizen has a digital citizen's card - all 1.3 billion of them - no wonder I read recently that China now has more supercomputers than any other nation.

The company in Cambridge is ofo. ofo bike trial

What could possibly go wrong?

[chinatyke]

So every Chinese citizen has a digital citizen's card - all 1.3 billion of them - no wonder I read recently that China now has more supercomputers than any other nation.

Perhaps I've misled you there. Almost every Chinese citizen has an ID card more correctly called a residents ID card, there are 1.14 billion issued. Armed police, members of the armed forces, & those in custody don't have an ID card. These will be replaced with a new Citizen's ID card which will contain a magnetic strip or chip with information on it. Every citizen has or will be issued with an 18 digit citizen's ID number. A bit of "Big Brother" policy about the scheme but why worry unless you have something to hide? It's a pity they don't do something similar on a global basis!
The national residents ID cards are not the same as the Citizens card issued by cities, for example, the Nanning residents card I mentioned. These are only issued to residents of that particular city and give access to local services, like 10% discount on the city buses, bicycle hire on so on. You prepay money on to these cards and a sum is deducted when you use a service.

[PanBiker]

I would welcome a National ID card, could be very useful and could hold voluntary information as well as the stuff for it's primary role. I cant see what the problem is, as you say, If you have nothing to hide. We are already tracked via mobile phone and credit card so why not have something that could be useful. You could have medical stuff on such as blood group, allergies and the like, donor status, in fact you could loose a whole lot of the extra stuff you carry in wallet and purse and shove it on a single smart card.

[plaques]

How about a national DNA bank that everybody could dip into and trace their ancestry. That would put the cat amongst the Royal pigeons. Whose Who, would be Whose Who + lots of others. Opens up all kinds of possibilities the police would love it. George Orwell here we come. (Nothing to hide, nothing to fear)

[PanBiker]

Aye, the tracking we already have is mainly done through ownership rather than consent with the exception of the CCTV. Having a proper ID card would go a long way towards regularising this.

[Stanley]

I totally agree about what we called 'Identity Cards' during the war. Without them the wonderful administrative machine that got us through that hard time wouldn't have worked. Bureaucracy, properly controlled, is a National Good!

[Stanley]

Can anyone guess what this is?

[chinatyke]

Something you or Jack have chewed and rejected.

Colour reminds me of a sweet pepper.

[Wendyf]

Is it a block of carbolic soap? All the little ends pushed together?

[PanBiker]

I was just going to say that Wendy, I bet it smells nice.

[Marilyn]

Was it found at the back of one of your cupboards, young man?

[Stanley]

Wendy has it exactly. We are lucky in Barlick in that we can still get old fashioned bar soap at Shambles in the Square. It's lovely fatty soap and what happened was that I was cutting a lump off the block the other day and did it with a knife. I'd forgotten that if toy didn'd saw it in two it shattered so I ended up with some broken bits. I did what my mother used to do with soap ends, put a drop of boiling water on and melted them together in a mug. This is the result and yes, it smells lovely and leaves your hands perfectly clean.
Next one?