User talk:Charles01

PLEASE ENTER NEW MESSAGES AT THE END OF THIS PAGE. IF YOU PUT THEM AT THE TOP, I WILL PUT THEM THERE. OTHERWISE, IF SOME NEW MESSAGES ARE AT THE TOP, AND OTHERS ARE AT THE END, THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE PAGE GETS HARD TO FOLLOW

Your new article Ford Taunus P5

Thanks for taking the time to create the new article Ford Taunus P5. This article looks very well put together. You did an excellent job with uploading images to the article. As you know, Wikipedia is always a work in progress. So thank you, Jipinghe (talk) 21:08, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

And thank you for noticing. And (especially since they're positive...) for sharing your reactions.

Success Charles01 (talk) 06:08, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

Bond 875 Road Test section

Hi Charles, It looks like it was you that added this section to the Bond 875 page. I don't have the magazine to be able to tell, but from what you've added it all looks a bit confusing towards the end specifically "The testers commended the Reliant's performance and economy, but found the three wheeler unstable at high speed. They thought the gear box and brakes good but were disappointed by 'poor seats and detail finish'." Is the tester talking about the Bond or a three wheeled Reliant? Mighty Antar (talk) 00:52, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for spotting this. Clearly my fingers were ahead of my brain and drifted off to some bad place. Again. I've corrected it. Pls let me know if it still doesn't make sense. (I've NOT revisited the magazine because my magazines are now back in several large plastic boxes in the loft and not catalogued. But from memory and context I am clear beyond reasonable doubt that I should have written Bond.) Regards Charles01 (talk) 05:30, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, that looks and sounds much better. Mighty Antar (talk) 12:48, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Quick check request Friedrich Franz

Hello Charles,

could you please just read through article 'Friedrich Franz̈́ that I've just made? I use there words like "daguerreotype" and I am not totally sure whether I use it in a right way. Generally though, the article should be fine and there is no need for detailed scrutiny (at least I hope so). Thank you very much! Cimmerian praetor (talk) 21:17, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Hello C P

I don't think I knew the word daguerrotype till about ten years ago. I first heard it in connection with studying my genealogy. I had a (very distant and indirect) cousin who was some kind of a photography pioneer in the early days. But I think it is really because of the web that we all of us now can see in casual (on line) browsing photographs from that period quite frequently. Especially those of us interested in history. Ten years ago you had to go into dusty shops in small towns where the shop rents are still relatively low. At least I suppose you did.

Anyhow, I've turned that sentence round a little bit so it works for me. I've not read the whole entry, but probably will...

Success Charles01 (talk) 05:33, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

Thank you very much. Cimmerian praetor (talk) 07:38, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

That is interesting. I have roots among farmers and coal miners, and even the town, where my grandpa (still alive) used to live fell a victim to the coal mining. I wonder whether I will be able to find out anything about my ancestry, should the day I get interested into it come.Cimmerian praetor (talk) 09:39, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

sniping

Hi Charles, left a note for you here - Snipe,

see also Imperial. best regards. Eddaido (talk) 22:15, 20 July 2011 (UTC)

Interesting.

I’m not sure that, taken in isolation, it is so surprising that at a time when cars were all (almost all) the same shape, cars were (almost all) all the same shape, if you see what I mean. I’m sure I’ve seen Cadillacs that precise shape taking part in old movies involving Chicago mobsters and unlawful alcohol production in the late 20s. And I’ve long suspected that the Ford 8 was in many respects a rip off of the Morris 8. Various other late 1920s designs from Peugeot, Austin and yes, the first Hillman Minxes from Rootes are pretty hard to tell apart. Coming forward, I remember in 1966 rumours flying among my self and snotty nosed contemporaries that the Ford Cortina Mk II and Hillman Hunter were so indistinguishable that it was obvious that someone had stolen someone’s plans. No longer sure which of Ford and Chrysler/Rootes were deemed the big bad thieves and which the innocent victims in that…... And more recently, even that nice Sig Giugaro seems to have recycled the first Passat Variant in Korea. Clean simple designs can be hard to differentiate without the thing looking contrived.

But some of the other echoes between Humber Snipe and Chrysler do indeed hint at a more extensive alignment of thinking. Or at least that Rootes was very impressed by the Chrysler approach and the Detroit approach in general. Lotta metal for the money was a theme especially for Humber in the 30s, 40s and 50s.

I checked out the William Rootes, 1st Baron Rootes to see if our man ever visited the US. If he had a Chrysler agency, it seems more than likely, though it’s not as much trumpeted as Andre Citroen's Damascus moment at whichever assembly line plant it was Henry Ford showed him. My only conclusion was that the wiki entry on Lord Rootes needs a lot more work. Might you be tempted? I feel that US influences on the Rootes brothers might (suitably sourced, of course…) in the first instance be a more appropriate para for an entry on the man than on the Snipe, though once there’s a thoughtful para on it for the man one could summarize the para into a two or three lines for subsequent inclusion on the Snipe entry.

Lest this be thought a one way street, you already moved me – whether or not on purpose I cannot tell – to set up a series of more substantial entries on the post was German Fords from Ford Taunus P1 to Ford P7. I still think the anglophone Ford Taunus page itself is a complete mess, but I wouldn’t really know where to start shovelling.

No further thoughts. Except it’s nearly lunch time. Happy day. Charles01 (talk) 11:16, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

Didn't you know that until very recently all Korean cars were built using worn but not worn out Japanese machinery and designs? I don't see why they might not have bought a little or a lot of pre-owned VW stuff too. My source of Humber info is direct from the lips of a family friend, dead nearly 45 years, who has his article in WP and ODNB, personal mate and business friend of the slightly younger than he Mr W Roote (not originally Rootes) and always chauffeured in a (long series of) very large black RHD Chrysler(s) except on days when it mattered while he was president of the SMMT (his personally founded company made major components) when his then late wife's Star Sapphire was pressed back into his driver's unwilling service. Same source for my attempt to underline in W O Bentley's article that Hives was determined to destroy WOB, put in the knife then would twist from time to time. I'm sorry but my informant has to stay anonymous. Stanley Brotherhood, chairman of Humber, was a different earlier generation but also a friend of informant.

Rolls-Royce and large Daimler cars could be described as American cars built in Britain. Large lightly loaded engines employing different from tax-ridden design philosophies (and in the US case 1930s-1950s much less fragile bodies). Humbers perhaps too and my mind was running on that when I chose to look up what I saw was your newish article - and I thought your comment on the bodyshape was a little unfair. Anyone, just anyone could see that that Snipe was not an English car but an American car. You know the rest. Its also possible that UK assembly of Chryslers was stopped about 1930 so the Rootes would have known there would be a ready market, maybe even boxes of bits. The Rootes brothers took almost as much interest in the shape of their cars as W Lyons.

Are quite you sure that when you say it was hard to tell certain 1920s-1930s cars apart it is not just a lack of familiarity? I always used to muddle 1938 Singer Bantam deluxes - photos coming and Morris 8s. And another thing you'd make four or five Hillman Minxes out of that first Humber Snipe! Not a family car but a large car, a real car, American size. And furthermore and in any case I just don't believe you did not know that Korean manufacturers bought in lightly used machinery and designs. Bluffer!

Sorry but the Singer Bantam article has no photo of a Bantam but of a sporting variant, you will remedy? Go to this page Singer Bantam de luxe and scroll down. Eddaido (talk) 13:18, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

Gun_politics_in_the_Czech_Republic#Self_defense_with_firearms

Hello Charlie, I have just updated self defense with firearms in the Czech Republic. I followed the law and a school law book when doing it, hence I especially need someone without legal background to check whether it makes any sense. Thank you very much for your help with this! Cimmerian praetor (talk) 19:24, 31 July 2011 (UTC)

It must be strange (in a good way) living in a country where the law is so clear. But how do the poor lawyers earn enough to eat?

Looking at the first two paras, what you wrote is perfectly clear to me. I changed it a bit, if only to show I'd read it, but I'm not sure I've made it any better and of course if you think I damage the meaning please correct.

I'll try and look at the rest of it in due course, but either your source is very clearly written in the original language or your English is improving. Or, most likely, both. It's pretty easy to follow as it is. I'm still enjoying the image of the guy being attacked by a raging dog wondering, as he pulls the trigger, whether he should invoke "Utmost Necessity" or "Necessary self defense". Of course, if he is a policeman it could be even harder for the poor guy... Regards Charles01 (talk) 10:50, 4 August 2011 (UTC)

Well it is a bit less clear in reality, especially as regards manifestly disproportionate. Especially if you are attacked by a single attacker who does not have obvious physical advantage, nor any weapon. But generally, if you shoot him in the leg, you should be fine. If you shoot him in the face, that may already cross the border.

It is more clear with the dog. Either his owner is not there / can't successfully stop him, and then it is utmost necessity, or he is there and he directly sends the dog against you, and then it is self defense (in that case the dog is classified as a weapon). FYI policeman is usually required to give a warning shot, I think that it is not something that a civilian has to do (I am not aware of such a legal provision). Of course it is helpful, if you can demonstrate, that a warning shot didn't stop an attacker, then the prosecutor will probably have more understanding for a bullet in the leg.

I was recently in Brussels and in Paris, on both counts my colleagues got robbed (almost robbed in Paris). The Czech Republic seems to be quite safe place compared to these. Funny that we get to defend ourselves with guns, if we want to, but in these "dangerous" places they have to rely on police. Cimmerian praetor (talk) 13:18, 4 August 2011 (UTC)

Seeing what is happening in UK now led me to think again about what you've written regarding the clarity of the law concrning self-defense. I hope you are all OK, mate. Cimmerian praetor (talk) 19:07, 9 August 2011 (UTC)

Thank you. I remember a few years ago there were floods in a part of England and it was a quiet news day in Italy so a friend from Italy got in touch to find out if I was still alive. I was and till now I am! Most people do not see those riots except on television. But maybe I'll avoid the big cities till it calms down, and we'll keep the kids from going to London. The Brits have always had a wild streak and the challenge for governments is to harness the wild bits. In the old days we had an empire for that sort of thing. These days the government still likes to put the wilder kids in the army and send them abroad to trouble someone else. I'm not sure about the morality of that, but I guess people feel good being able to celebrate the wilder kids as heroes rather than condemn them as criminals, and at least the present government try and make sure they operate according to international law, such as it is. As for all the surrounding legal issues, the Blair-Brown government (replaced in 2009) would have instantly passed an infinitely complex and appallingly unclear new "crime and disorder" law and the courts would have spent the next few years trying to work out what it meant while the politicians would claim credit for having done something. (The official question for the courts in respect of a new law concerns "what parliament intended" but the last government didn't let parliament get it's hands on their new laws too much, and if parliament hadn't been given a chance to read the thing it becomes a little hard to get into the realms of what they would have intended if they had.) This lot are not so trigger happy with new incomprehensible laws which no one understands. And there are perfectly good existing laws against theft and assault, so there's really no need for new ones. At the moment discussion seems to be concentrating on police tactics. No doubt in due course we'll be told that government has been persuaded that we need to pay for more police (till recently at a record level, but currently being reduced in number on account of the country having run out of money thanks to the aforementioned foreign wars).

Strange that you found Brussels dangerous. I never felt threatened there, but maybe this is because I don’t often go out late at night. There are plenty of parts of London which I would avoid after dark, and there I speak the mother language a whole lot better than I can manage Flemish with a Brussels dialect. I cannot resist adding that the only place my father ever had a gun pointed at him (at least outside of war when he had to joined the British army) was Czechoslovakia. He was on a train going to some sort of trade fair in Prague somewhere round 1961, and somewhere after leaving Germany he got out of the train at a station just to exercise his legs, walking up and down the platform. A man in a uniform pointed a gun at him and indicated that he should get back on the train. So of course he did. He still came back a week later with some wonderful pictures of Prague. I wish I knew where they went.

Ho hum Charles01 (talk) 19:39, 9 August 2011 (UTC)

Parish

I noticed you just edited that page while I was working on it. I moved most of the CofE stuff to its own page as the article was too heavily weighted with details about one country. Can you run over what I have left behind and make sure it still makes sense? You could check out Parish (Church of England) as well while I' m tracking down pictures. Amandajm (talk) 10:38, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

Noted. I hadn't spotted that you were in the middle of working on it. Sorry. I'll try and remember to come back to it later. Success Charles01 (talk) 10:57, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

Cabriolet, convertible, tourer

Hi Charles01, Hope your weekend runs smoothly. I append from British Motor Manufacturers, Historic Prices 1 September 1939 a big day for Europe.

Daimler Fifteen saloon £485

Daimler Fifteen sports saloon £485

Daimler Fifteen rally saloon £575

Daimler Fifteen cabriolet £605

Daimler Fifteen convertible £540

Daimler 2½-Litre tourer £700

Daimler 2½-Litre sports saloon £785

Daimler 2½-Litre convertible £745

Daimler 19.3 saloon £595

Daimler 19.3 sports saloon £595

Daimler 19.3 4-door cabriolet £835

which shows the three different descriptions. I thought I understood the distinctions and this shows me I do not - unless a Convertible has four doors? Or a Tourer has four doors but no weather protection or a Cabriolet has, or . . . what? in puzzlement Eddaido (talk) 14:18, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

Interesting. Thank you. I need to digest it. Given the bitter and twisted individual that (sometimes) I am, you will, I hope, forgive me if I point out that just because something is beautifully set out by someone with an official sounding name, that doesn't necessarily mean it's any more logical or accurate on that account. When I was young, I think people in England used to believe what they read in the newspapers because it was easier to discern than what was handwritten. I think most of us have now seen enough of the way the press - at least in Britain - operates to have been cured of that. But the more general point that there is no automatic correlation between something looking good and something being true remains, I contend, valid. Weekend otherwise smooth till now: I seem to have got the bread right (time in oven, amount of yeast etc...) Best wishes for yours. Charles01 (talk) 14:55, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for those wise words of comfort, we are all so often no more than seekers of the right pigeonhole, am also minded of the ancient prophecy, able baker charlie. Turning out nice again here. Eddaido (talk) 22:52, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

P.S. Forgot to say I access The Times and other old newspapers through the website of the local public library, I think most of the libraries near you provide the same service. Eddaido (talk) 14:22, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

Questionnaire

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colonial Americans

Hi Charles, have amended description for this file to model year 1950. I plead a special case. Did my driver's licence test in an identical car but it was just one pale greenish-tinged ivory colour. That car replaced in due course by a De Soto in a (very) slightly less lurid icy green with white roof as this. Can tell you this model known here as just a De Soto Diplomat and because the car in your image also has just two headlights and the colour scheme it most probably will be from an export CKD pack - prob in that case sent to Antwerp (LHD). It may have been labelled a Firesweep there. If you compare with the other images of the same year this (the Diplomat) is a stripped down (one headlight export to poor countries) version. Not that any of this matters. Have a fun weekend, Eddaido (talk) 01:53, 17 September 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for correcting the Chevrolet's year. I think I must have got "1952" from the database of the UK car tax office,but he is certainly not infallible. For a rare car such as this one he would often - maybe always - simply write down what he was told. I did, in fact, plough through various wiki-commons image pages (ie Category:Chevrolet 1952, Category Chevrolet 1951) without coming to firm conclusions on the year. But the whole point of wikipedia is that where something is wrong, someone with better knowledge will come along and correct it. Sometimes works. As here. Incident(al)ly if you wish, for yourself, to investigate the information available from the UK tax office (provided one does not diligently blank out the license plate) I learned of it from a Finnish wiki colleague who kindly entered the link at the talk page connected to the entry on the Jaguar Mark VIII.

I had no idea they had drivers' license tests in north America 1950. Or maybe it was a very old car. Actually here in Europe, they didn't introduce test for drivers' licenses in Belgium till 1965. And certainly my father, who grew up in England and must, I think, have done his first driving in the 1930s, never took any kind of test.

The De Soto - to my chagrin - is something I had barely heard of till I saw that one. But the owner had helpfully put a label with its name on in one of the windows. Also (tho it's a bit blurry on the images) he reproduced the name on the license plate. Apart from a ten minute scan of wikipedia when I was uploading the picture, that's roughly all I know about the De Soto. I never used to take much trouble to photograph American cars at old-timer fairs here in England, partly because half the time they've been improved out of recognition and I don't have the knowledge to judge with too much certainty what is (relatively) authentic and what isn't. And partly because my starting assumption is that there are far more wiki contributors in the USA than in the UK and they, presumably, have far more chances to photograph FDR/Truman/Eisenhower era oldtimers than I do. But then I'm beginning to think that some of the history sections, even for major GM or Chrysler brands, on several US auto brands are extraordinarily thin once you get back before say the 1970s. And there aren't in every case so many good pix of all the different permutations of cars from that period. I guess we had a lot of squaddies in the UK throughout the 1950s and 1960s from the US, and if they had bought over or acquired an old car, it often wouldn't be worth the cost to ship it back to the US when they returned. And of course a few of them quietly stayed behind (as a generation and a half earlier had my own grandparents) and put down roots here in England. Anyhow, these days, if I see an apparently authentic looking (as far as I can tell) US old timer from the 1940s or 1950s I no longer automatically leave my camera in my pocket.

So much thinking so soon after breakfast....You have a good weekend too. Regards Charles01 (talk) 08:00, 17 September 2011 (UTC)

New Page Patrol survey

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Essex Faults

Charles01 - you posed a question on my talkpage re geological faults in Essex. I could answer glibly that Essex has no faults! But that wouldn't be true in any sense :-) everwyhere has its faults! The reason that none are (yet) listed is that none of the publications or maps which I have consulted has made any mention of any faults. Now some of those publications cover the whole of England/GB/UK and some are specific to certain areas and it's true that I have no detailed geological maps of Essex nor indeed for the most part of East Anglia and the East Midlands in my possession. Even if I did have those maps I suspect that they would show very few faults - and of those, even fewer would be named - and the lists only contain those that have been given names in any case . It's partly because that part of the country is one of the most stable, geologically and has some of Britain's youngest rocks - so not much has happened to fracture the rocks because they're not under pressure/tension so much as some other areas and, at least in those rocks which are at or near the surface, there has been little time (relatively speaking) to allow that to happen. Add to that the fact that there is a thickish cover of 'superficial deposits' over the bedrock and you've a recipe for an area which would appear to be pretty much fault-free. Does that make sense? cheers Geopersona (talk) 06:51, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Thank you. And yes, that makes sense. The correlation between the age of the rocks and the number of faults they've accumulated is not something I'd have thought of, though like many of the best explanations, once you've set it out for me, I feel as though I always knew it. And I'm sure there is a whole study to be written - may be written already - about the way that things without names - in this case presumed faults under a lot of clay - have some kind of a self perpetuating non-propensity to be investigated. I guess one answer to some of this could be to tell them about the hitherhto unexploited Essex oil fields. But before all that I need to get the kids to school. Thanks again for the clear and prompt answer. Regards Charles01 (talk) 07:23, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Spoils

Hi Charles01, thanks for your links. The pile of dirt(?) concerned is near the top of the little range of hills but I suppose they could have used traction engines. If you put this into Google Maps west monmouthshire golf club, Nantyglo, Wales, United Kingdom it should take you to the edge of the golf club carpark, go north-east over the roadway and you are on the (once perfectly conical) heap concerned. Look about and you will see how the sheep tracks are like contour lines for a mini Vesuvius. You will also see that someone has recently opened the top. Do you have a desktop app that can remote-analyse the soil content? Whatever the truth, you will know more of the subject than I. Best regards, Eddaido (talk) 10:15, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Hi again. Thought you might like to know of this pair of sites which I have enjoyed for years. Regards, Eddaido (talk) 11:07, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Nice link. Thank you. For a mad few seconds I had this idea you were sending me links to websites for spoil tip enthusiasts, but no. Which is good. As for Wales, I've not been there much, but for family reasons I go there a bit more now than I used to. Wales still seems pretty hard to get around, even by the standards of the UK's third world road (and rail) infrastructure, unless your destination is somewhere on or near the Bristol-Swansea axis. (And even then you have to pay through the nose a supplementary tax if you want to cross into the place using the bridge.) I'm learning about google maps and the associated pictures little by little. The variability of what you actually get to see is considerable - I got very stuck over Venice, but I guess it's hard to drive around there with a camera on the roof without getting targeted by all sorts of suspicious characters wanting money, unless you have the necessary contacts (and maybe ... um ... access to a discreet boat). Still, rural Wales shouldn't be such a challenge.

Hmmmm Regards Charles01 (talk) 14:34, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

You make me want to get to Streetview Venice and I will, in a minute. For a long time the street frontage where I live was just an orange blur caused by early morning sunrise straight into the camera - luck didn't hold though. Here's the other of the pair of sites, each has a daily article to accompany the two classes of old-car ads. Wonder if the dig in the top of the heap is because someone has, with their machinery, traced Dafydd Gam's lost torque (car pun alert). Putting that address into Google Maps still takes me directly to the heap's location and I can't understand why it might contain the things you suggest in the links when it is up high like that - see the linked (not quite accurate) reconstruction picture on the article. The creators probably didn't realise they were making greens and bunkers. First day of summer today - cool windless and overcast i.e. damp sea-fog just above ground level. Ah, well, tomorrow is another day. Eddaido (talk) 21:20, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

New to me

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennial_generation Kittybrewster ☎ 11:21, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

New to me too. It's clear if one looks at the age profiles of populations through the twentieth century just what a drop in birth-rate levels came from those big wars, with partially corresponding compensations afterwards, for the Brits and French especially the 14-18 war and for most of central Europe and eastern Europe both of them. And there certainly seems to be some sort of correlation between economically based "feel-good" and increased birth rates. But it's a complicated business, and with demographics as with economics it's a great mistake to view the relatively linear future extrapolations from so called experts into reliable forecasts. It's like the weather, and the experts themselves know it. It's just the folks who pass it on to the rest of us who wrap it up with all the certainty of old testament prophesy. I'll read it again more lowly after lunch. Fresh baked hot dog rolls in the oven as I type, and sausages well heated thru. Charles01 (talk) 13:06, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

Global Automakers

Hi, Charles. I've just made some changes to the Global Automakers draft and posted a new reply at WikiProject Automobiles. Care to take a look? Thanks, WWB Too (talk) 19:05, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

Half baked

Hi Charles01. An editor is going through changing 1½-litres to this: 1 ¹⁄₂-Litres.

I think this is very ugly because a. there is the great gap between 1 and the fraction which gives an instant of puzzlement and b. the fraction itself is too big causing horizontal blank spaces between lines.

But the proselytizer believes the change is a help to people with reading difficulties.

Do you think 1. I should go waste my time in better ways or 2. should I work for a better solution or reversion to the previous arrangement? Yes/No please. Ta Eddaido (talk) 23:27, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

Praga?

:I agree with you. I do not think, in the great order of things, that it is the most important issue in the world. And it is possible that if my screen were differently configured it MIGHT look less silly than "1 ¹⁄₂-Litres". Don't know.

This is part of a bigger issue. The wiki-community is disproportionately dominated by computer people. They spend their working lives as "IT Managers" (or whatever the current euphemism is) trying to make the companies for which they work think and operate more like computers and adjust their thinking processes accordingly. I spent much of my working life trying to make IT Managers think and operate more like members of the human race. Looking back at the progress made - above all Micro-Soft's mega-clunky adoption of Apple Mac windows operating interface - I think the human race army is in some ways winning. Or at least is not losing. But the battle will never be over and the IT Managers will not give up. Have you noticed how whenever you use a dash in the text someone diligently comes along and replaces it with something bizarrely odd involving (from memory so could be wrong) the letters "NSP"?

Praga

I think your "Fraction IT Manager" is using some kind of a "template", and these tend to be designed by (otherwise sane and decent. usually) members of the human race whose first language is computer rather than English. It is possible that it would be possible for the "Fraction IT Manager" to design a "template" that does not install that silly gap and that furthermore manages to make the ½ turn up in font the same size as the rest of the text. But English is not his first language so he does not see the point.

Maybe the first thing would be to ask a template guru about designing a template to do the job properly. (No, I am not a template guru.) That way your "Fraction IT Manager" and those of us who start with some version English as a language can both all be satisfied.

For me, there are better ways to use my time and possibly also yours. However, were you to launch a discussion on the project automobile talk page, it might lead somewhere useful. If you do so, you should on no account adopt my carping tone as herein. That's not the wiki way. Also it seems to annoy people including potential allies. Avoid sentences with more than one clause - or two at a maximum. And avoid big words. In short, if you want to win even a small battle, you have to do it in terms that lots of people will follow, understand, and instinctively sympathize with. I am not good at any of this, so why I'm preaching it to you I have no idea.

Anyhow, my eldest son is back from uni for the weekend so now I have to take him to the station. Happy Saturday and regards Charles01 (talk) 09:11, 21 January 2012 (UTC).

Thank you for all that, steadied me up a bit but may have only delayed my reaction, will see. Took mine to the airport on Wednesday after 6 weeks here but its 20 years since it was for that same destination. Please would you tell me what kind of car this is so I can put it into a category but in any case have a good Sunday. Regards, Eddaido (talk) 04:38, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

I have barely heard of Praga. My car enthusiasm is more all embracing than my car knowledge which tends to become progressively thinner the further back before about 1950 you go. But yes, the car in the picture you have found must be a Praga. Confidence >99%, once I've enlarged the image a little. It's identically fronted to other Pragas depicted in Wikipedia (eg Praga Alfa which was apparently manufactured from the late 1920s right up to 1942) except for the bends at the end of the headlight bar, which hardly add up to a total identity switch.

Happy day and beyond. Charles01 (talk) 08:50, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks again. Praga sorted. Never crossed my mind it would be more than a model name and have a WP article! Eddaido (talk) 11:38, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

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Auto Union 1968

Hi Charles, My knowledge about cars is almost none. I got the date from the Dutch registration. I leave it up to you to change whatever you think fit. Regards, Alf — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.122.139.150 (talk) 17:29, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

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Yes. I wasn't sure whether the name Opel Olympia was intended as a celebration of the 1936 (Summer) Olympic Games in Berlin or the 1936 (Winter) Olympics in Garmisch-Partekirchen (a double barrelled small town formed from two hitherto separate but adjacent villages pushed together by government decree as part of the Olympic Games process). Or both. Whoever applied the disambiguation evidently knows the answer which is good. Or he/she guessed which isn't! Anyhow, I do not think this is desperately important. Regards Charles01 (talk) 21:52, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

Olympian cousins

from 1937

to late 1951

Hi #1, I find there are no articles about Vauxhalls 12 and 14 which seems a pity. I'd also like to take this chance of pointing out that the new monocoque-style hull introduced with the Ten of 1937 survived with re-bent grille and mudguards and bigger boot to 1951 as the Velox and Wyvern. Here to compare and contrast:

I'll admit it might in fact be a 14 size version on the V & W - back doors - but they had 6-light bodies. I didn't ever run a rule over them though. Tapes were for dressmaking.

Note the quality of the lower image.

Best, Eddaido (talk) 02:21, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

I agree with you. Wiki-entries for those 1940s Vauxhalls have been informally on my "to do" list for years. One of these days I guess I'll pick up an old copy of Motor or something that will give me enough to make a start. Unless someone else gets in first. I started on the Opels from the 50s because little by little over the past couple of decades, the equivalent German language entries have turned into nice informative coherent articles. I also have the odd German language source here at home that I can dig out. I suspect that my ability to write English AND to understand (more or less) German language sources is a relatively unusual combination among those able and willing to contribute usefully to articles on cars in english-wiki, though. Which is one reason (for me) to do the Opels before the Vauxhalls.

I don't really know enough about the Vauxhall 12/14 to compare and contrast them with the postwar all-new Wyvern. Contemporary reports from the early 50s stressed the newness of the Wyvern but then you would, wouldn't you? I agree the family look from the 30s is unmistakable, and I suppose when they took the Churchill tanks out of the Luton plant and went back to cars, they probably found a lot of the tooling etc had made it safely through the war. More to the point, a lot of the people in their late 30s/early to mid 40s coming back to the Luton plant from the army would have been the same people who were closely involved with prewar production. And in the late 1930s they certainly stressed the extent to which the new monocoque Vauxhalls, in respect of which they had tooled up to produce massive volumes, were the way for the future.

It MIGHT be possible to set up a decent entry on the Vauxhall 12 using stuff on the web. Maybe someone has uploaded images of some old brochures or magazine articles? My problem with web based sources is that you never know which bits are to be believed: an irony, I appreciate, for someone who contributes to Wikipedia. However, just because something is wiki-source referenced to the limit, that doesn't always stop it from being ... um .... questionable. When you click on web based source notes they very often take you to broken links. Still, it's hard (and surely not usually remotely worth the hassle) to fudge a web-image of a simple image of something printed fifty years ago.

Good times Charles01 (talk) 08:57, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Celica image

Charles01: You have posted a picture of my Toyota Celica Liftback on Wikipedia website. I have no objection to picture of car being used as taken in a public place, but please remove/blur the registration number from picture to preserve my privacy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.204.109.187 (talk) 13:06, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Dear Sir or (though it seems less likely - or is that a sexist assumption creeping in?) Madam

Thanks for your note. Thanks for exhibiting your car. And I hope you weren't too disconcerted to find a picture of it on wikipedia. I think it's quite a good picture, especially given that I think it was taken between rain showers, but then I guess I'm biased.

Please take a look to see if you like what I've done. You may need to refresh your screen ("F5") to see the way the page in question is shown on wikipedia now (rather than the way your computer may have stored it on a previous visit). I am about 95% confident of having correctly identified the picture that concerns you, but if I'm wrong about that, please provide more info for me to identify the picture in question. Probably it will be one of the two pictures that I've just copied to the right of this message. And thank you.

Success Charles01 (talk) 13:40, 29 February 2012 (UTC)