>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>< chuckle > You kids!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Neither am I, but I am younger. :o) (not by much, but I'll take what I can get :o)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>SNIP
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>for some reason I assumed you where younger
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Why thank you. And I'm not hiding behind an old photo! :-)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Alan (Poisson Distribution) Popow
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>And didn't I just come in real handy when you guys were being buzz bombed during WWII.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>Oh? How so? BTW I wasn't buzz-bombed
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>Poisson Distribution played a large part in trying to predict bombing patterns in London. How about your parents? Cousins? Uncles/Aunts? Friends? Second cousins of your barber's butcher's next-door neighbour?
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>Yes, I recall seeing summat about this a year or so ago. Oh yes my folks' families lived through (what we call) the Blitz (buzz-bombed?). But I wasn't referring to your being the father of Poisson distribution - rather that at your advanced age you skew the average from a Normal :-)
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>Mind you, how did being able to predict bomb patterns do anything to save buildings or lives?
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>"Cor blimey, look 'Arry! Jerry's dropped a stick o' bombs just o'er our 'eads, mite!"
>>>>>>>>>>"Down't worry Arfur, ducks. Wot wiv Poisson distribimution an' all, I reckons we'll be quite sife, mi ole china!"
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>buzz bomb was the german V1 called that because the engine made a buzzing sound.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Yes. They weren't missiles like later versions. They were actually flying bombs with engines.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I think they where better than the later V2 because they where relatively cheap and easy to make. Also (I read somewhere) bacause the V2 fell vertically at great speed the bomb blast was relatively contained in the crater so a small area was devastated where the V1 fell slowly and the bomb pretty much exploded at ground level spreading the blast further. As often happens the V2 was the sexy high tech weapon which they went for but it wasn't cost effective. The Germans repeated the same mistake with their tanks producing the better tank but very expensive and hard to maintain when what the tank commanders would have liked was lots of cheap tanks like the Russian T34.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>In favour of the V2s though is that you couldn't hear them coming, or at least you couldn't hear them until after they arrived. ;)
>>>>>
>>>>>My partner's mother, who comes from Kent, used to reminisce about the doodlebugs, how everyone was happy so long as they could hear them. It was when the engine cut out - deadly silence - that you started to sweat.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Also they couldn't be shot down due to the height at which they travelled. They also had better accuracy and distance than the V1s.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>But you're right. They buried themselves before they exploded, lessening their destructive power, and they were extremely expensive. After the allied airforces made them re-deploy outside their effective range, they became pretty much useless.
>>>>>
>>>>>I haven't been able to find the right stats but I swear that somewhere years ago I read of the no. of people killed by V1/V2s (this is regardless of teh building damage) and it ran into the 1000s. Yet the no. of them sent over (1000s) was such that they only managed to kill 1 point summat each. VERY expensive!
>>>>
>>>>See? And you thought the distribution of poissons wasn't helping. I guess the fish padded the blasts. ;)
>>>
>>>No, it was because Cod was watching over us. And teh Germans didn't know Jack about aiming - in fact it was a load of Pollacks - they all landed in teh wrong Plaice.
>>
>>In my Sole I know I'm right. But just for the Halibut, I'll assume that Perch-ance you're not just Herring off in all directions on Porpoise, Whale I'm trying to be whimsical. Salmon else might want to Pike a fight, but not me.
>
>Why? Are you a stickleback for Tunny-shment? You included two mammals in the fishy list. It took you cetaceous to think that up.
>You used Turbot a Dab-hand at these - Plaice on words. Now you're Floundering. Mullet over.

Hey. I wasn't even here. No matter how it seems, I spend more time off line than on. (That's not a fish pun btw).