St Landrew

Did you get to see the TV programme over there? I found it very good, and quite a little bit of a philosophy on modern life and the ability to escape from the big corporate. It showed that small town America maybe dying with the elder generation, but it's putting up a fight before it's swamped by McDonalds and the brainwashed.

Yoo're getting a few things off your chest lately, Alf. As it happens, I find Russell Brand fairly amusing. I'll never injure myself laughing at the bloke, but Brand manages to touch on a few topical points with an unexpected humourous twist. There are far worse so-called comedians around, but many better also. I tend to find myself grinning every time Andy Parsons steps up to the mic.

The yoke of Colonialism..? The bloke's dreanged.

Indeed.

Blimey, what conditions. I'm not sure the F1 cars would have stayed out in them, at the end, as a little bit of a Rossi masterclass was seen. Just as the race was about to go begin, Charlie Cox muttered something about Rossi being a fast starter, which confused me, because sure enough, as usual, he was swallowed by several riders at the end of the first straight. Stoner and Dovizioso tore off into the distance while Rossi was studying the amount of grip he was getting everywhere. Nicky Hayden showed he is still a much better rider than Honda give him credit for and chased the leading pair down, with Rossi in loose tow. Hayden went into the lead followed by Rossi, and there were a few laps of Valentino showing why he always seems to have an edge over everybody as he inevitably reeled Hayden in, and then passed him. The conditions had been drying, but now the hurricane, that had earlier nearly cancelled the race, had changed direction, bringing huge winds back to the circuit. The rain once again came pouring down and the race was red flagged with 7 laps to go. There was some talk about there being a 6-8 lap sprint if the conditions improved, but that seemed to be shouted down by the riders, and the poor spectators looked as though they'd been battered enough. Although when interviewed by Suzi, James Toseland said he would go out again. He'd had nothing to lose as he came in 18th after a very poor rear tyre choice. Rossi's 8th World Championship looks almost inevitable, but he still has to remain on the bike. Oh, and he now has passed Giacomo Agostini's record of 68 premier class wins, apparently to Agostini's annoyance..! Although he still has the most outright wins with 122. Indianapolis MotoGP result: 1 V Rossi (Ita) Yamaha 37mins 20.095secs 2 N Hayden (US) Honda 37:26.067 3 J Lorenzo (Spn) Yamaha 37:27.953 4 C Stoner (Aus) Ducati 37:48.257 5 A Dovizioso (Ita) Honda 37:48.919 6 B Spies (US) Suzuki 37:49.740 7 S Guintoli (Fra) Ducati 37:56.318 8 D Pedrosa (Spn) Honda 37:57.353 9 C Vermeulen (Aus) Suzuki 37:58.537 10 A de Angelis (SM) Honda 38:02.532 11 A West (Aus) Kawasaki 38:07.274 12 T Elias (Spn) Ducati 38:16.057 13 R de Puniet (Fr) Honda 38:17.461 14 J Hopkins (US) Kawasaki 38:18.448 15 C Edwards (US) Yamaha 38:20.708 World championship standings: 1 V Rossi (Ita) Yamaha 287 points 2 C Stoner (Aus) Ducati 200 3 D Pedrosa (Spn) Honda 193 4 J Lorenzo (Spn) Yamaha 156 5 A Dovizioso (Ita) Honda 129 6 C Vermeulen (Aus) Suzuki 117 7 C Edwards (US) Yamaha 109 8 N Hayden (US) Honda 104 9 S Nakano (Jpn) Honda 87 10 T Elias (Spn) Ducati 86

Against Man City 3-1 at Eastlands. It was during Sturrock's tenure. I always remember the Saints goals from this game. First one was a Beatts bullet header from a great cross from the far left by Marian. The second was a Delap long throw to the near post, a flick-on header from Beatts to the far post, and SKP headed in. The third goal came from a Telfer booted clearance, after Citeh were pressing for an equaliser. SKP sprinted half the length of the field with the ball, with Man City defenders in pursuit. On the right edge of the penalty area he shot across David James into the far corner. A great goal which capped a great Saints performance. So... yes.

Well you wouldn't want the BBC iPlayer to be honest. It's a non-caching player [like Windows Media Player, and unlike RealPlayer] so if you're experiencing slow internet/bandwidth conditions, and go away to leave the thing to build up the data, it won't do it. It buffers like all players, but doesn't do the RealPlayer 10 [and later versions] thing of building up the entire file. I wish it would, because while you may not want to download the programme, you might give a player 10-15 minutes start to get some data in. I never though I'd ending up praising Realplayer..!

I know the race has been run, but I've decided not to watch it yet. I thought I'd go to bed early with some nibbles and a glass of red and watch the show from there. I read that just down the road was a hurricane, and that the race had to be shortened as a consequence, under teeming rain. Bit of bugger really. That's several headline races in one week where the weather has been a factor. For those wanting to watch, it's being shown as live: 10:25pm BBC2 [after MOTD].

There's nothing wrong with RE being in the curriculum as far as I'm concened. I would suggest that it would be an option that school kids and students could choose. If it were to be used solely as a tool for suggesting an alternative to scientific evidence into Earth and Universe evolution, then I would say only the gullible need apply. But as a philosophy on how to live one's life, then it certainly has a place. It has long been suggested by some that only a God could create a universe so diverse as the real thing we observe. I would suggest that those people consider how evolutionary forces and enough time quite easily manage to do the same thing that creationists would have us believe otherwise. And the evidence stacks up on the evolutionary side. The problem is, religions work on a human scale. Evolution doesn't. We're just an almost insignificant part of an ever evolving process.

Not really true is it though. He was actually out braking Raikonnen, and had got slightly ahead. that doesn't make the corner Hamilton's, but if he hadn't have been muscled to the outside, with nowhere to go other than cut the corner, he might well have gone into the sharp left in the lead, and legitimately so. When he handed back the lead to Raikonnen, Hamilton had actually retreated a car's length. Some advantage..! The truth is, he was the better driver, driving his car faster in the conditions than his rival. As soon as the rain fell, Hamilton's superb car control allowed him to gain yards over the Ferrari. The fact that Raikonnen overtook him under yellow flags very soon afterwards [completely missed, it appears], and then binned the thing within a few hundred yards just illustrates that Raikonnen was rattled and that Hamilton was going to get him eventually. Personally, I would have loved it if Kimi had kept his car on the road to the finish. Then the FIA race stewards would have shown their colours even more forcibly, no doubt. Frankly, it still boggles me why the successive corner must be missed out, after a place has been handed back, to have a driver remain within the rules. Let the drivers race FPS. It's not as if they were banging wheels..!

I think Button is an extremely good driver who has not had it all go his own way. The Honda is a poor car, it appears, and over the last couple of years, I think Buton has become a bit jaded, having to drive something that is never quite competitive. When you see other people have the fortune fall their way, yet despite your more than equal efforts, they succeed and you don't, it can be very dispiriting. I think Button falls into that category. He gets no fans for failing either, even though the playing field is certainly not level. I think he needs to bide his time, work with Ross Brawn, lose the facial hair, and re-focus his eforts to be the best driver he can. Sebastian Vettel's excellent drive at Monza should show him things are possible.

Yeah, but The Byrds version is fine. So is it the song, or the singer..? Byrds - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VVnU_WaTvdc Dylan - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia06DeCxhTM

I'm not going to try asking people not to abuse other members or contributors, or try to keep to the subject matter. I'm just closing the thread.

Strangely, for an ex-model, I don't think Suzi Perry photographs that well. But when she does her walk and talk on the MotoGP grid, she's very cute.

The thing is, a team can be lucky with a number of reasons, and get off to a good start to the season. I'm sure everyone remembers Portsmouth's start, the first season they were in the Premiership, and they went to the top. But they were very quickly found wanting. Saints never seem to get a good start [i'm talking Premiership years and upto now] because the playing squads have never been good enough. I believe Saints managers, even the poorer ones, to be amongst the hardest working, because they've had to raise the game of some pretty ordinary players, over the years. We might have our favourites and heroes but, with obvious exceptions, they've been at or below, average. Hence a continual struggle in the lower regions of divisions, a tendancy towards inconsistency, because average players can't play 110% every week, and a small club mentality. Yes, you might get a manager like WGS to weld together a set of players under his tenure, but they were the best squad Saints had had in years, and how many of them were exceptional..? Their real strength was that they were probably the fittest players in the League. And Alan Ball did extraordinarily well with little money, and one single [two for a short while - Le Tiss & Ekelund] player who could make a difference, while his journeymen ran their socks off. There's an answer to all this. You get a better manager [Poortvliet may well be one], better players [the present crop might become good enough if they stay], more money and ambition than the rest of the clubs around you, and consistently play better football than anyone else; and you have to have all this in place at the same time - then you just might start a season successfully, and go on to actually achieve something. To do less and get anywhere is to fluke it or massively overachieve and get found out.

There's no offence. I don't know which forum you originally placed this thread into, but it's in the right one now. The problem misplacing a thread such as this is that you're unlikely to get the answers you hoped for or expected. And there's no doubt it'll very quickly be hijacked. So it pays to get it right. My contribution is Chips From The Chocolate Fireball by The Dukes Of Stratosphear. It's a combination album of the EP - 25 O'Clock and the album - Psonic Psunspot, and it's once again in my car. I know I bang on about these guys [it's XTC in their 60's pop/psychedelic phase] but their music is superb at best and way over average at the absolute worst. The CFTCF songs are practically better than the original songs they tribute. It takes about 2 or 3 plays before you start to get into it [which actually is the same for all XTC songs, which is why people often don't get them until it's too late for a sale], and once you do, you're into a huge back catalogue of excellent albums. The worst of which [GO2 IMO] is still great listening when you're in the right mood. It's the story of a band who start off brash and loud, e.g. Are You Receiving Me..? and end up being able to produce beautiful lush tracks like Chalkhills & Children. But do check out the Dukes.

Very well driven Vettel. Can't say it was the brilliant race ITV were saying it was. It was good for not having the usual 3 drivers on the podium. There was little real incident, that I saw, but as usual, I was finding an alternative channel to flick to, during ITV's very many adverts. Hence I missed quite a bit of the race due to the other channel getting my attention for too long. Does anyone remember ITV's proud boast, when they took over the broadcasting of F1, that we'd not miss a single second's action..? Well that myth was put to bed during their first ever race. And nothing has changed. Roll on next season.

First the first time in 99 years, motorbikes race again at Indianapolis. Rossi is on pole. Has he got the measure of Stoner..? Indianapolis MotoGP qualifying result: 1 V Rossi (Ita) Fiat Yamaha 1:40.776 2 C Stoner (Aus) Ducati 1:40.860 3 J Lorenzo (Spn) Fiat Yamaha 1:41.177 4 N Hayden (US) Repsol Honda 1:41.271 5 B Spies (US) Rizla Suzuki 1:41.464 6 R de Puniet (Fra) LCR Honda 1:41.492 7 A Dovizioso (Ita) JiR Team Scot 1:41.744 8 D Pedrosa (Spn) Repsol Honda 1:41.754 9 T Elias (Spn) Alice Ducati 1:41.886 10 J Toseland (GB) Tech 3 Yamaha 1:41.897

She'll be everybody's at err... err... Oh, use the link to work it out: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/motorbikes/7609039.stm

I see no problem with it, as long as people notice they're about to bump into people coming the other way. A head down attitude doesn't give anyone the right to go barging through unannounced. Just a few months back I was driving on the main road through the University campus. I'd just got near the Nuffield Theatre when this student just walked out into the road, head down and texting away. I had to brake fairly hard and instantly decided I would get the car quite close when it eventually stopped. This made her pop her head up. I wound down the window and said, am I in charge of your life or you..?

Yeah, I know where Rev Saint is coming from, and I share the sentiment. But I don't overtly object to the crown on the badge as reflecting the tradition. I think this might be a good idea for a one off season change. Loose those hooped socks in the changed strip, mind..!

Hey you Whitehouse, ha ha, charade you are.. Hmm yeah. But I never thought the sentiment was genuine. I felt they wrote lyrics people wanted to hear, and therefore sell records. It didn't seem to come from the heart. Besides, Roger Waters was/is slightly f***** up himself. As it happens, I do have the album, bought way back when it was first issued. I might pop it on and see how long I can stand it. Now talk about The Grand Vizier's Garden Party, and I'm all ears.

You're making me nostalgic for my old house in Kent.

Nice one. Wasn't there another F1 championship he went on to win, where his tactics against his immediate rival, during the final race were, shall we say, debatable..? BTW, I'm not alluding to the semi-deliberate shunting of Jacques Villeneuve, which ended with Schumacher coming off worst.

You really could try a little harder, yes..? It's not too much to ask for you to refer to the subject you are on about, as a TV programme, is it..? This is the Lounge, after all. It stops us all twisting in the wind, wondering if we are the idiots, or it's you. But thanks for the post anyway. I may indeed watch the programme.