Frank's cousin

... to change a lightbulb... 1 to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed 14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently 7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs 1 to move it to the Lighting section 2 to argue then move it to the Electricals section 7 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs 5 to flame the spell checkers 3 to correct spelling/grammar flames 6 to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb" ... another 6 to condemn those 6 as stupid 2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is "lamp" 15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry, and that "light bulb" is perfectly correct 19 to post that this forum is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a lightbulb forum 11 to defend the posting to this forum saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant to this forum 36 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique and what brands are faulty 7 to post URL's where one can see examples of different light bulbs 4 to post that the URL's were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URL's 3 to post about links they found from the URL's that are relevant to this group which makes light bulbs relevant to this group 13 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add "Me too" 5 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy 4 to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?" 13 to say "do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs" 1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again.

Seems lioke an addiction to me... Maybe I will write a book about it and call it 'Cranespotting' ...I'll get my coat

As i understood it, He is still a part owner (Via family) but no longer on the board having left to start up his own engineering company... smart and successful man And yes there are a couple of drill like things on the M3... not that I noticed....

Steve the thing is do we knwo if teh Echo were asked NOT to leak this in advance given that the planning process had yet to be approved? There is a danger that leaks such as this can be detrimental to applications and on a matter of principle surely it woudl have been better for the Echo to gain trust by acknowledging the clubs request? (If there was one) I appreciate your concerns about 'banning' media, but the fact remains that if the Echo could not be trusted on an issue such as this, then what would it say about a really big story, signings etc... This is different to independent investigations where they can do as they please, even if its not in teh clubs best interests just to sell papers, but in situatiosn where the club calls a PC for teh announcement and teh local paper decides to preempt it, it woudl show a bit of mutual respect to go along with the clubs request rather than be self serving

These sorts of argfuments all stem from your own personal attitude towards risk v prudence, quick fixes v long term stabilty. And its fair to say that because of a combination of what we wnet through and the near colapse of the club + the current economical climate, I would hazzard a guess that many fans are now far happier with a low risk wise investment for the long term rather quick spend fixes. Several years ago fans bemoaned our risk averse strategy because it meant we were going backwards in overall squad quality in relation to those clubs around us getting in to debt to fund premiership survival. Yet now because we have seen what debt can lead to we are fianlly recognising that the sow burn yet sound investment back growth will put us in far better position long term, than any flash in the pan quick spend as we have seen at pompey

Just about the wisest words on this subject and agree with the smile on face point to!

Thing is, this is what happens in most private sector industries - Companies at this time are laying off staff and reducing wages to try and survive - sure one or two may be using it as a mask to other reduction in working conditions, but the fact remains that during the growth years employees tend to do well because they hold a greater power, during recessions everyone has tobe realistic about what is economically viable. I have no grief with Unions, they perform a valuable task, but the problem is that they never see seem to see the bigger picture, or the consequences of of some of their actions. Whatever the issues to working practices in this case the fact is that last year BA lost close to 400 million and this year its likely to be 800 million, which without drastic measures is unsustainable so something has to give. However we should not forget that greed got us into this mess, greed of those who saw the global economy as a game in which to clean up - feckers

Uhm... The Echo only exists to make money - as do all local rags. They need to sell copies to ensure tehir ABC is high so they can command the best advertising revenues... if you remember that then you will understand that whoever is in the boardroom the Echo will never have a stable relationship with teh club.... because they are NOT in the game of printing what they think the club want or what the is best for the club, just what they think will sell most copies - such as scoops etc. Sometimes this means as now, they do something prematurely and they **** the club off, other times its info that the club are happy to see 'released' as we saw with some of teh spin that previous boards 'leaked' ... so its nothing to get worried about really... more up and downs in this relationship that in a cheap brothel... just remember al journos are whores and we wont get confused... ;-)

Uhm.. There is an alternative theory I suppoose, one in which one of tehse 'lenders' has a longer term aim. They would have gained access to the books presumably before agreeing to lend some cash, but as stated above the aim is to then be in a position to act swiftly to gai control of teh club whilst in admin but possibly whilst still in the PL? Recognising that to buy any prem club, its likely to cost you 100 mil, getting it for a £1 and then investing say 50 in a new smaller scale new stadium (SMS would cost upwards of 60 mil in todays prices) could still be considered a bargin if teh club is thus debt free. I am not sure of te prem rules on admin so cant comment on the likelyhood of teh above given relegation becomming a certainty if they also had to contend with a points deduction.... I do think though that there are times like this where we should show our class. Just ebacsue a few on their side laughed and expressed glee wduring our troubles, why should we do the same. We know what it feels like to have these threats hanging over our club, so in theory we shoudl be more understanding. Remember as well the so called intense rivaly is only a post war thing - possibly even only there since the 60s when football changed along with the cultural changes of the 60s - before then it was common for locals to go to home games at both clubs - whatever we dislike, think or would like to see happen to them we should remember that the football history and culture did not start in the 60s or 70s, but goes back alot longer and is part of the rich cultural history of the region... We need also to remember how lucky we were.

I maybe wrong here but I suspect that Pompey will be bailed out - A lot will depend though on how things go on the pitch. If it looks increasingly likely that they will get relegated, then the offers diminish or dry up as they become a less attractive proposition given the investment required. The question then is will the Premier league step in any way to prevent their global brand being seen for what it is - A system that encourages far too great a risk in chasing impossible dreams (the smaller clubs are simply never going to compete with teh top 6 or so, so the gap keeps widening), or will they hope they get relagted so they wash their hands of them and let the FL deal with the mess? If Pompey look like theycan stay up, then they may get lucky with investment because its still a draw, but the financial risks taken by The board and encouraged by Redknapp seems has left them in a poition for having nothing to show for their debt and thus no real tangible assetts to attract investors during a global recession. I woudl never wish teh kind of crap we went through on any club, but it does stick in teh throat that we were ultimately punished not for trying to 'win trophies' or buy success by risking heavily on players and wages, but by investing in the very things any sound business hsoudl - infrastructure and tangible assets that have a long term impact on the club.. yet we are punished in teh same way as those clubs who by tehir own admission have borrowed beyond their means for fleeting success.

Sorry Nick, but perhaps a little naive ? I think its a case of too many people livlihoodstied up with exploitation of resources rather than Green issues... Also your statement that the professor from Southampton was arrogant in the assumption that no more elements woudl be found is a little disengenous. He was actually correct if you apply it to elements stable enough for us to actually see. Elements are defined by the number of protons in the nucleus and as such if you look at teh periodic table its full. Yes theoretically its possible that more will be discovered/made but these will be so unstable that they only exist for a fractionn of a second... but thats another story. Its true we dont know what levels of resources remain, but they WILL eventually run out. The issues is more a question of when rather than if...

Interestingly though there is that comment that teh Premier league wont let it happen - because its a PR disaster and surely indicative of teh pervers nature in which teh finds are divided. But seems to me teh real guity party must surely be teh manger you signed up all those expensive players and teh Chief exec who approved it - surely they dont still love Harry at FP? and yet Mr Storey is also still there... bizzarre...

Thats true and in the grand evolutionary scheme of things like all species if we we feck up our niche too much and fail to adapt we will die out in our current form, whether naturally or through conflict. The difference is that we have been blessed (or cursed) by evolution to have this brain thing residing in our heads that in most cases can do more than eat drink procreate and sleep - so we have it within our power to use it and try and avoid regional extinction and suffering if we chose to. Its that that does set us apart from the rest of the fauna...

Given that Markus is kinda ...well ..loaded, would it not be better if you want to do something cool, to 'club together' and buy a shed load of tickets for some kids in his name? Do something with the cash that helps spread good will and good PR and explain that its a thank you from fans to Markus and Nicola for what they have given the club?

Think thats a bit harsh - what about the 5000 who go now but did not last season when we were sh!te? that was not 'protest' that was not perceiving it as value for money and not wanting to see us lose. If we get back to te prem, yes we wills ee full houses, because more folk are prepared to pay for te higher quality than the lesser quality we have in the lower divisions - its simple really, but Football fans all like to think they are somehow the best of teh bunch. It takes all sorts and everyone has their own threshold. How many woudl we have going to a ground share in Eastleigh to wtch AFC Southampton had we gone tits up without Marcus? 300? So waht of teh rest of the 15000 so called 'Die Hards'? Its all relative.

:-( went more when we were sh*t because I lived 45 mins away... now live 500 miles away and we are good again... life can be a bar.stard at times...

Whats perhaps being missed here is that although oin the scale of geological time, any impact we are having on our climate is negliable and frankly irrelevent. The Cliamte has changed since the earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago and will continue to do so accelerated or not until the sun gives up and the world ends in several billion years time... BUT since thes ethings have been measure, there is credible data and simple observation that some strange things are happening - whether is this due to us fecking things around or a natural shift is frankly irrelevent. What we shoudl be focused on is understanding the potential IMPACT this may have and where it leaves us over the next 50-100 years. We are likely to see 8-10 billion folk on this planet in the next 50 years all wanting food and water. If we see a climate shift that impacts on the North American Grain belt or those in the Euasian zones, things are going to get mighty interesting politically. This whole situation becomes so frustrating because politicians never see these issues as they are, but use and abuse to suit their agendas and what will win votes - so its especially unhelpful when we see scientific data lose credibilty in this way as there needs to be more research done to look at the current changes, not less and certainly not ignored. Its fashionable to say that religion is the cause of all the current conflicts - but the reality is that the economics plays a big part and if we continue to ignore the imbalance and it get worse... well it dont look too rosey from where I am standing... trouble is this sort of stuff often gets cast as some sort of left wing propoganda, especially in the states, yet its just common sense really...

Oops - that will be the bastard spellchecker? ;-)

You cannot sue for criticism, only for falsehoods that lead to deformation of character...

Which is how it should be! ;-)

What is it with Cedar cladding in modern architecture - its everywhere... does look nice though. ;-)

This is going to sound controvercial.... but had this been done under any of the previous regimes, would fans not have come out in force giving them a slagging that we should be spending it on the first team....?

Arh ...dont worry about it. This was always going to raise its ugly head the moment NC and ML did things that had been done before to 'save money' - We have to remember that ML and NC want teh cluib to be self financing - yes they may drop a few quid in for playesr but daya to day operations need to well managed and realistic - and thta means reducing costs if only 16k are likley to show up... All I woudl say is this. If fans buy early and there is the demand, it will be easier for them then to add one block at a time as the demand increases - common sense really.

This is its not that its a difficult concept to understand - its quite simple but ultimately flawed, because when we get to 23 games, we wont have a -5 points applied but a -10 as we have had from the START of the season, doing it your way in no way gives and indication of real form or our real position because our current REAL position is 15th and include -10 points. If we carry on in the same level of form as are are at the moment (Points per game average for games 1-10 = 0.9 Very bad, but games 11-20= 2.3 PPG) eg at 2.3 per game for the remaining 26 games we will finish on 81-82 points - the only questions that matter are: 1.) can we maintain a 2.3 points per game average (will eb very tough) 2) will 81 points secure a playoff place - (75 should do it I think)

Sorry this is wrong, if they only apply it at the end (when from where I am sitting its already applied...) tehn teh only true measure of how we are performing is the ACTUAL points we have scored before the -10 is applied - this gives a true reflection of performance as the points deduction is an ARTIFICIAL reducer and is NO indicator of performance.