pap

Failure is probably the best learning experience, especially if you learn to avoid it next time. It's a very young squad. These things are going to happen. It's only a total loss if the people at the club fail to work out where we went wrong and how we fix it.

True Blood occupied some of my time this weekend. I've mentioned this before. Not a huge fan of vampire shows; ms pap watches quite a few of them. However, this is HBO and as I've said before, True Blood is about more than just vampires; it's a super sexy supernatural spectacular. A lot of time and effort has gone into the world-building. This is a series where vamps are out in the open and even have a lobbying group to represent them on political matters. It is a smart, tight show that has been consistently good throughout. The series has a long-established "big bad" that has been referenced several times that has finally been introduced, on top of another potential "big bad" from created in last year's finale. Given all that, this season has gone in a completely different direction to my initial expectations. Turns out humans are the real bad guys this year, unexpected but hardly shark-jumping. Human-vamp tensions are a plate that the show has been spinning from day one. Thoroughly recommended, as always.

Nah, I just asked the question - "96% of what?". I think that's fair. Whenever I announce an improvement in percentage terms I put it in the context of the numbers. If I didn't, I know that's the very next question management would ask.

Boom. inFamous Second Son straight in at number #1 in the UK all-format charts. MGS 4 (PS4) is second, followed by Titanfall for XBone. http://www.chart-track.co.uk/index.jsp?c=p/software/uk/latest/index_test.jsp&ct=110032 Cue Nolan saying that Chart Track pull their figures out of the air.

Was a bit too gutted to post yesterday. Not happy with that result. Always feels bad to squander a two-goal lead.

The dodgiest thing I've seen so far is a mission where you are chasing a conduit who is putting down drug dealers. There's one crime scene in particular where a dude is hanging upside down with big neon lights through him, but there's no blood or gore so far. It's more comic book violence. I wouldn't have had a problem with my kids playing it at 11, whereas I would have a problem with something significantly more adult in tone (GTA, Saints Row, etc).

I'm a little further in. The VFX in the game are awesome, and without spoiling too much, I'm on the next branch of powers now and it seems like they've chosen the various branches based on how cool they look. I'm into the grind of the game now, shutting down areas and suchlike. That's not really the game's fault; more a symptom of my OCD The plot of the game, rebel takes down authoritative society, has been done to death - but I'm enjoying it. Bit heavy handed, but a huge theme of the game is surveillance in society.

Did this happen last night, Goatboy? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enisEolQXnw

It's circumstantial, sure - and invalidated the moment that wreckage is confirmed, but if we temporarily discount crash, then we're left with shot down or landed. For me, either outcome would require some form of official complicity, whether that is misrepresenting satellite imagery, radar findings, etc. For me, either outcome needs to plane to be somewhere people are not looking. If you're going to consider either, you have to ask why. The plane hasn't been shot down to provoke an outrage in furtherance of an agenda; no-one has credibly taken responsibility. It's feasible that the plane could have been shot down because of something or someone it was carrying, but that carries a lot of risk. Debris, the chance of being picked up by foreign countries, etc. Apart from the satellite pings, most of the telemetry was unresponsive to remote query. Two possibilities here, irrespective of any of the three outcomes. The systems went down or they were shut down. The pings went on for another seven hours, indicating that at the very least, some part of the plane's telemetry was extant and transmitting. I'm veering toward landed. There is presently no physical evidence to support a crash or a shooting down. There could have been something valuable on that plane. Even the Israelis are looking at landed as a serious option; they fear the plane being re-purposed as a missile for tall buildings in Tel Aviv. http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/on-the-record/2014/03/19/why-israel-sees-irans-fingerprints-all-over-missing-malaysia-airlines-plane

Eek, etc. What's the afterlife like, mate? Where'd you end up?

I think I've just seen a ghost, Goatboy!

I'm glad to see the time I have spent here has not been in vain

Sorry to hear about it Gemmel; I wasn't right for weeks when our pooch died, and I broke down when we buried the fella.

Boiling it down to outcomes, it comes down to three for me. Crashed, shot down or landed. I list them exhaustively (shot down is there for that reason), and in no particular order. If you had a gut feel on one of those three, which would it be?

Didn't seem that way at the time. I don't think anyone is taking any theory as gospel. The main difference between your contribution and theirs is that no-one else gets as offended or mocking in their tone at you having different ideas in yours. I wouldn't mind, but you know f**k all on the subject save what you've read on the Internet, you're tying it all together with your layman context, and take the hump when people decry your regurgitated arguments. On this you and I agree. Yeah, yeah. The challenge remains open. Why not use your brilliance (as demonstrated on this thread) to go over to David Icke's forum and take some names? I'll tell you why; it's because you've got no courage and no real convictions about anything anyway. Most of your input is "I doubt that" or "I'm not convinced that" or when that doesn't work, plain insults. You're obviously interested in conspiracies; you're here to shout down every one of them. The time for you to graduate couldn't be better, what with the auto-f**king you've done today and all that. See you over there.

They've got names and numbers on their backs for a reason. The ref also has a number of people to help out. Awful call.

You did more than disagree with his theory. You attempted to demean his points through taking the p!ss and implying that he was some kind of attention seeker. I also doubt you would be very happy to proved wrong. Thankfully, the burden of proof for an arsehole talking out of his arse is a lot lower. That's essentially what your little jabs at posters is all about, isn't it? Trying to insinuate that they're performing ass-to-mouth ventriloquism? As for you not being "convinced", you realise that's just like, your opinion, man? How much do you reckon that's worth right now?

It's funny. You were disgusted when I wanted to discuss the Woolwich incident, to the point where you left the thread after Dave commanded you to. It's odd that you now view the incident as no more than chaff to deploy when you are wrong, which is often. If this was a Friends episode, it'd be called "The One Where Aintforever Tried to Bully an International Hero and Got F**king Pwned". Chin up, mate. At least you've found your level. It's hypo.

Sterling work, chumps.

Golden thread, imo.

Does this mean you'll be calling your aintforever attack dog to heel, Verbal?

Can't speak for everybody, but I've enjoyed your contributions and FWIW, you've handled yourself with much more restraint than I have when the wolves have been circling. To this wolves, I ask this. Given the situation - no-one knows sh!t and no physical evidence to support any theory, what is the basis of your aggressive doubt?

The root of this theory is that information might be being withheld, possibly because one or more nations are complicit in its disappearance. Now to your point. If one or more nations were complicit in its disappearance, do you think they would:- a) assist in the search efforts b) shrug their shoulders in the midst of a multi-national effort to find the survivors ? I don't endorse any particular theory, but b) would make any nation withholding information look a bit dodgy. Appearances, dear boy.

That is true, Whitey G. Consider me suitably admonished and skulking under my rock forthwith. Before I depart though, it's probably worth pointing out that anything beginning with "I doubt that" or one of its derivatives is unlikely to impart knowledge thereafter.

Google vs pilots. Fascinating.