pap

Interesting subject matter, but really, the "moon landings" would be my go-to "fun" conspiracy theory.

That's not the way it works at all, ottery st mary. What you're supposed to do is say that because of a couple of things I've said, I'm completely f**king hatstand, in bed with neo-nazis, anti-semitists, aliens and polka-dotted lizard people Ta for the kind words though, mate. I've already devoted two hours of my time to an "ottery defence initiative", to kick in whenever the usual suspects do

I reckon we'll get him. Our interest has been rumbling along in the public eye for a bit. If these clubs were interested, they'd have put a bid in by now. If the reports of a fee being accepted are accurate, and Wanyama only being personal terms + medical from joining, it's really now or never for other interested parties. We'll see if Liverpool or Everton's interest becomes concrete today, I reckon.

Interesting question. I had to think about how I really apply respect around here before answering. For me, it governs my interactions with other posters. If someone acts like a nob 90% of the time, then they will likely get a nobby or sarcastic response. On the flipside, if someone is a decent poster 90% of the time, it's easier to let nobby comments slide. Ultimately, respect is about acceptance; letting others hold a view that doesn't correlate with your own and being okay with that. The amount of posts which indicate that someone is x because they said y seems to indicate it's in short supply

I like Hamilton's input. They not only pledge allegiance to the state, but even a specific form of government. "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands."

You've obviously never done business with southerners

Can't disagree with that. A good 20% of my workload with big corp is jumping through procedural hoops. Too many directorial positions are just ready made hooks to hang blame on. The net result isn't really that productive. What generally happens is that they get canned, someone else comes in, new revolution, crapload of money spent reversing prior policy or spending cash on lessons learned. If you're a Briton who knows how to put a shift in, you'll do very well in the US.

That's why I think post rating is a good alternative. Even poster reputation is better than the current system. We've established that people who don't post are the majority of the users. The current system gives them no means of interaction unless they post, and many of them don't want to post because they've seen what happens to those that do. How many other organisations do you know that don't solicit the views of the lion's share of their customers?

Not my experience; the office was near-deserted at 6pm each evening, just as it was before 9am in the morning. You've got to understand that "work to live" has far more meaning over there. A huge number of Americans plod along in unproductive jobs, utterly unhappy, just to keep providing healthcare to their families. The culture of seniority in skilled labour jobs, coupled with last-in first-out union regulations, mean that younger people have real trouble securing employment in skilled labour jobs because old geezers are taking up space, largely on account of the dental. The holiday thing varies massively from firm to firm, and even within firms, down to an individual contract level. If a firm wants an individual and individual wants four weeks holiday, that can be arranged. A lot of firms also have holiday accrual schemes, just like they do in the UK. The big thing at the moment is the concept of PTO, or Personal Time Off. This replaces all absence. If you're sick, it comes out of PTO. If you go on vacation, it comes out of PTO. You get more PTO than you would holiday. I actually quite like this scheme; sorts out the p!ss-takers who are constantly ill on a Friday or Monday.

That's something I bear in mind when dealing with spicier topics and the slings and arrows of outrageous antagonists. View counts are orders of magnitude bigger than post counts. The vocal minority represent those brave or anonymous enough to make their feelings known. Speaking as someone who posts a bit myself, I read pretty much every thread, but only post on a few. Normally, someone has made my exact point, or a much better one, and I don't really see the point in me-tooism. I'm sure if everyone banged in a me-too comment we'd see the near uniformity of moderate opinion. That'd be a bit crap to read though. On a related note, when are you boys going to stop dragging your heels over post(er) reputation? On other sites, the community gets to decide what's extreme, or indeed, a good post.

Yeah, but if you expand the scope beyond mere wit, asking ceaseless childlike questions about stuff that you can find out yourself would beat sarcasm in a "more annoying" contest. In my mental world, anyway

Americans are infectiously optimistic people, and some of the smartest people I know hail from there, but not many of them are very clued up on things. I reckon part of it is state brainwashing. They make their kids pledge allegiance to the state every day, not really the act of a confident nation, but I reckon it makes a difference. Some Americans are genuinely shocked when they learn very basic stuff about the rest of the world ( the amount of people I've seen go wide-eyed when I explain the simplistic pricing model of the NHS is amazing ). That said, a lot of people are more clued up about what's really going on in their own country, and you'll get different answers from people depending on their cultural and economic backgrounds. What's definitely true is that it's a lot easier to coast in the US. I went over to train someone five years ago. The dude was earning 100K plus, started work at 9:30am, did f**k all for a couple of hours, took a two hour lunch, ready for another gruelling 2 hour session of doing f**k all before doing the offs at 16:30. I actually asked him at one point "are you some kind of hologram that the company can only afford to power until half past four in the afternoon?". No aptitude or real interest in the job, and he is far from an isolated example. I think a big part of why Americans are perceived as thick is because the country is all too willing to give the thick or feckless a living, which means more of them get to spend their vast disposable income visiting Burr-Ming-Ham.

The other thing I'd mention is that when I have a chat with people I know on here and in real life, one of the first SaintsWeb topics that comes up is "how mental are those people on SaintsWeb?"

I've still got a way to go to be the ultimate conspiracy theorist, CB Fry. My theories are small-scale rubbish about networks within governments acting against the interests of the populace at large. I'd hope that one day, I'd have both the chutzpah and the balls to suggest that Stoke City are a model football team ( or even a football team ), but I'm just not that far gone yet. One of the reasons I keep visiting this site is to see the master at work.

True that. There was this fella who suggested that Stoke were the team to emulate.

Put it this way; most Saints fans I know in real life have never heard of this place.

Not too much confirmed on the old transfer front since the signing of Lovren, so it's a fairly slow news week for Southampton. Came across this article on the BBC website. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22974822 Adam Lallana reckons "It's different to last year's fixtures. There are some winnable games there". The concept of winnable games is a little jarring for happy clapper me. They should all be winnable games, shouldn't they? Ok, I accept that we won't win all of them, but it is a little concerning that the team captain is describing our fixtures in this way. Do the lads look at the fixtures and say "nah, we've got no chance - that's not winnable - let's not bother"? And if so, why do they always decide to get tonked by West Brom? So, winnable games. Slip of the tongue, realistic assessment of our situation or indicative of a lack of confidence?

Apparently, we're manifestations of the universe trying to suss itself out through the prism of sentience. Works for me.

Dax was delicious, but maybe a bit too nice-girl for this toerag's tastes. The Intendant rates a "would" too.

I think I'm just going to go to TESCO and buy some fly killer. I'm out of milk as well.

See I don't mind spiders. They get the flies. Spiders are cool, and don't come into my fly hatred. They are valued eight-legged arachnid allies. I did enquire about getting them little uniforms, as to present a united front and coherent brand when dealing out justice in my house. However, the people at Lazer Schoolwear said they'd have to be custom-made, that the idea was ridiculous, and even if it were feasible, the garments wouldn't be machine washable. Accordingly, I now dress as a spider.

Two things, sunshine 1) None of my SWF friends are afraid that I'll enter their home and "do things" to them. I daresay there are 125 worried individuals, and that's at least partially backed up by the "Should I accept Glasgow's friend request" threads. That said, I never came to any harm while we were friends, which is why my vetting process has been shortened by a month. 2) I was talking about RL mates. A handful is just right, I reckon. There's loads more people I like and would go out for beers with, but a handful I'd go to if I were ever in the sh!t.

Last night, I was engaged in an epic encounter with a pair of insects. A couple of flies had infiltrated the papcave by way of my open window. As daylight disappeared, the pair of them decided that landing and walking over my computer monitors was going to be their entertainment for the evening. In recent years, I've taken a zero tolerance approach toward flies. I used to be very live and let live, attempt to subtly direct them to an open window, etc. No more. These bastards take the p!ss. Unfortunately, we had no fly killer in the house last night, so I was forced to take alternative measures. One thing that people don't know about flies is that they don't like mouse pointers being underneath them. Computer mice are only a recent thing; no-one has done any serious work on the subject. Thanks to my battle last night; I can confirm that flies don't like the mouse pointer up 'em*. Every time one of the flies landed on my screen, I moved the mouse pointer underneath the insect and wiggled it about. This would cause the fly to walk over the screen until eventually getting p!ssed off and flying off for a bit. This went on for about half an hour before I got p!ssed off myself. This bastard cost me the opportunity to start around five conspiracy theory threads. After trying a number of disruptive tactics, it was clear that I needed more mouse pointer firepower, so I switched on the option to leave a pointer trail. This option is normally only used by old biddies who aren't very good at detecting motion. The shame of my actions still appalls me; but I got to bring more "boys" to each encounter. At the time of writing, the flies seem to be either having a nap, or hopefully, are now wreaking havoc on the wider L7 environment, having escaped through the same window from whence they came. btw, sorry to go off-topic, but I really hate the Gaston Ramirez song. Is that the best we could come up with? That Beauty and the Beast song is ripe for the altering, and would be unique. * Windows tested only. Airbrushed Mac pointers might not be as offensive.

Deep Space 9 is a great show with some top performers, but it'll always be drawn into comparison with Babylon 5. Out at a similar time, same central conceit - "hey, we're all on a space station" and both deal with spirituality in their own way. On a purely technical level, DS9 was by far the superior show. Better effects, better performances and better sets. Take a look what both shows achieved, and I think B5 wins out. At the end of Deep Space 9, most fans will have a deep attachment to Bajor, Cardassia, the Badlands, the Gamma Quadrant, the intricacies of the Klingon empire but most of all, a wonderfully open conclusion for the leading man. It's all good stuff, and on balance, I reckon it's the best Trek show by some margin. That all said, by the end of B5, you have an explanation for religion, a massively cautionary tale about the effects of letting xenophobia run rampant, rumbling and large mysteries solved and as good an explanation as you'd find for our purpose, anywhere. You'll also have seen the rise and fall of empires, how the seductive and destructive nature of power and ambition can corrode a man entirely, or how repeated acts of virtue can turn someone into an unwilling religious icon. Like I said, DS9 will always be compared with B5. As someone who watched DS9 first, B5 always comes out ahead in the final analysis.

I have a handful of friends. That is all. I consider myself in the top 1% of SaintsWeb for that very reason