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All of those assumptions rest on what I have picked up from other posters during my time here. The Tristan testimony was entered into evidence by VFTT shortly after the banning. I've seen a few people get animated about this stanley character. I am in large part, putting my faith in the collective history of SaintsWeb. If they're talking b*ll*cks, I'm talking b*ll*cks. However, given that Cheesey hasn't instantly replied, I think that we can assume that he is unmoved by my identity-driven design and that we shall need to seek winners elsewhere.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm making a lot of assumptions. 1) Cheese On Toast is the snack-based, non-banned alternative to dune. 2) dune was the sand-based, non-banned alternative to stanley 3) stanley got turfed off for holocaust denial 4) The real life given name of all of the above characters is Tristan. Now, if any of those assumptions are wrong, I'm fecked, you're right, and it's a crap avatar. If they all hold, then it might be a bit clever (but still aesthetically crap). No matter what happens, I've got a fairly good idea of how many 7's go into 360.

It's design an avatar, innit? That's my design. Keep up, Bear!

Frank's cousin - I hate to be the bearer of good news, but there are entire films dedicated to norks (and more!).

I made the switch from Sky to Virgin Media yonks ago. Sky were asking for 300 notes for their HD box, which seemed like a bit of a p!ss-take to me. I tried chancing my arm and getting a box for nowt, but they were having none of it. Decided to take on one of those fancy new customer deals from Virgin, and have never really looked back. Commercial considerations aside, Virgin is probably the better setup for me. In the early days, Sky were adamant about keeping pretty much all their HD stuff on their own service, meaning that I had about 5 HD channels to watch. That has gotten a ton better; Sky have now kept a handful of channels that I care about to themselves, and most of those I'm not really arsed about. Sky Atlantic? US shows quickly? I've heard that there may be other options Sky Sports News HD isn't on Virgin either, but the SD version is. Couple of big caveats to be aware of; when Virgin Media completely shuts down, everything has gone. TV, net, phone - all eggs in one basket. However, that doesn't happen too often ( about twice in 5 years for me ). I have had instances where say, the Internet is down but the TV and phone are up. I've found outages in general to be rare, and like I say, it's only been completely down a couple of times in all the time I've had it. Customer service have been alright when I've needed to use them. Others will tell you mileage varies. Generally though, I'm very happy with my current setup and get invitations from Sky to come back all the time. Haven't taken any of 'em up, if that means anything.

I might give that a go. Looked a bit like a knock-off 300 when I saw the trails.

Truly touching. Like the new avatar. It's not quite on a par with being the_bearsy, but I get what you're trying to do.

I liked Rome. I really liked Polly Walker in Rome.

Most words are pretty inert without context, TDD. A lot of Sotonians will happily call each other c*nts all day long and not take offence, because the context is mates having a laugh. I remember "pleb" being a temporarily popular term of abuse on the playground in the late 80s. I wasn't offended by it then, and in most scenarios, wouldn't consider it offensive. That all said, the context in the case of "PC Pleb" is a Minister of the Crown using the word to have a go at Downing Street coppers, shortly after the country has paid its respects to two WPCs that were slain in the line of duty. Probably doesn't help that it is a Conservative minister either, who are noted for being a little out of touch, or more recently, criticised by some for having a "born to rule" attitude. For pleb to be offensive in this context, I sort of need to believe that:- a) the class system is essentially valid b) that Andrew Mitchell is an example of a "better" class. I'm having trouble with both.

Lee Dixon, when asked what by a Sky reporter what it was like to win the title, said it was "F**king Superb". Yet they still let him keep his job. The Beeb even went onto employ him in later life. I don't know what my point is.

Another huge thumbs up from me on this show. I've been a fan of Ianucci's work since the early 90s, and I'd easily say that this is the zenith of what he has accomplished to date. Eminently, almost compulsively re-watchable. I'm watching each episode twice at the moment. The thing is so fast-paced and dense that it's so easy to miss a true gem on a first viewing. Genuinely hope that he keeps making this for generations. Keep electing politicians like we do, and the fella will never be short of material

What a bunch of cry babies. Love the continual references to playing a Championship team. We've earned our right to play Prem football, tyvm.

Is right lads. Is right. * sorry. been out in "town" tonight, lads.

No, of course not. It's a stupid habit and I'll kick it at some point. Might actually give this Stoptober thing a go. Like a sheep. Anyway, my original weigh-in to this thread was the suggestion that we refuse health care to known smokers under certain circumstances. We collect a tremendous amount of duty which more than offsets the health care costs and pays for other things. However, the piece from the Policy Exchange allowed me to pit common sense against a set of bad statistics, and I couldn't resist.

Cleaning up cigarette butts = crap figure. You can take that away immediately. We'd still have street cleaners irrespective of whether people smoked or not. Loss of productivity from smoking breaks = kinda assumes that those non-smokers are 100% productive while the social lepers are polluting their lungs, and that the smokers are doing nothing but pollute their lungs. I know plenty of people who use their smoke breaks to mentally plan the next 2 hours of work, myself included. Besides, non-smokers get breaks too. Loss of economic output from the death of smokers? What? Everyone else living forever and contributing to the wealth of the nation, are they? Any fire caused by smoking is of course, a tragedy - especially if people are killed as a consequence. That said, I'd argue that anyone who was careless enough to start a fire like this would probably attract trouble regardless. It's a basic care and common sense thing. But again, we're not going to get rid of the Fire Brigade if people stopped smoking. It's interesting that when considering positive economic activity, they only account for tobacco sales and VAT. What about the tax raised from companies who operate here, pull the product off the docks, distribute, deliver or even the likes of local shops, where tobacco is one of the main things that props them up? What about the corporation tax they pay, or the PAYE collected on the salaries of those staff, or the fuel duty raised when they move it all about? Or indeed, the VAT on that? It seems that the Policy Exchange was very selective when considering the positive economic gain, yet holistic when considering the true cost to society. That is probably because if you added up all the economic activity I've listed and added it to the £12.1Bn raw taxation figure, they wouldn't have a report, and you wouldn't have a point.

Yeah, except smokers are actually a net benefit to the health service. Take all the duty off ciggies and you may have a point. Right now, they are not only paying for themselves, but also subsidising other non-smoking related maladies.

Yes, but until Google gets their arse in gear and releases an iPad version, no YouTube on the iPad.

No YouTube on iPad either. iPhone app is already out. Hopefully iPad app will follow soon. Great idea, Apple

The Stratford-on-Avon as Shottery stuff is a joke. Not great publicity. Gotta say, I do love the cock waving that goes on in these threads. It's like being back in the 80s watching 11 year olds fight it out over which computer was better.

Don't start boys. I'm not convinced that TDD knows that Alan Partridge is fictional.

Yeah, it does. The fact that it hasn't been mentioned in the TV series at this point doesn't mean a great deal. If we start to see flashbacks, etc - then I think the theory is most definitely on. Would be awesome if true.

The first three or four episodes of The Wire are hard work on first viewing, particularly if you are not au fait with Baltimore street slang for slinging gear. At about that point, you'll have worked out what everything means and besides, the show goes in a lot of directions. Each season focuses on a different aspect of Baltimore, which sounds like a load of old crap but is handled really well. First season is all about dealing on the projects, second is about the dockers, etc. Key thing is the characters, really - most of which are compelling, or at least highly conflicted. Ah, but Sons of Anarchy. It's a show about the head chapter of a biker gang. The writers like to big up its Shakespearian influences, but it features utterly ridiculous plot lines. People do things that make no sense. None. The casting director is presumably tone-deaf. The Sons have biker connections all over the world, including Northern Ireland. Americans played most of the Northern Irish, with suitably tragic results. Give it a go if you must, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Oh aye, but that'll be because Google has already harvested a ton of information. My personal view is that information submitted by the public should be in the public domain, irrespective of which service they used to upload it. Google, Apple, and all the businesses siphoning off content seems wasteful, imo.

The latest trailer. It's visually amazing, but I do worry that we will see "Freeman Baggins". He seems Bilboish in bits though, which is nice.