pap

I've listened to the Knowing Me Knowing You radio series too. The chap who can legally be called a cvnt is Conrad Knight. He wrote a book called "A Gent in LA". A reviewer simply changed two letters of the word gent to form the "review". One of the best worked jokes in the series. AP: "So I could write it down on a piece of paper and hold it up to your face" CK: "That would be perfectly legal. And people do do that" The only thing I like better in that series is Lord Morgan of Glossop. (on pornography) AP: "But what the argument that such sex degrades women" LM: "But is it not the case that all sex degrades women.... if it's any good".

Breaking Bad is back. Just seen the first episode. I don't want to spoil too much, but after the epic finale of last season - I was expecting a couple of episodes of gentle consolidation. Not a bit of it. The tension is up almost immediately, and the show does what it does best - put our protagonists knee-deep in the sh*t and have them exploit science to commit crime out of necessity. Walt is scary at this point, in a way that would have seemed impossible in season one. A lot of credit to the writers for keeping it plausible and to Brian Cranston for breathing life into a character that will be seen as one of TV's finest.

Have number 1 and number 2 ever been seen together in the same room (us viewing it here doesn't count)? I know it's a stretch at first, but the schozzles are similar and spookily, both pictures feature rectangles in the background

No you weren't. You weren't even pointing out one way. You didn't even mention the left. Now I'm not necessarily suggesting that every post on here should be fully linked and referenced, but I think one can reasonably expect a poster to remember what he or she has written a couple of posts ago. Except for Vince Cable, presumably. (I also think a basic recollection of current events is handy)

Ta. Been thinking of a replacement for ages. That one just kinda leapt out at me. Will be interesting to see if what buctootim says is true; that people react differently to different avatars.

The expense scandal shows that you don't need to be in office to be corrupt. Besides, New Labour had 12 years in power - that is plenty of time to build up a bit of sleaze. I have to hand it to the Conservatives for doing their very best to catch up as quickly as possible - the BSkyB deal in particular - is choice. Aside from all that, why would Labour sleaze have any bearing on Tory sleaze? If Labour do a murder, are the Tories allowed to too?

I actually do feel sorry for Conservative voters who've waited 12 years for this. If you had set out and planned a way to reinforce all of the old stereotypes about the Tories (nasty, corrupt, in it for the wealthy), I doubt that you could have done a better job than the one they've done themselves.

Dark rum (with either coke or ginger ale) for me, for three reasons:- 1) I can drink it all night and remain pleasant. 2) It gives one the legitimate excuse to shout "Yaargh" in the manner of a pirate. 3) If feeling a bit worse for wear mid-session, one can sneakily transition onto Diet Coke without attracting derision from hard drinking chums. Would definitely recommend Goslings for fellow rum aficionados.

As part of a three phase program ( second step involving removal of self, third step any prior Bullingdon Club members loaded into rocket and fired at moon ) I wholeheartedly agree.

A really good idea and really stupid idea all at the same time. Would like to see more sources of energy, but that is a bloody mental location. Why not just build it out of the way?

Used to love the balloon and flower festival. Happened a week after the Southampton Show, if I recall correctly. Does the Southampton Show still happen?

Mate asked me to settle an argument between him and his girlfriend. Is Batman a superhero?

That's pretty much how I see it. Don't think it's about beating the speed of light, more about finding a way around it. Einstein's theory places a constraint on one thing - the speed of objects. Now if you're planning to accelerate as fast as you can toward your target star, it is a problem. If you're just punching a hole in space, stepping through and saying "Hallo, Mr Klingon!", I'm not sure it applies. Einstein's constraint on velocity doesn't necessarily prevent "faster than light" travel.

You'd never really know these days. A lot of people don't pay for things with cash anymore. I use my card nine times out of ten. It has become a very abstract concept, but there has been an element of unreality involved ever since the banks started lending money at a rate of interest. Assuming a finite amount of money, there's no way that the interest can be paid without someone else losing out. So you either print more money, pretend to print more money or watch companies and individuals go unpaid. We do all three.

Have you ever considered that some people want nation states to be in perpetual debt? The mechanism by which the Federal Reserve puts money into the economy means that the US can never repay its debt. Debt keeps everyone in line.

Does anyone remember when American Gladiators was first shown in the days when ITV was just starting to do 24 hour telly? To make the audience look bigger than it was, they actually used cardboard cutouts in the upper tiers of the arena. Perhaps G4S could employ a similar strategy during the Olympics. No vetting, no training. At the very least, it might deter your more myopic extremist. I await my honours in the New Years list.

Keep it up sir. I love your accurate reports from the front!

I think I'm going to have start charging a fee for dragging your arguments into the cold light of day. Just a shame they turn to dust like the vampires in Buffy, and not shine like the vampires in Twilight. (if you're going to accuse me of not living in the real world, may as well spice it up with a bit of fantasy).

Frankie Boyle on Rangers in Division 3:- "Every week, a small town in Scotland will find out what life was like in the time of the Vikings".

Sweet. I didn't realise I'd be getting paid too.

Yeah, alright mate - I'm posting this from Mars. Oh? You didn't mean literally another world? It was merely a crap way to try and diminish my argument without making any points? Even your little bit about China is throwaway, Sergei - basically because you're not explaining much of it. It's a good job I know that the Chinese are heavily investing in Africa, in pursuit of rare earths and other raw materials, otherwise I'd be none the wiser. I'm not exactly sure how that's any different from what Western corporations are doing in the rainforest. In either case, you have corporate might coming in to plunder the resources of another country, often with enthusiastic invitations from corrupt leaders who stand to trouser billions in backhanders. Perhaps you'd like to explain the difference.

First of all, we're not constrained to two systems; rampant capitalism or killing each other. Those systems aren't even mutually exclusive. We manage to run both at the same time extremely well. Even if we forget our recent imperialist adventures in the Middle East, domestically you have people killing each other over resources. Check out any drug turf war as an example. We're not cavemen anymore, Sergei. I believe we've developed our ideas and technology to the point where world hunger shouldn't be an issue, energy isn't a problem and disease could be massively curtailed. If we're not there yet, we soon will be; with stuff like the LHC and the ITER fusion reactor project going on, we're on the brink of major technological advancement in addition to the relentless pace of refinement that we see on our existing techs. I know that a load on the right like to spout Malthusian theories about world population, but those theories are founded on the premise that people will be fighting for resources, not co-operating to make the best use of them. Our system is little more than a hierarchical pyramid scheme that funnels power to an unelected elite. Verbal made a point recently concerning the provenance of representative government. I don't remember it word for word, but it was something along the lines of "stopping the have-nots from rising up and killing the haves". Governments of all colours are all placing the survival of the financial system over the welfare of their citizens, so I would argue that they're presently ineffective for this purpose. It's really not a case of "this system" or "that system". It's more about setting your priorities out and working out how to achieve them. The priorities are all wrong at the moment, and in a century's time, after the system has eventually crashed and been rebuilt, our descendants are going to look at us and think "what a bunch of mugs". Perhaps this thread will be the subject of a history lesson, eh

Shouldn't even be a "story", mate. Should just be the norm. Used to be, too - but those were different days. In those days, politicians felt the government had a responsibility to provide affordable sanitary housing for the people they served. Very different times

Well, if you take Goodison and The Dell as examples - neither was a happy hunting ground for visiting teams.

Quite agree, especially if it's common practice. What was so bad about the Dell from an away player's perspective? I quite enjoy a good tale of psychological warfare ( didn't the US use AC/DC and Metallica to wear down Noriega? )