Sheaf Saint

Commentator just mentioned Lallana for, I believe, the first time in the second half, and only then because he was offside. Totally anonymous so far, to the point I had forgotten he was even playing.

Depressing isn't it. They let us have that 5-10 minutes early in this half and now it's just men against boys. Painful watching.

Nothing wrong with the name Arthur. And I'm not just saying that because it's my middle name Congratulations Adam

The only real surprise for me is that Schumacher hasn't retired (again) sooner. He's not exactly set the world alight in the 3 seasons he has been back and I imagined that a natural winner like him would prefer to not compete at all rather than languish around the midfield. Money talks I guess. It will be interesting to see how Hamilton fares in a less competitive car though. He has shown a tendency to self-destruct in the past and in Rosberg he will have a team-mate who will challenge his No.1 status, so if things don't go his way he might lose his head again. As for your last line SiP, yes they are probably overpaid, but then the revenue they generate for the teams through sponsorships and promotion reflects that, and I think it's fair to argue that these drivers are deserving of the higher wages because of the extreme risk they take. Although safety in F1 is way ahead of what it used to be and it has now been 18 years since the last fatality, they still put their lives on the line every time they get in the car.

And let's not forget one of the chief antagonists in the whole story: Antonov.

Good draw... fro me anyway because it's a local (ish) game for me.

Gutted - I was in Germany for that and couldn't go, but I've watched those highlights time and time again. Was Jason Dodd's home debut having just arrived from Bath City I believe. What a superb season that was. Other highlights from it include the 4-4 away at Norwich and the 4-1 against them at home, 6-3 at home to Luton and the 2-2 home match against Everton where we absolutely bombarded their goal for the whole second half and they still came away with a draw.

Indeed - they are 1-0 up already!

Out of interest, what sort of wheel setup have you got and what driver-aids do you use/turn off? I have 2011 on my PC and I think it's an excellent game and a massive improvement over 2010, but i only have a cheap(ish) Logitech wheel and the sensitivity of the pedals is such that I have to keep the traction control on if I want to make it round a corner without spinning off. This kind of detracts from the game experience a bit because you don't really get a true sense of the handling.

Radio 1 is actually aimed at 16-24 year-olds, according to them anyway. Much like pap, I stopped listening after they sacked Mark & Lard for the heinous crime of not being young and trendy enough any more. Shame - they used to have me in stitches to the point I would often have to pull over and stop the car to avoid the tears of laughter causing me to crash. I sometimes have Radio 2 on in the car because I drive all over the country and the traffic updates are really good. Musically, well they occasionally play some right gems from the past but mostly it's non-offensive, easy-listening sheite; which is fine if all you want is some background noise I suppose. Ideally I'd like to get R6 but my van hasn't got DAB and I can't replace the stereo unit with one that has. I also like listening to Radio 4 when I'm not in a music mood. There's often some really good discussion and I like shows like The Life Scientific, as well as the numerous comedy quizzes etc... And yes, before anyone asks... I do drink real ale.

Brilliant - cheers for posting that. Already I'm starting to think that £12m for Ramirez was a bargain. The little chip into Clyne for his goal, and the deft touch out to Lambert to set up Puncheon for the third were just sublime. What vision.

I saw this over Sheffield. Was at a gathering at a mate's house and we were outside having just let off a couple of chinese lanterns when we saw it. Maybe it was the cider but it seemed like it was really low in the sky, just above the rooftops, and we couldn't work out what it was. It looked like some sort of firework but it was completely silent and travelling in a straight line at a seemingly constant velocity. A really spectacular sight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1Nd8nV38Sg

No, I don't think that's the way forward at all. Like Saintandy666 has already said... How is it right that a kid who would have been in the top 15% in a previous year gets a lower mark just because there were more kids that got a higher score than him/her in his year? Marking should always be objective rather than comparative.

All this report tells me is that there are lots of people in Manchester, Nottingham and Southampton that don't know how to mask their IP addresses.

Yeah, agreed. When I was at school there was very definitely an attitude among a lot of kids that being brainy and actually paying attention and trying hard in lessons was somehow un-cool, so they dumbed it down and pretended to be stupid to impress their mates. I can only assume this is still just as prevalent, if not more so, than it was when I left school in 1991.

I can't disagree with that. Clearly there is an issue when barely-literate kids are leaving school with a 'pass' in English for instance, so something certainly needs to be done. But I don't believe scrapping the GCSE system and reverting to a purely exam-based certificate is the right way to address the problem.

Yeah, it's called grading... A-G, that isn't 'pass or fail'. By limiting the results of an exam to just pass or fail you are basically saying that either a kid can do something or he can't, rather than looking at it on a sliding scale. It's way too simplistic IMO.

Yes I did. And the GCSEs I took were quite different from what you have described. For starters I was never given the option of re-submitting my coursework if the teacher felt that I could improve my scores by doing so. Once it was submitted that was it - as it should be. It seems to me that your experiences being placed with the under-achievers is a serious failing with the management of your school and not with the actual concept of GCSEs. Sorry to be so blunt but this is just utter b0ll0x. I know plenty of people who are all intelligent and capable but, like me, struggle a little when it comes to exams. This new system that is being proposed will immediately disadvantage thousands of people like this. It might be that you have a child who is brilliant at researching / report-writing etc.. but doesn't do well with exams. Does this mean that kid is stupid and unemployable? No, of course not. Then there are cases like the woman on the radio earlier who's son suffers from epileptic fits because of exam-stress but is otherwise very intelligent. How the hell does this new system do kids like this any favours? I was always told that the whole point of bringing in GCSEs was to do away with the overly-simplistic 'pass or fail' style of grading, to be replaced with a sliding scale (A-G) which would more clearly identify a student's actual abilities rather than give just a blanket-grade of pass or fail. It is commonly accepted that a C grade is equivalent to a pass, but still it isn't quite that simplistic. I quite agree with you that too many people feel they have some kind of divine right to go to university these days and clearly something needs to be done to address that. But the criticisms you have outlined do not, IMO, identify failings with the general idea of GCSEs, merely the implementation of them over the years. To abandon the idea because it hasn't been put into practise very well is a mistake IMO. The idea is sound, because it grades a student's abilities in lots of different areas, rather than just their ability to cram a lot of information into their brains in preparation for a situation that they will never actually face in the real world.To scrap that and go back to what amounts to O-levels would be disastrous.

It's not often that I find myself incensed by new government initiatives, but this has to be the worst, most ill-thought-out, simplistic load of crap ever dreamed up by a minister. The fact that it's the brainchild of Michael Gove tells me all I need to know about it. There was a very good reason that GCSEs were introduced in the first place, namely the fact that lots of kids are intelligent and academically gifted but do not cope very well in exam conditions. Exams aren't something that people have to face in the real world so they clearly are not the best way of grading a child's ability. So to now revert to a purely exam-based system is a massive step backwards that will disadvantage huge numbers of kids. The only possible saving grace is that the new reforms aren't due to be implemented until 2015, and there is a slim possibility we will have a new government by then who will scrap the plans.

Not been to the cinema for ages so this afternoon me and the mrs went along to see Lawless. Based on a true story about a family of bootleggers in Virginia during the prohibition era, featuring Tom Hardy and Shia Lebouf. I would like to offer a lengthy, reasoned critique with some in-depth analysis, but I can't be arsed. All I will say is that it's every bit as good as the trailer makes it out to be so go and see it - you won't be disappointed.

And what if somebody had been to a party at a mate's house where they passively inhaled some marijuana smoke? What exactly would be achieved by ordering them to attend a rehab course for a non-existent addiction? You seem to be making the inference here that just because somebody tests positive for a controlled (HA!) substance they must therefore have a habitual dependence. I can assure you from personal experience this isn't the case. Plenty of people are able to take it or leave it in the same way that most people are able to moderate their alcohol consumption without becoming hopeless addicts. If you really want to stop JSA claimants from spending their benefits on drugs/booze etc.. then the only way I can see is to give the benefits in the form of food vouchers. But what if they need to buy clothes? Or travel to job interviews? It wouldn't work that way either.

Saw this in today's Independent...

Indeed. If you read up about what became known as the 'Battle of Orgreave', you will find some striking (no pun intended) similarities between the reports about the actions of the SY police, and their subsequent attempts to pin the blame for their own actions on the striking miners, and the Hillsborough cover-up. Orgreave and Hillsborough are only about 5-6 miles apart.