Sheaf Saint

I started reading a book of his called Why Does E=MC2? (and Why Should We Care?) and he attempts to explain all about vectors in spacetime. I have to admit I gave up because it actually made my brain hurt.

Yes I agree Phil that the whole situation is a god-awful sh1tty mess, and there is no simple answer as there never is when it comes to geo-politics, particularly in the middle-east where religion always complicates things a whole lot more. As I told my friend in my reply to her earlier today, I have nothing but admiration and respect for the protesters who are putting themselves in the firing line to stand up for freedom from oppression. I don't know if I would ever have the courage to do that myself, but then desparate times call for desparate measures and I suppose I should consider myself extremely lucky that I have never yet had to face that choice.

Just another couple of snippets from a long message I got from my friend earlier (her father's family are all Bahraini and most still live there so she has some inside knowledge of sorts)... ...I think that the Saudi govt are putting pressure on the Bahrain govt to sort it all out. The Prime Minister is a ****** and loves the Saudi's so is letting all this happen. It seems the only decent person in the Royal Family is the Crown Prince who isnt wanting any of this **** to happen... ...thats what they [The Bahraini royal family] are ****ting themselves about is losing the power. But thats the thing, the Bahraini people never wanted to get rid of the Royal family, they just want an elected parliament. And the other day the crown prince was in talks with 7 leaders from the opposition parties so we all thought, great, something is finally getting sorted and then the Saudi troops came in and then they announced martial law!! I think this puts to bed any debate about the whole thing being staged by Iran. This comes directly from people indigenous to the country (not ex-pats, importantly) and shows that it is simply a case of the common people deciding they have had enbough of the corruption and oppression and standing up for their human rights.

A friend of mine has family in Bahrain and from what she can gather the situation is very bad over there right now. This is what she messaged me this morning.... There are gangs of people that most people think and are pretty certain, have been planted by the govt to cause fear amongst people and make it look like the protesters are fighting back so then the govt can shoot the protesters. These 'gang' members are going into the villages and attacking people, so these village people defend themselves and then the 'official' police shoot at the villagers. Some of these 'gang' members were wounded and got taken to the hospital and the doctors found ID cards to show that these gang members worked for the govt!! While I find it shocking that any regime could resort to these measures, it sadly does not surprise me if these reports are true.

It is beyond bad, I will agree. But at least it does have a tiny amount of artistic merit. The very worst cover ever is William Shatner's version of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, closely followed in second place by his reworking of Pulp's Common People. I'm not going to link to either of them because I don't want to go through the experience of hearing a single second of them ever again.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/snakes_dies_of_silicone_poisoning_BW3UBtoDvsmZj6Be7n2r4O Utterly bizarre. Poor snake.

It's so bloody over-complicated to try and dissuade people from actually chasing up the HMRC to get back what they are owed. It's nuts. I have been trying for months now to get back a relatively small amount that I overpaid in 2009/10 due to my employers at the time neglecting to process my P46 and keeping me on an emergency tax code for longer than necessary. The hoops I have had to jump through so far are just stupid and I still haven't received my rebate. Every time I provide the requested information the HMRC just come back to me wanting more - most recently they needed my P45 from the Jobcentre for the period I was claiming JSA during 2008/09. I have virtually given up hope of ever seeing the rebate, and it seems to me that they deliberately make claiming back so difficult and complicated in the hope that some people just won't bother and they can keep the money.

I've heard that in India they have a rule called "might is right" which basically means that whichever vehicle is the bigger has the right of way. Sounds bizarre but apparently it works quite well.

Oh great, I had a company car up to september 08 so I expect I will be getting one of these letters soon. Will probably wipe out the smallish rebate that I am due from them.

Or you could look at the fact that they have only taken 1 point off us this season - and that was only thanks to a very dodgy last-minute penalty. Remember we beat them 4-1 at SMS earlier in the season.

Yeah that's kind of the point I am making. Most opposition to nuclear power comes from ill-informed people who are only able to look at the example of what happened at Chernobyl and decide that nuclear power must therefore be extremely dangerous and must be stopped at all costs.

I've never understood this. Why would being a lefty preclude you from being in favour of nuclear power?

Unfortunately, the general uninformed masses will never accept nuclear power as a long-term solution because of the fear and paranoia surrounding it. The modern nuclear fission plants in places like France are clean, efficient, safe and generate only a very tiny amount of radioactive waste (although I concede that they are very expensive not only to build, but to decomission at the end of their useful lives as well). But the very mention of the word 'nuclear' instantly brings to mind horrific images of Horishima and Chernobyl, and that's why it is such a hard job to sell the idea of it to the public.

Of course, he meant to do that ;-)

The docks themselves don't exactly provide the most picturesque views for local residents, so I can't see how anybody can complain about it on those grounds. I am essentially in favour of any project that proposes a low-carbon, renewable alternative to coal and oil-fired power stations, and I am certain that the plant will alos creat lots of jobs for the Southampton area, so I really don't see how anybody can be against the idea.

Don't hold your breath. Over the last couple of weeks Sheff weds have lost at home to both Plymouth and Notts County. They haven't made any progress at all under Megson and could well find themselves in a relegation scrap if they don't get a couple of wins sharpish. Anything less than a win when we play them at SMS next week will be a massive disappointment.

No database errors for me but took ages to update apart from a short period at the beginning of the 2nd half, and a couple of occasions where 'connection could not be made'. Really really poor. I hate to say but it's just no better than it ever was before you started charging for the service, which begs the question: what exactly am I paying for?

3 wins in a row. Still games in hand on Posh and Huddersfield above us. Second place still in our own hands. And we managed to silence those Bournemouth fans to boot. Happy days. Now, to sort the forum out. It was shocking today.

Message to the site admins... I appreciate that this game in particular was always going to attract a large amount of attention from forum users, but this is utterly taking the p155 now. Either sort the f***ing forum access out or give me my £5 back.

I'm not disagreeing with your summary of the match because I wasn't there to see it myself, but I'm not quite sure how you come to that conclusion, considering we have closed the gap on 2nd place from 6 to 3 points over the last week.

Just the highlights. But they show we created some very good chances. Even the BBC commentator summed up by saying it was a really one-sided game in our favour and ended up a freak result.

Did you go to the game on tuesday? I just watched the highlights on BBC and I have to say that some of the chances we created were top notch. On another night we would have scored 3 or 4, it was just one of those games that all teams have where the ball just wouldn't go in the bloody net. Walsall had one good opportunity thanks to a freakish deflection off Jaidi's head and scored thanks to some very poor positioning by Kelvin (again!). I really don't know why people are so down about that game. It's annoying that we dropped points but this idea that we were just dreadful and didn't look like scoring seems way off the mark to me.

Posh 2 Exeter 0 :-(

To be fair, they are playing an absolutely hopeless Sheff Utd team today who in their last 12 games have drawn four and lost eight. I would totally expect them to win today.