norwaysaint

I'd been wondering what'd happened to them. Radio's loss in my opinion.

I have two and that'll probably be it, as my wife was very ill through both of her pregnancies and has now started to move on with her career. I've heard a few times that the third child can really upset the balance of the home (I was a third child, hmm). My favourite comment I heard about that was that that two was fine but after the third, it became "like running a nursery with somebody you used to go out with".

I posted a link before to an article where somebody 100 years ago predicted we'd lose c, x and q. What do you think about the idea of doing this and of further simplifying our rather confused spelling system, which is a big mess due to English being such a mongrel language. Obviously the Americans did it a long time ago with many words and that makes most British people a bit snobbish about the whole idea, but beyond the idea of upholding tradition in a medium that's constantly evolving, what is the point of having a "u" in colour or "ue" at the end og catalogue? Why do we need so many ways to make the same sound that features in sky, high, site, sight and I? My daughter is six and speaks, reads and writes both English and Norwegian. However, she needs to learn how to spell and read English words, whereas if you know Norwegian letter sounds, you can correctly read and write pretty much every word. Aside from trying to convince ourselves that it makes us somehow linguistically superior to Americans, is there any real reason to hang onto ideas of spelling that, in many cases we owe to the French and Germans? As text messaging begins to completely mess with many young people's idea of acceptable spelling, wouldn't it be a good idea to simplify things to a logical, more phonetic way of spelling that would be easier for everyone to get right in the first place without those awful abbreviations? I'm expecting any replies to be anti-American and "dumming down", but it'd be interesting to know what people think. Remember spelling and pronunciation are slowly changing anyway and the way you say and write words is already not the same as they did 100 years ago.

He did pretty well with some of these: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16444966 He predicted mobile phones, digital photography and TV to name a few. It'll be interesting to see what the future holds for the letter c. I really is completely superfluous as is job is already done by k and s. Maybe one day it'll just be used as an abbreviation in text messages. Neither c nor x are used a all in proper Norwegian words, only imported ones. Box is spelt boks, etc.

I agree that it's the football club's duty to mark the sinking of the Titanic, but for me the real test of Cortese comes in 2015 when we see how the club marks the 150th anniversary of an outbreak of cholera that killed 150 people in Southampton. If the club don't at least hold a minute's silence then I will be disgusted. A lot of us have ancestors who were directly affected by this tragedy and it's a sad part of the city's history. We'll see then what kind of "family club" Southampton has become and whether the club really represents the city.

It's true, I had a look at the UI earlier. It is BRILLIANT. All of the really funny posters were there posting loads of really funny hilarious stuff. I haven't laughed so much in ages, it really is a site full of humour. Also, as Dune says, there's no sarcasm there, only the highest forms of wit. If you are fans of the brilliant humour, like Dune's, I suggest you sign up there now and forget this dull old place. Also, like other people have been saying, it's free to post more than three times. So if, like Dune and Turkish, you're the sort of person who needs to post their opinion onto internet forums on all subjects, all day, it is perfect for you. I probably won't go as I only post about once a day and don't like humour.

On the outside looking in? Outside of what? My point is simply that I have always worked in multi-ethnic situations and have no trouble at all speaking in a way that is not racially offensive. I've never even had to make an effort and somehow I've managed never to be racist. By your own admission, you find it a minefield. I didn't say you make up silly rules, I said you don't understand how not to be offensive, hence your minefield. I don't seem to have to walk through a minefield despite dealing with different ethnicity every day. I also worked and lived in several areas of Birmingham with a very high ethnic mix for most of the nineties. Again, without making any effort, I managed not to be racially offensive. It's really not difficult. I don't know where you get your idea of me being "on the outside looking in" from, but believe me I have always worked with people of different ethnicity closely. The difference is, you are saying it's difficult to do that without being offensive. I'm saying it's easy and I've never ever felt like I'm negotiating any kind of linguistic minefield. For some reason it's trickier for you.

Well, you certainly don't agree with me. I think you either have to be either stupid, socially inept or racist to find it a minefield. Changing the acceptable language isn't necessarily anything to do with PC, it's often just very silly people who, like you, don't really understand how not to be offensive and so invent silly rules. I have dealt with just about every ethnicity you can name in my professional and personal life. I've never tried to be careful or vet what I say first, yet somehow I've found it incredibly easy, even effortless not to be racist. It just doesn't happen and I don't see why it should. I worked for years in international schools where there were staff, students and parents from all around the world. Nobody ever needed advice or lessons in how not to be offensive, yet I never heard any accusations or suspicions of racism, in fact it was an issue that never once came up in 12 years. Not being racist is very, very easy. If I find it easy without making an effort, why do you think you don't? Of course it's discrimination, discrimination just means recognising a difference, but we have to discriminate in everything we do, or we'd just as happily eat gravel as food. What it isn't, is unfair discrimination.

Even with a modest mortgage, most of that 1% probably owe more than the other 99% ever will.

Well, it was OK to say that when I was growing up. It's all so confusing and PC, it's like a minefield.

I'm always surprised by the number of times I've seen or heard comments about racism being some kind of minefield of possible offence to sensitive people. I'm 41 and have never had to even think carefully about what I say or do for fear of offending anyone. I've never been accused of saying anything racist or of any kind of offence at all, yet I don't carefully vet my language or opinions. I have no problem referring to skin colour in context and I don't believe all discrimination is wrong (A Chinese person would be a bad choice to play Winston Churchill in a film, but that would be irrelevant in choosing for example, an IT specialist) . What opinion is it some people are having a problem expressing? If somebody's has brown skin and I have to describe what they look like, I would say they had brown skin. Nobody is going to find that offensive, that's a physical description. If skin colour wasn't relevant to what I was talking about, I wouldn't bother mentioning it any more than I'd mention if somebody had a beard, a bald spot or was wearing glasses. I don't think of myself primarily as a white or English, so I wouldn't expect others to refer to me as a white bloke. thus I don't know why some people find ethnicity the first thing they have to mention about other people. I remember as a child, hearing some grown ups use the phrase "darkie", even at the age of about 7, this seemed a condescending way of speaking about someone, nobody had to teach me that this wasn't a good word to use. Also, some people seem to find it confusing that otherwise offensive words might be used within an ethnic group without causing offence, for example the "n" word amongst black people. They then find it unfair that it's offensive if they use it. I have regularly called my friends or even my brother a **** or a **** in "banter" and caused no offence at all, but if somebody else walked over afterwards and called him the same things, it would definitely cause a problem. It's also obviously wrong to judge ethnic groups as if they are all the same. I belong to the same ethnic group as Nick Griffin, but have a completely different moral compass. How on Earth are some people managing to be "accidentally" racist?

If Beattie left the top 15 last month, because Lambert overtook him, how can Lambert not have taken his place in the list. This quiz is fixed.

Failed to score in a calendar year? He certainly didn't go on loan last month.

I would say it was a racist comment. I don't remember anyone on here ever condoning racism by black people against white people, but if anyone can link to posts where it was done, fair enough.

I guess I misunderstood what seems like a fairly clearly worded rule. You gave an infraction instead of a banning for posting porn, just like you don't seem to be banning for blatant racism, giving a level of protection to the posters involved. Having witnessed posters being banned or partially banned for sarcastic or irrelevant remarks and others lightly infracted for posting porn or blatant racism, I think I'll stand by my comment about poor modding.

Probably deleted now, but I don't mind admitting I reported it at the time as I don't need my kids seeing that kind of stuff, but it was certainly up on the board for some time, I guess the poster in question is under the protection of one of the mods who must've deleted the complaint without taking any action at all. How many instant, permanent bans have you dished out to the blatant racists so far then?

The moderating on this site has become shocking recently. Despite the rules stating that anybody posting blatant racism or pornographic images WILL get an immediate and permanent ban, the mods have turned a blind eye to both in the last week, despite pornography and racism being posted on a part of the site open to minors, and they seem to be protecting certain posters. I'm pretty shocked at their condoning some pretty shocking posts lately. It's turning into a nasty, cynical place with stevegrant and baj's full backing.

They don't tolerate much of that.

I'm always surprised at how much you have to pay for the train in Britain and I live in a stupidly expensive country.

I remember our first one was second hand and can't have been later than 85/86, they were definitely pretty commonplace by then. We were never the earliest with stuff, I remember we didn't get a colour telly until about 1983 and didn't have a telephone in the house until about 1979.

This seemed to sum up most of the views on SWF to me. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/cartoon/2011/dec/28/roger-mellie-review-of-2011?fb=native

Nobody needs a watch to tell the time nowadays, it's just jewellery, hence the Sex in the City style thread. If you're somebody who finds designer labels important, you need to have the other accessories really.

One of my favourite books I've read in the last few years. Head and shoulders above everything else he's written. Haven't owned a watch in years and would never buy one just as jewellery.

He's one goal off being the second top scorer in the division. Only Lambert and McCormack have scored more than Guly.

We eat quite a lot of venison, but cut out the middleman. It is shot by my father in law in the family's own forest and butchered right there in a small hunting lodge, then driven home to rest before being put in the freezer. We get a lot of elk the same way. Fills our freezer and theirs for the year. It's friendlier and kinder to the animals, who get to lead an idyllic life before the lethal bullet, and the meat is far better quality.