saintbletch

The answer is an unqualified Yes revolution saint. It is a good book but whether you'd enjoy it depends on what you like. I read it years ago and it's still one of the best books I've read. It is predominantly set in the first world war but it explores a division of the army that I didn't even know existed. In that respect it isn't a traditional war time drama and it certainly doesn't look to glamourise war - quite the opposite. In fact the wartime part of the book is just one part of a wider story told over a much longer period of time. I haven't watched the TV adaptation for a couple of reasons. Firstly, a few weeks before it was announced I managed to persuade my 15 year old daughter ( a reluctant reader ) to read it. I used some reverse-psychology by telling her that she probably was a little immature and by telling her that there is a lot of sex in it. That did the trick. So as she's still in the middle of it, as a family we're avoiding the TV version. Secondly, I just don't see how they can faithfully represent the emotion and drama of the book on the TV. If it were the best TV adaptation of a book ever, it would still fail to do the book justice. The final section of the book is utterly, utterly gripping. I had to read it in one sitting and I almost had a physiological reaction to it. Without giving anything away, I felt truly anxious and claustrophobic reading it. I haven't experienced that sort of tension reading a book before or since. If you appreciate a writer who can make the language dance and who draws characters that you become emotionally attached to or repelled by, I'd consider give it a spin.

Spot on. The only reason a PFC player would move on at the moment would be for footballing reasons (play in a higher division, get a regular game, etc.).

a sandwich bag of warmed, raw cow's liver held with a pair of mink gloves?

Smilies aside, I'm not sure this is true Weston Super Saint. It sounds like Hester's bonus was to be in shares. And I think I read that it would vest over a number of years. So I don't think HMRC would get anything back until he exercised and disposed of his shares. And I'm sure he and his accountant will ensure his tax obligation is minimised. Oddly though, as it was share-only you could argue that his additional incentive to improve the RBS share price has now been removed. Either way, surely he has simply been taken to one side and asked if he wants £1M bonus now or a Knighthood in 5-6 years when this has all blown over?

Saintsweb in microcosm. Made me laugh.

The Human Centipede

Damning. Comment 53 from the PEN site here, also seems to sum up the desperation of the situation nicely.

Funnily enough Snowdrops is in my pile too. I think you must go through the Man Booker long list too View From The Top? Very much enjoyed The Return of Captain John Emmett. Thanks for the recommendation. Really enjoyed the natural, slow pace of the 'investigation' and the fact it took its time to unveil and document the mystery. Thought-provoking and very well written and researched. But it is not "The new Birdsong - only better", as the quote from the Independent review I saw suggested. I see there's a follow on Laurence Bartram novel out too (The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton - Paperback out in April). I'll certainly give that a go. Reading The Importance of Being Earnest at the moment. Read it in college and really enjoyed it. It came to mind the other day and I thought I'd give it another read. Only 66 pages and free on the Kindle so why not. Still makes me laugh.

The extradition issue is very important in my opinion. That we will send our citizens to another country when their crime is either very minor, or not illegal at all in UK law, should be a worry to us all. Back to Jammie Thomas-Rasset and the $2,250 per song, I don't think that amount is based on the value of each song to the record company or indeed the value to the woman that 'stole' it. I think it is based on the fact that due to the way peer to peer file sharing works, whilst she had access to the music her PC was also making those songs available to many others. In the eyes of the law, she was, in effect, distributing music. The losses to the record company were therefore potentially much higher. Your point about obscene profits within the music industry notwithstanding, I guess it's possible that her PC served 2848 other Kazaa peers ( 2250 / 0.79 ). 79 cents - the likely cost of buying the track as a download. That said, the article I read suggested that the $54,000 was a 'constitutional maximum' as opposed to being related in any way to the amount stolen. It seems that the record company is not going to let it lie and is appealing that decision further. Surely the biggest crime here though is that one of the 'stolen' songs was Rythym is Gonna get you by Gloria Estefan?

I completely agree that a $1.5M fine is over the top pap. And I also agree that the guy has an agenda. Not sure that his agenda is quite so altruistic as you suggest though. It seems to me that self-publicity is higher up his priority list. Anyway there is an important message buried somewhere in his rant. Both sides have achieved their objective - we're both talking about this. The mentalist behind the video has gained fame and spread the word and the RIAA has publicised the fact that copyright infringement will be pursued and eye-watering damages sought. It appears that in the case in question the damages have been reduced following multiple appeals to $54,000 ($2,250/song). Which means some form of justice has been served and the headline figure of $1.5M will serve as the real deterrent. What I find difficult to understand in our society today is that financial crimes sometimes seem to be far more important to the courts than crimes against the person.

It's an important issue Saint in Paradise but that video is scaremongering of the highest order. I am concerned over our extradition laws and I think New Zealand citizens should probably also be concerned too, but this video is simply ridiculous. The 'presenter' has some valid points but his stream of consciousness linking of discrete events and statistics into some form of coordinated attack on copyright infringers is totally cringeworthy. I only made it to 8 minutes. I stopped when the presenter conflated China's cooperation with the US over MegaUpload with the prediction that US citizens would now likely be extradited to China where they would face the death penalty. He did however suggest that the UK's extradition laws now make us look like the US's b*tch. I can see his point there.

The Importance of Being Honest?

Well I'd vote for Catch 22. Got the DVD for Xmas a few years ago. Big disappointment. How anyone can squander the wonderful raw material from the book on what is a confused (not in a good way) mess, is beyond me. Got to time for a remake.

I must admit that I used to be a devotee to this thread but only now dip in and out so my detailed knowledge of the goings on is not up-to-date. But... Why would it be in Andronikou's interest to come out with this news? And why now?

Very good!

I see the argument you're trying to make Manuel but I think you're dealing in apples and pears. The electronic photo frame does not want to be the replacement for other ways to enjoy 'photographs'. It's inventor/supplier is looking for you to buy it IN ADDITION to the product(s) it augments. It is not a replacement, instead I'd call it a "plus one" product. You don't buy the photo frame and from that moment never view a photo in any other way (PC screen, phone, tablet, paper, digital camera). This plus one nature determines the lower value the owner ascribes to the product, as well as its resultant limited market penetration. The Kindle looks to replace the book. It's value to the owner is then total in that it meets all of the user's 'book reading' needs. It doesn't augment the ownership of the existing books you own. It changes the way you will consume books so fundamentally that you will no longer use the existing books you own (except for the caveats mentioned below). The perceived value is therefore much higher than the electronic photo frame. Then if you're into product psychology, the Kindle gets under your skin in ways that the passive photo frame simply cannot. It travels with you, it sleeps with you, it tells you stories that make you laugh and make you cry. It teaches you things. It's interface rewards you by making you feel smart and superior to other Kindle users. This in turn reinforces your decision to buy the product and makes you visit football forums and become an advocate for it. You MIGHT be right that eBooks are a passing fad but the comparison with the electronic photo frame is flawed in my view.

More power to you Manuel. And personally I love nothing more than having a few beers with a mate whilst listening to vinyl on a really good turntable. But if I'm out and about, I'll happily have some psycho-acoustically raped version of the same music decoded into analogue and squirted into my ears over a pair of dodgy headphones. Horses and courses. I can see you point above, it's a personal thing and it's not for you. But I can't agree with your prediction that the eBook fad will be gone in ten years. I think you might be confusing your personal views on the subject with the clear trend in the market. I could of course be doing the same and time will tell if you're right of course, but personally I can't see this being just a fad even if I try to put aside my own positive view of the product and look at the evidence dispassionately. I see a future of declining revenue from traditional printed books and increased revenue from their e-equivalents. I see this leading publishers, who are looking to reduce their publishing costs, to making less and less new titles available in print. If I look at the satisfaction level for the Kindle devices, it's incredibly positive (4.6/5 from 10,000+ reviews). If I look at media consumption trends, I see that we are using mobile devices such as tablets and smart-phones increasingly to consume media of all shapes and sizes. If I look at the next generation's usage of traditional books - outside of school reference material, I see a generation that will instinctively turn to a browser or personal electronic device which will make them less likely to purchase a physical object. If I look at the green argument, I also see that generations to follow will now want to use the planet's resources for this sort of vanity. What replaces the book might not be the Kindle device we see today but something will replace it. I'm personally convinced of that. All of this from someone who truly, truly loves books for books' sake. Lastly, one really compelling reason I've found for Kindle ownership, and this almost certainly won't apply to you, is the ability to change font size of the Kindle. My mum is in her 80s and has read all her life and gave me a love of language and literature. She now has macular degeneration and cannot see to read a normal book. My Mum now uses a Kindle with enormous print and despite the fact that I sometimes get 'support' calls from her when she's lost her place in the book, it's been an absolute godsend. We lost my dad 18 months ago and without her Kindle and the books that have kept her mind bright and filled her long days with wonderful stories and characters, she says that she wouldn't be here today.

I must admit adriansfc I do really miss strolling round bookshops. It's still something I do if I'm looking for reference books or buying Xmas presents for others and I've always loved that process. Something about the physical book, its smell, the size, the shape, the colours and fonts of the covers I find intoxicating. But for me choosing my next book/series of books is now accomplished using the list of suggested books that Amazon presents you with - based on the books that other people have bought. Taking those recommendations together with the ratings that others have given, seldom fails to recommend a good book. What I do miss is the ability to jump genres and find new types of literature. A bookshop is great for that but now I use book sites including goodreads.com and the "What are you Reading" thread in the Arts forum on here. As for Waterstones' future I agree it's going to be tough for them. They didn't move with the market, but they never really had the opportunity out-flank Amazon in the eBooks market. And when you see the likes of Kodak filing for bankruptcy protection, you realise that when paradigms shift no established business is safe.

I agree with all of that Ken Tone - with a couple of qualifiers. I read a lot of fiction and also a lot of reference material (computing, marketing, business). I cannot read reference books on the Kindle. Something about the research process where I need to search, read, make a note, read some more, search again and cross reference; just doesn't work for me on the kindle. I need to be flicking pages. That said, I cannot read fiction on paper now. The whole ownership process of the Kindle is truly wonderful. The screen is as good as a book - in that you need light to read it and when you have light the contrast between character and page is very easy on the eye. Perhaps better than the book. The process of choosing books, buying books, reviewing books, sharing books with friends and family, making annotations, looking up word definitions,etc. is better than the paper equivalent. I even returned a faulty Kindle, 2 months after the warranty expired and got a brand new one free of charge. My only regret, and I had this moving from CD to digital too, is that my book collection has stopped growing. Mrs SaintBletch doesn't share this regret I should add. My prediction is that people will still collect books in years to come but they will consume them mostly electronically. It'll be akin to vinyl music in my opinion. This is a well understood model that happens with any discontinuous innovation (a new invention that forces you to completely change the way you use that thing), it's called the technology adoption lifecycle and we will always have 'laggards'.

It's an excellent series of books CHAPEL END CHARLIE. The books do tend to be very dark in subject matter but the dialogue and the humour, which is some of the best workplace banter I've read, make the books much lighter. McRae's sweetie eating boss Insch and his lesbian boss Roberta Steel are absolutely hilarious. It's one of the few series of books that I feel would make the transition to television. I'd love to see those characters on the box.

It's already happening norwaysaint. it's just an informal process. I understand the logic behind the question and can see the benefit of a simplified English. It's just that we don't make decisions like this solely with our head. Do we? When your daughter reaches the age where you feel she should be allowed to 'text' and 'facebook' people in English, you'll see that the process you ask about is already well underway. Just as it was with Chaucer and Shaw and Dickens and others. I'm comfortable for this to happen, mainly because like Canute (Knut to you I believe), I'm probably not going to be able to turn back the tide. But it will be a sad day if the 'correct' form for pronunciation and spelling isn't taught in schools. That correct form will of course itself slowly change and evolve over time too, as it has for hundreds of years. I am however a little uncomfortable with the speed of change we are seeing now due to accelerated global communication through social networking and American domination of film and media. The issue is that kids now learn written communication far more away from school than they do in school. On one level, it's great that they feel confident to put their thoughts down in writing even if it is via a phone's keypad, but I do wonder what our language will look like in 30 years without some control over the process. The pragmatist in me says that as long as we are understood then that is all that matters. But I can't help feeling that something really important will have been lost. And as for you questioning the point of the 'u' in colour. Well standing on the South Downs as I was on Saturday, looking out from Deacon Hill over the wonderful green fields towards Winchester and beyond, it hit me that I wasn't in America. It's not easy to convince yourself of that these days when our news 'outlets' broadcast 24 hour coverage of US primaries and caucuses; our televisions channels are full of US made programs and when our children talk about car hoods, slumber parties and school proms. I write copy for many American companies and before I hand a piece over for review, I have to go through a process of replacing an 's' with a 'z' and removing the odd 'u' too. And even though I recognize (sic) that this is very inefficient, I never write 'native' American-English to start with. Not an anti-American gibe, love the country and have many friends there. I'm just very proud to be English and day by day I find it more and more difficult to point to the things that define us as a distinct group of people. Defend that 'u' norwaysaint. Even if it did get there via those pesky French.

The forum is working fine. It's a feedback system alpine_saint. And you're ignoring the feedback. If you were out in Southampton discussing the match with strangers in a pub, you'd have been punched mercilessly in the face many times by now. If you had been punched, you'd either not go out in Southampton or you'd realise the company you keep doesn't like your behaviour and you would moderate it. I doubt that you'd seriously go out again and again having been punched again and again. But perhaps you would, because this is what you are doing on here. Your style and general negativity, not necessarily the substance of your argument is what I would imagine makes people 'attack' you.

Enjoyed A Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. A short, well written exploration of 60 year old man reflecting on his life, the choices he made, the relationships he's built and the impact of some emotional decisions he made long, long ago. Now reading The Return of Captain John Emmett following the recommendation on here. Only just started it but I can tell I'm in good hands.

I know what you mean pap. Great song. Great film. The first rule of advertising music is you do not talk about advertising music! ;-) I do know what you mean adriansfc, but as this was a completely different interpretation of a classic I feel less bad about it being abused and me being manipulated. It actually took me a couple of listens with the ad in the background to pick up what it was. It also gave me the excuse to bore my kids about the Pixies music again. What is it with teenagers and 'classic' music? I guess it's their job to tell their parents that their music is 'old'.

I agree that we can be too precious. Considering the potential of being offended rather than actually being offended in not the way to judge anyone. That said I have to agree with Turkish here, Diane Abbott's status as an elected public servant makes her different and means her communication is under close scrutiny. Also as Verbal pointed out, the timing of this gaff was particularly unprofessional. We, or perhaps more importantly, the members of her constituency and anyone directly effected by the office she holds, have every right to scrutinise her words and judge her. However, the decision to sanction her has to come from either her party superiors or her constituency (which I believe is 61% white) either at the next election, or by lobbying to remove her in this parliament. To my mind this should be the only determinant of whether she is still fit to do her job. It should have nothing to do with a witch hunt by the the media and the Westminster twitterati. Despite the fact that I wasn't in anyway offended by what she said, I am surprised to see her still in office. But I think that has more to do with Milliband keeping the bastards inside the tent p***ing out, rather than any offence she may or may not have caused. Politically, she is surely mortally wounded now.