Monoclinic

I saw Vicky and Christina does Barcelona. It was crap. How Penelope Cruz managed to scrape an Oscar from that pile of twaddle I'll never know. Although I guess it did need all the support it could get.

Wow, the properties of SPAM! NAP I hope you make a speedy recovery, perhaps you could replace SPAM with one bratwurst twice a day? Good to hear that the German system isn't perfectly efficient even if it did cause you some anxiety.

Having grown up within a family who more often than not work in education (and thus family friends too) I had the odd one or two sterotypes about the tories that have moulded my viewpoint shall we say. It wasn't just the miners and dockers that went on strike, the teaching profession did too. Albeit not as frequently, they had a duty to educate the next generation. However at university I was surprised to see the number of people who came from traditional working class backgrounds, perhaps the first in their family to go to university, that were staunch thatcherites. Northerners to boot. I don't think the voters ran along the poor/rich divide, if that were the case then either the poorer voters abstained or that the majority of the population were in fact "rich". Otherwise under that scenario, she couldn't have remained in power as long as she did.

I tend to agree somewhat, however, when some dense bitch of an untaxed driver knocked half my garden wall down, the PCSO did follow it up, and tried her best to get something done about it, however the perpetrator done a bunk from her flat across the road, and hadn't registered her car since buying it, so we couldn't track her down. But the PCSO phoned me several times and visited me three times to keep me updated as to what they were doing. The male PCSO on my estate, however, insists on scaring my 11 year old daughter by threatening her with prosecution if she keeps riding her bike on the path. I have told him in no uncertain terms that when he stops boy racers whizzing past my house at stupid miles an hour, that's when I'll stop my kid riding on the path. Until then, I will happily pay his 80 quid f*****g fine, a small price to pay for my child's head being intact. And there, Lardy, is the point. One PCSO doing what the police used to do anyway ( bear in mind she is geting around £16,000 a year to make a few calls and knock on your door) when they worked the beat and the other one, again on £16000 a year, threatening to prosecute an 11 year old child because he hasnt got the balls to go for the big fish, which he has very little power to do anyway. w**nkers, the lot of em! Yeh, these people that get paid 16 grand a year out of your council tax, to do pretty much f**k all, pisses you off doesn't it? Could be worse, they could be PCSOs doing a part-time correspondance course based at a Scottish university exempt of top-up fees. Flange, an internal rim (one of many translations albeit), is a great word by the way. Full marks.

Which one is your sister on the cover? That wouldn't be another case of Letch-inaires disease there would it Phantom?

I hope all these deals are on a buy or return basis. I mean if she did decide to negate on her side of the bargain and say miraculously recover, I hope these fools and their money will be easily reunited. Hear hear Raskie, I agree, if only there were a few workhouses left today they could start right away. Let's hope the poor children haven't had the misfortune to inherit the ESN gene.

As much as I wish that were true, I'd completely forgotten about football this week. Must pay more attention to Bellends. If only I could find one...... Bugger, me too, again. I blame the move to Tuesdays and not on having a case of the Peter Falks. (Scurries off to see the results)

I better not tell anyone about the seminar I attended today about, amongst other things, a megajoule laser (cue Dr. Evil) commisioned by a French nuclear energy authority. Now that they've stopped blowing up atolls they have had to turn their attention to blowing up Gironde. They hope to replicate some fusion reactions carried out in stars, reactions which, incidentally or not, are not too dissimilar to those which would be unleashed should a submarine or two collide and accidentally deploy their nuclear weapons. There, whoever said scientist's don't use plain English?

Win the game

Join the U.S. 'Foreign Legion' and live the American dream.

Controversially about 12,000 years ago. Anthropologist speak for some diminutive Hominid apparently. Perhaps Banshees is coming around to the idea that we are decendants of apes.

Of course it wasn't necessary, it is however an example of scientists being under pressure from lay people. No doubt they were traumatised by the outcomes of their work but having world class thinkers on both sides (Heisenberg for instance remained in Germany) they were fearful of the capabilities of the Germans. However, radiation does have its positive uses, smoke detectectors work on alpha radiation, countless isotope based medical tests and of course cancer therapies to which some of our hot topics are most grateful for. And to bring us on course, I think Ocky would have dire trouble running the DDP without technology. Scientists are made all too aware of their perception by the population in general and there is so much that makes us mad. Partly it is caused by a break down in communication, and that fault lies on both sides, I accept. When things get taken out of context, hyped up, exaggerated or misconstrued it niggles. The media frenzy over the LHC was completely OTT no doubt, I couldn't say the reception on my TV was terrible in France so I never watched it, couldn't seem to find the patafix to mount the aeriel on the side of the cave. In the words of The Philosopher. Peace.

Get caught playing hide the pink oboe in the Khyber pass whilst singing along to your favourite Kylie tune?

I have to stop myself from being rude here and resist the urge to tell you to f**k off and go buy a cave to live in. We do research in order to improve the quality of life. If you don't like it then please think twice before visiting a doctor, before stepping onto a train plane or bus, before turning on your washing machine, before reheating your dinner in a microwave...ad infinitum. We do research to design new materials with amazing electronic/optical/thermal... properties to make life easier, better, longer. If you don't like it then please think twice before turning on your DVD, MP3 player, Wii, TV, electronic data storage devices or before wearing clothes, (gore-tex, kevlar, viscose etc.). We do not apologise for bringing entertainment and comfort into your lives nor for making your life easier, if you wish to go back to sweeping chimneys, to shitting out of windows, to annual plagues then please do not let us stop you. Mankind has seen unprecedented progress in the last 200+ years. Where do you think we would be if some numpty were to have said to Faraday to stop fiddling with all those wires in case he blew up the world because he himself had received little formal education? In the dark that's bloody where. He was a phenomenal experimental scientist who achieved so much with so little. He, like many scientists, made his discoveries through curiosity, which incidentally may or may not have killed Schrödinger's cat. What about Marie Curie? She died as a consequence of her research but there had to be someone to go ahead so that we could benefit from knowing the advantages and the disadvantages of radiation. It is far better that such research is conducted in a highly regulated manner than by a bunch of renegade malevolent humans. Naturally, as the world moves on we have bigger and better tools with which to do our jobs. Yes, sometimes risks are involved but believe me they are well calculated. There are rigourous safety appraisals, risk assessments and legislation that has to be carried out which is more than can be said of the science of the Victorian era. And remember, you could always be run over by a bus (or pony and trap) tomorrow so what the hell, I say take that very very very slight risk that us mere human mortals could endeavour to create a black hole on a scale so very very very much smaller than the universe. Oh and if you despise everything that CERN stands for please leave your internet cable at the door on your way out. I wouldn't want you to be inadvertantly championing "one of theirs".

I don't know whether this is the curse of the ranter or whoever was claiming this board it now failsafe not touching wood on pronouncing said claim but I have received a strange popup window on clicking this thread. This popup has happened twice. Once when I went to read HCW's post then again when reading Phantom's. The popup window reads thus Then there are two boxes to enter username and password, but the window goes away if you press cancel. Seeing as I have nothing to do with tripod, lycos etc. I'll go with the curse. Perhaps we have a haunted thread and HCW has awoken the beast. Edit - Definitely this thread. The box appeared again to post. It hasn't happened on any other page nor site.

I wonder if she regretted doing that? No, Piaf told her not to.

Rats, I forgot about the league starting again. I've just spent yesterday getting up far too early to go to a meeting in Dunkerque. Over 7h on trains is not my idea of fun, neither was sitting in a meeting about a project I know little about and to the amusement of my boss he has decided to make a collegue who speaks little French in charge of this project and I bet you can guess what the language of the project is! So I guess his day was worse than mine. At least there were a few Ch'ti-isms to keep me entertained. I hope my boys were autonomous in beating the opposition. (Scurries off to check). I guess let battle commence and all that.

*Stop Press* AC/DC are planning to release a charity EP in support of the victims. 1. Shot down in flames 2. Get it hot 3. Heatseeker 4. Burnin' Alive With bonus hidden track This house is on fire for the first 1,000 copies burnt (I heard the DL cloakroom was getting a bit busy anyway)

Not comparable at all. Would more people visit if they hadn't gone around revolting? I doubt it. I wonder how important the current Royal family are to U.K. tourism? I would guess, not a lot. Off with their heads It's not just the Royal family, its the whole aristocracy and the patronage - the peerages, knighthoods, order of the f*****g bath etc. It should all be swept away and replaced by Blue Peter badges. They gave a gold one to the Queen didn't they? That shows just how much the system stinks. What did she do to earn it? A bit of ruling? Anyone could do that. She could be left on the throne but stripped of her gold Blue Peter badge and that would send a message to the world that the Brits mean business. Still wouldn't be a classless society though. Not every kid was an arselicking goody toeshoes worthy of a plastic badge with a ship on. Though I guess if I really wanted one I could buy one on ebay in much the same way as you can buy titles.

When she's not busy thinking that she's Peter Falk of course.

I am not a monarchist but... I am not a royalist and I do not agree with the ethos of one family chosen by God to rule, however being born into a powerful family is something which cannot be surpressed because as individuals we don't seem to have that power. The amount of Kennedys or Bushs in politics is not coincidental. They have generations of money behind them, and an old boys network to rely upon. Time and finding the odd oil reserve in our back gardens are not on our side thus they have far more chance of rising to such ranks than I could ever have were I to want for such statures. For these reasons the Bushs or the Kennedys are more of a ruling family than a European constitutional monarchy could ever be. But how can we overthrow powerful Western families? How can we overthrow Sheikhs? Can we even be arsed these days? I think as individuals, being born into first world standards of living governs our lives more than how our first world country is governed. I seem to have accumulated a few republics and constitutional monarchies now but I never think about how or if it has changed me. Both regimes seem to involve incessent amounts of bureaucracy no matter whether the little book that allows you to cross borders says subject or citizen. I feel indifferent to the royals but then I also think (and have said before) all politicians are a crock of sh*t, elected on hot air and empty promises. I'd have done better to vote for Arthur Pendragon than Oaten, he'd have caused less scandal. Oh and BTW I certainly wouldn't mind living in your country again. The first time (albeit too young to remember) was under Videla, then several family holidays and finally I worked there for three months about a decade ago, I digress. It's a beautifully diverse country from mountains to plains, waterfalls to deserts, jungles to glaciers, what's not to love? It is just a sad fact that it's been awfully mismanaged (see crock of sh*t comment ) but for every country that might offer a better lifestyle I'd say there are two that would be worse that didn't see the San Martin effect. However giving up the day job and living in that teepee village in Wales does at times seem very very appealling.

Well, I'll have to disagree with that statement as without the health of ones mind the body shall suffer. So, yes, I do understand the mind. Reality from the standpoint of a human being is dictated upon how they perceive life. With this vision of life, they pursue a desire or something. All of the mental disorders are usually chemical imbalances in the brain or something which relates to self confidence. Experience is an influence. Anyway, I figure this post was a gamble as some of these people here might not "get it". Is the probability that we'll "get it" about the same as the probability that you'll never have the opportunity to catch syphillus without paying?

Its not the first time that Kinnear has been taken ill, dodgy ticker and all that. Dave, how could you dis our Lord and Master Redknapp? Dis him yes, spell his name, no Yes, both of you have failed to spell Cnut. Oh looks like I have too. A bitter Saints fan.

Im disgusted that Clarkson apologised for calling Brown a one eyed Scottish idiot. Everybody knows that Brown is a f*****g idiot! Why apologise for telling the truth? PS: Carol Thatcher looks like a dude. I don't think it was quite so much the idiot part... more to do with his disability... I didn't realise being Scottish was classed as a disability these days.