mockney piers

I have to say I disagree there was any cheating. I thought the fielder looked up after his acrobatic save, to see bell and morgan wandering off and assumed tea must have been called, then was beckoned and a rather opportunistic wicket taken. They had a frustrating day and the Bell's wicket was crucial to their chance of a victory, I can't say as I blame them, and was surprised when the decision was reversed. Mind you I can't help but remember the last time everyone farted on about sportsmanship and the spirit of the game was when a certain Hansie Cronje magnanimously declared early to give England a bit of a chance.... :-/

I never suspected that quite so many conversations would revolve around pooh, it's various qualities, consistency and regularity!!

If the US is plunged into turmoil then Obama is screwed for the presidency next year. Could they be really that cynical and short termist? I can't believe Obama isn't managing to get the message across that this huge debt is thanks to Bush's tax cuts and spending spree.

(!) || | is what i say to our batsmen. Get us all hopeful at lords then....

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Thanks for supportive messages. Sorry to unburden in this way. As you were people...ooh look a shiny penny ;)

She worked in the NHS for years and her brother was a consultant surgeon so she's pretty switched on. I can see her point of view on the chemo, but given that 3/4 of the nodes taken were cancerous, some localised radio would seem to be a sensible way forward. It's not that she's not aware, I think she's basically in denial that anything's wrong and has convinced herself that it'll all be ok. That wanker of a naturopath who's 'treating' her isn't exactly helping as it seems he convinced her she's doing the right thing.

XKCD's latest post isn't really very funny http://xkcd.com/931/ and to be honest practically gave me an anxiety attack. To cut a long story short my mother has recently undergone surgery for breast cancer, biopsies show it's spreading to the lymph nodes, but she's refusing further treatment, either radio or chemotherapy because she doesn't want to 'poison' her body. Instead she's opting for a 'naturopathic' approach, ie living a healthy lifestyle (she was doing this anyway and it didn't stop her developing the damn cancer in the first place, I can't see how it's going to stop it from spreading to somewhere crucial and probably painful), eating red things, taking *struggles not to scream* homeopathic remedies and getting well meaning fools to waft their hands over her in an encouraging fashion. Which all adds up to she's going to die isn't she. Has anyone had a similar experience, is there any way to get her to see sense or should I respect her wishes?

very funny :D

I remeber reading that alcohol irritates the pyloric sphincter causing it to stay shut. You absorb alcohol quite slowly when it's in the stomach. Eventually it will open and let it all in at once in to the duodenum where it absorbs much faster. The stronger the alcohol the more likely that this will happen. This struck such a chord when I read it because it seemed to explain that express train whack of drunkenness you get after a few cocktails or G&Ts. This also explains why you should eat food before drinking as that prevents the irritation, and why Champagne (or drinking through a straw) gets you drunk quicker as the bubbles can apparently tease the sphincter (tee hee) open. Anyway, none of this helps with your original question, which I have to say I've often pondered myself. Southern comfort is the worst sort of drunkenness there is. Normal whisky I find a bit depressive if you have more than a few (its the one drink I'm really good at managing moderation with). Cider makes me go a bit loopy in a way that beer doesn't really do too.

yeah, if city is landing west -> east then planes approaching form the east, say the rotterdam or amsterdam klm flights, do a big loop through south east london then fly along the thames and do a sort of stukka dive after flying over canary wharf. It's great fun, and I've actually seen people scream before!!

yeah, it's probably the wind blowing right to left ;)

Franks makes it to the london review of breakfasts http://londonreviewofbreakfasts.blogspot.com/2011/07/franks-cafe-and-campari-bar-peckham.html I've yet to make it to Franks, but I'll definitely give it a go this year. Anyone know when it goes on until?

Marvellous. How did it go, how were you for that matter? Come on details man, weight?

New rules come into regulation today that flights can only be undertaken during the hours of darkness as the ultraviolet spectrum of sunlight effect on the C02 emissions of aeroplanes has a much greater impact on the environment. Without drastic action like this we will fall well short of emission targets set by the Kyoto protocols. Good luck getting a good nights' sleep tonight is all I can say!!!

It is more complicated (especially as prices in shops don't include some of the taxes), but they actually have less tax despite having more taxes. In the US they're much more resistant to raising taxes than we are over here hence why the focus is currently on what is being cut. Generally Brits are ok with a tax increase if they think the money will be spent wisely, though after new labour..... Here's a breakdown of relative burdens from here http://www.photius.com/rankings/tax_burden_country_ranks_2009.html (2009, hence the 15% vat rate in uk) with the overall picture being As you can see NY is quite high but texas is just cheap as chips! rank country overall corp pers wealth emp ss pers ss vat 1? France1? 167.9? 34.4? 52.1? 1.8? 45.0? 15.0? 19.6? 2? China? 159.0? 25.0? 45.0? 0.0? 49.0? 23.0? 17.0? 3? Belgium? 156.4? 34.0? 53.5? 0.0? 34.8? 13.1? 21.0? 4? Sweden? 150.7? 26.3? 61.0? 0.0? 31.4? 7.0? 25.0? 5? Netherlands? 146.5? 25.5? 52.0? 0.0? 18.8? 31.2? 19.0? 6? Austria? 144.5? 25.0? 50.0? 0.0? 31.5? 18.0? 20.0? 7? Italy? 139.4? 31.4? 42.3? 0.7? 35.0? 10.0? 20.0? 8? Argentina? 136.3? 35.0? 35.0? 1.3? 27.0? 17.0? 21.0? 9? Finland? 136.1? 26.0? 53.5? 0.0? 27.0? 7.6? 22.0? 10? Greece? 127.1? 24.0? 40.0? 0.0? 28.1? 16.0? 19.0? 11? Brazil? 126.3? 34.0? 27.5? 0.0? 28.8? 11.0? 25.0? 12? Spain? 125.6? 30.0? 43.0? 0.0? 30.2? 6.4? 16.0? 13? Hungary? 124.0? 19.0? 38.0? 0.0? 27.0? 17.0? 23.0? 14? Portugal? 123.3? 26.5? 42.0? 0.0? 23.8? 11.0? 20.0? 15? Japan? 122.6? 41.0? 50.0? 0.0? 13.7? 12.9? 5.0? 16? Germany/Berlin? 120.5? 30.0? 47.5? 0.0? 12.0? 12.0? 19.0? 17? Slovenia? 119.2? 20.0? 41.0? 0.0? 16.1? 22.1? 20.0? 18? Turkey? 118.0? 20.0? 35.0? 0.0? 30.0? 15.0? 18.0? 19? Poland? 116.0? 19.0? 32.0? 0.0? 20.0? 23.0? 22.0? 20? Norway? 116.0? 28.0? 40.0? 1.1? 14.1? 7.8? 25.0? 21? USA/NY City? 115.4? 46.2? 45.5? 0.0? 7.7? 7.7? 8.4? 22? Ukraine? 113.6? 25.0? 15.0? 0.0? 50.0? 3.6? 20.0? 23? India? 113.4? 42.0? 34.0? 1.0? 12.0? 12.0? 12.4? 24? Mexico? 112.5? 28.0? 28.0? 0.0? 38.7? 8.0? 15.0? 25? Switzer/Zurich 111.2? 27.1? 42.6? 0.7? 17.1? 16.1? 7.6? 26? Denmark? 110.5? 25.0? 51.5? 0.0? 1.0? 8.0? 25.0? 27? Luxembourg? 108.8? 28.6? 39.0? 0.0? 13.8? 12.4? 15.0? 28? Malta ? 108.0? 35.0? 35.0? 0.0? 10.0? 10.0? 18.0? 29? United Kingdom? 106.8? 28.0? 40.0? 0.0? 12.8? 11.0? 15.0? 30? Romania? 106.7? 16.0? 16.0? 0.0? 39.2? 16.5? 19.0? 31? Germany? 106.3? 15.8? 47.5? 0.0? 12.0? 12.0? 19.0? 32? Slovakia? 105.6? 19.0? 19.0? 0.0? 35.2? 13.4? 19.0? 33? Canada/Ontario? 105.5? 32.0? 46.4? 0.0? 7.4? 6.7? 13.0? 34? Israel? 104.9? 26.0? 46.0? 0.0? 5.4? 12.0? 15.5? 35? USA/Illinois? 101.6? 42.3? 38.0? 0.0? 7.7? 7.7? 6.0? 36? Azerbaijan? 100.0? 22.0? 35.0? 0.0? 22.0? 3.0? 18.0? 37? Czech Republic? 99.0? 20.0? 15.0? 0.0? 34.0? 11.0? 19.0? 38? Australia? 96.5? 30.0? 45.0? 0.0? 9.0? 2.5? 10.0? 39? Estonia? 95.5? 21.0? 20.0? 0.0? 33.5? 3.0? 18.0? 40? Ireland? 94.8? 12.5? 44.0? 0.0? 10.8? 6.0? 21.5? 41? Lithuania? 94.0? 20.0? 15.0? 0.0? 31.0? 9.0? 19.0? 42? Vietnam? 93.0? 25.0? 35.0? 0.0? 17.0? 6.0? 10.0? 43? Uzbekistan? 93.0? 21.5? 25.0? 0.0? 24.0? 2.5? 20.0? 44? USA/Texas? 92.6? 36.0? 35.0? 0.0? 7.7? 7.7? 6.3? 45? South Korea? 91.7? 24.2? 36.3? 0.0? 14.0? 7.2? 10.0? 46? Latvia? 89.1? 15.0? 23.0? 0.0? 24.1? 9.0? 18.0? 47? Indonesia? 89.0? 30.0? 35.0? 0.0? 12.0? 2.0? 10.0? 48? United States? 85.3? 35.0? 35.0? 0.0? 7.7? 7.7? 0.0? 49? Malaysia? 85.0? 25.0? 27.0? 0.0? 12.0? 11.0? 10.0? 50? Philippines? 84.3? 30.0? 32.0? 0.0? 7.0? 3.3? 12.0? 51? South Africa? 84.0? 28.0? 40.0? 0.0? 1.0? 1.0? 14.0? 52? Thailand? 84.0? 30.0? 37.0? 0.0? 5.0? 5.0? 7.0? 53? New Zealand? 80.9? 30.0? 37.0? 0.0? 0.0? 1.4? 12.5? 54? Kazakhstan? 79.0? 30.0? 10.0? 0.0? 27.0? 0.0? 12.0? 55? Singapore? 78.5? 17.0? 20.0? 0.0? 14.5? 20.0? 7.0? key corp - corporate pers - personal emp - employer ss - social security

In short nobody really knows, but it probably boils down to a bit of lots of reasons and a bit of luck. Competition with us may have been a factor, breeding rates, adaptability to change, levels of tool usage, climate changes were almost certainly factors, we came pretty close to extinction ourselves during one of the hotter drier eras. There are indications that there may have been interbreeding with neanderthals, so they may not be entirely gone but live on in bits of our dna. Hell, lets chuck fire and omnivorousness in, who knows!!

well, they are anagrams!!!

"This freed us from the tyranny of a hunter/forager lifestyle and fostered farming and a move away from feast/famine in early human society. I believe that this was the secret of our success" This is bit deterministic isn't it. All our hominid contemporaries used fire and yet they all died out, so fire as the reason for our success must be incomplete at best.

Funnily enough it was the opposite in Spain after the Madrid attacks. The government knew it would be damaging to them with impending elections, to have islamist terrorism as a result of hugely unpopular involvement in Iraq, so went to great lengths to insist it was good old ETA. The electorate told them what they thought of them a couple of weeks later. Agree you're way off the mark LD, well, maybe Glenn Beck might agree with you. Jeremy's right, the discussions about his sanity are because it looks like the work of someone who's insane. We've all seen these things on the news before, Hungerford, Dunblane and almost countless Columbine style shootings over the pond, and this one seems so very different firstly for the apparent political aspect, but more for lack of hallmark shootouts, suicides etc.

I remember a chap on a bike lazily riding past the bus stop I was at and plucking the phone from a nearby lady's hand as she was texting into it. Oddly I got the impression he didn't care one way or another about whether he wanted the phone, it was more like a point of principle. He even gave her a shake of the head and a tut as he pedalled off with a look that said 'seriously love, what do you expect'. It's sad that that's how we have to live but Jeremy's advice is spot on.

His lawyer has said he's insane and I believe he's receiving psychological testing. This doesn't strike me as a psychotic person, more like a psychopathic one, ie one with a total lack of conscience or care about consequences, rather than a chap struggling with the normal reality for whatever reason. I have to say that photo of him in the police car looking quiet and untroubled by what he's done does suggest to me a degree of psychopathy (not that I'm any expert of course) and it did damn well give me the chills. Usually this sort of thing comes from a long festering anger boiling over and/or an acute psychotic episode and is usually followed by suicide once the sheer import of what they've done sinks in. This chap apparently isn't bothered at all. Whatever it is it ain't normal!!

DJ, it's true we are overdue a mass extinction event by some millions of years, but the timescales of we're due one soon are pretty huge, I wouldn't hit despair or start building that deep bunker just yet. You might want to think about signing up your great grand kids for the first near light speed deep space exploration vessels though!

are they from japesters putting tags around their messages?

The US government is becoming a giant ponzi scheme, skimming money off the top to pay vast sums for things they can no longer afford. If they resolve this debt crisis they really need to look at ways of bringing down national debt else thy'll lumber from one crisis into another. Strafer's right in that this isn't actually a financial crisis, as long as people are willing to buy US debt they can keep it going, but like the rest of us there are going to be some severe cuts in order to bring this debt under control. You can bet your bottom dollar (baddam tish) that the first thing to go will be all the medicare stuff Obama fought so hard to push through. These wars are costing a pretty penny too. But if they do default then government will struggle to function, they will continue to struggle to pay their debts, any new issues will have to be at much higher rates of interest, there will be another banking crisis considering the sheer levels of US debt around the world, the US economy will suffer meaning all our economies will suffer. Even republican cycnicism won't dare face the consequences of that, but they'll make Obama pay that's for sure. Ooh, it's like a sort of domestic, financial cuban missile crisis isn't it!! I posted this elsewhere but it's a nice illustration of the size of the debts the US faces. http://www.wtfnoway.com/