Loz

*tumbleweed*

Going to a country that has suffered some of the biggest famines in modern times and then complaining about the food seems a trifle harsh.

I feel a Monty Python quote coming on... DENNIS: Oh king, eh, very nice. An' how'd you get that, eh? By exploitin' the workers -- by 'angin' on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic an' social differences in our society! If there's ever going to be any progress-- WOMAN: Dennis, there's some lovely filth down here. Oh -- how d'you do? ARTHUR: How do you do, good lady. I am Arthur, King of the Britons. Who's castle is that? WOMAN: King of the who? ARTHUR: The Britons. WOMAN: Who are the Britons? ARTHUR: Well, we all are. we're all Britons and I am your king. WOMAN: I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were an autonomous collective. DENNIS: You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship. A self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes-- WOMAN: Oh there you go, bringing class into it again.

> Otherwise we are just saying that hard work is taxed whereas good luck isn't - WTF? But, assuming you mean the Lib Dems ?1m mansion tax (rather than general assets), why should someone who purchased a house in London for 900K in 2009 that rises to ?1.1m be taxed, yet someone in Cambridge who bought for ?300k in 1995 and rises to ?900k not be taxed? Why tax some 'good luck' and not other? And where does 'good luck' start and smart purchasing cease? And again, how are we going to adjudge the value of houses on an annual basis. For instance, a house with four bedrooms is worth a lot less if you convert the smallest bedroom to a bathroom. Or knock a stud wall down to convert two bedrooms to one. Anyway, it would be a brave politician who decided that the papers covering a constant stream of pensioners being forced from their homes is really going to endear them to the electorate.

Good grief - most of Ethiopia is a high risk malaria zone. You want anti-malarials and full strength DEET-based repellent. Some pleasantly fragrances oils will be as useful as a paper umbrella in a monsoon.

fleur Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I am aware that the cash machine outside of the forest hill road co-op was tampered with last > Christmas,my friend's card was retained and used to obtain a large amount of money at various spots > around London that evening. Classic Lebanese Loop case. You friend's pin was either harvested from a camera or, more likely, someone shoulder surfing. As soon as your friend left the scene, the nearby scummer would have retrieved the card (and the loop) from the machine and armed with PIN and card headed out onto the town. Meanwhile, your friend probably went home thinking her card had been swallowed by the machine and not reported/cancelled it until next day.

But the beach volleyball is at Horse Guards Parade...?

Five working days is a little out of order, though.

Wasn't one of her TV shows called "Through The Cakehole"?

I've been around for ages and didn't realise that was there. So I've now pressed it and righted the situation!

Well, hilili, if you decide to transfer you allegiance to Dixons/Currys you are in for far, far more disappointment...!

My previous dealing with them have all been particularly good. To the point that they are my first port of call for any sort of whitegoods.

Laddy Muck Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > @ Loz: > An interesting point. But are you saying then, that when I wash my red-wine/curry/tomato-sauce > etc. stained white linen tablecloth at 95 degrees, that it is not the enzymes that are responsible > for the removal of the stain(s)? Probably not. Most bio washing powder enzymes work best at temperature of 30 to 60 degrees, and normal pH. Change the pH or heat them up too much and the enzymes denature - break down. Washing powder effectiveness comes from two sources: the surfactants and the enzymes. In non-bio powder, you only have the surfactants. So, I'd suspect that at 95 degrees you would have probably killed off any enzymes and would be relying on the surfactant effect only (plus the effect of very hot water). Since biological washing powder contains less surfactants (as the enzymes are expected to do a lot of the work), you'd probably be better off with a non-bio at this temp.

Apart from the issue of liquidity, the issue is that taxation of income/gain is fair and easy to calculate. The easiest way to think of this is the 'how would it affect me'. What are most people's assets: house, car, house contents, savings. Now you might own an housing asset worth, say, ?400k. Would you be OK with a tax on that value, even though you are also mortgaged to the eyebrows? How about your old car - let's say ?4000 worth - that gets taxed as well. And how do you value an asset? Are the contents of my house worth thousands (which is what it would cost me to replace) or practically nothing (which is what I could sell them for?). It's easy to value an asset when you buy/sell it, not so easy when it just sitting there. Now LadyD will be along any moment and say something like 'but we will make those sorts of personal assets exempt', but the issues of value for other assets are still the same, plus once you start creating exemptions, in come the accountants to exploit loopholes. As for taxing savings... well, disincentivising saving is not a great idea, especially when it comes to most people's biggest saving asset: their pension. Are we really going to chip away at people's pension pot? Finally consider this: I work for a company in the FTSE250, worth well over ?1B at market capitalisation. I'm just your average employee on a normal salary. Yet, I probably personally own more assets than my company does. Why? Because it leases *everything*.

maxxi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > LM - the bio powder solution (see what I did there?) works as the enzymes in the powder eat > away at the burnt sugar but if seriously affected it may take time. Ladygooner's simmering may work > if you remember not to leave the pan alone. Though I suspect most washing powder enzymes probably work best at about 40 degrees. Heating them to boiling point may render them useless.

I've not done serious photography since school, but IIRC you can only control depth of field if you can control the aperture, which is beyond most compact cameras.

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maxxi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Alan Medic Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > > A good scrubber will have a sparkling jam pan. > ...and you'll be able to see your face in it. ... and maybe even someone else's.

Also, having said all that in my last post DO check it was not you and you have forgotten. Especially with the takeaways, sometimes the address on the transaction is not necessarily the address of the place your purchased stuff. PS Damian: Lebanese loops are a different fraud. They put a piece of plastic in the card slot so it does not return your card. I'm assuming the OP still has his/her card.

The banking code says that "if you are a victim of card fraud you are protected through legislation, which states that you will not be liable for losses unless you have acted fraudulently or without reasonable care." That is why they asked you those questions. Always, always cover your hand when you type your pin. The scammers attach skimmers to the card slot and small cameras to the underside of the top part of the machine. With that info, they can clone your card with the mag stripe detail (cloning the chip is still, as far as I know, not possible). Ask your bank to confirm whether the transactions were chip-and-pin transactions, magnetic stripe and pin, magnetic stripe and signature or card-not-present transactions. If they are chip-and-pin, you may have a fight on your hands as banks still believe the system to be secure. For the rest, you should get your money back. Get back onto Lloyds - don't let them fob you off. Either way, ask them to cancel the card and reissue you a new one. I'd also get in touch with Experian and Equifax and get a copy of your credit report (don't sign up for their expensive schemes, get the statutory reports (?2 each) from the links I have put on each company's name). The fraudsters may try to do other stuff in your name - these reports should highlight anything bad.

katie1997 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Do you need a new one or is there life left in the old one yet? ... and what about the jam pan? :))

19) There's a surprising number of people who know how to make a smutty joke out of the phrase 'jam pans'. And 'privet hedges'.

I am happy coexisting with must insects and bugs. Any moths or spiders or whatever that get into the house are escorted out again in a glass and put back into the garden. But snails are the enemy. If I had a bucket of them I'd be adding salt and then disposing. Sorry - take no prisoners.

7) At all times you should try to use the following in-jokes: clowns, crushed and devalued, Waitrose, fois gras 8) Posting a glowing review of a local business as your first post will attract much suspicion.

That must be a Tim Vine joke.