civilservant

>It did cost something - resource. Money is not everyting - time was taken to "save" the lives of 2 or 3 >inconsequential birds - thousands of which die every year as a natural consequence of the natural world. Some logical fallacies here! It sounds like you are blaming the pigeons for the thoughtless pollarding that caused the wasted resource. A bit like the 'they were asking for it' argument. What about the jobsworths who actually did the work? As for 'inconsequential', well... Humans are animals that distinguish themselves from the rest of the natural world by taking responsibility for their actions and by being humane, to animals as well as to other people. Some of the people on this thread seem to undertsand this better than others.

What The Minkey said

Deterrence, yes - Lowlander's found that the wee solution works Cruelty as well, Green Goose? You are a sadist - and no, that is not a compliment

echo Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Yes! My eldest has now got the pox, exactly 2 > weeks after her little sister... ahem! you don't really mean that do you? :-) 'pox' on its own, without a qualifier such as 'chicken-' or 'small-' or 'cow-', usually means syphilis... Little children seem to suffer much less with chicken pox than their older siblings. I found that emollients worked better to reduce itchiness than witch hazel and other standard remedies.

Whooping cough has certainly not been wiped out, not in this country or anywhere - if it had been, there wouldn't be any need to vaccinate against it. My original post was triggered by the fact that I'm actually recovering from a bout of whooping cough myself. I heard that it's sometimes referred as the 100 days cough and sure enough I'm still coughing and hacking and phlegmy (yuk!) weeks later. Luckily for me, it's not a killer cough as I'm too old... But a very good reason to ensure that the little ones have had their protective jabs. So glad that my daughter hasn't caught it off me. PS DDul, thanks for the correction! it is indeed DTaP in this country

There is currently a major outbreak of whooping cough (pertussis). A very good reason to make sure that babies especially have had their jabs. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19013016 "In the UK, the whooping cough vaccine is given to babies after two, three and four months. A booster dose is given just before primary school. Babies are not fully protected until the third jab. It is in the following years that protection is at its peak then it gradually fades. It means you can get whooping cough as an adult even if you had the infection or the jabs as a child. Prof Adam Finn, from University of Bristol, said: "The current vaccination programme has reduced whooping cough in children, but also pushed it back into older age groups. Immunity due to vaccine does not last as long as immunity due to infection so as the number of people who have had whooping cough in the past falls, population immunity falls and rates go up." In other words, it's always going to be in the community, so make sure babies are protected by ensuring they have their DTP vaccines and boosters.

Something for just about everyone. The whole thing with the torch was just splendid. I was completely expecting to be underwhelmed, in spite of Danny Boyle being in charge - very pleased to be proved wrong! reaction from most people aged under 13 - the best bit was Mr Bean reaction from most people full stop - not Macca AGAIN! And good on Her Maj to abseil in - my daughter thinks that she really did, and I'm not so sure she didn't myself! (I too wondered about the dodgy German salute when the German team came on)

Now had time to do a bit more digging: "Since the demise of the Milk Marketing Board in 1994, milk prices have been set in contracts drawn up between supermarkets, processors and farmers. The National Farmers Union estimates that it costs its members 29p to produce a litre of milk. In the late spring the three main processors, Dairy Crest, Arla and Robert Wiseman, reduced the price they would pay per litre to 27p. They now propose to reduce that by a further 2p. Combined with rising feed costs, reduced commodity prices, the drought in the US and the floods in the UK, dairy farmers expect to lose between 5p and 6p on every litre. Earlier this month, 2,000 dairy farmers attended a rally in Westminster to bring attention to the situation. The following weekend they picketed branches of Asda, Morrisons and the Co-operative, which pay less than Tesco, Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose. ... However, in a sign of some movement from the retailers, who skim a healthy profit of around 14p a litre, the Co-op on Friday said it would increase the amount it pays to 29 pence a litre from August." So that rise brings the Co-oP more into line with the big four - so it's skimming pretty much the same as Sainsbury's 14ppl now.

Charlotte86 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > but is beautiful,clean and the locals are some of the friendliest > people I have met. Brussels is lovely and has some great historical > landmarks. But if you can fit it in with your > route I can?t recommend enough Bruges. Aachen was > ok, but not a scratch on Bruges. There's possibly a very good reason why Belgium is not the holiday destination of choice. The Belgium in which I lived in the early '00s was one in which Brussels was filthy, and the locals would take you or leave you on their own terms, although people in the South (Wallonia) are more friendly and laid-back than the Flemish in the North. There's some interesting stuff in Brussels, but nothing terribly historic - not compared to what you'd find in Germany and France for sure. The most interesting cities are Ghent and Antwerp - Bruges is a bit of a fake, although quite charming. and Aachen is OK.

Agree that a lot of it is very inventive, but I do wish they (teenagers) would be a little more discriminating with what they do take on board. Speaking about 'jailing it', I saw a teenage boy shuffling along half bent over down the street and felt really sorry for him and his handicap. Until I realised that his belt was around the top of his thighs and that painful shuffle was the only way that he could keep his trousers on and walk at the same time! Here's one man's view on 'saggy pants' -

I've had to correct both written and spoken use of 'of' for 'have', for example as in 'would of' instead of 'would have'. It comes from school and peer-group usage. I've also noticed a lot of posters on EDF making the same mistake. Lots of kids of all colours and classes use 'street' and lots of teenage boys, of all colours and classes, 'jail it' with their trousers hanging low under their bums. Goodness knows what teenage girls do, no doubt I'll find out soon enough... I couldn't help noticing when the teenage daughter of friends fell over while bouncing on a trampoline that she had no knickers on...

I believe they lined the streets on Kristallnacht and in Nuremberg too

To my knowledge, only the Co-Op and Morrisons have taken action as a result of the dairy farmers' protest so far http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18936539 I don't know what their baseline was against which they raised their reimbusremesnt - but Sainsbury and other big supermarkets remain conspicuously silent on the issue

I quite like the oeuvre of J Cash, but if someone insisted on tootling Ring of Fire on a trumpet at 1 in the morning, I would feel rather upset. Even AM might start feeling that people were being happy at his expense... I'm definitely with BigED on this. He was there first, so he's def entitled to feel unhappy at the prospect of noise till 2 am several days of the week. This is not serving the local community in any way - people need their sleep! As for Lishyloo, is this the same poster who, just last week, described the Great Exhibition thus:"The pub is pile of crap poor beer poor food and poor service"?

fade to black - metallica

AND the weather's on the turn - for the better!

full marks to the new St Pancras station also: the Great Exhibition that used to be the CPT even, dare I say it, the Actress that used to be the Uplands little ray of sunshine, me!

what dg2 said good luck with the music, suniil's daughter!

Places that used to be good but are now crap - 39 posts so far Places that used to be crap but are now good - 14 posts, not counting this one Is everywhere going to hell in a handcart? Or is ED not populated by little rays of sunshine?

here's one we love - a slow-cooked Japanese mackerel dish by Hugh Fearlessly-Eating-All http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/japanese-slow-cooked-mackerel-07-11-08 It's actually very quick to make. Once you've gobbled up all the fish, the left-over juices are lovely on plain rice

the Horniman conservatory would get my vote. I'm very keen on the Festival Hall as well, but doubt if you would be allowed to have a private party with cake and candles there.

The last line is not rude towards your daughter. It seems to be aimed at the parent. I think oimissus is right about the reason why. School trips, especially the 'big' one at Year 6, are aimed at helping children develop independence and resilience and are important in teaching them about how to get on with their peers. Why do you think that a week away from music practice will hurt?

Mine increased in frequency but declined slightly in virulence over the years until I was having 24-hour migraines twice a month when peri-menopausal GPs were no help at all, with some even questioning the link to hormones! The best thing I could do was take pain-killers in anticipation, and try to sleep them off - not easy when working full-time. I would have benefited a lot from the advice on this thread. Thankfully they have now ceased, and I feel 'normal' again. Hormones are over-rated IMO!

Who was Akerman? Sorry no idea. However the new Health Centre is on Patmos Road which is probably named because it leads to the church of St John the Divine i.e. St John of Patmos To help your blue-plaque pilgrimage, here's a guide to plaques commemorating Music Hall and Variety artistes http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Plaques/MusicHallArtistesCommemorativePlaques.htm See also this about the history of the local area http://www.ideal-homes.org.uk/a-z-articles The maps of the local area are fascinating and show how quickly DV and ED transformed from open fields to suburb within a very few decades

having a good old grouch on the EDF