Jeremy

Long post... too much for my tiny brain... point taken about how the action of the govt can stimulate or depress the economy. [ we've been looking at GPU processing and Cuda... SciComp have a very nifty product in that space... but at the moment we run a datasynapse grid over 200 8-way servers, plus desktop scavenging. This lets us run something like 10,000 simulations over the entire book. ]

"more discerning as to who it let in"? ::o

No false modesty here... economics is not my area (but ask me to how efficiently value a derivative portfolio over a grid of 2000 CPUs, then I might be able to help). Personally I cannot see how the public sector grow without funds being made available to it. The same way that a business cannot grow if all it's customers are skint, so aren't buying their products any more. The stimulus has to originate somewhere, it can't just magaically appear. IMO the stimulus is going to be the same thing which got us into this mess in the first place - the city. But it will be commission on client business, rather than banks taking on risk.

I'm not denying it Mockers, just asking for an explanation in Layman's terms (which I fear is not exactly your strength, despite best intentions)! Aren't public sector organisations essentially internal services which are ultimately paid for by the the private sector (via taxes)? Have I misunderstood the concept of economic growth?

Music-wise, give me V any day. Sure it's a generic line-up, but most people will find at least a couple of bands they like. But I heard that it's full of lager boys and annoying teenagers. I strongly suspect that the Big Chill lineup is largely comprised of amateur musicians - nothing wrong with that in theory, but I feel a bit ripped off paying full price for the ticket. There are usually one or two token chart acts, as well as a couple of washed up one-hit-wonders trudging round the summer circuit. And a load of guys you've never heard of twiddling with synths, laptops and turntables. I briefly looked at this year's lineup, and the only name which jumped out at me was Max Romeo. The people there are generally a good bunch though (even if they are smug, guardian-reading, pseudo eco-warriors) and it's a nice size for a festival.

Moos Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Would it be relevant to point out that the hole is > the nicest part of a doughnut? Only if you don't like doughnuts and prefer eating nothing. I'm afraid I'm not in agreement with you on this one Moos.

I am not an economist, so perhaps you could explain in layman's terms. If public spending is increasing as a result of increased tax revenue, then surely that is an indication of growth, not a source of growth? And if it is increasing as a result of borrowing, then that is in effect artificial growth... it may benefit employment and possibly GDP (not sure how this is calculated?) but it's obviously not sustainable.

alphacalifragelistic Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > In other words, the public sector is unlikely to > be a source of economic growth in the near future Under what circumstances could the public sector ever be a source of economic growth?

Not this year. I like the atmosphere of the festival, but I only usually like about 10% of the music there.

trainers/"sneakers"

Yep, house prices are not a factor (unless you're a property investor, or you plan to sell up and leave). But it would be nice to have something better than the current half-hourly service we have to put up with in the evenings.

GM, pesticides, fertilisers... I don't have a problem with any of it in theory. With the pesticides and fertilisers, there is of course an issue of environmental impact. But as far as putting it in my gob, I couldn't care less.

"triposterate"?

I expect the appearance of the cows and sheep will coincide with the building of the station - as well as the freezing over of hell.

I also know a girl who had "PRINCESS" tatooed across her back when she was 17.

Beckham's sleeve tattoo isn't really to my taste - but he's a grown man and he knows what he's doing. And he's in a position to do pretty much what he wants, without any repercussions. But I used to know kids, 18 years old or so, with both sleeves done, huge flesh tunnels in each ear, etc. I always thought it was tragic that these kids are doing things with their bodies which are going to severely limit their options later in life.

rankinroger, I loved the original Beat stuff, but you should have never reformed... the new material sucks, what's all that stuff about rollerblading??

I wonder how admin found it was a fake? Surely the only way would be if the IP address was shared with another login. So whoever it was is possibly still amongst us...

I knew someone with an anchor tat, with "The Sea" written beneath it.

Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival

Marmora Man could use his antique truncheon or one of his swords (as mentioned on another thread). That would do the trick! I do agree that if more people stood up to muggers, etc, then less of them would be doing it. In theory it would work, but in practise it ain't gonna happen and I'm not even sure I'd advocate it. Especially if there's a weapon involved or if you're outnumbered.

Interesting Loz talks about reading the paper on the bus. I really couldn't do that, especially with all the rocking back and forth they do (is that a problem with the brakes, or are the drivers just not very good?). I'd be puking within minutes.

I didn't see DM down there, Red Devil was with some large builder bloke, covered in tattoos. Oh... hang on...

Has anyone noticed that the published journey times to London Bridge have got longer in recent years? The fast trains used to be down as 9 minutes, the regular trains were 12 minutes. Now it's down as 11 and 14. (I don't think the train takes any longer, more that the old timetable was over-optimistic).

Could be a bracing sprint through the walkway. Maybe you could run over peoples heads, crocodile dundee style?