louisiana

Brendan, it does indeed, but I fear familiarity=boredom and it would send anyone to sleep

HonaloochieB Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Well done Loisiana for giving Blur the title for > the live LP of their forthcoming reunion shows. Hona, that was the only Blur album I ever bought, back in the day, before they got super-big :-S I do rib one of their number that Radiohead are my fave band B) But it is/was a very good title...

Last night around 8.50pm I was clearly being marked by two youths in Kennington Road (northern end, western side). I ended up swivelling around, turning about rapidly and jumping out into the road twice. Having been mugged three times in the past, and having covered street crime as a journalist (including accompanying police on the their rounds and interviewing them about street crime), I do think I have a feel for such situations. I have to say I've never experienced any such situation in ED. It's a fairly safe place. Obviously anyone at a cash machine is vulnerable, but that's true wherever you are. There are countries where cash machines are mostly in bank lobbies, but these tend to end up being dosser hang-outs, and I've also seen the fairly bloody results of muggings inside bank lobbies so I'm not quite sure how much real security they provide. It's really best to draw cash in daylight hours, and preferably in the bank if the amount is large.

Ho hum, the IMF has basically saying the Treasury assumptions are hyper-unreal. So all these figures are, well, fiction.

LostThePlot, I have before now spent more than an hour on hold to SC, only to have the call automatically dumped when the hold went past their teatime, being told to 'call back tomorrow'. It reminded me of queueing for sausages in eastern Europe in the 1980s... So, it could be worse. :-S See my post today on Modern Life Is Rubbish. I didn't include the public sector as going on any longer would have bored people into their graves.

This is indeed perfect advice. :) I have a lovely bottle of Mas Collet (Montsant, Catalunya) open on my kitchen table as I type. Thank the lordy lord - and I speak as an unbeliever - for Ocado. They always deliver when they say they will, and always call my mobile if they're thinking of delivering early, and are just all wonderful human beings, the lot of them. "Mwhoooaw". Them and Green & Blue. The other highlight supplier of the week/month has been Screwfix. Electrics and lights and and that jazz. Brilliant people, efficient, informed, do what they say. Really impressed. Yes, it's not easy to make a corporate work, but it can be done.

Marmora Man Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- snip > > I estimate this would save, over 5 years, ?50.6bn > + non Defence spending of ?65bn. Which is well on > the way to closing the black hole created by this > government. It would hurt - but it's better than > yesterday's budget which was a fantasy land > exercise topped off with political gamesmanship. Um, well, the IMF seem to think we are in much deeper doo-doo than the Government admits, which may prove to be even more challenging budget-wise. IMF sees further 200 bn dollars UK bank losses. "Britain?s banks have written off only a third of the losses they ultimately face, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday as it suggested lenders would have to raise at least $125bn in additional capital to rebuild their balance sheets. "Britain?s banks have already written off around $110bn on complex debt securities and other assets on their balance sheets, but the IMF estimates they face another $200bn in losses over the coming two years as loans to companies and consumers go sour." ------- There's been quite a torrent of denial from the Treasury, but if you ask me who do I believe, IMF or Treasury/Darling, I have to say it's not the latter... And these numbers start to put the Budget numbers into context.

I'm finally online today thanks to my mobile broadband. Which I only still have as they forced me to take a 12 month contract. O2 was supposed to activate my landline broadband today at 11.30am. Instead, I have been without landline and fixed broadband since precisely that time. I call O2 on the only number available, which is 0800. But as I have no landline, I have to call 800 from my mobile at premium rates. They do not have a non-0800 number. They tell methat my lack of anything is not their fault, it's BT's fault. BT has not correctly activated the line and a BT engineer will have to fix it. I call BT fault reporting. This too is 0800 only. Same story. I stupidly make choice '1' on the menu tree, which is for 'I cannot make or receive calls' (I cannot make or receive calls and there is no carrier signal). Little did I know that this is a cul-de-sac where it is impossible to speak to a human being, only to pre-recorded material. At premium rates. It takes me some time to figure out that to speak to a human, I have to lie and say my phone is working. Go figure. I finally get through to a human. We go through some joke line testing that I have already performed. They will call me back in a few minutes. An hour and a half later they still have not called me back. I call them again on premium. We go through the same joke line testing as with the first person, and find out precisely nothing. He says there is nothing wrong with my line. And still no line detection, even when plugging directly into the interior of the BT box. An engineer will visit my home. I suggest that the fault lies at the exchange, as O2 has already mentioned, as a consequence of the faulty activation. This falls on deaf ears. He is clearly reading from a script which sounds in tone like 'you do not have to say anything but anything you say may be taken down...'. But hey, I can open a letter from my ever hapless bank - the one with the stretched cassette tape for hold music - and find that the mammothness of their screw-up with my business card has led them to award me a payment of fifty quid for all the stress and wasted time they have caused. Again. And then there are three envelopes from my mobile phone provider. Each containing exactly the same statements. They clearly wish to keep me very well informed. It's a wonder they get delivered at all, as the address they print puts an organisation name between the house number and the street name. Despite repeated requests to correct over 30+ months. And then two envelopes from an accounting software firm, each containing the same credit note for the money they took without authority for some 'automatic annual renewal' that they had decided to implement without informing me. I'm afraid when I called them up to challenge this robbery I gave them hell. And to while away the time, I call the suppliers of some flooring, who have managed to take almost 900 quid from my account when they should only have taken 410. It's only the 18th or so call I have made to them. I follow this up with a call to another supplier, who is unable to spell (the name on a cheque to me), for the seventh or eighth time since 21 March. And from the same supplier, another envelope, with the wrong name (yes, different again) on the envelope. I've already called them to inform them such a person does not exist. At least the credit slip is to the correct card. Meanwhile my other bank (personal account) is trying to fix the mess that Thames Water has made. I'm two years in credit with TW but they gaily continue to take more money from me, despite repeated assurances to the contrary over the last two months. Now they deny any records of certain conversations when they have made these promises. Despite me having a complete record of who I spoke to and when and what was said. I could go on. But I don't want to bore you further. I do have some lovely and reliable people who have been doing work on my home, but these are all individuals who are running their own specialist show. As soon as there is a corporate involved, of any size, things fall apart. Daft systems are implemented. Common sense flies out of the window. Nobody seems able to do anything. Everyone passes the buck. Incompetence reigns, scripts are adhered to closely by seeming automata, and I am invariably left stressed out and somewhat poorer, having done not an iota of real work for hours. This is my idea of hell. Were it not for my cheery self-employed workmen, I would be going out of my tiny mind.

Brendan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Are they are obviously behind the times and not > operating on a proper, profit driven business > model. Perhaps they need a One Design One System > Modern Management Platform. I have just received > an e-mail about these lads and apparently: > > The diagram on the left below shows the business > automation via connections of fragmented systems. > 8thManage is a modern management platform that > organizes functionality into a "One Design One > System". The key is not one single system or a few > systems to perform the automation, but consistency > of application throughout all. Technically, the > "One Design One system" approach doesn't have the > (a) information latency and loss and (b) > inefficiency problems because of inconsistent > application and data models. The obvious benefits > of "One Design One System" are: 1) speed of > implementation; 2) ease and efficiency of > operation; and 3) lower cost of ownership. > > Further more > > The greatest benefit to "One Design One System" is > the increase of participants' effectiveness and > performance. Very few people have experienced "One > Design One System" since the current > state-of-the-practice still involves fragmented > systems. But the people who have experienced the > "One Design One System" know that this new system > helps to manage performance in the appropriate > business context. People don't need to see the > details of the things that they don't need to > know, but they do need to see the cause-and-effect > relationship of their work. > > I don?t know what?s more frightening. That people > actually come up with this shit or that they think > they can sell it. What's more frightening is that people buy it.

Mick Mac Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Mick Mac Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Switzerland, Luxembourg and Ireland are the > normal > > choices. > > > > The UK, and people working here, are I believe > not > > responsible for this sub prime led disaster. > > So AIG Mayfair was actually operated > from...Timbuktu? > > I'm sorry I honestly don't know what this means > Lou. AIG: the largest insurance company in the world -------- AIG Mayfair: shorthand for AIG's London fiancial products operation, reportedly responsible for more than 90% of their worldwide losses owing to their crazy deal making, which was unlike anything the organisation did anywhere else. "AIG Financial Products Corp. (AIGFP) is a subsidiary of American International Group, based in London. AIGFP is considered a key company in the global financial crisis of 2008?2009." "The AIG Financial Products division headed by Joseph Cassano, in London, had entered into credit default swaps to insure $441 billion worth of securities originally rated AAA. Of those securities, $57.8 billion were structured debt securities backed by subprime loans.[20] CNN named Cassano as one of the "Ten Most Wanted: Culprits" of the 2008 financial collapse in the United States." "On March 2, 2009, AIG reported a fourth quarter loss of $61.7bn (?43bn) for the final three months of 2008. This was the largest quarterly loss in corporate history at that time." ------------

I spent my yoof in Pinner. It has clearly gone to the dawgs since then.

Good spot TheePope. In the same plant family are comfrey and borage, also very common. I'm always being told by neighbours that all these are weeds, but all the critters love them to bits so they get to stay. And as you say, the flowers are quite pretty in a wild garden way.

People who fill entire websites with sentences that all end with exclamation marks! And even headings! And sub-headngs! All with exclamation marks! Everything! An exclamation mark! At the end! Hundreds of them! On ever page! Why!?!?!

SteveT, the coal tits are front garden dwellers and the jays back garden. They never seem to interfere with each other. It seems to be the blackbirds that hustle the jays, which enjoy their privacy and buzz off if other birds are around.

Mick Mac Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Switzerland, Luxembourg and Ireland are the normal > choices. > > The UK, and people working here, are I believe not > responsible for this sub prime led disaster. So AIG Mayfair was actually operated from...Timbuktu?

Peckhamgatecrasher, I totally agree. It's like wanging your willy around in public. If you have one.:-S

SeanMacGabhann Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > > Rubbish generalisations irk me. I'm just going on my inbox over the last decade. Every damn one of them is a US resident. And it's there on every damn email they send, hundreds and hundreds of times. [i've been on some professional email lists since the year dot.] Really irks me. (The only other place I've seen it happen is India, where a few people do it.)

Brendan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Yeah I know but there are legal ways of defining > who a cow belongs to and where it may graze etc. > So what happens when bees swarm? Do they belong to > the keeper from whose hive they originated? As mentioned in a previous post, they remain the legal property of that beekeeper for as long as that beekeeper remains in pursuit. Once he loses them, it's finders keepers. > > Also what am I going to do about the freeloading > bees on my petunias? A mate of mine who lives in > the countryside charges the local farmer for > letting his cows graze on his field. Surely I > should charge the bee keeper for letting his bees > graze in my garden? It tends to be the other way around :): beekeepers can charge landowners for putting hives on their land at certain times of year in order to pollinate their crops (e.g. the almond trees in California). I suppose you could try what TfL do: build barriers and try to charge those going through them :)

Brendan, any food producing animal can be property. It's just property with four, six, eight legs... B) corrected for spelling

I think it's time to start making your own booze. My new vine should be arriving today....

PeckhamRose Bees have no "special protection" and no "specific protection" as a species (unlike bats, owls etc.). Here attached is a list of protected species under the WACA. Bees do not appear on it. They are in general terms covered under UK wildlife law, in the same way as an ordinary wild flower is. No more. So that means a general duty of care and so on. They are also included in agricultural/foodstuffs legislation/regulation as food-producing animals (like cows and pigs!), meaning that you must only administer government-approved vet medicines to them and so on.

He can't be sued for its value. He has no assets. It would be a little tricky if being sued by some witch-doctor meant you lost your home.

Peckhamgatecrasher Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Oh no, Francis Rossi recently cut off his > ponytail. No more classics then. If Rossi were to shoot himself in the head and bury himself, we'd all be so much better off. And he can do the same to Bono while he's at it.

"We have never had so much debt in peace time..." R4 I don't see "Whitehall efficiency savings" reversing that any time soon.

Nice info Sue. Coal tit report: you can hear the little ones chattering in their tiny teeny nest if you get up close. The comfrey has gone mad and the bumbles are all over it. It's like they're on drugs :-S