Huguenot

Isn't it a rather fatalistic view that the changing of seasons is inevitable, and likely as not the consequences may not be positive? Sort of a reciprocal for 'make hay whilst the sun shines'?

I understand your point RosieH, but I think you're misreading the data. Of the people who think a woman is partially or totally responsible for the crime she has suffered, I'll be betting that almost none of those think the woman is totally responsible. Those that do are wrong in the head, and no slutwalk is going to change that. Of the vast majority that think a woman is 'partially' responsible, I think we'll find that what they are actually thinking about is not the criminalisation of the victim or oppression of women, but in fact trying to stumble through an argument that whilst women are very much entitled to their 'rights', that this should be balanced be some consideration of 'responsibility'. This balance of rights vs responsibility is the same one that means we've got little sympathy for the drunk who got punched because he was standing in the middle of the bar shourting c*** at passers-by. Hence many people read your data as inflammatory, and proof of the oppression of women. Conversely I think it's equally plausible that it's not that at all. Regards the attrition rates on rape, we've been though it all before - conviction rates aren't great for many crimes. Conviction is about 'reasonable doubt'. Unless you take the view that people accused of rape are fundamentally dishonest (find them guilty by accusation???) there's no reason why the woman's word should be taken as any more valid than the mans. A change to that balance would be a catastrophe to society.

If you're going to indoctrinate your children into a mawkish pre-industrial bundle of prejudices and self-righteousness, it makes sense to start as young as possible. If you can, start with fun and hand-clapping. Don't progress to the other stuff until you've made it clear that they're 'different'.

Not quite sure what I can't see....

Ha! I know what Moo's grandmum meant, but I have no idea about maxxi's. No idea at all. It sounds like an agricultural analogy, but the seamless segue to occasional lighting left me high and dry.

That's no fantasy, that's an aspiration.

Relentless is the word you're looking for RosieH. However, athletic and speedy seems completely inappropriate. Every zombie I've had a drink with had a hole in the knee area of his/her jeans. You don't get that from being athletic and speedy, you get it from falling over.

I registered on a well known local forum as Huguenot a couple of years back. I was declined.

Seems a bit rich to me that women half way around the world are marching on the basis of what some idiot Canadian police officer said. It smacks unhealthily of a gang saying 'SEE you're ALL like THAT'. Frankly, go to hell. Whilst the points others have made about this terrible crime are really valid, I fail to see how a march is likely to resolve it. The comments about bhurkas are more about western sensibilities than oppression. Most of the locals I've met who wear them think they're pretty coquettish. The clothing debate is a bit harsh. If I wear a West Ham shirt in South Bermondsey I'm going to get twatted. I can sit on my righteous horse all night, but I'll still get twatted.

Ha ha Chippy. I think that if Bob did what he does in any other market it would be called price gouging. If his job was price gouging then he does it well, but it's nothing to be proud of. I suspect the six month 'training' has little to do with education or skills, and more to do with management extending their options to sack disruptive staff for failing to complete their training. Bob doesn't use the union to look after health and saftey, he uses it to leverage pay and perks through threats and menaces. Perks that he has protected include restricting management overview of facilities so that station staff can get legless on Heineken and hide the empty tins in cupboards in peace.

*visualises RosieH in red stilletos tottering down Union Street at 12.30am, left hand grasping handbag by the shoulder strap, right hand fending off the ghosts of other pedestrians*

Many years ago I used to 'wait on' at the Freemasons Hall in Worcester. They weren't particularly old, they mostly tended to be their forties. They bought poor red wine for excessive prices to impress each other. In the sense of occult meaning 'hidden things' then they were into the occult. Smug, pretentious, bumptious, arriviste small businessmen keeping childish bargains of omerta not because the secrets were worth keeping, but because it made them feel important. In the sense of the occult raising the devil, well their rituals were a bit bizarre, but objectively no more obscure than carrying around wooden carvings of a bloke nailed to a couple of planks and eating and drinking of his body once a week. None of the came across as intelligent enough to get involved in anything really kooky. They certainly did do each other favours, but not because they were compelled to, more that it also made them feel special. As with all corruption, they rather needed to keep that secret too...

According to Google Earth it's 3/4 of a mile from London Bridge, so a 15 min walk I guess. Not so far. I used to go there and then wander back to LB without much of a concern.

Oh I don't know about that Otta, probably warped him for life. A desperate, desperate price to pay.

His heart flutters momentarily as he suffers a spasm of anxiety about his identity crisis, but it was a feeling he was quick to subdue. The children chasing around his feet filled him with an uncomplicated joy that easily relegated cares and concerns to a dusty cellar. Ruffling the tousled hair of his eldest, he navigated his way through the havoc whilst tugging the faux tuxedo oilskin apron over his head. Despite the way he carefully arranged it on the ornately carved wooden wall rack, he couldn't escape an uneasy feeling that something was remiss. Ah! That was it! He carefully shifted the apron down two hooks and twitched it slightly to expose the full text of the engraving... 'You don't have to be mad to live here, but it sure helps!'. He smiled quietly to himself, lost in admiration at the way that friends you've yet to make could capture his household bliss with such sweet simple words.

Is the Anchor and Hope still any good? Used to be mind blowing - but not the cheapest.

Agreed with most of the other guys - if there's an 8 month deadline it'll be because something else pretty important hinges on the attendance rate. Most of the betrothed expats around my neck of the woods have had to do the same thing in terms of early deadlines - and from an attendance perspective have been known to change country or create multiple events to try and involve as many people as possible! On the formality of your response... I wouldn't be overly bothered unless you know your family get hoity toity about things like this. Ring your bro and tell him the problem. When some of my family couldn't afford the flight to my wedding I flew them across from my own pocket and they were over the moon. They didn't get to travel very often, and if they'd been dishonest about the reason then I never could have helped them out. Honesty is the best policy.

It will be in your lease. I suspect it'll come down to the freeholder having free (reasonable) access to the property in order to maintain it - in which case you'll not have a legal leg to stand on. But.... Surely this comes under 'being a nice person'? Are you really kicking up a stink because your neighbour wants to fix your roof? If they take the piss and it's up for over a month that's something else, but is this all really about point '3'? You want to cash in on this?

I'm not sure that's the case. Some of the most famous brands didn't mean anything to the average punter - Aspirin, Google, Maxim, Pepsi, Tesco. Some of them did have original meanings, but the lack of popular knowledge of those didn't hold them back. In fact if people have fewer preconceptions to start with, that can give you more options, and an interesting bit of trivia surrounding a name can be a conversation point. Doesn't make it elitist, just a bit of fun.

Yes RosieH is right - I don't think that translation works at all well. Le ciel as a translation of 'heaven' roughly means what the English mean when we say 'heavens above' - it's not at all reminiscent of divine inspiration, it means what's overhead. Closer to what you mean might be 'paradis' (or paradise), but you can't have a 'paradise' of something - for example a 'paradise of beauty' - it just doesn't work. How about something classical with a slight modern reference - something like 'Mighty Aphrodite', which is about beauty, empowerment and also a Woody Allen film? In the same vein you could play with Venus or Astarte - the Roman and Phonecian equivalents respectively? Or Pandemos (form whom all love for women comes)?

Hurrah!

The examples I gave were where rent control was repealed. They were dated to when those repeals were made, and the information was why they were repealed. It was repealed because they tried it and it didn't work. You keep arguing about the 'greater good', but in fact the evidence is that rent control is bad for society, bad for new housing stock, bad for upkeep on existing stock, bad for poor people, bad for the disadvantaged. You merely 'think' it would be good, without use of informed argument or example. All the hypothetical arguments don't really matter. The evidence is that rent control doesn't work. There probably does need to be something to be done. I'd start with reducing tax breaks for multiple home ownership. Then I'd be looking at basic supply and demand issues. This means incentivising new builds, especially on brownfield sites. It would include wise use of existing stock - which doesn't include filling existing stock 1 person at a time because the poor little dears deserve to have their own 1 person place.

There appears to be a confusion of several different concepts here. Security of tenure isn't the same thing as rent control, although they are often linked because without a cap on rent increases then the tenant could be priced out of their house when a contract ends. Rent control itself can mean different things - one is a cap on rent increases for example, and another is a cap on on rent at a fixed price. I don't think many would disagree that some sort of rent control protects the poor and disadvantaged, and stops gouging from landlords. However, the negative side is rarely understood. Rent control disincentivises property redevelopment, upgrading or maintenance because the landlord can't get the benefit from their investment. In the US it was discovered that this effect was at a significant scale: a study exposed the fact that 29% of rent control buildings had deteriorated beyond what was considered appropriate for habitation, yet only 8% of non rent controlled areas. Rent control in New York between 1972 - 1982 was estimated to have been directly responsible for 300,000 housing units to have become uninhabitable. Rent control disincentivises new building, as the potential return is fixed at a price for existing housing, and not the cost of recouping new builds. So when they're built, they're sh*t: a good example of this is the 'affordable housing' quota in London. Vietnam repealed rent controls designed to help poor communities because the disincentive on development had destroyed more of their capitals infrastructure than had been possible with bombing during the American War. It is also discovered that price controls actually benefitted the rich more than the poor. In 1980 in France the rent control laws were repealed by a socialist government for this reason. It was discovered that since the government couldn't oversee every aspect of a landlord/tenant relationship, hundreds of methods were created in order to allow rich people to pay more than the cap, and thus exclude poor people from the market. Landlords focused all investment on properties where this kind of fraud was possible or appealling, and left the banlieues to rot. Whilst I'm sure people will respond to this with loud opinions, this isn't my opinion, it's the opinion of 93% of economists (both left and right wing). The thing about rent control is that it doesn't do what it's supposed to do - protect the poor and disadvantaged. Instead it funnels them over years into decayed and uninhabitable houses and communities.

It shouldn't be locked to a network if you're not buying it with a contract. I think a lot of shops will probably allow you to pop your sim in and try it if you're worried?

I don't know. :'( I suspect that the OP was implying that they had an iPad 3G that generally access t'web through their wireless connection at home. I'm worried that all I've done is confused the issue.