silverfox

No authority, just sheer commonsense and logic. Nothing is nothing, not even a teeny weeny little atom or subatomic particle - nothing. If our universe came into existence due to some discharge from a parallel universe or a couple of the bubbles of the multiverse bumped together and the energy discharged by this collision created our universe this may well have produced our universe as a result of knowable physical laws but it would still have been created by something. Ignoring for now the unproven notions of parallel universes and multiverses (which themselves fall into the category of belief and faith) all Hawking has done is push the idea of a cause for the universe even further back. What caused the parallel and multiverses that (I'm told) are required by M-theory/String theory to exist to give the theory any validity? In short, once you start talking about spontaneous existence from nothing, you leave the realm of science and have to confront the idea of some supernatural cause - some people call this God.

The great Stephen Hawking has now weighed into this debate in The Times today. "The Big Bang was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics"..., Hawking says. ?Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist,? he writes. ?It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going,? he finds. Sorry Stephen, you've no more idea than the rest of us on this forum trying to find an answer. Stick to black holes. The universe cannot create itself from nothing and by mentioning 'blue touch paper' the assumption is something had to start it, even if it came from a parallel universe or multiverse. Back to square one

This isn't a new policy Peckham native. It reminds me of the time Silver Vixen and I bought a big heavy cast iron bath from a poncey shop in Muswell Hill nearly 20 years ago. It was expensive and by the time the taps were added and the shower connection it was very expensive. When it came to totting up the bill there was the delivery charge and the man casually said that it will be kerbside delivery. I went nuts. "What? I'm spending ?xxxs with you and you're telling me your delivery drivers are just going to dump it on the pavement?" He realised he was within a gnat's goolie of losing his hard earned sale and got very defensive - there was no question of anyone dumping anything ... the drivers weren't employed by him... in fact if I had a word with the delivery drivers and gave them ?10 each they'd take it into the house for me. "But isn't that what I'm paying a delivery charge for?". In the end he gave us a discount and we paid the delivery men to help me take it up two flights of steps. Worryingly one of the delivery men was straining so much he had a nose bleed as he was struggling with it. There was an occasion though that I regretted a delivery driver delivering to the house. After taking a day off work a delivery driver turned up one afternoon. I watched him take two mattresses out of the back of his van on his own. He tucked a corner of each mattress under his armpits and dragged the mattresses across the road to my door. Fortunately the protective plastic covering wasn't ripped. However, once inside my hallway there was a horrible pong - he'd dragged one of the mattresses through some freshly deposited dog poo!

Sean said: "...we are all living in sin and the only way to repent is to worship Airwaves Cherry Gum..." A religious movement based on mastication would presumably include both meat-eaters and vegetarians and even squirrels come to think of it.

Embower em?bow?er transitive verb \im-ˈbau̇(-ə)r\ Definition of EMBOWER: to shelter or enclose in or as if in a bower Examples of EMBOWER like a rose embowered in its own green leaves ? P. B. Shelley over the years grapevines have completely embowered the summerhouse in the garden First Known Use of EMBOWER 1580 merriam-webster.com/dictionary

Yes Ladymuck I counted the pears. I was very excited as we've had the tree four years and this was the first year it flowered. 21 budding Comices there were - I felt like a proud father until ... the squirrels ... We even netted the tree after we lost the first 10 or so only to see the squirrels acrobatically swing upside down on the netting while chomping the pears

Yes Ladymuck, they had my sweetcorn and strawberries too, and I've only got two pears left out of the 21 that started off - It's enough to make a vegetarian reach for the shotgun

Witty Moos, but then again the conversation may have gone like this: Prof: "Begal please" Corporate lackey: "Butter or cheese?" Prof: "Begal please" Corporate lackey: "Negative. Does not compute. You're not going to get anything unless you say butter or cheese'" Prof: "Begal please" Corporate lackey: "Get the manager" Starbucks manager: (Dials 911) "Hello Police ... we've got a weirdo here who refuses to say butter or cheese when ordering a begal without butter or cheese ... yes, the Starbucks outlet on the Upper West Side where our highly trained baristas will give you the ultimate coffee experience ... okay see you in a minute" Cops: (Screech of cars and sirens) "Okay Prof assume the position. Koalsky, read her her rights. We're taking you downtown." (Manacle the 60-year old academic with cable ties and bundle her into car). Starbucks manager: "Have a nice day"

Jah Lush Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Also, I really do not think it is fair that any > team should have a plastic pitch. It gives an > unfair advantage to the home team who play on it > every week. Half the Brazilian team honed their skills with no shoes kicking cans around. No excuses.

Hal, you don't fool me. Anyone who is pedantic enough to quote the distance to the Starbucks coffee shop (or should I say outlet?) on the Upper West Side of Manhattan to the nearest mile as you have done above cannot fail to grasp the Professor's valid point. You may well ask for your chips without salt and vinegar but I doubt the vendor will refuse to sell you those chips if you don't specify that you don't require the added condiments. Next you'll be telling me you ask for your bread from bakeries with no butter and jam.

Brendan said: "Well you could argue that in a country where so many people rely on council housing it is discrimination to treat them differently..." That would imply that you shouldn't give them subsidised rent as it discriminates against them.

Hal, when you order a portion of chips from a chip shop do you ask for chips without salt and vinegar, mayonnaise, tomato ketchup, HP sauce etc? 'Course you don't - chips are chips, linguistically and conceptually. Three cheers for the Professor for standing up for commonsense in a world where it's being eroded.

Three cheers for the English Professor who refused to use Starbucks marketing speak to order her bagel. A bagel is a bagel - why does Starbucks insist a plain bagel is a bagel without butter or cheese? English professor 'thrown out of Starbucks after objecting to corporate language' http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7949440/English-professor-thrown-out-of-Starbucks-after-objecting-to-corporate-language.html

quire 1 (kwr) n. 1. Abbr. qr. or q. A set of 24 or sometimes 25 sheets of paper of the same size and stock; one twentieth of a ream*. 2. A collection of leaves of parchment or paper, folded one within the other, in a manuscript or book. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Middle English quayer, four double sheets of paper, from Old French quaer, from Vulgar Latin *quaternus, from Latin quatern, set of four, four each, from quater, four times; see kwetwer- in Indo-European roots.] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- quire 2 (kwr) n. & v. Archaic Variant of choir. The American Heritage? Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ?2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. (* ream 1 n 1. (Communication Arts / Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) a number of sheets of paper, formerly 480 sheets (short ream), now 500 sheets (long ream) or 516 sheets (printer's ream or perfect ream). One ream is equal to 20 quires 2. (often plural) Informal a large quantity, esp of written matter he wrote reams [from Old French raime, from Spanish rezma, from Arabic rizmah bale] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ream2 vb (tr) 1. to enlarge (a hole) by use of a reamer 2. US to extract (juice) from (a citrus fruit) using a reamer [perhaps from C14 remen to open up, from Old English rȳman to widen] Collins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged ? HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003)

Helen Power, Tony Evans Updated 1 minute ago The Chinese Government is the mystery backer behind a bid for Liverpool Football Club, The Times can reveal. China?s overseas investment arm China Investment Corporation (CIC), which already owns a stake in Canary Wharf, is funding the bid fronted by the sports tycoon Kenny Huang for one of Britain?s biggest sporting names. The debt-laden club is expected to change hands this month and last night the Chinese appeared to be in pole position to win a three-way takeover battle. The other bidders are a wealthy Kuwaiti family and an American private equity group. Liverpool?s lender, the Royal Bank of Scotland, forced the club?s unpopular American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, to put it up for sale in April. A number of potential foreign buyers have been circling, but until now the role of the Communist Government was unknown. The acquisition would be just a tiny piece of China?s vast global investment plan. CIC was created in 2007 to invest billions of dollars for the benefit of the State. The country has been able to stockpile nearly $2 trillion of foreign currency reserves because it exports many more billions of pounds of goods and services than it imports. CIC has $332 billion to spend abroad. The fund already has stakes in natural resources and energy companies in Asia, the US and Africa as part of China?s long-term strategy of securing its energy supplies. Liverpool would be its first football club and a high-profile entry into British cultural life. Neither CIC nor Mr Huang was available for comment last night, but insiders said that CIC would end up owning the majority of the club if the consortium?s planned bid ? which values Liverpool at between ?300 million and ?350 million ? is successful. China is not the first foreign country to covet English Premier League teams. Arsenal, Aston Villa, Birmingham, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Sunderland are all in foreign hands. Manchester City, which is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a senior member of the Royal Family in Abu Dhabi, and Chelsea, owned by the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, were bought as trophy assets. The owners have poured in money without seeking a profit. It is believed that the Chinese would expect to make money by building a bigger stadium in Merseyside and developing the club?s Asian fan base. Liverpool already has a sponsorship deal with the bank Standard Chartered, which focuses on Asia. Presenting the bank?s half-year results yesterday, Peter Sands, its chief executive, said that its sponsorship of Liverpool was the most cost-effective way of getting Standard Chartered?s name on to television screens across Asia. The sale is being run by Barcap, Barclays? investment banking arm, and Martin Broughton, chairman of British Airways, who was brought in as temporary chairman of the club in April. Insiders said that it was a three-way contest between the Chinese, Rh?ne Capital, a private equity group, and the billionare al-Kharafi family of Kuwait. Any buyer must be cleared by the Premier League, which has held talks with the bidders. The main test is financial and it is unlikely that a bid would be blocked from the cash-rich Chinese. Mr Huang reiterated his interest in Liverpool through his PR firm Hill & Knowlton yesterday but said that he had yet to make a formal binding bid.

According to The Times tonight (yes I've signed up)the Chinese government is to buy Liverpool FC. Keeping the red flag flying?

Ask Paul Weller

So it is subsidised rent. It's not market value. Fair enough, there's nothing wrong with that for those on low pay, and there's plenty of low pay around. But there's plenty of people in council property who probably, objectively, don't need to be there as they earn above average wages. Having said that I'm not suggesting all council homes/flats should be for those on benefits only as that would jeopardise a community and lead to ghettos. As you've previously said about overcrowding, it's not acceptable to have a family of five in a one-bedroom flat. Is it acceptable to have two old people in a three bedroom house while five are in a one-bedroom flat, even if they've lived there for years and raised their family there? Where would you move the old couple to? These are delicate questions that most people would prefer to shy away from.

DJKillaQueen said "Coucil housing is NOT subsidised..." If that's the case then many working tenants may as well rent privately and free up houses/flats for those more in need. I see your point though about the non-contribution of children towards elderly parents needs.

In theory, if a healthy bull/cow is cloned there is nothing to worry about. All that's happened is the original beast has been copied. It's a bit like taking a cutting from a plant. In practice though (and this may be something to do with cloning techniques), many cloned animals are disfigured and suffer deformities/abnormalities (not unlike dogs bred for Crufts). For this reason the RSPCA has objections (to animal welfare not the quality of meat/milk) and the EU has banned cloned meat (and other foodstuffs) for human consumption.

A double dose of mad cow disease?

This issue should be looked at afresh. Council houses, rightly so, are for those in need. However, it's not just the subsidised rent that has to be considered but all the other associated costs. If a boiler breaks down, a window broken, leaks etc the council fixes it at tax payers' expense. The occupants grow old and infirm and because they're council tenants stannah stair lifts, baths with doors, non-slip carpets etc are provided even though the children have often gone on to do well in life but leave it to social services to look after aging parents 'because they're entitled to it'. The view that 'the state will provide' is about to be seriously questioned.

Nice idea TheGreatErnie - have to charge you for my time though

"Put that light out!" Dad's Army ARP Warden William Hodges (to Foxtons)

I blame the rise in anti-social behaviour referred to by PipW above on the ED forum campaign to get Foxtons to turn off their lights at nights. It's well known dark dinghy lighting attracts ne'er do wells. Hope the new shop to replace the video shop has illuminations to match Blackpool.