silverfox

David Laws resigned his cabinet post after revelations that he used taxpayers? money to pay rent to his boyfriend. He is a millionaire former investment banker and has a double first from Cambridge. He claimed ?40,000 over eight years to rent accommodation from James Lundie, in a clear breach of Commons rules on expenses. The rules on the additional costs allowance, which Laws used to claim for rooms in Lundie?s properties, state that the money ?must not be used to meet the costs of ... leasing accommodation from a close business associate, or a partner, or a family member?. http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Politics/article304022.ece He accepted his expenses claims were wrong. He apologised to his constituents for ?falling below the standards? they were entitled to expect. The facts are he was holding a exalted position in public office. He is an intelligent, wealthy man who knew full well what he was doing was wrong, if not downright deceitful. His behaviour cannot be excused. There is nothing hysterical about this.

Thank you for pointing out those mistakes Loz. I am guilty of taking a Telegraph headline writer's words on trust. I've just gone back and done a search and notice that The Telegraph re-wrote the original headline and subhead to make it accurate in the way you describe and that the link I provided above now takes you to the updated/corrected headline. The original headline and subhead: Zettabytes overtake petabytes as largest unit of digital ... May 4 2010 | Heidi Blake | Technology The size of the ?digital universe? will swell so rapidly this year that a new unit - the zettabyte - has been invented to measure it. Was rewritten to read: Digital universe to smash 'zettabyte' barrier for first time ... May 4 2010 | Heidi Blake | Technology The size of the ?digital universe? will swell so rapidly this year that it will pass the "zettabyte" barrier for the first time. See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/search/?queryText=zettabyte&type=recent&sort=date%3AD%3AS%3Ad1&site=default_collection more results I was also interested to read the names for the submultiples (-10) of SI units. You learn something new every day.

Latest from The Guardian: David Laws in talks over informal advisory role Downing Street confirms that Laws, who resigned last week, may play an informal role alongside Danny Alexander, his successor Polly Curtis, Whitehall correspondent guardian.co.uk, Monday 31 May 2010 21.51 BST http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/may/31/david-laws-danny-alexander-economics

Despite a good article from Matthew Parris in The Times yesterday in defence of Laws, it was right that he resigned. The new Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander should also resign immediately. If you're about to oversee draconian cuts that will result in thousands of redundancies with the consequences of relationship breakdowns and repossessions then you need to come to the job with clean hands and suitable qualifications. Danny Alexander has neither.

...people who use "license" (bare infintive of "to license") instead of "licence" (noun) The general rule s when verb, c when noun does not apply in American English so it's not strictly incorrect to use s in both cases as long as it's used consistently. What does &c mean? Surely not etc?

$2 billion to clear up the mess?

Interesting article on the BBC website about the use of patents hampering scientific research and hindering many potential benefits. An interesting counter balance to Jeremy's view above. Synthetic life patents 'damaging' http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10150685.stm

Jeremy and Brendan, I think you're both confusing being obstructive with those urging we proceed with caution. Up until this breakthrough, every cell, bacterium and virus on this planet has been the result of billions of years of (natural) evolution, where each has competed and fought off competition from others to get a foothold within a particular environment, from underground caves, hot deserts, frozen wastes to extremophiles around underwater volcanic vents and so on. What is now possible is the creation of new forms of life for good or ill. The benefits are potentially incalculable. But those doing the creating will be commercial bodies seeking a profit. Nobody knows what will happen if artificial life starts to mix with natural life. Where are the safeguards to prevent greedy companies unleashing lifeforms with potentially devastating consequences? Any rational person would be concerned and not just the religious right.

Hal9000, if scientists managed to recover Mammoth DNA from the permafrost of Siberia and implanted into an enucleated cell of an elephant which then divided and grew, what would the resultant animal be called?

I don't pretend to understand the process of how this came about but it seems it has divided millions of times now and with each division has replicated the synthetic DNA. By any measure artificial life has been created for the first time. The new frontier that has now opened up is being described as a third industrial revolution with new life forms that probably couldn't have evolved naturally about to be created to capture carbon, provide alternative energy sources and so on. It is a momentus breakthrough. The worry is, are the scientists clever enough to control what they're about to unleash?

It's just been announced that American Scientists have made an amazing Nobel Prize Winning breakthrough by creating new, synthetic life. The cell has been designed by computer, strand by DNA strand. It's a marriage between biology and Information Technology. It's opened a new frontier in science with many potential applications and benefits in medicine. Many dangers also, with the worry of mutation. Man has now become god-like. Has a terrible beauty been born?

I notice April 2009 has been omitted from the dates along the bottom. That was when Sean and I had our first lover's tiff. Is this deliberate? I think we should be told.

As a solipsistic narcissistic celebrity Agony Uncle used to dispensing inanity under the pretext of advice, I am often stopped by my legions of fans while selling the Big Issue outside the Co-Op and asked whether I know any rich old men who they can marry who'll die in, like, seven or eight minutes so they don't have to see his shrivelled up bits but can still inherit his cash. My advice is always, yeah loads. But as I said to Anna Nicole Smith many years ago as she put a fake pound coin in my tin, Anna, I said, I think all those EDF swingers parties are messing with your head (among others things). That J Howard Marshall is a bad 'un, he's only using you. There's no way you'll get your hands on $300m of his Texan billions no matter how many times you fumble with his wrinkly bits. There's more chance of Nick Clegg honouring his election commitments etc etc So ImpetuousVrouw let the gold-digger beware

Woman died after doctors failed to spot toilet brush in her buttocks A mother died after doctors repeatedly failed to spot a toilet brush handle embedded in her buttock. How big were her buttocks? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7739359/Woman-died-after-doctors-failed-to-spot-toilet-brush-in-her-buttocks.html

I think we're talking about the old bookies shop

Not quite my four legged friend phobophobia pho?bo?pho?bi?a (f?'bə-f?'b?-ə) n. A morbid dread or fear of developing a phobia. The American Heritage? Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright ? 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Phobophobia

Hi Brendan, how's the knee? Genuphobia- Fear of knees.

Was I wearing my glasses that night with my hair tied back in a pony tail?

Dear Narnia, I'm not aware of a particular phobia for fear of lions, but if you're interested in any of the following just send a stamped SAE to the usual place: Fear of wild animals - Agrizoophobia Fear of cats - Ailurophobia, Elurophobia, Felinophobia, Galeophobia, Gatophobia

Dear Brendan, upon reflection, maybe the word 'madness' is appropriate in some cases, as evidenced by your desire to have a semantic discussion with your knee. We call the offending substance in this case 'concrete' but it could just as easily be called 'jelly', 'marshmallow' or anything else. 'Society' has decided that, in the English language at least, it's called concrete. My advice to you is lay off the booze and pick your feet up.

Dear Narnia, these days we, by 'we' I mean expert advisers like what I am, prefer not to use the word 'mad'. 'Mad' can be a relative concept and easily misunderstood. Some have argued that reality is socially constructed. That is that persons and groups interacting together in a social system form, over time, concepts or mental representations of each other's actions, and that these concepts eventually become habituated into reciprocal roles played by the actors in relation to each other. When these roles are made available to other members of society to enter into and play out, the reciprocal interactions are said to be institutionalised. In the process of this institutionalisation, meaning is embedded in society. Knowledge and people's conception (and belief) of what reality is becomes embedded in the institutional fabric of society. Social reality is therefore said to be socially constructed. In short, if people deviate from the norm they have been labelled, incorrectly in my view, 'mad'. In your case Narnia, you're just plain bonkers, away with the fairies, insane, barking, nuts, bananas, a loony, a crackpot, raving, demented, deranged etc etc. Next thing you'll be telling me you met a lion, a witch who turned people to stone and a beaver that talked.

Dear jenny1840, I empathise with your feelings of shock and betrayal. Time and time again my postbag is overflowing with harrowing tales of lovely girls whose only mistake was to have put their trust in what can only be described as cads, scoundrels and bounders. Since time immemorial innocent young people like yourself have been taken in by their charm, smooth talking and the way they look directly at the camera with a glint in their eye and call you by the correct name. People like Clegg aren't worth it - they'll hop in and out of anyone's bed and the bigger the member the more they'll polish that trident. It's enough to make you go ballistic. I wouldn't be surprised if Michelle Obama has banned Clegg from the White House. Can you imagine what he'd do with the President's arsenal? You must be heart broken. My only advice to you in your current distressed state is to pick yourself up, wipe the tears from your eyes and get out there again. It might be hard to believe now but give it time and you'll find the right person who'll make you happy and restore your trust.

woofmarkthedog, the Tar 'n' Feathering doesn't apply to dogs with delusions of grandeur

hellion Pronunciation: \ˈhel-yən\ Noun A troublesome, disorderly, rowdy, or mischievous person, especially a child. A trouble maker. Etymology: 19th Century American, probably from dialect, alteration (influenced by hell) of hallion scamp/rogue Quoted by hoser today on the, Re: Dulwich park distance? thread in the General ED issues/gossip section

jaybee82 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Dear Silverfox, > > I am beginning to develop mild rage symptoms > triggered by seeing or hearing anything to do with > Peter Andre. I heard 3 seconds of 'Mysterious > Girl' the other morning and spent the following 18 > minutes stabbing at my ears with a biro. Is this > normal? Dear jaybee82, that is a perfectly normal response and you should not feel ashamed. Other symptoms include wild, staring, born again Christian eyes, frothing at the mouth and sitting in the corner of a room rocking back and forth as if in synch with the movement of pop-up ads. The pain of looking at him and hearing his songs verges on the unbearable and the thrusting of the bic biro provides acupuncture-like relief to the torture. We can only hope he goes walkabout in the Australian bush and becomes dingo meat.