I heard the news today, oh boy..

[mockney piers]

In all fairness he does provide entertainment in a way that the royals have been unable to do since the cringingly awful It's a royal knockout.

[Huguenot]

Civic pride? Surely this forum is a case study!

[mockney piers]

I see the SE23 forum got there first!!

[mockney piers]

Doesn't make for comfortable reading.

Huguenot clearly did the smart thing moving to Singapore

time to emigrate

[lozzyloz]

He's possibly right. Everything is cyclical and he's probably had time to ponder that on one of his bike rides. However, there has to be more than just financial benefit to justify moving to a country without warm beer, chunky chips and fish in a crisp batter.

[mockney piers]

well, the beer's warm about a minute and a half after being poured, but probably not in a good way.

[ladida]

Mr Piers, do the tips of your fingers ache after you write all your blurb or do get the Missus to do it?

[mockney piers]

oi, i'm almost recovered!!!!

git!!!!

love you though ;-)

[Brendan]

This makes me feel well old: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jan/30/leeds-grunge-scene

[SeanMacGabhann]

so, what do we make of this case then

been in the news a few days now.. Nurse. Sacked after offereing a prayer to a patient. Apparantly

[Brendan]

Conclusive proof that our health service hasn?t got a prayer.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I don't have a problem with it; one of the loveliest things to happen to me was my optometrist treating me then offering to pray afterwards. If you don't want it, just say no - I don't see how anyone could be offended.

[Moos]

What's bad is that it seems the woman said she wasn't offended but the nurse was suspended anyway. I don't understand that decision. But then we don't really know what happened - the woman did mention it a day later so perhaps it did make her uncomfortable. Or perhaps she was jsut chatting with the sister.

I think if someone made a patient uncomfortable with a persistent offer for prayer or somehow implied that without prayer they would have less chance of recovery then an investigation or disciplinary action would be called for. A simple polite offer and polite refusal seems pretty uncontroversial to me.

[Keef]

What Moos said.

Reminds me of something that happened to me.

Some years ago (about 1998) I was down from Liverpool, and went out for a day helping a plumber I knew. Long story short, I ended up getting hit on the head by a falling flu (the pipe that goes out of the wall from the top of your boiler), and was rushed to Chelsea Westminster Hospital with a fractured skull.

We'd started work about 7am, and this happened just before we were going to get lunch. I was "nil by mouth" in the hospital, and didn't get a bed on a ward til about 10pm (and was starving). My family and then girlfriend were there with me when the ward nurse came over and had to ask a few questions, one of which was "would you like to see a priest"?

I honestly wasn't trying to be funny at all when I found myself saying "Will he bring me some bread and wine"?

Ah memories :-S

[Brendan]

This made me laugh http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/he's-a-self%11made-billionaire-and-you're-a-sleazy-twat%2c-everyone-tells-mandelson-200902191590/

Horribly true.

[annaj]

Another bit of bad science nonsense...

Music makes teenagers have sex! Aaarrrggghhh!

[citizenED]

I actually think it's the other way round Anna: teenagers who are having sex tend to listen to more music with bawdy lyrics. Can't prove it mind.

[SeanMacGabhann]

There really is nowhere to begin with that study is there?

[Brendan]

This has to be the quote of the week.

?Skater-haters should hobble back home to take their medication and watch Countdown .? Said seventy-one-year old Geoff Dornan after being done for ?dangerous skating?.

Effing brilliant.

[Brendan]

Jesus wept!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7947460.stm

But don?t worry at least international security is looking up?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7947824.stm

Is it wrong of me to want to go live on an island somewhere far away from it all, like on Pluto maybe?

[mockney piers]

Of the former, what an utter arse.

Of the latter it's 2 things, firstly Russia's military is falling apart, hugely low of moral, and basically rubbish.

The 2 Iraq wars woke up America's hegemonic rivals (mostly China and Russia) to the fact that massive conscript armies are no threat to a technologically superior rival when the gulf is so big, no matter how many tanks or artillery you have.

So modernisation is inevitable (and expensive) and frankly they have every right to do so. It may start in 2011, but it'll be another decade before they have something that can really challenge Nato, and that's if they sort out their moral problems*.

The second thing is political posturing, they see Obama making conciliatory noises but the bear loves to rattle a sabre in order to push a response, and they really are unhappy about missiles in Poland and central Asian ex soviet republics being so chummy with the Americans.

I don't see world war 3 starting out of this, but expect to see more sabre rattling and little people bearing the brunt (no pun intended) of a rocky road to peace. Meanwhile START talks are happening again, and if progress is made we may be making baby steps towards a world where nuclear disarmament is a real possibility (ok, well all keep the means to make bombs, but the world has to be safer the smaller the stockpiles)

*I'll lend you a fantastic first hand account of a soldier who fought in Chechnya, gives you a real insight into the sheer wight of problems the Russians have to overcome.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

To be fair to the Pope, he is right. Sexual abstinence is the best answer. Condoms will occasionally fail.

[Brendan]

Yeah but people aren?t going to stop having sex but if there are a lot of condoms around they just may use the dam things.

[mockney piers]

"To be fair to the Pope, he is right. Sexual abstinence is the best answer. Condoms will occasionally fail."

Equally arse. You might as well argue that nuclear annihilation of all Africans is the best way to be sure that HIV is eradicated from the continent.

So, back in the real world it's ignorance that needs to be fought, and I don't see el papa doing a great deal about that struggle. At least when you you see him using the same line as Dubya Bush it nicely undermines any credibility he might have (which ain't a lot is it).

[Ted Max]

Today's waste of time. Google Streetview. Launched in the UK today with coverage of 25 cities and towns.

Go for a a walk without leaving your computer.

"In areas where Street View is available, you can access street-level imagery by zooming into the lowest level on Google Maps, or by dragging the orange "Pegman" icon on the left-hand side of the map onto a blue highlighted street."