blonde poker forum

1. Why doesn't snow melt as soon as the temp goes above freezing? Last week after the snow at the weekend, it nearly all thawed away within 24 hours, yet one little patch, not in the shade, steadfastly remained for nearly a week despite temps reaching 7 or 8 degrees. Why?

2. Why do you weigh exactly the same after having a crap as before?

3. Why doesn't the water in the Hoover Dam evaporate when temps are like 40 degrees plus?

4. Why do so many people follow religions when there zero evidence that there is a God. Are people really that gullible?

5. Why do so many people support the big clubs, Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal etc. Isn't the fun of supporting a football team expericiencing the ups and downs of a local team, with success being even more sweet when you very expericence it? And you actually go to games, rather than watch on tv, living 200 miles away from your teams home ground?

1 - dunno
2 - you don't
3 - it does, like millions of gallons a year
4 - yes they are that gullible
5 - where grew up, family, friends, fav player, local team is shit. etc.

1. No idea.

2. I don't, have known myself to lose 2lb+

3. See 1

4. See 3

5. I wasn't into Football as a kid, a friend at school was an Everton fan so I kind of followed them for a few weeks... My uncle, who ran my Dad's snooker club at the time had been a united fan for 20+ years, he insisted I support United and bought me a kit etc. I wasn't sure why I'd listened at first because I don't remember them doing too well, but was rewarded with an FA Cup in 1990 and never questioned my uncle again :D

I used to fly up occasionally for games, but have never been a proper 'fan' like yourself and nowadays it would be too much hassle for me to go. I envy the guys in some ways who trek around the country supporting their club, but I truly am an armchair fan now and much prefer NFL to football anyway!

1. Something to do with it being ice rather than snow... thats all i can offer

2. You dont, house scales variance

3. It does

4. I believe the answer is LOL religion

5. Persuasive family on impressionable youngsters  (who does Jake support?)

1 - Because a ghost lives there
2 - Because you're a ghost
3 - Hoover Dam full of ghosts
4 - To spite Kinboshi
5 - Something about ghosts

He keeps saying "Chelsea" when asked, but I hope/trust/believe he's saying that just to wind me up.

I'll have to batter it out of him otherwise.

It's amazing how fast a child can change its mind

After not eating for a week (ty John bishop)

All the people who question why people don't support their local team seem to believe that this is the only reason why supporting a football team is fun.

You still get up's and down's from any team - but if you don't grow up in a household (or a even a whole city) where being an avid football fan is the norm you could just look at who plays consistently entertaining football and support them rather than a local team who play terribly.

Or it could just be like I did, support Man U because a girl I fancied when my family moved to Hastings supported them  :D

Ultimately I think a genuine fan is someone who actually cares whether the team wins or loses, and it's irrelevant how they started supporting them.


NB: Although I suspect in many cases I would suggest - 'follows' would be a better term than 'supported'

1. Because snow is white, it is very reflective and so bounces away most of the sunlight which would otherwise warm it up. It the snow partly melts and then re-freezes, the new crisp outer layer will help it last even longer. In this situation, only a warm air mass will be really effective in melting the snow.

2. You don't

3. It does, but there's a lot of water ...

4. If God didn't exist we'd have to invent him.

5. For all sorts of reasons. Equally puzzling is why do some people feel obligated to support small local teams and spend their lives and their disposable income following them? Oh, and how many Darlington or Hartlepool or followers also own a replica shirt for one of the Big Six, or Barca/RM?

One of the best things about moving up here, was the amount of support I saw for the local team.

Darlo were terrible even before their current plight, but the kids in the town centre were more likely to be wearig a Darlo shirt than any other team.

Compared to everywhere else I've lived, it was a refreshing change.

I moved north in late 1987 and watched Darlington at The Feetham's in their Conference Season. It was great fun as they rolled over most visiting teams with style and panache aplenty. Keeping their fulltime squad obviously helped.
Still haven't been to The Safecracker's Stadium, not even when Northampton Town (my home town club) visited. It's the only ground in the North East where I've not supported The Cobblers, and that includes having seen them at Roker Park and Feethams

2- I take it you are getting off the scale to have a crap?

There's more:

6. Is "a lot" one word or two? What about "thankyou"?

7. Why are people rude to strangers when it doesn't benefit them at all? Some bloke was driving down the road, slowed his car down, unwound his window and shouted "you fat *****" to me a couple of weeks ago. Why would he do this?

8. WTF causes some traffic jams? No roadworks, no crash, no nothing, yet traffic is at a standstill. Then 10 minutes the road is clear.

9. Why do people leave football matches with 5 minutes to go? Would they leave the cinema 5 minutes before the end of a film just to "beat the rush"?

10. Why is airline food notjust shit, but really shit? Can't they just buy loads of ready meals from Sainsburys and heat them up? Only £3 a time. First class passengers could have M and S ready meals.

11. Why is the word ***** censored on Blondepoker? I mean, we're all adults and it's an important part of the vocabulary.

It's because ***** doesn't want ****** the *** to ******.

You'll like this Keith.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wrFysAQflg

My favourite bit is when he shouts the result to his mate.

Top stuff, almost wish Coventry had gone through.

8 can be caused by bad driving. A bad driver is driving too close to the car in front. He gets a bit closer and brakes slightly. The bad driver behind is too close to him and has to brake slightly too. This continues behind, increasing as it goes, as all the bad drivers behind are forced to do the same. It only stops if there is a good driver who has left enough space to absorb the effect without braking. If there isn't, and there is enough traffic, you get a jam five miles back. This then clears and everyone wonders what happened.

Truly terrible analogy.

Does anything eat wasps?

8 is easy.

Read this, then I'll ask questions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-phase_traffic_theory




 

Yes sir!

Robber flies do.

(http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2010/08/08/plummer.promachus_and_vespula.jpg)

Sick photo tekkers

Best answer in the thread :D

Both two words.  Although you can use 'thankyou' as a noun or adjective (such as thankyou party), although I'd probably go for thank-you instead in that case.


He was from Leeds.


It's to do with waves (basically the traffic can be considered as a fluid flowing along a channel) and people driving badly/erratically can compound the effects.  If you think about a steady stream of traffic flowing at 60mph on a motorway, and suddenly a lorry jack-knifes across all the lanes, the traffic has to stop.  The tail-back this causes will grow at the rate of 1 mile every minute (assuming the traffic continues to join the flow at the same rate).  Even without coming to a complete stop, slowing down the flow causes bunching, and this moves like a wave down the traffic flow.  For example, the traffic on the other side of the motorway. It isn't directly affected by the accident, but people rubber-necking will cause the flow to slow, causing people to brake and slow down - and this effect is then passed back along the carriageway as a wave.  As they pass the accident, the traffic then accelerates back to their desired speed and runs smoothly again.

This happens all the time on the motorway but doesn't always have to be as dramatic or the causes as obvious.  It could be a steep hill (so lorries and cars slowing down), traffic joining or leaving the motorway at a congested junction, road works, changing weather conditions, a police car on or next to the carriageway (or even a traffic officer) causing people to slow down, etc.


They calculate (subconsciously) the enjoyment-factor of staying at the match and compare it to the benefit-factor of leaving early and missing the traffic/rush, etc.


They are made to a very strict budget, and also have long shelf-lives.  Not sure why they are quite as bad as they are though :D

Yes Woodsey airline food is that bad.  You dont even get into edible until you reach first class imo.  Incidentally if you are taking a flight you should always take the food even if you have no intention of eating it because you are much more likely to get security delays if you don't.  Airline staff report those that take no food or drink to customs as more likely to be drugs swallowers according to a relative of mine that is an air hostess.

We'll I'm a pretty fussy eater, I guess you are pretty tough to feed!

It never looks great, but only the odd time I've thought it was shit, there is always at least half of it that is ok enough to keep you going.

I think I'd rather die then have to eat airline food. I mean I guess I'd have the heart for 6 months on the minimum spending some £££ but screw long term.

Starved myself on flights for the last 6 years or so, normally can find some sort of snack though.

I found this on about wasps

The following answer has been selected and edited by New Scientist staff

The lowly wasp certainly has its place in the food chain. Indeed, the question should possibly be "what doesn't feed, in one way or another, on this lowly and potentially dangerous insect?"

Here are a few that do, the first list being invertebrates: several species of dragonflies (Odonata); robber and hoverflies (Diptera); wasps (Hymenoptera), usually the larger species feeding on smaller species, such as social paper wasps (Vespula maculata) eating V. utahensis; beetles (Coleoptera); and moths (Lepidoptera).

The following are vertebrates that feed on wasps: numerous species of birds, skunks, bears, badgers, bats, weasels, wolverines, rats, mice and last, but certainly not least, humans and probably some of our closest ancestors.

I have eaten the larvae of several wasp species fried in butter, and found them quiet tasty.

http://www.newscientist.com/blog/lastword/2005/03/does-anything-eat-wasps.html

is the word *****

I actually own the book that wasp quote is taken from (actually the eponymous book!), but have never got round to reading it.

To be honest I've only flown on the same airline where I've had a meal - but I'd go with; it's not great but it's also not awful.

I think they're about what you'd get in an average microwave ready meal - fair enough that a lot of people do think they're inedible, but mainly I think it's down to managing expectations.

This is probably the first time I have ever agreed with a single word posted by Woodsey, but I think airline meals are generally okay. I am an extremely fussy eater and wouldn't eat a quarter of the 'food' I have seen praised on this forum, but I have rarely come across an airline meal that is as bad as people make out.

I know it's just a figure of speech but really?

It's not that bad. If you swill it down with a few over priced crap lagers it can actually be a very pleasing experience.

Less focus on the 1% that sticks in your mind please  :D

totally this.

Im a food snob sometimes and I've had some more than adequate meals on flights.

.

Wasps can be found in Tesco lasagne...

The trouble with airline food is that the cabin pressure is lower than it would be on the ground, which messes with your tastebuds. Everything tastes bad in an aircraft. If you take any food on yourself, it still tastes ropey.

Yeah tbh. Not been able to drink enough lager to consider it. I don't eat donor meat or virtually any fast food either though.

12. How come if you make a deposit to a poker site/bookmaker with a debit card they get the money instantly but when you withdraw it always takes "3-5 working days"?

Variance.

The sites would say that its to run checks on your transfers and for any indication of money laundering related activity but how accurate that is I don't know. I can't see any immediate reason why it would be advantageous for the sites to keep you waiting 3-5 days if they didn't have to.

Or perhaps they hold enough cash that hanging on to it for an extra 3-5 days generates them enough extra interest to make it worth their while to hold onto it. Also could perhaps be that the bank you're sending it to like to have a look at transactions from gambling related businesses. Just musing, don't really know.

Keith, the question about religion always leaves me dumbfounded. I don't understand with how intelligent people are meant to be and all the facts of evolution around us that such a large percentage of people are religious.

I guess it's people who are scared of dying, all religions offer an afterlife for you but unfortunately that's not true.

also in general it's because before the advent of the faster payments system, BACS transfers just take that long.

How do you know it's not true?

There is a real beauty in science, but to suggest it is either science or religion is simplistic.

13.8 billion years ago, a single point, comprising every piece of matter that has existed, exploded, causing an enormous expansion of particles in every direction. Slowly, those particles began to cool and collide, forming neutrons, protons, then Hydrogen atoms. Then they combined more greatly, as gravity owing to their mass attracted a surge of other particles, forming stars, giant nuclear reactors, smashing hydrogen atoms together to form Helium and, through that, heat. Stars collected clumps of other particles, which became clouds of gas and bits and bobs, some of which collided to form planets. One one of those planets, billions of years later, life began from nothing. That life split and split again. When it got bigger a few generations on, it mated with another bit of life, over generations getting bigger and bigger still. From that single bit of life, every living thing we see today has descended.

Or there is a single being, vastly beyond our wisdom, knowledge and understanding, which created and allowed to evolve the life we know.

I don't see how God isn't possible.

Please hide this thread from Kinboshi, or God deliver us from his evil.

I'm not scared of dying.

I just don't want to be around when it happens.

ban him from this thread now imo  :D

The Woody Allen of yesteryear was untouchable IMO.

I am glad you know that's fact based assumptions.

have noticed a couple of firms now were withdraws show up the next day rather than the 3-5 working days

Bet365 are normally next day, as are a couple of other sites I've noticed, Stars is also 1-2 days (email receipt always says longer though).

How exactly do you get the last statement from the preceding statements?  Of course god is "possible" but he is also probabilistically very unlikely at least assuming we are talking about "a single being, vastly beyond our wisdom, knowledge and understanding, which created and allowed to evolve the life we know."

Do I now qualify as like a stand in Boshi?

My post sounded a bit ranty, but I mean it more in the sense that science - the facts on which we apply logic and reason - can be just as fantastic as religious concepts.

We make much of what we know and it is great that we push boundaries to learn and understand more.

Pythagoras is believed to have killed someone for proving that √2 is irrational (cannot be expressed as a fraction). A few hundred years ago, someone who made a wire heat up through a potato would have been burned as a witch.

Richard Dawkins enjoys arguing that all religion is false and it is easy to mock the only response of 'these are matter beyond mortal comprehension'.

There's no reason why there couldn't exist tree sprites (some seemingly completely rational people believe in them like they believe in the existence of television), more intelligent life on other planets or an infinite number of universes with different laws of physics applying.

It could all be like the end of Men In Black.

One of the great joys of life itself - the one area where scientist and spiritual guide agree emphatically - is that we know something is pulling the strings but we don't know what.

It is great to have reached rational conclusions but be receptive to new ideas and respectful (at least open minded) of the possibility that another view of the world might carry some weight.

Sorry redboshi. Was in response to the question of how rational people could believe in God.

Good post.  Think I would rather be your stand in than Boshi's.........

Welcome aboard, redTALmi

If the universe is infinite, there can't be an infinite number of universes, can there?

My head always starts to hurt when I think about stuff like this.

Technically...yes, there can be, although I forget whether the multiverse theorists apply it here.

There are an infinite number of odd numbers but there are also an infinite number of even numbers. Together, they make an infinite number of positive integers.

Then there are the same again negative.

And all the decimals.

Plus zero.

Georg Cantor is your man for that

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

- Epicurus [341–270 B.C.]


My argument would be for one single piece of evidence to show that god exists, let this piece of evidence be tested, and if it is shown to be irrefutably correct, then I will believe.

I disagree that science is as 'fantastic' as religious ideas, especially when fantastic is defined as "remote from reality".  Science is about being able to test hypothesis and correct them as new evidence is found.  It's about testing held 'truths', in fact science is about disproving held truths.  Religion is quite the opposite.  It's about NOT trying to disprove fantastic beliefs based on nothing but faith.

As for the infinite number of universes, I've not heard an argument for it that makes sense to me - but that's probably because of my misunderstanding of the idea.

If the universe is everything, there cannot be more than everything.

Can there?

I'd hate to be geeky* but Pythagoras wouldn't have done it - he was a demi-god leader of the cult; but also it's more likely that the follower was killed because he told someone outside of the School anything about what the Pythagoreans had done rather than because of what he specifically said.

Although there is no evidence from anywhere particularly close to the time so it's hard to tell.

Also interesting* to bring Pythagoras into a discussion about Religion and Science - the Pythagoreans were pretty much a religious cult who studied science so it was pretty indivisible for them.




*this might not be true

Science and religion are easily divisible. One is falsifiable.   The other is just false.

The Pythag debate is a fun one:

http://old.qi.com/talk/viewtopic.php?start=0&t=6300

That is if he existed at all.

hmmmm - that's possibly not the most well informed of debates, with the historical data at least.

I've read 'quite a lot' on the subject, including my own copy of quite a rare edition of Iamblicus' Life of Pythagoras. (imo) there's overwhelming evidence that he was a specific individual and the most likely 'story' behind the irrationality of root 2 is that the person was either killed (or at least exiled) because he broke the code of silence (they accepted and started using irrational numbers awfully quickly afterwards for something that was meant to be quite so unholy)

Again reiterating there's barely any evidence to work with - but that I can accept as true, that he was a descendant of Apollo - possibly less likely



God = Numbers = God

roughly speaking. They had some really weird shit as well, but I don't mind that central concept :D

Nah, that's just playing with words.

That is interesting. Thanks, Jon.

That Epicurus quote is a favourite of mine. May even end up as a tattoo.

Christian philosophy has addressed it, but it isn't a debate worth having.

My whole point is that there can exist two sets of beliefs.

i know several intellectuals who believe in god, yet not one rational answer between them about his existence

infact almost every "reasoned response" I have ever listened to is so cringeworthy it makes me shudder

Would you say that science is a 'belief'?

"Science adjusts its views based on what's observed. Faith is the denial of observation so that belief can be preserved.” - Tim Minchin.

Perhaps not the most informed or reliable source on the science vs religeon debate, but it works for me.

Everything we do is controlled and overseen by numbers - so that'd be a bit like a deity then?   :D

I wrote a whole essay once on how we're living in a neo-neo-Pythagorean age on the basic principle that everything's digital and/or statistical and the number crunchers run everything - I'm not sure whether it was a completely concrete and coherent argument but I only had half an hour to sling it together and it did the trick. :)

Really don't want to do this during a spurs game!

As I said earlier, it is too simplistic to separate science from religion.

That is my last word on the matter.

Exactly.  That covers 99.99% of religious arguments.  The rest is pretty much semantics. 

To compare religious belief to the scientific method is quite frankly bollocks. 

"The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry."
Richard Dawkins

post some more things you wish you knew please keith, we're losing the thread...

I wish I knew why anyone bothers to debate religion  ::)
World would be a lot better place if everyone just beileved what they believed quietly.

Kin, start your own thread

"Things I know I know"

 ;D

Agree 100%.  That's faith, and that's great - everyone should be free to believe what they want.  Religion however, is about 'privilege' and if adherents to a particular religion are given privilege, that means that others must suffer as a result (zero-sum game).  A secular society is actually a lot fairer to those who want to practice whatever faith they want in their homes, in freedom.

Practise.

(Couldn't resist. Know I should have, but it felt so right!)

Time to move on, as this is the eternal debate in which no one's view moves a squiggle.

TOf course, I wouldn't dream of discussing the merits of any organised religion, it all just sounds like 'my dads bigger than your dad' to me.
What I was referring to was more the is there or isn't there question.
Now you are drawing me in, because I have to ask why you seem hell bent (excuse the pun) on proving there isn't a 'God'?
You seem more passionate about it than a lot of people I know are about there proclaimed religion!
Isn't that the same as people who insist there is?

I am going to football practice

I am going to practise playing the piano

Is that right? Semi back on topic too.

In English, practice is only a noun. Practise is a verb. The Yanks seem to disagree but that shouldn't concern us.

The way I remember it is:

ICE IS cold.

Ice - noun
Is - verb

In answer to your question, Yes, you've got it.

Science is abs bollocks, 100 years from now they will have said we got it all wrong and it was really God created it all...you just wait.

Religion is a test of faith. It's kinda easy to have faith in something which is proven to be irrefutably correct

...and yet planes fly, your computer works, etc.

I'm not trying to prove there isn't a god. Proving a negative is very difficult/ impossible. Why am I passionate about it? I think organised religion is responsible for a lot of wrongs in the world, and it's divisive and unhelpful. The law on abortion in Ireland, women's rights in Saudi Arabia, faith schools across the world, wars fought in the name of god are just some examples.

I'm also passionate about those who ignore the scientific method to sell their snake-oils as legitimate cures for diseases and illnesses, when they base their belief in the cures on faith and no evidence. In fact a lot know their alternative medicines don't work (much like that bloke selling the fake bomb detector), but don't care.

I don't insist there isn't a god. I'd be quite happy to acknowledge his existence, and my first question would be where has he been hiding and why?

We talkin' about practice.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGDBR2L5kzI

Dan, you gotta learn to ignore those worms bobbing in the water.

Can't help it.

Anyway, to get the thread back on track, The Camel wants to know why there are so many successful Scottish managers in football when there aren't anywhere near as many top quality Scottish footballers?

God knows...

I meant today's science is tomorrow bollocks. How much stuff has been scientifically proven to be later then superseded with another solid/fact based theory on evolution or whatever?

That IS science!  It's about falsifiable theories, it's about changing our understanding of the world as we learn and challenge previous thinking.  The scientific method is all about looking at what we think we know and using evidence to reinforce our ideas or to provide new ones.

Science predicts outcomes, and if these outcomes occur and the experiments can be repeated and replicated with the same results, then it provides good evidence that the theories are accurate.  Sometimes the theories aren't complete, so more investigation and study is done to fill those gaps, or to create new ones.

Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection is over 200 years old.  It has been observed to be accurate, it has been built upon, and the discovery of DNA provided more evidence to back it up and show its validity.  It has been replicated in laboratory conditions with bacteria, and our understanding of evolution has increased with other technological advances.  It helps us understand the natural world a lot more clearly.

Newton's theory on gravity was pretty much correct.  We all see its effects everyday on stuff in our world, and the way we orbit the sun, etc.  However, Einstein added more to our understanding of gravity with his theory of general relativity - and mankind's understanding of it increased.  But there are still holes in our understanding that need to be filled - and that's how science works.

Religion is responsible for a lot of rights and helps billions of people around the world find comfort and strength every day. Despite some of the extreme examples most people guided by a god aspire to live peacefully within a code of values which makes them better people. Think about the incredible number who pray to a god every day, most are asking for wholesome things whilst showing faith in something unproven. I’m not religious but that all seems like cool positive stuff.

Playing devil’s advocate here. That faith is a very real thing, and that strength and that comfort are very real things but they are bi-products of something which cannot be real? It’s like saying there is heat, warmth, and light but there can’t possibly be a fire. If somebody prays to god and gets strength it’s real, do we need to see an old man with a beard before we believe it so?

Finally, if you look around at all the miracles in the world from amazing nature to daily acts of kindness and human spirit I reckon god would be kinda pissed at the where have you been hiding jibe. So let us seek forgiveness now, come pray with me kinboshi, just to be on the safe side.

J

I remember Spike Milligan saying that on some televised chat-show.

I don't believe in Organised Religion which is why I became a Methodist.

tbf though, Organised Politics/Organised Labour is responsible for a lot of the wrongs in this world too.


The Scottish footballers question? The exodus into the English leagues was severely reduced when we started sourcing our talents from Europe and beyond, and that in turn restricted the development of some talent that might otherwise have grown in an environment that was more conducive than the SPL.

Who let Boshi out of the basement and where's Dewi ffs!  He's got a lot to answer for stirring up religion. 

Read Mantis's post after I'd done mine (I'm on my phone and I can't use it properly ) This is why I ask questions all the time. I like to know why other people think what they do.
It doesn't mean I'll change my mind, but I like to think I can see things from all sides.

The argument would be that they are good people who are also religious - they aren't good people because they are religious.

The number of religious people who aren't good people is pretty good evidence for this theory.

Kinboshi in 'There might be a God' shocker!

 ;ashamed; ;tightend;

Still waiting for that one bit of evidence that suggests he might be there...hiding.

Nice post Mantis. Interesting debate here. I read one side and I agree completely. Then I read another side and I also agree completely with that :D

@Mantis - like I said, no problem at all with faith.  People should be free to believe what they want.  Just don't impose restrictions on what others do or believe, and don't expect or demand greater privilege to adherents of one faith over another.

Yep i 100% agree with this, but more and more in my life people feel the need to tell me how facts/figures and science mean i am wrong in having faith. Faith being the key word.

Don't worry if people tell you you're wrong.  Your faith means you're telling lots of others (of other faiths, or those with no faith) that they're wrong - as most faiths are mutually exclusive.  I like discussing with people why they believe in a particular faith over another, or why they think the world is as it is (through design or otherwise).

I have 'faith' or 'belief' in the scientific method, but I wouldn't say it's blind faith (so a different use of the word faith or belief).  I've seen the evidence that makes planes fly, or makes computers and phones work, and how my dad survived heart disease through a quadruple bypass and then bowel cancer through the amazing work the doctors and modern medicine did. 

It's the idea of 'religion' that is where the issue lies with me.  It's like we all may have prejudices, and that's fine, until it becomes discrimination.

Oooh, on another day with a couple of glasses of wine in me I could have a massive rant about this issue  ;nemesis;  :)

Religion is about interpretation. Most people are liberal and don't interpret every word in literal fashion. It sounds like your beef is with the radical interpretation of religion and are applying it to religion as a whole. That's a sweeping negative genralisation, like eg saying all muslims are terrorists. :)

Also conflict between religions is dumb. It's obv the same god just with a different costume on.

Not just talking about radical fundamentalism, I'm talking about mainstream religion being divisive. Kids play together in the street, then they go to school - and suddenly Mo is different to Simon and his other friends from school.  Ireland is not generally considered a 'radical' nation, but religion allows priests to systematically abuse children for decades, and also infiltrates the politics of the country so that women who are raped have been denied abortions.  Religion shouldn't be involved in politics, and even 'mainstream' religion can demand religious privilege that means others' rights are impacted upon.

As for religions having conflict.  Is it dumb? Surely it's inevitable and in some ways the religions demand it as their 'god' is the one true god (or gods) and if you really believe that only adherents of your religion go to heaven (for example), then it's your duty to make others follow your god too - otherwise you're condemning them to eternal suffering.  Hence the missionaries and preachers, and even the crusades to some degree (of course they were more about power than religion for many) - get the barbarian heathens to believe and save them from eternal damnation!

It's the debit card company that is at fault here. From the other side of the fence I can tell you it tilts the shit out of me.

Say over 7 transactions a punter does £100 on his debit card then has a winner for £200 and wants it put on his card which I oblige. He then comes up for another bet and card declines cos he only had the £100 balance he originally started with. The £200 hasn't gone on yet.

I am sure that most operators like me would prefer you all to be paid immediately as we can then begin battle again but it just does not work that way.

It's not just religious types that get into arguments about their beliefs...

A piece on PM tonight featured the debate over Aquatic evolution which has apparently been getting rather heated of late.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/apr/27/aquatic-ape-theory-primate-evolution

Not sure there is actually that much evidence in favour of this 'theory', based on what I've heard respected evolutionary biologists and anthropologists say.  But you're right, there's been a lot of debate by many on this - but mostly by lay-people with an interest in the subject, rather than actual experts.  There was something (also in the guardian) about this. 

Edit, found it:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/occams-corner/2013/may/07/aquatic-apes-creationism-evolution

This sums up the thrust of the article:
"One of the problems with human evolution, as opposed to, say, rocket science, is that everybody feels that their opinion has value irrespective of their prior knowledge"

Again wikipedia is a good source for the background on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquatic_ape_hypothesis and the same for an alternative hypothesis that I think has more evidence in its favour (but is still disputed): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_running_hypothesis.

The pointless answers I just fuked up filming our two episodes for the show, fml.

You can't just leave it at that.  Questions please, is pointless Ricard funny in real life?   Did you know his brother was in Suede? when are you on?  Etc

semi final first episode, then we got to final round second episode.  Me and my mate got like 6, 3, 1 in the jackpot round. It was only for a few grand so not a huge blowout. Our downfall was Geography in first go but in the final it was Politics, name someone in the shadow cabinet from 2010. yeah gg fml. Some turd guessed with me Hilary Benn :(

We got a few pointless questions to boost the jackpot.

We chatted to a few producers and presenters before but tbh only small talk, guess they film 4-5 a day no real room for chat. I get email letting me know when its coming on.

John Denham
Sadiq Khan
Tessa Jowell

Are you allowed to say?

Can't put it up there and not have me play along :D

13. Why have sort codes got a dash between every two numbers? Just means you can't copy and paste them and is generally bloody irritating.

14. Tonight's Euromillions numbers and stars.

15. Why Americans don't say 'bye' when finishing a phone call and just hang up.

Glad it's not just me!

You can with some online banking systems I think.

I wish I knew whether <------- it saying 'full member' next to me means that some kind soul has upgraded my membership to the point whether I can post my bloody wsop schedule and not wait until I've gotten to 300 posts.

Nope, still need 300 posts.

That was remarkably quick knowledge! Let's try again....

What is the correct balance of women/drugs/gambling/sport/hard work to ensure a long life of stable levels of sanity and happiness?

the first balance criteria and last word conflict

who are you sir and how have you appropriated my name before i even got to use it?

Seeing as he's been a member since 2007 a fairer question would be for him to ask "why have you copied my name?"

14. Why do baseball players spit so much?

A lot of them like to use chewing tobacco instead of smoking and they chew it during the game.

It's disgusting and some poor sap has to clean it up after every game.

Greatest example:

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-GyqROzDWo

Agree completely.  None of my baseball playing friends chewed it, but we were from a town where that wouldn't have gone down well.  My cousin married a guy who does it.  He keeps a container of some sort nearby so he's not spitting it all over the place...puketastic.  I just steer clear of him if I know he's got a wad in his mouth.

not sure how i missed this one but really only just found out about the dead sea scrolls...

pretty epic find and read....

http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/

15. Why are otherwise intelligent people superstitious?

I owed someone $200. I counted out 4 x $50 notes. They refused to touch them. I thought they were joking, but no, seriously they would rather not accept the money and have me still owing them than handle $50 notes.

WTF?

16. Why are all yoghurts simply given the name of the fruit used to flavour them EXCEPT peach which for some reason are called "Peach Melba"?

17. Why do Americans feel the need to speak to strangers when alone in lifts? I'm English, I don't want to talk to you unless I know you.

What's the difference between assume and presume, please?

I know people say assume when they start on a mathematical proof, but I am struggling after that.

What would've happened if Hitler didn't try and take out every one at once...?

fyp

Fhp

I LOVE talking to people in lifts.  Especially when the door opens at a floor and nobody gets out and I can have a good ROFL with my new buddies.  Is this not cricket and they actually think I'm a weirdo?

You're a Watford fan.

The fact you're a weirdo is therefore taken as read.

synonyms, just slightly different roots

I don't think that's true.

I had an embarrassing moment in a Supervision at Uni once, where I said assume and was corrected mid-sentence by a Tutor bearing the wearied expression of a man sick of having to explain the difference to oiks.

How do they choose weather reporters on the telly?

No idea, but that young black lad on east mids news that always looks like he's about to break out in a dance somehow manages to wind me up. Emma Jesson ftw........  ;D

Was your application rejected, then?

Well, not quite.  I guess they've all studied meteorology, but then there doesn't seem to be much consistency in what else they look for.

Somebody who spouts regular bollocks? You might have a chance Dan......  :P

Not if you apply first ;)

How is the bloke in the Kellogg's Crunchy Nut adverts who keeps giving away his location by eating cereal still alive?

That's not always a reliable guide, a lot of academic types refuse to admit that English is actually still a living language and so definitions can change because of common usage. Also a lot of them never understood that English was not equal to Latin in the first place and some of their 'rules' were always wrong - in this case the former though.

I think the nominal difference is assume is opinion based and presume is probability based*, but common usage means they're both the same thing now. Although obviously it still makes a sentence sound better if you use them in the original context.


EDIT.* or is it the other way round?  :dontask:

There are uses where one of them is clearly the only option but, where they appear interchangeable, I generally use presume if it relates to the future. I don't think you can presume something about the past or present. You can use assume about the future and I think Jon's opinion-based v probability or evidence-based is correct:
"You have never gone to a BlondeBash before but I assume you'll be going to this one."
"You have always gone to BlondeBashes so I presume you'll be going to this one."

I think that's pretty much how I use them, but, as you say, I find it comforting to know I'm choosing the correct one with confidence.

Pedants gotta ped, and all that.

Peach Melba is a dessert with peaches, raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream invented for an Australian opera singer called Nellie Melba.
Peach yogurts almost always have a hint of the above flavours, hence the name.

I have no idea why Americans speak to you in lifts.

Why is that whichever end of a box of tablets you open the leaflet always obstructs the easy removal of the strip of pills?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law)

Same reason why it always takes three goes to put in an USB cable the right way round.

One of my teachers at school always told us that PREsume was based on PREvious information and that ASSume would often end with you making an ASS out of U and ME.

Haha, and it was always the right way originally but still wouldn't go in...

First one sounds logical, but the second one is just being silly ;)

i wish i knew i was going to get tonsillitis the day before my hols...

rush to docs, meds and off we go,

18. Why when you stay in a hotel are they allowed to "reserve" about 3 times how much the total cost of your stay is on your credit card and why does it take about a week before that credit returns to your account?

You don't have to give your credit card in advance when you're in a restaurant, so why do you have to at a hotel?

I'm going to start paying in advance in cash - yeah it will mean the mini bar is locked, but they are missing out on me being unable to resist a Toblerone at 4am because they don't trust me to pay the ridiculous overcharge when I check out.

That'll learn the bastards.

I usually end up booking rooms with pre-payment.

But some hotels still insist on taking credit card pre-authorisation; I tell them I'm not going to be charging anything to the room and if they skip it then I'll book with them again. If they don't I usually stay somewhere else next time - even if it costs more. For that precise reason that it suggests they just don't trust you - despite the fact that they've got all your contact details on file.

When bullets are fired into the sky in a salute, do they not injure people when they land?

wonder how high they'd go before slowing, and coming back down.
depends on the gun obviously, but still

http://science.howstuffworks.com/question281.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14616491

That was going to be question 37, asked next April.

Sorry Keith I stole your Q. Cheers Adam it does seem to be super dangerous.

I'd assume with sanctioned rifle salutes they'd use blanks.
H&S and all that :)

or they point them in the direction where nobody is standing

They can apparently travel up to a mile in the air. Would have a job to aim in a direction no one could get hit.
Think blanks are a bit more likely :)

People don't shit the bed and throw the telly out of the window in a restaurant.

You've never been to Scunthorpe?

lol, its true though  :D

I've had restaurants ask me to supply a credit card when booking. I always refuse to, even if it means not being able to book.
It depresses me that my word is longer my bond according to some people.

Which reminds me, the last time this happened I tried to book a local restaurant, that I have used a dozen times before, for my father in laws 70 birthday. I refused to give them my card details and told them I didn't require the booking.

On the day of his birthday the restaurant called to ask if I was still coming and was most put out when I said no. It's a pity because it's one of the best Italian restaurants around.

Asking for a deposit is pretty common place if you are booking for a group of people maybe 10 or more or whatever. I don't blame them at all as there are a fair few no shows, which is especially annoying at weekends when you could fill the tables no problem. I really don't see why people have a problem with this.

I understand why they may ask, but I'm old school and feel that if I've been a regular customer then my word should suffice.

I see people regularly getting tilted beyond belief on travel forums about having to pay in advance for hotels, its pretty common to have to pay when using some of the big sites and you are often getting the best price by using them.

They forget the reason they ask for payment in advance is because people shaft them on a regular basis and check out early etc leaving them with empty rooms at the last minute they could have otherwise sold.. Not surprisingly its the whiners that are usually the shafters........

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2011/09/mind-blowing-dancing/

How to dance like that! Probably one of the most outrageous things I've seen. As the author said, I'm really not sure if its not camera trickery etc!

I wish I knew why I instinctively fling my left arm across the passenger seat when braking suddenly in the car. Last week I elbowed my mum in the chest and today I karate chopped an empty seat.

Why, despite my best efforts, is it so hard to use my car's brakes with my left foot.

Note: if you haven't already then do NOT try this unless you're going slowly with no-one around you.

Where is the 'safe place' that I keep storing important things?  Forever tearing the house apart in hopes of finding where I've stashed something.

When crossing the road I'm prone to holding the hand of the person next to me, whoever that might happen to be. It's a reflex from the days when I used to walk around with a gaggle of kids.

It's earned me some funny looks I can tell you, and I think I've pulled once or twice, both genders.

My Mum does this, she says it a maternal instinct.

I do that. thought i was the only one :)
It's usually because there's an empty child booster seat with my lunch for the day sat on it.

I wish I knew what one of the 100 raffle numbers are gonna be this Friday so I can become a millionaire! :)

This isn't having a go at anyone in particular, it is in the list because I'm genuinely curious.

19. In the "Diaries and Blogs" board on here, there are about 10 blogs started by people with <10 posts, who write one long intro and then never post again.

Why would they start a diary on a website where they don't know anyone?

Having gone through the rigmarole of joining and writing a long first post, why do they just abandon the thread before anyone gets to to know them?

It's baffling to me.

Nowt as queer as folk.

In American TV cop shows - why do they keep pretending that it takes 20 seconds to trace a call?

The idea of expressing yourself to people you know can be quite daunting so I can understand the logic in doing so to strangers. 

Also, they may be lurkers who feel as though they do know the members through reading their posts everyday (like I do).

It's possible that they abandon it because the idea was better than the reality.  Too much like hard work.

Also, why in films/TV do they always find a parking space by the front doors of where they want to go.

No one ever coughs or sneezes unless they are ill or burps unless they are drunk. Every telephone number is 555 something.

I could do this all day but I'm going to try to regain a sensible level of blood pressure.

Someone sneezed on RUK today.

It struck me then that no one sneezes or coughs much on live tv either.

Adrenaline stop you doing it?

Plausible. If you're talking a lot, it might mean you're breathing more through your mouth and thus less likely to irritate the inside of your nose. Just an off the top of my head theory.

Natural selection

scots are good man managers and motivators add some tactically knowledge and you have a good manager very few top players become top managers as its not about skills and self motivating

20. Why do people drive like cnts?

Driving home from a weekend dawn sarf, there was a horrendous thunder storm while we on the M1.

It was so bad, I doubt visibility was more than 50 yards for about 10 minutes.

Yet still there were complete morons in the fast lane driving at 90+ with about 10 yards to the car in the front.

Astounding.

Yeah! I was on the motorway too and some idiot was doing at least 90 just a few feet in front of me.

Bossed it!!!!

Why some parents don't keep on eye on their young kids when in a public place and then panic when the kids are hurt/go missing/not answering to their parents shouts.

Think we had about 20 pages on this last year

I have never met a parent who hasn't on some occasion lost sight of their child for a few minutes.
With the best will in the world, it only takes a seconds distraction like paying at the till or opening some juice for another child for the little darling to slip off to look at something or better still, hide under the table etc and watch mammy run around screaming and grabbing strangers by the lapels (yes, I'm one of those).
Kids also have an annoying habit of hurting themselves whether your looking at them or not, I find.

Oooh, Did we? What was the general consensus?

as is always the case on blonde, no consensus

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=59224.0

Yes, of course you are right, but momentarily losing sight of your kids is different from letting your 6 year old kid go and find his dad who is hidden from view in a crowded public place a hundred yards or so away. And when the kids dad appears 10 min later on his own and nobody knows where the kid is. The parents start panicking because of their own stupidity that their kid is missing. To top it all off the mother of said kid can't see that she did anything wrong by letting the 6 yo kid go and find his dad ON HIS OWN.

This is actually a family member of mine. (thankfully not a blood relative)

M25 > M40 is the way to go, much quieter. Also I find it adds a rather soothing feel to the journey.

If you drive in the same style you play poker I won't be asking for a lift home ever!

Agree that this was pretty stupid, and not really what I was talking about. I thought you were making a general observation about parents in public places, as your almost certain to see some minor child related drama, especially during the school holidays.
Things like your story above, and the April Jones thread Camel linked are entirely different as there more about poor judgement calls than everday mishaps.
I hope the little boy was found quickly and that a lesson was learned without too much trauma for those involved!

Yes thanks, he gingerly turned up 20 min later wondering why his parents were telling him off.

Why is the kid being told off?  Why isn't the husband explaining to the mother what an utter moron she is?

Haha, tbf I used to drive like a lunatic, until I wrapped my beautiful VW Golf round a tree with no seat belt!! Luckily I've lived to tell the tale, ever since I've driven at a reasonably sensible speed :D

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk3IpNbltyw

Crap is light and due to the time space continuum will get lighter as time goes on. You will note that their are more floaters than there used to be as gravity slowly loses its power. Crap weighs less in the Arctic than in the Antarctic

The Germans are highly interested in crap, they like to join their wives in the Schmidthous to watch the proceedings and evaluate the outcome. The Japanese have invented a small underwater camera fixed inside the toilet base which shows each new piece of crap leaving the body and plummeting down into the water - This piece of equipment is available on E Bay and is known as Kami Carzy Anus Zoom; don't buy one secondhand.

My dad used to tell the most wonderful crap jokes the following one was my favourite as a kid: A guy is sitting on a bus and asks the fellow next to him "Have you just shit?" The fellow replies, "Yes!" - " Well why don't you get off the bus? - The fellow replied, "I haven't finished yet."

I suggest you buy a set of digital scales - they will show the difference.

Wish I knew what El Sid smokes.

Don't wast good money on green Kinboshi, go to Aldi and buy their own brand Green Tea - Stick it in a Rizla and hey presto.

Wish I knew why they changed the name of Presto supermarkets.

Interesting that the last word I wrote presto influenced your train of thought. This free association might make many people snicker.

I wish I knew how to...

The drink

Shared a table with Sid last week, and he didn't say a word the whole time :(

 ;indestructable;

What percentage of beans eaten in the world are baked beans in tomato sauce?

How some products can be advertised as having a particular quality (makes your hair shinier, your lashes longer, your chinchilla chinchillier) and for the details to appear at the bottom of the screen to tell you that 68% of 97 people agreed.

How can you advertise something on the basis of 67 people's opinion, particularly when 30 people didn't agree?

Tend to play very quiet poker - unless I have anything of value to say. I don't believe in speech play unless somebody else starts it - then I tend to give as good as I get.

I hate criticism of other players while their sitting at the tables by mumblers at the other end of the table, and am no fan of people who criticise players after they have left the table.

Last week at the GUKPTwe had a running commentary on ever hand. on the first table I played on by a fellow wearing Grey Raymer glasses. He knew everything about everthing and fancied himself as Jesse May.

This chap was the archetype mumbler. After anyone had played a hand he decided to discuss it in muted terms with the guy sitting next to him, who invariably had no interest whatsoever and would sooner try and play the current hand, than worry about how somebody at the other end of the table had played the last hand.

This kind of player intersperses his laconic commentary to praise himself for any hand he may win, putting it down to his superior knowledge and explaining how unlucky he was when losing a pot.

I did eventually politely ask this fellow to squeak up and not just mumble his thoughts, as a direct criticism might get a reply, which would give hims somebody else's point of view, which might, in the future  help his poker. Had I been in a more flamboyant mood I would have sung him the Ronan Keating song: "I like it best of all when you say nothing at all."

 - All the best to you Celtic -

Sid, good to see you yesterday. Will post that photo on a new thread shortly.

Good luck!

It's about statistical significance innit?

it was a fair few years ago and my capacity to explain it properly has atrophied but this may help
http://parkinslot.blogspot.co.uk/2003/12/sample-size-and-statistical.html

Well, yes, but even Les Dennis asked a hundred people :)

Why some poker players have another peek at their cards when they win a pot without showdown.

they might not have looked already?

If that was the case it wouldn't be another peek.

I love this sort of stuff.

For some, it's that they want to enjoy the bluff. For others, they want to see that amazing hand once more, perhaps even contemplating showing everyone. The third basic option is that they want to remember the exact two cards for talking about afterwards.

You can always ask them.

I wish I knew how to win a pot tonight.

It's so they can do that enigmatic smile that is intended to make their opponent doubt the wisdom of folding.

I do this.  I have no idea why i do it.  I feel a bit daft now.

me too.

It's often like giving ourselves a pat on the back.

'Did I really have that!? Man I played it well. Good job me!'

Why Chinese people (sorry Ho) are so rude. In Macau atm and literally noone ever puts their hand over their mouth when they burp or cough . It's fucking tilting me.

For me I think it's that last second 'shall I show it' before they go in the muck.

Yesterday I sat next to a genuinely nice, well mannered young man who had oily hair, greasy skin complete with freshly squeezed boils, green suede teeth and breath that could stop a charging rino.

When he coughed, (Which was frequently) I could see the spittle flying across the table.

Apologies.

Just for clarity, I wasn't agreeing with Cos. (But then who does?)  ::)

ORLY?

Chinese have got a terrible rep for being rude, not the ones from Hong Kong but mainland China.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1251239/why-are-chinese-tourists-so-rude?page=all

Russians are pretty bad too. It's only in the last few years since these guys started traveling more that they have started to pop up on the radar.

Yep. 1.3 billion people, all rude. It must be true, someone wrote it in a blog.

No that is only one article, I did not form my opinion from that, I just used it as an example nothing more. They have a reputation for it same as Russians, the more you travel the more you see it.

Ah, I see.

What about the Brit's reputation for being larger louts abroad? Does that mean we're just as bad as everyone else?

For sure there are plenty of idiot brits abroad too, not going to argue there.

So we agree then. By and large, allowing for cultural differences, people are pretty much the same the world over. Good and bad in all.

No, some nationalities are far better than others and some are worse. If you travel more you will see it, anyway cba arguing I was just agreeing with Cos' observations nothing more.

Far better at what?

CBA arguing? So you just want to have the last word and leave it at that?

No please feel free to have the last word, I have said my opinion and you disagree with me, no problem.

Whilst Cos point about the hygiene aspect is a fair one I think people underestimate cultural differences and the ignorance others have about some things that we, in developed western countries, consider to be good manners.  Queueing is the obvious one but there are a bunch of other things that seem rude but really they are just cultural differences.  For example here in Jamaica so many things people say seem hugely abrupt and rude to me.  Everytime someone tells me something they will you "you hear" after it and it used to get my back up no end as it is something I would say to a child if I was scolding them but here it is just a turn of phrase to end a sentence.   They also basically never say thank you and please.  Conversely, they have this very formal thing where everyone expects you to say "good morning" when you walk in and if you are distracted and doing something else and don't say "Good Morning" they will get quite offended.  It is pointless worrying about these things in my experience and at the end of the day if everywhere was like England it would be pointless travelling and you might as well learn to take the good with the bad.

OK thanks.

I think that negative labelling by ethnicity is, by definition, racist. 

1.snow doesnt melt at temps up to 4c.
2. i dont, i done a huge poo and lost a stone.nice curry though
3.it does, but minutely.
4. they need something to believe in. theres no proof there isnt a God, just as there is that there is.
5. glory-hunters, they like the big wins. personally i support whatever team is closest to me. i grew up supporting swindon, watching them go from the 4th to the premier, and back again. then it was luton, then watford. now its torquay united, even when they were in the conference i supported them, now they're in the 2nd. i also support liverpool and barcelona for the glory.

What's size got to do with it?

When I moved to Hong Kong I was amazed at how busy it was. I found the jostling and pushing on the streets very rude. So being an English gentleman I was giving it all the "Excuse me sir" and "After you madam" for the few days. This approach made day to day life very difficult and I quickly became as rude as the next guy. You gotta adapt to survive on the streets kids.

I was talking to a few guys from Hong Kong, who were clearly well educated and fairly westernised. They said that the Chinese goverment knows that it's people are rude and perceived that way by the rest of the world and are starting to implement measures in schools etc to change this.

You ask any Thai person in Phuket what Nationality their least favourite tourists are and they will answer Russians first, because of their rudeness and lack of smiles,positive body language etc and then Brits and Aussies because of how disrespectful a lot of them are to other cultures but mainly because of how they handle themselves when drinking.

Greeks are generally selfish and lazy.

Almost all cultures/races/nationalities have behavioural things that set them apart from others. Just because you can't measure things like rudeness it doesn't mean to say certain people don't have those tendencies.

I can't count how many times Tikay has made negative remarks about young kidz in poker. The reason it doesn't bother me is because in general he's right. I don't see this as any different.

If we can't make negative remarks (I agree they have to be made sensitively) then why should we make positive ones too? Should I not commend people from Myanmar/Burma for being amongst the most friendly and hard working I've ever met?

Sometimes things are just too PC.

Spot on, comfortably number 1 from the places I've been.

By and large I agree with the views the way they have been expressed in this post because it takes into account cultural differences and because of your understanding of the need to express them sensitively.

What I don't agree with are bald sweeping statements that condemn an entire ethnic group.

As an example, The Sun newspaper features a negative Gypsy story almost every week. I'm sure the selected 'facts' that they report are true, but the way that they present them make life very uncomfortable for the rest of us.

They always use terms like The gypsies steal caravan   or  Gypsy gang target elderly couple

If it was people from the settled community they wouldn't report like that, they would name the people responsible, with us they suggest that being Gypsies has something to do with the fact that they committed the crime.

When there is story about crimes commuted by Gypsies in the paper people often say to me "I see your lot have been at it again."
 I always reply with "I see your lot have been at it again too."
When they ask me what I mean I say, "You know, Your Jimmy Saville interfering with all those children and that"


Reporting by ethnicity makes life very hard for innocent people.

 

I think the following concoction highlights how the tabloid press works.
A Harley rider is riding by the zoo in Washington, DC when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the collar of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents.

The biker jumps off his Harley, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch.

Whimpering from the pain, the lion jumps back, letting go of the girl, and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly. A reporter has watched the whole event.

The reporter, addressing the Harley rider, says, “Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I've seen a man do in my whole life.”

The Harley rider replies, “Why, it was nothing, really. The lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger and acted as I felt right.”

The reporter says, “Well, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed. I'm a journalist, you know, and tomorrow's paper will have this story on the front page.

So, what do you do for a living and what political affiliation do you have?”

The biker replies, “I'm a U.S. Marine and a Republican.”

The journalist leaves.

The following morning the biker buys the paper to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads, on the front page:

“U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH!���

...and THAT pretty much sums up the media's approach to the news these days.

I'm not sure that is the same thing as people saying Swedish birds are hot, British people are posh and love tea, Americans are fat and Russians are rude. People love generalisations and they tend to be somewhat humorous.

I don't think the gypsy sweeping statement is quite the same thing or context, and I agree it is obviously wrong. Nationalities are too broad of a topic for such things to cause offence perhaps. All I know is The Simpsons had a hilarious episode involving Bart travelling to France on a foreign exchange trip where he was forced to make wine and it played up to many French stereotypes, and hilarity ensued.

I don't know about this Tom.  I agree from the perspective that generalising about an entire population is bad but when we identify with a community then we have to take the good and bad.  Since I have moved from the UK I identify very strongly with being English or British and I was very proud last year of our hosting of the Olympics and am generally very proud of our history and culture but on the flip side when I hear of Brits behaving badly abroad I feel a sense of shame and responsibility and if I was present I would try and do something about their behaviour.  Similarly my wife is Jamaican and they have a problem with men fathering children and then not taking responsibility for them that reflects and impacts badly on that community and just because she had a child with someone that doesn't behave in that way doesn't mean that she should just wash her hands of the problem and blame others for perceiving her in that way.  I guess what I am saying is that we can't just blame other people for their perceptions if we have the power to impact positively on our own communities to change them.

Ahhh yes generalisation. Pretty funny. Someone posted this link up on my FB yesterday and it's intriguing. The "Why is Britain so violent" suggestion kinda got me because as far as I'm concerned I feel like I live in a very safe society!

http://noahveltman.com/suggest/

I take your point, but there is a good balance of both the good and bad aspects when reporting about the English or the British.

Not so with Gypsies.

It doesn't matter how much you influence any community, you can't change them all, and if only the negative stuff is reported, the rest of the population will see them all in a negative light.

Antifreeze tho

Snapped this at a petrol station the other day. No idea what the story is about, but thought you'd appreciate the headline:

(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c17/JCtheMessiah/IMG_20130717_172808-1.jpg)

Gotta love the "sub"plot about the boy in Springfield too

edit: Üter Zörker (http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ2JPAY6sRMiniX3LiRHCFDyMlkS9jGnwXtmQUya9NtKXdhoGFe) :)

Wanted to post a clip of when his parents asked Principal Skinner to tell them where he is. Classic line.

Type "uter just want closure" into YouTube.

File that under 'Things I wish I hadn't asked'

Wish I knew the winning lotto numbers for Tuesday, any chance ffs

Pick at least two numbers above 31, as plenty do birthdays and you want to give yourself the best chance of winning it outright.

#NoBusiness

Why there are 47 buttons on the remote control for my £15 quid DVD player.

What can it possibly do except play DVD's?

And above 36 because plenty do roulette numbers too.

Not sure what number I'm up to.

Why do wooden toilets seats fall down so often while I'm having a piss?

Never has happened with a plastic one.

Do you lift it up when you're not having a piss?

Wooden seats default position is down.

Plastic can be up or down.

Ah! That's why it only falls when you're having a piss.

And there's more.

These two are generalisations (obv) but I've found them to be true a great deal and wondered what the reasons are?.

21. Why is the weather often glorious at 7am with clear blue skies and beaming sunshine and then deteriorates to a cloudy boring day seemingly far more often than the meh day improves to a wonderful day?

22. Why are women scared or at least perturbed by scuttling creatures/insects like mice or spiders, while men don't like flying stuff like bats or moths?

23. After witnessing a day of completely overblown abuse on Twitter, why do some otherwise civilised and reasonable adults behave like spoiled children if somehow someone tells them what happens at the end of a tv series they've been following? Grow up please, it is only a tv programme.

That, I fear, we will never know

Why do we need to put car tax in the windscreen still?   The tele is normally showing adverts telling us they know where to look if our car is untaxed and it can be scrapped if we don't do it, it's all on the computer yet we still need to show a bit of paper in the window for some reason. 

My car tax has gone up £70 since 2007.

If you're parked on a public highway and are either displaying an out of date one or not displaying, you can be issued a fine on the spot by a traffic warden.

Why do we still pay car tax at all?

Much fairer to add this tax to fuel.

yeah and then who would live in the sticks supplying you city folks with food. We already pay a much higher fuel cost and dont have the luxury of a pubic transport system that will get us to a location or at time we need scrap  fuel tax and use a chip paying per mile travel depending on the road your travelling so the people using the expensive new roads are paying for them while we mugs on dirt tracks can save a little

Someone who does 10 miles per week pays the same car tax as someone who does 10,000.

That doesn't seem very fair to me.

Under a chip the amount would work out much fairer than just slapping in on fuel

Just on fuel also encourages people to use more fuel efficient cars too which are better for the enviroment

As I said easy enough to say when you have a good public transport system fuel tax is already crippling people up here £1.47a litre and no option of public transport

The taxes on fuel >> VED, so it seems the Government mostly agrees.

But my point is there should be no such thing as car tax.

Why should someone who owns but doesn't drive a car be taxed for it?

They aren't, you don't have to pay tax if you aren't driving it.

If it's parked on the road you do.

its road tax if your parked on the road your using the road which your paying the tax for also you can get cheap environment friendly cars that are road tax free

It's not road tax, and it hasn't been road tax since the 1930's

I know, but why?  As the advert says, they only need to check their systems to see if I have a tax or not for my car, why does putting it in the window have to be part of it.  I shouldn't have to have a physical bit of paper at all.

I imagine it just makes it easier to spot the dodgers. An untaxed car may not be registered to the current owner, in this situation a visual inspection may alert the police to check the car/driver.

Doesn't it help towards monitoring cars on the road in terms of MOT and insurance?  Although, it does this far from perfectly.

Okay I bite...so in the vain of why do you country folks pay the same road tax to drive on poorer roads...why are the bands for property tax the same irrespective of where you live?...compare what £250K buys you in London compared to elsewhere in the UK and this has to be one of the most unfair taxes in the UK...why isn't this calculated on a combination of sq meterage of the property plus sq meterage of any adjoining gardens?

Also why do you pay zero tax on properties below £250K and then pay 3% on everything the minute that you go £1 over £249,999? Same applies to the additional tax bands, why is it not like income tax where you only pay on the incremental above each cut off point?

council tax goes too your local council so living in the country we pay less council tax but thats because the council doesnt offer us the same service as we would get in a major city. we dont have as many streets too light or cover with cctv or sweep, we dont have the same acccess to libraries and leisure activities or the same public transport links schools are often 20+ miles so we dont get the chance too put names down for which school we would like and hope we get it, its one school or nothing. wages for workers employed by the councils are so much lower too techincally allthough people in london might pay more council tax there are still getting a bigger bang for there buck

I think he may be talking about stamp duty

oh never paid that as never had a house too sell

Apologies, yes, I was referring to stamp duty and not council tax

You still pay 1% from 125k to 250k and then it goes up again at over 500k.  Personally I think it's a complete rip off, it's expensive enough to move house without having to cough up extra in a tax just because you want to move.

To me it's like inheritance tax, I don't agree with it at all.

I didn't mind paying it as I think that it is a necessary evil but I just think that it is completely unfair in its current guise. 

I thought that they had abolished the 1% rate but even still I believe that it should be applied on an incremental basis and that it should be reformed to account for property value imbalances. 

24. Why when you buy a ticket for a concert, sports match or even a train journey is there a price and on top of that a "booking fee"? Is it some sort of tax dodge?

book rail tickets via EastCoast Mainline and there's no fee, plus if you enrol for their Rewards scheme you get points to use on free journeys or free wifi etc

Meh, I don't like enrolling for schemes and points savers.

Hate giving license to these companies to send me all the spam offers I'm not interested in.

Still doesn't explain the point of "booking fees"

Tell me about it, personally I think it's a rip off.  Ticket may well be £40 odd but by the time you've added the booking fee and the expensive postage costs it's often over £50. I'd rather they just charged that in the first place.   If you don't want postage you still have to pay a handling charge on top a lot of the time.

Easy to filter out the emails, and tbh the EastCoast ones have saved me a fortune on rail fares. Booked early to go to Edinburgh in August and wife and I got there and back for <£70 including coming home 1st Class. On top of which I got points that went towards a free return journey to London.

Often still have to pay booking fee when you get self printed tickets.

Must be some sort of tax dodge.

Not a tax dodge. Ish.

Basically there was a ruling that said people couldn't charge exorbitant fees for paying by card like they used to. The ticket sellers (greedy bastards would be a better term) didn't like this so they introduced a booking fee rather than a card fee. They claim that they don't get anything out of the cost of the ticket at all, so if a ticket costs £25 plus fees, the entire £25 goes to the promoter of the concert. I find this hard to believe.

Why do wall clocks have to tick?

In fact why does any clock need to make a sound when the second hand ticks?

If they aren't making any money out of selling the tickets, why are they doing it?

Actually find the ticking of a clock quite reassuring.

Perfect silence bar a clock ticking = bliss.

Because they can charge a booking fee?

I'm watching the England game and this massive guy with a big comedy cartoon head jumps out of the crowd and starts running across the pitch. He is hotly pursued by a really eager but very small steward who is sprinting as quickly as his little legs will carry him. I wish I knew why the producer decides a replay of the offside decision is what the viewing public want to watch at this point.

It's to discourage people doing it in the future.

I wish I knew what my meeting was like this morning..I would have rung in sick and stayed in bed..

Titled...

[ ] Uni's know how to run themselves

Pedantic Man was here.



(http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/183/5/3/Pedantic_Man_by_KatraFaToren.jpg)

no idea what that means but i am sure you got a semi from it.

Reading the news today it appears the USA is in a lot of debt. As I understand are we. As are lots of other countries.

Who exactly do we all owe this money to?

Me Me Me sir.....China?

Nope, pension funds, insurers and banks are the biggest holders.

Wow, just checked, quantative easing has changed things noticeably, now it is a lot closer than it used to be between institutions and overseas investors.

FWIW The biggest 3 overseas holders of US Debt are China, Japan and the UK.  We are way behind the other two in size.

How do those people who can't walk around a supermarket unless they are leaning on their trolley manage to prevent themselves from falling over afterwards?

i am 40, my good wife is 41, and we both are often seen doing a "superman" around our local supermarket

we also find it quite simple to not fall over when not in supermarkets

perhaps we need to do more research

25. Why are some people so stupid?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-24624639

He sounds quite the catch.

Amazing on so many levels.

How do you forget to book the venue for your wedding?

When you realise you have forgotten why don't you immediately tell your wife to be?

What on earth would make you issue a bomb threat to get you out of this situation?

A year in prison seems absurdly light to me.

The man is clearly incredibly stupid, but I am with him on this one, the aftermath of telling her was probably worse than a year in jail imo, based on how the average lady would react.

I'd probably just do a Reggie Perrin myself.

I lolled

How old is the bad one?   ;D

Geo

Do policemen still carry whistles?

Why are greyhound races timed to go off at random times like 7.11, 8.49 and 9.57?

What's wrong with 7.15, 8.45 and 10pm?

I think this is so they don't mix up the "off" times with horses.
Years ago all horseraces used to go off on the quarter hour even on busy days, not every 5 mins like now.

So they don't clash with other Dog Meetings being beamed to LBO's, a race every 5, 7 or 8 minutes is better for bookies than 2 or 3 at the same time every 15 minutes. The odd minutes help avoid horse race times, too.

That makes sense for BAGS cards, but they still have weird timings for evening meetings too.

But it stopped any ambiguity or dodgy slips before the shops were open all evening.
Imagine a Yankee 30 years ago
2 7.30W
4 7.45W
5 8.00 W
6 8.15W

We have perms of Warwick Wolves Worcester Wimbledon Walthemstow Wembley

Think it from then anyway but I stand to be corrected

And I think there were issues with trap numbers as well
Eg combo fcasts could be open to abuse so most dog races are scheduled to have a figure above 6 where possible.
Harder to confuse shop staff if you see what I mean. Obv 11.03 and 11.11  don't fit that category but they are "elevens" but afternoons dog times I may be right eg 2.08 or double numbers like 2.27

And obv now people think I'm older than Tikay....

These were the 1980s version of misclicks :)

Talking of stupid people...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24990485

That's insane, must've been on some special medicine.

When a headlight goes on a car does the other headlight shine brighter or is it just me losing it?

It doesn't shine brighter....

just me then :)

Why is petrol still advertised as 'unleaded'?

We don't call a radio a wireless anymore.

 ;indestructable;

MOST of us don't call a radio a wireless anymore...

Never thought I'd see this

Why Miley Cyrus has always got her tongue hanging out?

Why when you stay at a hotel, do they take reserve money on your credit card for "incidentals"?

You don't have to give your credit card up when you walk into a shop just in case you buy something.

Also, when they reserve money on your cc, when you don't spend the money they hope you do, why doesn't it return to your available balance immediately?

It's been 4 days since I left the hotel, and it still hasn't come back.

Takes time to count the towels?

29. Why has The Camel stopped numbering his questions?

It was getting depressing to realise exactly how much I don't know.

If I've ever prepaid the room and they ask for that then I argue not to, very few hotels ever back down - but the ones that do are definitely getting extra custom from me (or they would if I remembered which ones they were at least)

Tell them you haven't got a credit card and wish to pay in cash. Offer to leave a 'deposit' in cash. It's too much trouble or them to take cash off you and give you a receipt so they usually just wave you through. I don't think there's a rule to say you have to have a credit card to stay at a hotel.

It's more the idea they want you to pay in advance for something you might not actually buy which annoys me.

Can't think of any other product/service which requires the same thing.

I always thought it was in case you smashed the room up, stole the TV etc.

It's a long time since I hired a car, do they require a refundable deposit too?

When I stayed at the Rio I didnt have a credit card with me . I had to deposit $500 I think, crazy considering the room was already paid for by a poker site.

I've always been persona non grata with car hire firms, so can't help there unfortunately.

Nothing you could eat/break/damage/steal is worth $500 in that shithole.

I think Judith Chalmers's job is safe

Keith its same when you use the pay at pump petrol they take the money off you to ensure you have it available

But a regular petrol station they don't.

You fill up with petrol, then go and pay for it.

That's how it should work.

I just about accept leaving enough money to cover your bill - but to reserve money on the off chance you decide to spend some in the hotel is unacceptable.

pay at the pump is the only option most of the time after 8pm they take £100 off your card then take £60 for the tank of feul and give you the £100 back a week later

You sure about that Iron? I don't see that on my credit card statements.

I haven't used one of those night time pumps for yonks, but I seem to remember I paid in advance and it automatically switched off when the amount I had paid for had been served.

Probably leads to slightly cheaper prices tho.

If they didn't have the option to hold funds, then they would just add a bit extra per room as 'insurance' for those that would otherwise hit and run for the pizza they ordered at 2am.

But hotels could still get their money back afterwards - it's not difficult to assume that in the terms of booking a hotel room there's something that says you're liable to all damage as well as everything you order.

The hotel, like any company, can always invoice you afterwards for a service. There are loads of companies where you pay afterwards, and they can legally pursue you for payment if you don't cough up - why should hotels be any different?

Over millions of hotel nights I would imagine that the people liable to actually pay from those incidentals charges - and who would try and get out of it if charged after the stay - are a pretty tiny minority.

It depends on the type of card you are using, I think Solo debit cards suffer from this.

Keith - yes, you do have to leave a refundable deposit when you hire a car.

Why is it impossible to go to an all you can eat buffet and just eat normal amounts of food?

And why do combos like English breakfast followed by pizza and then  French toast and cream seem natural fits at the time.


Think a study into mindset when eating in buffets would be v interesting

It is an interesting, and positive element, of British culture that this is the way it works.  In the States you have to pay before you pump and the pumps won't work if you haven't paid.  It is the same in Jamaica.  I had a discussion with a Jamaican girl I was giving a ride home to about this the other night and I mentioned the way it worked in the UK.  She looked at me initially as though I was lying or crazy.  Then she said they could never do that here because simply nobody would pay.  Sometimes we take just how civilised and polite Britain is and just how lucky we are/were.

I do eat normal amounts, it's just that I normally eat as much as there is available.

That's not as flippant an answer as it may sound BTW. When we were kids we ate everything my mam put in front of us. There was virtually no need to wash our plates.

I guess old habits die hard.

I know what you mean Tom, was brought up on a waste not want not mentality too which prob explains my approach to buffets. It's like I think it's a challenge to make sure I don't waste the value instead of just eating a meal.

Now been a fucking week, still not returned.

Steam pouring out of my ears!

I didn't realise they actually charge you prior to you making a purchase.  I assumed they just record your card details and charge it if necessary.

Definitely never happened to me on my credit or debit cards.  They only take the amount from my account that I took in fuel.  The £99 or whatever that comes up on the machine as the maximum is simply that, and it stops dispensing at that amount. 

Could definitely be different with Solo cards, as they are considered very different beasts to standard debit cards (and of course credit cards).

I use a mastercard debit they take £100 then take tge amount of fuel I use then return the £100 a week later thats asda anyway.

So if you fill up for, say 60 quid, then your account is out 160 quid for 4-5 days?  That seems absolutely ridiculous if true.

This.

I know that in Vegas you get a 'hold' placed on your card, and it normally stays on there for a week or so from leaving.

I can't say that I've ever heard of anywhere that charges you to use the pumps, then adds the cost of fuel to the total, and gives you the initial fee back a while later :D

happened too me a few months back refuse too fill up at pay at the pump anymore
they call it a shadow payment it seemingly doesnt leave your account but you cant use the money

When I've payed at the pump they only held £1 to validate the card and then the amount for the fuel. The £1 gets refunded a week later.

When staying at the monte carlo bay hotel they asked for a credit card, i was felling arsey so i said i didn't have one. You'd have thought the world was caving in with the amount of kerfuffle off the back of it. I was pointing out that it was only a couple of years before that the credit card scan didn't even exist as a thing, but they weren't having it. They asked the guy behind me at the desk if they could scan his card against my room!

What was the upshot?

15 mins later and waiting for a higher power to appear i got bored of seeing people ordering gin and tonics and heading out into the sun so i caved and found the card i'd forgotten about.

I've rented a lot of cars. Very infrequently have I left a deposit

Good news

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25223631

I rely on expired tax discs to tell me if a vehicle is not currently in use and therefore potentially for sale.

It's a retro step as far as I'm concerned.

PS- Don't get me started on the new scrap metal laws...

Interested in this, however bad they are ( and this is debatable) - doesn't seem to have lowered the number of scarp metal van running about each week.

But is that only because they are bad for you?

Or do you think both these types of measures are bad in general?

The tax in the window thing was just a personal thing Jon, just a tongue in cheek comment really. The second law is a real disaster for the the Gypsy community and won't do anything to address the problem of metal theft anyway. Criminals don't worry about licences.


Basically the new law says that you can't buy or sell scrap for cash, and if you do buy any and pay by card or cheque, you have to record the details of the seller. (Imagine doing that every time you pay a quid for an old fridge or gas cooker). On top of this, buyers need a separate licence for each individual authorities area, but no one seems to know what this means exactly. Alos, the cost is to be determined by each authority at their discretion.

Some of the older members of my extended familly, and many of the older Gypsies in general have been traditional rag & bone men all their lives, they are mostly illirerate and have no idea how to deal with all this new legleslation. Some of them might enter the relms of five or six 'Authority areas' in the course of a typical week.



This is a response from my good friend Isaac Blake, who is a Welsh Gypsy.

Dear all,

As you are aware, the Scrap Metal Act came into force Sunday (1st December 2013) with most Gypsies and Travellers not knowing about or understanding the implications. There was no consultation with the Gypsy and Traveller community in Wales prior to this act coming into force. Gypsies and Travellers form a 'protected characteristic' group and are clearly vulnerable to discrimination and exploitation, if only because of poor literacy and low standards of basic skills.

The Scrap Metal Act due to it's dramatic negative impact on Gypsies and Travellers constitutes undeniable 'cultural discrimination', with this minority group being clearly overrepresented in the numbers who have become criminalised over night and who are now prevented from maintaining cultural patterns of working. This anti-gypsyism is clearly institutional and threaded throughout politics and the public sector supported by evidence today in Cardiff. Today, police; unannounced, targeted a Gypsy and Traveller site - looking to enforce the Scrap Metal Act and catch out any residents not complying. The very fact that police targeted the site underlines the fact that local authorities and the police are intending the law to penalise and impact on Gypsies and Travellers.

There are already not enough Gypsy and Traveller sites within Wales, with some community members regarded as homeless by the state as they are forced to live 'by the roadside'. The Scrap Metal Act; along with other recent legislation, now means that many people from this 'protected group' are now jobless, as well as homeless. Events in Cardiff today prove a very real situation for Gypsies and Travellers in the UK. They are marginalised, penalised by mainstream politics, public services and society because of their cultural choices and ethnicity. We are now seeing this blatant discrimination being supported in legalisation. This should be uncomfortable for us to read and digest - unfortunately, too many people in positions of authority are justifying what is happening, and not seeing the bigger picture. Every Gypsy and Traveller in Wales is somehow affected; be it directly, or indirectly, by the Scrap Metal Act.

Gypsies and Travellers are now more frightened about their futures.
Gypsies and Travellers are now more likely to be living in poverty.
Gypsies and Travellers are now more likely to be criminalised.

What anti-gypsy legislation is next on the horizon?

What else will be justified by the state?

History has shown the very subtle but determined way governments can directly penalise 'unwanted groups' through targeted legislation.

I now need an urgent follow-up meeting to discuss the very real situation for Gypsies and Traveller in Wales. We are getting daily updates from across Wales and the UK on the impact of recent anti-gypsy laws.

We need to move forward and acknowledge the reality now for Gypsies and Travellers in Wales.   

Why does it take 3 weeks to get a company registered for VAT? Surely with a company already registered and the particulars of its directors provided it should be straight forward to process/generate a number?

When you've been captured by your enemies and they hand you a shovel and tell you to start digging (your own grave obv), why would you? 

I expect it's the psychology of hoping they'll take pity on you if you are compliant.

It's not done as calmly and stoically as it is in the movies, with a few wisecracks thrown in here and there, but by and large, people under immediate threat of death do as they are told.

Witness this footage of Jews lining up to be shot.

WARNING! UPSETTING SCENES.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ParxL_mmi-Y

Is there a minimum amount of chocolate needed in a piece of confectionery for it to be classed as a chocolate bar?

Is a Twix a chocolate bar even tho about 45% of it is biscuit, 45% of it is caramel/toffee and about only 10% of it is chocolate**

** not official amounts btw.

If the outside of the bar is completely covered in chocolate, it qualifies as a chocolate bar.


** not official answer btw.

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hR7F-MqvRzI/TC30mM6EugI/AAAAAAAAJrM/-dMnzcyYTCk/s400/Pack1.bmp)  ;)

club biscuit ainec.

Graham. How could you? They should have called you Clubman.




(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hR7F-MqvRzI/TFLFpNownsI/AAAAAAAAJ60/GqEYtvQGWGs/s400/tax1.bmp)

 ;applause;

But would you have rather had a chocolate bar than a biscuit?  ;carlocitrone;

Orange Club >>>>> All other Clubs

Why did they call a Marathon bar a Marathon, when it was Snickers elsewhere?

They thought it would be better in the long run.

I suppose that'll have to do.

Marathon was developed here and then moved to the US where the name Marathon was already taken by a different choc bar.  The US Marathon was advertised and packaged with a ruler on the pack "eat your way to a Marathon".

In the late 80's Mars group decided they wanted to standardise their lines wordwide, so Marathon became Snickers worldwide a change for the UK and at the same time the Raider bar was re branded as per its UK name, Twix.

Thank you.

How does my computer know about 5 seconds in advance I'm about to receive a mobile phone call or text message?

Loads of interference from my speakers.. and then lo and behold the phone goes off.

Why?

I do know you can solve it for about £3.

Search RFI Ferrite rings on Maplin or the like, work like a dream.

Sadly as for the Why, cant help.

I'm wasted here.

Well, I suppose, if that's true, I'll let you off.

If what's true? Lol. Am I missing something, or are you levelling me?   ;sark;

Lol

;dewi;

Thought you were tee total

Lol I am.

I was just giving Red Dog a clue.