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Author Topic: Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary  (Read 6297173 times)
77dave
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« Reply #36270 on: December 25, 2013, 01:14:32 PM »

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151789954877217&set=vb.228735667216&type=2&theater

This is how i imagine you and Flushy in the cockpit.
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Mantis - I would like to thank 77dave for his more realistic take on things.
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« Reply #36271 on: December 25, 2013, 01:20:35 PM »


Wow!

Sod that for a game of marbles.

How long before the inevitable Ryanair jibe arrives, I wonder?

DoubleUp, where are you, we need you?

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« Reply #36272 on: December 25, 2013, 01:38:41 PM »

Merry Christmas and happy new year sir .
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« Reply #36273 on: December 25, 2013, 02:30:56 PM »

Merry Christmas and happy new year sir .

The same to you & your Daughter, Mr Frank from the China.
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« Reply #36274 on: December 25, 2013, 02:41:05 PM »


Wow!

Sod that for a game of marbles.

How long before the inevitable Ryanair jibe arrives, I wonder?

DoubleUp, where are you, we need you?



Can't I have one day off a year from the Ryanair hating*?

Merry Xmas!







*I spend this day getting hating over excitable small people.






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« Reply #36275 on: December 25, 2013, 02:48:27 PM »


Wow!

Sod that for a game of marbles.

How long before the inevitable Ryanair jibe arrives, I wonder?

DoubleUp, where are you, we need you?



Can't I have one day off a year from the Ryanair hating*?

Merry Xmas!







*I spend this day getting hating over excitable small people.








Wink

You too, Sir.

Today, as its Christmas, we shall all love the ever modest Michael, & Ryanair.




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« Reply #36276 on: December 27, 2013, 11:52:05 AM »

I bought this book for my friend and former chess coach for Christmas:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/10306397/The-burglar-caught-by-the-skeleton-among-bizarre-Victorian-news-reports.html

Some brilliant stories in it.
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« Reply #36277 on: December 27, 2013, 03:57:40 PM »

Watched both of those, worth a watch.

I never knew that three people never got caught, that lead me to read about the Brink's MAT robbery which I'd never even heard of, again with some never being caught, crazy lives to live.

You never heard of the Brinks Mat heist? Jeez, that was a do & a half, Ray!

Plenty of books about it, but avoid "The Curse of Brinks Mat", by Wesley Clarkson, which is a shocking excuse for a book, one of the worst I've ever read, which details how so many of those involved have since met untimely deaths.

They thought they were nicking £3 million of cash, so they were a bit surprised to end up nicking £25 million of gold bullion. That was their downfall really, as they had no plans in place for disposing of so much bullion.

One name involved - in the subsequent money laundering - was  Kenneth Noye.

You may recognize that name.  Cliffs?

Police informer, he was under surveillance for the Brinks Mat thing, & he stabbed to death a policeman who was covertly spying on him in his front garden. He was tried, & found Not Guilty on grounds of Self-Defence. End of story? Not really....  

A year later, he was the man in the famous road rage case, when he stabbed a guy to death after a road-rage incident.

He fled to Spain, but was eventually captured, taken back to England, & was eventually tried, & found guilty for this, & remains in prison to this day. One witness at his trial declined Witness Protection, & was later found shot dead in his car. He was known to be a wrong 'un, with a grudge against Noye.

The Noye story is here.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Noye

Strange thing this, but whilst I have a sneaking admiration for Mad Frankie Fraser, I view Noye as a dreadful dreadful piece of humanity.  

No logic to that at all, really.

Jeez, I love crime stuff, & the characters who inhabit the world of crime, love it to bits. I wonder why that is?

What you doing for Christmas, Ray, family stuff? Enjoy, whatever.


Here's the odious Mr Noye. If you should bump into him, don't mess.


 Click to see full-size image.


Yeah, family stuff for Xmas, was good thanks. Hope nobody pestered you with any sort of merriment  Wink

I did come across Mr Noye's name a few times on the Wiki pages that I read about it all, I've started reading a book about this nice fellow who's name popped up in the subsequent pages I read

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Warren

I'm sure the psychological reasoning behind why so many of us like to follow this type of thing, as well as the mixed emotions, has been looked into in great detail.

Good luck with everything in 2014.
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« Reply #36278 on: December 29, 2013, 09:23:20 AM »

Watched both of those, worth a watch.

I never knew that three people never got caught, that lead me to read about the Brink's MAT robbery which I'd never even heard of, again with some never being caught, crazy lives to live.

You never heard of the Brinks Mat heist? Jeez, that was a do & a half, Ray!

Plenty of books about it, but avoid "The Curse of Brinks Mat", by Wesley Clarkson, which is a shocking excuse for a book, one of the worst I've ever read, which details how so many of those involved have since met untimely deaths.

They thought they were nicking £3 million of cash, so they were a bit surprised to end up nicking £25 million of gold bullion. That was their downfall really, as they had no plans in place for disposing of so much bullion.

One name involved - in the subsequent money laundering - was  Kenneth Noye.

You may recognize that name.  Cliffs?

Police informer, he was under surveillance for the Brinks Mat thing, & he stabbed to death a policeman who was covertly spying on him in his front garden. He was tried, & found Not Guilty on grounds of Self-Defence. End of story? Not really....  

A year later, he was the man in the famous road rage case, when he stabbed a guy to death after a road-rage incident.

He fled to Spain, but was eventually captured, taken back to England, & was eventually tried, & found guilty for this, & remains in prison to this day. One witness at his trial declined Witness Protection, & was later found shot dead in his car. He was known to be a wrong 'un, with a grudge against Noye.

The Noye story is here.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Noye

Strange thing this, but whilst I have a sneaking admiration for Mad Frankie Fraser, I view Noye as a dreadful dreadful piece of humanity.  

No logic to that at all, really.

Jeez, I love crime stuff, & the characters who inhabit the world of crime, love it to bits. I wonder why that is?

What you doing for Christmas, Ray, family stuff? Enjoy, whatever.


Here's the odious Mr Noye. If you should bump into him, don't mess.


 Click to see full-size image.


Yeah, family stuff for Xmas, was good thanks. Hope nobody pestered you with any sort of merriment  Wink

I did come across Mr Noye's name a few times on the Wiki pages that I read about it all, I've started reading a book about this nice fellow who's name popped up in the subsequent pages I read

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Warren

I'm sure the psychological reasoning behind why so many of us like to follow this type of thing, as well as the mixed emotions, has been looked into in great detail.

Good luck with everything in 2014.

Thanks Ray, & you, too.

That Curtis Warren chap seems a nice bloke, eh? Not sure I'd be keen to outdraw his Aces.
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« Reply #36279 on: December 29, 2013, 09:28:57 AM »

Was walking through Waterloo this Monday changing from a mainline train to the Waterloo and City line when I hear an announcement for a train departing to Hampton Court.  Couldn't help but chuckle and think of the travel question.  Stopped and asked one of the LU guys you find at the ticket barrier and asked him what other line only has two stations...he looked back as if I had asked him for his wallet and then said "this one"...yeah thanks you've been a great help.

#nobodytellmeI'llworkthisouteventually

Have you not sussed it yet?

Plenty of clues in the thread.

If you wish, I'll Post a photo which I took on the trip in a day or two which may help.

Remarkably, I asked the same question on Thursday's Show, during the 2 hour Sky Sports simulcast, & we had more viewer interaction about it than on any other Show in 7 years.

We also had NINE people who got the correct answer very quickly. Must be a soft site, I guess.

No not sussed it yet. 

Once you are at Bank I assume that you have walked to Embankment to take the District line and maybe one of those waterboats somewhere but then I'm stumped like an English cricketer in Australia. 

Was back in Dublin for the last week so have done a lot of damage to my remaining brain cells so a photo would be much appreciated.   

Once at Bank., I walked via the subway to Monument, then jumped a District/Circle Line train for ONE stop. From there, a short walk was necessary to catch the penultimate outbound train. No waterboats were involved.

I can't really give any more clues as they would stick out a mile.
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« Reply #36280 on: December 29, 2013, 09:29:44 AM »

When I lived in the U.K, Ken came to visit my old man once around December time, he brought my old man a bottle of expensive Whiskey and some Cigars, my mom disliked him, he seemed like a strange character, old man said he'd be in prison soon, sure enough we were told he was..





Oh my word............

Umm, say no more. Wink
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« Reply #36281 on: December 29, 2013, 09:32:58 AM »

I'm always in two minds when I hear about the death of the inventor of a weapon. The hydrogen bomb was an astonishing piece of genius but with such utterly horrific consequences. Someone thought about adding chemicals or biohazard material to a bomb to make them even more devastating. As with all ideas, someone thinks of them first. Alfred Nobel invented an explosive (albeit not for the purposes of a weapon), but we have a peace prize in his name.

Anyway, an obituary in the Telegraph:





Mikhail Kalashnikov was the firearms engineer who invented the AK47, weapon of choice for guerrillas and terrorists across the world

Mikhail Kalashnikov , who has died aged 94, invented the AK47 assault rifle which bears his name and became the weapon of choice for guerrillas, freedom fighters and terrorists the world over.

The automatic machine gun which Kalashnikov, then a young army sergeant, developed towards the end of the Second World War went into production and became standard issue for the Red Army while Stalin still ruled the Soviet Union. Its longevity was remarkable, and it was the Soviets’ decision to license manufacture to the nations of the Eastern bloc, and to China, which led to its extraordinary proliferation.

The heyday of the Kalashnikov rifle was during the Cold War, when — thanks to Soviet and Chinese sponsorship of anti-colonial movements — it became a potent symbol of anti-imperialist struggle. It has figured on gable ends in Republican Belfast, in designs on Afghan carpets, on statues in Nicaragua and on the visa stamps of Burkina Faso. A popular song in Sudan ran: “Can’t get no cash? / You’re trash without a Kalash”; while in Vietnam, it was not unknown for American soldiers to cast aside their US-made carbines in favour of captured Vietcong AK47s.

Its inventor remained agnostic about the uses to which his rifle was put, regarding himself simply as a firearms engineer. He lived modestly in the Urals, and received virtually no royalties on his design.

After the collapse of communism, Kalashnikov was permitted to travel, and visited the West on several occasions. And in 2003 he formed a relationship with a small German company that wanted to attach his name to a range of ordinary consumer goods including snowboards, pocket-knives and energy drinks.

Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov was born on a collective farm in western Siberia on November 10 1919, and had only a basic secondary education. As a boy he was fascinated by firearms, and aged 10 he manufactured a small pistol.

His first job was as a railway station booking clerk, but he studied mechanical design by night until, in 1938, he was drafted into the army as a tank driver, seeing action on the Eastern Front. In 1941 he was seriously wounded at the Battle of Brynsk.

It was while convalescing that Kalashnikov began to think about designing a new weapon: “Courage was not enough. The Nazis had superior armoury. I wanted to redress the balance.”

The submachine gun which he sketched in the sanatorium went into production in 1942, but was not a great success; his next project, a carbine which went into service in 1944, was also unremarkable.



Mikhail Kalashnikov (AP)

Only after he had been passed a captured German MP/SG44, made by Schmeisser, did Kalashnikov come up with his superlative assault rifle. Closely modelled on the German weapon, it was refashioned to accept the 7.62mm Soviet bullet and its magazine enlarged to hold 30 rounds. His greatest achievement, however, was to improve its reliability — the AK47 continues to fire even when wet, dirty or unoiled.

The prototype went into full production in 1947 — hence its name (standing for Automat Kalashnikova ’47). It was lightweight, had an effective range of 400 metres, and was capable of discharging its magazine either as single shots or on automatic at a rate of 10 rounds per second.

Kalashnikov was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1949, and became a member of the Communist Party in 1953 (though this was more a matter of career advancement than ideological zeal). By then, his rifle was standard issue for all the Soviet armed forces.

The Soviet authorities were quick to grant franchises on production to the countries of the Warsaw Pact and other “fraternal” or satellite regimes. Thus, there have been Bulgarian, Romanian, Polish, Yugoslav, Chinese, North Korean and even Egyptian models of the AK47.

The relative stability in Europe during the Cold War saw to it that, paradoxically, the weapon’s most lasting impact has been in the innumerable post-war conflicts in the developing world. The AK47 made instant soldiers out of peasants because it was so easy to use and maintain, and required almost no training or skills in marksmanship to be lethal. The other reason for its ubiquity was its value to the Soviet Union as a source of hard currency. Over several decades the Soviets were the biggest arms exporter in the world, and the AK47 was a bestseller. The original weapon was updated, first with the lighter AKM, and then with the 5.45mm AK74. Later, however, cuts in military expenditure and thriving black markets took their toll on the arms manufacturers.

Kalashnikov continued to work well into old age, designing hunting rifles and shotguns — hunting was among his hobbies. “I am sometimes deeply upset to see how my guns are used in international wars,” he once said, “but that is no excuse not to produce them. If we do not produce machine guns, someone else will.”

Kalashnikov was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1964, and appointed a Hero of Socialist Labour in 1958 and 1976. President Boris Yeltsin appointed him to the Order of St Vladimir.

Kalashnikov’s wife, Yekaterina, whom he married in 1943, died in 1977. They had four daughters.

Mikhail Kalashnikov, born November 10 1919, died December 23 2013

I saw this story & it did make me think how would you feel if you invented something that could kill so many - or maybe save many lives, used defensively.

The guy or guys that pioneered the atomic bombs back in the eartly forties muust have had some sleepless nights, I imagine, especially once they saw the results of their endeavours.
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« Reply #36282 on: December 29, 2013, 09:42:38 AM »


Death.

I'm not sure we need to be sad when folks pass away, assuming their time is due. It's the only certain thing in life - death. Premature death, of course, is another thing entirely.

I was perusing a "these people passed away in 2013" List yesterday, & the following all caught my eye for one reason or another, in most cases, they affected my life somehow, for better or worse.

Amazingly, when I read the list, I'd already forgotten that most of them had passed on.

Christopher Martin Jenkins

Alvin Lee

Kenny Ball

Lady Thatcher

Mick McManus

Esther Williams

Sir Henry Cecil

Alan Whicker

Bert Trautmann

Mel Smith

Cliff Morgan

Sir David Frost

David Jacobs

Nelson Mandela

David Coleman
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« Reply #36283 on: December 29, 2013, 09:47:04 AM »


A 2 page piece in The Times yesterday suggested that Magnus Carlsen was "cool & clever" & was embarking on a glittering career.

A chess player who is interesting?

Such a ridiculous idea. They are all boring, & wear leather elbow patches on their corduroy jackets.



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« Reply #36284 on: December 29, 2013, 10:01:53 AM »

Trudat
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