Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Interested in your opinion.

If our friends up North vote "Yes",  can/will the BBC survive?

Had a very interesting conversation with a very vocal No campaigner yesterday about the knock on effects to my local area (If yes wins) and was very surprised at the number that would hit my part of the world.
His viewpoint on some of the bigger shared services including the BBC was quite eye opening also.

The BBC will survive, yes, no matter what Scotland decide.

I think the whole yes/no vote thing is a bit sad really, in several ways. The zealots have hijacked what should have been a healthy debate, & instead, it has turned into a shouting match. Good luck convincing me of anything if you shout & swear at me.

I thought of your question, & the Yes/No thing, on Saturday night actually. Did you watch The Last Night of the Proms?

GREAT TV, & the climactic rendering of "Land of Hope & Glory" (which I take to represent Great Britain, not England) always has me in floods of tears for some reason. Thousands at the Albert Hall, & tens of thousands at giant plasma parties in the park all over the UK, all there, singing their hearts out. Such a concentration of goodness in one place & time.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

I have so far, & with great difficulty, avoided posting on the Yes/No thread on blonde.

For the most part, it's good sensible debate, but it all got a bit tit for tat silly, & I can't see that anything on there will change anyone's mind.

I am sorely tempted to post the thing that first comes into my mind when I hear all this "Yes/No" talk, but I fear the serious heads will all get very cross with me.

Strictly Come Dancing, CBB, X-Factor, they had NOTHING on this TV Show, proper epic this was.

[Tal]

People on telly in suits.

Not extravagant, haute couture or high street sponsored stuff; simple, manly suits.

I mean look at the chap on the right in that picture above. The suit line follows from the button straight down to the leg perfectly. Masculine line and a rugged shoulder.

Click to see full-size image.

Nuff sed

[tikay]

People on telly in suits.

Not extravagant, haute couture or high street sponsored stuff; simple, manly suits.

I mean look at the chap on the right in that picture above. The suit line follows from the button straight down to the leg perfectly. Masculine line and a rugged shoulder.

Click to see full-size image.

Nuff sed

I'll be honest with you Tal, I think it should be illegal to appear on TV unless wearing a suit, tie & black shiny shoes. No, I'm, serious.

If this wonderful chap were still alive, it'd make his eyebrows stand on end to see people on tv wearing t-shirts, trainers & the like.

[Tal]

Ha! Fantastic.

[MANTIS01]

I have so far, & with great difficulty, avoided posting on the Yes/No thread on blonde.

For the most part, it's good sensible debate, but it all got a bit tit for tat silly, & I can't see that anything on there will change anyone's mind.

I am sorely tempted to post the thing that first comes into my mind when I hear all this "Yes/No" talk, but I fear the serious heads will all get very cross with me.

Strictly Come Dancing, CBB, X-Factor, they had NOTHING on this TV Show, proper epic this was.

I feel pretty much the same about the referendum. I wonder if anybody in that thread has changed their minds after all those pages of debate? I doubt it.

Whenever I think about Scotland voting yes for some reason I imagine myself at a New Year's Eve party, music pumping, electric atmosphere, sexy girls, intoxicating positive emotion. Then I think about the next morning, music stopped, banging head, dry mouth, loads of cleaning up to do, waking up next to a hippopotamus. Just saying.

I wonder if they do vote yes whether the no voters will still be able to continue practising being British? I'm imaging Scottish families behind closed curtains continuing to wave their union jacks to last night of the proms. Perhaps if you're discreet about practising Britishism they might be alright about it?

[Doobs]

How much do those 787 beauties cost?

http://www.boeing.com/boeing/commercial/prices/

Don't suppose anyone pays those prices, must be discount-city, but it's a handy guide to the comparitive cost of the different types.

Sadly, I gather BA are phasing out the 747, & even the A380 is not selling in the anticipated volumes. Shame really.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

I always thought they'd struggle to sell the 1000 A380s they were making every day.  Serves them right for bringing in Tal as consultant. 

[Tal]

I've had less suitable roles.

I once tried to tip something on Tips for Tikay.

[nirvana]

For the most part, it's good sensible debate, but it all got a bit tit for tat silly, & I can't see that anything on there will change anyone's mind.

Point of order. Only if one sees discussion and debate as a zero sum game does it matter a jot whether anyone's mind changes as a result of the debate.

A debate is pretty much always win-win irrespective of perceptions at the time. We learn even when we don't think we're learning by hearing other opinions and the vast majority of any debate/discussion is about people expressing their opinions - in broad terms, the acquired learning and the catharsis of expressing an opinion far outweigh the benefits we can gain by measurement of the debate in terms of whether we think we changed anyone's mind.

Obv agree about the implied need for civility all round.

[tikay]

I have so far, & with great difficulty, avoided posting on the Yes/No thread on blonde.

For the most part, it's good sensible debate, but it all got a bit tit for tat silly, & I can't see that anything on there will change anyone's mind.

I am sorely tempted to post the thing that first comes into my mind when I hear all this "Yes/No" talk, but I fear the serious heads will all get very cross with me.

Strictly Come Dancing, CBB, X-Factor, they had NOTHING on this TV Show, proper epic this was.

I feel pretty much the same about the referendum. I wonder if anybody in that thread has changed their minds after all those pages of debate? I doubt it.

Whenever I think about Scotland voting yes for some reason I imagine myself at a New Year's Eve party, music pumping, electric atmosphere, sexy girls, intoxicating positive emotion. Then I think about the next morning, music stopped, banging head, dry mouth, loads of cleaning up to do, waking up next to a hippopotamus. Just saying.

I wonder if they do vote yes whether the no voters will still be able to continue practising being British? I'm imaging Scottish families behind closed curtains continuing to wave their union jacks to last night of the proms. Perhaps if you're discreet about practising Britishism they might be alright about it?

I doubt it too. Been an interesting read though.

Maybe times have changed - in fact I'm sure they have - but in my day, you were what you were bought up to be, & that never changes, almost like we never change the football team we support as a kid.

Some of us - deffo me - are very stubborn when people try too hard to sell us something, it hardens our resistance.

Go into Currys or PC World, select, say, a little camera, & then the geezer says "ahh no Sir, THIS is much better, AND we have it on special offer".

And I insta think "piss off, you are just trying to shift some dead stock".

[tikay]

I've had less suitable roles.

I once tried to tip something on Tips for Tikay.

Make a mistake, & you have to pay....

For the record, the TOTAL production to date of A380's is 139, & there are firm orders for another 179. That's it, in total.

Of the total produced, or on order, a whopping 140 are for the "Emirates" airline, so they are responsible for 44% of all A380 production.

For comparison, it's market rival, the Boeing 747, has sold over 1,500 units to date.

Fair to say, without Emirates, production of the A380 would have ceased by now, those numbers are just not viable. Feels to me like production will cease quite soon. Several Airlines have cancelled or deferred future A380's they have ordered, including BA & Wooly Jumper.  

Maybe the one thing that could save the A380 is if Ireland's greatest ever businessman decided to start his transatlantic flights, & decided to buy a few hundred of them. We all love him to bits, fo sho, that man is never scared to put his money where his mouth is.  

[tikay]

Abuse at the poker table took an interesting form yesterday in the local £50er.

I had the pleasure of being sat at what can fairly be described as the willywavingest poker table I've ever encountered. There must have been six players with preposterously grotesque egos chuntering away at each play they witnessed with a menacing undertone.

Seat four hadn't moved a chip in anger in, I was later assured, a good two hours. He got his money and the developing cobwebs in with a suitably sizeable hand against two opponents and duly trebled up. As he was raking the spoils of victory in, the chap to his left banged the table with fearsome disdain: "If I'd called with my  , I would have won!". Quite right, too, as it would have made the nut flush. But people don't tend to put 30bb in with such hands, when two people (including the world's most patient man) have already emptied their pockets on the table. At best, an unhelpful remark.

The victor turns to this young man and gives him a look as though he'd just urinated on his prize-winning sandscupture.

"No, son," he assured him "I won the pot"

Not satisfied by the answer - and seemingly offended that this man could be offended - the lad re-popped:

"No. I said if I HAD have called, I WOULD HAVE won. It's called the conditional tense, mate"

Having been an awkward and passive observer until now, this tipped me over the edge. The sheer cheek to take away this bloke's one pot in the last two hours by declaring a hand you correctly folded would have bested his, so the victory was only Phyrric anyway is bad enough, but to patronise him in a local comp with an exercise in grammar takes the entire box of special occasion biscuits.

"I think you'll find it's the conditional perfect."

"Sorry?"

"The conditional perfect - you said 'would have won', which is in the past. Not the conditional."

The victor of the pot had almost finished angrily stacking his chips when he looked up to give me an assenting nod. I'm not sure whether he understood exactly what I was on about, but he definitely understood why I'd said it.

Not on my watch, sunshine.

I should add that we had a laugh about it later and the table was, whilst still full of oneupmanship and wee-wee contestry, a little more conducive to the spirit of the occasion.

Nothing like a good grammar-off to get the Saturday night juices flowing.

They all got in before me, but what a splendid piece of writing that is, I'm incredibly jealous of your writing skills.

I just love to see well-written stuff.

The subject matter fascinates too. In a way, I suppose, this appendage waving we see in poker, especially "I woulda won if..." is akin to aftertiming on betting threads. I'm not sure I get it at all, but its all the rage. I much prefer to sit there & await the plaudits for having played the hand well, or tipped the winner.  Shame I've never done either. It so sucks to be crap.

[roscopiko]

Interesting company I had never heard of before today "bigger than ebay and amazon combined"

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

[tikay]

For the most part, it's good sensible debate, but it all got a bit tit for tat silly, & I can't see that anything on there will change anyone's mind.

Point of order. Only if one sees discussion and debate as a zero sum game does it matter a jot whether anyone's mind changes as a result of the debate.

A debate is pretty much always win-win irrespective of perceptions at the time. We learn even when we don't think we're learning by hearing other opinions and the vast majority of any debate/discussion is about people expressing their opinions - in broad terms, the acquired learning and the catharsis of expressing an opinion far outweigh the benefits we can gain by measurement of the debate in terms of whether we think we changed anyone's mind.

Obv agree about the implied need for civility all round.

SUSTAINED.

Mitigation M'Lord?

There's an ocean of difference between a good debate, & a shouty-wouty argument. Love debate, but I doubt I've ever learned a damn thing from reading or listening to an argument, except for how stupid people are if they think shouting at me & abusing me will ever change my mind.

We agree, obv, on civility being the oil that makes for good debate.

For the record, I have read EVERY post on that thread. I don't think I have anything fresh, new or different to contribute though, & I certainly don't plan to allow some shouty-wouty bloke to get in my face.

Now I have your attention, on your rare & occasional visit to this Diary, something I'd like to ask you. 

You & I have a few things in common. Both been in business most of our lives, & that largely involves good social interaction, & the ability to reason with people & put out negative fires, & help get people to rub along well. We are of similar age, too.

In my case, with every passing day, & having spent most of my business life dealing with painful decisions, aggro, awkward spots, & general hassle, I just want peace & quiet now, no aggro, just a smooth  & gentle ride into life's terminus please. "Hot" thread on blonde? Me, I make an effort NEVER to Post on them, or I do if I can find the will-power to resist. CBA with the hassle.

Whereas, you seem to still enjoy a good ruck. I don't mean that in a rude way, I'm just curious as to the mindset.

When I was a kid, & there was a fight in the playground, the cry would go up "fight fight fight" & all the kids would run to get a closer look at some poor spotty weakling getting a bloody nose. And I looked the other way, I could not bear to see the underling getting a good hiding.

I suppose I've always been aggro-averse, but I'm interested in why some people actually LOVE some aggro.

Please don't be offended by the question, its not intended to be critical, I'm just curious. *

* My first school report said exactly that. "Tony is curious". Never quite knew in what sense he mean't that.   

[TightEnd]

enough of that curiosity

London Zoo reveals winners of the ZSL Animal Photography Prize 2014

 http://fw.to/0E11Tbb