Are there any extensions like Adblock Plus or Noscript for it yet/on the way? I tried it and liked but not having ABP/NS meant that i soon reverted to Firefox.

Reading the comments in the links that PB offer it seems as if there’s a fair amount of fiddling about with patches and/or using virtual drives to get their files working so it would probably be a bit of a hassle if you’re not all geeked up. It might be worth just getting an old (working!) PS2 and the PS2 version as that would surely be cheaper than the PC version – can’t believe those prices!

Recreationally: Neolithic to Bronze (yep, hippy megalith visitor)

Intellectually: Second christian millennium but mostly for the heretical/millennial/millenarian cults and sects that emerged – so, I guess that would be favourite historical theme as opposed to period. Victorian Britain is quite fascinating for the rich foment of ideas (the utterly bizarre as well as the deeply insightful) and for its ongoing legacy.

Since I only read SF at least I am sure I won’t kill myself.

Perry Rhodan’s horrible mangling of the English language has given me pause for thought in the past.

Books that have moved me into dark corners of the soul would have to include Ellis’ American Psycho and Thomas Ligotti’s My Work is Not Yet Done

Some would say that the Pirate Bay would be a good place to look for a ‘trial download’. I wouldn’t as it’s clearly a very murky legal area.

If your statement is that race is a pernicious, slippery and unscientific thing, I agree, but if it means anything, it doesn’t mean what you say it means.

I’d mostly agree with that except that ‘race’ is an entirely scientific construct – with roots in physiognomy inspired works such as John Beddoe’s (1862) The Races of Man (with a measure of ‘nigressence’) or J. C. Nott and G. R. Gliddon’s (1868) Indigenous Races of the Earth ‘science’ created and categorised racial difference. The construction of racial categories preceded this and most contemporary commentators tend to agree that the ‘othering’ (see Edward Said, Orientalism) of Sub-Saharan peoples coincided with and was used to legitimise Europe’s widescale early modern adoption of slavery. Nonetheless it was during the 19th century that scientific ‘proof’ consolidated ‘race’ as a viable category. It still persists, particularly in psychology: articles published in the last couple of years by Linda Gottfredson, J. Philippe Rushton and Arthur Jenson use racial genetic difference as an explanation of intelligence differences between populations. They are, of course, marginal figures and their findings rejected but it is wrong to suggest that ‘race’ is ‘unscientific’. Science helped to create ‘race’ and scientists persist in attempting to maintain it.

But yeah, STW is hardly a hotbed of racist activists. Even Capt.Fleshheart who leans at 45deg to the right has more good sense, taste and decency than to go down *that* stony path. I also baulk at the idea of censorship of any beliefs or views no matter how unpleasant, wretched or out of step with convention[/url] they are: too much great art and literature would be lost if we went around banning material that individuals found offensive. Shit, most music/film/literature that I own would be on the pyres.

Oh! John Crowley’s Little, Big just resurfaced in my memory; Jack Kerouac’s Dharma Bums also. Both moved me but not in an immediately obvious way – more of a broadening of conceptual perspective in the case of Little, Big and moved me off my fat ass when i was in my late teens in the case of Dharma Bums.

Fahrenheit 451
Moments of Reprieve – Primo Levi

keep meaning to check out Cormac McCarthy; must do so soon

Tatties in (Mimis and Swifts). Seedlings coming on: carrots, peas, broad beans, broccoli, sweet peppers, aubergines, hot peppers, rocket, sweetcorn, toms, and shallots (not seedlings, obv! 🙂 ). I’ll probably do a couple of lines of beetroots with the kids on Sunday.

Edit: forgot the melons and courgettes.

All veg in containers this year; flower beds and herb garden doing well.

270L of compost delivered today and we’re ready for planting on 🙂

Heheh, Matt, you’re a great salesman but (i) we can’t legally drive it yet and (ii) we don’t have the dosh at the mo’ 🙂

But I am v.grateful for the advice – and also opening my eyes to what there is out there.

I take your point, stumpy, about diesel/petrol. We’ll probably be doing a mix of journeys and trying to use public transport/bikes for short journeys so I feel like the scales are tipping to diesel. We’re both learning in a diesel too – not sure how much of a drive difference that will make but it means that, psychologically at least, diesel might feel more comfortable to us.

Cracking advice folks, thank you. Driving instructor reckons now is the time to start thinking about booking theory and full test a couple of weeks after. Exciting times! 🙂

(And I was joking about the children 😉

I would recommend high mpg

Heheh, yep, that’s the one!

Make clear to him he’s got one chance to get his shit together – it might be the kick up the arse he needs to realise the precariousness of his situation.

LOL – and we’re only in Derby but… we really have to pass w’tests first 🙂

Thanks everyone – certainly given us a lot of food for thought and that Parkers site is cracking. I’ll have a look for yesterday’s thread after today’s lesson (15mins and counting….)

My missus got me a pair in Feb and I have to say that I’m pretty impressed with them. My previous pair were Shimano somethings (my memory’s failing me but they would’ve been in a similar price bracket) and I find the dhbs slightly stiffer but with better grip for walking ‘challenging uphill sections’. Nice fit, well made and, so far, durable. Recommended.

I’ve loved Fire XC Pros; I’m currently using Nevegals which are ok. I’m also one of those who have always found Contis a bugger to get on. My next set will probably be another pair of XC Pros. Having said that I’ve got happy memories of Intense System 4 XC and might consider them again – certainly worth a look.

No one gets molly coddled

Lulz. “Molly coddled”. Come in 1980s, your time is up.

I hope she’s alreet and mighty in recovery but I wish the curse of pinch flats upon ye for the manner in which your website resized my browser! 😉

6 and a bit – medium and 60mm stem. Love it.

Cheers – Peak Imaging it is!

Yeah, it’s a pity Dr_A; my ‘usual’ has gone but cheers Rob, I’ll hav a look for them. Ta 🙂

I’ve had a North Face Tadpole for about ten years now (i think!) and its longevity is a triumph of quality and design. Thoroughly recommended.

Yep,

uTorrent to download.
VLC to watch on PC/Laptop
ConvertXtoDVD to burn to DVD (best to find a torrent of this)

+2 for Brian Jonestown Massacre (and for Take It From the Man and also Satanic Majesties Second Request and Give it Back!.

But AN was extremely insulted by Dig: he contends that it was edited to make him look like an asshole and bore little similarity to actual events. I’m inclined to believe him as he’s a nice guy – very chatty on myspace.

Never really took to JSBX – for head-on blues’n’roll you’ve got to walk 47 miles of barbed wire to beat The Gun Club’s “The Fire of Love”; what followed was an evolving sound always heavy with the degenerate South. With a little swagger thrown in Tav Falco’s Panther Burns also mine that vein pretty well. But I digress as I’ve not listened to them in years.

Julian Cope’s monthly ‘Address Druidon’ at Head Heritage usually throws up some interesting stuff (although I can’t support his choice of an imaginary Kiss compilation as album of the month – tho’ I guess it was 1 April and they are beloved by his missus).

The reviews at Terrascope are usually pretty varied and interesting.

My most recent purchase is Æthenor’s “Faking Gold and Murder” but that’s not so much ‘good tunes’ as ‘disturbed Italian movie soundtrack’.

And having said all that, The Earthling Society are well worth checking out for a variety of psych-inspired songs.

Just buy an FSA Orbit XLII

…you know what? You’re probably right. Lol. Thanks for the reality check 🙂

Best wishes to your dad trail_rat. Our trip to Northumberland is to take the grandkids to see my folks to give my poorly mum a bit of a boost. Nae cycling but it would be a bit selfish to disappear off for a couple of days whilst ‘helping grandma get better’…

Been into town, bought ridiculous amount of snacks for train journey to Northumberland tomorrow and spending the rest of the day en famille. Where would I like to be cycling? Anywhere. Offroad, onroad, on two wheels.

It’s on telly on Eurosport otherwise cyclingfans.com[/url] usually has the info

dahlias

Shaking off the end of a chest infection that’s laid me up for a couple of weeks and then up to my mam and dad’s with family in tow and no bike – a waste of North Northumberlend! Still, the week *after* work is light so I should get a couple of ‘extras’ in.

If you’re going to be at the City Hospital (ie bottom end of Mickleover) and want to live in a country village with good road/cycle commute/decent bus links, fontmoss, i give you Kirk Langley (although I don’t remember if it has a shop). Otherwise Allestree/New Zealand/Chester Green are your best bets, as has already been said before.

ride around puddles as if they were buried land mines.

That’s the one that gets on my tits; eroding ever outward because of a bit of mud. <shakes head>

I’ve had both too and preferred the 456 (and regular inbred for that matter) – I’m one of the few who could never quite find a ‘just right’ set up on the Soul. I expect that’s even less help 🙂

Oh! And I’ve now got a Prince Albert and I’m not sure if I could pick between it and the 456 as my favourite hardtail. The PA certainly should be one to add to the indecision mix.

all i had was a girl who kept interupting everytime i tried to speak

In all honesty, if you came across as pompously on the phone as you have done on this thread then I can’t say as I’d blame her.

Sadly ever since that Northamptonshire blonde copped it in a Paris car crash, we have to endure these public outpourings of grief.

Well, apart from the endless national grieving after Queen Victoria’s hubby Fritz or whatever he was called karked it and set the tone. But it was still the bloody royals.

But, yep, my reaction was, “Natasha who?”

Hawkwind – Born to Go (The version off ‘Greasy Truckers Party’ which is now a bonus track on ‘Space Ritual’, anyway the one that starts, “This one’s dedicated to the miners because.. it will sound a lot like a mining disaster.” And it does. Glorious biker speed and acid-fuelled trancetrip to oblivion)

http://blastoff-festival.co.uk/

Friday is an awesome line-up and never mind the Yanks, what about Armitage Shanks??!! 🙂

And why not one more piece of acid-inspired genius? (If you like songs to be recognisible as such then it kicks in after 1.30 – the preceding stuff is the ‘free form freakout’ featuring some 50 friends of the the Red Crayola tripping in the studio and ‘playing’ various improvised instruments. Things have been a little staid for the past couple of decades, eh?)

Oh yeah, the Elevators fans might want to check out another Texan band: The Golden Dawn

the “Teenage Shutdown” series of comps on Crypt Records is great.

Their earlier series Back from the Grave was pretty cool for pre-67 sounds. I had a bunch of the first, limited vinyl issue of these and a load of other 80s comps and i gave a lot of them away in various fits of hippy madness. As far as I can work out I gave away the equivalent of a mid-life crisis bike’s worth of vinyl. D’oh!

Anyway: more acid punk than garage punk but today’s dose: Dirty Filthy Mud

And another