Elfin has already told you. Tax the better off people more instead of cutting front line services that many of the less well off depend on.

Why? They already do through the progressive tax system. Why should they pay more? How is that fair? Obviously you are not in that sort of income bracket so it’s easy for you to call it as a policy and think that will solve the problem. Interesting that, shall we say, the left leaning corner only call out nurses, police, fire brigade, the forces etc when talking about cuts to public services where surely most of the cuts will be in the non essential services such as the big government departments that grew like topsey under Labour. And as such do not contribute to the economy overall.

Allegations such as the Tories only being in government to line the pockets of the super rich at the expense of everyone except the super rich only serve to highlight the person making them as a bit, well, simple in the head.

What we cannot escape from is that we have a huge and unsustainable debt that needs to be reduced. And Labour economic policy has to take its fair share of the blame for the mess we are in today. The problem with a debate like this on a forum like this is the people from either end of the ideological spectrum convinced they are right and not interested in listening to an alternative view point that may have some merit.

Too busy “socialising” my plan / idea / proposal

Should be fine – just means they are a bit smaller (obviously). The diameter seems to be taken from whatever brand you are using. You may need to be careful as I am guessing you are ordering contacts from an online retailer who will need to check with your optician to verify the prescription. Any differences can be taken as you trying a different prescription and may therefore be refused – depends how accommodating your optician is.

To be honest I could only base my view on where I live, and when I have looked at it my mortgage on an extended 4 bed semi is around the same as the rental for a 2 bed flat / semi. But that is partly the result of when I bought and the size of my mortgage. I appreciate that those starting out may not have any choice at all and that renting is a transitional phase. Yes, there are costs for buying that you may not have for renting but I can’t see that there are that many. Replacing appliances will not affect those who are renting a fully furnished place – not all rentals are fully furnished. Also, you are then tied to whatever cheap appliance the landlord wants to put in place which may not be your preferred choice. You still have to pay community charge, fuel bills, phone bills etc. Where it seems a bit bonkers is that it is harder to get a mortgage than it is to rent, even though in manyh cases the rental cost (in a like for like) will be more.

On a hypothetical 60k a year I reckon I’d be renting and saving a hypothetical £1500 a month

Really? I reckon you might not be. Possibly I’m lucky in that we bought when we did but for my house the mortgage is waaaay cheaper than the rental market for the same property. For a period of time the benfit of buying your own house was to have an asset for your investment. I guess to some extent i am bought into it as for me renting is dead money. I pay it out each month (so someone else can line their pockets) and I get nothing in return. Suddenly your £800 per month rental seems like a colossal waste of money. Sure, you have some flexibility in that you can more or less move when you want and don’t have to wait for the house to sell but in the long run I prefer the option of having a tangible asset. As others have said though, you need to work out what you want in life and then manage accordingly. I fyou want to own a house then decide to what degree you want to commit. If you don’t want to live in squeaky bottom land then move to an area where you can buy a suitably sized house for a price that you are comfortable paying the mortgage on. It may not be where you would ideally like to live but that’s life – it’s a compromise.

So how is it going MG? Is the plan working but just a bit slower because you are not fully converted over?

So has anyone found a decent recipe book that works for this? Having scanned a bunch of the low carb books on Amazon a lot seem to include rather a lot of “banned” substances such as rice, cream, cheese (of a non cottage variety) and fruit.

Almost certainly. Fabulous part of the world and you are right on the doorstep of Whistler for skiing in winter and mountain biking in the summer.

Hmmmm, had several Vectras and not had the springs changed on any of them. Last one I had for 3 years and 88,000 odd miles (had the rear end repaired after a kind lady used it to assist her braking on the A34) and current one is at 75,000 miles and no spring repairs yet. Guess I got lucky. :-)

People commuting on the train during the peak travel periods of the day who spread everything they have over the seat next to them. Selfish and ignorant eejits. Still, it does make for an entertaining game of standing there and making them clean it up so you can sit there – even if there are spare seats elsewhere in the carriage. Worth it just to see them huff and puff as they look around the carriage to see spare seats that you could be sitting in, but know that they are being a complete ****wipe so can’t complain. Best thing about it is that they usually end up more uncomfortable than they could be if they had only been a bit more considerate in the first place.

Middle lane drivers on the motorway who move over onto the inside lane when you come up behind them only to move back into the middle lane once you have passed them (and the inside lane is clear as far as the horizon). What’s that all about then??

EDIT: if anyone has any ideas on how to kick a serious chocolate addiction, let me know (i’m not doing a before and after photo like mol but i want to lose 2 kgs)

I suppose you could get on the iDave diet and restrict your chocolate consumption to your free day. :-)

MG – enjoying your posts and endless debating. I see where you are going. However, the one area I would take issue with you on is that from the stats you have given us (your height and weight) I think you have to be honest with yourself and acknowledge that you are a bit of a chubber. A bit, not a lot. And this is not a judgement from a skinny whippet as your stats are not too disimilar to mine and being totally honest I know that I am a bit of a chubber. In today’s society I may look normal (well, with clothes on) but a speedo or mankini would reveal a level of chunkiness that was not present when I was a lot younger. Intrigued to see how you do on the eating plan and also how effective it is when you don’t stick rigidly to it.

Mind you, having said all that I also agree that the rozzer did not help himself or the cause. Should have been handled a lot better. Sure, he may have had a rough day, be out of breath, frustrated by the **** but part of being a copper is learning to handle these sorts of situations and rising above them. Hence not everyone is capable of being a copper.

And is it such a bad thing if, for generally mild offences where no one has been injured, that a copper goes with a person showing an appropriately apologetic attitude and gives them a ticking off and warning but no paperwork? Saves both him and you a load of hassle, surely?

Well said xiphon.

The bottom line for all you RLJ-ers is that it is not big or clever to jump them. We are road users and as such should abide by the rules of the road. We may not see the sense of a red light or feel that there’s nothing coming so we can take a chance. Fair enough, that’s your choice. But just because you do it and because lots of people do it does not in any way make it right or legal. Have I ever jumped a red ligt? Sure, but not many and generally these days don’t. My life is not ruined by the extra couple of minutes I have had to wait for the lights to change.

How would you feel as a cyclist if you are crossing a junction and a car jumps his/her red light and hits you? Presumably you will be less than impressed. So why is it not ok for him/her to jump the light but it’s fine for you?

Seems like the reviews on Amazon for the book are quite mixed. So how many people are on / have been on this diet and found it effective? What have you used as recipes (or to give you a spread of varied recipes)? And is it just as effective with little to no decent exercise (I have someone in mind who is struggling to exercise at the moment through various injuries and physical weakness and is putting weight on and wants to slow it down)?

Thanks for the updates fellas.

No, why should it? If they are doing 2 jobs then they are being paid by 2 sets of people and will be paying tax on it. As mentioned by a few already, for some there is little or no choice about doing more hours than they are contracted to do. Unlikely to be enough to provide a job for someone else. If a person is doing 2 jobs then perhaps it suggests they did a better job of selling themselves and demonstrating their capability than those that didn’t get the job – or perhaps they have a greater desire to do the second job (possibly motivated by their financial needs etc). Too many people who are not working are not prepared to work for the sake of it but are particular about what they want to do or need to earn which leaves a lot of the menial, dull, rubbish jobs for those whose need for work / the money is greater than their pride in what job they do.

Shouldn’t it be astronomy and not astrology?

Interesting idea / site but for me personally, not one I would stay on.

So which trails are closed? Is it just Seagull, Stickler and Tank Traps? Riding there with some newbies tomorrow and be useful to know which ones are closed.

Cheers

It all depends what you mean by overrated really. To me, someone that is overrated is where pretty much everything they do is venerated and nothing they do is considered bad. Or, these days I would say it also includes a fanbase for an artists where their talents are exaggerated. Seems to me a lot of modern artists can’t actually sing very well or, in some cases, in tune. If we’re honest, most bands have written at least one song that most people will think is ok – provided they can put aside their prejudices and irrational dislikes for a moment. Mind you, I’ve yet to hear anything remotely passable from Pete Doherty. :-)

As was mentioned above, you really need to go and listen to them, ideally with the amp and source you are going to use with them. Personally, the ones I have listened to have never quite done it for me. Hard to define what was missing but I have never really got on with them. Prefer Tannoy or some of the nicer Missions in the past although not had a good look around for a while.

And not all faith schools are state funded. Some rather sweeping generalisations going on that are not helpful but then again I suppose that is the STW way – why bother with facts if they get in the way of your argument. Keeps it amusing and entertaining and we all keep coming back. :-)

The better schools also address societal things such as attitudes and character, integrating with others, seeing the wider social picture. Not sure that they qualify as “facts” but are an important aspect of education. And these can be taught equally well in faith and non faith schools as well as being taught horrifically badly in both.

I can’t understand what the fuss is all about? Given how passionately anti religion so many of you are why would you even consider sending your kids to a faith school? Who cares what the entry criteria are? If you really are so convinced by your atheistic standpoint I would expect you to be taking your kids somewhere else or is it all a bit of a keyboard warrior posing? And if it’s the local school then, as was mentioned earlier, perhaps you should move to a place closer to a school more in tune with your philosophical views or be prepared to transport your kids.

It’s also fair to say that not all schools that appear to have a link to a particular religious movement / body are the same and are also not necessarily faith schools.

Great events are Questars. A good challenge if you are serious, stimulating and hugely enjoyable if you are just doing them for fun. You could also try looking at the Rat Race series of events. For generall adventure racing stuff keep an eye on Sleepmonsters or mightcontainnuts.

Dynamicadventurerace events were very good but they have just folded.

First thyings first – are you really sure you have installe and configured Active Directory? Just adding the AD role does not install AD.

Once AD is “created” you then need to join the workstations to the domain. This will require configuring the workstations and they will need a reboot afterwards.

Doesn’t sound to me as though you have configured AD yet.

The link between state and religion is more symbolic now in a similar way to the notion that the queen is the head of state. In reality the queen has no real power. I agree that it does seem inappropriate in our judicial system to ask people to swear an oath on a book which symbolises a faith they do not have but i guess we have got to this point largely because most people that do not have a faith are not that bothered by it or the requirements of swearing an oath so they “just go along with it”.

What you cannot escape from though, is that your views and attitudes will be shaped to a greater or lesser degree by what you believe in – and we all have a faith or belief system. The interesting thing about Christianity is that it prescribes a way of life that runs counter to most people’s natural way of living. This makes it easy to criticise Christians and accuse them of being hypocritical. In some cases this is true. In a lot of cases (as outlined by people like IanB earlier in this thread) it is simply that they are on a journey and do not claim to be perfect as people or perfect as representatives of the Christian faith. Are well perfect cyclists, able to execute any given trick or maneuver perfectly, every time? Do we make perfect decisions every time? Do we all understand all the workings of our bikes and how each component is specified, manufactured and put together? No. (Ok, so it is a bit of a tenuous example, but I’m making a point). So why expect a Christian, or any other religious person, to be perfect and to be able to give a complete, robust and watertight defence? Just look at this forum and we can’t even agree what tyres are best! Why expect it of religious people?

I don’t think you are. Not really. :-)

Have had a Humax refurb for the past couple of years. Generally been very good although it does have the odd glitch. Very easy to use. Main downside is it is a bit noisy.

Alternative that I saw at the gadget show was the 3view player which looked very nice, is supposed to be dead quiet and is HD capable.
3view site

Well done and a good effort.

Just waiting for someone to come along and point out whetehr they think it’s coincidence that the church and the butchery are in the same direction (your “smiling” pic. :-)

The bottom line for any dealer (and the way they will pitch it to you) is the overall cost to change. In many cases a px (especially on an old banger) will be a pain to the dealer as they more than likely will not be able to flog it so have to get rid of it. This will either to be one of their "mate" dealers (the non franchised, bargain basement type) or it will be sent off to auction. If their local mate won't take it then the other options of getting rid of it cost them money. If they will take it don't expect much money at all for it. The px value and any discount they give you will be coming off the profit margin of the car. Which is better for you? Bigger cash discount or the convenience of getting rid of your old car? Also be prepared for them to try and recover profit through selling accessories (not a huge value), warranty (bigger markup) and finance (probably the biggest profit motive for them). Ultimately decide how much you are prepared to pay for the car and if you are happy, they meet it and the car has the necessary assurances you want then all should be happy. Also bear in mind the obvious in that there is a significant difference in price between the same car (make, model, age, mileage) sold through a dealership (they have overheads to pay, servicing and preparation costs, salesman's commission etc) so do not expect to pay private person price for the car at a dealership. Other commonly used tactic is to visit the dealership in the run up to the end of a month where they may be more open to a better deal just to close out bigger business for the month.

Personally I think he's quite funny. Not everything he says is funny – but isn't that true of most comedians? And as has been mentioned above, it is his choice as to where he goes. His response was a typical Gervais answer which leaves you none the clearer as to his real reasons for not going but, that said, he is also entitled to not explain his reasons or motives for doing or not doing something (unless it involves breaking the law and a court). He may well do a lot of other charitable things that he would rather not talk about. But then again, he is entitled to not do anything for charity either. Why would that be our concern?

A situation I will be facing soon as well. Currently they get their essential clothes bought for them, the odd treat and £5 a week pocket money. They have a requirement to save at least £5 a month by putting it into a savings account to try and encourage the notion of saving at least something.

When I was that age I got a pittance for pocket money although essential clothing was bought for me. Anything else I wanted I had to save up for. I got a part time job and that taught me the principle of going out to work and how to manage my own money. This doesn't work for everyone or every circumstance but it worked for me. One of the most important things I think we can teach our kids is the value of money – and all that that means.

Like many others comments from ^ Catch 22 was one of those books that I abandoned. I also usually hate to leave a book before finishing it but Catch 22 was one of them. Also many years ago started an unofficial biography of Bruce Springsteen which was utter, utter bilge. The writer seemed so far up himself and determined to write some sort of literary tome of written work that he completely lost sight of what he was supposed be writing about. By far the worst book I ever tried to read.

Questars event in Cannock tomorrow for me.

Whites is definitely a good trail to do and a useful cycling work out. Make sure you include the new(ish) Energy section (starts at the bottom of the first proper descent from the top). Didn't do the black run from the top so not sure what that does but you should be able to do that then climb back up the fire road to the top and do the "standard" descent.

Wonder if there will be a widde-waltz? [Not that I'm really all that bothered]

I'm not envious about this trip at all. No, not at all. Vancouver and BC in general is not one of the nicest places I have ever been, really.

Wasn't that part of the premise behind Superstars (probably only oder people will remember this classic 70s / 80s televisual feast. A range of sporting trials where sportspeople from different sports competed against each other. In those days there were clearly different standards applied to the sporting preparation and fitness between sports but invariably motorsport superstars and footballers were usually rubbish. With the evolution of wider training methods in all sports the gap is probably a lot closer but as others said above, different sports require different strengths, skills and attributes so although you may be very fit aerobically it doesn't automatically make you able to compete across all sports.

So many words and so many thoughts along with so many misunderstandings – no wonder we never really get much fruit out of these discussions.

Given the set of issues and complaints against "God" in this thread those a neutral mind may find this[/url] book interesting. It comes from a Christian perspective and having read it over the summer I thought it was an oipen and thoughtful discussion. Did it answer every question? No. Does it bat away the key criticisms? No, not really, but it does at least make you think.

Like a number of people on this thread I had a background of being brought up in a church environment. Like many people here I still have a number of questions that I find are hard to resolve. However, just because I don't understand everything doesn't mean I automatically label those who have a strong faith as deluded or misguided or basing their lives on fairy tales. Clearly those who advocate the concept of religion is a fairy tale believe themselves to be in full and absolute knowledge and are asserting that their belief is the superior and correct one. Anyone else see a tiny flaw in this? Perhaps the same one they are accusing the religious dimwits of possessing?

And no, not all religions are the same. Not by a long way so yes – at the very least most of them are wrong and at least one may be right. But which one?

And for the record, the current realistic view of hell is that it is simply a place where there is a complete absence of God and his characteristics. Probably not sulpherous burning and roasting for eternity. However, according to the christian view point, many of the attributes in people that appeal to us (charity, happiness, honesty, encouragement, blah blah blah) are all characteristics of God then expect hell to be an unpleasent experience. But you haven't been sent there – you have merely chosen to go there as you do not want any part of the "fairy story". So why get so upset about it? Given that you despise God so much (although you don't actually believe he exists) then surely it's not a big deal for you anyway as you are going to be far happier in a place where he isn't (if he does exist).

And it's not that big a deal really, is it, for people who feel they have an answer to life's meaning to want to tell you about it? You have an option to say you're not interested, thank you, and move on. For them it is a life changing experience and they feel they cannot help telling others. Not entirely unlike everyone who posts pictures of their new bike / build here really is it? I don't see many replies on those posts telling people to leave them alone and keep their bike building / purchasing efforts to themselves. Yes, a loose and tenuous example, but not totally dissimilar.

Oh well, more fuel for the fire…. :wink:

Or Lucky Man by Thunder? [Working on a faint recollection that Thunder were at least in part a Scottish band]

just heard there could be some issues with older software

True of nearly all versions of Windows – not really specific to 32 or 64 bitness.

As Rio suggested, the most common cause of problems for 64bit Windows has traditionally been drivers for hardware and devices. The story is significantly better now – mostly because 64 bit computing is becoming more mainstream and manufacturers have had a few years now to get the hang of it.

Been running 64bit Windows 7 for quite some time now and not had any issues with drivers or software. But that's me. YMMV.