The problem as I see it stems from childhood, when we grew up in a period of consumerist plenty, and would often stuff our faces with food and drink.

That’s fine for most people until they hit early middle-age, when your metabolism slows down. Add to that the general stress of middle-age like work and family, and many people often end up doing the direct opposite, and increasing their consumption to reward themselves (and the advertising industry is happy to promote such behaviour).

I notice people who grew up under rationing tend to have a healthier relationship with food and drink. Diets rarely work in the long term, the only person I know whose managed to cut down their size for the long-term took up mindfulness and that stopped the overeating and over-drinking. Ultimately you reach an age when you can’t burn it all off on the bike or in the gym, so the only answer is a long-term reduction in meal sizes, alcohol, fatty foods (i.e. all the good things in life).

Sounds like you’ve gone through hell. I hope you find something that works.

Hasn’t the dr suggested some kind of corrective surgery?

You shouldn’t be on painkillers for that long a period.

And I’m amazed your friend is riding a motorbike on morphine.

Timidwheeler Wins

@convert, but in many cases, the man doesn’t get an even split, especially if there are young children involved and he loses the family home.

I live near a marina full of narrowboats and I’d estimate about half of the occupants are divorced men in such a situation.

He needs to see the Dr first, often drinking is related to depression and anxiety. He may not be an alcoholic, instead he could be depressed and using alcohol as a coping mechanism.

If he is a reserved person then he may need some counselling to open up more about his problems. Or he may need a change of job. When I’ve been drinking heavily it is always because there is something wrong, normally with my job.

The crafty cockney was always on the box during my childhood. There is a superb documentary called Arrows on YouTube, which followed the then young Eric on his journeys around the country. He seems to be lighting up a new cigarette in every scene, which I daresay were contributing factors in his early death. RIP champ.

I know a hospital chaplain fairly well. They don’t just turn up to give the last rites, they are often at the bedsides of people who are lonely/afraid, with no one to visit them.

I’m more than happy for there to be hospital chaplains and I’m happy that they are funded via the NHS. I can’t think of anything more traumatic than a lonely person having no one to talk to and comfort them whilst they are dying. The church has limited funds and its better that the chaplaincy is centrally organised and funded, across denominations.

You’d be surprised how many people (including millions who do not go to church) ask to see a chaplain on their deathbeds. Why would you want to deprive people of that? It sounds very harsh.

I dreamt last night that Keith Richards had died and that I’d have to tell my friend, who just bought tickets to their next concert

Perhaps he was on my mind given the number of times he’d risen from the dead.

Emphasis: Keith is still with us.

Mudfest down here, I’ve not left the house.

But the Jewish Passover has always been at this time of year in fairness. And the gospels are explicit that the Crucifixion happened around Passover.

I think the nativity is more open to debate – especially the reference to shepherds watching their flocks, which suggests spring or autumn.

Does anybody else see the irony of a carpenter meeting his end by method of wood and nails or is that just me?

To hell with Jehovah
To the carpenter I said
I wish that a carpenter
had made the world instead
Goodbye and good luck to you
our ways will soon divide
Remember me tomorrow
The man you hung beside
It’s God they ought to crucify instead of you and me
I said to the carpenter, a-hanging on the tree

Sydney Carter

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Blimey. Pedantry AND religion. Who knew..

I should emphasise I’m Pedantic, not Religious.

her brother died twice in a 6 week period and is now out of hospital. Does she have to worship him now?

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>To be pedantic, the Christian claim is not that Jesus was resuscitated, as in the case of your neighbour’s brother. The claim is he was resurrected – that his resurrected body was very different from our earthly bodies, which even when resuscitated, will eventually die. </span>

Japanese stocks down four percent.

Trump’s hard-talk may end up crashing the stock market…or he could get the concessions he wants. He certainly likes to gamble. But this could be a gamble too far.

Cropping is liberating when you are going bald…but when you are completely bald, i.e. nothing on top at all will grow, you do still feel self-conscious about it, so I can understand why men try the comb over.

I wouldn’t say I’m completely comfortable and I would much prefer to have hair. The cropped look suits me but I’d rather have hair on top to crop in the first place.

To the OP, you are not completely bald, just receding, so as above I’d suggest seeing a stylist and cropping it gradually over time rather than going zero from the off.

Having recently witnessed at close quarters a divorce with kids involved, you are in a far better position than many people going through divorces. Your still young and can start again quite easily – keep that in mind when negotiating over a few thousand quid. Also the house cannot have appreciated much unlike some couples who are splitting after 40 years plus together.

He must be bored to death of being part of Ant and Dec/PJ and Duncan.

He’s loaded so he could go off and do something else away from the world of showbiz.

It’s pointless doing rehab if you are returning to the same situation.

I would go see a barber and ask them what they think would look best in terms of cropping it. You don’t have to go razor all other just yet.

IME it’s good to have cropped hair as there is nothing worse than trying to style thinning hair.

She isn’t necessarily wrong, it depends on which book in the NT is used.

In Acts, the ascension is 40 days after the resurrection, in Luke it is implied it happens on the same day as the resurrection.

The pay is not poor by any standards.

A starting lectureship is around £35k. Professors £65k-75k. That is good money considering what average UK salaries are. The job also has a level of variety which is hard to match anywhere else. Please prove otherwise as shouting Cobblers isn’t really an argument.

Yes, permanent positions are hard to come by, but there is no other sector where the concept of a permanent position / tenure still exists. And academics on the whole have colluded with the system and pretended to students that such roles will exist in the future in order to keep students and especially postgrads piling into the system.

I work in and around Higher Education. The strikers have a good case, but I think things could go wrong for them at a time when lots of voters (and that’s all that matters in terms of the future of the sector) believe 1) lecturers have it easy – which is not the case and 2) HE is not good value for money in many cases (certainly the case).

Academics as a whole are not very good at acting politically. They can think and talk politically, but when they act politically, it is often too late or badly timed (I think both in this case).

I expect the strike to continue the full 14 days. Lines are drawn and the UCU is poorly led by Sally Hunt, who I think is a more radical figure than many strikers realise.

A minor point I’d add is that academics on the whole have had a good gig up until the last ten years or so. There were permanent contracts, with plenty of perks like the holidays (I know, that’s when the research gets done), and the pay has never been that bad (academics say they studied for xx years and deserve more money but studying can be a pleasure).

My list of culprits:

– Bad government policy for the last 30 years (Major – turning Polys into Unis; Blair – sending too many people to uni; Cameron – the tripling of fees) and in particular the encroachment of KPI culture

– VCs (some of them are sharks through and through)

– Some (not all by any means) established academics, who were quite happy not to rock the boat as long as the changes didn’t affect them, who turned a blind eye to the casualisation of the labour force yet still encouraged students to do postgrad to keep the pipeline going

BUT the biggest change is going to be technology, and that’s the main reason I think this strike will mean little in the long run. Higher Education will be disrupted by technology just like every other sector and that will have dramatic consequences on academic employment.

You can use Vaults on Coinbase to add extra security for Buy and Hold.

The key is to remember all these Cryptos could be worth zero in a couple of months and trade accordingly, i.e. only put in what you can afford to lose and don’t bet the house on it. There is a lot of misplaced anger in the sector – the idea that there is justice in the world, and that Crypto will reform a corrupt monetary system – which gets in the way of making good decisions.

Last time I checked there is no justice in the world and never will be.

Evangelical Christianity has always had a close relationship with radical politics.

The Puritans were behind the Regicide.

Evangelical Christianity emphasises the bringing about of the Kingdom of God (normally because Evangelicals are depressed with their lives and want something to look forward to).

Marxism is a secular version of Evangelical Christianity insofar as it believes in an end-point in history in which everybody gets along, beastliness is at an end, and the future is splendid.

The USA has always had a mission – the City on the Hill – and a belief in its own destiny. Billy Graham reinforced this narrative and thereby deprived millions of Americans the right to be cynical and nihilistic, like the rest of us.

Billy Graham’s Crusades paved the way for America’s military Crusades in the Middle East by ensuring a gullible, unthinking and self-righteous populace which could easily be manipulated by the dark forces of the Deep State.

America has to learn to just plod on like the rest of us, without invading other countries and making the world a huge mess.

America is headed toward civil war at this rate.

Graham said, “Someday, you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.”

And presumably chilling with Ian Paisley.

When you calculate how many years it’s been since you left education and start having a nervous breakdown.

The first time I’ve posted to this thread.

Here is a question – do you think Brexit could lead to civil war?

Some of my relatives are northern Irish and although The Troubles had a hugely sectarian motive, at root it was a conflict over the constitutional status of Northern Ireland.

Leave vs Remain is a debate over the constitutional status of Britain in relation to the EU. When I read certain Twitter feeds, it seems like the more aggressive voices are getting more aggressive on both sides. There is the idea that we are in a “non-violent civil war”, but how long can things remain like this given the vote was so split.

When I ask some relatives about The Troubles, they said there was a lot of tension in the build-up, but the fact that it turned militant, so quickly, surprised many people.

Yes, why not. A friend of mine’s family moved to USA, I think he was there for about five years, as he grew up as a kid. I think he did pick the accent a bit but soon lost it on moving back to the UK.

I went veggie a couple of years ago but couldn’t sustain it. I might try again this spring.

I am currently piling on the pounds, this never-ending winter doesn’t help. So hoping to cut out the booze, smoking, processed meat and lose the weight before its too late.

Courage is the virtue which makes all the others possible.

Your sister in law sounds like an incredibly brave person.

Sorry for your loss. Take care.

Fitness-wise, I’ve been awful. Eating like a pig, boozing too much, no real exercise. Winter drags.

Spring is however not far away so I’m getting the bike fixed. I also have some new work opportunities coming along which could change things and allow me to go back to part-time. I will need to cut down on the beer and food as I’m well overweight now.

I would be pleased but wary. UK universities are now competing fiercely against one another to get bums on seats. Lots of Russell Group universities are now introducing new courses with lower A-Level grade requirements in order to access more government funding. Unfortunately UK HE looks like it has been blown into bubble territory.

This will sound very negative, but the most important question to now ask when selecting a university is, Will this uni still be in business by the time your daughter finishes her degree? (this is no reflection on Lincoln, which I understand is a good institution and is well positioned to benefit from a new government funding stream known as KEF, but there are some universities which could be in trouble soon)

The government has already indicated it will effectively allow a university to go bust.

Move on. It’s not worth the hassle and there is little chance any complaint will be taken seriously.

Leave a negative review on Glassdoor on your way out to warn future employees.

Blockchain tech is 10 years old now. Bitcoin has turned out to be badly designed in terms of innovation. Eth now has the bigger developer economy and some apps are gaining traction.

I think btc will hang around as digital gold. Eth will develop smart contracts and replace the need for middle man corporations.

There will be a better version of bitcoin that ultimately wins the race.

Wall St is basically trying to blackmail the FED by crashing the stock market in the hope the FED will continue with a loose monetary policy.

For the past 10 years the FED has responded by releasing more QE, lowering rates etc, but if there is real inflation in the economy, they have run out of tools and the market is set for a major correction.

@curiousyellow, probably best to continue with your long term strategy. The only thing that needs to be regularly revised is your investment allocation, e.g. how much is btc, how much is in eth, how much in alts. That’s where learning about the technology will pay off in investment terms, as a lot of coins are going to disappear over the next six months.

I think eth will surpass btc in market value this year.

Crypto is hugely speculative. In 2017 it formed a classic bubble, which is now bursting. Many people who got in late are going to take a big hit.

But in the longer run, ETH and maybe another ALT, which resolves Bitcoin’s fundamental problems, will form major asset classes and change the internet, especially in terms of contracts and E-Commerce payments.

This crash is probably the best thing that could have happened as too many people were getting involved in Crypto via gambling/speculation.

It depends whether you think central banks are serious about quantitative tightening and raising Interest Rates.

I’m in two minds as to whether they are, normally they will do whatever they can to keep this bubble economy going, however if inflation starts getting out of control, they will have no option but to raise rates.

But I’ve thought that before and been wrong.