The main benefit of Blu Ray, that I can see, is that all your future disc purchases will cost more than the DVD version for an insignificant supposed improvement in picture quality.

Thanks all for the replies thus far.

Seems the 18″ will be the correct size.

‘there is almost certainly no god, but the possibility is so tiny that it’s really not worth thinking about

Er. Says who exactly?

Some mere feeble humans have decided that the divine almighty creator of life, the universe & everything doesn’t exist?

“I can’t explain it or understand it, therefore it can’t possibly be true”

Hooray for human arrogance!

What’s the equation that tells us there’s almost certainly no god? If there isn’t one then it’s just a theory or opinion at most.

😀

face it, religion has had its hegemony, it’s past it’s sell- by date, and is an increasing irrelevance

Of course, that’s only one opinion.

An example of the other side of the coin … there’s a Christian church near me who have been specifically asked by local MPs and Police to increase their profile/involvement in the area because they (the MPs/Police) have attributed a significant drop in crime rates, underage drinking and drug problems to stuff the church has been doing.

There are now a number of kids off drink and drugs.

Nobody else was or is doing much to help these people in this area, only the local irrelevant and out-dated church 😀

but I’m not sure if we can turn the tide can we..?

I think the pendulum has swung too far on this, and sooner or later people will realise what’s missing & it’ll swing back the other way a bit, and we’ll have more of a healthy balance.

I think for most people the internet/social media has opened the world up, not shut them in their houses.

They’re all shut in their houses sat in front of a laptop, massively aware of all sorts of things going on in the world, mostly involving z-list ‘celebrities’, but no idea what the person living 10 feet away is called.

I think they sound excellent and would attend one happily. Can you do that?

Yes, the enrolment process involves driving around really fast until a letter drops on your doormat asking you to attend a course or pay a fine.

Up to about 200 years ago the Bible was used to justify slavery, yet today we use it to condemn slavery.

This behaviour is not scriptural though, it’s just man (ab)using it to suit his own end. You don’t need faith/religion to know slavery is wrong.

As society’s moral and ethical code evolves so does our understanding of faith and scripture

If the Bible is the Spirit-inspired word of God (as any real Christian would agree), then their understanding of it is from the same source.

There must be some key foundational elements to the Bible that don’t change just because society decides, otherwise you’re reducing the Word of God to just some things written but some blokes thousands of years ago.

I think that’s a monumentally arrogant stance, TBH. You’re assuming that a position of atheism is a position of ignorance, which may be true for some but most certainly isn’t a blanket statement you can apply to everyone.

True. I figured most people are intelligent enough to recognise a generalisation when they see it.

In a similar way that we all realise that someone saying “all Catholic priests are kiddy-fiddlers” is also a generalisation.

Naturally, I should also have put the usual “in my experience” disclaimer. Although seeing as I was typing it, I figured that goes without saying.

If religion wants respect, it can get its bloody house in order and be respectable first

Agreed. The Church hasn’t helped itself in many ways.

And of course, such is the way the media works, we only ever get to hear about the stuff that’s gone wrong.

Could you let us know which subjects we are allowed to discuss without years of study?

Yes, fair enough.

What I was sarcastically trying to imply was that we all arrive at very strong opinions of things that we don’t actually know much about, other than bits and pieces we’ve picked up 2nd or 3rd hand over the years.

We wouldn’t choose a house or car on such flimsy knowledge but most people seem happy to write off religion as man-made nonsense without ever making a proper effort to find out what it’s really all about for themselves, first hand.

Anyhow, this is a bit of a digression from the original thread subject.

As the great Miranda Hart once said: 😀

“Do you remember what life used to be like?… I think with all your gadgetry you are never really present, never really focused on making an effort to meet people and talk, because you can communicate so easily and quickly. But it’s not real communication is it?”

“See,that’s the trouble. We now only really have fluffy relationships. So we’re all communicating all the time on email, Twitter and text, but we are not really communicating. I’ve suddenly found that I don’t really know people like I used to know them. Everyone’s so busy, and the television’s on, the computer’s on and there’s this constant noise, and you think you’re in communication, but actually I don’t think you are.”

Are all of us arguing about Christianity on here Bible scholars with years of study at theological college (which would thus mean we know what we’re talking about), or are we doing what blokes always do which is just relating our opinion without really understanding anything about the subject matter?

The church and religion have no place in modern day society, just treat anything anyone says based on religion or in the name of religion as a load of bollox and preserve you own sanity.

Very narrow-minded, but everyone’s entitled to their opinion …

‘take a look around and watch where you’re walking’

This is common sense, and most people do this whilst out and about without thinking. Why dress it all up as a ‘risk assessment’?

If you scratch yourself on a stick, it’s only a scratch. Get over it. It’ll heal up and be gone in a couple of days.

If you step in a dog poo, nobody dies. You just clean your shoes and make sure you don’t get it all over your hands.

My 5yo son’s known not to step in poo since before he started school, and we didn’t specifically teach him that. Does this therefore make him a prodigy or something? Or perhaps he just used his own common sense?

Human nature is as human nature does.
Hillsborough wasn’t the first cover-up and it won’t be the last.

If LArmstrong et al were doing something significant, rather than just pedalling a bike around different countries, all this might be worth arguing about.

😀

Won a Thomson Elite seatpost on eBay for £25.
Seemed quite a bargain at the time.

Auctioned it on eBay a few months later – went for £35.

8)

My bank don’t let you view more than 1 year in advance

Your bank predicts your next 12 months bank statements?

😀

My kid was subjected to this as well.

If just one ‘Autumn Walk’ near-death tripping-over-a-stick incident was prevented, then it was all worth it …

It must be hell at this time of year, what with all those leaves falling off of trees. Imagine one of those bad boys landing on you from the top of a tall tree. You’d have to be identified from dental records I reckon.

OP, do you not think the teacher may have been taking the p1ss ?

It could be the kids were taking the piss too- they know what Ofsted is, they’re not daft

I fear that’s all just wishful thinking …

😀

The stupid thing is, surely the children need to complete this lethal ‘autumn walk’ in order to assess the risks … or do they just turn round and go back to school if they come across an unforeseen twig or slightly pointy holly leaf?

Either way, it’s a stupid idea.

I’d rather my school taught common sense and what-not, rather than teaching my kids to treat everything as a threat to their existence.

On a planet with a population of over 7 billion, against the backdro pof thousands of years of human history, don’t most things people achieve in their lives just blend into the ‘ordinary’?

would help if there was a reminder system really

I’m surprised nobody’s made a smartphone app for this yet, seeing as most people these days seem incapable of sitting the right way on the toilet without consulting their phone …

Doesn’t this happen every year at some point between now and the end of November?

And why do BBC weather presenters always sound apologetic that it’s not 25 degrees and blazing sunshine at the end of October?

I don’t mind well-respected minority sportsmen avoiding tax, provided they’ve got an Olympic medal … but if a faceless business that I don’t care about (like Starbucks) is avoiding paying, then it’s really really bad and they’re morally corrupt and generally the most evil thing on the planet

I bought a bag of satsuma’s from Tesco, all about 4″ diameter … I thought satsuma’s were usually little things

Hang on everyone, turns out we’re massively over-reacting

“The couple at the bed and breakfast made it clear that they didn’t want unmarried couples at all sharing a bed in their room”

So, turned away for not being married, nothing to do with being gay …

😉

Ah I see, so it’s ok to discriminate against people who’ve made a choice to be a certain thing?

How is demanding that they comply with the same laws as everyone else being discriminatory?

That’s not quite what I meant. I was commenting with regards to stuff being said about being gay isn’t a choice whereas religious beliefs are, the implication (as I read it. or mis-read it) being that it was almost ok to make judgements about someone’s lifestyle if it was their choice rather than who they were born as.

Show me one person who’s born a Christian, and I’ll concede your point.

Ah I see, so it’s ok to discriminate against people who’ve made a choice to be a certain thing?

So we’re free to discriminate against Muslims, Hindu’s, Atheists, Christians or anyone with any other religion-related beliefs?

No?

Didn’t think so.

Swear at a policeman if you’re an MP? Get off scot-free.

taser a blind man carrying a walking stick? Just apologise and it’s ok.

Kill an innocent newspaper seller on his way home from work? get away with murder

Say something stupid on TwitFace? JAIL

Get in the way of a rowing boat? JAIL

Beat up a teenager using his crutches? WARNING

I wonder if the countries judges etc realise how stupid they look in the light of the daft and onconsistent sentencing they collectively dish out?

Hooray for the UK justice system!

Say something stupid on TwitFace? JAIL

Get in the way of a rowing boat? JAIL

Beat up a teenager using his crutches? WARNING 😕

I’d love a c456 frame, but there’s no way I can justify one 😥 😀

it has yet to capture the interest of major oil companies

Well, of course not, they’re still easily generating billions from raping the earth’s fossil fuel resources whilst using speculators to hold the world to ransom with never ending artificially created price rises.

I can see the creationists being all over this;

“look, it proves you don’t need to bury stuff in the ground for millions of years to get oil, the earth could have been created last Tuesday with a couple of air pockets on it that have magically turned to oil”

Nah, don’t me mad.

Earth was created with oil/coal/gas fields already there.

Obvious really.

Alternatively, 1 ‘day’ in the Biblical creation is not a literal day, could be millions or billions of years.

Anyway, I digress.

As you were.

If you only watch one German jump into onto a frozen pond today…

Minor correction for accuracy

there are a number of currently popular celebrities who were know for groping staff/guests and continued to do so until very recently

Currently popular eh … Bruce Forsyth?

How do you deal with things that were considered “right” in the past, but considered “wrong” now?

I don’t think the stuff Jimmy ‘Paedo’ Saville was doing were ever considered ‘right’ …

Stable hand?

Ah, leave it, probably just had a bad hay at the office.

I rarely use my LBS’s these days, and then it’s only as an emergency fallback position if I need something urgently.

Other than that I shop online & do all my own fettling (other than wheel building and shock servicing).

It seems most ‘proper’/serious cyclists do most of their own repairs and what-not, so I assume LBS’s get most of their custom from ‘newbies’ and people who ride a bike more out of necessity than choice & are therefore less inclined to fix & service it themselves.

googling all insurance companies just seem to comes up with a list of people complaining

Most people are far more motivated to write a complaint than praise.

Also, we’re British. Complaining is what we do.

Was interested to see how people had got on claiming from likes of M&S now they are underwritten by AXA

Had to claim on my M&S insurance 3 months ago after a break-in & bike theft.

Once the police had done their stuff, one phone call to M&S, a few simple questions, gave them the police crime number.

Locksmith arrived a few hours later to change locks.
Wheelies phoned within an hour to discusss the bike replacement claim.

Couple of days later, Wheelies submitted claim to M&S who authorised the anmount with no question.

Bike was ordered, I paid the £100 excess.

Bish bash bosh .. all sorted! 😀 I have no complaints about M&S or AXA from my experience.

(Note: I am on the ‘old'(er) M&S policy that covers bikes up to £4000)

Nowadays I suppose I’ve just accepted that some people are dicks, whatever you say to them they will still be dicks and quite honestly I don’t need to allow their dickishness to penetrate my life.

Point and laugh now.

Kind of this for me too.

Stupid is as stupid does.

Provided I don’t actually get hit, near misses and dangerous/idiotic driving don’t really bother me. I think I’ve accepted it as ‘normal’, and therefore expect it rather than get offended by it.

But I’m not the sort of person who gets easily angered in general though, so maybe this helps.