Brother: V-Strom? A bit zzzzz but that’s what you want with a first bike, isn’t it?

2/10 rant. Becomes self-aware in course of rant, realises situational irony, fails to use sweary language.

jambalaya

our support is there if required and the fact we are not being called upon to deploy our weaponry is a signal that Daesh have gone to ground
If there is an inverse relationship between the number of times the UK’s support is called upon and the strength of ISIL, then here’s some great news: a Freedom of Information request has established that precisely zero Islamic State fighters have been killed by Brimstone missiles – you know, the ones that were absolutely essentially to destroying IS. See p.11 of this week’s Private Eye.

SaxonRider – Member
I’m sure if you root around in the fridge, Rorschach, you might find a beer in there.
POSTED 2 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Or at least something that looks like one.

That’s a bit rubbish. So is the characterisation of the black lead in the remake, so I suppose it’s true to canon…

They’ve still got the street smart black person, though. Because a black scientist street smart white person would just be ridiculous.

Wikipedia says that Winston was supposed to be a multiple PhD holding scientist of greater stature than the other three, but that was dropped. I now can’t quite remember how the other 3 come across him in the original.

Janine played the part of “street smart white person” in the original.

Metallics and coloured (not white) vans are better

Why do you think that is? White vans are treated rougher…?

I’ve bought and sold from countries all over the globe, which has always been done on merit.

For most people, price is also important. Price of imports is partially determined by duties. The level of duty charged depends on whether you have a customs union, a free trade agreement or nothing.

Both of those things are your fault and no-one else’s.

when it goes wrong there is no plan “b”.

What’s the plan B for when the ferry goes wrong?

gonefishin – Member
It’s not a particularly good indicator of a decent film though. Sex in the City will pass, but Gravity won’t

It’s not supposed to identify good films – just show how 50% of the world’s population gets treated on screen (as an accessory for the “interesting” characters, usually).

Parliament building
Cost: €580,6832.889994kajillion

…and still cheap compared to the Scottish parliament

Isn’t that an oxymoron?

…no?

Top Gun
Days of Thunder

It was said an awful lot when they first announced

Make a film that fails the Bechdel Test, no-one says anything. Make a film with female leads, millions of Comic Guys complain.

@kona the profit margins on (successful) auto manufacturer plus all the supply chain is massive given the volumes and sticker prices. Supermarkets woukd kill for margins anywhere near those.

No, they’re not. They’re 7-9.7%, as above. I realise those facts didn’t penetrate the cognitive dissonance forcefield that surrounds you.

Supermarkets famously have very very low profit margins (which is why you chose that example) but they make up for it with huge volume.

Germany has a huge trade surplus with the UK and its driven by high margin high value goods like cars

Manufacturers’ margin on cars is not high. It’s 7-9.7% for the big German marques: http://www.statista.com/statistics/280346/ebit-margin-of-the-leading-car-manufacturers/

I would hope the optimistic view is correct. The pessimistic view is this: Trump v Clinton results in narrow Clinton victory; Republican Party explodes; Clinton presidency is less than stellar; Republican Party learns from the last two elections, ditches old paradigms and finds its Tony Blair: a likeable smooth (minority? Female?) candidate that manages to keep her or his swivel-eyed lunacy under wraps…until the midterm congressional elections and the next presidential election at which point the sweep the board.

I appreciate this is probably the optimistic scenario for some people.

Now got to Harrogate and it makes no difference having snow socks, 4×4, superman, it’s just gridlocked.

Seems a bit unlikely when Harrogate doesn’t have a grid street layout.

I love veg

We can tell that from this thread.

Oh wait, veg, you said

It’s just typical PC health and safety gone mad nonsense that teachers can’t shoot pupils with ex-Boer War firearms

Remember how devastatingly effective “Things can only get better” was?

Yeah but it was a slogan, not the whole platform!

I’m not denying that Trump is popular or an effective campaigner. It’s not that his policies are objectionable – it’s that he rarely articulates any. When you read transcripts or listen to him speak, it’s so hopelessly vague that identifying the action points is like nailing jelly to a wall. He doesn’t have the slightest clue what he is talking about, and he is not bothered by this, and his supporters don’t care. They’re “common sense” people that are sick of “eggheads” making things “more complicated than they are”.

I mean, if it’s all a cunning plan, he’s incredibly convincing. And I don’t believe he actually believes any of his positions. But his speeches and statements are just a collection of words. “We’re going to do amazing things, we have it all worked out, the things we are doing are things no one has ever done better, and if it doesn’t work, I’ll buy in the best to do an incredible job”.

Only 11,000 registered to vote – my guess as to why…they are registered as living in the UK as that way they get indexed linked state pension

All uk pensioners living in EEA countries get index linked pension payments: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-pensions-annual-increases-if-you-live-abroad/countries-where-we-pay-an-annual-increase-in-the-state-pension

More nanny state nonsense, fortunately not from the state just academics trying to make a name for themselves. Rugby is a dangerous physical game.

Do you even remember the beginning of your sentences by the time you reach the end?

pistonbroke – Member
I subscribe to the Groucho Marx maxim ” I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member” it’s worked for me so far.

And yet you post on here! :D

My view on school rugby is that it is a good thing, provided they actually coach technique rather than just contact, and try to make sure the bigger, stronger lads aren’t just thrown in to mash up the tiddlers.

And where do girls fit in? Doesn’t touch/flag rugby make it easier to have mixed sex sports?

Amazingly, I too agree almost entirely with Jamba. I never thought Trump could win the nomination because I thought a “sensible” establishment candidate would have smashed him by now but he probably will become the candidate. I also think there is a lack of recognition on here for how tainted a brand Clinton is, how unsavoury she herself is, and how patriarchal voters are.

However, gawker has an interesting (invective-tinged) piece pointing out that Trump’s nomination and possible victory is a bit of a crisis for the republican establishment. On one hand, he has taken the bigoted dog whistle politics of previous campaigns and take It to an extreme – turns out a klaxon is better than a dog whistle. On the other hand, he has overturned key policies of the republican platform and rejected them eg some kind of public healthcare system. That’s not surprising in itself (shock – populist policies are popular!) but it’s a challenge to the funders that have spent a long time getting the republicans to convince people that elitist policies are good for them.

http://gawker.com/the-time-has-come-for-donald-trump-to-destroy-the-hater-1762231346

But a trump presidency is a nightmare, Clinton is a 90s zombie, Sanders is all over the place, and those people in the newspaper are just dickheads. We are living in the end times

that woman on the radio this morning sounded completely hysterical

How completely unsurprising that the professor discussing extensive scientific research gets dismissed as a “hysterical woman”.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/female-hysteria_n_4298060.html

@kona – no if you want to work in France you will, most likely, have to apply for a visa just as a French person will have to apply for one in the UK. I imagine valuable staff in the nhs will get a visa, someone working as a porter or a cleaner maybe not. None of this is rocket science, all very simple with many countries policies we can analyse amd copy/ada

Right – and also if a UK citizen wanted to live in France, they’d also need a visa, yes?

French ruies allow anyone of any natioanility to get state health care (ie a Carte Vitale) if you are a property owner and pay property taxes.

Even if this is true (and the website is so awful I can’t see the eligibility rules), it still doesn’t help people who need to be able to live and work legally in property that they would buy.

It’s a weird position to assume that free movement would be retained for UK citizens even if the UK leaves the EU – when it’s one of the big reasons for the UK leaving!

See if it fails to start tomorrow morning when it’s cold – it which case probably battery.

get paid 50% of what my employer charges for my time and skills

Jesus! I think the rule of thumb in my industry is that 1/7th of hourly rate is actually paid to the worker (although there are a lot of support workers needed for that billing worker. These tassles don’t iron themselves you know).

On the upside, these threads are always useful for outing the Neanderthals

What do you have against Dutch people anyway?

You’re so tough, binners, my gusset just melted.

Perhaps you could learn that a sentence which ends with a question mark is asking a question?

Apart from that one, obviously.

Oof

unless on a Brexit they introduce a rule just for us we’ll be free to buy and sell as we see fit juat like now.

Yes – but not the right to live there, get benefits there, get non-emergency healthcare there etc. Being able to buy and sell French property at will is great for international property investors or people that just want a holiday home – it’s not so important for people that actually want to live in those houses.

(I agree that it’s unlikely significant restrictions on real property purchase would be introduced post-Brexit )

CharlieMungus – Member
Gold in sewage?

Gold in sewage: http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE50T56120090130

What chocolates were they?

Starfish?

This thread is worthless without pictures (of the bike you’re going to buy).

When OP mentions the “gold extraction” business, does he mean gold mining or extracting gold from waste/sewage? (I realise this is probably not the point of the story).

Mervyn King, ex Govenor of the Bank of England. Free now to speak his mind unlike Carney, a Canadian who wants an easier life.

Possibly King is right that the Eurozone bloc needs shaken up. What is the relevance/implication for the UK which will never be in the euro?

neilforrow: in what ways do Switzerland, Norway and Iceland have superior access to world markets? The latter two are small countries sitting on massive natural resources (oil and fish). That article is full of non-sequiturs and correlation/causation mistakes. Why would export products that fail to comply with EU standards be more attractive to non-eu markets? And why would UK products that are being exported to non-EU markets have to comply with EU standards anyway?

I don’t think it’s okay to insult OP’s (ex-)partner like that (and suspect you’re really abusing someone else…)

I think it’s definitely okay to hit the roof. It does otoh sound like you have structural issues in your life that you’d probably want to be changed so you could both be happier – you’re working too much with other people, she’s not working enough with other people etc. Maybe changing those things could fix problems.

What do you mean “when you were engaged”? You were but you aren’t any more?