nickc, after seeing that video my thoughts on pole dancing changed and that is as good a reason as any for it to have remained viewable.

The woman featured in the video was as far removed from pole dancings undoubtedly seedy origins as the heavyweight champion of the world is distanced from a Saturday night punch up in a pub car park. How can opinion ever be changed if were not allowed to have our preconceptions challenged?

Her prop was a steel pole, had she done a similar act using a length of material suspended from the rafters I doubt anybody would have raised any objections, and she’d probably already be booked for the Royal Variety performance.

The video was cool, it was not erotic or even mild titillating. It was enlightening in the same way that a non bike rider might find a Danny Macaskill video enlightening.

The dancer was wearing athletic clothing not dissimilar to those that you would see on the the start line of the women’s 100metres.

I honestly saw nothing wrong with the video. For anyone that didn’t see it it was closer to cirque du soleil (in sportswear) than it was to Spearmint Rhino.

Surely ‘philconsequence’ hasn’t been banned for the video, has he?

someone is most definitely up themselves

I get the reasoning for moderated language (I don’t agree with moderating it personally), but there was nothing wrong with that video. You’d see more flesh on show watching ‘strictly come dancing’ or athletics/swimming/gymnastics.

i assume this is in reaction to the pole dancing nurse thread.

There was nothing explicit or erotic about that video. The censorship on this site has gone way too far.

Filling it is the easy part, matching the colour and texture of the finish will be almost impossible.

I’d either go the whole hog and fill with P38, sand back smooth and paint the the door(s) with mini roller for a proper repair or go the other extreme and just touch in the scratch with a bit of white paint and a fine brush.

If you’re gonna do it properly then do it properly otherwise do the minimum acceptable.

merlin mountain

The relationship was always destined to fail. Some years after we split up she came to the conclusion that she should have been batting for the other side all along.

… and now we hand over to Kate Adie reporting live from interbike.

The Peloponnese seemed to have more Caravan friendly sites than the islands, what I did see a lot of were motor homes / camper vans, they seemed to be equally distributed between the mainland and the islands.

Bit lateral but if it’s a link on a website would it not bypass email settings? or as the file is already on a server could they not send the link to the file rather than the actual file.

If its the underground you want then I’d go Hillingdon or Ickenham, personally I’d avoid Ruislip and Uxbridge as these are both Shopping centres and may be busy. Depends where you’re going really if the Central line is more convenient than the Metropolitan then Perivale would be a good bet.

If you’d prefer rail then take a look at Denham (into Marylebone), Hayes & Harlington or West Drayton (into Paddington). Hayes will have the greatest frequency of trains as it is also served by Heathrow connect services but it is the furthest from the M40 (10-15mins depending on traffic).

I’ve cycled from Athens around the Peloponnese and a few of the islands, mostly camping, occasionally staying in tavernas. There were enough campsites to make it viable although on some of the less touristy parts you would find yourself having to put in a few extra miles as the sites would get a bit further apart. Lots of campsites are not marked on the maps but those that were marked tended to be reliable so treat any maps as showing the minimum of sites.

There were a couple of absolutely stunning beach front campsites which were a distance from the general tourist areas, where you could literally step out of the tent and onto a beach. i got by with just English and a smattering of basic greek words, although in some of the areas German would have been the preferred second language. A lot of the areas that the British don’t go to might be popular with other nations, Scandinavians and Germans seemed to flock together almost as much as the British.

If I had complete choice of travel options I would probably do it on a motor bike, seemed to be the best compromise between being able to cover some miles when needed while maintaining the freedom to be flexible about where you go i.e. easy on and off ferries, able to pitch up where you like with a minimum of fuss.

I’ve done this by making the apple calendars on multiple computers/phones and an iPad sync with google calendars. Any change made on any device is updated on all devices. Works a charm and is free.

There’s plenty of online resources that can explain how to do this more clearly than I can so a quick google should sort you out.

Moisture ingress shorting out the electrics?

Is it actually snowing where you are? I imagine if snow settles on (or falls very close to) the sensor it could be enough to set off the light.*

* This is not a fact, just a thought.

7/10, too skinny!

What are the odds that kids come and remodel it as a giant cock overnight.

I’ve changed the gradient to just a grey body background, or do you reckon it would look better if all the bg was just plain white?

Just had a another look and for me the solid grey is better but I would probably go for the same pale grey as the background colour. It’s only my preference but I would keep the site as visually uncomplicated as possible to allow the photography to dominate. Give it a go and see if you like it, you can always change it back.

Just noticed one other thing that I’m not keen on. The next/previous arrows on the gallery sometimes butt up against the edges of the images. Might be an idea to define a maximum size of image area and set the arrows a minimum distance outside of that. Currently when they fall within they look ok and when they fall well outside of the image they look ok but when they hover on or around the edge they are a bit jarring.

Again, comments are just opinion, feel free to ignore.

I really liked the Escape Artist by Matt Seaton. It fits into your second category, ‘inspiring’.

Constructive criticism:
PRACTICAL STUFF (needs to be fixed)
Your graduated grey area (below the header) doesn’t centre, stays ranged left.
The graduated grey area doesn’t extend with content i.e. the blog extends beyond the containing area.

OPINIONATED STUFF (ignore if you like)
– No need for two contact email links throughout lose the vertical one on the left.
– The type used for the menu items looks too heavy, if it’s ‘bold’ i’d drop it down to medium or regular.
– Logo: I can’t place where I’ve seen it before but it’s a rip off isn’t it?
– Remove the watermarks, you might find that they occasionally get ripped off but they are overall I think they are detrimental to your work.
– Agree with the comment above about limiting the number of images on the home page, after all you want people to explore the site and find what they identify with. I wouldn’t go for more than ten and might even be tempted to use just a single image.

REALLY OPINIONATED PERSONAL PREFERENCE STUFF (really ignore this it’s just what i’d prefer)
– I’d lose the graduated area, it’s unnecessary and adds nothing.
– The story about the hotel and being contacted via flickr is nice but it sounds amateurish. I think the photos are better than that and you could be aiming a bit higher.

Overall it’s pretty good just needs polishing off.

There is nothing aesthetically pleasing about any cycle helmet. Familiarity lessons the full horror but really look at them, they all ming beyond reason. By all means get one but don’t kid yourself that it is ever going to look good.

I’m the living embodiment of class.

The coke cans served a practical purpose, minimal contact area to get a bit of airflow going on beneath the macBook, it does get very, very hot. As does the iMac.

nonk, it’s a national holiday.

Sounds like a good day.

macBookPro is the more adaptable option so long as you’re happy to use a second screen, I’ve been working like that for about the last year. Couldn’t work for any length of time without the second screen though.

You might want to factor in the cost of a mouse and a keyboard. I found that I needed to have the macBook elevated to get a comfortable viewing position which made the main keyboard and trackpad not much use. I used to prop the macbook up on four coke cans balanced on a ream of paper but have since bought a very nice but overpriced stand.

tang; agreed, gits come in all shapes and sizes.

If Cameron really did say that on the spur of the moment then credit where it’s due it’s comic genius.

tang, that sounds a very dark appraisal of humankind. I’d like to think that there are plenty of good and selfless people alive today.

Cranberry. As someone that has no desire for a child I would probably be considerably better off under the sort of system you propose, but how exactly would it work?

Would there be no assistance offered to parents, no tax breaks, no maternity/paternity leave unless you can provide cover for the period of absence, no public health care until the child has grown up and paid enough tax to warrant inclusion within the system. And what if someone does have a child more than they can financially cope with, what do we do with the child and what happens to the parents in order to make sure it doesn’t happen again?

So are we happy to place a value on a newborn child’s potential based upon its parents?

When I read his comments I thought the cause of the objection wasn’t the language but the inference that a middle class child would be of more value to society than a child born to a couple claiming benefits.

I overfilled the oil in a triumph herald once. The plumes of blue smoke resembled something out of wacky races. Personally I’d drain it.

bugger! Mine was slipping with a regular tyre, so i bought an as yet unfitted trainer tyre hoping it would solve this but now I hear ^ that this it’s likely to make it worse.

I’ve just been out and bought three tins of soup*. Best be prepared for the long haul.

* I’ve only two left, eaten the oxtail one.

I have the same issue. Is it just a case of keep tightening until it doesn’t slip?

edit: Instructions long gone.

Depends on the thread. Bike related is mostly 1 non bike related can fall anywhere between 1 and 2.

Some of the threads on chat can be pretty serious and deserve to be given a considered response or sometimes no response if you’ve nothing constructive to add. But a lot of the chat stuff is nonsense and deserves nothing other than contempt and ridicule.

I find the tricky ones are when a stupid question is asked with great sincerity. That’s a moral dilemma?

I currently have my cd’s ripped as uncompressed wav files and stream them from itunes via airport express to my hifi amp. As far as sound quality goes I can’t differentiate between streamed music and cds and the convenience of being able to control the whole lot from my phone/iPad makes it all very straightforward.

What would the benefits be of a dedicated audio hardware? Is it just that it sits with the hifi and feels more integrated/approachable or are there real audible benefits to be had that I am missing out on?

point break

Always. Normally a “you alright?” or if they are in the process of fixing something “Have you got everything you need?” seems to do the trick.

Although you’ll probably get a lot of positive replies on here I reckon in the real world something like a quarter of people would stop*. Some probably won’t stop because they feel they lack the skills to help and some will just be bit grumpy gits.

But you are right you really should teach yourself how to do the basic get you home stuff like puncture, rejoining a chain and tightening stuff that comes loose.

* Slightly random statistic that sounded about right.

Would Surf-Mat + Powerband take Chuck Norrris?

which one is wearing gloves?