TSY – Because Male Primary School teachers are all peados and want to “touch and feel” their students of course. Don’t you read the papers?!

More seriously, does anyone know if the ratio of male:female primary school teachers is still dropping? Last I heard it was something like 1:10. Not sure if attitudes are on the change or not, but if they are then male primary school teachers are going to be in a very competitive market position soon.

Would the turn out to vote in England make it worthwhile? Not sure that many English folk have considered it or would. I suspect most are ambivalent. I can’t recall it ever being brought up by anyone other than the Scottish, which is fair enough really!

More to the point would it even have an effect on the English? What advatages does the Union bestow on us at a personal level?

I’m currently public sector (though maybe made redundant in January), I’ve recently been doing a fair bit of work on ‘income generation’ to cover costs (i.e. removing the dependence on the “taxpayer”). This basically means I could be offering a service directly in competition with certain private sector consultants. However I’ll still be working in Local Government.

Can someone confirm which sector I’ll be in?! I need to know which side to be on in these threads!

So after being involved in a high speed crash in stationary traffic you decide to sprint off again through stationary traffic?

Basic risk assessment, balance the hazard of irate drive with broken car door and upset female passenger against likelihood of encountering another angry driver with dozy passenger wanting to alight in the middle of traffic. I know which one I’d consider more risky!

OP – You did the right thing IMO.

Bikebouy – can you explain why I should have to pay more tax to subsidise your wifes parents lifestyle?

Because people want to exercise their right to live wherever they want, without accepting that there is a responsibility attached to those rights. A responsibility to appreciate that their future situation may change and a responsibility to fork out for that change should it arrive.

My parents moved to a small market town and chose to live within five mins walk of the town centre inc. local shops, amenities and PT links. They recognised there would be a time when they couldn’t drive and did what they could to mitigate it. Many people don’t think long term…

what are costs of illness created by cars?

Good question, and I suggest it is very hard to quantify. Particularly if the prevalance of cheap private motor transport has contributed to the sedentary society and the rise in obesity. If it has we can’t really say until we realise the full cost of dealing with the associated illnesses.

Also, I suppose respiratory illnesses would also fall into a similar category and probably cancer too. They’re all quite long term and calculating the costs at a population level is very difficult.

Edite to add – D’oh beaten to it by TJ!

And in turn, your argument relies on ignoring external costs, like the effect on business of being able to transport goods efficiently by road.

I’m not arguing for anything other than the whole system is taken into account, rather than fuel duty on it’s own. If you wish to create another argument on my behalf then I’m afraid you’ll just be arguing with yourself!

What is required is a true cost/benefit analysis.

but if you think the UK economy would be in a better state if we were still travelling by horse and cart…

Oh dear. Suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. Roll out the “hair shirt” and “living in caves” thing too! Hyperbole I’m afraid.

for what its worth, UK government brings in a shade under thirty billion quid a year from fuel duty, plus VAT

Total transport infrastructire public spending is about 20 billion (including national roads, local roads, rail, public transport and air)

It’s not worth anything I’m afraid unless you view the whole system. My point all along…

So.. you want to destroy rural economies and pack even more people in to giant conurbations?

If fuel was expensive and red diesel was taxed we could go back to human labour in the countryside. Rural economies would thrive, particularly as we’d all have to buy local produce because shipping tomatoes from Israel and melons from Zambia would be too expensive! :-)

Peyote – you’d have an argument if fuel duty was hypothedcated to the funding of the road programme, but it isn’t.

In fact, fuel duty alone is a massive income generator for the state – wait out for figures.

You’d have a point if I was referring to purely the road programme. As it is the transport network involves far more than just the physical infrastructure, it’s about the social, environmental and (dare I say it) financial costs. The advent of private motor vehicles brought huge amounts of economic benefits, but the economic costs are onlt recently being realised. Last I heard congestion alone cost £20 billion! All these have to be paid for somewhere along the line.

It’s not just about building and maintaining roads. Simplifying the whole system doesn’t work.

You tell me why the need to tax it at over 100% in the first instance.

Because the whole system has evolved over time rather than been planned. Fuel tax cannot be isolated from the rest of the road/transport system (VED, VAT, Tolls etc…), but everyone thinks it can!

Do microbes count as animals? If so, then yoghurt, alcohol and blue cheese would also be on the list.

I’m okay with eating/drinking microbe, yeast and mould waste products though!

But nobody would dare make a similar comment about Muslims because they’d be lynched.

Do Muslims advertise their faith on the back of their cars? I’ve seen the Sikh crossed swords symbol occassionally, and the Darwin fish crops up every so often but most of the time it’s the Icthus and more frequently these days the Nurburgring.

Sorry that was a bit OT.

I genuinely hated the period when our kids were babies. Not sure how close I got to clinical depression, but it wasn’t far away. My extremely adverse reaction to the lack of sleep, loss of control and removal of all peace were things I wasn’t fully prepared for.

I concur, though maybe not as extreme. The first 6-12 months were soul-destroying for me with my son (now 28 months). Toddlers are easier for me to deal with.

Interestingly I’m coping better with my daughter (coming up to 3 months), possibly because I know it won’t always be this bad!

I was a poor example of parenting until they were around 18 months. Changed nappies etc, fed them, but I was an absolute misery.

Yep, I went through the motions, paid the bills, cooked, washed etc… did everything the books told me to, but felt none of the ‘pentecostal’ outpourings of love and emotion I was expecting. Quite depressing really when I look back on it.

Oops, forgot to say – I’m 34, Mrs Peyote is 33 been together for 8 years, married for 3.

or at least until judgement day

It has…

I always wonder who uses fast strobe?

Me!

Generally for low level daylight, dawn/dusk overcast conditions that kind of thing. I treat it as similar to motorvehicles sidelights.

A duck’s quack does echo, just not very well.

Nothing like having a good pointless chat on STW I feel…

In the snow you shouldn’t be using anything like 240hp more like 20. Fair enough if your a rally driving god, and the roads are empty then you probably would make good progress using 240hp but you would have to be good. Is that OK?

Pointless chat continued…

I reckon you’d need more than 20hp to shift that snow-mobile thing in alfbus’s post though, and them gritting lorries that go out they’ve got to be packing some power (albeit in a low performance diesel!).

Sorry, did someone mention context??!!

Suppose I should chip in with my thoughts too:

I always thought we couldn’t be the smartest species in the universe, so my logic followed than anyone smarter than us could be seen as a “god” to us (being as we couldn’t comprehend them). Yet I was raised as a Christian and always taught that God (big G) was a good chap, all loving and stuff. Seemed a bit untrue even in the bible he’s pretty vengeful and angry, his son seems sound, good socialist leanings, nice and forgiving on the whole (okay so the fracas in the temple was a bit off, but if you can’t rail against bankers who can you rail against?) but he’s a nutter. This also led to my conscience telling me that actually no, a lot of the stuff I’m being taught is wrong, homosexuality isn’t a disease, sex before marriage isn’t an issues etc…

Anyway, my conclusions. God, god and gods don’t have to be supreme beings, just a bit better than humans. They also don’t have to be benevolent. So actually, yeah, it’s pretty easy to believe such entities exist, what relevance it has to me personally is a whole new thread (which I can’t be faffed with and would probably bore everyone silly).

…reached me in depression in my teenage years, I would have to tell you the stark changes that have happened in my close friends lives as they have accepted Jesus as Lord in their lives, freeing them from drug addictions etc

It’s nearly always the vulnerable who are the evangelical converts. Interesting in a cod-psychology* kind-off way…

*Can’t claim to be a professional.

I think any feminists on here would slate the three of you for leaping immediately to that conclusion, rather than me writing a sentence without explanation.

Really?! I’m not sure I’d agree with that, I’m a male thirtysomething without a history of feminism. I suspect someone who had experienced the degree of misogynism prevalent in current society, and who had taken an active interest in the feminist cause would almost certainly assume the same as I did, probably with more grounds for that assumption than me too!

Then again, I’m often wrong.

timc – Member

Kryton57 – Member
I feel safer knowing my 2yo and wife are not travelling around in a car with rwd 240hp in inclement weather.

Is your wife mentally disabled or do you just treat her that way

Suprised it took two hours for someone to pick up on that! For the record my thoughts are similar to yours timc, but maybe Kryton is a pro-rally driver with a race tuned car… i.e. a vehicle mere mortals (and I include myself here) wouldn’t necessarily be comfortable in.

Edited to add – Ah, an explanation…

Any attempt to blame the current situation on previous Govts:

“We inherited a broken society”
“The (insert current political football) is in such a mess because of Tory/Labour failures in the previous four years”

Don’t give me that sh*t: after 6+ months in power any Govt should be able to at least make a start on fixing the problems. Any reason to use this excuse after the 6 month honeymoon period is rubbish.

“Marmite” – You either love it or hate. Things described as “Marmite” generate a bit of a polarised opinion. So David Walliams has fans and haterz, not many people just seem ambivalent towards him.

At least that’s my understanding.

Hmmm, that’d be fun in Lunnon eh. I mean what with all the gusts from passing busses and the like you’ll be getting downdrafts and eddies from all over the place, and it’ll not go upwind very well, which means extra drag whilst peddling into wind and any effort peddled greater than windspeed will mean it’s trying to work in apparent wind mode, which means you’ll be peddling faster than windspeed and the sails trying to work going “into wind”.
So.. it’ll work whilst broad reaching and running, anything else’ll be hard work.
And..
You’ll fall over if you get a gust from anything in the 45-70deg angle, which means you’ll get squished by anything following you.

So you’re not a fan then!

Personally, I’d give it a go. I reckon it depends on how quick and easy it is to put the sail up and down. If it had a QR like a dropping seatpost that’d be good, so if the wind was favourable, flip it up and off you go. Once you get somewhere built up, or need to go into the wind, flip and down it goes allowing you to pedal as a normal recumbent.

Thames is not too bad – not that dirty, nothing like it used to be in the 80s. They have salmon coming up the river nowadays.

That’s true, still wouldn’t fancy it much when the storm outfalls start working. The combined sewer system in London is still a major embarassment! Not to mention a health risk, hope he’s stocked up on Imodium…

Byzantium.

D’oh. :oops:

In the mean time I always preferred Ceylon to Sri Lanka

The tea always stayed as Ceylon, which just confused me even more!

Leningrad or is it St Petersburg?

Istanbul or is it Constantinople?

Ceylon or is it Sri Lanka?

Really need to brush up on my Geography/International Politics…

Forgot about the old Eastern Bloc/Warsaw Pact countries too. They’ve changed loads over the past decade or so. Can’t keep track of it all!

Anyway as i said it’s just going to cause grief for the local residents because every man and his dog (literally) is going to park out on the area around it.

Then they’ll intorduce a ‘controlled parking zone’ for residents only. Job done!

Just because God decides to build an idiot doesn’t make him stupid.

You’d think that he’d make the tools fool-proof though. Otherwise it’s just a theological schadenfreude!

Completely forgot about Speedball and Xenon II megablast (Xenon was a bit rubbish) as well!

Also, anyone remember Blue Max? I can’t remember what format it was on, but it was a top down shoot ’em up with the player flying a blue biplane. Loved that game…

I did my first batch (of wine) last year, had two gallons of plums and 4 of rhubarb!

The plums were a bit rubbish really, very little taste and even after 12 months of conditioning it was only really good for cleaning stuff. The rhubarb on the other hand was great, tasted a bit like some dodgy German plonk, Hock or similar. Drinkable though!

You’ll probably fair better with your Victoria plums though, the books say if you’re going down the plum route choose the strong flavoured ones (I used some pretty bland yellow jobs). Damsons are pretty similar to plums really. My Dad made excellent damson wine so that should be good.

No tips really, other than the usual for brewing: make sure everything is clean, very clean. Try and leave the wine/beer as long as possible before drinking, I tend to leave beer for 12 weeks and wine for 12 months (if I can!). Keep checking the airlocks on your demijohns as they can dry out if you forget about them for too long, and try not to let your wine sit on dead yeast for too long, rack it a couple of times in the first month or so then leave it for a while and see how it looks before final bottling.

Not sure if they were under-rated or not, but great games from back in the day:

Rick Dangerous (1 and 2) – Atari ST
Turrican (C64 version)
Horace and the spiders – ZX Spectrum
Horace goes skiing – ZX Spectrum
Myth – I think that was on the C64
Prince of Persia, the first one possibly on the Atari ST

Mario Kart, Goldeneye etc… are all obviously classics, so not under-rated at all. Going to dig out the SNES and N64 this evening! May even see if my Gameboy original still works and have a blast on SupermarioBros.

yes it is, stop being argumentative.

That’s more of a contradiction surely? An argument is a connected series of statements to establish a definite proposition. Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of anything the other person says (as someone famous once said). :wink:

Some cars are ace, some aren’t.

If they had been kept as a luxury, rather being subject to democratisation then I think we’d have so many more interesting and creative cars around. It’s a shame that a product with such creative potential has been stifled and the majority of vehicles on the roads can fall into the same tedious (but comfortable I suppose) Vectra, Golf, A4, 3 Series, mould.

Can’t recommend Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres highly enough for puncture resistance. Not the lightest or cheapest, but for commuting I won’t go for owt else.

I imagine someone higher up the pecking order got work of the documentary and made them pull the plug.

Maybe even the Great Architect themself…

Douglas Adams opinions on divinity and faith prove this. If you give all the secrets away, there’s no need for faith in Freemasonry, ergo no need for a supreme being so they’d all disappear in a puff of logic!

I’ve used BB5s and Lyras, both pretty much the same power wise, i.e. a lot better than cantilevers, on a par with well set up road callipers in the dry. Excellent (and better than the others) in the wet.

BB5s and Lyras are pretty much of a muchness as far as setting up and using (changing pads, adjusting etc…). The only difference I’ve noticed is the discs on the Lyras encourage fork judder.

Road BB7s are on my wishlist, never used them, but they have a remarkably good reputation and a few additional features over BB5s and Lyras. If you’ve got the cash, I’d plump for these, personally anyway!

It’s probably best that those without children avoid contributing to this thread (from here on…)

Why?

I might start a workhouse for non-drivers in my barn. Give them a bit of porridge and stuff, let them clean and wax my motors every day. Might chuck in a bail of straw to sleep on.

Gissa job Mista!

Peyote <non-car owner>