Now if Blair's lies were as obvious as claimed – why didn't they see through it & vote against?

Because it suited them not to?

Now ask me another, that was too easy.

I wouldn't get too excited, Sheffield's tram has been running since 1994 and several proposals to extend it have come and gone since then with no action.

The surprising thing is not that Blair lied about WMD (surely no-one really believed him did they?). The surprise is it that he now thinks it is ok to admit it was all cooked up to get the result he wanted.

What's next – will he admit to ordering the killing of David Kelly for example?

Politician tells lies shocker.

Of course it's temporary, assuming life expectancy doesn't go on increasing for ever. When life expectancy stops rising, you have a new equilibrium.

Erm.. does it help if I point out that

a) population growth rate does indeed = birth rate / death rate

but also

b) an increase in life expectancy means a reduced death rate, i.e., it does contribute to population growth

(where birth rate = number of live births per 1000 population per year, death rate = number of deaths per 1000 population per year)

is everyone happy now?

Just back from Sheffield Academy, awesome gig. And 8 minutes of Fool's Gold in the encore…

This thread has become quite surreal now.

Top Gear may be a load of old tosh (quite well done and amusing tosh but tosh none the less), but to think that Big Brother, I'm a Celebrity, Wife Swap etc. are based on "the reality of people's lives" and not deliberately set up by the producers to get what they want, then selectively edited, is just nuts.

50 or 60 hours a week is a lot to work, especially with young kids. Presumably this means you don't see them much in the week as you get home after bedtime? If so, then I can see problems with you spending weekends out on your bike or down the pub in the afternoon…

Can you not cut down on the work hours?

http://www.snopes.com/crime/gangs/sneakers.asp

Not the most conclusive snopes entry ever.

Whenever I see them, I think "students", not "gangs".

Create separate playlists for each ipod:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1495

Ignoring the obvious jokes, that seems a high salary for a research assistant doesn't it?

> I'm not sure how this hasn't been a problem in the other cities with trams

I've managed to cycle down (and turn right off) West St in Sheffield without dying once.

Those Nottingham instructions sound dangerous to me:

> * If you do cycle along the tram route, do not cycle on the rails – take care and if it becomes necessary to cross – e.g. on the approach to tram stops – do not cross at a fine angle

That seems to imply you'd be cycling along on the left gutter of a road with tram tracks — that is insane, you would not fit between a tram and the stop unless you are less than 10mm in width. In fact being overtaken by a tram at all, even well away from a stop, would be lethal. I always ride between the rails, taking up the lane. Then again there's only a short section I ever ride on, turn off onto a parallel road as soon as possible.

Sounds like Princes St in Edinburgh will be similar to West St in Sheffield (that's never been said before).

Mountain bike tyres are the answer…

Highway code: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_069864

306
All road users, but particularly cyclists and motorcyclists, should take extra care when driving or riding close to or crossing the tracks, especially if the rails are wet. You should take particular care when crossing the rails at shallow angles, on bends and at junctions. It is safest to cross the tracks directly at right angles. Other road users should be aware that cyclists and motorcyclists may need more space to cross the tracks safely.

Can't stand Humphrys, had to turn the Today programme off this morning he was so irritating. Does he ever actually listen to anything anyone says ever?

Halfway's at the end (!) of the tram at Mosborough, about a mile past Crystal Peaks shopping centre, just before the Sheffield / NE Derbyshire border, not far from Killamarsh. There's a big Morrisons and lots of new houses. Rother Valley country park isn't far (Swallownest on the far side about 3 miles away).

It's not very exciting.

Science museum?

I can honestly say that I've never heard of anyone stopping work for a silence at any school, college or workplace that I've ever been at.

Handy ish for Cut Gate.

Can't think of anything else. The train to Barnsley/Sheffield or Huddersfield is quite slow… Are you after isolation?

iRobot Roomba.

At last the 21st century is here as promised!

About time too. Why environmentalists are against nuclear I can never understand, it seems to be some wierd anti-science romantic neo-rustic arts and crafts twaddle to me.

If I was paying for a babysitter I think I'd be wanting to go out somewhere, not round someone's house for a dull evening…

It's sad to see such a proud and long standing publication forced by circumstances to associate with a simple minded rag that's only read by students.

I really did expect better from Viz.

Public service announcement: the term "plastic scousers" should really be reserved for the denizens of England's worst new town, Runcorn.

Message ends.

Macs are fine, it's the brain-washed users I can't stand ;-)

My favouritre "intuitive" bit of UI is to drag the disc icon onto the trashcan to eject the disc… obvious really.

That said, I'm thinking about getting a Macbook just to learn xcode (which I understand is free, unlike Visual Studio on Windows).

Does it hurt when you are assimilated by the Apple hive mind?

GrahamS – "wookiepedia", genius!

In summary:

1) More people cycling
2) Increase in cyclists injured
3) Decrease in pedestrians injured
4) Slight decrease in overall serious road injuries/deaths
5) Cyclists are a menace!

Top marks for the Daily Mail there. You'd think it would be impossible to conclude number 5 from the previous 4, but they've managed it!

I await the "cycling causes cancer" headline which must surely be due any week now.

Frodsham – "It's nicer than Runcorn"

There's always going to be a mismatch between the scientist mind-set (only interested in facts) and the politician mind-set (tend to find facts annoying at best).

The mention of Iraq and WMD is apposite – the experts in that case were told to go find evidence to support a decision the politicians had already made (if Cherie Blair is to be beleived, on a coin-toss), and any information that didn't support the decision was dismissed. Likewise Prof. Nutt, Brown declares that skunk is turning a nation into zombies and it's completey different to what the cabinet used to smoke in their youth, honest guv, and Nutt is tasked with backing that up. When he reports that there's no evidence to support the assertion, he gets fired.

Still, he's better off than David Kelly.

You know, if you're really just after document management, I can't think of anything better than well organised fileshares.

Version control.

Assuming you're not able to use revision control systems and need some place for collaborative document / intranet writing plus document version control and access via web interface, you're basically looking at a wiki with good attachment handling.

Drupal and Joomla look interesting, when we went through this excercise a couple of years ago nothing seemed perfect and we ended up using something called samepage (from e-touch), which works well enough but has enough minor irritants to make it unpopular (also you'll need mysql and tomcat and installation wasn't as easy as it might have been).

Thing is, this is such an obvious thing, why doesn't someone make a decent product? There are lots of things that are nearly right, but nothing that has it just sorted.

Maybe google will clean up in a year or two with something really neat.

Edit: mf – +1 for FogBugz.

Graham – You're surely not saying the 20W isn't bright enough…

recommended replacements:
25W with a 5W
35W with a 7W
50W with a 10W
60W with a 11W
75W with a 15W
100W with a 20W

It's quite good in a Solaris sort of way. Wish they'd decide whether there's gravity in the space ship or not though.

If you don't know this and drive fast you won't be able to stop. You are correct, if you can't drive in the snow to start with a 4×4 will just let you crash faster.

I noticed a lot of 4×4 drivers going way to fast around town in the snow this February/March. They were so pleased to be able to justify their cars at last they'd just zoom along at 40, but if they'd needed to stop suddenly there'd have been an accident. They seem to give a false sense of security.

I don't understand this whinging about light bulbs. They're fine. If yours aren't bright enough, get a brighter one. Jeez. If it wasn't for the fact they take a few seconds to brighten up you wouldn't know the difference. It's all in your mind…

Genesis – Pax Romana didn't last two millennia, more like two centuries. Also it wasn't really a period of peace. Likewise Pax Britannica, and so far Pax Americana is no different.

Though you are right that "constant war (abroad) for constant peace (at home)" does indeed seem to be the thinking.

Wimble Holme hill.

Yawn.

nope, mine are fine

The Sheffield Star managed to publish that photo without covering up the offending area – so maybe he's been humiliated enough ;-)

As ourkidsam and tracknico said, on new laptop turn off syncing ('manually manage my music') for your ipod in itunes.

Then drag music from itunes folder to ipod (can't go the other way, so you'll probably want to rip those CDs on your other computer when you get home, or copy them across from one machine to the other).