If someone held an opinion based on absolutely not one jot of court admissible solid evidence, you’d think they were unhinged

Or visionary.

Or imaginative.

Or open to ideas.

Or loyal.

Or content.

Or a child.

The advice to MTFU and go talk to him is tosh. You only have to think about the possible outcomes.

1. He is disabled and deserves the badge. Disabled guy now feels the OP is an interfering git.

2. He is not disabled. The OP reports him to the people he would have reported to anyway. Whatever would have come of that happens anyway, except now there is bad feeling from the miraculously recovered disabled guy.

There is no outcome that could be better for anyone than if the OP just makes his call to the relevant authorities.

MTFUing is how wars start.

How about GTFU (grow the …. up) instead.

Dob him in.

Abuse is rife.

If he is genuinely disabled they’ll let him keep it. If he’s not then he’ll lose it.

My favourite example of abuse is at the swimming baths in Poole, where there are disabled spaces right outside the front door, but they are pay and display.

So every day fleets of “disabled” drivers park their cars on the yellow lines of the main road about 100 yards away, blocking the road for other drivers, so they don’t have to pay.

You may not need a pram (unless it’s a big one for baby to be put down to sleep in during the day) for a while yet anyway so don’t panic. Why not wait a while and see what others in your (shortly to be acquired) group of post-natal friends have got.

To start with you probably only need a car seat (shopping basket type – ours cost about £10 from an NCT sale) and some sort of carrying device ( like a WIlkinet).

You’ve probably got a couple of months grace where you can just carry baby around in the car seat.

We also had a bouncy chair at home that our kids seemed to like as babies.

We had one of those mclaren strollers too and maybe used it twice ever – and that was with 2 kids. We used a big old Silver Cross pushchair instead that someone gave us and was much better.

I don’t see the problem in laying out the options. My 7 year old daughter claims to be a Christian (on account of going to a C of E VA school and being in a church singing group) however I’ve told her I’m an atheist and don’t believe in God.

I can’t remember an explicit talk about dying though we’ve skirted round stuff like that, but one of her Grandads looks like he’s on the way out, so it may not be long now. As and when I’ll be perfectly happy to put to her that Christians believe that Grandad will be going to be with God in heaven, but that I think everything just stops.

What’s the problem?

I’ve found that my kids are often happy to take an answer like that at face value, and carry on playing with their Lego, or sometimes will ask more questions.

Sometimes I tell them that “I don’t know”

ebay

Been looking out for the right kitchen for a couple of months now. Alas, one that I was watching ended while I was away and I missed it. It had cost £20k 4 years ago and went for £700. Would have fitted outr space almost perfectly and came complete with all NEFF appliances, granite tops, butlers sink etc.

Only a matter of time until the next one though.

If you’re at all technical – Google Sketchup is a brilliant tool for sorting out and visualising your layout + it has a huge library of pre-drawn units and appliances that you can use to populate your space.

Here’s what ours will be like.

I’m taking pictures on Sat – but for once I’m actually going to be competing on the Sunday as I’ll be doing the long run/ride. :D

Anyway, he said “biggot”, which might be something nice.

right wing bigot

Just because something is a cliche, doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

I’d be happy to stand up and say that bigotry is more a characteristic of the right than the left.

Thanks for that link – don’t think I’ve seen that one, so we’re going to watch it in a minute.

He’s a good builder. He already did a big job for us a few years ago, when he replaced the roof and put in the structural stuff and some veluxes for us to fit out a couple of attic rooms at a later date (now done). And he lives up our road too, so I don’t think he would want to damage his local rep by doing a shonky job in his own back yard.

Actually this job is better than when we had the kitchen rebuilt at out last house – we just had a sink on legs in the middle of a pile of rubble that time. This time we’ve got our dishwasher and washing machine and a sink on legs outside against the back wall.

The point of those graphs is that they show how the wealth created has been, and is being, distributed.

Had things been done more “fairly” then the lines might have all moved up together.

The simplest way to redress the balance would be through massive redistribution, as the less wealthy are NEVER going to be able to be proportionately brought up in line with the most wealthy. To some extent we are in a zero sum game as we have reached the limit of many natural resources. What these figures show is that since the 1980s the benefits of increased productivity have almost entirely accrued to the already wealthy.

So, what would that moderate increase be? 5%, 10%, 50%?

Well, if this is to be believed, about 70%.

jonba,

this would be the perfect time to apply Occam’s razor.

MSP,

… so you’re a climate change denier then?

(actually, don’t answer that – it was a joke)

Ah, you misunderstood me – (but don’t worry, it happens all the time).

Actually my point (if I’d bothered to spell it out) was that following a vocation through academia is an end and a pleasure in itself, not something that is usually forced on anyone, through circumstances or otherwise.

Lower profits and higher wages?

nail, head, hit, the, you’ve, on, the – (rearrange to form a well known phrase)

I took out a career development loan to go back and do an MA in my mid 20s.

My wife is a deputy head and probably works a 65 hour week.

Why would you imagine that I wouldn’t have some experience relevant to your situation before I passed comment?

zokes

it’s about realising how the society in which we live in works.

… and knuckling under, and doing as you are told, and not rocking the boat, and doffing your cap…. etc etc.

I don’t think so.

I was with you there for a minute, but don’t go too far.

I think Tesco is just about on the right side of OK when it comes to their workers, but I wouldn’t want to do it!

OTOH, don’t you start complaining about your 15 hour days as if you are hard done by – like you said yourself about the Tesco workers “[you] have an option – get a better job…”

And don’t get me started on whether this was some kind of hardship:

have attended full-time education for nearly 10 years

MSP, even as a bleeding heart liberal I have to side with zokes on this one. It is one thing to rail against the totally unjustified riches paid to some of our captains of industry (and bankers) – which I do – but quite another to berate the likes of Tesco over the pay and conditions they offer. Tesco isn’t a sweat shop, it’s an employer that offers a load of low skilled and/or part time workers a REASONABLE job. And like zokes said, for the ambitious (even slightly ambitious) or talented, a job at Tesco is not a bad place to start looking for a better job from.

Not MTB related, but my DD idea would be high quality baked beans – along the lines of Covent Garden Soup, but maybe even a bit more upmarket. So you could serve them at a dinner party with no hint of embarrassment.

No, not at all. I have no idea if this would be the reality or if Tesco would request increased productivity from its staff to offset the additional cost of improved pensions, sick, hourly rates, maternety, paternety, holiday etc or simply keep the 8% (total guess) markup on its produce and passs it on at the tills.

But this thread isn’t about the terms and conditions of workers, it’s about organisations ond businesses directly funding union activity by giving working union reps paid time off to do their union duties.

Do you think that Tesco (not getting hung up, choose whatever FTSE 100 company you like) doesn’t have reasonable terms and conditions for it’s workers?

And I think you will also find that plenty of Tesco workers ARE union members.

transapp

If Tescos had a stronger union, would you pay the higher prices for your food that’d result?

Can you quantify that for me?

Then I can make a informed decision.

OTOH I prefer to shop at Waitrose anyway, and that’s an employee-owned partnership (which is probably even worse than a supermarket with strong union representation, right?)

Except when I’m shopping at the co-op of course.

He definitely said the word “gateaux” in the middle there.

Ah, this is the expurgated version?

Maybe it mentions attention seeking later?

Have you just chosen to show us the best bits?

It doesn’t seem to mention attention seeking.

thing is if you are an I.T. geek or work in an office with spreadsheets all day apples influence on your work is minimal or certainly no bigger than any other companies.

But this is where so many people seem to be missing the point.

Apple computers are a tiny part of what Apple is now about, or has been about for the last 10 years. They even changed the name of the company from Apple Computer Inc to Apple Inc a couple of years ago.

Although Apple certainly led the way with many aspects of personal computing (not least in the way they made microsoft react with Windows) it has been the post ipod developments that have had the most impact on society – and that applies to office worker too in their home life even if they are running Office on PCs at work. Just look at how many times the ipod has been cited as a design influence on a massive range of products. Not only has Apple changed the face of consumer electronics it has also created a much wider expectation of good design generally.

I was hoping you might have been a bit more contrite having had the chance to sober up.

as for looking an idiot do you think I give a ****

Clearly not.

I’m not sure that is something to be proud of though.

Well I apologise for not knowing the financial history of a computer company

Why did you bring it up then?

You said:

£150 million is lip service, Apple turned £7 billion profit in a quarter, that’s more than my company, which is global, does in 4 years.

I was pointing out that the $150 million was invested at a time when Apple was making a loss.

You are perfectly entitled to your own opinions, but what lets you down is when you try to back them up with “facts” that are just wrong.

And what makes you look a complete idiot is that when people merely correct you on those points you suddenly come up with $hit like:

Well I apologise for not knowing the financial history of a computer company, I must have missed that while I was having a life.

There were some people here having an INFORMED discussion.

Why don’t you go and get on with that “life” that you find so sadly lacking in the rest of us.

£150 million is lip service, Apple turned £7 billion profit in a quarter, that’s more than my company, which is global, does in 4 years.

Ben, you clearly know NOTHING worth knowing about Jobs or Apple.

At the time that microsoft bought $150 million in shares Apple was near bankruptcy.

Why don’t you go and gen up a bit before you show yourself up any further?

I don’t imagine he’ll leave £28 billion, it’s how you behave in life that matters

I’m sure your sainthood is in the post.

it doesn’t matter who lives in the biggest house.

Why not?

My understanding is that Gates lives in a huge purpose built place on a large estate, whilst jobs just lives in a nice house much inline with those that people in middle management in his company might own.

But it wouldn’t fit in with your prejudicial views to take that into consideration would it?

At the same thime the University of Indiana keepa record of all philanthropic donations over $1000000 in the US, Jobs name has never appeared, Bill gates ahs given £28 billion.

Which one of them lives/lived in the biggest house?

I’ve got no idea about Jobs’ philanthropic activities, or his personal wealth, but until Gates got married and set up the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with his wife, you might well have been able to be equally scathing about him.

Lets wait and see if Jobs’ left any money to charity.

his crowning achievement was to sell the same kit as everyone else at a 30% markup by making it shiny

This kind of implies that everyone who buys Apple kit is an idiot and has been duped.

I think you are wrong because clearly the people who buy Apple stuff feel there is some added value in it.

Some people eat hamburgers whilst other people eat steak and are prepared to pay much more for it – but it’s all just cow, right?

My point is that it would appear on paper to be a niche product, but it outstripped all the other competitors by miles, which is an interesting phenomenon, do you not think?

Things don’t “appear on paper” to be niche products when no one knows how big the market is going to be.

It would only have “appeared to be a niche product” if they hadn’t sold many, but they sold shed loads and basically built the company off the back of that.

Apple basically launched a product into the unknown, and after the ipod was successful it would have been really easy just to milk that product, but they didn’t do that. Instead they came up with itunes and smashed the entire music industry to bits. After that they could have just milked itunes, but they didn’t do that either. Instead they made another massive investment in another completely new product and new market segment with the iphone. Which of course has turned out to be another non-niche product.

There are companies out there of course that do set out to exploit niches in markets, but Apple isn’t one of them. Apple sets out to try and create new markets with the potential for massive growth and frankly I think you would be hard pressed to find a company of a similar size and structure that is prepared to take anywhere near the number of risks or make the amount of investment in its business that Apple does.

(and BTW, for the record, I don’t have and ipod, an iphone or an ipad)

molgrips

It ought to be, being more expensive than all the other options (when it came out at least); but Macs in general and iPads are.

Ha, ha, ha. So your argument is that the ipod OUGHT to be a niche device?

So all those hundreds of millions of people who chose to buy them were duped into doing so by clever marketing?

Maybe YOU think it ought to be, BUT IT’S NOT IS IT?

On account of the fact that it has 70-80% of the world market share in mp3 players.

Your abject refusal to come to terms with reality in order to protect your fragile ego from admitting that YOU ARE WRONG is pitiful.

ipads also have about 70% of the growing tablet market too.

I saw Kraftwerk at the Shepherds Bush Empire, where I also saw Ben Folds Five

Is that too personal?

The world has finite resources – so in reality there must be some physical limits to growth.

Current economic models rely on continuous growth in order to be able to pay down debt. Without growth there would be widespread default on debts and economic turmoil.

Irresistible force meets immovable object.

The 2 conditions seem to be mutually exclusive.

Hence our current situation.

The problem is though, that many of our economists and politicians seem to be backing continuous growth, even in the face of more and more obvious physical limits.

Personally I’m betting on physical limits eventually proving more intractable than the need for economic growth.

And apparently you DO get to be the most valuable by making niche high end products. Cos that’s what they do.

Are you suggesting that the ipod is a niche product?

molgrips

most valuable, not biggest.

As you seem to see some clear distinction between “most valuable company” and “biggest company” that I don’t share, maybe you could explain that to me.

And while you’re at it could you tell me which companies are “bigger” than Apple?

it could be argued that he had zero impact on society

Only in the “having no grasp of reality” sense.

See previous arguments:

“Black is white”

“The moon is made of cheese”

etc etc.