Looking at that picture, I’ve just realised how on the piss the concrete is at back of shonky extension.

This has all the makings of a great thread. Can we check back in a couple of days when you’ve decided to demolish the extension as well?
Seriously though, that concrete was just BAD, you’ve done the right thing.
EDIT: Er, you are taking up the concrete aren’t you? Please.

At least we now know who Lembit Opik passed the title of ‘Resident House of Commons Looney’ to. But at least he had the Cheeky Girls (allegedly).

As a software engineer, I find it quite frightening that the first thing a trained professional does when faced with a problem is to google it.

We actively encourage our devs to use google. No point re-inventing the wheel when Google can find you the answer on Stackoverflow in seconds. Laziness is a virtue in programmers (cf. Larry Wall)

Don’t panic, it’s not a big deal, it’s only riding a bike

Exactly. In my early 40s, after 30 years of ‘serious’ riding, I was halfway through the 1st race of the season, hanging on the back with gritted teeth in the sleet, when I suddenly thought ‘Hang on, this is shit, I hate it’.
I packed the race, stopped training, sold all but one of my bikes and only rode occasionally as a means of transport. It was great! Spending evenings and weekends with my wife and kids, slobbing around without guilt, eating and drinking what I wanted and discovering a whole new world that didn’t consist of flogging myself to death on a bike.
After a few years my sons managed to get me out on a mountain bike and I realised that the enthusiasm was still there and remembered what I’d forgotten – riding bikes is fun!
So don’t worry, take as much time off as you want. Bikes will always be there waiting for you, the important thing is to enjoy them.

I’ve done the REC course at PyB. Very good stuff aimed at exactly these sort of situations. Its all well and good learning how to get someone into the Safe Airway Position on a carpeted floor, a totally different matter when the instructor has positioned them upside down on a rock hanging over a river. And learning how to assess a situation before leaping in is vital.

95% of the Yorkshire Dales National Park is already in private ownership.
Can’t see any details of what these ‘huge land sell-offs’ actually consist of.

Full XT drivetrain on my crosser with no problems

Usually used for touring and MTB-Lite but survives the odd cross race as well

I’ll top that with Stalins estimated toll of just under 10 million

Mao comfortably in the lead with average estimate of 40 million

The predictability is glorious, a great program to watch with your brain turned off.
“Wait, no, yes, I’ve got it. Dwayne, get everyone together” occurs precisely 5 minutes before the end of every episode.

I lasted about 15mins before a Girl got her tits out

I’d have sold my soul to go to a party like that when I was a student. All I got was earnest discussions on the evils of patriarchy :-(

A small Creme de Menthe please. Would you mind if we have Sky Arts on instead of the rugby?

I grew up on a cliff

The mtbel family at home

Straight from the pan with lemon juice and sugar is my favourite.

Correct, or golden syrup if you’re under 14

However, if you fancy a bit of sacrilege, heat some blueberries in maple syrup until they just start to burst, then have it with your pancakes and a dod of creme fraiche on the side.

This, and anything else like it, is a crêpe and is the first step on a journey to gastronomic hell where frogs legs and snails are considered edible

This makes me wonder how good it would actually be on a wet windy hillside.

I was skeptical until I used one in an exercise on a gale swept Snowdonian mountain. Makes a huge difference, especially when theres a group of you inside sharing body heat. The instructor had a bit of a job persuading us back outside into the wind and rain again.
I always carry one when hill walking now; great for quick picnics as well as being a potential life saver.

I don’t see how they can loosen off in use, that would be madness and a product not fit for purpose.

It would, wouldn’t it. Which is why mine are now in the spares bin, instead of on my bike. Only time I’ve been glad of lawyers tabs on the front forks was running Hope skewers.

So the full custom Mercian is saved on the computer, but getting ready to hit buy on the special offer last seasons Kinesis

So you’re saving up for a 13 course tasting menu at the Fat Duck but you’re getting a bit peckish and fancy a kebab in the meantime?

the Soul is a trail bike, not some XC race machine.

For sure. I’ve got a weight-weenied Scott Scale and a Soul. One of them’s like wrestling with a crack-addicted weasel, the other’s like going for a stroll in the park with an old friend. No prizes for guessing which is which.
Brechfa’s out my back door so if you fancy trying out the Soul just let me know.

Edit: just saw the “looking at a large I think, being 6’1″ and 34″ inside leg” bit. Not sure a ride on my small (5’9″, 30 il) would be much help.
Just buy a Soul anyway. One of the best hardtails ever made IMO.

I want to live somewhere that owning this makes sense;

I’ve got a friend in Canada who’s got a snow plow attachment for his pickup. WANT!

Rubber tyres are rubber tyres- no matter what you put above them they let go eventually and spectacularly like anything else.

Happens to the best of us it would seem. Lucky escape for mountain rescuers as Land Rover flips over

Yes, a huge improvement on cantis IME. I went with the 8.4s rather than the 9s as you get roughly the same performance but with better rim clearance (you get more movement of the brake blocks for the same cable pull so the blocks don’t have to be set up as close to the rims.) Using them with Ultegra 6800 levers.

The 2.25 petrol was much loved by the military as it would run on just about anything from jet fuel to squaddie piss and could survive being adjusted with a hammer.

ok i stand corrected – 83-85 the 2.25 petrol was an option

That was the LR Ninety, not the Defender 90. Like a series 3 but with modern innovations like coil springs and wind-up windows.

its “one wife livid” isnt it rusty 90 ?

Fortunately Mrs Rusty is a Landy fan and is out in the forest in it at this very moment

stick yer 35 inch tires – 7.50 x 16 is where its at.

Kuhmo KL71 265/75 here, as big as it will go without uplift or spacers (see what you’re getting into OP?)

Remember that Defenders are ‘gateway’ vehicles and can easily lead on to the hard stuff.
35″ wheels, 2″ uplift, snorkel, winch, more chequer plate than a battleship.
When you find yourself applying a ‘One life, live it’ sticker, it’s time to kill yourself :lol:

We need to be honest about the fact that there is clearly a problem with Welsh idiots with knives

Welsh rugby chiefs urged to ban Tom Jones’ ‘Delilah’

I’ve been running an L reg Defender for the past 16 years (hence the user name). Most of the salient points have been covered above but to summarise
– Not remotely comfortable, only 1 chromosome removed from a tractor
– A giant Meccano set, every single part is easily available. You’ll need a basic toolkit (angle grinder, MIG welder, lump hammer)
– Can do just about anything in the right hands
– Tend to slowly fall to bits, but you just bolt/weld new bits on
– The new ones are rubbish
– People keep out of your way when your front bumper is an iron girder
– Not a sensible vehicle unless you’re a sheep farmer. But who wants sensible?

Anjem Choudary sailing close to the wind again
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11342210/UK-shops-to-receive-Charlie-Hebdo-magazine-despite-radical-cleric-calling-it-an-act-of-war.html

Radical cleric Mr Choudary said “ridiculing” Mohammed is attacking his personality, and said these actions are “extremely serious”, adding that if the “act of war” was to be tried in a Shariah Court it would carry capital punishment.

“It’s not just a cartoon, it’s insulting, it’s ridiculing, it’s provoking,” he said.

The lecturer in Shariah law, who was arrested in September as part of an investigation into Islamist terrorism, added: “These things always have a history of coming back and biting them. People are not going to forget. Muslims will never forget what these people did.

“And I’m sure there’s someone somewhere who will take the law into his own hands. It’s inevitable.

“There will be repercussions. I think there will be someone somewhere who will retaliate.”

Not following the Snowden leaks then?

Yes, closely. But I’ve also read what is being proposed closely (since it impacts directly on my business) so I know what it says, and what it doesn’t say.
Criticise the govt. for illegal internet snooping by all means, but if you want to criticise a specific proposal then criticise what it says, not what you imagine it says.

No, it would be less secure because they’d be scanning emails (so would know I’d sent a OTP message) but they’re not opening and reading every item of post.

No suggestion in these proposals about routinely scanning every email. Are you referring to some different proposal in which this is suggested?

Anyway, if I really wanted to send something securely by email I’d use something like OTP plus steganography. Message below reads ‘Smash the system, man’

a OTP via post would be more secure than an online cipher that the police/MI5 could decrypt.

So if you’re really concerned about security send your OTP via email. It would be just as secure. The proposals are about giving ‘them’ the same legal access to emails etc as they already have to the post (or legalising what is already happening illegally, if Snowden is to be believed)

So no, this isn’t bringing electronic communications to the same status as phone or paper, it’s making them less secure.

But the proposals aren’t about restricting the use of encryption, they’re about allowing access to the material in order to decrypt it (and I think we can safely assume that NSA and GCHQ can already decrypt most stuff if they choose)
As that notorious right-wing Government propaganda sheet the Guardian summarises it

His proposed legislation, which would be introduced within the first year of Cameron’s second term in Downing Street if the Conservatives win the election, would provide a new legal framework for Britain’s GCHQ and other intelligence agencies to crack the communications of terror suspects if there was specific intelligence of an imminent attack. Political approval would also be necessary.

the fleet of spanking new Beemers that the company bought for all the Gareth Cheesemans, will no doubt be adorning a selection of ditches around East Lancs by tomorrow morning

No, BMW drivers are far too sensible for that, they’ll fit snow chains :roll:

This, then, is what David Cameron is proposing:

Except that isn’t what is being proposed at all, they’ve taken one phrase and taken it’s possible implications to an absurd level. What he’s really talking about are legal changes to bring electronic communication to the same status as phone or paper communications. That has some serious problems of it’s own, but there aren’t any actual proposals to ban open source OS’s, or block Github. That’s just hysteria.

*dusts off old one time pads and buys stamps and envelopes*

I knew that old Enigma machine would come in handy
HKWM LVUB SCMH JBOS NZRT MYTP KVAL KMNJ WXYQ ELDO XHCH VTKR TKZZ YOHS WKBG BEPE TECQ GJAC XWBF PQMS KOZK TLTY FMUD FHVB RLHO SETE NLBJ SNCD TPDG OXPO AYZP BAPD XLKA DLPT DMIW FPPX ZCUM NCGF LBJK

Massive dump of rain in West Wales. If only it were 8 degrees colder

Heavy snow settling here in Brechfa, currently 2C.

Snowden’s leaks about Operation Bullrun suggest that NSA and GCHQ can read encrypted internet traffic with relative ease, possibly with the cooperation of companies like Verisign and RSA.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/05/nsa-gchq-encryption-codes-security

Obviously can’t cope with UK sarcasm.

some say the fact there is no blood, or sign of impact suggest this is a false flag

Ridiculous woo woo nonsense. You’ll be telling us that 9/11 was Mossad or the CIA next.

Is that the same Saudi Arabia who is the UK’s no.1 customer for the arms trade?
The Arms Trade that Prince Andrew encourages?

Poor old Saudis. They don’t really want to stone women* to death for adultery, it’s the British Establishment making them do it.

*Always women for some reason, never men.

Meanwhile in Saudi Arabia, Raif Badawi will tomorrow receive the first public flogging of his sentence of 1000 lashes for ‘insulting Mohammed’. 50 lashes a day followed by 10 years in prison. Good old ‘religion of peace’ :cry:
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/saudi-arabia-activist-raif-badawis-1000-lashes-public-flogging-commence-after-friday-prayers-1482540