My take is that we are witnessing a fairly sophisticated psy ops, i.e. Wikileaks are doing this in full support of the US. They now have millions in funding, and Webster Tarpley, the co founder of Wikileaks has pretty much said this and his interview can be seen on youtube.

Many leaks fully support US foreign policy, so yeah, I am very wary.

This is good!

Am currently enjoying St Andrews ale. Most refreshing and excellent.

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P1010017[/url] by simon ralli[/url], on Flickr

I’ve been working today but hopefully I’ll get out tomorrow morning.

I always take photos, but to be honest only take one or two if it is really cold! I am not the fastest rider, and taking pics of the scenery is one reason why I do ride, but if I am doing a top descent such as Whinlatter I probably wouldn’t stop. Probably although I have been known to on occasions.

You forgot about the interest. And also fractional reserve banking.

If there is a new banking system and which someone starts with £100, they are allowed to lend that out to someone. They will then ask for £100 back plus interest. But there is only £100 of “money” in this system so how can the say, £110 be paid back? Answer – with the creation of more debt : ) Hence systemic failure is always built in, since there is always more debt than there is money to pay back.

Oh – and if in theory all the debt got paid off, there would be no money left in the system. The whole economy would be dead in the water, since money is actually debt. Pay back the debts and there is no money!

I think when you look at the UK, there is a lot of competition in many different forms

i) The UK has amazing ordnance survey maps which places like Spain lack
ii) The magazines print ride guides
iii) Plenty of books on the market suggesting routes
iv) Internet forums offer advice
v) Internet forums mean people can meet locals and join in on rides

The places he is advertising are probably not target market, but he would have to do very extensive marketing to reach the people who may want a guided ride. I would say that the marketing costs would surely be far higher than any business generated?

I do not want to be negative, but I would have thought that there would be business, but as part of a wider leisure business, such as a hotel or adventure holiday company offering this as part of a larger package?

I don’t want to be negative, but I am not too sure it is a sustainable business in the UK, although obviously a great job if you could make it work commercially.

This thread is so big I am sure some people could well have aged a few years since it first began back in the day! And Rocketdog – how many photos of you are there now on it? 😀

Can someone explain exactly what was offensive about the remark. Not a troll – what exactly is it people are incensed about? Was it his use of language, or was it the actual comments about middle class people finding it too expensive to have many children?

On my MSc we did what was called a “deep time walk.” This was along the Devon coast, and was a 6.4mile walk. Every 1metre = 1million years, and at various points such as a gate we would stop, and hear about evolution. You do pretty much half the walk and dont even get to multi-celled organisms. Then you go through the huge spurts in evolutionary development, and eventually at the end of the walk, the guide gets out a measuring tape, and 2mm is the distance from Christ to us, and our lives are thinner than a finger nail. That really helped put it in perspective.

I think there is just one bit I can’t ever see myself doing due to the fear and that is maybe a 3 foot drop of roots which is about 100metres before quite a large wooden bridge. Ahhhhhhh!

Edit – just remembered I took this photo of it!

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September 4th[/url] by simon ralli[/url], on Flickr

All you can do is spread the love and if they don’t smile back that’s their loss.

I got a great hello from some roadies while I was on my way to some off road stuff from my house yesterday. Maybe it’s a London thing?

quantumn physics opens up a whole world that atheism would struggle with

I think you need to remember that quantum theory is not an explanation of reality. It is a statistical methodology for making predictions. If an experiment takes two measurements at two different times, it can say what happens at t2 given t1, but it can say nothing about what happens in between t1 and t2.

It has of course provide devastatingly useful as a tool, but in terms of explanatory powers of what reality actually is, it says nothing.

I am just about to receive my masters degree. I was looking into applying for a PhD, but my supervisor suggested against it and that I should just crack on and write a book instead, which I have done and am now looking for publishers. Although I have been told I am on course for a distinction, given that my dissertation was on the world’s strongest hallucinogens, I am having to keep quiet about it in job applications 🙂

I have been struggling to come up with something, but I thought I would mention that there is now a new discipline called “Acoustic Archaeology.” Researchers in South America are taking part in new research that suggests that many ancient temples were designed to create “hallucinogenic” or mind altering echoes which actually did not sound like echoes but of actual or mythical animals and birds. There are temples where the echos really do produce the most otherworldly experiences and are said to be extremely frightening for some.

Scamper

Amazingly enough for me I did first the Red north then the Red south and then the Blue all in not much more than around 3 hours.

Yes, the blue is great fun but my legs were a tad too tired to really blast around it. I thought the red north descent was the best albeit a tad scary for me and I did come off on that tight steep S bend bit. But I was very impressed with the trail building and it compares well with my local Stanes trails.

Whoops – but I know what I meant even if I can’t say it 😳

I thought it was going to be along the lines of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance but was bitterly dissapointed.

@ Charlie

Well I am hoping perceive my comments as not critical or lowering the tone. But there is a whole philosophy based on the study of meaning. Words for me are so limited in their ability to represent reality, and yet many people who have a religious book do not seem to have the same problems with interpretation of their books as I do.

That is why I prefer active practicies such as yoga, meditation, shamanic journeying etc, which are based on your own experience as opposed to having someone tell you in words how it is.

The most enlightened person I ever met, and received darshan from, Mother Meera, never spoke. Says it all really.

On the shamanic path, you go through the shattering of your ego, which is one of the most terrifying things ever, but it really tells you so much about how you construct your own world. It is why I am such a fan of the late David Bohm who created a physical framework of unbroken wholeness, rather than a particle view of reality.

On my MSc I did a three week module called “Where science meets spirit”. There is a fabulous book called Pythagoras’ Trousers, and this presents the way in which scientists have, and still do, see physics as the route to discovering —. I do not personally enjoy the word “god” since it comes loaded with so much baggage, and for me, limitations. I prefer the word Tao – and built into this definition of Tao is this “That which is the Tao is not the Tao” i.e. you simply can not use words to describe the ineffable.

The thing for me is that while many physicists are searching for “fundamental particles” many other physicists wonder if there is a deeper reality underlying the one we are able to access via our senses.

For me, I have taken a shamanic path, and had incredible vistas of consciousness open up to me and experienced radically quantitatively different states of consciousness to our normal ones in waking and sleeping life.

But you go for it, there is so much to explore out there. If you are looking for observations, my main one would be why limit yourself to the Bible when you have Tao, Buddhism, Hinduism, Native American spirituality, shamanism, and all sorts of ways which for me all have a piece of the puzzle.

All the best

Everything is ridable if you have the skills. And it is 97% get-aroundable in a shonkytastic fabulous beaming-smile-inducing bike-going-sideways-and-failing-to-get-over-the-roots manner even without the mad skillz 😀

But he totally owned Cheryl last night! He should stay just for that 😀

Can’t wait to watch it all!

The entre global banking system is unstable since there are massive currency dependencies between countries and between banks. A country’s boarders pretty much have no bearing on these interdependencies. What is more, it is not just about loans going bad, but derivatives. We have not seen these in the press for quite a while, but there is far more that is creating this instability than just a few small European countries going belly up.

The UK is no longer viable – the government is spending far more each year than it takes in in the form of taxes.

So although we could see the collapse of the Euro, it would no doubt take Sterling with it.

And don’t forget that with fiat currencies, they have no intrinsic value – money nowadays is basically debt, and central banks create far less new money than commercial banks which can lend out the same deposit many times over.

The only thing is the cafe is not open early so I guess you can pay there or at the gate afterwards. It’s all free on week days too (which is beneficial to unemployed locals 🙂

Have you ridden there before? You’ll have a great ride.

Well I have just ordered myself a Canon s95 so am hoping to return in a few day’s time to see if I can get some much better quality photos. Does anyone know when the starlings stop these displays?

Great pics. I have been meaning to go for ages as it isn’t too far away. I thought it closed for winter at the end of October for some reason.

Broughton House garden in Kirkudbright is pretty nice too. It’s amazing what little gems are out there.

Rubbish claim to fame – when we were living in Newton Stewart my Dad did some legal stuff for the film crewe and went to the end of filming party.

I can’t stop playing the tune “Handweaver and Factory Maid” by my friend Lucy’s band

http://www.myspace.com/pilgrimswaymusic/music

There is amazing talent out there so stop moaning you ridiculously silly people who are losing precious hours of your lives watching tv you don’t enjoy and go out there and discover what amazing talent Britain really does have!!!!!!!! 😀

I went out again today to try and make a video. Light wasn’t great as it was raining but I think I have caught some good shots around 1min 30 secs.

Actually I am going to defend Plenty of Fish and the reason is that i used to run their Leeds parties. POF has a forum and one forum is for British members. What happens is that across the UK regular POF members organise parties, and these are a really great way to meet people may not be in the same position as you, but who are single, and who may have lots of friends who are now settled. I went to a party in Nottingham and met some fantastic sociable people. I was then inspired to get the Leeds parties going, and these then spread to Wakefield.

I am not saying you should go, but as the host I had lots of people, men and women who were v scared to walk in to the event on their own. I always ensured there were both male and female greeters, i.e. a woman could walk in and be introduced to other women first. After a few drinks any nerves soon went.

So yeah, the dating side on the website can be a bit hectic, but so what – have a look at the forums too and you can introduce yourself to the community slowly. There are a few very excellent and top people on the site, and I know plenty of couples who met that way.

Another thing i did was boxercise. Exercise classes such as this and circuit training and spinning (on bikes) is a good way to begin to meet people slowly. The first few classes you may only say a little hello, but then as time goes by you get to know the regulars who I am sure will be friendly. Yoga could be a good one too as you get to really chill out at the same time.

Oh right OK – drop me a email if you can at simonralli at hotmail dot com – can you send me your mobile too? Also, I googled Keswick and swimmingpool but couldn’t find anything – can you send me directions and maybe the postcode for where the car park and meeting point is? Cheers!

That’s a shame as I would have liked to have ridden Borrowdale. I turned down a sunny ride with Trekster today to save my legs for this oh well no probs c’est la vie. 🙂

Wow – brilliant. I don’t think I would do a night ride there at this time of year due to the cold, so well done for doing it. I can do the down part of the bomb hole but I think I am always so relieved to get down to the bottom I never have the wits to try and get back up the other side! And I can only make it half way down that rooty descent even in the day time as there are some roots mid way down that can really get you.

Move over surf-mat you have competition 😀

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IMG_0020[/url] by simon ralli[/url], on Flickr

Yeah – I think the benefit of Gretna Green is that there is a tiny roosting ground. I met a very nice young couple who had taken the day off work and come up from Durham I think. Another much older couple had come up from Yorkshire. And there were a few more local people and a few others I did not speak to. But yeah, I have been waiting for some good weather before going, and I was not disappointed. It is just amazing how many birds there are that fly together. Must be thousands maybe?

You need to be down with Eric Cantona Mr. Nutt and deal with the problem at source. Kill the banks!

As per the post above have you thought about doing a TEFL course and teaching English abroad? Only and idea which may or may not be a good one but plenty of jobs available I believe. I have just completed a TEFL course.

Roosting – doh!

Here’s my little video from my Canon IXUS. Hoping to make a much better video tomorrow!

Heh. One of the really amazing things was seeing them finally nest. I may try and load the video up from my camera later. How it is all co-ordinated I have no idea.