chrisp65

'standard' also appears to have lost its value in a similar way nobody wants the 'standard' amount or brand anymore

It spreads the cost of having the website exist at all. As fun as it is, it's only here because someone is paying for it to be here. The donor only bit is, in my opinion, a very small sop to try and give people a small incentive to contribute but mostly to raise awareness of the prickly issue of money. It's got everyone talking about the money it costs to run a site, so I guess it's served its porpoise. Personally, I'd stopped donating as I was in a silent rage over some unfair warning points I picked up in 2013, I'd only recently started contributing again and even now only very modestly. On a much smaller scale I know the effort that goes in to social media and 'stuff' around a much smaller club and its thankless and involves putting your own hand in your own pocket too often. Here endeth my non official speaking only for myself sermon.

well said NV

The Gadfly is great, but pretty untypical of mah man Shostakovich. Yes, Gadfly was quite accessible for the early 20's me trying to be a bit more sophisticated. The then girlfriend, now wife, got me Holst first, then Shostakovich. I took her to a Dr Feelgood gig in a back room of some hotel. Clearly we were made for each other.

You were one of those hard ABBA kids, I bet - Bloody thugs . that's closer to the truth than you'd believe! me and my mate went and saw Abba Arrival the movie together - when the film finished we realised we'd potentially be 'outed' so we sneeked out of a fire exit door around the back! he was more hardcore than me - he had a Stranglers album and he'd cut his own punky style hair - his mum went full menthol with him

Well I for one am comforted and reassured that HSBC say they now place staying within the law above profit. I hope that's the end of the matter and we can all move on without the need for nuisance legislation or governance. After all, if you can't trust the bank, who can you trust? I'll happily keep my pound in my pocket now they've reformed. No point in spending tax money chasing down reformed characters over some historic odd n sods..

never shit in your own sink it's one of my rules I've developed over the years yes, I come off the rails every now and again, but generally, never in my own sink

spot the vole

give them the benefit of the doubt and hear what they have to say if you suspect they are being two faced, as you leave, you should advise them to change their shit filled towels in the bathroom

obviously we've come a long way in the meantime, but apparently he left 33 years ago today

AC/DC was a satchel band when I was a kid. By satchel band, I mean if we spotted you with AC/DC scrawled on your satchel, you got a kicking. I'm a lot lot more chilled out now.

Pics

I expect the months leading up to the election to be full of grand standing statements about how 'someone's gonna take a big fall for this, it can't go on, enough is enough'. Followed, around about 8th May, by not very much of anything. A bit like the Scotch referendum vote? I don't think we've seen the last of that one. Over promising one country random shit loads of stuff quite that close to a GE that was realistically likely to return a hung parliament was always storing up problems.

Gogglebox? For clarity, late at night when everyone else has gone to bed, it doesn't happen then, does it?

I expect the months leading up to the election to be full of grand standing statements about how 'someone's gonna take a big fall for this, it can't go on, enough is enough'. Followed, around about 8th May, by not very much of anything.

We had a basement in our last house, a Victorian terrace in Leeds. It wasn't near a river though. Our current house is an Edwardian semidetatched, and doesn't have a cellar, despite also not being near a river. It is nearer to a river than the last house, but still not very near. About half a mile, I'd say. Maybe three quarters of a mile. Is that in a straight line? You say between a half and three quarters of a mile. But if that is walking around corners or circumnavigating a block of housing that could make all the difference one way or the other. You can see the sea from my house. But it's quite high up, so flooding is a minimal concern. I estimate that if we are flooded then we've lost approximately 80% / 85% of the UK domestic housing total and I wouldn't be expecting the insurers to deal with me very quickly.

I was hoping that wasn't going to be the response there Yillan. I was hoping for something a little more measured and long term. For me I'd start somewhere like: Ban the teaching of religion in schools - as in teach them religions exist and here are 4 examples, but no prayers and no faith schools. Withdraw aid from countries that do not offer equal secular education to both sexes. Educate at every opportunity. Minimise business and trade with corrupt governments and tyrants to that which is utterly essential and cannot be sourced elsewhere somewhere more enlightened. Admittedly that's all a bit long term and a lot less sexy than the pyro porn of night time tracer fire and explosions.

The other 98 people weren't out on the streets in protest, were they? Well in a starfish organisation there's only the 100 who are in the religion and they all live in the same commune. Am I attacking the protests, or am I attacking the righteous indignation Muslim people seem to feel in the main about anything that depicts the prophet in a negative light? Probably both, but the former because of the latter. I appreciate that those protesting are not representing every Muslim in London. I suppose I am just attacking the protests. This year Muslims have seen extreme secularism - it was a cartoon. In response there was Islamic extremism - it was murder. And yet judging by yesterday, thousands of Muslims believe their position and perspective hold the high moral ground. So, in the real world, what would you do about it? Is there any way forward that actually addresses the problem?

I had a go at that multi tasking yesterday that all the wimmin go on about. My task that I set myself was to simultaneously tape an album whilst grouting some tiles. At first it went horribly wrong. The grout was in powdered form and a puff of it went up in the air when I put the bag down too close to the stereo. This lead to much panic. Then, the software was spotting gaps in the music it presumed meant one track had ended and another started, resulting in 5 tracks being split in to 7 separate tracks. But then it all kind of came together Karmically. I tried to find out where the recording had gone wrong, so I started re playing the album and also playing the laptop. The instant result was the same track played twice, but one version just slightly behind the other, no more than a second or so. It was spaced out awesome. So awesome I briefly thought perhaps I'd invented a thing. Then I decided I probably hadn't. But I played the whole album that way. Played it right through with the doubled up dreamy echo effect. It was so good, I briefly forgot I was stood on a kitchen worktop and did a little backwards shuffle dance. If my foot hadn't snagged on some masking tape I'd have carried on and keeled off backwards over the end of the breakfast bar. What fun.

Doubtless we are about to see multiple arrests at HSBC now we can see evidence they helped clients hide money and evade tax. If it's wrong it's wrong. We quite rightly chase down and prosecute people that steal £20k of benefits pretending they can't walk or work. HSBC

Guarniad My first instinct, was 'well they can **** off'. I think it was my second and third instinct too. Then I read the article and they appear to be asking people to stay calm and be polite and respect each other, even praising the British media for its restraint. It's too easy at the moment to take a reactionary stance, goaded on by the media of your choice. Bloody difficult this modern world, on the one hand I demand the 'right' to draw allah, just as much as I might want to point out the utter fallability of the gangster Pope. On the other hand, why deliberately poke people with a stick where there's no need? Think first and count to 10 and do unto others and all that, I guess?

Dislike both of them. late / fat Elvis for ironic in car karaoke otherwise both awful

it isn't random luck I live a 10 minute walk from the beach