mercuryg

....thining about that; when the ink cartridge bomb was found a few weeks ago reports stated that intelligence believed there were several other such packages en-route to destinations in the USA. Where are they all?

Yes, and they've been very successful, I see!

How many are seaworthy? How old are they? What are they going to use subs for to invade the country joined on to them? As said before, numbers are great but they mean nothing when you are completely out-powered by the bigger, better, more modern and more accurate weaponry that your immediate neighbours have to hand, and South Korea has a fully operational, up to date and very powerful army waiting to wipe out the north if they put a foot wrong. The problem with the news reports is that they are glamourising the situation to the point where people think nuclear capability=the ability to wipe out the world. In fact, North Korea doesn't posess a missile capable of going much further than the border with Slouth Korea, and monitoring of their tests proves the ones they do have are wildly inaccurate and prone to fall short of their intended target. South Korea may be worried about the chances of random attacks, but the rest of the world is under no threat at all from North Korea, and the South can easily handle themselves.

Apologies for sounding a little condescending, but I read a lot. There is plenty of information on North Korea as defection from the country is rife. A quick search on the internet will give you a myriad of informative and often interestign books written by people with knowledge of the country. They are ill-fed, conscripted, misinformed, under-armed and poorly organised and the South Korean army, along with the 30,000 or so US troops in South Korea, would wipe them out in a moment. Numbers count for nothing when your firepower is outclassed. We, as in the UK, wouldn't have any part to play.

History quite clearly shows they are nothin whatsoever to do with the Knights Templar, despite romantic notions that they might be. It is a convoluted story as you say. I'm interested to hear what our Mason thinks they bring to the party in teh 21st century.

In 2009 North Korea tested a nuclear bomb. The blast was measured at somwehere between two and five kilotons. The original US atomic bomb tests, in the middle part of the last century, measured 12 kilotons and above. The simple deduction, and the belief by military experts with help from intelligence, throws up two possibilities: either the blast was, like a previous North Korea detonation, a conventional bomb simulated to appear as an atomic explosion, or the bomb did not work. The nuclear threat from NK is massively over exaggerated in the press - it doesn't take much investigation to discover such. The army suffers from desertion as there is no food; the arms they have are outdated and poorly maintained; their is little in the way of training, no discipline, and widespread mutiny in the ranks. Again, it doesn't take much to find all this out. If you read a little more than the tabloids you should be able to deduce that South Korea would stem the North's advances in an instant, and also that China would not lift a finger. Vietnam, and Afghanistan, bear absolutely no relation to the North/South problem in Korea. The former was a concerted effort by th yanks to show how big and clever they were, the latter a war that everybody said could not be won before we went in. One more thing: let's say that North Korea sends it's troops over the border to invade the South. Everything is much sunnier down there, life is very much westernised, civilization is ordered and the economy is growing fast. The people have food, jobs, homes, cars and all the trappings of a well run, ordered country that is on the up. What do you think might happen next?

North Korea has, at best, a handful of nuclear weapons of dubious capability. The army is starving and poorly disciplined, mainly conscripted and hardly committed. The weaponry it holds is outdated and would be no threat to any opposing force. Any threat of major catastrophe in the region is exaggerated. It's just the North throwing a few toys at the South to remind them they are there.

I'm interested in your comments, Harty. What do you see as Freemasonry's part in modern society?

Wonderful. Gets the point in.

The 'Ridge to become an Indian' has been doing the rounds for about 18months now; I was even told in the spring of this year that all the staff had been given their notice and it was to close the next week. I think we can safely assume that one wasn't true. I can't see why it would close, to be honest, as even in this week of the great white hope opening it's still been busy. The Dun Cow has had a lot of money spent on it, according to someone 'in the know', and apparently has been kitted out as a restaurant on top. As far as I know, whoever did it - I was told the name - now intends to sell because he doesn't stand a hope in hell against the corporate multi million pound approach of the people at the top of the street. That's what Wetherspoons does to a small town - think of it like a pub-Tesco's.

The situation is one that was seen coming years ago; the Euro was never going to work from day one, as each country has different needs. Someone put it nicely the other day - go and ask eight of your friends, and a few people who you sort of know but are not really sure about, if they fancy opening a joint bank account. We - the UK - can't bail Ireland out; we're not part of the Eurozone, and we haven't got any money.

I'm sure they will enforce bans on those who don't behave, but to be honest I'm surprised you didn't see it coming. offer 'morons' cheap beer and they'll drink it.

As one of the premier 'doom and gloom' merchants (albeit one who has concerns about the economics rather than the place itself) I feel it only right that I should report on my experience of the place. I was there on Friday night, it was packed, the beer was fine - and cheap - and the food OK but clearly frozen and microwaved (at the price I wouldn't expect anything else) and the staff were able and affable. The decor is great - they have done a lovely job of the redesign - but one thing that came immediately to my attention was the clientele; those in their on friday were mostly young, mostly pissed and mostly loud. Not the sprt of people some on here are professing to prefer as company. Of course, the obligatory trouble has already started - I have tales of fights in there, and outside, most every night, and the Salvation Army are absolutely up in arms about people parking in their car park and have involved the police. That's a problem I think everyone saw coming. On the subject of the staff, I have absolutely no doubt they will halve the numbers they have and that will lead to some very pxxxxd off people; a good number of those whom I know have taken jobs there left part time bar jobs elsewhere to do so. They are not going to find those positions open for them as I am absolutely cerain they've all been filled already. Some way to please the locals, that is. On the level, though, I'll probably go in for Sunday Lunch later, although the prospect of the carvery at the Ridge is also attractive, and Accolade has a good offer on at the moment so we'll see. I still ask - where is the general weekday trade going to come from? Many of the afternoon drinkers who promised me they were going there for th cheap beer, without a doubt, certainly, no chance otherwise, have been there and tried it and returned to their original watering holes the next day having declared it 'not to their taste'. No surprise there.

Thought we were at crossed wires there Monsta; you reckon that earlier one is a Samba? Could be, I was thinking Horizon or Sunbeam as discussed. Neither is a Veyron anyway!

Yes! On the bigger car, I still think it's a Japanese barge of some sort.

A brothel???

I never thought this would be a place for 'identify the awful 70's/80's car' discussions but hey, what's a little variety in life? I'm quite sure the blue/silver car is a Datsun, one of the myriad of clunking big models they made in the 70's and early 80's, and if that's not a Horizon, is it the other little hatch they made, wa sit called Sumbeam? Same sort of shape. ps - an expert on Leyland paint colours - now that is something!!

I'm not a great one on local history having only lived here 20 years, but that doorway says to me it may be a now long lost public house.....

Are we looking at the same red car, Monsta, the one in the top picture of the two on the right heading towards the camera? Blow it up - it has a VW badge. The second picture is taken around the same time from a different angle and shows the car partly obscured by the red one - the white one parked on the road - to be a Mini Metro. Malcolm - in the original picture the silver car on the left is, I think, a Datsun, one of the bigger Bluebird line from the late 70's, and the red car on the right could be a Chrysler Horizon.

the red car on the road is, I think, a VW Jetta (or base model golf) but the Metro in the picture definitely dates it to post 1980.

It's a deal!

It's early 80's - the cars give it away.

I vote Monsta to turn on the lights! let's start a campaign!

You're absolutely right, the Lion was very much like that in the past, and it is not - under Wetherspoons - going to go that way again, that much we can be sure of. What's wrong with the Tavern, I wonder? I didn't get to the Lion last night but passed and saw it was very busy, as to be expected, and good for them. I'm still struggling to get my head around the economics of it - how many staff were on last night?

Claire, I was there, too, yesterday afternoon and it was great. A lovely place, good food, decent beer, and of course it was busy - it was free! The staff (many of whom I know from other places) were, as you say, friendly and nice, just as they are in any other pub you can walk into in Bedlington, and this is half my point: I'm not singling you out, and nor am I disagreeing with you as I will - as I've always said - be having a pint in the Lion, but do you drink in pubs, in Bedlington, on a regular basis? If you honestly think that it's all 'binge drinkers' I doubt you do. No offence intended, but with a bar open all day, with cheap beer on offer, who do you think it is going to attract? It will be those same people who currently drink during the day, who will be there because they want the benefit of paying less for their beer. These people, as I've tried to point out, will not last long in there, as they are not what the establishment wants. Who, after they've sorted the wheaat from the chaff in the firct couple of weeks, replaces them when they all trundle back to the Grapes/Bell/Wharton as they find that Wetherspoons is not what they want? This is what i'm getting at - where is the trade? I enjoyed my meal yesterday - very good it was and the place is beautifully done out - but how is it going to get enough trade to stay alive when others are struggling?