threegee

You're right not to be too sure - it was actually taken in the morning.

Naah - then he'd be selling lemons instead of apples!

Here's a particularly blatant one; and the dummies who run e-Bay are actually promoting it in their targeted ads! http://cgi.e-bay.co....em=160522621381 157 suckers and counting. The only recent bad feedback the seller currently has is for the "128GB" one here: http://cgi.e-bay.co....em=160522620555 And that buyer hasn't even taken the trouble to tell anyone why he's unhappy! Wonder how many people will test it to capacity on receipt, and worse, how many will think they've taken a good backup of their valuable data! Caveat e-Bay! [ Important Note: remove the dash in e-bay to get links to work. ]

Now renders without the horizontal scrollbar on my phone and so gets a fair bit more in the frame. Can we fix the "smiley gap" and get the homepage accepting the new geometry? Also a default image for folks who can't be ar.... bothered to upload a picture with their stories would be a big advance. I vote for a pix of Tommy, but maybe we should have a democratic poll?

And... this is the turd who - according to some - deliberately pushed Railtrack into bankruptcy by lying to them about government support in order to fulfil some dastardly political scheme. Where were the courts then to protect the victims from his naked abuse of political power? Probably where the courts usually are: protecting their paymasters and the establishment. Interesting how quickly attitudes change when the truth can no longer be denied. I'm sure old T. Dan Smith would have had something interesting to say on the subject!

It's all a huge pretence Monsta. The Govt. is pretending that the £9K will somehow help balance the books, when in fact many students won't repay it at all, and by the the time most are asked to repay it £9K will be worth diddly squat anyway! A pure paper exercise. The students are pretending that it's a real issue, when again the ones that don't get decent paying jobs after uni won't have to repay it. The ones that get £100K jobs (probably the minimum wage in 2030!) will likely discover that it's fully tax deductible, and by the time they have to repay they won't miss it anyway. The real issue is the accrued burden of national debt and taxation on future generations, but the politicians are grateful that the students haven't wised up to that one. ...and... BTW: MPs see themselves as making the law, so quite naturally also see themselves as not bound by it in the same way as us mortals. Hence the dismay at their expenses being challenged.

Ah, the venerable BDOS error on X: problem! You'd think that after 35 years they'd have fixed that bug. Anyway, smells of Java to me; which is why Android has no great appeal, and also why MeeGo will rule in a very few years time.

As it happens I'm a onetime co-owner of The Gardners Arms, though didn't know that until I flicked through the deeds. I've also so many connections to the town's canine mascot that I'm almost ashamed to reveal that the closest I've ever been to one is the focus length of the odd camera. So... don't blame the kids that our education system has failed to give them even the remotest clue to their town's history and place in the world; the problem is generic!

a ) Forget all the agency/dole crap and run off some *small* cards on your computer with your name address, phone number, and a very short previous employment summary. Add a polite request for a job, indicating your willingness to work hard, and what sorts of things you think you are good at. Keep it all very short! b ) Get out a local trade directory and ring around to find which smaller business have their head office on or near the premises. c ) Get on your bike and visit each asking politely for two minutes of the boss's time. *Do not* ask them if they have any vacancies. If they won't see you then and there leave your card and ask for it to be passed on. If they say they have no vacancies simply say that you can earn more for the firm than they will need to pay you, and you'd like them to give you a chance to prove it. You might have to visit 100 employers, but one of the smaller firms will be bright enough to employ you. The one that is will be the one you would want to work for anyway. In 40 years of running a business I've only been directly asked for a job two or three times - I still find this incredible! Though I've had to wade through countless hundreds of pointless job applications. On every occasion I've tried to accommodate someone who had the get up and go to actually ask personally. Personal contact, and demonstrated willingness is everything.

Bypassing Portugal and going straight for Eldorado? April they say, but then I thought all the signals pointed to an Irish crisis next February and not right now. As a condition of the Irish - ("There is absolutely no truth to a rumour concerning external assistance" -- Irish ministry of finance) - bailout, it seems bondholders will get back less than their original investment. That's right and proper, and if only Alastair Darling had had the guts to do this we wouldn't be in quite the mess we are in. But, therein is a long-term benefit. In the short-term it will only bring on the inevitable as bondholders - who by the very nature of the product hate losing money - start being picky about which bonds they buy. Contagion is the word I'm looking for, and it's coming to (another) country near you quite soon!

I feel a song coming on: ...no, no, stop! Not Streisand, B.; more Como, P.!

That's what they want us to believe, but if there's not a deal this week they are screwed. It's the old "there will be no devaluation", "Northern Rock is as safe as houses" thing; the more they say it the less it's true. Lenders don't stick around when their funds are mobile and there's a mega-big IF hanging over the solvency of the borrower. Getting your cash back at the earliest possible instant is the only sensible thing to do in those circumstances! Yes, it compounds the problem, but it also concentrates minds. For the greater good banks, and even countries, need the freedom to go bust. If you constantly deny this possibility you only build up even bigger problems for the future. I think what those "anarchists" would achieve is some sort of return to real value, and an end to a 100% fiat money system. There are lots of things that would have a lot more credibility as currency backing than fresh air and the promises of a profligate government. Joe and Jane Bloggs put their house up as collateral, so why doesn't the government put it's own stock of buildings and land up as first stop? What they effectively do these days is promise more and more of future tax revenue from an already overtaxed populous. That populous doesn't see through the deception, so it seems OK to continue to bribe them with their own future earnings. The day of reckoning can't be postponed indefinitely though, and is likely a lot earlier than anyone can imagine. In Ireland's case it's quite literally tomorrow!

That soon is right now! There has been a flood of capital out of Irish banks over the last few days and they are now teetering. If there isn't a deal right away they are insolvent. Their pretense that the near fully nationalised banks are not the state has fooled no one! It's crazy that we are joining the queue to bail them out. They've been leeching UK jobs by undercutting our tax system to attract investment, and exploiting our market for their goods, for decades. We paid the price for their prosperity and now we are about to pay the price for their profligacy. Here the French are dead right: equalise your company taxation or no bail-out Ireland; no more free lunch!

I left the scene double quick when the young copper I flagged down on the roundabout hit the transmit button on his radio right over where the bubbles were coming up. No one was more surprised than me to see the smouldering pile of rubble later that day. I've heard lots of theories since on what triggered the blaze. All I can say for sure is that there was a mega gap in police training at the time!

I want a rep for being the one who discovered the gas leak the night it burned down! :D

No, I'm not talking about Irish finances. It's simply that the long range weather forecast I'm seeing shows -5c min temps for next weekend. Of course forecasting the weather that far ahead is only a bit less fraught with error than trying to forecast long term climate change, so it may never happen. But I'd be lagging my leeks and looking for my langies, all precautionary like, nevertheless. My 50p bet is that cold winters are back on the agenda, and that the global warming industry is no longer an investment which will bring good returns.

Don't agree that Cympil's photos are anywhere near the original one. There's next to no buildings in common between the two lots of snaps, but what little is in common is quite different. Firstly the shop nearest the Market Cross has lost it's sun-blind on Cympil's pix, and the sign seems to have been updated. Also there's now a distinct white band along the top of the front wall cladding on the Co-op. On the original pic the Co-op sports a collector combine (405 line) TV aerial. The need for these was gone in 1970, and being spindly they didn't generally stand a decades storms. So it's very likely it would have been blown down or taken down sometime before 1980. In the newer pix the shops are open, and there's lots more people around; clearly not the case in the original picture, though the Howard Arms, and probably something hidden in the Market Place (Bacchi's?) seems to be - still strong evidence for a Sunday or bank holiday. Then there's the Clevva Clothes evidence which no one has countered, whilst the contribution about the Presto opening tends to support a 70's date. Can't argue with Malc on the cars, but they are not at all distinct on the original pic, and the silver one looks to me like a big 60'/70's gas guzzler. The fuel crisis in the 70's encouraged the adoption of the more compact type of cars shown in Cympil's pix. So there's still strong evidence here that the pictures are several years, if not a decade, apart. This one will run and run!

Well it was near 2am, and I had had a few glasses, but my main excuse is that this new keyboard is enormous with funny flat keys. No? OK, suppose I now have to give you a rep as the only one to notice the err.. "typo".

LOL I think it's at least pan-european, speeds in Italy are way down too.

But hang on Malc, Gordon & Alastair told us a zillion times this was an international problem! Someone else spent all that money not us! So we really don't need to cut ourselves up about it and we'll get it back somehow. My guess is that it was those gnomes in Zürich; you know the ones who stole all the money in the previous Labour governments and were never brought to book. Why they always wait until Labour has been in power a while beats me, but I suppose it's just a coincidence. Anyway I'm going to carry on voting Labour as I'm sure Red Ed has all the answers, and as soon as Alan Johnson finishes reading that book on economics he just bought he'll know exactly were those gnomes live. Obviously exactly the right man to sort out all this international economics malarkey!

... this book will remain on sale at Amazon? One book you are unlikely to find very many people reselling their used copy of!

Even the ones who know (and care) BA about football?? Terriers excepted, of course!

Spelling Bedders with two b's gets you a rep vote from me!

And... how dare that Merlin guy call me a Tory!

Will Britain's next aircraft carrier be called the H2MS Waterloo? ( Half Her Majesty's Ship) And... do we get the bow or the stern if the French don't agree with what we are doing with it? Though, just to get this one right, maybe we should give Sarky half the Falkland's oil - so we have some common interest this time around? Umm.. didn't we invade Suez to protect their Suez Canal Company too? Ignoring the tiny matter of two world wars you'd think they'd figure that they might owe us at least one!