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by In Wales Fri May 2nd, 2008 at 11:57:28 AM EST
I was sick, I've missed out on a fab weekend with friends and it still cost me north of £100.
And I'm feeling better - Drat !! Drat !! Double drat and triple drat !!!!
Mind you, at least I could sit back and watch Gordo get a pounding and feel moderately amused by it. I think it was much more personal for you. I've done all the doorstepping myself (what is it with letter boxes ? The lower they are the more ferocious the spring) and I don't envy you that one teeny little bit. keep to the Fen Causeway
If some of the costs were going to be shared then let me know how much I owe you. I'm only down by £5, remarkably. Glad you are feeling better although it's a shame the recovery wasn't quicker. I'm now starting to feel ill but that is lack of sleep kicking in so I'm off home now.
FORT WORTH, Texas - Charles Ray Fuller must have been planning one big record company. The 21-year-old North Texas man was arrested last week for trying to cash a $360 billion check, saying he wanted to start a record business, authorities said. Tellers at the Fort Worth bank were immediately suspicious -- perhaps the 10 zeros on a personal check tipped them off, according to investigators. Fuller, of suburban Crowley, was arrested on a forgery charge, police said. He was released after posting $3,750 bail.
FORT WORTH, Texas - Charles Ray Fuller must have been planning one big record company.
The 21-year-old North Texas man was arrested last week for trying to cash a $360 billion check, saying he wanted to start a record business, authorities said. Tellers at the Fort Worth bank were immediately suspicious -- perhaps the 10 zeros on a personal check tipped them off, according to investigators.
Fuller, of suburban Crowley, was arrested on a forgery charge, police said. He was released after posting $3,750 bail.
They're a sharp lot in Texas. Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.
Probably best not to try to cash personal checks worth more than any one person on the planet.
Maybe he's an economist.
If I tried to present a cheque for more than the net worth of the bank I think I'd just get laughed at. keep to the Fen Causeway
And that's in Virginia. Now imagine Texas, "Where The Men Are Men, And The Women Are, Too." Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.
Chorus: That's the way the girls are in Texas."
Ry Cooder "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
thats a $9.47 us gallon Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
Screw the people in the McMansions, frankly. Nobody needs a McMansion. Nobody needs a Ford Excursion. Nobody needs a 60" television, let alone LCDs of varying sizes in every major room. We're clearly not taxing them enough if they're buying all that. Fortunately I've no doubt they're going to learn a harsh lesson in the coming years, because attitudes are shifting away from that lifestyle, and demographics are shifting in a way that makes that lifestyle pointless. This is to say nothing of the economics of oil, too.
A few decades from now a lot of those McMansion developments are going to be slums, not unlike what happened to the inner cities in the postwar period. Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.
you are the media you consume.
Others will be ripped down and replaced by these kind of walkable faux-town developments you see in some suburbs nowadays. And, yes, some will survive as nice neighborhoods for those who can afford the lifestyle.
But, looking at the big picture in the long term, we've overbuilt the suburbs. Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.
But as one says, never live in a house which is younger than your parents. ;p Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
I do like the idea for a significant percentage of those in public housing. But in order to qualify for mixed-income residence, you need a clean drug and prison record. Its great for those people. But the people who are addicts and criminals just end up on the street. It may be unfair to those who've managed to avoid that fate to give others the same options. But I don't see the benefits to the community at large by puting more criminals and addicts on the street. I also believe a roof over one's head is a fundamental human right. "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
And you're right that the qualifications in complexes and characteristics of tenants make it deeply flawed. Some combination of all of these things -- mixed-income, projects, etc -- needs to be used. I do think the mixed-income developments can serve to do some good, though. Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.
Also, you have to be cool with living among people of different races and religions and classes than yourself. "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
I never tire of the Jarrett? piano piece in the second one. It´s incredibly moving. Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.
Yes, and the music is very nice, though I have to admit who it was from.
http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi
I cannot remember the name of the piece and can't even get the youtubes for some reason.
Hope you have better luck. It's wonder-full.
Eat, drink and hug all for me tonight, geezer! Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.
Six years after German adopted the euro, 34 percent of people still hanker for their former currency. To many, it represented Germany's economic miracle of the post-war years -- and they blame the euro for rising prices. On May 2, 1998, 11 European Union leaders met in Brussels to decide which countries should be the first to adopt the euro. Ten years on, 50 percent of Germans say they still haven't got used to the single European currency -- and some of them even want the deutsche mark back. According to a study conducted by the Association of German Banks (BdB), one in three Germans said they preferred using D-marks to the new shared currency. Some 34 percent said they'd even like to see the euro withdrawn and the deutsche mark put back into circulation.
On May 2, 1998, 11 European Union leaders met in Brussels to decide which countries should be the first to adopt the euro. Ten years on, 50 percent of Germans say they still haven't got used to the single European currency -- and some of them even want the deutsche mark back.
According to a study conducted by the Association of German Banks (BdB), one in three Germans said they preferred using D-marks to the new shared currency. Some 34 percent said they'd even like to see the euro withdrawn and the deutsche mark put back into circulation.
28% of the US polling population still approves of Bush.
A poll released at the end of 2007 by Dresdner Bank showed that 62% of Germans support reinstating the deutsche mark as the country's currency.
Things have got dramatically better since, er, the end of last year..!
A German inventor has created a radar-evading camouflage paint in the deserts of the United Arab Emirates. An institute back in Germany tested the paint and discovered -- to everyone's surprise -- that it actually works. The German defense industry is starting to take an interest. Werner Nickel came to the desert because he had bred a worm whose excrement made it possible to grow radishes in the dry desert sand. The sheikhs were impressed with the inventor -- a German no less -- who could reclaim their land. So Nickel, 67, a wheelchair-bound amateur inventor from Berlin, moved to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to run his new project. The project seemed promising at first, as cucumbers, radishes and beans thrived on Nickel's test fields on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi. But the project also consumed vast numbers of worms -- 3,000 per square meter, to be exact -- which eventually made the project too costly for its sponsors. Nickel, who is literally bubbling over with ideas, simply shifted gears. This time, he decided to concoct a paint to shield tanks, ships and aircraft from radar detection in much the same way that Stealth bombers are invisible. Nickel already had a name for his miracle paint: AR 1.
A German inventor has created a radar-evading camouflage paint in the deserts of the United Arab Emirates. An institute back in Germany tested the paint and discovered -- to everyone's surprise -- that it actually works. The German defense industry is starting to take an interest.
Werner Nickel came to the desert because he had bred a worm whose excrement made it possible to grow radishes in the dry desert sand. The sheikhs were impressed with the inventor -- a German no less -- who could reclaim their land. So Nickel, 67, a wheelchair-bound amateur inventor from Berlin, moved to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to run his new project.
The project seemed promising at first, as cucumbers, radishes and beans thrived on Nickel's test fields on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi. But the project also consumed vast numbers of worms -- 3,000 per square meter, to be exact -- which eventually made the project too costly for its sponsors.
Nickel, who is literally bubbling over with ideas, simply shifted gears. This time, he decided to concoct a paint to shield tanks, ships and aircraft from radar detection in much the same way that Stealth bombers are invisible. Nickel already had a name for his miracle paint: AR 1.
Forget frozen fish-fingers and chewy mashed potatoes. A French school has become the country's first to hire a professional chef to cook up fresh, cheap food from local products every day.The aim? To energise listless teenage taste buds and control weight problems, which are currently estimated by the European Commission to affect about 22-million of the European Union's 75-million children."It's great, I could never eat such a balanced meal for such a price -- 3 -- anywhere else," said Ryan Batjiaka, an American language assistant at the L'Emperi school, in Salon-de-Provence, a town in southern of France."It's also a great way to discover French food because Dominique cooks a wide range of dishes," she said.
Also, the downside of such economies of scale is that when there is a case of food poisoning, the medical response needs to be impressive : when the local company restaurant had a case of a not-so-fresh thon basquaise, there were two dozens ambulance waiting at the bottom of the tower... Also, it is not a good idea to poison traders : the catering company's stock lost 2% straight at 2 PM... Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
I see the restaurant tickets here a lot, also as part of ´benefits´, but it seems another way for the employer to control wages and decide spending for people. Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.
I had heard it was difficult to get this information centrally, so it's nice somebody has gone and done it. keep to the Fen Causeway
Interbank lending should be used to balance the books of a bank which has lent more than its deposits with the excess deposits (of equal amount) which some other bank must have. (Rules of Double-Entry Bookkeeping state that total debit balances in the banking system will be matched exactly by total credit balances.) In Britain the balancing used to be achieved, not through the central bank, but through 'Discount Houses', for they alone had access to funds from the Bank of England. The EU rules have changed this. All banks will have excess deposits at the Central Bank if the government is unable to fund its borrowings by replacing loans from the central bank with loans direct from investors. If the government borrows too much direct from investors, it will strip the banks of liquidity. Same if it raises more tax than it spends. Such a shortage of liquidity is resolved by the Central Bank lending to the commercial banks who deposit the money back with the Central Bank. Mad of course but it happens. Thus the key to the level of true liquidity is what the government's Debt Management Office (DMO) is doing. The DMO should be under the control of the head of the Central Bank. In Britain at the moment it is not, the fault of Gordon Brown who stripped the Bank of England of the powers it has used for 300 years.
In Britain the balancing used to be achieved, not through the central bank, but through 'Discount Houses', for they alone had access to funds from the Bank of England. The EU rules have changed this.
All banks will have excess deposits at the Central Bank if the government is unable to fund its borrowings by replacing loans from the central bank with loans direct from investors. If the government borrows too much direct from investors, it will strip the banks of liquidity. Same if it raises more tax than it spends.
Such a shortage of liquidity is resolved by the Central Bank lending to the commercial banks who deposit the money back with the Central Bank. Mad of course but it happens.
Thus the key to the level of true liquidity is what the government's Debt Management Office (DMO) is doing. The DMO should be under the control of the head of the Central Bank. In Britain at the moment it is not, the fault of Gordon Brown who stripped the Bank of England of the powers it has used for 300 years.
When it comes to Central Banking I'm reminded of Palmerston's quote re the Schleswig-Holstein Question
There are only three men who have ever understood it -- one was Prince Albert, who is dead; the second was a German professor, who became mad. I am the third -- and I have forgotten all about it.
According to the Washington Times, in the years since the widespread dissemination of terrorist watch lists, airline customer service reps have repeatedly turned away frustrated Federal Air Marshals (FAMS) whose names match or bear an uncomfortable resemblance to names on whatever dodgy watch list is at hand. Feeling safer now? "In some cases, planes have departed without any coverage because the airline employees were adamant they would not fly," one unnamed air marshal told the paper. "I've seen guys actually being denied boarding." Another unnamed marshal chimed in that a colleague "has been getting harassed for six years because his exact name is on the no-fly list."
According to the Washington Times, in the years since the widespread dissemination of terrorist watch lists, airline customer service reps have repeatedly turned away frustrated Federal Air Marshals (FAMS) whose names match or bear an uncomfortable resemblance to names on whatever dodgy watch list is at hand. Feeling safer now?
"In some cases, planes have departed without any coverage because the airline employees were adamant they would not fly," one unnamed air marshal told the paper. "I've seen guys actually being denied boarding." Another unnamed marshal chimed in that a colleague "has been getting harassed for six years because his exact name is on the no-fly list."
But yes, they're verifiably correct this time... Member of the Anti-Fabulousness League since 1987.
* ELECTION LATEST: Conservatives hold Bexley & Bromley in first London assembly result ... * ELECTION LATEST: Labour gain Brent & Harrow from Conservatives; hold North East ... Member of the Anti-Fabulousness League since 1987.
Brent and Harrow Labour gain from Conservatives Navin Shah (Lab) 57,760 (37.29%, +7.29%) Bob Blackman (C) 56,067 (36.20%, +2.21%) Lab maj 1,693 (1.09%) 2.54% swing C to Lab Electorate 367,337; Turnout 154,893 (42.17%, +6.88%)
Brent and Harrow
Labour gain from Conservatives
Navin Shah (Lab) 57,760 (37.29%, +7.29%) Bob Blackman (C) 56,067 (36.20%, +2.21%)
Lab maj 1,693 (1.09%) 2.54% swing C to Lab Electorate 367,337; Turnout 154,893 (42.17%, +6.88%)
Now, thank heavens, I can watch it with detachment - even Londoners voting Boris Johnson for mayor:
Boris Johnson was tonight on course to win a remarkable victory, making him the first Conservative mayor of London. With more than four fifths of the votes counted, figures released by the election organisers, London Elects, showed that that the MP for Henley was ahead of Ken Livingstone in eight of the 14 constituencies in the capital. Livingstone was ahead in the remaining six constituencies. Senior Tories said that they were "99% certain" that Johnson would be declared the winner when the results were announced - probably late this evening. And Tessa Jowell, the minister for London, admitted that it was "highly unlikely" that Livingstone would be re-elected. A Johnson victory would be a huge boost for David Cameron, crowning a set of elections that saw the Tories establish a 20-point lead over Labour in local elections in England and Wales. Livingstone campaigned on his record as a proven administrator and Gordon Brown will be alarmed by the prospect of voters rejecting a Labour figure representing experience in favour of Conservative promising change. A Johnson victory would also reassure Cameron that a privileged public school background is no barrier to electoral success in 21st century Britain. Like Cameron, Johnson is an Old Etonian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/may/02/london08.london
With more than four fifths of the votes counted, figures released by the election organisers, London Elects, showed that that the MP for Henley was ahead of Ken Livingstone in eight of the 14 constituencies in the capital. Livingstone was ahead in the remaining six constituencies.
Senior Tories said that they were "99% certain" that Johnson would be declared the winner when the results were announced - probably late this evening.
And Tessa Jowell, the minister for London, admitted that it was "highly unlikely" that Livingstone would be re-elected.
A Johnson victory would be a huge boost for David Cameron, crowning a set of elections that saw the Tories establish a 20-point lead over Labour in local elections in England and Wales.
Livingstone campaigned on his record as a proven administrator and Gordon Brown will be alarmed by the prospect of voters rejecting a Labour figure representing experience in favour of Conservative promising change.
A Johnson victory would also reassure Cameron that a privileged public school background is no barrier to electoral success in 21st century Britain. Like Cameron, Johnson is an Old Etonian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/may/02/london08.london
it's interesting that the right support each other, while the left always fractures.
boris is comedy gold, expect sales of 'private eye' to soar...
move over john cleese, you great impostor, the upperclass twit role is now restored to its proper ownership.
life outdoes parody again! 'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty
In fact the right has had its divisions and New Labour hierarchy was of course accused of enforcing unanimity.
As Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a columnist in the Independent, said last night, she thinks people have made a big mistake voting for Boris, but she doesn't dismiss him as a fool - it's a cultivated image which helps his popularity. In fact his speech was very gracious in paying tribute to Ken and Paddick and hoping to benefit from their expertise. That's not to say I support him; A-Brown thinks he's really quite right-wing. I just don't think one should caricature people or accept their own self-promoted images. Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice.
just wrong... 'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty
"wrong" - about everything ? Could this be a bit of a caricature again ? :-) Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice.
Most parts of Sweden experienced a typical Walpurgis Night (Valborgsmässafton) on Wednesday. The Swedes´annual celebration of spring is customarily filled with drunken and disorderly behavior, fights, underage binge drinking and various arrests.
Sorry for not being around lately, but I have been rather busy.
For the last three days (evening April 28 to morning May 2) I have been volounteer-working like a serf at my student nation, even sleeping (a few hours a night) at a matress at the damn place, organizing all the traditional parties and other traditional stuff, including two (three? It's all a blur) formal dinners of at least one was for 100+ people, three late night clubs (500-1000 people?) of which two closed at four in the morning (add another two to three hours of cleaning up, and then up to breakfast at 10 or 11 o'clock).
The good thing here is that I avoided drinking a single drop of alcohol and for once at Valborg I shouldn't have felt like I wanted to die. The bad thing is that I haven't been this tired and worn out in quite some time.
And the fact that after having stayed completely sober we all got dead drunk after having cleaned the club last night, eh, this morning.
Memo to self: never start drinking (and singing) at five o'clock in the morning. It's all a bit blurry but I have quite a clear memory of all the male crew running naked and screaming through the early morning streets before going back in and drinking some more.
After that I somehow got home and woke at about five in the afternoon, still not at all sober. Don't you just hate waking drunk?
And I felt incredibly dehydrated. So I swiftly downed one litre of orange juice. I really shouldn't have done that... Well, you can imagine what happened and I'll spare you the graphic details.
Ah, the joys of student life. I will NEVER drink again. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Still there is a certain satisfaction to be had from watching others get blasted while being stone cold sober. But aren't drunks boring ? keep to the Fen Causeway
I seem to think it every time... ;p Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Good grief, never once in my whole sordid drinking career, which I confess has involved more near-death experiences than I care to count, have I ever thought "I'll never drink again".
How very like so many Brits - what WOULD it take?
Still there is a certain satisfaction to be had from watching others get blasted while being stone cold sober. But aren't drunks boring ?
Not to the staff of Accident and Emergency departments, where they're a bloody waste of time and resources when they are not a violent menace.
The police have the same sort of opinion - and it seems women are increasingly a problem/victims:
The number of women arrested for being drunk and disorderly has soared by up to 1,000 per cent in some places, Channel 4 News Online has found. ... The revelations have prompted calls from a chief constable for a ban on discounted drinks, 'happy hours', and alcohol advertising. Campaigners say pubs and clubs are deliberately targeting women with cheap drinks offers and free entry in a bid to encourage them to drink more. http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/society/law_order/female+drink+offences+soar/2115947
...
The revelations have prompted calls from a chief constable for a ban on discounted drinks, 'happy hours', and alcohol advertising.
Campaigners say pubs and clubs are deliberately targeting women with cheap drinks offers and free entry in a bid to encourage them to drink more.
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/society/law_order/female+drink+offences+soar/2115947
I had a run-in with a guy who did not want to stop stomping on said castle earlier today after my kids asked him not to. (yes, an adult. He fumed "it's the beach, there's no ownership, you weren't there, what proves you buoilt it anyway" and then proceeded to actually stomp on it even more. Quite a sight.
(I get 4-year-olds stomping on the castle. I won't say I'm totally happy about it when they come and climb on it, but there's little I can do about it, other than, when I'm around, try to enroll them to help me build it... But an adult? After he's been asked by kids?) In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
with those symptoms it has to be....anglo disease! 'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty
This guy sounds like a wage slave who's been slapped around his whole life.
I guess Cheney was away playing in his mobile dungeon. keep to the Fen Causeway
Hmmmm...
Let me think....
Oh, I know! We eat wonderful cheese over here! And the air blown in our cakes is French! In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
keep to the Fen Causeway
You can find people playing it and listening to it every night of the week - which is more than can be said for Dallapiccola, Ferneyhough and all of those guyz.
Ohio without the industrial decay might not be too far from a reasonable analogy.
Berry - 77,374
Christians - c 39,000
Left List - 16,796
Boris - 1,043,761
Ken - 893,877
Eng Dem - 10,695
Paddick - 236,685
Is that right? Even if all the second pref votes from Green, LibDems and Left went to Livingstone, he would still only just break 50%.
It's Johnson then. Member of the Anti-Fabulousness League since 1987.
Totals:
Boris - 1,168,738 Ken - 1,028,966
Truly it is said, things in America are just repeated in Britain a few years later.
Though I think Labour is hoping the same about the Conservatives getting Johnson elected. Member of the Anti-Fabulousness League since 1987.
The East End is a peculiar set of circumstances and the reasons why it is embracing the BNP go back a long long way. Just remember, the London dockers marched in support of Enoch Powell's rivers of blood speech, all good trade unionists all. And they all lived in the East End. keep to the Fen Causeway
Most people aren't involved in that, and it's so disappointingly easy to play the race card and win with it.
It can't be said often enough - UK politics is resentment politics. There's often not a lot else going on. And people really are stupid enough to believe what they read in the hate-filled papers without doing any critical thinking.
We have some serious problems brewing here, and Boris is a long way from being the most important.
The yobs seem to like beating up brown people more, but they don't discriminate much, at least not in Notts. No discrimination on gender either.
I thought much of the racial conflict in the East End was between the South-Asians and the black Caribbean? Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.
And people really are stupid enough to believe what they read in the hate-filled papers without doing any critical thinking.
What you need is not critical thinking among them but rather a constant threat from Al Sharpton to break the doors down at the papers' offices. Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.
GOVERNOR: I don't believe he can do it, Tweed.
BOSS TWEED: Oh, I think he can. Whether it's one man against another or a mob against the city, the mathematics remain the same. You never enjoyed the enlightenment of poverty, did you, Governor? If you had, you'd know you can always hire half the poor to kill the other half.
Poplar might have voted that way, Whitechapel wouldn't cos that's Respect country.
The interesting question is why people who vote labour protest by voting BNP rather than tory or LDP.
Think of them as Reagan Dixiecrats; racist and libertarian. Draw a line halfway up Essex and every constituency below that line it is full of 'em. keep to the Fen Causeway
You don't understand. The racist types never actually live amongst people of other races. It's people who live kinda-sorta nearby, but have virtually no contact with them.
Reagan Democrats are not libertarians, although the neo-Confederate wing of the libertarian movement does tend to like Reagan. Racists, yes, but economically Reagan Dems are liberal (so long as the welfare doesn't flow to those people). Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.
London Assembly: City and East constituency
Now I'm off - I have a train to catch. When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes
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