AMLinington

I remember having to Critically analyse news reports when I did modern world history and we studied things like the Manchurian and Abyssinian crisis's. The bottom line in ANY conflict is that YOU CANT TRUST A WORD ANYONE SAYS ABOUT IT BECAUSE THEY ALL HAVE AN AGENDA! So you cannot trust Russian news any more than you can trust Ukrainian news. Just like you can't trust UK, US or European news agencies to be unbiased either. The skill that most people seem to be lacking is that you have to UNDERSTAND that what you're watching/reading/hearing is 10% fact, 90% male-cow-excrement and you have to read/watch/listen/form opinions bearing in mind that what has just been presented to you may not be COMPLETE or 100% ACCURATE. Which is why it often pays to read multiple sources from both sides of the conflict and assume that the truth lies somewhere in the middle (privately I like to call this the 'Media Median'). As an example: Let us say Anti-Russian media provides 'proof' and exposition on how Russia is incontrovertibly responsible for MH17. Then lets look at Pro-Russian media which 'proves' incontrovertibly that Anti-Russian troops are responsible for MH17. They can't BOTH be responsible so the art of critical thinking is to look at the evidence presented, read other news articles to flesh out the scene a bit more and then decide for yourself which is more LIKELY. So lets say that Anti-Russian news agencies report on Russian military attacking a civilian village 2 miles away from where the missile was launched. With photographs and videos. This places the Russian Military in the area, so if, for example, pro-russian media categorically states that Russian ground troops weren't with 20 miles of the launch site, we immediately have evidence to the contrary. And so it goes on. It's all about forming your own conclusions based on what is essentially probability and statistical mathematics. Well, that's how I do it anyway. Unless I was right there witnessing it happen I always keep an open mind on Guilt/Innocence. Before people start screeching about the above, I should stress that it is an ENTIRELY HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLE OF HOW I, PERSONALLY, GO ABOUT ASSESSING NEWS REPORTS and is not in ANY WAY representative of fact. I know, right? Reading this thread is torturous! It seems there have been a number of 'inflamed' threads recently and it seems to be the same subset of users each time. Agreed. Also, re: WW3 I wouldn't be at all surprised if that wasn't where we are heading. After all, North Korea aren't at all happy with the US (or South Korea for that matter) over that James Franco film amongst other things (they have allegedly released a statement calling it an act of war but I'll take that with a pinch of salt), so I can see things kicking off in North Korea, things are already kicking off in Russia and the Ukraine, we have the usual Israel/Palestine/Gaza conflict flaring up, the Arab spring is still rumbling along a bit with what is going on in Syria with ISIS and other middle eastern countries, Iraq and Afghanistan are still moderately unresolved (otherwise my cousin wouldn't be facing his third tour in Af. would he?), we have the Boko Haram stuff going on in Nigeria etc etc. All these things are involving multiple countries so I would not be at all surprised for WW3 to be declared.

Okay, I'm done now. Bottom line is that as @GREED points out, the larger the vehicle the less control you have over your own fate. As a car driver, I can't control the stupidity of others but I CAN learn how to react to it and how to control my vehicle in extremis, as a plane passenger, if a bunch of terrorists 20 miles below me decide to launch a missile at the plane I'm . I hate travelling by Taxi because I often find a Taxi drivers driving to be worrisome. Ditto buses and coaches. I'm better with trains because while accidents can happen, the train travels on rails which to me is 'safer' than roads (yes, I realise this is probably fallacy but how I FEEL about something doesn't necessarily bear any resemblance to FACT). I get terribly travel sick on boats or ships so I don't travel on them if I can help it, but as a strong swimmer I am less concerned than I would be if I couldn't swim at all. So often how 'safe' a mode of transport is owes more to personal perception than to established statistical fact and the perception for me is that travelling by car when I am driving is 'safer' than getting on a bus (unpredictable fellow passengers, no seat belts, dodgy drivers etc) and definitely safer than getting into a big aluminium Pringles can and being launched into the sky above countries I'd never dare visit.

Same here. What are we supposed to be seeing?

The whole thing is appalling and I'm sure there will be stories emerging in the coming weeks of MH17 victims credit cards being used in Eastern Europe which will only add to the distress of the families having to deal with financial fraud at such a terrible time.

Well exactly. I said exactly this but my sisters MIL is very superstitious. Arguably, like American Airlines post 9/11, these high profile tragedies would surely mean that MA would be MORE focussed on ensuring passenger confidence so it is almost MORE safe to fly MA than other airlines because they'll be so focussed on NOT losing passengers (either commercially or literally). MIL is a bit of a worrier and she believes that MA are cursed/jinxed and she wants Sister and BIL to change carriers for her own peace of mind. The MH17 tragedy is definitely NOT the fault of MA, and MH370 isn't directly a fault of the airline, but something happened on that flight that may or may not have been within the power of the MA crew to affect. Until they recover the black box (which is looking unlikely at this point) we'll never know for sure.

This story is terrifying. My Parents and my Sister and her husband are due to Fly into Kuala Lumpur (On separate occasions) via MA and my Sisters mother in law has demanded that they change carriers - she's even said she'll pay for it. The sad thing is that it could easily have been a Virgin Airways flight. It's so unnecessary. The whole thing just makes me scared and mad. Scared because as passengers you have no control over the flightpath of the plane (not that there was any reason to believe commercial airliners would be at risk) and that sort of vulnerability terrifies me, and mad because WHY? When this story first broke I said to LeBoyfriend that I would not be surprised if it was a contributory factor in WW3. We have conflict and unrest in the Middle east, North Korea is simmering, the Israel/Palestine conflict has surged again, the problems with Russia and the Ukraine seem only to be getting worse and I can't see the US letting Russia get away with the MH17 atrocity for much longer, missiles are landing near Turkish airports which is probably going to provoke the Turkish authorities into action. There is still ongoing instability in Iraq and Afghanistan which is drawing Pakistan into the fray by association. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we don't just slide quietly into another World War... I certainly hope the families of the MH17 victims get some answers and some justice for what happened.

Exactly my point about the flimsy pretext. Sexual kinks on the other hand transcend racial/social and religious boundaries and would make a considerably more reliable transmission vector. IMO that article is based on male-cow-excrement.

I agree with this whole-heartedly, however in the interests of fairness and honesty I have to report no issues with my two most recent YODEL deliveries. That is not to say that previous deliveries haven't been appalling. A key decision factor in maintaining my Amazon Prime membership is the fact that 90% of Amazon Prime parcels go via Royal Mail or DPD and NOT YODEL and I, too, will avoid a company that uses YODEL as their courier - often at increased cost to myself. My neighbour drives for YODEL and I agree that the business model fosters a culture of shoddy service but all the time they continue to win contracts despite scathing customer reviews nothing will change. I believe YODEL are starting to support the 'Designated drop off/pick up point' in the same way that HERMES do. I'd hazard a guess that having a parcel delivered to your local Co-Op is likely to be more reliable than a home or business delivery.

The Church of England specifically (not non-catholic Christian sects, just the C of E) was created literally so that Henry VIII could marry Anne Boleyn after he was denied a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. So the C of E specifically is built entirely on the need for an obsessive King to sire a legitimate son.

You can't. I tried this. You have to give them 24 hours notice (which is ludicrous IMO) and take a whole bunch of identity documents. Interesting re: DPD - given that you requested tomorrow I'd expect the parcel to turn up tomorrow - the one about lunchtime today was probably an automatic one that has been superseded by your request. Perhaps if YODEL fail to deliver a parcel within the delivery window you've specified it gets passed to DPD? Maybe? Either way I'd still be onto EBuyer for a delivery refund and a good solid moan.

Me too. The vid says 'share and be entered to win'. By 'Share' I assume they mean 'retweet'? It's not very clear.

ARGH don't get me started on YODEL I might have a meltdown. Clothing parcels left under the car in the rain, blatant LIES about having 'attempted to deliver' when the business is 24hours, parcels going missing and ending up being marked as 'delivered' when they're not... I could go on. That being said, recently I had two orders come via Yodel and I expected the worst on both occasions and was.... mildly surprised. On both occasions the parcels actually TURNED UP, undamaged contents. Admittedly I'd have liked them to have arrived earlier in the day as 30 minutes before I was due to leave for the day WAS cutting it a bit fine but otherwise the delivery was okay. Some depots are worse than others. The 'Eastleigh' centre seems to be better than the 'Southampton' one. I still prefer DPD as they give you an actual time slot but in honesty I cannot say that my two most recent YODEL deliveries were bad so perhaps the Amazon takeover has fomented change?

I'm still not sure 'religious fervour' is a convincing vector. Modifying sexual behaviour would be less difficult than affecting free will because it's down to brain chemistry, nerve endings and hormones. Realistically it could be possible for a microbe to manipulate sexual behaviours by 'rewarding' the behaviour with endorphins (which, without reading the article might be what they're suggesting for the religious behaviours). Who knows. I'm not a biologist, I just think the pretext under which they propose to 'prove' behaviours is a bit flimsy.

I'd be more convinced by the argument that sexual deviance and 'fetishes' are influenced by microbes than 'religious' rituals. Ditto to SOME OCD behaviours (such as touching things a certain number of times etc). In the religions I'm familiar with (Christian ones) kissing of the feet of a cross, kissing of Bishops/Popes/Cardinal's rings etc and the sharing of a cup of wine are the only examples I can think of that favour microbial transmission (I can't speak for other religions) whereas the broad spectrum of sexual fetishes makes for a smorgasbord of microbial transit pathways. I can think of about 20 different 'kinks' off the top of my head that I would consider to be better microbial transmission behaviours than a once-a-week trip to Church...

LOL I got that too. I was going to say 'LOL, Troll FTW'

Usually when I have a checkup I have to pay for that then if I need a filling it's another appointment and the price is £45. Either way still cheaper than private dentistry where they seem to make up the prices on the spot!

Mostly because they're a bit abstract - the 'Woman' one was weird. I looked at it for ages before I could see ANY of the options they gave and that wasn't because I had issues with the colours but simply because it took me a minute to understand the picture.

10/10 here too although as my mother has aged, her perception of colours - particularly shades of blue and red has warped. She will regularly describe turquoise as 'Green' and Red as 'Purple', or even 'Purple' as blue and when I say 'No Mum it's turquoise' she'll argue that it's green even if several others agree with me and the colour is described as 'Turquoise' on the label. She has these ghastly orange curtains in her lounge that she swears are 'pink'. They really really aren't. They are orange. Very very orange. Perhaps my mum is the same as you @witch? She really struggles with shades of blue.

I recently discovered my parents machine full of malware so created an 'admin' profile and an 'Office' profile that cannot install anything and has no permissions to change settings. It's working out well. I still can't believe the abuse I got when I called out one of these 'scammers'. It was terrifying. If you've never experienced this you're lucky, but sometimes snarking back or calling them out on the lie results in more hassle.

Nice work there. Mind if we promote that resource in our KB and on Twitter?

WoW EU - Azjol-Nerub

Other filters that customers of Smoothwall have looked at include Bloxx, Websense, and Fortinet. I've seen these mentioned in other posts in this forum.

I met a guy for Coffee at a local shopping centre after meeting him on the internet (in WoW actually). We've been together for 6 years, have 1 cat and 4 rabbits and are trying for a baby. So meeting up with people 'from the internet' isn't a bad thing if you go about it safely - public place, people knowing where you are and when you'll be back, own or public transport. It has to be said I'm not 100% clear on the 'real names' of some of the people I work with - most of us have nicknames/handles at the office and refer to each other that way.

LOL Data Brokerage I imagine.

It's about keeping track. For example, When LeBoyfriend and I get paid we pay £XYZ each into the joint account giving us a total household budget of £ABCD. From this, we pay all the household bills - mortgage, insurance, utilities, phone, internet, council tax, etc. We also have a food budget of £EFG. Whenever we do a shop I update our spreadsheet so I know how much of our food budget we have left, which bills have and have not been paid etc. This helps us decide whether or not we can afford a takeaway etc. The same goes for my Current account. I try to keep my DDs going out at the same time but these days it's mostly impossible to get everything out on the same day so When I've paid my £XYZ into the joint account I have £ABC left in my account, of which £DEF has already been earmarked for personal Direct debits - Car insurance, mobile phone, Cat insurance (yes, my Cat is insured - much cheaper than the bills), WoW subscription, Car loan payment, credit card payments, Cat vaccination DD scheme at local vet, etc etc. BUT, it can be hard to track how much of £ABC is MINE vs how much is a DD waiting to go out. This is what I'd use the app for. It's not about not being able to manage money (and I won't be drawn into the fiscal responsibility argument again), it's about whether or not you can mentally keep all the incomings and outgoings (more outgoings than incomings usually) organised. It's hard to keep track of it all when so many are in different places - you have bank accounts, credit cards, mortgages, utilities etc. You keep phone numbers in a contacts list on your smartphone because it's difficult to remember each and every phone number. This is the same thing but with money. I think wanting to keep track of your finances is the mark of a responsible person whether you have disposable income or not. As I like to say - it's better to have it and not use it than not have it and need it.