AMLinington

IMO, I don't think it is WRONG per se to raise the cost of prospecting for non-sustainable energy sources, as long as this is offset by a DECREASE in costs for 'Green' energy - hydroelectric power, solar, wind, tidal, etc. I am genuinely concerned about what will happen when the non-renewable energy sources run out. The problem with the cost of everything going up is that wages aren't supporting it - back in the 40s and 50s (and earlier) many families could live comfortably on one income. 50+ years later and we're struggling on 2 full time incomes - in the next 20 years how many working adults will a household need just to get by? We're already facing the prospect that many of us will NEVER retire and will likely die at our desks....

LOL I'm not convinced that qualifies as irony tbh. Exploitation more-like.... Perhaps prices should be capped at a % of the price per barrel - might make for a more competitive market? Maybe? My understanding of energy economics is limited. It is frustrating though how much further we have to stretch our already tight bank balances. Not so much in terms of short term things, but the longer term stuff like mortgage payments, council tax, car insurance and energy bills. We are having to shave so much off by doing so many little tweaks here and there that it becomes a delicate balancing act with little to no room for contingency. I'm dreading winter this year - we've nursed our dodgy boiler through 2 winters and I'm not convinced it will last much longer but we simply don't have the money to replace it - plus they won't fit it unless we do the kitchen because of code violations and stuff. So our situation is basically Rock < Us > Hard place.

I found it quite easy because I recognised or owned most of the IKEA items lol. The ones I got wrong were 1 new item I've not seen yet and 2 Death Metal bands.

LOL that is because most women do not feel that their men-folk can be trusted to pay attention to the finer details of wedding planning. It is not in the nature of a man to obsess over the exact shade of puce or whether the font on the placecards is 12 or 14 pt but these fine details are important to a woman. As far as a man is concerned, if he turns up and everyone has a good time, he's happy. LeBoyfriend is exactly like this which is why he leaves the more intricate details of things to me and volunteers himself for the larger logistical parts. He is much happier without having to be confused by the tiny details and I'm much happier having an iron grip on the organisation of an event. It's Win-Win.

LOL I got 17/20 - Not sure what that says about me tbh....

I suffer terribly with the cold - I'm really sensitive to it and it causes the arthritis in my knees to go bananas so I've taken to storing blankets all over the house and regularly curl up under one in winter. But that isn't really the point - we shouldn't HAVE to struggle in chilly, damp houses only to read that the energy companies are announcing record profits - it's greed. Pure and simple. It's about time the government stepped in and put a stop to the exploitation. Except they won't. Because privatisation was a Conservative initiative in the first place...

Aww I'm disappointed that this wasn't a real conversation between you and grandma - it is eerily similar to conversations between me and my mother... I was going to plus rep until @Domino revealed it was a re-post

I lol-ed. 'ticktick the blue' is my new favourite phrase. 'The orange opened' - Firefox? I loved the part where the blue went purple. LOL This is comedy gold. Also, why does she refer to Robots as 'Rubberheads'? It would be easier to tell her some scumbag in some south east Asian or eastern European country was sitting in a cramped basement hacking peoples email accounts to send out links to dodgy sites and that she should ticktick on the pootavaccine thingy and run a full scan.

My point is exactly that. I referred to those cyclists that choose not to adhere to road traffic signals. Not to all cyclists generally. Some do. Many do in fact, and I've noticed that the ones with the propensity to ignore traffic lights etc tend to be the ones that aren't wearing helmets and have no lights or reflective clothing - the ones that are wearing helmets and hi-vis vests and lights and stuff tend to be more responsible and so tend to pay attention to traffic lights. What winds me up is that I've NEVER EVER seen the Police admonish or fine a cyclist for either not wearing appropriate gear or for flouting traffic rules. A car goes through a red light and causes a hazard on a junction or crashes into someone and they get in trouble, a cyclist does it and.... nothing. If anything the driver that the cyclist fouled ends up worse off. My point is ALL road users regardless of vehicle should adhere to the rules - if a traffic light is red, they should stop (for example). This applies to cyclists as much as it applies to motorbikes, cars, vans, lorries, horses (although as a living animal with its own free will sometimes it is difficult to ensure they stay put), mobility scooters, wingless jumpjets etc. If it's on the road, it is a 'vehicle'.

Try the BBC site: BBC Two - The Great British Bake Off, Series 4 - Episode guide

Going back to the 'things that annoy us about other road users' thread, this pretty much sums up the comments regarding Cyclists that pay no attention to road signs or traffic lights. I nearly had a cyclist as a bonnet ornament the other day - he was blithely ignoring the red traffic lights and sailed gamely across the junction I was rightly and correctly turning right at. It was my right of way as determined by the traffic lights, but he decided the red lights on the path he was travelling didn't apply to him. He then had the audacity to turn around and swear and yell at me!

Ha ha haaaaaa concussion from an Acorn *rofl* oh god, I can't stop laughing. An overprotective bubble-wrap mother perchance?

LOL perhaps it is unfortunate wording - it said she had been hit on the head - it didn't specify that it was an acorn that hit her - more like another kid elbowed her or smacked her over the head with their arm/hand or whatever.

I saw this this morning and nerdgasmed so hard! In other news, I also booked our tickets for the midnight showing of Catching Fire! WIN

I adore Canada. A lake freezing sounds like an excellent opportunity to ice skate and if I lived in the Rockies I'd ski all winter! I've been there in Summer too and it's lush. In fact, I'd love to live in Canada.

I can't say that the idea of a mild winter is such a bad thing - de-icing the car and driving through Snow is my least favourite part...

The weather this year has been excellent. Given that all the time I was growing up, we never had Snow until the last 5 years, I'm sort of hoping we will get some snow around Christmas time, although I can't say I'd be upset if we don't. I personally really enjoy a cold, frosty, but sunny day. I love wrapping up warm and snuggling up under a blanket with LeBoyfriend and the Cat in front of the TV with the fire on. Hot chocolate and marshmallows, tea and toast. It's my favourite time of year.

Whilst the dancing penguin is cute, I miss Nyan-Cat

Sorry, no. Although I may post some photos for you. I thought the 'customised brony' idea might appeal.

Don't forget the sparkles...

We had a similar situation with toothpaste in ASDA. It was marked up at £1 but the rest of the shelf was on 2 for £3. When I checked the receipt, it had gone through at £1.70 a tube. I couldn't be bothered to fight with their divvy 'Customer services' over £1. Not to mention queue for 20 minutes while the frozen goods become unfrozen.

Eurgh, beetles wot eat your furniture and fabrics. Joy. Could be worse I suppose, could be woodworm...

Wow it sounds like you lot have a lot of fun in empty school corridors - I feel moderately jealous. When ibpalle is out and about (we share a cosy office) I'm guilty of chair spinning and feet-up-on-the-desk-ing other than that, pretty much nothing - you can never be 100% sure you're alone in our building - our devs keep strange hours and it's not uncommon to find one lurking in a nook or cranny so you are likely to finish your impromptu victory dance to find an audience.

To be honest, I don't mind the CTRL+ALT+DEL but there are a lot of less-used keys on the keyboard - Function keys for example that were pretty critical back in the days of command line GUIs but I for one never use the 'Scroll lock' button so I think some of the lesser-used keys could have been repurposed into a login combo - Esc + F1 for example.

A farmer named Sid was overseeing his stock in a remote moorland pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced toward him out of a cloud of dust. The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the farmer, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?" Sid looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing stock and calmly answers, "Sure, why not?" The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Smartphone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg , Germany . Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses an MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response. Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer, turns to the farmer and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves." "That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says Sid. He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on with amusement as the young man stuffs it into the back of his car. Then Sid says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?" The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?" "You're a Member of Parliament", says Sid. "Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?" "No guessing required." answered the farmer. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of pounds worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about how working people make a living - or about cows, for that matter. This is a flock of sheep. ... "Now give me back my dog!"