jamesb

We can also prove that (somewhat) intelligent life exists on Earth. I believe (maybe incorrectly) that the Catholic church already has decided how intelligent extra-terrestrial life would relate to current religious beliefs. If I remember correctly the options are: - noble savages: unaware of the religion and therefore innocent, but should be converted and saved as possible - true innocents: essentially angels or tools of god - tools of the adversary: self-explanatory

Who did you actually discuss your notice period with? It may still be worth asking if you can negotiate some sort of agreement. Three months is a very long time (a quarter of your employment so far by the sound of it) and surely it would be better for them to bring someone else in and carry out a handover rather than wait until the last minute and just bring someone in to replace you? Maybe you could even negotiate so that you'll do a week's handover for free if they'll let you leave earlier.

I don't know whether it's any help, but this might be of use to you - Varying the notice period | Business Link How long have you worked for the school? If you read the contract carefully you may have some get-outs or escapes. You may also be able to discuss with them and arrange that you'll work out a shorter notice, alongside a new candidate brought in to replace you, in order to complete a handover period. Unfortunately if your contract states a longer period than the statutory notice period, it's the contract that takes effect. You may also want to consider this - Breach of contract : Directgov - Employment It's not a good thing to breach your contract, but if it's going to cost you a job otherwise and the school are being unreasonable about you varying your notice period it may be something to look at. You will also probably want to consider whether the school has breached your contract if you do decide to go down that rather drastic route, as it might be another way to get out.

How so? Depending on the issue, there may be some way around.

Can be a lot of work, and there's nothing wrong with an old domain if it's been well managed. If, on the other hand, it's full of legacy accounts, GPOs scattered throughout and with cryptic names and a bird's nest of permissions scrapping it can be easier. If you're going to be creating a completely new domain it may even be simpler to just install a brand new Exchange server - you're going to need to recreate the user accounts anyway so why not start with a clean slate? Within reason. Usually it's best to avoid a .local domain, and also can be worthwhile avoiding any domain extensions which are registered (.com etc) for internal use. ockendon.school? ockendon.internal? Keeping the e-mail accounts as ockendon.thurrock.sch.uk and your actual domain name different isn't a problem. They don't have to have the same name. Not at all. You won't be making your internal domain accessible directly from the internet (hopefully) so you can use anything. I know of one person who set up their internal company domain as microsoft.com. I don't know anything about Serco, but if you're virtualising I don't see why you'd need to move them all on to a single server. Probably best to avoid if you can. As said, it can be a lot of work. You need to work out the structure, GPOs, groups, create the users, and so on. Good fun to do though. Again, if you're going to virtualise you don't really need to put everything on one server. Servers are like rabbits. You start with a few and before you know it they've multipled to fill several rooms. Plus most of them should be put down, but people won't because they're so cute and fluffy. (Analogy failed a little at the end there, but oh well.)

Easy to do, but does take some time. The last batch I made was with cheap Tescos honey, and a few cups of pomegranate juice (for flavour, not essential). Other than that it's pretty much like making any fruit wine. I recommend using high-strength turbo yeast, and feeding the brew as you feel necessary. I fed mine twice over eight months but I like a rather sweet mead. I do know people who brew it more as an ale than a wine as well. Just be warned if you haven't had mead beforeand you're brewing to a high strength - you only ever get one mead hangover, and it's an absolute killer.

If you do decide to sell it, let me know about bulk prices. I've been trying to source quite a lot of honey to make mead but there really aren't that many places to get it nearby.

It looks like within the private sector companies will still be able to work their own compulsory retirement policies - Scrapped retirement age will live on in private sector, says expert | Pinsent Masons LLP It's not going to be an easy transition no matter what happens, but changes never really are.

Not necessarily. Entry level jobs are less likely to appeal to experienced older people who are unwilling to work their way back up from square one, so they'll be available. The way that advancement beyond that point happens would change, but people in the main are still going to want to retire from work when they can. There seems to be an assumption that removing the retirement age would automatically mean no one ever again left their job. Some people already work on past retirement, some retire early, and some retire at the retirement age. You may even find that the actual numbers involved would barely change, it just expands people's options and changes the expectations on them.

No. I have no interest in being any sort of miliary official, and no interest in working in the health service. Nor for that matter do I want anyone in the health service who may hold my life in my hands who is not there willingly. Maybe if soldiers were paid a better wage more people would choose to go into military service, but forcing people to do so is immoral.

Isn't it normally defined as national service? In which case you've got a potential method of population control rolled in. I'm very much against the idea of national service myself - largely because I want to minimize in all ways my chances of getting shot, blown up or poisoned. I also don't like being shouted at by people who can order me to be shot, blown up, etc. Now some paid work creation schemes (we could do with more cycle tracks, and a few of the Sustrans tracks were built this way) might be a more effective option. Not compulsory work as such, but a bonus to basic benefits applied to those who can demonstrate a willingness to contribute in return.

The problem comes in with average lifespan increasing, since each year someone lives after retirement they are using money without generating it. In most cases that's a pension, which then becomes a zero-sum game, which works for everyone. As life expectancies rise though the amount people put aside will not increase proportionally, as they will be spending a greater amount of time in retirement. So if someone lives to be 105, and starts their pension at 25, they then work for forty years. If they want a reasonable pension they then need to put away enough to provide them support for another forty years. Not an easy task. There are other considerations as well. Working later in life has been correlated with reducing or delaying dementia, and any reduction here would save a lot (not only money but suffering). Many people do want to continue working after retirement as well. I'm unsure whether I agree or disagree with the idea, just wanted to put forward a few more arguments on the matter.

No, you are implying, or even stating, that most (i.e. over half as you so sharply point out) young people are simply lazy. I dispute that statement - based on the fact that 'most' young people are in employment of some kind. You make no point about it being purely the unemployed who are lazy, and even if you were I would want to see your references for over half of unemployed young people (not inactive) being willingly so. Mixture of things - partly the fact that many did go to university, and coming out were unable to find jobs in their chosen field. Given the student loan it is even easier to fall into the benefits trap, since yet more of your income is taken from you. Not only that, but having chosen to study for several years someone is at a disadvantage over those who have been gaining employment experience. So yes, the push to get everyone into university was a mistake, but blaming the people who were pushed into this decision by the expectations placed on them is entirely missing the point.

Which doesn't mean accusing all youth of being lazy because they don't have jobs is in any way accurate, considered or fair. In fact it stinks of ageism. 2.47 million people unemployed and seeking work in the quarter mentioned. 2.07 million people considered inactive. 0.49 million vacancies. Inactivity is not the same thing as unemployment - inactive refers to people who are of working age, but not employed for various reasons which are considered justified. Which does not mean that all young people fall into this class. On top of which there's the consideration that some of these people would potentially be getting less money overall in return for their work. There are people who do cheat the system, but saying: Displays a willing ignorance of the subject and prejudice against young people.

Camping Gaz? That's not roughing it - if you're not roasting your food on a spear over a roaring bonfire then you're not really camping!

Better still is having both, but experience needs to come before qualifications and you need to be looking at them for the right reason, and with the right approach. Just cramming for the exam not only will harm you in future when it transpires that you don't know what you should, it also devalues the qualifications and all who actually approach them to learn rather than cram. Again this is why you need the knowledge to back up your qualifications, not a list of exam answers stuck in your head. If you do have both the knowledge, and the qualification, you will be well-placed.

I'm still trying to persuade my boss to build us a large-scale non-hazardous liquid coolant storage facility. Olymptic-sized for preference, with a rapid inspection launching platform.

Setting up an open tab for their use at the bar also works, and has the benefit that you're unlikely to suffer consequences as they won't want to upset the gravy train.

Nope, everyone gets intrusive thoughts. Several conditions are linked to them, but only in the sense that being unable to dismiss them can be a problem. OCD, for example, is supposed to be linked to intrusive thoughts which are then reinforced and backed up by actually performing the action (locking the door twice, say). Each time you follow through on these thoughts rather than dismiss them the urge supposedly gets stronger. But no - you're not going loony. I have plenty of aggressive intrusive thoughts while cycling into work. Mainly they involve ripping the wing mirrors off cars which come too close.

While at work? You are aware that bypassing your company proxy in order to do something like this, if detected, would fairly quickly put you up against a disciplinary and could potentially be counted as gross misconduct?

As I'll shortly be setting up my own blog/news site for this sort of thing this is somewhat temporary, but I need somewhere to write rather than forgetting what I plan to put down. A few people are probably already aware that in September I'm planning to carry out a sponsored cycle ride from De Panne to Sluis and back again, with a total distance of 100 miles (the most direct route is a little short, but we'll be going North of Bruges on the way out and South on the way back to bring it up). Since I've so far only been cycling for a month and a bit this may be a little ambitious, but the idea of fundraising is to do something challenging. Trying to get myself sponsored for an eight mile journal would be a little harder - and it's not easy to get sponsorship for the full distance as it is. Luckily I have plenty of time left before I actually leave, which'll hopefully let me beg, cajole, guilt and in other ways persuade people to give the charity money. The charity in question is the Alzheimer's Research Trust, which received a little publicity some time ago as being patronized by Terry Pratchett. Of course publicity does not last long and research into dementia is always underfunded as it is. So a little bit about why I'm doing this. My grandfather was an aeronautical engineer, and contributed a lot to some well known plane designs. Many, many stories were told about this, and we were often taken along to air shows in order to see the planes he worked on (of which my favourite was always the harrier). Some time ago he died, but it is the time leading up to that which is hard for me to talk about. In the runup to his death my grandfather began suffering from dementia. I rarely saw him at this point, but when I did I was lucky in that I saw his lucid moments. What was harder was seeing the effect that this had on the rest of my family, particularly my parents and grandmother. The strain that the illness put on them was frightening, and I worried about their health as much as anything else. This is not a time I particularly want to go into but anyone who has experienced this will know for themselves. Research into dementia is not a popular cause. It does not make headline news and is not even a popular topic of discussion, but this research can make a difference not just to those suffering from dementia but everyone around them as well. So with this in mind I decided to try and raise some money to help. Anything I can hand to the trust will help them fund this research. I am meeting all costs of the trip, and will also be donating what I can, and would ask anyone else who can afford a few pounds to consider sponsoring me at my JustGiving site.

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Please don't! The rack looks so pristine and tidy. Adding cables is only going to make it ugly.

Bike with a bottle dynamo and a little stand to lift the rear wheel from the ground? All you'd need to do would be pedal fast enough while she's using the hair dryer.

I've got a couple of months, so if I batter people over the head enough with it during that time hopefully I'll get some response. I'll be trying to encourage people to use the JustGiving site if I can - saves me hiring any thugs to help me collect sponsorship money. Cynical or not, it's pretty much true. The charity I'm going with is underfunded anyway, as are most charities of it's type. Just making people a little more aware of them would make me feel better, if nothing else. The ride (hopefully) shouldn't be a problem. The lodge is booked for the night's stopover in Sluis and we're borrowing a flat from family members in De Panne for the other two days. The training is another matter, I've got quite a way to go before I'll be comfortable with the idea of 50 miles a day. I think that I can do it, but it's not something I've done before so lots of training is planned. Did that the other day (as you may have guessed, the project's just starting at the moment) and actually had a letter from the trust asking if I'd like a sponsorship pack and t-shirt within a few days. Really wasn't expecting that at all, but it's a nice gesture. I will definitely be taking this bit of advice. I'll see what I can set up this weekend, and if there's a way to get my SportsTracker training data onto a widget or something on the blog. Thank you both.