Today we talked about:

Iranian nuclear scientist killed - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/11/bomb-kills-iranian-nuclear-scientist

Gove to scrap 'boring' IT classes - http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jan/11/michael-gove-boring-it-lessons

Hungary possible bail out

Scotland referendum - http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jan/10/scottish-independence-referendum-autumn-2014

1 in 5 people think fiddling expenses is fine

Raid public sector pensions

Social policy kite marks - http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jan/10/cabinet-secretary-social-policy-kitemark

Mitt Romney winning New Hampshire

Class sizes new challenge

Brazil rainforest being protected

jolly hockey sticks

Social policy kite marks

For only those policies that fly?

Or only for those that came out of blue-sky thinking?

What a load of hot air.

I think my buttons might be back. They seem to be on all threads at the moment... Fingers crossed.

Wow...

Good morning, I wonder if it would be possible to have an articule from the disabled Conservative Councillor Flitcroft, who has decided to step down in protest at Government plans to abolish Disability Living Allowance (DLA).

http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/01/09/tory-quits-in-cuts-protest/

Some editorials and articles offering avuncular advice to the Tories on how to win elections.

Scotland referendum:

1 in 5 people think fiddling expenses is fine

Morning Bella, Morning everyone!
@Serious Suggestion

Give that several larger building firms have cut their central/government contracts down in a bid to save money or in our case generally getting pissed off with building the buildings they planned to spec and then getting blamed for the public outcry when they were too small, drafty etc. who is going to be building all these new houses?

Or

The scourge of bed hair and why it damages the economy. It took 5 minutes to tame my barnet this morning, if we multiply by days I work it's half an hour a week, roughly 2 hours a month and therefore 24 hours a year where I could be working but instead, the time has been wasted sorting my hair out. Mutliply this figure by the number of sufferers of bed hair in the UK and we've got a major problem.

Iranian nuclear scientist killed in Tehran bomb explosion

Let's not forget that this Iranian man is like millions of people in the world who go out to work in other to put food on the table for his family -- he happens to be a nuclear scientist. An ordinary Iranian citizen is brutally killed because of his job preference? -- And this is not the first time. Why are we not condemning such barbaric acts, but instead, boasting about it. What now stops the Iranian or their surrogates from assassinating not just western and Israeli scientists but also business people, tourists, etc?

@Bella

I seem to have my buttons back. Please give Martin a sunflower seed treat and the IT Hamster a peck on the cheek.

Wow 'Gove to scrap 'boring' IT classes', what are they going to replace them with boring Morality in Big Society by Dave?. I loved IT as do many.

I'd like to discuss which sexually deviant things you can describe a poodle doing to a hippopotamus as a simile for the relationship between the government and the financial sector, whilst not getting moderated on cif.

Indeed, I would argue that swearing is often a good clean healthy outpouring of uninhibited fun, and we should be more tolerant of it.

What's with yesterday's Networking article about Ms Hobsbawm?

Mutliply this figure by the number of sufferers of bed hair in the UK and we've got a major problem.

Put them all on the HS2, and open the windows. Should fix it. And you'll be in Birmingham twenty minutes earlier, with HP sauce for breakfast.

You know what would be really great, is a section on CiF with summaries on what has been in the papers in other countries this week, with a focus on Europe. I can read the French papers, but that's it. It would be cool if the Guardian hired some translators/multi-lingual people to do a weekly round-up, so we know what other Europeans are concerned with atm.

Sorry, I know that's not an idea for an article, just putting that out there.

"It took 5 minutes to tame my barnet this morning"

You should get a buzz cut, looks much better on you baldies than a comb-over, you know.

You know that thing boy's comics used to do: 'you are the ref'? They'd set up a situation and invite their readers to interpret the rules and give a decision, then an expert would explain the correct decision. I'd like to suggest 'You are the mod'. Last night I responded to this:

"Ditch the bitch, ditch the bitch, ditch the bitch and make the switch!" Straight men no longer had the monopoly on the brutal wit of stadium sloganeering.

That's not brutal wit, that's being vile.

With this:

No, it's brutal wit. In fact I'm not even sure it's particularly brutal.

It was deleted under the 'community guidelines'. I've studied the rule book carefully but can find no explanation.

I am perplexed.

How about an article putting numbers into context.

For example - SJ has written about the high speed rail project projected to cost £32 billion* - £32 bn just to build a railway line from London to Birmingham - about 120 miles or so - but how many people nowadays actually have a feel for just how astronomical a sum of money that is?

(*Which is far from the largest such sum being chucked around casually in articles and announcements nowadays.)

Familiarity has brought a form of contempt when it comes to such large numbers - people just can't picture how large they are and look at the more reasuring £32, rather than the zeros which follow.

If you translate it into time, though,whilst a million secords is about 12 days, a billion seconds is around 34 years.

As for 32 billion? Well 32 billion seconds ago we were in the year 924. - with over 100 years still to go before the Norman invasions.

So ... an article on numbers may help people actually to visuaise the billions (and trillions) being so casually disposed of by our political masters around the world.

BellaM

What about something on how well it is all going over at Fukushima?

What about the hundreds of thousands of refugees?
What about the cost of the clean up?
What about the ineffectivness of the clean up?
What about the projeced time scale of the clean up?
What about the disproportionate number of men doing the cleaning up?
What about the contamination of the Pacific?
What about all the industry lies and PR spin
What about the Japanese people crumbling belief in the authorities?

What about it?

Dear yeahyeahsure

This site gives links to loads of newspapers which publish in English from all over the world.
Funnily enough some European countries are worse served than places like China.

Worried about your hair?Ever tried varnishing your nails in a hurry? When you take your hands out of your gloves your nails are covered in woolly bits.

He's not bald. He's follically challenged. Leastways, that's what Monsewer le GF always claims when anyone draws attention to his lack of roofing materials.

-The outcasts are rebelling
-Sack them!
-No can do, they have no jobs
-Cut their benefits!
-We can't, they don't get any
-Tear down their homes!
-Impossible, they haven't got any

*pause*

-In that case, we're done for!

From a recent Spanish cartoon.

Are they "English" billions or "American" billions I wonder ?

I got the impression they want to scrap boring IT classes rather than IT classes in general.

Some people would regard referring to women as a 'bitch' as misogynistic or offensive language.
I would have thought that was fairly obvious?

Tim works in the building trade, Bru. Don't reckon he goes in much for nail varnish. I'm surprised he worries about his hair, given that it spends all day under a hard hat.

Mitt Romney - never understood why he lost to John McCain last time round. Not that I'm a Republican sympathiser but I just never understood it.

That's American billions.

If you take an English billion (an Amercan "trillion"), a billion seconds have not yet passed since the first human being was born.

I seem to have my buttons back. Please give Martin a sunflower seed treat and the IT Hamster a peck on the cheek.

I want to know how he managed to squeeze up timthemonkey's wire.

Lagrande

As a self-respecting pirate lover TimMonkey should be used to rough hair (and beards).

32 billion is nothing. The smallest of small change when compared to the projected TRILLIONS required for the completion of the Fukushima salvage plan.

The comparison between Fukushima and the high speed rail project is more apt when you consider that they hope to have Fukushima nicely tidied up sometime around 2070. This is about the same date we can expect to see the first trains running between London and Brum. Probably at a much slower speed than was advertised due to unforseen problems with the rolling stock or leaves or something.

If you take an English billion (an Amercan "trillion")

How much is a Scottish billion?

Some people would regard referring to women as a 'bitch' as misogynistic or offensive language.

So?

That looks very interesting, thank you!

Thanks, kizbot, but that word was in the article and the comment I was responding to (both still there); I didn't even include it in mine.

Now, is the a mechanic or an organ-grinder around? ;0)

American billions are the accepted standard these days, and jolly useful the term is too.

English billions have gone the way of the dinosaurs.

Off topic, I'm breaking out in buttons all over! Hurrah!

It was quoted directly from the article. Maybe the article should have been moderated?

Correct!!

this disability thread is a little off the beaten track and the obvious absence of many regular voices suggests it might help to make a small noise about here

I see Atos are living up to their high standards again. Scandalous.

I had a full blown panic attack in front of an Atos assessor and was so distressed that the receptionist refused to let me travel home alone and called me a cab. I got zero points for mental health and was passed 'fit for work'.

That was after I'd asked for a female assessor (as one of the reasons I'm claiming is for PTSD and other mental health issues after rape), was refused on the day and told if I didn't see the male assessor that my benefits would be stopped without appeal. Terrified I'd end up losing my flat, we soldiered through the assessment , getting the receptionist check online for a Polish-English translation of 'gallbladder' (the other reason I'm claiming) as the assessor didn't know what it was, only for me to freak out completely when he insisted on examining me physically without a chaperone. Despite sobbing and panicking during the exam, he then informed me that because I'd let him touch me, I was obviously lying about being raped and therefore couldn't have any of the mental health issues I said I had because I'd been raped. I was so distressed I don't really remember getting home and was affected for weeks, having to have my meds increased by the doctor.

Just to top it off, he gave me zero points for physical health as well and I had to appeal, leaving me in a financial black hole for months and very grateful for my overdraft.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/discussion/comment-permalink/14073931

Erm, so... It does actually say in the guidelines that this kind of thing is subject to modding..
So I don't get why gb was perplexed and couldn't see why such comments are modded.
What's your point?

Fingers crossed.

You really have to make things difficult for yourself, don't you?

Guys, a US billion is the same as here: 1,000,000,000.

Oh, I see.. the ditch the bitch thing was in an article? and then someone said it was a brutal thing to say and you responded with no it wasn't and only you were modded?
Is that it?

This site is usefull for some countries. But there is more information available about what happens in and around Gibraltar than in Belgium for example. And if you compare the Netherlands with France, for NL there is a site with a daily overview over what the paper say but France will remain a blind spot.
So very patchy

My view of posts that are deleted for no obvious reason, developed over a long frustrating time, is to forget it and get on with my life! It's not worth the worry.

Erm, so... It does actually say in the guidelines that this kind of thing is subject to modding..

What kind of thing? The kind of thing some people would consider misogynistic language or offensive? Do the guidelines supply a list of outlawed terms?

Yep, that's about the size of it. Is there a rule about mere gainsaying? If there is, I'll go quietly...

So everyone has their buttons back?
Martin must have done something! Perhaps he confiscated the hamsters game consoles...

young Liam Wood (13) died playing football. He was frail

An Essex 10 year old died doing compulsory school run She was smaller than other runners. LESSON TO BE LEARNED.

can we have heart tests for school kids on compulsory sport. ?

GABBY LOGAN is supposed to know something about this from an establishment point of view.

She does no challenge bosses publicly (Fears sack, maybe)