Clarkkent
-
Posts
1,410 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Never
Posts posted by Clarkkent
-
-
Don't bananas have to be kept refrigerated or else they go soft and mushy?
-
[quote user="AnOther"]
It would help if our dear Emma, the author of the article, understood the issue and thought it through properly.[/quote]
To be fair (and I never thought that I would say that about a Daily Mail reporter) Emma is only repeating (or reporting) the ideas of the Intergenerational Foundation.
[quote user="AnOther"] "On the one hand she complains of older people squatting in large multi bedroom properties and proposes help and encouragement for them to downsize, and on the other complains that "House ownership is virtually unaffordable for younger people in the parts of Britain where there is work." [/quote]
I am one of these older (not that I could ever pass for being old) people squatting in a large house. In general, it could be said that I am well off; in reality I am asset rich but cash poor.
My son and his partner cannot afford to buy a house of their own. One way that I can help them is by selling my own house so as to release equity and give me a pile of cash which could help them buy their first home. This leaves me with the problem of finding somewhere to live and I am likely to be in competition with my son for a suitable house. One solution would be for me to look for accomodation in a "retirement village" such as this. These places are thin on the ground at the moment, but with a growing over-60 element of the population may become a sensible solution (though not everyone would want to be surrounded by elderly neighbours).
[quote user="AnOther"]There are no quick fixes for the totally dysfunctional UK housing market. It's like dieting, short of shock starvation it takes at least as long to lose weight as it does to put it on - and UK has been gorging for decades. [/quote]Absolutely true. And it needs a firm policy decision - and action - from the government to ensure the problem does not get worse.
-
I have constructed a website using Serif Webplus X4 - a later version is now available. It is not expensive (well, compaired with DreamWeaver) and fairly easy to use. It is reasonably intuitive and it did not take me very long to get to grips with it.
-
Since Kraft took over Cadburys they've been putting kryptonite into the Dairy Milk.
-
I can personally attest to the fact that packages containing Cadbury's chocolate can be sent from Britain to Japan with NO POSTAGE STAMPS at all.
Mind you, it takes three months!
-
Wow! I can't remember anything until I was about three.
-
[quote user="Joe"]I second that comment.When I was a slip of a thing,Cod Liver Oil and Malt extract were order of the day.Tasted awful but it set us up for coping with the "bugs"? that my generation used to get as kids,so much so in the mid 70's when our 2 daughters were very young,we gave them Sco...s Emulsion.They hated it but I would like to think it done the trick.[/quote]
The best protection you could have given your daughters would have been to breast feed them (or to ensure that they were breast fed).
-
All mail betwen Britain and France goes by air and has done so for many years.
-
Aren't we lucky to have the Daily Mail. And aren't we fortunate that it employs English graduates to tell us the kernal truth in a 37 page long scientific review paper.
What really surprises me however, is they didn't take the opportunity to grab our attention with more headlines like "Not Ironing Increases MRSA Death Risk" or "Hanging Out Washing Saves Lives". Both of which are reasonable (in DM terms) given the content of the original paper.
The Conclusions of the original paper contains the following:
"... Unfortunately, the data is not sufficient to make any quantitative assessment of the risks in terms of the impact of promoting effective laundry practices on disease rates. Although it seems likely that the risk is significant, the “daily life risks” are probably somewhat less than those associated with hands, hand contact and food contact surfaces and cleaning cloths which are seen as the key routes of infection transmission.
...
The extent to which outer clothing might ... act as a vehicle for transmission from one person to another during daily life is impossible to assess from the available data. Although there is a possibility that this could occur, further studies ... are needed to assess whether there is evidence of real risk ..."
The original paper was posted on 1 April (though I don't think that that is significant) so it is clear that the DM has its finger on the pulse of cutting-edge science.
-
[quote user="sid"]
... and in my view it was better than sitting around for an hour or more for the Alcoholics Anonymous or any of the others to turn up, which has been my unfortunate experience in the UK.
[/quote]
Well, we all have our different experiences.
My most recent encounter with the RAC involved the breakdown van appearing in half the time the control said, and quickly getting my car started. The mechanic advised to to contact a garage of my choice, followed me as I drove to the garage, explained the fault in detail to the garage owner and then took me home in his van. I had been at a pub a few miles from my home when my car wouldn't start.
-
L'Aiffricaine
Where is she ? What does she looks like? Has anyone seen a photos of her ?... Or does he keep her in the cupboard to be taken out only on a sunny day. There has been photos of the Werritys in some of the UK papers and also on the BBC 24 hours news channel but Mrs Fox remains an elusive one... Maybe she's a vixen ... so beware ...
Why don't you just go to the Daily Mail link that RH provided. There is a photo of Mr & Mrs Fox on their wedding day. I suspect that Mrs Fox is keeping her head down as Director of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.
I have little time for Liam Fox's political views - but as for his sexuality? The Mail article reeks of sly innuendo. What grown adults choose to do with the contents of their underwear is none of anyone else's business.
-
[quote user="Russethouse"]
As some one else said, how convenient for Ed Balls that this takes the spotlight away from his lacklustre performance...
[/quote]
I know that it is only a minor point, but I don't think that you should blame Mr Balls for the shortcomings of Mr Milliband.
-
Isn't it a little early to be talking about an Indian Summer? I always thought that it was associated with St Martin's day in November and is sometimes called St Martin's summer.
-
[quote user="Gardian"]It stinks.[/quote]
Possibly. I wonder why?
I suspect that Liam Fox wanted someone he felt comfortable with to act as a sounding board for ideas. Someone who wasn't a politician or a civil servant or in the military, an intelligent man in the street. His long term friend fitted the bill. And then it just grew, and Werrity became an indispensible adjunct.
Of course, I may be wrong.
Another thing that may also be stinking is the Opposition front bench. I suspect, also, that they saw an opportunity for mischief making that would deflect attention away from their not-very-scintillating lame duck of a leader. Yhis does strike me as being something of a manufactured crisis.
Either way, Liam Fox does seem to have dug himself a hole and has fallen into it. Will he be helped to climb out?
-
Sorry - bad joke. I was referring to Dick Smith's avatar. I hadn't notices the dates of the earlier postings.
-
So that's Hoche?
I always thought he looked better with the beard and Panama.
-
Bravo Woolybanana's friend. You have expressed my own feelings far more eloquently than I could.
Posts on this thread have reminded of Oscar Wilde's characterisation of a cynic: someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
-
[quote user="Quillan"]
SKY and the law. If you use a SKY card, even though you don't pay for it monthly there are terms and conditions to which you must adhere. Part of that, which by actually using the card, you agree to is that you are resident in the UK or NI, the proof of this is try and get a 'free view' card from SKY sent to a none UK address. Legally this is a contractual thing between the user of the card and SKY. Technically if they catch you with one of their cards abroad, even if it is a 'free view' card you have broken your contract with them and is a civil law problem (i.e. breach of contract). A few years ago they did some raids in Spain, mainly bars but some individuals were caught as well. You don't go to prison, your just fined but if you don't pay up and the individual country has an extradition agreement with the UK they could put you in UK prison for non payment of fines.
[/quote]
This is where we need to be clear. I'm not a lawyer but I know the distinction between criminal law and civil law.
If it is a breach of civil law you are not fined but may be sued for damages and this is of no concern to the state. (In days gone by, people were imprisoned for debt - they were sent to prison by the person they owed money to. If they managed to settle the debt they were released.) To the best of my knowledge no-one can be extradited for not winning a civil case. I suspect that if there were criminal procedings associated with the Spanish cases they were concerned with copyright theft (not having the right to show the programmes in public) and not just watching Sky programmes.
-
Many TVs have a HDMI socket on the side. If your DVD is Blu-ray connect it to this, if not then use a SCART. Connect your Humax to the HDMI on the back.
-
It would seem that the Daily Mail invents news.
Last night, shortly after the decision in the Italian Appeal Court, the Mail's website showed a front page story - filled with detail - about the judges confirming Amanda Knox's guilt.
This can be seen at http://www.mailwatch.co.uk/
It was changed to a story which reflected the actual events a few minutes later.
-
[quote user="Quillan"]
If you remember I posted about this at the beginning of the year. I would like to see what the 'judges' actually said because yes, your right, it could mean that 'we' could get Sky quiet legally now outside the UK. On the other side of the coin did I not read (somewhere on this forum if memory serves) that they are going to 'move' satellite again making the 'foot print' even smaller so the whole thing about Sky becomes irrelevant as you wouldn't be able to view it anyway?
[/quote]
This matter does not have any legal implications for people receiving Sky signals outside the UK. It has always been perfectly legal so to do. There is no UK or French law which says you cannot do this.
The point in this case is that the landlady was giving a public performance of material that BSkyB believed that it had the sole rights to in the UK.
-
[quote user="Anton Redman"]Can you avoid the interest charges if you prepay in the cash you are going to draw abroad ?[/quote]
I can see them making a small fortune out of transaction charges! Euros to sterling; sterling to euros.
I use a CaxtonFX card which I preload. But it has to be preloaded with amounts not less than the equivalent of €150 and at their exchange rate. However, I am not charged to withdrawing cash at hole-in-the-wall machines. [8-)]
-
The pub landlady who used a Greek source for TV relays of England football matches in her pub has won her case at the European Court of Appeal.
Is this another nail in the coffin of the Murdoch empire?
-
I can find aspirin and paracetamol in Tesco or Sainsburys. I cannot find them in Geant or Leclerc. What I can find in French supermarkets are scores of preparations which claim to make my stomach flatter or my brain more active or my breasts more pointed (well, if I were that way inclined, perhaps) or whatever - all products which are palpably useless but which pander to some supposed insecurity.
Aspirin and paracetamol can only be obtained from a pharmacy as far as I am aware. No appropriate mechanism for forcing down their cost. [8-)]
Why not encourage "older" people to top themselves and be done with it?
in Other Topics
Posted
I'd be inclined to be very wary of those places.
The management charges (garden maintenance and communal areas, eg) could be disproportionately high.
Also, if you do become unable to look after yourself, I believe that they ship you off to some home anyway where you might be neglected, or ill-treated at worst and condescended to at best.
Also, these "units" (can't dignified them by calling them "homes") can be difficult for you or your dependents to sell on at a later date.
That's the worst case scenario but, the ways things are going, who's to say the "worst case" might not become the inevitable?[+o(]
[/quote]
Are you speaking from direct knowledge or hearsay?
There is a commercial property development company which is relatively well-known in Britain which, I think, does conform to some of the characteristics you mention. I have a friend who is currently trying to disentangle her mother from this company and is finding it difficult.
The scheme that I linked in my earlier post is, I consider, rather different. It is one of five being developed by Birmingham City Council in conjunction with housing associations and a charity called Extra Care. I know someone in an Extra Care facility (not in Birmingham) and is very satisfied with her life. It is quite likely that the unacceptable conditions which you describe may not be found in these places. My mother spent the last 20 or so years of her life in a housing association sheltered complex - and found it a happy and fulfilling experience.
In my earlier post I was talking about the problems which may face me if I made a particular decision.