[PM commits suicide on air]

Its easy to think that an aide deliberately didnt remove the mic.

I find the notion that some ppl should be excluded from working in one part of the world based on where they were born both illogical & distastefull.

Besides which, many of the E. European economic migrants have returned & were'nt/aren't undercutting the wage rate anyway but actually working better/harder, ..., which I suppose can be seen as pretty much the same thing.

Meanwhile the UK election results are already in. (fanx to some wag over at Fall Fan Central)

Tw*ts 32

B*stards 30

Scumbags 23

Cynics 11

Arithmetically incompetent 5

This would be funnier if it wasn't almost certainly true.

[Definition sought]

Okay, you Commonwealth word junkies take a shot at this one. What is the distinction between shufti and dekko? They both mean 'take a look' or 'glance', but my sense of it as used in British military slang is that a shufti connotes more of an intentional reconnaissance of something whereas a dekko is more casual and spontaneous. But maybe there really is no difference and I am just imagining one. Anyone care to weigh in on this?

Michael

I'd say you were roughly right, there's little real difference but 'shufti' is possibly slightly 'stronger' than 'dekko'.

Equally, as suggested, neither are much used, ..., tho' I seem to recall such terms being used in the "Only Fools & Horses" TV series.

'Gander' is possibly more common than either but 'butchers', (as in butcher hook - look) is perhaps the most common such term. One 'takes' or 'has' 'a butchers'

I will be consulting my younger more 'street' friends to see what their take on all this is.

Incidently I think 'chap' is regaining some ground, ...., I heard some 'yoot' using 'chapess' only the other day

Izzit!

[Largest earthmover in the world - its BIG]

official 'gabba' net meme status granted

i'd like to very much suspect that the 'godzilla' line was ripped off from bfc

[Xenophobic Irony]

FWIW a month or two back I received a questionnaire from my local Labour MP seeking my views on immigration, am I concerned about it?, should they be required to speak English?, should immigrants be subjected to a specific extra tax? etc

Last week I again received a similar questionnaire from the same source, basically asking the same questions though the 'tax on immigrants' question had been dropped

It’s bloody depressing to see the party decide exactly how racist they're prepared to be in order to counter the likes of the BNP

Interestingly neither questionnaire sought views on immigrants becoming MPs, ..., Gisela Stuart is my M, she was born & raised in Germany

[Want to go up in the world?]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/guide/magrathea.shtml

with added audio from the original programme

Cheers! (!!!)*

* extra post length compliance characters

[Want to go up in the world?]

Dubai/Abu Dhabi = Magrathea

[Knife Identification Advice]

Your friend's granpa could just as well have bought or otherwise 'acquired' it from Germany after the war was over, or won it in a game of poker in a French brothel. The knife offers very little clue to that, unless that engraving is some kind of cryptic hint carved by the pops himself.

But if your friend knows his grandfather's name, birth date and where he lived at the time, it should be relatively easy to find out to which unit he was put and then trace the unit's adventures. I'm sure that someone here or at some veteran association over there can help more with the 'how to' specifics.

thanks for advice

like here? (as a grandson he doesnt count as 'next of kin')

http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/public/general-public.html

[Knife Identification Advice]

The Iron cross engraving is from WW1 1914 it seems to say, that's all I can see.

yeah, ..., one can easily imagine Hans Sr handing it to Hans Jr when he set off to war in '39/whenever, where he used it till an allied soldier took it from his cooling corpse, ..., but that just my imaginings

I was hoping that it might be identifible to a unit or unit type & hope that the son was in a similar unit whose combat history was known, ..., or summat like that.

I suspect I'm being way too optimistic, but if any collective would be likely to be able to identify it then I'd like to think the bfc collective was 'up to it' etc

Like I said the bloke has, seemingly, very very little to go on.

[Knife Identification Advice]

Over at some other forum a bloke is trying to piece together the story of his grandfathers military service starting with very very little information

Could anyone here say owt about this knife

Presumbly this was a trophy as he fought for the allies in WW2.

Also could you recommend a good site for aiding the identifiction of medals/ribbons. Is this one rated do you know?

http://www.omsa.org/forums/showthread.php?t=83

Thanks in advance.

[Crying..Brave Man Leaps Off Cliff For Girl making People Laugh N Cry. OMG]

I still don't understand the purpose of the video. If this is a 'viral marketing campaign' what is it designed to promote or accomplish?

Two charities

St Jude's Children's Research Hospital & Livestrong (the Lance Armstrong Foundation)

It seems that boards with the embedded yt vid capibility havent been targeted

Either way its been deemed 'fail' by nearly everyone, ..., its the music that i find the most objectionable myself

still no publicity is bad publicty etc, ...,

[Orbital Ultima]

one of his associated firms has just laid off a mate of mine

still he had a good time with them, ..., including fliying on some kind of hi-spec lear jet fingy

[Olympics; Phelps going for the Medal Record]

search me? they have never fielded a serious squad in the history of the games

maybe if Kabaddi was an olympic sport?

they play it at the asia games..

Boris

London

I seem to remember when Channel4 used to show Kabaddi, (& Sumo, not so 'alternative' now are they). I've even seen kids playing it in the streets of Brum

but I'll see yer Kabaddi & raise you the even more obscure

Sepak Takraw, ..., which looks hamstring injuryingly top notch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De9xT9VQHxs

p.s. the leaks on the brit bit of the closing ceremony of the first international Guess the Age of the Little Girl championship have cracked me up, queues, brollies, bike couriers, democratically manufactured pop stars, bowderised grizled hairy old men, buses, Becks, BoJo & best of all the shipping forecast. Summat for us all there surely?

All together now "Viking, Dogger, German Bight, ..."

[Olympics; Phelps going for the Medal Record]

midi

first fanx for the assorted clarifications & i agree with yer views on ice dancing.

I still think that the degree to which a performance deviates from an ideal can only be a subjective judgement

because they don't give a sh*t?

but why doesnt india care?

Its not as if sport in general is an anathema in India, f'instance the exceedingly well funded new 20/20 league.

Indian society also doesnt seem to be lacking in patriotic fervour, nor a TV audience.

Yet they sent only 57 atheletes whilst Jamacia & Kenya sent 56 each f'instance.

Meanwhile heres another alt medal table that includes by team size & gender

http://www.billmitchell.org/sport/medal_tally_2008.html

There must be an historical one somewhere

[Olympics; Phelps going for the Medal Record]

If the flexibility of youth is an advantage then why isnt there lots of 16 year old male gymnasts?

Why, given their population do India do so nadly in the medals tables?

Eh? You're contradicting yourself there dude. How do you think people get points in points events? Oh, right, the judges give them to the athletes. What are the judges doing in ymnastics? Oh, right, giving points to the athletes so the one with the most can be declared winner*. Isn't that what you wanted?

Jon

* glossing over that whole count back farce - feck it, if two athletes got the same result, give 'em both a medal.

I dunno, ..., f'instance IIUC in boxing although the judgement is subjective there is an underlying objective fact. Whereas gymnastic 'execution' or 'artistic interpretation' seem to me to be entirely subjective.

Its one thing to argue that "We wuz robbed" coz the ball did/didnt cross the line but such debate is meaningless in gymnastics, ice dancing etc

As for sailing, ..., its definately a crap spectator sport, ..., even the commentators seem at a loss as to whats going on

As for the 2012 post-modern pentathlon other likely events incude Rock Pasper Scissors, (which wont favour the seps coz, bizarely, as a class the know NTFA of rock), distance vomiting, synchronised crisp eating, the 109 yard 1 inch moan & whinge

yes they tested positive for "hay" class drugs

Boris

London

edit: disclaimer original joke not mine

GO & STAND IN THE CORNER!

[Olympics; Phelps going for the Medal Record]

oooh, ..., population/gdp/overfingies adjusted medal tables

http://c4news.com/livepages/olympics2008/c4/olympicsResults.html

If its being argue that Phelps' tally is/isnt falsely inflated by the breakdown of the the events within swimming then surely the fact that he didnt compete in all the strokes matters.

Personally I think theres too many variants in the velodrome.

I've really enjoyed the swimming marathons with their epic finishes & tales of courage, amputation & cancer plus the in-built argy-bargy of the event.

I've also enjoyed the beach volleyball despite the adjacent game of musical chairs, ..., never realised it was an Olympic sport.

I hear that London is talking of the 4 X 3 fingered dagger relay, the 24 hour surveillance on a closed circuit & instead of a 20km walk a 4 hour standing still coz of traffic

[The forum complaints thread.]

is this the right room for an arguement?

no, this is complaints!

ok seeing how i'm here

the page turn dropping you at the bottom of a page is annoying & surely unnecessary, ..., no other vb forum i've seen does it & bf is a puter company afterall & so it seems a bit 'unprofessional'

worrying about the edit timeout on the basis of preventing ppl from rewriting history seems a moot point & bloody odd given that the whole gf has been flushed , ..., again, ..., i wouldnt mind that much but wasnt it expressly stated that this wouldnt happen? I'm sure it was, ..., in fact i can remember thanking the mods for it.

Either way I mourn the loss of some great threads purely as a resource, ..., the GM hydrogen fuelled car one springs immediately to mind

I suppose that as a very minor member i suppose i've no real claim to a right to moan like this, ..., especially as really I'm gratefull that it still exists at all & can benefit from the collectives thoughts on all fings, ..., so thanks to the mods/bf for the forum

talking of the collectives forts on all fings, ..., wheres the traditional annual le tour thread? I blame boris' personality transplant

[The web site is down]

i don't get it