pap

Foxconn, a company that makes iPads for Apple, is planning on replacing the "nearly its entire factory workforce" with robots by 2014.

Agree with the sentiments of the campaign. Let's face it, representative democracy isn't working, can't work and can never work. Something like this would be a real upgrade to our democracy.

I have a real soft spot for the Saints Row games. While SR2 isn't technically as impressive as GTA4, I had a lot more fun with it. So much cool stuff to do, doesn't take itself seriously and a ton of customisation options ( designing your own gang cars is very cool ).

Transport Tycoon is an excellent game, and I wholeheartedly endorse the open source version. If you are into this sort of thing, I highly recommend Sid Meier's Railroads! Although you're constrained to one form of transport, it is a really engaging game.

So, an update on this. Obama strikes deal to end US debt crisis The US will not default on its loans this time, but it will be borrowing another $2trillion. I'm still flabbergasted that they even need to do this, as the US really has everything it needs to live within its means.

How come no-one has mentioned the name of this family yet? The Echo has been pretty vague on it, but surely individual crimes are a matter of public record...

And what effort is that, exactly? So far, your net contribution to this thread has been slagging off my posts or slagging me off personally. Your very first post is a swipe, you're not coming up with points of your own, save knee-jerk reactions or a suggestion that somehow we "teach" the Spanish that they shouldn't be unkind to 11 year olds. Apart from your interaction with me or the things I've said, you have nothing to say on this thread. If those are your 'efforts', I'm not going to lose any sleep at not being worthy of them.

And in the interests of full disclosure, I admit I am now a fish on dune's hook. A tiddler maybe, but caught.

You mean, there was no hypocrisy.

So the 11 year old kids organised themselves, did they? They sorted out the travel arrangements, and presumably decided to set up the team in the first place ( perhaps when they were sperm )? I give my 11 year old a lot of leeway, but I draw the line at letting her organise international sports tournaments at letting her nip off on on her own.

Nice to see that we have some 'reasoned' debate on here, and not resorting to mud-slinging. Can you please point out the rank hypocrisy of my first post? I think I missed it.

Scotland is completely irrelevant. Start a new thread if you're feeling hard done by, chaps.

Went out to see Captain America today. Apart from the first two Spider-Man films, probs my fave Marvel adaptation to date, and I'm not really into Captain America.

Nope, not at all. Scotland belongs to the Scottish.

The whole situation is ridiculous. If Gibraltarians are so British, why are they parading about as Gibraltar? In Spain? This is asking for trouble, and if you expect high-minded ideals to come from all sections of the Spanish populace, I don't want to see what you've asked Father Christmas for this year. The simple fact is that in terms of landmass, Gibraltar is attached to Spain. Before the nob-end collective throw the book at the Spanish, maybe you'd like to consider how you'd feel if our backyard had a contingent of Spaniards claiming sovereignty on a piece of the British Isles. Gibraltar is a very important piece of military real-estate. That is all. If people want to live there, great - but they shouldn't be surprised when they roll into Spain taking the p*ss and don't get a warm welcome.

Doesn't matter. All part of the EU now anyway. Hope you catch a couple of fish with this though, Dune.

I've been over a few times. The space they have over there is unbelievable. There's one place I've been to a couple of times where literally everyone lives in the suburbs, and the downtown area looks like something from a zombie film. They are so dependent on fuel it's unreal.

In the next few hours, US politicians have an important decision to make. Congress needs to approve the raising of the debt ceiling. This is the amount of money that the USA can borrow. The United States already has a debt ceiling of around 15 Trillion Dollars. They are looking to increase it so that they can continue living as they do, with some commentators saying that failure to get the required borrowing would be catastrophic. Surely this is a Band-Aid on a Band-Aid? Shouldn't the fact that the US needs this increase to survive be raising alarm bells? Shouldn't they be re-evaluating where the money is going? Shouldn't they have a plan to get out of this crisis? Isn't there an inherent conflict of interests when the "leader of the free world" owes a ton of money to a country which is essentially a dictatorship? Personally, I think the US needs to take a real look at WHY it needs this money. On a similar note, so do we.

Sexism is alright, is it? Just trying to establish ground-rules.

For the record, who is this so-called Liberal Elite? Name names.

Nice. I had a good moment today. I have two scouse kids. Little beggars they are, but what can you do? The youngest has already declared for Liverpool FC and I assumed the eldest had done the same. It transpires that "Well, if I HAD to support anyone, it would be Southampton". That's good, isn't it?

Yup. Especially if they're already making you drive out to the country so they can pretend to be a 19th century middle-class couple for a few hours, where the only place to drink or stay is the big fecking castle that you have to pay £150 notes to stay in.

From my experience, it goes one of two ways. I've pretty much kept my Southampton accent; it gets nursed back to full health whenever I go back home. My best mate, who moved to Liverpool a year after I did, sounded like a third-rate comedian trying to do a scouse accent. I had a constant fear that someone was going to say "you taking the ****" and fill us on nights out. He's now leaving near Reading. It got better.

You're entitled to your opinions gents, but I'm not posting out of desire to smear individual posters. Frankly, I do think that some of the stuff on this thread has been racist, ignorant or both.

Here is the dictionary definition of race:- 1. A local geographic or global human population distinguished as a more or less distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics. 2. A group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographic distribution: the German race. 3. A genealogical line; a lineage. 4. Humans considered as a group. 5. Biology a. An interbreeding, usually geographically isolated population of organisms differing from other populations of the same species in the frequency of hereditary traits. A race that has been given formal taxonomic recognition is known as a subspecies. b. A breed or strain, as of domestic animals. 6. A distinguishing or characteristic quality, such as the flavor of a wine. It's pretty clear from this definition that travellers, or at least certain specific sections of them, such as Roma, can be termed a race.