Sheaf Saint

http://johnbakersblog.co.uk/odds-of-dying-in-a-terrorist-attack/ To be honest, I couldn't give a toss what the threat level is. There are far more pressing things that I should be worrying myself to death about.

And "you know like"

Or the systematic destruction of all references to the old pagan religions and the demonisation of women during the dark ages even?

But that's all that religions really are. it's just that some cults are a lot bigger than others and have somehow worked their way into global politics. As to the aliens thing, to my mind it is no more irrational or unlikely than the Christian belief that some cosmic Jewish zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat of his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master so he can remove an evil spirit that exists in mankind because some rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat fruit from some magic tree.

I once saw a lorry driving down the M1. Didn't catch the name of the company but underneath it they had their strapline "Transport Workers and Tautliner Specialists" and underneath that in huge bold text they had the acronym for it.... T.W.A.T.S

Rubber dinghy rapids innit!

Winter's Bone This film won best film at the Sundance Film Festival so I thought I would give it a go. It's a bleak story about a 17-year-old girl who is threatened with losing her house after her father put it up as security for bail and doesn't show up for court, so she sets off to try and find him. The lead role is very well portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence and although slow-paced it is very tense and keeps you guessing what's actually going on. It is all inferred and makes you think about it rather than handing you the plot on a plate, and I like that quality in films. The review promised a huge surprise twist which never really appears so I was a little disappointed, but then if I had never read that review then I wouldn't have been expecting anything at the end and would have enjoyed the film all the same. Not everyone's cup of tea I guess. Looking on rottentomates.com, the Daily Mirror critic said that 'movies don't come much duller than this', but I rather suspect he completely missed the point and that's probably why he works for the Mirror and not a proper newspaper. 8/10

Why is a grapefruit called a grapefruit when there is already a fruit called a grape?

I've just finished reading The Age of Absurdity - How Modern Life Makes it Hard to be Happy by Michael Foley. I was expecting it to be a sort of rant/diatribe about modern society in the same vein as the Grumpy Old Men TV series, but it's actually a lot more to do with psychology and the reasons why modern human beings are so irrational and stubborn. Very interesting read. I've now started on Adrian Mole - The Prostrate Years by Sue Townsend. I remember reading the first one (The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 & 3/4) when I was about 12 and loved it, even though I probably didn't get a lot of the adult humour. In this latest chapter of Adrian's life, he is 39 years old, working in a second-hand bookshop and living with his wife and daughter in a converted pigsty on the outskirts of Leicester. I've only got a few pages in so far but already I have had a few LOL moments (whilst on the tram to work, which was quite embarrassing) so I can't wait to read the rest of it.

Not doubting what you say Viking, but I'm curious how he could have had any effect on military pensions when his party wasn't even in power. What did he do exactly?

It's pronounced penn-is-tone

Less than that i reckon. I live all the way out in Beighton and it costs me about £13 for a taxi home. There are plenty of 6-seater black cabs all over the place as well so you won't have any trouble flagging one down.

It was actually as far back as 2003 that he raised his concerns about the future of an economy based solely on debt in the house of commons. Gordon Brown, who was Chancellor at the time, responded by stating that his position was alarmist and completely unjustified. He then went on to claim that he had ended 'boom and bust' and that the UK was 'uniquely positioned' to ride out the economic storm. It still alarms me that this clown was in charge of our economy for 13 years.

What is the point of pigeons?

Where do all the odd socks go when you lose them?

You will find that Sheffield has changed beyond recognition since the early 90s.

Which one is Ant and which one is Dec? 20 bloody years they have been on our TVs and I still don't have a clue.

It scares the bejeesus out of me to think that Palin may one day end up with her finger on the launch button of the world's biggest nuclear arsenal. What worries me even more is that there are millions of Americans who genuinely believe she would make a good president

Not quite... Buddhism is not a theistic religion. The Buddha himself was a man and made no claim to be anything else. Buddhism only teaches a particular way of life centered around the rejection of materialism and the search for enlightenment. Whereas Catholicism demands that you believe some cosmic Jewish zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat of his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master so that he can remove and evil spirit that is present in mankind because some rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat fruit from a magic tree.

I met my girlfriend in a small field in the middle of an industrial estate in Sheffield at about 2am on a sunday morning.

I think he's referring to the fact that gay people do not consciously 'choose' to be gay, despite what you may think.

You state that if the church was to modernise and change its stance on certain things then there would be no Catholic religion, which I understand perfectly, but you then go on to say that you yourself do not hold the same views on subjects like contraception. Far be it from me to knock your (or anyone else's) beliefs but I was wondering how, as a practising Catholic, you manage to reconcile the fact that you hold beliefs which are completely contradictory to that which is taught by the church?

Seasick steve - Big Chill 2007 went along with some mates, had no idea who he was or what he did. Never been a huge fan of blues and I wasn't expecting great things when I saw this old dude in dungarees looking like Uncle Jesse from the Dukes of Hazzard wander on stage with a knackered old guitar sporting only 3 strings. I was utterly blown away by his sheer stage presence despite his appearance, and when you read about the life this guy has lead you realise that his lyrics are all completely from the heart (as all good blues should be). Would recommend to anybody, even if you're not a fan of that genre, to go along and catch one of his gigs if you get the chance. Portishead - Manchester Apollo 2008 Absolutely loved Portishead from the very first time I heard 'Numb' when Laurent Garnier dropped it into his now-legendary radio 1 essential mix in 1994. Never heard anything like it before so I made a point of finding out who it was by and promptly went out and bought a copy of Dummy: an album with which I still have a love affair to this day. I remember watching a video of a live show they did in New York with a full orchestra and wishing that someday I would get to see them live, but I didn't think I would ever get the chance when they split after their second album. So when I heard they were recording a new album and playing at the Apollo - their first UK gig for over 8 years - I had no problem paying OTT price for a pair of tickets off a tout site for me and my GF who also loves them. It was actually breathtaking. Beth came on stage and literally opened up her soul to the microphone, so much so that for most of the gig I had a lump in my throat and I left feeling emotionally drained; it was almost as if I had been crying for the last two hours. In fact, I'm getting shivers down my spine just thinking about it as I type this.

That's weird. As far as I know your ISP shouldn't be just migrating you onto 21CN without informing you. We've had loads of trouble with it so far due to the amount of people using Netgear routers that don't cope very well with ADSL2+ due to th error-correction, and we end up having to send out new routers FOC. Diagnosing faults is a lot harder as well. On the plus side, as long as you are close enough to the exchnage then you should be getting much faster download speeds.