Chindie

The guy that plays Loris Tyrell in Game of Thrones (the gay knight) has been confirmed to play Danny Rand, the Iron Fist, in Iron Fist by the looks of things. Either he's secretly Bruce Lee, or this show is gonna need some bloody good stuntmen and body doubles. The whole point is he's an insanely good martial artist. All he'd have to do otherwise is basically be Tony Stark crossed with Spiderman.

He'd have to certifiable to hang around for a second after the final whistle at Arsenal. I sincerely hope he does, and I'd have an immeasurable amount of respect for him if he did, but he's been given a fools errand here.

Watching the Daredevil trailer again, I'm still not feeling Elektra. There's more than a little mahogany going on there... The casting in all of Netflix's Marvel stuff to date has been pretty solid (I still think Foggy is... a weaker cast member let's say) but Elektra looks a miss at the moment. If that's the case I hope she's very much supporting cast. Saying that I'd have said that even if the best actress on the planet was playing her.

More Elektra focused second trailer. Looks decent although seems like theres potentially a lot going on in this series. Early reviews have also come out which seem to suggest the series suffers from the same issues as the first but also has the same positives to weigh those out. Also new suit for Murdock. Sort of. Still not exactly the traditional look, but they'll never do that so this is close enough. Looking forward to it.

As a tester I ran a quote at a meerkat related price comparison site last night on a really standard Polo of the type I'd look at. £1,500. Hahaha. I'll readjust the sights and go again!

The (paid) DLC is apparently very, very good, so consider dropping a few quid on that - at the moment only the first pack is out which is IIRC a 10hr campaign either difficulty ramped up a bit. I'm waiting for the second to drop before diving into them both. The free DLC isn't bad either but it's mostly a few one off missions at best an hour long. Such a good game though. Easily top 3 last year and probably not far off that for the generation to date for me.

I probably wouldn't get the benefit from a diesel as my driving is going to be 95% urban journeys with probably no more than an hours run at a time. But Renault's are in the radar. I always quite liked the early 00s Megane and Clio.

Yeah I know the VAG family thing. Polo - Fabia - Ibiza, etc. My brother, who is more of a petrol head than me, is gonna give me a hand.

Both albums a year old but only just gt round to them. And they're bloody good.

Much appreciated. I'm bound to end up crashing it so I'll be looking under a grand I think. It'll just be used for commuting, as the bus can **** off frankly at this point, and general running about. Needs to be reasonably practical as it'll be a shopping mobile and perhaps holiday transport. Basically, a hatchback then. It's gonna be a Polo

Being good at cold calling and enjoying it are rare skills. I've had experience of a couple of places where they do seem to find people that can hack it and don't seem to turn over staff quickly which is very, very unusual. It's so far removed from my mindset I'm amazed anyone can do it day to day for years. My own career is back to it's rollercoaster usual style, when I moved in the summer I gambled on a temporary role which has been extended a few times with the promise of maybe a permanent role, but now we're really approaching the end game of that and I'm having to look elsewhere to cover my arse really. It's awkward. I don't want to leave really, and it's probably in my interests not to - I'm picking up experience of wider areas, as till now I've been very specialised, but I'm still not an expert in them. And I've effectively shifted into a different role which again I'm just picking up. But, might not have much choice about it. On the plus side I do see myself switching roles in the industry significantly in the future and this could be the opportunity to do it... And I must do something right CV wise as my phone rings off the hook every day with recruiters.

What's a good first car these days? I finally passed my driving test and have just realised that I have absolutely no idea what are and are not decent first cars now... My family has always had a strange affinity with VW so I subconsciously lean towards an early 00s Polo or something, but for all I know now that could be a time bomb or an enormous cash sink.

McGregor has had 8 fights scheduled in the UFC, and 4 have had opponents pull out now. That's ridiculous. Its getting more and more common for fights to get bumped or pulled at the last minute in the UFC, it's getting silly.

It's a couple of things for me. The first series was a classic whodunnit really, but very tangible as well. You could instantly grasp the ideas in play and it's not an abstract idea - a young girl is murdered in a western city, the accused might not have done it, and each week we'll examine the evidence with interviews from a small group of interested parties. The second is a bit aimless, the idea seems to be to try to understand why Bergdahl did what he did, but that mystery isn't tangible, and there's too many people involved, and it's all a bit dull. The second thing I've concluded is that the first series has it's producers more engaged. They did everything, they took out from square one and were obsessed with it, Koenig was absolutely obsessed with Adnan and the case. Whereas the second stinks of them bumming around trying to think of a follow up that would pass muster, struggling, and having this story drop on their lap by someone who wants to publicise the story for a documentary. They aren't invested, it's largely a story everyone already knows and noone cares what Bergdahl was thinking when he wandered off... So it's a bit meh.

The second series falls off a cliff. Goes from absolutely riviting to mildly interesting occasionally.

The Parapod is worth a listen. 2 comedians, Ray Peacock and Barry Dodds, discuss hauntings and strange rituals (think stupidly elaborate versions of Bloody Mary games). But that's not really the point. Barry is a bit thick and a believer in hauntings and the paranormal, Ray is an absolute skeptic, and most episodes quickly descend into pisstaking, which can be very funny. They also do short extra episodes where they look at the ghost hunting equipment Barry has which are worth a listen as well.

Ah I see. I don't think they'll go down that route. Certainly not with anything on the current slate. The Netflix stuff fills the more adult quota. As for Black Panther, it's going to differentiate itself just be being about a fundamentally different type of hero. A black African superhero is enough to set it apart. It won't be enough to make it into a massive massive success but then it's never going to be so I doubt they care. Black Panther is more about just expanding the world the movies exist in, he's another cog that slides into the machine. It'll be interesting though, particularly if they lean heavily on the stuff where Black Panther isn't in America.

Iron Man 3 rounds off Tony Stark as a character, his actions after that movie make more sense after seeing that basically the events of the Avengers and Iron Man 3 shape who he is going forward - I don't think the Stark of the first film acts like I suspect he will in Civil War, for instance. But in the grand scheme of things again it's not an important element of the series so far. I generally agree with v4e beyond that. The lynchpin of Phase 2 is Cap 2, which kinda acts like Avengers 1.5 in some ways but merges that with political thriller tropes. It's one of the best movies of the lot and very rewatchable I've found. I should add that they can't do anything with Deadpool. He's considered part of the XMen franchise so that's Fox owned property.

Bits of Thor 2 don't make sense if you've not seen the Avengers, nothing in the main plot really but there's characters and references that you won't understand if you've not seen the Avengers. Cap 1 introduces the MacGuffin for the Avengers and helps explain Caps character, which is a running gag/theme of every film he appears in after, particularly providing a set up that is/will be very important in movies that follow, and various references in the later movies, some of which are fairly important. Nothing you can't pick up by reading a plot synopsis though. Saying that Cap 1 is good fun so worth watching, although it is the Marvel film that seems to divide people more than others - some think it's one of the best, some think it's one of the worst. Rule of thumb - everything post Avengers 1, watch the Avengers first. Of the entire run, the ones that you can skip (to date anyway, they may become more important as the movies go on) are the Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2. The Hulk is just a Hulk movie and so far the only tie in has been a single joke in the Avengers and a supporting character appearing again in Civil War. Iron Man 2 is pointless in the scale of the series besides introducing Black Widow, its only redeeming feature being some nice set pieces. Guardians of the Galaxy is currently skippable in the grand scheme of things but is brilliant and will be more important as Phase 3 goes on.

My house isn't exactly the most modern, we don't have central heating for instance. It's something that's always been on the agenda and then never done. So basically the only real heat source in the house is a gas fire in the living room. The house is also inherently quite cold. Typically I come home today and the fire won't work, which it does every now and then, and also it looks like the water tank has leaked based on the way wallpaper being wet below it and the smell of wet plaster... Seems even the house is saying to me just pony up for the heating you idiot.

The FBI want to use this to set a precedent in the future that if they would like to access an iPhone, they will be able to access an iPhone. They don't like the idea there's information they can't have. This is the perfect excuse to strong arm the key they want. Apple also have a stake in making sure they don't cooperate. They've pushed encryption as a big feature for the more security and tech minded audience in recent years. It somewhat undermines that if they say it's encrypted apart from the fact we have the key to unencrypt it the moment someone asks with a big stick.

He regularly does it in the comics. To the extent he knows he's in a comic book..

But what about trade with the Germans increasing in cost by 15% (hypothetical) because we're outside the EU now. Or the French getting arsey and selling their goods elsewhere at a better rate than they'll give us? Or the Italians deciding it makes more sense to but that product from Spain now because it's easier. And so on and so forth. We might gain £192m in our pocket on the face of it, but once you do sums don't be surprised if you lose more. And that's only taking the easy trade angle.

My point is that just saying 'we give the EU £X and the EU gives us back <£X' doesn't tell the whole story because the UK will gain from trading within the EU as well as directly receiving from the EU. I wanted to know if those figures actually take into account 'monies' we receive as a direct result of being a member that are not actually issued by the EU.

Does this account for what we get back that does not come centrally from the EU?