HanoiVillan

Shouldn't have happened, but such are the glories of the PREVENT programme. Pretty obvious that the 'extremist website' that concerned the school will have the been the EDL rather than UKIP.

So, check this out guys: One reporter for the Very Serious publication named 'Business Insider' decided to go and visit Apple's offices in Ireland. Sadly, they refused to let him enter any of their buildings, but did he let that stop him? Did he ****. Our hero filed a brave photojournal anyway. Extracts: 'The buildings in Hollyhill aren't particularly high, but they're incredibly long when measured horizontally' This lamppost on the Hollyhill campus had a strange glass window with something metal on the inside. It could have just been a switch, but it could also be something more exciting. This shelter was also in the car park, although it's unclear why it's there or who is meant to use it. This was the only sign of technology that I saw on my quick walk around Athenry. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- There's more, oh so much more, at the link. Do yourself a favour, it's brilliant: http://uk.businessinsider.com/apples-growing-irish-empire-in-pictures-2016-2?r=US&IR=T

What do we know about this guy? I mean I guess he probably hasn't ordered any protesters to be tortured, so I favour him on that score more or less by default. But is he in fact as much of a turd as Salman?

I just wanted to chip in here and encourage everyone to take ten minutes and listen to @markavfc40's interview with Tom Ross on the link above. The interview starts about five minutes in. It's a wonderful interview, partly because it goes on for ten minutes and is quite wide-ranging, rather than being the soundbite-driven style you so often get. Instead, they cover quite a lot of issues, and I think it stands as a testament to exactly where we are as a club at the moment. The frustration with our mis-management is so obvious, and very eloquently expressed. I think it's a great advert for this protest, but even if you don't agree with the protest, I'd encourage you to listen and hear where we're coming from. You'll find a lot to nod along to even if you aren't on board with the walkout. EDIT: That link above doesn't work for some reason, here it is: http://www.freeradio.co.uk/football/ - you need to click on 'Listen: Friday' and then Mark starts 5 minutes in.

Agreed.

No, you're not being simple, and yes the NFL has a commissioner, by the name of Roger Goodell. I think familiarity with his life and career would indicate why he would never ever ever take drastic steps like suspending the team, and to be honest I'm not really keen on such a massive move, not least because it's simply not going to happen, but also because it would risk creating a backlash that was ultimately counter-productive. Instead, the hope is that Dan Snyder, the owner of the team in question and the man who more immediately has the power to 'make it so', simply comes to his senses and stops trying to deny what is in fact plainly obvious. He hasn't done so yet, but faith in human nature and the power of negative publicity leads me to hope one day it'll happen.

Ha, yes! I'd forgotten about that. A worthwhile reminder of the Racistnames' history for anyone wondering what I'm talking about: 'This Washington football team was named by one of the most vehement racists in the history of American professional sports. When George Marshall bought the team in 1932, they were called the Boston Braves. He changed the name — to a slur, because he was a racist — and moved them to Washington. He made “Dixie” one of the team’s fight songs and refused to hire black players well into the 1960s. The NFL integrated in 1946 but Marshall’s team held out until the federal government actually forced them to field black players in 1963. The all-white Washington teams of the 1950s and 1960s were among the worst in the league, but segregation was more important to Marshall than winning football games. The NFL had actually already been racially integrated until black players were suddenly banned in 1933. Interviews with owners suggest that Marshall was responsible for the ban. This is the man who named the team and white supremacy and racism obviously informed his every decision. In his will he insisted that his foundation not spend any money on “any purpose which supports or employs the principle of racial integration in any form.” It is extremely hard to believe that this man selected the name — specially changed the name from a less offensive term for American Indians to this term — to “honor” anyone, the usual argument used by the team’s modern defenders.' http://www.salon.com/2013/06/12/frank_luntz_hired_by_washington_football_team_to_convince_people_name_isnt_horribly_racist/

Those politicians are wasting their time, and they have far better things to be doing (on that I agree with Tony), but let it be said that the Racistnames do, in fact, have a racist name, not by accident or 'by changing standards of history' or something, but because their racist former owner specifically chose the most racist word he could get away with. They should, in fact, be pressured to change their name, though obviously Ms Smeeth and Mr Austin think rather a lot of themselves to assume they'll be able to do so.

It would be even better if you could train them to dispose of the corpses tidily.

Two things people are talking about recently that I genuinely don't get: mixtapes steam locomotives

Presumably they mostly wouldn't recognise you were singing in English.

If I had to guess, taking those questions in order, a] they'd recognise it as music, because it's mostly still harmonic, and rhythm is universal. I'm sure they would hate to listen to it though. b] the technology would be totally baffling, and almost certainly deeply terrifying.

This Salman guy is a shit of the first order who is considerably worse than Blatter if truth be told. As said above though, maybe he ends up hastening the demise. And look on the bright side, the more time he spends jetting about Zurich and shopping in Paris, the less time he has to devote to torturing Bahrainis.

Don't have that in my car.

They really are a separate species.

Crikey. Mum before you've done your GCSE's. What a world. Teen pregnancy rate is declining, thankfully.

She brought the toddler to school? Was it crawling around in the back of class or something?

Has anyone else had the experience recently of browsing through the FM range (can never remember to charge my mp3 player) and hearing a song you absolutely despised 15 years ago, and now you find yourself pausing on that one because everything else sounds shitter? I'm so aware that this is 'being old'.

@TheAuthority Very good point, well remembered. The Sun in particular has a problem with this, but the Mail also has had one or two WTF moments with underage girls as well.

Is he that good? I've not been that impressed when I've seen him. Stats are sort of okay 17 starts, 6 appearances of the bench, 1 goal, 5 assists. Not awful, but not setting the division on fire. For fans of much less meaningful statistics, I had a look at his WhoScored rating, not a patch on Lichaj or Lolley!

How is Amy Winehouse still appearing in the list for 'best female'? Is this the public nominating this list? Could I organise a write-in campaign for Vera Lynn, or am I missing something?

As Stefan says, the technical name for a sexual preference for post-pubescent girls is ephebophilia. It is not, in fact, a pathology, and is absolutely widespread across the population - hence 'teen' sections on porn sites. In human history terms, it is no time at all since girls who had passed puberty were married off and expected to begin families. It's only 30 years since The Sun were running a countdown to Samantha Fox's 16th birthday. This preference isn't necessarily a problem, sexually, and arguably has evolutionary reasons for its existence. However, as a society, we have decided that girls under the age of consent are not mentally mature enough to make sexual decisions, hence the illegality. Pedophilia is the sexual preference for pre-pubescent girls, and is a pathology. There's no evidence Adam Johnson is clinically a pedophile, however the general public and the media often use the term pedophile to refer to any sexual activity with someone under the age of consent.

I agree with supernova on this one. This idea that the Championship is full of brilliant tacklers is truly nonsense. It's full of deeply average defenders, many of whom bottle challenges. The perception that it's incredibly physical might be an artefact of the higher-proportion of badly-timed challenges put in by worse defenders. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Gil should fare better against Ethan Ebanks-Landell than against Ryan Shawcross, and it would be barking to think otherwise. If he can't shine in the Championship he truly is over-rated garbage.

Have they finally reached the Red Sea?