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Is that the God Warrior?

why did he get a shirt tattoo? ffs

Weirdly, I don't mind any individual bit of this guy's style, but you put it all together and he looks like a convict Franz Kafka.

You sure?

Happy to be corrected, but my understanding was that the only legal grounds on which the takeover could be challenged was if the new entity that emerged had control over too large a portion of the media to maintain an impartial press.

The initial consultation seemed to indicate that it would not. Now NOTW is disappearing, they will have even less dominance, and so, in theory at least, it should improve the case for a takeover.

At the end of the day the government is bound by the law, and from what I understand, as yet there isn't a way for the government to get out of it.

But as I said I'm happy to be corrected if I've got any of this wrong.

I think broadly speaking you're right here, but in addition to the media plurality debate, OFCOM has a responsibility to ensure that BSkyB is controlled by the aforementioned 'fit and proper persons'. If the practices of News of the Word indicate that the people running Newscorp are either delinquent in their duty to ensure that the paper was operating within the law, or complicit in that activity, then OFCOM ought to seek to prevent the takeover. And frankly, I cannot see an outcome of the current situation which doesn't imply one or the other of these two conclusions. I think the real difficulty is proving it; the idea that Murdoch was skipping blithly through the fields whistling Tiptoe Through the Tulips when he was meant to be managing Newscorp is utterly ridiculous, but it would be very difficult to prove that he was actively involved and therefore complicit. the real knockout blow would come if some smart investigative journo could uncover similar activity in the US or some other market.

Bearing in mind that Newscorps' first posited offer for BSkyB was rejected by the latter as too low, I think that we'll certainly se a delay in the takeover proceedings while they fight fires here. it will be difficult for Newscorp to back out of the acquisition now, as US investors will get skittish if they do, but every media outlet that he doesn't own is going to be desperately clawing for purchase against them. I think it's going to be very difficult to quieten this down without getting rid of Brooks - which as stated by others will imply that the rot goes right to the top.

As for the comments about her hair, I actually think it's the best thing about her.

Probably the best place for this:
Asos have just launched EAST - "Cycling-inspired style from London's coolest postcode"...

"It’s time to get on your bike, or at least look as though you are – East encapsulates all that’s good about the cycling-inspired trend seen all over East London (without the bike clips of hardcore fixie enthusiasts of course). Varsity jackets, drop-crotch shorts and summer beanies put a fashion-forward spin on cycling gear."

Even the copywriter fucking hates you for shopping on EAST.

Done, Shared, FBd. I get all Four Lions just thinking about Rupert Murdoch.

Entrapment wouldn't be the right word anyway - my partially-informed mind has entrapment down as being when someone from law enforcement sets up a sting in order to catch criminals. This is not allowed in the US, but is here (probably with a whole crapton of provisos).

I thought it was the other way around - hence George Michael getting caught out in the US by a plain-clothes officer who propositioned him, which would not happen (legally) here.

Does Hackney Bike Workshop have the kit for that?

I checked, they don't - however they have informed me that it's not necessary afer a respray.

Does Hackney Bike Workshop have the kit for that?

Very true. Of course Platt in Flensburg is rather different from Platt in Borkum, so in some ways it does do that.

Quite right - I'm not for a minute denigrating dialect and accent! It is something hard to quantify, almost like nationality strips out the outliers of a language and leaves it more tightly clustered around the standard 'RP'.

Ha! good point.

The thing that's really interesting to me is that I think it reflects the way in which political boundaries tend to consolidate and normalise spoken language. There is still a fairly clear continuum between German>Plattdeutsch>Dutch>English and the relationships between the germanic and scandinavian and dialects languages are still fairly clear. But imagine how that would have been without national boundaries - you could have perhaps walked from Danzig to Hook of Holland and simply passed through a continuous flow of language variation.

I personally think it's too simple to not set a hyphen in all adverbial uses of 'half'. In most cases, that may be correct, but I'd hyphenate 'half-time' or 'half-mast', where the stress is on the first syllable. (I generally believe that stress patterns are a factor that is often under-rated, and I like hyphens.) 'Half dead' is right without a hyphen, as are all the other examples given. I can't think of a counter-example of an adjectival use in which I wouldn't hyphenate right now, so it's probably going to bug me all day. :)

I find it interesting that you like hyphens, since many Germans eschew them altogether! ;-)

Oliver, you speak better English than most English people...

I speak English and German natively, enough French to get by, A few words and phrases in Italian, Danish, Dutch and Mandarin. I learnt Latin for a year, that's all gone except "Claudius est in horta" and an appreciation for the shared roots of many European languages.

Oh and I can understand Plattdeutsch, but I guess that doesn't really count as a separate language.

As a Yiddish scholar once said "a sprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey en flot" ! If Plattdeutsch isn't a language, is Dutch?

^^ Classic. An interesting variant on the 'I am an Alpha Male' post used to troll geek forums.

I dressed up all fancy for him one night, he didn't like it and all he could say was "Boo! lingerie"

Cool story, Broetchen.

Yeah, gotta give the guy credit for admitting his error - he'll be less likely to dick about in future. Unlike the tescos HGVdriver today who swung into my lane this morning while I was parallel with his door, forcing me to slam on the brakes, and then gave me a load of abuse when I gestured at my eyes. Apparently he had seen me, so I guess he was only trying to run me off the road. Should have got the numberplate.

Thanks Oz! I find it slightly notchy even now, so maybe it is time for a new headset. I might see if I can improve the situation by re-alligning it.

I don't blame you for getting one first time out as it should give you some reassurance, but surveys on London Victorian houses could mostly just be photocopied and handed out on street corners, they are so similar.

As mentioned ^^ they will say blah blah looks reasonably sound but you need to speak to a damp / roof / subsidence / electrical / plumbing expert (delete as applicable) to get proper advice.
Surveyors = another massive rip-off in the house buying process. IMO.

Yeah we got fucked by ours - we didn't even go for the cheapest grade of survey but the report was basically all caveat and boilerplate, and the bastard didn't even notice that the roof wasn't watertight, the bathroom plumbing leaked constantly, and the electrics were dangerous. We made the mistake of going with the mortgage company's surveyor, and in future I would always engage my own - recommendations above noted.

Move to Atlantis, I hear housing there is at rock-bottom

boom tish

Yeah, but people who bought when Atlantis real estate was at its height, have ended up underwater.

bwa bwa bwaaaaaa.

^ And in this case it appears that this is exactly the kind of thinking that ATAG is encouraging. Ordinary people who couldn't get tickets to the olympics trying to get on with their lives? Pffff, we've got a collection of guest list chancers from all over the world to prioritise the limos of! I bet Addy Lee get the contract.

Sheldon appears to indicate loose headset.

I have a similar issue with a quill stem. It will make a clunk/ting under hard braking, and also if there's a 'bump' to the front wheel. Do I need to take the headset apart and refit it?

Do people cycle faster when drunk?? Coz I am sort of scared (usually the following morning) of how much faster I am when I have had a few drinks...

Isn't that just your reaction times toileting? I accidentally cycled home drunk once and pretty quickly realised that everything seemed to be going about 30% faster than usual. I guessed that this was me reactions being slowed by a similar amount and shit it all the way home.

Fail. It was about the past participle form of 'to trackstand', not about a possible continuous form. :)

have trackstood, based upon the root verb of 'stand'.

I was assuming that they were constructing possible gerund nouns.

Looks like you've got this all tied up - if not, my sister lives in C-Town, I can ask her if she can sort it out. There's that quite famous little bike shop out towards Clowne shudder.

The definition of Zionist has been prone to drift. Even in the 70s the views of (for example) Noam Chomsky were within the range of acceptably Zionist ideologies, but now I get the impression that you have to be a particularly abhorrent chauvanist to get into the elite win club.

Hope your cousin heals up well. He's a far braver man than I.