Happy Face

Looks like the boycoutt applied to the Kings of Leon show.

Reading the Glenn Greenwald book on the NSA Leaks by Snowden. First couple of chapters are excellent. All The Presidents Men style subterfuge as the main players dart around the US, Brazil, UK and Hong Kong trying to outrun the media scrum, the intelligence angencies, hotel staff and other news agencies looking for the scoop but hitting a brick wall of legal arguments against publishing. You can guarantee the Hollywood movie will come soon and concentrate on these chapters that end with Snowden in a safe house and greenwald on his way back to Brazil. I'm halfway through chapter 3 now (the whole book is only 5 long chapters) and it's got very dry I'm afraid. It's looking at the details of the leak and it's a lot of the stuff I read over and again in the reports last year. No doubt anyone that didn't follow the story would be appalled by everything in this chapter, such as Microsoft doing all they could to help the NSA around their own encryption, even as they touted the security to punters, or the sheer volume of data archived ("collect it all"), but it's all old news now. I'd say this chapter should have come sooner to build to the exciting bit, but a lot of people might not have got through it, more likely to be pulled in by the much more thrilling, unheard story. Last couple of chapters are supposed to be Greenwald going after the establishment media with venom and naming specific names, so that should return to something a bit more juicy.

Not sure what Rolf Harris and the judge are watching, but it looks like it comes from a Ben Wheatley film.

...and wouldn't a change from selling pies on matchday to selling the rights to sell pies all season move a profit from Matchday into commercial?

After seven years Mike Ashley/Sports Direct still has a nine figure asset though. After 5 years Emirates walk away from Arsenal £150m poorer with nothing in their hand. Ashley can't extend £100k to ensure a player signs, if he made any enquiries about stadium sopnsorship costs at any other 50K seat stadium in Europe before his purchase I'm sure he would have been put off by the prices he got back and would have been swayed to do it himself.

What reasons did you have for not believing Ashley/Sports Direct see the club as opportunity for brand exposure with a return on their investment? Hall said.. They wanted to market their sports goods in the Far East and would use the club to help do this. Sports Direct Stated aims... Developing brand awareness is a key factor in ensuring a sustainable future and the appropriate level of investment in advertising and technology is an important component towards achieving this Our position as the consumer champion is now reaching more countries as we continue to expand internationally. The board’s aim to expand further into Europe has been a key strategic driver for a number of years which has proved extremely successful. International Retail revenue grew 20%. Our (website’s) monthly unique visitors have risen 50% on FY12. Online revenue continues to be an area of significant growth and the Group continue to look at opportunities to develop this revenue stream further. What have Sports Direct spent on those aims? Sports Direct says it is on course to hit its full-year profit target without increased investment in marketing, margin and inventory. The retailer says that while it could increase investment in marketing to boost growth, it will hit its full-year profit target without doing so. It’s gross profit for the 13 weeks increased 14.6 per cent. While Sports Direct does invest in price, it spends relatively little on advertising.

I see Ashley and Spors Direct as one and the same. We were basically bought by Sports Direct as an advert. It's the reason John Hall said we were bought and it's stated throughout the Sports Direct Annual Reports the importance of exposure outside the UK. They've not actually spent anything more on exposure though.

Depends on your definition. He scored 7 times as many as Cisse last season

Converting the entire remaining #NUFC debt (£129m) to equity would cost Ashley 3.4% of his current worth (£3750m).

To give Ashley as much benefit of the doubt as possible, we can accept that interest could be charged, that the club save somewhere between £4.5m and £8m given that it is not. It is also true that the amount is in excess of the income Newcastle could reasonably expect to receive by selling the space to any other company at the moment. Had Newcastle kept up with Spurs and Liverpool these past few years, perhaps we could have attracted larger sums, but what makes Newcastle the host to Sport’s Direct’s parasite is that the club’s association with them, the stadium renaming, relegation, the toxic relationship between owner and fans is what has cheapened the brand to the degree that we now compete financially with Stoke and Southampton rather than Liverpool and Spurs. The true commercial cost to Newcastle of associating with Sports Direct is seen in the drop in commercial revenue of the club which still shows little possibility of recovering to pre-existing levels any time soon. £10m every year less than prior to relegation. However the board try to spin the interest free loan, the difference in commercial income received would have covered that interest easily with millions left over spare. It’s this fact that means, even if the interest were the £8m the club claim, we would have had better earnings had we continued to pay that interest and maintained our commercial standing and brand attractiveness in the game. Man U pay £70m a year in interest because they can afford to as a commercial behemoth. It can also be seen that every other club in the league (relegated no more than once, like NUFC) over Ashley’s time has not just maintained commercial income but grown it. So the recession or factors other clubs deal with cannot be blamed.

We will sign strikers. If it's young exciting strikers like Cabella we'll have something to look forward to and will have shown that the club is willing to spend what it can afford. If it's ageing freeby strikers like Gomis it'll be nowt more than a stop gap and show that ambition remains non-existent and profit is king. If it's the likes of Bent it shows we have no clue whatsoever and are completely winging it.

That £1.25bn could disappear as quickly as it's grown is all I mean. It's not sat in his bank. The olympics and that contributed massively to the growth of Sports Direct profits and stock Price. Can't see it dropping that much like, but as soon as Ashley tries to sell any shares the price drops. I've done a write up for the TF summer special on Sports Directs growth on the back of NUFC and my only complaint is their explicity stated plan for growth being to invest in advertising the website in new territories...but they have not actually spent anything more on advertising during this massive period of growth. The exposure we give them for free is huge to them. The cost to NUFC in the "partnership" is far greater than the minimal saving in interest repayments to Ashley. I think referencing the value of the owner and his shop is to argue he should spend more of his own money on the club though which is to fight a losing argument. Other owners are doing it, but it's not a viable business. It's killing the game. You're spot on about the £60m though, and the bigger issue is whether or not the club spends what it can afford, within it's means, rather than paying back Ashley for his mistakes. He might recoup more of his loan from the club given the extra cash available, but before the January window I thought we would buy in Summer rather than during the (what had become meaningless) window. Still think we'll spends a canny wedge, like you say though, it would surprise me if our net spend was over £30m.

I'm not a shouter like. When it comes to that I reckon the bairn will get treated the way we treat each other. She rants and raves. I walk away let her think about it and wait for the apology that inevitibly comes. Women's insides can't allow them to be rational tbf. And even if they're right, they can't go long enough without asking for some money to buy some shoes to keep you in the doghouse. Poor things.

Just to be a pedant.... The club's made around £60m profit. Ashley's had £11m of a £140m loan paid back so far. That's not to defend him, every other billionaire owner in the league has converted their loans to equity Sports Direct Stock Price has gone up, but Ashley is struggling to turn that into a comparable immediate reward for himself, the board keep refusing him any windfall.

I think new born babies are always crying out of discomfort and should always be seen to. But ours is reaching toddler stage now so his personality is being shaped and his behaviour needs punishment and reward. Far harder work to judge that than the work involved in changing a nappy like.

It's Ally McBeal and Sex in The City all the way for CT now. Awooooga!

Spot on Chez. Unfortunately I'm the worker and she's the primary care giver, along with her parents, and they won't let him cry. I say you change him and you feed him and water him, after that, if he's moaning he needs to shape up. She goes mad when I let him whinge.

Analogous to the democracy we live in.

It's as if Mumsnet has come to TT this morning tbf. Now, which sanitary towels are best ladies?

We're happy she's been able to breastfeed coming up to the full 12 months, but we're still up twice a night. He'll just cry for the udder if she tries to get him to sleep after a feed though so I still have to get up and walk him to sleep with my dulcet tones.

We got a sterilising kit off a mate and it's sat on top of the kithen cupboards. Just wash stuff in hot water. We send the bairn to messy Monkeys and that where he sits in a paddling pool full of cooked spaghetti which he and all the other kids eat and spit back out. Does seem redundant to get your sterilising powder out after that like.

We had complications after the birth and she had to go into theatre so we never got any of the benefits of being downstairs afterwards. 4 days on the ward was crap, especially at the height of summer, but in a way it was pleasing that no visitors were allowed most of the day, so we didn't have family interfering all the time. I enjoyed having that bonding time to ourselves all day with just an hour or two when the grandparents and that could pop in without outstaying their welcome.. We were told that the water baths didn't have any thermometers the day we arrived so we couldn't use them. We weren't fussed in the end, she had wanted the option in case she decided she'd like to, but at no point did she feel strongly that she would have preferred to be in the water. If we'd known we might have bought our own themometer. I'd check that's an option with the hospital if she has her heart set on it.

We basically agree that when we're both there we'll only watch what we both want to watch....which means less foreign fiilms and documentaries for me and a Tivo 60% full of Bones, The Good Wife, The Mentalist, Criminal Minds, Dexter, Elementary, Cold Case, Grey's Anatomy, Scandal or any of the other serial drama shite CT is bound to love that I refuse to watch. On occasion I'll allow Hollyoaks

Brilliant. Good luck mate. I loved it at the birthing centre. You watch one born every minute and look upstairs at the RVI and it's all very sterile, but downstairs it was almost like a home birth. Comfy sofa and TV and music. I was surprised by how little the midwife actually got involved, just left me and the Mrs to it, only popping in every now and then to check on us. Even when it came to pushing she just sat quietly in the corner and watched from a distance until the last minute or two.