Ken

I thought Hilfenhaus should definitely have had more overs, he was taken out of the attack way too early. I don't understand why Ponting took him off and persisted with Mitchell Johnson. Johnson absolutely wasted an opportunity with the second new ball. Anyway a draw is a decent enough result. I don't blame England for time wasting. They are absolutely outclassed in every facet of the game. Let them send out a fat bastard of a physio to waste time. Seeing him waddle on then off with his boobs jiggling about was probably the highlight of the test match for me, besides the 4 centuries made. I really can't see England winning any of the next 4 matches. They offer nothing. They get their hopes up by beating a bunch of part timers from the Caribbean and think they're in with a chance against Australia. The best they can hope for are 4 draws. Who knows, we may see that fat bastard waddling onto the ground again eh? And England will once again celebrate a draw as if it were a win.

Are you taking the piss? North Korea do this all the time; they hold the economic powers to ransom when they start running low on oil, rice or cognac for their dear leader. But of course now they obviously have upped the stakes by acquiring nukes (officially now anyway and albeit only 2 or 3 of them) and have been lobbing missiles over Japan. If Japan eventually do change their war renouncing constitution NK won't have the balls to do that anymore. Japan are even talking about expanding and then exporting their own military hardware (to its allies only), something which was taboo not that long ago, and they have designs for their own next generation stealth fighters. Japan also have enough weapons grade fissile material to have a stockpile of nukes greater than that of America's. Perhaps Japan should convert some of this material into nukes to shut NK up and also to keep China at a distance when they eventually become that region's superpower. But I digress. A lot of the sabre-rattling being done now comes down to the fact South Korea have a very anti-NK government in power. Little Kimmie (NK's dear leader) feels threatened by this which explains all the war rhetoric over the past week. Plus of course he wants his luxury goods. Much will depend on how far China would back NK. Being an economic powerhouse now I doubt they would want to threaten that due to hostilities caused by a little parasitic mad man. The United States have their hands tied (in a manner of speaking) since China basically owns America's very large debt. Personally I am not concerned that this will escalate into anything very serious. Because if Kimmie were to bomb downtown Seoul or fire missiles at Tokyo, as wacko as he is, even he would know that he would be blown off the face of the planet. Negotiations, negotiations, negotiations are what will happen here. Kimmie will get his little goodies, SK will back off a bit and the rhetoric will disappear... until when Kimmie next runs out of goodies.

It'll definitely be hard to shift all these players. In my world I would only keep S.Taylor, Bassong, Beye, Duff, Guthrie, Carroll, Martins and yes the fatty Viduka - who would strictly be on an incentives based contract. Still need some old heads and Beye, Duff and Viduka would provide that. Everyone else in the current squad I would get rid of. I would then try and promote a bit of pace (eg. first team regularity for Lua Lua and Ranger), and scout really hard for some triers on smaller wages. But of course this won't be so easy in the real world, and the likes of Bassong, Martins and Beye will most likely want out, and wasters like Smith, Geremi, Ameobi and Butt will not want to go anywhere. I am looking forward to the new season though. Things need changing at the club and has done for a long while now. Being in the Championship will force that change, even if it means a couple of seasons down there. You never know, Ashley may just walk away and we really could start afresh with Shearer and HIS own staff rebuilding things. That is all we really have to look forward to now anyway.

Whatever you think about Jade Goody as a person, and I am by no means a fan of hers, that bit in bold is absolutely disgraceful. She doesn't deserve to die - particularly at such a young age. While it's sad for the kids, they're young enough that they'll move on with their lives and are setup for life. She may be thick, she may have been the laughing stock of the Big Brother pantomime on two occassions but she played on that and used it to her advantage. Can't blame anyone for doing that but her actions are not deserving of her losing her life so young. It's tragic..... whoever it happens to. Kens just upset hes got no genitals You are a silly, precious and petite fool. Didn't you state in another thread that you had hoped for JK to have suffered a stroke? Now whether you also stated that you wanted him to recover from it or not is totally irrelevant. Wishing ill on someone is one of the lowest acts. It makes your comments on what I think on this topic stupid and they carry no weight whatsoever.

Whatever you think about Jade Goody as a person, and I am by no means a fan of hers, that bit in bold is absolutely disgraceful. She doesn't deserve to die - particularly at such a young age. While it's sad for the kids, they're young enough that they'll move on with their lives and are setup for life. She may be thick, she may have been the laughing stock of the Big Brother pantomime on two occassions but she played on that and used it to her advantage. Can't blame anyone for doing that but her actions are not deserving of her losing her life so young. It's tragic..... whoever it happens to. Am I happy she got cancer Craig?.. no absolutely not, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. But she has it, and she's playing it up to the media just like the rest of her life that has been of note. I want it to end, but more importantly I'd like her to die in dignity, but since that's out of the question I'd like her to die and all the attention to go to more important things. I apologise if it sounds callous, and deep down I know it is, but that's my viewpoint on her. As I say karma is a bitch.

The sooner this slag dies the better in my opinion. It peeves me off no end that a low life like her can grab so much media attention. Says a lot about the state of British media as well. Call me a cunt if you like, but karma is a bitch and so is this Jade Goody. The real losers in this are her kids. I do genuinely feel for them.

Glad to hear your loved ones are safe there Steve. It is an absolute tragedy and to think many of the fires were started deliberately, as has been said by the Australian PM it is an act of mass murder. I really can't think of a worse way to go than being trapped in a car or house with fire on all sides. How can you live with yourself knowing you are responsible for such horror?

RX8. Got it two weeks ago and drives like a dream... once I worked out how to put it in reverse.

What about Steve McClaren's fake accent, nobody can beat that surely!

Bassong has all the attributes to be a top line defender, in the mould of William Gallas when he was at Chelsea. I'm not saying he's in the same league yet, but if he continues his steady rise he'll get there in 3 seasons I reckon. Will probably be sold before that though...

We were absolutely shit. In saying that I could only watch the first half as I was so bevved up while watching Federer vs. Nadal and alas I couldn't stay awake to see the whole 90 minutes through. By all reports it was quite a decent second half performance... typical.

haha love it can you smell what barack is cookin' barack says...

Happy new year everybody. Got a bird's eye view of the Sydney Harbour fire works display from my balcony. It was absolutely fabulous. Nothing would beat that, I can't stand being in frenzy of people. I'm a quiet lad me, who enjoys life with a few friends on New Year's Eve, having a few quiet ones with good food to go. Just come back from Coogee Beach now. Bloody scorcher at 35 degrees celsius today. It's time I break out a Corona and get a few prawns out. I hope 2009 brings better luck for all us suffering supporters and I hope everybody's lives are a treat this year!

There are no good or bad in this. Hamas are getting what they deserve for lobbing rockets into Israel imo, it's not Israel's fault Hamas store them in schools and homes, although the response has obviously been brutal and disproportionate. Hamas and the Palestinian (not all) statement that they are going to 'wipe out the Jews' previously before being elected is a reminder of Holocaust sentiment (which Israel use as a propaganda tool). Israel, or people who support it, saying Palestinians should all be wiped out is no different at all. There'll be a few more hundred that'll die on the Palestinian side with Israel maybe having 5-10 casualties before there is another ceasefire and we can wait for the countdown for the next round of hostilities to begin. Israel only have to give dignity back to the Palestinians for all this to stop. It'll never happen.

You got issue with my opinion Stevie boy? Tough. he's Steve, not Stevie. He's also a wallabee. Originally from Melbourne aren't you Steve? Anyone who's been unfortunate enough to have traveled to Melbourne should understand that it isn't a great place and they should pity the poor lad. He can't help originating from there.

Egypt is a modern country, well it combines modern and ancient/traditional, and is actually the safest country in Africa imo. When you look at the country, you can understand why many live in poverty; 90% of the country is desert, and the major cities (Cairo and Alexandria) are way overpopulated, 80 million crammed into 3% of Egyptian land it is obvious they have a problem with urban sprawl. Northern Egypt is quite exotic and modern and European like with skyscrapers, modern subway, hotels, restaurants and stores selling a lot of western gear. Middle Egypt is more leaning towards Arabic and Southern Egypt is African influenced. Visiting Egypt can be as safe as houses provided you meet up with ex-pats or travelers/backpackers like yourself and you're best avoiding going with tourist groups which are a scam, are targeted by terrorists and have a dodgy safety record when it comes to bus accidents which account for more fatalities than terrorist attacks incidentally. Respecting the values and customs while over there (moral laws) goes along way to having a great time with the locals as well as knowing a bit about the place first as the locals are quite a proud bunch. But back to the topic of Mido; he is a pest, and all of this has been blown out of proportion imo. Yup, remember to sexually harasses any woman you see, just to be polite. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7593765.stm Hmmm, you demonstrate a talent for finding articles which denigrate one's society. Well done, applause for you, I can also do the same, and do it for every country on this planet if I wanted to. I am not condoning the behaviour as described in the article though. Egypt and Egyptians are far from a perfect country or society. Women are expected to be modest in dress and manner- no flimsy attire or loud talking and laughing for example, and quite peculiarly, you don't see very many women in public places over there at all. This is quite obviously something which occurs in all non-secular Middle Eastern Muslim nations I would presume, although most Egyptians consider Egypt to be semi-secular. There are bars that serve alcohol over there (Northern Egypt), although you won't see any fundamentalists or women for that matter visiting those types of venues of course. Truth is the truth, don't get upset because I'm well versed in it and you don't like it. Upset?.. I wasn't upset at all. I'm sorry you interpreted it that way. How can I be upset by someone who in strong likelihood looks like this;

Egypt is a modern country, well it combines modern and ancient/traditional, and is actually the safest country in Africa imo. When you look at the country, you can understand why many live in poverty; 90% of the country is desert, and the major cities (Cairo and Alexandria) are way overpopulated, 80 million crammed into 3% of Egyptian land it is obvious they have a problem with urban sprawl. Northern Egypt is quite exotic and modern and European like with skyscrapers, modern subway, hotels, restaurants and stores selling a lot of western gear. Middle Egypt is more leaning towards Arabic and Southern Egypt is African influenced. Visiting Egypt can be as safe as houses provided you meet up with ex-pats or travelers/backpackers like yourself and you're best avoiding going with tourist groups which are a scam, are targeted by terrorists and have a dodgy safety record when it comes to bus accidents which account for more fatalities than terrorist attacks incidentally. Respecting the values and customs while over there (moral laws) goes along way to having a great time with the locals as well as knowing a bit about the place first as the locals are quite a proud bunch. But back to the topic of Mido; he is a pest, and all of this has been blown out of proportion imo. Yup, remember to sexually harasses any woman you see, just to be polite. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7593765.stm Hmmm, you demonstrate a talent for finding articles which denigrate one's society. Well done, applause for you, I can also do the same, and do it for every country on this planet if I wanted to. I am not condoning the behaviour as described in the article though. Egypt and Egyptians are far from a perfect country or society. Women are expected to be modest in dress and manner- no flimsy attire or loud talking and laughing for example, and quite peculiarly, you don't see very many women in public places over there at all. This is quite obviously something which occurs in all non-secular Middle Eastern Muslim nations I would presume, although most Egyptians consider Egypt to be semi-secular. There are bars that serve alcohol over there (Northern Egypt), although you won't see any fundamentalists or women for that matter visiting those types of venues of course.

25-26 units per week. This will rise acutely over the festive season though, followed by a dramatic fall after it.

We are well and truly fucked. Fucked with an F

Egypt is a modern country, well it combines modern and ancient/traditional, and is actually the safest country in Africa imo. When you look at the country, you can understand why many live in poverty; 90% of the country is desert, and the major cities (Cairo and Alexandria) are way overpopulated, 80 million crammed into 3% of Egyptian land it is obvious they have a problem with urban sprawl. Northern Egypt is quite exotic and modern and European like with skyscrapers, modern subway, hotels, restaurants and stores selling a lot of western gear. Middle Egypt is more leaning towards Arabic and Southern Egypt is African influenced. Visiting Egypt can be as safe as houses provided you meet up with ex-pats or travelers/backpackers like yourself and you're best avoiding going with tourist groups which are a scam, are targeted by terrorists and have a dodgy safety record when it comes to bus accidents which account for more fatalities than terrorist attacks incidentally. Respecting the values and customs while over there (moral laws) goes along way to having a great time with the locals as well as knowing a bit about the place first as the locals are quite a proud bunch. But back to the topic of Mido; he is a pest, and all of this has been blown out of proportion imo.

Bloody Hell,its a bit abbatoir! Good mind. Its one of my favourite films, the last hour of it is just fantastic. Watched it yesterday and expected very little, but it gave me the most enjoyment out of any movies I've watched in a very long time. I don't know why it took me so long to watch it tbh.

- They were transported by barges. - What about Abydos? - The Sphinx is an interesting topic, I agree. The fact the head was disproportionately smaller to the body suggests it may have been re-carved. Also the weathering on the body when it was supposed to have been buried under sand for thousands of years is also very interesting. Could be much, much older as Graham Hancock and Colin Wilson hypothesise. - The kings were buried in the valley to hide them away from looters. Forlorn attempt as it has turned out. - No hieroglyphs but the bent pyramid and step pyramids show a progression to perfection that was the Giza Pyramids. There are over 100 pyramids in Egypt and Nubia. Also a village was unearthed on the Giza plateau which housed approximately 20,000 which was about the size of the work force involved. - They had a lot of time and dedication to cut those stones.

I find it hard to believe it was just patrol lights from a police car when evidence suggests otherwise. Patrol lights or light from a lighthouse do not explain the high readings of radiation taken from a geiger counter in the area, the radar readings, the imprints left by the object, and witness accounts from civilians in the surrounding area. And of course the testimony from trained and experienced military officers who not only saw lights, but a solid black, glassy triangle object which they were able to see a foot away from them. All but one person's story corroborated with one anothers, and he blamed his ridiculous story on being injected with some chemical by the CIA which fucked up his memory. Always a good excuse when you know you've dug yourself a hole you can't get out of. Tbf Ken, the above was bollocks too (according to the primary evidence anyway which is far more believable than stuff people added years later). Oh come on now Alex, the testimony on tape you think was a complete fuckup on their part?? All jokes aside, you can't deny what they saw, and to downplay what they saw to lights from a lighthouse or from a police car makes them look like complete fuckwits. Do you think they are all complete fuckwits? Oh come on, indeed. Ken look at the primary evidence (i.e. the statements of the people involved at the time). In the first instance, the two people who saw the lights initially only one thought it was mechanical and he never got closer than 50 m (I think he embellished the story much later. Obvious to guess why tbh). And they saw a blinking white light in the exact position there should have been a lighthouse. Coincidence? When a second party went out 2 nights later they followed a similar blinking light for quite a distance until (guess what) they realised it was a lighthouse They also saw some star-like lights. At night. What could they have been I wonder? A Guardian journalist debunked the whole thing about 3 years after in happened. The radiation readings and the landing site have been largely discredited too. There was nothing unusual there according to people who knew the area. The whole thing is a bit of a joke in all honesty. But UFO buffs ignore all that in general because they like to view as some really significant event. And btw, if you have a look at the written testimony of the two people from the first night's 'sighting', they do indeed come across as complete fuckwits. So you are not taking into account the fact they knew they would be ridiculed by telling the truth. You are not taking into account the fact the military hierarchy, for whom they were answerable to would not like exotic descriptions like these. Alex, you aren't even thinking of these possibilities. This is a faux pas officialdom has avoided throughout history Alex. Ken, I don't quite follow your logic but it sounds like it came from something like a tv show sensationalising what happened. They made statements at the time whereby they saw something they couldn't explain. Their superior believed them and made further investigations. He went out to what he thought was a landing site and told the police who also investigated it. Nothing was covered up at the time. What I do question is the embellishments made later. I think the bloke who saw what he described as 'mechanical' altered his story because it made him a UFO celeb as it were. Nick Pope made a lot of it later but the 'Inquiry' he spoke of turned out to be little more than a rather dreary handwritten sheet of A4 which he wrote. I wouldn't totally discount what you say but the body of evidence just doesn't back it up man. The trouble is, because UFO enthusiasts view this as so important they don't want to look at the facts. My take on it is this - a very bright meteor (documented on said night btw) was mistaken for an aircraft that crashed. Two men who went out to investigate saw lights (the smaller ones haven't been fully explained btw, I accpet that). The main light was a white/orange light that appeared to move when they approached it. It blinked at a frequency of about 5 seconds (just like the nearby lighthouse) in a position where the lighthouse is. Because the forest is above sea level the lighthouse beam looked to be at a level fairly close to the ground. They also heard what sounded like a woman screaming and farm animals going a bit crazy. The nearby farm was an arable one but both of those things can be explained away by muntjac dear and the noise they make when distressed / disturbed. Basically the two blokes were shitting themselves in a wood in the pitch black (minus the lights) and hearing stuff. Their imagination went wild. Read the following article Alex, again by Nick Pope, and pay particular attention to paragraph 3. clicky here Alex the only person who I think has discredited himself in this whole thing is Larry Warren. He refused to give his real name for starters, and he made claim after claim which included being interrogated in a base underneath Bentwaters and being injected with something which distorted his memory of the whole incident. Halt and Penniston both claim he was never there. I don't buy into the theory that they sensationalised their stories as doing so, and making the claims that they did would hardly do wonders to further their careers in the military, and both stayed in the military long after this incident occurred. Neither have profited from this incident. You believe it was a meteor which spooked them, and this may be what it was, but how do you explain this occurring on two nights? As for the lighthouse theory; clicky 1 clicky 2 clicky 3 There are arguments both for and against on this subject, and I accept that their stories changed slightly over time which weakens their argument, but I also accept human error is natural especially as time elapses and also because they were in a particular mental state caused by fear, anxiety and panic. But because there are slightly different versions to the events that occurred doesn't mean that what had happened was not a natural phenomena. We will never know Alex.

No cataclysm. This thing has happened before in human history, and fuck all happened. Just another day is all; December 12th 2012.

I find it hard to believe it was just patrol lights from a police car when evidence suggests otherwise. Patrol lights or light from a lighthouse do not explain the high readings of radiation taken from a geiger counter in the area, the radar readings, the imprints left by the object, and witness accounts from civilians in the surrounding area. And of course the testimony from trained and experienced military officers who not only saw lights, but a solid black, glassy triangle object which they were able to see a foot away from them. All but one person's story corroborated with one anothers, and he blamed his ridiculous story on being injected with some chemical by the CIA which fucked up his memory. Always a good excuse when you know you've dug yourself a hole you can't get out of. Tbf Ken, the above was bollocks too (according to the primary evidence anyway which is far more believable than stuff people added years later). Oh come on now Alex, the testimony on tape you think was a complete fuckup on their part?? All jokes aside, you can't deny what they saw, and to downplay what they saw to lights from a lighthouse or from a police car makes them look like complete fuckwits. Do you think they are all complete fuckwits? Oh come on, indeed. Ken look at the primary evidence (i.e. the statements of the people involved at the time). In the first instance, the two people who saw the lights initially only one thought it was mechanical and he never got closer than 50 m (I think he embellished the story much later. Obvious to guess why tbh). And they saw a blinking white light in the exact position there should have been a lighthouse. Coincidence? When a second party went out 2 nights later they followed a similar blinking light for quite a distance until (guess what) they realised it was a lighthouse They also saw some star-like lights. At night. What could they have been I wonder? A Guardian journalist debunked the whole thing about 3 years after in happened. The radiation readings and the landing site have been largely discredited too. There was nothing unusual there according to people who knew the area. The whole thing is a bit of a joke in all honesty. But UFO buffs ignore all that in general because they like to view as some really significant event. And btw, if you have a look at the written testimony of the two people from the first night's 'sighting', they do indeed come across as complete fuckwits. So you are not taking into account the fact they knew they would be ridiculed by telling the truth. You are not taking into account the fact the military hierarchy, for whom they were answerable to would not like exotic descriptions like these. Alex, you aren't even thinking of these possibilities. This is a faux pas officialdom has avoided throughout history. ET has been here for about 10,000 years. Probably much longer. But Parky, you think pyramids were made by ETs, no? Explain all the evidence recorded that points toward a contrary viewpoint.