craggy_steve

Been on the Ben in a 10. Lots of folk sick. No problem though, the boat seemed to handle it fine. My cooked breakfast stayed down no problem and my better half rather liked being rocked to sleep. Few years ago, the IoMSP doesn't seem to offer the joys of heavy weather sailings so willingly these days

Then that's what needs to be sold to the public, clearly. I can believe a case for redeveloping / modernising Douglas port, but the cruise business case is a questionable add-on - questionable in both ROI and desirability. As a port modernisation of Douglas will likely also largely kill freight in Ramsey the business case needs to include the economic impacts to the North. The biggest benefit here is clearly the ability to handle a wider range of bigger ro-pax & freight vessels, eliminating dependency on specially commissioned smaller vessels.

I don't get this. If the proposal is to redevelop the whole port complex then it's not a cruise terminal, it's a port redevelopment and I would agree that Gov't funding should be involved. If it's a cruise terminal then, like the SPCo linkspan, it's just an add-on part of the overall port which can be owned by and exclusively used by its private owners without Gov't funding. Which is it? The addition of a cruise berth capability to our existing port, or redevelopment of the whole port? If the proposal is for the latter I have missed that emphasis in the reporting. If it is the former then I don't see any basis for the claim that the operator would want or be justified in wanting control of the revenues and operations of the rest of the port - their interest would be limited to the operations and revenues of the deep-water berth / cruise terminal.

My thoughts exactly. Huge investment, limited number of business beneficiaries. If they think they will get their ROI then they should form a consortium to put up the money, this doesn't seem likely to be sensible use of taxpayers' funds.

Sailing from Heysham now delayed to 11pm http://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/repairs-to-ben-my-chree-continuing/ , apparently a cylinder head problem. We came back on her yesterday afternoon, a narrow escape because I had intended to return this afternoon but my better half persuaded me to come back on Saturday.

Headphones, earphones, computer speakers or hi-fi?

Can't speak for MR but most radio output is compressed in order to achieve optimal performance from lower quality receiving equipment such as portable radios and cheap car radio speakers. When I were a lad (long, long ago) and studio engineer for a station claiming a 15 million audience we used to have a £6,000 pair of electrostatic studio monitors in the control room, and a crappy £10 Motorola car radio speaker to ensure we kept the dynamic range within the capabilities of the majority of cheap radios. We also used to boost voice c. 30% peak over music because irrespective of the peak output the average volume of music is higher due to continuous filling of a broader frequency spectrum (would be easier if I drew a simple graph but you know what I mean). Adverts & jingles tend to sound loud because they combine speech and music, but are commonly played at peak instead of being retarded to compensate for the wide frequency spectrum usage.

Remembering that I'm a know-nothing comeover... I expect they don't return because career opportunities and social prospects are both much better in the UK for folk under 30 We have an imbalance because we discourage younger folks (see above) and demand a work permit for anyone who comes here to create wealth, whilst the non-working / retired can come here unhindered. For social mobility see prospects for young people. They must know and keep in their place. Planned immigration - there would need to be a plan I'll stop there before I get into trouble ...

Taxpayers might disagree, DED and the rest of IoMG have proved very adept at milking them.

No idea Declan, I'm only saying what the skeet is. Who knows what goes on the Council chamber! Change of heart due to the unpopular parking proposals?

twig

Van Halen ?

Monk

To do that I guess they would probably need to contract out all external works - road, harbours, buildings maintenance etc. Seems entirely possible given that they have not had the courage to introduce the real external working efficiency improvements that they have known about for years.

Personally I think the whole thing is a stroke of genius: MEA buried sh*t deep in debt WASA OK Merge MEA & WASA for "synergies" Tax WASA sewerage to pay for MEA debt In short, we'll be paying directly for our energy through our waste, far more efficient than the energy from waste plant. Some keen lateral thinking there from someone in Gov't. Perhaps they should just link the poo tax rate to the price of gas. And maybe give us a feed-in tariff based on domestic methane production.

I like this. Actually I think the dogmatic stance taken by some branches of science in the face of overwhelming skepticism have justly but very sadly brought institutionalised science into disrepute. Thought I'd have a go at some others so... Programmers are... arrogant tiny gods smart easily scared Businessmen are... evil drinking my blood Prostitutes are... disgusting people too the best awesome Politicians are... liars like diapers scum

I thought 40 Queen St was a holiday cottage http://chapelcottageiom.com/, so had assumed that this incident involved visitors!