Jimcalagon

Are there that many local staff on the boats nowadays anyway. It's a while since I've been on the Ben but there's no shortage of foreign staff on the other boats

QFT

The IOMSP could always get rid of all UK and Manx staff and recruit some cheap Polish crew like all the rest, may even start a trend here.

They're halfway there on that already, aren't they?

The User Agreement allows a company to operate that service at a profit, of that I have little doubt. It's just not enough of a profit for the owners.

This is the crux of the matter, in my opinion.

PS3 - Knucklehead_McSp

 

3D as a technology? As Dara O'Briain said the other night - It didn't work in the 1950's or the 1980's and it's not working now. Personally I won't be going to see another 3D movie and I'll be glad when the fad is over for another 30 years. 1/10

A shit film is a shit film, in 2d or 3d...

I saw "How To Train Your Dragon" in 3d in a proper cinema across earlier in the year (kids pestering). I had been very sceptical about the new breed of 3d films but this looked absolutely brilliant. I was very impressed and the film was good too.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (Pixar)

Dreamworks, actually.

Finally saw 'UP' last week - fantastic film in every respect.

Stanford University - Global warming is not bad for all

It's an ill wind, etc...

Spirited Away - Complete shite. People rave over this?

The Damned United - pretty good, Michael Sheen is spot on, Clough comes across as an arrogant twat who was only successful because of Peter Taylor, which is not too far from the truth.

Until recently I took man made global warming consensus for granted. I'm starting to wonder. But I do not see a conspiracy. Until recently I just more or less assumed it was man ****ing things up with CO2 etc.

 

For example I heard the sci fi writer Jerry Pournelle on the radio the other day with some interesting points. Granted he is sometimes controversial voice. But his points seemed valid: The vikings were farming in Greenland in 800 AD. Then it got much colder. The archeological evidence is still there. Until recently it was deep below the ice. He was saying that the earth has been warming since 1326 when the little ice age ended.

 

They used to hold markets on the frozen Thames. But the warming long pre dates industrialization. In the 1700s the Hudson river used to freeze solid enough for armies to cross it at New York. The Hudson hasn't frozen solid enough to walk across since 1826.

 

The earth has been a lot warmer and a lot colder in human history.

 

He was saying.

The above is why I tend to lean towards scepticism on the subject of AGW.

Try looking up the 'Maunder Minimum'- a period of very low sunspot activity which coincided with the 'Little Ice Age'. And yet the officially accepted line is that variations in solar activity are not affecting the Earth's climate, an idea which flies in the face of logic and common sense.

I hate hippies - Richard Branson, Tony Blair, Dave Gilmour, Bill Clinton, Bob Harris, George Bush, baby boomers who retired at 50 but demand everyone else works to 70.

 

Vile generation they inherited a World that had defeated Nazism & Communism and preceded to start a war with Islam. Were the first generation to benefit from Universal health care and pensions. First generation to benefit from free mass higher education starts by means testing grants and tuition fees. Lectured their parents about freedom and introduces waterboarding and detention without trial. Were gonna change the World and become the first generation to leave the World in a worse state than they found it.

100% correct.

Hmm. Bit of a pointless thing to attribute such terms to. The employer-employee relationship is more parasitic than synergistic. And there are plenty of rich people who could be called societal parasites.

Ah, but I derive a benefit from being employed - money. What benefit do I derive from a portion of my taxes being used to support those who choose not to work (and indeed subsidising their 6-month holidays in Goa)?

I assume you mean that they don't pay their way in the world, they're free riders.

"Free Riders"? - "Parasites" might be closer to the mark. Can't be arsed to find paid work and expect the people who do go out to work to subsidise their self-indulgent lifestyle. I have more respect for an unmarried mother living on benefits in a sink estate than this bunch of hypocritical soap-dodgers.

Yeah, I'm mainly blowing some steam. But in this context I suppose a hippy, in some form, is someone who does not want to contribute to society - and the part that I hate, still wants to benefit from it - whether it is income support, or jet travel to India.

 

Sure hippies will go and form communes and travel and bang drums - most can relate to that - but when it becomes the entirety of life too much is left behind.

In addition, they are often the type who continually bang on about mankind destroying the Earth and Gaia and whatnot without noticing the hypocrisy of giving birth to (in Fiona MacKeown's case) NINE squalling brats.

It's a bit 'use it or lose it' though. We've had roller skating and bowling here, and the reality is the numbers just aren't there to support them long term.

I don't know about the roller skating but every time I went to the bowling at the castle Mona it was packed out. Even the manky upstairs with the sticky carpets.

[edit for spelling]

"Them" - got it on DVD from Amazon for about £5. Very good but made me a bit too scared to sleep.

What, the giant ants film?

I'm probably one of those cyclists who get up so many noses on here. I'll happily go up on the pavement, run a red light light, go the wrong way down a one way street etc. Sorry. (But I'm not going to stop)

You see Slim, it's arrogant twats like this who give the majority of decent cyclists a bad name and who breed the antipathy. Paging Stuart T to the thread...

I saw Rhumsaa the day before yesterday picnicing outside the DHSS offices on Market Street. No Rhumsaa t-shirt though.

Rich - he made me a nice cup of tea half an hour ago.

The best sound ever on film, I think, is in Spielberg's war of the worlds when the first tripod is warming up after its long hibernation - a completely mechanical sound but full of menace.

Absolutely right - bloody scary. That was the first thing I put on my home theatre setup when I got it a couple of years back.

Oh god, I just saw a Japanese film called "Nobody Knows"[...]

I was expecting the ending to be happy.

In a Japanese film?

On the subject of pyjamas - a week last Sunday morning saw Rhumsaa in McDonalds with some ladies in pyjamas and a chap in a towelling dressing gown.

That is more due to the numbskulls who run the place - as an example, Watchmen, a highly anticipated film which topped the box-office charts around the world after its release was given ONE screening at the Palace. This screening sold out without being advertised. The Palace have no plans to show the film again.

 

Plus the place is a grotty, smelly pit run by pensioners and staffed by surly rejects from Marilyn Manson's band.

Forgot to add - the summerland cinema was even worse.

However on my recent visits to the Palace cinema lately I have been surprised at the low number of people watching films.

That is more due to the numbskulls who run the place - as an example, Watchmen, a highly anticipated film which topped the box-office charts around the world after its release was given ONE screening at the Palace. This screening sold out without being advertised. The Palace have no plans to show the film again.

Plus the place is a grotty, smelly pit run by pensioners and staffed by surly rejects from Marilyn Manson's band.

Have to agree with Stavros there, you're chance to give your opinion is when it's built. Use it or not.

And if no-one likes it then it's £30 million down the drain.

Why not show the general public the various proposals and then ask for their views. It's called CONSULTATION. Look it up. And then look up MARKET RESEARCH while you're at it.