Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

What happens when Capitalism fails to work:

The ruins of Detroit

eg, "In December 2001, the old Highland Park police department in Detroit was temporarily disbanded. The building it vacated was abandoned with everything in it: furniture, uniforms, typewriters, crime files and even the countless mug-shots of criminals who had passed through there.........."

and there's more.

eg, By the 1950s, Detroit was home to almost 2 million people, and its mainly single-storey suburbs had spread over 120 square miles.

Detroit's dramatic decline began soon afterwards, though, and those same suburbs would play their part in the long saga of abandonment and decay.

The collapse of the automobile industry started in the 1950s and reached crisis point in the 1960s and 1970s, due mainly to the demand for cheaper imported cars, made mainly in Japan, and the attendant rise in global oil prices.

The so called "white flight" from the city centre began in the 1950s and soonan increasingly black city was surrounded by a ring of communities that were all white.

This "white noose", as one contemporary observer referred to it, helped strangle the inner city, both economically and socially, turning it into a series of large ghettos intercut by freeway. Unrest reached a head in 1967, when 43 people were killed in a week of rioting that started after police officers raided an after-hours drinking club and which left the downtown streets looking like a war zone.

Since then, the city has been left increasingly to its own devices abandoned by politicians, planners, developers and businesses, by all, in fact, but the black urban poor.

"Even grocery stores and supermarkets disappeared from the city," writes Sugrue. "By the first decade of the 21st century, observers described Detroit as 'a food desert' a place without even a single, well-stocked supermarket within its boundaries."

A gallery of 16 amazing pictures of the 'ruins of Detroit'

Politically incorrect jokes
In a pub quiz the other day, I lost by one point. The question was where do women mostly have curly hair? Apparently, the correct answer is Africa .

I've heard that Apple have scrapped their plans for the new children's iPod after realizing that iTouch Kids is not a good product name.

There's a new Muslim clothing shop opened in Toronto but I've been banned from it after asking to look at some bomber jackets.

You can say lots of bad things about pedophiles but at least they drive slowly past schools.

Just put a deposit down on a brand new Porsche & mentioned it on Facebook.
I said "I can't wait for the new 911 to arrive!" Next thing I know 4,000 Muslims have added me as a friend!!

Being a modest man, when I checked into my hotel on a recent trip, I said to the lady at the registration desk:
"I hope the porn channel in my room is disabled."
To which she replied, "No, it's regular porn, you sick bastard.

The red cross have just knocked at our door and ask if we could help towards the floods in Pakistan, I said we would love to, but our hose only reaches to the bottom of the garden.

T I M

Does Frankie Boyle know you are stealing his jokes ?

Are these not too clean for Frankie?!

Exec: Thanks for flagging the stuff about Detroit. Truly scary visions of a post-apocalyptic world.

MM

Thanks for your comment. We really had absolutely no idea about this type of American problem and there's not a lot one can really do about it.

So that's two big US cities, that in modern times, have been hit really hard. Namely New Orleans with the big flood and Detroit with the collapse of the US car industry.

Are you aware of any more?

And also, in Australia they have flooding over an area bigger than France and Germany combined.

Pehaps we should count our blessings here in the UK?

Perhaps we should regard it as a warning.

Anyone fancy this for a job.
Talk about earning danger money.
The actual bit of interest starts after the first minute, which is just daft.


http://www.liveleak.com/mp53/player.swf?config=http://www.liveleak.com/mp53/player_config.php?token=07b_1284580365%26embed=1

Anyone else having difficulty with Plus. The MoneyAm link works OK but I cant seem to get many epics to work. If I go direct to the site I can get these epics via the Advanced Search, something which I cant find when I use the MoneyAm link.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/

Found an interesting site where someone posts their share trades online - www.ShareSpeculator.com anyone know anyother sites like this?

Just in case others are having trouble with the Plus Markets site since it was re-vamped.

Finally found my way round the new site.
If you go direct to Plus Markets, you then click on the 'click here' in bottom of first box. Then hover over plus companies till 4 options open up, click on the bottom one 'Advanced search', then click on 'other companies traded', then put part or full name of company into 'Search by keyword'. This brings up the company. You just click on the company which bring up all the info you require.

Hope this helps anyone who had the same problem.

The Renault Formula One team slapped a silencer on the French national anthem on Thursday after announcing they will race under a British licence this season.

With no active French F1 drivers, and no French grand prix since 2008, Renault were the last ones flying the flag for a country whose heritage and language permeates the sport from chassis to grand prix and on to parc ferme.

If Renault win a Formula One race in 2011, the British national anthem will now be played in celebration.

Happy New Year.


Congratulations to Debbie Abrahams

Labour have comfortably won the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election with a majority of more than 3,500.

With Labour extending its majority from just 103 at the general election last May to 3,558, tories lead by their PR man Cameron, found a comfortable third place.
.
Hear that the tories are flocking to the Lib Dems in droves. The stories are better.

Bring on the Local elections, on May 5th.

Bye the way, which part of their manifestos are Cameron and Clegg going to renegade on next? So much for principles.

Also, are a coalition pledges worth the paper it they are written on?

Would you buy a second hand car off Cameron or Clegg?


I would count the wheels first and then check the engine, even if you will be able to afford the petrol.

Labour were always going to win the Oldham election. It is a temporary phase. You seem to forget that the Liberals did not win the election and came third. Both parties in the coalition have to give up some of their policies and the Liberals have to give up most. That's reality. It is interesting to note that the Liberals said that during the coalition discussions Labour would not bend on their silly polices to form a coalition. They expected the Liberals to go along with everything that Labour wanted. That's why we have the coalition that we have. The Labour team seem to be the worst yet. Alan Johnson hasn't even got 'O' level Maths and he is shadow Chancellor. How long can he survive with all the gaffs he is making.

What seems to me is without an O level Johnson appears to have more sensible approach to the economy than Porky.

And I the constant whining about the mess left by the previous government is wearing thin. Especially when their are digging a bigger and bigger hole for the country.

It is blaming their parents to avoid their own responsibilities.

Fascinating to watch them blowing into the wind.

I don't think the complaining about the previous government is wearing thin at all. I hope we will be hearing it for a few years yet. I hear lots of people making complimentary comments about the coalition. Oldham is not exactly representative of overall views. It is a pretty left wing constituency. I haven't heard anything sensible from Johnson yet. I did see Darling on TV yesterday on the Politics program. He more or less said that the current Conservative policies were correct. Darling never got the chance to be a proper Chancellor. Brown dictated policy for the Chancellor. I expect this government to turn our economy round during the current parliament.

Brilliantly put Haystack. I don't think the government need have any concerns about this by-election.

Interesting to see the results of local elections.

Can hear the tory right wing sharpening their knives.

Cash for their next PR.

Mind the dominant decision the present gang are doing is divesting themselves of any responsibilities.

Forgot.


Smaller prisons, but with more bars in prison.

A new generation of under 30s with debts of 70000 around their necks.

(But inflation will take care of that an bring the amounts down. Or perhaps like Hilary suggested. they may leave the country.)

NHS in chaos. But consultants doing nicely.

Army reduced to one man and a goat.

Aircraft carriers turned into prison ships or used for cruises.

Police on the beat absent. all defending Downing street from the mobs.

Bye the way can Cameron, make an effort and get my rubbish collected.

That would be a job at his skill level.