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.

Five killer whales from Sea World, being three in San Diego and two more from Sea World in Orlando, have been named as plaintiffs in a lawsuit which argues they deserve the same constitutional protection from slavery as humans.

The lawsuit invokes the 13th Amendment to the constitution, which abolished "slavery or involuntary servitude" in the US.

Jeffrey Kerr, the lawyer representing the five whales, said: "For the first time in our nation's history, a federal court heard arguments as to whether living, breathing, feeling beings have rights and can be enslaved simply because they happen to not have been born human.

There are lots of implications on the outcome, primarily to do with the ownership of dogs and particularly such things as police dogs.

Perhaps a large aquarium will be needed for dogs - or maybe a collar and lead would be required for the killer whales, when in a public place.

Hmmm?

.

Hi Mnamreh,

I have read many books about the English archer and I an assure you the V salute is fact not fiction.
The 2 finger gesture does relate to Agincourt as well as many other battles of that era.
When archer were caught by the mainly French armies, they chopped off the 2 fingers that the archers used to draw the bow string back. This was in order that should the archers be freed or escaped, they could no longer draw a bow.
Many archers were also freed in prisoner exchangers.
The English archer was trained from a very early age, often from around 10 years old or even younger.
The French hated the English archer and for several years tried to match them with the Crossbow, problem being was that although the crossbow was more powerful, and the bolt could travel further than an arrow, an English archer could fire about 6 arrows to every 1 from a crossbow.
Imagine a thousand plus archers, firing 6 thousand arrows per minute.
The French tried for many years to train some of their troops to use a long bow but failed as it was estimated to take 10 plus years to fully train an English archer.
This was due to the bow having a draw back pull of 100lbs or over, and being around 6ft long.
Most men even of strong build would have found it difficult to pull the string even half way to the fire position, which was almost to the ear.
For many years I used a longbow with a draw pull of 44lbs, and although I could pull a bow of 60lbs, I could not hold it steadily enough to aim with any accuracy.
Due to this archers had well developed chests, and it could be easily seen if an archer was left or right handed due to the calluses on his draw fingers.
The reason that the archers gave their enemies the V was as a message that they still had their draw fingers, so the enemy had better watch out.
Even those in full armour were vulnerable as one of the 2 types of arrow used, the bodkin heads was capable of penetrating the best armor of the day, even some of the most expensive French armour that only the rich warrior could afford.

.

Mnamreh,

As you say, I am convinced.
Also happy to agree to differ. It makes a change from the oft exchanges of yes they did, no they didn't.
Mind you, you will be telling me next that Rambo is a fictitious character and that he did not win several wars single handed.

Regards Greek.

Fight! Fight! (Harry Hill) :-)

.

Pension books at dawn then!

.

The bows found on the sunk warship the mary Rose had draw weights up to 185 pounds. The muscle power required to keep 3 arrows in the air with draw weights well above 100 pounds was huge. They must have been built like tanks.

Italian cruise ships


How do they serve alcoholic drinks on Italian cruise ships? - On the rocks.

What vegetables do you get with dinner on Italian cruise ships? - Leeks.

What's the fastest way to get off an Italian cruise ship? - Follow the captain.

When the captain of the ill fated Costa Concordia was asked if he knew where he was going he replied "off course."

So the captain of the Costa Concordia will soon be in the dock. That's more than can be said for his ship.

I like my women how I like my Italian Cruises. Wet, wrecked and ready to go down.

The Costa Concordia is probably the most expensive thing to go down in Italy since Berlusconi's last hooker.

What's the difference between the Italian economy and the stricken cruise liner Costa Concordia?

Nothing - The bottom's dropped out of both.

.

Just one arm :-)

.

Airbus to inspect all A380 superjumbos for wing cracks

Aircraft maker Airbus has been ordered to check the wings of all A380 superjumbo planes currently in service.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has ordered all 67 Airbus A380 superjumbo planes currently in operation to be checked.

Airbus said the cracks were not an immediate threat to safety and that repairs would be carried out if any damage was found.

Hence the expression.. Let the Train take the strain.. Unless it's across water of course.

Well that's Friday nights buggered :-)

The rise and fall of lap dancing

.

Blimey, what are MPs and city Councilors going to do to pass the time on their never ending 'Fact finding' or 'Team building' junkets, sorry I mean hard working, no time for leisure, business trips.

Our politicians should be called to account
Westminster leaders not Whitehall mandarins are responsible for our public finances.

Anyone searching for clues as to why the public finances are in such a distressing state could do worse than read the Whole of Government Accounts for 2009/10, published in November and taken apart with forensic precision yesterday by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee.

The WGA are an attempt by the Treasury to provide the big picture of the Government’s assets and liabilities over the longer term. In the words of the PAC, they should show what the Government “owes, owns, spends and receives”, since without such basic information, proper management of the public finances is not possible.

It speaks volumes for Whitehall’s historically slapdash approach to taxation and spending that this was the first time the Treasury had ever conducted such an exercise. To the irritation of the MPs, it did so tardily, taking 20 months to prepare and publish the data, and incompletely – omitting, for example, the state-owned banks and Network Rail from the exercise, in defiance of standard accounting practice.

Even so, the findings make salutary reading. They identify a public sector pensions liability of £1.13 trillion; PFI commitments of £131.5 billion (four times the asset value of the projects they financed); nuclear de-commissioning costs of £59.7 billion; £10.9 billion of unpaid taxes written off; and £15.7 billion earmarked for settling clinical negligence claims.

The figures are dizzying – but not as alarming as the Treasury’s sanguine approach to them. The PAC found that officials “do not have a grip on trends in some key areas of risk or plans for managing them”.

This accounting exercise has exposed the weakness of the senior civil service when it comes to financial management. Among permanent secretaries and their deputies, expertise in this field is as rare as hen’s teeth. They may have other strengths that compensate, but if there are not people reporting to them who know how to run big projects and keep them within budget, it causes serious problems.

Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, took a small step in the right direction yesterday by announcing a new project leadership academy at the Said Business School in Oxford, aimed at teaching mandarins how to manage big-ticket projects.

However, the real problem lies not with civil servants, but with their political masters. It is politicians who demanded the tax credit system, ID cards, the child support agency, the NHS computer system, the children’s database and countless other high-spending fiascos that have cost the taxpayer billions.

The public finances will be restored to good health only when our leaders start spending money because they have to, not because they want to.

The above is in the 'Editorial Comment Section' of today's Telegraph

I think it beggars belief! However, it is something that we have undoubtedly all suspected for a very long time. No wonder we are so strongly opinioned against the paying our taxes.

But it's relieving to read that at last something is being done about it.

PS. Don't forget to click on the link so that you can also read some of the attached 'Comments' to this article.