Random!

[JTrader]

Volcano Tungurahua
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Awesome photo dude!
i've set it as my desktop background (for now)!

 

[Jack o'Clubs]

back to randomness:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/; then select "Stand-Up on 7- Milton Jones"
I have already mentioned him before, but he is a genius.

eg: My grandmother put lard all over my grandfathers back. He went downhill very fast after that.
eg: I have been trying to give up hypnosis for a while with little success. Tried smoking, nail-biting.....
eg: I spent years covering food in batter and cooking it. Bananas, apples, cherries, potatoes. Sometimes, I feel I am just frittering my life away.

classic.

just listened via the radioplayer. very, very funny. reminds me a bit of a clever version of Tommy Cooper type jokes. which is a good thing.

Mark Watson also good via the same radioplayer, but series has just ended so won't be there for long.

 

[bluetipex]

Home Insurance rip-off

My Father died in May this year so I've been trying to support my Mother in between Day trading! She's 73 and getting very forgetful. Missed loads of good trading days but so what!!!

Anyway, I go round most days and on Monday I saw a renewal notice for her buildings and contents insurance with Lloyds TSB for £598, and they would automatically keep deducting the monthly premium from 8 October. I thought that that was a bit expensive so I brought it back home (my mother doesn't have a computer) and searched for cheaper insurance. Tesco and Direct Line were about £330 for the same cover, but my favourite, Liverpool and Victoria came out at £157 for the same cover.

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY SEVEN POUNDS.

Yesterday, I rang Lloyds to cancel. She's been with them for many, many years and never changed. The girl said "Your Mum has been with us for a very long time, so let's see what I can do. Let me speak to my manager". 1 minute later she came back and said "we can do the same cover for £357 if she stays with us".

I was absolutely livid.

I told them that Liverpool + Victoria did the same cover for £157, so I still wanted the policy cancelled.

I don't know why, but I was very polite. I didn't swear. I kept calm.

I should've asked why they wanted to charge £598 when they could patently do it for £357 by me simply asking. My Mum's loyalty was therefore rewarded with HIGHER premiums.

I then rang L+V and took out the cover from 8 Oct.

1. I hate insurance companies.
2. Could I please implore all those that read this post to NEVER accept the renewal quote, but always look around first. A few clicks on your pc costs nothing.
3. PLEASE don't let the insurance companies take the p*** out of you, or your relatives.


I'm so angry about this.


If I hadn't seen that letter then my Mum would be paying nearly 4 times more then she needed to.

This is the killer. When I told my Mum that I got it for £157, she didn't believe me, and wanted to speak to L+V to check. She couldn't work out why it was so cheap compared to what she was expecting to pay.

Best companies IMHO are: Liverpool & Victoria, Direct Line, Tesco, Sainsburys and Budget Insurance. Generally speaking, one of those will give you the cheapest quote.



Lastly...

My mother has never made a claim.

 

[trendie]

absolutely agree bluetipex, re: renewals.

they take the mickey with "loyal" members and repay them with exhorbitant quotes.
the AA wanted me to pay £133 for renewal, until I told them that if I was a new member I could join for £100!! (got the £100 renewal though)
ditto, home and contents.
and car insurance!I got a reduction of £120 from RAC just by telling them I was going to switch to AA. WHY DID THEY QUOTE ME HIGHER IF THEY WERE WILLING TO ACCEPT ME AT A LOWER PRICE???

agree shopping around.
I use www.moneysupermarket.com primarily for such things.

 

[Atilla]

My Father died in May this year so I've been trying to support my Mother in between Day trading! She's 73 and getting very forgetful. Missed loads of good trading days but so what!!!

Anyway, I go round most days and on Monday I saw a renewal notice for her buildings and contents insurance with Lloyds TSB for £598, and they would automatically keep deducting the monthly premium from 8 October. I thought that that was a bit expensive so I brought it back home (my mother doesn't have a computer) and searched for cheaper insurance. Tesco and Direct Line were about £330 for the same cover, but my favourite, Liverpool and Victoria came out at £157 for the same cover.

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY SEVEN POUNDS.

Yesterday, I rang Lloyds to cancel. She's been with them for many, many years and never changed. The girl said "Your Mum has been with us for a very long time, so let's see what I can do. Let me speak to my manager". 1 minute later she came back and said "we can do the same cover for £357 if she stays with us".

I was absolutely livid.

I told them that Liverpool + Victoria did the same cover for £157, so I still wanted the policy cancelled.

I don't know why, but I was very polite. I didn't swear. I kept calm.

I should've asked why they wanted to charge £598 when they could patently do it for £357 by me simply asking. My Mum's loyalty was therefore rewarded with HIGHER premiums.

I then rang L+V and took out the cover from 8 Oct.

1. I hate insurance companies.
2. Could I please implore all those that read this post to NEVER accept the renewal quote, but always look around first. A few clicks on your pc costs nothing.
3. PLEASE don't let the insurance companies take the p*** out of you, or your relatives.


I'm so angry about this.


If I hadn't seen that letter then my Mum would be paying nearly 4 times more then she needed to.

This is the killer. When I told my Mum that I got it for £157, she didn't believe me, and wanted to speak to L+V to check. She couldn't work out why it was so cheap compared to what she was expecting to pay.

Best companies IMHO are: Liverpool & Victoria, Direct Line, Tesco, Sainsburys and Budget Insurance. Generally speaking, one of those will give you the cheapest quote.



Lastly...

My mother has never made a claim.

This is the same with car insurance and mortgages.

Speaking with the same experience you have just encountered.

You don't ask you don't get...

 

[blackcab]

My Father died in May this year so I've been trying to support my Mother in between Day trading! She's 73 and getting very forgetful. Missed loads of good trading days but so what!!!

I'm sorry to hear about your father. It goes to show that despite everything, family is what counts and we need to look after each other. It's us against them - the world of insurance companies, consumer goods, giant corporations, marketing departments, all focused on distributing wealth from us to them and nothing more.

Forgive the sentimentality. I'm reading Nigel Slater's autobiography, Toast, and it puts things like that in perspective.

I used to wonder vaguely why adult colleagues would gladly give so much of their income away to these snake oil salesmen - dressed-up coffee in cardboard cups from the corporation downstairs rather than making a cuppa for free in the kitchen, short-lived games and gadgets from catalogues/online shops, ringtones. People used to tape films from the telly when they came around, now they buy the DVD. When did that change? The price of phone calls has dropped enormously in the last 20 years, but people happily spend 20p/minute on their mobile indoors instead of 1p/minute on the fixed phone. It's probably just a sign of how relatively affluent we've become, but it still rankles. It's like having a hole in your pocket and letting money fall out all day long.

Just an grumpy old fart.

 

[Splitlink]

I'm sorry to hear about your father. It goes to show that despite everything, family is what counts and we need to look after each other. It's us against them - the world of insurance companies, consumer goods, giant corporations, marketing departments, all focused on distributing wealth from us to them and nothing more.

Forgive the sentimentality. I'm reading Nigel Slater's autobiography, Toast, and it puts things like that in perspective.

I used to wonder vaguely why adult colleagues would gladly give so much of their income away to these snake oil salesmen - dressed-up coffee in cardboard cups from the corporation downstairs rather than making a cuppa for free in the kitchen, short-lived games and gadgets from catalogues/online shops, ringtones. People used to tape films from the telly when they came around, now they buy the DVD. When did that change? The price of phone calls has dropped enormously in the last 20 years, but people happily spend 20p/minute on their mobile indoors instead of 1p/minute on the fixed phone. It's probably just a sign of how relatively affluent we've become, but it still rankles. It's like having a hole in your pocket and letting money fall out all day long.

Just an grumpy old fart.

As grumpy and as old as me (we'll leave the "fart" bit out)? You are quite right, I still tape and do not own a cell phone or carry a credit card. Guess what? I, actually, save :!:

Surprising how different an impression one can get from posts. I thought you were a Young Turk

Split

 

[blackcab]

As grumpy and as old as me (we'll leave the "fart" bit out)? You are quite right, I still tape and do not own a cell phone or carry a credit card. Guess what? I, actually, save :!:

Surprising how different an impression one can get from posts. I thought you were a Young Turk

The current young generation, as well as dying before their parents due to bad food and no exercise, are running up vast debt on the way. Who's going to carry the can - their children, or - frighteningly - their parents, the current 40+ generation? There could be a lot of unhappy nonagenarians in a few years.

I'm at that difficult age for a man, between 16 and 60

 

[trendie]

New Scientist mag; Nov-2004

just going through old mags before throwing them out, and came across this short article.

Sunspot effect:
Thje mysterious sunspot cycle has a subtle influence on crop success, a study of wheat prices in teh US suggests.
The study backs the idea that the cycle somehow affects Earth climate. 2 scientsists from Israel analysed US wheat prices during the 20th century. The team did not expect to see a sunspot connection because of factors such as modern technologies, which makje crops more robust in bad weather.
But they found a link between numbers of sunspots and prices of US dhurum wheat, most of which grows in one part of North Dakota, where localised weather conditions could have dramatic impact on production.

so there you go: count the number of sunspots, and buy options on wheat prices!!

NB: also found old articles on sonoluminescence, and theory that there are two types of gravity!

 

[TheBramble]

NB: also found old articles on sonoluminescence, and theory that there are two types of gravity!

Heavy gravity days are a well known phenomenom.

You want cycles?

 

[JTrader]

Why Is The Sea Salty, But Not Rivers And Lakes?
It all comes down to a thing called the water cycle. Rain, which is fresh water, falls from clouds onto the land and finds its way into lakes and rivers, and also through the ground, back to the sea, picking up salts and minerals as it goes. Once it reaches the sea, the water can be evaporated again to form new clouds containing fresh water, and the salt is left behind, so over millions of years the oceans have slowly been accumulating salt washed off the land by fresh water. So is the sea becoming more salty ? Probably not because if the level of salt rises any further the extra is removed by various processes, including chemical reactions, so the sea is now about as salty as it is going to get. That’s not to say you can’t get saltier seas – like the Dead Sea – these are just bodies of water cut off from the main ocean and in which more water is evaporating than being returned by rivers, so the water becomes more concentrated.

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/news/news/582/

 

[chump]

I remember Cher singing ..."if I could turn back time"...it must be a favourite of Hugo's as well....

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2984796.ece

On a personal level I like this guys sense of quirkiness and willingness to be different...short term I think he can do his country some good...but I'd have money that long term he won't ! When the fox has cleared the hen house for you you should shoot it...LOL ...OK time to go watch RUGBYYYYYYYYYYYYY ! ...until next week..be good.

 

[JTrader]

I dislike that slight sinking feeling as price is slowly heading towards a stop-loss. Will it, won't it? oh - it looks to be reversing in my favour, oh - its turning back against me........there goes my stop-loss!

 

[Atilla]

I dislike that slight sinking feeling as price is slowly heading towards a stop-loss. Will it, won't it? oh - it looks to be reversing in my favour, oh - its turning back against me........there goes my stop-loss!

Halo 3 sales top £84m in 24 hours

It's obvious people have the time and the money...

Nasdaq surges ahead on Halo effect phenomenon...

 

[JTrader]

I recently witnessed a mass fight outside a night club , as some friends and I were passing by. It looked like a dispute between 2 rival gangs or something.
I've never before witnessed such mayhem, with around 20 young men in a mass brawl forming a swaying crowd up & down the pavement. People running & screaming to get out of the way, people running to get involved, girls screaming, bottles flying, bottles being smashed on people heads, people picking up bottles that had been smashed on their head to hit the person who had smashed the bottle on their head etc. etc. . It all looked pretty brutal .

 

[Atilla]

I recently witnessed a mass fight outside a night club , as some friends and I were passing by. It looked like a dispute between 2 rival gangs or something.
I've never before witnessed such mayhem, with around 20 young men in a mass brawl forming a swaying crowd up & down the pavement. People running & screaming to get out of the way, people running to get involved, girls screaming, bottles flying, bottles being smashed on people heads, people picking up bottles that had been smashed on their head to hit the person who had smashed the bottle on their head etc. etc. . It all looked pretty brutal .

Typical night out in UK towns I'm afraid to say.

Lost youth and souls. Work hard all week and **** it off in the weekends.

Youth culture is engineered these days to have a good time, consume and get laid. No effing hard work, responsibility or the drive to do better.

Bring back national service imo.

 

[jacinto]

I recently witnessed a mass fight outside a night club , as some friends and I were passing by. It looked like a dispute between 2 rival gangs or something.
I've never before witnessed such mayhem, with around 20 young men in a mass brawl forming a swaying crowd up & down the pavement. People running & screaming to get out of the way, people running to get involved, girls screaming, bottles flying, bottles being smashed on people heads, people picking up bottles that had been smashed on their head to hit the person who had smashed the bottle on their head etc. etc. . It all looked pretty brutal .

2 years ago i was in Weymouth with about 6 mexican friends, we were there to sail the J-24 world cup.

we were out having drinks, and when we came out, there was this girl, beating up the boyfriend (big time, no jokes) and her girlfriends were joining in. I was a bit shocked, but living in this country, just thought what Atilla mentioned. My mates were simply shocked. they couldnt believe their eyes. not that they are macho lads, but just shocking

 

[Atilla]

2 years ago i was in Weymouth with about 6 mexican friends, we were there to sail the J-24 world cup.

we were out having drinks, and when we came out, there was this girl, beating up the boyfriend (big time, no jokes) and her girlfriends were joining in. I was a bit shocked, but living in this country, just thought what Atilla mentioned. My mates were simply shocked. they couldnt believe their eyes. not that they are macho lads, but just shocking

Best way to fight girls is to defend your self and pour water or drinks over them. They then consider the consequences on their hair and dress. Just my opinion.

Some girls become more beautiful and passionate when they are on heat. Could be a turn on. Kind of foreplay perhaps, I don't know... Youngsters these days are a different generation...

 

[fibonelli]

Do you dance like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK_9VXiyC3Y

Warning: Not politically correct :cheesy:

 

[Atilla]

Do you dance like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK_9VXiyC3Y

Warning: Not politically correct :cheesy:

Love the mirrored special effects.