I blame Dawn for the fact that I need a wee now, and the complete lack of milk in my fridge. Black coffee really doesn't hit the spot the same, and while I should probably have made the minimal effort needed to get to the shop for more, I'm still pretty sure most of the blame lies squarely with Dawnie. I hope you're proud of yourself knowing I have to go to bed without a milky drink inside me and it's ALL YOUR FAULT! :-x
Grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, etc don't really bother me. So long as the poster is mostly writing coherent sentences that make sense the errors are easy to overlook. Even at grammar school I found English was not taught as a formal language to quite the same degree as Latin or French. Some will struggle with literacy no matter how it's taught, but more generally without sufficient emphasis on the logical underpinnings of a language how can you be expected to have a full grip on the rules and subtleties? I still have to double-check I'm not typing it's when I mean its, and that's with me fully understanding the difference.
I do make a distinction between genuine difficulties with grammar and spelling, and text speak though. To my mind text speak is just simple laziness. Might make sense to use it for actual texting, though I refuse to use it myself keying complete, fully punctuated sentences even there, but when used on a forum it suggests that the poster just couldn't be arsed typing a few extra characters to make a properly sensible sentence, expecting the reader to make the effort to decode and make sense of it. I just switch off to it. Why should I be arsed putting the effort in if the poster couldn't? I'd almost go so far as to suggest it demonstrates a certain contempt for the reader, that they're not worth the time and energy required to post in proper sentences.
I think there's a difference. When the hormones kick in at puberty they create strong sexual urges and strong emotional responses in a child unused to dealing with them. It takes time and experience to learn how to restrain them and express them appropriately. The law's saying that it understands these urges and emotions are simply human nature and wants to give the child time to get used to them while keeping them safe from predatory adults inclined to take advantage of them. While I don't agree that a 10 year old can have full criminal responsibility where murder's concerned, I'd say the difference is that most children don't have an urge to murder, making those who do a true aberration. The courts need a full range of powers available to protect society from further harm. New found sexual desire though is common to pretty much everybody. The law doesn't seek to punish a child for that, it's concerned only with child protection. Not the same thing at all.
Mike, agree absolutely. The girl's 15. She may be mature physically, but in the eyes of the law she's still a child. She's not deemed capable of making adult decisions, or capable of fully appreciating the potential ramifications of those decisions in terms of their potential harm. I don't think she shares anything like the same responsibility as the teacher. The law is there to protect her from herself as much as it is to protect her from adults who might take advantage of a young girl's burgeoning sexuality.
The teacher should have been able to maintain his professional boundaries, no matter how seductive she was with him. His inability to do that shows he's quite immature himself, either unable or unwilling to properly apply reason and restrain his desire, allowing himself instead to be led by his cock and emotions. He must have known deep down exactly how this would turn out, yet still he did it. Absolutely reckless, speaks volumes. Quite right that the full consequences fall on him, and him alone.
Oh shush you, you, you silver-tongued flatter you! Though if there's any more ego stroking to be had, well, I quite like being tickled a bit while you do it, just . . . here. :twisted:
Hiya Hanover, welcome to the forums and all that!
Kestrel's looks good. Definitely worth a spin. If you've never seen the way a lot of single guys in clubs behave, hanging around in packs following every fem or couple who walks by them or trying their luck hammering on doors that have been locked to stop 'em just walking in in the first place, prepare to be somewhat taken aback. Best way to stand out from that particular crowd is simply not to emulate them in any way. Just talk to people same as you'd talk to them anywhere else, see if you click with someone enough for them to wonder if there's a role for you anywhere but don't be disappointed if not. Comes with the territory, occupational hazard, but you might see the same couple again another visit and if they remember you as the relaxed, funny guy they chatted to before moving on last time they might just be more inclined to take a chance on you this time. Sounds obvious doesn't it, almost patronising even me trying to explain all this to another thinking, feeling adult, course you wouldn't dream of any of this loitering in packs, hammering on doors, making other people uncomfortable, completely pissing them off nonsense, but it will make sense when you see just how many guys seem incapable of grasping any of that.
Look out for social and club meets local to you in Let's Meet Up, get yourself onto the forum or into the chatroom often as you can, let people get used to you being there as one of the faces, see if you can't occasionally come out with something that actually reveals what kind of a person you are, see if you click with anyone. When I started here and the numbers were relatively small there were big site get-togethers a few times a year. Apart from Mrs NWC's valiant efforts over the years keeping the buzz and excitement going for those new to the scene with a big bash for 200+ like the Wigan Munches it seems to be that the days of the really big socials are gone, replaced by lots of much smaller local get togethers. They'll be put on by either the chatroom ( more likely these days ) crowd, or the forum ( less likely ) crowd, so you'll want to get yourself known as a solid regular, chat or forum to be in with a chance of an invite to a smaller social, club meet, whatever.
Don't rely on your profile to hook people in, it's unlikely to work for you. Single guys outnumber single fems and couples by about four to one, so those looking for a single guy really do have their pick. If you've not got anything physically exceptional enough to turn heads all by itself, then a more subtle approach is needed. They say the brain's the biggest sex organ anyways so show what you've got in there, try and have fun with people before trying to have 'fun' with them.
Hope you enjoy the site, good luck in your search. ;)
Why would it need it? The scope of any law that applies is subject to continual refinement over time anyways, as individual cases go on to set precedents for those that follow. The , , whatever all start from very broad principles in the simplest of terms that surely every single one of us would agree on. These are not controversial documents. It's individual cases that delineate the specific outlines of this treaty or that, and define where a law might apply, and where it doesn't. That's what I meant about cases like these being necessary, in terms of this process of refinement.
If major incompatibilities could be found that work against natural justice then perhaps a major reframing of the treaties would be in order but I'm not sure any such major incompatibilities exist. The Hamza case sure ain't one. Tinkering with the law or its application just to make future cases like Hamza's less irksome, or for the sake of short-term political expediency would risk throwing the baby out with the bath water. The protections offered are too valuable to let any Govt of whatever colour do that, assuming they could wriggle out of the treaties they're bound to that easily in the first place.
Ah. Bugger! Just reading up on it Steve cos I wasn't aware they'd be contraindicated for you. 2011 study for Champix shows an almost imperceptible increased risk of cardio-vascular complications for anyone with such a history, 2% of population up from 1% with placebo. How that compares to what the increased risk if you just keep smoking the next few weeks is of course, not stated! ;) Zyban contraindicated with beta-blockers and some anti-antiarrythmics.
Pretty full list of all contraindications among other things in a prescribers guide to and if anyone's interested.
Flower, I like the look of the Samsung Note myself, just as a net browser I can use watching the telly as much as anything, and the stylus looks good for the art and design stuff your daughter wants it for depending how good the software is that makes use of it, but for proper productivity type applications I doubt they're the best choice, and if it's the kind of propriety closed system I expect it to be they're probably not very future prof. I would avoid a netbook for the same reason. Good for lightweight tasks but I wouldn't expect any heavy-duty processing from them, not all that future proof again. Quite a scathing review of the Samsung actually btw, which is one of the few I've been able to find amid the generally glowing reports.
As far as the art and design requirement goes I doubt your daughter's gonna be using anything seriously processor heavy like Photoshop on her old machine, but even a 4 year old laptop should be able to run Photoshop CS2 at least. My aging Core 2 Duo at home and an equally old AMD Athlon 64 X2 at work cope pretty well with basic editing anyways, even with only 2 gig of RAM in it. Cheap upgrades to memory, maybe a faster / bigger hard drive assuming it's a pretty standard Sata II 2.5" HD that's in it, clean re-install of XP to get rid of the random processes she's likely accumulated over the years in her start-up. Could have a look at msconfig actually, see what's starting with the OS. In XP: Start > Run > msconfig > startup tab, Win7: Start > msconfig in Search programs and files box > startup tab. Likely to be all kinds of crap you don't need to have running in background / system tray you can just disable at startup, recover any performance hit they were causing. Give it a good clean with Malware Bytes or Spybot or something too, see if that helps before reformatting the drive with a new install.
Have a look at for and components for upgrading the existing laptop. £400 will buy you a really quite decent laptop with dual-core Intel i5 CPUs, decent sized hard drive, shitloads of RAM and more ports and networking than you could shake a dirty stick at from a better quality manufacturer on there, no problem. Cheap as chips, great support, massive range to suit any budget, cheap delivery costs. Use them for all my bits and bobs cos they're pretty local to me, but mail order service just as good. Got a decent replacement PSU delivered just this week from them.
Correction to above. Quoted the wrong Article 3. Should have been Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights: 'No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.' UN Convention on Torture expands on the definition of torture and actions to be taken by signatories to it. Previous posts otherwise stand in their entirety.
Clearly you did Dave. It was explained 'in some detail' apparently, I think you'll find. Do keep up FFS! :P
Yeah, mostly Rob I'd agree with you. In the grand scheme of things most coppers get called worse a good few dozen times a day I expect. Pleb though as a choice of insult ( if that indeed is what was used? ) would be really quite revealing of the mindset of the guy, wouldn't it? Probably not a word someone in a party accused of being elitist would really want to be seen using. All too redolent of class based snobbery and privelege, isn't it?
That perhaps explains why the party spin machine is falling over itself trying to paint this as simple rudeness on an off day, as opposed to him being caught snearing at the lower orders. Not a good look, if true! ;)
Best of luck Steve. If I can stop drinking, which is without doubt the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, and I've done some pretty difficult things, I dare say you can stop smoking. Funnily enough I hit exactly two months sober just today. I'll do the counting-the-days thing with you if you want? Good luck again Steve, stick with it fella. ;)
If NWC's standing on it it's gonna be nearer 'alf an inch or summat. 
I do think this constant berating of people for their personal choices as regards their own personal circumstances is kinda hypocritical in the first instance, cos hey, the mere fact most of us are here in the first place shows what we think of certain fairly basic societal norms, claiming a right to make moral decisions re: our sexuality and the expression of it for ourselves regardless of what wider society might think, and secondly it's completely counter-productive, in that I'm sure some users read negative comments made to others in a similar position and think 'Sod that for a game of soldiers, easier to just lie about my status, noone'll be any the wiser anyway. 
;) And while I wouldn't presume to speak on anyone's behalf, let alone Trevaunance's, someone who is generally much more eloquent than I, I don't think any apology whatsoever was required. Just sayin'.
hwoar: :lickface: 
