C4C Link Dump

[Phil Reynolds]

Top interview with Ed Miliband - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZtVm8wt ... e=youtu.be

If I'd been the interviewer I'd have been tempted to start asking him stupid questions like "Who is your favourite member of the Pussycat Dolls?" or "Who would win in a fight between Ed Balls and a giraffe?" just to see if he'd answer those with the same soundbites.

If it's good enough for Labour, it'll do for the Tories too. (Follow the link, then play the video.)

[Jennifer Steadman]

I don't imagine there's much of a market for an article about a small dormitory town near Tunbridge Wells here, but here's my latest blog. Enjoy.

[Charlie Reams]

Top interview with Ed Miliband - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZtVm8wt ... e=youtu.be

If I'd been the interviewer I'd have been tempted to start asking him stupid questions like "Who is your favourite member of the Pussycat Dolls?" or "Who would win in a fight between Ed Balls and a giraffe?" just to see if he'd answer those with the same soundbites.

Those are far from stupid questions.

[Ryan Taylor]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5H5r4_C ... re=related

[Jennifer Steadman]

Another day, another blog post about what to do and what not to do at a gig.

[Ryan Taylor]

OK so I started a blog now. It's not very good and I think the subject that I mainly post about (anagrams and quizzes) is a bit limited at the moment but some people might like it, emphasis on some. http://trivialaffair.blogspot.com/

[Adam Gillard]

I don't belong to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but this is pretty funny.

[Gavin Chipper]

I don't belong to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but this is pretty funny.

Yeah, I enjoyed reading that. I completely agree with the principle. You can't make special allowances for some religions and not others. It's not as if you can argue that his "religion" is any more ridiculous than any of the others.

[Steve Balog]

I caught myself saying "shopping cart" instead of shopping trolley today and was thoroughly disgusted with myself.

To be fair even I think some of the Americanisms are stupid, but that statement made me laugh really hard for some reason.

"I robbed an orphanage today. I'm a bit disgusted with myself."
"Well, I said shopping cart instead of shopping trolley two days ago."
"YOU MONSTER!"

[Jennifer Steadman]

I'm on a bitchy-article-writing roll. Moaning about songs, moaning about Facebook again, and not moaning, but voicing a musically controversial opinion. If anyone's interested.

[Brian Moore]

He should have used a sharper knife.

[Mark James]

[quote="Steve Balog"]I caught myself saying "shopping cart" instead of shopping trolley today and was thoroughly disgusted with myself.

Some of these are annoying but for most of them I can't see what the problem is. I mean "Train Station"? WTF is wrong with that?

[Gavin Chipper]

I caught myself saying "shopping cart" instead of shopping trolley today and was thoroughly disgusted with myself.

Some of these are annoying but for most of them I can't see what the problem is. I mean "Train Station"? WTF is wrong with that?

I think people always used to say "railway station". But that's a bit of a tongue-twister, so I don't think people can be blamed for saying "train station".

[Liam Tiernan]

I caught myself saying "shopping cart" instead of shopping trolley today and was thoroughly disgusted with myself.

Some of these are annoying but for most of them I can't see what the problem is. I mean "Train Station"? WTF is wrong with that?

Train station was always the common term here, as well as in the U.S. I've never heard anybody other than English people use "railway station" in everyday speech. It's not just the U.S. that has these little differences in usage. The first example given in the article (Can I get a ....") is another example. See Hiberno-English.

[Phil Reynolds]

There are several phrases in that piece that I dislike, but many of them to me aren't Americanisms so much as examples of corporate gobbledegook invented by management consultants. "Going forward" is particularly ugly; it's grammatically cumbersome and adds literally nothing to a sentence. E.g. "How do you want to approach this going forward?" means exactly the same as "How do you want to approach this?"

However, I'm more incensed by the stupid woman quoted as saying:

What kind of word is "gotten"? It makes me shudder.

As I'm sure most of you know, the use of "gotten" as the past participle of "get" dates back to Middle English (it survives in the expression "ill-gotten gains") and would have been taken to America by the Pilgrim Fathers. You might not like it but don't blame the Americans for coining it.

[Charlie Reams]

The Economist published a pretty comprehensive rebuttal of that idiotic BBC article. Well worth a read.

[Gavin Chipper]

I'm on a bitchy-article-writing roll. Moaning about songs, moaning about Facebook again, and not moaning, but voicing a musically controversial opinion. If anyone's interested.

Of course we are! (I've skimmed a couple of them anyway.)

[Brian Moore]

The Economist published a pretty comprehensive rebuttal of that idiotic BBC article. Well worth a read.

That'll learn 'em (as they say in Devon).

I find the disappearance of prepositions in American phrases more perplexing, as in "pissed" for "pissed off" and "appeal" for "appeal against", but then part of me just gets perplexed by prepositions - why do people get upset by "bored of" when "bored with" or "bored by" makes no more logical sense (and why do I get worried by "compared to", for goodness sake?). But once I'd worked out that not everybody in The West Wing had had too much to drink, and they were just angry, I got over my perplexation. Prepositions are slippery little buggers. Maybe the Americans are onto something by just deleting them if they can.

[Peter Mabey]

On the other hand, they add a superfluous one in "beat up on"

I'm also annoyed by "careen" for "career", meaning to rush wildly - this seems to have originated as a typo - although it's got into ODE, Chambers still doesn't recognise it

[Mark James]

The Economist published a pretty comprehensive rebuttal of that idiotic BBC article. Well worth a read.

Very good. I still hate Math though. It's Maths, it's short for mathematics not mathematic. And even spell checker knows it's wrong as there's a squiggly red line underneath.

[Charlie Reams]

The Economist published a pretty comprehensive rebuttal of that idiotic BBC article. Well worth a read.

Very good. I still hate Math though. It's Maths, it's short for mathematics not mathematic. And even spell checker knows it's wrong as there's a squiggly red line underneath.

The first four letters of mathematics are m-a-t-h. The word is invariably used as a singular noun (no one says "mathematics are my favourite subject") so the s at the end has no particular significance. And there's no convention (as far as I know) that says that you abbreviate words by removing all but the last letter. Math, maths, it makes no difference, use whichever you like, but let's not pretend that there's any reason for it.

[Brian Moore]

Very good. I still hate Math though. It's Maths, it's short for mathematics not mathematic. And even spell checker knows it's wrong as there's a squiggly red line underneath.

... as it would show with aluminum, labor, fetus, parceled, or anything else where the Americans have had the cheek to change olde English spellings. But I'm trying to think of examples to justify your dislike - the closest I've come up with so far is "hols" for holiday/holidays (as in "where are you going in the hols?"), but there is vague logic in that plural, whereas the 's' at the end of mathematics feels like its been put there just to make the word sound unlike an adjective.

Now, having said that, what about statistics/stats"? How do they refer to that, as a subject? Not that they have to be consistent, of course.

[Charlie Reams]

Very good. I still hate Math though. It's Maths, it's short for mathematics not mathematic. And even spell checker knows it's wrong as there's a squiggly red line underneath.

... as it would show with aluminum, labor, fetus, parceled, or anything else where the Americans have had the cheek to change olde English spellings.

I'm not sure if you were being humorous here but aluminum is the original name, and fetus was the original spelling and is standard in all forms of English now (foetus is a bogus Latinisation).

[Brian Moore]

Very good. I still hate Math though. It's Maths, it's short for mathematics not mathematic. And even spell checker knows it's wrong as there's a squiggly red line underneath.

... as it would show with aluminum, labor, fetus, parceled, or anything else where the Americans have had the cheek to change olde English spellings.

I'm not sure if you were being humorous here but aluminum is the original name, and fetus was the original spelling and is standard in all forms of English now (foetus is a bogus Latinisation).

It would have been quite a clever and subtle piece of humor. Look at the evidence - I fell for the IE hoax. So thanks for filling in those small holes in my massive ignorance.

[Phil Reynolds]

So thanks for filling in those small holes in my massive ignorance.

Surely if anything you'd want the holes in your ignorance made larger rather than filled in?

[Brian Moore]

Surely if anything you'd want the holes in your ignorance made larger rather than filled in?

Hmm, I think my metaphor might need some refining... holes in nothingness is maybe not the most easily grasped image...

[Gavin Chipper]

Some things just sound annoying - it doesn't necessarily matter whether they came from America or not. But when they do come from America and happen to be annoying anyway, it's easy to blame them! I dunno - I suppose it's because quite a lot of stuff of theirs gets imported to us, whereas I would expect that hardly any of their recent language changes have come from us. So it seems like an uneven relationship and that they're taking over the world. You do the math!

[Charlie Reams]

It would have been quite a clever and subtle piece of humor. Look at the evidence - I fell for the IE hoax.

NOW YOU MISPELLED HUMOUR, THIS IS UNBELEIVABLE!

holes in nothingness?

[Julie T]

Hi,

For those of you who don't think that epetitions are a waste of time, please sign below if you agree that benefits payments for families with disabled children should not be cut:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/915


This govt plan is terrible. The disability premium I receive on my child tax credit is not huge, but certainly helps with the extra costs involved in bringing up a disabled child.

I do agree that it means that there is a discrepancy in disability payments for adults and children, though. My disabled son is now 16, so I had the choice to decide whether to help him claim Employment Support Allowance, or continue claiming benefits with him as a dependant child till he's 20. When I calculated how much we would be losing with him changing to adult benefits, my decision was a no-brainer.

Surely the fairer option for equality would be to increase adult payments, not reduce the child payments. I know that the country is not flush with money ATM, but, because of Ivan, surely Cameron realises the extra difficulties involved in caring for a disabled child or adult, and that not every family is as rich as his.

Although I was partly reassured by the statement in the paper article (doesn't seem to be mentioned in the online one I've copied and pasted below) that current claimants will not lose out, I think that it is awful that in future poor families with disabled children will not receive as much. I sincerely hope that this legislation fails.

Here is the Times article (no link as paywalled - I did try to find an article on it on the BBC website so I could just post a link, but no joy):

Charities put pressure on Cameron with online petition over welfare reform
Families with disabled children face a benefits cut of around £1,400 a year, say charities

Michael Savage Political Correspondent
August 5 2011 12:01AM

David Cameron is facing the first major challenge to his Government’s plan to streamline Britain’s benefits system after it emerged that the families of 100,000 disabled children stand to lose thousands of pounds a year.

Some of Britain’s biggest charities, including Save the Children, Barnado’s, Gingerbread and The Children’s Society, are attempting to force a Commons debate on the cut, heaping pressure on Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, to rethink his “universal credit”.

Support is to be cut by almost half, up to £27 a week for families with a disabled child, meaning they will lose about £1,400 a year and £22,000 in all by the time their child reaches the age of 16. Families with two disabled children face losing twice as much.

A group of 25 charities are using the Government’s new e-petitions scheme to try to secure a Commons debate. If their petition earns 100,000 signatures, MPs will have to consider a vote.

Bob Reitemeier, chief executive of The Children’s Society, said that the cuts on household incomes ould push many families into poverty.

Figures inside No 10 have so far been surprised at the lack of opposition from lobby groups about the Government’s enefits proposal,which epresents the biggest overhaul of welfare since Gordon Brown introduced tax credits in 1997.

However, there are now serious concerns among charities about the universal credit.

Under the current system, families with one or more disabled children receive extra payments through child tax credit. The universal benefit will see the maximum level of support cut from £54 a week to £27.

Ministers are to hold further meetings with charities when MPs return to Parliament in September as they attempt to iron out concerns over the new ystem. The change, is intended to save the Government about £100 million a year.

In their petition, the charities say: “Don’t let disabled children pay the price for welfare reform.

“Following the introduction of the Government’s new Universal Credit welfare system, many families with disabled children will face a cut to the financial support they receive.

“Because the support is means-tested the poorest families could stand to lose the most. Now is the time to make some noise and ensure that these damaging proposals do not get approved. Disabled children should not pay the price for welfare reform — sign this petition to stop this cut.”

Mr Duncan Smith won a protracted battle with George Osborne, the Chancellor, in securingfor permission to proceed with the universal credit, his pet project. Its aim is to encourage people into work by ensuring that those who find employment can keep more of their benefits.

Charitable groups increasingly suspect, however, that the new system, combined with the £18 billion squeeze on benefits, will cause many vulnerable groups to lose out.

“The Government has set aside £2 billion over the next four years for the introduction of the universal credit,” said Mr Reitemeier. “At a time of strict financial constraints, how can they possibly justify such additional spending if it fails to support the most vulnerable families with disabled children?”

Officials have indicated that benefits for children have risen much faster than those for disabled adults and want to align the two. The universal credit will replace a series of other benefits from October 2013.

In response, ministers have drawn up plans for “cash protection” to ensure there are no net losers as a result of the change. However, that protection will not be linked to inflation, meaning all families will eventually be weaned on to the new, lower payment. Families may also lose the extra help if their circumstances change.

Those receiving the benefit for the first time from October 2013 will instantly be put on to the new system.

Anne Marie Carrie, chief executive of Barnardo’s, said that taking money away from families caring from disabled children would contradict the Government’s declared aim of makingto make the benefits system fairer.

“Parents of disabled children have enough challenges to overcome without having to worry about their finances being under threat,” she said. “Taking money away from families with disabled children will mean that the Government’s welfare reforms will fundamentally fail in their aim to target support at those most in need.

“Families with disabled children already have to juggle their caring responsibilities with additional living costs and could be pushed below the poverty line if these proposals go ahead.”

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said that the universal credit would ensure that disabled people would receive help that is “more consistent throughout their life”, adding: “Universal credit will create a simpler, and fairer system and will target support to those who need it most.

“Disabled adults in greatest need and some disabled children will receive more support than now. and there will be no cash losers as a result of the move to universal credit.

“We continue to spend over £40 billion a year on disabled people and their services and our commitment to help support disabled people live independent lives runs at the heart of our welfare reforms,” she said.

Case study

Antony Best, 23, from Bradford, is a full-time father after losing his wife to swine flu last winter. He has three children to look after and two of them also have a disability. Casie, 4, has Down’s syndrome, while her eight-month-old brother, Alfie, has cerebral palsy.

Mr Best is already relying on family and friends to help him out with caring from time to time and his budget is at breaking point. He receives £197 a month from the tax credit and disability allowance systems.

“I can spend more than that just getting the basics for the kids, and that is before I have thought about feeding myself,” he said.

“Any cut to what we survive on now would have a real impact on our living. So many of the things we need every day, like milk for my youngest and nappies, are already more expensive . . . We just about manage.”

[Jennifer Steadman]

Defending contemporary pop music, my (slightly hysterical) take on the riots, defending contemporary alternative music, an article about the genius of Suede. Not that I'm self-publicising my blog or anything.

[Mark James]

http://www.kongregate.com/games/dampgnat/wonderputt Here's a super little crazy golf game.

[Phil Reynolds]

http://www.kongregate.com/games/dampgnat/wonderputt Here's a super little crazy golf game.

Haha, excellent. In the latter stages I LOL'd at every hole transition.

[Ian Volante]

Aye, very well designed. I got -14 on my second go, spoilt a bit cos I was going for the rainbows.

[Phil Reynolds]

Aye, very well designed. I got -14 on my second go, spoilt a bit cos I was going for the rainbows.

Yep, I spent far too long last night trying to complete the rainbow - managed it eventually but was a bit disappointed as I expected it to open up a new level or reward me with some snazzy graphics or something, but no.

[Adam Gillard]

Aye, very well designed. I got -14 on my second go, spoilt a bit cos I was going for the rainbows.

I gave up on the rainbow and scored -33 on my third go. A par at the 10th and a bogey at the 18th were the only blemishes on an otherwise under par round. Don't believe me?

Edit: Actually, looking at the chart at the bottom of that screengrab I may well have been over par at the 6th too.
Edit 2: Ah no it's just because I didn't pick up much rainbow.

[Martyn Simpson]

Great low budget music video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

[Phil Reynolds]

Great low budget music video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

It is indeed a great video but how do you know it was low budget?

[Phil Reynolds]

Great low budget music video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

It is indeed a great video but how do you know it was low budget?

Why have I never heard of this band before? Their videos are all incredible. Check out this one. And this one.

[JimBentley]

Great low budget music video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

It is indeed a great video but how do you know it was low budget?

Why have I never heard of this band before? Their videos are all incredible. Check out this one. And this one.

I was playing their debut album the other night for the first time in a couple of years, and now this! It's like some weird synchronicity or summat. Anyway, if I remember correctly, this was the first elaborate video they did (and I think it can be safely assumed that this one was low budget) and then of course there was the treadmill one that got something stupid like 80 million views on Youtube or whatever. I do think they've made a bit of a rod for their own back though as now, when they release a single, it's all about "what's the video like?" rather than the music. I still reckon their first single is their best song (the video's quite good too, if not scaling the heights of lunacy that their later ones could).

[Ian Volante]

On the subject of good videos, here's Tool, although annoyingly I can't find a video for The Grudge which I'm sure was amazing! Unless it's this one I'm remembering. It's been nearly ten years after all...

[Jennifer Steadman]

I went to the Reading Festival this year and reviewed all the acts I saw - if anyone's interested, here are the articles for Friday's gigs, Saturday's, and Sunday's.
Sorry for continually bumping this for my own purposes, but I get quite a lot of views out of it

[Jon O'Neill]

It is indeed a great video but how do you know it was low budget?

Why have I never heard of this band before? Their videos are all incredible. Check out this one. And this one.

I was playing their debut album the other night for the first time in a couple of years, and now this! It's like some weird synchronicity or summat. Anyway, if I remember correctly, this was the first elaborate video they did (and I think it can be safely assumed that this one was low budget) and then of course there was the treadmill one that got something stupid like 80 million views on Youtube or whatever. I do think they've made a bit of a rod for their own back though as now, when they release a single, it's all about "what's the video like?" rather than the music. I still reckon their first single is their best song (the video's quite good too, if not scaling the heights of lunacy that their later ones could).

Yeah I can't see that being low budget. Also agree with Jim about their best single.

[Phil Reynolds]

Went to see Batman Live at the National Ice Arena in Nottingham last night. Really enjoyable show, with some terrific stunts and incredible production design - especially the Batmobile, and the huge back projections which are like the pages of a graphic novel come to life. Thanks to a friend of ours who's in the show (playing Alfred the butler) we got a backstage tour afterwards which was equally awesome (and I use that word in the proper sense of 'inspiring awe', not in the overused trendy sense of 'mildly interesting or distracting').

The show is coming to the O2 in Dublin next so Andy and co have the opportunity to catch it before it heads off around Europe.

[Michael Wallace]

Charlie said people would find this photo of me looking awkward was interesting enough for c4c.

[Jon Corby]

Charlie said people would find this photo of me looking awkward was interesting enough for c4c.

Congratulations coonboy! Did you use this in your prize-winning paper?

[Matt Morrison]

Just found this, pretty good:
http://teenagemutantninjanoses.tumblr.com/

[Mark James]

Not quite a link but try typing "Do A Barrel Roll" into google.

[Lesley Hines]

Not quite a link but try typing "Do A Barrel Roll" into google.

Being much entertained by this led me onto this little whimsical article. Thanks for that

[Andy Wilson]

The show is coming to the O2 in Dublin next so Andy and co have the opportunity to catch it before it heads off around Europe.

Heh, not the sort of thing I'd usually travel to Dublin to see and tbh, I did kind of chuckle when I saw this advertised at first, but you make it sound fairly entertaining. I've got a mate who is a batman nut (does everyone have one of these?) that I haven't seen much of lately, so I must ask him if he went.

Charlie said people would find this photo of me looking awkward was interesting enough for c4c.

Excellent - well done dude.

[Gavin Chipper]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6QtigLJD_4

I found this quite funny.

[Brian Moore]

With my cycling hat on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qycF0raqpg

This is an extraordinary bit of video from someone knocked off his bike - amazing mostly for how he stays completely calm despite a nasty tumble, a deaf emergency service operator, and a pig-ignorant woman (who happens to be 'driving', in a manner of speaking).

[Lesley Hines]

Seriously freakin' freaky - what happens when you take candy from strangers.

NB you MUST be on facebook for it to work (sorry Phil!).

[Julie T]

May I give another plug (pun intended!) for washable sanitary products? There are a small number of women on the forum, and I expect some of the blokes have wives/girlfriends!

menstrual cups: http://www.earthwisegirls.co.uk/menstru ... akbkpuvf17

washable pads: http://www.earthwisegirls.co.uk/reusabl ... akbkpuvf17

currently there's an offer on a starter pack of 3 pads and a carry bag: http://www.earthwisegirls.co.uk/charlie ... akbkpuvf17

[Julie T]

Definitely one to put on full screen mode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=430ykbW1zqA

From The Times:

"This amazing time-lapse video was created by the Crew Earth Observations team at Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre from a series of still images taken by astronauts onboard the International Space Station.

The sequences of photographs was taken with a special low-light 4K-camera by the crew of expedition 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from August to October this year.

They can be seen on Nasa’s Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth webpage, or click on the tab above to watch.

Shooting locations in order of appearance:

1. Aurora Borealis Pass over the United States at Night

2. Aurora Borealis and eastern United States at Night

3. Aurora Australis from Madagascar to southwest of Australia

4. Aurora Australis south of Australia

5. Northwest coast of United States to Central South America at Night

6. Aurora Australis from the Southern to the Northern Pacific Ocean

7. Halfway around the World

8. Night Pass over Central Africa and the Middle East

9. Evening Pass over the Sahara Desert and the Middle East

10. Pass over Canada and Central United States at Night

11. Pass over Southern California to Hudson Bay

12. Islands in the Philippine Sea at Night

13. Pass over Eastern Asia to Philippine Sea and Guam

14. Views of the Mideast at Night

15. Night Pass over Mediterranean Sea

16. Aurora Borealis and the United States at Night

17. Aurora Australis over Indian Ocean

18. Eastern Europe to Southeastern Asia at Night"

[Phil Reynolds]

Definitely one to put on full screen mode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=430ykbW1zqA

Nice images, shame about the appalling soundtrack.

[Matt Morrison]

Oh dear: http://portsmouthnaziwatch.blogspot.com ... posed.html

[Matt Morrison]

According to Google: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=what+d ... =firefox-a

[Matt Morrison]

[Matt Morrison]

[Brian Moore]

Bloomin 'eck. Any translation of what they were saying afterwards? I've no idea how they could just talk normally after that.