My eye! Sweet Jesus, Ouch!

[Hedganian]

It's true - knees click. Mostly it's nothing serious.

 

Not too pleasant, though.

[GuzziHero]

*le sigh*

 

Npower. Proving that logic and sense are not the same thing.

 

I used to pay the same amount as I did when my parents were alive, so that I would build credit until I worked out what level to set my payments at. This is a monthly fixed-rate payment which builds up Cr in summer, and uses it in winter.

 

Originally I was with British Gas and built up silly amounts of credit. When they wouldnt listen to me and pay some back or reduce my payments, I switched to Npower. This was Feb 09.

 

So, come Nov 09, I have build up nearly £600 credit. They reduce my payments to £4 to use some, I set it to £20, a more sensible level I thought.

 

May 10...I still have £409 credit...and they knock my payments up to £52 which is about right for my average over 12 months but totally ignores the £409 credit!

 

Bugger that, I've set it at £15 till the credit drops a bit

[Chimpy]

Remember - the pass mark for a medical degree is only 40%. The people who only get 40% become GPs....

 

It is however bloody hard to get 40% and well beyond most people in terms of the difficulty of the subject and amount of information you need to remember.

 

Pass mark percentages don't really tell you anything about how hard it is to achieve that passing grade.

[Harmless]

We used to have a 50% pass mark on a closed marking scheme. Which meant for any question you couldn't get less that 25% or more than 70%, so you were unable to compensate for poor knowledge in one area with good knowledge in another, needing a good overall competence.

[Chimpy]

We used to have a 50% pass mark on a closed marking scheme. Which meant for any question you couldn't get less that 25% or more than 70%, so you were unable to compensate for poor knowledge in one area with good knowledge in another, needing a good overall competence.

 

I don't doubt that the 40% pass mark now is also a bunch of *suitcase* that isn't quite correct and probably pulled out of a newspaper article somewhere.

 

My younger brother just left the police and is just finishing his first year of Post-Grad Medicine (his first degree was Neuroscience so it's not that weird a career change) so I could ask him what the marking scheme actually is for his course.

[Hedganian]

Firstly - regardless of how hard the subject is, knowing less than half of everything you theoretically *should* know is pretty poor in my book.

 

Secondly - the actual factual pass mark to gain a Medical Doctorate isn't really the point - the point is that GPs are - in most cases - the least qualified and lowest paid doctors in the NHS, so it would be a trifle foolish to expect too much from them.

 

Thirdly - go see your doctor and ask for your sense of humour to be checked, it doesn't seem to be working properly...

[Chimpy]

Firstly - regardless of how hard the subject is, knowing less than half of everything you theoretically *should* know is pretty poor in my book.

 

Yes but your book reads like a badly researched and poorly written tabloid newspaper. As we've discovered you can get above 40% and still fail.

 

Secondly - the actual factual pass mark to gain a Medical Doctorate isn't really the point - the point is that GPs are - in most cases - the least qualified and lowest paid doctors in the NHS, so it would be a trifle foolish to expect too much from them.

 

Certainly but being the least qualified in a group of highly qualified people is still pretty good going.

 

Thirdly - go see your doctor and ask for your sense of humour to be checked, it doesn't seem to be working properly...

 

Stick a emoticon on it next time then we aren't psychic. See the first point in my reply to show how you can demonstrate jokeyness.

[Spudgun]

Not really a rant. More like: Grrrrrrrrr, just my luck. Dammmmm!!!

 

I sent of the Registration application for my imported Enfield on the 11th. On the 24th, the DVLA cashed the Cheque to cover the Registration fee and the Tax Disc. 'Woot!' thinks I. 'In a couple of days, I'll get my Registration number and my Tax Disc. I'll be on the road by the end of the week'. I was a bit premature. Today I got a letter from the DVLA saying that they want to see the bike before they'll issue the Registration. The rotters. I was hoping to avoid that.

[Hedganian]

Why exactly are you having such a hard time with this vehicle? I don't understand...

 

 

In a totally unrelated comment - am I the only one who thinks the new Birdseye adverts are a bit creepy?

 

Especially when the polar bear in the freezer warns the woman that he's "watching" her...

[L4byr1nth]

Baby. Morrison's reusable shopping bag. Train station skip.

 

What the *fruitcage* is wrong with these people? Seriously?

 

After that news story, they run the one about that prostitute killer. Fair enough. Then, they get the victim's daughter to come on, and I suddenly took back my sympathy. If the mum was anything like the daughter (likely), let the man go, he did us all a favour.

 

To top it off, and tying in nicely with the first story, we have an explanation of how the Tories want to make the benefit system simple (read: easier) by cutting the 8 types of benefit down to two. Fair enough.

 

Then you move to a shot of a council estate, with these slags telling the BBC how they would rather stay on Jobseeker's £90.00 a fortnight and not find a job because they would find it harder to look after their kids.

 

I'm sorry, what?

 

Abortions should be mandatory unless you can afford to keep the child on your own.

 

Why are we letting these mongs have 4 kids by a possible 50 different dads, then paying for them to get a house and spending money?! I know people will whine about the poor being discriminated against and not being allowed to have children because they can't find work, or whatever, but I don't care. You're poor. What kind of wretched life is that kid going to have? Make a financial plan. Go back to school through a retraining scheme and find better employment.

 

Oh, incidentally, going on national telly and explicitly telling the whole of the UK that you're purposely not looking for active work while claiming Jobseeker's in order to keep receiving it is benefit fraud.

 

If you don't agree with any of what I've just said (Chimpy), I don't care. /rant over.

 

Ben.

 

EDIT:: Also, I forgot to add, any religious arguments against abortion are now defunct in my view, pretty much since around the time it became fine for muslims to spraypaint war memorials with 'Islam will take over the world' or whatever, but you can lose your job for wearing a cross necklace to work.

[Hedganian]

Jobseekers' Allowance is somewhere in the region of £65 per week at the moment. I know this, because I'm out of work.

 

 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - research side-effect-free contraceptives and put them in the water supply. On passing the Parent Test both members of a couple will be allowed to claim the antidote for the length of time required to conceive one child. Subsequent children will require additional assessments of the family.

 

 

Religion has been defunct for years - but it clings on. The mataphor I like to use is that religion is like a blanket and humanity is like a child. The child doesn't understand the world, and clings to the blanket for blanket. Eventually, however, the child grows up, learns about the world and puts the blanket aside. Unfortunately, society hasn't quite grown out of relgion yet...

 

 

 

*Waits for the flaming*

[Triggerhappychappy]

I agree, though- having kids to get benefits is not a way out ( of poverty ), so cap the benefits regardless of how many sproggs you produce, then theres less/ no incentive to have a baby every 9 months.

 

Re: credit & bills, I'v never see the sense in paying a fixed amount each week/ month, I've always paid via direct debit so that Im only paying what I owe, no more, no less. Building up a large amount of credit seems foolhardy as ( as discovered ) 'they' make it difficult for you to reduce payments to use up that credit. I suppose its useful for when one is low on savings to pay the bills with, but all the same... meh.

[L4byr1nth]

I like abortions better. It's more like a punishment.

 

Do it more than three times, and then they'll start withholding the anaesthetic.

 

Ben.

[Stealthbomber]

With regard to misuse of public funds...

 

I was just watching the "Tricia" show on telly and some slapper comes on to tell us all about why she's so desperate to get a boob job.

She explains how she is/was planning on signing up for a college course so she could use the grant money (it seems you can still get a grant for housing etc, as opposed to the more usual student loan) to get a boob job and then chuck the college course.

 

Amazing!

[Chimpy]

FWIW L4byr1nth I don't particularly care what you think either but it gladdens my heart it's you who is saying it.

 

I also like that I get a special mention. I'm glad you like to hold the thought of me so readily in your mind.

[Azubi]

Just saw it on Sky News that a 4 month old baby seffered 40% burns on a beach in Brighton because the mum didn't look after her properly with all the people around telling the mum her babt was burning which she ignored and it wasn't until a Community Support Officer came along that anything was done. What. Le. Fluff? What sort of mindset does it take to be more concerned about getting a tan than the health of your little baby?

[Chimpy]

Just saw it on Sky News that a 4 month old baby seffered 40% burns on a beach in Brighton because the mum didn't look after her properly with all the people around telling the mum her babt was burning which she ignored and it wasn't until a Community Support Officer came along that anything was done. What. Le. Fluff? What sort of mindset does it take to be more concerned about getting a tan than the health of your little baby?

 

Ignorance that happens way more than you think it would. IIRC some people lost their child when they took it out skiing with them in one of the backpack style carriers. It died of exposure, sometimes people don't think about the differences between small babies and adults to disastrous effect. Ditto leaving animals in cars on a hot day.

[Azubi]

It's a scary thought!

[Chimpy]

Mind you people do stupid *suitcase* all the time.

[Habakure]

Yes they sure do:-

 

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23838255-child-cheats-death-as-train-hits-pushchair.do

 

What grinds my gears about that, is, they want to ban or are planning to ban sloping platforms, how about banning stupid parents that don't put the brake on a buggy?

 

Edit:- Thats the grand mother story sorry, but there was an incident about a year ago where a mother was fixing her hair (Or something equaily as ridicuolas) and as such, let her pram/buggy roll away from her and fall off the platform. Straight in to the path of a train, luckily, said trian was stopping at the station.

[Harmless]

I don't know how anyone can afford child nowadays. If you make the mistake of not budgetting for a child about 10 years before you have one its nightmare!

 

My wifes just gone back to work after 6 months and have to get a child minder, £660 for one month, for 3 days a week, about 12K pretax earnings and she has about 5 kids to look after and we have to pay her half for when she's on holiday to retain her. What's more, she not expensive and is very good and highly recommended. If you need a job reatrain as a child minder.

 

The whole story about the buggy thing is that it was a double and apparently the older kid got out and pushed the static buggy as he got out and it rolled. No parent applies the brake every time they stop.

[L4byr1nth]

FWIW L4byr1nth I don't particularly care what you think either but it gladdens my heart it's you who is saying it.

 

I also like that I get a special mention. I'm glad you like to hold the thought of me so readily in your mind.

 

Maybe you're predictable and repetitive? Or actually, maybe I'm a bit psychic? Who knows, it could be both!

 

Love you Chimpy.

 

Ben.

[Chimpy]

Maybe you're predictable and repetitive?

 

You realise that would have to make you predictable and repetitive too right?

 

Since we're being all personal the main reason you find me replying to your posts a lot is that you tend to write a load of uneducated, unsupported, anti-intellectual rubbish. So yeah I am predictable in that I generally challenge those things and I can see you might find it repetitive since you seem to be continuous spill bilge from your keyboard and hence attract more attention than most others.

 

Just sayin'.

[L4byr1nth]

I says what I sees, yarp.

 

And I have a degree! Also, possibly a PG Cert if I can actually find the cash

 

So that'd make me... educated, I guess? Kinda got you on a technicality there.

 

I have no morals. Don't judge me

 

Ben.

[Chimpy]

Yes, you yourself are educated. Having a degree does not make you educated on the topic you are commenting on.

 

I think we'd both be better off if you cared less what I might post in response to your opinions. I either will or won't reply depending on how busy I am and whether I think it's worth bothering. Someone might even get there first! Snarky comments trying to pre-empt it just make me grumpy.