In the news

The beauty of the original Big Brother is that many were inspired by real people and well-known celebrities, with personalities that made sense, for example Bubbles is a cheeky geezer, Nick is a cheating snake cunt, Jade is an annoying prick who is now a ghost, Vanessa Feltz is the manifestation of the concept of pollution. This makes them easy to relate to, especially to children, because they recognise the origins of the characters from real life and therefore the programme becomes more real to them. Within the framework of Big Brother bearing close resemblance to real people, slowly the more fantastical contestants such as Makosi and Brian can be introduced into the environment incrementally, which enhances the magic of the Big Brother world, but the idea of still being in a somewhat plausible real world has to always be underpinned by simple and recognisable traits with visual characteristics clearly defining their self-image.

My problem with the new series is that there is barely any connection with the real world either in routine or activities. There are some, but the ratio is skewed far in favour of totally weird random creatures with no obvious type and no easy way to remember them. In my opinion this undermines the programme's ethos in portraying a reality where contestants are just everyday people.

?

Hah you watched it. Bubbles is the giveaway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pach7UpSRl4

Sigh.

No-one in the City invests in Nuclear, they do invest in Wind. Their design life is 20-25 yrs. Maintenance costs / contracts are peanuts in the grand scheme of things but they do provide ongoing local and regional employment.

Anyway, my tuppence and I'm out. I have a little wind farmer here to deal with.

Would the City invest if wind generation didn't have a billion pound subsidy in 2012?

Bubble was series 3

Without googling, under what circumstances was bubble removed from the house without being evicted?

what happened at 7:50?

Obama started reeling off some gags about Romney, it was lost on me personally. I think you need to be american.

ExxonMobil exec executed in Brussels

'executed' implies state sanctioned in that statement ^

#Pedant
#UsuallyWrongAnyway

unless you were going for the 'executive executed' wordplay.

i'll stop.

unless you were going for the 'executive executed' wordplay.

I wanted to go for exec-uted, hey-ho

Clitheroe snigger

http://www.pendletoday.co.uk/news/opinion/columnists/opinion-it-s-time-to-tax-those-inconsiderate-cyclists-1-5064046

Oh dear. Just when poor old Addy Lee were starting to recover.

Don't forget this recent development -

My neighbours back then built a thing like that out of wood in the eighties.
You needed two people (it was bigger), worked very well.

Burning paper is a bit dumb though, but if you're a bit poor..

Milan court sentences former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to four years in prison for tax evasion

has he been sentenced? they were demanding 3y8m...

I just checked Google News and it appears he has just this minute been given 4 years. Can't see him serving it any time soon - there will be appeals, and retrials and so on.

I imagine there's plenty of bunga bunga in jail. Although not of Silvio's kind.

He's lucky that he didn't fail to predict an earthquake. That would have been an extra six months.

http://news.sky.com/story/1003189/berlusconi-sentenced-to-four-years-in-jail

This is terrifying.

I just checked Google News and it appears he has just this minute been given 4 years. Can't see him serving it any time soon - there will be appeals, and retrials and so on.

I imagine there's plenty of bunga bunga in jail. Although not of Silvio's kind.

He's lucky that he didn't fail to predict an earthquake. That would have been an extra six months.

http://news.sky.com/story/1003189/berlusconi-sentenced-to-four-years-in-jail

It is entirely likely that I am wrong here, but, I remember reading a couple of weeks ago that under the Italian judicial system a conviction is not considered final until there has been at least one appeal.

What I heard on the news is that there are a couple of levels that that conviction needs to go through yet.

This is terrifying.

Scary