In the news

FYI (geekery warning + in case you didn't know yet)
As Le Manfriend is big into his retro-bike p0rn: This has been done in the early 1900s.

Bottom Bracket gears had their share of disadvantages and never caught on. Maybe they will now as materials have improved so they may not get torqued into oblivion + more gears are available.

Tally ho I'm off to smoke a pipe on my flower print fabric sofa.

daily mail gave this photo the caption "BMX bandit" inexplicably

It's not inexplicable if you know Ms Kidman's debut feature.

Good knowledge, but I didn't have you down as a Daily Mail apologist

mp's expenses hit nearly 100mn for the last year

nadine dorries is hiring two of her daughters as secretaries for the princely sum of 70k per year

nice work if you can get it hey

fuckers

They've learned nothing and apparently we don't give a fuck.

Is that 70k each!!!?

Between them £70,000-80,000...

Do you reckon she breaks their souls at 60+ hours a week while keeping them on call 24/7? If so I can dig one of them at 35k.

Don't get yourselves into too much of a froth over MPs' expenses. It's a seventh of the declared amount of some MPs' outside earnings:

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/may/27/mps-jobs-interests-full-list-data

In total, Conservative MPs declared more than £4.3m in earnings from outside directorships or jobs, versus £2.4m (including Gordon Brown's £1.36m) for Labour. More than 50 MPs had directorships of at least one company, while 295 declared at least some kind of minimal earnings from outside work.
It's obviously also very little compared to earnings in certain other sectors.

And: Don't tar MPs all with the same brush. A lot of them run their offices on a shoestring and work only as MPs. There are some excellent MPs around. I don't have a particular brief to defend them, but it irks me how that story always blots out much more serious problems, MPs' outside earnings (and undue influence/exposure to undue influence) being one of them.

I would argue that any MPs who would prefer not to be 'tarred with the same brush' could do significantly more to highlight and dissolve the practices which undermine their good work. What's the point otherwise. It's like frikkin Copland.

The biggest item on the expenses bill was "lovely hats"

The biggest item on the expenses bill was "lovely hats"

Looking at crabon bikes on the internet. Must. Not. Buy.

Well there you go!

^ :)

Jeremy Clarkson to stand as an MP

Maybe. Fingers crossed.

He won't do it. There's not enough money involved.

the bbc have given him plenty of money over the last 10 years i think he'll be alright

Ah great, next thing is he'll encourage everybody to just drive over cyclists!

unless he's calmed down a bit

At least the debates will be more entertaining.

The biggest item on the expenses bill was "lovely hats"

Well there you go!

Busted. What can I say, I'm very lovely and I deserve lovely things.

Is that Clarkson in the green car?

Interesting article about a pickpocket: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/01/07/130107fa_fact_green?currentPage=all

long but interesting article about a pickpocket: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/01/07/130107fa_fact_green?currentPage=all

ftfy

I read it in installments.