delusional

Isn't the carling academy in London, Brixton Academy? In which case, Brixton's not the best of areas (in fact it's decidedly rough), but I've wandered around there at all times of night and in all states (often standing out a fair amount as well) and I've never had any trouble. Brixton Academy is a pretty cool venue as well - based in an old theatre (iirc) all gently sloping floors so everyone has a better chance of seeing the stage. As long as your careful most places are pretty safe.

I just did my 125 CBT today, we finished in about 6 hours total (from 9 to 3). There was someone else there on a geared 50 who was really crap - had no idea how to use gears at all, to the point that on the ride around he had to be taken back to the centre and changed onto a automatic. Apparantly he ran a red light at one point as well, but still got his certificate. I've never heard of anyone failing a CBT; infact, unless you're actually incapable of learning how to ride a bike I don't think you can fail them. I imagine if you finished early then they were probably just short on time when you did it. Didn't they explain why you would have to come back to finish?

If they fit you around the waist I wouldn't risk trying it. The chances are, if you manage to shrink the rest of the trousers the waist will shrink along with them.

And then rename it the iNewton... Most music players these days are already getting pretty close to being PDAs. Don't get me wrong, more functionality isn't ever really a bad thing, but I do wander how long it is before they start coming with CF and/or SD slots. I think I'd rather just see the current crop of PDAs start being released with decent size hdds - the Zaurus already has a 4gig drive inside, so it's not far off. Mind you, by that point you may as well just buy an OQO :D

And it still won't be as good as the iRiver h3*0 (unfortunate choice of name aside), which has been playing video for ages as well as coming in snazzy carbon fibre effect. I still don't understand the point of support for photos without making the device a USB host. Then it might be a bit more useful! With a bit of effort they could have been supporting video practically from the start, but that wouldn't have been a very good long term business plan really. Need to keep all the trendy kids buying new models every year! Because the 'tech specs' seem quite lacking in any real technical data; does anyone know what the hardware specs (chip, memory, etc) of the new iPods are?

I'm all for space exploration, but I do find it pretty ridiculuous that NASA seem to spend so many millions of dollars and end up with a ship that barely makes it out of the atmosphere and falls half to pieces on the way up when Richard Branson and chums (in the X-Prize) where able to get nearly out of the atmosphere with very little research and (comparatively) little money. It's a shame really, but it looks like private enteprise might end up being the future of space travel. Although that's not such a bad thing if it pushes space technology forwards at a half decent rate.

Well, there's enough comments on this thread that it kept me amused until the video had finished downloading! I think a large quantity of the people in this thread (on both sides) need to take a step back and realise what we're all talking about here. Considering the very high level of a lot of the videos released on the forum it's quite easy to forget that these are mostly not professional videos. Some people seem to be naturally talented at putting together a video, others are not so. I know which camp I would fall into, even if I did have the riding skills to consider trying to make a video! Lee's evidently got a lot of skill on his bike and has probably put a lot of effort into making his video; understandably he's going to be pretty proud of it, so it's easy to see how he may take offense at fairly dismissive comments about said video. I'm not saying everybody should praise him, even if they don't like the video, but I think people do need to choose their words a little more carefully sometimes. It's important to bear in mind that what you're commenting on is a free video that some kid made in his bedroom, not a professional DVD you just spent your hard earned wages on. On the flip side, people who post videos on here have to realise that they're going to get some negative comments. Rather than getting deeply offended that so-and-so has said your video is crap, perhaps it would be a little more constructive to understand that everyone has something to learn and ask how they think you could improve it next time so maybe at some mythical point in the future you'll only get positive comments (unlikely if you're posting on TF, but you never know). I've got a bit of a rant about sketchy riding not always being a bad thing (i.e. Kenichi Kuroyama) building up as well, but I think I'll save that for another time :)

Thanks for the link.

I managed to smash one of the ratchets on my Ribos the other day - which caused me great fun trying to get them off! According to coustellier.co.uk I need to replace them with a SIDI ratchet, but they can't tell me which model (they apparantly differ quite a lot). Unfortunately none of my LBS' actually hold SIDI in stock, so I'm not able to take the ratchet in to compare. Does anyone know which model SIDI ratchet I need to replace it with? Even better if you know somewhere that'll have them in stock for me (save me waiting until late next week for my LBS to order them in).

Nice video :) Those rocks looks really fun to ride, I'll have to get down to them at some point. Which Carn Brea is that you're riding? I've just this minute realised there's more than one in Cornwall. I only knew about the one near Camborne/Redruth, but I've just discovered there's another one down near Sennen. It's been so long since I've been to the Camborne/Redruth one I don't remember what it looks like enough to tell from the video.

Who is, according to Sky News "a black male, possibly of Asian origin"... I must have missed that little bit of racial integration when all non-caucasian races actually molded into one. After the inital worry I've found all this rather amusing. So far the only person reported as injured was one of the guys carrying a 'bomb', most of the 'bombs' where actually dummies with detonators (so only the detonators exploded) and the most damage done (beyond the inconvenience of the tubes shutting down) was the windows on a number 26 being blown out. The only thing any of this is likely to achieve is to make the entire concept of terrorism in this country seem laughable. I thought only managing to kill 50 people in a large orchestrated attack was pretty rubbish, but this is just ridiculous!

Spend a bit less on the amp and speakers and get a CD deck as well. There's little point spending out a load of money on a decent amp and speakers if you're only going to plug an iPod into it! Take a look at Richer Sounds for pretty cheap prices, or even better get over to Superfi who are well priced and really knowledgeable (and have some pretty good bundle deals on). If you ask them for advice they should be able to recommend you a good combination for your money and music tastes :)

Psh, who cares about the music. It's going to be 5 days of chilled out hippy festival, on a beautiful beach, in the hot Moroccan sun. Although, I can't say that a bit of uplifting psy-trance won't go down well in that environment :)

I think one of the reasons that anti-semitism is, and nearly always has been, such a big issue is due to the unique characteristic of Judaism. It's the only sociological grouping of people that I can think of that is still intrinsically linking racial and religious characteristics. How many other races can you think of that have a religion that is both unique to them and pretty much unanimously adhered to? Sure, many Jews of recent generations may not be practising, but it seems they largely still consider themselves a member of their religion, or at the least their parents are such, which still leaves them strongly linked to the religion. Religion is a pretty strong bind between people, and when the members of that religion are nearly all bound by race as well and can trace the history of their religion/race back thousands of years, any persecution over that time will add up. As it is, the Jews have been persecuted quite a bit over the centuries, although I'm sure quite a few of us would find a similar amount of persecution in our ancestry if we were able to trace it. However, not only can we not trace it easily, but much of that persecution was conducted against religious and/or racial groupings we which no longer align ourselves with, so it doesn't really seem related to us anymore.