duncan II

Yeah, fair enough. Just different in our house but yeah, understand it. We still went to all sorts of football together but never really went to see a particular team every week. Saturday was for playing football really. So when I say supported, I suppose followed is more accurate. Live in Kilmarnock now and intend to take my son to see his local team when he's old enough. They won't be my team as such but I hope we enjoyit together and if it becomes a thing for him, that'll be up to him. But yeah, I do get the father son support the same team thing. Just wasn't my experience.

You think this strange? My old man has four boys, the five of us all support different teams. Healthy rivalry in the family helps with competitive edge and makes life more interesting. Never understood this, "my da' was a rangerz man so ah um too" attitude.

While one can see satellites in the sky at night, it is generally agreed upon that they are not actual satellites but pseudolites or stratolites put there to fool us. crazy muthas

Turning the Waverley into a blockade runner as we speak.

Fewer.

Exact opposite experience with me. My mum received excellent care and attention when having regular dialysis for a few years. Once the disease which had ruined her kidney was fully out her system she was put on the transplant list. One came up, boom, in, op, out, new kidney. Evidently not everyone's experience but wanted to provide balance.

What, gazillions?

No. And some, like me, ARE critical about this. It's just an observation and probably a generalisation. I was just saying it's a shame tht some will jump on this just because, and some SNP supporters will defend it, just because.

I disagree. What exactly is nonsense about it? I said that I think reactions to issues like this are getting increasingly polarised between the two main sides in Scottish politics. Comments from contributors on both sides, to me, bears this out.

Not saying this should not be used as a stick with which to bash the SNP...should it be warranted. I'm not sure at the moment it is but that remains to be seen. I agree they need to kept on their toes, though, so it doesn't get any worse. I was just pointing out (probably needlessly) that it is just seen as another thing with which to attack them. Those doing the attacking are largely doing it cos they hate the SNP and it's one more reason.

I think it's pretty clear this, like just about every other issue in Scotland these days, is split between those wishing a stick - any stick - to beat the SNP with and those who will blindly support them no matter what. It's a shame. I am a long-term independence supporter and I genuinely don't see anything changing that view. I also, more often than not, find myself agreeing largely with the SNP position. However, on this, I think there are real, serious problems with the whole issue of education in this country. This is not necessarily of the SNP's making but there should be scrutiny as to their response to it being brought up. For me, the fundamentals are not being taught properly - basic arithmetic, grammar and spelling. Primary teachers (generalisation here so apologies to those this doesn't apply to) often seem to be glorified nursery nurses, great with kids' needs on a social level, but I would argue perhaps not up to instilling good basic literary and numerical skills. So by the time kids get to secondary school they don't have these in place. When they come to doing their history, geography, science, whatever, they can't do so while getting their arguments across using good English skills. And too often, the teachers in these subjects won't (or can't) correct them. It's seen as an English Dept problem. My wife's a history teacher but is specifically told they can't mark down work for grammatical/spelling mistakes. I think that's wrong. When they go into workplace, an employer is looking for potential staff to be able to communicate well. Clients will be put off by poorly worded letters, etc. Anyway, that's what I think. Instil proper basic skills early.

At lunchtime you have lunch, or if it's your main meal of the day, dinner. At teatime you have tea, or if it's your main meal of the day, dinner. Pure simple, man.

Darren Fletcher very good. Morrison pretty quiet.

https://mobile.twitter.com/kezdugdale/status/792434351879389184 Uh-oh.

I was taken aback by the violence and not ashamed to admit it. And I've watched every episode so have seen some gory stuff. Had to walk to the kitchen and put the kettle on. Found it uncomfortableas the head bashing continued.

On your phone while having a jobby? Eurgh.

Either. Not fussed. Doubt I'll get any anyway, just changing my arm. Cheapest I saw were 60 for barras and 55 for abc. 20 face value, I think.

Anyone got any spare tickets for Glasgow? Some on Stubhub for 50-odd quid but don't wanna see them that much.

It's not a dilemma, there are four possible outcomes. A dilemma would be if there were just two. It would be a trilemma if there were three. Sorry, I don't know what the term is for four, I'm not a smartarse.

Just resting in your account, Father?

There was a track in the snow mentioned in this documentary. Apparently a place really inaccessible to humans. It was a Western mountaineer guy. He was interviewed and said he was a convert to idea yetis existed as it had to be a biped who made the tracks. However, a (relatively) local inhabitant was convinced they were snow leopard tracks. It was the fact that they were single file tracks as opposed to looking like two lines that led mountaineer to dismiss idea it was a snow leopard. But Tibetan guy was sure they were.

Anyone see the Ch4 documentary - Yeti: Man, Myth or Beast, or something like that - that was on couple of weeks ago? Had taped it and just watched it there. So many locals convinced they'd seen one and it exists in folk legend almost everywhere across the Himalayas. Some samples of hair, feet etc had been collected by those who thought they'd seen it. All these came back as different species of bear - black bear and two different kinds of brown bear. So seems a bit of a dead end and disappointing result. BUT, and perhaps even more interestingly, a different hypothesis was proposed. The fact that belief in this is so widespread is perhaps due to folk memory of a different species of human existing until relatively recently. The Tibetans have a mutation that allows them to live at high altitudes with little oxygen. Turns out an extinct and little known sub-species of human - whose remains have been found in, I think, Siberia or somewhere also had the same gene mutation (Denisovans - had to look that up there). Plausible that they migrated to the Himalayas, inter-bred with humans on occasion but were generally feared as mountain dwellers. Over time they eventually became extinct but humans who had inherited this ability to live in high altitudes gradually replaced them in these areas and they lived on in folk memory as beasts to be feared. I find it quite convincing. According to DNA, they plausibly could have bred with humans as little as 7,000 years ago. Could folk memory last this long? Well, he gave as an example the existence of folk stories about little people in Indonesia that everyone thought were just stories. But remains were found of a tiny human species in Indonesia (you might remember, it was in the news ten years ago or so - Homo floresiensis - called the hobbit by the press) and it is dated to about 15,000 years, I think. So it is totally plausible that folk memory lasts as long. Also, folk tales of floods and other cataclysmic events that exist in many cultures are thought to come from memory of real events passed down over countless generations. Anyway, it would be sad if yetis don't exist, but the fact that creatures like that are remembered by societies of humans today is, for me, equally as exciting. Any alternative theories?

What do you do for a living, Donny? Interesting places you get to (Doncaster excepted*). Any jobs going? * Comment for comedic purposes only, I have never actually been to Doncaster.

Cheers Angus! Yeah, a setback like this just makes it all the sweeter when you finally triumph. Doing it for the hippo... The story of Walsall's friendly Hippo Ever since Walsall planners created a concrete homage to one of nature’s largest, ugliest and most bad-tempered mammals, the same question has crossed many a shopper's mind - why have we got a Hippo in our town centre? Walsall's concrete Hippopotamus statue has become a much-loved landmark that has attracted international attention. It even has its own internet fan-club. The Mills' hitch a ride Ridiculed by many when first unveiled in 1972, the statue's popularity has never been higher. Nearly two thousand people have joined a group on networking website facebook to post pictures and express their love for the motionless mammal that's behind so many happy memories. Group founder Heidi Ashley describes the webpage as for "anyone who ever sat on his back, played around him or chose him as a meeting place, or just damn well loves that funky hippo!"

Aye, luckily I didn't go. Tried one and it wasn't on. Boooooo! Rubbish. Not insurmountable, though. Two quick goals then another two in second half.