Monuments to Stupidity

[MattR]

Aberdeen winning now



What's going on

[bigcumba]

Aberdeen have a decent team this season and some pundist reckon they're as good as they were back in the 80's when they and Dundee United broke the dominance of the Old Firm.... that'll remain to be seen s the season progresses but fingers crossed for the win tonight!

[Onlyforfun]

49- Just got back from a wedding in my old stamping ground of St Andrews, home of one of the best beaches I have ever been on. The West Sands is / was a great place to walk, and when you turned round to walk back to town you had the old course and sand dunes on the right of the town, the old town itself then the cliffs beyond.

But now Fairmont have built a stonking great hotel and golf course on top of the cliffs out of town. Like the Americans it is built to serve, it is oversized, brash and lacking class or charm.

[bigcumba]

it is oversized, brash and lacking class or charm.

A bit like Parkhead then?

[Onlyforfun]

Spot on!

[Fadetoblack]

Obligatory careful now...

[wb]

Now Now lads,

[vegyjones]

There's only one way to settle this...


FIGHT!!!!

[bigcumba]

can I take my tongue out of my cheek now? :wink

[vegyjones]

If only my ribs had that sort of flexibility :D

[wb]

Speaking of Celtic and Rangers, what ever happened to Larsson7? I met him a few times in Glasgow, but since lost my phone and don't have his number. There used to be some fierce arguments on here when I first joined!!

[vegyjones]

He has recently been banned from Parkhead for an incident involving AC Milan's Dida! :D

[bigcumba]

Haven't seen him for months now Wayne.... I used to have his regular email address on my old laptop, but that's since died as well, so I can't relly help you either I'm afraid.... have you tried looking on other footy forums?

[vegyjones]

I've got an old e-mail address of his if you ant to see if it works wayne!

[tophatter]

I've got an old e-mail address of his if you ant to see if it works wayne!

celticinenglishpremierleagueby2009@inmydreams.co.uk

[vegyjones]

[Win2Win]

I've got an old e-mail address of his if you ant to see if it works wayne!

...maybe Dec would like it as well

[wb]

LOL. I have an email address somewhere. May drop him a line as I'm hoping to go over before the year is out.

[Onlyforfun]

How apt, Larsson7 was indeed a monument, or at least a small, if insignificant, shrine to stupidity .

50- Has to be a good 'un for no.50 so I have chosen a favourite topic of "NHS spending". But bear with me dear reader, this is not going where you expect!

Blah blah blah, NHS spending is blah blah blah % of GDP, blah blah blah productivity gains blah blah blah.

Politicians are stupid and take too long to say all.

I'll give you a very good reason why I KNOW that NHS spending is too high in this country - there are not enough freaks on the street!

Let me explain, your average beggar in the 3rd world, is by far and away more innovtive and compelling than your average London beggar. While in London, we have imported immigrant labour in the form of smelly, aggressive and incoherent but obscene Scottish drunks, we still fall far behind the standards set on the sub-continent, for wont of a better example. Yet again Indian productivity and ingenuity leads the way. Imagine, if you will, a walk to a sacred Hindu shrine, punctuated by requests for alms.

One is accosted not by the stereotypical Glaswegian offering a scabby copy of the Big Issue "help the homeless", "spare some change", "spare a fag" etc. but by a whole host of unfortunate (to our eyes) deformities. This is VERY PROFITABLE for said beggars. "Spare a few rupees, guv?", is easily answered by a "100 for a picture of me prodding your fetid, dripping, leprosy sores with a twig?", "50 for a close up of how a cleft pallette allows the easy enjoyment of 5 B&H at a time?", "200 for you playing golf with a club foot" and so on.

Apart from the not so occasional intrusion of a heroin fuelled, puss riven scally on the Orpington train, asking for money for drugs with no offer of a pictorial quid pro quo, the NHS is obviously too good at solving deformities, thus depriving legitimate freaks of the opportunity to make an honest living rather than claiming disability allowance.

Or take IVF, complete waste of money if you ask me. Now twins fall into 2 camps, identical and "just twins". Most IVF cycles that are succesful result in non-identical twins. Compared to the biological and metaphysical curiosities brought to life by identical twins with their strange resemblances and quasi-telepathic ways, your average non-identical twin is just slightly creepy and dare I say, slightly incestuous in the case of male / female twins (think of those weirdos on X-Factor). They are caught in an ideological no-mans land between "normality" and "special" and thus serve no useful purpose, so why does the NHS fund this?

Comment and indeed, rep, accepted as always!

[Onlyforfun]

51- We are plagued in the borough of Bromley by tea-towel salesmen / women, normally ringing the doorbell at 9:30 pm plus offering to sell me a teatowel on dubious charitable pretences. Sometimes it is in aid of shelters for released prisoners, sometimes mental health, and other such heart rending causes.

But why oh why do they insist on explosions of outraged and profane anger of the " tight bitch / illegitimate person etc." variety when politely refused. I can hear you, and abusing the 70 year old lady next door does not endear me to your fake cause!

Not to mention a neighbour in a fit of misplaced compassion said "alright then, I'll take 3 teatowels", only to be presented with a demand for £15!!! Needless to say he rather less politely removed said offer from the metaphorical table and slammed the very literal door in said youth's face.

[bigcumba]

smelly, aggressive and incoherent but obscene Scottish drunks, !

it's over a year since I was in London!

I tend to agree regarding the IVF situation... having children is not a given right, if you / your partner has a medical problem preventing pregnancy from taking place, then I'm afraid that's your lot in life. It ain't gonna kill you, while there are far more deserving cases for 'proper' life saving medical treatment being left on the waiting lists due to funding shortages and in all likelihood a large % of those will die because of that.... to be honest I think anyone who has undergone IVF on the NHS should be made realise that the thousands of pounds spent on what is usually futile anyway (I think around 80% of treatments fail to produce a viable pregnancy) could have saved lives of cancer or leukaemia sufferers. I'm afraid IVF should be regarded as a luxury... you want it, you pay for it privately, if you can't afford it, give up the fags/booze/car/SkyTV/Benidorm... that should let you pay for it in about a year.... and if it's that important, giving up a few minor enjoyments won't feel like a sacrifice.

[mathare]

I'm afraid IVF should be regarded as a luxury... you want it, you pay for it privately, if you can't afford it, give up the fags/booze/car/SkyTV/Benidorm...

I'd rather anyone who drinks, smokes and holidays in Benidorm didn't have IVF actually. Or children at all come to mention it

[Onlyforfun]

52- The "Betfair 3" case has the hallmark of a case brought by authority with reckless disregard for the chances of securing a conviction.

17 races are the focus of the case against Fallon. In those 17 races, he improved his strike rate from 19% to 27% and his co-defendant lost £360,000 laying his rides.

Now whether or not they are guilty, would any jury ever convict on this so-called evidence???

[Mavrick]

I have to strongly disagree about the free IVF on the NHS. With all the single parent families on council estates and the droves of down and out teenagers getting pregnant, mature couples who can actually support a family and most importantly are ready to have a family should be given all the help they can get.
It surely must be cost effective in the long run to stomach the expense of IVF to have some well brought up kids in this country who's parents will have greater ambitions for their children other then want them to grow up to be footballers!!

As for Fallon. I don't know exactly what his rides were, but if you wanted to fix races then you would do it at the shorter end of the market and these horses statistically would win more often anyway. So having an increased strike rate for them races in question isn't very surprising if you ask me.

He's as bent as a nine bob note.

[presto]

the other week 'moneyweek' did an artivle on IVF, and it costs a fortune for an unreliable procedure.

the figures are off the top of my head from what i can remember - but costs something like £23K for a 17% success rate

thats an awfull lot of money for a non-emergency / non life threatening, luxery product.

that £23K - i am sure everyone would agree would be much better spent on an extra nurses anual wage for example. Especially as it may take 5 or more procedures.

[Win2Win]

The NHS was not set up for IVF, they are not ill.

[presto]

moneyweek - IVF stats:

- 1 in 7 couples have difficulty conceving.
the adverage success rate is:
28.1% - women under 35
21.9% - women aged 35-37
17.5% - women aged 38-39
10.4% women aged 40-42
national success rate 17%
- couples need an adverage of 3 IVF attempts to get preggers.

costs:

consultation:
initial consultation - £170
seminal analysis - £105
ultrasound - £142
follow up consultation - £125

treatment:
IVF - £2995
assisted hatching £525
blastoyst transfer - £540
ICSI - £1195
egg collection / freezing - ££3004
HFEA fea - £104

total - £8950
(not including blood tests / medication / overnight stay - overnight stay = £235 per night)

so if an adverage of 3 treatments are needed then the adverage cost is -£26715

[Mavrick]

ok, so at worse you'll need 6 treatments which will cost £135,000. I would have thought that the children born out of IVF treatment would be far more likely to end up in a better paying job then the children born from a 15 year old with little or no family support.

Lets say the IVF kid earns £30,000 a year for 30 years. Let's ignore inflation. So that's £900,000 he/she will earn in their life time. Take 30% of for tax, and that child has paid back £270,00 to the country. That's £270,000 that would never have been paid in taxes if it wasn't for the IVF treatment. As for the single parent child, he/she could end up costing the country hundreds of thousands in Social Security or prison accomodation.
The country will be more properous in the long term

You have to pay for prescriptions on the NHS, even if you are seriously ill and have paid thousands in NI over the years! So if I was a women who needed IVF treatment I would think I was just getting what I had paid for. The NHS has wasted £billions on poor management, it can waste a little more on a worthwhile cause:)

[bigcumba]

The NHS was not set up for IVF, they are not ill.

Exactly... it's there to treat the sick and help prevent the healthy from becoming ill.

Mavrick - Every day in our hospital I walk past the Oncology (cancer) unit and see the patients who are suffering from the various types of cancer and leukaemia. I know that some of them are being denied the treatment they require due to funding shortages, yet in the same place there are otherwise healthy women receiving IVF treatment - as Presto pointed out the cost is enormous. You go tell the cancer patients, the kids with leukaemia, and the Alzheimer sufferers and their carers to their faces that they are less of a priority than someone wanting IVF treatment. To me that's just a no-brainer... we should be spending the money on saving the lives that are already here - not creating more.

[Win2Win]

I would have thought that the children born out of IVF treatment would be far more likely to end up in a better paying job then the children born from a 15 year old with little or no family support.

You think wrong, they will turn out in comparison to non-IVF kids.