I have been left stunned by David Cameron’s exercise of the EU Veto last week and even more stunned by the reaction of the UK press that it’s a good thing. For me this is a real ‘WTF’ moment.
The British get no concessions and are excluded from further negotiations. Moreover they will almost certainly be punished commercially by other EU members for their intransigence. Worst of all they relegate themselves to irrelevance on the global scene and get the blame if the EU fail to contain the debt crisis. Where’s the win in that?
It’s just incredible that the British (the Germans and French too) can’t see that unless they sort out the debt mess it will tip the entire continent and probably the rest of the world into a deep recession. Print the money, accept the inflation and try to stop it happening again must surely be the priorities? The time is long past for petty parochialism.
This short video is the best explanation I have seen of the crisis!
We just had to see this, despite the negative reviews. Phantom is just so good, how could the sequel be ruined?
Well the sad thing is that Love Never Dies is dreadful. Worse yet it doesn’t need to be but the music lacks cohesion and links to the original score. Too much time is spent with telling the plot and it really only starts to have a life of it’s own in the second act. Overall it’s a great disappointment and needs an appointment with a really sharp editor.
Technically it’s great, sets, costumes, lighting, cast, energy, all A+. The score and plot let it down. Let me loose with it (ok someone with some skill then) but it could easily be sorted out. Is it really by the same composer?
Overall it well deserves its moniker "Paint Never Dries" - make sure you miss it, it’s a shocker.
I've had a pair of these Elacin plugs for motorcycling for the past three years and overall I've been pretty pleased with them. They were expensive though ($NZ260ish the pair).
When I got them I was told that the little rubber 'O' ring that you pull them out with would last the life of the plugs and that Elacin would hold the cast of my ear for that time so I could get replacements without needing my ears refilled with the plastic they mold them with. Both these statements turn out not to be true.
The rubber 'O' ring on one has come out completly and the other looks ready to split at any time. There is no replacement service and I am told the guarantee is two years and after that "you will need to buy a new pair".
Maybe my expectations are a bit unrealistic but I'd have expected these plugs to last longer given the amount of use, after all it's certainly not an everyday occurrence for me to go motorcycling, maybe 30-40 days each year?
Actually it's astounding I still have them, they bounce hugely when dropped and are a real curse to find by the roadside, the clear plastic is almost invisible.
Seriously they are good but overall just too expensive for the quality they offer. Half the price and fair enough
We've had this for a few days now and finally seem to have mastered getting the rider to rider communications to work properly. It has to be said that once set up it's very good with some limitations but the set up is picky.
The bigest problem has been to get the rider to rider to play nicely with the Zumo GPS, I'm not sure if that's completely solved yet. I tried yesterday without listening to music and that was a big help.
Once installed in the helmet (and that's a fight) it fits very well and the only issue is to make sure that you route the microphone stalk away from your cheek when you close the visor. There's not a lot of room in the helmet (something we like) so introducing extra kit (like the mike) can make it a bit claustrophobic at first.
Distance, as you might expect, is an issue as is line of sight but we were able to keep in contact on the Takaka Hill where visibility between us was not always possible. Get too far away and the voice becomes unreadable long before the connection drops.
You start a connection by making a loud sound into the mike and it responds with a 'bong' to let you know it's on. Another 'bong' let's you know it's off after a period of silence. So there's only a small chance of muttering about the other rider being overheard! Normal volume speech won't set it off.
The real score is in gas stations and other stops where you can talk without shouting at each other although you get to overhear one side of the conversation with, say, the cashier. Somewhat disconcerting.
We just had to see this, despite the negative reviews. Phantom is just so good, how could the sequel be ruined?
I've had a pair of these 
We've had this for a few days now and finally seem to have mastered getting the rider to rider communications to work properly. It has to be said that once set up it's very good with some limitations but the set up is picky.