15 August 2009

Daily Chat 15/08/09


In 1040, Duncan I of Scotland was killed in battle by Macbeth. In 1057, Macbeth snuffed it during the Battle of Lumphanan. Liberia was founded by freed American slaves in 1824. Tivoli opened in Copenhagen in 1843. The Japanese surrendered in 1945. Celebrating birthdays today: Tony Robinson, Princess Anne and Ben Affleck. It is Independence Day in India.

23 comments:

  1. Speaking of women's football, the Moroccan bloke who restored our riad married one of the players in the Moroccan national female football team but after they married she got religion, put on a burka (as they do) and destroyed all the photos of her in her kit. Cos she didn't want anyone to see her legs, I suppose.

    BTW, thanks for the extremely uninformative answer to my question, Jay. Is your essay something to do with promotion or just fun?

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  2. Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey was a baseball player and this is not presented by Jane Austen as an odd characteristic. I think (not sure) there were gender-mixed baseball village teams in Regency England, some of our sporty chums may know.

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  3. This is completely new to me martillo thanks - never heard of stoolball!

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  4. Where is that photo?

    Dan, its for an OU degree. If you want a simple answer based on nothing more than my own amateur opinion, hyperinflation no, but enough to lose the reserve currency, quite possibly. I dont think there would be any clearer sign of the decline of US hegemony than losing the reserve currency, so fingers crossed (and apologies to Montana).

    In terms of skill I dont see why womens football couldnt be as good as mens, though the power element is important. You'll never see (i suspect) a female screamer from 35 yards out, they just dont hit the ball anywhere near hard enough. Womens football is big in the US tho, so i hear. Womens cricket is pretty woeful, in all honesty, and strength is important. Watching a "quick" bowler steam in at 70 mph doesnt quite have the beauty of a 95mph snorter. It changes the game a lot. You'll never see a female do a freddy flintoff and ht a 90mph ball straight back where it came from out the ground - that must surely be the biggest hit in cricket history, it was monstrous. You can bring the boundary ropes in, which they do, but i dont see how it'll ever compared to the mens game. It depends on the sport, some will carry well to the womens arena, some wont.

    There was quite a few debates all muddled up on that thread though, the silliest of all was whether women should be "allowed" to box.

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  5. stoolballs brilliant.

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  6. Three words - women rugby players...

    I was once nearly beaten up by a team of them. They scare the bejesus out of me.

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  7. I would have thought losing reserve currency is inevitable- the dollar has a long way to go before it hits bottom. But the US has its collective head stuck firmly in the sand as usual. Everything for the best in the best of all possible worlds.
    Very interesting articles in Huffpost about disillusionment with Obama spreading after his secret deal with the pharmaceutical companies. Transparency? Yeah right...

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  8. Stoolball? Kicking a turd around?

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  9. Vari - yeah, they are brutes. A female prop, dear me... Though that said, i wouldnt really fancy my chances against the males either. I loved the story about Danny Grewcock beating up that poncy little woman basher Stan Collymore, the footballer, typical little football player twat (who also beat up his girlfriend). They were all out at a bar and Grewcock and a few others from the Bath rugby team turned up. Grewcock is 6 7'', about 19 stone, a huge, monstrous bear of a man, like a caveman. Collymore mouthed off about something and Grewcock beat the crap out of him. Made me laugh for days.

    "It is understood the former Liverpool and Aston Villa striker sustained a broken nose, suspected fractured elbow and bruised ribs."


    Dan, i'm not sure how inevitable it is the US will lose the reserve currency, you never what America will do. And they will really, really not want that to happen. Will be very interesting.

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  10. Deary me, that pic of Miley Cyrus on the Graun front page...

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  11. We live in very interesting times. What has been forecast for years- the dominance of the East (China and India) is happening now. With the US manufacturing capacity crumbling (wages are now unsustainable), combined with the inevitable disillusionment with Obama and the Democratic administration, things are looking very bleak indeed. And the hysterical right wing campaign ('death lists' etc) is bound to infect middle America (well armed middle America)
    Chinese dollar the new reserve currency? The euro?
    Pity Montana is in the middle of her beauty sleep right now- I'd like to hear what she (or any American with political savvy) thinks...

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  12. Anything concerning anyone with a Cyrus in their name will inevitably lead to deary me....at best.

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  13. google.com

    very useful for finding out who people are.

    Don't think that there is any reason to care.

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  14. "Who is Miley Cyrus and why should we care?"

    Have a look at the pic and I'm sure you'll appreciate it. Just a very nice photo of a very wholesome young lady.

    There was talk of making the Eur the reserve currency a few years ago, i believe. I dont remember the details but i presume the US did what was necessary to put an end to such blasphemy.

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  15. 'Wholesome'? Yeech- what a hideous word. I don't want my women to be 'wholesome'... So, Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers, huh? A DISNEY production? Are we supposed to care about these dysfunctional offspring of a dysfunctional country? Why does the Guardian print such pointless crap? I didn't play the video cos I didn't want to have to clear up the vomit. And her picture makes her look as if she's struggling with a set of dentures several sizes too big...

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  16. There was certainly talk of the oil producing countries fixing their prices in Euros rather than dollars.

    Then the US went to war with a few oil producing countries and that was the last we heard of that.

    Miley Cyrus is, of course, Hannah Montana. Even I know that.

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  17. "wholesome" was used in respect of that fact that she's only 15. To use more frank language might be a little untoward.

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  18. And lest we forget, daughter of the man who inflicted achy breaky heart on the world....

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  19. Well, some of us would like to try, Vari...

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  20. @MW:

    Oh I dunno, Miley's alright. A bit overconfident, maybe, to the point where Alan Carr wanted to punch her in the mouth (if he'd hit her hard enough, she'd presumably have ended up looking a little bit like him, poor cow), but that's hardly her fault, she's hugely famous and she's been in showbiz since she was about 3, probably.

    Anyway, day 3 of my gruelling Home Alone stint continues, better get moving, drinkie poos round at neighbour's in twenty mins - I reckon I'm giving Brussel sex pats a run for her money as social butterfly of the week here.

    Tatty bye.

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  21. I'd like to draw anyone's attention who's about to Montana's more recent post....

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  22. This comment has been removed by the author.

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