cornerstone

Hmmm..

Frank Williams got there first

And what about all the petrol that these cars run on? How many bombs can you buy with that?

And what about all the timers for those bombs? Need I say more than.....Trans Arab Group?

several delightful hours discovering their common interests in Arthurian Bush, Captain Cigar, Lars von Mabinogian, White Hat Kates, the fine art of pigeons, Rudolph Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Los Angeles, a Bangkok girl-friend, the inherent intelligence of Glasgow, life with three cats and pornographic photograpy, single-malt whiskey, good beef heart, Frank Zappa administration, virtual watches....and...um....footprints.

@r11co: and you want your missus to miss out on this!

Well, those flags were useful for what, a week? Now they're another reason to confuse n00bs.

Oh, what!! I've been going around Tripoli telling everyone that the Union Jack now proudly flys over the Arc de Triomphe....

Cornerstone, I've often thought exactly the same thing myself.

It's better that I don't go into the reasons why, however.

Are we talking wind or gas?

JTB

Hmm, wind or gas. I'm not sure you can have a roaring 490,000,000,000,000,000 joule fart and still call it a 'botty burp', put it that way.

I mean, it would be a conversation stopper.

Well........as I won't be here for the run up to the PoM announcement, there can be no nationalist favouritism.

I heartily agree. That is why it is so nice to see us Tunisians and Lybians united in support!

It would be "unbarable" if this was overlooked!

More seriously, great post! Thank you!

Oh, and while I'm here, what's the best PO?

Also, it appears that Tag sponsors an arab formula one car which implies the possibility that they are indirectly supporting terrorism, and that's just WRONG.

I don't know what the situation is today, but TAG originally signified 'Trans Arab Group', a conglomerate encompassing a number of Middle-Eastern countries.

In light of that, it would be surprising if they weren't sponsoring the car in question...

And I've just found where the Trans Arab Group are hiding all their weapons...

CIA fact book

Oil - consumption: 80.1 million bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - proved reserves: 1.349 trillion bbl (1 January 2002 est.)

consider:

most oil reserves are accounted for...not much has been left 'undiscovered', just not economically feasible to harvest yet...

China/India/etc. consumption is growing exponentially

6 years ago China was not on the radar, within 5 years it will be competing with us for top consumer status (we are <5% of the population and use 25% of the oil)

1.349 x 10^12 / 80.1 x 10^6 ~ 16,840 days ~ 46 years...

taking into consideration the rate of consumption increase, maybe 20 years...

This is amazing stuff. But all is not lost, as time progresses the economics of oil and other fuels change, and the 'proved reserves' figure has quite a strict meaning which gives it a lot of scope for growth in terms of actual oil. But the point stands - oil won't be around for ever.

As I said, though, all is not lost - the technology just isn't quite there yet. Things would change dramatically if we could find ways to store and transport electricity more efficiently.

I believe (and I'm no physicist) that the daily 80.1 million barrels of oil is equivalent to the energy contained in one tin of baked beans....

(assuming 440g of baked beans + weight of tin 105g (guess) = 545g)

Seller ccampfield was good in his day. I have noticed that the sellers with reputation seem to have moved on, I suspect to running their own websites or other things. A great deal of watches (and Tif%any) seem to come from sellers with no reputation or sales (sure sign that your money may disappear down a hole).

Cheers!

I recently discovered a somewhat unknown artist Jelly Joe...(Thanks ISO)

the song Rock That, is pretty sweet if ya like rap/hip hop...

Tried the sampler - not bad! Cheers!

I think Saudi Arabia has enough oil to supply the world for three hundred years. Great for oil, not so great to have it in one place - the world will be fighting over this patch of sand for generations to come.

Oil prices are high on market speculation, not actual supply side shortages. The US has a gigantic stockpile of crude oil (that's not the same as refined in the short term though). So when there are fears over Iran's nuclear ambitions, oil prices go up, even though there has been no limit in actual supply. Indeed the oil speculation market has taken on a new nature in the past few years - becoming more of an investment vehicle than it used to be (more like gold than a commodity like sugar). At the moment the price is in a bubble; oil companies have also taken the opportunity to double their refining take; and in welfare state countries like the UK and Australia the government's taxes on top have soared too.

The US did and does want to control Iraqi production - it wanted the cheaper (and secure) oil supply to ensure US productivity. The reason it hasn't worked out like that is that it didn't go to plan. They have also taken their eye off the ball in South America, where there is also oil. They were busy looking east.

As TTK said - Iraq is an inherently unstable country. It was before Saddam became a dictator through assassination and fear. And through the natural order of things, it would have become again when he died or whatever. The problem is that it is now the US is stuck holding the baby. Even their own State Dept (Colin Powell) told Rumsfeld & Co that if you break it, it's yours.

The chances are though, that the US would not have sat by and watched Iraq descend into civil war with all that oil there (nor Russia nor France for that matter). Their current predicament is all the more ironic for it.

The biggest problems for Iraq's stability are its neighbours. The easiest way to 'fix' Iraq is not to - break it into three bits. Oil in Iraqi Kurdistan's hands would be great for the west - Turkey would go absolutely apeshit (Kurdistan is unacceptable to them for fear that their own country will break up). Screw them. The south would have oil too, so they're happy.

The middle bit would be totally buggered without oil - they're the problem. And the fear is that 'Iran' steps into the void.

I say 'Iran' like that because Iran has by far the biggest pro-western population of the middle east's major players. That may surprise some people that don't recall the heydays of the Shah. But it is run by a religious fundamentalist regime (some could say the same of the US until the next congressional elections). The current Iranian president is a populist - and you end up with the same daft policies of other populists - jingoism, patriotism, sabre rattling. Sound like any other presidents we know?

The Iranian fundamentalists the 'problem' - my point is that they always were going to be the real problem. The US, UK and Australia (yes, Australia - they sent a cheese toasty machine) charged into Iraq with such enthusiasm because they knew it was going to be easy. Iraq had no air cover. The north of Iraq was already autonomous. The south of Iraq didn't like Saddam. And it was a breeze. But they hadn't fixed the problem...

This newsflash today...

The UK government has just announced that it is worried that mens penises are getting smaller. To find out how great the problem is they have asked all men with penises smaller than 3 inches to drape a white flag with red cross on their car during the months of June and July.

Ends

Too bad for Alabamians....

Alabama health warning

"Shoulders back lovely boy!"

"Never before have I seen such a blatant display of poofery!"

I have just seen the future.....some comedian will one day pick this as my retirement watch

As for 'pulling off' nice watches, I've never come across anyone who knew what a Lange was. The day I do I'm in deep shite!!

Okay, cool - if it's a watch product that does rule out used condom prices! They would be a tough gig to sell!

You might find some answers to what you are talking about not so much in marketing and economics but in behaviour.

Since this is a consumer forum, and everyone here has taken the time to find it, I wonder if other people too have obvserved that the consumer habits of friends and family are very different. The buyers here are disproportionately rational for a product which is marketed as emotive (even all you PAM nuts!!). They research what they want, and want the best quality at the best price.

Despite years of effort, some people I know simply cannot be persuaded not to be foolish with their money. They, for example, would think that a Sony DVD player bought in Harrods was better than the same Sony DVD player purchased at an electrical store, let alone the unbadged version bought online for a fraction of the price.

This consumer will always pay the $200 you talk about. They would always buy a watch from an AD, and not haggle.

These are "dream customers". You should try to get some of this action too!

"Whispering Grass" by Windsor Davies and Don Estelle

This Windsor Davies?!

Right now.....King Creosote "For the Last Time: Hello"

You've gone third world!

I can access imageshack, but it couldn't resize them for me (it seems to do that sometimes, don't know why)

640 x 480 perhaps?

Ya got me first try.................digital zoom

A TV aerial we have five TV's but only one jack leading to the aerial on the roof and that's in the lounge

Ken

I hear ya! Got a TV right next to me connected up to nothing. I even saw that they had wireless AV signal senders on sale at Aldi this week for $69, but I was too lazy to do anything about it!

One day I'll get the camera - but all the tent / light equipment you see around this place can be a bit intimidating!!

Bergie's Booty - It should be a TV show!!

Some Lange love there centre stage

Also nice boxed VC!

Even have a special place for Pulsar (!) - long story.

Thanks for letting us see the collection!

Cheeky patrol: is that a TV aerial or a Dalek?

5. Wrong.. the price even if the buyers try to lower the price, the RRP remains the same without taking into consideration the mass resale price. This means someone actually still buys the product.

Sorry - I just meant as a general year-on-year trend. For example, if the price of a new product RRP (eg cars or LCD tvs) comes down year-on-year (deflation) there is less incentive to buy second-hand - thus the second-hand prices fall even further (people are buying new).

1. decided to buy overpriced products from the source and not buy the product like new (lightly used) with significantly less??? Even then if he likes it he can try the brand new (if the used factor is the thing that keeps him back)

Not all buyers are equally informed, and not all can pay right away. A lot of people prefer to buy retail (they go to travel agents for plane tickets when you can buy online etc). Some people are lured by retail advertising (the importer from China doesn't do that) or by interest free offers, etc., etc. Retail can also give it to you straight away - the most expensive thing any buyer can do is be impatient or in a hurry i.e. the extra money can be the convenience.

Are we discussing a particular product?

http://www.rapidshare.de/

Is the 'big one'. There are limits on how much can be downloaded (for free) within 80 minutes, but it has consistently high download speeds.

EDIT: should add - you can't make it too blatant as to what you are sharing. Change the filenames to something meaningless and zip or rar them.

I think there are a variety of reasons depending on the product. Here are few that occur to me:

1. The product is commonly given as a gift.

2. The product is one that tends to be bought on 'impulse' or without usual caution.

3. The product is often superceded by newer, better technology

4. The product wears out quickly

5. The price of the product is suffering price deflation

6. There is oversupply or new cheaper supply of the product, existing sellers may try to protect their margins

7. There is a dominant player in the supply of the product that can charge a very high premium and act defensively, competing products may be much cheaper - creates a gap for resale.

Just a few ideas.

Cheers!

Kelvin- Borne in Northern Ireland, died in Scotland

Shortly after opening the windows one day, no doubt