Space Cadet

http://en.espnf1.com/lotus/motorsport/story/5174.html Lotus boss accepts Branson's bet ESPNF1 Staff December 16, 2009 At the Virgin Racing launch in London on Tuesday, ESPNF1 asked Sir Richard Branson to comment on the statement made by Lotus boss Tony Fernandes that he would "retire and kill himself" if his squad were beaten by Virgin in 2010. In return Branson issued a challenge to Fernandes. He said that the losing team's boss should work on the winner's airline for a day dressed as a stewardess. "Bring it on, the sexier the better," said Fernandes when asked by ESPNF1 if he would accept the challenge. Lotus has even gone one step further by sending us a picture of what Branson might look like in Air Asia uniform. "It's quite fitting, don't you think? Our passengers will be delighted to be served by a Knight of the Realm," joked Fernandes. "But knowing Richard, the real challenge will be to prevent him from asking our guests 'coffee, tea or me?' That would be scary."

This is the week that the Brits decide their Christmas number one single. X-factor types always win. If lots of British people get together and pay to download a different song, X-factor might not. It's sort of like rickrolling the charts but without Rick. And there's already a thread for it. :dozey:

^^I meant a collective you.

Looks like weirded out builders having a laugh at the crazy people taking pictures in the street to me. :inquisitive: Yes. Yes you are. It's why I tried to gently suggest you stop earlier. I will suggest it again now. Next time I will be a little louder, and then it will be followed by "moos" or some other bit of disapproving randomness.

I just cant shake this mental image of Branson on a plane in a pencil skirt serving tea. :uhoh2: :laugh3: :laugh3: :laugh3:

So I guess the rumor is that Schumi is going to make his big announcement after new years? His pr team are certainly trying to whip the media up into a frenzy first. And of course it's working. :dozey: Also, hear about the bet? Richard Branson has only just gotten all in as a team boss and the sport is already a little bit more interesting. :lol:

:laugh4: Hmm... Scarlet Johansson... you sure there? :tongue: A lot of stuff I like there. :nice: So your nefarious plan has already failed. :P Ha. (Burial!) :dance: So, the big question being, are you an At Ease-er or just someone making fun of them? :inquisitive: :p

Don't give in. Don't argue, and don't respond. This ends here. It has gone beyond jokes and fun. I am not taking this any farther than I have so far for two reasons: If he has been suspended, Ian must already be aware of a good portion of all this. I want to give him a fair chance to respond and to change. I don't like this sort of confrontation. I'm a live and let live sort. But the moment it occurs to me the way that young people here are inappropriately involved, I cannot stay silent. I have said what I said. (I'm assuming you all keep quoting me to make sure I can't go back on it. :thinking: :p) Good. Don't respond. If he starts making inappropriate contact with underage members here, I suggest warning them by linking back to my first big post and avoiding arguments of any sort. We all have a responsibility to protect them.

I don't like her music at all, personally. But she seems a lot classier and more talented than most of the pop and country girls out there, and for that I respect her.

A June bug. They make such a lovely crunch when you pop them.

I don't care about it. I just want my cat back. :cry:

I can immerse myself in a world without technology at all. :p In fact I do frequently. Heck, I should be the one who wrote the movie- elements of it are so close to dreams I've had and he based it on one of his dreams... But I do think it's interesting that the first really good 3D I ever saw was one of the undersea documentaries at IMAX about 15 years ago, right after our IMAX theatre opened. I was enthralled. It was like actually being there underwater. Cameron has been spending all this time doing deep sea diving and filming documentaries. What he saw underwater had a huge influence on the world in the movie, and it's been shot in imax 3D. It's like it's come full-circle.

Well mozzarella is my favorite, (well... with the possible exception of herb-flavored havarti) so the comparison still really doesn't work for me. :P :dance: They are great, eh? :D :laugh3::laugh3::laugh3:

What exactly don't you get? (I mean that curiously, not aggressively.) To survive on a toxic alien planet, future humans grow alien bodies for themselves so they can interact with the local population. The main character goes to sleep as a human and wakes up as an alien. And then goes native, Dances with Wolves style. The way I see it and based on what I've heard, it's a story about an alien world- a moon in Alpha Centauri's solar system. It has microgravity and a consistent environment formed around that. Everything I've seen has actually been designed based on function, making it seem (if impossible) very, very real and plausible. Based on the environment, an 11-foot elongated sentient blue species sort of makes sense. And then it became the most expensive movie ever made so it could look real too. In 3d. No one has ever done that before: put an immerseive, consistant, and consistently alien world up on screen with an appropriately big budget. Like a lot of the critics have been saying, until someone invents holo-technology or perfects space travel, it just might be the closest we'll get anytime soon to seeing a convincing alien world for ourselves. For people like me who have dreams of that, it's exciting. :dance: :dance: :dance:

To quote Oscar Wilde's Cecily, "When I see a spade I call it a spade." I can't help but notice in the last couple of days that the fastest growing segment of the population around here was born sometime between about '95 and '97. I think it's a wonderful thing that so many generations can interact here freely without all the usual judgment and schisms that come from age differences. But I was also a leader in Brownies for a number of years. We weren't allowed to escort a girl anywhere near the washrooms without a group. Every single thing we did had to be clearly above board and transparent for a very good reason. It is the responsibility of the older person to make sure that everything is always appropriate. Prying into younger members personal information, talking them into letting you have facebook access, and privately manipulating them behind the scenes like has been described here may be entirely innocent, but it is very inappropriate and it certainly isn't transparent.

I have told Mark a hundred times. He's drawn to arguments like a moth to flame. Actually, I can't think of any that he hasn't ended up at the centre of. One can only conclude that contrary to what he says he likes arguing. When one type of troll meets another type of troll, they all have a big messy troll dance. :dance:

To the people here who are not trying to work out many years of frustration, abuse, and manipulation, I ask that you look up the last few threads Mark posted in before you judge either side too quickly. The definition of an internet troll is someone who is disruptive for attention or personal amusement. Apparently, a large group of girls who were tired of arguing got the message and finally learned how to ignore Mark completely. This is the first time I have ever seen that happen on this board. Normally when people ignore him it doesn't last very long for many reasons. So I payed very close attention to his behavior once an entire group had finally succeeded in doing the seemingly impossible. It was a group of mainly teenage girls who had set up a thread full of -basically- pure girl talk. Something he had nothing to do with. He interjected non-sequiters every few posts. When no one reacted to these he went into other threads and whined about how unfair it was that he was being ignored by these girls. His behavior in the girls' thread became more and more erratic up until the moment he was banned. I can only assume that either they finally reported him or he reported them for ignoring him. Either way, I think this ranks as conclusive proof. Mark needs attention. This makes him by definition a troll. Unlike your usual bored teenage troll however, he seems to be genuinely trying to get something out of this place that he needs in real life that we cannot give him. He is trying to interact with all these teenagers but expects them to act like his version of what adults are. They are not adults, they are teenagers. They cannot and will not conform to his world view. The fact that he seems to need them to, and the way he inappropriately acts towards them and pries into people's lives leads me to believe that although he may be benign, he is in fact the sort of person your mother warned you about- older men trying to pass themselves off as a teenagers on the internet for their own agenda. I don't agree with the way much of this thread played out. But everything said here has pretty much been said to his face at one time or another. (Some of it by me though he never seems to be able to comprehend that.) This thread has allowed people to finally compare notes in public without interruption to piece together the bigger picture. I get the impression that many of them are counting on Mark reading it hoping that he will finally understand what they have been trying to tell him for many years now. It's easy to think of a character like a piece of old furniture. It's just always there so you put up with it. I've even defended him on that basis many times. But this week has made me realize just how inappropriate his behavior has actually been. There are children on this board and for lack of a better term the way he treats them can be very creepy. Frankly, I think it might be best if anyone under 18 avoids giving out any personal information that he might see. Mark, if you are reading this, I'm saying this because I'm worried about you: perhaps you should look into seeing a good psychologist or counselor. This board is not a substitution for one. I don't want to debate this any further. Be wise all of you, please take the higher ground, (especially the mods who really ought to attempt to act neutrally on the matter) and remember. Don't feed the troll.

Actually come to think of it, I never understood why it seemed like all the mods got in on the fights until I read this thread. I suppose it would be hard for many not to take a side after a while if you were constantly drawn into it as part of the job description. Perhaps if there's another one, I should start "moo-ing" again. :freak: :wacko:

Personal theory, alcohol subtracts, drugs change. If you can still put an equation into your mental computer and feel like it's you doing it, you don't care so much if the output is skewed. I think with any kind of mind altering thing you can actually tell that the person coming up with the data and equations isn't really what you identify in your head as 'you'. Urgh... I hate that feeling. Even to the tiny extent I got it on Ritalin and other ADD crap. But then I don't need anything...I don't even generally like alcohol. Who needs all that stuff when you have a frighteningly surreal imagination and have been having frequent existential crises since the age of 3?

^Aw, Merry Christmas. You got a vacation. :D

So, two days, eh? I hate to say it, (sorry Mark) but it's been really peaceful and interesting without him around... I don't think I've seen a single fight. And then I wonder why I've been spending so much time on here in the lounge lately (I shouldn't be :dozey:) and I realize that it's because it's so much more fun to post during the day when I won't get interrupted on every single thing I say to someone else. It may be unconscious, but I do avoid posting at all when he's online, and wait until the narrow window when he's supposedly asleep. :(

Impressive.

^:wtf: They're the original British punks. The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and kicking it all off in New York The Ramones were the bands that really started it all. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punk_rock Great as Radiohead are, (and yes, ok, Coldplay) it's kind of hard to say for sure that they're the best ever if you don't know your basic rock history.

Hey Yossi, you lost your accent! :thinking:

Good for you. *nods* And I'm not saying that he isn't. He's probably one of the biggest jerks of them all. I'm just saying that Daniel Craig (and most men for that matter) looks good in a well-tailored suit.