Beastie

He's driving from Lands End to Lowestoft. He's informed the viewers that this is from the furthest westerly point on the UK mainland to the furthest easterly point. Well, he's half right.

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/ustours/fort...

His starting point is a good few hundred miles south. Although in his defence there's no road to Ardnamurchan Point.

As a point of interest, anyone got an idea how I can get a message to the eejit to let him know? Coz I'd love to tell him myself.... the oversized opinionated tube that he is.

http://uk.travel.yahoo.com/p-promo-3360559

Whilst you are all bouncing on about how great Boeing jets are (and you know who you are) I'd just ask you to have a little look at the link.

But hey, I'll be generous. No one's perfect.

You might want to remember that.

P.S. There's a reason this has been posted where it's been posted. It's to ensure someone in particular sees it.

It's simple. We are a small country. So is New Zealand. New Zealand, you should note, has an attitude and the blatant confidence that 'we can do this' and it's 'stuff what you lot think, we can do it.' And hey, look at that, they can. The All Blacks dominate. Even the All Whites, the football team, outperformed everyone's expectations at the last World Cup. 'Can't' does not seem to enter the Kiwi brain without a 'why the hell not' response. Outside of sport, it took New Zealand and Australia longer to enter recession, and it was shallower than ours, because their economies are less reliant on financial services for an income.

So why does Scotland believe, en masse, that Scotland cannot do it? Is it years of being told we can't afford to, or is it simply that too many Scots simply don't have the belief that we could do anything at all on our own?

There is no reason for this lack of confidence. There is nothing we cannot do IF WE WANT IT. And being told by Labour and the Conservatives that we can't; well that's just not good enough. I want a good reason for why I can't do something, and 'because I say so' is not a reason.

Just to make this clear, I am an SNP voter. I vote for the only party which can remove us from the constant circuit of Labour/ Conservative/ Labour/ Conservative.... Scotland votes Labour; what does that get us? Conservative government. What does that get us? Shafted. Because the Tories don't give a f*ck about Scotland, because Scotland doesn't vote Tory.

Rob C; this will attract you, I'm sure. Since the enemy of mine enemy is my friend, I would appreciate your input. We are undoubtedly both for Scottish independence, in our own ways.

This is also nothing to do with money; if I was worried about money, the nice cozy financial relationship with London would do lovely. Personally I would like the absolute uncertainty against the current arrangement.

Anti Scottish morons; I'm sure this will attract you as well... ah well, you can't win them all. I will be ignoring you, so you needn't bother.

I vastly prefer laptops over desktops and I've got no space for another desktop in the house anyway.

What I want is a laptop capable of running bang up to date games, including stuff coming out in the next couple of months; don't want something that'll be obsolete tomorrow morning.

Graphics card capabilities I know about, but my current laptop, although it's relatively new, can't even play games which were released contemporary to it. It's got ye olde Intel Core 2 Duo, which I know now is more a business chip and doesn't really do games anyway.

PS... how much, realistically, would I be looking at for cost on a new gaming laptop which does what I want it to do as above?

And a final supplemental; could I replace the processor in my current machine rather than buy a new one anyway?

This, for our American cousins, is a UK question.

Bill McLaren OBE, MBE was for decades the voice of rugby to generations of rugby fans from every rugby playing nation around the world. He is the only non national team rugby player to be in the SRU Hall of Fame and rightly so.

Ultimately he was a wee Hawick man who didn't do fuss. He would doubtless now be wondering what people were on about being sad at his passing. But what else should the SRU do to honour the Voice of Rugby (and yes, that is capitalised for a reason) because a minute's silence is gone in a minute. Something permanent to his memory is in order.

Renaming a stand a Murrayfield? A statue out the front? Or what he'd probably like the most; a tournament trophy with his name on it?

There's no point in expecting the team to perform better in his name; doesn't seem to anything that'll make them perform better.

http://m.uk.yahoo.com/_ylt=Am9hnmGpai2V1eoDYNKktwo...

Bob Ainsworth, a man most military people consider to be about as useful as a chocolate fireguard, has happily confirmed this country will shell out twenty billion pounds to replace missiles which will likely never, ever be used.

That's twenty billion pounds of 'deterrent.' I personally think it is a shameful waste of money, and I say that as an ex Royal Navy rating. Twenty billion would get the Navy several new ships and still leave money over to give billions to the Army, RAF and NHS. Schools as well. It also strikes me as an case of 'the old ones still work; lets just bin them anyway.' Waste of money.

What colour do you reckon the sky is on old Bob's planet?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8469695.stm

See the link for more details.

On this occasion I am actually partially in agreement with them. The delay in counting which is being mooted is effectively a period of time where, even if nothing actually happens, accusations of tampering can easily be made. Party seals applied to the boxes (irrespective of the actual party) would clearly make this more unlikely.

It is not just a BNP issue on this occasion. At the last Scottish Elections a Labour candidate who lost narrowly claimed that whilst some constituency ballot boxes were delayed by weather (it's an island constituency in part) they were tampered with and the SNP took the seat. He was roundly derided, even by members of his own party, as a bad loser. But the fact remains that an official seal on the ballot boxes would have prevented his claims.

Nor do I understand why there is to be a delay in counting in any case. At every general election the results start coming in by midnight or one in the morning the following day; people get onto the counting as soon as the boxes are delivered. This has been the case for a long time and I can see no reason for it to change.

Any serious suggestions as to why this might be?

PS. Don't bother if your suggestions include anything like 'it's so the government can fiddle the result.' I don't trust the government, but frankly it's nowhere near organised enough to organise a scam on that scale.

Now, this would not normally be a bad thing, but since iTunes already went mental and I had to reinstall it I lost every bit of music I had on it. No problem, I thought. I've still got almost the whole library between the Pod and the phone.

Except when I went to synchronise the phone I managed to not notice the little bit that said synchronising this phone will delete all contents and replace it with contents from this library. Empty phone.

Now, I'm reinstalling it again because it's apparently shite. What I want to know is this. Will I be able to, at any point, install music from my iPod onto the new library without losing it?

PS... calling it shite is highly restrained. You want to see what my facebook status refers to it as..... Lets just say Answers would star out most of the words....

Every year games get called off; this season's even worse than normal. So when is the SFA going to get the hint that games in the summer when it doesn't tend to snow or freeze (even in Scotland) is a better time to play?

It's not like we end up at international tournaments very often anymore anyway, so that's not really an excuse. And since most of the best players in Scotland aren't even Scottish... Yes, I know there are exceptions... is the international tournament argument actually completely irrelevant?

Right. I've tried asking on iTunes own website, and Apple, and found it to be as useful as a chocolate fireguard and about as much fun as swimming in raw sewage. No use at all, in other words.

The problem I've got is that the iPod application on it, which I have now filled with the contents of iTunes, does not recognise the fact that the tracks have numbers and play them shuffled whether I want them it to or not. Gets on my nerves a tad.

This only happens with the phone; my little old Nano works fine so I strongly suspect this is a problem with the app or the phone and not iTunes.

Any advice?

PS Advice like 'get a better phone' or 'don't be such a techy geek' and similar will not gain you the best answer under any circumstances. My sense of humour has badly slipped with this already.

A few years back I was getting a lift from my now ex-sister in law. She was driving at approximately 95 mph, which didn't in itself bother me (speed doesn't bother me, if it's the right conditions and right road for it) but then she got a text....

And while sending an answer proceeded to carry on at the same speed steering with one hand, looking at the phone an tapping in the answer with the other hand.

To this day she probably still doesn't get why I was going off the head at her; she wasn't the intelligent one in the family.

But please see the link below and tell me, will this have any effect whatsoever? Because I don't think it will.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8203120.stm

The SNP Government of Scotland has just announced that it plans to introduce a bill in the next Parliamentary term to have a referendum on full independence. The opposition parties (Labour, Liberal Democrats and Conservatives) have all stated they will vote against this bill which means, as the SNP are a minority administration, the bill will automatically fail and there will not be a referendum.

My question is this. Why do they oppose it? Each party has stated that they believe the majority of Scottish people will vote against independence therefore a referendum should, if they follow their own logic, result in a defeat for the SNP.

They accuse the SNP of ignoring the Scottish people on al Megrahi's release yet they would deny the Scottish people the right to decide what happens to their own country.

Ignore your own political bias if you answer this. I would vote for independence personally but this question is not about independence, it's about the strange position of the opposition parties in opposing a referendum when current polls suggest that this vote would result in a win for their side of the argument.

I can't go back to the centre I was initially trained at as it was Royal Navy and I'm not in the service any longer, so does anyone know where I could get this training in Scotland as civilian?

This is something I want because certain points of jetboat driving are different to propellor boats; for one thing there's a big difference to how you approach a jetty which I've never been taught.

Now I'm a civvie no one is going to give me a job driving a jetboat; they're not that common and practically everyone uses ordinary prop boats, and if I want to get my own boat at some point I sure as hell can't afford a decent jetboat.

I'm currently qualified to MCA Level Two with a few extra skills designed to make it very close to Intermediate (the Navy were trying to get it graded Intermediate at the time; never happened) but all I'm currently qualified to drive are jetboats. I've never even touched a propellor driven boat, either inboard engine, inboard with a z drive, or a bog standard outboard motor. I'd like to acquire the abilities mainly because I don't want to eventually get a boat and first time I take it out bend it getting back to the wall....

Yes, I know they said it was potentially embarrassing (because it sounds like pillock or bollocks (although I'm not at all sure how you could get to either of those from pollock) but my real question is this.

It was stated that there were three reasons for altering the name. The first two I've already stated, but the third one was a supposedly racist one. Now, I'm old enough to have heard pretty much every article of racist terminology, but I cannot work out what this one is.

First plausible looking answer gets the points.

Given that speed limits in towns are already heading for twenty mph in many places, this proposal will have minimal effect in towns.

However, cutting speed limits on rural roads from sixty to fifty will make already long journey times even longer and do nothing to cut deaths on rural roads. In point of fact, it will probably increase them as frustrated drivers will overtake and possibly end up hitting something head on.

Clearly the government has also not bothered taking note of the fact that the majority of deaths on rural roads are caused by drivers going in excess of the current limits. Altering the limit to a lower one will have no effect on drivers who speed regularly anyway.

It's also safe to assume that any MP who would support the rural speed limit being reduced doesn't live in a rural community.

I know they are officially making this proposal one to be implemented by individual councils if they feel it is required, but councils will come under pressure to do so anyway from safety campaigners and the Government irrespective of the fact that it is a flawed idea.

We're moving long distance and are currently decluttering the house... ok, we're selling damn near everything that's not nailed down... and I've been trying to find a music instrument shop in Edinburgh that will buy my Tanglewood electro acoustic bass without expecting me to take another one as a trade in. Thus far I can't find one.

Anyone got an idea where might be interested? That's in Edinburgh or Glasgow and anywhere in between.

Guitar Guitar aren't interested; the assistants suggestion was 'Cash Converters.' Needless to say, this suggestion was not taken serioiusly.

My wife also has a clarinet for sale; suggestions about who'd buy this for a decent price would be really helpful too.

I watched a new advert from them last night, this being the first one I've seen since the Scottish SPCA (a completely separate organisation) ran a campaign stating that anyone donating to the RSPCA from Scotland was not helping Scottish animals in any way.

Did the RSPCA amend their advertising? No.

If anyone associated with the RSPCA is on here, I'd like a response to this. Make it a good one; I find your organisation to be unethical at best, not least since your advert states national animal care implying this means the whole of the UK when you do not supply animal care in Scotland and are in effect stealing contributions which would otherwise go to the SSPCA.

Long story short... my bike was in the garage getting work done. Something the blunder expert of a mechanic did, whilst getting the bike running smoothly again, was manage to disconnect the speedo... hence getting it back from the garage meant I had done the sum total of zero miles at zero MPH.

It's not going back to the garage; the bloke made Basil Fawlty look like a professional businessman, but I'm hoping it's something relatively simple to fix as I haven't got the spare dosh to fire it into a different garage to get it done.

The work which probably caused the snags (I'm guessing, mind!) is replacing the throttle cable or stripping and cleaning the brake calipers front and back but I don't know where to start to look for whatever it is the walking blunder actually did. Or didn't, more to the point. All I know is that in amongst all the little problems the bike had when it went in, the speedo was not one of them.

Anyone who can let me know where or how to get started on this would be getting a pint... if I was ever in the same pub!

This one's been bothering me for a while. I know you can get Barrs Irn Bru in Canada and the US. But there's an ingredient in the original Scottish variety which is illegal in the US and Canada hence it isn't in the drink sold there.

The ingredient in question is a colouring, E124, otherwise known as Sunset Yellow. This is a banned substance across the pond and I'd like to know what ingredient replaces it in the Irn Bru sold over there.

I suspect, if there's any answers to this, it'll be a Scots Canadian who comes up with it :)

Well, this seems to apply to all sparkling wines as well as champagne but it's one that's intrigued me for a long time. There doesn't appear to be a rational reason for something that doesn't fill the entire neck of the bottle stopping anything getting out of the bottle. Not even when it's upright.