OneGuyFromBarlick

I will no more use self-service checkouts than go and 'pick my own' from a fruit farm. I am not in the business of providing my labour free to commercial enterprises. Ben Goldacre's book 'Bad Science' is indispensible as a guide to the misuse of statistics (and evidence more generally), particularly...

'Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgement' - Dorothy Parker, on what she would have on her headstone. 'I like to have a Martini, two at the very most. Three I'm under the table, four I'm under the host' - Dorothy Parker 'I require only three things of a man. He must be ...

Decent 'Horizon' programme last week on fusion research presented by the ubiquitous Prof Cox. As usual, a crystal clear explanation of the underlying theory from the Professor, and a romp around the various laboratories across the globe working on practical application, including our own facility at...

I thought 'finance' was an interconnected system. Is it really the case that hedge funds, merchant banks, investment banks, insurance, Yorkshire Bank, Barnoldswick, are unconnected separate business enities? That, whatever goes on in a hedge fund or Barclays capital has no interconnectedness at all?...

Forgive me if I've misunderstood the last paragraph, but is not the size of the current deficit a function of tax/spending commitments and the down turn that occured a few years back? That is, a structural bit and a cyclical bit? If so, then certainly on spending commitments at the time of the downt...

You know I do struggle with economics, me. A few weeks back we had that Laffer Curve flagged and when I looked at it I thought, well that a neat hypothesis. Clearly, levelling no tax brings non in; and levelling a 100% tax rate brings none in either as what's the point? Ergo, lets draw a symmetrical...

'Lopid' may be a version of the Sheffield term 'loppy', which means essentially the same thing. Sheffielders will refer to a house as 'it wer reet loppy'

Richard Broughton

What we need for 'health policy' in this country is a peer-reviewed meta-analysis, or at the very least a systematic review, of the the research base that exists for, for example,comparative health outcomes, patient satisfaction, efficiency and effectiveness, and so on and so forth. In the absence o...

The M56 was closed for a time during the really cold snap in Dec 2010 dues to icicles hanging from a bridge..... If I heard the report correctly over the weekend, the entire length of the Danube is frozen solid and as this is a major working river there are major economic implications being suggeste...

Tiz - yes 'current'; don't know what I was thinking about there!! The first time I came across a pikelet was in Sheffield, but they are widely available. At the risk of giving away too much information, the 'term of endearment' I use for my wife is 'pikelet'. Which caused a certain consternation wit...

Noticed right at the beginning of this thread reference to 'bread rolls' and the different terms for them depending where you are in the country. I posted a thread years ago called I think 'Of barm cakes, bread rolls and baps', where it was discussed. Just to recap, what got me posting was Barlicker...

On another thread I noted the impartiality of the BBC. I see this as a good thing. I should perhaps say, 'generally' a good thing. You see, on climate change issues, the BBC will invariably put up some person who is of the sceptic wing and often the false sceptic wing (Lord Lawson crops up regularly...

Well Sir Fred Goodwin is now plain Fred Goodwin. Have to say I don't agree with this. As various commentators have noted, one usually gets stripped of one's honourific when one has broken the law or somesuch, but all poor old Fred has done is make a complete pig's ear of things. As we all have on oc...

I know it was most likely tongue in cheek, but for every Economics Editor at the BBC who is the son of a Labour peer, there's a Political Editor who was Chairman on the Young Conservatives at Oxford. Neither of these loses me any sleep. There's no bias. Whenever I see complaints of bias at the BBC, ...

What attracted my attantion today was Robert Peston on the radio this morning regarding Mr Hester's bonus. As is the standard narrative these days, Mr Hester as a banker is a very clever chap and we need these very clever chaps to understand the complex world of finance, paying them accordingly so a...

Good TV? Well. it's a guilty pleasure of mine and so it's 'good' in my book. 'Take Me Out', Saturday night on ITV. 30 women decide whether they are happy to go on a date with a chap who is introduced via the 'love lift. They indicate their view of the chap via keeping their light 'on', or turning it...