Things Noticeable this week

[Nobody1]

Originally Posted by Wendigo

Detained and interrogated for 10 hours in North Korea
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36200530

Detained and interrogated, routinely beaten up, strip-searched, sodomized and tortured for several years in a CIA black site prison.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murat_Kurnaz

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_El-Masri

Those god-awful North Koreans.


Just saying.

[Wendigo]

Originally Posted by Nobody1

Detained and interrogated, routinely beaten up, strip-searched, sodomized and tortured for several years in a CIA black site prison.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murat_Kurnaz

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_El-Masri

Those god-awful North Koreans.


Just saying.

To be brutally honest, deep down most of us are well aware that our own leaders of whatever nation are not beyond authorising vicious acts and that the old "I was only following orders" bullshit did not die out after Nuremberg.

[Greenman]

On a more light-hearted note I have noticed that over the past four months we(that is my father and I) have been shifted between nearly 5 different women from the hotel where we are hosting my pre-50th birthday Lunch on Sunday. We dealt with one young girl, a pretty blonde called Madison, who promptly decided to go off and explore the world, then we handed to another lady called Shomari but we since found out she was fired!, then another woman took over, Sandrine, and then Gabrielle followed her-there is a fifth Alari or some such name which I hope will finally be the person to sort things out. Sheesh! you wouldn't think something like a Lunch would be so difficult to assign someone to, especially in a hotel with their reputation. Dare I say that a man might have been better suited? Anyway the day is almost upon me and I shall let you all know how it went(whether you like it or not)

[penfold007]

I have to deal with a particular hotel on an infrequent but regular basis, the quality of service for any given booking seems entirely dependent on which of their front desk staff is rota-d (that's a terrible participle since it's not even a verb, sorry) on for that day. Whoever it is will handle all aspects from the initial booking however many months in advance, all pre-event organising of the facilities we need as well as being present and arranging things on the day. I know if I get Emily then everything will be arranged with military precision and nothing will go wrong, but one or two of the others and there is a fair chance of something getting overlooked at some point. There was another woman who was there for years and very good, but last time I saw her she was about 8 months pregnant and I understand she didn't come back after maternity.

So, I'm not sure that a man will be any better suited for sorting out your lunch, competence in the hotel industry doesn't seem to divide down gender lines!

Hope you have a good lunch anyway

[SanteeFats]

Originally Posted by Greenman

On a more light-hearted note I have noticed that over the past four months we(that is my father and I) have been shifted between nearly 5 different women from the hotel where we are hosting my pre-50th birthday Lunch on Sunday. We dealt with one young girl, a pretty blonde called Madison, who promptly decided to go off and explore the world, then we handed to another lady called Shomari but we since found out she was fired!, then another woman took over, Sandrine, and then Gabrielle followed her-there is a fifth Alari or some such name which I hope will finally be the person to sort things out. Sheesh! you wouldn't think something like a Lunch would be so difficult to assign someone to, especially in a hotel with their reputation. Dare I say that a man might have been better suited? Anyway the day is almost upon me and I shall let you all know how it went(whether you like it or not)

Hey Greenie is it possible that it wasn't the women's fault?? Just asking.

[Greenman]

Originally Posted by SanteeFats

Hey Greenie is it possible that it wasn't the women's fault?? Just asking.

No one is laying the blame at any one person but you have to think someone is a little odd when we get passed back and forth to 5 different women. I mean we set all this in motion back at the end of February/March so they can't use an excuse of we didn't have time because their reputation for putting on various events stands on whether they can do it on time. For my parents' 50th Anniversary Lunch at a restaurant they were very efficient and even treated them to a free meal whilst details were discussed. I am just saying it is a little odd that just one person couldn't be made totally available to help. Anyway things were finalised weeks ago, cheques paid and hopefully Sunday will go without a hitch and all 38 people will arrive.

[gordian_knot]

I see we have a new super-duper aircraft carrier. It's massive compared to the pipqueak carriers we had in the 80s and 90s. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...es-think-twic/

“I think [Putin] will be looking very carefully at these. Carriers have huge weight of news. It’s no surprise that when Obama announces military stuff, he does it on the deck of an aircraft carrier. They are definitely the modern equivalent of a battleship."

Putin will have to look very carefully to find the planes we don't have to put on them. The bods who ordered these (another one coming in ayear or two) don't seem too bothered that we have only a handful of planes to fly off them. But we could have as many as 24 in 7 years time. And the hugely expensive planes we've committed to buy are rubbish anyway.

Puts me in mind of a press release a couple of months ago, where ministers were bragging that since starting air attacks against ISIS that we had killed as many as 6 ISIS fighters. Pathetic.

[otokonomidori]

Originally Posted by Nobody1

Detained and interrogated, routinely beaten up, strip-searched, sodomized and tortured

Like an English Public school really.

[rupertramjet]

Originally Posted by otokonomidori

Like an English Public school really.

Unfortunately all that stuff got banned, and the ban was enforced when I got into the second year, so I missed out on all the giving!

[scoundrel]

There is going to be a gap of several years between the new British carriers becoming operational and the Navy getting F35 aircraft to form a carrier group. Someone is going to have to come up with an interim solution. Apart from anything else, our previous carriers were scrapped several years ago and we will soon have lost all the people who know how to operate aircraft carriers. This has not been well planned, to put it extremely politely.