The fish

I'm studying Economics and International Relations at Lancaster University in sunny Lancaster (sorry, no prizes for guessing that last bit). I'm a fresher again as I quit my first Uni (Surrey) after two out of five years. Because Civil Engineering sucks balls, and concrete is fucking dull (again, no prizes).

Cheers lads, that really does help. Regarding what ipaul said about lecturers, I had my first lecture with the person teaching Foreign Policy of Contending Powers today, and I really liked their style. I can avoid doing a dissertation due to the duel nature of my degree by taking two additional modules in third year, so I might well do that. Oh, and I really love the idea of the EU, and I find how it works genuinely interesting, but academically it's a total bloody nightmare. I also know that if I follow the economics half of my degree for a career it'll most likely be into risk (currency or market) in banking, and security is obviously a pretty major factor in that. Thanks for you help lads, I appreciate it. Now I just need to (for some reason) pick my third year modules too...

Riddle me this (student gripe, I apologise in advance): what modules should I pick for next year? As I'm doing a joint major I only get to pick two politics/international relations modules, but there are, as always, more than two available. Of the eight out there, I'm interested in these four in particular: International Relations and Security Politics of Development Politics of the European Union Foreign Policy of Contending Powers And I need to chose only two, so, yeah, there's a slight problem... The first, IR and Security, is pretty "core" to IR, but it doesn't seem quite as interesting as the others as it's very general and theoretical. Development seems the least interesting on the surface, but as it focuses on Latin America and I plan on doing my dissertation (if I do one) on the drugs trade it would of course be most handy. EU is a little dry, but I've always liked it and it would be useful work-wise and it touches on economics, the other half of my degree. Lastly, foreign policy is pretty meaty and focuses on Iran, China and the US - interesting and obviously relevant, but a waste of a module slot? The big issue is I don't know if I want to do broad, theoretical modules and risk being less interested, or specific, focused modules, and risk finding they're not to my liking. Either way, I have four options and two slots (square peg, round hole), and I really, really, really don't want to end up feeling like I've wasted a slot.

Turns out a lot of people on social media are pretty shocking at geography, too. Chechnya, the Chechnen Republic and Česko, the Czech Republic, are the same thing, right?

Horrible, lacking compassion and respect, and remorseless? Sounds just like her.

I guess from your use of the work "state" that you're an American, so the exact rules depend on the specific lottery. Here in the UK, at least, their computer system knows if there's been a winner with 5 or 6 numbers, but as far as I know they won't track you down. If there are no winning tickets according to the computer, then the jackpot rolls over to the next draw. If there are winners, the money is set aside, and there's a 180 day limit to claim before the money gets donated to charities.

Someone earlier mentioned about how giving publicity encourages terrorism. I'd disagree, but with these Westboro Baptist Church nutters it's publicity they're after. They picket these things and make outrageous, massively controversial claims as they know the media will give them hours of free publicity. The best way to deal with them and reduce their impact is to ignore the fuck out of them. If you don't watch/read about them, the media won't report it. Which is illustrated (in a tragic roundabout kind of way) by the frequent attacks in Iraq and Syria.

Forgive my ignorance, but is that a good thing or a bad thing? I.e. is it worth me doing training now? Actually, now I think about it, is it worth doing form training before the next season actually starts, or is there a certain time before the next season you can train from, or what? This is probably the most confusing bit for me...

I've been tinkering with my shiny new team (ooh, shiny!), and I'm now rather looking forward to the new season! :awesome: One question: if I do form training, how long does the effect stick around for? Is it worth me doing form training now, or waiting until 5 or 6 days (it's 5 days, right?) before the first game of the next season?

I don't quite get what you're getting at here. Hiding the dead and the wounded and the suffering isn't exactly going to help or stop attacks. I don't see how filming or photographing an event (especially when already at the scene - it was a marathon remember) is inconsiderate. If anything should be done to prevent the perpetrator from gaining something from it, people need to not act any differently. If you stop going to sporting events or other crowded places because you think your might be caught in an attack, the terrorists win.

Jesus christ, I was out at dinner, so I only heard when I got back. It's tragic and terrible. Such a mindless act of violence. Sadly, massive violence in Iraq (and, for that matter, Syria) is a common occurrence - every other week, at least. It's not a development, so no one reports it. Still, I'm not trying to detract from the horror of what happened today. It's terrible, cowardly and who ever did it is a fucking nutjob.

Cheers matey, I just sent in my team application - I'm FishUK on the site.

Who plays Batman? Isn't it Joseph Gordon-Levitt now?

I think I'll wait until next season. If it was early I'd take over the spare team, but this late in the season it's a bit futile. Can someone PM me the league ID? I need to think of a funky team name...

Now that I actually am interested in football again, can I get back in on this? :P

Woah, woah, woah there, I'm going to do a Kanye West and jump in here, sunshine. Please, enlighten us as to how Tony Blair and Gordon Brown caused Lehman Brothers to collapse? I'll give you PFI, sure, but the global financial crisis?

That did occur to me. I doubt they're that cunning, though. Maybe they're backpedaling as we speak, and will try and claim they were having us on the whole time?

She did a couple of good thing - the unions were too powerful, and PACE was needed. Most of her record, however, is very bad indeed. Let's hope the flying monkeys can survive on £57 a week.

Nope, I just picked them by price/performance, with a little help from Tom's Hardware.

Well that's pretty damn weird - I'm building my dad a desktop at the moment, and we're using the exact same components as you, even down to the make of RAM of graphics card...

I live just down the road from Luton, and everyone I know from their uses the same phrase to describe it. Is "Not that bad" the town's motto or something? Either way, it's a lie. :wink: I kid, Luton actually isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Sure, it's ugly, and I wouldn't piss on the Marsh Farm estate if it was on fire, but it's the nearest place to me with anything resembling nightlife and at a fraction of the cost of London. Indeed, it's the cheapest place to drink in the South East by a mile. Oh, and it's well connected: M1, fast Midland Mainline trains to the North or London, and a muther-fuckin' airport. Nice, Berlin or Amsterdam for £45 is hard to argue with. That said, it's the one place I've been bottled, and, of all the places I've traveled to or lived in, it's by far the least safe I've felt in.

It should have had it from the start, frankly. I never had CQC, but don't get me started on the whole DLC bullshit.

Ah, that utter tit. He's also done this. I think we should hit him with sticks? Oh, and if he wasn't a tit, he'd still know fuck all about economics.

My town (Harpenden) is notable that for a long time nothing remarkable has ever happened. No battles, no murders, no protest or riot, no notable sons or daughters of the town. It's a quite town, but wealthy and convenient for London so a fair few of the rich and famous own property here. Off the top of my head, Harry Redknapp owns a house here, as does Craig Charles (who was looking at buying the house next to mine at one point - my dad found im in my back garden looking over the wall). Eric Morecambe used to live here, too. As for "events", I know of only one: remember the anti-GM nutters protesting a research site last summer? That was here! Of their claimed thousands that would show up, about 150 did. They were outnumbered by curious locals and anti-Luddite counter-protesters (who I joined).