assassin_696

I agree. Although I enjoy drinking and have no objections to getting hammered if it's part of the night (but I very rarely do). But drinking loads of shots really doesn't appeal to me, the hangover's are always terrible and because they don't hit you 'that' quickly you can drink quite a lot before you realise how much you've had. I guess it's part of that macho insecurity thing.

264lb deadlift last night. Really didn't think I was in the mood to break my records but I was half convinced I'd done it before (I hadn't, the plate orderings confused me) so I just went for it. Managed 3 reps before my grip went and I dropped it down for the last two reps. I bought some whey protein last week which I've started taking. It was great value and tastes good so no complaints.

Boy Child - Scott Walker Nice recommendation How2PK, i'm getting some real Last Shadow Puppets vibes from this album, but without the snarling vocals.

The difference is that films that aren't censored have age restrictions on them so minors can't buy them. As far as I'm aware there's no age restrictions on buying CD's, even ones with parental advisory stickers. This is a bit of a non-story, Green Day can hardly be seen as the poor little band fighting the big retailer. Wal Mart have their corporate rules which they're sticking to and Green Day won't oblige. If they don't want to be censored don't try and sell your stuff in Wal Mart. No, they don't.

D1 was easy, but I've probably screwed up with some stupid mistake somewhere. We're doing OCR Advancing Physics B, which is a funny course. At AS it seems very applied and not very physicsy, more like physics for engineers and people doing medicine with an interest in physics. The coursework was a pain as well. It's been better at A2 in terms of rigour but still doesn't feel like a tough A-level.

The idea of doing this always makes me laugh [yt]XAItlPVbgic[/yt]

I'm doing A2 levels in maths, further maths, chemistry, physics and economics. My first exam is today (Decision maths 1) which should be easy but I want as close to full marks in it as I can to take the pressure off for FP2 and FP3. My next exam is June 10th, and I have 7 more after today. Almost took AEA physics but decided against it since it's on the day of FP3 and a 3 hour physics paper when I've just finished my last important exam is not what I want.

Those threads can't really be consolidated easily as there normally needs to be a unique discussion on each item without it being cluttered with others. This idea can't really work, so locked.

Nice list, I strongly with so many of your suggestions (i.e. Bon Iver, TV On The Radio) that I'll definitely have to give the other stuff a try.

In a slightly perverse twist of logic, I'm trying to spend more time reading each night even though my exams are looming. I don't really get much work done after 10 so I'm just going to bed earlier and reading more. I finished The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb earlier in the week. I really rate him as a thinker, he's probably one of the few people who not only understands the reasons behind the financial crisis now but saw them coming well before as well. It's an excellent philosophical read with a lot to say about life in our world today. I've started The American Presidency: A Very Short Introduction by Charles O. Jones now, it's short but dense with facts. American politics fascinates me.

I have sort of mixed feelings about squat technique. No way I could do what I do (220+) going all the way down but equally by doing weights like that I can lift a hell of a lot more going all the way down than I used to be able to. I think sometimes you've just gotta rack the weight up even if your form isn't perfect to get that deep muscle growth.

As I was expecting from you, a fascinating and very eclectic list. I completely agree with nearly everything you mentioned that I've heard of, and I'll definitely have to check out Will Oldham's stuff now as well as the others.

Please keep this to the original thread.

I always regarded maxing as a single rep, since that's the maximum weight you could lift at all. But tbh with squats, if you can do one you can probably do a few. Deadlifted 242 on Friday for 5 reps which broke my record, I was pretty pleased with that.

Reweighing myself apparently I only weigh 150lbs. I swear every set of scales gives me a different weight. But yeah I used to be into a program more focused for "bodybuilding" types, 3 sets of 10 reps of fairly isolated lifts with the occasional big movement lift but normally at the end of a workout. Now I really do prefer bigger functional lifts with bars for lower reps. It seems more like a kind of strength that I'd use and the program seems to be giving me results.

May as well post mine... Bear in mind these are all from the last set of a 5 reps for 5 sets program. Deadlifts: 308 Squats: 225 Bench: 176 I'm 5'11"(ish) and weight about 160lbs. My bench hasn't improved in ages, I really need to work on it, not that it's a particularly functional lift but hey.

Bloodstain raises a good point, namely what are you trying to achieve with the torture? The jury is out as to how effective it is at getting information and yet your tone of voice seems to imply that you'd do it just to make 'em squeal, and all that pathetic macho crap. Terrorists are deplorable, no one is denying that. But once you start hammering their fingers just to see them scream what does that make you? A better human being? No government should have the ability to torture, not only because you cannot guarantee that the man is guilty but also because you can't call yourself a civilised country one moment and then torture someone the next. It's too dangerous a power to give governments.

^ Sounds interesting, found some of his stuff on Spotify which i'll have a listen to. Shona Dancing - The Black Knights Pre-release of their fantastic new demo for their Last.fm fans.

The whole point of manslaughter is that it's killing someone without intent, and in this case was involuntary. Yes they should be charged with it. Make an example of them and hopefully others won't follow.

Whilst it's true that mathematics developed earlier in China and Arabic countries it certainly died a death after the Golden Age of Islam. And as to the mathematics being complex that's debateable, most of these cultures were using it purely for functional means (understandably), India was the first country to introduce the concept of zero which took it in a more abstract direction. But I'm ignorant of Mayan mathematics so I may be missing something. It's true that science/mathematics owes a lot to Arabic and Eastern cultures I'd still put western mathematicians and scientists up there in terms of their influence. The problem with this kind of question is that success in academia (which seems to be a judge of intelligence) is a lot down to luck and being in the right place at the right time. Many brilliant men may have been pipped to the post by slightly less brilliant men who happened to get their results out there first, but it's almost impossible to tell because history is not a perfect record of the past. The smartest person may never have come into the spotlight.

Boots Like These - Ben Harper & Relentless7 Great new bluesy project.

At first glance I thought this was going to be an impenetrable list for someone with my kind of taste, I'd barely heard of most of your artists. But on a second read-through I've put down Art Ensemble of Chicago, Steve Reich, Terry Riley (I studied minimalist music at school) and that Joy Division album to my Spotify playlist to listen to. I'll keep re-reading it to cream off some more descriptions I like.

I thought Hatton might have had a chance but he was well and truly outboxed. Glad I didn't stay up to watch it though!

Had a shot tonight that was quite pleasant, called a Box Jellyfish (the bar was The Box). Baileys and peach schnaps mixed with some green stuff that made it look like a mini jellyfish with some strawberry bits in. Not too bad.

Bill Gates got lucky in hitting the market at the right time. Microsoft isn't uniquely well designed software, but it's managed to become an almost monopoly through timing and aggressive business strategy. Gates is smart, but no genius.