Article says he was in his 70s, which would mean he'd have been born between 1936 and 1945, I know desperation began to set in towards the end of the war, but I didn't think the Germans took to recruiting from primary schools!
Posts by Sarah Balfour
361 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Apr 2007
German army fights underground Nazi war machine hidden in Kiel pensioner's cellar
British spooks wave through Samsung S6 mobes for UK govt bods
Evil computers sense you’re in a hurry and mess with your head
Sunday 19th July 2015 17:55 GMT
Re: @Alistair Dabbs, re Charities.
Many of the larger 'charities' have CEOs & directors being paid at least 6 figures. If I give to charity these days, it won't to be one of the massive ones, because I'm convinced that my 'donation' will end up in the CEO's bank account. The CEO of CRUK (a 'charity' for which I have zero time, I'm convinced it's a quango these days) took home a similar salary to most top wank… er bankers last year. Why the fuck should I fund that…?!
You could always send a demand straight to the CEO - find out his annual salary and demand a decent percentage.
Talking of people being paid for doing next to fuck all, the local ice cream van has switched to playing the MOTD theme. Prior to that it was The Birdie Song. I fucking HATE football!
WINGED VELOCIRAPTOR 'from HELL': Closest thing ever to a real DRAGON?
Friday 17th July 2015 10:49 GMT
"Zhenyuanlong" means "Zhenyaun's dragon". This might draw some argument from traditional dragon fanciers, who would no doubt prefer to see leathery rather than feathery wings - not to mention a confirmation of ability to fly, somewhat increased size, and of course an ability to breathe or spit fire. Even so this creature would seem perhaps as much like a dragon as anything else known to have existed. -Ed
That's Draco nobilis.
Draco nobilis Vs. Draco vulgaris
http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Draco_nobilis
http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Draco_vulgaris
http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/index.php/Errol
Hope they work, coz the links everyone else posts never do for me (unless I copy 'em and, frankly, I can't be feckin' arsed).
PLUTO: The FINAL FRONTIER – best image yet of remote, icy dwarf planet REVEALED
Apple Watch sales in death dive after mega launch, claims study
Reg hack survives world's longest commercial flight
Monday 6th July 2015 12:34 GMT
Re: Auckland to Heathrow
The Ageds always use Gatwick or Stansted these days (Dad can make Clarkson look like a Zen Buddhist monk at airports - slight hyperbole, but not by much). Their most frequent trip is London to Jo'burg, which they make every at least other year. Dad refuses to use Heathrow, even though it's the most convenient.
I'd like to travel, but passports are silly money (especially for someone on DLA) and I don't trust Big Sister, as she shall henceforth be known, not to introduce some kind of inter-passport tracking, just in case I might harbour ideas about joining ISIS.
This government has made me paranoid - okay, MORE paranoid.
Right lunch had, kip time! I'M FAR TOO YOUNG TO FEEL THIS OLD!
Google's Cardboard cutout VR headgear given away GRATIS by OnePlus ... SELLS OUT
Wikipedia: YES! we’ve SAVED the INTERNET again!
Saturday 4th July 2015 11:21 GMT
Re: (sheepish)
Glad you did - my first thought was "I didn't think the Beeb was THAT influential - and why Panorama…? Why not 'Freedom of Newsnight' or 'Freedom of Question Time'…? Why's 'Panorama' so special…?"
And, no, this isn't even one of my shit jokes this time - I HONESTLY thought that - for a couple of seconds, before I clocked it was an EU thing. Okay, you can all laugh at me now. See…? I've failed myself, so YOU don't have to.
Why OH WHY did Blighty privatise EVERYTHING?
Monday 29th June 2015 17:15 GMT
You fucking WHAT…?!
Virgin/CrossCountry (I know they're separate entities now but, as far as I'm concerned, they're one and the same) ranks alongside SE Rail as the WORST operator in the country. They NEVER lay on enough carriages and, several times, I've gone to find my reserved seats - only to find them already taken by people who've been given the SAME reserved seats! In fact, I've learnt that the only way to get a seat on a Virgin/CC train is to traipse up and down the aisles looking for reserved seats that haven't been taken up. I've had to stand all the way from Brum to Edinburgh Waverley. More than fucking once, and anyone tells me they've had one run to schedule, far as I'm concerned they're telling porkies. Three carriages for a cross-country journey is 50% fewer then there ought to be, in my opinion.
Oh and the bogs never work - or, if they ARE working, well you wouldn't want to use 'em anyway… one of those Brum to Edinburgh journeys didn't have ANY functioning kazis (and by 'any' I mean 'one', coz that's all there was). Well, let's put it this way, summer wasn't the only thing that was high…
Fuck knows what would happen if there was ever a fire - most trains I've been on have been so crammed that following safe evacuation procedure would have been impossible. Don't even want to think about it…
FGW and TransPennine are the best for service, though Chiltern's improved immeasurably.
Okay, rant over - Virgin/CC STINKS (and not just coz of the state of the facility).
Who wants a classic ThinkPad with whizzy new hardware? Lenovo would just love to know
Sunday 28th June 2015 17:14 GMT
Re: I'm gonna get flamed for this...
"There's a reason Apple are No1…". Yes, love, it's called "advertising". Advertising to those who value style over substance and/or who have access to Daddy's gold MasterCard.
Being number 1 doesn't automatically mean you're any good - the 'music' charts are proof of that.
Have another down-vote for being a snivelling little whiny bitch.
Oh and don't let the name fool ya, I ain't female. Nor male. And I don't give a flying pig's posterior what ANYONE thinks of that!
Need 'whiny bitch' icon.
So much for rainbows, Zuck: Facebook staff still overwhelmingly male and white
Sunday 28th June 2015 11:57 GMT
Here in Blighty, there seems to be another worrying trend - regional discrimination.
Seems that however well-qualified (in every sense) you are for a position, if you tick 1 - or more - of the following boxes, you'll be passed over:
Comprehensive school education
'Annoying' accent (Brummie and Scouse are considered the most annoying, apparently)
Working-class background
However, if you've a Home Counties RP accent, a grammar or public school education and are (upper) middle-class, then you're more likely to be hired, regardless of qualifications.
This seems to be especially true in the financial sector, particularly in the City, which could be why the banks went into meltdown - a load of posh twats who didn't have the first fucking clue what they were doing (whilst siphoning off funds on the side).
It's been going on for decades really (yes, before anyone says anything, I realise this post probably doesn't make much sense but, even though it's cooler today, I'm still suffering a particularly bad case of Troll Brain - I'm dreading Wednesday, it's rumoured it's gonna hit 32°, anything over 22 and I'm dead. I'm fully expecting my brain to literally melt and dribble out my ears…).
SJ tired. SJ sleep now.
So much for the Classless Society, eh…?
Wake up, sheeple! If you ask Siri about 9/11 it will rat you out to the police!
Wednesday 24th June 2015 20:45 GMT
There are some nutters out there…
came across a guy on Twitter who fervently believes that…
NASA stole Noah's Ark under the cover of chemtrails because the U.S. Government didn't want the world finding out that it knew the location of Nibiru. Noah's Ark also had summat to do with 11/9, but I forget what.
Tinfoil straight jacket anyone…?
FLICK my FLINT and SNIFF my TREE on the streets of Naples
Innocent Spaniards roasted by experimental napalm mead
Disk is dead, screeches Violin – and here's how it might happen
Japanese female fish in sperm-producing strangeness
Tuesday 16th June 2015 00:37 GMT
No. What you're referring to is sequential hermaphroditism where an organism, in this case a fish, is born one sex, and may change sex as the need arises usually, as you say, from female to male. This usually occurs in species where the two sexes are vastly different in appearance, with the female being much smaller and duller-coloured than the male. If the male should die, then the female will take on the physical appearance of the male and court just like any other male of that species. It's also a survival tactic, as males remain reproductively active far longer than females.
Oh fuck it, here's the wiki link! I'm too fucking splatted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequential_hermaphroditism
Oh, shoppin’ HELL: I’m in the supermarket of the DAMNED
Is that a graphics driver on your shop's register – or a RAM-slurping bank card thief?
WikiLeaks offers $100k for copies of the Trans-Pacific Partnership – big biz's secret govt pact
Mac bug makes rootkit injection as easy as falling asleep
It's not over 'til Saturn's spongy moon sings: Cassini probe set for final Hyperion fly-by
Sunday 31st May 2015 12:34 GMT
Re: Altogether now...
We get one in the loft every other year or so, the fuckers enter through a crack just above my bedroom window, and said windows, which are the originals, provide them with a steady supply of building material (they've destroyed the bottom of the middle frame.
Just over 4 years ago, my folks decided to extend the kitchen, knock down the old 'garage' (we called it a garage, though it wasn't the car-housing kind, more of a shed really), and create a proper utility room, plus replacing the garage with what they now call The Potting Shed). I have a very extreme reaction to wasp stings - not life-threateningly extreme, but when I'm stung the affected area takes WEEKS to return to normal.
Asked Dad to get Simon (their builder) to get one of his guys to fill in the crack. He wouldn't because "I can't see anything". Couple of years later, they pissed off to South Africa for a month, and I awoke one morning to a swarm on the landing. Thankfully, the time of year meant they were dying off, but I still had to call one of his golf mates (a Rentokil contractor) to deal with 'em.
A nest SANS wasps is, I'm sure you'll agree, a thing of immense beauty.
He's STILL not dealt with the crack, and I've heard buzzing up there…
The rare metals debate: Only trace elements of sanity found
Hardcore creationist finds 60-million-year-old fossils in backyard ... 'No, it hasn’t changed my mind about the Bible'
Sunday 31st May 2015 01:20 GMT
Re: Creation
That's always been my reaction when some fundie-creatard type demands I prove their God doesn't exist; if they want me to believe in their God, all they need do is take a selfie with him/her/it. Then I'll believe.
By the way, if you think YECs are insane, you've not met the Flat Young Earth geocentric creatards. I came across one on Twitter a while back that truly believed that monkey-faced orchids proved that animals came from plants.
The delicious irony was that one of these was Japanese.
Is there ANY way we can stop the morons from breeding…?! And then dump 'em on a remote island far away from anywhere they can do any (more) damage.
Taming the Thames – The place that plugged London's Great Stink
Google's Cardboard 2.0 virtual reality device is a triumph for humanity, said no one sane, ever
Google spins up 'FREE, unlimited' cloud photo storage 4 years before ad giant nixes it
Beware Red Hat interviews: You'll pay for coffee, lunch and fuel
Thursday 28th May 2015 19:39 GMT
At the point he'd claimed to have forgotten his wallet, I'd have said "What a coincidence, so have I!", turned round and walked out. I'd not want to be employed by a company which saw me as easily exploitable.
Seems the thinking was, "If this guy's desperate enough for the job, he'll do anything".
I've never had a job.
Windows and OS X are malware, claims Richard Stallman
Monday 25th May 2015 18:08 GMT
Online Indy's catching it up…
…not that I read it that much, but there was an article the other day where the authoring hack believed Reagan to have been president in 1961. In her defence, she DID look all of about 20, but there's not really any excuse for that kind of appallingly obvious error these days, is there (and, yes, she really DID mean 1961…).
Putting your schlong into the reel-to-reel tape machine is a bad idea
Milking cow shot dead by police 'while trying to escape'
Welsh police force fined £160,000 after losing sensitive video interview
Reach for the popcorn: Obama opens personal presidential Twitter account
Time to get your babble on: Microsoft opens Skype Translator Preview to all comers
Wednesday 13th May 2015 11:06 GMT
German is probably the worst…
As I MAY have mentioned before, I'm trying - and failing - to improve my German. The problem with Germans is that they tend to make things up as the go along, and it's basically the linguistic version of Lego (or perhaps Sticklebricks would be more accurate). Don't have a word for summat, just stick a couple together.
This means that many compound words, whilst being perfectly meaningful to a German are completely nonsensical to an English speaker, as the can only be translated as their constituent parts which, often, bear no relation to the meaning of the whole.
But, ironically, German can also be beautifully succinct; I love the word 'übermorgen' - literally, as you can probably guess 'over morning', which is German for 'the day after tomorrow' (for those not too au fait (oops! Gone French now!) there's no specific word in German for 'tomorrow'; guess they decided, with typical German efficiency that, as tomorrow never comes, they may as well just reuse 'morgen').
I'm not interested in SPEAKING German - fuck, I'm not particularly interested in speaking ENGLISH - but I'd love to improve my comprehension (66% of the bands I listen to write partly - or wholly - in German (even many of the ones who aren't from a German-speaking country)) and writing.
GCHQ puts out open recruitment call for 'white hat' hackers
Spotify springs bloody leak as losses grow to $197m – report
So tablets, if you want to get anything done travelling get a ... yes, a laptop
Sunday 10th May 2015 12:09 GMT
Re: Apple Crap again....
I tried Android, I really did, but I found it very frustrating. Don't ask me why, I just did. Guess it's what you're used to; I'd had iPods for years (I'm autistic, music is honestly the single most important thing in my life - how fucking pathetic is THAT…?!) and, as there's never been a 'Droid-based 'iPod', I'm a tad stuck.
I don't WANT a phone. Hate the fucking things. Fucking TERRIFIED of 'em.
Theresa May: Right, THIS time we're getting the Snoopers' Charter in
Friday 8th May 2015 20:40 GMT
Re: now they have a "mandate to govern".
It wasn't PR up for debate, dumdumhead, it was AV, a system just as undemocratic as FPTP in my book. That's why I voted 'No'.
Anyway, it's a moot point, there are two issues that we'll NEVER be offered referenda on whilst we've a Tory government, one is PR, the other is the abolition of the monarchy.
Until this country becomes a republic, true democracy simply isn't possible, call me a 'tinfoil-hatted nutter', a 'swivel-eyed loon', whatever you like (I've had all that - and worse - on Twitter all day) but I can't understand WHY folk simply don't get that democracies DON'T have unelected heads of state and, if they manage to grasp THAT concept, I get "well it's only symbolic" - is it…? I mean is it, really…? If people REALLY believe that Betty and her tribe of inbreds have absolutely no influence on government WHATSOEVER, they need to stop/start taking the pills. Why was Chaz so chummy with Jimmy…? There've been paedophile allegations hanging over Bucky Pally almost as long as Savile was kiddie-fiddling, plus the allegations levelled at senior Tories. I know Chaz isn't exactly the full sovereign (in any sense, and something I HOPE he'll never get to be in the £1m hat sense), but I can't believe that he didn't know what Savile was up to - you can't be bezzie mates with someone and not know - is that why JS was gonged…? Or was that Maggie's decision alone…? They weren't exactly enemies, either.
If that makes me a fully-paid-up member of the David Icke fan club, then so be it - these days, I'm honestly past caring…
No party - nor indie - wants to address the issues I care about anyway (although there was that 'Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol' dude in Thurrock).
Rant over.
Friday 8th May 2015 20:01 GMT
Re: It's almost like...
Iceland or Finland. The Pirate Party now the majority party in the former, and the latter is regularly touted as the happiest country on Earth, and Helsinki the city with the happiest population. In fact, the more I read about Finland, the more I warm to it.
Too parky…? The criterion was no WARMER than Britain, you didn't say owt about COLDER.
Crowdfunded ZX Spectrum revival just days from shipment
Thursday 7th May 2015 23:35 GMT
The Hobbit…?!
I NEVER finished that! Probably just extremely thick, but I NEVER fathomed what "A window is no obstacle to a thief with friends" meant (and why the fuck, over 30 years later, can I STILL recall that verbatim (at least I think it's verbatim…)…?!). Even reread the book, didn't help dumdum here…
I must have tried every verb-noun combo I could think of. Still couldn't escape.
Shields up! Shields up! ASTRONAUTS flying to MARS will arrive BRAIN DAMAGED, boffins claim
Tattooed skin befuddles Apple Watch
Sunday 3rd May 2015 01:13 GMT
Correction
Dorset Knob, if you please.
SJ's filthy mind strikes again (from Wikipedia)
A Dorset knob throwing competition is held in the Dorset village of Cattistock every year on the first Sunday in May. The festival also includes such events as a knob and spoon race, knob darts, knob painting and guess the weight of the knob. The record throw of 29.4 metres (96 ft) was set in 2012.*
Wikipedia articles aren't supposed to make you PMSL - that's what Uncyclopedia's for.
*yes I know it's Wikipedia, but it's 100% true.
From the Beeb, on this year's festivities:.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-32549090 - it's an innuendo writer's wet dream.
Evidently, the reporter isn't from - and has probably never been to - Dorset.
Happy Knob Day.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
