The Mad Ranter

I think there is a similar rule here about practic...

2012-05-25T19:06:17.676+01:00

I think there is a similar rule here about practicality, or safety or something (maybe it varies by state?). The problem is, the PD doesn't always know this, and even if it does, a cyclist might have different feelings about practicality/safety than someone who doesn't ride a bike.
As for me, I ride to work most days, and am in and out of the bike lane depending on a number of factors. I have yet to be ticketed, and also yet to be doored. So here's hoping...

great movie ... i love it

2012-05-20T21:48:36.695+01:00

great movie ... i love it

@Jon - I have to agree that the dish simply did no...

2012-05-14T09:01:54.789+01:00

@Jon - I have to agree that the dish simply did not look good; but this is television - it's supposed to be a competition that runs over four courses. By awarding a 2 Marcus effectively knocked out one of the competitors.

Now sure if there were five chefs and only two could go through; knocking one out at this stage wouldn't have been a big deal, but with only three it was poorly done.

To riff from Anonymous - Marcus didn't say he didn't like it, he said he didn't get it and that's a large subjective matter of opinion to knock someone out over.

I didn't think much of Johnnie's dish - co...

2012-05-12T08:42:07.979+01:00

I didn't think much of Johnnie's dish - constructive feedback fine - but Marcus did not speak in the same manner or tone to Johnnie as he did to the other two. It came across that no matter what Johnnie did Marcus won't like it.

Sorry, have to disagree with everyone but Johnnie&...

2012-05-11T22:17:47.134+01:00

Sorry, have to disagree with everyone but Johnnie's dish looked rubbish. 2 dried bits of anchovy, a blob of fish flavoured jelly, crushed cone & some other bits & bobs.
When he was talking about the seabed I thought he was going to add some shellfish: clams, oysters, etc in some slightly different forms. Anything that would give it some oomph.

It is little wonder that Marcus struggled to get the dish. It seemed almost unfinished, waiting for something to be added - it was like a plate of chips waiting for a piece of haddock.

Was Marcus wrong to give the 2. There was nothing to mark - no fish, lobster, crab, etc. Just garnish.
I don't think it would have changed anything. What was he going to give 3, 4 maybe 5 at a push? Johnnie tried to be too wacky & failed.

Oh yeah introducing the interim judges to the fina...

2012-05-11T12:57:25.093+01:00

Oh yeah introducing the interim judges to the final sessions was a terrible idea; although it was amusing to see how far their judgements disagreed with the normal panel.

I don't think Marcus was even unconsciously biased; I just don't think he could add up. Check the NI judge Richard Corrigan's scores someone might be trailing, but there's always the possibility of being able to catch up if a chef produces something truly stunning.

As for the concept; I would have been interested in which god/goddess would have matched the main and dessert. Zeus as a main seems obvious, but what do you do for thunder and lightning?

Of course, as I've said in the main entry, the main failure with a themed menu is that they're not picking an entire menu. So just having one single Demeter starter wouldn't necessarily match with anything else.

I had a huge problem with Great British Menu when ...

2012-05-11T10:39:48.932+01:00

I had a huge problem with Great British Menu when they introduced the 'get judged by previous winner' format in series 2 (or 3). IMO it laid the competition open to bias, where the three-member blind judging could never have suffered that (except by the judges' knowledge of the competing chefs' styles).

Now, while I don't think Marcus is consciously biased, I also think this episode shows the weakness of the single judge format, where the concept is so far beyond what the others are doing that there is no real way to compare like with like. I was really excited by Johnnie's Greek God theme, and thought it was the most original concept on the show for long time. IMO, really poor showing from Marcus, and I hope the BBC wake up and address the fundamental issue that has led to Johnnie's walkout.

Well Johnnie himself said it was a bit trantrumy a...

2012-05-11T09:23:49.634+01:00

Well Johnnie himself said it was a bit trantrumy and I think he was genuinely interested in what the other chefs were going to produce.

I'm also betting the producers had a word as otherwise it would the one remaining chef discussing the others dish with the camera or snipping it entirely.

I've got to say I am surprised at Marcus; not "getting" the dish doesn't mean it wasn't tasty and besides we've seen instances when the judging chef has raved about a dish and the three main judges have declared it inedible. Even a score of 4 would have given some chance of clawing back.

Amusement last night though - "is it plugged in?". Still haven't seen this boiled over pot though.

OT with Eggheads - am I the only one concerned by the lack of general knowledge on display by teams comprised of under-25's?

Was it last week or the week before - some medical condition to do with eyes, ears or nose and neither the questioned nor the medical student knew the answer despite the part "chroma" featuring in the name? Okay it's different when you're up there I'm sure, but still the shallowness of knowledge occasionally on display scares me at times.

I agree with you BuzzerFly and with the article, M...

2012-05-10T20:41:14.807+01:00

I agree with you BuzzerFly and with the article, Marcus judged the concept rather than the dish and in doing so removed any credible opportunity for Johnnie to win. Really love Eggheads by the way, perfect dinner-time fodder! Any thoughts on Johnnie's return for the tasting element of the show?

I feel that that prick of a judge has some kind of...

2012-05-10T18:57:01.270+01:00

I feel that that prick of a judge has some kind of grudge against Johnny... as was evidenced by everything they showed. Of course we can only see what was presented to us, and they all seemed to like his dish OK, certainly not worthy of the 2 that he was awarded.

Uncharitably that latter thought also passed throu...

2012-05-08T09:29:46.614+01:00

Uncharitably that latter thought also passed through my mind.

Back to the French situation and they now have a President who has stated he wants to tax the rich at 75%. Given that Osbourne etc. baulked at 50% claiming it would see an exodus of high-earners what will happen if France does implement this level of tax and nobody leaves :-)

@Anonymous 18:07: Einstein or Newton? Both have be...

2012-05-08T09:05:22.259+01:00

@Anonymous 18:07: Einstein or Newton? Both have been accused of plagiarism. So Newton vs Hooke or Einstein vs Poincaré?

@Anonymous 18:14: Did they also mention that the Moon is hollow and filled with aliens? Sounds about the right level.

Europe is about to get a whole lot worse. This mo...

2012-05-08T08:10:59.801+01:00

Europe is about to get a whole lot worse.

This morning the French people are waking up to a new President.

Meanwhile, Carla Bruni's waking up next to an unemployed French midget.

I give it six months.

Have you ever thought that the moon is artificial ...

2012-05-07T18:14:33.866+01:00

Have you ever thought that the moon is artificial and isn't controlled by gravity and perhaps magnetic fields, oh yeah it only appeared on Australian TV last night....
Common sense don't need the controlled media to inform the illuminated...

He was a Plagerist dimwit... My spelling is as goo...

2012-05-07T18:07:43.405+01:00

He was a Plagerist dimwit... My spelling is as good as your researching skills...

First thought - eBay! :-)

2012-05-03T14:16:27.692+01:00

First thought - eBay! :-)

You think that's strange? I ordered a complete...

2012-05-03T14:06:30.383+01:00

You think that's strange? I ordered a completely non Silent Hill-related CD from theHut.co.uk and it arrived bundled inside 3 of these t-shirts!

I have to give you props for this article. You wro...

2012-05-03T02:41:34.637+01:00

I have to give you props for this article. You wrote it 3 years ago and still helping out. Thank you so very much. I had no idea what my client was talking about till I dusted off IE8 and clicked the "compatibility view". You rock, again, some more.

Made the Shuttle at least the 1pm test did.

Obviously not helped having essentially an entire lane still closed despite them only having permission to do so up until the 30th April 2012.

They had turned the traffic lights on last night -...

2012-05-02T15:38:36.882+01:00

They had turned the traffic lights on last night - in rush hour of course, can someone tell me why? i was assuming that these would be operational when Tesco is built? Well if that was a trial its had the desired effect the traffic backed up to Sandy Lane and I assume all the roads leading to the lights.

... and the prices are higher. Wasn't there s...

2012-05-01T12:51:33.585+01:00

... and the prices are higher.

Wasn't there something about attendance being higher when matches had to be held outside of Wembley Stadium while it was being rebuilt?

I still put much of it down to London's own internal transportation system and the frankly diabolical inter-city links. Hold an event in CityA and if you live in said city it's a case of - visit event, take a car, taxi, bus, train, or a tram home.

Live outside of that city and it's likely to be an overnight stay if the event even nudges into the evening.

That being the case make it easy for the largest population grouping which is London (12%) and hold the event there.

What made me angry though was that this app says nothing about it being applicable only to London and that in theory there's no reason why it should only be tied to one city. Hell why not have King Kong climb Blackpool Tower?

Completely agree - you look at the major shows, ev...

2012-05-01T09:33:13.191+01:00

Completely agree - you look at the major shows, events and displays. Inevitably, they'll be in some god-forsaken hard-to-get-to location like Olympia, rather than a centrally-located, easy to access (Globally!) arena like the NEC. I mean - rail, road AND air, all within a few miles, most turning up inside the NEC? And they still put major things down in London where the access is abysmal?

Feh.

To continue from the last using the relative metho...

2012-04-27T16:25:52.857+01:00

To continue from the last using the relative method gaps may appear in non-IE browsers to eliminate them sent the font-size of the div to 0 and then explicitly set a font-size for any text contained within them by placing them in spans with an appropriate class.

The CSS:

div {
display:inline-block;
zoom:1; *display: inline;
height: 30px;
font-size: 0;
}

.container {
width:190px;
border:1px solid black;
}

.left {
width:95px;
position:relative; left:-95px;
background-color:gray;
}

.right {
width:95px;
position:relative; left:95px;
background-color:red;
}

.indiv {
font-size: 12pt;
}

With the alteration of the div elements such that:

<div class="right"><span class="indiv">On the right</span></div>
<div class="left"><span class="indiv">On the left</span></div>

Tested in FF, Opera, Chrome, IE7

@FlipC - Thanks! That worked perfectly. Thanks for...

2012-04-27T16:09:07.060+01:00

@FlipC - Thanks! That worked perfectly. Thanks for posting this article as well!

It is indeed a DOM ordering problem. IE draws in t...

2012-04-27T09:22:03.729+01:00

It is indeed a DOM ordering problem. IE draws in the right div then draws the left div and "floats" it to the left.

As such to me the suggestion is to drop the float and have the browsers display them as inline-block "right" then "left" then use position: relative to shift them + and - respectively. Or use position absolute and shift only the "right" div; though that will lose the container height unless set specifically.

Make sure the container has sufficient width to accommodate both left and right divs though or the left will be pushed off the page.

The Mad Ranter

I think there is a similar rule here about practic...

great movie ... i love it

@Jon - I have to agree that the dish simply did no...

I didn't think much of Johnnie's dish - co...

Sorry, have to disagree with everyone but Johnnie&...

Oh yeah introducing the interim judges to the fina...

I had a huge problem with Great British Menu when ...

Well Johnnie himself said it was a bit trantrumy a...

I agree with you BuzzerFly and with the article, M...

I feel that that prick of a judge has some kind of...

Uncharitably that latter thought also passed throu...

@Anonymous 18:07: Einstein or Newton? Both have be...

Europe is about to get a whole lot worse. This mo...

Have you ever thought that the moon is artificial ...

He was a Plagerist dimwit... My spelling is as goo...

First thought - eBay! :-)

You think that's strange? I ordered a complete...

I have to give you props for this article. You wro...

Made the Shuttle at least the 1pm test did.Obviously not helped having essentially an entire lane still closed despite them only having permission to do so up until the 30th April 2012.

They had turned the traffic lights on last night -...

... and the prices are higher. Wasn't there s...

Completely agree - you look at the major shows, ev...

To continue from the last using the relative metho...

@FlipC - Thanks! That worked perfectly. Thanks for...

It is indeed a DOM ordering problem. IE draws in t...

Made the Shuttle at least the 1pm test did.

Obviously not helped having essentially an entire lane still closed despite them only having permission to do so up until the 30th April 2012.