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Raising awareness of Downs Syndrome in Thailand and around the world:

'The Good Child Foundation' and their rendition of The Boys from the County Armagh >>>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij_kee4dTsY

Is anyone here currently or have just recently completed building a house in the north?

If so, I have a few general questions which you may be able to help with.

For example, suppliers and fitters of bison slabs, recommended roofing and electrical contractors etc. etc. etc.

It's always good to talk to people who are going through it or have recently done so.

Thanks in advance.

A unique style here, watch it from the behind the goal camera ...

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/article/19275/

Large doses of a probiotic bacteria, found in yoghurt drinks such as Actimel and Benecol, are being shown to be an excellent tool to directly fight cancerous tumours anywhere in the body, without harming healthy cells.  If this holds true, it would be some alternative to chemotherapy:

http://www.ccrc.ie/news-and-awards/153?task=view

"..... current chemotherapy drugs administered in this fashion are toxic to many healthy cell types, often resulting in severe side effects for the patient.  This is why we are so excited about this research.  We have shown that harmless bacteria (bifidobacteria) have a natural ability to travel through the body and grow specifically inside tumours.  We have demonstrated for the first time that following ingestion of bifidobacteria in large numbers, these bacteria can leak out from the gut into the blood and grow inside tumours throughout the body where they can produce whatever we want. We can now genetically engineer these bacteria so that they will pump out anti-cancer agents specifically inside tumours," explains Dr Tangney. "These new results suggest we can overcome a major barrier to achieving an efficient and safe gene medicine for cancer." 

Going by tonight's news, the north of Ireland was one of the worst areas for the collapse in the housing market in the whole of Europe.

How much do you think the value of your home as dropped in the market place?

I reckon my own is in the region of -35 to -40% down from its so called height, only an issue if I need to sell in the future.

Came across a sale of sports memorablilia in Newry a couple of weeks ago, among the items for sale were Ali's white shorts as worn in the below photo.  They were nicely framed, accompanied by the below pic, an Ali autogragh, as well as a certificate of authenticity.....all for £2995.

Are these things for real, I assume they must be?

What item's have you come across?

Last weekend I went on to confused.com to look for car insurance, the best quote of £314, so clicked to purchase the insurance online.

I was directed through to the website of Budget Insurance, where the £314 was displayed again.  I confirmed my details, car make, no claims bonus etc. etc. and chose the payment method i.e. my credit card. 

All was fine, until I received the policy document within a couple of minutes of completing the transaction.  It stated in the policy document that my card would be charged £623 'as agreed'!!!

When I got on the phone to Budget Insurance, they could see the history of my purchase on their site etc. but stated that I had agreed to pay £623.  This was complete bull, I sent them a capture of the confused.com site which they refused to take into consideration.  So I immediately cancelled the policy.  They refunded me the full payment, apart from £20, which they claimed is an admin charge to cancel the policy.


Question 1:  As the policy was being cancelled within the 14 day cooling off period, have they a right to charge a cancellation fee?
Question 2: Am I within my rights to have the credit card company refund the full amount, under standard credit card protection, citing the mis-sold policy?

Ahead of their Belfast gig tomorrow night, I hope Fairytale of New York gets a better airing than this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESS1lbtiAT0

I've been checking out TV's on Amazon and just noticed tonight that Amazon have discounted the below TV from £699 earlier today to £411 tonight!  The Sony Store are currently charging £899 for the exact same model.

Am I missing something here or is this a relative bargain?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001RCU7GM/ref=s9_sima_gw_s0_p23_t1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=1TM59TDSF5B0D038DDG1&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467198433&pf_rd_i=468294

[They said they would not provide the offer to an address which previously had Sky.]

I've been with Sky for the past 7 years or so, and decided today to try to get a Sky+ set up from them, without paying anything.

They have a promotion at the minute which gives Sky+ free to new customers.  However, they will not extend this offer to current customers, even though I am out of contract and can walk at anytime.  They wanted £159 for Sky+.

So they were happy to allow me to cancel my subscription rather then give me the same offer as new customers.

I asked them what was preventing me cancelling, and then getting my wife to join as a new customer and availing of the free Sky+ offer.  They said they would not provide the offer to an address which previously had Sky.

It is the last part which I find strange.  Does anyone have any experience of dealing with these feckers at Sky, are they having me on?

Which is the best way to head from Belfast to Athlone?  I know the shortest route is via Monaghan > Cavan > Granard > Athlone, but have those roads been improved any in the last few years?

Would it make any sense heading the motorway to Dublin, and then Dublin to Athlone.  It's about 50 miles longer, a fair bit,but could it be just as quick as the cross country route?

Thanks in advance.

Are there enough HD channels to justify the extra £10 a month to have Sky HD plus fork out for a HD TV?  Is HD the business?

Having a serious amount of light bulbs blowing in the house lately, seems like I'm replacing at least 2 a week for the last few weeks.  Even brand new ones that have just been fitted are blowing within a day or two.  One blew the first time I was putting it on!

Just blew another one there now, thus the question.......could the supply in my house be subject to some kind of surge that is causing the bulbs to blow, any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

While on a few flights recently, they have always announced that mobile phones can be used in flight mode during the flight, except during take off and landing.

I would usually have the phone on flight mode, listening to a few mp3's or playing a game etc.  Until a flight the other day, when the stewardess, in a pretty ignorant way, told me to turn the phone off.  I replied by saying that it was in flight mode, and her reply was that it didn't matter......only Blackberry's in flight mode were permitted.  And off she went.

So does anyone know why a blackberry in flight mode is permitted, but not a Nokia N95?

Does anyone know how much a package from Sky costs, including Sky sports, for use in a public house?  Obviously, it would be a lot more expensive than a residential subscription, but anyone got an idea of a ball park figure?

Also, I assume free to air broadcasts such as those on freeview boxes do not incur any charge for use in a pub?

Thanks in advance.

Got this petition emailed to me today (no, I did not start it).  It did get me thinking about how ridiculous it is to have Ireland's Call played at away games, while the National Anthem is left at home on Irish soil.  I thought the whole idea was to avoid offending supporters from the north, but this works on the assumption that northern supporters do not travel to home games, but away games only.  It's a weird situation Ireland finds itself in and wide open for petitions such as the below:


http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/irishanthem/

Anyone know of any cash machines around Belfast which dispense Bank of England notes only?

Thanks in advance.

To the untrained eye, this looks like a decent enough deal...what do you think?

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/634591

You know the way each text message allows so many characters, and if you go over the limit, this automatically becomes two text messages being sent at the same time.

I've just discovered that anytime I send two texts as part of the one message to a mobile in the south, the text is never delivered!  I can send texts no problem so long as I don't exceed the character limit and keep the text as one text.  But for some reason, multiple texts never reach their destination.  They work ok when sending within the north to another mobile in the north.

Anyone know why this would be?  Or is it something specific to my mobile I wonder.....

As we know, home advantage in championship games can play a big part in the end result.

However, is there any need for the first team out of the hat to get home advantage?  In an age where there are more than enough neutral grounds to stage the games, why the need to present one team with home advantage?

Especially for the championship and qualifiers, all games should be at neutral venues imo.

Or is giving one team home advantage a way of ensuring a decent crowd turn out and thus gate revenue?