This is enlightening, from a Britain's Got Talent imdb post by stuart-g 8 hours ago (Wed Apr 15 2009 08:18:54) Ignore this User : Report Abuse Reply I was in the audience at Susan's audition in Glasgow back in January and they edited out an awful lot of her audition. Firstly, Amanda burst out laughing when she said she was going to sing. The audience started booing and heckling her before she had even started singing. When she said she was going to sing Les Mis Simon told her to do a different song because he hated that specific song (although she didn't have another backing track). Amanda then mockingly told her to do some Britney Spears because it would suit the audience better. Amanda was laughing and mocking this poor women before she had even performed. When she started singing though, the whole place gave her an ovation instantly. She won the whole venue over. Amanda even mocked her slightly in her final comment. However, she was, once again, edited to make her look like the angelic person she isn't. I told people after that audition that she was going to win the show - I still think she is. 'Nuff Said

lemonhead, thanks for picking up on the research paper/project question. I find the responses very interesting and informative. I'd bet that you still remember more about Bonnie Prince Charlie than many of us ever learned. If I hadn't had a brother who loved Sir Walter Scott's Waverly and anything by Robert Louis Stevenson, I would have gone through elementary and secondary school without hearing a thing about the Jacobites. I took an anthropology class in gender language differences and found it both fascinating and dismaying. For instance, females often have a 'voice' they speak with around other females, but if a male enters an otherwise all-female group some of the gals' voices change immediately (often becoming breathier), no matter if the females are eight or eighty years old. I already knew this from observation and often found it annoying; but that it is largely an unconscious thing on the part of some females irritated me even more because I had thought it was a matter of choice, a mere affectation or a bad habit. elliottb: I'm intrigued how and why myths come to be, though the myths themselves don't interest me much. I will take a look at the 'Unhistory'. I know what you mean about anything "that holds interest" -- so in furtherance to your dilemma and mine, I will respond to woodnymph: woodnymph, I would enjoy a nonfiction thread and I would certainly contribute. Nonfiction seems to get short shrift here at RP. I know you mention the NF you read, Mary, but I'd say the "What are you reading?" thread runs something like 70/30 or 75/25 percent, favoring fiction over nonfiction. I can never keep up with all the bestselling fiction -- sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm only one person while there are dozens of people here at RP (and multitudes elsewhere) following the fiction trends. Yet nonfiction is even wider than fiction, so it's hard to comprehend that reading through post after post and there's hardly a mention of it. Maybe a thread devoted entirely to NF would bring more of it out -- I hope it would.

Frieda, re your question about school assemblies and Jerusalem in particular. It used to be the law that every school began each day with a form of religious 'observance'. As far as I know this is still the case, although the large 'secondary' schools get round it by claiming lack of space/time etc. But junior schools, even the non-denominational ones, will have a couple of prayers and a hymn plus 'announcements'. And C of E and RC kids will probably attend weekly/occasional services in their local church. Of course these days, as your friend says we have become a far more 'secular' country plus we have had a huge influx of people bringing in a wide range of faiths, all of which are meant to be catered for within the 'Religious Education' systems of each school area. RE is still taught as a 'lesson' up to exam standard. That is certainly how I learnt the words and tunes of so many hymns. As far as Jerusalem goes. I feel the words don't mean much on their own but with that wonderfully confidant Victorian music, it would be difficult not to be moved by hearing it sung en masse . . . have you ever been/or heard the 'Last Night of the Proms' from the Royal Albert Hall and large parks around the UK when Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory etc are sung by the thousands in the audience? It may be considered very 'jingoistic' by the nay-sayers but it is a truly rousing sound. Below is an extract from the Last Night of the Proms. I hope it doesn't make your fillings tingle . . .luckily I, unlike millions of my countrymen have never needed any 'work' on my teeth so my head is quite amalgam-free. ;-) Here is a link that might be useful: Last Night of the Proms

I absolutely agree with the part played by relentless new coverage, cameras and cell phones everywhere. It serves as a double sword to encourage a lot of sympathy but it also reveals real corruption making it seem as if a whole group is corrupt (or that a whole group is victimized for that matter). Sometimes it seems like certain people want their 15 minutes of fame nowadays since everyone is capable of becoming a star in the movie of life. I can't help but believe that many of these homegrown mass shooters are drawn by the idea of fame and the fact that the whole world will notice and hear them. I've seem some videos that look as if people are trying to bait the police into getting worked up and loosing it. Maybe I am seeing it wrong but I don't think so in all cases. Its like a kid will taunt a cop, act completely uncooperative and he's got that cell phone held up in the air, as if attempting to make a U-tube hit to play the poor victim in. We used to respect police when I was a kid and no one would have acted so rude or uncooperative like I see on these videos. I liked what that guy Dr. Piper wrote. I agree with the idea of self absorbed and narcissistic people who get their feelings hurt over any perceived challenge, whoever or whatever makes them feel bad is tagged with a name like 'bigot' or 'hater' with they themselves being the innocent victim. Many people seem to think freedom is equal to complete lack of restraint and that they live in a country where no one should not have any right to hold them to account for anything no matter what. This type of thing is completely out of hand. The laws are becoming more and more oppressive due to groups like M.A.D.D. (not to single them out, it just comes to mind) and 'The War on Drugs' that push the idea that more laws and penalties will solve these problems. Current events are always connected to the events preceding them. Problems like this need to be looked at as a progression of events from a historical perspective to make any sense. You can go back to the 1950's, 60's and 70's to mark the progression of events along with popularizing and accepting certain philosophical ideas. People now seem oblivious or uninterested in how these things connect and focus mainly on the results we have to live with because most people seem oblivious to history. Seems many only live in the present moment concerning any given crisis or personal experience as if history is irrelevant. The tendency is just get outraged or to come up with overly simplistic solutions like fixing 'the gun problem' or adding stiffer laws. Not that we need more guns mind you, I'm no NRA fan.