British Vocabulary

[Drake Tungsten]

Probably closer to Oasis, but they aren't really similar to either band...

Of course, their new stuff is closer to Radiohead than Oasis, so I guess any attempt to categorize them is futile. You confused now?

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
All Your Life is the leader on my iTunes list.

I Love Her, Supa Shoppa, Swallows in the Heatwave, Tame and Ultranol are tied for second.

Tame and Swallows are good, the others are so-so.

Have you heard Out of Time? The new album, Think Tank, should be out in early May (at least for people who don't P2P).

[Clear Skies]

Quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation...

[alva]

Originally posted by ThePantaloonDog
I would like to know who exactly came up with Quango.

It seems to me that the British are always coming up with nonsense words to further confuse American English speakers.

How do you thinks that affect the rest of us

[Drake Tungsten]

Have you heard Out of Time? The new album, Think Tank, should be out in early May (at least for people who don't P2P).

I haven't heard Out of Time yet. I'll probably pick the new album up when it comes out in the States, even though I'm a bit leery about the band becoming the "Damon Albarn show" now that Graham is gone...

[Buck Birdseed]

For what it's worth: although I usually hate blur, I thought "Out Of Time" was okay, if a bit on the "Mr. Tambourine Man" side.

[Dauphin]

Oh crap, Snapcase likes it. If paiktis likes it too I'll have to stop listening to their music.

[Buck Birdseed]

I didn't say I liked it. It was crap. Not bad for being blur, considering that their usual stuff is so insensitive, ironic, derivative, chirpy, witless, and self-conciously trend-following.

paiktis, otoh, loves blur. I think.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Big Crunch
Its an agency or organisation that is financed by the government but acts independently of it.

Quasi-non-governmental => Quango.

We call them Crown Corporations here.

CBC, power companies, etc.

[Drake Tungsten]

So PBS would be a quango?

[Frozzy]

quango is almost as bad as CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting).

Chog-um.... sounds like a war threat

[TheStinger]

A quango is any organisation which is set up by an act of parliament that has freedom form direct government control. It has its budget set by the government but other than that they are supposed to be independant. There is normaly a non executive board or council to overseas the running of it.

[Frozzy]

In other words a State-Owned Enterprise(e.g. British Rail pre-privitisation)?

[TheStinger]

I don't thinks so. State owned enterprises have the secretary of state as the largest(only) shareholder and therefore the government had more influence.

In reality the goverment has a lot of influence on most quangos its just not official

[Frozzy]

State owned enterprises have the secretary of state as the largest(only) shareholder and therefore the government had more influence.

Not necissarily. I'll take Air New Zealand as an example, as I know it.

Air NZ is a SOE. The NZ govt. owns ~ 80%. Qantas buy 25%, and get 2 board seats. The govt. has 5 and some other guy has the last.

So... the govt. has the majority, but Qantas gets the revenue, like any other enterprise. Yet, because the govt. has the larget share in Air NZ, it is still classified as an SOE.