Walsingham

"Fondleslabbers"? Wals, sometimmes I think you're too English for me to understand without a translator. I picked up the use from tech news site The Register. Yes, it's English. It's less syllables than "tablet computer". Yeah. I'm sorry. I got carried away and tried to be hip. Won't happen again, for a while.

Yeah. I think it's important to remember that we are dealing with different technologies and different technologies impact the law. 100 years ago the driving limit was (something like) 20 miles an hour. That limit increased but we also got surveillance, traffic cops, speed cameras...

I am a firm fan of the principle that there are some things one is not meant to watch.

If anyone cares to get an interesting perspective I would heartily encourage them to read the House of Commons debates on the original forming of the first regular police force. In brief the argument against was that it was obviously a tool of government oppression. But the counter-argument was that an urbanising population could not rely on traditional mechanisms to protect them from the actions of their fellow citizens. Of course what they couldn't know was that a professional police force would eventually enable standards of conduct to be applied meaningfully to that police force, and by extension apply criminal justice to the state itself. On balance I think the vast majority of people are pleased we have professional police now.

I've been trying to remember the name, but I can't. There's a shop online which sells Dredd and other 2000AD graphic novels. In electronic format. Which I know will excite you fondleslabbers.

They're rocking out, you fool.

I keep and breed scorpions for more than 12 years already and with the exception of desert ones most are pretty decile. Especially the biggest of them - emperor scorpions. My God! You're the bastard breeding all the scorpions! You swine!

Manning and Assange would indeed be patriots if 1) We weren't living in democracies 2) Those democracies didn't already have mechanisms for whistle blowing responsibly In a nutshell the rules are you go up your chain of command. If you think that's corrupt then you go to an _elected representative_. Because, and I can't emphasise this enough, they're elected. Their opinion on what's right or wrong is BETTER THAN YOURS because a whole bunch of people say so. Assange and Manning aren't defending democracy. They're ****ing ignoring it. You know who I regard as making a genuinely heroic stand for democracy? The Afghan and Iraqi interpreters and informants ratting out the sectarian murdering bastards who are wrecking their countries. People who _might die_ for speaking out.

I watched it with the sound off. Much better.

I'd be interested in hearing them 1. Swans

You think if we sent him a vuvuzela in the embassy he could maybe finally kick the staff across the line where they hoy him into the street?

Killing scorpions - or indeed any venomous deviant - is surely just common sense.

Actually, Ros spends 90% of his time being chased by rabid baboons. It's just that he never sends pictures of that because the images would make me wet myself.

Apologies. As you may have already realised, this was me being drunk and a ****. Chagrin.

Bradley Manning is an individual who _while in uniform_ endangered ongoing operations. So far as I can tell just for reasons of a personal dissatisfaction. I can't begin to express my contempt and loathing for him. Your man who has whistle blown is bound to have broken some legal constraints, but I can't dislike him so much. His move of going to Hong Kong as a 'bastion of freedom' is pure genius. The Chinese are effectively independent of the US, Hong Kong's very fast and loose within China. Both governments will want to show off how 'free' they are, and embarass Uncle Sam. Plus, as I say, I don't see this as directly endangering anyone. The intelligence picture is already stronger than our means of doing anything about it. Either increase our judicial or military arsenal, or stop wasting effort.

1 lb of (surprisingly good) boerewors, a 2008 grenache, and a sunny day.

Just watched ' Scanner Darkly' Loved it. Bit slow midway, but some real Fear and Loathing mentalness throughout.

Huge failure or triumph of big business over what people want? I have to say, as a non-console gamer, I'm watching this with keen interest. So far as I've been able to tell, the ONLY thing going for X-Box One is next gen graphics and processors. In all other respects - echoing our WoT debates - it's intrusivce, restrictive, and exploitative. My interest is essentially whether one of the world's top companies can force feed the market this thing it doesn't want using advertising and peer pressure, or whether the console Too Big to Fail will in fact fail. Anyone else grabbing the popcorn?

Ooh. Check you out. Edgy. I'd rather be a hypocrite than feel nothing at all.

Keyrock, you make a familiar point. The best cure for that 'reality is only an abstract' nonsense is to face losing it. I don't want you to die, old boy. But _nearly_ dying is a tremendous experience. Seriously, don't die.

Raithe isn't giving the appeal enough credit. I just checked Rotten Tomatoes. One of the comments was that Dredds's impassive and inflexible response to things makes him actualy funny. And it's true. Your problem, my humourless chum, is that discipline and rigidity is part of your nature. But to you it's just boring. to a chestertonian it's more riotous than the flowers in spring.

The simple fact is that modern warfare is as far beyond musket armed conscripts as those conscripts were beyond spear armed hunters. Conscription has value, but for warfighting? Forget about it.

You're a real ray of sunshine. What do you do if someone stubs their toe? Tell them about the charge of the light brigade?

Please, Bruce. Fusion has never occurred? I've talked to some nutsos online and offline in my time. Family. Friends. Homeless dudes. Drug addicts. Criminals. But there's a rhythm and a flavour to it. Always. I don't believe it can be faked. Because a real loony tune is sad. They know they don't fit. Someone dressing up as crazy always loves it. They go over the line to prove how exciting and different they are. The irony is that the only way I can believe anyone would have the inhuman impulse to mock the truly insane this way is if they themselves were insane. ~~ On a more positive note, if you don't get it, that probably says what a decent fellah you are. It's a rare gift, old boy.

Perfectly. Fusion has been blowing things up since 1950s.You can disbelieve it all you want but it won't make hydrogen bombs any less deadly. Ever heard of JET?Most popular fusion reactor of our day. I don't know Felithvian but it sounds like pmp10 knows what he is talking about, its probably a good time to admit you are wrong? I think it's a better time to admit this entire thing has been a faintly sordid attempt to get attention. Somewhere there's a mummy and daddy with a lot to answer for.