Walsingham

Have you considered nipping to the nearest military surplus then issuing each household member with their own mug, knife, fork, spoon?

If it's not cheeky would you mind elaborating a bit on what is meant by each system? I like to understand these things, but most online resources assume too much background information.

For starters I can see fresh vegetables on that table.

The author's computer broke. He's fixed it and I'll get onto him.

A quicker version is to ask the good ol' seven questions: For some reason I can't find anything on the sceven, so make do with six. As writ by Rudyard Kipling (my emphasis): I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who.

Who bastardised the proper military vernacular of materiel into "material"! Even wikipedia can't seem to keep it straight, where's the language police hotline? I agree it's materiel. And you can blame the lazy bloody civil servants who think it's a misspelling. I do think we should have a rifle that is literally for shooting tinned beans and boots. Issue them to hippies and tell them to get cracking.

The dachshunds are the hunting pack, you lunatic! You can't hunt dachshunds!

My thanks to Randomthon, because I'd have otherwise forgotten Counting Crows. I blank it most of the time because it remidns me of looking after my dying mum, and a rather lovely ex girlfriend who I can't help hating. Great album tho. I've only included albums I can listen to the whole way through, since I come from the black stuff (vinyl). And I've tried to only include albums I actually do listen to regularly rather than trying to sound clever (with teh exception noted of Counting Crows) 1. Raising Hell - Run DMC 2. Temples of Boom - Cypress Hill 3. Nabucco - Giuseppe Verdi (Sinopoli) 4. Fat of the Land - Prodigy 5. August and Everything After - Counting Crows 6. Shockheaded Peter - The Tiger Lillies 7. Clandestino - Manu Chao 8. Astrakan Cafe - Anouar Brahem 9. Black Hawk Down (soundtrack) - Hans Zimmer et al. 10. Old Crow Medicine Show - Old Crow Medicine Show

It's the nature of academic work that you will constantly feel incredibly unproductive. You either learn to live with the feeling or choose to seek employment anywhere - hopefully with your degree - like I did. :/ Thinking about what you've written here I'd suggest the central problem with much (not all) academci work is that it is moderated and marked by someone else. There's precious little opportunity to move beyond what makes sense to people older, more cowardly, and less up to date than you are. Of course I would hold the same is surprisingly true of all other work.

Er... yes, I see... I thought that might be the case.

Hot chillis, ginger, and whisky!

This talk about 'classical' music reminds of a point I once heard someone make about how music projects the antithesis of society at any point in time. This orderly beautiful music counterpointed mayhem revolution and war. Modern music counterpoints sophistication, order, and artistic omnipresence, with shouting about umbrellas and smacking things. EDIT: By inference I conclude that Syria is in exactly the right state of mind to gratefully receive a tour from La Scala.

Rgr that, halting jealousy.

In Israel they say "managmenet".

Today I discovered that the man I consider to be the 'perfect' conductor - Herbert von Karajan - joined the Nazi party in 1933. Appropriately enough I was listening to Mozart's 'Lacrimosa' when I found this out. EDIT: I just accidentally inserted a into my written work. LOL. Serious documents should totally have shifty eyes in them.

Very interesting stuff. Keep those updates coming.

The who what now? I'm just working my way through that hospital with the gunship in it. What have I almost certainly forgotten?

Too true to be funny.

If you want to have laser eye surgery these days, it will cost you about 500 bucks per eyeIf you wanted to have laser eye surgery 15 years ago, it would have cost you about 20.000 bucks. But the only reason the cost went down is because we invested in it. if you're anti idiot, then you should be anti-short term thinking, which is what you're doing by dismissing these technologies. Of course it will be expensive at first. Prototyping costs money. then you're understanding is flawed, we got the means to address the issue now. THAT's the tragedy. The problem with most green power 'solutions' is not that they need prototyping. They are very mature technology. Windmills and water giving energy are hundreds of years old. That's the problem. Your only leverage is subcomponents and control systems. Subcomponent design of things like axles is already getting as much as it can because it's a contributor to so much. The only other leverage is the context you put them in, but everyone already knows we could have more effective solar from space or up mountains. The trouble is getting the energy back to civilisation. My considered assessment is that squeezing existing technology has as much hope of delivering the energy we need as a prop driven aircraft has of breaking the sound barrier. _If I am correct_ then spending money and effort on existing technology like wind and wave is squandering both economic and political capital. I would also point out that this discussion is in my top ten sane discussions on the subject, and that alone makes me give up on any prospect of a rational effort addressing the problem.

I'm going to expose my nerdy interior and confess that I use Critical Path Method - minus all the maths - to plan some of my arcs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_path_method

BTW, anyone willing to stand up and say that they wanted the Iraqi rebels to try exactly this? Working out rather well, isn't it?

You... you... lucky bastard.

Everyone's experience is different, but to me a fast descent beats extended pain and fear. Hope she didn't suffer, and will be remembered.

How do they put it in Mad Men? "Derivative with a twist"

I was wondering how I'd start my ideal corporate training exercise, and came up with the line "You know how individually none of you are arseholes ... but collectively you behave like arseholes? I'm here to help you understand why, and maybe fix it."