Walsingham

More techie than sciency, but here's an article on how the iranians probably nabbed that US spy drone.

It's certainly in the shops. Although there's so much around Cookery wise I find I'm becoming more and more like the fabulously drunk .

Butter's one of those things where quality is worthwhile. Get good butter, and use sparingly. Far better than margarine by the bucket.

Butter is one of my kitchen essentials.

To suggest that the imaginary has no impact on the physical world is pure snow-driven nonsense. If it didn't, what would be the point of double-blind clinical trials? I'd like to proudly announce that due (at about 80%) to Krez' neo-puritan claptrap I went out this afternoon and bought a bottle of whisky I can barely afford and am guzzling it now. It is delicious. But even if it weren't I would be glowing.

Seen in the UK

OK. If it comes to waste, what about pride? Christians massively against pride. Yet how much money do we waste as a culture on cosmetics? HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of dollars are spent on cosmetics every year. there's no medical necessity for it. Why don't we run about chucking mud at people trying to look nice? Don't give me any straw man crap either. Cosmetics are a bigger issue for waste than Christmas. If we're going to be against waste it's a fair target. Come to that why do I have a wardrobe full of all sorts of shirts and jackets and things? Boiler suits. That's the ticket. One sort of boiler suit, made locally from local materials. Lovely pig-skin boilersuit. None of this bongzilion garments from China nonsense.

Krez, you sound like some kind of green commissar right now. Waste is evil! The unbeliever must be struck down! NO holidays for the sinful! Can you really not see that? Because if you can't then for the love of all that isn't holy don't say another word until you do.

Hehe... "floor pizza" Didn't know there were so many of them. Last time I checked they were up to I'd forgotten about it as well. Hence the reminder.

Surely this debate is misdirected. It's both a religious thing and a fun thing. And these jerks are just trying to wreck it so they can feel morally and intellectually superior. Why not try and blockade Mardi Gras? Or firehose people on St Patrick's Day? Dickheads.

"Thou shalt worship no god" sticks in my craw as badly as "Thou shalt worship no god but me."

Storm broke my roof. Keep snowing. Did some christmas shopping then back to work. Am now wrapped up in five layers.

I know I often hurt myself laughing, but to be fair I laugh at some funny ****.

LOL. I'd forgotten about that. It's an interesting one, asking when a nation isn't one. Given the vast majority of deaths in the 20th century were caused in civil wars (ref?) you'd think we might have given it more thought. Possibly a case of opposed forces. The strengths of the official state set aginst the strengths of all the breakaway movements.

Absolutely agree. I mean WTF? Anyone who has cable internet can afford most indie games. Which is where indie games deliberately price themselves. Plus almost all other arguments fall over. There's no DRM, there's no evil corporate behaviour. Just good people trying to make great games and earn a living. No offence, Malcador, but you can cram your 'consistency' up your exhaust flume. Being consistently a complete funtwit does make you less of a funtwit.

Great. Now I want a pastry called an 'epic ordeal'. I'm thinking light and buttery with maybe some sort of pistachio praline filling. And chopped dates.

I'd like to take a moment to remind us of a little thing, as we read about the LHC: Those folks who say we're no better than the animals? They're ****ing wrong.

Where are you in the US (if you don't mind me asking)? Jersey I'm literally laughing out loud Worried it was just me got that.

Good rejoinders, Tigs. I'll try to tackle them piecemeal, since it's late. ~ Regarding point 2, I think that the answer might be something analogous to direct vetting for government officials. CEOs get checked out down to the floorboards, background, psychology, so on and so forth. Voluntary, of course, but akin to ISO9000 or whatever it is. A baseline check for suitability. Not sure who'd administer it though. I guess all I'm really trying to do is move away from the 'sharp suit and dagger', jobs for the boys, method of choosing CEOs. All too frequently the people chosen are neither honest nor intelligent enough to do their job as head of 'state'. Moreover these are people who get bonuses for _failure_. Which alone should tell you the system is bollocksed. I don't regard this as anti-capitalist. Good governance is good for capital. It's one of several reasons why London is a hub for corporate activity. It's seen as less corrupt and mental than elsewhere. ~ I don't have a problem with poor folks having houses. But to my mind if the government wants to do that it should simply build bloody houses. We call them 'council houses' in the UK. Rather than the cod-capitalist approach of forcing banks to lend on unsafe terms. ~ In general I'm often reminded of one of my earliest jobs processing loan applications. It made me seriously anxious to turn down mortage applications when I could see how much folks wanted them. But my boss would never stop telling us how ****ed up everything would get if the bank lent money to people who couldn't reliably pay it back. How right he was.

Where are you in the US (if you don't mind me asking)? Jersey

Thing is, Meshugger, you can argue almost anything comes under trade. Employment law, equal opportunities, discrimination, banks, pensions. I'm not saying you can't have a free trade area that doesn't go bananas. But putting a parliament and court on it is two of the 3-5 arms of state. ~ Gorgon if I understand you, you are suggesting that it's a good thing Greece is in the EU or we couldn't fix them. But if they hadn't joined the EU they'd have never gone on such a ludicrous spending spree in the first place. As for justifying the EU as the only way to nail down international finance that's a pure chimera. You'd need to nail down the _entire world_ to do that. And somehow I don't see people going for that. Not to mention that the 'science' of economic control struggles at the national level, let alone trans-national.

I've completely misunderstood what you were doing, haven't I?

I was talking to the Prince's Trust last week about enterpreneurship. Maybe give them a call and enquire about how you could support entrepreneurs with your site?

Zesty college girls?

In my day finals were the exams you did at the end of your university career, decided almost all your eventual mark.