Walsingham

I really don't see how that's sensible, I'm afraid. A coalition of the willing is more effective in exerting power than a federation of the unwilling. IMO. Plus it's not as if our individual military or economic power can be simply regarded as irrelevant. France, Germany, the UK. We all have the ability to project influence. If being effective on the global stage is your objective then we'd need to come up with a coherent philosophy to bind our actions together. At present we have uneasy partnership between greed and bleeding hearts. Neither is in our - or anyone else's - interests.

A lot of people said that as far back as the eighties. ...That I know of. Probably earlier. In general I'm quite a fan of not codifying everything and just winging it. But you can't base a currency on that basis!

Thanks for explaining. i think the confusion may be due to some USA way of handling exams, and what you mean by finals.

Purely for calibration purposes, can I ask when you were last genuinely happy about a movie?

Considering we are the second biggest contributor to the EU budget (according to PMQ today) you'd think we'd get a bit more credit. Are we poisoning the EU by objecting to a plan which even supporters of Europe are saying won't solve the problem and may even be illegal? Are we poisoning the EU when we observe that democracy cannot be ridden over roughshood to save a currency whose architecture is _proven_ not to work? A free trade area where we celebrate our shared culture, and collaborate to avoid war is a truly beautiful thing. A superstate whose nameless officials dictate national policy over democratically elected assemblies is a monstrosity. I put it to you that we are, by our economic weight and democratic insistence, saving the EU dream from becoming a nightmare.

Wait, what?

If it makes you feel any better I had a very similar problem with one of my finals. My alarm simply didn't ring. Very VERY strange as had triple checks etc. Worked out OK for two reasons: 1. The rumour went around that I was engaged in extravagant sexual relations and was enjoying them so much I didn't care about my exam. 2. I've never found exam stats particularly useful beyond one's first couple of jobs. Get them out the way quickly, do well, get excellent references, and the exams don't matter. EDIT: Regarding point 1, I wasn't in fact. But apparently people thought the only reason I'd say I was just a doofus was if I had some incredibly deviant secret to conceal.

I'd say Amentep was certainly right that there's an an unbridgeable (but variable) gap between what is realistic and what is game playable. It takes quite a lot of careful planning and chutzpah to wander up to someone and get them talking.

The labour government of Norway is ready to step up and use the Government Pension Fund to support the IMF in these times of crisis! The fact that the population twice voted down Norwegian EU membership, first in 1972 and latest in 1994 - doesn't seem to matter. 4000 EU directives are already implemented. J. I did not know that. certinly chimes with my general perception that the Great European Project cares diddly squat for democracy.

I use the pub. Have friend who knows how to design a website. Take them to the pub and discuss options while you buy beer. Have them agree to make your website on promise of more beer. They make website. They get beer. You get to drink beer with your friends. What's not to like?

Who says we don't add the personal touch?

Awesome weskit.

4k less in debt than I thought I was. Nice surprise for Christmas. Toilet cistern leaking in house. Bad surprise. Blasted thing looks like it's been very quietly dripping for months. I wanted to take the whole damn thing out years ago, as I consider more than one loo a waste of space. But I let my friends dissuade me. Shouldn't have done so.

Like climbing a mountain. It's not exactly fun. But it's worthwhile.

I dunno. I found dualling a bit empty in such a longrun as the whole Baldur's Gate franchise. A bit more fun to explore single trees in depth. Personal taste, I guess.

man has a point.

If good is just people skipping through cow pastures with flowers in their hair then you may as well ship me games with the good options taken out. Save a few pennies.

Oh well THAT'S FINE THEN.

Doesn't sound daft to me. Couple of large softdrinks and some popcorn is about 15 bucks, isn't it? People who like movies like games. Makes sense.

I don't think you're giving WoD sufficient credit. My read of what he's saying isn't that a central bank shouldn't focus on the long term implications, but that it CANNOT. Until we develop some science of predicting long term wider financial impacts, throwing strategic weight around could (very reasonably) be seen to be inherently destabilising.

Yes. Because Europe wants to miss out on exports to us, and interaction with all the companies headquartered here. I was reflecting yetserday on how much better off we'd be if we'd built the Commonwealth the way the Euro was built. Right now we'd be in a trade area encompassing India, Nigeria, Australia and Canada. Raw materials and labour, oil, minerals, expanding markets... Instead we decided to gamble on Greece and Italy.

Is that Wong Kar Wai?

Exactly. You can talk about not mixing. But the thing is that it happens most often when a good night is happening. Main topic this evening was romantic cowardice. Man I know, war photographer, had his bloody limbs crippled just to take a single photo... bottled out when confronted with a girl he really likes. Utterly incomprehensible to me.

I would imagine that by the time we actually have the technology to actually accomplish that, the prices for various resources would actually make it economically viable. Hangover fuzzed thought: Will commercial appetite exist for all the electronic trinkets we currenty enjoy? If so, might such demand not be met by adapting biological organisms?

Best post ever. One of the other hilarious cases of electoral fraud was all the mental asylums (which still exist in Russia) voting 100% for United Russia (Putin's party). Nothing suss there hey. They're crazy. Not stupid. Protests appear to be swelling in strength. Whether these succeed or not I think there is cause to be cautiously optimistic about Russia in general. It is a fantastic country, and does not deserve its current status as kleptocracy.