Walsingham

Our communist friend, being wholly isolated in academe/their own trousers, will also be ignorant of the complexity of maintaining an aircraft in operational readiness. Buying a US aircraft means all the supporting guff into the package.

I know a way to gurantee the cancer won't kill you. We hire a Brazilian to shoot you. Cheered my mum up. ~ I hesitate to say this because I don't exactly have all the facts, but IL2 sounds like a bum deal. Survival in these medical terms usually means lasting more than 5 years. For an equivalent risk of dying immediately I don't see the advantage, really. ~~ We adopted the immune deficiency paradigm for my mother's treatment, which hit stage three soon after being diagnosed. The foundation of this response is that cancer arises from a weakened immune system failing in its daily job of weeding out cancer. And that in instances where patients beat cancer taking (for example) holy water it's the immune system doing the work. This means having as simple and sensible a diet as you can stand without compromising your morale, taking exercise, plenty of water, and keeping a positive fighting outlook. The issue of morale is key since we know that depressive or subordinate people often suffer weakened immune responses. It also meant applying chemo and alternative treatments where their action would not critcially compomise the imune system. Where it did so at all we would act to renew the immune system as fast as possible following completion of the treatment. Obviously, as you know, my mother only lasted just shy of five years so didn't technically survive. But on the other hand her initial prognosis was only six months. The biggest advantage of the immune paradgm is that irrespective of the efficacy I can attest to its creating a high quality of life in the end period. Which, compared to people who get banjo'd by a bus sucks but is better.

I thought this was hilarious. Did nobody catch on, or did it just suck? Er...

Why in the name of sweaty crevices would ANYONE want to eat deep fried butter?

Actually, what really matters is who you're using it on. Chechnya et al. haven't any air forces. Should've stuck to yaks.

I'm happy the world is not like Risk or Hearts of Iron. Otherwise we would totally have been conquered for our spawn and victory points Bloody Swedes in Empire Total War. Declare war on no pretext whatsoever, at any odds, and completely refuse all peace overtures. For me any European campaign, step one, annihilate Sweden by conquering it and handing it over to the Iroquois indians. What were we talking about? Oh yes, A-levels.

Steady on, Cal. It's not easy for our cross-dressing colleague to stay on top of the news as well maintaining all these alts.

I doubt they would want to "invade" Europe. Too expensive compared output. Maybe they need 50 provinces?

LOL. I haven't done that since school. Shredded 8 large boxes to get over being dumped, one time. Hell of a mess. Happy days...

Just to make mkreku happy. Because I live for his happiness: A blog which addresses the hypothesis that only attractive girls, who leap like springbok pass A-levels.

I still think it's a bit weird shooting the leg off a fellah. He limps for about five seconds, then starts running again. Ditto arms and dropping what they are carrying then picking it up. Should have been fixed. Bit late now.

Damn right. I only hope that if I ever face it I do half as well. Having said that, mate. Feel free to panic in front of us. We can throw peanuts.

Oh great. Shall I roll out the red carpet for the Indians and Chinese or would somebody else like to do it? I don't know much about Indian education. but the chaps I meet through work, work HARD. Working with most UK graduates is either an exercise in remodelling the little fethers, or they think they should be served little treats on a daily basis for being so clever. And ALL of them thin there's something unfashionable about caring about your work.

A-Level results show rise for 29th consecutive year Quick recap for foreigners: results for the 18 year old school leavers exams keep rising. Many, such as myself, have lost almost all confidence that an A (now the second highest grade to A-star) means very much. Instead we suspect that the privatised examination boards have devalued the difficulty so that more students will take their exams and do 'better'. Anyway, I had three questions: 1) Who in the Uk has confidence in a-lvels when it comes to hiring? 2) Who outside the Uk was aware of this, and how do you look at the results? 3) If the rise is 'inflation' due to exams getting easier then I had a thought. Presumably thsi would be more pronounced a trend at schools which are capable of taking advantage by aggressively shopping around and teaching to test. In other words privately run schools who have a big economic incentive. Does this make ogical sense, and if so, has anyone exmained the data accordingly?

I won't lie Tarna. That's not good news. Nearly put me off my coffee at 8000 miles... However, if you'r going a chemo route, having multiple sites isn't necessarily as bad as it sounds. You're gassing the little ****er, not surgically striking it. Chemo your kidneys and you chemo everything else anyway. Do you know yet if the metastases have protective shells around them?

Thanks for clearing that up, Zoraptor and Enoch. Jewish eh? Where the hell is the Mel Gibson emoticon? Come to that, what's the emoticon for threatening someone with a colonoscopy?

...Because it's ALWAYS a question of judgement. Although I do think it's questionable if incitement merits the same tariff as someone who assaults kids. Even if I think that's because the latter should be far far higher.

You're threatening me with a colonoscopy? ~~ BTW, scuttle is that Rebekah Brooks* is still idling about in her company chauffeur driven car. I tell you that woman has dirt on the Murdochs... *Who seriously calls themselves 'Rebekah'? Sounds like a page 3 girl.

Feels pretty good. Probably go horribly wrong as all the details conflict.

Not a bad day. My eroded patience snapped, and I have transferred my phone line, broadband, bank, website, and e-retailer accounts in a burst of righteous fury. Oh, hold on. I was going to change my gas and electricity... EDIT: Done. Awesome.

What DOES that symbol mean, anyway? Looks like someone mooning out a car window.

Phys, old boy. Phys till your knees make grinding noises. Soon get to sleep.

LOL. We've gone from the Nanny State to the Boarding School State. I'm not sure how I feel about the next stage, which would presumably be the 'Brideshead Revisited Oxbridge Fwah Fwah State'. I suppose at least there will be plenty of champagne.

New York's 'rock' hotel succumbs to the rising tide of respectability. Nice little obit here. And a touch of appropriate jaunty .