Walsingham

If I wanted to present it as fact I would have referenced it. But since this is a Sunday I am content - as I thought we usually were - to work largely with opinion. But I can see I've hit your buttons by calling you on this fantasy approach, so let's to it! 1. I have read the material you presented. Since in general I find your topics interesting. 2. I didn't see the bit about children's courts. But how is such a court to be enforced if not by a teacher? I'm not being defeatist here, either, as I've been sponsor of a UK anti-bullying charity for many years. I just happen to feel that directed aid and assistance case by case is the answer, not risky social experimentation. Oh, and I've also worked as a teacher in a high school, if that carries any weight. 3. Since you claim to have already done the research perhaps you would enlighten me by pointing out what the alternatives are, and or why my logic is so clearly faulty. 4. Don't patronise me by talking about Lev Vygotsky. You've obviously forgotten that I'm a formally qualified psychologist. And unfortunately for you, Vygostky is probably my favourite pre-war Russian after Tukhachevskii. I've been applying his principles in my work ever since reading them. What precisely are you waffling about him for in this context? 5. You suggest there's something wrong with society, but I put it to you that it's far more likely to be something 'wrong' with the human brain. Many of the formal sciences, those with multifold rules, and particularly those involving the storage and manipulation of large data arrays - such as chess - show an enormously strong correlation between practice/repetition and functional expertise. I don't have access to a library on a Sunday, so I'll have to go to a rather out of date edition of 'Cognitive Psychology' by MW Eysenck. Look in the index under expert. ~~ It is all very well and laudable to be in favour of fun. But if I am correct and fun can only go so far, then one may be in fact perpetrating a form of serious neglect on children by failing to discipline them. And that's before one considers the ghastly prospect of releasing kids who think they can do whatever they like when they like into a collaborative workspace. This kind of gibberish is mere mood music for the self-indulgent: It's all very well for creative thought leaders, but you can't man an entire economy with arseholes mucking about.

Everyone's going to be in favour of a no fly zone until we accidentally - and inevitably - hit some residential civilian target. I utterly fail to see why we should risk pilots taking part in an action which will be abandoned long before it does any good just so Independent readers can ignore the fundamental contradictions in their worldview.

Strangely enough I was discussing this theme last night with some teachers and parents. Kids may be designed to learn, but they are also designed to be total horros to one another. Put enough together and you get social pressures and bullying etc which totally outweigh any influence from the teachers. The only counter to this is either general discipline, or massive surveillance. Massive surveillance is unhealthy, IMO, because it teaches kids to run to teacher every time anything goes awry. This leaves discipline, and funnily enough 'hard' subjects like maths and physics can ONLY be taought by disciplined endeavour. There's no fun way to force a kid through the thousand or so iterations of equations necessary until they begin to make intuitive sense. I know that makes me sound a bit Benito Mussolini, but I beg you to attack the substance of my logic, not the tone.

Ron Perlman is great. Don't knock Ron Perlman.

That's pretty harsh! LOL Too much drool etc? Or did she simply gnaw off your front teeth?

It's my fond belief that at some point we will be able to retrospectively examine all the grindingly inhuman coments on youtube, trace them in realspace, and round every last sad angry ****er up, load them into a rocket, and fire them into the heart of the sun.

Your concern is gratifying, but I'm hardly active enough to threaten my knees just yet.

Indeed, it was the 'planned' nature of the construction process, and its emphasis on bureaucratic targets rather than local control*. However, it occurs to me that there are other ways cracks ay get into concrete. Just to suppose a wildly improbable example - a massive earthquake. Interestingly the BBC have pointed out that none of the nuclear disasters so far have come close to the earthquake itself in terms of casualties. Nor, I would point out, the terror attack on the Twin Towers (assuming the BBC is correct). *From memory the blame was laid on deliverers insisting that concrete had to be dumped and used as soon as it arrived on site.** But this is ten years since I read the report. **In filthy capitalist construction this might occur through faulty contracting, but the company receiving would be free to adjust the terms.

Massively overdid my hill climbing spaz-a-thon today. One and a half hours! Back feels more than a little fiery, so shouldn't do that again soon. But it feels marvellous to blow out the cobwebs.

Many years ago I read and studied the documents relating to the enquiry into Chernobyl. A lot of the problem caused by the initial accident was due to shoddy construction. Particularly badly made concrete foundations. Irregularities in the concrete aided the escape of the material when it might otherwise have stayed contained. I know I'm being horribly racist, but one assumes that a Japanese reactor wouldn't be made with bloody awful construction standards. So, fingers crossed we can hope for the best here.

Hard to say what is going on, as officials are being very close lipped. However, indications are that the core was shut down early, and a meltdown is unlikely.

I parlayed my contract so I got a 'ruggedized' simple phone instead of a smartphone, and tripled my minutes and texts. Because I use my mobile phone to phone on the move.

Thanks anyway, humanoid. This one has WPA, and I doubt the maximum speed would be possible on our antiquated lines.

According to my attorney they have already failed. Huge sympathy to Japan right now, though. Can't really justify it particularly. Just a lot.

Good news, there. I'm just reading Dan Abnett again. Simply too hard to justify reading inferior fantasy writers.

ROFL ~ EDIT: plus LMAO

Thought: what if Jesus didn't rise from the grave, but was brought back from a cynical world weary position propping up a bar? "We want you back in the game, Jesus." "I don't do that any more." "But you were the best!" "I'm just a fisherman now. You can tell my father he can keep his stinking badge."

A sexy psychiatrist? At least that way you're not being morally reprehensible, since it's a win either way for your friend. BTW, thanks for the applause, gentlemen. I consider you to have paid off the loon's debt for him. EDIT: if budget is an issue I suppose logically you could send him to an extremely wise hooker.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/BT-Home-Hub-3/dp/B...1533&sr=1-5 This is the new bit of tat I've been offerred. I want to know if I should run ith it as a replacement for my 5 year old router, or buy another one which can do all the same things. This one looks shiny, but I'm concerned that the really important bits like security will be mickey moused, as its predecessors were.

LOL I had to look up what we were talking about in order to understand this.

Saved a man from being trapped under a train at Paddington station last night. Stupid bastard dropped something under the train about to depart and dived after it like a ferret down a rabbit hole. I had to grab his ankles to stop him sliding in after it. Very impressed with my quickness of thinking. Other bystander stopped to help haul him back up and out. Nearly smashed my laptop as I dropped it in haste. Git didn't even stop to thank me/us properly.

I just realised we've gota business associate down in NZ who I've not spoken to in a while. I can't work out if it's a bit lame to email now and check he's OK.

We hit that stage a couple minutes ago, but I just put on Remember me, and we've punched through the doldrums like a cavalry charge of angry bees through an old man's horrified face.

House of Pain

Well, I was whingeing about them here. Kind of reflects poorly on the franchise, and the engine that runs New Vegas.