Walsingham

Yes, I'm aware of Benedict's edict. But it was random given that really, it has little to do with the pagans and their treatment in Glastonbury. Agreed, the world would be better off with more spirituality and less religion. You don't know many hippies do you?

I find it oddly flattering when people think I'm American. Although perhaps America shoud be less flattered. I'm not seriously suggesting that the answer is to loft cruise missiles at North Korean ministries. My point was merely to attack the contrary extreme of suggesting we should make kissy face at them.

As long as it takes. Oh good. Just so we're clear your moral compass has one direction crayoned on that reads "Fine so long as I don't have to look at it".

Spiders kills mosquitos. Mozzies are far more deadly to humans than spiders will ever be. I like spiders.

Absolutely. plus we shouldn't move until we've got at least three papers published in peer reviewed journals. This will mean getting a commercial accountant to approve of an activity which earns no money directly They will of course insist that it does, and we willneed to spend five years just trying to assign a cash value to an artcile in the Journal of Instructive Latherings.

I just experienced the horrifying realisation that every time mkreku says this he means himself.

Can't do that, Krez. Not without a UN resolution. Because we all know that the UN is a pure and noble institution and would never haver over such an important issue.

Had a really good day practicing for my time in the limelight in December. I honestly think I'm getting good at this singing thing. Of course I've been on stage often enough to know that good rehearsals spell awful performance!

Then she just needs to keep the mask on. I'd still be inclined to double bag. One for her, and one for you, in case hers comes off.

pmp10. You make an interesting (if debateable) point about Russia. However, it's slightly disingenuous to claim that Chiang Kai Shek's Nationalists ran a viable alternative to dictatorship across the whole of China.

Boo. It's very kind of you to assume I'm a veteran. But I'm not. I've just a knack for getting into scrapes and interesting places. Or rather, knowing interesting mad people who take me into danger and so forth. The funny thing is that all the time I was potentially going to fight this didn't bother me. It's only know I'm a 'pure' civilian and I can pick and choose my dangers that I'm becoming terrified of being killed by a car or something.

Absolutely. Nothing promotes productivity and reduces sick days more than being chained to a desk-phone-computer array like a pinstriped galley slave.

Gentlemen need I point out the big mask? You have no idea what she looks like under there. Could be a double or even triple bagger.

I work with all sorts. The problem is as you say that business people work very hard at doing crap, and academics work incredibly slowly on eternal truths. I'm working on a solution whichinbolves taping a n operations manager to a large stick and prodding academics with it. But it's in the early testing stages.

"I'm buck nekkid!" Censorship doesn't mean suddenly we're Nazis. FFS.

Are you OK? Need to discuss anything? I'll be fine. You have to keep in mind that I've seen a fair few deaths and bodies. I've nearly been killed a few times. I know how easy it is to die. Plus of course eventually you die no matter what. Basically, I'm kind of attached to being alive, and hence the problem arises.

Can't sleep. Keep thinking about dying. Don't want to close my eyes. Reminds me of what my mother was like when she got near the end. Very scary.

Siestas are a brilliant idea. I fully approve.

Really? Two men enter a house in the dead of night. They tie the husband to the furniture and force him to watch while they rape his wife and daughter for more than 24 hours. They then defecate in the living room, murder the family and exit the building. This is a true story I was told Minnesota police officer back in the 90s. Now tell me, young fellah: what part of that is debateable?

Anyone who thinks love is just teen crushes is simply someone who's never experienced it. Going back to the previous thread: Say he's going to form the best relationship ever, then eleven years later admit he's spent the entire time w***ing into a hedge?

LOL bitterly @ Krez. I love the notion that all US govt. agencies are furiously beavering away actually getting things done. Not simply running up enormous tabs on projects that arrive too late to be technically relevant, and never sharing with one another so they end up massively duplicating effort. Krez, if the various agencies didn't see Al Qaeda coming, and we've had Islamic militancy since at least the time of the British Empire, then how likely is it that they saw the internet coming?

Isn't your solution to heartbreak to eat copious amounts of sausage? I didn't mean to make that sound dirty, but I really have no idea how to frame that question differently. LOL. Yes. Good thing none of us are Freudians. Or Freud. He'd probably pass out. My point is that surrendering to emotion is a lovely notion but utterly flawed in a lot of instances. Not all, by any means, but a lot. Irritation, envy, lust, badgers. All these things can destroy your whole life far more effiiciently than being a bit Remains of the Day. Commit a theft, spread lies about someone, lash out, get an STD... the list goes on. Controlling to me means the classic "Put up, shut up, or shut down". Have the emotion and don't do anything about it. Don't dwell on the emotion any more than you have to. Or lock it down through doing your local cultural equivalent of smoking a pipe and glaring. Yes, you get pressure leaks occasionally, and you may have to go off for a while and have a cry and a beer. But how is that so bad?

Hang on, isn't that confusing the biological concomitant with the mental experience? I'm saying that the architecture sustaining happiness is so ephemeral as to render it a wil-o-the-wisp. Not that the squelchy mess of glands and neurons is.

I see what you mean, and I've considered it. But I do sometimes think that some wounds are best left as they are, or may never heal square. Reopening them and venting them can just cause pain to no purpose. But I could easily be biased.

I guess it could be the way primitive man first found out he could use hunting spears for murdering people. By accident! The 'fact' is that they simply swallowed a portion of all internet traffic for a time. To my primitive understanding that has to be significant. To Gorth I'd say that yes it was only a matter of time before we saw information warfare being conducted with physical connections to the mediums of information exchange. But all the same, I'm going to indulge a maudlin moment of sadness that yet more of humanity's daily toil will be devoted to a completely new dimension of bashing one another rather than grappling with the many natural ills which threaten us.