Walsingham

Keep in mind that proportional representtaion means that Israeli governments will always be beholden to fringe nutcase parties. So there's little hope of any solid progress at their end either, even with a moderate Palestinian authority.

Hang on. With gaming up 40% last year, how come these guys went under?

I just wokle up after sleeping for nearly 14 hours straight. I used old old and unused meditation techniques to put myself under (and a glass of brandy). I may do it again tonight, depending. I don't like using the meditation any more, because I found I was getting hooked on it. I had to do it every day or I got really cranky. GD, your day sounds awesome. I aim to have days like that.

It's hard not to link this all to Hamas. The West Bank is not Hamas controlled, and is not having the stuffing knocked out of it. Possibly because they don't regard lofting explosive rockets at Israel as a past-time for the whole family.

Then we are agreed that the lobster is not in fact noble, and is a prehistoric sea insect with the morals of a Marseilles guttersnipe? If so, I suggest we petition the Royal Navy to depth charge the bastard's new home until he is killed.

Joking aside, as my research indicates, the Z virus is almost certain to render all sub-dermal tissue a mass of inert infectious lesions. Most fire-based weaponry will therefore be completely pointless.

The Israelis have been claiming for years that terrorist groups routinely use ambulances for transport. I haven't seen any proof, but it's not as if Hamas wouldn't do something which invited attack onto aid workers. Of course, if you wanted to get all conspiracied up you could say it was the Israelis deliberately bombing foreign aid workers in an attempt to scare them off. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to ride this unicorn to the takeaway.

Good point. He's lived his life. If he was truly noble he would have offerred to trade his miserable hide for a young lobster with a bright future.

That would explain the skin cancer.

PETA applaud release of lobster from restaurant. A spokesman describes the lbster as a "noble old-timer". Excuse me, but I don't care if the lobster is 160,000 years old. It's a lobster. Precisely how much nobility can you get into a lobster? Even if it could, how do they know that this lobster is noble. I bet it helped nazi u-boats sink shipping in its day.

I probably got it here in the first place, but note this video of hippies trying to protect the planet.

You're right. I was confused. I did not strike her, although I fear that unless I can have her fired for stupidity then I may have to. I'm just pigging sick of putting up with her racism.

last night I finished watching Dead Set, the channel 4 zombie series which centres on a mixture of big borther contestants and regular types. 1. Special effects very good. 2. Setting makes the whole thing quite believable, particularly the characters and actions of the people. 3. Most importantly, lots of sensible pointers on zombie survival. Like how to kill one using only kitchen implements and a duvet. I'd really rate this in the top three zombie films ever.

Good one, GD. I hope the job is as good as it sounds.

We're just establishing some common ground.Jew, Christian, Muslim Atheist... we're all chauvinist pigs.

i worked with some outstanding female soldiers and officers. But I'd be totally lying if I said that intelligent, physically fit, and down to earth women weren't attractive.

That's bloody interesting. At least to me. I was working on a logistics problem last year and I got SO CLOSE to this realisation. But of course it's obvious. You stockpile where transportation changes. You change transportation where transport mediums change. I said as much, but didn't make the connections. I'd feel more stupid, but I'm not a logistics expert.

This topic ring a bell? Ah yes. THAT topic. You see the cause of my bottom trepidation.

I should add that it's not like i epxect the Palestinians to enjoy being boxed in as they are. I just think that, given the fact that violent struggle seems to merely validate Israeli reaction, a non-violent struggle would pay greater dividends. But the fact is that there's a violent terrocracy functioning as the government of Palestine now, and it ain't going to change.

Thinking about this some more there are other expenses than just coding. The publisher has to print, and ship mac versions. The stores have to give up shelf space to those versions. Just look at how squeezed the PC section of shops like GAME has got .

We were discussing this at length over Christmas (as you do). The notion of daemons is - from one argument - not much more than could be expected from any entity existing in more dimensions than our own. It's 'logic', it's cohesion would all violate the logic and principles of our world. Imagine a two dimensional entity as the surface layer on a bowl of water. You dip your fingers into it, and move them around. This would appear entirely orderly to you, but utterly chaotic to the two dimensional being, because we exist in four dimensions. I suggest that this is analogous to how we would interact with something like a daemon which existed in more dimensions. My understanding of the 40k canon, is that almost all sentient life projects energy into extra dimensions, collectively termed the warp. Psychics project a great deal of warp energy and in turn are closer meshed with the warp. This does not do them any favours to a non-heretical perspective. Daemons are not entities in a way that we would understand, although they can project an intelligible four dimensional aspect of themselves.

Why would devout Muslims fire from a mosque, knowing that the mosque could be targetted and destroyed? Because they regard such destruction as a bonus in their propaganda. Hell, every newspaper had the kid casualties in it over here. Revolutionaries, man, terrorists. They're as bad as religious fanatics. Oh, wait, these terrorists ARE religious fanatics.

Floods ain't hard if you build up on stilts. But a volcano? Maybe your city was built by fire-spitting death lizards? You should put that in your advertising.

Why do I get the feeling this book will have more bottom descriptions than zombies?

Namedropping: I mentioned I spent boxing day with Steven Merchant? One of a client's employees nearly reduced to tears today when she was informed she had failed to grasp properly the nature of an analytical technique I invented and have been teaching to them. She's been trying to get it now for over three months. Any possible sympathy erased when she was guardedly anti-semitic about ten minutes later.