Walsingham

I actually like engine noise of all kinds. I find it soothing.

Griddle: agreed there. Immersion blender: Ah. A stick blender. I guess that could be handy. A blender of some sort is on my list of things to get after I sort my kitchen out. Cast iron wok: I'd like cast iron wok, but I'm wondering if it will reallys how its superiority on an electric hob. ELECTRIC HOB I'm gradually sliding towards getting an electric hob. I'm guessing that gas prices will keep increasing indefinitely, but that eletcricity will eventually become cheaper. I'm looking at spending one to two thousand pounds. ALL advice warmly received.

I've just signed up for a 'certain' subscription music service*. It's quite fun. BUt Im running out of ideas to listen to. So I thought, "why not get the Obs-monkeys to nominate tunes for me to listen to?" Then I thought: "They'll never go for it. It's not evil enough." So I'm selling it on the grounds that you bastards give me 5 tunes that are awful each day. I listen to them. Pain ensues. It'll be like MST3K, but without the humour and robots. Only one nomination per person per day. First come first served, so to speak. *I'm not going to endorse it because a) it's cheesy, and b) I don't know how it compares with anything else.

Nonsense. That's what they said about the speed of light, and look at me! You'd never guess I am actually typing this at faster than the speed of light.

Talking of Predator, conversation during training: Sgt: "You see we do this because... how many of you have seen the film Predator, with Arnold Schwarzenegger?" *Hands go up across unit* Sgt: "Because there's that scene where they open fire and they go full auto... it's M16s and grenade launchers and a mini-gun going all out and they flatten everything. But they don't get the alien. And they use up all their ammunition, and they get NOTHING, and they've got nothing left. Which is because unlike us they don't use aimed fire." *Lone hand goes up* Sgt: "Yes?" Pte N: "And the alien was invisible." Sgt: "Erm... yes, that's true."

We're all getting on a lot of high horses here. I'm just curious how many of us have bullied anyone face to face, or ignored someone being bullied. Because if that person had committed suicide would we be complicit?

Putting weapons on the moon isn't about how easy it is to hit stuff from up there. It's about how hard it is to hit stuff up there from down here. A base would provide immense strategic depth. Of course one migt point out that many many potential enemies could be placated for the price of a single moon base. On the other hand, no-one builds statues of nice people.

Zombies are technically dead. Dead people have no rights. That's not true. Interfering with corpses is illegal. And by interfering with I mean putting frikken LASERS on their heads.

I don't see what's wrong with good old fashioned criminal negligence. Um... that came out wrong.

I know it's only sports but those Turks look to me like bunch of uncivilized savages...they look, behave and play like that on the pitch. Thanks guys. I hope they're only joshing for effect. They're not at all serious.

How about a pound of swiss, boneless chicken breast sliced into strips, and a twelve pack of Coke Zero. Add a five foot high jar of sherbet bon bons and you're away! Actually, just take a five foot high glass jar and swill around some fruit juice, THEN sugar in there then leave two lone bon bons at the bottom. EDIT: Of course if you REALLY want to mes with her head, then hide some bridal magazines under the sofa cushions.

I have been eating crap for weeks now. Too much being away from home, and I'm beginning to regret having no damned cooker. Today I ate griddled bacon, and courgettes griddled in the bacon fat on wholemeal toast.

19:45 your time I see Poland could benefit from your being ahead. Which means I have to cheer you along! After tonight, anyway...

How about a pound of swiss, boneless chicken breast sliced into strips, and a twelve pack of Coke Zero. Add a five foot high jar of sherbet bon bons and you're away!

Ah, I see what you mean.

They lost against Germany 2:0, and played 1:1 with Austria. They play today against Croatia which is playing with substitutes because we already ensured the quarterfinals What time?

Awesome. Love that track.

I'm not one to paint the Zionists as bad guys, but the assertion that they didn't attack non-military targets isn't really borne out by the incident reports and autobiographies I've read. Both sides attacked civilian areas seen to belong to the 'opposition' in an effort to drive them out. Note what a tremendously good situation ensued after we 'pulled the troops out and let the locals sort it out'. Anyway, back on topic. Iraq and much of teh middle east is a good example of what I'm talking about, in some ways. There's no realistic way to remove the weapons, so the only alternative is to work on the finger that pulls the trigger/presses the switch.

Don't forget food. Make sure you have nothing in the fridge except an enormous jar of vitamins, and 15kg of pork rinds. Next to the fridge should be several cases of beer carefully labelled with days of the week.

I've been away from TV all weekend. What's happened to Poland?

Having an uncharacteristically dance moment: I have permission of the owner.

baaa-zing! ROFLMAO EDIT: I had an idea for power generation, post apocalypse. Given the dead seem to be more or less able to keep going indefinitely, can't we create some sort of gigantic hamster wheel, and put them in it?

I can't agree it's never happened. Look at the fighting in Palestine which lead to the British withdrawal of administration. But that was an extreme case in as much as the stakes were perceived as tiny, and it took place against a backdrop of weakness that had been caused by six years of total war with Germany and Japan. Long terror campaigns can threaten the groups as much as the goevrnment. Look at Northern Ireland, and (possibly) Iraq. In both cases the people have been smart enough to say "hang on, we're not very happy living generation after generation with total anarchy and violence". At that point they help the authorities, and the game, as they say, is more or less up.

I agree with davs that competing space programs is crucial. Competition serves to focus the minds of the (sometimes) mediocre in charge. But competition also drives the use of alternative strategies and technotactical solutions. If you want to see this in action, try organising a soapbox car race, versus getting everyone involved in building just one car. The car will rarely get built at all, but the competing racers will really move!

I think that the notion of EU is just strange. I like Europe. I like the Economic Union. But what is all this other bureaucracy actually FOR?