Walsingham

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7442327.stm Coming on the back of one of our best anti-gun crime campaigners getting stabbed I thought it could be good to reopen our look at violent crime. We've discussed shootings and bombings in the past, and my view after our discussion was that weapons were just the tools. Preventing these sorts of crimes has to centre on care for the mentally disturbed people who choose to try and hurt people other people. A solution I like because frankly our mental healthcare is rubbish and needs a massive overhaul.

Portugal did look impressive last night. But I'm afraid Ronaldo is simply the most punchable man on the planet. I'm amazed he can walk the streets without being pelted with rubbish like some sort of flashy leper.

Up at dawn like some kind of saintly troll. Enjoying the sunshine with my new solar powered device charger. It's tech-geektastic.

Figures Well, as you so gleefully recall, my nation can't organise the proverbial in a brewery.

A dehydrator? Can you recommend one? I can't find any reviews. It would be great for making biltong, and as you say, drying some of teh copious quantities of fruit and herbs I get from my garden.

Tale, you can rig RISK to be a zombie simulator. The game starts with Great Britain over-run with five zombie armies. Each turn after that, the players roll a dice. The guy with the highest dice chooses which way the zombies move. When the zombies move they fight. When they fight any army beaten by them is immediately (inside the combat) turned into more zombies. Each turn the zombies also receive two zombies per country as the civil powers fall apart and enclaves get eaten. As a further point, whenever you cash in those cards you get two zombie outbreaks in each of the regions shown on the cards cashed. Keep in mind you HAVE to cash cards when you have five or more. Zombies can and will thus appear in other people's territory as well as yours when you do this. If a territory contains troops then combat ensues.

I saw the images in a picture by checking the story. They sure as hell looked gooey and unpleasant. Ultimately the school is doing the kid a favour. They won't do anything for their own cause by being so confrontational.

I did, now the watchfull green eyes of justice watch over this thread Oi! My eyes are blue! Our resident fundamentalist atheist should know better, anyway. I also saw that McCain has been severely tortured. On the one hand it seems to have given him an ornery streak that prevents him being pushed around by the party. It also seems to have made him rightly opposed to mistreatment of detainees at Gitmo. On the other hand... um... hell, they both seem like good guys.

I disagree that telling students to "be concise" is a pointless thing. People feel compelled to add useless drivel to boost their word count, but rather than sounding impressive, it obfuscates the point and irritates any critical reader. Simply cutting down the wordiness of my essays moved my marks from 50-60% to 80%. But as you just said, you don't find essays a problem. If you aren't lucky enough to possess the metacognitive and procedural skills to manage the damn things then it's like telling me to 'stop wobbling the airplane' after I hijack it.

You do tend to make decent avatars, JD. Oh be nice you old calloused one Some of us are grateful for the gifts offered by our wee community here in the corner of cyber ... Your new one is pretty neat. Edit: This inspired me to make my own sig. Brace for epic impact tomorrow. The revealing of the slugs true spirit will commence and his greatness will shine among the interwebs, if only for a brief flicker. Copy that. Will purchase special brown trousers and sunglasses for event.

I've elected to support Poland.

I am leaning towards random n00b's view. If I wasn't already slanted. Anyway, teh point is that I agree that you have unscrupulous bastards everywhere always looking for a way to fleece their brothers. Religion is one way to do that. As are corporations, cheeseburgers, sex, biros, and so on and so on. Having said that, some things make better rallying cries than others. You're going to have less work to do corrupting a monotheistic religion that has fundamental truths than, say, Mickey Mouse. Having said that, some w*****rs managed to turn a religion who's stock greeting is "Peace be upon you" into an excuse for a punch up so go figure. Back on topic, just because some guys blow up an embassy doesn't mean people nearby are with them. In fact if you think about it, if terrorists really spoke for the people they wouldn't have to hide. They'd be part of a mass movement.

Pogo stick? well if we're talking about modes of transport, then how about a segway? I meant for prodding them away. But I guess a segway would be quite funny. It's just slightly faster than a slomo.

There's free speech, and there's tattooing your message on your butt and waving it at passers by.

The leaders of Europe wouldn't dare expel a member state. What if Ireland proved it could prosper outside the union? I don't think Ireland can, to be fair. It's got a massive amount of economic benefit from membership.

Three new albums arrived: Kate Nash - Made of Bricks Seasick Steve - Doghouse Music Multifarious - Later with Jools Holland... Live Once again proving that hearing things makes you want to buy them.

Yes. Before bits of you start dropping off!

I'm not sure one can really be sure what effect a word or turn of phrase is going to have, even if one restricts oneself to the crudest four letter Anglo-Saxon. Surely that's one of teh things that makes English (among others) such a glorious instrument. One thing I should say is that I have ALWAYS been criticised for writing as if I am having a fireside chat. I've been doing it since I was 9!

Oy vey... Well, at least you've the decency to wince. Anyway, these things do tend to happen if we're honest. I came within an ace of doing the same several years ago. In that case my probity was wasted since the woman concerned got divorced anyway about a month after I moved location. We just re-established correspondence, in fact! I really should find time to go travel out and see her....

Wait... Didn't you just do something similar, is this a common occurrence? not too common dammit, i really need to start behaving myself Well, yes. I'm old-fashioned enough to believe that you don't insinuate yourself betwixt man and his wumman. Of course, if you didn't know she was taken at the time, then fair play.

I'm a big fan of Europeans. I'm utterly confused by the suggestion that we should tie ourselves to an unelected bunch of proven imbeciles.

Roosevelt really did bend over in a compromising fashion for Stalin, didn't he?

That's because your efforts are so durable.

We had the rather ironically named 'Choice' pro-life group give us atalk at my school waaaay back when. They showed film of abortions being done from the 1960s, and lots of gooey cute looking dead foetuses. Unfortunately for them, my school had actual lessons on spotting propaganda (grooming us for runnning the Empire and whatnot). When they asked for questions they got rapidly swamped by a detailed explanation of why what they said was factually incorrect, and clearly intended to insult our intelligence. We also demanded that they apologise to anyone who had been affected by having an abortion. It was in many ways one of our finest hours*. *We were otherwise pretty unsavoury.

It's all well and good saying 'be concise'. But people lack the procedural knowledge to make it happen! I know 'cause I've been there. Teachers say impressive but pointless things like 'be concise', 'have a beginning, middle and end', and 'less waffle'. But unless you know how to move your feet (so to speak) you're no better off. That's why I hope my explanation was clear enough. You follow those steps, and each draft will be better. It's that simple. If anyone still finds starting the first draft is tough, I always recommend writing a 'comedy' first draft. It's easy enough, and you'd be surprised how much good stufff you can get down befoer you even touch a textbook.