Walsingham

Well, sure. But in the event that all human life on Earth is wiped out by some catastrophe, do I really care if there are a couple dozen humans on Mars to carry on the species? You may not, mate. But I do. Because we share so much with other humans, in many ways a large part of who you and who I am would live on with them.

I think we only archive a limited amount of past material. It's a shame in my opinion, but I assumed only I was bothered. I was obviously happy to see Summer Glau again, but as you say, the biggest problem is in how human the bloody machines are. I 've said it before, and I'll say it again. Schwarznegger is the only really good terminator I've seen.

What was Goners? And isn't there some sort of Tim Minear curse?

The basic 'problem' with energy weapons, as with biological and chemical weapons, is that bang-for-buck you get so much more with explosives/kinetics.

I agree.

The long term future of humanity isn't/shouldn't be limited to Earth. Too many eggs in one basket so to speak (which Is why I prefer the above option that features some redundancy) Space exploration to help us understand the nature of the universe = good. Space exploration as a first step toward human colonization = silly. Really, what would have to happen to Earth in order to make the moon or Mars a better habitat for humans? Even the most disastrous nuclear war/comet impact/robot uprising scenarios would still leave Earth far more habitable to humans than any other hunk of rock that we can currently throw rockets to. Hard point to argue with. But you must accept that duplication of locations improves total survivability?

If I understand your point you are incorrect. There are a wide variety of directed energy weapons available. As has been reported in the popular press.

What is Joss Whedon up to? I only ask because I can hear scuttling from behind my sofa.

Well, I didn't want to be rude.

I can attest to Dell reliability. In five years only _four_ lockups and no parts failure; on heavy usage. However, the Del is a bitch to upgrade. They didn't even leave me with RAM slots on the motherboard not actually used in teh original build. I consider this just damned cheek, and won't buy from them again.

Someone found another similar old machine, and cannibalised its power source. nom nom nom

I'm interested in which brands of hand tools and power tools shoudl be considered 'quality', since I shall shortly be upgrading my house.

Yeah Trueneutral. I've heard some bizarre, and frankly racist/insane views aof what America is and does. But to latch back onto topic, the poinrt is that as a major power it is only natural that we are interested in US politics. And I think that in many ways some of it comes down to laziness. US domestic coverage is so easy to repeat over here. By which I mean that tracking Russia also occurs but is far more effort.

People who say the Soviets won the war for us are making a basic error. The Soviets won the war for themselves, and if the Yanks hadn't been around then they'd have kept going across Eirope, and I'd speak Russian now. Actually I do speak Russian, but that's not the point.

No time to read all the excellent input. I''m going to therefore drop out, rather than comment in ignorance.

I agree up to a point, Gorth. Multiple systems would add redundancy. However, multiple systems also means some subsystem duplication, like energy, controls and so on. Weight wise it may be better to have just one. As an aside, you may remember that prior to volunteering for the Army I volunteered for the European space habitation trials (basically being squeezed intoa tube of toothpaste for a year). I really rate space exploration as the single most indeed possibly the only truly worthwhile human endeavour.

That was very quick. I had anticipated a long period of Ukraine being cut off. It is spring/summer after all. Most perplexing.

Slept through all my alarms, like a police cruiser going through a pile of cardboard boxes in an alleyway. 11 hours asleep.

How is the Democrat infighting playing out over there? Do you think t would be wiser to bury the differences and get behind Bam?

I don't know if it's a bug, but a 'certain' online store not too long ago was selling earphones for a penny.

That is what I have been telling people all my life. Does anyone listen? Nope. What? I can't hear you when you speak from under that duvet.

Good luck to PigTale. It's a hard life, but I've several friends who wouldn't quit if you shot them. Literally. And that's ins spite of having the education and opportunities to work in just about any profession.

I must say that it isn't doing Hillary any favours. The coverage over here has made Obama look gracious at each tussle, while she looks more and more desperate.

I think there's a massive amount of Euroweenie going on. We're always saying OMG Amerika is the worst EVAR, without any real concept of a) the bad stuff we've done b) the bad stuff we'd have had to do if the Yanks didn't do it for us c) the bad stuff being done by the people we claim to admire d) good ol' fashioned inferiority complex Basically, I don't think Euroweenies poke at US politics for any purpose other than trying to knock it, and make themselves feel superior.

I'm just hoping that the guy playing him can cope.