Walsingham

Better than Preacher? I don't think so.

Try to remember. I do like battenburg.

Good advice there.

I just made some beef consomme to get me revved up for a late lunch. Threw in a dash of amaretto and it was absolutely stunning.

Ironically, I'd still have friends, because so many of them love zombie movies. I've read the book, and frankly, as the author said in a recent interveiw "Why does Hollywood bother to buy the rights to books when it ignores them?"

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer I've been watching loads of programs on the BBC's free archive. But the best has to be Top Gear series 10, episode 3. It has the Rolling Stones, and Jeremy Clarkson driving a Peel P50 around the INSIDE of buildings like a mutated dwarvish Italian Job. Obviously you'd be more legal and better off if you watched it on the iplayer, but since it's free anyway, here's http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN0LQJLabqA

I've been going nuts with wikipedia today. I 've been learning about everything from scabies to Haitian politics and gummi bears. But learning in a very haphazard way. It's rather like being a child at a party with a lot of drunk grown ups. They keep telling you things, but in such a way that you are suspicious.

Well, feels is perfectly valid. It's something real as feelings get. But a quick look at your budget over there http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/20...et-glance_N.htm You've got $59.2 billion pegged for education in the US You've got $775 million pegged for a 'virtual' border fence covering just Mexico. You've got $668 milllion pegged for "modernising air traffic control" Just as a comparison the TOTAL civilian reconstruction budget for Afghanistan was set at $650 million by Hamid Karzai. I'm not really sure where I'm going with those figures. It's obviously also true that billions are being spent on fighting forces abroad.

AI Artificial Intelligence Some excellent imagery, and surprisingly some excellent thoughts. Most Bonkers Ending Ever.

I just checked, and yes, klezmer seems the right word.

I've been listening to Jewish music for some reason. It was like my body developed a spontaneous matzo deficiency.

I agree it is like a whisky sour. With the amaretto it's like a godfather sour. Walsingham Sour sounds good. Easily heard by barmen.

I think it's pretty accurate to say I'd be no worse at fighting while blind.

Important revision: Adding teh juice of half a lemon before shaking reallly lifts this up.

I'd have to rely on GD's figures, since he usually has them about his person, but my understanding was that China began buying US dollars under Clinton. The fact that they have continued to do so is nothing more complex than a) They need US dollars to buy POL. b) They buy them on the open market, hence there's no way to stop them. Yet again you waffle on about losing the war! In what way are we losing the war? Violence is coming down, the economies of both countries are rising, and democratic involvement has never been so good. Moreover the opposition are showing increasing signs of isolation and desperation. I remind readers who may have forgotten how we got onto this that it is a key distinguishing factor between McCain and Obama. In my opinion switching to a candidate who really means to pull out immediately would be the worst of both worlds. It won't get any of your money back, and it will certainly lead to instability, massively increased oil prices, and a humanitarian disaster. All things which my 'Boys Own Book of Things that Suck' tells me are bad.

How hard is it to make one's own liqeurs, like banana or grand marnier? There will be room in my new house for such activities.

On what bass do you maintain we are losing? 'Cause I hear it from the horse's mouth as friends and coleagues come back, and they say the only place we're losing is in the media. But that's irrelevant, because as I said before second order dynamics dictate that the cost of losing this conflict would be a hundred times worse than any amount you could spend on the war. A big bug out would be a false economy, like refusing to spend money on firefighting when your house is ablaze because your stuff is burning and you need to economise.

A sensible conclusion, but incorrect. Firstly you've got a lot of burnt sugar in this sugar syrup which makes it slightly less sweet and more bitter. Secondly, and I could be wrong, but the process infuses many more of the aromatic oils from the citrus than in Grand Marnier. This gives it a much more complex flavour that works extremely well with ginger. The double helping of ice is simply because it is quite a strong drink and very viscous. But I just tried it without a second serving of ice and it's pretty good.

Long story shorter: I tried to make marmalade. It burned, and I ended up with a four pound block of orangey caramel. This was impossible to eat so I boiled the block in water and seived out the bits. this is the bitter orange gomme syrup below. Essentially, boil up a mass of sugar, orange, lemon, and tangerine peel until it starts to burn and you get your caramel. Provisional Name; "Budayeen Night" Two measures of bitter orange gomme syrup Two measures Decent bourbon or rye whisky Slice of lemon or chunk of crystallised stem ginger on a stick Shake the syrup and whisky with crushed ice, serve in an Old Fashioned glass over ice. Refinements possible: 1. If you are comfortable doing so, shake with egg white to smooth out the flavour considerably 2. Can be served with ginger ale for a taller and more thirst quenching drink; simply pour the ginger ale over the normal mixture in a taller glass. 3. Before serving, coat the ice cubes in the Old Fashioned glass with amaretto.

That sounds like a really good idea. Perfectly legal, and usually ready to be hooked up for electronic control.

Torchwood. Pure undiluted insanity. If you thought The Core had some mad science and suppositions then you may not have the guts to stomach Torchwood.

I think they have to be gunning for outrage. Next stop: flinging the Queen Mother's corpse at Buck House, from an orphan burning steam catapult.

I'm a little bit giddy from all the medicines I'm taking, but for some reason I have an image of Sluggo racing through the streets on a dogsleigh being pulled by hookers in high heels, trailing a cinder-shot cloud of cigarette ash.

I liked this reaction so much I thought I'd quote it rather than Sand. 1. What Sand is talking about is attrition. Define the enemy, identify the enemy, kill the enemy. Which would be cutting edge military theory if were about 400BC. The Romans tried to do it several times under - I can't stress this enough - under their most lead-crazed psychotic emperors. If you want to know what would happen now if you try to systematically mince the opposition then take a good look at ww1. A neverending slaughter without purpose. We don't fight limited wars because we're nice. We fight limited wars because its the only kind of war you can win. 2. The deterrent effect of overweening force is an illusion. Unless one is dealing with Belgium, for some reason. It doesn't freaking work. Sand talks bout levelling things, but the Soviets tried exactly that in 1979-1988 in Afghanistan. They bombed Herat completely flat at one stage. With the net result that it just made them more annoyed. 3. I have already highlighted Sand's patented 'one step' approach to system dynamics. No doubt he's right though. I'm sure the US could afford turning itself into a fortress once it had cut all ties with the outside world. EDIT! STOP PRESS! I just worked out how to explain second order dynamics. OK, Sando it works like this. You seem fixated on first order dynamics. Imagine if you will that you are standing next to a large metal pendulum at rest. You don't like having this big lump o'metal next to you so you give it a hard shove. In first order dynamics it moves away from you. You are happy. The trouble you seem to be having is in second order dynamics. This is when the move you made plays out over time, the pendulum swings back and smacks you in the ear. You are concussed, and there is much hilarity.

Rowwrrr! Grrr! Snap snap! *ahem* Speaking of stalking there was an absolutely gorgeous girl on the train yesterday. Like a young Monica Belluci. However, being a gentleman I refrained from trying to chat her up. The constant rattling wheeze from my lung infection may also have had something to do with it.