Walsingham

Did anyone else consider prussic acid? To deprive one's captors of the satisfaction/ relieve the excutioner of any guilt.

I think it's more to do with wanting to make bloody certain it's seen and recognised on the battlefield. Not that our current enemies care... As for percentages, I don't honestly know what is an acceptable percentage. Working that out could constitute a damn fine PhD thesis, IMO. I suspect it would be a lot lower than you chaps are arguing. The difficulty of course would be rating organisational style and behaviour against performance, or rather a measure of performance.

You mean we turn the martians into face-cream?

I think we should send Chris a santa suit. He can drink, smoke, and wander around his neighbourhood in midsummer falling over stuff. If anyone complains he can claim it is PTSD from delivering to warzones.

I was watching teh video for In Da Club, and thinking "hah, like that would ever happen". Then a small voice piped up internally "Yeah, because women loathe men with bags of spare money, time, and huge muscles. They always go for nice respectful men. Oh yes."

Is anyone else mildly irritated by how mainstream normals have adopted comic books and the Lord of the Rings? I spent the best part of my youth being enthusiastically mocked for enjoying both and now suddenly my contemporaries are taking their kids into it? Pshaw I say.

That's precisely my point. I know full well that this will be a broad coalition, but the vocal unwashed and incoherent discredit everyone. Do you not remember how pissed off Sir Bob got during the action against poverty thing in Scotland? Don't misunderstand me. I know very well the pleasure of running around like a fool in fancy dress. But I call that live-action roleplay, and I don't expect anyone to take me seriously while I do it.

For starters I'd have a waldorf salad made with kiwi instead of chicken, and bamboo shoots. I'd have whale steak topped with Siberian tiger foie gras for my main course. For desert I'd have a sorbet made with polar ice cap ice, and amazonian berries. If anyone complained that these things were endangered I'd simply smile and say "So am I".

Protesters gather outside Heathrow airport. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6943549.stm It's my hope that the entire issue is a ruse to lure record numbers of unwashed hippies into a concentrated space so they can be destroyed by a mix of polar bears, Siberian tigers, and killer whales. I believe I take climate change seriously. And part of doing that is the serious business of gathering information, and talking to devils who make the decisions, not chaining myself to a fence. It's got nothing at all to do with climate change and everything to do with feeble attempts to legitimise a lifestyle of extreme laziness. I have nothing at all against laziness, provided it is honest.

I'd like them to make The Authority except I'm sure they'd be neutered.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawney_Bean A neat story to throw in for some characters en route to another place if they're getting bored and want some fighting.

This is based on a design actually used in ww2. The problem there was that the flashes reflected off things like gunsmoke and caused mayhem on all sides. It's also unwise to paralyse anyone on your attacking wave who checks what's behind them. "Come on, lads! Who's with me? Yiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyi"

You are channeling the spirit of Georges Clemenceau again. Please report to the chapel for exorcism.

The quicker commercialised gangsta dies the better as far as I'm concerned. LOL check out my expert dissing behaviour. I'm sure if 50 cent reads this he'll go cry when he sees my yucky emoticon.

You've made my day. Actually, you've made my last two days, the time I've spent listening to the albums Thimar and Barzakh by Mr Brahem. Absolutely spellbinding work. I love how it's not fake exotice with "omg we gots ethnic instruments over a crappy synth track!111", but the real deal. A native playing native music. And he plays so well. What's not to love? I got introduced to him while staying with a friend in Switzerland. I don't know how he discovered Brahem, but he'd been a doctor with Medecins Sans Frontiers in Afghanistan for several years. Very pleased everyone's enjoying him. You probably already know the other artist I was introduced to on that trip: Manu Chao

Caught our parents twice, tho.

I appreciate greatly your dismissive tone, mate. But I think if you concentrate you'll see what I mean. 1. I never said we should treat the Red Cross as a sacred cow. Unexamined organisations tend inevitably towards corruption. I'm not saying that they haven't made mistakes. 2. The anecdotal example I gave was represented as just that. My point was to illustrate that it would be wrong to represent the Red Cross as an organisation that is just about lining their pockets. I would not want them to lose out on funding because they go places and have a history of compassion, professionalism and morality that stands above competing organisations. 3. It's nonsense to suggest that a corporation is unaffected by public perception. Johnson and Johnson do not make anything which is unique to them. There are innumerable other ways one can buy bandaids and skin lotion. 4. The fact that the Red Cross has paid employees is not a bad thing. I know some charities where the employees become more concerned about staying in a job than serving the organisation's purpose. But I also know charities run by volunteers where everything is a complete muddle and vast sums of money are wasted due to inefficiency and general lack of time. 4.1 A certain degree of flashness can be excused on grounds of providing a good working environment, and as a means of retaining high calibre employees. Running the Red Cross out of a shack in the bayou is an option, but see how fast the best brains scuttle off to six figure salaries in coporations.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6939549.stm Pictures of the robots. Gave me the willies.

Ours were made with string, tin cans, and piles of stuffed animals.

*points at picture with stem of pipe for emphasis* Look what he's done there with that pear. Marvellous. *re-inserts pipe* Pipes - pacifiers for the pompous.

*Attention focussed on pictures, lips pursed around pipe.* Mmm...

Yes. My sister and I used to make elaborate traps for him on Christmas eve. Although he never got stuck I think this just proves he is a 'Nam vet.

It's aneat idea. However, in about five to ten years most of that pre-processing will be done using computer algorithms rather than rentacops. It's already starting with things like firearms.

Rosemary. You'll want fresh rosemary with a giant talking rabbit.

I just generally respect the fact that their ground 'troops' consistently put themselves in harm's way, and that they manage to transcend conflict boundaries on many occasions. What they do isn't always good, but it is often crucial to saving lives. I just picked a book more or less randomly off the shelf, and here's a quote: [uNAMIR driving into a refugee camp in Rwanda] "When we stopped and got out of our vehicles, we were swarmed by a thick cloud of flies, which stuck to our eyes and mouths and crawled into our ears and noses. It was hard not to gag with the smell, but breathing through the mouth was difficult with the flies. A young Belgian Red Cross worker spotted us and interrupted her rounds to guide us through the camp. The refugees huddled around small open fires, a silent, ghost-like throng that followed us listlessly with their eyes as we picked our way gingerly through the filth of the camp. I was deply impressed by the young Belgian woman's calm compassion as she gently administered what aid she could to these desperate souls. It was obvious she could see through tehir dirt and despair to their humanity." Lt.Gen. Romeo Dallaire - Shake Hands with the Devil. But irrespective of how good or bad the Red Cross are, they are certainly seen as good, and picking a fight with them? Sure, and why not punch a few nuns whle you're at it? Genius! *Edited to add emphasis*