Walsingham

You mean they hang onto your cash until they decide to lower it to the point where you want to buy. But until that point they are holding your cash? Sounds like genius to me. For them.

If you think the men are exactly the same then you clearly haven't met any half-starved, coked up, dressed down, badly trained militia men recently.

Actually I do see your point about there being a purpose. Wrecking stuff for money or ransom does make more sense than the human excrement who wreck things just for wrecking it. One step up from chimps if you ask me. But I still don't approve. I also fail to see how my 'not backing things up' should mean I ought to have my stuff vandalised. The responsibility is on the perp not on me. This isn't opportunistic housebreaking or car theft. This is pre-meditated.

I have to agree with LoneWolf16. No, really, I have to. He has a gun. Oh... how I laughed...

Mmmmm...delicious spiced processed ham... Minnesota's gift to the world.

coughcoughPearlHarbourcoughcough

I'm not sure your car disappearing is a bug in a lawless wasteland. BTW I am still immensely proud of the fact that I ...and that's just about all I have to say about that.

What do you chaps do if you need to feel better? have a smoke? Listen to a tune? Eat an enormous vegetable marrow? Spill it...

Bill Bryson and the Ocassionals "Satellite" and "One cigarette" Like a hot cup of coffee at four a.m. after a weird night.

I am writing a comedy with a friend. In it the dictator tries to curry favour ith the west by granting human citizenship to 15,000 bonobo monkeys. Unfortunately this backfires because of course virtually all the bonobos are swiftly arrested for sexual harassment and flinging excrement at people in addition to breaking the laws on nudity and vagrancy. We treat people just as badly if not worse than chimps.

Yes. How does... whuh? CC3 is about relentless slaughter. That's only part of the social contract in some very specialist societies.

Plenty of African cultures (in fact plenty of tribal cultures) practice genocide as a matter of course. Maybe the Egyptians were slaves to whoever and rose up and destroyed their masters so utterly no trace was left. Merely the dry and brooding ruins whispering with sand in the depths of the Sahara...

One of the key thoughts behind much alternate time travelling is that your time traveller has to fix something, like prevent a war and so on. But I was thinking that this is surely pretty damn tricky. I mean suppose you go back to ancient babylon. You might get all excited about teaching the natives pro-womens wrestling. But there are plenty of places in the world now that are effectively at the same level.

Small thought: Since they stopped making great immersive games I have taken up singing, amateur history, and started my own company. Possibly due to more 'free' time?

I have to say that I never thought so much of them that I'd pay to see them still around.

I'd go forward in time, and kidnap myself. Then go back in time and force my old self to act as a sort of monk-like zen master to my young self. And I'd teach my young self how to make pancakes, wearing a huge false moustache. Because even though the moustache would be obviously fake my young self would never seee through the disguise because the reality of what was underneath would be too terrifying. And now I shall go to the pub.

I certainly think i too worked too hard. Overcompensating like that guy in 'Clerks'. I worked bloody hard, and even contributed management advice that was only accepted by a couple of senior managers, and which never earned me a penny. However, i now get paid three times that pay, and am my own boss, so I can take advantage of overachievers. I also missed out on a great woman because I was too worn down by the job to chase her properly. That was bad.

So... if you decided to murder someone that would be fine BECAUSE YOU SAY SO?

That's unexpected? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> *cue guitar and wowow peddle*

I think i'll see it anyway. Congratulations on the wedding, by the way. Hope you'll be happy ...even if she can't appreciate dumb movies.

That reminds me of a short story I once read. There was this fleet of aliens that went from planet to planet conquering and whatnot. The twist was that besides intergalactic transport their technology was roughly equivalent to that of the Conquistadors. The story ends when they invade modern day Earth and get shot to ribbons by soldiers with assault rifles. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That sounds like fun. I read those Harry Turtledove books about lizards invading with tech about our level now, attacking us during WW2. They have a stable and slow civilisation, and they really don't know how to cope with either human aggression or our capacity to embrace change. We capture and learn their tech and ...the ending is unexpected.

"The Long Goodbye" by Raymond Chandler, on BBC radio 7. Damn fine, like a case of pickles.

Has anyone seen slither? I feel obliged to support the firefly crew. I don't mind good bad movies.

Don't beat yourself up. I used to regret working for years in a dead-end. But I realised it taught me a lot about humility, and to not assume that someone's worthless just cause their job is. Good for the soul, you could say.

Suicide used to be illegal in the UK. So if you got found, say collapsed on the floor from pills and they got you to hospital they had to charge you if you came through. This sounds clearly daft but is it really any smarter to treat a heroin addict like a criminal? I'm not sure myself. Maybe it makes sense that you should have the power to compel them to get help, just like an ebola victim.