Walsingham

I don't want to seem ungrateful, Trashman. But I'm not laughing at many of these...

What a guy! Tao Hsiao is going on my list of remembered names.

I think that irrespective of the sub, doing ASW in littoral waters has always been difficult. God bless Tom Clancy!

that made me laugh But isn't that because you're as high as a kestrel on dagga?

Fwiiw I'm pretty sure that even under the mullahs most Iranians are doing better than 30 years ago. They aren't unmitigated bastards.

Pretty apt topic there, Nep. I'm considering a job change to a more stable better paid position elsewhere in teh country. But I haveto say I just think everyone at the new place looks miserable as ****.

Last week I was researching some medieval recipes. There are several websites that cover them that go back to the 14th century. Keep us updated around what you found how the meals worked out Examples? Yes so did the medieval meal work out and was it tasty? Here is link that highlights some of the older recipes http://medievalcookery.com/recipes/country.html?england Well, medieval inspired, shall we say? Yes, it was tasty. Although the cloves made the meat taste a bit ...antiseptic. I think I'll stick to allspice in future.

I believe it was established in Parliamentary committee that Nick Frost is simply the best human ever. I refer the honourable gentleman to The Sofa of Time.

Whereas I accept that it's not their fault the economy isn't where it should be. I just don't accept that the smug f***ers are actually concerned about it, or doing anything significant to mitigate the problems.

Also, where would we get 20% of the human race?

Ultimately it's the fault of apartheid that things are as bad as they are. Inefficient and outdated industries, staffed by people raised on 'black' education. It was always going to be virtually impossible to sort out. The thing which give me hope is that at least entrepreneurial spirit is delivering some success stories. And the perspective of Black South Africans seems chiefly to be one of hope in their own strengths. Although i worry that you have the usual nihilistic young men issue.

Last week I was researching some medieval recipes. There are several websites that cover them that go back to the 14th century. Keep us updated around what you found how the meals worked out Examples?

A release date is a damned dangerous thing. I'm happier with them keeping it internal and doing the coding properly.

Different strokes, I guess. We both want to feel engaged in what's happening. But you and I get that in different ways. Purely out of interest, have you ever done one of those charity vows of silence? I did one a long time ago, covered a weekend. It was really interesting socialising without being allowed to talk. Showed me the flip side of discourse.

I'm not advocating a Mugabe style solution, but there does need to be a better 'peace dividend'. A large, disenfranchised, disillusioned and poor population is a recipe for radicalism and violence even if it lacks the unifying force that apartheid provided. I'd tend to say that the problem in Africa has had nothing to do with left/right ideology and more to do with a series of spectacularly bad leaders, and corruption. Plus a liberal smattering of bad colonial policy, east/west cold war posturing and other factors outside their control. I must have sounded more right wing than I intended. I do agree with you that there needed to be better dividends than were achieved. But the people who would have carried out the redistribution are the same Party boys who have shown little inclination to do very much at all in service of the people, even on a limited ticket. What makes you think they'd have been less self-serving in a more left-wing atmosphere? The tragedy isn't that Mandela's gone. The tragedy is that so little of what made people love him is left behind.

It is a problem. But the alternative the left-ideologues favour is State redistribution of wealth. And the results of that across Africa have been the flight of all talent and capital. The result is an even poorer man in the street, and The Party in control of all means of producing wealth. It's slavery by another name. And I don't think that's any better than what apartheid delivered.

There should There should be a clue in there somewhere.

As kgambit says, China's nuclear option is effectively nil. It certainly doesn't have sufficient capability to take out submarine based nuclear missiles. The only reason nuclear would become an issue is in the event of a ground invasion of China. And since that option is nugatory for obvious reasons, what is the point? Nuclear war is not the question here. The real question is what China is sleepwalking into, and what the consequences will be for the World in real terms.

You must be just itching to use LoF for this discussion. The ultra left think people who wear glasses are intellectuals and intellectuals are counter-revolutionary. The ultra-left think human rights are bourgeouis sentimentality. The ultra-left are inhuman freaks. I can't see how preventing a 'revolution', or as we normals think of it 'the deaths of millions in civil war' is a failure.

Big stew with beef shin. As usual with shin, the objective is to seal it fast, then cook it until it turns to an unctuous gluey mess. I'm experimenting with a 16th century English vibe, so turmeric, lots of cloves, nutmeg, sage, salt. Root vegetables and apples for sweetness.

To develop my summary point a little: If China provokes a reaction from US forces then it can only end in two ways: a US dominant victory, or a US exposed as too weak. If the former then China loses. If the latter then I do not think the local independent and US aligned nations will move towards China. I think they will seek mutual security. Again, this is worse for China. Really, this is the kind of helter-skelter I'd expect from a national command entity that orders steel production without any equivalent demand for steel. And empty cities.

kgambit's taken the forthright I'd normally take, so I have the luxury of a more nuanced approach. 1a) I'm really not clear how you think that having to reorient China's entire energy infrastructure to the Northwest/West is an acceptable solution to embargo. It takes a _long time_ and a lot of skilled workers to do that sort of thing. I'm even sure there's any kind of precedent. the British North Sea oil rush might be analogous. 1b) Russia has an established startegy of stamping on energry supplies to achieve foreign policy aims. Much more so than the USA. Transferring the vulnerability would seem to me to be an appalling miscalculation. 1c) Not to mention what happens to the existing infrastructure? 2) China is just not food self-sufficient. You can't just spin up agriproduction when you feel like it. Look at Britain in both World Wars. ~ Ultimately, as kgambit says, the point is that China is lashing out and trying to 'secure' her vital sea corridors. But if in so doing she precipitates a crisis then she's made matters far worse. All she can achieve is a renewed sense of unity amongst her neighbours, and potentially the end of non-militarisation in Japan. This would be utterly disastrous for China.

Don't even BEGIN to question frosted pop tarts.

I don't deny it has some connection to thinsg like alienation. What I am trying to say, perhaps poorly, is that I think it is misleading and dangerous to say that if we change our foreign policy then radicals will stop appearing. I don't think they will. It's important to understand that you don't need very many terrorists to run the kind of campaign that will wreck whole cities. The IRA at the height of its bombing campaign numbered barely over 100!

Too true. All notions, and no plot.