Walsingham

My back injury is... 3 years old now? Herniated disk, permanent bef***ing of the upper vertebrae also. Too late to worry about it going wrong. MOre of an iddiotcy wound, than a war wound. But same intention. This is just me over-working it yesterday. It happens.

Sounds a wee bit simplistic to me, Ros. Hate to say. I don't think it's to do with national issues at all. Very many British citizens, subject to none of the points you make, become militant islamists. But how many people of any nation become terrorists without being either bonkers or brainwashed? I don't believe you can macro-engineer away the threat of islamism, any more than you can macro-engineer out the desire to take drugs. The only sensible approach is high-end weeding.

While I'd be horrified if Eternity had no player 'voice', I don't much mind with South Park. Isn't the humour, and interest of the television power bound up with how it gives voice via the existing characters, and when it does so? I don't want the option of telling Cartmann he's a dumbass. I rely on someone else doing it for me. Like Hitler.

No, you made the controversial claim, you better back it up. The point is that our cultist colleague has identified the only drawback to the banning system - that it permits those subject to bans the opportunity to adopt revolutionary chic. Maybe this is the reason why Fio is so reluctant to actually ban anyone. Cultist's cries of martyred integrity become a little less heart-rending when you understand he could quite easily say what's on his mind. He just knows that ban or not he would be shredded like fresh lettuce. Not by the mods, but by the ordinary members.

You know, this picture never gets any less scary.

My thanks to kgambit for furnishing what I couldn't be bothered to. He is a better man. Sorry, Azarkon, but there's no economic way you could move crude oil by land, even if the tanker capacity existed on that scale, which it doesn't. Besides, all the refineries are at the ports at the opposite end of the country. You can't just get across the border and declare yourself a winner. The entire setup would be all wrong. Just look at Iran. Surrounded by sodding oil, but had a petrol crisis that nearly sparked a revolution. Your point about land reform is specious, if less obviously wrong. Just because the central planning committee decide to transform farmers into urbn workers doesn't mean that they should. Central planning committees routinely make decisions on ideological, not practical grounds. China has had famines in living memory, for God's sake!

I'm not sure much can be done about the crime rate for two reasons: 1) Vast unemployment and no safety net. The latter is unaffordable. The former can't be tackled so long as the unions dominate unskilled labour. Although I'd concede that cracking the unions might just destroy the unskilled jobs that ARE hanging on. 2) The South African Police were the primary mechanism of apartheid. And they were all volunteers. It meant that on the end of apartheid most senior ranks were purged. Many of the more, shall we say 'enthusiastic' junior ranks left on their own volition. Deprived of leadership, and still deeply mistrusted, the police became a cypher. Subsequent attempts to form elite units and seed improvements have fallen foul of corruption in the political class. At least, that's my outsider's view. Bruce?

US spy agency takes sinister space octopus as mascot. http://rt.com/usa/nro-satellite-octopus-emblem-854/

Dredd is collected now in massive volumes. They are pretty good value for money, and let you read in sequence.

Back no longer in crisis. But by God it hurt. So easy to get blase about the damage that happened. DO NOT F*** UP YOUR SPINES, GENTLEMEN.

Sorry to stamp down on you. But I am almost 100% sure both of these points is wrong. 1) In order to transport the quantities of oil you're talking about you need serious oil pipelines. And I men on an enormous scale. It takes years to get something like that in place. Even assuming it could run effectively. Oil moves by supertanker for a very simple reason: economics. 2) China's arable land is maxed out. Worse, there are many reports that it is being overused and actually diminishing. Just take a look at the vast country on a satellite image. All the arable land is along the coasts and in the southeast. Having said that I'd want to look again at the figures. But That's what I know.

Something ...awry with my back. I haven't been in this much pain with it as long as I can recall. Couldn't sleep last night. Had to take painkillers and have a hot bath to relax the muscles. Just awful. Work today. NOt sure how the **** this is going to happen. But I'm getting ready now. Very very carefully.

Tanzania (German east africa, which reminds me...), Namibia, Samoa, Papua and Togo. Nowhere near France or the UK or even the Netherlands, but quite significant. Not so sure, Zor. China can cut off manufacture and 'investment'. The USA can cut off oil and food. Doesn't sound liek an even outcome to me.

Managed to graunch my spine at work somehow. I'm in quite a lot of pain just now.

I think it's a damned interesting question. I'd agree that many Americans - or Britons - would be annoyed about paying more. But then equally my instinct says that we'd be better able to sustain that effort than the Chinese state. Not precisely sure why. But I guess it's to do with how we'd justify it. Thoughts?

Lamb's kidneys slow-fried in a mix of olive oil, seal salt, thyme, and rosemary. Served wth boiled potatoes and carrots. Mustard and chutney on the side. Stout.

You went to school? "Geography is the best subject ever. LULUZ"

I don't understand those tough mudder things at all. I 'got' pushing yourself when I was training for the Army. It's important, and you have to test yourself to the limits, because you might need them. But if you're an office manager at Kinko, then frankly feth off.

Hard to say.

Sure, why not?

In the top picture I think the turbine baldes are asymmetrical. I've been going nuts trying to work out if there are any mechanical bonuses to it. Increased turbulence of flow, maybe?

I like the Crios one. Although I'm not convinced by the published material. It really needs some examples. I mean I could hack together a simple fantasy in ww1 mashup using a boot full of mud, tinned beef, and a smell of burning wire.

Don't be silly and twist my words. Because forums exist for discussion and debate I am not obliged to participate in each and every discussion. I'll be wasting my time. On a not entertaining discussion. I already stated my opinion but going into details will 1) Get me banned, and, more importantly, 2) is boring for me. I love how people who never saw the farcical abysmal mess that was apartheid South Africa seem to think it was great and 'living' proof that black people are somehow better off under white control. Utter balls.

Better it fails under warranty than after a more extended run, surely?

Well you should tell him to research the financial crisis that started in 2008, that was the closest the world came to real global crash. And it was obvious to all that the impending results was something that no-one and no country wanted or would have benefitted from. That's not true. There are always people that make a ton of money from an economic crash. That's kind of the point. There was an overall depression, but not every sector fell down. Agile businesses and investors did just fine.