ArabiaTerra

I am opposed to lottery money going to religious organisations. If the congregation cannot keep the church afloat then it should sink.

What the hell is going on here? It's less than a year (I think) since Harbour St re-opened after being closed for more than a year and half the street is closed off again because they are digging up the pavement! Is it SIC policy that no-one in the planning dept talks to anyone else? Did noone think "What else could we do while the street is closed?". Are all council planners morons? It's bloody ridiculous. I'm surprised any of the shops there are still trading. Do they get compensation for this lunacy? Grrrrr... (rant over)

I always liked the way they handled Alaska's oil money. Some of it went to the State, but most was paid as a dividend to everyone currently living there. All inhabitants used to get a cheque, once a year, for a few grand, from the State as their share of the oil money. Then they could spend it on what they judged was good for them rather than what the government judged was in their best interests Just a thought....

Was the degree relevant to the job? A degree in management organisation is meaningless if the guy works as a painter, just as a degree in fine art is totally meaningless if the guy is a manager. If two guys do the same job and one has a degree, surely the question is "why are we employing graduates when non grads can do the job" rather than who gets the most money. If the two guys are not doing the same job then the comparison is meaningless. I'm sorry, I just don't follow the arguement in this case. Sure the review is weighted towards manual workers, they deserve it, having been treated scandalously by the council in the last twenty years. And it is common knowlege that the SIC has been a gravy train for admin staff for a similar period. What I can't understand is who, in the council, thought that they could impose pay cuts to large numbers of staff without some kind of serious fallout. What were they thinking? Don't they teach you specifically not to do this kind of thing in management school? And simultaneusly giving generous rises to senior management who are unaffected by the review. If you made a pitch for a new comedy show with this as the hook, you would be regarded as insane. This should go down in management training history as a case study in how not to reform a large organisation. Could they have got it more wrong?

His full nickname is "Bono Vox" which apparantly means "fine voice" in Latin

I remember on that "Blood of the Vikings" programme on the Beeb there was a small pool of Norwegian DNA turned up in the Lake district. It was thought that this was the traces of some viking refugees from Dublin who were thrown out by the Irish in the 11th century and settled there. The presenter, Julian Richards (Meet the Ancestors), was interviewing a couple of the descendants of these vikings when he mentioned that they had their own, distinctive, dialect. He then got them to have a conversation in the dialect. It was wierd. They were speaking shetland with a broad rural english accent, I understood every word, though Richards didn't have a clue what they were saying. I can't remember all the words they used, but one that stood out was 'lowe' for fire. Did anyone else see this?

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I have just been reading a copy of "Astronomy" magazine (Feb 2007). The headline on the cover, for me, summed up the difference between science and religion. The headline read:- 'What if String Theory is wrong?'. I just can't imagine the cover of the "Good News" magazine the Jehova's Witnesses hand out reading:- 'What if Genesis is wrong?' or 'What if Revelations is wrong?' Science starts from the premise: I know nothing, but I can trust my senses to percieve the world and my brain to understand it. (Given a little thought and effort) Religion starts from the premise: The Book knows everything, and anything I perceive which contradicts the Book must be wrong. (Despite the evidence of my senses) So, do you believe your own senses? Or do you believe the senses of some bloke, a couple of thousand years ago, who spoke a completely different language and lived in a completely different world who wrote down the words of some other bloke whom he didn't know but had been told about by someone else? I believe in what I can see, feel and touch, and I have never touched or been touched by God.

^^^ This is brilliant! Cool ^^^

I remember noticing this effect when watching "Saving Private Ryan" on a projector with a few grands worth of surround sound equipment. The beach landing scene was awesome, but the illusion was spoiled because the explosions were stunning but then the dialogue was far too loud.

Sharia isn't law, it's barbarism. As far as drink-driving goes, I always thought the Norwegians had a good system. Anyone caught gets 2 weeks in jail plus a large fine and ban. I personally think, for the first offence 18 to 24 month ban plus fine based on income. Second offence, five year ban, serious fine. Third offence, lifetime ban and jail.

The reason the RSPB is so wound up about the Lewis windfarm is that it is sited right in the middle of the "The Lewis Peatlands Special Protection Area (SPA)". As far as I know, the Shetland farm is not in any similar place. Details here: http://www.mwtlewis.org.uk/back.htm

8O 8O That makes sense, and would explain the sirens. They're getting more elaborate, last years handower was just some torches and an accordion and fiddle band marching past the hoose.

I went to bed early tonight (9-ish). I just got woken up by a load of banging and a chorus of sirens followed by a vehicle with blue flashing lights passing the house. What's going on? Gunfight at the Market Cross? Mad suicide fireworker targets fire station? ....or am I just dreaming?

You want to see evolution? Where did MRSA come from then? Not true, the Human Race may indeed die. (and when did Global Warming start producing toxins?) There is a considerable amount of new evidence which has been found recently in China which fills in many of the gaps in the evolutionary story of birds and dinosaurs. Of course this has raised many more questions, but that's science. The proof of evolution is there in the rocks. Old rocks have simple fossils in them, and the fossils become more complex in a clear and consistent way as the rocks you examine become younger. (barring, of course the "missing links" so beloved of creationists. They love it when a missing link is found as it gives them twice as many "gaps" for their god to hide in) stoness! Are you trying to say Fossils don't exist? Look at the rocks! As I have stated before if you haven't bothered to find out even the simplest thing about evolution please don't post here, go and read Dawkins instead, you will learn something. I can also reccommend "Evolution" by Carl Zimmer, based on the Channel 4 series of the same name. Easier going than Dawkins, but just as good."The science of Discworl III, Darwins Watch" by Terry Prattchett, et al, also covers the same ground in a very entertaining style.

^^^^^ Like I said, a good story, badly written.^^^^^ I have read the Holy Blood/Holy Grail (turgid load of crap, and based on a hoax). Believe me, DB (or his wife) pretty much lifted it straight, but as has been said, most of the actual material was public domain so the lawsuit failed.

It's just another example of Big Brother. The next thing will be a GPS tracking chip on our ID cards and making it an offence not to carry the cards. New Labour's plans for a fascist state rumble on. 8O

How are they feeding these cod? Is it fish meal, and if so, how many tons of wild fish are used to grow 1 ton of cod? And how can that be referred to as "No-catch"? Also, how can fish be "organic"?

To go back to the original question : I use windows XP, because it works. More specifically, I started with Windows '95, upgraded to (stole ) '98 and bought XP when '98 began catching viruses every time I went on the Net. I principally use my PC for playing games and surfing, I don't care what goes on under the bonnet as long as it runs. XP gets slagged because of it's supposedly lax security but I think this is unfair. Windows runs on 90% of computers so it gets 90% of the hackers. I'm sure that the alternatives would be just as leaky if they were subjected to the same barrage of attacks. I keep my anti-virus (AVG) and anti-spyware (Spybot and Adaware) up to date and I have never had a problem. AVG has picked up a couple of viruses in the last couple of years, but stopped them before they caused any harm. Stability wise, XP has been brilliant. Oblivion crashes it every so often, but this is a problem with oblivion and overclocked computers rather than a problem with XP. As for other stuff, I use Open Office for letters etc, and Firefox for browsing.

After living with Media Player 11 for a while I suffered a "Doh" moment and figured out how to do the thing that was annoying me. It was rather obvious, a serious case of "can't see the wood for..."

Dan Brown didn't do any of the research, he lifted it directly from a previous book called "The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail". Thats why the authors sued him (unsuccessfully).

This sort of crap really annoys me! I wish, for once, the religous loonies who slag off evolution (and, in the process, the whole of science) would actually get off their fat lazy ar*es and read a book about evolution. They might find it enlightening. Evolution is NOT RANDOM..! The key prase is "survival of the fittest". This means selection on the basis of which organism is best suited for the environmental niche it is living in. I've read your bible (and I thought it was a load of rubbish) so before you presume to lecture me about my beliefs, go and read some Dawkins. You might learn something. Oh, Sorry, forget that last paragraph. I forgot that you closed your minds to anything new when you "accepted jesus into your heart". Just ignore me (while the world burns, buts thats what you're all waiting for anyway, isn't it? The end can't come soon enough for you guys) P.S How come Jesus is the son of God and the descendant of David through two different lines all at the same time?

I thought the book was ok, a good story badly written. I've just seen the film and I was pleasently surprised. It wasn't bad, nothing earth shattering but not bad. If it's the only thing in the video shop...

I am eagerly awaiting "Armed Assault" for the PC, and "Pans Labyrinth" on DVD. The 300 looks awesome as well. I also just ordered Series 6&7 of Buffy.... 8O (Just to complete the collection)

Microsoft Windows XP for me, at least until someone writes a DirectX emulator for Linux.