Snooze

Whilst I believe civilisations will probably have sprung up all over the universe, my observations of human development lead me to two beliefs: - the time required for a civilisation to develop the technology to actually travel far enough to meet a civilisation in another solar system is long enough for some cataclysmic natural event (meteor strike, etc.) to have occurred and culled them first. The probability of a civilisation surviving long enough to develop technology that can overcome natural resource limitations and provide self-sufficiency to survive in deep space is insanely small - natural armageddon aside, in all the species on earth, natural competitiveness (which seems to be required to drive evolutionary intelligence) makes races unlikely to actually survive long enough without wiping each other out. If we ever develop the technology to travel interstellar distances, imagine what will have happened with miniaturisation and weapons technology in the meantime - you'll have bombs big enough to blow up countries in the size of a briefcase. It only take ONE nutcase to get his hands on such a thing and it's game over So - life on other planets? - virtually 100% definite. Are we ever going to meet one? - nope.

Normal service is resumed.

Big NO! to Bathstore. We are doing our bathroom in the next couple of weeks, and all the plumbers we have spoken to said no. Partly because of their after-sales like Digsy said, but mainly down to the fact you probably have to rely on their aftersales, because they use "continental" plumb fittings, meaning you can't just go down to B&Q to get replacement pipes and bits, apparently. Our bathroom is coming from Plumbbase.

What.Ever.

This. It's parents which are the problem in my experience. When I was a lad, I wasn't (too) worried about getting told off by teachers/policemen/other adults. I was worried about what would happen when my parents found out. So it's not really the punishment thing. Trust me. Parents are still punishing their kids. And even though teachers/other adults/policemen aren't directly punishing kids any more, if I ever get called into school by a teacher for something that one of mine does, or a policeman turns up at the door, you can be sure that there'll be a punishment being dished out! As mentioned - these days parents seem far too often to take the word of their 7-year-old left-to-roam-the-streets kid over the word of another adult, even those in authority roles such as teachers and policemen. Not sure why. Maybe it's the decline of the "community" (most other adults are strangers these days). Maybe it's the media creating too much distrust of these authority figures. Maybe it's parents just being idiots and looking for a fight. Sure as anything that these kind of parents don't realise the harm they're doing to their kids.

Unfortunatley, in my experience, there are plenty of idiots playing football (you should see Sunday league!) - in fact, most team sports I can think of - which means that it's pretty much impossible to avoid the risk if you play such things - even so-called "friendly" games. I've been hospitalised myself several time due to various sporting endeavours.

Good question, Stevie - the benefit of the online stuff like SalesForce and Zoho is a (theoretically) simple setup - just go online and register and away you go. You then have access to your system globally (or "in the cloud" if you want to partake of the latest b***shit buzzword!), through a familiar (web browser) interface. It's also an off-the-shelf CRM system, which means it should be simpler to set up than building your own (albeit simple) Access store, and if you want to partake of any of the add-on functionality they provide as your business expands, it should be relatively simple (but be wary of incremental costs - especially with SalesForce). That said, the online tools often take as much configuration, tweaking and maintenance as a local installation and set-up anyway. Unless you desparately want access to your data from anywhere, or expect to expand rapidly, I would suggest it's down to how comfortable you are with Access.

lol - I'm a huge Mongo fan, but I'm not sure it fits Craig's "easy to use" requirement!

Like if they got injured playing a physical sport, for example?

Starting a small company these days, I'd be very tempted to base it around the Zoho suite.

Aren't all these theories pretty much worthless until someone comes up with a scientific method of proving them? I mean - with historical scientific theories there was sufficient evidence around that the theory was validated by behaviour easily observable to all. With things like black holes and parallel universes, I can't help feeling that the human race will have long since wiped itself out before we get anywhere close to clarifying any of these theories, and whilst they make for interesting discussion, it's hard to determine the difference between genuine theories and the twaddle coming from someone who just wants be the next Hawking. Hell - just working out how light or gravity works would be good for starters, before we worry about parallel multiverses?

This. This. This. This. THIS.

Not 100% sure, but I think the aeroplane still takes off?

Pure Sensia radio here, but it's way OTT, to be honest - mainly got it because it also plays music off the wireless network.

Slightly disappointed that the little digs back and forth have distracted Penguin from replying to the examples of some of the good work that the UN have done. Penguin? Would be interested to hear further on your views of the UN, mate?

The One World Government says............ ........"no cracking one out on Fridays. Or else."

Agree that the UN is an excellent example of a bad implementation. They are clearly not sufficiently altruistic, neutral or benevolent enough. And raises a good question about whether humans can ever rule in a truly benevolent way. But your description is also an excellent illustration of why I think a one world government doesn't really matter - if it did get created, it would only ever be able to operate at this kind of level. With the distribution of might and population the way it is at the moment, no one body has the power to unify China, the US and the middle east with any kind of genuine rulership - it would be UN-style sanctions and approvals at the very best, I think. This is why I wouldn't really worry about a OWG, because even if it manifested in some way, I really don't think it's going to affect "the man on the street". Same way I don't really worry about whether there's really a God or not, as I do not believe it affects my life one way or the other!

Understood, but although the eurozone defines a few high level laws, the majority decision making is still made at a national and local level - why would the installation of a "world government" necessarily change that? If the majority of legislation was still delegated to national and regional government, and a "one world government" just focused on fixing those things that are of truely global concern (like overpopulation, ecological issues, fossil fuel usage, etc.), which nations have proved completely unable to fix by themselves, why wouldn't that be a good thing?

Typically, yes, but not categorically. Sounds like a bit of a throwaway statement. Who defines the "right" level of freedom? ...more importantly, where's Tannhauser when we need him?

With the (possible) exception of point #1, aren't these potential issues/questions with ANY level of government, be it local, regional, national or whatever? Cornwall probably say the same kind of things about the UK government. Altarnun probably say the same kind of things about Cornwall CC. etc.

Eternal Sunshine is a good suggestion. Impossible to pick out something that's good for everyone. Maybe "Pulp Fiction"? I'm not that hot on it, but it's one that everyone should at least see, if not own.

- Lotus Esprit - Lancia Delta Integrale - RS200

I've just heard that he's blaming it all on being away from his homeland: Although he's very happy at United, he does Miss Wales occasionally.

I'm using Kitchen Devil Professionals at the moment. They're pretty good for the price.

This is only £19 on Amazon, btw.