gcol

What is so special about metric units anyway? The whole system starts with an arbitrary unit and uses an archaic and arbitrary base 10 counting system, because we have 10 fingers. This makes it easier for mathematicians who can't use a calculator, and primary educators whose performance is judged by ticking the box that shows how many kids have memorised their times tables. Myself, I like the idea of a banana as a basic unit, and a base 20 counting system when I am sandalled and sockless in the summer and use my toes as well. Imperial is user friendly, that goes down well in the USA, the land of the free and the progenitor of dumbed-down consumerism. I enjoyed that, feel better now. Send me a food parcel.

Whether its right or wrong, and the ethical/religious debate will go on forever, it is the magical moment of birth, the change from "thing" to person. If we think thing becomes person before actual birth, then we have to wrestle with the timing of when can a foetus (thing) be morally/ethically/religiously terminated. If anyone can point to a holy writ, from any religion, on this question, I should be interested. In its absence, it is a point of legal nicety.

Phew, that is a relief, we could not afford it (see thread on National Debt).

The metric system was promoted by Napoleon Bonaparte, the well known European tyrant, mass murderer and Hitlerian role model, so naturally, as an Englishman of a certain age, I am against it!

There was no winner in this skirmish, although each side will claim a victory for domestic political purposes. It settled nothing. It was a minor conflict in a larger battle in a larger war. It took WW2 to settle WW1, and the cold war to settle WW2. The Arab Israeli conflict began in Biblical times, continues, and will continue for generations at different scales. Dissenters wearing rose tinted specs are invited to scan the skies for flying pigs.

My history books /teachers said that the primary cause of UK national debt was buying arms and equipment fro America to fight two world wars. Before WW1 we were well in surplus. Lend Lease means what it says, not free. The prime causes of other countries debts are surely many and various. The whole modern world runs on debt now, ever since the introduction of paper money. I suspect there is only one dollar/pound, it just circulates so fast that everyone thinks they have it. It will be an interesting day when the roundabout stops. Long after I am dead and gone, I hope.

I'm largely with Mr.D, although it sometimes not easy to differentiate the harmless, amusing and funny crackpots from the dangerous kind. All good and original comedians have a touch of the crackpot, it is their ability to see things differently that gives them their humourous edge, I think the term crackpot is too broad a term. We need subtler definitions. The term "Republican" for example. Too broad a church. They cant all be bad, surely? Just like crackpots.

Here is a simplistic laymans observation: A leaf is a rather simple growth system. Nutrients are carried to the extremities (growing edges) by veins. Is it unreasonable for growth to be most pronounced nearest to the veins? I suggest the topography of vein growth dictates leaf shape. Vein growth takes priority, leaf shape follows as it may. Some shapes may by chance suit certain niches, encouraging odd shapes. Veins first, shape second.

Run as fast and as hard as you can until you collapse into a premature grave from excessive exercise. Exertion kills! Burn those trainers! You know it makes sense!

If it was not for the support of Southern redneck fundamentalist creationists, from where would Bush get most of his support? (Just joking, perhaps.....)

Children born to a male couple? That would be quite a medical breakthrough! So we are talking about female couples only, and misapropriating a sperm or egg from a third party without its permission. Hey, sperm and eggs have rights too, you know. I smell civil rights violation of the unborn. Look forward to the first class action.

How about a cerebral relocation from dick to skull, or a super-glued zipper?

I am wary of linking to specific sites. No one site acurately reflects the nuances of my viewpoint. I was just indicating a general, unfortunate but largely predictable reaction. Very quaint how two opposing camps can twist the same basic data to "prove" their beliefs.

Budelwraagh: . Indeed. Terrorism does not come only from the bottom up, but as exemplified by Stalin, (and others, find your own examples if you accept the wider meaning of terrorism) from the top down also. The State can be guilty of terrorism when it is oppressive, dictatorial and espouses exra-judicial execution and population relocation. That might also include the social terrorism of the one child per family dictat of the Chinese authorities.

While googling nylonase, Found at least two sites that are using it to prove the two opposites.... ID and evolution. You can find and chose your own. Funny old world. Does this firmly put IDers in the crackpot category? I sense this thread has already been derailed, so I feel no guilt in pushing it further until it is dragged back with hard evidence

Absolutely facinating. No more info from me, but as an example of the sheer dogged tenacity of evolution to exploit the most obscure environmental oportunistic, niche, it is an eye-opening example. Especially if it can be proven that this bacteria had no previous hiding place. I tried to avoid thinking of the bacteria threat to the Alaska pipeline, but could not resist it. Sorry.

Indeed, but if I were hezbollah, the lesson learned is that a well trained, motivated force equipped with modern weapons using hit and run tactics over well prepared ground and using civilians as camouflage has fought a powerful conventional army to a standstill. Not just to a standstill, but by their own objective has actually won by not being defeated. Put it another way.... Israel besieged a fortress with no visible fortifications or defensive lines. With no identifiable targets, modern weapons are largely impotent. As the exocet redefined naval warfare, the Mujahedeen and Vietcong have shown the way for Hezbullah. The old school blitzkrieg and nuke-em Westpoint brigade must learn new tricks, and fast.

I dont see the logic of that statement. You may not want to make the comparison, but Bin Laden did, and if I wanted to, I would. There may be few points of similarity, therefore the differences ought to be many and significant and worth objective consideration to understand more fully where Bin Laden is coming from. Know your enemy, no matter how distasteful, if you want to defeat him.

Agree. Seems like we need the advice of a psychiatric specialist if the type of crackpot you have in mind is genuinely mentally disturbed. A true paranoid obsessive is rather threatening to us all, in science or religion. Dammit, you've made me come over all serious, now I'm depressed.

I have the feeling that crackpottery, like beauty, is often only in the eye of the beholder. You are right though, but who is to judge?

There seem to be a few people that do not know pain. My daughter-in-law's brother is one such. After an accident, he could not stand or walk properly. It was examined and found to be broken. "Oh, is it? What should I do about it then? is all he said, and never mentioned it again. As for me, I go with mouths and needles and having a dressing ripped of a half-healed wound.

Phi: You are right of course. But the voice of reason and moderation (you have to listen really hard for it), like a referee, is always liable to be thumped by both sides. Refs dont get paid much, do they. They must do it for love or something else completely illogical. I thought of altruism, but somehow it got stuck in my throat.

Sounds very reasonable and principled to me, but one big problem: How long would it be before a "moderate" putting his head above the parapet would get it blown off?