mistermack

Russia's not under much of a threat. I wouldn't be surprised to see some bias in favour of Ukraine anyway, in this survey. It's a western managed survey. In any case, my point was that election results in Ukraine are not to be trusted, no matter who is in power, but especially in today's circumstances. But even notwithstanding that, the loyalties and results were pretty evenly split in the country, up until the coup.

I'm not surprised at the finding. You won't get an true picture in war time, there would be a price to pay for "lack of loyalty".

You constantly misrepresent the question being debated. It's about athletes, playing other athletes in competition, not friendly games. Your question has been answered, and the answer is bleedin obvious. If people just want to play each other, nothing's stopping them. I had a girlfriend who was a good squash player, and I was a novice. We played many times, and she would slaughter me. As I improved, I started playing some men, who were good players, and eventually I ended up beating my girlfriend easily. She mysteriously lost interest in playing me, and I preferred playing better male players in the end. There was nothing stopping us playing each other, but it became too uneven. Anyone can play anyone they like, but when it comes to competition, people prefer to pit like against like. And that's why there is a women's category, not a "women's level" category.

Yeh, it would be a shame if some less talented man came along, with a snip here and a pill there, and deprived them of their trophies.

You would think that beer would be one of the cheaper drinks to produce, as the raw materials are pretty basic and easy to produce in bulk. The price difference is definitely due to the alcohol tax. Cider is equally basic in raw materials. Apples are cheaper and easier to grow than grapes, you would think. There is a difference in that brewing takes time, and can spoil. But when it comes to bulk manufacturing, the differences would be fairly low. Marketing and distribution can't be ignored. Look at the cost of bottled water. The raw material cost is nearly nothing, but it's not cheap in the shops.

It might be a hangover from when they were babies feeding on the nipple. When your nipple runs dry, you try to push your neighbour off his.

Dammit !! I KNEW there was something about those Williams sisters !

This is the instruction I wrote to myself, (for when I forget it). It works fine for me. Using onenote : (This works great once you have it going) Go to text. Long tap the message, select copy. Go to onenote. Select "texts"page. Long tap the blank page. Use "paste" Now open onenote on the pc The text should be there. Copy it, and delete leaving "texts" blank for next message

In a way, it's comforting to know that a house committee can have a sense of humour, even if they can't spell it. 🙂

He already knows the result. (and he's probably already got money bet on it)

You're the one who asked why there isn't an uprising to oust Zelensky. I'm just explaining it for you, why that would be pretty much impossible. Although I would have thought it was obvious. Right at the beginning of this war I pointed out that Zelensky was a disaster for his country. He had the option to commit to not joining Nato, which would have meant no war. He would have been giving away nothing, because Ukraine is further than it ever was from becoming a member of NATO. So he's fought this war for nothing, he's lost about a fifth of the country so far, and at least tens of thousands have died. Many of them unwilling participants. So Ukraine has been a big loser. The people are suffering. All for nothing. But Zelensky's ok. He can ponce around in battle fatigues, getting attention from the fawning western media, and nobody can threaten HIS position. And you can bet your life he's becoming fabulously wealthy. Because that's the Ukrainian way.

It's hardly a state secret. If you have to ask, you clearly get your information from newspaper headlines. : "From the political perspective, one of the defining features of the politics of Ukraine is that for most of the time, it has been divided along two issues: the relation between Ukraine, the West and Russia, and the classical left-right divide.[154] The first two presidents, Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma, tended to balance the competing visions of Ukraine,[155] though Yushchenko and Yanukovych were generally pro-Western and pro-Russian, respectively." Ukraine - Wikipedia

Before this war, loyalties in Ukraine were split about fifty fifty for Russian leaning or West leaning parties. Once the coup happened, this was never heard of again. Now, the Russian leaning people are forced to fight Russia, if they qualify for the military. And if you spoke up against Zelensky, what do you think would happen? No male of fighting age is allowed to leave the country, and you would soon find yourself cannon fodder.

They ran the election. In the most corrupt country in Europe. Corruption in Ukraine - Wikipedia Same as in N. Korea. Fear of reprisals.

I find that songs that go round and round my head are not necessarily songs that I like. Some are actually stuff I dislike, or not my kind of music at all. It seems to be random in me.

I know a man who swallowed a spider . . . . Man who swallowed a spider while sleeping thought he was going to die (msn.com)

They seized power in a coup.

He's not mad.

I dispute that the Ukraine govt. is legitimate, and certainly dispute that Crimea is their land. There's no may be about it. Most of the planet is out of pocket already. Except maybe the US and Saudis.

I'm watching a documentary right now, that has a piece about Laos. They said that there are still about eighty million unexploded American cluster bombs in the country, and about 300 people are killed or seriously maimed every year by them. This is in addition to the loss of fertile land that is too dangerous to farm. I see that Ukraine has started using the same weapons in the war, on land that it claims is it's own. I hope we're not asked for money to clear them in the future. Laos has mostly had to pay for it's own clearance, in spite of not inviting the Americans to drop bombs on them. The Americans are finally talking figures of a few tens of millions towards the work, but this is sixty years later, and they originally dropped about two MILLION tons of bombs on Laos. Each cluster bomb contained up to 600 small bombs and up to 40% failed. It takes a team several hours to find and destroy one small bomb. Most of the work is paid for by charities, not the US. Obama to announce $90 million package to clear Laos' unexploded bombs | CNN Politics

That doesn't make any more sense than the original. And I shouldn't have to do research to find out what your post means.

What does that mean?

It's a pointless exercise debating how to make a level playing field. Handicapping contestants might be interesting from a horseracing point of view, for gambling purposes, but it's not very interesting from a human competition angle. It's obvious that there's an overlap between women's performance and men's in a great many sports. Does that mean that slower men should be competing against quicker women? Because you could easily select male athletes who are likely to be pretty level on performance with top women. But that would be a ludicrous spectacle, having less able men competing against top women. But that's basically what allowing transgender athletes to compete against women would be doing. If you are going to have a separate class for women, then it needs to be women, not men, who qualify for it. Transgenders don't have to be excluded, they can compete in the "open" section. And why not allow women to compete in that too, if they want? Call it an open class, and make it open to any human.

I'll take your word for it. I was too lazy to check.

Of course we are heading for disaster. I'm 73, so my own disaster isn't far off. Humanity's might be some way off, but we all get it in the end. And so what about human nature? You might as well moan about the nature of foxes. You are what you're born with, and there is no right or wrong, just a current consensus.