Solitair

Reply to Don't misunderstand the American character in Politics JoeUser Forums

Interesting to see that so many people are yet again focussed on history and not as much about the now and the future. Yes all the western powers have huge historical crimes against the developing world and each other but that is not the cause of terrorism or hatred. Terrorism and hatred is primarily about the now or close past. What has happened in the last 5-10 years or what is happening today to turn so many people to extreme violence. Eve

Reply to Is there alien intelligent life in the universe? in Pure Technology JoeUser Forums

Penicillin - accidental discovery Microwave ovens - accidental discovery To name 2 off the top of my head. Paul.

Reply to Racism in Belfast in Politics JoeUser Forums

In the case of most people I know in Ireland it's a persecution complex. They feeel persecuted not because they were/are but because their ancestors were. Not an excuse in the slightest and they need to get over it. Interesting point though and possibly very true. Paul.

Reply to Is there alien intelligent life in the universe? in Pure Technology JoeUser Forums

Have you heard of the Drake equation? Drake came up with this equation in 1961 to determine the likelihood of us ever finding intelligent life from another planet. N = R x fp x ne x fl x fi x fc x L where N is the chance R is rate of formation of suitable stars to support planets in a habital zone (radiation, energy, light, etc) fp is fraction of those stars actually with planets ne is the number of suitable 'earth' planets fl is the fraction of tho

Reply to Racism in Belfast in Politics JoeUser Forums

I actually have to agree with the previous statement, and I'm actually Irish. I am very surprised and disappointed in the obvious racism I see in people In know in Ireland. I find that the problem is particularly acute among Irish people who have never travelled, lived or worked abroad. I think part of the problem is that Ireland has no history of minority cultures. Until recently there was no emigration. Because of this there is no experience

Reply to Did Bush manipulate public opinion for the war in Iraq? in Politics JoeUser Forums

Interesting interviews with Paul O Neill in the last day or two. For someone who was on the National Security Council to say they never saw any evidence of WMD is a serious statement. Personally I agree with Brad. Bush did indeed manipulate the American people to achieve the desired support for war in Iraq, but Saddam did need to be removed. The issue now is for Americans a) are the American people happy with being manipulated? b) does

Reply to America:Threat to us all in Politics JoeUser Forums

Brad, you really should research a bit about Britian before making such a silly and completely untrue statement. As for the topic of this thread ... I have absolutely no problem with a democratic country having TV stations which pull ads or shows that generate hatred and incite racism. In England there are laws against incitement to violance or hatred and so I would expect the TV stations to do their job and pull such articles (wher

Reply to What things in the past 10 years would you change? in History JoeUser Forums

I gather we're not worried about causality and time bubble collaspe? As a physicist I believe in time cones. You can go back in time but you can then never return to the original future and the new future won't repeat the same. Therefore buying stock in the winning companies, is not gaurenteed to win as chance will be different. That idea may not come, that chance meeting may not occur, that person may or may not die, some government official

Reply to Lord of the Rings: Aragorn, Numenor, Elrond, and Galadriel in Movies & TV & Books JoeUser Forums

Lizzardo, the film deviates strongly from the book with respect to Arwen. In the book there is no fading. She is an elf and will always live forever. That's part of the difficult decision for her. She will live for ever knowing the pain of Aragon's eventually death (from old age). In the books she eventually travels over the sea when Aragon dies (along with Gimli and Legolas). In the film she 'becomes' mortal through her own c

Reply to Do you really need sleep? in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Poor you. Most (not all) forms of sleep disorder are usually linked to lifestyle. The biggest lifestyle issue is usually stress. Hope you're not too stressed out. A friend of mine last eyar had a major sleep problem and in the end found a great solution. 3 weeks backpacking holiday in India. 3 weeks of no TV, no work, no pressures, jet lag, immense heat. She loved it and when she returned slept like a baby every night. Paul.

Reply to Don't misunderstand the American character in Politics JoeUser Forums

I have to agree that Brad is correct in his statement that it is human nature to seek revenge. Terrorists attack the US, the US seeks revenge. Japan attacked the US the US seeked revenge. What he is avoiding is the fact (as seen by many islamics) that the US has been attacking them and their way of life for decades. Unsurprisingly they seek revenge. What constitutes an attack? A small group of terrorists on 9/11? The US government

Reply to Don't misunderstand the American character in Politics JoeUser Forums

I have to agree that Brad is correct in his statement that it is human nature to seek revenge. Terrorists attack the US, the US seeks revenge. Japan attacked the US the US seeked revenge. What he is avoiding is the fact (as seen by many islamics) that the US has been attacking them and their way of life for decades. Unsurprisingly they seek revenge. What constitutes an attack? A small group of terrorists on 9/11? The US government

Reply to Forum Bug Reports in Welcome JoeUser Forums

two more small irritions a) back button: When in a forum thread and I click the back button it does not always take me back to the forum. I often have to click it a few times just to escape the thread. b) after you submit a reply on topic with >25 posts you are taken to the 1st page of replies, not to where your reply is posted. Paul.

Reply to Why Kyoto failed in Politics JoeUser Forums

Is there a mis-type in the last line? I think I know what you're trying to say. I agree with you that non global warming pollutants are not yet being treated with as much vigour, but they will be. Lead pollution is just a seperate topic from CO2, not in any way less important. I notice Science magazine lists climate change impact work as the 3rd most important scientific work of the year. Paul.

Reply to Review: Return of the King in Movies & TV & Books JoeUser Forums

I suspect that some of your missing scenes will be in the extended edition in 9 months time. I know the saruman scenes were definitely cut. I also agree with you on the melodrama issue. A bit too much of it for my liking, and individual melodrama scenes sometimes take too long. It's like having 15 standing ovations, after the 5th it becomes boring. Excellent film though. Paul.

Reply to Life With a Twin in Home & Family JoeUser Forums

Ahhh, I've been praising your work on Galciv for over a year and never realised you were a twin. Not that it would ever had come up in beta testing. I trust Brad hasn't tried to convince her to start programming Paul.

Reply to Why Kyoto failed in Politics JoeUser Forums

Draginol, of course people agree that other pollutants are very important. No one is arguing against this, but as stated before you're talking about the Kyoto accords on global warming. Hence CO2. You take the view (and are perfectly entitled to) that CO2 is not causing global warming, which is fine. You also take the view though that the US can continue to pump more and more CO2 into the atmosphere so long as it gets more production from it. This I totally disagree with. Do you

Reply to The Issue of Taxes in Politics JoeUser Forums

Actually Maggaz I quite like the idea of a single percentage for tax. Company tax and income tax tend to be very differnt though. Single rate company tax is the norm worldwide, with the rate varying greatly from country to country. This means that 30K or 30M is directly related to your profits. It's fair. Most countries have incentives and lower regulation requirements on smaller companies anyway. Income tax though is another matter. For some reason it's taken for granted that rich peop

Reply to Lord of the Rings: Aragorn, Numenor, Elrond, and Galadriel in Movies & TV & Books JoeUser Forums

You do have some good points. I always find elven power to be very strange. I think it's important to remember that there are many types of power and skill. Galandrial for example used her power in maintaining Lorien. Is it any less power than an elf who uses their power for warfare (Finglofin) or an elf who becomes a craftman (Celebrimor). Which leads to one of my problems. Celebrimor crafted the elven rings (after studying from Sauron). Yet Cirdan (who eventually gave his ring to Gand

Reply to Lord of the Rings: Aragorn, Numenor, Elrond, and Galadriel in Movies & TV & Books JoeUser Forums

Nice article Draginol but I believe you're slightly incorrect in respect to the power of elves or men. Their power does not diminish because of potentcy being reduced, but because it's not increasing through learning from the Valor and living under the trees. Faenor (2nd generation) who was considered the greatest elf actually had 2 brothers by a different mother. He himself had 7 sons, many of whom were very powerful. Other very powerful elves include Finglofin (2nd generation half bro

Reply to Why Kyoto failed in Politics JoeUser Forums

Draginol, of course the percentage is nonsensical. It's an arguement about concept. I've taken the absolute extreme to show that there is a limit. In effect this is an exhaustible commodity. If there is a limit then there must eventually be some collective responsibility. If you agree with Lincoln and his "all men are created equal" statement, then why do you feel you have a bigger right to release more CO2 than anyone else (so long as you use it 'efficiently'). Why can't I burn

Reply to Forum Bug Reports in Welcome JoeUser Forums

Very nice. Couple of small issues, a) Can't press return or tab in small edit window. Not a major issue as I can use the large edit window but frustrating till you get used to it. b) clicking more below a forum fails to show any extra threads. May just be because there are none! Paul.

Reply to Why Kyoto failed in Politics JoeUser Forums

Draginol, You seem to be fairly quick to fall back on an anti-American complaint. No-one made any such suggestion. Please continue to argue the point and stop seeing racism where none exists. Just because people disagree with you on this topic does not make them anti-American. It's the American stance they disagree with NOT the American people. You

Reply to Brad's Notes: 12/5/03 in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Thanks for the reply Draginol. As for GDP I didn't claim the US was the largest polluter per GDP and apologise if it sounded like that. I was asking you to let me know if you felt that the US should be allowed pollute more than any other nation by any of those standards. I didn't mean to suggest that the US was worse under all those categories. You chose GDP as you like the arguement of efficient polluter. I choose total pollution (like Kyoto) as I like real numbers. I also apologise fo

Reply to Why Kyoto failed in Politics JoeUser Forums

To answer some of the other qustions others have raised, Wind farms are actually highly efficient and very good at repaying their build costs within a few years. Off shore wind farms are particularly good as they also don't create "visual pollution" on the landscape. Improvements in wind turbines in the past few years have been huge and many European countries are now looking at using wind farms to up their renewable energy production to 20% of total production (a target provisionally a