Vapymid

I'm just as undecided as you are... None of the "arguments" being exchanged by both campaigns can be taken seriously. In fact - they should all be totally disregarded and ignored as they are aimed at the lowest common denominator among the voters. Which is reeeeaaallly low. So... Staying in is the "safe" option - but it comes with a cost. Not least the weakening of the UK's bargaining position in the EU - "Ah, you Brits, you can't leave now - we can make you do anything we want" But leaving is simply a punt. No one can possibly say what the impact will be - too many factors. The decision then is - say "pass" and be out of the game or roll the dice and face up to the consequences... Opportunity cost v the risk. Regards

No person in the world is immune or selfless enough to not have some kind of prejudice, be it by race, sex, sexuality... It is in our instincts - those same instincts that make us be attracted to the opposite sex by necessity mean that we must be repulsed by homosexual encounters... The old parochial tribal instincts would mean we look at anyone different from us with immediate competitive fear and suspicion. But it is what we do with these instincts that matters in the end. There are people who recognise these urges in themselves, accept them for what they are and strive to counteract them, then there are those who succumb to them but have learned to hide their feelings - for political correctness... Then there are the simplest kind - who just follow their instincts and do not know better... The latter of the three - they would never be among my friends in the first place. Out of the for former two... I'd rather be with the first kind... The honest kind. I'd rather my friend vented their frustration, knowing that that's what he is doing, than pretended to be an all-loving and all-caring saint but was reading Mein Kampf in the privacy of his bedroom... Well, yes, some solutions to the wolrd's problems may seem deceptively simple but only the stupid really subscribe to them. Regards

Couldn't agree more! The only kind of streaming I can watch is the live news broadcast on TV... Regards

Happy Birthday, Jeb! Regards

"Upon the instruments of death. The sunlight brightly gleams." Regards

@Selfsurprise - I don't think this list is any kind of manifestation of shifting attitudes. Simply an expression of a minute but volcal minorty who are obsessed with rigid categorisation of everything. We can see the same pointless inflation in the number of terms in discussions of music sub-genres, for example. We also can see that these people would insist on putting you in a specific niche they have devised for you in their inflamed brains and will vehemently attack you if you somehow won't fit that assigned "identity". Very little to do with tolerance and is basically a psychological disorder. There is nothing continuous in the simple matter of gender. It's either male or female (or neuter - in language). And there is no need for any additional terms for that. @Jeb - I would just reduce everything to penisgender and vaginagender. Hmm... maybe I should point it out on that site Regards

Knowledge is a subset of information. And genetic lines are pure information. So, if you wish to use this for analogies, or rather for interpretation - which is absolutely valid as far as I am concerned - your genes are part of the information pool, but whether or not you pass them on makes them part of the knowledge. Regards

Your position is apriori egotistical and selfish because you posit yourself as an infdividual detached from the rest of the humanity and absolved of any responsibility and duties connecting you to it. The argument that creating life is "forcing somebody's hand" is equally specious. You are just as well forcing the hand of your unborn children AND your ancestors, who no longer have an ability to influence the matter and so rely on you for continuing their genetic line - by intentionally avoiding to have an offspring. At least, when you do have children - you give them a chance to have a say in it all. The main problem though is the former, as you seem to see yourself as something discrete in time and space, separate from the rest of not only humans but the earthly life as a whole. In fact, though - you and every last one of us is primarily a cell, a part of a larger entity and a process. And we must play our part within our lives and also without - by ensuring the continuity and selection of our genetic lines, hence - procreation... And you are wrong in trying to draw a distinction between "existential" and "non-existential" impulses. The instincts we are talking about are all existential. If you don't eat or breathe - you die. If you do not procreate, a whole chain of existence that led to the appearance of you dies. Your body itself is an analogy for this. Your body is nothing but a collection of individual cells, nano-machines. The existence of you as an entity depends on the existence of your cells at any given moment but also on cellular division (procreation) as when the cells stop creating copies of themselves your organism is beginning to take damage and die. Yes, there are redundancies and safeties both in your body and in the tree of life as a whole. So - one cell or one individual selfishly refusing to perform its function may not cause damage... On the other hand - it just might... Regards

So. Leaving it to others to deal with all the problems and resposibilities of propagating the genetic line? And that is not egotistical? You are confusing the cause and effect here. The impulse is a byproduct of the need and purpose to exist, not the other way round. The impulse is only there because of the need to procreate. Do you also resist the urge to breathe and eat and drink? They are also biological impulses you despise so much... But what is the justification for you to denounce something that has demostrated its worth time and time again? Why do you claim that you in your meagre couple of decades of existence is somehow wiser than the process that has managed to create your mind out of a disjointed soup of chemicals that existed billions of years ago? Regards

Oh. On reflection - that sounds a bit sinister, doesn't it? But yes - I do owe you that dinner, my dear! I wish Binky makes it to London, though - I owe him a pint or two as well Regards

Ah, you know me too well, love... But, yes - I would... I would never say that to you, though, Jeb. Quite the opposite... But you already know that too... Well, you cannot be the judge of that. That's the whole point. An immense amount of energy and billions of years have been spent to produce you. So you owe it to your ancestors to at least remain in the running. If you decide to walk away, though - selfishly - that would indeed mean your gene line is not worth continuing... Of, course, there maybe circumstances beyond our control - but there is an obligation upon us and disregarding it is the most egotistical thing a person can do... I sure hope they won't have the same interests... That's why we mix genes and not just clone ourselves. You create something, someone new - who is not you or your partner but is a blend of both and who hopefully will strive to find their own path... That in my mind is beautiful. I think the crux of the matter is that you are constructing these seemingly logical arguments simply to avoid having to confront your lack of self-confidence. It is so easy to just give up. "I am not interesting" - there! Problem solved! No need to do anything about it. "I don't need to try to start a conversation with that girl I fancy and having to blush and grasp for words and risk being rejected - I am already not interesting enough to start with. Much easier to just imagine some kind of a justification why I don't even need to like her. Then I won't have to find ways to overcome my fears and insecurities but will simply wallow in my self-pity". So, yeah, I don't find your arguments convincing... Regards

Awww... But, Jassy, yes - that's the very same thing I feel about you... Not a basket though... more like a delicate vase - an amphora of adorableness? Yes, that sounds more like you, my dear... Regards

Subject #24 "What's most important in life?" Well, as Jeb has not rejected the topic, I will take it as officially upheld. What's most important in life? My loved ones, family - namely, their health. When you have the health - everything else is secondary. While they are healthy - they live, while they live - everything can be solved and fixed. And speaking of longer term - what is important? Well, living in such a way as to make the subsequent generation's lives better... That and making sure one's bloodline continues into the next generations... God? God doesn't need my help, I should just do the best I can in this world and God will take care of everything else... @Jeb - there is no point in a relationship if there is no understanding and willingness to understand, I agree - bollocks to that. They who don't want to understand - they should just go and have their own life, no need to disrupt ours... Regards

You don't need to apologise for anything, Jeb. If you had to offend someone - it was entirely their own fault and they deserved it. And in the meantime - you have become the heart and soul of this place. And - hehe, don't let it go to your head just yet - but you can do no wrong here Your word is the law. Regards

Black. With gems Steady beat or syncopations? Regards

@BTG - LOL! The only small problem is that Sidewinder is an air-to-air missile @Scott - well, that question went right over my head so I pass that on... Ezekiel 25:17 or Romans 15:1? Regards

And now the end is nigh! Resonance cascade detected at the Large Hadron Collider. Immediate cover up blames a sabotage by a weasel but we, of course, know better than beliving the official lies... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/29/large_hadron_collider_shut_down/ Regards

Don't even think about it! You know what the punishment for silly petulance is going to be... Regards

Nature does not preserve "sub-species". Nature make them interbreed. Humans slept with neanderthals, neanderthals slept with humans. "Cross-breeding" is the norm in the animal world - "purebreds" are the human invention and are based on artificial selection. Is that what you are proposing? What should we do with you then if you fall in love with a black girl? Burn you at a stake? Castrate? Send you into an exile? Look, there is a bad and a good news. The bad one - you are a racist. The good news - it is not terminal. You can change if you just allow yourself to learn and think. Regards

'Loud bangs' as lightning strikes planes over London From where I was, the bang was not all that loud, but I can imagine the feelings of the passengers Regards

Not very subtle honestly. Yes. Just an activist with KKK or another fringe supremacist group trying to find recruits for their "cause". And just as predictably - gets confused with the first complex-sounding word he has ever tried to use in his life - "cross-breeding" doesn't mean what he thinks it means... Regards

Ah, man - I'm so envious! i-WDQxlVzgE "Some men never listen, And others never learn, But why this man did as he did Only he will ever know. ... So he went inside there to take on what he found But he never escaped them, for who can escape what he desires?" Golden words... Regards

qvypQtn4bVc From the first album of theirs I've ever heard... when I was about 6 or 7 Still my favourite... Regards

Very little depends on the "strength" the leader. It's the system around him that creates the "authoritarianism". Very often - the most unremarkable people have more real power under the "strong" leader than the leader himself. And inevitably - such systems are self-destructive and ineffective. The corruption eats them from the inside until everything implodes. So - it's all a myth that a "strong" leader can actually lead a country into anything at all, other than ingto a deep pool of crap. Regards

Well, that almost describes the weathing in London today, except you'd need to add lightning and thunder for the complete picture... @Alyxx - what's the significance of a double rainbow, if I may ask? Regards