NotNoNever

Ooooh, sweet. Perhaps, even, saccharrine, but I loved Duka and Jaron. Did you know that cilia are the flappy bits that push single celled organisms along? I was quite taken with that as a name for that evil witch She was no better than a germ!

Tsk! Beer needed to settle this one!

Ah, well, now you've changed your terms. You were talking about men, now about persons. It's a woman's game. Losing a non-existent man is hardly likely to have any effect at all.

Alone? Absolutely not. Unreasonable? Yes, but only because if men can, so should women be able to. Old fashioned? Quite the opposite, imo. Sexist? Clearly, if you refer to my answer to unreasonable. I never get why Muhammed Ali is called the greatest ever. Getting your head battered about so it brings on tremors, and probably contributed to his Parkinsons Disease doesn't seem at all clever to me, far less great.

I really can't see how Canada playing one man down would have changed anything.

I'm afraid I couldn't really understand your post. At any rate, this is an Olympic competition. It has nothing to do with FIFA from a sanctions point of view. And anybody expecting any level of sensibility out of FIFA or soccer players is living in hope of alchemy. I can't really understand why soccer is in the Olympics, anyway. It is one of the least noble sports on the planet. Although, women's soccer is a little better than the men's game. And the biggest problem with the men's game is that half of them think each game is a training period for Tom Daley's sport.

Oh, feck. FECK FECK FECK, feckety feck. I never read incomplete stories and somehow I didn't catch that this one is incomplete. When will it be done? It's one of the best I've read for ages. I don't like where it's headed, though. I have a different outcome in mind. I hope you're just teasin our asses! Quality!

Actually, it is not belief which is the real issue in conflict, although as you say, that can be used as a motivator. The real issue is identity. Belief is one tool for defining identity, but so is nationhood, localism, interest community, etc. These are myths built to create a focal point to which a person can call others as an anchor for belonging and a definer of in/outgroupness. The conqueror can then use this as a means of coalesence to gather cohorts for good or bad (group acceptable/unacceptable). Defenders (if such be the case) or non-aggressors can do the same (WWII allies, federation as opposed to the Borg, Suffragettes etc). As such, belief has little or nothing to do with it at base. Defining oneself in a particular way is action (fact) as opposed to belief (notion). People rarely believe themselves to be correct, they usually 'know' it (although there is some scope to question that statement) and act accordingly. I'd suggest that is a pre-requisite for aggressive action, where the psychological ability to inflict pain, or to risk injury / death requires more than belief, but a high degree of certainty.

Bit lost, here, Ashi. If you increase text size, I'd have thought that you mean on GA. In which case I can't see why format would be affected for reading. If you mean change resolution, you can always change it back. If it's a pc, you can set up a scheme in graphics prroperties to handle that easily. I always found it too difficult to read on an itouch, because of the size. But, anyway, surely that would also stuff up the formatting. So, not really sure what your problem is exactly, to be able to give advice. I only read long stories usually, so I rather labouriously cut and paste and make a PDF which I can read with PDF reader. It's worth it for 40,000+. There is also a mobile skin on here, though I know very little about it.

It's a good story, this. Your storytelling is pretty good, though you need someone to give it some punctuation! There were times I felt it drifting a tiny bit, but overall, I really liked it.

It only takes one good man to stand by for evil to prevail. Cutesy wee poem. Thanks for sharing.

There's a thing about creatives - ideas. They can't stop having them! Sometimes the finish line us just that - sometimes it's like the potter's shape before the firing, before the glazing, before the painting, before the cleaning, before the packaging, before the delivery. My point is that there comes a point where you just want it out of your life. The successful writer learns to control that impetus and return to the project. Hence why ppl like QT / AQG are so good ... they persist! It's a lesson!

Ah, well! There's finishing it, period. And, there's finishing it and sending it to the editor!. As for data security, my advice would always be to have an arrangement where you could send stages to your editor as security backups, but which they wouldn't read. Or, set up a holding hotmail / etc account, and email your work to that as a backup. Less likelihood of losing stuff. Editors are cool that way, you know! xx

I don't think it's remotely funny. But, offensive? Not really. And thats partly because I can't understand why they used this characterisation to articulate the message. I think UK advertsers would have done this better, because we'd have properly done the Dame Edna thing. The issue here is that it's just a man in drag, and pretty piss poor drag at that. The sound quality is rubbish, and the video quality, too. Those things might not seem important, but when put together with a very poor execution, it just cheapens the vehicle. There was no humour here so that the audience could buy in. It's offensively poor, but not generically offensive. We need to remember that stereotypes exist because the fact of them exists. There are a hugely greater proportion of drag acts on the gay scene, so who's creating and feeding the stereotype? US, collectively, unfortunately. We have demanded diversity from without, so we really need to accept diversity from within, too. And that means not finding stuff 'offensive' simply because it doesn't fit with our personal image. Still, I know where I'd like to shove those curlers, and there'd be no gladioli involved, either

Didn't know he was gay! But I liked his straightforward honesty.

To clarify: I don't want the numbers reduced actively, but passively. Stop having so many kids, is the only solution. Taking away someone's life is not a supportable solution. At least not at this stage. That would only be supportable if the entire human race was at threat, which is nowhere near likely yet, and too ghastly to think about. As for WWIII. Hmmm, not so sure about that. But I do think there is the definite possibility of a radical change not too far off. It will just need the right spark. And it could be conflict based or civil disobedience based. I don't think it has the opportunity to be government based, as politicians are largely too busy trying to do the impossible by keeping us all in the belief that there is prosperity for all, while encouraging a trading system that is based upon the increase for one at the expense of decrease for many. It may be financially efficient, but it is in no way socially so.

In summary, I think we have a whole load more stress, which causes the initial difficulties. And that has its roots in very many places. Information overload is unlikely to be one of them. However, the ability to make things happen faster and more frequently, partly due to the information revolution is certainly contributing. But the thing I think is most important is a sort of cultivated psychsociopathy. Basically people have so many pressures to live up to, cannot do it nearly as well as necessary, feel abandoned and rejected by the world, especially through unemployment, and utterly hopeless. For this reason, the very unable to cope (men are notoriously bad at working it through in community) end up doing this sort of thing to scorn the world. It's somewhat inevitable when resources are made scarce and people cannot alter their situations by their own efforts. However, that is what we get in the current model of capitalism. It needs changing. And we need to cut down the number of people in the world, too. And stop this idiotic drive for efficiency. It stresses people to the nth degree, then casts them aside. Rat race.

Certainly in the UK we have a strong concept of legacy and the provision of enhanced possibilities using the new facilities. If our media thought that very expensive new venues were to be scrapped en masse, there'd be a multimedia riot. Indeed, there's even been some conflict on which course of action to pursue for the main venue when the games are over. And all sides are looking to the most productive way to use it, rather than scrapping it or working it down to mere spectacle. That's London. I'm pretty sure Sydney was the same.

Groovy. Funny, touching, and well written - dialogue needs a touchup! That said, I'm a wee bit confused about what is fact and what is fiction about where the Grimms got their story But it was a great wee read!

You lucky lucky lucky lucky lucky lucky bugger. I'll snif your armpits when you get back if it gives even the 'whiff' of what it was like! Mhm!

Hmmm, Laphroaig. Prince Charles' favourite apparently. The Glenlivet 18yo is very good (but try the 25 - un bee leavable) There's something called Islay Mist, which a deluxe blend. It's sorta like Laphroaig light imo, and pretty good. I have a bottle of Talisker atm, too. Lovely orangey notes. Did you know that the family that created Talisker came from the nearby island of Eige, and were renowned as the best distillers in the area. There's a story about one of their number who went off to either Rum or Skye on his pre-wedding night, found another girl and didn't come back. Ah, the myths of the mists!

No, indeed. Probably what we'll do is neuter their more human functions. Just like happened to many gays. Ship them off to have their brains washed so they think the right things. Artificial it will definitely be. Intelligence? Not so much.

That would have warmed even the heart inundated by all that snow and hail. Lovely, and ever so sexy, without even so much as a penis type word. Mmmmmm

Never mind about old James Savik. What about new James Savik? Look how he is.

QT, I seem to remember a query from CJ, I think, about your new handle. I don't remember him giving you the Momma Q option. Does this mean you are getting more in touch with your feminine side? Are we about to see you in a frilly frock in your gallery? Is this the latest stage in the coming out progression you mention in your advice? Do you secretly lust over the stilleto pages in the home shopping catalogues? There's gonna be questions. Especially from Granny Q, and Daddy Q2.