nacmacfeegle

1. Bigfoot Potentially yes, similar reports of yetis exist from the Himalaya, some kind of mountain gorilla or bear seems the most plausible explanation. 2. Loch Ness Monster. Absolutely, and I would encourage people to visit this particularly scenic area of my homeland to make up their own minds. 3. Life existing other than here on earth In an infinite universe, there is the inherent assumption that we are not alone. What shape or form or stage of development this life may take is the real puzzle. 4. Atlantis Island in the med, as Quade suggested, is the most feasible explanation. The entire Med is littered with submerged archeology, it does sit over a fairly active fault system. 5. ESP/Psychics I think you know my answer to that already.

"What does that leave me with? The understanding - clear and unambiguous - that the men who did this, and all those who protect, offer aid and succor, and who assist these men, deserve no less than the most we can deliver to them." Hey Michelle, not disagreeing with you and I share your disgust at his act, but there are some factors which may need to be considered when addressing this. Beheading:- Its still an accepted and official means of execution in 3 countries, The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and The DR Congo. (source http://www.nutzworld.com/amerikaarticles/methods_of_execution_by_country.htm) At least 2 out of 3 of these countries are our 'friends', and we (the civilised West) support them with trade agreements, supply military equipment and training, etc. To me beheading is barbaric, and as for public execution using this method, disgusting. So too is the death penalty, another topic entirely methinks though..... The alleged perpetrators of this abomination:- Supposedly the guy responsible for this is Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: his real name is Fadel al-Khalayleh. Reportedly he served with the Mujahadeen in their resistance against the Soviets in Afghanistan, back in the 1980s. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3483089.stm. As such I can only surmise that he, like OBL, was at one time supported, trained, and actively encouraged by the US in this struggle, albeit 20 years ago. He is suspected of setting up terrorist training camps in Kurdish Iraq, he is one of the terror links Colin Powell referred to in the justification for the invasion of Iraq. "Intelligence reports indicated he was in Baghdad and - according to Mr Powell - this was a sure sign that Saddam Hussein was courting al-Qaeda, which, in turn, justified an attack on Iraq." He is suspected of links with Ansar al-Islam, a particularly nasty bunch, hell bent on stirring up sectarian hatred. Judging by some of the anti muslim posts recently, he is succeeding. To those who want all Iraqis to die a long slow death by radiation sickness, instant vapourisation, or swift retribution at the hands of the USMC because of this, think again, the guy who is assumed to be behind the beheading is a Jordanian by birth (where he has been tried in absentia and sentenced to death), and a Palestinian by upbringing, you would be nuking the wrong country. Would you nuke the country of his birth, the country of his upbringing, or would you nuke the country that created this animal? By all means hunt him down and bring him to justice, even administer the death penalty upon him (I accept that my protestations against the death penalty will go unnoticed in this instance), but we must be careful what sort of creatures we are spawning in places like Uzbekistan, Chechnya, Afghanistan, etc. If you train a dog to kill, and encourage it to do so, you'd better be sure he doesn't bite you. I also agree with you over the timing and presentation of this murder. Its political (read sectarian), and has nothing to do with (alleged or otherwise) abuses of coalition detainees. I actually believe that Nic Berg's ticket was stamped the moment he was kidnapped. He unfortunately represents too many things that Arabic Islamic fundamentalists despise, and was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Thanks for reading, you can all now return to your outrage and frustration over this atrocity. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"The AK-47 and it's variants are widely recognized as the finest infantry weapon ever designed. Very accurate in single shot mode." They are certainly popular, I recall seeing on a Discovery type programme that one AK 47 exists for every 60 people on the planet! -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"They are ruthless and an abomination to Islam." Absolutely, well said Chris. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"I'll be happy to honor any Muslims who speak out against murder and terrorism. As soon as I can find some of them..." Shirin Ebadi for example? Celebrated Nobel and RAFTO Prize recipient a good enough example for you. You really need to get your head out of your arse John, you'll see things more clearly that way.. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Listening to the endless Bush/Kerry slamming matches is torture. Have a great weekend folks, lets not forget what brought us all together in the first place. Blues and fluffies to one and all. Dave. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"The table shows that the United States has a very high level of gun ownership and also has high or very high levels of homicide, gun homicide, gun suicide and gun accidents. But that one example does not establish an immutable rule. Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, New Zealand and Sweden all have very high levels of gun ownership, in land's being the highest recorded in the survey. All these are matched with low or very low levels of homicide, with very low accident levels in all but one case, and with very variable suicide rates. This survey confirms that, despite a single exception, a high level of violent deaths and particularly guns deaths can exist in countries where gun ownership levels vary from very low to very high and that very low levels of violent deaths can exist in countries with very high levels of gun ownership. There is, in fact, no relationship between high levels of gun ownership and high levels of gun deaths or of violent deaths in general." Later in the report..... "It seems to be assumed that producing comparable time series or cross sectional figures for gun deaths is a simple matter. In fact truly comparable statistics are almost impossible to produce." Colin Greenwood, March 2000, I'm surmising he's the same Greenwood you refer to. http://www.wfsa.net/adobe_documents/Cross_Sectional_Study.PDF It appears the adage that there are lies, damn lies and statistics applies to gun statistics also. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"Also, all guns are sold with owners manuals" Absolutely all of them including those that are second hand, bought at pawn shops, gun fairs and the likes? -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"Hey aggiedave,hows trix.Let us know what happens in last episode as we won't get it for ages over here in rainy, sunny, sleety,stormy uk" The final series is on ch4 right now, tonight even. We're only a few weeks behind Texas in TV..... "Alrighty, well, the short answer:" Damn your hat Aggs, now its all spoiled...... I guess I'll be spending fridays trying to convince the local publican to stock Shiner instead of watching my favourite imported sitcom.

[tip of hat] Good job on the defence of your faith though [/tip of hat] -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"Everybody like having Jesus at a party" He did a neat buffet with fish sandwiches too. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

We are all busy searching the net for pictures of the recent bigway. Belly fliers post their record pictures and video really quickly, I'm ashamed by my 3 dimensional brethren's delay in producing good pics. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"Are the announcements in Portugese?" Not sure Tom, and I sincerely doubt it, but I'm pretty sure the warning signs are multilingual. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"Your quote sounds also a bit like Douglas Adams (who is also Pythonesque). The best kind of humor." In which case, you'll love Terry Pratchett's sense of humour. Just as Adams parodies futuristic style Scifi, Pratchett echoes fantasy style Scifi, with a wry wink. He's done some nice kids (or young at heart adults)books too, and one which is a skit on the Omen called Good Omens. An entire sub-culture has grown around the Discworld novels

"The airport was closed for three hours and 1,000 passengers and staff had to leave as an Army bomb disposal team investigated. Three incoming flights were diverted and 15 planes grounded." Thats quite a security team. Okay Birmingham airport isn't as busy as say Gatwick, Heathrow (London) or Manchester, but its still a major upset. If I was waiting for a flight and was delayed by at least 3 hours because of this, I'd be mighty pissed. How much would you fine him? I'm guessing a plumber can't afford the re-positioning costs of the diverted aircraft alone, without considering costs of mobilising the bomb squad and subsequent missed connections of the 15 grounded aircraft. 10 days in a low security prison sounds like quite good value compared to the true cost of this guys mistake. Betcha he takes his holdall with him next time he nips out for a smoke -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"We could get better security by having pilots armed" Thats another (unattended) bag of worms. For what its worth folks, anyone leaving a bag unattended at a UK airport over the last few years needs to be removed from society for their own protection. They are obviously oblivious to the painfully regular PA announcements, and written warnings posted around the concourse, regarding the perils of leaving any item of luggage unattended within a UK airport. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

People, there's really no need to argue here... go to http://www.joshmadison.com/software/ And download 'convert', its really useful for converting archaic units of measurement to ISO recognised standards. Dave was right though, stoopid bears.

"However I think most tandem masters, are a bit particular about who they allow to lurk their tandems regardless of wether or not they have a camera strapped to their pumpkin." And rightly so in my experience.

Hey Phree, just out of interest, what happens if the camera flier hasn't got that level of experience and something untoward happens? Or is this merely a recommendation? -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Ah Jamille, I did purposefully use the term 'relatively isolated'. Of course even one instance of this abuse is too many, but I didn't want an "isolated vs widespread and systematic" flame war. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

http://www.flat-earth.org clicky.

"do you or any one non american believes that the US is trying to bring to justice all the people who are at fault in these, and trying to remedy this situation?. " We all agree this is an apalling situation? Yes, your (and the UK's) government would be foolish not to pursue the culprits in a public and well documented fashion. It would have been easier on everyone if the pictures had never surfaced though. Even easier if the (lets agree on 'abuse') abuse had never actually happened. First stage of damage control, don't let the damage occur in the first place. Our leaders can only now step in at the fourth stage of damage control and try to recover from the effects. We missed the opportunity to control the damage (2nd phase) and can't now mitigate the damage (3rd phase). Accepting that unorthodox and even questionable methods of intelligence gathering will be deployed in extreme circumstances, who allowed the camera into the prison, and who sanctioned their use? My biggest fear is not over, what everyone will no doubt agree, are relatively isolated instances of abuse. Its the fact that these pictures make great recruitment posters for any malcontent with a grudge against the coalition nations. Bear that in mind when we start getting nail bombs going off in malls. And as I said earlier, us Brits are having similar problems to deal with, and I suspect we also will lose lives over this issue. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Stats aside John, and yes, I am lucky to live where I do. I'd be glad to reciprocate the Texas hospitality that I received a while back, if ever you are passing by. We'd have a beer and put the world to rights.

"it becomes easier to understand." I'm sure you'll agree that it doesn't become any easier to accept. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"I just don't think that most of it deserves to be called "torture". " Okay, just to set the record straight, where do you draw the line between abuse and torture? To me, its not the act that defines it, its the purpose. Abuse would be simply doing inhumane things to a person just for shits and giggles. If you are treating someone inhumanely for the purpose of coercion, softening up for interrogation etc, its torture. Its very possible, and even common in some parts of the world, to torture people without any obvious physical act of aggression such as rape, electrocution, or beatings. Sensory deprivation, sensory overload, sleep deprivation, extended periods of uncomfortable restraint, ritual humiliation, etc, for the purpose of coercion is torture. I would add to those who might cry 'You just hate America', that I have been supporter of Amnesty International for over 20 years, and we, in the UK are less than clean on this matter. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3691857.stm -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson