In the UK we are also subject to adverts featuring "Knock Off Nigel" who lives in some sort of alternative world where his co-workers dress in ridiculous clothes, appear to spend their time gadding about the office like big gay workshy drama queens singing, and "ridicule" Nigel for offering them copies of movies.

Obviously back in the real world anyone behaving like Nigels would be detractors would be laughed out of the office down to the bike sheds where they'd be given a damn good thrashing.

And thats the really weird bit, drugs appear to be sold in the US in the metric system and, from my obviously extremely limited and second hand knowledge of the subject are often sold in the UK in the imperial system, even though we are supposed to be metric here.

I think the selling of drugs is one area which is more suited to the imperial system purely because splitting them up is a lot easier in imperial.

There are usually a lot of a Americans waddling about Scotland but didn't realise they were all there just to fund this research.

It's actually a really irritating system we have here in the UK, in school during the 80's we were taught soley in the metric system so I still have no instinctive understanding of what a farenheight, a gallon, a league or a fathom actually are and yet some of these measurements are still pretty much in general use as are pounds, ounces & stones.

In my car I can view my petrol consumption in miles to the gallon or litres to the kilometer but the fuel which goes into the fuel tank is measured in litres and the odometer shows only miles so there is no way to make a simple comparison without having to work out between the two sets of measurements.

I wish the UK would make up it's mind one way or another properly and then stick to it !

I think perhaps you need to study a bit more history, especially if you think the middle ages is in any way marked by any sort of prudishness about nakedness or sex.

Not only slavery and capital punishment for most crimes but also paedophilia was rampant as was casual murder, rapings, slaughterings, sackings, bestiality, whippings, beatings, maulings and worse.

Those ancient people have a long way to go before they are as advanced a society as us today ( around 2000 years to go )

In COD4 you actually get points for knifing enemies who are crawling along the floor wounded.

Where are my mod points when I need them ?

Well, where did you have them last ?

The only people who commonly say that "Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit" are typically those who are too stupid to appreciate the irony of any given situation or those who have such a narrow and specific world view they are unable to appreciate anything which falls outside of it.

Most normal people realise there isn't actually a universal scale of wit and particular types of wit aren't restricted to a particular band on this nonexistant scale because the nonexistant scale doesn't exist.

A lot of normal people have problems understanding others' intentions; I know I sometimes do.

Me too, or at least I used to before I realised I could understand exactly what their intentions were, the confusing part was why they are always lying about them.

It could also be that when weather conditions or problems with their equipment, themselves or their fellow climbers turn hazardous and become the sort of conditions which can easily kill you most people may well have decided to turn around and begin their descent. Thus most people would be descending during the periods when they're most likely to die.

I wonder though if this could perhaps be tested.

C'mon now, thats not really the most sensible idea now is it. Things are tough enough as it is with Global Warming and mutant GM foods destroying the planet without you trying to engineer a supermassive nuclear explosion in the Earths crust just to try and create another moon. I suggest that you, like most scientists should concentrate on improving the welfare of cute animals and solving world hunger rather then designing these sorts of dangerous and irresponsible experiments.

No it isn't. The only acceptable expression is a stern set mouth and chin and a far away, yet piercing, gaze of stoic optimism expressing the knowledge that you aware the conditions imposed by outside influences which make your life a misery may yet last some time before the party can fully lead both you and the state into the promised land.

Actually there is another set of rules altogether for other national identity documents but these are kept solely for the use of the party ( and mainly Jackie Smith ) to inspire them to keep up the good work. In these photographs the subject is kneeling on the floor in a puddle of his own urine and blood with his hand raised above his head attempting to ward off the blows whilst desperately trying to grovel and crawl to the feet of Jackie Smith for pardon whilst being beaten with the truncheons of her minders.

Whats worse ( or at least equally as bad ) is that these rules also apparently apply to children and babies. There have been numerous stories about families having their passports denied because their toddlers are illegally smiling in their photos.

The whole thing is ridiculous.

Let's face it though there is just no telling what these druggists are capable of, most of the time they don't even know what they're doing or how crazy they're acting. Now you daughter might not spend much time in the druggists ghetto but you can bet they're all busy murdering, raping and robbing each other the whole time down there and your daughter would suffer the same fate were she to cross paths with a druggist desparate to score his next fix.

Druggism is clearly a massive problem for the US but whilst it's still confined to a few hellish druggist ghettos in most cities and doesn't really have much of an impact on regular god fearing folk well then I think prohibition is the wise course. Hell, the last thing I'd want was my daughter being able to try whack herself, getting addicted and ending up selling herself in the ghetto. The church already ventures into those areas and helps those who do want to be saved and that is about as much as any man can do.