Of course going to mars is nothing like going to California. However, if you look at the success of very early north American settlement, it's possibly broadly similar, in that just about everyone died. People still wanted to go.

So have BT just not updated their blocks then?

It shows just how effective they were in the beginning.

What are you pissing through nowadays, then?

The dodo wasn't hunted to extinction, apparently it tasted pretty awful. Introduced pigs and dogs ate its eggs.

I'm in the UK and can access thepiratebay.se directly at the moment, using normal ISPs. I'm not sure if I should be worried.

And they wonder why all their colonies revolted

Which ones, exactly? Most British colonies got independence without revolt, or any kind of uprising.

I can just access thepiratebay.se directly at the moment. I've got 2 ISPs, BT and TalkTalk (both in the top 6). So yes, currently as a normal UK user I can access the pirate bay directly.

I am, however, slightly confused as to why this is. It was blocked a while back.

And thepiratebay.org isn't blocked either, it just forwards to thepiratebay.se .

Well, that's odd. I was just going to grab a few proxies to put up here, but it seems that http://thepiratebay.se and http://thepiratebay.to are perfectly accessible to me now. They have been blocked in the past, but are apparently not now.

I'm using BT and TalkTalk ISPs, I've got a router spreading load, so I'm not sure which connected without having a more in depth look.

That's kind of the point... TPB can't block UK IPs, because of TPB proxies. TPB itself is already blocked by most (all?) UK ISPs, so TPB blocking UK IPs would not make one bit of difference.

TLA overload, sorry.

Interestingly, far more Europeans have died because of disease (syphilis) due to contact with the Native Americans than the other way around.

For many, eating normally for a human being is a sure recipe for weight gain.

No, it's not. Really, I don't know how you think this.

More efficient gut flora is _always_ going to result in weight gain. That's the point of gut flora.

There are plenty of excuses.

I'm 6'6", had a 6 pack when I was 20, and weighed 100kg, and was pretty fit with a low fat index. I was easy BMI then (100/2^2, 25), but BMI was irrelevant, because I was relatively fit and active. I'm still easy to calculate BMI, but weigh 115kg or so now. 5kg more, and I hit obese.

Now, I would like to lose a little weight, but I put on a bit of muscle in my 20's. I don't think I could ever hit a decent BMI.

I eat/drink probably about 2000kcal/day, but I'm not that active currently. I used to do physical work regularly (and ea a whole load more), but don't currently.

I know that if I eat a lot, I will get huge. I don't.

And the solar system is completely unexplainable with quantum physics, and particles are completely unexplainable with relativity. It doesn't mean we should just say "God does it", and be done.