I saw a BBC show once about how the English treat their dead. They were running out of room in the Victorian times, and started cremations. The clincher was WW1, when the troops were being blown to smithereens with artillery and there wasn't enough of them to be resurrected, whether you're the deity or not.

Just noticed: my signature is extremely apt right now. That Winston Churchill knew a thing or two. (Not so much amphibious landings in WW1 though...)

Totally agree (with everything except your typo/spelling mistake). A 'one minute's silence' doesn't do anything concrete. Everyone kick in a dollar to a bank and let's do something constructive in their memory is a better idea. Or clean up a beach. Or plant a tree. Or feed a homeless guy.

BTW, I think France (and Holland?) showed the Danish paper's 'Mohammed' cartoons after that country took the flak last time this sort of thing went down. Here in NZ the papers are standing 'solid' with 'Charlie' - but not showing any Mohammed sketches. I guess there's solid and there's solid...

Sorry, disagree. Disclaimer: I work on legacy systems, and they've provided me with $$$ for many a year. But for 'legacy' I prefer 'industrial-strength, production' that happens to run on a mainframe (or Enterprise Server - whatever).

But I digress... these old systems are massively tailored (I'm on one now...) and have been doing the job for decades. But saying that they're not easy to convert or replace is obvious (if you mean it's difficult) or wrong (if you mean it will never happen). Modern IT tools and techniques (pick your favourite ones and insert in these brackets) can solve complex business problems. Might take a while to work out why the original did that thing it does on March 14th if it's a Tuesday... but that's tailoring.

If it's a problem that can be solved by IT, then IT can solve it.

Now another question ... should the existing system be migrated or totally replaced? I've got four or five old clunkers here that make me weep, and I'm leaning towards replacing the functionality with nice, modern easy-to-understand stuff. Keep the business process, replace the code.

BTW, where do I apply for this GBP135,000 job?

I usually skip it during the working week anyhow. Stacked on some pounds last year and though Christmas wasn't especially heavy, drinking-wise, I've been thinking about just flagging the beer/wine/scotch thing. It's not doing me any good, it costs cash and I sleep better and my health is better without it.

But what do I do with all those beers cases I have around the house?

I noticed that once I cut off the video stream, the meaning of what I was saying changed completely.

(Con apologie per nostri amici Italiani)

Somebody has to say it .. depends on what they were cooking. A badly-made pilaf with some off-colour meat, and that's a division out of circulation while they run to the latrines.

It's good that it's mapping translations rather than language speakers - but it's not mapping content. Say 50% of the tweets in English are concerning Kim Kardashian's latest outfit, or Lady Gaga's pop video. An article in Finnish (why not?) is telling everyone how to talk to dogs. Which is more important to humankind?

Of course, how you automatically judge merit is another matter....

I've got two records of Elgar himself conducting Elgar's two symphonies. Elgar, for heaven's sake. I was offered 10 cents each for them. I still have them.

You find me someone who will actually pay the $$$ that the journalists say vinyl is worth, and I'll flick on my 100 or so records. In the meantime, they're in boxes waiting for my daughter to sort out when I end up six foot under.

Whenever something sounds too good to be true, it usually isn't. I'll put some cash on this being in the Ig-Nobles in a year or two.

Back to 'Eat less and exercise', everyone. That's probably safer, anyhow.

Subscribed to that with friends in the '70s and kept buying from them 'til they went bust. As a consequence, I've over a 100 'board' games and a good knowledge of military history (some problems with geography ... I used to think Vienna was in Austria-Hungary, etc ....).

Since then, picked up some goodies - "Republic of Rome', 'Pax Brittanica'.... hard to find face-to-face opponents these days so PBEM or video games.

But then there's the solitaires.. 'RAF', 'Carrier'...

Good one - I'm here for you. Susan Blackmore's book on consciousness quotes the appreciation of qualia as a mark of consciousness. I can't see any machine ever enjoying a ham sandwich, or a beer. They can be programmed to respond as if they did, though.

Totally agree. I can't comment on whether the government is anti-science - it's not my government - but I would also like to subscribe to your newsletter.

And, of course, good luck to the ground crew with Orion. May you be rewarded with success!

Faulty logic there. You might as well say "Youngsters are well known to do high-risk sports and hobbies, such as base-jumping, or swimming with sharks: employers can do the maths and will hire older staff that have survived these self-destructive years".

I did one on my Weber once - a monster, wrapped in bacon, stuffed, etc...No smokenator (how can anyone do that to the English language...) but indirect cooking. End result was a good bird, but it cooked a helluva lot faster than the veggies we had to go alongside. Damn bbq...everything is either over or under.