I'm not sure Iran is quite what you think it is. Sure the current government there is dictated to by a Theocracy, but it is also (after Israel) the most democratic system in the entire middle east. Elections in Iran are a (somewhat limited, it is true), vibrant exchange of ideas, and candidates are elected to the People's House (Parliament) who have quite different views to the Mullahs. Also the people of Iran are not all sword waving Muslim extremists. I give the current political system in Iran a generation, and it'll be swept away by a new generation who won't be dictated to anymore. Source: Regular political arguments with a (Muslim) Persian, (Christian) Iraqi, a (Muslim) Egyptian, and me, an Atheist Westerner.

You may be correct, and what you say is plausible, but I have the feeling that the Islamic bit of the Islamic Republic might be a bit half hearted. I worked with an Iranian lady who laughed when someone mentioned how Muslims don't drink. "You've never met a bunch of lushes like the Iranians" she said, and told us all a great story about the purchasing of (illegal) booze in Tehran in the 1980's. I wonder if their attitude to these things is that rules are made to be broken.

They have very high food costs.

No people will be put in this sub. It will be a drone.

The pdf says: "Measurement of the trace organic components of the sea, which perhaps may exhibit prebiotic chemical evolution, will be an important objective, and a benthic sampler would acquire and analyze sediment from the seabed." Why would the seas on Titan only exhibit prebiotic chemical evolution? Titan is about the same age as Earth, surely? Would love to know more about the possibilities of evolution of life in such an alien environment.

I vaguely wondered about flash over the weekend just gone, as I reinstalled Windows. Then I forgot about it and installed the various programmes I use, (Office, Photoshop, Chrome). I won't need it at all it seems.

I'm not sure I understand you correctly. Since the EU was formed, (or, more precisely, it's previous incarnations as the common Steel market, Common Market etc) Europe has been at war with itself no times. Over the previous 15 centuries or so since the fall of the Roman Empire, there has been no period of peace as long. I would say the EU has been nothing but success, as it has prevented young men like my Father from being drafted into an army and sent to fight a bunch of young men he had no real quarrel.

The only job I've been drug tested for is my current one. The factory guys are all drug tested randomly, and management decided that it was only fair if everyone had to be tested too. I'm not sure if it has any relevance, but the company is American owned, (but I'm not in America). Luckily for me my drug of choice is made with water, grain, hops and yeast.

I won't buy it, I won't have one even if they give them away. I won't ever buy a Sony product again, due to their shoddy rubbish failing repeatedly just outside the warranty period, (2 x Playstations, 2 x TV's).

I'm not in The UK, but my teenagers tell me that the IT teachers they have seem to be one chapter ahead of them in the text book, and are not terribly confident of their subject knowledge. For instance my year 12 son, (16 years old), helped the teacher set up a DHCP server for the class lab, as he had done it before at home with me, but the teacher had never actually done it, just read about it.

In my view Sim City 2000 was the best version of the game ever, but I haven't actually played all of them, so maybe there is a better one somewhere.

So according to Clapper, the North Koreans connected to Sony's network through proxies, except when they didn't, also we're still trying to determine how the North Koreans accessed Sony's network. Clapper just sounds completely out of his depth here, no clue about what went on and probably doesn't even understand the briefings he will have been given.

Exactly. Helmets don't protect heads from concussion, mouthguards do, make them compulsory, take away the huge pads and helmets, make tackles above the shoulder illegal, problem solved.

I'm not surprised they still do this, and no, it is not done at night, just at midday.

I love "New Zealand - pretty, but cold". It's about right, except for the top bit of the North Island, which is neither.