Moderate-sized explosions in an area packed with people. Very early to speculate, but 'Homemade IEDs' are what the police are saying.

I'm totally speculating here, but this looks like 'domestic' (i.e., US and amateur) terrorists. Foreign governments like their explosives to be high and their targets to be internationally recognised. However, for the people who lost, lives, limbs or loved-ones, this won't be of any consolation. Our thoughts are with them all.

Here in NW Europe, we're being told we're kept warm in the winter by the "warm waters of the Gulf Stream". Unfortunately, we don't literally bathe in those waters. Heat is transported by SW winds that blow across them, picking up moisture which is then rained out over us and releasing latent heat.

This unseasonably weather is nothing to do with the Gulf stream weakening, it's simply the winds are blowing in the opposite direction (from the cold, dry land). Why they are prolonged is to do with the jet stream position's much further to the south. The mid-latitude jet's a product of the atmosphere's thermal gradient (and some orographically introduced wobbles) and its odd, prolonged position could quite conceivably be to do with Arctic sea ice loss.

In what could have been an awful piece of television, 6 European and 6 Japanese bankers in the City of London were sat down in a bar and given beer. After only 2 glasses, 4 of the 6 Japanese were bright red and visibly uncomfortable. One of the two exceptions was a noticeably small woman who polished-off half a dozen without problems. None of the Europeans were similarly affected.

The premise (which is widely accepted in Europe) is that beer and wine gave clean drinking water. If you reacted badly to it, good ol' Evolution found its path through unsanitised water. In the East, the drink was tea, so the tolerance of alcohol is not an innate part of the population.

Hell, beer WAS food for many generations. It is only very recently that food became cheap in the modern world. Before decent nutrition, beer was a way for manual labourers to get cheap calories quickly. We're talking up to the 1960s here, not just the 1690s.

The last two look especially mouth-watering. Off to raid the fridge and pop open the Port...

Is there a general market for these, or are such flavours still a niche? Trying to work out if the hump stopping wider distribution is formed by supply (existing interests) or demand (tastes too exotic)?

Not surprised by the cheeses from other cultures, just how uniformly poor they were, e.g., was expecting a cheddar, but they were all so incredibly bland; pretty much how fussy young children think cheese should taste.

Have seen how much the beer market's changed, with some delicious US local beers on quite wide distribution. Would have hoped something could have happened with another cultured product.

First visit was 20 years ago, San Fran and various towns and cities around. Monterey Jack was the most daring on casual display. We found some peppery cheddar in a shop in Sonoma that was interesting, but it reminded us of fruit beers- different taste to the bland, but adding things to the mix ain't the answer.

We spent 3 months in the US a couple of years back, across about 8 states. So not just checking out the airport transit store cracker-toppings. Instead of shouting at me, CONVENIENCE, FFS, answer the question. What is a good and widely available cheese now? Something with bite, texture, maybe even mould.

Two big shocks on entering American food/drink culture coming from the UK. A big one was how much a bar != a pub. But bigger was for a nation who consumes so much food, how can its cheese be this bad? 300 million people, surely there's room for a few hundred local decent cheeses? Are there any excellent and widely available varieties?

Can't think of any controversies involving CoE bishops and abortion? Euthanasia's still illegal, so they can have any view they care.

They neither vote nor speak as a bloc and draw little comment. My recall of their speeches are when they take successive govts. to task over poverty and such. They realise their unelected selves shouldn't be in the upper house. Rocking the boat too much will only send them back to leading coffee mornings in the largest churches quicker than is probable.

It's a hell of an anachronism; think the UK is the only democracy in the world with churchmen in its apparatus.

Why would they be mentally ill? It's a meta-joke about organised religion, thousands of people chare it and participate in it. It shows that their humanity is leavened with a lovely dose of wit.

For many, even being asked about their religion is seen as an act of oppression. This is their reaction.

I think this partly accounts for the big drop. These people are dying. Your age, occupation and religion were your credentials. My late mother insisted I filled in her online census as a Christian, having never attended a service in my adult life. Even up to her death bed, God, Christ, saints, whoever, were never mentioned, no prayers undertaken, nor was there felt a need for them. But she was happy to be labelled a Christian, as that was her view of what respectable people were.

These generations are vanishing and the new default is agnostic. Brits have always had problems with the overly religious (see Mayflower).

Folklore is an exemplary way of looking at it. Also, the bishops in the Lords are usually left-wing intellectuals, rather than taking the role of conservative demagogues. We therefore don't really care/notice them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/7245763.stm

Dear AC,
      Congratulations, this perfectly describes the current working of the NHS. However, I don't think the parent poster was having his leg pulled, just fundamentally lied to.

I was in the US for a few months during the 'Obamacare' debate of 2009 and the bollocks that was being talked about the NHS was simply amazing, e.g., people over 59 are denied any heart treatment. Our American hosts asked us if this was true!

My brother works for an Indian pharmaceutical company. India don't recognise patents on medicines. The NHS in the UK pays US 40c for his 6 pills from a blister pack of 'generic' heart medicine. He can sell the same 6 to the USA for > US 5$.

You're being screwed as the cost of pills are tiny as compared to the rest of your healthcare. In the UK, as external costs are visible, they are lower. And wait, did someone say "cartel"?

Boxing Day in the UK is being made into Black Friday, but it actually wasn't at least a decade ago. I tried to shop on Dec 26th in two large English cities on 2001 and 2002. Only Mickey D's was open in both. Now, there's more and more pressure from some nebulous force to open up shops, and even the media are briefed and run pieces on 'Boxing Day sales', when in fact, most start on Dec 27th (not a holiday).