On the Nature of Things | Forum

The Dutch were awesome against Spain, who never expected to lose, based on their great power and success before...just like the Sea Beggars in the 16C... Oh, wait a minute, that was a draw after extra time ... they got to keep Belgium. As an England supporter, you hope for the best and expect the wo...

Almost every nation controls it's borders Azari. We wish! Perfectly legal, unfortunately, but 3 million came in during the Blair/Brown era , that is 5% of the population, and anyone who objected was labelled as racist (ignoring that the thoroughly white and Christian Poles were the biggest influx)....

Well, Hayek was right, central planning was not just illiberal, it did not work, because it was uncreative and did not receive feedback to correct its errors, unlike the market. Anyway, it's dead, yesterday's issue (the most openly competitive economy in the world is probably China). Today's problem...

As for the UK, the 1st generation immigrants from troublesome regions will probably not change their ways. Better to target their kids with the goal of integrating them into general British society. The second generation are the problem. They are more religious, and refusing to integrate, then thei...

Folks, Our local paper has a constant stream of court pages and the rogues gallery has an enduring pattern - their all home grown Brits. :shock: Alex. Around a quarter of the UK prison population is non- White, compared to 13% of the population as a whole. But then, home grown Brits are not all whi...

. Would suggest, you change the tittle of this thread to "What to do with Religious Fanatics" .. as Muslims secular as harmless as Christian secular in all aspect you might be referring to. Religious fanaticism is bad & dangerous in any religion, in Christianity not less than in Islam...

Most people are religious because that is what they are brought up in, they don’t question it, the dogma stops you having to think for yourself, and it provides a comforting and supporting community. Most people don't think for themselves For those who do, there are two ways for a thinking person to...

Most (white, native) Europeans wish they weren't here, but they are, and deal with it. It's like the current vogue for counterfactual history when World War 1 didn't happen. The left has a dire record of ignoring Islamism because the immigrants were victims of colonial oppression, poor dears, and th...

The best and worst of human nature is that we can get used to almost anything. So you see people in objectively crushing circumstances getting on with their lives, and the fascinating statistic that disabled people are, on average, no more unhappy than the rest of us. The downside is that we get use...

Azari gets it wrong again. Middle Eastern Christians fleeing the persecution they are subject to (and the secular minded, such as many Turks and, yes, Iranians) are acceptable. The problem is the majority of Muslims, even the so called "moderates" espousing values which are quite alien - n...

Well, we will see if it survives the coming resource glut from the Chinese slowdown. I think most of it will, as even some resource-poor countries have boomed e.g Ethiopia, no "Live Aid" needed now. Mark you, most of the continent remains very poor and semi-dysfunctional, but it's a start.

50. Only 4% of humans get to live in America. Odds are you're one of them. We've got it made. Be thankful. Oh dear, well I don't and don't particularly want to. The point is that the list would be even more impressive if it was about the rest of the world, especially the developing world: imagine t...

Folks, This is a youtube clip of our favourite city in Europe. :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJwzRV3AU9Q Alex. Newport doesn't even make it to the list of the top ten British crap towns , although it deserves to. The list is rather odd, anyway: Gibraltar? York?? Latter is probably Britain's fin...

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/multimedia/dynamic/00434/STN_SCOT_POLLS_06_0_434900k.jpg That seems to have been a flash in the pan , the Yes vote has seen a collapse in recent weeks , for two reasons: - the No campaign was (rightly) accused of being too negative, banging on about the costs to ...

No coverage here. Maybe a couple paragraphs on Google News. It's like India doesn't exist. Throw up a few links, svp. Q. "How do you shrink the world?" A. "Easy. move to the US and watch the rest of it disappear" . I find the Christian Science Monitor to be the best US paper for...

I am surprised that no-one has commented so far on the world's biggest political event of the year, the BJP's landslide victory last week, instead there is the usual Americocentric garbage (as if it has anything to do with Amerika). Modi not only reduced Congress to a rump, but swept aside the regio...

As Typhoon says, not to mention that mankind has been genetically modifying crops, by selective breeding, for millenia. If we hadn't we would all have starved.

To continue feeding the world, we need a second green revolution and GM is only way to do it.

There is an amusing game of describing countries in terms of paradoxes: Germany : very rational and very sentimental USA: very dumb and very clever UK: very polite and very rude. Russia is the ultimate place for antonyms and deserves two entries, at least: Very friendly and very unfriendly Very cult...

A century after Europe stumbled into a suicidal war over a dysfunctional Slav state, some ominous parallels come to mind: - Germany going to war was rationally insane, they dominated Europe anyway and they had heaps to lose economically (and did so). A diplomatic way to punish Serbia could have been...

NASA is working on a warp drive No, honestly, although to say that it is a long shot is unduly flattering. We probably need to understand dark energy first, if the latter really exists. At the moment it is simply a fudge in equations because the universe is expanding faster than it's supposed to in...

I was idly browsing through old threads, sorry to bump this, but felt that Enki's assertions needed to be refuted. 1. The world is indeed very peaceful. At the moment there are wars in Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan and of course the Congo (the worst death rate in the last twenty years, which as ev...

So mousy grey boring M. Hollande manages to two time his mistress, and pull an even more attractive one?

About the only strategy left which will improve his poll ratings (France being France, with women as well as with men)

Mr. Cameron may be an overprivileged toff, but a more important accusation is that he is a PR man empty suit who has no actual beliefs. Meanwhile Ed Milliband, the leader of the opposition Labour party, understands the British people all the way from Hampstead to Primrose Hill, a 2 mile radius in No...

This is a logical extension of the fact that even capitalist mainstream shops now expect shoppers to do most of the work - not just serve yourself , but also the insidious spread of self service checkouts. Of course, an Ikea flat pack is the ultimate... Re production co-operatives, I note that Endo'...

Well, a turbocharged jet stream brought a whole succession of storms to the Atlantic coasts of Europe throughout December and early January , with flooding and some spectacular seas. Interesting to watch but as these guys discovered in Portugal, better from a safe distance ... Meanwhile I gather tha...