Highgate

“All wars are started by angry old men, but they are fought by young men who die for reasons that are beyond them. In the end, the same old men sit around tables and the war ends. Nothing is achieved. Nothing is gained. New faces move into old castles, and the sons of the dead build families ready to feed new battleground graveyards.”
— David Gemmell
That about sums up how I feel about wars, with the exceptions that I don't just blame the old men, it is also shared by the gullible subservient young men who think so low of themselves as to be marched onto the battlefield as cattle to the slaughter,  for without them there can be no wars.  And in the end, who gains by wars?  Is it the common man? No, rather it is industrialists, bankers and for a moment megalomaniac leaders.
There are many great war quotes.  This one spoken by one who knew it intimately comes to mind.
"What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world."
--Robert E Lee
We don't agree and that is okay, respect for keeping it civil.
 

That's all true Alf. Some Ukrainians hoped that the Nazis would treat them less oppressively, which turned out to be a big mistake. But what would you do in that situation, less than 10 years after a famine and caused by Soviet policy and neglect coupled with the systematic murder of Ukrainian nationalists and Kolcheks who resisted collectivism? In an authoritarian state where truth was supressed, how much would a peasant now about Nazi crimes?

Well put.

I don't agree that the Ukrainians are puppets of the West or the US. They are fighting against the Russian invasion because they are defending their country. They are obviously supported and assisted by the west but definitely not controlled by them. However the opinion that Washington is calling all the shots is very much the view spread by the Kremlin and perhaps some there even believe it to be true.  Are some in Washington pleased that Russia is bogged down in a war?  Probably, there are a wide range of opinions even in the US government, and certainly weapons manufacturers and those sponsored by them are delighted with Putin's invasion and the profits it's bringing them.
The Donbas people are of mixed origin, largely Russian speakers yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are Russian. Many there certainly wanted Ukraine to lean towards Russia rather than to the West before war broke out...but that's not the same as wanting to lose their independence and be annexed by Russia.  Also, even less so than Crimea, the Donbas is not traditionally a Russian area, most of the ethnic Russians living in the Donbas are there because of Stalin's planned starvation of Ukrainians in the 1930s and his rapid repopulation of the area with Russian settlers. 
Russia really doesn't have to make any compromises to end this war, it can simply withdraw from the Donbas area and go back to a Russia with it's sovereignty intact.  The only damage done (apart from all the unnecessary deaths that have already occurred), would be to Putin's reputation within Russia.  It's Ukraine that's being asked to hand over a part of it's country.... it's a compromise that most countries would refuse if it were in their power to do so.  

It's not reasonable to expect an invaded country not lift a finger in their own defence.. What do think the Ukrainians should have done when Russia invaded? Just sit there and say 'we want peace'? How much of their country would Putin have left them in those circumstances?

Everyone wants peace... but you can't just let aggressive neighbours steal chunks your land without a fight surely. Ukrainians have just been unlucky to live next to a violent despot who has no respect for Ukraine's history or sovereignty.  
The only way for Ukraine to achieve peace now is to hand over part of Ukraine to Russia, and it's understandable that is unacceptable for most Ukrainians.

If you were Ukraine, how much territory are you willing to hand over to Russia in order for them to agree to peace? Because Putin has made it clear, even in the last few days, that the 4 annexed territories (including those cities they haven't captured) would become part of Russia in exchange for any halting of the invasion. Would you expect a Ukrainian to accept those conditions?

Vucic is of course a man with a very chequered past - a man who threatened  to kill 100 Muslims for every single Serb killed by Nato bombs, a man who defended the actions of Milosevic and Mladic in the Bosnian war, who dreamed of  Greater Serbia, and who now runs an oppressive and authoritarian regime.
A settlement between Russia and Ukraine that rewards Putin with all he is demanding would suit him down to the ground because it would set a helpful precedent.

If you were Ukraine, how much territory are you willing to hand over to Russia in order for them to agree to peace? Because Putin has made it clear, even in the last few days, that the 4 annexed territories (including those cities they haven't captured) would become part of Russia in exchange for any halting of the invasion. Would you expect a Ukrainian to accept those conditions?

Politicians.
Racism.
Poverty.
Class divides.

Caring what other people think, or will say

Litter louts

Especially defarmers.

Premier League are saying there would be 100 more incorrect decisions per year if VAR was scrapped. 5 per team.
They seem to think this is a strong argument in favour of VAR.
I'd so readily wear one extra incorrect decision every 8 games, to be able to celebrate in the moment a goal gets scored. Awful development.
 

I was right behind that goal. I still have nightmares.....

There didn't seem to be too much spin on it either, ...maybe he was distracted by the fact that he thought the whistle was going to blow for the obvious foul or something! 
And I'd forgotten how bad that Harkes miss was too.... 

There didn't seem to be too much spin on it either, ...maybe he was distracted by the fact that he thought the whistle was going to blow for the obvious foul or something! 
And I'd forgotten how bad that Harkes miss was too.... 

I do read, hear about Russia/Ukraine most days. 
I may be wrong, but I think generally most people are pretty clear about their position on the war. You've got the loons but nobody is giving them the time of day. 
You have those who think the Putin has a lot of valid points. But even those are mostly against his action in Ukraine. 
So it's not really controversial. Ukraine good - Russia bad. There's no outrage, no hysteria. 
In Gaza/West Bank you have a lot of different positions. You have the position of large amounts of populations being opposed to the position of their governments. When Putin was labeled a war criminal and arrest warrants were issued there were no complaints (loons not included). Now that's different to the reaction we've seen from the Gaza/West Bank/Israel war. 
Controversy sells. You can run with the stories all day long and clickbait with the war in the Middle East. 
I wonder if that's the main reason Ukraine seems to be less front and center 

All focus should be on renewable/green/cost-free energy sources right now. Without us cracking that - everything else is pointless
The amount of energy required to train the next generation of AI is not sustainable using current methods on a planet that is already teetering on the brink of multiple ecological tipping points
Same with BTC - as the coins become more and more scarce (by design) - requiring more and more energy to mine. That's if it is the solution to global finances that the evangelists believe it to be
And of course - the long fabled Mars colony will also need some sort of reliable energy source
 

I'm all for space exploration in principle, but it seems to me the timescales being thrown about are wildly optimistic.  Given the fragility of the human body and it's unsuitability for other worlds there is every reason to progress very cautiously.
Human population is projected to peak at about 11 billion before the end of the century and then fall from that point onwards, so there is every possibility we won't end up overpopulating this planet after all. 
Catastrophic events that will wipe us all out from space are a remote possibility, even if they are technically possible. The more realistic threats for extinction are already here on earth.  Nuclear War and deadly pandemics being the biggest two to spring to mind. Climate change, although potentially disastrous, is not a extinction level event for me. If surviving such events is really one of the principal reasons for building Mars colonies, then it's surely far easier to building self contained, isolated and safe colonies here on Earth that would survive those calamities...underground or even under the sea.  And much cheaper too. 
I don't think humanity's problem is that we think Earth is too special, our problem is rather is that we don't realize how special it really is. We take it far too much for granted. No matter how successful any potential explorations of space could be, we will never find any planet or moon as suitable for human life as this one. That's surely a given, seeing as we have evolved on Earth, and have billions of years of adapting to Earth's particular habitat behind us. Our physiology and anatomy has been determined by our home planet. 
Again, I am in favour of space exploration, it's a great source of scientific innovation among other things, but right now, given all the problems we face on this planet, our larger priority should be dealing with terrestrial issues. 
 
 
 

I agree with you about the politicians who've weakened regulations, but you can't let the water companies off when they do things that they know full well are harmful or when they allow standards to fall so far that they're effectively poisoning people through negligence. 

The heads of the water boards have a legal obligation to make money for shareholders. They are simply doing capitalism. Without regulation this is what corporations do.
The politicians who have weakened the environmental regulations and allowed them to poison our rivers, lakes and seas should be prosecuted for treason. If a foreign power deliberately polluted our country it would be an act of war.

Conor did his best and his best was often pretty classy, but essentially playing a 2 in MF did him no favours, indeed, even Bird struggled in a league where you have to have legs in the middle of the park. Irrespective, I think it's telling that the lads themselves made him their skipper and it was noted that he stuck staunchly by the team even when effectively benched late on in the season. No bitching, no ego, just help the team get over the line. I respect that. He's a good egg and has shown himself to be a seriously talented footballer and I wish him well in his future career as a coach. I'd not be at all surprised to see him do rather well.

Without doubt, a capable playmaker as well as an excellent finisher.  A great all round CF, the only thing you could say he lacks is pace.. 

ICC prosecutor seeks arrest of Israeli and Hamas leaders
 
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has applied for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas's leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, for war crimes.
Karim Khan KC said there were reasonable grounds to believe that both men bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity from the day of Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October onwards.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh, along with the group's military chief Mohammed Deif, are also wanted for arrest.
Full story here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3ggpe3qj6wo