Yes, he states I am beyond redemption.

Just keep telling him the Dodo is still extinct, that should get you sorted out properly.

The sand is there, it always is.
I was just about to get out of my car yesterday when it started to rain; several large splats on the windscreen with noticeable grains inside – maybe 6 or 8 and slightly reddish, which disappeared as more drops fell. Later I noticed that darker cars had smudges on them that were also red tinged. And that was it for the Sahara sand storm, but it is not a rare thing; I think it is the quantity this time that is.
The process is/was the same for acid rain – the smoke ejected into the atmosphere is/was brought down to earth with the precipitation. To see what is in the rain find somewhere cleanish where rain water can evaporate in the Sun and have a look at the sediment left over; it didn’t start off around here.

And as I understand it the volcanic ash is much sharper than sand – it might be to do with the fact that a grain of sand started off life as a boulder (or similar) and eroded down to the tiny thing you (almost don’t) see today, whereas the volcanic ash is blasted into particles which are carried on the breeze without being eroded prior to hitting your average turbofan (or whatever).

Assuming that the minke population (e.g. in the Atlantic) is sufficiently large and sustainable and that the whaling methods currently in use are effective and humane (at least as good as they can practically get today), I believe some of this debate boils down to cultural issues.

Well, don’t ask the Japanese whether the Minke are at sustainable levels since they have been researching for years whilst claiming that very thing since before the moratorium; the only problem from that angle is that they are rather unreliable where their interests are concerned, hence the repeated claim that there are sustainable levels.

I don’t however think it’s wise to let the “disneyfication” get out of hand, so to speak. While I generally respect e.g. vegetarians for their lifestyle choices, I also think of us human carnivores as part of the food chain – with a responsibility attached to our unique cognitive abilities.

Its not ‘disneyfication’ – I can’t think of a cuddly, lovable whale-like personification other than one on Sponge Bob (a whiny teenager-like female who, if I recall rightly, is not very lovable). Maybe you can think of something better?
‘Disneyfication’ does not enter into the mind when seeing images of a whale ‘cow’ (female, mother) and its ‘calf’ being hauled aboard a whaling ship; the calf stayed with its mother after she was fatally injured or killed and so was killed by the whalers for…research purposes.

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But, to me anyway, it is a case of a culture expanding something minor into an industry; that’s why it doesn’t matter so much about the (relative) few that are taken by native peoples since they are not taking the whales out of the system in huge numbers, more or less slaughtering whole pods (groups) and leaving the survivors traumatised.
Cows, sheep, pigs, etc, are all bred to be eaten – it is a fact of life; whales are wild creatures and (at the moment) cannot be bred for the purpose of human consumption, so we have no way to manage them as we would farm animals and we have no way of knowing if they are on the verge of extinction if we (or rather the Japanese) don’t track them but kill them for research. If, next year, none are found due to over research this year… what do we do?

The UK was the only country signed up for all of the organisations, NATO, CENTO and SEATO, though some have gone I bet most of you didn’t realise there were several.

Did, but was unaware that the UK was part of the late Warsaw Pact…;o)

NATO does what is intended and secures our borders by mutual military cooperation, hence why Russia feared the Ukraine and Georgia joining, as they wouldn’t then be going to war against one country, but all of them. It is now important to some of the smaller nations such as Latvia and Poland, the likes of the US F15’s and UK AWAC’s deployed to the region are working as part of NATO in the defence of those states whilst sending a clear Warning.

Since the Wall came down on the basis of NATO, etc, explicitly promising Gorbachev that it wouldn’t expand Eastwards it is hardly surprising that Putin is edgy. Yes, those states should have self determination but we, as NATO, seem to have (for want of a better word) cheated on our promise, thus creating problems which might throw it all away. Not sure if that promise included the EU, but you can see why the Russians have geared up.

The UN these days is a Joke, they used to have a military role to back up the threats, but when one country can veto a proposal ( often the aggressor ) then what is the point?

The UN doesn’t matter: the US always does what it wants anyway – except (do they still owe millions of dollars to the UN?) pay their membership fees.

No problem with me either, at least not that I could attach to just one website rather than a cranky laptop…

Did he? I thought one of the PE teachers at my secondary school was bigfoot. Or closely related to him. (Guy really needed to shave his bodyhair – no one wanted to go in the pool when he was instructing)

Apparently?

I’m one of the few here that use a real name and have posted information about me.
Unlike most of the trolls and nationalistic fanboys here. 🙂

You weren’t supposed to read that.