St Landrew

The way we do it is. I took a bit of trouble to write that last post, so please read through it thoroughly and consider before your one liner. Ta.

Somebody was bound to come up with that phrase sooner of later. I nearly did myself, at one point. Whilst I wholeheartedly agree with SOG and Thorpe that the killing of Whales and Dolphins, and Sharks for fins, alone, is barbaric, I can't look to the western world's way of obtaining its food and say, fine that's OK. There is a cutural difference, which SOG and Thorpe must accept before they carry on with their understandable opposition to the eating habits of the Japanese, and their methods of obtaining food. But they can't keep on with the Daily Mail/Express style outrage and expect a serious response. Suggesting intelligence is a factor can't be valid. Otherwise, why don't we as a culture eat all the species with a confirmed lower intelligence level than Dolphins, Whales, other Primates, etc... There's all that roadkill, for instance. There are our domesticated animals, the horses, for instance, that could be up for grabs. It's only our culture that stops us from eating them. Conversely, as far as cattle are concerned, there is no real need to eat them either. In actual fact, mankind would be able to produce far more absolute tonnage of food, if we didn't cater for cattle food and the products they provide us with, because it is relatively inefficient to rear cattle for meat and dairy product. It's far more efficient to grow vegetables instead. We could still eat Sheep and Goat because they graze where it is economically difficult to produce vegetables, unless one terraces the hillsides, as they do in eastern cultures. Here we have a problem. In the western world we fell forests to graze cattle for McDonalds to make more profit, yet it is hugely inefficient to do these things, and we chuck tonnes of food away per day, anyway. We could easily feed the planet if we did things the right way. There wouldn't have to be a single hungry person. Yet we continue to be overweight and undernourished, and complain that other cultures kill cute [and indeed, sometimes intelligent] animals. But we really ought to have our own house in order first, before we call other practices wrong. Eastern cultures can't believe how we get through so much food, and waste so much. BTW, I've just thought; Octopuses is very intelligent too. They just aren't very cute.

Lyndhurst hill would be a good nursery sledging slope.

Apparently, according to eastern cultures, we generally stink of meat. I think, as in the case in Japan, where people are apparently largely unaware of western objections to their diet, I'm sure it's the same the other way around.

There seems to be a great deal of subjective observation going on, on this thread. However, as Ponty points out, western eating habits are no better than eastern cultures. They are just more exceptable to us because they have always been there. It takes a lot to change from an entrenched view. In Thailand they eat practically anything, for example dog. Now there is an animal that we wouldn't compare in intelligence to a dolphin, but we would still find unnacceptable to eat here. In France they eat horse; once again, unnacceptable here. In the end it is a difference in culture, but it doesn't stop us from making our voices heard, if we can, or are concerned enough.

Talking about RL now.

Fan rang in to say thank you to Pards, Cortese, and Liebherr for the way they are running the club. I think we all echo that sentiment.

Lallana and Lambert are happy.

Squad is too big still.

2 new players to come.

Focus is definitely now playoffs.

Admits need to stop the goals against.

Pardew - Still long, long way short on quality, compared to Leeds.

Yes OK, I wasn't suggesting it would interesting for us, but at least Merrington could talk with some authority. Unfortunately, he didn't. BTW, like Pardew's comment that he named two players who he believes will go all the way to the Premiership - Lambert and Fonte. The rest have to prove themselves.

It's an interest for Merrington. Ex-Burnley player.

Sometimes, if you just restart the stream you'll find it's better. Conversely, you can restart the stream and find it's even worse. This is independent of whichever browser you use. Normally, I would expect less issues with Firefox, although there certainly is the odd thing IE can do, that Firefox can't.

LOL

Perhaps it would have been best if you had.

Watched QI earlier. Bloody hell, was Ronni Ancona absolutely stunning, or what..? I don't know what it is about her, because the still camera doesn't like her face, but the moving camera certainly does. Of course, she was funny too, having a real skill in the meandering monologue. And fair play to the rest of the crew of Fry, Davies, Sandi Toksvig and Jack Dee for making it an entertaining programme.

Hmm, have to disagree with you there mate. Being kids doesn't automatically mean that they have to be distructive. That is learned behaviour. If kids are taught to build things, and a very good example is a snowman, then they realise that the fun isn't in the destruction of something, but the creation. When I was a kid, we never knocked down snowmen. Mind you, in Southampton, one hardly ever got the chance to practice anyway.

Indeed it does say 2,300, from a national quota of around 20,000 dolphins. There's no point in being precious about this. Dolphins are intelligent mammals, as are whales, but that does not stop certain cultures from wishing to catch them, especially as the market price for these sea creatures is so high. As they say, where's there's a profit..! But it's not my culture, and it's not wrong for me to voice my disapproval. However, I shouldn't be surprised if it is ignored. Do the Japanese need to eat dolphins and whales..? I doubt it. Just as we don't need to eat MacDonalds, but some of us do. I'm bound to say that the Japanese are probably better off with their diet, rather than piling into a big mac. However, it grates. Dolphins and Whales are beautiful creatures [yes, I've been Whale Watching off Kaikoura too, and I've seen dolphins in the Solent and Channel, and the Med] and I can't shake off the indoctrination that it is wrong to catch them for food. Young dolphins and whales are hugely dependent upon their elders, whereas fish do pretty well with their safety in numbers. Of course, in a sense the western attitude [and mine] is strictly illogical, and while I can't speak for others, I don't apologise for it.

Sorry WG, like all the others, you're just too early with your idea. There simply isn't the need yet for the problems of overcoming the mass, draught, poor maneuverability of an iceberg. Plus it just isn't profitable to do it. What is profitable is bottling iceberg water, and selling it at a premium. Sadly, that makes it too expensive for poorer nations. But even Thames Water were thinking about your idea a few years ago. Mind you, icebergs are towed by ships already, but just to get them away from danger zones, like shipping lanes, oil drilling platforms, etc...

Is that all..? Let me look for the various faces of God; on a piece of toast, on the Moon, etc... I saw that before, but it didn't strike me as anything significant. I'll try to look a little harder, to see if I can really see what you mean, OK..?

Pourquoi..? BTW, I still can't see what I'm supposed to s**t bricks about, even if TBF can. Explain please..?

I think there are several thousand people ahead of you with that idea. Some of them have been very serious too.