dubai_phil

Eurosaint outed as George Dubya Bush in Forum shock

No, but REALLY, it is old news - see found it! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6318034/Could-the-Large-Hadron-Collider-be-held-back-by-its-own-future.html

Old story, this theory has been around a while now, I read about it months ago unless oh oh

Just staying up this season will be a fantastic achievement..... When viewed from a historical perspective back in mid May... It will still be a fantastic achievement when viewed after the results in the first few weeks. Getting into the playoffs will be an astonishing achievement, in fact winning it and getting back into the CCC first time around would count as one of the great feats in modern English football. What IS really important is that we are finally seeing that supporting a football team CAN be fun again. AND we can dream, we can hope or we can even expect that this can keep going and going and going.

Live in tv is live on tv - because somewhere in Europe Saints fans watched the game, live on tv...simples.... We KNOW it is not "The Sky Curse" because we were dreadful on the BBC against Brizzle in the last cup game. Another old millstone buried and all in time to blow CHarlton away in the JPT on telly

Interesting diversion if a little over zealous in some of the cut & pasting. Think 19C's actually right in that as this thread will clearly not be the methodolgy to actually answer "The Ultimate Question of Life The Universe & Everything", mixing basic examples with our interpretations is how we made it intersteing. MLG has a really good point, but IMHO shows the weakness of "Religious" arguments that I so dislike in that it becomes a "sermon". So, why The Bible? why did those particular stories from the history of such a violent (and to be honest) selfish self-centric region get chosen? Who sat on the editing team? Why did they leave so many stories out? What do the Dead Sea Scrolls have to add? The greatest archaeological find in history and how much has been published? Again, I come back to "The definition of God". If you take some of the "find God within yourself" concepts then who is to say that Moses and his ethnic cleansing, Hitler & The Holocaust were not just extreme examples of people "Finding an Inner God", or even the Vengeful God. As Pancake keeps indicating, as God cannot be proved or disproved, is He really the "bloke with the big White Beard on a cloud"? This is one of those conundrums again, a sort of "PC based view" - it is held that God is good, Allah Ahkbar etc, but there is also evidence that maybe He is not. So, cut and paste arguments can help to move the discussion forwards, but when you ask certain questions each position can be weakened, which is why making up your own mind is the answer. How do we KNOW for example that the "story of the Midians" wasn't written by a Midian who had been out of town at the time of the "ethnic cleansing". What was his political position? Who actually translated the story from the original Aramaic? When one is lucky enough to travel in the environment where all these stories are based, one understands that to try and interpret them from a wet rainy country with the main worries being the lack of the postal system this week (as an example) and paying the bills can for an unbalanced judgement. This article made very interesting reading, and as it was about by academic with devout views actually and puts what I tried to point out very well. It isn't a debate that can ever be "won" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/6274502/God-is-not-the-Creator-claims-academic.html

Actually probably not, the story Katalinic refers to could have happened as well as the normal staff not getting paid on time - was a news article posted on here about it last weekend

well, the whole 4 hours of time difference tells me that a pair of underpants n a washing machine really ain't worth spoiling tomorrow night's gig for even IF Lambo hits the post

Wow we caused consternation.......

Unfortunately they did serve it at the concert tonite...

Ah, here you are

OK I know I had some beer tonight, but Rovers have started the game in Top Gear? WTF is Clarkson doing in Brizzle? Or is that just Solent?

greetings, darned Festival are running 3 hours late, no way can stay up until 2am to watch The Mondays so quick check on here to see you're stilll around and then zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz How was the party EoA?

A psychologist or historian of the future would be utterly confused should they stumble on a left over version of this forum. Here we are, having had some extremely interesting and intellectually stimulating debates and conversations about a whole range of topics, and yet when there is a thread relating to efforts to raise funds for a charity it turns into the p*ssing contest from hell. All it shows is that intellectual brilliance can also manifest as insanity. Some of the posts on here by all sides border on insanity, and yet those same protagonists speak so eloquently elsewhere. Mods, please close this thread, there is no update or critical review of this event forthcoming, it is now just an embarrassment

Isn't it about time they had a new owner?

Olga worked for me, in oh so many ways... Ouch, yes dear I was just ouch, no I understand dear but ouch OK OK I didn't mean in THAT way actually yes I ouch

Gig will be good & wearing a Saints Branded T shirt to bounce around in all night.... Was funneh last night, all the cool Indie loving skater dudes being knocked out the way in the "mini mosh-pit" by the over 50's going nuts to Don't you Want me Baby et al...... (and yes there WAS more than a few hundred of us old f*rts in there!) Only in Dubai......

So, Pancake's question can be answered. Do you believe in God? Yes therefore it can be proven to you that He exists Do you believe in God? No, therefore etc. The problem then becomes Do you believe in God? I don't know, convince me.....

Dear EoA, txt msg updates please or I'll flood your mail box with video clips of The Human League from last night complete with badly recorded distorted sound :-) thanks

And the killer response to that question is of course.... Define God.... If I prove that Dark Matter is controlled by an unknown force, could that be defined as an all knowing Force? Which definition would you use to disprove it? Your understanding from your experience, reading and teaching or should we disprove the existance of the one the Taliban think exists. I like the middle ground as always. Too many dark holes to drop down. Didn't someone once say God is in your belief, so you can believe you are God. Too much for this time of day, off gigging

It's important at the end of the day IMHO that the core tenet of "non-extreme" Religion is choice. You can choose to have an opinion, you can choose to understand more. I am not the type to read, but I (as I keep saying) have been lucky enough to travel and experience many different cultures, so I OBSERVE and I analyse for myself. I would never "Preach" - for example a critical thing we learnt when trying the behaviour change was that simply "explaining the new product/service/solution concept" simply did NOT work. That is highly relevant to my onpion of "PREACHING". What we learnt was that "leading people to make up their own minds" by showing them - for example that their life belief (not Religious) systems COULD be wrong, then came understanding and change resulted. The PROBLEM with religion can be seen in a microcosm on this thread (and the forum) Preaching YOUR view, as opposed to allowing or helping people to find their own "happy place". The whole formal repititive style of current religions IS important to many people, so i can accept that. What I cannot accept is some mad Mullah or some Bible Belt nut ordering me to see things their way. And that is the problem, the Human Mind, Prayer, Comfort, Belief systems are all linked, but people who understand how to "manipulate" (eg Adolf H or Abu Moosa or the Inquisition et al for example) can do so much harm when people don't understand they are being "programmed". Such a fine line. I saw my first stage Hypno show with Alan Bates down here. I truly believed the people on stage were ringers and hamming it up. Getting to learn more about it, seeing friends have problems solved through it, heck even seeing my son dancing ballet on a stage made me seek to understand it. Much of the training that my pal went through looks very closely into this whole aspect. You won't find it in any old philosophers books and I'm no literary genius, but it IS really interesting Anyway Fridat brunch time and then off to day two of our music festival , you lot get back to philosophers and all that

Ok here we go. The main religons are based upon the handed down memories of encounters or notes written by a couple of blokes wandering around the deserts some 2000 years or more ago. Now anyone who has had dealings with this part of the world over time would wonder about how the world could fall for that sort of story from this sort of place (meant in a light-hearted look at Al Fahim sort of way). When I came down here I've already mentioned my "disquiet" about the whole "brainwashing" by bored RE teachers that is used to try and give you a grounding that "programmed" my feelings about religion in the UK. However, if you like "my eyes were opened" to understanding much better the NEED that Humans have for "Something in their lives" (but I didn't "have a moment"). It was about seeing the places in the Bible were real and exist, it was about living in an Islamic society and understanding them (and realising how desperately, fundamentally, sadly and badly wrong the UK had been in their "absorption" policies over the years). Personally, I find it strange that when God is supposed to be the point of religion, so much effort goes into "worshipping" a couple of blokes interpretation of Him, but that's for another post. I'm understanding of all religions (Heck I've even seen the Buddha's tooth!) but I am not religious. However, from a different approach I fully understand and believe in the Power of Prayer..... My belief in this is NOT that it works as some telephone link to God, but that the Human Mind is greatly misunderstood by most people who use it. A friend embarked on a new career in Hypnotherapy, (then on into stage shows and Life Coaching) and even into Motivational speaking. Part of what he learnt introduced him to such areas as NLP (initially as a strong sales tool allowing you to "programme" a potential client) and then on into Aura's and some of the weird energy stuff. What he learnt is that the power of focused thought can be very strong, (jokes aside, I since found out it is covered in Dan Brown's book - the Science of Noetics). (Look at Saints the past years - the Negative Energy affected all of us not just in fotball but also in us being "down" to some extent in our normal lives, and the Positive Energy today and our ability to have debates like this) We used this "entry level understanding of the Human Brain or amateur psychology as a tool to drive behavioural changes across a wide cultural/racial spread of my corporate clients. Positive Thinking exercises, concentrating on the same simple ideals and objectives when held as a group exercise worked. It was a heck of a gamble, and I got derided for it at the beginning, but now it is part of corporate life in a company employing 17,000 people, so it DID get proven to work In fact, not only did we change behaviours in the clients, but for some we changed their outlook on life, one character, who, as a Good Muslim, accepted the fact that his core beliefs did not change, but the way he looked at his life did, he termed the experience "like a religious conversion", he attends his mosque now understanding the power of so many minds focusing the same way, he changed his attitude and approach to his family, his work and has found a fulfillment in his life and goals. Now, the journey into understanding how to use these tools to be more effective in my work took in an understanding of healing. It won't mend a broken bone or likely cause cancer cells to go away, but it can make you feel better, in my case a knee injury caused muscles to spasm which resulted in great pain. The healing technique relaxed the muslces, no pain and an understanding of how to stop the spasms happening by relaxing. The power of "focused thought" Imagine then the power of many people "praying" are they "giving God a quick call on the mobile"? or does that energy have a more positive impact on them - making them FEEL better, more positive..... A whole world of science there. So, my answer is simple. When making a broad brushed statement about anything to do with Religion, there will actually be thousands of tangents that the answer can come from. As they will not be the answer the question was designed to generate, that causes a discord and a the normal response will be an attempt to say NO I MEANT... which, at the end of the day is where the entire problem with intolerance, varities of differing interpretations all stem from. Prayer as a focused energy has enormous power because the human mind has enormous power. (I think most Freshers at So'ton Uni will have seen Alan Bates Stage show- he got us into looking at this stuff - THAT story is also for another day!). My issue with religion is that it is about "some blokes" interpreting or explaining "their" relationship with God, and then not understanding that others may wonder why, of all the Prophets and stories of that time, these two were the ones who came to the fore. My issue with "understanding the Power of Prayer" is that it MAY actually be something very important in our lives because of the nature of our brains, that has been obscured or (even) hijacked by religion. Seek First to Understand - that's the gospel according to Saint Stephen Covey. Works for me!

txt updates from EoA for me. I'm already loving our Indie festival, but maybe tommorow morning wil be rough. Praise The Lord and pass the Nurofen

Wow. Dubai FINALLY got Indie, only 10 years let but hey. Some op ooop north decided this would be the place to run a "3 day festival" Well, compared to Glasto - I drank cider, but had to sit on the grass. They had 275.000 we struggled to reach 5,000. Dubai types just don't know much about the whole genre, a few of us saddos go to "Indie Nights" but otherwise the radio is just non stop R&B, Hip Hop and a few fillers Anyway I had always pictured going to Glasto and finding a band playing the type of music I liked that I had sort of nearly heard of. Tonight, the 3 support acts (who are ALL well known back home did that) The Futureheads - wow sort of punk revisited, Doves - how did I know ALl their songs in their set? Even the Farm Altogether now. What a really great night, to hell with the fact the sound system didn't really work until midway through The Farm, I was Liking This. TRhen came the Headline Act, what can I say, I loved them when they were "big" I'd seen them twice in the same venue so I was wondering WHY? Then they came on and did their stuff. I have to say, Coldplay were the benchmark for awesomeness, Kings of Leon were Superb, but FFS The Human League? What an absolutely GREAT set. Over 50's and under 21's just singing along like some weird karaoke night. Forget 19C's religous thread, that was shocking, how could a bunch of old f*rts blow away some of the best Indie bands on the circuit. What a great night and what a shock, they may not be cool these days but if they come down your way, get the Throat lozenges, ignore the missus and turn up and just damn well sing. Wonderful ps. Sorry to our normal readers, I just posted that to p*ss off EricofArabia as he couldn't go....... Tomorrow The Courteeners, Ocean Colour Scene & Happy Mondays, they are gonna HAVE to be effing good to beat ol' Phil Oakley

lol THAT's why you're busy Tickets arrived should get there in time for The Farm, Never heard of The Futureheads (sounds like what I deserve when we gat back!) Dives I have heard and then singalong time to Human league. But tomorrow is the big one really looking forward to it. Mind you, the hoops I have to jump through to save 250 quid! http://www.dubaisoundcity.com/gigs.html Loved mates comment - a 3 day Festival in Dubai without herbal remedies - impossible! But true reality!