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For me that is the very definition of "terrorism": forcing ordinary people into a state where they fear carrying out normal activities. I'd like five minutes in a room alone with the people who did this - all I need is a pair of tweezers.

You are LEGALLY obliged to do this. I actually just spent a few minutes messing around on my iPad synthesizer... The main theme is relatively easy to work out - it's in A, the bass is contrapuntal riffing around about 3-4 notes.

I used to have the first ten seconds of the fanfare as my start-up sound on my PC. "Dun-Dunnn....Dun-dun-dun-DUN! Da-da-da-dun-dun-dun-dun-da-dee-dun!"

When I saw the name "MOID" I thought of this guy: "I have.... many faces... but none of my own." /showing my age.

Just finished Season 3 in the space of a weekend. Wow. Absolutely gripping TV. I don't get the naysayers "Oh, it's too slow, oh the narrative is blah" Let go of your preconceptions of what constitutes a narrative, let go of your monster-of-the-week indoctrination. This is honestly the best dramatic TV series since BSG and Terminator ended.

Excellent. I shall be more than a match for these people.

Okay, okay, let me know how this goes: "Sup my homebrews! I herd mudkips! Ruffle mallows!" Did that sound convincing?

Haven't used any of these since I got to China - a shame, because in the UK I used them every day.

Is...um, anyone probably 14, "lol"?

I misinterpreted what you said, and I'm sorry for that.

Right, I'm taking the high ground and walking away from this. Enjoy the remainder of the debate.

I'm going to raise my eyebrow at you, and that's it.

OH BEHAVE. There's a very distinct difference between someone who says "Get on a plane and go kill some people, I don't care who" and someone who structurally reforms a country -leading to unemployment - as it's democratically elected leader.

And they believed that the war was just - either through personal convictions or what they were told by others. If they did it because they were blinded by propaganda, then that's the fault of the propagandists. The war was unlawful, but the soldiers are not the ones who chose to prosecute it. You have to make the distinction between "foreigners" and "enemies of the state" but firstly consider the question of "what is the state and what is its function?" "Foreigners" in the UK are any persons without a UK passport. There's about... 6 billion people who are therefore caught in the net of "foreign". What is the state and what is its function? Well, tough question. In an authoritarian state, such as the one I'm sitting in, the "state" is actually "The Communist Party" in a general sense and "The Politburo" in a specific sense. In an authoritarian state, we assume that any threats to the government are an issue of National Security, and that's why they shoot children in the back as they run away and forcibly abort third trimester fetuses. In a Liberal Democracy - where most of you will be sitting - the state is a combination of the electorate and the elected. It varies from state-to-state exactly what the balance is considered to be. However, the liberal democracies espouse a doctrine of common rights and rule of law, and therefore any threat to those rights and that law are defined as threats to National Security and by extension, become the enemy of the state. You will disagree, but seen through that lens, it's perfectly logical to go to war on a 1% risk of harm to National Security. Is it in the interest of the state, however? Debatable and depending on what they expect to get out of it. Retrospectively we are able to say that the war was an error of judgement on the part of the state: but those who carried out the orders to kill were not to blame. Evil is irrelevant and a matter of perspective. To thousands of poverty stricken socialists, Thatcher was an evil tyrant. Would you have welcomed the Americans to liberate us all from the Iron Lady? Doubtful.

And that is exactly the point I would make, but against yours. Serving military personnel don't get involved in politics. If they do, you end up with something like the Chinese PLA that happily guns down civilians because they have a vested interest in maintaining their own position in the political and social hierarchy. The military does what the government tells them to do to safeguard the ethereal notion of "National Security", if they can say "no" for a good reason, what's to stop them from saying "no" for a bad reason? I don't like it much either, but military and state should be kept separate. Unless the government orders soldiers to turn their guns on the nation.

Well, say what you will about her, she had an extremely recognisable hairstyle. Also: first British female Prime Minister.

I'm personally a fan, but mainly for the reason that it pisses off my grandfather. Who was under-manager of several coal mines in the area when they finally closed down. He was made to retire at 50 with an inflation adjusted pension of £35,000+ pa. He went on to join a Masonic Lodge and became President of the English Bowls Society. And it was aaaaaaaaaall Thatcher's fault.

I wouldn't say I'd spend my whole life tweeting about them, no. If I had a duck, I would name her Shirley. It's a good name for a duck.

1: I have torn a groin muscle. No football for at least a month. No sleep either. 2: Retarded Shanghai Metro Security: we're having a. Outbreak of a new strain of bird flu, and the thick-as-shit underground security staff are allowing birds onto the trains. I don't know if I have ever fully expressed my contempt for these people on here, so let me explain: A) They have X-ray scanners at every station. B) it takes 15 seconds to pass through the scanner. C) I make an average of 4 journeys per day, so I lose 1 minute every day by scanning my bag. So far so reasonable, yes? A) They have X-ray scanners at every station. But they will allow items such as sledgehammers, hacksaws, welding torches, gas canisters, circular saws, jackhammers and angle grinders onto the trains. As well as bags that are often too big to fit through the scanners: they are often a square metre top and across, weigh 25-50 KG and frequently block the gangway on the trains. B) it takes 15 seconds to pass through the scanner. Did I mention that the metro operator did not obtain licenses for these scanners before putting them into use? Some 15% were found to be defective within the first year of use and emitting X-rays in all directions. C) I make an average of 4 journeys per day, so I lose 1 minute every day by scanning my bag. I tallied up the cost over a year... Approximately six hours of my life to scan my bag. I once had a can of deodorant confiscated and never returned. All the while: sledgehammers. And NOW these people are allowing BIRDS into an ENCLOSED SPACE during a BIRD FLU CRISIS.

6 casualties and 8 more are sick. Yeesh.

Follow up? I need to hear about your misery!

Def Leppard and Sean Bean redeem any other sins comitted by having given birth to Jarvis Cocket and The Arctic Monkeys.

Shanghai Poultry Markets Close Amid Bird Flu Scare. It's a bit of a tense and uncomfortable situation here in Shanghai. I got a text earlier from one of the parents at the school saying that if things get any worse, she'll be taking her kids back to the US until things look a little safer. The reason that people are so scared is that the first time around, with SARS, the government completely covered up the sickness and denied any knowledge until people were dying in large numbers - by which time it was too late for most people to take preventative measures. We are just hoping here that the cases that have been reported are a few aberrations and most people need not worry. The hope is that human-to-human transmission is impossible. Eek.

Jesus... Deal has one station for about 35,000, and there's constant talk of closing it. Ringwould on the other hand, has 6... ...buses per day and sometimes they don't stop.

Ringwould... Nothing really remarkable about the place. Although some historians claim that Admiral Nelson owned a house (now demolished) that stood next to my parents' house. Deal, where I grew up was written about by Charles Dickens among several other people. It's famous for having the longest in-service pier in the UK and possibly Europe. In fact, the pier is EXACTLY the same length from end-to-end as the Titanic. Deal Castle was built by Henry VIII and is in the shape of a Tudor Rose. Shanghai, where I have made my home for the last six years' is in possession of such wonders as the Oriental Pearl Tower, Shanghai Financial Center and some amazing Art Deco architecture along the tourist trap known as the Bund.