SignorSuperdouche

I don't think I am being inconsistent, although I'm probably not explaining myself very well which wont be helping my case. Use of the word stupid was probably a bad choice - I don't mean it in a negative way just as the opposite intelligence. Empathising with animals, as far as I am aware, is merely a side effect of our ability to empathise with each other. If this is true then feeling empathy for an animal is a false positive which can be safely ignored.

When did I say we should? I'm not saying other aspects of language are pointless, I'm just saying we need to retain some perspective.

Since when was superfluous synonymous with bullshit? It just means more than what is required.

Just because it's superfluous doesn't mean I can't or shouldn't find it rewarding to spell things correctly - it's just not worth getting in a flap about is all.

If you are able to communicate then language has served it's purpose. Anything else is superfluous.

Surely, and that is why people are stupid. To rely on some ineffable instinct to guide your actions is to not consciously assess the situation and come to a rational conclusion. That's not to say the outcome will not be desirable (being scared of lions and tigers and what have you is probably a good thing) but without understanding what you are doing and why you are doing it it is still stupid.

I thought about going to go into that but I felt it was tangential to my point. Ultimately I agree that the desire to propagate the human species has no innate value. It is a basic axiom of life that is neither good nor bad. It's just true in the same way that 1+1=2 is just true.

That's exactly how I feel. I worry that I'm being flippant by enjoying the art but it is undeniably cool.

I have to take issue with this. Empathy is an example of how stupid people are not how smart we are. If we were really smart we'd recognise that working together and looking after each other is good for the survival of the species but, for the most part, we don't. Human beings are motivated to cooperate not because it is a noble pursuit in and of itself but because of the chemical rewards we get when we do so. We do the right thing because it makes us feel good - and being motivated by feelings, rather than logic, is the exact opposite of clever. This emotion based system that we rely on to get us to function as a group can also kick in when we look at animals but that is not the purpose of this system. It's like you're blindly following a set of rules but you don't understand the reason for the rules or the meaning behind them.

Involuntary euthanasia FTW!

My understanding was that in the UK the Soil Association does have published standards for what it defines as organic however this only applies to the Soil Association's seal of approval and not the word itself. I'm not sure how I feel about having a legal definition for organic in this context. Obviously using the word to mislead people is bad. On the other hand if it is a legitimate usage and it's just that people are ignorant of the meaning of the word how can that be wrong? It's not their fault that people are stupid.

With something that will take up a huge amount of time to get through and is probably being made up as it goes along? Yeah definitely. I'm happy to give a chance to a one off book or film or something that I know nothing about though. True enough, if the story stands on its own as a one off then I'm happy to give it a go. Is this the case?

No I totally agree, I refuse to watch Lost for the same reason. If, when the series is over, people say it was awesome from start to end then that's cool but I'm not going to invest my time or emotions on something that I suspect will turn to shit by the end.

Free range meat tastes better but that's the only reason to buy free range for me. If you think it's ok to bash in an animals head, hack it apart and eat it for no other reason than you like the taste I don't see why it's so important to make sure it's happy and comfortable up until that point. Animals aren't people. I'm pretty sure all milk is likely to have pus in it whether the cow was well treated or not.

Wow, that ad was harder to sit through than 2 girls 1 cup. I don't understand the frequency with which crappy microsoft videos turn up. I swear it's like Microsoft must actually have an internal department that exists just to produce these god-awful videos. Microsoft Sales Team Rocks!

The IT Crowd is not particularly good or bad it's just generic. If it's on I can watch it but I rarely remember much of it half an hour later. As a professional computer person (or I would be if I had a job) I would like to say that the "computer people are funny and socially awkward" concept is not remotely hateful. The jokes at our expense are always affectionate and, frankly, pretty accurate in my experience.

My favourite episode of Brass Eye is always the one I've seen most recently. There's always something in each episode which I will have forgotten about that is so perfectly funny that that episode goes to the top of my list. The most recent example was in Decline where there's a guy smoking crack in a board meeting and completely over does it. That had me in stiches. Concerning the special, how is Dr Fox saying not so stupid it's just as hilariously over the top as any of the other episodes?

Good episode guys For what it's worth I live in London and Cockfosters is still hilarious to me - whenever anyone come down to visit I always point it out to them. Except my Nan. I love the idea of telling a story directly from the players actions. I remember this part in Monkey Island 2 where Guybrush had to escape from this trap that was slowly lowering him into a pit of acid. If you didn't do it time there was an animation of Guybrush screaming as he went into the acid and the game would cut forward to Guybrush explaining this to Elaine and she would just look at him incredulously and say something like "Yeah ... that didn't really happen did it?". I can't remember it exactly but it was pretty funny.

Nathan Barley can be a little broard at times but it's still very funny. You owe it to yourself to at least give it a try. My Wrongs is perhaps a little pretentious and not nearly as good as the Blue Jam sketch it was based on but I still enjoyed it. You can probably give it a miss unless you're a Chris Morris completionist.

I've been waiting for this since forever

It's really a shame to see this from the independent. I'd expect this from the Guardian or the Times but the I'd always thought of the Independent as the UKs last bastion of good journalism. I suspect Ginger is right about the papers trying to stay profitable in the age of the internet. They need to appeal to a broader audience to keep circulation up and overblown shite like this is the result. That said I still don't like the idea that a police chief can authorise intrusive surveillance on a whim even if it's not new. Does anyone know if there is there a clear legal definition for what qualifies as a "serious crime" in this country?

Wait, that poster's real? It's so evocotive of 1984 I thought it was satire

Even if the idea was well intentioned (which is doubtful) I just don't understand how anyone could think this would never be used for insidious purposes. All it would take is one person to decide they're going abuse the system for their own gain.

That is exactly what I thought when I saw this.

Are there really people who are offended by the terms slave/master disk? It's insane to think that the concepts of slaves and masters are never applicable in any situation. Anyway, I've got a Hitman triple pack on my shelf but I couldn't get it to run on vista so it just collects dust. Hearing people gush about it just makes me sad The insight into the development of Retro/Grade was really interesting and I love the idea of people working on a bus driving sim as their 9-5 grind. It's weird but for some reason it had never really clicked in my head that somebody has to make these games as a job:tup: