How many of you believe in alien life?
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It is a possibility that alien life exists, but it is also possible that for some reason it does not. My article on a reference-counted smart pointer that supports polymorphic objects and raw pointers
Heh heh heh. What a diplomatic answer. :-D
Regards,Rohit Sinha
...celebrating Indian spirit and Cricket. 8MB video, really cool!
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Paul Watson wrote: Isn't that how it goes, from your perspective? Even I find it difficult to understand this. Yes, God knows everthing that will happen, yet he still gives us the freedom to make our own decisions. It's like if I took you to the edge of a high cliff and gave you the choice to jump or walk away. I know what you'll do (I hope :~ ) but you've still got the choice. That's what God's like. He gives us the choice to believe in him, yet he already knows what we're going to choose. I find it hard to understand why God tells us in the bible (just assume for argument's sake that it's true, please :)) that he has already knows who will believe in him, yet he also tells his followers that they should tell other people about him. It seems a bit illogical, doesn't it? There are quite a few things in the bible that can't be explained using logic, which is why Christians talk a lot about faith (the belief that something is true without having any proof). Faith is the basis of the Christian belief - the belief that God is real without really having any proof or first-hand experience. Ryan Being little and getting pushed around by big guys all my life I guess I compensate by pushing electrons and holes around. What a bully I am, but I do enjoy making subatomic particles hop at my bidding - Roger Wright (2nd April 2003, The Lounge)
Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late - John Nichol "Point Of Impact"Ryan Binns wrote: That's what God's like. He gives us the choice to believe in him, yet he already knows what we're going to choose. That is how I think about it as well. We have the choice, but his infinite wisdom shows him what we are going to choose. Apparently that is the reasoning which allows Christians to sleep at night when they know whole societies (e.g. those on Pacific islands centuries ago) are born damned, born destined for hell with no chance of being able to choose God. Because God already knows they won't choose him. I wonder if in the past or future there has been or will be a soul that chooses opposite to what God forsaw?
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaMacbeth muttered: I am in blood / Stepped in so far, that should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er Shog9: Paul "The human happy pill" Watson
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Paul Watson wrote: Just curious but when did you see God? I haven't of course :) I guess I believe in God for a different reason. If it wasn't for the support of some of my Christian friends when I was a teenager, I would have committed suicide long ago. I saw something in them that I knew I didn't have. They were happy, nothing seemed wrong. I guess I was naive but I wanted that. That's why I believe. I've seen what God's followers are like from a first-hand perspective. I haven't seen God, but I've seen how he is portrayed by people and I like it. I guess I believe because it works for me. It may not work for other people. That's not a problem. Everybody's different. :) PS. Sorry about the delay replying. It wasn't because of the question. I was at a friends birthday party last night. Great fun! :-D Ryan Being little and getting pushed around by big guys all my life I guess I compensate by pushing electrons and holes around. What a bully I am, but I do enjoy making subatomic particles hop at my bidding - Roger Wright (2nd April 2003, The Lounge)
Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late - John Nichol "Point Of Impact"Ryan Binns wrote: I saw something in them that I knew I didn't have. They were happy, nothing seemed wrong Not to take anything away from your Christian friends but I am happy in life, nothing wrong and yet I have no religion. I know many other people like me. We have faith in life and ourselves, we do not need a 3rd party. But as I said, different strokes for different folks and all are good. Each good path leads to the same result IMO (though I wish religious folk would stop telling me I am going to hell :).) Ryan Binns wrote: I've seen what God's followers are like from a first-hand perspective. I haven't seen God, but I've seen how he is portrayed by people and I like it I am glad you have found good practising Christians, seems a rare thing these days (for all religions actually.)
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaMacbeth muttered: I am in blood / Stepped in so far, that should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er Shog9: Paul "The human happy pill" Watson
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Gary Kirkham wrote: You can't show me proof of life on other planets any more than I can show you proof that God exists But I can prove that life exists - I can't prove that God exists. There are different meanings of the word 'faith'. All require you to accept something without any evidence. However we have evidence that there is life so that can be removed from the realm of 'faith' and into that of 'known'. Remember that anything not specificaly prohibited by nature will happen. Richard In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. Orson Welles
I guess we'll just have to disagree.:-D Since it is Sunday, I will close with this... If you believe in God, and what's in the Bible, there is a 100% chance you will meet God someday...The chance of you ever meeting an alien is approaching zero.;) Gary Kirkham A working Program is one that has only unobserved bugs I thought I wanted a career, turns out I just wanted paychecks
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There are billions and billions of stars stars in our galaxy and there are billions of galaxies like ours out there. Only a baby would say (if it knew how to speak of course) that earth is the only planet with life. Yet I find that there are unbelievers everywhere. Just wanted to know how of you believe there are alien life forms out there. The others (if they decide to participate in this thread) please give valid reasonable points. And kindly dont mention religion, god and brit spears. Nish
Author of the romantic comedy Summer Love and Some more Cricket [New Win] Review by Shog9 Click here for review[NW]
Yes. Of course I beliee in Alien life. No idea if it's like ourselves but I definitly believe. :-) Regards, Brian Dela :-)
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Ryan Binns wrote: Faith is the basis of the Christian belief I think this is true of all the religions in the world. Whenever you mention god, you have to abandon logic if you want to believe in him/her/it.
Regards,Rohit Sinha
...celebrating Indian spirit and Cricket. 8MB video, really cool!
Rohit Sinha wrote: I think this is true of all the religions in the world. Whenever you mention god, you have to abandon logic if you want to believe in him/her/it. Absolutely :) God is something that just doesn't make sense (if you understand what I mean) Ryan Being little and getting pushed around by big guys all my life I guess I compensate by pushing electrons and holes around. What a bully I am, but I do enjoy making subatomic particles hop at my bidding - Roger Wright (2nd April 2003, The Lounge)
Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late - John Nichol "Point Of Impact" -
Ryan Binns wrote: I saw something in them that I knew I didn't have. They were happy, nothing seemed wrong Not to take anything away from your Christian friends but I am happy in life, nothing wrong and yet I have no religion. I know many other people like me. We have faith in life and ourselves, we do not need a 3rd party. But as I said, different strokes for different folks and all are good. Each good path leads to the same result IMO (though I wish religious folk would stop telling me I am going to hell :).) Ryan Binns wrote: I've seen what God's followers are like from a first-hand perspective. I haven't seen God, but I've seen how he is portrayed by people and I like it I am glad you have found good practising Christians, seems a rare thing these days (for all religions actually.)
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaMacbeth muttered: I am in blood / Stepped in so far, that should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er Shog9: Paul "The human happy pill" Watson
Paul Watson wrote: I am glad you have found good practising Christians, seems a rare thing these days (for all religions actually.) Unfortunately it is :( Ryan Being little and getting pushed around by big guys all my life I guess I compensate by pushing electrons and holes around. What a bully I am, but I do enjoy making subatomic particles hop at my bidding - Roger Wright (2nd April 2003, The Lounge)
Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late - John Nichol "Point Of Impact" -
Ryan Binns wrote: That's what God's like. He gives us the choice to believe in him, yet he already knows what we're going to choose. That is how I think about it as well. We have the choice, but his infinite wisdom shows him what we are going to choose. Apparently that is the reasoning which allows Christians to sleep at night when they know whole societies (e.g. those on Pacific islands centuries ago) are born damned, born destined for hell with no chance of being able to choose God. Because God already knows they won't choose him. I wonder if in the past or future there has been or will be a soul that chooses opposite to what God forsaw?
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaMacbeth muttered: I am in blood / Stepped in so far, that should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er Shog9: Paul "The human happy pill" Watson
Paul Watson wrote: Apparently that is the reasoning which allows Christians to sleep at night when they know whole societies (e.g. those on Pacific islands centuries ago) are born damned, born destined for hell with no chance of being able to choose God. Because God already knows they won't choose him. I don't believe that people are born destined for hell. The bible (which is all we really have to go on) states that we all have the choice. It's just that we can't make that choice unless someone tells us about it. For people born centuries ago who weren't told about God, I just have to accept that they are going to hell, because they didn't choose God. The fact that they did not know about God doesn't really make a difference. What allows us to accept that is the belief that God has a reason for everything and is always right. BTW, predestination (the belief that we are destined to go to either heaven or hell and nothing we do will change that) is a fairly old belief, that is not really encountered any more. Certainly Christians do not believe it, for the simple reason that the bible states we have a choice. Predestination was one of the central beliefs of a variation (for want of a better word) of Christianity called Calvinism (started by a guy called Calvin, funnily enough :) and was never widely accepted. Paul Watson wrote: I wonder if in the past or future there has been or will be a soul that chooses opposite to what God forsaw? One of the qualities of God is that he knows everything and never makes mistakes, which makes this situation impossible. If it happens then God is not a god at all, but someone who makes mistakes. I'd rather believe that if there is a God, then he wouldn't make mistakes :). It's an interesting thing to think about, though :) Ryan Being little and getting pushed around by big guys all my life I guess I compensate by pushing electrons and holes around. What a bully I am, but I do enjoy making subatomic particles hop at my bidding - Roger Wright (2nd April 2003, The Lounge)
Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late - John Nichol "Point Of Impact" -
Paul Watson wrote: Apparently that is the reasoning which allows Christians to sleep at night when they know whole societies (e.g. those on Pacific islands centuries ago) are born damned, born destined for hell with no chance of being able to choose God. Because God already knows they won't choose him. I don't believe that people are born destined for hell. The bible (which is all we really have to go on) states that we all have the choice. It's just that we can't make that choice unless someone tells us about it. For people born centuries ago who weren't told about God, I just have to accept that they are going to hell, because they didn't choose God. The fact that they did not know about God doesn't really make a difference. What allows us to accept that is the belief that God has a reason for everything and is always right. BTW, predestination (the belief that we are destined to go to either heaven or hell and nothing we do will change that) is a fairly old belief, that is not really encountered any more. Certainly Christians do not believe it, for the simple reason that the bible states we have a choice. Predestination was one of the central beliefs of a variation (for want of a better word) of Christianity called Calvinism (started by a guy called Calvin, funnily enough :) and was never widely accepted. Paul Watson wrote: I wonder if in the past or future there has been or will be a soul that chooses opposite to what God forsaw? One of the qualities of God is that he knows everything and never makes mistakes, which makes this situation impossible. If it happens then God is not a god at all, but someone who makes mistakes. I'd rather believe that if there is a God, then he wouldn't make mistakes :). It's an interesting thing to think about, though :) Ryan Being little and getting pushed around by big guys all my life I guess I compensate by pushing electrons and holes around. What a bully I am, but I do enjoy making subatomic particles hop at my bidding - Roger Wright (2nd April 2003, The Lounge)
Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late - John Nichol "Point Of Impact"Ryan Binns wrote: The fact that they did not know about God doesn't really make a difference. What allows us to accept that is the belief that God has a reason for everything and is always right. But the fact remains that a human born on a remote Pacific island to which the word of God has not arrived is destined to go to hell right off the bat. In their lives they will never be told of Jesus and therefore never given the choice. As you say though God is always right, that is why that human was born on that island, it was for a reason (one maybe because God knew that even if the human had been given the choice that they would not have chosen him.) So it is a form of predestination, one determined by God. Ah well. I believe that if there is a God that those Pacific chaps would have through leading good lives be welcomed by God into his kingdom once they died. i.e. No choice necessary, just a good life.
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaMacbeth muttered: I am in blood / Stepped in so far, that should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er Shog9: Paul "The human happy pill" Watson
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Paul Watson wrote: Apparently that is the reasoning which allows Christians to sleep at night when they know whole societies (e.g. those on Pacific islands centuries ago) are born damned, born destined for hell with no chance of being able to choose God. Because God already knows they won't choose him. I don't believe that people are born destined for hell. The bible (which is all we really have to go on) states that we all have the choice. It's just that we can't make that choice unless someone tells us about it. For people born centuries ago who weren't told about God, I just have to accept that they are going to hell, because they didn't choose God. The fact that they did not know about God doesn't really make a difference. What allows us to accept that is the belief that God has a reason for everything and is always right. BTW, predestination (the belief that we are destined to go to either heaven or hell and nothing we do will change that) is a fairly old belief, that is not really encountered any more. Certainly Christians do not believe it, for the simple reason that the bible states we have a choice. Predestination was one of the central beliefs of a variation (for want of a better word) of Christianity called Calvinism (started by a guy called Calvin, funnily enough :) and was never widely accepted. Paul Watson wrote: I wonder if in the past or future there has been or will be a soul that chooses opposite to what God forsaw? One of the qualities of God is that he knows everything and never makes mistakes, which makes this situation impossible. If it happens then God is not a god at all, but someone who makes mistakes. I'd rather believe that if there is a God, then he wouldn't make mistakes :). It's an interesting thing to think about, though :) Ryan Being little and getting pushed around by big guys all my life I guess I compensate by pushing electrons and holes around. What a bully I am, but I do enjoy making subatomic particles hop at my bidding - Roger Wright (2nd April 2003, The Lounge)
Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late - John Nichol "Point Of Impact"So what we need to do to go to heaven is basically suck up, eh? :-D It doesn't matter if we have been good all our lives. What god wants is psycophants, not good human beings. Sounds to me a very human trait indeed. Disclaimer: What I said applies to all religions, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc, so please don't get offended.
Regards,Rohit Sinha
...celebrating Indian spirit and Cricket. 8MB video, really cool!
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There are billions and billions of stars stars in our galaxy and there are billions of galaxies like ours out there. Only a baby would say (if it knew how to speak of course) that earth is the only planet with life. Yet I find that there are unbelievers everywhere. Just wanted to know how of you believe there are alien life forms out there. The others (if they decide to participate in this thread) please give valid reasonable points. And kindly dont mention religion, god and brit spears. Nish
Author of the romantic comedy Summer Love and Some more Cricket [New Win] Review by Shog9 Click here for review[NW]
why are all people so intersted in other lifes??:confused: all over the world there r ppl who can not find the minimum standerd of life as human being. sorry to say that there r animals that life better than them. We do not feel them we do not think about them and we think about lifes that we are not sure that they even exist. In Arabic we have a saying " what we know is better than we do not." it may not be always true but in this case i think it is...
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Nishant S wrote: I guess so. It must be totally against their mindsets to try and accept a concept that will disagree with their religious beliefs. As far as I know the bible, it doesn't say anything about life on other planets. I'm a Christian, but I have no problem with it. It would be really cool :) If people use religion (I assume here you are talking about God and Christianity) as a basis for saying there is no life other than on earth, then I don't think that they have interpreted the bible correctly. People have wrongly taught Christianity for a long time from the point that there is no life other than on earth, when the bible doesn't actually say that - it only talks about earth. Just my two cents :) Ryan Being little and getting pushed around by big guys all my life I guess I compensate by pushing electrons and holes around. What a bully I am, but I do enjoy making subatomic particles hop at my bidding - Roger Wright (2nd April 2003, The Lounge)
Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late - John Nichol "Point Of Impact"Ryan Binns wrote: I assume here you are talking about God and Christianity God and Religion (as in Islam, Hinduism, Christianity etc...) Nish
Author of the romantic comedy Summer Love and Some more Cricket [New Win] Review by Shog9 Click here for review[NW]
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Ryan Binns wrote: I assume here you are talking about God and Christianity God and Religion (as in Islam, Hinduism, Christianity etc...) Nish
Author of the romantic comedy Summer Love and Some more Cricket [New Win] Review by Shog9 Click here for review[NW]
I always smile when people act as if the only religion in the world is their own. :)
Regards,Rohit Sinha
...celebrating Indian spirit and Cricket. 8MB video, really cool!
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I always smile when people act as if the only religion in the world is their own. :)
Regards,Rohit Sinha
...celebrating Indian spirit and Cricket. 8MB video, really cool!
Rohit Sinha wrote: I always smile when people act as if the only religion in the world is their own. Me too. A lot of western christians equate religion with christianity and think that atheists are always anti-christianity rather than anti-god/religion :-) Nish
Author of the romantic comedy Summer Love and Some more Cricket [New Win] Review by Shog9 Click here for review[NW]
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It is a possibility that alien life exists, but it is also possible that for some reason it does not. My article on a reference-counted smart pointer that supports polymorphic objects and raw pointers
Thomas George wrote: It is a possibility that alien life exists, but it is also possible that for some reason it does not. Uhm did you do economics for your degree? Nish
Author of the romantic comedy Summer Love and Some more Cricket [New Win] Review by Shog9 Click here for review[NW]
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Thomas George wrote: It is a possibility that alien life exists, but it is also possible that for some reason it does not. Uhm did you do economics for your degree? Nish
Author of the romantic comedy Summer Love and Some more Cricket [New Win] Review by Shog9 Click here for review[NW]
Nishant S wrote: did you do economics for your degree? I think you meant to say Law, or International Relations, or Political Science (what an oxymoron!) or Diplomacy (if there is such a subject). :-D
Regards,Rohit Sinha
...celebrating Indian spirit and Cricket. 8MB video, really cool!
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Brit wrote: (The Star Trek idea of multiple races of roughly equivalent technology is next to impossible on a statistical basis; Not true. If you make the assumption that life needs the heavier elements to exist ( and this is a pretty safe assumption ) then life couln't have got a foothold till around the third generation of stars - I.E. it would all have began at a relative equal point in the existance of the universe. Admittedly there would probably be a 1000000 year or so overlap but even so this is still roughly the same time whem you consider the age of the universe. It is my understanding that we are searching only a very small bandwith of the available electromagnetic spectrum and concentrating of the bandwiths around the hydrogen atom. We have only recently ( since hubble ) been even able to look in the xray and gamma spectrum and are doing that more on a macro scale rather than a micro scale. And also remember that life may and probably will be abundant - intelligent life will be rather rare and probably scattered out over ranges that exceed 1000000 LY. Richard In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. Orson Welles
Richard Stringer wrote: Not true. If you make the assumption that life needs the heavier elements to exist ( and this is a pretty safe assumption ) then life couln't have got a foothold till around the third generation of stars - I.E. it would all have began at a relative equal point in the existance of the universe. Admittedly there would probably be a 1000000 year or so overlap but even so this is still roughly the same time whem you consider the age of the universe. (nod) I said pretty much the same thing in this post[^]. I assumed that intelligent life could've developed about 1 billion years ago (the universe is around 13 billion years old, so I thought restricting it to the most recent 7.5% seemed plausible). The 1 million number that you used seems a little restrictive (1 million ago represents only 0.0075% of the age of the universe). In any case, a 1/2 million year head start (1/2 million is the average amount of time the alien civilization would have a head-start on us) is still an enourmous amount of time to develop technology. Side note: In comparison to the 1 million light years number, our galaxy is only 160,000 light years across. This means that if no aliens exist within 1 million light years, then no aliens exist in our galaxy. ------------------------------------------ "What happened in that Rhode Island club is shocking. To think that over a hundred people would attend a Great White concert." - The Onion
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I always smile when people act as if the only religion in the world is their own. :)
Regards,Rohit Sinha
...celebrating Indian spirit and Cricket. 8MB video, really cool!
Rohit Sinha wrote: I always smile when people act as if the only religion in the world is their own. :) I wasn't actually. It's just that I don't know enough about any other religions to be able to give a point of view. But for Christianity, the statement wasn't quite accurate, so I expanded on it and explained it. Sorry if it came across this way. It wasn't meant to :) Ryan Being little and getting pushed around by big guys all my life I guess I compensate by pushing electrons and holes around. What a bully I am, but I do enjoy making subatomic particles hop at my bidding - Roger Wright (2nd April 2003, The Lounge)
Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late - John Nichol "Point Of Impact" -
So what we need to do to go to heaven is basically suck up, eh? :-D It doesn't matter if we have been good all our lives. What god wants is psycophants, not good human beings. Sounds to me a very human trait indeed. Disclaimer: What I said applies to all religions, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc, so please don't get offended.
Regards,Rohit Sinha
...celebrating Indian spirit and Cricket. 8MB video, really cool!
Rohit Sinha wrote: So what we need to do to go to heaven is basically suck up, eh? I guess that's one way of putting it :-D Rohit Sinha wrote: please don't get offended. Not at all :) It takes a lot to get me offended :) Ryan Being little and getting pushed around by big guys all my life I guess I compensate by pushing electrons and holes around. What a bully I am, but I do enjoy making subatomic particles hop at my bidding - Roger Wright (2nd April 2003, The Lounge)
Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late - John Nichol "Point Of Impact" -
Ryan Binns wrote: The fact that they did not know about God doesn't really make a difference. What allows us to accept that is the belief that God has a reason for everything and is always right. But the fact remains that a human born on a remote Pacific island to which the word of God has not arrived is destined to go to hell right off the bat. In their lives they will never be told of Jesus and therefore never given the choice. As you say though God is always right, that is why that human was born on that island, it was for a reason (one maybe because God knew that even if the human had been given the choice that they would not have chosen him.) So it is a form of predestination, one determined by God. Ah well. I believe that if there is a God that those Pacific chaps would have through leading good lives be welcomed by God into his kingdom once they died. i.e. No choice necessary, just a good life.
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaMacbeth muttered: I am in blood / Stepped in so far, that should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er Shog9: Paul "The human happy pill" Watson
Paul Watson wrote: But the fact remains that a human born on a remote Pacific island to which the word of God has not arrived is destined to go to hell right off the bat. Not necessarily, such as if someone visits their island and tells them about it. Just because they haven't heard it yet doesn't mean that they never will. Paul Watson wrote: I believe that if there is a God that those Pacific chaps would have through leading good lives be welcomed by God into his kingdom once they died. i.e. No choice necessary, just a good life. It'd be nice hey :) Not quite what I believe, but that's ok :) Ryan Being little and getting pushed around by big guys all my life I guess I compensate by pushing electrons and holes around. What a bully I am, but I do enjoy making subatomic particles hop at my bidding - Roger Wright (2nd April 2003, The Lounge)
Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late - John Nichol "Point Of Impact"