maitreyauk

I am a committed atheist, I have never in my entire life. Not even as a child had any belief in the divine. I have always had an enquisitive mind that questions everything. I have also lived my life by a set of self-formed moral standards based upon the "do unto others" model.

By my own estimation, I like to think of myself as a good person that has empathy for my fellow man. Why is it then that, when the subject of religion came up in work I was called "evil" by a co-worker because I don't believe in any deities?

I'm a committed liberal, but Boris seems to represent the most liberal, environmental conscious branch of the Tory party. In fact it seems more to me that he is hanging onto his conservative affiliation more as a matter of his upbringing rather than his beliefs.

I know the man is a bumbling idiot, but would he really make such a bad PM? Whatever his background, he does seem to care about people and his heart is in the right place.

How far is this going to go? As an EU candidate and with Russia sending in troops to the Crimea, could this turn into World War III?

I know that there numbers are infinite and you could go on counting forever. However, is there a limit to numbers whereby if you carry on it has no meaning as there is nothing in the universe that can be measured on such a large scale?

I have a number of .mkv episodes I want to convert to .avi so I can play them on my PS3. I stream these from my Seagate wireless hard drive to my PS3 and I can't find a programme that will convert them properly. I have tried Pazera mkv to avi and MKV2VOB, with the first one it simply shows unrecognised file format when I try to play it and with MKV2VOB it will play the sound but not the video.

Does anyone know of any free software which will help?

I have a birthday coming up of a very dear friend and as he is a history buff and really into British monarchy and numismatics I really want to get him a set of replica coins from the reign of every English king and queen. Does anyone know of anywhere that produces legal replica coins from English history?

I was reading up on the state visit to China by the former PM of Iceland who was the world's first openly lesbian head of state and it got me wondering.

It's only a matter of time before more gay heads of state are elected. Would that create difficulties in international relations for a state? Say for example if state visit to Saudi Arabia or Zimbabwe was scheduled, could these countries refuse entry to a gay head of state and their partner? And would there be repercussions if they did?

I have only just got my laptop back today after having lent it to a friend for a few months and I am having a problem with Internet Explorer, every time I click on a link in google it opens the link in a new tab whereas it previously opened the link in the existing tab, I have tried changing the settings in the general > tabs but still I have this very annoying problem, anyone know how to solve this so that I don’t have hundreds of tabs popping up every time?

I have adapted this recipe of Delia's and have been using it for several years

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/ve...

I add Grand Marnier into the cake batter and the fudge mixture and the result is a delicious boozy choc orange fudge cake. However, when I add the alcohol to the fudge it never gets thick enough, it does if I leave it out but everyone prefers the boozy version. Any tips for getting my alcoholic fudge to thicken?

I remember when I was at Uni doing my translation module we were told about a historic blunder that involved a UN resolution. Because of one misplaced comma the French version favoured one side and the English version favoured another.

For the life of me I cannot remember the name of this resolution. As far as I remember it was something to do with Israel and Palestine. Does anyone know the name of this? I think it is quite well known in linguistic circles and is often cited as an example of how even a minor error in translation or grammar can have huge consequences.

Many thanks.

So I'm cooking for my new vegetarian boyfriend for the first time tomorrow, I've settled on making burgers from portobello mushrooms for him but I'm not sure what to stuff them with, I'm thinking red onion, spinach and blue cheese but still not sure, does anyone have any better suggestions. :)

So I'm cooking for my new vegetarian boyfriend for the first time tomorrow, I've settled on making burgers from portobello mushrooms for him but I'm not sure what to stuff them with, I'm thinking red onion, spinach and blue cheese but still not sure, does anyone have any better suggestions. :)

I am a liberal left winger but I have always wanted to read this book from a purely historical perspective. My friends are all horrified that I've ordered a copy but I'm thinking along the lines of "know your enemy".

Is it acceptable to read this piece of filth in modern society?

I was brought up in a very English, very British household, in that religion has no place outside of funerals, weddings and christenings (most of which were just an excuse for a good old piss up). Although most of my family believe in a god, my sister and I have never been told by our family that there is definitely a god and have been pretty much left to make up our own minds.

For as long as I can remember I have found the notion of an all knowing god ridiculous and if I have any faith these days it is in the scientific method. In my opinion if there will ever be a saviour of humanity it will come from humanity itself as a result of methodical observation of the physical universe.

Why is it then, that some theists always find the fact that I place so much faith in humanity and the scientific method so insulting? I respect the beliefs of others, I may not share their beliefs but when I state that I have absolutely no belief in any deities that is an insulting statement.

I can just about live with their being insulted with my lack of belief. However, I really cannot comprehend the compulsion that theists feel to convert atheists. If I were living in a country like Iran where my life was under threat for not conforming to the expected religious observances then I would go through the motions as a matter of presrvring my own safety.

Yet there is no power on this planet that could ever make me believe in any deity whatsoever.

I am sure there must be millions of people like myself all over the planet who are born into less religiously tolerant cultures. With that in mind, do you think there are a lot of people who simply go through the motions without belief, just to fit in and not be ostracised within their society?

I have been watching the development of nuclear fusion with interest. However, there is one thing I find odd. I read that proposed designs for power stations still use steam turbines to generate the electricity.

I find it a little strange that they plan to use an enormously advanced energy source and hook it up to what is essentially an antiquated device. Are there no more energy efficient ways to harness fusion power?

I have already decided to donate my body to medical science as I don't see the point in a funeral. But reading further into it, I see that the medical establishments turn over your remains after a certain amount of time for burial etc... Do you know if there is a clause in which you can sign over your remains top be the full property of the establishment in perpituity? I would sooner my skeleton hung in a classroom as a teaching aid, rather than rotting in the ground or being burnt and polluting the atmosphere.

I started a new job two weeks ago and we have dress down on Fridays and weekends, pretty much standard for any office really. However, the air-con is not working in there which means that the past few days the temp has been up to 30 degrees in there.

So looking forward to dress down day this morning, I went in to the office in a pair of shorts, at which point I was promptly told off for ‘innapropriate dress for the office’ and sent home to change. Being a relatively new starter the only guidelines I was given for dress down were ‘nothing ripped or stained’.

I wouldn’t mind that so much, apart from the fact that all the women in the office were either in shorts or short skirts and sandals. Whereas, flip flops and sandals for men are expressly forbidden.

What is going on there? Is the sight of a hairy leg particularly offensive? Or is it all just double standards?

I recently inherited an antique copy of The Times from 1815 announcing Nelson's victory at Waterloo. I have no idea if it would be worth anything however so I am keen to get an idea of value. Does anybody have any idea of value or where I could get an idea of its value?

Many thanks. :o)

This is a question for all the vegetarians out there.

If the current research into invitro meat proves to actually be able to produce an economic, humanitarian and environmentally viable option to convential meat production. Would you as a vegetarian consider consuming it? I realise that there are vegetarians out there who simply do not like the taste of meat, but many more make the lifestyle change out of ethical considerations. Therefore, if the ethical consideration is removed, in that meat can be produced without the death of animals, would you begin to eat meat again?

Cheers :o)

Evening all, having a bit of a drama with my phone, anyone else encountered this…..?

I just tried reinstalling an app after it froze but the install was taking over an hour after it downloaded, when my phone automatically locked it refused to do anything so I did a reset using the home button and power button and it has now been displaying the apple logo on the screen for three hours. It won’t switch off and it won’t get recognised by the computer to do a restore from a backup.

anyone got any ideas?

Cheers