bob

I cant believe that although Italian is the best food in teh poll so far that no-one has actually put a post about it here. I love Italian, there is so much variation in Italian food from fantastic tomato based pasta sauces to the thousands of varieties of Pizza available. Then there is the wine, the general atmosphere you have in Italian restaurants, mmm it makes my mouth water just thinking of the fantastic food!!

i think the best idea so far has been the censored and uncensored option giving readers the choice. If things are censored who then should have the right who can/cant see certain texts. This then may allow countries to dictate what they do or dont know allowing for manipulation of people which in my view is very wrong.If you dont believe this could happen read "Wild Swans" by Jung Chang, this book tells the story of 3 generations of a chinese family which is one of the best books i've read. However, this book is still illegal to carry in China (as far as i was last aware) and so therefore stops chinese people from easily accessing information of their own country's history, i believe this is very worrying...

I was wondering if anyone has seen or has actually had an email from a Guardian newspaper reader here in England. A quick recap for those who dont know, The Guardian newspaper in England reported they were shocked at how there are 2 seperate views in the bush v kerry debate and who is most popular. Inside the US it seems that Bush is loved, obviously not by a landslide but loved quite a lot because of his family, country and religious values and Kerry many see in the mid west as the Devil incarnate. Whereas, outisde the US Bush is loathed by a great many millions for his Act First, think later, US rules all attitude who seems to have no respect for almost any other country unless it suits themselves through allies.Therefore, The Guardian decided to publish freely available (thanks to the USA's freedom of information act) email addresses of swing state voters so that they could be emailed with the 'outside the US' view from people in nations where America's foreign policy in action is very close to home.Has anyone else heard of this and what are peoples views?personally i think its good that all should know an un-censored view of what really goes on but i also believe that this extremely personal meddling in other countries foreign policy could seriously annoy a good many people.

There doesnt seem to be anywhere on here to talk about travel. Letting people talk about where they have been, experiences both good and bad and where there dream place to go is..Let the dicussions begin

hi hulunes,Im not chinese but i have travelled all over most of china for 2.5 months. I loved it, the chinese are so interesting, the country has everything from mountains to deserts, huge cities to small villages and lot sand lots of culture.. fantastic. I visited Shanghai around 2 years ago, I loved the French district and the Bund at night, the city has a real hustle bustle feel about it.have you travelled much around china?

i wouldnt say england is all that bad.. Okay the weather really sucks up here in manchester but the facilities we have here are pretty impressive. I've done a lot of travelling around most of SE Asia (China, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam etc.) and also a fair bit of travelling around Europe (Germany, France, Spain, Sweden etc.). Not being bigheaded but justifying my opinion. I'd say that english shopping is pretty good, a good medium between having everything we need 24hrs a day without the mass advertising forced upon you as in america. Okay our public transport is some of the worst i've seen in europe and comparable to some of the more developed SE ASian countries.. But, we do have a free Health Service which although a lot of people moan about long waits etc. but ITS FREE!! come on what do you expect and there's always the option of paying as most other countries are forced to and then the level of service is really impressive.Lastly, i'd say that England has a lot of history, things have changed over the years slowly but if you take trips up to the Lake District, around York city or even wander off the beaten track around London, you find all sorts of interesting things to see and do.Didnt mean that to become a rant, just being objective.

Hej,I was just wondering if there are any swedish people as members here? If so, whereabouts do you live? and which ice hockey team do you support? I have to say Timra are fantastic but thats only my humble opinion. I thought it'd be nice to bring a bit of none english to the site.

i totally agree with alan, Riding the iron rooster is a really really good book. I loe travel writings. Has anyone read Driving over Lemons and Teh Parrot in the Pepper tree? I've forgot who wrote this but it is really really good, easy going book about the ex-drummer from genesis who decides that he wants to give up everything materialistic in his life and live like a local spaniard in the andalucian mountains.. fantastic book. the parrot in the pepper tree is the follow up book and just as good.. highly recommended.

i agree that the main topic so far is the entertainment section, however, if the section is called music & movies it atleast allows others to contribute to the more lacking parts of the forum..? And music and movies are fairly closely related topics. But, its good of you to put it to the masses.

yeah ive seen it, fantastic movie. Did you know that there are actually 2 endings. The first is the regular directors cut which most have seen. the second is the writers cut, it almost identical but the last 10 mins (approx) are different. I'm not gonna spoil it for you but i would say that the writers cut is better in my opinion.