If we have to have a coffee thread that is mostly empty at 8am in order to keep the European time zone users happy, we can do that. Then we can have an afternoon and an evening threads so the Americans and the Asians can come in to an empty thread, too.

I'm not trying to be sarcastic here. There seem to be lots of people who want their European coffee thread, but it won't be Fran serving it any longer - she'll be serving a late evening snack instead.

When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes