sneakeypete

A better approach would be to "ban people from forcing their family into wearing them if they do not want to". Or something along those lines.

One thing i like about Queenslands (australia) system is that your exit mark (OP) mainly is determined by the grades you receive throughout the last 2 years of school. There is one giant statewide test, it has a little effect on your OP, but is mainly used to get a comparison between schools (eg, because an A from one school might be easier/harder than an A from another). This means that your entire highschool time isn't messed up if you throw a single exam or assignment. Oh, and to those complaining about having to do homework after a long (heh, 6 hours long) day at school: it gets worse in university. (try 8 hour days and then a good 2-3 studying a night, and then add assignments.

Counted back in the 60's, I quite agree. count now? doubt it, not when private companies have the resources to launch into space

I'll be sad about the fact that we have not returned to the moon they day there's a major reason that we want to go back there. ("its cool" and "to get cheese" don't count)

Originally posted by: Patricius Maximus Firstly, cigarettes do not intrinsically cause preventable death. I have never been killed by a pack of cigarettes at someone's house. What kills the people is lung cancer caused by inhalation of smoke from the combustion of cigarettes. quote> Just like how shooting someone doesn't kill them, its the blood loss that does, therefore we should totally allow anyone to have a gun!

there would be many more than 5000 people counting them. Easy enough to count them (or count enough) within 12 hours. Heck, we usually get our election results within 6.

Pre collapse levels were abnormally high, so i doubt we'll be seeing anything like that for years.

Yes, an earthen dam will be breached sooner or later. So will a concrete dam (concrete will wear out... eventually), a steel dam (it'll rust, eventually). Fact of the matter is that in this case, an earthen dam is going to last more than long enough to act as a sludge dam if its correctly designed, maintained and operated. As for nuclear, well yes, it's a case of "if it works fine its great for the environment, if that 0.001% goes wrong its 100 times worse than what we started with".

What pisses me off about this most is the way that its elevated greater than a normal flu. One person gets swine flu, call of the football match! 10 people have regular flu and noone cares.

Originally posted by: LivingInThePast Cities XL can get worse from here from a development standpoint. Think about the poor Spore-o-philes, how the game went downhill, but Monte Cristo shouldn't be considered "greedy". They are a fairly young company but I think Cities XL is over their heads. Consumers should not be expected to take place in an optional online part of a game to download single player content. quote> Well you sound like a total expert mate, they should hand over development to you right away! Remember that this isn't their first game, they've made quite a few.

Originally posted by: Nerd_Guy Obviously this man did not value human life, so why should any value be placed in his? That statement is the most logical I can find in this situation and I have thought about it since I first heard. quote> He did not valule human life according to your beliefs. According to his beliefs, he did nothing wrong. Now, you belive that he deserved what he got, others here do not. however, that is beside the point. he didn't break the your laws, but the man who killed him did.

36000USD for a house? bloody hell.

Originally posted by: SkiGeek Out of interest, how many people still use a condom when their partner (assuming neither of you have any STD's etc.) is already on the pill?quote> Probably not too many. Which brings up the question of what happens when he goes out and gets an STD. Is he going to suddenly start wearing a condom? That is the same thing as admitting he was having sex elsewhere. quote> Ah, that wasn't my point. You see, if the pill is 99.9% effective, then its 0.1% uneffective. That's probably going to be 1000's of unwatned pregnancies in the US alone. I'd say you have more to worry about than one guy who has 21 kids (as stupid as he is in doing that)

There's a newer pill like treatment out. Its a small rod inserted into body (usually in the upper arm), that releases the hormones at a slow rate. Supposed to last for 3 years. No chance of forgetting to take it, so theoretically its really the 99.9% blocking rate it says it is. Out of interest, how many people still use a condom when their partner (assuming neither of you have any STD's etc.) is already on the pill?

"we need to do something, action needs to be taken" What, exactly? there's really nothing we can do to North Korea anymore.

Just remember that the moment NK launches any nukes at Seoul, they haven't worked. Their entire point is to act as a deterrent.

Originally posted by: DuskTrooper A few well aimed Tomahawks will take care of this.quote> What, and start a war?

Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying that NK is about to start world domination. I'm just saying that a war of any scale against them would be much more costly and more difficult than many people on here seem to think. The north Korean military isn't just a bunch of guys armed with ak47's with poor morale. They're not going to just put their hands on their heads and give up after some light bombing like the Iraqis did. I'm sure the allies could win the war, but at what cost. would it be worth it? I doubt it. The war would, in either case, favor the defender too i'd imagine.

A lot of people seem to be underestimating the NK Military. In a full blown confrontation, the US wouldn't steam roll it, their planes wouldn't just be swatted out of the sky (without US losses), and you sure as hell would have a problem fighting against the 1 million man standing army (remember, while weapons cost money, training and discipline are free)

Originally posted by: Boggy1 As for tourism...well, bring back Zepplins. It's like a cruise ship in the sky.quote> I have more important thigns to do than sit in a baloon for days between destinations. And before you say that its good time to relax, i do that while walking during the hour commute each day.

Originally posted by: ShortStraw Just read SkiGeeks link. So women already can choose to have multiple offspring from different mates at the same time. So this would happen much more often if, say, women were as promiscuous as men, at least during their menstral cycle. Well, my mind is sufficiently boggled. Think I'll go lay down for a bit. quote> There is no choice about it what so ever. Women don't choose to have two eggs be released at once. It just happens. Sometimes it happens when they have sex multiple times close together and you get unidentical twins. Sometimes it happens when they have sex with two different people in a short space of time and this happens.

Nothing overly strange going on here. Its exactly the same mechanism as how non identical twins are formed. Identical twins and a third non identical sibling born at once (to the same farther) would be more interesting (happened to some people i went to school with, but one of the identical children died soon after birth)

Originally posted by: Jumpthefence What do you Europeans really think of your media? .quote> I'm pretty sure Australian shows invented the whole "chase down the subject with a camera crew while they go about their daily life asking them stupid questions (aka "Mr blah blah, why did you rip off all of these battlers?").

Originally posted by: hym It is said that the real test of one's value for free speech is determined by his willingness to tolerate opposing views that fly in the face of everything the other person stands for. quote> I belive that there is a great difference between "opposing views that have some kind of reason behind them" and "spouting off to bring up ratings" Besides, i suppose your greatly opposed to the USA's border control then? From what i've heard, if you live in a middle eastern country that isn't "friendly" (aka, lebanon, iran, jordan etc.), its nigh on impossible to get into the USA for something simple like a holiday. That's just a case of "discriminating against someone who has done no wrong to possibly prevent something bad", just as banning this DJ is. So please, don't use the constitution as an argument for events abroad if its hardly being upheld in its own country.

Originally posted by: Duke87 So, you want it to be illegal for him to voice his opinion. Tell me, how would you like it if it was illegal for you to voice yours? Because, you know, "you don't have the right"? quote> Ah, but i don't go out of may way to purposevly piss someone off, so i'd never have that problem. I belive that there's always shades of gray. there's no black and white "free speech or not".