Why the hell does this article show up in my RSS reader with an ad for "Psychic" -yeah, right- Norah? Can't Google Ads make the distinction between astronomy and astrology?

One day, I was happily walking away from an ATM with freshly withdrawn cash, when I heard someone behind me calling : I had forgotten my debit card in the machine, and the next customer had just rescued it for me... I had forgotten to push the button to get my card back (other ATMs typically spit out your card before giving you the money, but this one was from my bank, so it offered other services like printing a balance sheet...)

I've had my wallet picked up by somebody behind me on my way to get a suburban train.

I've had my driver's license picked up by a girl, who found the telephone number of my parents (the address was not up to date), and got my telephone number from them. And so we just met at the halfway point between our apartments so she could hand it back to me.

I left my jacket on the back of a chair at a small cafeteria at the Helsinki airport, and found it untouched an hour later.

A friend of mine left his satchel at the Helsinki market, where we had some refreshments and a snack. 3 hours later, we got back there and the owner handed it back to him.

While visiting the Åland archipelago many years ago, my young sister left her bag with her toy piano and her dolls on a boat. Luckily, we took the same boat later in the day, and found the bag hung on the coathangers.

So yeah, while the plural of anecdote is not data, I still agree that there is a LOT of good people out there who will pick up behind you, or just leave it untouched for you to find it later.

Even in the EU where everyone sings the praises of Roundabouts they are RARE.

Half of all the roundabouts in the world are in France.

Your first solution (coming over to the clinic each day) could theoretically work, but it's highly inconvenient in practice. There are still very sparsely populated areas in France, where commuting every day to the clinic is just not realistic. Not to mention the work overload on the clinics and hospitals, where nurses have more important stuff to worry about than checking if non-bedridden, able-bodied adults take their pills.

Your second solution is waaaaaay too easy to cheat out of, and it's also bad for the environment as it encourages people to throw their medication in the trash or in the sewers... when they should take it to the chemist's for safe disposal.

Personally I always take the full course when I'm on antibiotics, and when I have a friend or relative telling me they're on antibiotics, I remind them to complete the treatment.

The one thing I don't like about medication in France is that you almost always have to buy more than you need, because it comes in boxes of X pills, where X is never a multiple of the amount you need. That's actually one of the reasons why France is a drug champion, it skews the statistics. As I understand it, when you go to the chemist's in many other countries, they still do their traditional job of weighing the amount of drugs you need. Here in France they just push boxes.

That's right monsieur, we're saving the planet, one relinquished shower at a time! Come visit our lovely country and smell for yourself the wonderful aroma of true organic, water-saving BO. If you're an environment-minded person, come enjoy a subway ride in Paris! You'll be overwhelmed by the lengths we go to help all you beautiful, hygiene-conscious, rose-smelling-poop-defecators with your Olympic washing lifestyle. I mean literally, it will make you weep. Should you feel thirsty during your travel, you can lick the sweat off the brow of your neighbour, just like we do everyday. Every little drop counts! Seriously, it's not so bad when you get used to it.

I'm off to my yearly little splash in the Seine! Ta-ta, mon cher ami!

Even easier : paint it pink and slap some My Little Pony stickers on it. Nobody will steal your ride.

For crying out loud.

We have a saying in France, rougly translated :

In a dictatorship, it's "SHUT UP"

In a democray, it's "yeah yeah, keep talking"

Huh ? What are you talking about ? All I see is the basement ceiling. Is that what you're calling sky ? I don't see any bright thing in there either.

So it seems they have a good reason to think that it's not alcohol, or not just alcohol... but yeah, they should just test the birds instead of scratching their heads.

Another way you can potentially safe fuel is by turning off the engine at red lights.

http://www.slate.com/id/2192187/

The technology on the Prius that this article mentions seems interesting (automatically putting the engine in a sort of standby mode where you just have to push the gas pedal to start it again)

Science : it works, bitches.

Cool stuff ! Gave me a smile :) I appreciate that you pronounce "Torvalds" and "Linux" properly ;)

At a human level, I'd say it's very much like space. Sure, you won't be in micro-gravity, but :

• - you will die without a pressure suit or a pressured cabin, it's no place for men.
• - when you look up, it's dark, no more blue. - if in a pressure suit, you can experience scorching heat on the side of your body that's towards the Sun, and freezing cold on the other side at the same time
• - if you jump from the balloon, you won't experience any speed or acceleration because you're in a near-vacuum, there's not enough atmosphere to ruffle your suit and you're too high up to realize how fast the ground is coming at you.

So to me, it's very near space, and it was very much "space" for Col. Kittinger in 1960. Read up on this guy.