I'm sorry but I think you're a bit off when it comes to Easter. English is one of the few countries where it is even called Easter as seen in this wiki article. In Sweden for instance it's called Påsk.

Easter was something the Jews celebrated long before Jesus lived. Jesus, being a Jew, is said to have been celebrating Easter before he was taken away.

Sure, there is a lot of pagan trappings and fertility symbols around it, eggs for instance, but that is not anything any church I've been to have claimed is Christian.

But Christmas was just like you said an holiday modified from the pagans rituals as was Hallows-eve.

Of course, Jesus himself, according to the texts, associated with criminals. Peter himself was a toll collector, ie bribed someone to get the job and then most likely got his money back by extorting his fellow Jews. Jesus explained it by saying that those who are criminals are the ones who need saving the most.

I believe this is one of the most often forgotten lesson in Christianity and both the Christians and non Christians forget it or doesn't realise it.
Being a Christian is not the same thing as being perfect, rather it should be taken as a reminder that we all have faults. Christians have performed terrible atrocities and why should they be exempted from being humans? I believe that they didn't do it because they where Christians, I believe they did it because they are human.

Sure, that was correct at one time but that's not how it works, at least in Sweden, any more. For starters they translate the texts from material that predates the versions in the middle ages. The people who are doing the translations are schoolars in religion and history. In Sweden all priests have years of university studies but not all who are doctors in theology are Christians.

Just too bad that not all Christians realise that there are newer versions of the bible out there. I believe the common english version, King James bible, is almost 400 years old. Not all the differences are due to the agendas of Kings though. We also know a lot more about the time and have found new documents from that time as well.

I'm sorry but I can't agree with you on this. My responsibilities as a citizen includes voting and paying my taxes. Being respectful to public servants are not among them. I try to be respectful to everyone but you need to earn my respect. If you aren't respectful to me then I don't have any obligations to you.

Just because someone has a specific title doesn't mean they earn respect no matter what they do. Respect is earned and lost because of ones actions. If they don't treat me with respect then it doesn't matter if they are the police, the president or the king.

But I get the feeling that you get polite and respectful mixed up. You can always assert your rights while being polite. If you have respect for the person or not does not come into account.

He didn't pop his trunk which was within his rights. If he did it while he was being polite then all social obligations has been fulfilled. They on the other hand punished him for it, which is in my mind very disrespectful.

Actually, the most recent research I have heard of in the subjects says the opposite. The countries with best social mobility are Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Canada. With the US and UK not doing that well. Social mobility low in Britain and falling It's from 2005 so not that fresh maybe. The most recent one I have read is in Swedish and in dead tree format so I have trouble linking to it. :)

Maybe I should have said "the best in Sweden"? But I would say that considering our size we have lots of talented people. We are not a big country, just a bit more people than New York city. It's not really surprising that USA can have more and better universities. But I can't help wondering how much of that superiority is due to a larger pool of people to draw from. If we somewhat simplified use the numbers that 2% of every population are highly intelligent then that would mean that there are around 190 000 in Sweden and around 6 136 420 in the USA.

If it's hard to get right it's obviously not a "simple" word :)

In Sweden schooling is not only free but you also get around $800 each month while you study. Some of it is a special kind of loan but a smaller part you don't need to pay back.
This is enough that most students don't need to take an extra job on the side.

USA might be the "land of opportunity" but in Sweden we believe that one of the best ways to give everyone a chance is to make certain they can go to any school they want. If you are smart enough to get in, money shouldn't be an object. We want the best not the richest ;)

Sorry you still fail. Real nerds don't need the keyboard to do things like that. Learn to use backspace or alt+left arrow for back and alt+right arrow for forward.
Everytime you lift your hand from the keyboard to the mouse you get -1 nerd point ;)

The last part at least is simple. Just send up a buoy with all the necessary communication devices. I'm sure we can get this to work if we try :)

Hm, using a a bank on the internet without encryption could be interesting. I almost hope that they do ban encryption. Could be fun. Just give me some warning so that I have time to make popcorn :)

Can't we throw a hatchet party instead? I always found them to have a bit more edge to them...

Tycho Brahe... ;)

Actually that would in some cases be illegal in Sweden.
If someone for instance steal your bicycle and you report it to the police then even if you find your bike at someone else's property you're not allowed to just take it back. You should at that point call the police.
Who would of course respond: "We'll get there in a couple of days"
They would then take the bike as evidence and in best case you would get it back in a year or so. If, of course, the new "owner" doesn't claim he bought it in good faith and has a receipt. Then he gets to keep it and you get pittance from the insurance that might be enough to buy a bobby car :)

They also said that Pascal/Delphi was highly recommended. I believe that it's mostly because of "historical" reasons. I wouldn't use runes as a precursor to teach the use of the latin alphabet. ;)

That might be the case but your chances of getting hired is greater if you have C on you resume than pascal.
If they wanted a language that is simple to learn they could have chosen python instead. It's just as easy as pascal but has the benefit that it is actually used in the industry.