The chances of that happening are a million to one!

Pandora's Star, first chapter.

"Really, the true protection the laptop gets is that every student receives one for free, but a replacement laptop has to be paid for out of their parent's pockets. Students will learn to be careful with them or face punishment from their parents."
 
A couple of thoughts on that. The first is that my daughter went through six cellphones one year (not paid for by me). Children have no idea how much things cost because generally they don't have to work for them. The second is that the loss of your laptop (which eventually will be part of school curriculum, if it isn't already) will penalise low income families with no technical knowledge who now have to fork out for a replacement. The third is.....what a way to bully kids! Just smash their laptop and refuse to admit you did it.

'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the cycling craze;
He turned away the good old horse that served him many days;
He dressed himself in cycling clothes, resplendent to be seen;
He hurried off to town and bought a shining new machine;
And as he wheeled it through the door, with air of lordly pride,
The grinning shop assistant said, "Excuse me, can you ride?"

"See here, young man," said Mulga Bill, "from Walgett to the sea,
From Conroy's Gap to Castlereagh, there's none can ride like me.
I'm good all round at everything as everybody knows,
Although I'm not the one to talk - I hate a man that blows.
But riding is my special gift, my chiefest, sole delight;
Just ask a wild duck can it swim, a wildcat can it fight.
There's nothing clothed in hair or hide, or built of flesh or steel,
There's nothing walks or jumps, or runs, on axle, hoof, or wheel,
But what I'll sit, while hide will hold and girths and straps are tight:
I'll ride this here two-wheeled concern right straight away at sight."

'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that sought his own abode,
That perched above Dead Man's Creek, beside the mountain road.
He turned the cycle down the hill and mounted for the fray,
But 'ere he'd gone a dozen yards it bolted clean away.
It left the track, and through the trees, just like a silver steak,
It whistled down the awful slope towards the Dead Man's Creek.

It shaved a stump by half an inch, it dodged a big white-box:
The very wallaroos in fright went scrambling up the rocks,
The wombats hiding in their caves dug deeper underground,
As Mulga Bill, as white as chalk, sat tight to every bound.
It struck a stone and gave a spring that cleared a fallen tree,
It raced beside a precipice as close as close could be;
And then as Mulga Bill let out one last despairing shriek
It made a leap of twenty feet into the Dean Man's Creek.

'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that slowly swam ashore:
He said, "I've had some narrer shaves and lively rides before;
I've rode a wild bull round a yard to win a five-pound bet,
But this was the most awful ride that I've encountered yet.
I'll give that two-wheeled outlaw best; it's shaken all my nerve
To feel it whistle through the air and plunge and buck and swerve.
It's safe at rest in Dead Man's Creek, we'll leave it lying still;
A horse's back is good enough henceforth for Mulga Bill."

Banjo Paterson

Ahhhhhh, yes. And I suppose you think tying two 14 year olds together doesn't make them a 28 year old with two teenage pussies as well?

"Can anybody here identify with any of the people on that Microsoft photo?"
Michael Jackson?

"Now I can go blind again..... if I don't stop doing "that"!"
 
I thought the problem was if you kept doing "that".

And we can call the first repair job, "Walking the Plank".

Those gas clouds are probably circulating at the same speed as us. Net speed zero. NTICBBRTFA (not that I can be bothered reading the f**king article). I mean, for Christ sakes. Couldn't it be that they had found 62 million years is the average time it takes a super duper virus to mutate. No, we have to be flying into some fucking cloud that just happens to be traveling at a speed in opposition to the rest of the galaxy.....in a few million years........I may have had a few glasses of wine tonight but there is no way I am going to fall for that.

What an f**king twit!

Hmmmmmmmmmmm, I would like to subscribe to your news letter. :)
 
I live on an island and have recently been trapped by our creek flooding. We too get a couple of service providers. A situation that never ceases to amaze me. We don't get the brutal winters but seeing as we are a whole lot further from the malls, that seems to be a decent tradeoff. The only problem I have with seeing the milky way is the moon and the clouds. Neither of which I appear to be able to do anything about though.

Democracy bug. But where do we file a bug report?

You're right, it is a must read. I thank you.

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Chemistry: information about a chemical cocaine Units: currency conversions $30000 Colors: information about a color Red

"All boobs are perky in 0g."
Yes. But, some are longer than others. :)

"Notice how he had to leave New Zealand to accomplish that."
More telling would have been saying how he never came back. :)

New Zealand is a very small, very young, country. Many of our best and brightest go overseas. Possibly the experience is part of what makes them our best and brightest. Furthermore, getting funding for large projects just isn't going to happen in a country of just over four million people. I think you would find that we aren't so unhappy that we lost them, we're just happy that they achieved an important role in the world.