By "it is happiness"??

You're probably also wearing a tinfoil hat! Sheesh!

I sure hope not! The majority of mankind seems to be deeply superstitious, too and almost all of my many friends are atheists or agnostics. I also like to think that most or all of my friends have no strong national attachments a.k.a. "patriotism". So, yes, I like to believe that they are highly unrepresentative of humanity in ways that are important to me. OTOH, they are more representative in that I have American, European, Asian and African friends.

Oh, just to clarify: I see nothing wrong with watching sports for entertainment. It's just not my cup of tea and I haven't been able to relate to doing that since I was around 14.

Yes, people are weird! Still don't see why that means that students and universities need to subsidize some people's hobbies! Amongst my friends about half like to watch sports for entertainment and the other half feel the way I do and would rather stare at a blank wall than watch sports. Personally I prefer reading a good book, watching animé or studying Japanese. And yes, I am a happy nerd!

They don't, at least not in my country. I got my Master's and Ph.D. in the US and was and still am baffled by this. What really bugged me though is that I had to support people's sports hobby with a financial contribution. I thought it would have been better for other students to pay for my scifi-book-reading hobby instead. The bogus argument was that the sports teams were making my university money. If that would have actually been true, why did I have to financially support it then? Also, I never attended a single game in my 5 years at my university. I would have preferred watching paint dry. My degrees are in physics, btw. and I am from Germany. I also think it is disgusting that people get scholarships based on their athletic abilities. Are we still ape men?

When I was living in the US, I enjoyed showing my German friends labels from water bottles that listed 0% fat, with the comment: "Look, they sell fat-free water in the US, quite unlike all the fatty water that is being sold in Germany!" ;-)

Not quite true.

What you can "see" is wrong! :-) I have indeed translated little snippets of Japanese with Google Translate. Yes, it is often terrible, but it also is frequently useful, for example I tried it on a sign in Kyoto and it translated it as "not cross". Knowing quite a bit about the structure of the Japanese language and how much it leaves out relative to English, it was easy to guess that what it would be in English is "Do not cross!". I also found various other useful snippets. As Google Translate is based on data mining and statistical methods it would seem that one can hope that it will improve greatly over time. Until then I will study more Japanese! ;-)

...would be translation, à la Google Translate. When I was in Japan on a vacation, I would have killed for something like that! Imagine having signs that you look at translated. Or menus, comics, etc.

... Waldo!

You obviously are totally clueless! I have owned an iPad2 and now own the new iPad and the difference is stunning! Previously, on the iPad2, I could barely read a page in a PDF version of a Scientific American issue w/o zooming in because the small text was very pixellated, now, w/ my new iPad, it is crystal clear and I do not need to zoom. Also, the colours are much better on the new iPad as any side-to-side comparison shows immediately. Only Apple-hating morons cannot admit that the screen resolution of the new iPad is a huge boon for various applications, including those involving text, diagrams, photos etc. But., whatever, haters will hate and make up bullshit as long as it conforms to their bias!

None of the Apple haters here care about facts. And neither do the morons who try to find racism or other forms of discrimination under every rock.

Yes, people from poorer countries. Americans never compare themselves to Europe. They only look down never up.

Wow, are you uninformed! I work in Germany, for a corporation, and I also get 12 paid holidays, but unlike you I don't merely get a measly 4 weeks per year of paid vacation. I get 6, and from the first year I started working with at my company. I lived in the US for many years and so I know that hardly anyone who doesn't work for the government gets 4 weeks like you do. Here 6 weeks is quite common. I always pointed out a German saying to my American friends: "I don't live to work, I work to live." What's the point of making all that money if I have no time to enjoy it? I work to support housing, food, clothing etc. like everyone else, but beyond that I work so that I can support my hobbies and to spend time off with friends and family. American culture struck me as ass-backwards in that respect. People spending long hours at work. What's the point of life if that's how you have to live? Now, if you're close to starving I can understand doing that, but only if those hours are actually being paid, but otherwise I can't relate to that kind of mindset at all.

I view people that don't pay their car insurance as free loaders and causing honest people to have to pay more to cover them too. They're scum! Also in the UK the public transportation network is far better than in the US and there is no need to have a car at all.