Why is it then, that you better be Christian if you hope to attain any position of power in the good 'ol USA? Talk about superficial secularity.

That's not what he's claiming, he says that now that people know about the nsa shenanigans they won't buy "USA made" it goods. Nowhere does he say that other governments don't spy, but as long as we don't know for sure they look like the better deal over the USA.

Well, meditation is really about focusing on one task and one task only with every spare cycle your brain can spare. I didn't read that in the combination of posts but your mileage varied :)

I still don't get one thing: if it's legal there's still the problem of an addict getting enough money to fuel their raging addiction. I a lot of the stories I hear about addicts it's usually that that drives them to crime and prostitution. I'm all for legalising drugs but I think legalising drugs like these would result in more crimes being committed to get the now legal stuff. Also heroin is one of those drugs where it's way to easy to develop a crippling addiction unlike say marihuana. IMHO there's more to it being illegal then the usual rhetoric.

Out of interest : what band would that be?

I'm wondering about that for a longer time: what do you mean by rebooting a lot? I know no one that leaves their pc on 24x7. Maybe because I'm from Europe and our energy costs are a lot higher but we all shutdown our pc and laptop (and various other equipment, standby is not used when you're not planning on using it soon) when we're done with them. And I don't mind the 20 seconds extra wait when cold booting. So, is it an "American" thing or am I missing something here?

Well, I rarely post (once every four months) but get mod points a lot of times in between. So it's a bit more complicated then that I suppose

It greatly depends on where you live I suppose. Over here (Europe) the small economic turtles are a lot easier to handle on the roads here then the big muscle cars. And for Europe, I agree with the GP: driving like that on our smaller, more twisty roads, is very dangerous. The smaller economic cars have more space to manoeuvre and can cut corners tighter (remember: lower speeds) then the big muscle cars. Also, most people here drive compact economic boxes and that helps as well I'm sure :-)

I believe over here it's popular to use polyurethane foam sold in cans. Apparently there's a small opening in the housing where you can empty the can in. As it hardens out it expands and most camera's go "pop" under the pressure..

Some photo's to give a general idea: http://www.flitsservice.nl/flitspalen/Gravenland_Hilversum/Gravenland_Hilversum.html

What a load of nonsense, the Netherlands alone is responsible for most of the vegetables grown in the world : http://www.hollandtrade.com/sector-information/agriculture-and-food/?bstnum=4909 and that's not even mentioning France!

How would you rate the system used in the Netherlands then? We have, almost without exception, a special lane just for bikes on all the roads. And I, for one, can attest to it's safety

I'd be interested to read about this "violin test", as someone who plays multiple instruments there's certainly a quality difference in the sound a cheap 60 dollar acoustic guitar produces versus it's more expensive brother I bought last year. Even using the same strings it has a different sound to it. Same with the stereo equipment I have, it's not in the $10.000 category but at least I can pick out the difference between the cheap stuff and the bit more expensive stuff.

Isn't this really just about diminishing returns? Because I have to agree that someone who pays 10.000 for the turntable is overdoing it.

Fear would imply I would actually *need* this game for my day to day existence, else it'd be a lousy punishment. Yes, they might threaten to pull the plug and some people would shut up. But I think the majority would throw up a stink and would probably not buy another game from that maker again. Treat your customers badly will result in loathing methinks, not fear. Because pulling the plug on some server is just not really a big stick they're wielding in the grander scheme of things. Unlike say, broken kneecaps.

I believe there might be a way: http://filer.case.edu/dts8/thelastq.htm :)

0C Also known as: ice forming aka stuff gets slippery. So yea, living in a country that "has snow" I kind of like the 0 degree for water freezing thing, it reminds me to look out on the road to work.