I was reacting to the "disease" qualification of tourists, not to your own story (for which I don't care). As for the shopkeepers and restaurants employees, every French knows that in Paris those are particular cunts. Can't say the same for the rest of the country. On another unrelated matter : it's easy saying "McDonald's shit, why the hell not some real food ?!", but the truth is unless you get a table in some very expensive place, most of what you find in bitros around Paris is utter crap by now ; frozen food cooked by the microwave and sold for the cost of a kidney. It's a city that made a specialty of scamming the tourists (even nationals) and mistreating its patrimony at the same time. The same go for all major French cities, at a lower scale.

Tourists are endured as a disease because they behave as such. Especially Americans (Chinese may prove annoying because of the size of their groups). I'm getting tired of seeing my land invaded six months a year by individuals always expecting you to speak THEIR language (which I do for most of the nations visiting us, although speaking the visitor's language is not an honour given lightly), taking photo shots as if you're a zoo animal and not carrying the least for anything except seeing their cravings for clichés fulfilled.

The major admixture to the French ethnicity is actually way older the Gallic element (a civilization that came from the Alps), although everyone seems to forget it for the reason that Gauls were our first ancestors recorded by writings.

As another French citizen, I find this to be off the target. Our country might be, to my own desperation, the most permissive around the block. Your misadventure is probably due to the fact that Parisian high-schools are virtually zones of civil war, except for some high-end ones (Henri IV, Louis le Grand...).

I've seen these tools used on every type of public online market, from Amazon to WoW's AH. On the former, the more surprising thing was the usage of delivery prices as the actual prices and the item prices as merely a means of getting on top of the board.

Why ? Because it kicks some serious ass, that's why. I'm a diehard ASOIAF fan, I'm eating my fingers waiting for The Winds of Winter and in the meantime GoT is the best substitute. I refrain myself from sleeping every Sunday night (I'm French, so the episodes usually come out of the HDTV scene @ 4.30 am, Paris time) to get it WHEN IT'S AVAILABLE. Now mark my words, because every fan feels the same : I don't care of the means, as long as I get it soon as possible. Were there a legit way to watch it at roughly the same time as you yanks do, I'd pay good money for it. But there's not.

I don't see how is democracy more legitimate than any other kind of government to enact anything. - Guys, a random bunch of everyday schmucks has decided that you should pay 60% more taxes, eat only poop-grown strawberries and dance salsa on one foot every first Tuesday of the month but, hey, it's the People, so it's got to be okay, non ?

The story is nice, but it doesn't get close to the Novgorod Codex ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novgorod_Codex ) or even the Herculaneum papyri ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herculaneum_papyri ) .

Keep your data, and everything actually sensitive domestic and well under control. The US doesn't own the security of individuals and nations over the world, and as I see it (I'm not US based nor an American citizen) it can't really afford it anymore, only claim it. The US barks, but I doubt it will bite. And there's a more practical issue : Australia is not easily connected to the rest of the world and the Australian network is already full of friction as it is.

And so it goes for .tv, out of which Tuvalu seems to be making a good deal of money (a sizeable part of it's GDP, actually). Those marketing ways might have gain a lot of visibility but I don't think they embody the whole thing. Look at popular European TLDs other than *.uk : .fr, .de, .it (the tw.it example aforementioned is not really relevant), .es. They all gained traction being used for they're intended purpose, and they're well identified with the nations they're supposed to represent. You can't blame micro-nations (well, Montenegro is just small) on they're virtual nonexistence network-wise. The only one (top of my head) I know of actually being able to carry a strong relation to it's TLD is... Vatican (.va).

The country specific suffixes are actually used quite commonly for their original purpose, even though it might not seem obvious to US based people.

As much as I love Wicd, I reckon it has been less reliable than usual for some times on my rig. I might be my wlan drivers, who knows. I went back to Network Manager to get it working, without any joy though. As for BT5 it's not that much of a big deal. It's designed as a tool for penetration, not as an actual set-up && use distro, making it not that much of a liability. It's another thing if the exploitation is really wicd-based.

I'm fond of hi-fi (SACD and over) for certain genre where separation of instruments and clearness is of paramount importance, such as for classical (I mean, really from the classical era) or middle / late baroque compositions. But I'd find blues to shine on a good old mono vinyl. Eventually, the best way is the one matching perfectly or near the way it has been recorded. I reprove any form of up-mixing.

... a post-modern Pong, where two balls would throw a stick at each other.

And the kids should be charged with laziness. I mean, really, can't they read the books by themselves ? A generation of slackers, I call it.