Yes he deserves an award alright but it should be a f*** medal. What he did to report from a warzone took way more courage than sitting in an apache and hoping to find some guy that carries something that could pass as a weapon so you can push a button to blow him into pieces.

So according to you the warming is a natural process ergo it won't make any difference if we cut back our output of CO2.

So was I. No one really expected that result (not even the initiators of the initiative).

Oh and you are of course right that we have expirienced similar tendencies before. After the second world war the largest group of immigrants to switzerland were the italians. Today they are pretty well respected and integrated. At the time however the xenophobia peaked in an initative from James Schwarzenbach which wanted to limit foreign workers in Switzerland to 10%. In the year 2000 there was again such an initiative to limit it to 18%. Both of these initiatives were turned down in a public vote.
When comenting on the problems of integration Max Frisch said (freely translated) "We wanted workers, but human beings were arriving".

I am as much ashamed of the minarets ban as any straight thinking swiss. However I think it would be fair to point out that switzerland was the first european country to grant universal suffrage to its people in 1848.
Also I would like to point out that if other european countries would allow a popular vote on minarets I would not bet much money that the outcome would have been different there. Europe (altough not switzerland in particular) does absorb the bulk of migrating muslims. This sometimes leads to problems when the different cultures do clash and a growing sense of uneasieness in the genaral population. Especialy if real problems (lack of jobs for immigrants, tolerance on forced marriage) are not aknwledged by the politicians.
It is worth noting that the ban was only on minarets (as you pointed out correctly) I don't think that a ban of mosques would have passed. Still the ban as it stands now weakens the foundation of our democracy and I hope it will be nullified as soon as possible.

This is true. The actual law has not yet been created. This mandate may have found a majority only because the initiators played the "think of the children" card. I'm pretty sure some of the more lazy people in the parliament din't take the time to really go into the details yet. They just agreed with the general idea that we need an enforcable system to prevent children from getting M rated games. Of course this does make them look pretty bad especially since several members and even the Federal Minister warned them that the mandate is aiming at a total ban even for adults. Still I think this won't pass as a law in the end. And as pointed out even if it does we as the people can force a public vote on it (of course that won't be a cakewalk to win because the generation 45+ does not "get" games). Just pointing out that it is not time to freak out yet.

My biggest problem when upgrading my system is usually the monitor. For example I really like the display of the new iMacs. How can I buy a similar standalone Monitor without resorting to industry standard Displays that cost 1500$. Is there any good comparison for new displays available online?

Except DRM on the PS3 does not screw over your normal customers and make the pirated game the supperior version.

I know you are going for funny but no he does not have to melt them. Whoever claims they are not melting should take a look at this picture or countless other examples.

That is not a sound argument. If someone likes to play play Battlefield 2 that dosn't mean that he would like to go to war.

So where does this urge to make others suffer come from? I would really like an explanation. I won't even denie that I can see the appeal behind griefing altough I'm not a griefer myself (at least I don't think I am). Why would we enjoy to make others feel misrable?

On second thought maybe that's only if the computer has iTunes installed.

Maybe I imagine things but I think my iPhone does show up as a storage device when connected to a Computer.

No we should get rid of them because some of them are effective.

Of course she would have been. But the point is that at the very least I would expect a rental car to have a manual on board. A short introduction is in the interest of the car rental company anyway. Who knows what someone who has never driven a car with an automatic gearbox may do to the thing.