miked10270

So... Let me get this absolutely right.... As the greenhouse gasses cause the Earth to warm up, the soot in the atmosphere cuts down the sunlight and thus causes the Earth to cool down. So. What I therefore should do is stop using my modern, environmentally friendly diesel truck that runs on Bio, & instead use my old, smokey truck on Bio. That way the smoke the old Perkins Diesel throws out will cut down on global warming...? NOW i'm confused. Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

Wow! I used to do some fencing a while back & I was REALLY good at it... made about 40 feet of post and rail for a guy up the street from me and in return he did some wiring in my house. Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

I now hear that the UK Government is "looking into" the legal requirements for Death Certificates. In fairness, it's commonly held that in the absence of evidence of death (like a body), then it requires 7 years of no evidence to the contrary before death can be assumed. So... If someone just goes a'missin' then you wait 7 years before you can pronounce (assume) them to be legally dead. In effect, if they haven't shown up after 7 years then they ain't gonna show up at all. What the UK Government is going to do is "relax" the rules for possible Indian Ocean Tsunami victims so that evidence that the person was in the disaster area at the material time and has not been subsequently found will be accepted as evidence to support a presumption of death. I guess that around 3 months will be the revised timescale with adequate supporting evidence. You have to strike a balance between granting a death certificate (with all its financial implications) and easing the suffering of families. Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

May I respectfully suggest... As a first step... That Americans learn to speak English??!! That's right. "Y'All" don't! In the meantime (until Salty Pierre of Baton Rouge sounds like a BBC World Service announcer)... Learn to absorb the cultures which come to you, absorb them. Adapt to them... Take what's good from their cultures and show them what's good in yours. THAT is the way of effective and lasting Empire-Building. Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

Whoops! Sorry. But whoever said that the big bad world outside the USA (particularly Gough Island and Thse South Sandwich Islands) were safe? And let's be blunt. You will NEVER forget where Gough & the South Sandwich islands are!! Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

... But in fairness to the School Board, his other lecture on NWS "Islands of the South Atlantic" didn't really help! Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

Proof that a simple honest opinion can result in you getting a simple honest beating. What he said is true, and more a reflection on the strip-bar customers than the workers. Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

"...all turned away from Belgian almost immediately by.... a big sign saying "Welcome to Belgium" The other problem with Belgium is the overcrowding (which I think I mentioned in the past). Plus, Belgium is SO BORING that even Germans just drive straight on through into France! But back to the subject... Speaking English can be a problem - especially if you use Shampoo or Soap when you Shower or Bathe in your Bungalow!... And forget about eating in English! Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

There are real problems with the sort of operations that are envisaged. While I have little doubt that "Anti-Insurgency Terrorism" is well within the abilities of the coalition special forces, I question the wisdom of conducting such operations: 1. It forces the coalition to make what may be best described as "Strange Friends". OBL was befriended & trained in Afghanistan by American/Western Special Forces & intelligence communities. Look at how that dog turned & bit the hand that fed it! 2. "Black" operations have a nasty habit of turning "Grey" over time. There are already more than enough disaffected people in the area - People who are willing to be suicide bombers - without increasing anti west sentiments & providing extremists with an increased supply of what amounts to very sophisticated "guidance packages" for their otherwise crude weapons. Tempting though it may be to play a terrorists own game against him, it's impossible. The vast majority of Iraqis don't like what these folk are doing, but won't speak out of family / clan / village loyalty. Coalition forces enjoy no such loyalty. Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

What options do you have for donating in the US? The reason I ask is that here in the UK giving to the Tsunami Relief Agencies has been made VERY convenient. For example, there's a collecting jar at just about every shop till in the country - you've just bought something, been given your change, and there's the tin for you to put it in instead of your pocket. Same with bank tellers. The mobile phone companies, well, mine anyway, sent out a mass text message that allowed you to donate £2.50 simply by returning the text with the money being added to your next bill. How are they collecting in the US? Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

IMHO. Actually, I'm NOT humble, so... Don't pi$$ about with decriminalisation! Don't try & stop it - supply & demand will overcome! I defy you to define "medicinal"! The simple solution... Legalise it, Tax it, Sell it. Give those who want to use it the right to use it and give them a guaranteed hit for their buck. Take the profit away from the criminal and put it in the state / government coffers where it'll have a better chance of doing some good. Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

My own favourite is a (mis)quote from Kipling's IF: If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs... You haven't a clue what's going on. If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you... You are a politician." right through to: "If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run... You will probably survive." Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

More... Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

From a friend in Brazil. You lot can do the bloody Portugese / English translations yourselves! Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

Hmmm... It's both a great idea, and a crap idea. It's a great idea since a small "First World" community can see it's aid making a difference and knows where its aid is going rather than contributions being swallowed into the multi-billion dollar "pool" without trace. In that way it'll encourage fundraising in FW communities with less opportunity for the aid being allegedly sidetracked. It's a crap idea since individual "Third World" communities will be dependent on the wealth & generosity of the sponsoring community. To be properly administered it'll require aid workers in each community dedicated to that community. With this, a lesser cproportion of the aid will go to the community itself since professional aid workers don't come free. Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

No. It's not good news... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4153769.stm Tensions flare in quake countries. "Fresh tensions between government and rebels in the two countries worst hit by the tsunami disaster threaten to undermine aid efforts. In Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers have warned of serious consequences if government soldiers are not withdrawn from welfare camps. They also continue to complain that little aid has been sent to rebel areas, despite government denials. In Indonesia, the government and rebels have accused each other of attacks. The authorities say that separatist fighters in Aceh province are exploiting the tsunami disaster and have provoked skirmishes with Indonesian soldiers. The Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, has made similar accusations about government troops....." Isn't it nice to know that whatever's happened, those plucky folk still find time to fight. Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

Hmmm... I always thought that the odds of dying were pretty near 100%. When where & how is more the issue? Actually, no. To quote Luis Seneca: "Life is long if you know how to use it." Anyway, since I'm flirting with the odds of dying... Who said "Women invented language to satisfy their deep desire to complain."? Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

"I suspect that there is software imbedded to prevent some words from being posted as written, such as bomb, suicide, muslim, and so forth." Awww..... 'Chelle.... Now you've spoilt it for me! I thought I'd stumbled across some new amusing aspect of the whole California / Arabic lifestyle . My nasty mind was running riot at just what a "Sewerside Bummer" was! Just in case you are wrong... Anyone else want to speculate? Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

The spelling & grammar on that page is REALLY scary. "Sewerside Bummers" says "Carl from California"!!!! Oh. Wait a minute... Maybe he's from Muscle Beach and doesn't actually mean "Suicide Bombers" after all!! Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

Interesting point. There have been "similar" reports from elsewhere: http://www.unconfirmedsources.com/index.php?itemid=859 " Diego Garcia: Grunts Can Sense Tsunamis in Advance." "One of the few places in the Indian Ocean that got the message of last week's earthquake and tidal waves in advance was Diego Garcia, a speck of British territory about 900 miles south of India, which hosts about 3200 US military personnel and civilian contractors and many US long-range bombers and Navy ships. Although directly in the path of the tidal wave, the Diego Garcia military base reported no damage. The base Commander, Lt. General Moro, said that "grunts have a sixth sense about this kind of thing," and unusual marine behavior observed in the hours and days preceding the arrival of the tsunami had led to the timely securing and evacuation of coastal areas. The suddenness of last week's events and the absence of a broad network of early warning systems meant that most people did not know they were in danger until the wave began to rise from the sea and reach inland. According to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center: "we tried to warn people in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, but we don't have contacts in our address book for anybody in that part of the world." And the International Tsunami Information Centre in Hawaii agreed that "We didn't have a contact in place where you could just pick up the phone. We were starting from scratch. So, everybody basically went home to watch it on TV." According to General Moro, two days before the disaster, grunts were seen running around in packs, and driving around the base wildly. He referred to reports that, the evening before the earthquake, several grunts failed to return from liberty and thus were far from the most affected sites. Local people saw more grunts than usual sleeping in the streets, and by mid-December unusual behavior in large animals such as cows, horses, dogs and pigs was also reported. A mess cook, feeding some grunts before dawn on the day of the disaster, reported that, instead of eating, they started "jumping and kicking until they finally broke loose and ran outside." A few seconds later, tremendous rumbling noises were heard as a thirty foot high wave struck the coast. Other reports of unusual grunt behavior prior to the occurrence of earthquakes and other disasters include: refusing to stay in barracks; keeping their valuables with them outdoors; snoring strangely; jumping out of their bunks in the middle of the night; dashing about aimlessly; and losing their packs. It has also been reported that they began to congregate in huge swarms; sought higher ground; became agitated; left their usual hangouts, and refused to conduct dangerous missions. General Moro said there was a noticeable increase in strange behavior in the 24 hours before the tsunami struck, and he made the decision to prepare for an unspecified large scale disaster. Researchers find it very difficult to understand such mechanisms of response stimuli. "Physical or chemical stimuli come out of the earth prior to a major disruption, and these must be the stimuli that the grunts sense. For example, they may be able to hear the micro-fracturing of rocks a few milliseconds before a quake shock reaches the surface. Electromagnetic changes in the earth prior to an earthquake may be sensed by such animals as sharks and catfish which have low or high frequency receptors and sense such changes actively or passively. Also such electromagnetic field changes could be affecting migrating birds and the navigational ability of fish. The reduction of marines in basic training to a pre-civilized stage of development is bound to unearth some instinctual responses," Moro said." So there you go. Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

It's not about the contest - which country is the "most generous". Quite frankly I now start to worry about where all this money & the continuing aid is going to end up rather than where it comes from. As I said before, my concern is the continuing attitude that America is: a) Not doing enough. b) Doing it wrong. Latest one: A nice shot of the aircraft carrier that the US has on station. Shot of all the F-14s, F/a-18s, A-6s on the deck pointing out that they're all useless & the only thing of any value is the S-60 Seahawks... "And this carrier only has 8 of those". And the whole tone of this is that America is only doing what they're supposed to do, & that reluctantly, as opposed to all those plucky (non-American) countries, towns, people... who're doing wonderful things for the Tsunami disaster out of the goodness of their hearts. What's getting to me is the implicit anti-Americanism from the media & other countries - including some parts of the victim countries. OK, America isn't perfect, but there's no way that ANYONE could live up to the expectations that the rest of the world has of America & Americans. Mike. PS. This isn't directed at the folk here. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

Hmm.... Now here's a cute media twist... US Aid: $30mill (as pledged so far by the US Government) US Population 300Mil. Scottish Aid: £10mil/$18mil (as given by public donations to banks, charity pledges, etc...) Scottish Population 4.8Mil. Total UK donations to disaster: £106mil (£30 Mil Gov & 76Mil private) & climbing from a population of 60mil. Now... It's entirely possible that the average American finds it impossible to find a way to donate as an individual, wheras in the UK you can barely go into a bank or a shop or a pub without there being a way to donate (usually a collecting tin right next to the cashier for any change you can't be bothered to put in your pocket). Or is such private donations in the US simply not being reported? Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

This one's at:http://www.utterpants.co.uk/prettypants/eyetest.html (& yeah... I got the male answer) Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

Hi Kitty, That's plan "B" (which is already in place). If push comes to shove I can order it for delivery to Alberta (import duty nil, GST 7.2%) then have it shipped on... But it's a hell of a dog-leg, and the consignment (photographic equipment) is going to run 20lbs+. My mates (who funnily enough are in the Enforcement section of HM C&E) gave me the following: "Import duties will be levied unless the following conditions apply: a) All applicable duties have been paid in the coutry of export, b) The item(s) have been sent by an individual person, and, c) The item(s) are stated to be a gift on the customs declaration. One other point: "The recipient will be deemed responsible for the Customs Declaration of any goods imported into the United Kingdom." (This was followed by a "DO WE REALLY HAVE TO SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU MIKE!!?) Then again, given the total value of what I want to get, there's a plan "C" which involves me on the BA flight to Atlanta! Maybe I should be asking about cheap car hire & hotels!! Anyway, plan "A" involves me finding a "dear friend" in or around Atlanta. The sort of friend who I'd send a significant pressie in the next month or two... the sort of friend who'd send me a significant pressie in the next month or two. ALso, the company has what they call a "deep discount" with a courier company & I need to check if they'd allow a personal customer to take advantage of same. Ordinarliy I wouldn't bother with this Machivellian mess, but on this occasion it may be worth it. Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

Err... Like I said, just exploring the cheapest legitimate way to get the stuff. UK import duty for stuff "imported" from the US works out at around 30-35%. This led me to talk to some contacts I have in HM Customs & Excise about duty evasion which is illegal, and duty avoidance, which is legal. In effect, the object of the exercise is NOT to try & evade paying duty for imported items (you'll get caught & they'll apply a punitive rate), but to not be liable for import duty in the first place. That's what I'm exploring. Mike. Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.