This sounds really cool but I do feel real windows would be better.

I did like steampunk before it became popular and before a name for it existed. I've always been interested in Victorian ideas of the future, and it seemed like how the future would have been liked without all that 20th century stuff lol. Maybe the 80's version of the future will start getting really popular. Ugh!

On a lighter note, I do like the gentlemen in the image above. :-)

I come from a hot cayenne eating country, and Tabasco sauce is pitiful when you eat the real stuff. :-)

It's horrible, but I'm not surprised. I expect more cases. You mean, rich people/countries benefitting off poor people/countries? Who wulda thunk it?
I bet if some Mexican came and said hey that looks exactly like the beans from my village he or she would have been ignored.

Cheesus, cheesus. Why the hell was this kid sent to foster care? Cheesus. So he made the mistake of not looking at every single bottle the kid was drinking? He ASSUMED he had asked for lemonade, and it didn't occur to him to think hey it might be alcoholic? Dumbass. Maybe he often looks at labels, but they were at a sports event, and many times, people who are careful elsewhere would say, it's a special event and eat hot dogs and junk food they wouldn't eat anywhere else, which I say is no big deal! What? You check every single item of food you eat? Oh, and he should've known it was alcohol. Why is the excuse that he's an academic? Does he have to be an academic not to be aware of television? Many people aren't which is a great thing.

I think trans fats are more of a health danger to a kids diet than a touch of alcohol. What's next? Throw people in jail for eating McDonalds. As tempting as it sounds, you can't do that.
Cheesus. Why was this made in such a big deal? Are people this dumb? If the child was habitually seen toting alcohol around, then I understand.
Americans.... stop the insanity! Seriously.

I don't see what the problem is with using geographical determinism.
Jared is probably too sweeping and generalized and makes societies homogenous when they're not, and there can be arguments about details and specifics but that to me doesn't change the general idea that geography dictates culture (or is one of the main factors, cause if it's not geography, perhaps it's the inherent qualities of the people themselves)which although he might not be an anthropologist he's offering it as an idea that should not be dismissed. To me duh! A culture that comes out of a desert is not going to be the same as a culture of an island surrounded by water. Duh. I've read his book and agree with him generally, not specifically. To me it's a much better view because anthropology before seems to state that the reasons cultures are different is because the people are different inherently. In his book, he also discusses the ease of spreading ideas. Societies grow by incorporating ideas so if there's ease in spreading ideas (such as no deserts, mountains and tons of deep ocean etc in the way), naturally the society will be more innovative not because the other society is dark and hence has lesser quality brain neurons as so much of Western Anthropology has stated for so long.

So perhaps if millenia upon millenia ago, someone had switched the populations of Europe and America around, things would have been different, would the now Americans have invaded Europe or would it have been the other way around?

To whenelvisdied, it's true that the indigenous community is still around and no they've not been wiped out, but their POWER is wiped out. They wouldn't have to go on strike if it was their descendants in power not the descendants of the Spanish conquistadores who are in POWER. And I agree that people packing up and leaving (GREENLAND) is a collapse of a society as in it's not there anymore to have an effect or influence on anyone. It's an extinct society. The Inuits stayed and are still successful. They didn't collapse. It doesn't have to be the people dying.

This academic question of whether one was trained as this or that is stifling science. I believe yes, there have to be documented ways of stating facts, ie I can't just stand up and say there are aliens on Jupiter without presenting corroborated facts, but then nit picking of whether I'm a xenobiologist without looking at my science so it can be dismissed is just wrong. Nitpick my results and how I gathered my facts ie, I got these facts from my dreams is definitely NOT acceptable. And cast doubt certainly.
Most of science would not exist without scientists (who many did not call themselves that) who were not trained but merely dabbled. Look at all those gentlemen scientists in the 17th century who had the money to buy equipment and while away their time making observations. NATURALLY, FACTS AND EXPERIMENTS HAVE TO BE SET OUT AND CORROBORATED!

And here I thought it was the Jews who controlled everything. Is Rev. Moon a secret Jew? I'm being tongue-in-cheek and ironic.

Extreme freakiness to be crowned king in the Capitol Hill people high up in Government had to be aware of this. Freaky :-(

This is terrible. I hope something can be done for this man. Maybe put pressure on Saudi Arabia etc to put pressure on Afghanistan to stop this.

Another commment.. everyone is saying the problem is religion. NO IT'S NOT. I used to think this, that humankind's problems are because of religion. No, humankind's problemas are due to humankind. It doesn't matter whether you ban religion, humankind will still be evil. I feel religion is a tool, which can be used for good but like always happens is mostly used for bad. The Soviet Union was officially atheist and thought of new and exciting ways to get rid of people. The problem is dogmatic thinking whether it be religious or not (even scientific fundamentalists but they haven't started burning or stoning people yet thankfully)
There needs to be public pressure on this case.

The apartheiders sent shivers down my spine. The woman enjoys listening to Lionel Richie but won't accept him. They listen to black music. UGH. I hope she gets kicked to death by the ostriches. They have black feathers.

awwwwwwwwwwwwwww.... congrats Cory!!! She's so gorgeous. Felicidades from Spain

Yes! The mullet! I'm from Spain and it's not just a mullet. It's a dreadlock mullet! I've seen some nice locks but these kinda dreadlocks are the ones you do in a salon and they look like shit. And then in a mullet. I cannot believe someone invented this hairstyle.
And those who own this charming thing, often dress with nappy trousers. The crotch is down to the knees...
UGH! The horror, the horror....

They went shopping the last night. I'm not dissing them as some here surely will. With the dollar exchange rate, I would also get out of my hospital bed for some shoes, even with my euros.

Here's the article. It's not as doom and gloom like the Guardian painted it out to be. I do agree that the UK consulate should have been called. How frightening though. I'll try and be a bit more systematic about what to do when I get ill on holiday.

I'm still wondering why #28 called them chavs. Because they are from Devon?

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23433964-details/British+girls+on+holiday+in+New+York+put+in+orphanage+after+mother+falls+ill/article.do

Sorry, I'm prejudiced against tails! Ewwwwwww! Although if he ever dates, how does it work in bed?

What I was saying. There're barely no restrictions on people who work in the airports

From the NY Times:
http://jetlagged.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/the-airport-security-follies/index.html

The fact that crew members, many of whom are former military fliers, and all of whom endured rigorous background checks prior to being hired, are required to take out their laptops and surrender their hobby knives, while a caterer or cabin cleaner sidesteps the entire process and walks onto a plane unimpeded, nullifies almost everything our T.S.A. minders have said and done since September 11th, 2001. If there is a more ringing let-me-get-this-straight scenario anywhere in the realm of airport security, I’d like to hear it.

Eh. I would drink too if I were at the South Pole.

I guess this came in because laptops have been exploding all over the place. Boom! My neighbour's one just went off. Yes, I know there were some laptops that exploded! But how common is it really? Haven't businesspeople been flying for ages? Were laptops introduced only this year in the US? Cause here in Europe, we've had laptops for a while and I haven't heard of planes exploding yet due to this. Is it common for fires to break out?

I worked in a missing luggage department and there are LOTS of thieves working and unloading luggage. I also know that the restrictions on passengers are nothing like the restrictions on people who work there. There's barely NO RESTRICTION. The workers waltz in and out quite easily.
LOL@ 28, halloween jack for abominations unto nuggan.

I'm waiting for the day when clothes will no longer be acceptable for flying as you can smuggle things under them and they burst into flame in contact with high heat.

I always find it amusing that those dangerous confiscated water bottles are all dumped together in one big bin. If I remember correctly, the reason water was banned was because supposedly terrorists could be carrying bomb liquids, mix it together in the airplane bathroom and off to heaven we go. So if any of those ´water` bottles were really bomb liquids, it wouldn't be very safe to chuck them all together, would it?

I travel frequently from Spain to the UK and Amsterdam (English boy working in Netherlands, Spanish girl). I like my cosmetics, and often can't get it all in one liter plastic zip up bags. I found you can smuggle shampoo etc quite easily.
Utter nonsense. I hear the EU is thinking of upturning this stupidity. PLEASE!
I will continue to avoid the US.
Oh, and bamboo blades are quite sharp.

I curse my co-workers every day but nothing so far...They are not hunched over in spasms of pain. Sigh, what am I doing wrong?

That's so sad. It is a bad year for authors, Robert Jordan, Wheel of time books also died. I depressed my sister greatly when I told her, I won't tell her about Terry Pratchett. I hope he lives many more years as funny as ever.

Sheesh, the US is turning really weird. Try not to act suspicious. What if you look suspicious? Do all kinds of people get the same treatment if they pick up a wallet in new York city? What if you have brown skin? Or a turban? Or just look suspicious?
Can we have the guideline for non-suspicious behavior? I wouldn't want to accidentally look suspicious. I'm suspicious of people in suits and shiny shoes and excessively cheerful kids but I guess I was wrong.

Anyone seen the new Harold and Kumar trailer?
www.haroldandkumar.com

A couple of weeks ago we heard about a flight with an American and some Kuwaitis going to Vienna from Madrid, and the American got scared (he was suspicious) and the plane had to turn back. No one else reported any disturbances. The thought here was sorry, paranoid Americans. Weird people. Sheesh.

Living in a dictatorship is not all that it's cracked up to be, so stop this before it gets worse.

Everybody deserves to be heard, but how long should we keep listening to them?
What if someone really really believed in the humors : melancholic, choleric etc even though they've been disproven, do we have to listen to them? Do they have to be given an equal time in the lab? They are mentioned briefly as a historical oddity and then WE MOVE ON. Why oh why must we give equal time to Creationism? And what about the theories of chi? or Astrology? Many people believe very strongly in astrology. (Drives me insane. I would like to know how asteroids fit in my horoscope)
In my biology class, we even looked interestingly at morphic fields and then we moved on cause they are unproven.

The thing is I don't think (though I'm not Christian or any religion) is that God and evolution cannot mix. Evolution is just the how, it's not the why. But the how has lots of lots of proof.
I demand the right to be taught the Bhagavad Gita in physics class. It's awesome stuff actually.

I really don't understand this creationism thing.

Why is creationism the opposite of science? Fine whatever, teach it so people can make up their own mind but I want to know about the creation stories of the Aborigines too, for all we know, they are the ones who are right. (Like Rowan Atkinson as the devil said, sorry the Jews were right)

Why the Christian version of the creation (and don't say Judeo-Christian, they are different)? I want to know about the Bhagavad Gita, or the creation theories of the Amazon Indians, or how about Amaterasu, the Japanese goddess from which the Imperial Family is supposedly descended from. How did Amaterasu and all the other gods bring about evolution? Or Quetzalcoatl? Is the sequoia tree proof as a descendant of Yggrdrasil? How can you see the kra (soul in Akan, Ghana) of the newborn baby and other burning questions.
Why only the Christian version?

The difference between the theory of evolution (which might be thrown out one day like phlogiston) is that people didn't set out to prove their book unlike the creationists.
I'm sorry for you, Americans.

I don't eat pig Red Zebra. Apparently cannibalistic cultures (like the Aztecs) commented on the very similar taste of pig to human flesh and were very enthusiastic.

Oh, for heaven's sake. The problem is not with eating meat, it's with unsafe healthy practices and labor laws. I'm not going to be a vegetarian, The Masaai and other meat eating cultures seem to be fine. Though they eat healthy meat with no antibiotics and god knows what like our ancestors thousands of years before us.

If I were a cow, I would have a functioning caecum, appendix and four stomachs. I don't and will eat meat happily and lots of vegetables. There's a reason we have vestigial organs.
I've noticed hard core vegans seem to be missing a few screws in general. I wouldn't be surprised that find out they are missing a few essential amino acids.

Yum, beef, lamb, chicken (though I don't eat pork).

She's being silenced!!! Any sane person knows the London underground truly sucks.

Well, to be honest, there are people who I like but are acquaintances but I just want to know what they are up to and can't be bothered sending emails. Like my 9th grade Italian classmate, I won't send an email, but it's interesting for me to nose about on his profile and see that he's going to the US for 2 weeks. Then I say, have a nice trip. I'm REALLY not interested in anything else to send him an email. I'm sure the feeling is mutual. Email is more of an ongoing conversation, facebook is more of a what's up.

For an international person like me who's lived in five different countries, and gone to international schools with people scattered all over the world, it's great! Hey whatever happened to that Thai-Hungarian guy (my school was like that) in 7th grade who left the next year? So he went to farm on a commune, well would you adam and eve it?
It's kind of difficult to have high school reunions like that.

If I never liked the person, I say no, and I don't sign up anyone I never had some form of conversation with, and don't want to. I say no, non and nyet.
I do agree that the apps are a pain in the ass.

Gherkin or egg shaped indeed. It's a huge ugly vibrator soiling the sky of London. My first thought was, someone had a small penis.

God, I hate this stupid ugly modern architecture. One person does something interesting and the rest of the design world (architecture, fashion, whatever bunch of prancing pains in the arse/ass) destroy it making ugly ugly copies and torture generations to come with their horrible creations cause they have no imagination and think if they make something spectacularly ugly, people wouldn't be able to distinguish them from cutting edge and just plain crap.

And what's with all the glass buildings? I thought saving energy was in style. Souless, cold and ugly buildings.

end of rant.

Many regular Americans don't know what's going on in Iraq because the websites don't tell much (liberal or conservative).

I do have the luck of also speaking French (not so well these days) and being bilingual in Spanish so I read a lot. I sometimes watched ABC news and there was a slogan saying "More Americans get their news from ABC News than from any other news source". Hope I got it right.
But come on!!!!! HOW ON EARTH WILL YOU GET YOUR NEWS FROM ONE, ONE NEWS SOURCE??????? SHEESH.

I mean for some people it will be FOX or something else. That's been very uninformed. I get annoyed that I don't speak some Arabic to see what the Arabic news channels are saying.

It's interesting to see how the same news will be reported in the UK, Spain, Latin America, France, the US, South Africa or even in Kenya. I've known since I was at least 12 that the media distorts everything and so try to look at many resources (excpet for the Daily Mail in the UK, god, those people can make me so mad, urgh. Fox news makes me laugh, I'm laughing just thinking about Fox News.....)

We had theory of knowledge and philosphy classes in middle and high school to analyze the media, religion, anything really, and I'm a naturally very skeptical and untrusting person. I question everything especially those in authority.
Most people I know only study these things in college if they ever. I knew logical axioms at age 12.

No wonder the world is the way it is, with people believing what they are told.

You know the Puritans are unfairly blamed for a lot of things, they drank and if they had that toad, would have certainly licked it.

Sheesh, I only have one brain, and I don't see the point of fucking around with it personally. It's ok though, these druggies give much amusement.

I see treehugging in a different light.... perhaps I should try it.

I want one for going about my neighbourhood.... ha ha, with a car horn that laughs terrifyingly
:-D

What IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE? Enough is enough, and they get away with it, so it's just going to get worse and worse.
If my neighbour plays his stereo too loud, and I hear it, does that count as public performance too?
Will this cover private parties soon where I make a CD mix to play at the party?
WHAT IS THIS? ARGH!

Am off to download music, screw those f*ckers.

This is really truly awful. The pain in this girl's eyes is just so tragic, and it will be with her for the rest of her life.
I read the rest of the article at NY times and the Rwandan war still has ramifications. The only thing I can think of is to give the women in the area guns. Those Hutu militias have become sociopaths and have no sense of right or wrong. A gun seems to be the only way.
I remember a couple of years in Afganhistan where the women were suffering from violent rapes as well, they were armed.

Poor poor women.

GATWICK! GATWICK!
Good point about dangerous liquids being chucked into garbage cans. If they were so darn dangerous, chucking them should solve the problem. I've read that the EU is thinking of changing this. It's utterly ridiculous.
I agree with safety measures but not ridiculous measures.
I fly to the UK from Spain all the time (boyfriend lives in UK, I live in Spain) and is anyone aware that you can carry lots of handluggage TO the UK, but NOT FROM the

Gordon, I don't believe that this experiment is useless. Just cause you can't see the use means nothing.It just means YOU can't see the use.

About stuffing ropes into bags, one conclusion was that knots were more likely to form in large boxes than in small boxes so in a small area like a bag, that's probably why there aren't knots.

Gordon, using lateral thinking, I can see how this could be useful right away. Maybe the experiment could be used for traffic.
If you consider long lines of cars to be strings ,and knots to be jams, and highways to be boxes, it could explain why paradoxically the more highways, the more traffic there is. Hmm. Interesting.
See, that's what science does,you never know where you could end up.

AAAAAARGH! Perhaps they can also add how to clean kitchens and math is hard.
I do agree that many games are violent but going the other way is not the answer.
As a young girl, I loved playing with Lego and dissected my dolls to see what was inside and why they cried.

Ooh, those are so bad for my HBP. Spiced,and dipped in cheese and salsa.
I'm off to eat a carrot now :-(

About aspartame, sheesh, cigarettes are probably worse for you and they are legal. Yea, it's all part of the conspiracy to make you fat and stupid.
Coke in general is terrible for your health.

Yeah, the vaccine conspiracy, cause smallpox is a great loss to mankind. Kept us on our toes.

These are what are in the vaccines we get.
diphtheria,
tetanus,
pertussis (whooping cough),
polio
Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)
measles,
mumps
rubella

Then there are the others like tetanus, typhus, yellow fever etc.
I do know that in some rare cases, vaccines can cause all sorts of problems. As an ADD person, I've heard the theories about vaccines causing ADD and autism, and it seems quite likely. But I still prefer this situation.

It's a miracle that in our days that most children in the developed world LIVE. They don't die before their fifth birthday. This is unprecedented in human history.
In times past, women gave birth to 8 kids to have 2-3 survive who might fall foul of typhus, war, robbery or starvation in later years.

Measles, whooping cough are still around due to some parents not vaccinating their children.

Read up on every one of these diseases and think of the alternative.

Don't forget smallpox. Many people are not vaccinated, no need to really with only two labs in the world having it, but it can be used as a biological weapon. And I seem to remember there was a breakout of the vaccine a couple of years ago in some british lab.I have my ugly starburst smallpox vaccination on my arm so I'm not too bad. Though what I would do with ebola (Soviets trying to make it airborne! Shudder), who knows?

Ridiculous. In other companies, you can use your own music as ringtones, so ridiculous that Apple is using this as an excuse.
I couldn't care about this iPhone, I'm getting more and more disgusted with Apple. Oh yea, and all the whole bunch of them: networks etc. I think people are just a bunch of sheep.
Thank goodness it costs just 6 euros (8 dollars?) to unblock phones here in Spain, none of this nonsense.

It's a great idea, and per the donation, I'm sure something can be worked out. In many European countries, you can donate to NGOs.

It's also a good plan for Linux to spread its tentacles worldwide. Get them when they are young. LOL.

Now that will make me interested in knitting, skull patterns instead of icky flowers. That's hot!

Whoa! talk about globalization, Polish bhangra. Interesting, though I must say the song kinda sucks.

I know in the UK and in the US, you are against national IDs. I'm in Spain and we have national ids. I'm not tracked or followed by the police; I've never been forced to show my ID just randomly walking in the street. Now if you are a black male or Arab looking, it’s more difficult though I know loads of immigrants with no papers and as long as they stay low and not cause trouble, they manage quite well. My ID doesn’t have a chip. I use my ID as proof of ID like in the US you use driver licenses. (What does a person who doesn’t drive in the US do?) There are laws set about what you can or cannot do with an ID. Are driver licences an invasion of privacy? What about your Social Security numbers? The one difference I notice is that here I’ve to show ID when I use a debit or credit card. You can’t just randomly use someone else’s card here in Spain so I find it strange, the Macaulay Culkin movie when he’s left behind and uses his dad’s credit card. And many people don’t use credit cards, they prefer to pay in cash. If I didn’t use debit or credit cards, I wouldn’t have to use my ID practically. I do remember having to show ID when writing a check in West Virginia. A friend brought her passport and the clerk’s head almost exploded as she couldn’t figure out it out.

Spain had a dictator till 1976. They are very touchy about privacy and have very strict laws. It's just to say I'm who I'm and look here's a picture. If you are going to track people, I'm sure it's quite easy to introduce new driving licenses with a special chip! And make public transport very difficult to use so everyone has to get a car, and gets tracked.
I’m less watched in Spain than in the UK or the US. You are some of the most watched populations in the world. (Monaco is another one, now that’s Cameraland, in the parking lot, elevators etc. My boyfriend and I put on a couple of shows.) In the UK, there are cameras EVERYWHERE. That’s frikking scary, in the parking lot, everywhere I went there was that menacing black ball. Since there’s no national ID, or laws that come with what you can use with that ID, and laws are vague, the government has less restrictions on what it can do. All governments will keep tabs on their citizens (and they do), if you don’t have national IDs, they will just find other more sinister ways. Look at the UK DNA database. Shudder. I’ll rather have an ID that has strict regulations on what authorities can do with it, thank you.
I’ve lived in the US, UK and now in Spain.