Posts by Rich of Observationz
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I think in Paris and most other countries in Continental Europe, they might have alcohol bans but don't bother to enforce them (just as you can drive at 160kmh all day on a French motorway and never get a ticket - they just don't bother with many patrols).
Apart from infringing on the rights of people to have a drink in public without annoying others (which I and many others would like to do), there is another problem with using the police for "social control". Each group that wants to do something on the banned list is brought into conflict with authority (primarily the police).
Some of these intersecting groups are:
- drug users
- car enthusiasts
- people wanting to drink outside (including yes, the underage)
- visible ethnic minorities
- political demonstratorsAdd those together, and you've got a pretty large group of people with a negative experience of authority. That isn't a good thing really.
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Does anyone know a 16-19 year old who can write?
Because really, it might be interesting to read what somebody in the target audience thinks of BDO. It isn't meant to be for 30+ music geeks (like me). It isn't meant to be "alternative" like Jonathan Dodd seemed to think. It's simply commercial music picked to attract 40,000 plus people in the 16-25 core age group.
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Al Capone's Guns don't argue:
(But I can't help thinking Price Buster copied the use of a machine gun cocking as percussion from M.I.A.)
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The American physician Samuel Guthrie prepared gallons of [chloroform] and described its "deliciousness of flavor."
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No, it's true. My mate was playing WoW and 200 Chinese trolls just descended and took all his gold (1).
1. Or something. I've never played WoW and have only a sketchy idea what happens. For all I know, it's actually a euphemism and all the geeky kids go off to their rooms for illegal drugs and teabagging.
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There's a law with one eye closed. "You can sell it, but it has to appear by magic, OK?"
The Dutch, not being anal retentive wowsers (they exported those) are fine with that. Sure, it's illegal to wholesale weed, but the cops have many greater priorities, like murder and bicycle theft, and never quite get around to enforcing that law.
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Most of our money is spent on weaponry and operations that the public doesn't even know exists.
I cited 'clearance divers' (or frogmen) because of the few who have worked in foreign waters in submarines with these capabilities and weapons.
Not much to say other than its been going on for years.
Well, I'm no diver, but I worked on mine countermeasures systems for the Australian DoD/RAN for a couple of years in the 80's. Didn't notice any We.177's hidden in cupboards, but maybe I wasn't looking hard enough.
I have read a book Australia's Bid For The Atomic Bomb which discusses attempts in the 1950's by Australia to obtain nuclear weapons. These predated the Non-Proliferation Treaty and were effectively stymied when the UK (under US influence) refused to furnish such weapons. I find it highly unlikely that any nuclear power would do so today, given that it would breach the NPT, go against the whole thrust of all such powers policy, and give them no security or other benefit.
Possibly you refer to naval personnel such as "clearance divers" serving with the UK & US navies on nuclear equipped vessels. This undoubtedly happens (more so before the British decomissioned their tactical arsenal) but is hardly "Australia Having Nukes".
Of course, one can assert anything and claim it as secret knowledge. I recall Saddam Hussein had WMDs ready to attack the UK on 45 minutes notice.
Sorry about the threadjack..
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"the chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, they said"
Never mind the Chinese, I think we really need to worry about space aliens. They could be sneaking in here disguised as German tourists.
With modern technology, NZ could build a space force capable of defeating any invader apart from the Klingon Empire. Mr Rocket could build us the rockets, and we could have a space base in his garden on Great Barrier.
We must act now!
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@3410 - Do you refer to communications like this one, from the CEO of BAT to Dunne:
Dear Mr Dunne,
Paul Adams has asked me to send you the enclosed £100 to help pay for your "Awayday". I do hope you will enjoy yourselves.
If at all possible, I should be grateful if you could get receipts for your expenses and pass them on to the driver - even large companies have to account for their money!
Enjoy your visit to England.
Yours Sincerely,
Jean Macy
Secretary to Paul Adams[edit: Stephen, hadn't noticed you already linked this, but I think it deserves to be inline]
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Best chemistry link:
http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/things_i_wont_work_with/Sample quote:
The experimental section of the paper enjoins the reader to wear a face shield, leather suit, and ear plugs, to work behind all sorts of blast shields, and to use Teflon and stainless steel apparatus so as to minimize shrapnel. Hmm. Ranking my equipment in terms of its shrapneliferousness is not something that's ever occurred to me, I have to say. It's safe to assume that any procedure which involves considering which parts of the apparatus I'd prefer to have flying past me will not get much business in my lab, no matter how dashing I might look in a leather suit.