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Question for Europeans



 
 
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  #111  
Old May 11th 05, 07:16 PM
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Mark Hewitt wrote:
> > wrote in message
> oups.com...
> >
> >
> >As the map in your link below shows, Iceland is a European country

yet
> >you list it with the countries of North America.
> >

>
> Geographically speaking it is both.


Geographically it is European, Geophysically it might be both, or
neither but the world was divided into continents long before anyone
had any idea about plate tectonics.

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  #112  
Old May 11th 05, 07:18 PM
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Robert Briggs wrote:
> Thomas Sch=E4fer wrote:
> > > wrote
> >
> > > As the map in your link below shows, Iceland is a European

country
> > > yet you list it with the countries of North America.

> >
> > Greenland too belongs to Europe (Danmark).
> > In Germany there are several jokes about the geographic (and

cultural)
> > competence of US politicans (and their soldiers and *.org sites).
> > Maybe the stories hold a grain of truth.

>
> Well, judging by participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, Israel
> has been part of Europe for a good while now.


The European broadcasting union is not a very good geographical
reference, given that they include both Israel and Cyprus in their
Europe.
> How long before Oz is part of Europe, eh?


  #113  
Old May 11th 05, 07:33 PM
Laura Bush murdered her boy friend
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Mark Hewitt wrote:
> "Scott en Aztl=E1n" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Here in the US the top story recently has been the large upward

spike
> > in gasoline prices. Some have predicted that gasoline will top
> > $5/gallon by next year, up from $2.50/gallon today. Since you folks

in
> > Europe have had $5/gallon gas for years (thanks to high taxes),

what's
> > happening to gas prices over there in Europe? Are they going to hit
> > $10/gallon soon? Is the price of gas the top story on your local TV
> > news?

>
> Current price in UK is around US$6.16 / US gallon
>
> They are going up however have stopped going up quite recently. The

general
> thought is that they have stablised now. However the chancellor has

hinted
> further tax will be applied to petrol and diesel in the September

budget.
>
> Of the $6.16 per gallon, approx $4.26 is tax.


Yeah but it doesn't matter in england since there's no place to go
anyway.

  #114  
Old May 11th 05, 08:58 PM
Robert Briggs
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Brent P wrote:
> Martin Brown wrote:


> > The scientific evidence is clear enough - we are making the planet
> > warmer by greenhouse gas emissions. Most sceptics now concede this point.

>
> It's anything but clear. There is data of cooling, data of warming, there
> is nothing that is clear. Two people can do the analysis of the same data
> and come to different conclusions.


Some years ago, a fellow from the University of East Anglia (IIRC) spoke
to an Institute of Physics branch meeting held in Manchester
University's Physics Department.

He showed a slide of temperatures going back over something like 300
years.

We looked at it and saw the sort of wiggly, more or less horizontal,
line that you would expect from fairly random fluctuations, possibly
influenced slightly by sun-spot cycles.

He looked at the last few years of the plot and asserted that it showed
the start of an exponential rise in temperature.

Had we not been a reasonably polite bunch we'd have been ROFL, as the
best simple fit would have been a horizontal straight line hand-drawn
with quite a wide paintbrush.

> At best one can say there is warming. At best.


> Global warming could also lead us into an -ICE AGE- because of the water
> additions from the ice caps.


So-called experts in the field seem to suggest "global warming" *or*
"global cooling" more or less at random, albeit perhaps with more
"warmers" than "coolers".
  #116  
Old May 11th 05, 09:23 PM
Robert Briggs
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Brimstone wrote:
> David Taylor wrote:


> > So you actually have no argument against the fact that British roads
> > are horrible unmaintained?

>
> On the contrary UK roads are mostly very well maintained. As with any
> subject there are always the odd exceptions. Perhaps you can cite some
> examples of what you consider to be "horrible unmaintained" roads?


Well, there used to be an audible sigh of relief from my car's
suspension on my way home as I left Liverpool and entered Knowsley.

These days, Liverpool seem to be *a bit* better at resurfacing the worst
roads.

However, the "horrible unmaintained" ones aren't the most annoying, as
their state merely reflects failure to fix problems.

The *really nasty* ones are those which they have *deliberately* broken
by spending vast sums of money fitting those wretched speed bumps and
other assorted impedimenta in the name of "safety".

Safety, my foot!

With a decent road surface I can scan well up the road *much* more
easily than if I'm having to spend an inordinate amount of time judging
my approaches to the blasted things.

If I slow down enough to handle the bumps comfortably *and* look far
enough ahead to avoid unacceptably close shaves with folk I would
otherwise have spotted at a range of anything up to half a mile or so,
what happens?

All too often, the guy behind zips past me giving his suspension a fair
old bashing, and sometimes *does* have an unacceptably close shave,
which simply would not have happened if I had been able to drive at a
decent pace on a decent surface.

Arrggghhhh!!!!!

I sometimes think this is all some sort of conspiracy involving Munro
....
  #117  
Old May 11th 05, 10:08 PM
John David Galt
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>> Considering the protests a few years ago when a petrol tax increase was
>> proposed -- and the French truckers blocking the freeways around the same
>> time -- I'm surprised any politician has the guts to propose an increase.


> Well you would have thought so. But they've just won the election so they
> think they are invincible. Also there are new laws in place to stop the type
> of protests we saw last time. Gordon Brown doesn't care about the average
> person, he would make an awful prime minister IMHO.


I'm glad they've at least had the guts to make it illegal to block the
roads just to make people listen to your protest. I wish our country
would do the same.
  #118  
Old May 11th 05, 11:40 PM
Martin Dixon
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In message >
"Christian McArdle" >
wrote:

>> Since you folks in Europe have had $5/gallon gas for years
>> (thanks to high taxes), what's happening to gas prices over
>> there in Europe? Are they going to hit $10/gallon soon?

>
> Because the prices are mostly tax, and this is largely set in absolute
> terms, rather than a percentage, we are insulated from much of the
> fluctuation in the price of the base product.
>
> People grumble about the price, but deep down know that petroleum use is bad
> due to climate change, so the grumbling is not as loud as it might be.
>

Well, they are bludgeoned into believeing that, due to the heavy
propaganda based on some very dubious science.

We actually do not know enough about climate to draw that conclusion,
or to quantify what needs to be done to rectify the situation if the
theory is correct. But that doesn't stop our politicians using it as
an excuse to raise taxes and impose restrictions that increase their
control over our lives.

But they say, the theory might be correct so let's act anyway. OK we
might be about to be hit by an asteroid, so where is the massive space
programme that is needed to defend us against such an eventuality,
that would be much more devastating than even the worst predicictions
of the effects of global Warming (some of which is beneficial anyway)?

err.. dunno mate. But a space programme costs money. We can use
Global Warming to raise taxes and apply restrictions that increase our
power. QED.

Martin

> Christian.
>
>



--
Created on the Iyonix PC - the world's fastest RISC OS computer.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/m.dixon4/
  #119  
Old May 12th 05, 12:03 AM
Brimstone
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Martin Dixon wrote:
> In message >
> "Christian McArdle" >
> wrote:
>
>>> Since you folks in Europe have had $5/gallon gas for years
>>> (thanks to high taxes), what's happening to gas prices over
>>> there in Europe? Are they going to hit $10/gallon soon?

>>
>> Because the prices are mostly tax, and this is largely set in
>> absolute terms, rather than a percentage, we are insulated from much
>> of the fluctuation in the price of the base product.
>>
>> People grumble about the price, but deep down know that petroleum
>> use is bad due to climate change, so the grumbling is not as loud as
>> it might be.
>>

> Well, they are bludgeoned into believeing that, due to the heavy
> propaganda based on some very dubious science.
>
> We actually do not know enough about climate to draw that conclusion,
> or to quantify what needs to be done to rectify the situation if the
> theory is correct. But that doesn't stop our politicians using it as
> an excuse to raise taxes and impose restrictions that increase their
> control over our lives.
>
> But they say, the theory might be correct so let's act anyway. OK we
> might be about to be hit by an asteroid, so where is the massive space
> programme that is needed to defend us against such an eventuality,
> that would be much more devastating than even the worst predicictions
> of the effects of global Warming (some of which is beneficial anyway)?
>
> err.. dunno mate. But a space programme costs money. We can use
> Global Warming to raise taxes and apply restrictions that increase our
> power. QED.
>


Regardless of the "warming" and "cooling" arguments, is it sensible to throw
increasing amounts of various sorts of muck into the atmophere and on to the
ground (to put it simply)?


  #120  
Old May 12th 05, 07:12 AM
Magnulus
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"Depresion" > wrote in message
...
> The Toyota Corolla 2003 gets 4 NCAP stars and rating of Good front

Acceptable
> side and poor rear from IIHS in the USA.


I've read the newer Corollas do very good, especially with the side
curtain airbag option. Much better than the Corollas in the late 90's.

The IIHS test is very gruelling, too, for side impact. They use a test
dummy that is a 5th percentile female in height- quite short. For the
average person, anything but a "poor" rating is going to be pretty good.


 




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