Linda Walsh wrote:

Doug McGarrett wrote:

...

Perhaps someone in Great Britain will explain to me the usage "half eight" with regard to time. In German, "halb Acht" would mean 7:30. What does it mean in British English?

---

Not sure about British English, but in math, half(eight) would equal four.

*ducking*

In the UK, "half eight" = 8:30 -- Tony Alfrey tonyalfrey@earthlink.net "I'd Rather Be Sailing" -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Monday 03 December 2007 03:32:22 Kai Ponte wrote:

On Sunday 02 December 2007 18:21, Tony Alfrey wrote:

...

...

Not sure about British English, but in math, half(eight) would equal four.

*ducking*

In the UK, "half eight" = 8:30

IOTW: Two and a half hours before closing time.

Outdated joke. Since 2005, people in England are free to get hammered 24 hours a day -- Madness takes its toll -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Monday 2007-12-03 at 16:26 -0000, peter nikolic wrote: ...

Close all pubs at 21:30 hours full stop .

No thanks! Then they will come to Spain on weekend booze non stop parties en masse! :-P - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.4-svn0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFHVGUdtTMYHG2NR9URAiL+AJ9jvQKMC2cdEVItak4eK5yosraM7gCghhpO NQFDxE6IvJ7SrSoVZlFF9k0= =cF/I -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Monday 03 December 2007 15:47, Andrew Johnson wrote:

On Monday 03 December 2007 20:20:35 Carlos E. R. wrote:

...

No thanks! Then they will come to Spain on weekend booze non stop parties en masse!

:-P

That's one very good reason for slapping extra 'green' taxes on flights.

True, but western Europe is so tiny, they'll just take the train.

--

Andrew Johnson

RRS -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Monday 03 December 2007 12:20, Carlos E. R. wrote:

The Monday 2007-12-03 at 16:26 -0000, peter nikolic wrote:

...

...

Close all pubs at 21:30 hours full stop .

No thanks! Then they will come to Spain on weekend booze non stop parties en masse! :-P

You know, this reminds me of Wisconsin (my home state) and Illinois. When I was growing up, Wisconsin's drinking age for beer was 18 (21 for other alcohol), while Illinois, just to the south (with Chicago near the northeast corner of the state) had a 21 minimum age for _all_ alcoholic beverages. There used to be ongoing vehicular carnage in the zone between southeastern Wisconsin and northeaster Illinois with kids from Illinois driving up to Wisconsin on weekends to party. Finally, in part under pressure from Illinois citizens and legislators, Wisconsin changed its drinking age to 21 for all alcoholic beverages.

-- Cheers, Carlos E. R.

RRS -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Monday 03 December 2007 16:57, Carlos E. R. wrote:

The Monday 2007-12-03 at 16:05 -0800, Randall R Schulz wrote:

...

...

from Illinois driving up to Wisconsin on weekends to party. Finally, in part under pressure from Illinois citizens and legislators, Wisconsin changed its drinking age to 21 for all alcoholic beverages.

Here (Spain) the... how do you say? the age to be of age? Ok, they are adults at 18, for all things: driving, drinking, voting, owning property, marrying, going to prisons (as inmates)... I believe there are some exceptions, like heavy load, dangerous substances (like gasoline), driving, that require two or three years of previous heavy load driving, I think. You can not drive a car not being of age, not even accompanied.

Well, among the many ways in which the U.S. of A. (the best damned country ever or even possible, of course) is ... "confused" is the age of majority vs. the age at which one can legally purchase and consume alcohol. The age of majority, at which one is deemed able to give full consent, vote and be held to (almost) all standards of adulthood is 18. But one may not buy alcoholic beverages until one reaches age 21. What's more, we allow judges to decide whether minors may be tried (and sentenced) in criminal proceedings as adults. In fact, the age of majority in the U.S. was lowered from 21 to 18 under the argument that if you could be conscripted into military service at age 18, you should be made a full member of society at the same time. We've since suspended (though not truly eliminated) the draft, but the age of majority remains 18 and the legal drinking age remains 21. (Neuroscience, by the way, is now discovering that many parts of the brain, including those associated with moral agency, do not mature fully until one's later 20s!)

And a few years back there was no minimum drinking age.

Well, everyone knows Europeans countries and peoples are, as societies, adults, while the U.S.A. remains at best an adolescent. An adolescent with too much money, a charge card and very dangerous toys... Who knows how to classify the officially theocratic states...

-- Cheers, Carlos E. R.

RRS -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Carlos E. R. pecked at the keyboard and wrote:

The Monday 2007-12-03 at 17:35 -0800, Randall R Schulz wrote:

...

Well, among the many ways in which the U.S. of A. (the best damned country ever or even possible, of course) is ... "confused" is the age of majority vs. the age at which one can legally purchase and consume alcohol. The age of majority, at which one is deemed able to give full consent, vote and be held to (almost) all standards of adulthood is 18. But one may not buy alcoholic beverages until one reaches age 21.

Curious! :-)

...

(Neuroscience, by the way, is now discovering that many parts of the brain, including those associated with moral agency, do not mature fully until one's later 20s!)

Not surprising... which is probably one reason why best soldiers are so young, and politicians want to lower the voting age.

...

...

And a few years back there was no minimum drinking age.

...

Well, everyone knows Europeans countries and peoples are, as societies, adults, while the U.S.A. remains at best an adolescent. An adolescent with too much money, a charge card and very dangerous toys...

X'-)

No, we Europeans are very varied, you find us in all kinds. Older, maybe, but we can and we are pretty daft often. But that would be entering politics, and that is an off topic I do not wish to enter: too controversial.

- From the humorous comment on drinking sprees and drinking age we drifted into politics, so I think we should stop ourselves here ;-)

So, back into drinking habits.

When I was a kid (12?), the telly announced a wine that improved appetite (Vino Santa Catalina, I think). And it was given to kids. They tried it on me... and I found it gagging. So I grew skinny :-p

Another one.

Babies were given one of those rubber things to suck and shut up (I don't know the English name)

pacifier

, which some people humidified with "anís" (anisette in French, perhaps), an alcoholic beverage very sweet with aniseed flavor. So the baby would shut up faster.

I grew up in Michigan where the drinking age once went from 21 to 18 and shortly after went back to 21 because of problems. Now, back to the purpose of this list. -- Ken Schneider SuSe since Version 5.2, June 1998 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

jpff wrote:

...

...

...

...

...

"Ken" == Ken Schneider writes:

Ken> Carlos E. R. pecked at the keyboard and wrote:

...

...

Babies were given one of those rubber things to suck and shut up (I don't know the English name)

Ken> pacifier

That is the American name; in English it is called a Dummy

I thought that referred to the president. ;-) -- Use OpenOffice.org http://www.openoffice.org -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Mon, 2007-12-03 at 17:35 -0800, Randall R Schulz wrote:

On Monday 03 December 2007 16:57, Carlos E. R. wrote:

...

The Monday 2007-12-03 at 16:05 -0800, Randall R Schulz wrote:

...

...

from Illinois driving up to Wisconsin on weekends to party. Finally, in part under pressure from Illinois citizens and legislators, Wisconsin changed its drinking age to 21 for all alcoholic beverages.

Here (Spain) the... how do you say? the age to be of age? Ok, they are adults at 18, for all things: driving, drinking, voting, owning property, marrying, going to prisons (as inmates)... I believe there are some exceptions, like heavy load, dangerous substances (like gasoline), driving, that require two or three years of previous heavy load driving, I think. You can not drive a car not being of age, not even accompanied.

Well, among the many ways in which the U.S. of A. (the best damned country ever or even possible, of course) is ... "confused" is the age of majority vs. the age at which one can legally purchase and consume alcohol. The age of majority, at which one is deemed able to give full consent, vote and be held to (almost) all standards of adulthood is 18. But one may not buy alcoholic beverages until one reaches age 21.

What's more, we allow judges to decide whether minors may be tried (and sentenced) in criminal proceedings as adults.

In fact, the age of majority in the U.S. was lowered from 21 to 18 under the argument that if you could be conscripted into military service at age 18, you should be made a full member of society at the same time. We've since suspended (though not truly eliminated) the draft, but the age of majority remains 18 and the legal drinking age remains 21.

(Neuroscience, by the way, is now discovering that many parts of the brain, including those associated with moral agency, do not mature fully until one's later 20s!)

...

And a few years back there was no minimum drinking age.

Well, everyone knows Europeans countries and peoples are, as societies, adults, while the U.S.A. remains at best an adolescent. An adolescent with too much money, a charge card and very dangerous toys...

Who knows how to classify the officially theocratic states...

...

-- Cheers,

Cheers indeed, Bottoms up! No matter how old some people get, they'll neve become adults. Or, watching the news, large groups of people have attended "drinking parties" and killed off half of their braincapacity. hw -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Hi I live in the Netherlands, and we can drink beer and buy weed at 16. We have to wait to 18 to drive though. I would say this is a good sequence. The "drinking till you drop" has been tried before you are allowed to drive a car, and everyone knows where their limits are by then. Most do not care about these limits, but they know the effects of alcohol. Then again: my country is so small you can reach about everyone while walking backwards on your hands on broken glass while blindfolded, so there is no great need to be allowed to drive a car between 16 and 18. I do not know enough of neuroscience to say wether it's wise to drink a shitload at 16. It apears to be wise to be allowed to buy weed. The Carver (something in between a motorcicle and a car) is verry cool and could only be invented in a country where weed is allowed (Top Gear said it). Neil On Dec 4, 2007 4:24 PM, James Hatridge wrote:

On Tuesday 04 December 2007 01:57, Carlos E. R. wrote:

...

Here (Spain) the... how do you say? the age to be of age? Ok, they are adults at 18, for all things: driving, drinking, voting, owning property, marrying, going to prisons (as inmates)... I believe there are some exceptions, like heavy load, dangerous substances (like gasoline), driving, that require two or three years of previous heavy load driving, I think. You can not drive a car not being of age, not even accompanied.

I got my first driving license at 14 in Arkansas.

-- Jim Hatridge Linux User #88484 Ebay ID: WartHogBulletin ------------------------------------------------------ WartHog Bulletin Info about new German Stamps http://www.WartHogBulletin.de

Many Enemies -- Much Honor! Anti-US Propaganda stamp collection http://www.manyenemies-muchhonor.info

An American in Bavaria http://www.gaubodengalerie.de

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On Tuesday 04 December 2007 07:45, Neil wrote:

Hi

I live in the Netherlands, ...

Every year that goes by I regret more and more not accepting the job offer that Philips (Apeldorn) made to me in the late 80s. RRS -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Hans Witvliet wrote:

On Tue, 2007-12-04 at 07:56 -0800, Randall R Schulz wrote:

...

On Tuesday 04 December 2007 07:45, Neil wrote:

...

Hi

I live in the Netherlands, ...

Every year that goes by I regret more and more not accepting the job offer that Philips (Apeldorn) made to me in the late 80s.

Don't.

If you did accept it, there is a more than fair chance you would be out of a job and got a drinking-habbit

It a nice country I live in: Last couple of weeks it was several times in the news that a bunch of yougsters attended a drinking party and went on untill they pass out. Kids of 12 years old. Permanent brain damage.

I would almost opt for the Scandinavian mechanism: extremely strict and horrible expensive.

JOOI, I looked this up: http://www.eurocare.org/profiles/index.html http://www.eurocare.org/pdf/profiles/netherlands/netherlands.pdf http://www.eurocare.org/pdf/profiles/norway.pdf http://www.eurocare.org/pdf/profiles/finland.pdf http://www.eurocare.org/pdf/profiles/sweden.pdf http://www.eurocare.org/pdf/profiles/uk.pdf The rate of boozing does seem to be higher in the Netherlands. It's higher even than in the UK, though it did start out a lot lower. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Wednesday 2007-12-05 at 10:08 -0000, Fergus Wilde wrote:

...

The rate of boozing does seem to be higher in the Netherlands. It's higher even than in the UK, though it did start out a lot lower.

Booze is very much cheaper in Spain and Italy than in either the Netherlands or the UK, and there public drunkenness is generally frowned on and binge drinking is relatively rare, despite being far less regulated. The key is that wine is seen as part of a meal and part of your nutrition, not classed as a drug with a capital 'D' and fussed over to the point where it acquires too high a social value.

That was correct; it is changing.

My pet theory is that it's the weather - generally awful here in the UK and in the Netherlands, generally far, far pleasanter in the Mediterranean. You may well feel like a nice cold beer on a sunny day, but you're far more likely to lock yourself in with a bottle of whisky when it goes dark at three thirty in the afternoon as it will here today :-(

Young people now want drinks with high alcoholic content, which are quite expensive if bought at a discotheque or equivalent dancing music bar, which were the favourite places for the young to go; some times these places use "faked" distilled beverages ("garrafón"), bad quality and maybe dangerous (methylated?). The result over the years was that young people changed to buy the drinks by the bottle in supermarkets, and made their own drinking parties ("botellón") in parks and streets till "early" hours, to the desperation of the neighbors (very noisy during the night, dirty streets later, plus damaged property). Customs change... this kind of public drinking, specially by the very young, its becoming, no, has become, a bad problem here, too. The regulations are getting closer to what they have "up north". - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.4-svn0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFHVoiStTMYHG2NR9URArymAJ4/CGuTeKKby/qF2m/219PsNSFuIQCeKOAs HJAyn++LXqEAMhE2wmMRBbQ= =5xnu -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Neil wrote:

It is becoming a kind of fashion to drink till you drop at low ages (it's called something like "comatosedrinking").

as a matter of fact, whatever the adults try to do, many youngs (mostly boys) have a suicide attitude at a time or an other. They act like if they tryed to desctruct themselves. this can be drinking, driving as fools... they always find a way to do so. In France nowaday, schoolboys play to strangle themselve nearly to death (and alas, sometime they die) jdd -- http://www.dodin.net -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Carlos E. R. wrote:

Can it be a filtering mechanism for the human species? Only the "apt" and "sober" survive? Better they die young than when a family depends on them? What a thought :(

Stafford Beer made the interesting suggestion that instead of cars being fitted with seat belts, they should be fitted with a row of spikes along the dashboard. Cheers, Dave -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Maccy wrote:

On Wed, 5 Dec 2007, Dave Howorth wrote:

...

Stafford Beer made the interesting suggestion that instead of cars being fitted with seat belts, they should be fitted with a row of spikes along the dashboard.

You'd hope to God that nobody ever ran in the back of you....

Well, all that would do is press you further into your seat, causing at worst, neck problems -- the same result as you get now when someone runs into the rear end of your car. It's the person who rear-ends you who would meet the dashboard with its spikes. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Russell Jones wrote:

Aaron Kulkis wrote:

...

Maccy wrote:

...

On Wed, 5 Dec 2007, Dave Howorth wrote:

...

Stafford Beer made the interesting suggestion that instead of cars being fitted with seat belts, they should be fitted with a row of spikes along the dashboard.

You'd hope to God that nobody ever ran in the back of you....

Well, all that would do is press you further into your seat, causing at worst, neck problems -- the same result as you get now when someone runs into the rear end of your car.

It's the person who rear-ends you who would meet the dashboard with its spikes. Provided there was nothing in front of you. In which case the car, after being accelerated by the impulse from the car behind, would come to a sudden stop. You, however, would keep going 'till you hit the dashboard, steering column, windscreen, the passenger in front, etc.

There are these things called seat belts.... -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Wednesday 05 December 2007 11:10, Dave Howorth wrote:

Carlos E. R. wrote:

...

Can it be a filtering mechanism for the human species? Only the "apt" and "sober" survive? Better they die young than when a family depends on them? What a thought :(

Stafford Beer made the interesting suggestion that instead of cars being fitted with seat belts, they should be fitted with a row of spikes along the dashboard.

A popular view among motorcyclists, in fact - probably the only way you'll stop Volvos pulling out in front of you at junctions :-)

Cheers, Dave

-- Fergus Wilde Chetham's Library Long Millgate Manchester M3 1SB Tel: 0161 834 7961 Fax: 0161 839 5797 http://www.chethams.org.uk -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Wednesday 2007-12-05 at 10:03 -0000, Fergus Wilde wrote: ...

You cannot legislate for good intent.

No... laws are later twisted into things the legislators never thought would happen when they wrote the thing. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.4-svn0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFHVoUBtTMYHG2NR9URAsoZAKCStpPOYTM2JuCrOMT2xSHzFbtpKwCfczc+ YYhAJJbbSYHrw0kB3tgWlbY= =dRbf -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Tuesday 04 December 2007 08:30, Jos van Kan wrote:

Randall R Schulz schreef:

...

On Tuesday 04 December 2007 07:45, Neil wrote:

...

Hi

I live in the Netherlands, ...

Every year that goes by I regret more and more not accepting the job offer that Philips (Apeldorn) made to me in the late 80s.

A few years later they decided to lay off their whole computer branch, Randall. Now maybe, if they could have enlisted you ... who knows. :-)

OK. I'll relinquish my regret. But wouldn't I have acquired the right to work throughout the EU? I heard there's considerable need for programming talent over there these days.

-- Jos van Kan

RRS -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Randall R Schulz wrote:

There used to be ongoing vehicular carnage in the zone between southeastern Wisconsin and northeaster Illinois with kids from Illinois driving up to Wisconsin on weekends to party. Finally, in part under pressure from Illinois citizens and legislators, Wisconsin changed its drinking age to 21 for all alcoholic beverages.

There's a similar flow along the causeway from Saudi to Bahrain on a Thursday night but the cars are all Mercedes, the occupants are older and the bars have more gold plate. Not sure how much carnage afterwards; there are hotels for sleeping it off. Cheers, Dave -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org