Sorry Im horrible at getting myself understood the first time on these things I think my brain over thinks simple conversations sometimes. I guess what I was thinking was what the likely hood of that kind of thing happening again was or does it happen often? Do people seriously get harassed a lot? I was even thinking of taking a trip there one day and I wanted to have a good experience. I guess Im wondering if thats likely?

Ive actually thought of Denmark it looks like a beautiful place but the language barrier would be huge for me. I actually know a little French thought of moving close to the coast where I could take a ferry to the Isle.
Thanks for your input.

In reply to this comment by DrivelsAdvocate:
I'm not sure I understand your question fully, but if you're asking me for a ratio of goths to degenerate low-life then I would say 1: many. Aimless, jobless, intent-on-criminality pond life are legion in this country, although in part I suppose that's down to the government as unemployment is high and aspirations are low among the young in the less privileged parts of our society. Forget England, apparently Denmark is a very nice place to live (well at least according to a friend who spent a few months there) if you are looking for tolerant, friendly folk and a youth culture that doesn't revolve around loitering on the streets and haranguing members of the public. I'm starting to sound like the Daily Mail now, So I'd better shut up

In reply to this comment by ctrlaltbleach:
Yes I have often thought that moving to England would be some kind of a dream. From hearing about this and what you have said maybe I was wrong. I really thought it would be the king of place where people could walk down the street at night and smile and say hi and be nice to everyone.
A question for you. You say you live in the area. What do you think is the percentage of people that are goth or different according to the people who committed these crimes? Or do you know?

In reply to this comment by DrivelsAdvocate:
>> ^ctrlaltbleach:
Really shocked that this happened in England. I always thought Europeans were more tolerant of others. Now I'm starting to realize maybe there is no place on the earth where everyone can be happy together.


I live quite near to where this girl was killed. I'm afraid that any romantic notion you had of England doesn't exist any more - we are under siege from feckless, moronic, feral youths who engage in low levels of criminality (and the occasional high profile case) with near impunity. God help you if you ever decide to take one of the little bleeders down a peg or two, though, as you'll more than likely be the one who ends up banged up.

Edit: That's a cringe-worthy related link at the bottom of the page; Sophie Ellis Baxter's Murder on the Dancefloor? Only if they play your song..

>> ^jwray:
If you're cooking, you need a car to efficiently ferry groceries from bigbox stores that are typically built several miles from residential areas, or else pay a 50% premium (on average) to get groceries from closer small-scale inefficient stores.

I can carry eight bags of groceries on my motorcycle - two handlebars, a backpack, a tank bag, and a box on the passenger seat . In fact, heres a picture of me coming back from the store with groceries: http://tinypic.com/r/14ch5iw/6

But I rarely see the need to take home more than 2-3 at a time since I live within 2 miles of like five Supermarkets and a Walmart, with the closest Supermarket being about 2 blocks away, so I can ride my bicycle to get groceries if I want (again 2 handlebars and a backpack).

If you eat out lunch and dinner, you're looking at $15 a day for food. If you cook it, it really depends where you get your groceries. It's a matter of capital and time. If you're cooking, you need a car to efficiently ferry groceries from bigbox stores that are typically built several miles from residential areas, or else pay a 50% premium (on average) to get groceries from closer small-scale inefficient stores. If you do have access to the bigbox stores, you can feed yourself on like $7 a day (not counting the increase to your electric bill from cooking things at home, which empirically seems to be ~ $15/month). People who are really poor -- too poor to afford cars -- get exploited by those overpriced little stores on every corner. All the stores with really low prices are out by the highway several miles from downtown or anywhere that people live. Wal-Mart etc have reasons for building that way: The land's cheaper, resupply is easier, and there's less shoplifting if you're out of walking distance from anywhere that bums can live.

Very "Ferris Bueller" - only Gay-er

You are right, this is gorgeous. But isn't Switzerland, it's Germany. It's a place in Saxony called the "Saxon Switzerland". You can check out the German flags on the ferry at 0:14. Or the Saxon flag at 1:10. Or the fact that this doesn't look like Switzerland at all. Or the fact that the original video is even labelled "Saxon Switzerland".

I admit it's an oddly named region, but still: down-vote for reading comprehension fail.

Wow... it is an amazing video, but I never realized just how over-developed the falls were.... a ferris wheel, really? Kinda disgusting given the natural majesty of the place...

Happy C-Day!
Here's some Canada Day Fun in Vancouver...
http://canada.videosift.com/video/Canada-Day-False-Creek-Ferries-Ballet

Why does this guy remind me of Ferris Bueller... "Cause that would be really funny!"

You mean I finally get to do my first *quality? Woohoo! Drinks are on me.


Ok, so this was years ago, and I was at a friend's birthday party. I had lost a significant amount of weight because I would bicycle everywhere, and I hadn't been out drinking. So I decide, damnit man, ahm Scah-ish, and I'm goun ta drink meh ancestor's drink! So I get a fifth of Cutty Sark and start doing shots. Now, not having ever tried Scotch but once prior to that night, I have to tell ya. It's liquid peat moss. Or maybe just Cutty Sark is. I don't know. But as with any liquor, once you get the first few shots down, you don't even taste or care anymore. So I proceed to drink about more than 1/2 the bottle, as well as a few beers...

So let me lay the scene for you here. We've got a small 1 bedroom apartment crowded with about 30 people. The stereo is up high, and after about 3 hours, I've made it to a chair at the dining room table. I start to get dizzy, so I put my elbows on the table, interlock my fingers and rest my chin in my hands, as I'm looking out into the room. And EVERYTHING is going up and down, in and out, and swirly. You know, like a merry-go-round? I can also hear every word at each of the conversations which were taking place around the room, as well as in whatever song was playing at the time. I don't even remember who eventually was around me but people were saying stuff like "Oh man, look how white he is!" "Dude, you need to go to the bathroom..." And I'm going "No, it's ok. I'm not gonna puke...I'm not gonna"

The last thing I saw was vomit shooting through my interlaced fingers.

So what do you do? Just put yourself there for a minute. Your that fucked up and you just start throwing up. Yup, I cupped my hands together to lean forward and make a bowl with my hands.

Now, physics was the LAST thing on my mind at this point. I forgot a critical variable: volume. Needless to say, I got. it. everywhere. All over the cake, in the ashtrays, people's cigarettes, in people's drinks, on people. Someone told me later I looked like a fire hydrant with an obstruction in the way. Luckily almost everyone there was a friend, so I survived a potential beating. (But at the cost of the ribbing I still take to this day )

So they throw me in the bathroom. Now, I'm conscious enough to know that I don't want someone pissing next to my face as I bow before the Porcelain God, so I lock the door. And promptly pass out. Eventually I finally wake up enough to open the door, and am promptly hauled out passed the line that formed, and am unceremoniously dumped on the bed. The only recollection I have of the rest of the night, is waking up several times lying face down, my hands and arms in the "goalpost" formation, and my head to pointing to the left. Have you ever gotten tired of lying in one position? I lifted my head, just to turn it to the right and got the whole Ferris Wheel action from before. So I kept passing out unable to turn my head.

Next morning, incredibly, I had no hangover. However, that is the only night in my life where I have no recollection of events. You could say I blew the dog and I'd have to take your word on it.

Ah well...it's good for a laugh.

^Farhad, you're my heeeeeero. (Sorry, had to throw the Ferris reference in there)

Awesome!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you. Those were driving me nuts.

We can’t bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell them stories that don’t go anywhere. Like that time I took the ferry over to Shelbyville; I needed a new heel for my shoe. So, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on them. ‘Give me five bees for a quarter,’ you’d say. Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn’t have any white onions, because of the war; the only thing you can get was those big yellow ones.

Its a nice video on truck ferry event. It reminds me, my trip to France last summer on cross channel ferries. I witness a similar type of accident, of course that was fault by crew members.

Not to make little of the pilot's accomplishment -he's obviously Airborne Samurai- but from what I hear of his background, and years of experience, what he did wasn't very heroic, it is to be expected. I think people need to raise the bar on "heroism". It's getting anointed onto way too many achievements lately. I mean, some are calling the ferry boat captains heroes, even though what they did is their lawful duty.

I have to agree.

If they took the kids away based on the names alone, that's a bit specious.

Politically opportunistic.

I knew a kid named Jerry Ferry in high school. And I knew another kid named Les Pitts.

No shit.

If they survived that, I think that little Adolf might have a fighting chance without the state sticking its nose into things.

>> ^bcglorf:
Finally, I must insist that Israeli aid to the region must not be ignored either. If Israel really wants the region cleansed, why are they still the largest individual provider of humanitarian aid to the region? You know what the biggest complaints where when the borders where closed? Access to Israeli hospitals that where previously available to Palestinians living on the border. And for unemployment caused by closing the border, it was because a great many living in Gaza were working in Israel.


Err? Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza since 2007.

U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said that while Israel had been letting some relief supplies into Gaza, with 60 truckloads entering on Monday, that was "wholly inadequate", as about 100 truckloads a day of flour or grain alone were needed. Stocks of fuel were "more or less zero", meaning Gaza's power plant might have to shut down at any time, while medical supplies were "just about enough to cope", Holmes said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LV538165.htm

A boat delivering 3.5 tonnes of Cypriot medical aid to the Gaza Strip has been rammed by Israeli naval vessels in international waters, activists say.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7805075.stm

"The Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Karen AbuZayd, on Monday warned that new restrictions Israel planned to impose on the West Bank could force the agency to curtail its humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/925748.html

Billions of aid dollars pledged to the Palestinians to bolster peace talks with Israel are having a muted economic impact because of Israeli restrictions on travel and trade, the World Bank said on Sunday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2616242520080427

The United Nations is accusing Israel of imposing arbitrary taxes on humanitarian relief supplies - including food and medicine - being ferried to Palestinians in occupied territories. The levies charged by Israel were "unreasonable and unique", Peter Hansen, commissioner-general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees, told a meeting of donors Wednesday.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/ngos/aid/2002/0925israel.htm

On average, the U.S gave more than $6.8 million* to Israel each day and
gave $0.3 million** to the Palestinians each day during Fiscal Year 2007.
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stats/usaid.html