dusqi

I'll just comment on this thing since I think you guys are oversimplifying the issue and I don't have good enough knowledge of economics to comment but saying the quality of produce you get from other countries is equal is simply not true. Well, presumably the Floridian tomatoes aren't great since they're going to Burger King ;) More generally, a potato is a potato is a potato. I'm not saying that experts can't tell the difference, but I imagine that most people will find it easier to tell the difference between different brands of mp3 players than they would between the taste of different potatoes.

A lot of 'Floridians' are of african, south american and asian heritage as well. What does their ethnicity have to do with the jobs they should do? Also, not all white people are well off. Millions of ethnically white people in the US have to work the same dead-end jobs as every other poor person, because they need something for feeding their families. They can't just "pick" a job, they'll take any that offers a salary/payment. Ethnicity has nothing to do with the jobs they should do. I'm not advocating some kind of racist policy where you "have" to do anything. Everyone is so bothered about the "poor" western farmers/pickers that they forget that by subsidising them (either by directly giving money, by "buying british", or boycotting about western farmers' wages), you're just making it so that the rest of the world can't make any money from growing things. So, you say that the Floridian tomato pickers are too uneducated to do any other job? Why doesn't anyone ever suggest that they could be sent to a few training classes then? The tomato pickers don't really want to be paid more than they're worth to pick tomatoes, they want to become more skilled so that they can go anywhere and get paid a decent wage to do something worthwhile. I repeat, the Floridians should be doing other jobs. Let the poorer countries in the world do the agriculture. As a sidenote, my account hasn't been hacked, but thanks for your concern :)

Sorry, Floridians shouldn't be picking tomatoes. Let the Africans/South Americans/Asians do it. The West is obsessed with its agriculture. Just let someone else do it!! Something else that might be true is that since various chemicals and breeding techniques are used on the tomato plants, maybe the tomatoes are generally larger and grow closer together. This means that it's quicker to pick large quantities, so even though the amount the workers get paid per lb of tomatoes might be the same as in 1978, they might end up with more money than they used to.

Wth? really? It costs me 56p to buy a litre of orange juice! Yea, my tip is to get a dishwasher. Mine has drastically improved the quality of my life. More than any money I ever spent on computers and games consoles and things. I also agree with the microwave meals thing. You know that you're just lying to yourself when you go to the supermarket and buy things that take more than 10 minutes to cook. You won't be bothered.

The best part of the article is this quote: Oh, to be a theoretical physicist :P !

It's "my" street lamp, outside of my front door :o) It means that I never have problems finding the key hole in the dark.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/e ... s_what.stm The net givers and takers from the EU budget. Don't just look at the graph though, notice this sentence also: It makes me sad that the EU uses more money in administrative costs than it puts into research. However, despite disagreements with how the EU budget it spent (far too much on agriculture), I (as someone living in the UK) am actually warming to the idea of having a decent alliance to counter the growing economic power in Asia, and the eccentric economic power of America. The Euro currency has also gone surprisingly well so far.

This statement intrigues me. Does not the EU champion many socialist ideals? Such as minimum wages, maximum working days, limitations on the power of businesses, etc.?

We in England are told that it is because we're better at this kind of peacekeeping mission than the Americans, so we've done a good job in our bit of Iraq. In reality, I suspect that it is partly that, and partly the fact that Blair is leaving soon, and wants to feel like he's "seen it through". There is also the opinion in the country that America has taken the UK for granted and has been a poor ally, so we aren't going to give unconditional support any more.

Thanks for the link Matt!

Last lent I gave up pizza :D (though it was a bit of an accident, since I only realised half way through). Probably giving up TIF is a good idea, but much harder! Good luck!

blue_eggz, check the source code for a hint. I got to level 6, then it seemed hard, and I realised that I don't want to kill time :-#

I like walking places, but don't really walk for the sake of it. I would walk up a mountain though, for the experience.

Duke (and other 'serious' economists), what is your opinion as to what would happen if China lost faith in the dollar and decided to convert 80% of its current dollar currency reserves to other currencies (Euro, sterling, yen, etc.)? I've been having an amateur interest in this question since learning that China has about 1.4 trillion dollars worth of reserves, financed through its trade surplus... and wondered therefore how much 'power' China has over the US.

24th January 2002 Now a couple of my favourite RS pictures: 2nd June 2003 28th July 2003

Heh, they've been recruiting around campus here. I shall avoid them.

How evil :| May I ask what company that was? Or if it's not a well-known one, what it does?

Heh, at the end they said a lawyer came up and accused them of saying that they would give away a 1991 car, when it was actually a 1989 car - and that she'd let them off if they paid $20,000... and then a gang came up and told them to get off of 'their road'. Unbelievable.

Give them a week, then call them to ask how your application is progressing and if they'd like you to come for an interview. Annoy them, they'll mistake it for dedication.

All are interlinked. Tackle all at once. (uneducated people turn to crime, poverty leads to rain forests being destroyed, climate change will lead to poverty, education and research could stop climate change or at least help us prepare for it, terrorism is linked to poor education and poverty, child abuse leads to children not responding to education etc.etc.etc.)

retired.

Yup, DaN is correct. Hypnotism only works on someone who firstly believes that it is real, and secondly on someone who is open to being hypnotised. So you can't do it on the unwilling. What it basically is is a form of self-deception. If you believe that someone else is forcing you to do something, then you'll disregard your usual inhibitions and do it.

They thought his Dad was staying with him... :P

It might be different for a youth hostel?

What amused me was that yesterday all the schools in Dudley were declared closed in anticipation for today. This was before there was even any snow on the ground... :P I'm slightly bitter because I don't get snow days at uni :P