01:02:03 - 04/05/06

[scruffy]

Originally Posted by Perseus

Yeah don't even get me started on Quarts and Pints.....ugh

No please - let us start on Pints. Specifically, the fact that there are 20 ounces in a real pint, not 16 as some weirdo nations maintain

"A pint is a pound the world around," indeed! Humbug!

"A pint of pure water weighs a pound and a quarter." Less catchy perhaps, but it has the benefit of being accurate in more than one country...

[hawki18]

what next you want the US to switch to the URO

[Satcomer]

Our diversity is what makes us all special. I will never let the so called "world" (when will people learn the US or Western Europe is not the world) government ever rule over me. I don’t know how Europeans can stand the European Union. I believe those countries are giving up their true identity for some intangible economic benefit.

[fryke]

Bollocks... Believe me: I'm visiting France, Germany, Italy, Austria quite often and those countries have not lost "their true identity" so far, and are not going to. It's a similar process to what Switzerland (in a smaller scale) has gone through in the past several hundred years. We're 26 "cantons" - and they *still* have their own identities as well as being Swiss all the same. I guess you know the feeling: It's not the same to be a New Yorker or a Texan, right? Still: Both are US-citizens and feel as americans as well.

It can only _help_ to give Europeans the feeling that they belong together, because that way they won't try to conquer each other. I hope that one day, we'll find a way to unite the world in this feeling. Probably needs an outside danger or enemy.

"Our diversity is what makes us all special." Yes, exactly. The important thing is to see that the diversity does *not* have to negate the unity. Think families. Communities. Cities. Countries. Continents. And, yes!, the world.

[bbloke]

Originally Posted by fryke

Bollocks...

Originally Posted by hawki18

what next you want the US to switch to the URO

I take it you mean the "Euro," but no one is asking the US to switch currencies. Mind you, some other nations have been contemplating it, particularly with respect to dealing with oil (oh, and these countries tend to get invaded or threatened by the US).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro#The_euro_and_oil

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

The eurozone consumes more imported petroleum than the United States. This would mean that more euros than US dollars would flow into the OPEC nations, but oil is priced by those nations in US dollars only. There have been frequent discussions at OPEC about pricing oil in euros, which would have various effects, among them, requiring nations to hold stores of euros to buy oil, rather than the US dollars that they hold now. Venezuela under Hugo Chávez has been a vocal proponent of this scheme, despite selling most of its own oil to the United States. Another proponent was Saddam Hussein of Iraq, which holds the world's second largest oil reserves. Since 2000 Iraq had used the euro as oil export currency. In 2002, Iraq changed its US dollars into euro, a few months prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. If implemented by the OPEC, the changeover to the euro would be a transfer of a 'float' that presently subsidises the United States to subsidise the European Union instead. Another effect would be that the price of oil in the eurozone would more closely follow the world price. When oil prices skyrocketed to almost 50 USD/barrel in August 2004, the oil price in euros didn't change nearly as much because of the concurrent rise in the exchange rate of the euro to the US dollar (to an exchange rate of EUR 1.00 = USD 1.33 in December 2004). Similarly, should oil prices lower significantly, together with the USD/EUR exchange rate, the oil price in the eurozone would not fall as much. On the other hand, if the exchange rate and the oil price move in different directions, oil price changes are magnified. Pricing oil in euros would nullify this dependency of European oil prices on the USD/EUR exchange rate. On March 20, 2006, Iran is planning to open an International Oil Bourse (IOB, exchange) for the express purpose of trading oil priced in other currencies, including euros.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/storie...10/10/001.html

Originally Posted by The Moscow Times

President Vladimir Putin said Thursday Russia could switch its trade in oil from dollars to euros, a move that could have far-reaching repercussions for the global balance of power -- potentially hurting the U.S. dollar and economy and providing a massive boost to the euro zone.

But, anyway, we digress!

Originally Posted by Satcomer

Our diversity is what makes us all special. I will never let the so called "world" (when will people learn the US or Western Europe is not the world) government ever rule over me. I don’t know how Europeans can stand the European Union. I believe those countries are giving up their true identity for some intangible economic benefit.

I totally agree, we need to value diversity. More so than we do currently. I think people from all nations tend to put their own ways of doing things first, and tend to dislike "foreign"/alien ways of doing things. It's human nature, alas.

I really don't think the EU is an example of something that shouldn't be put up with, because I think Americans take it for granted all the time. For instance, a European could say "I don't know how you Californians can put up with a Federal government, your identity is completely different to that of a Texan." Well, it's true, but it's also about finding things we have in common and working for the common good, while trying to maintain and value diversity. Not always easy, sure, but not impossible. Believe me, if you go to France, it still feels like France, it's not part of a homogeneous "Eurozone" or something!

[sgould]

I'm changing my name to Rod Poleorperch

How many litres in a barrel of oil? Or pints for that matter?

[fryke]

"Pint of oil please over here!" (After all, we ARE in the café here...)

[bbloke]

Hmm, a pint. Shall we pay in Pounds Sterling?