For the nocturnal workers...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgUnYzXU-Fo

couldn't resist! "Shhh, Mr. Bocelli, Elmo's trying to sleep!"

its the norm in US offices, universities, etc, with it usually being cost free to get a cup of the stuff, I suppose its the American equivalent of boiling up ( because we don't generally use electric kettles, but we do rely on filter coffee being freely available--hah, I suppose in all senses of the word free--)and I am easily addicted to having that filter coffee at hand all the time. Although nothing I suppose prevents me from having my own filter machine to make this when I want !

I am working as well, and have been very productive! And enjoyed a very large cup of filter coffee to help me work. I find it nearly impossible to study without something to eat or drink at hand, even if its just a glass of water.

In my experience, instant coffee is but will do if you must have coffee and caffeine, and there are no other options. Some instant coffee is truly worse than others, though, you can get foul bitter tasting stuff...

One thing I miss is the standard ( American) coffee maker--the thing that makes filter coffee

From my own stand point, I think color blind =racism, just unacknowledged and unexpressed...its a standpoint that comes from white privilege ( etc.). Ask someone who is not white in a white dominant society and ask them how color blind that society really is. The new phrase being used in the US is color conciousness, where you should be aware of color but not use it in ways that are hurtful or negative. I think the US Presidential elections will be very telling about the state of racism in the US.

could American be an ethnicity? I don't think it would really be understood as one, but other ethnicities also stand in as nationalities, i.e., British, Irish, what have you. What is the dividing line of when a nationality is an ethnicity? If your nation is multi cultural, then how can a nationality equal an ethnicity?

I was not bothered but confused and bemused. I don't really care a whole lot about putting my ethnicity or color or whatever its being called on some form, although I do think its intrusive. I was befuddled by the choices I had! Which all just goes to show how inexact the whole notion of race/culture/ethnicity/etc. is. I think the best thing, is if for some arcane reason that this information may or must be collected, is just put a line, as another post suggests, and let people fill in what they want, however it is they self-identify.

I can understand about identifying Irish as an ethnic minority. My question was when does something become an ethnicity.

Friends and family thought I was nuts. "you want to call if your wedding if he buys you a diamond ring?"!!

Me "yes".....

eeek diamonds NO! I had a giant fight over a diamond ring when I was getting married...at the last minute my now ex decided I should have a large diamond and not the lovely small sapphire we had both selected ( and for which I insisted paying half, being deep in my Simone de Beauvoir days). I almost did not get married over this diamond thing---rings being symbolic of many things, including the marriage. I threatened to run from the altar if any sort of diamond showed up during the wedding. Needless to say no diamond appeared.

Take her away for a romantic weekend to a nice B and B by the seaside, have a nice chilled bottle of wine or champagne waiting in the room...etc....! go out for a nice romantic dinner. Then go watch a chick flick film at some point during the weekend. Run a bubble bath in the bathtub for her. Tell her how small her bum looks.

I just had to complete one of those forms that asks for your cultural background...the choices, as ever, are confusing and don't really fit. It asked you to pick a cultural background and within that, an ethnic heritage, or perhaps it was the other way around, pick out an ethnic heritage and within it a cultural background...

The first choice was straight forward, White, as opposed to the other choices, but within the White choice, you then had to select Irish or British! Hmmm..! I am of some British ancestry, and no Irish that I know of, but I have loads of other ancestries as well, and had no idea what to put. Putting British seemed weird since that is not my nationality even though the form did not seem to mean nationality...

At what point does an ethnicity and a nationality merge--so that British or Irish or Ghanian or Italian are both ethnicity and nationality?

Is American an ethnicity? Or just nationality? With nations being increasingly multicultural, what does this mean for how we identify? American ethnicity would not necessarily be white, it could be Hispanic, black, Indigeneous/First Peoples/Native American, Asian, etc.

Yes, really, and apologies for sounding a bit flippant about world hunger, it is an issue I take seriously and do care about resolving.

Check out www.freerice.com.

Its a vocabulary "quiz" and for each right answer you get, so much rice is donated. Apparently the cost of the rice is paid for by the advertising on the site ( this is all explained on the site). You also get the added benefit of improving your vocabulary--these are not easy words. It says most people do not get above a level 50, but it goes up to level 60. I think I have got to a level 46 or 48 on some day I was feeling particularly bright!

Check it out!

I think its a very interesting way to look at politics. I found the comments on the American politicians fascinating--that Hilary Clinton would be run of the mill in the European politics, based on her views, but in the US, she is seen as an extreme left politician! Very interesting too how the politicians all cluster in the upper right hand quadrant--the difference between most of them seem to be in degrees, not in any real vast measures! Ah ha, I thought from my vantage point in the lower left hand quadrant, no wonder none of their messages really appeal to me!

www.politicalcompass.org

This is a very interesting and thought provoking website! Check out where you stand and where your favourite politician and party stand--I am in the same quadrant as the Dalai Lama!


Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -6.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.33

Does the location of the journal seem to make a difference. i.e. what country it is in? For instance the American law journals seem to have much larger impact factors than their UK counterparts, and given the difference in size between the US and the UK, this seems like a bit of a chimera in determining the journal impact. Of course Americans are going to read American law, there are more Americans doing scholarly work overall in the field, etc. Do impact factors within the UK matter more than worldwide impact factors, when trying to judge the relative weighting of a journal.

LOL@ Hypothesis and the American version of "bum-bag"! Yes...how words can take on such different meanings. The word f*****y in the US is a word like a granny uses to reference a bum, its considered to be a harmless, sort of almost cute or baby-ish expression.