It would seem that the teacher brought religion ( or his lack of belief in it, therefore his belief ( Religion)) into the class room himself, apart from proving himself a complete ass. I won't add the rest of the word

We have had situations where kids at school could not celebrate various Christian festivals in case they offended the children of muslim immigrants .

Same sort of stupidity rampant here in the UK as well. How the idiots who make these decisions ever got through childhood and on to these positions amazes me.

Here too (UK)

I think many of those looking for a handout may have originally been looking for a hand up, rejection after rejection for each job application must be terribly demoralising. Ultimately governments need to determine the real cost of manufacturers out-sourcing their manufacturing to China and elsewhere. Every job loss in the west equals a multiple negative for the goverments involved, a tax loss, a spending reduction on the part of the now unemployed worker and his/ her family and some kind of government handout to keep the workers family housed and fed. Then there are all the feeder jobs, very few industriess are totally self suficient, a thousand jobs lost in the car industry usually means several thousand in ancilliary industries. And the final question is even if the products manufactured in the far east or elsewhere are dirt cheap, if most of the country has lost it's job, who will be able to afford to buy it?
quote=TrainNut]Pentony wrote:
It seems that all previous civilizations bread their demise from within. I guess it is our time to end.
Your comment about too many people looking for a hand out instead of a hand up, seeking not to contribute to the national gross domestic product (GNP) is unfortunately so true.



Giving too many people a hand out instead of a hand up is a bad decision. :hunf:[/quote]

We have pretty much the same situation in the UK, it has however been going on a lot longer and we are much further down the pan than you are.

We have a middle of the road party, smaller than the other two and at the moment part of a coalition with one of the major parties but of limited influence and certainly not capable of forming a government on it's own.

It is difficult to imagine an honest, hard working government that looks after the interests of it's electors before looking after it's own.

The second pic is a hibiscus, not sure of the first

Penicillin was first noticed in the late 1800's, re-dscovered in 1928 and first made available for research in the early 1940's in the US, and used to treat the wounded from the D Day landings in 1944. That said she must have been born at the latest in 1943

The red washer like thing looks like dodder a parasitc vine, your local farm/horticultural authority may be interested. In some countries it is a notifiable weed.

If you get the chance look in on Bourton on the Water, a very pretty Cotswold village, and a bit further south Castle Coombe another small unspoilt village.

Have to agree with you, in the UK there has been furious debate within the church of England over female bishops with resignations and conversions to catholicism of whole congregations over the bid to consecrate women into the church. What most men seem to forget is their mother, not their father carried them for 9 months and probabaly for the first few years was their guide and mentor, while their father was earning the family bread
!

I think this might be a gall of some type. I seem to remember from biology lectures at school there are several types of gall wasp that lay eggs in plant tissue and the galls form around the egg to protect it. Oak apples are probably the most well known galls

I think we have to be brutal, every one of their own they kill is one less potential suicide bomber to worry about.

Newer versions of photoplus will handle raw files, they may not be listed when clicking file open, but can be opended by right clicking the file and using the "open with" option. Have to admit well short of photoshop power.

If you are into playing with artistic effects it has some of the best I have found. It also has one of the easiest deformation tools to use.