[Dextertje]

Originally Posted by MariaV

Today's 2003 thread for you ladies, and this time with POLL POLL POLL. *no hairpulling smiley enough*

http://www.menstennisforums.com/showthread.php?t=197152

Bilbo, what a man, he can get into girls in the street despite their bf being around. True sex machine , Georgie is right.

[MariaV]

My thread is coming to the end!
Who wants to be next?

[tennizen]

Maria, you love 2003 threads. Stop pretending otherwise.

[star]

Originally Posted by Castafiore

It's not freaky, it's dumb.

When you're skiing away from the marked slopes when there's an avalanche alert type 4, you're being stupid.

-
As long as Novak is not taking over from our Albert II, he can do whatever he wants in Monte Carlo.

Reminds me of the Prince Charles skiing accident. Weren’t some of his party killed? I remember that it caused quite a stir at the time, but my memory of the details is vague.

We had our own avalanche problem this past weekend too. I hadn’t heard of these airbag devices before.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sports...,2428331.story

Originally Posted by -Evita-

Oh, they have already started collecting signatures for the next referendum to give everyone automatic citizenship (well, to those who've been here since around 1990). I'm hoping they won't get the necessary amount of signatures but you never know. If they do, that referendum is bound to fail the same way this one did. What a waste of money that would be

Anyway, you can't deny that there is a problem here between Latvians and Russians. A referendum can't solve it. One of the biggest reasons is that Russians are living in a totally different information space - they read Russian newspapers (and they print totally different things from Latvian newspapers) and they watch Russian TV. So the Latvian government can't get info across to them very well. Now finally people realize that something needs to be done about it all. The goal is to integrate everyone on the basis of the Latvian language but it'll take decades probably (if at all).

I’ve read some things about how people in western europe are saying the way Latvia treats ethnic Russians violates human rights because they should be made citizens even without speaking any Latvian. I think the case is stronger for children born in Latvia after Latvia gained independence. I wish your country luck with the problem because it’s going to continue for a long time.

Originally Posted by tennizen

Maria, you love 2003 threads. Stop pretending otherwise.

They are most informative.

Perhaps not in the way intended but still.

In other news: Azarenka compares her screaming to snoring.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...s004156S24.DTL

[-Evita-]

Originally Posted by star

I’ve read some things about how people in western europe are saying the way Latvia treats ethnic Russians violates human rights because they should be made citizens even without speaking any Latvian.

I don't think the EU is saying that at all. I haven't heard of any pressure from the EU to change anything in our policies regarding Russians. In fact, the Russians enjoy a very good life here (for a minority).

If you mean people on the street, well, I can't speak about that...

I think the case is stronger for children born in Latvia after Latvia gained independence. I wish your country luck with the problem because it’s going to continue for a long time.

Children born after August 21, 1991, can become citizens if their parents apply for it. They don't have to pass any tests or exams so it's just a matter of their parents wanting it for their children and doing the necessary paperwork.

[star]

Originally Posted by -Evita-

I don't think the EU is saying that at all. I haven't heard of any pressure from the EU to change anything in our policies regarding Russians. In fact, the Russians enjoy a very good life here (for a minority).

No, I didn’t say the EU or mean to refer to the EU or leave the impression I was speaking about the EU. I just read that there were these concerns. The people voicing the concerns were named in the news story. Sorry I can’t remember the names. They weren’t comments from people on the streets.

Children born after August 21, 1991, can become citizens if their parents apply for it. They don't have to pass any tests or exams so it's just a matter of their parents wanting it for their children and doing the necessary paperwork.

That wasn’t mentioned in what I read which I suppose is typical when a story is being skewed a bit. Thanks for the added information.


Merton!

60 Minutes had a story on Magnus Carlson. Very cute little boy pics of him and his family. The important information I gleaned from the story is that he has a one-handed backhand.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?...;storyMediaBox

I don’t know if that plays outside N. Am., but you might find it on you tube.

[MariaV]

Originally Posted by -Evita-

Children born after August 21, 1991, can become citizens if their parents apply for it. They don't have to pass any tests or exams so it's just a matter of their parents wanting it for their children and doing the necessary paperwork.

The same here.
Star you lawyer, some Russian-speakers feel "offended" because they have to write an application for their children to get the Estonian citizenship. But I mean honestly, can we make all these children Estonian citizens against their or their parents' will if their parents are not citizens? I think it's for them and their parents to decide before they turn 15 and it's not that difficult to write a simple application. Some of them want to take Russian or Ukranian or Belarus citizenship maybe so why should we make them all Estonian citizens regardless of their and their parents' will?
Their parents moved here, they were not born here so why should their children automatically become Estonian citizens? Even in the US now everyone born there doesn't automatically get the citizenship, no?
That's my view but you know that's the silly me.

[star]

Originally Posted by MariaV

The same here.
Star you lawyer, some Russian-speakers feel "offended" because they have to write an application for their children to get the Estonian citizenship. But I mean honestly, can we make all these children Estonian citizens against their or their parents' will if their parents are not citizens? I think it's for them and their parents to decide before they turn 15 and it's not that difficult to write a simple application. Some of them want to take Russian or Ukranian or Belarus citizenship maybe so why should we make them all Estonian citizens regardless of their and their parents' will?
Their parents moved here, they were not born here so why should their children automatically become Estonian citizens? Even in the US now everyone born there doesn't automatically get the citizenship, no?
That's my view but you know that's the silly me.

I’m kind of neutral on how people become citizens of other countries. Sometimes it’s a bit difficult for me to understand the process in other countries, but I’ve never thought of it as an issue of human rights as some of the people in the stories I’ve read seem to think. I think each country has to decide for itself how one becomes a citizen and what is best for that country.

In the U.S., if you are born here, you are a citizen. This is explicit in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and has it’s roots in the civil war and its aftermath. Alien parents don’t have to apply for their children to become citizens. It’s pretty easy to renounce U.S. citizenship if at a later age one doesn’t want to be a U.S. citizen, and the U.S. isn’t all that understanding about it’s citizens deciding they want to be citizens of another country and still retain U.S. citizenship.

This applies even to children born to parents who come to this country illegally. So, I know illegal aliens who have children who are citizens and children who are not citizens. It’s a complicated life.

[Minn]

Too many emoticons. So I'll split it. Let's not have a Canada-bashing session or you might not see many more multiquotes!

Originally Posted by tennizen

Epic multiquote Minn. Here's my appreciative gift

Originally Posted by Corey Feldman

Melanie so violent with me saying i am a diva who storms out

i never said anything coz you only quoted me once

You didn't make fun of my Canada so you're in my good books. Unlike that Andreea.

Originally Posted by Castafiore

Originally Posted by Castafiore

Do you remember that I chopped off a tiny bit of flesh off the top of one of my fingers at the end of last year?

I'd learned to type with only 9 fingers, which goes a bit slower and I make more mistakes but it works.

Now that my finger has healed with only a tender spot at the top, I can't for the life of me force my finger to join the typing again.

I'm glad you got back to typing with 10 fingers. A teenager saw me typing recently without looking at the keyboard and was amazed. There are no keyboarding classes in the high school here any more, I guess, and I think that is a mistake.

Originally Posted by star

Also, I want to join in Soccer spam.

Best soccer spam ever!

Originally Posted by Metis

[Minn]

Originally Posted by star

And we just swept poor Canada, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong AND Iran along with us.

Actually, we pretty much call it Tylenol here.

It's usually "Tylenol" to me too. Never "para...whatever."

Originally Posted by Merton

I attended a very interesting presentation yesterday, from the National Research Foundation. It is a series run by the Institute of Byzantine Studies, concerning crises in the Byzantine empire. There were two separate topics yesterday:

The first was about the crisis in Egypt before the Arab conquest of 641-643 AD. It was a topic I knew very little about, having a vague recollection about severe religious tensions between christan orthodox and nestorians ("monophysites") plus a sense of fatalism prevailing at the time of the initial islamic expansion. The presenter was excellent, he drew from arabic sources totally unknown to me.

The second concerned the crisis of the pre-feudal social order in the Byzantine empire until the transition to the feudal time. The pre-feudal period ran from the death of Justinian (565 AD) until the restoration of the icons. (843 AD). I am very much interested in the social dynamics during the Middle Ages and about serfdom in particular. The presenter here was also very good, in particular he pointed to the coalition of free farmers against the Church and the big landlords as a major driving force behind the iconoclastic reform started by Emperor Leo (717 AD).

The attendants were mostly students of History, they were keen keeping notes :jealous of not being a student: At the end the presenters took questions. Very interesting stuff

That sounds like it would have been very interesting. It's a topic I know little about.

Originally Posted by Merton

Melanie, thank you for the multiquote

Originally Posted by star

zomg!!

There’s a "fat" model in the Swimsuit Issue.

Yes. That’s her. Was once a size 16 but now a designer 10 and that’s a little difficult since most are a designer 6 or less.

Good for her. As if size 10 is overweight, especially considering she's probably quite tall.

Originally Posted by MariaV

Awwwww, Melanie was here. And she has never had caviar. People have different tastes, many people don't like caviar at all.
But have you eaten (smoked) eel or lamprey?

Ahhh, so cute Milos is doing well. I love calling him cute Milos.

No, I've never had eel or lamprey. Like caviar, they don't appeal to me either, although I've never seen lamprey offered in any restaurant I've ever been to.

Originally Posted by Castafiore

Because of the virus I had with a not so great effect on my stomach and colon, I decided to cut out coffee, cafeine and I stuck with still water + linden tea. I began having these really bad, stinging headaches. A week into the no-cafeine regime, my colleague said that I'm having headaches because my body is missing the cafeine and is urging a cafeine shot.

So, today, I decided to drink coffee again.
Result: no headache.

How addicted to the black stuff am I?

My friend is like that with pop. She drinks several bottles (500 ml) a day. Like at least half a dozen. Every time she goes cold turkey, she gets terrible headaches. I tell her to wean herself off gradually but she just ends up going back to her usual amount.

Originally Posted by Action Jackson

I've either got bad music specials, though normally when I train if I get lucky I can see NHL when I am on the cardio machines.

My Red Wings have the longest home game win streak in NHL history.

[Minn]

Originally Posted by -Evita-

He also spoke about his organism and immune system, he tries to strengthen it but still gets sick often. And about how it's very difficult for him to play in hot and humid places like China or Australia. He says they're trying to find methods to overcome it. He also spoke in general about tennis coaches and their role, how playing on clay is different from playing on hard (he says he only learned how to play proper clay tennis 2 years ago even though his RG quarter final was before that). All in all, a very interesting interview.

Edit: Oh, and I forgot the funniest part. He said that male tennis players can have other tennis players as friends, no big deal. But women can't, he said, because they want to kill each other after matches He also said that he wouldn't want a girlfriend from the WTA, he'd prefer someone unrelated to sports.

Sounds interesting. at the WTA part.

Originally Posted by Castafiore

Rafa is a Fedtard...we all know that they don't always make sense.

Originally Posted by Castafiore

Talking about royalty...
Andreea, did you hear about the Dutch prince Friso's skiing accident?

He went skiing on slopes away from the marked ski runs when there was an avalanche alert type 4 (= 4 out of 5, 5 being no skiing allowed at all).
He was snowed under because of an avalance for about 20 minutes.

On Dutch tv, they were a bit shocked to see how stern the Austrian tv were with the prince (talking about taking unnecessary risks despite warnings from all sides).

Now, a spokesperson tries to take away the criticism by saying that it wasn't that risky given the fact that about 4000 people (did they invent that figure?) were skiing on these unmarked ski runs so he wasn't alone + an avalanche type 4 alert is still no type 5 alert.

I heard about it. I didn't realize he was skiing where he wasn't supposed to be. That's just stupid.

Originally Posted by MariaV

Cute Milos won San Jose again.

Originally Posted by star

In the U.S., if you are born here, you are a citizen. This is explicit in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and has it’s roots in the civil war and its aftermath. Alien parents don’t have to apply for their children to become citizens. It’s pretty easy to renounce U.S. citizenship if at a later age one doesn’t want to be a U.S. citizen, and the U.S. isn’t all that understanding about it’s citizens deciding they want to be citizens of another country and still retain U.S. citizenship.

This applies even to children born to parents who come to this country illegally. So, I know illegal aliens who have children who are citizens and children who are not citizens. It’s a complicated life.

It's similar here although it's easy to have dual citizenship if you're able to. A friend of mine just had a baby; she's Canadian and her husband is American. They will complete the paperwork required to get the baby citizenship in the US (she was born in Canada).

[star]

Originally Posted by Minn

Sounds interesting. at the WTA part.



I heard about it. I didn't realize he was skiing where he wasn't supposed to be. That's just stupid.



It's similar here although it's easy to have dual citizenship if you're able to. A friend of mine just had a baby; she's Canadian and her husband is American. They will complete the paperwork required to get the baby citizenship in the US (she was born in Canada).

Yeah, in the U.S. you have to renounce foreign citizenship when becoming a citizen, but Canada just ignores that renunciation part. A U.S. citizen can retain U.S. citizenship when becoming a citizen of another country only if that country doesn’t require renouncing prior citizenship to become a citizen.

[Castafiore]

Originally Posted by Minn

A teenager saw me typing recently without looking at the keyboard and was amazed. There are no keyboarding classes in the high school here any more, I guess, and I think that is a mistake.

I didn't learn that at school, though. (typing with all my fingers, without looking at the keyboard).

At school, the typing classes were one of the extra courses (= obligatory hours, but not part of the basic educational package). They gave you a choice of topics for those extra hours, based on your basic educational package.
Typing was popular because the exam for it was easy and didn't require any study at home and neither did you have homework for it. You could pass it based on your exercises at school. Nice and easy, thus a popular choice.
When I even dared to suggest it as an option, my father made it quite clear that no child of his was going to pick a topic just because it's easy. He told me that you can always learn how to type in your own free time but those extra courses could be spend more usefully - Economics one year and German and Physics the next year). So, he gave me an instruction booklet on typing and I ended up learning it on my own indeed after spending too much time typing out a report with 2 fingers while having to look at the keyboard too often.

[acionescu]

Typing classes?

[MariaV]

Hilde's dad!

Originally Posted by star

I’m kind of neutral on how people become citizens of other countries. Sometimes it’s a bit difficult for me to understand the process in other countries, but I’ve never thought of it as an issue of human rights as some of the people in the stories I’ve read seem to think. I think each country has to decide for itself how one becomes a citizen and what is best for that country.

In the U.S., if you are born here, you are a citizen. This is explicit in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and has it’s roots in the civil war and its aftermath. Alien parents don’t have to apply for their children to become citizens. It’s pretty easy to renounce U.S. citizenship if at a later age one doesn’t want to be a U.S. citizen, and the U.S. isn’t all that understanding about it’s citizens deciding they want to be citizens of another country and still retain U.S. citizenship.

This applies even to children born to parents who come to this country illegally. So, I know illegal aliens who have children who are citizens and children who are not citizens. It’s a complicated life.

I see. I thought the US had changed this policy that every child born there automatically becomes a citizen, I think the US is a rare country where it's like this but I can be wrong again.
Legally an Estonian citizen cannot have dual citizenship but many still have the Russian or even American citizenship.

Originally Posted by Minn

My Red Wings have the longest home game win streak in NHL history.

I know about that Melanie so congrats!