How much do you feel the passing of the seasons ?

[lastmagi]

Oh dear, I didn't know you were in the New Orleans, pinkkillerkisou This is woefully late, but I hope things are doing okay for you guys.

Anyway, I know the seasons as basically:

Miserable allergy season (mid-late spring)
Hot, humid and physically trying season, with some specks of allergies (late spring to early autumn)
Miserable allergy season, the revenge (early autumn)
Beautiful, no allergy weather season (early to mid autumn)
Dreary cold season (but completely free from allergies!)

Needless to say, I hate allergies.

Anyway, other than that, I don't really feel the seasons as much as I'd like. The springs and autumns are dominated by school, which takes up a lot of my time, so I can't really enjoy the outdoors, unless you count the hurried walking through campus to get to class as enjoying the outdoors. The summers I waste my time indoors playing video games, because I lack the energy for much else. Winters are nice, because I get to cuddle up in a warm blanket.

Arg, I need to spend more time outdoors, huh.

[Maciamo]

I noticed that many many people (in any country) think that Japan, Europe and the USA are basically at the same latitude. If this is true for Japan and the USA, the inhabited parts of Europe ranges from the Northern USA/Japan to Northern Canada. For example, the Northern Japanese city of Sendai is at the same latitude as Washington DC, but they are also at the same latitude as Malta or Gibraltar in Europe, and more south than Tunis or Algiers in North Africa. So, all major Japanese cities and the Southern half of the USA are at the latitude of North Africa.

Sapporo, Boston, Marseille and Florence are also at the same latitude, which clearly shows that the South of Europe is the top North of Japan or the US. London is higher than any Canadian city except Edmonton which is at the height of Manchester or Hamburg in Germany. Helsinki and Oslo are at the latitude of Alaska or the southern tip of Greenland.

See the attached map for more visual comparisons.

In tropical or semi-tropical places like the Southern US, Southern Japan and North Africa, the seasons are less well defined than north of that. The difference in day light is most marked the nearer one is from the poles.

[Mike Cash]

funny, i was thinking the exact thing, and that goes for both replies ;)

Why so for the first reply? I was in total earnest.

[pinkkillerkisou]

Oh dear, I didn't know you were in the New Orleans, pinkkillerkisou This is woefully late, but I hope things are doing okay for you guys.

Thanks for your well-wishes.

Well, slowly but surely the city is getting back on her feet. Help is so slow, but I know there is much to be done so I expected as much. As for me... I lucked out. My home suffered minor damages and slight flooding. Nothing to serious. I'm alive and have a house still so I'd say I am very fortunate.

[Doc]

Thanks for your well-wishes.

Well, slowly but surely the city is getting back on her feet. Help is so slow, but I know there is much to be done so I expected as much. As for me... I lucked out. My home suffered minor damages and slight flooding. Nothing to serious. I'm alive and have a house still so I'd say I am very fortunate.

You are very lucky. Just remember help is slow because FEMA is dumb. Oh and I'm still pissed off that Bush wants to spend over 200 billion dollars to rebuild casinos in the area. So if you didn't lose your home during Katrina, now you have the chance to.

Doc

P.S. I'm also pissed off at FEMA, the oil companies for screwing the American people (although it's about time we got slapped in the face for alternative fuel sources), and every conservative in Congress trying to make the wealthy wealther in this time of need. Selfish sons of bitches.

[Mike Cash]

funny, i was thinking the exact thing, and that goes for both replies ;)

I'll ask you again. Why do you think my first reply was a smartassed reply?

[DoctorP]

You are very lucky. Just remember help is slow because FEMA is dumb. Oh and I'm still pissed off that Bush wants to spend over 200 billion dollars to rebuild casinos in the area. So if you didn't lose your home during Katrina, now you have the chance to.

Doc

P.S. I'm also pissed off at FEMA, the oil companies for screwing the American people (although it's about time we got slapped in the face for alternative fuel sources), and every conservative in Congress trying to make the wealthy wealther in this time of need. Selfish sons of bitches.

Just wondering Doc...why are you against rebuilding the casino's? They are a major supplier of jobs, and instant source of large amounts of income to the gulf coast in the form of taxes...to the tune of $500,000 per day in some areas!

[Mike Cash]

Never try to disabuse a liberal of his source of rage.

[Doc]

1.) I was joking. There's been a lot of pissing a moaning about the issue for a week now. If anything people should be bitching about the 15 billion dollars that is going to the oil companies in Texas for their refineries than anything.

2.) Let's get one thing straight Mike, I AM NOT A LIBERAL. I'm an independent. I have both liberal and conservative beliefs so don't confuse me with some tree hugging, loose sex loving, violent video game banning, pot legalizing, gun banning, religion hating *******.

The casinos I understand, but why the hell the strip clubs? Most people lost their homes, why would the first they want to do is see a naked woman?! Great now I can lose more money!!! *sigh* FEMA hasn't helped much either, but it's not really their fault, just the fault of a certain former director and a large group of idiots we'd like to call "The White House Administration".

Doc

[pinkkillerkisou]

Are we forgeting that even though casinos provide jobs, but they also take money away from the community? It's usually the people who can't afford to lose the money that go there. No one at this point needs to go to casinos. They shouldn't ever, but especially not now. The government needs to stop looking to quick fixes. They need to worry about more important issues. For instance, better ways to protect the city. Casinos and strip clubs don't stop hurricanes. Drainage canals, water pumps, and levees stop flooding.

As for your comment about the strip clubs... you'd be surprised how many people rushed to bars in the Quarter as soon as they opened. All the drunks they interviewed on tv about the city getting "back up and running"...

It's sad but people will spend their last dollar on an addiction than to feed their families. I think its a bad idea to open these kinds of places just yet or spend so much money on them.

You know where all this the money they want to throw at the problem needs to go? To our hospitals, schools, day cares, retirement facilities, etc.. So many of those places were devastated. Those kinds of things need to be fixed first. Not casinos.

[Maciamo]

You can see here my pictures of Keukenhof in the Netherlands. As promised, I haven't missed spring at home !

[Minty]

The four seasons!
When I was little I lived in Malaysia, a country with no four seasons, but only summer and a rainy season. I used to admire people who get to live in countries with four seasons, because I thought it would be fun to wear different fashions in different seasons and be able to see and to play with snow.

Then just before I reached teenage stage of my life my parents decided to immigrate to Australia. I was very excited not only we get to live in a country with better standards I would be able to see snow and undergo the different seasons like what I read on the story books.

But when I got there I learnt that in Australia there was no snow, except in the mountains in Melbourne. I was disappointed.


Nevertheless, the reversed seasons in Australia that are different from the seasons I am taught from books have given me quite an antithetical experience. Like Xmas in the summer, for example, some Australians would dress in swimsuits with Santa’s hat on to celebrate Xmas. I have discovered this to be quite mirthful.

Then few years later, I travelled to America where there were snows in the winter. It was gelid and I didn’t enjoy myself in the show like I thought I would. My clothes were also not warm enough for their winter. It was my first time after all.

Couple more years went by and I got married. I never dreamt I would marry a Frenchman.

It’s all very out of the blue. Here, in Strasbourg where I dwell, is very nippy most of the time. The only time that is tepid and hot is the summer. Sometimes in the summer it can be sweltry.

With the right apparels on, the many mountain trips my husband took me were much more gratifying than the ones I had in the U.S.

It’s also more merriment to go on a snow trip with somebody who knows snow well. My husband is very advertent to instruct me on the snow activities the Europeans unremarkably do.

[Dutch Baka]

And here is our lovely FlashJeff with his reply on : How much do you feel the passing of the seasons


Applause

[Flashjeff]

Never try to disabuse a liberal of his source of rage.

Nothing wrong with being a liberal. I for one could never understand why so many people today, namely conservatives equate being a liberal as bad thing. Just for fun, here are some facts about the good done by liberals which I found on a website called Turn Left:

Interstate Highway System

era: 1950's-present
Proposed by Roosevelt and erected by Eisenhower (a Republican), the Interstate system was a big government project. As much as anything else in the post WWII era, the Interstate is responsible for tremendous economic growth, prosperity, and has spawned an entire culture.

GI Bill

era: 1950's
This act of Congress enabled millions upon millions of Americans to get college educations, something that most Americans had never had the opportunity to do previously. An entire generation of leaders, scientists, and business people owe their education to the GI Bill.

Labor Laws

era: 1930's-present
An end to child labor, 40 hour work weeks, the right of employees to collectively bargain, overtime pay, workplace safety, all of the things we take for granted today are thanks to liberal laws passed in the first half of this century. It was the conservatives who fought tooth and nail against the end of sweatshops and exploitation.

Marshall Plan

era: late 1940's-1950's
Foreign aid is a popular scapegoat these days. Those who would cut it should look back at the Marshall Plan, which rebuilt Europe, and is the major reason that Communism never made it past East Berlin.

Environmental Laws

era: 1970's-present
The environment has gotten much better in the last 30 years thanks to liberals. Bald Eagles fly once again thanks to endangered species laws, most rivers and lakes are clean again due to anti-pollution laws, and frequent smog days are a thing of the past in most big American cities.

Food safety laws

era: 1910's-present
Ever read Sinclair's "The Jungle?" That's what things were really like before food purity laws were on the books. Today cases of food poisoning are rare, and consumers know that whatever they buy is safe to eat.

Workplace safety laws

era: 1930's-present
Long hours in unsafe conditions are much rarer today than in the past. Tragedies such as the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and child labor have been eliminated by liberal and progressive legislation.

Social Security

era: 1930's-1970's
This program has provided three generations of Americans retirement benefits, and nearly eliminated poverty among the elderly. The program is weakening now, but for 50 years it did its job to a T.

Economic Growth

era: 1950's-1960's
Liberalism and economic prosperity go hand-in-hand. Unlike the pseudo-boom of the 1980's, the 1950's and 1960's were a period of sustained and real growth for all sectors of the economy and all social classes. Taxes were fair, government worked, and America prospered under both Democratic and Republican administrations

Space Program

era: 1950's-present
It was Kennedy who challenged us to make it to the moon, and it is under his and Johnson's administrations that the space program took off, with numerous benefits to American industry and peoples' standard of living, not to mention national pride. If you are reading this on a computer, thank the space program and the liberals who got it going.

Peace corps

era: 1960's-present
Kennedy inspired thousands of Americans to ask what they could do for their country, and the Peace Corps is his most visible and effective legacy

Civil rights movement

era: 1950's-present
Liberal ideals drove the biggest change in American society since the Civil War, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. All Americans who believe in freedom and opportunity cannot help but be inspired by the valiant struggles of MLK and others. Also recall if you will that the major opponents of civil rights were conservatives.

The fight against Totalitarianism

era: always
World War II was fought by all Americans; liberals and conservatives fought together the evil of Nazism. The ideal we fought for was freedom and the dignity of the individual against totalitarianism. Under the leadership of Roosevelt and Truman, we won. But the battle is never over, so we must remain vigilant.

The Internet

era: 1960's-present
Not a liberal program per se, but rather a government one, which many equate as the same thing. The internet is a good example of what a government program can do when allowed to work.

The Tennessee Valley project

era: 1930's
The Depression-era government program bought electricity to thousands of impoverished families in Appalachia, prevented floods, and created thousands of new jobs.

Women's right to vote

era: 1920's-present
Before 1920, half of America's population could not exercise the essential duty of citizenship.

Universal Public Education

era: 1890's-present
The reason America is so strong economically is because we have a well-educated citizenry. Public schooling is the true melting pot of America, where every student, regardless of economic background can be taught the basics of citizenship. It is no coincidence that in the last 20 years, as conservatives have greatly weakened the public school system, that American students have scored lower on tests and our civic society has started to unravel.

National Weather Service

era: 1930's-present
This is one of those things you never think about, but you are glad its there. Far from just forecasting the weather, the NWS also provides vital data to pilots and sailors, and the NWS satellites and observation posts provide the raw data that all other weather forecasting services (private ones too!) depend on.

Scientific Research

era: 1940's-present
Much of the great discoveries in science have come about through grants from the government. This is not to say that scientific genius depends on Washington, but the fact remains that pure science is expensive, and private industry will often not fund experiments which don't have a direct commercial potential. From Salk's polio vaccine to todays Human Genome Project and Hubble Space Telescope, the government is an important partner in scientific discovery.

Product Labeling/Truth in Advertising Laws

era: 1910's-present
"We take it for granted that if a claim is made publicly for a product, it's reasonable to assume it's true. Plus, every time we check the ingredients on a can or package of food, we should mentally call down blessings on the liberals who passed the necessary legislation over the anguished howls of the conservatives, who were convinced such info would be prohibitively expensive, and too big a burden on business."

Public Health

era: 1910's-present
Government funded water and sewage systems are an important part of modernity. In addition, organizations such as the National Institute of Health and the Center for Disease Control play an important part in maintaining the national health and preventing epidemics through research, vaccination programs, etc.

Morrill Land Grant Act

era: late 1800's
This act is the reason why nearly every state in the Union has a large public university. These centers of learning have educated untold millions of Americans. If you went to a school with a state name in it, then you were helped by liberalism.

Rural Electrification

era: 1930's-1960's
This allowed remote, rural areas of the country the basic convinience of electricity. I am sure that those of us using computers on the internet, sitting in our air conditioned homes, under our electric lights consider electricity a basic necessity - one that the pure market would never have found profitable to provide to isolated farming communities.

Public Universities

era: 1890's-present day
Put a college education within the reach of nearly every American. In addition to education, many of these institutions have played key roles in all kinds of scientific research and been a strong influence on our entire society.

Bank Deposit Insurance

era: 1930's-present day
About 1934, as part of extensive New Deal banking legislation, Congress created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to provide federal insurance for bank deposits.E^ This was instrumental in restoring confidence in our nation's banks, and remains so to this day.

Earned Income Tax Credit

era: 1970's-present day
Reduces the tax burden for working families who make under $28,500.00 You have to earn income to get it. It is not a handout. It's a great incentive for families to stay off welfare. But the atmosphere has changed in Washington, and Republicans had to find a way to pay for their capital-gains tax cut, and EITC was their ticket to success. So, the Republicans voted to cut this program by $29 billion over a certain time frame. Well guess what? They just raised the taxes on lower income working families.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

era: 1940's-present day
The world's foremost authority and defense against infectious disease and epidemic is a department of the United States government.

Family and Medical Leave Act

era: 1993-present day
This is a program which mandates that you have the right to job leave to take care of sick family members, or to have a child. Many conservatives were opposed to this valuable piece of legislation. Perhaps they were opposed to family values?

Consumer Product Safety Commission

era: 1972-present day
These guys regulate consumer products for safety. Everything from sharp (and edible) baby toys to flammable pjamas have been taken off the market due to the work of this commission.

Public Broadcasting

era: 1930's-present day
Millions of our children have learned from shows like Sesame Street, 3-2-1 Contact, and Mister Rogers (and so many more). Millions of adults continue to learn from shows like Nova. Also, the best broadcast journalism is by far National Public Radio. PBS and NPR have served to enrich our national culture.

Americans With Disabilities Act

era: 1990-present day
Civil rights for disabled citizens. It is fair, just, and it is the law of the land. Credit where credit is due, former Senator Bob Dole helped push this through, a rare nod in favor of liberalism from Mr. Dole.

Not bad, all things considered. Now, I don't want to get into any sort of political debate because that's always a dead end road given how stubborn people can be on the subject, but it seems to me that a lot of good things have been credited to libearlism. Nothing to complain about really.

[Minty]

We loose one hour of sleep when we change time from winter to summer and we gain one hour of sleep when we change time from summer to winter.

Most Europeans go on vacations in the summer, I suppose it is like an activity people prefer to do in the summer season.

In the winter people here go up in the mountains to do winter sports. Also Xmas celebrations, the French are very ornamental of their cities and villages.

In spring, there are lots of flower decorations in this province, and people celebrate it with Easter. Again many ablaze,aesthetic decorations everywhere.

In autumn, we drive up to the black forest to see the view of many trees together in the two sides of the roads that have "their clothes" changed.