U.S. Drinking Age

Fatstrings, remember the guy, Pete W. at school that peed his
pants at lunch for $3.67. PPL will do ANYTHING to be cool
unfortunately...

I think i'm gonna throw my luncha and last night's dinner up...

in the great words of adam sandler

peeing your pants is cool

but neway pete was a jacka**

EDIT: that better French?

Personally, I think it's strange that the U.S. government views me as
old and mature enough to fight in a war, but I can't legally have a
beer.

Well My dear friend from a DOD Police Officer(me), I can tell you if you are 18 and in the military you can in fact drink, but only on post/base. Off post/base your subject to the local laws.

I dont think the drinking age should be dropped. Raised maybe but not dropped. And if you think thats bad.. the USA is proposing that at 16 you can get your learners permit to drive, but can not apply for the full license until your 18th birthday. you also can not drive with more than one other teenager in the car unless your parent or legal guardian is in the car with you. break them rules and you loose the license till your 21 and it will come at a hefty 200 dollar price.

to tie the two together, get a DUI and under 21 you loose your ability to drive for 5 years.. and also get a herty fine to pay to renew you license when your time is up.

Here in Sweden, the rules are quite messed up.

I'm 18 and I'm allowed to buy low alcohol beer at the lokal stores awell as go to the pub and buy strong stuff.

However if you want the strong stuff in another place than the pub you
have to buy it at ba "state-controlled company for the sale of wine and
spirits" and im not allowed to enter that place until im 21. How weird
isnt that?

Drinking lots of vodka at the age of 16 is quite common here in Sweden aswell, everyone drinks like mad =P.

BTW, are you americans not "allowed" to have sex before youre 18?

That sounds weird.. Doest anyone follow that "rule"?

Here in Sweden, we have nothing that tells us when its ok or not ok to have sex, just a hint on a proper age, 16.

I dont know what weird part of sweden you live, but where i live its 20 to shop at "systemet".

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I know you like good music. Go to http://peak.sorkmos.com/PEAK/ and start DL. now.

in the great words of adam sandler

I hate to break it to you, but Adam Sandler sucks. He's

1. Not funny

2. Not a good actor

3. Doesn't say anything intelligent

French Toast said:
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quote:</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>in the great words of adam sandler

I hate to break it to you, but Adam Sandler sucks. He's
1. Not funny

2. Not a good actor

3. Doesn't say anything intelligent

</div></div>

But he IS jewish, you anti-semite!!!

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

sorry i forgot to add the sarcasm coloring

it wont happen again

in the great words of adam sandler

I hate to break it to you, but Adam Sandler sucks. He's

1. Not funny

But this guy is...

sorry i forgot to add the sarcasm coloring

it wont happen again

:biggrin:

Raising the driving age is a poorly thought-through idea. Far too much of our service industry is built on temporary labor from students. Far too much of our country is also to spread out to make public transport / bicycling / walking a decent replacement. You can raise the driving age in a place like Manhattan (and indeed, they have), but it's not gonna work in Generic Connecticut Suburb #1-25.

I think that if every state's department of transportation started building an interstate and inter-town train system, it would eveolve into something like England's system where every town has a station and the larger towns have the long-haul stations. Like in Missouri. Start with a train from St. Louis to Kansas City and one from those two cities to Springfield. It would get a s**tload of towns in between and eventually they could add more and more stations and the larger towns would hold "interstate stations."

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

Personally, I think the only people who should be allowed to drink are those who really do not like alcohol. I was raised in an alcoholic environment and its not an ideal setting for a family atmosphere. Do I drink? Occasionally. I have been known to make a 30 pack of beer last in excess of 2 years. Alcohol, like any other thing can be used, or abused.

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There is no history until something happens, then there is.

I think that if every state's department of transportation
started building an interstate and inter-town train system, it would
eveolve into something like England's system where every town has a
station and the larger towns have the long-haul stations. Like in
Missouri. Start with a train from St. Louis to Kansas City and one from
those two cities to Springfield. It would get a s**tload of towns in
between and eventually they could add more and more stations and the
larger towns would hold "interstate stations."

Yea, but our trains suck.

If the US had a decent public transport system outside big cities (subway in DC and Boston is pretty good) it would help many things. The problem is, most Americans think buses and trains are only for poor people, and will only use them if they cant afford anything else.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

I think that if every state's department of transportation
started building an interstate and inter-town train system, it would
eveolve into something like England's system where every town has a
station and the larger towns have the long-haul stations. Like in
Missouri. Start with a train from St. Louis to Kansas City and one from
those two cities to Springfield. It would get a s**tload of towns in
between and eventually they could add more and more stations and the
larger towns would hold "interstate stations."

Far too sensible.

What are you talking about??

The only reason not to use public transportation is that it's MORE EXPENSIVE and slower.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

In what way is it more expensive, unless youre driving a hybrid car or something?

Also, public transport can be much faster. In Adelaide theres a bus track, its like a train track made of concrete that buses go on. Instead of driving through traffic, you get a constant 100km/hr between stations. I can get to the city in 20 minutes on that, as opposed to 45 or so by car.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

$loth said:
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quote:</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>I think that if every state's department of transportation started building an interstate and inter-town train system, it would eveolve into something like England's system where every town has a station and the larger towns have the long-haul stations. Like in Missouri. Start with a train from St. Louis to Kansas City and one from those two cities to Springfield. It would get a s**tload of towns in between and eventually they could add more and more stations and the larger towns would hold "interstate stations."

Yea, but our trains suck.
</div></div>

Yeah, I know, But these would be new an thus wouldn't suck until later.

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

yeah, itll take at least 2 weeks before they need new paint and upholstery...

*****runs

Doc B... :dodgy:

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting wil5on</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>In what way is it more expensive, unless youre driving a hybrid car or something?</DIV></DIV>To add to this, don't forget count the price of purchasing/maintaining a car for personal use. Even in a city with junk for a public transportation system (Hartford), it's crazy dirt cheap. Albany, with a similarly junky bus system, even used to let me ride certain buses for free thanks to my College ID. Now if Albany had had places worth going...

Sorry, I was speaking specifically about my state. Now it's getting to be around the same price. But I'm not speaking about maintaining a car ... since you'd have to drive to the light rail pick up spots anyway.

I'll give some incite, I'm sure Tracer could add as well.

(All the prices are as of a year, or so, ago. Recently prices changed, but they were this way for several years)

Here, it takes me about 15 minutes, 30 minutes in traffic, to get to downtown Portland. Not too bad. Taking the Max (which is what they dubbed the light rail system here) takes AT LEAST 45 minutes. Not to mention, it drops off about 10 block away from where I need to be. That amount of time that it takes to walk to where I need to be is about the same amount of time it would take me to find a spot.

When I drive down, it usually takes about 15 minutes, I never really have classes during traffic heavy times, and it takes anywhere from 1 minute to 20 minutes to find a spot, that's pretty much a variable, but, if I leave at the time I usually leave, I get one in about 5 minutes, at the most.
The spot only costs 60 cents an hour, compared to other spots which are a dollar an hour.

The max costs $1.75, and the ticket only lasts about an hour. So a round trip would cost $3.50. Parking for the same class would only be $1.20 (two hour class). Now, my car gets roughly 220 Miles on 10 gallons (which is awful, should be better now, had to replace the fuel pump and got the injectors cleaned, properly), at the time, gas was about $1.98/Gallon (about a year ago), so, taking that I have 12 gallon tank (fuel light comes on when 2 gallons are left), that means, if I fill up 10 gallons, that'd cost: $19.80, divide that by 220 = $0.09 / mile. Trip to school, and back, is 30 miles: $2.70, add parking: $3.90.

So, honestly, I'd rather pay 40 extra cents to be to school 15 to 30 minutes faster and not have to run to my class carrying s**t.

Not to mention, at the transit center, sunset, You have to pay to park! Not that I'd go there, but it's retarded.

I also didn't count the gas it would take to drive to the "park n' ride" stations. Not to mention, if they're full you have to go to another one, which is an immense pain in the ass.

Anyway, NOW, it doesn't matter, since they raised all parking prices to $1.25 an hour :\

They raised the price of Max though too. But, for a long day, I'd take the train anyway.

But, I don't think it'd be good to assume that if you took public transportation you wouldn't have a vehicle.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

The system has a lot of room for improvement then, I can see why you dont use it.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

Yeah, it's pretty terrible, the only thing I'll give it is that it runs pretty smooth. However ... the douches that they are ... made it so the rails don't interlock with the wheels of the train, meaning it can, potentially, be derailed from simple things ... like ice ... who would of though that in Oregon ICE would form on METAL ... through a high elevation hill.

When the time you'd want to take the train, when it gets icy and dangerous to drive, the damn thing isn't available.

The old transportation adviser ... or whoever ... didn't want to alleviate traffic problems, because he wanted people to use the light-rail more ... to think, if they just made an express line from Hillsboro to Sunset to Portland and back the same way, tons of people would pack on. Lowering the price to pocket change would be good too. Also ... if the train went over 35 - 40 miles an hour, that'd be good too. (They can safely go up to about 60, I think)

They don't plan on improving it, I'm sure. They're just putting up more tracks in obscure areas.

The only thing I'll give it, is there's a line that goes all the way up to the airport (PDX), which, is pretty nice, since you wouldn't want to catch a cab or something like that, that'd easily cost well over $100. Same with parking your car at the airport.

So, that's good, but for other intensive purposes ... it sucks.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

How many litres are in a gallon?

It costs about 93pence (about $1.7) here for a litre of petrol (around my area it does, differs in different areas).

How many litres are in a gallon?

It costs about 93pence (about $1.7) here for a litre of petrol (around my area it does, differs in different areas).

1 US gallon = 3.7854118 liters

When i was in England and we used the train, We walked to the station, we didn't drive. I think it would be healthier for everyone if they stopped driving and started walking more places. Less pollution and more excercise, then maybe those bastards in Europe wouldn't be saying things like:

All americans are fat and all europeans are sexy. lollerz.

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

The stations here aren't close enough to walk to quickly. Not to mention, if you don't get there right on time, you have to wait until the next train (at least 15 minutes) and when you're trying to get somewhere, like a class, this is really just a pain in the ass. I'd have to get up about 4 to 5 hours before hand to be there on time and I don't get enough sleep as it is.

But, if they were closer, man, that'd be great. Cheaper transportation, no dealing with traffic. Hey, I'm all for it, but the current system sucks smelly goat ass.

The thing that really pisses me off though ... is they had an entire trolley system in Portland, about 100 years ago, around, the 30s I think, they ripped it all out since most everyone owned a car, "Why would we ever need trolleys again?" they questioned. Bad move. Come to think of it, they got rid of the subway system too. Idiots.

But, I'm mostly bitching, sorry. It's just most train systems here are poorly designed. It'd be nice if we had bullet trains. A lot of people work in the city, so, you'd think they'd have it as an express way.

Even with a student discount, a term pass still costs around $60. Which, if you're a student, you really don't have $60 to cough up all at once. I'll never understand where companies get the idea that college students have tons of cash ... high schoolers are the ones with the cash!

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Here in Australia the drinking and driving age is 18. We also have drive thru pubs. Does anyone see a problem with this?