h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Actually Zoomer the City state of Athens WAS a democracy; just not in the way you understand the word.

The word Dermocracy comes from the Greek "Demos Kratos" (spellings?) meaning literally "Power to the People". The way this worked in Athens was that citizens literally participated in the running of Athens.

The interpretation that Democracy means the "Mass Franchis" is a much more recent concept.

Franchise even.

*slavery doesn't preclude democracy*



I should let the NAACP know, I don't think they've been informed...

Seriously *democracy* is like *communism*, it's however you define/create it. Another dead end discussion, IMHO. And Dave, the US is a young country. Look around.

Ferretbadger, I didn't realise that. Appreciated.

No Problem... at least I have found some small way to put my university education to some use !

All I can remember is that Luxembourg is 999 square miles and light decreases by an inverse square to distance.

farrettbadger, your explanation of democracy is very enlightening, thank you.
our country isn't a democracy as it was meant to be. we do not have the power to make changes in our system as we once did. our government has too much power to do things that we wouldn't approve of. they hide things that we want to know about. for what reasons that we wouldn't know either, for example.. rosswell new mexico, the u.f.o cover up that really happened! they were hiding it due to the red scare at that time, but now, there isn't any reason to hide such matters for national security anymore. the murder of john f. kennedy, what happened there? i know that theres a total scandal there buried in our c.i.a files.
we, the people need the truths no matter the cost. these people need to come clean with this. unfortunately these matters are buried in files underground somewhere in the mid-west in some air force storage facility and probably will never be found.
i can't say that i agree with the way our government is being run, but there are freedoms that i get to enjoy that some people can only imagine. there is alot we all can say about our governments but in whole, think about this.. we are all sitting somewhere in our houses, offices, or a coffee shop around the corner on a computer writing our thoughts on this screen, there are people that are being oppressed somewhere else trying to find a way to get to where we are. we all take alot for granted and don't realize that as screwed up as we might be, we all have it pretty good don't you think?

zoomer, read the second post, no need to take it out of context. That's why I added the follow up. Thanks,

Lessee... Theophylline is the main active ingredient in tea, not caffiene (even though there still is some caffiene in tea) so "decaffinated" tea is misleading. Also the effects of theophylline differ from caffiene by not being as strong, but being much longer lasting.

Genital warts was the most common sexually transmitted disease when I was in college. (I know this from a required Human Sexuallity class NOT by experience)

Ohm's law is normally expressed as I = V / R but I preferred (and many others as well) to express it as V = I*R where V = voltage in volts, I = current in amps and R = resistance in Ohms.

The third law of thermodynamics is only relavent when speaking of thermodynamically closed systems and their having zero entropy at absolute zero temperature but is much more fun to apply it to politics, life, the universe and the state of one's dorm room.

and the most lasting thing I learned in college was "Always pump when pouring from the keg to avoid excessive foam".

Am generally hoping that I can get a job with my Trade Union when I finish my degree so hopefully my skills might be put to good use!

Hmmm. Theophylline. Prolonged effect.

So what you're saying Count is that *What's Wrong With Americans* is they don't drink enough tea, but drink caffeine rich drinks instead, thus making them manic.

I see a paper coming on!

Well, you can add this to that as well... Black teas lower LDL cholesterol.

btw, Redbone. Apart from your conspiracy theories I can understand your point. This is merely pseudo-academic self abuse so don't take anything too seriously. It started as a bit of a rant in frustration about a few details and now has become a bit of a sounding board for current international politics.

Are you sure about the tea? I've extracted caffeine from tea, recrystallized, measured it...there was a good deal of it in there. It's a standard undergrad lab in organic chemistry.

No, you're correct, but according to my chem prof the theophylline in tea has more effect on the drinker than the caffiene that is in it. I can't remember if the decaffination process removes the theophylline as well. They are very similar. Also, if you prove that my prof was misleading I won't mind, I didn't think much of him personally.

I think the main point he was trying to make was that there WAS something called theophylline in tea and how it differed from caffine and that you never hear of 'Detheophyllinated' tea. But I do recall a few years ago noticing how much caffine was in tea and could not remember if that prof ever mentioned this in his zeal to talk about theophylline.

>>mycroft said we're in our infancy. What was that in reference to anyway mycroft?<<

Dave, you implied in an earlier post that claiming the US was a great military power in its infancy demonstrated an inadequate grasp of history. Unless I misunderstood you and you actually meant that the the US has never been a great military power, I took it to mean that you thought the US had made it out of infancy a fair while back. I disagree: it takes nation states a considerable time to acheive maturity, and the US ain't there yet. As Chairman Mao said when asked his opinion about the French Revolution, it's too early to tell.

good points mycroft, except I wasn't claiming the US was a great military power in its infancy, I was refering to its inception, and I was also talking about a claim Saturnine had made. I don't think the US was a great military power near its inception.

This was pointed out to me by another researcher, GDZ. It's a must see:

http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_fullstory.asp?id=3828

Howd'it win then?

ok, cl point taken. i was thinking about going out for a good beer, what would you suggest?