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Houseplant

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  1. Get your DNA analysed. Could be interesting. My wife's wasn't, nearly all her DNA originated from a small region of central England. We kind of knew that already, but she was still disappointed!
  2. Language evolves over time, academic linguists would agree and I have no issue with it at all.
  3. Good post. To live "green" while maintaining a privileged way of life requires an awful lot of resources and money. Anyone can be green if living like a caveman (which is what I suspect a lot of the environmental extremists want).
  4. It's similar in New Zealand, but not as pronounced as the USA. People claim to be "Irish" having never visited Ireland or even being able to name a single place within the country. I think there is a prevailing "anything but English" attitude when talking about ancestry in the former colonies. This doesn't make sense because the English are the dominant group in terms of numbers of people within the British Isles by quite some margin. I think the main reason, especially in the USA is that the English/British were on the losing side in the American War of Independence. In short, no one likes a loser. Also, the English/British were the perpetrators of colonialism. In this day and age, colonialism is a very dirty word, so people choose to identify with another ethnic group. A final thought from Wikipedia which goes some way to explaining it: "Americans of British heritage are often seen, and identify, as simply "American" due to the many historic, linguistic and cultural ties between Great Britain and the U.S. and their influence on the country's population. A leading specialist, Charlotte Erickson, found them to be ethnically "invisible". If you really want to annoy someone in your life who makes dodgy claims about their ancestry, buy them an AncestryDNA kit. We did this with one of our friends who claims to be Maori. I can feel this going off topic, but we have a lot of Maori here with blond hair and blue eyes because it suits a certain world view. Her results, mostly English, a good proportion Scottish and Irish and 6% Maori!
  5. Can't read the link, but I assume the UK government has grown some balls and plans to deport some of these people?
  6. Well, there is that (!), but my take on Trump as a president is that he was very inward looking and less concerned with events taking place in the rest of the world than his recent predecessors. In this respect, I think he was far less likely to press the button that someone taking on the role of Team America World Police.
  7. Just to be clear, I didn't call anyone crazy because they vote or speak in favour of Trump. If I lived in America, I would probably at least consider voting for him. As someone completely removed from US politics, I have no issue with Trump being re-elected, he is fantastic entertainment value.
  8. You may be right, but like it or not, they are tough people and a few weeks, months or even years on a boat with bed and breakfast will be like water off a duck's back.
  9. While I have no issue with offshore housing (some might say detention), I suspect it's only going to delay entry to the UK rather than stop it, so not much of a deterrent.
  10. They are probably all crooks, but the crazies are not just voting for Trump, they are fervently vocal in their support for him. Seems odd.
  11. What I don't understand is why the bat**** crazy fundamentalist Christians support Trump. Whether you like or hate his politics, he is clearly not a moral man. Surely, everyone can see that?
  12. Haha! Lots of beach launching in to heavy surf goes on here. Not for me, I value my boat and car too much!
  13. Not quite normal practice and a little extreme, but you get the idea...
  14. I would agree, but would say the UK system of government, rather than a particular government. If there is a problem, fix it, rather than looking at foreign agencies to intervene.
  15. Here in NZ, aluminium boats would significantly outnumber fibreglass boats. Coastline is rugged and Kiwis are rough ********!
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