daisy

I'm sure "Clockwork Orange" was a stark warning - it's many years since I read it but you're not trying to tell me that quite a sizeable number of people wouldn't get some sort of vicarious thrill out of the unsavoury bits - warning or not? I have more of a problem possibly with the film (because it's a visual image) rather than the book - if you have little imagination it may be less easy to get excited by a description in a book -but the film had pretty unsavoury scenes which was why it was banned here if I remember correctly. I don't know - maybe I'm naive but is it not better to protect kids a bit? Or am I just an over-fussy mum?

Hideous game - my son acquired a copy and I was mortified. If they ban something in Australia then it must be bad. It's the ethos that gunning down a prostitute is OK because she's a prostitute that bothers me. I "had a little chat" with my son and he does know the difference between fact and fantasy but what about younger kids getting their hands on it? It's a game that makes me very uncomfortable - similar to books/films like "Clockwork Orange" etc.

Hey!! I'm going to moan now. Whenever I go to the chat room there are a few stalwarts (and I DO appreciate the time difference guys) but hardly anyone ever chats. Except Blike and very occasionally Fafalone and Dawid (Ryoken - am I right?) , sometimes davem. Please make an old woman very happy and stop by occasionally to say a few words. I'm so chuffed that I actually can GET INTO a chat room that my enthusiasm knows no bounds. By the way - do you think that Doc Bill REALLY could have gotten all those famous people to chat - personally I doubt it. I LIKE all of you and I like to talk so go on - make my day. Or do I sound like an old sourpuss?

"They" always say - write about what you know - so what do you know about?

What was this all about? - I got notifications of replies to threads posted by this person but there was nothing there - was it a horrible person?

Yes.....you called? Get it??? Haha, even on the forum I'm funny. But only those of you who do the chat thing will appreciate the joke.

That's all too true - we have some "problem" families here who have loads of relatives, so if your kid goes up against them they take on the whole lot. And our local high school is small enough that everyone has an older brother/cousin/relative who will get involved. Mind you the teachers hands are tied regarding discipline too - the policy is not to expel nowadays so you're stuck with the riff-raff who are distracting everyone and causing discipline problems.

I've got a better one - or I had until my husband fell on it and squashed it.

I'm sure people do and would plagiarise ideas on any forum - that doesn't mean that I condone that sort of behaviour. Why can't people be honourable? It's standard practice nowadays that anyone with a great idea/invention keeps their trap shut until they have the patent in place. Don't even tell anyone down the Pub. Plagiarising other people's research or theories in an essay/thesis is a similar matter - you MUST reference other peoples work properly or you are taking credit for ideas that aren't yours. However because it's published work you may be using, there's every chance you will be found out.

On a little side note I know someone whose wife suffers from severe depression that is resistant to drugs and her only available treatment now is ECT - nothing else has any effect.

I suppose what I was trying to say (badly) was that I thought the US test was easier (is that bad news for George Dubya Bush??!!).

P.S. I'll be doing the 150 mile daily round trip for the next few weeks - costing me a fortune in fuel!! And it's about 2.5 hours extra on my day.

Just wanted to vent my feelings - no need to respond. I have been travelling a 150 mile round trip daily this week to get going on a side-line project which hopefully will get funding for me to continue in my present line of research. My boss thinks I should be "pushy" with the people in lab I'm visiting but I think that they are doing us the favour and being too pushy could be counter-productive. They are the experts in this technique and I'm being allowed to visit and do some work. Granted, my boss claims that they agreed to help out etc. ages ago but they really have no obligation to do so and I think I have to go at their pace. I basically got carpeted by my boss (who was in a bad mood because he has to put a grant report in) for not "driving things forward" quickly enough. I was very angry and walked out of his office before I said something rude and he back-pedalled a bit later in the day. I just feel that I wasn't employed to do this work in the first place and I could easily have told him I wasn't interested, but he has a grant report to submit and I think that he just want's to be able to say "hey look at these results we've got". I spent 17 months in a job where I was made miserable by two b*****s and I don't want to repeat that experience. I should point out that my boss is an emeritus professor who has probably fallen out with more people than you could shake a stick at but he does know his science.

I've noticed though that if you take an American IQ test you get a higher mark than a European one - are they set differently or what?

"A good school" would indeed have been great - but there's only one choice in the small town we live in. And it's not terrible but it's not that good either. Short of sending them to the nearest public (which in Britain means private or independant - figure that one out) school, which is fee-paying and more than we can afford, we had no choice. Anyway, I think the buck stops with the parents not the teachers. That's not to say that you don't find exceptional teacher's who can really inspire a child - I've met the odd one. I think we have to grit our teeth just now when they're at their most rebellious and tell ourselves they'll be OK. And we do try hard "not to sweat the small stuff" and only step in when there's a real problem. We also do try to have proper conversations with them and not just "why haven't you done a, b or c" etc. Lazy parenting eh? That's what you think atinymonkey;) !

Try this site http://micro.nwfsc.noaa.gov/forums/. There are some good Q&A pages on this. Also there is another site dedicated to immuno/in-situ etc. but I've got it bookmarked elsewhere. But actually I think it's mentioned on the other sites immuno forum anyway. Good luck.

God that was a great feeling - getting all the exams over and knowing you had the long vac. Ah to be young again! Good luck to both of you - hope you aced them:) .

Onya Blike!!

I never used an implement of any kind if I (or their dad) smacked the kids, only my flat hand on their behind - 1 or 2 smacks. I think our laws are sufficient at present - we already have child abuse laws (Scottish law) wherein if you use enough force to bruise (whether it's an implement or hand) then you may well find yourself being investigated. Whenever I got a smack growing up it was also on the behind with my mum or dads flat hand. I think using implements such as hairbrushes etc. is beyond "smacking".

P.S I also meant to say that I have a great deal of admiration for parents who can discipline without ever smacking and still raise a child who is well behaved, mannerly and knows the boundaries. Those of you who wish to report me to the social work department may now do so.

OK - as one who has actually been there and done it I will say this - I started out in parenthood saying "I'm never going to smack my kids". It didn't work out that way. I did smack my two on the rare occasions when they pushed it to the limit but I NEVER just "whacked" them for no reason. I only smacked their behinds or back of hands when they were 2-5 years old and only once in a blue moon when they did something dangerous or downright awful. As they got older it happened less and less. I will admit however that my very big son (6 foot 2 inches) got a "clip on the ear" from me the other day for swearing - I had to reach up to do it and he appeared to be amused by my feeble attempt. And I mean a clip on the ear - not a "beating" or any of the other emotive language that people use. I've also noticed an interesting thing - people who do not smack do not necessarily have children who don't hit or bite. I've known several "biters" of non-smacking parents and I've known several parents who've cured it by giving a (very gentle!) "nip" to the tip of the childs finger to teach them that it hurts to be bitten - I didn't do this because my two weren't biters. I'm not saying that I'm right to be someone who smacked but some kids have easy-going gentle dispositions (I didn't have any of those!!) and others are much more difficult. You handle each child according to their disposition.

I think it would be disappointing if women were less interested in science - and I don't believe that's true. It's probably more to do with the fact that we still have to cope with chauvenist crap - I know because I have met it during my working life. Guys who still think women have no business being in science. Up their's I say;) !.

I'm fairly sure I know what company Fafalone is referring to but my question would be - Why? What do you need to create a new species for? Other than plants - and I'm not sure about the environmental impact they might have but at least they are developed for what are SUPPOSEDLY good reasons - I see no point. Do you have a good reason? Do tell. As to the company in question - if it's who i think it is (Human genome project, and a guy who wants to patent genes for crying out loud whose initials are C.V.) then I would ask the same question of them. How the hell could it even be legally permissible to patent something (such as a gene) that you didn't invent because it just exists anyway? Correct me if I'm wrong but patents should be about INVENTIONS - not discoveries - or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Good to get your feedback on this. We've always tried to walk the fine line between freedom and discipline (possibly not always with success!) but we have two very strong-minded youngsters and we always have to reiterate that it's their welfare we're concerned with. They're not dreadful kids or anything but they're going through that "I'm right and you're wrong" stuff. They very definitely have their own ideas about things so hopefully that means we've managed to instill a sense of independence (at least that's how I choose to interpret it!).

Back in the dark ages when I was at school, Maths and Arithmetic were two separate 'O' grades (we had "grades" as opposed to "levels" in Scotland - now superseded by standard grades). I think that was fair enough because the arithmetic ensured a basic grounding and was taken by everyone and you could drop Maths after O grade. Personally, I would ban Maths from the whole world - but only because I'm crap at it:) !!! And as for statistics - don't even get me started. I freeze whenever I see an equation.