[QUOTE=Airman Doors, USAF]
The reason that people don’t ask about laws from other countries is because they are not from other countries. What good would it do me to ask about the traffic laws in the UK if I’m concerned about a ticket I got the other day? I’m sure the judge will be fascinated by my dissertation on the speed limits on the M1, but what difference will it make for my personal situation? None.
It’s not apathy or xenophobia. It’s just not relevant. Don’t take it so personally.
[/QUOTE]
That’s just not the point at all. Questions regarding certain jurisdictions can’t be adequately answered unless the poster is intelligent enough to post where he or she is referring to.
What’s all this nonsense about the English language? Here’s a little hint for you: Most people don’t speak it. If you want to be taken seriously, post in an international language like Latin, as opposed to the international vulgarity called Esperanto, or specify in your title that some other language will be used.
I think it’s interesting to see the cultural assumptions and other differences.
For example, here in England, the drinking age is 18 (and we drive on the left :eek: ).
But I see reminders about the US drinking rules in stories about college students being busted for drinking etc.
Have you got a site for that?
How do you know the name of our main motorway*, you … furriner?
*I believe you chaps call them freeways
Leave it Phil**! He’s one of them Yanks!
** A reference to a character in the aforesaid depressing drama. At least US soaps feature beautiful women and rich men.
Can’t the Europeans be satisfied that we all want to save up our money and travel there, but the more we save, the more they inflate their damned Euros! I would curse you all, but it takes too many languages except for GorillaMan!
[QUOTE=Zoe]
Can’t the Europeans be satisfied that we all want to save up our money and travel there, but the more we save, the more they inflate their damned Euros! I would curse you all, but it takes too many languages except for GorillaMan!
(Curse you, GM)
[/QUOTE]
We don’t have any economic geniuses, I assure you.
It is in fact the dollar deflating that makes things seem expensive…
[QUOTE=mhendo]
Before i got married to an American citizen, the emergency contact person i listed with my university was my mother in Australia.
This university, a world-renowned institution with faculty and students from all over the globe, had no space in the emergency contact section for an international telephone number. I would try to write the international number in, including the Australian country code and the area code, but the printed form i got back would invariably cut off the last couple of digits, making the number completely useless.
[/QUOTE]
I can actually see where that might make sense. In an emergency situation, they may need to get in touch with someone who is in the US. Granted, there are times when an international location may be closer than one in the US, but generally that wouldn’t be the case, and it wasn’t in yours.
[QUOTE=Leaffan]
OK, man. I know your posts and like them all. What the heck does this mean? (Ya Fenian bastard!)
[/QUOTE]
It’s from a Simpsons episode. Bart wins an elephant as a goofy prize in a radio contest. They say he can’t have the elephant but he keeps demanding it, and demanding it and eventually he gets it. How do you know I’m Fenian?
[QUOTE=John Mace]
I can actually see where that might make sense. In an emergency situation, they may need to get in touch with someone who is in the US. Granted, there are times when an international location may be closer than one in the US, but generally that wouldn’t be the case, and it wasn’t in yours.
[/QUOTE]
Only if that person has some kind of power of attorney who has the authority to make medical decisions for you. Otherwise, the local contact person will only be able to call overseas anyway.
That kind of stuff hapens all the time. It’s not usually the client’s fault (the client in this case being the university), but the software designer’s. Even if you write a number on a form by hand, someone has to enter it in a database, and in my experiences, a lot of databases are pieces of shit that don’t let you fill in everything you need to fill in.
I had to move my website to a new host. Even the the webhost offered hosting services globally and had clients all over the world, but their on-line credit card processor could not process non-U.S. credit cards because the on-line interface registered an error if you used non-numeric characters in the ZIP/Postal Code field. It was always a fiasco trying to pay them.
I will agree with Leaffan in that questions pertaining to laws really can’t be answered without a location. Since we have fifty states and a number of territories each of which has its own legal code, a question like "Can I buy NA beer if I’m not 21?) will lead to an answer like “it depends”.
That being said, does anyone know what the breakdown of posters is by nationality?
There are a HUGE amount of US-centric things that drive me wild. Two years ago I just about made the “no fly” list over this crap. I was flying from Atlanta to Jacksonville Florida and they wouldn’t accept my credit card, any of them. I tried everything I could think of, called the CC company, called the airlines etc. In the end, I wound up paying for the flight in cash two hours before departure.
The reason? The on-line system the airlines was using required a zip code, I gave them mine, which, obviously, is in Riyadh. The system couldn’t find a US zip that matched and so rejected the card.
[QUOTE=Airman Doors, USAF]
The reason that people don’t ask about laws from other countries is because they are not from other countries. What good would it do me to ask about the traffic laws in the UK if I’m concerned about a ticket I got the other day? I’m sure the judge will be fascinated by my dissertation on the speed limits on the M1, but what difference will it make for my personal situation? None.
[/QUOTE]
Please tell me this is an ironic whoosh.
The point is that unless you specify it, we don’t necessarily know what your ‘personal situation’ is.
[QUOTE=GorillaMan]
I understand the OP’s frustration, but I’ve pretty much given up objecting to it. I fight fire with fire, by often making my location-relevant responses without saying where I’m from. Leave them to figure it out. (Which does only take five seconds with my ‘location’ and Google.)
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=John Mace]
I can actually see where that might make sense. In an emergency situation, they may need to get in touch with someone who is in the US. Granted, there are times when an international location may be closer than one in the US, but generally that wouldn’t be the case, and it wasn’t in yours.
[/QUOTE]
Gee, John, you know, other countries do fly aeroplanes too. :rolleyes:
Oh really? (moment of silence here for our Zimbabwean visitors). Even visiting Brits may enjoy our less constipated libel laws and restrictions on reporting legal proceedings.
Wonder what the reaction would be on a British-based board if one of the relatively few U.S. members starting swearing at other posters, because he couldn’t understand the political and monetary references.
[QUOTE=Caffeine.addict]
That being said, does anyone know what the breakdown of posters is by nationality?
[/QUOTE]
We are mostly broken down by alcohol.
