We had to watch 12 Angry Men over two days in my Year 10 commerce class at school back in the 90s. I doubt there was a single kid in class who was remotely optimistic about it: a 50s film (black and white, no less), with no action scenes, no swearing and no romantic subplot. By the time the credits rolled up the screen we were riveted, and the impact it made has stayed with me.

The late-90s Jack Lemmon remake isn't bad, either (although I question why they needed to do one).

Have you ever thought of simply moving to Latvia for a year or two to try it out? It's extremely common for Canadians and Australians to spend a couple of years in their 20s in the UK on working holiday visas. If Latvia doesn't suit there's nothing stopping you from heading back to the states.

> The small farmers are slowly being forced out and made to deal with great losses as the larger conglomerate grocers (namely woolworth's, coles and IGA) continue to demand more and more perfection and efficiency out of a natural product that is of course subject to, temperature, sun condition, soil conditions, unwanted pests, etc. that are often impossible to control, or very very expensive.

Add to that labour costs, rising fuel prices, the soaring value of the Australian dollar and the fact that apples can be grown overseas and sold at rates below production costs here, and the outlook for small farmers looks pretty grim.

If you're a Melbournian you'll love this video. I was also going to post it here, but thought it doubtful there would be enough viewers to find it interesting.

Really interesting comment.

I've heard it said that when a language dies, one way of looking at the world dies too. If you consider how much languages influence our perceptions of the world around us, it's easy to see the truth in that statement.

I find it interesting that most people take this notion for granted. That said, I'm not convinced by it. The reason I'm not convinced by it is because I'm not entirely certain what people mean when they say it.

I accept that a person's perception of colour, for example, can depend to a considerable extent on whether there are nouns within that language that are capable of distinguishing between (for example) blue and green. But I'm not convinced that the person who uses the French word "vert" instead of the English word "green" has a different conceptual idea of green things by doing so.

I'm not entirely sure how my comments apply to Fanny Cochrane Smith's song. I guess my point is just that, while we can't understand what it is she's singing about, whatever it is she is singing about, I don't think it could really be that alien a concept to us.

In Syria's case, the rebels are receiving significant backing from Western states - including, most recently, the US, which has offered $60 million to help the civil opposition provide basic services. France and possibly also the UK have been providing Syrian rebels with weapons for months.

The best part about this proposal is that there's a guaranteed $20K RoI.

Agreed. The time when governments were prepared to step up for visionary projects of this type appears to have passed. I hope Tesla sells well.

If we're sticking with tags I think a directory would be handy.

That said, I worry about the emergence of meta-tags, a la "philosophy", "real philosophy", "academic philosophy", etc. But I suppose that's a hazard associated with tags rather than with tag directories.

Did that even make sense?

Yeah, I'm starting to lean that way myself. Thanks for replying, svenkatesh.

Thanks for replying. From what I've since read online there seems to be a powerful argument that, while many administrative and personnel documents are genuine, the emails relating to Syria, Qatar and chemical weapons are fake. I'll assume it's a hoax in the absence of any further information.

I must be magic, then.