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No, it's been my experience worldwide that this is the perspective of a vocal minority of people, who try to rationalize and justify their position by projecting it onto others. They form subcultures in which their views norm. They create ideologies which allow them to avoid connecting with...

My Ariston can be reset by holding in the start/stop button for ten seconds. This is not in the manual. Also power cycling by leaving the machine unplugged for a while then plugging in sometimes works to reset the cycle. I am using a company called TecniSolutions for repair. PM me for details.

Travelers arriving at airports need calm common sense, and patience. They don't need a sharpened sense of moral entitlement, particularly based on unrealistic expectations of fair prices for coffee, bank fees, etc. Sorry to hear that you experienced outrage and a sense of unfair treatment...

I recall a radio program a year or so back in which someone described a simple test for what is food. The test is, if your grandmother would recognize it as food, it's food, otherwise it's probably not food. It may be edible and taste good but it's probably not a good thing to substitute in...

I went to Manchester when the Blue Nile club was still open and played ska before they gutted that part of the city. I'll listen for your French Mancunian accent at expat events around.

Hi Rachelle, have a great flight. Throw anything you might miss into your checked bags - they never seem to open them at eze. Hope to see you soon at one of the Friday Frinks or Wednesday Palermo meetups. Allan

A few common thoughts on social change. Within a moribund social organization, power elites do become entrenched. They also tend to become complacent, over-confidant and reactionary. There are sources of change that have a significant and eventually overwhelming impact on existing power. The...

On my visits here, the most useful map has turned out to be the single page tourist map that is given out for free from the info booth in Galleria Pacifica. It's almost the same as the map that comes for free with the booklet called Tango Map Guide [email protected] The advantages of...

Did the plan to go to the Shamrock tonight firm up, anyone?

Today the 17th is the first announcement from the US Embassy in Tokyo since the earthquake on the 11th that they will provide help to US nationals in the northern areas around the nuclear plant. They say they will start to organize USG transportation for US citizens. Also today, the UK...

I'll be there again. I also like the Post Street bar. This time we will talk about food plans!

Which US city are you coming from? Anywhere near the SF Bay Area?

Thanks for your kind thoughts. I imagine the families in Japan now who are collecting their lives, living outside, keeping warm in the cold, starting to grieve and mend, becoming Buddhists again to prepare cremations. I'll think of your Buddhist temple again when the time comes to dance at...

I took a class years ago on this subject (they made us all take it). The gist of it is we communicate using different styles, and to get along we need to appreciate a bit about the differences in communication styles and become tolerant of them. Because if we become intolerant we shut people...

I looked for some data, and on the USGS I find "The NEIC now locates about 12,000 to 14,000 earthquakes each year or approximately 50 per day. Also, because of the improvements in communications and the increased interest in natural disasters, the public now learns about more earthquakes...

The ability of the Japanese reactors to remain fail-safe through the shocks and tsunami which they were designed to survive is seen as a test case for the credibility of the nuclear power industry, and its future in solving world energy and ecological problems. Obviously the industry has now...

Did you get price quotes from them?

I agree that a lot of what shows up here seems intense. Some of it is willfully aggressive. Most of what seems aggressive is however is the intense expression of a stress reaction that we call culture shock. Culture shock - you can read about it on the web - doesn't seem to be well...

Well, Celia, for what its worth, when I called to register my son's birth at the UK embassy in LA 23 years ago, I got a rude English woman who answered the phone. I was given the run around and was not able to register the birth. I gave up trying. Your post has reminded me of this unpleasant...

Celia, I have some slightly bad news for you. Generally expats who have lived three years or so overseas, when they return to the UK find that they are not recognized as natives there either. A funny reverse culture shock appears. It also involves accents, and strange cultural adaptions...