In your opinion, what are the best and worst things about the country you reside in?

[barryl85]

Although i am classed as 'British' - I prefer to call myself 'Scottish' (nothing against any other country in the UK).

I see Scotland as being the best place to live in the UK. (although i state Scotland as a whole - i mean central scotland - not rural or highlands)

My reasoning behind this is will be explained in my pro's and con's (alot of the con's will be about UK as a whole)

I'll start with the best bits.



Pro's
Although central Scotland has large cities - your never feel too surrounded by city life as you are never far away from countryside.

Less immigrants in Scotland opposed to any other UK country

You can always dissapear on rural roads for some enthusiastic driving

Wheel clamping is illegal in Scotland - it is seen as holding property for ransom

Dont suffer badly from floods in Scotland - apart from some roads but not normally housed area's. And hardly ever any unexpected weather. (ok no jokes here but im meaning harmful weather)

I love how different we all are in the UK (non immigrants) - different dialects different natures and mostly when not too far from each other - for example Edinburgh and Glasgow i'd say are less than 50 miles from each other - we speak totally different and use different words for different meanings - its incredible. And its the same around the whole UK not just in Scotland

Con's
You often get grief for either supporting Rangers or Celtic (mostly west of scotland) depending where abouts you live or go out socialising.

The weather in UK isnt great - oh and Scotlands weather is worse but not quite as bad as most non Scots make it out to be but climate is generally cooler than south of the border and we do get slightly more rainfall

Our cars are more exposed to the elements due to road salt over winter period

Internet speeds aren't great and ISP's like BT restrict speeds at certain times (e.g. Peak times like weekends or after 6pm weekdays)

With it raining so often it often affects people's moods

If you want to polish your car - unless you have a garage you have to wait on a dry day coming along!




Now i havent mentioned anything about how much things cost and all that blah blah - i also prefer to ignore politics and let them do what they please (ok many of you will think this is wrong but im fed up with it all).

Biggest reason for this - i'd rather not think about the cost of things - i'd rather live my life and be happy than be depressed by how much money comes out my wages each month because no matter where you live on earth someone somewhere will want money from you for crappy reasons you dont agree with.

 

[Famine]

This is a bit off topic.

Nope, chocolate is unhealthy, believe me. Pure cacao is healty but chocolate isn't. They put a lot off sugar and other bad stuff in chocolate. White sugar is pure poison. So chocolate is unhealthy, cacao is healthy. A couple off weeks ago I ate pure cacao chocolate, (organic, macrobiotic). I tasted very bad but it's healthy.

Chocolate is literally poisonous, but requires a very large dose to be lethal.

 

[kikie]

Chocolate is literally poisonous, but requires a very large dose to be lethal.

Thank you!

 

[DustDriver]

Pff, you only live ones, and it tastes so good

 

[SRV2LOW4ME]

Canada

Pros: Decent comedians (comedy clubs here are great), our outdoors and seasons (although winter is nice, it stills sucks), diversity of everything (people, places, things)

Cons: The way the government and police take every accident as a "street racing incident", the way our government and police handle natives and their protests, taxes (almost 30% off my check and then another 14% when I buy something, and even more when I buy gas, and almost 5 dollars from the price of a pack of smokes goes to the government, plus they just raised the tax on alchohol too...its like they want us to do nothing but work with no fun, except they just limited the number of hours per week you can work too!), our welfare system (I'm taxed like crazy just so Miss Slutbutt across the street with 20 kids can sit at home and bring more in a month than I do - there are woman here who use having kids as a career, no lie), and winter...its beautiful and nice, but it still sucks!

 

[agent kri]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Famine
Chocolate is literally poisonous, but requires a very large dose to be lethal.

Thank you! Thank you!

He is saying: "Everything is poisonous, but the lethal dose varies."
He didn't say you were right when you said chocolate is unhealthy or more poisonous than other food.

 

[kikie]

He is saying: "Everything is poisonous, but the lethal dose varies."
He didn't say you were right when you said chocolate is unhealthy or more poisonous than other food.

If you say so!

 

[Famine]

He is saying: "Everything is poisonous, but the lethal dose varies."
He didn't say you were right when you said chocolate is unhealthy or more poisonous than other food.

No, I'm not. It's true that everything can kill you if you have too much of it (my favourite being pure water), but chocolate is actually poisonous. Which is why I said that.

Theobromine - effectively the chocolate chemical - is toxic. It's an alkaloid. But it requires relatively large doses to have much effect on humans. About 10g of milk chocolate per 1kg of bodyweight is sufficient to kill a dog (so about 20-30g for a small hound), with humans needing about 25 times that (as we metabolise theobromine more effectively).

So, if you weigh about 70kg, try not to eat more than 1.7kg of milk chocolate in one hit.

 

[daan]

So, if you weigh about 70kg, try not to eat more than 1.7kg of milk chocolate in one hit.

5kg Dairy Milk?

http://www.cadburygiftsdirect.co.uk/asp/product_description.asp?product=454&V=570

 

[Famine]

Now that's what I call a suicide.

 

[agent kri]

No, I'm not. It's true that everything can kill you if you have too much of it (my favourite being pure water), but chocolate is actually poisonous. .

With water (in a sufficient dose) being actually poisonous too, then?

 

[Joey D]

That's one helluva chocolate bar....what's that about 11lbs.?

 

[Famine]

With water (in a sufficient dose) being actually poisonous too, then?

Pure water? Certainly. It extracts sodium and potassium from your body, shutting down your nervous system and leading to a fatal heart attack.

 

[Stevisiov]

Pure water? Certainly. It extracts sodium and potassium from your body, shutting down your nervous system and leading to a fatal heart attack.

Indeed I remeber in a Biology class, we read up on a guy who drank 8 litres of water in 4 hours, he died....cannot remeber the topic now.

 

[Azuremen]

Indeed I remeber in a Biology class, we read up on a guy who drank 8 litres of water in 4 hours, he died....cannot remeber the topic now.

There was a radio station that did a contest on who can drink the most water... a lady died after having several gallons and basically removing the salts from her system.

Every is dangerous in excess - vitamins, minerals, fruits (dysentery anyone?) and so on. Chocolate is just like those, in that with moderation its fine.

Alcohol is far worse, but you don't see as many people gripe about that as fatty foods. Of course, living in LA will probably shorten your life more than any food product, and so on.

 

[DustDriver]

5kg Dairy Milk?

http://www.cadburygiftsdirect.co.uk/asp/product_description.asp?product=454&V=570

For that amount of money i can get 6.3kg of my favorite Côte d’Or chocolat!
(bought 0,8kg today )

 

[Nicknamealguem]

Indeed I remeber in a Biology class, we read up on a guy who drank 8 litres of water in 4 hours, he died....cannot remeber the topic now.

Oh my…there was one day that I drank 2 liters of water in 1 hour. I could have been killed...by water…

 

[Azuremen]

Oh my…there was one day that I drank 2 liters of water in 1 hour. I could have been killed...by water…

You need more than 2 liters, period. The 8 over 4 math doesn't really work, as its just how much of the salts and minerals are removed from your body. You could have a 2 liters an hour for good a while as long as you replenished stuff in your body properly.

 

[zoxxy]

So, Sweden.

Pros:

Nice skatespots.
Hot chicks.
School is pretty chill, compared to Japan and stuff.
When the weather is good, it really is GOOD.
It's where I was born and raised, and it's probably where I'll raise my kids in the future.

Cons:
Often bad weather

 

[Famine]

You need more than 2 liters, period. The 8 over 4 math doesn't really work, as its just how much of the salts and minerals are removed from your body. You could have a 2 liters an hour for good a while as long as you replenished stuff in your body properly.

Water itself is fine - tap water, bottled water and suchlike - as it contains lots of salts. It's purified water (or "distilled" water) which contains almost nothing but water which is the risk.

 

[Nicknamealguem]

You need more than 2 liters, period. The 8 over 4 math doesn't really work, as its just how much of the salts and minerals are removed from your body. You could have a 2 liters an hour for good a while as long as you replenished stuff in your body properly.

Wait a minute, after thinking for a while I am confused. If water replaces the salt and minerals we have in the body, how can it remove the salt and minerals from the body? Water have minerals has potassium, sodium, magnesium…how it can remove it from the body? They even say that after doing sports, it is good to drink water to replace the lost minerals of the body…

Edit: oh, didn’t saw Famine’s post before posting mine…I was getting scared. But who is going to drink "distilled" water anyway?

 

[Famine]

You'd be surprised. People think pure = good.

 

[Azuremen]

You'd be surprised. People think pure = good.

Well, there is that, but even drinking non distilled water will pull alot of crap out of your system after a while, simply by osmosis with the cell walls, etc. Drinking 4 gallons of tap water will mess you up, in several ways. The effect is just going to be quicker with with "pure" water.

Think of it like a river... slow stream brings in new sediment, etc, but if it overflows and runs too quickly, it will take away good sediments and crap, and issues with arise.

Or something like that, Famine, please elaborate, I know you can

 

[Famine]

You're quite right - we contain a lot of potassium because its what makes nerve impulses work. Potassium likes to be in water, so unless you drink water which is higher in potassium concentration than your body, it's going to pass from you into the water and you effectively pee out your nerves.

Purified water has a very low everything concentration, so pulls out more potassium (and other things) than less pure water, making this effect a lot quicker.

 

[kikie]

No, I'm not. It's true that everything can kill you if you have too much of it (my favourite being pure water), but chocolate is actually poisonous. Which is why I said that.

Thanks again.

 

[kikie]

Edit

 

[agent kri]

Chocolate is literally poisonous, but requires a very large dose to be lethal.

No, I'm not. It's true that everything can kill you if you have too much of it (my favourite being pure water), but chocolate is actually poisonous. Which is why I said that.

Theobromine - effectively the chocolate chemical - is toxic. It's an alkaloid. But it requires relatively large doses to have much effect on humans. About 10g of milk chocolate per 1kg of bodyweight is sufficient to kill a dog (so about 20-30g for a small hound), with humans needing about 25 times that (as we metabolise theobromine more effectively).

So, if you weigh about 70kg, try not to eat more than 1.7kg of milk chocolate in one hit.

Pure water? Certainly. It extracts sodium and potassium from your body, shutting down your nervous system and leading to a fatal heart attack.

Did you say chocolate is poisonous and water isn't?
If you did, why, considering the same effect (death)?

 

[kikie]

Did you say chocolate is poisonous and water isn't?
If you did, why, considering the same effect (death)?

No he said that *pure* water is poisonous. Tap, bottle water etc... isn't poisonous.

 

[Famine]

Did you say chocolate is poisonous and water isn't?
If you did, why, considering the same effect (death)?

Not technically, no.

No he said that *pure* water is poisonous. Tap, bottle water etc... isn't poisonous.

Yes, sort of.

Chocolate is poisonous. It contains a poison (theobromine) which, if too much accumulates in your body, causes death.
Water is toxic (pure water especially so). It doesn't contain any poisons but extracts vital nutrients from your body (potassium and sodium salts). If you lose too many of these nutrients, you die from Water Intoxication.

 

[Pupik]

I'm probably going to contradict myself, but oh well...America:

Pros:

- Tons of freedom, loads of it. I don't look over my shoulder about how I live(d) my life.
- Don't like the weather/crime/laws/culture? You can move within the nation.
- We import nearly everything. Except some cars.
- You can act as if your vote counts: Occasionally, it does. Or at least, you can get out of work for an hour.
- I can do nearly anything I want.
- Goods and services are an open market.

Cons:
- People assume rights come with no responsibility.
- Lots of needless and meddlesome laws.
- We're starting to trade freedom for security.
- Etiquette? What's that when we're so diverse?