[ZEROpumpkins]

Hey guys!

[king_buzzo]

^cool man.

[king_buzzo]

bumpandhello.youmightthinkimcrazycauseofnotwriting spacesbutyeah,icantbebotheredtotypethem.lastwednsd ayinschooleveruntilnextyearandyeah,itsgoingtobebor ingcausenooneisthere.ialsoneedsomenewguitargeerand somenewcds.imgoingtogotosleepsoonsoseeyaalltomorow .bye.

[Hip Priest]

Take care.

Hello.

[Trasher02]

Hi hi hi

[Hip Priest]

Ho ho ho

[Trasher02]

Deja vu, I feel like we did that before.

[Hip Priest]

It seems like a quiet day on the internet. The forums are pretty quiet and there's precious little interesting news.

[Trasher02]

I've been working all day long.
You all missed me, I know. Hence the quiet-ness.

[Hip Priest]

That'll be it. Perhaps you could have a webcam installed in your workplace, to satisfy the demands of the masses.

Where are you working?

[Trasher02]

In a doorfactory...

[Hip Priest]

Which bit of the doors are you responsible for? Or are you on the management side? Sorry if you've answered all of these questions several times in this thread already...

[Trasher02]

No I haven't answered them, It's no biggie.
Basically I cut them and shove them in pieces of wood.
I'm only 16 years, old it's a crappy vacationjob. (so no management for me, bummer)

[Hip Priest]

People will always need doors. I'm considering such a purchase at the moment, as it happens.



Fifteen years of this guy's life:

For the past 15 years Curtis Ebbesmeyer has been tracking nearly 30,000 plastic bath toys that were released into the Pacific Ocean when a container was washed off a cargo ship.

Some of the ducks, known as Friendly Floatees, are expected to reach Britain after a journey of nearly 17,000 miles, having crossed the Arctic Ocean frozen into pack ice, bobbed the length of Greenland and been carried down the eastern seaboard of the United States.

Mr Ebbesmeyer, who is based in Seattle, said yesterday that those that had not been trapped in circulating currents in the North Pacific, crushed by icebergs or blown ashore in Japan are bobbing across the Atlantic on the Gulf Stream.

Any beachcomber who finds one of the ducks will be able to claim a $100 (£50) reward from the toys’ American distributor, First Years Inc.

The ducks began life in a Chinese factory and were being shipped to the US from Hong Kong when three 40ft containers fell into the Pacific during a storm on January 29, 1992. Two thirds of them floated south through the tropics, landing months later on the shores of Indonesia, Australia and South America. But 10,000 headed north and by the end of the year were off Alaska and heading back westwards. It took three years for the ducks to circle east to Japan, past the original drop site and then back to Alaska on a current known as the North Pacific Gyre before continuing north towards the Arctic.

Many were stranded as the currents took them through the Bering Strait, which divides Alaska from Russia. Mr Ebbesmeyer predicted that they would spend years trapped in the Arctic ice, moving at the rate of one mile a day towards the Atlantic.

In 2000, eight years after their journey began, the ducks were reported in the North Atlantic and in 2003, when they were expected to wash up on the east coast of America, First Years Inc announced the reward. By now the ducks had been bleached white by the sun and sea water. Sightings in the past two years have been scant, but oceanographers believe that their next port of call is southwest England, southern Ireland and western Scotland.

Simon Boxall, of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, said that the ducks offered a great opportunity for climate change research. “They are a nice tracer for what the currents are doing as they travel around the world, and currents are what determines our climate, and cycles of carbon.

“I would ask holidaymakers to keep an eye out, as they might be very few and far between by now. It’s a real adventure story and the plastic should last 100 years, so we hope it will continue.”

The landfalls have all been logged on a computer model called the Ocean Surface Currents Simulation, which is used to help fisheries and find people lost at sea. Two children’s books have been written about the saga and the ducks have become collector’s items, changing hands for £500.

[king_buzzo]

helloes, peeple.

[ZEROpumpkins]

Hey buzzo.

[Hip Priest]

Boing.

Hello.

[sonicl]

As so often... Hello to Hip, and goodnight from me.

[Danny Himself]

Goodnight sonicl.

[sonicl]

EU consumer chief wants "fire-safe" cigarettes

The European Union's consumer chief aims to prevent thousands of fire-related deaths and injuries each year by making all cigarettes sold in EU countries self-extinguishing, European Commission officials said.

The "fire-safe" cigarettes stop burning automatically after a few seconds if not puffed, due to small gaps in the cigarette paper which cuts the circulation of oxygen.

Officials at the EU executive said EU Consumer Protection Commissioner Meglena Kuneva would bring forward proposals later this year to make the self-extinguishing cigarettes mandatory throughout the 27-nation bloc.

"Data from just 14 member states show that over 2,000 deaths a year are caused by cigarette-related fires, with thousands more people injured and tens of millions of euros worth of damage caused," a Commission official told Reuters.

"There have already been discussions with the various stakeholders such as the fire-safety authorities, the tobacco industry and consumer groups. There is general support across the board."

Commission officials are developing an EU-wide standard for the cigarettes, similar to one in the United States and Canada.

"Canada introduced legislation in 2005 and a number of U.S. states have followed suit including New York, New Jersey and California, while Australia intends to also bring in laws for fire-safe cigarettes," another Commission official said.

"So, it would be more sensible and easier for industry if we draw up a common standard to be used across the globe."

The officials said research showed the cost of the new regulations in North America did not affect the overall cost of cigarettes.

"The cost is around 0.01 to 0.02 euro cent per packet," a Commission official said.

The Commission officials said the tobacco industry told them it would back the plan, if it was given time to adapt to the new legislation.

Previously tobacco firms said chemical additives required for fire-safe cigarettes would cause more damage to smokers and complained that smokers would not like the new taste.

"We support the push, but it must be in line with the standard adopted in New York," said Richard James, spokesman for Philip Morris -- maker of top-selling Marlboro and other brands.

"Also it must be made clear that this measure alone with not totally prevent fires from burning cigarettes, smokers must also be more responsible when smoking."

ANEC, an EU-wide consumers' lobby group for standardisation, backed the move.

"From a safety point of view and saving people, we welcome this news, but on the other hand we do not want to encourage smoking and we are also cautious regarding the final contents of these cigarettes which will be agreed as some could be highly inflammable," an ANEC spokeswoman said.