I think you might be able to get round this one - when you first burn the discs, keep a copy somewhere safe as a 'master copy', then you can just copy those discs to create a 'disposable' set that you don't mind getting scratched. When they're wrecked you can recopy the master copy and so on. That should work fine, because once you've made the first burn, you've just got a standard non-DRM audio CD.

We only do stockings for the kids - I have enough trouble finding a main present for DH, let alone finding stocking fillers for him. Our stockings are pretty small, so they have a toothbrush (our family tradition - DD even wrote asking for one in her letter to Father Christmas!), chocolate, pens/pencils, stickers, etc. and one small toy to keep them going, as we don't open family presents until the afternoon. I'd guess the cost for us is about £12 per kid, so not exorbitant. When I was younger, my mum decided that you'd get a stocking until you were 21 or married ... she decided this the year I turned 22, and got married!

I hadn't thought of that, because the UK has pretty good maternity leave. The statutory minimum is 6 weeks at 90% pay (and then a pittance up to 9 months, and another 3 months unpaid), so I don't personally know anyone who took less than 6 weeks maternity leave, but I also can't think of anyone I know who stayed home for 6 weeks either. Liking wasn't enough - surely this is the most important thing! If mum, dad & baby are happy, everyone else can take a running jump. If you want to nest at home for however long, great; if you want to be out and about, that's fine too.

We took DD out her first day - we walked her home from hospital (in a sling) at about 18hrs old. We definitely also took her out for errands the next day. When DS was born DH walked home to fetch the car for us as they were willing to let him go home at 3hrs old, and I wasn't sure my legs were quite steady enough for the walk, plus it was 2am! Next day we just got straight back into our usual routine of activities, particularly as it was September, so everything that had stopped for the summer break was just starting again. Honestly, being trapped in the house for 6 weeks with a newborn is my idea of hell. I'm sure some people love it, but it would have driven me doolally.

I think it depends on how much you want your student's studies to look like the typical US sequence. Note that I've not used the secondary stuff yet myself, but I am in the UK, so I know a bit about how the GCSE/A level system works! I wouldn't think that the A level stuff would be very easy to shoehorn into the US system (not that I really understand what falls into "Algebra 2" or "Pre-calculus"). In the English system most students taking A level will do Pure Maths and Mechanics, or Pure Maths and Statistics, or Pure Maths with a bit of both Mechanics and Stats. (One of my sisters did take a Descision maths paper, but I think it's not very common). I also note that the main MEP page says "The A-Level course is still under development" so I'm not sure whether they are a particularly good match even if you were intending to sit A level exams at the moment, as the exam boards keep changing their syllabi.

Agreed - I didn't say I thought it made sense for everyone to be taught to read at 4 (and I don't think all children are ready, although many are ready then or earlier), but the statement that globally no country teaches 4-year olds to read is wrong.

I'd definitely say "no"; and I almost had this situation last night. DH was running a choir rehearsal 8 - 10pm, so I was expecting him home 10.30ish, but he didn't get back until 11 because he needed to talk to a few people about various bits and pieces. I'd given up waiting at about 10.30, so I was actually asleep by the time he got in! But I don't generally worry about him being 1/2 an hour late, unless we had somewhere specific to be, or I needed him to stay with the kids so I could go out.

Just as a point of information, that's not true. In England (and I think Wales) 4-year-olds are routinely taught to read, as the first year of school is 4-5 year olds. (The youngest children in the class turn 4 on 31 August, with a school year that starts 1 September or a few days later, so most children are 4 for a good part or all of the school year).

Nope - there are also e-ink e-readers too. Mine doesn't do sound, color, apps or any of that, just ebooks.

Yes - this happens a lot for Hotmail, Yahoo and Google if your e-mail domain does not have SPF set up, or it is set up incorrectly. (This is usually only an issue if you have your own domain which you use for e-mail). DH had some problems with this in the last year or so with his work e-mail, and getting SPF working has pretty much solved it.

Father Christmas usually wraps with the leftovers of last year's wrapping paper! (But nobody has noticed that yet...) Stockings here are opened in the morning before church, while 'proper' presents wait until after dinner.

I'm slightly late to the thread adding this example of NHS care, but when my grandfather (aged 93) was diagnosed with heart failure at the start of this year he was living alone in his own home with daily assistance coming in to him. The NHS paid for 24 hour nursing care in his own home for the rest of his life (about 4 months) since they didn't want him blocking a hospital bed, and he couldn't possibly manage alone any more with medication and oxygen cylinders to deal with. He had a live in carer, who had a few hour break each afternoon. She was brilliant. His quality of life in those last few months was very good, all things considered.

This is the way travel insurance works in the UK. My FIL can't change travel insurance company because he had kidney cancer nearly 25 years ago. The only company that will cover him is the one he was covered by at the time - no-one else will take him on now even though it's been decades. That means he's definitely paying over the odds, but my ILs like to travel. Of course, if he couldn't get travel insurance, he has the choice not to travel, but I just can't understand how you can have a system apply similar rules to healthcare.

Yes, but if you want to have a free market, then you have to let people choose not to get insurance. Also, what you describe is inherently redistributive, and reminds me of the way a single-payer system is redistributive.

Trouble is, people with dementia don't tend to think to pick up their bag/wallet before they go wandering off! My grandmother had dementia, and lived with my parents for a few years until the wandering off got too severe - she definitely never took anything with her (and even if she had, she had no ID as she didn't have a passport and didn't drive).

But a 'pure' system of insurance would have to allow the insurance companies to reject anyone they like (say for a pre-existing condition?) and would leave you back in the place where lots of people can't afford insurance so get no access to healthcare, or cannot find an insurer willing to insure them. The trouble with health insurance as a free market is that the people who most want insurance are those with a higher likelihood of needing to call on it, so these are the people the insurance companies would least like as customers!

Same here - I had them earlier today but now, nothing. (Chrome on Linux.) Also, the site logo (top left) is missing - I just have the word "Logo".

I don't really understand what system you do want then? Everyone pays for healthcare themselves and stuff those that can't afford it? I really don't see how government healthcare drives up costs. I think the statistics are that per capita the US and the UK spend similar amounts of government money on healthcare, but in the US that only pays for a minority of the population (Medicaid & Medicare) while in the UK it pays for everyone. Due to the volumes involved if you have a universal system governments get a very good deal with providers: wouldn't you want your company to provide (for example) nearly all the joint replacements in the UK? And drug manufacturers will often reduce prices if the alternative is that their drug won't be prescribed at all because it is considered too expensive. Plus, as others have said, you can pay for private insurance or out-of-pocket for private treatment if you don't want what the NHS offers you.

I think you might be misreading slightly - the timings on the lesson plans are cumulative - i.e. the whole lesson (bearing in mind this is a classroom programme) is supposed to be 45 minutes. We usually take about 20-25mins, as it doesn't take as long for lots of the sections one-to-one.

I have no personal experience, but a friend swears by one of those clocks that lights up slowly to wake you - like this (just the first link I googled). It would certainly qualify as gentle, as the beeping noise is optional!

Change can be disruptive, but it depends on your personality. My FIL moved around a lot as a child and went to 15 different schools (some for only a term) but still got good grades and a place at a good university, and a good degree. I don't think his education was ideal, and I don't think everyone would manage as well, but it didn't hold him back. Although reception in the UK is 4-5 year olds, and some preschools here are called kindergartens!

That is really unbelievable - I can't see how that makes any sense at all! I know that I'm talking about a different system, but that's definitely not the case everywhere in the UK. At most universities I applied for I had an interview with academics prior to getting an offer. Although in most cases it wasn't a very academic interview, as the course I was applying for does not require high grades for entry at most UK universities. The real exception is Oxford & Cambridge, where all students are interviewed multiple times, by the people who will be teaching them one-to-one, and the academics definitely are in charge of admissions decisions - and my DH has been an interviewer at Oxford, so I've seen the process from both sides.

But every library rhyme or story time I've ever been to had these social times built in - you get it by arriving early to chat, or hanging around afterwards! (And then maybe even heading on afterwards to a coffee shop as a group, once you've chosen your books.) I've never seen the problem of adults not stopping talking when the story starts or so they could join in the nursery rhymes.

That's interesting, because I find chicken much easier to stretch - I need 1lb of mince to feed us all for a meal, but I can do 1/2lb with chicken! If we have a whole bird, it will make a roast, a big pot of stock, and another meal or two with the leftover meat (like chicken fricassee, or stir-fry). We pretty much never eat chicken in whole pieces except if I buy drumsticks. If we have breast meat, then it usually gets diced for a curry, or stir-fry, or risotto.

Well I'm in the wrong country to get a rating. :sad: But I've now got Tom Lehrer's "We Will All Go Together When We Go" stuck in my head!