I agree with this. Basketball is a fun sport to play but not watch for the exact reason you mentioned. That's why I think sports like baseball and football have the perfect balance of scoring and tension. There just isn't enough going on in soccer...

I'm not a sports person at all, but soccer and hockey are the funnest to watch for me.

I agree with everyone so far. Watching any sport is pretty boring.

I've got a feeling I'm the biggest baseball fan on this forum. :laughing:

New question: do any British people like the Austin Powers movies?

I know where he stole the idea from...

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...5edbe06e95.jpg

Disturbing. :yikes:

Sad thing is like Austin Powers he used to get really hot women every week.

Well each to their own but in terms of not enough going on, i would have used golf. Too much going on is basketball. Too long is cricket. I think football is a great sport to watch, for several of the reasons that have already been given in this thread, but of course you get some boring matches. Its the same in any sport. When it comes to American sports, i can watch American football and i dont but i could watch hockey. I really dont understand baseball though, i have to admit. I dont understand the appeal this sport has to grown men. Ive tried to watch it but it looks like it should be a childrens sport to me.

As i said though, thats just my opinion. Each to their own and absolutely no offense intended. I mean, lots of guys over there like baseball so clearly you guys see something in it that i dont.

As someone who doesn't like to watch sports in general, I'm curious: what to you is a sport that does seem "grown up" and why?

Its just that no matter from which angle i try to look at it, baseball is the equivalent of the sport they made the girls and the younger boys play in school while they gave us a football.

I have tried to watch baseball a few times, fully expecting to be able to prove my childish opinion of a major sport to be untrue and nothing about the game can convince me otherwise or entertain me to the point my opinion wouldnt stand in the way of being able to enjoy it.

So what about running around kicking a ball seems grown up to you? I'm not defending baseball here, by the way (like I said in my last post I'm not a sports fan in general), I'm just curious about how any sport could be viewed as not little kid-ish.

Nothing about it physically makes it "grown-up" apart from maybe fitness as in my view there is probably more constant physical activity without a chance for rest thasn baseball (feel free to argue anyone but i think thats true). Of course you do need to be of a certain age to play the game properly too because if you havent seen a bunch of kids play a football game, they all just chase the ball around the field. There is no such thing as positioning or tactics, they just run around in circles after the ball.

Most sports are childish to an extent, as in children should be able to play them. Even if not entirely accurately.

No argument from me about soccer being better exercise. I think the fact that a gut on a baseball player is not an unheard of thing is evidence enough of that. One comment I will make though, if you want to hear something that argues for baseball being an “adult” game, is this: The big event in baseball, that is the thing that really gets the crowd riled up, is a homerun and kids generally don’t have enough power to hit homeruns very often, it takes an adult to do that.

I love basketball, and I love football, and I love tennis. However, Baseball is VERY boring, and that's after having one of the best seats in one of the final games between New York and Montreal, and showing on TV later that day, after the winning ball went just above us. It just wasn't exciting at all. It was all about overweight guys trying to run a few meters before they continue their break on the bench.

I love basket cause it's a very quick game. Every attack can only last 24 seconds, and a losing team always has chance till the last minute. It's a sport where you really see the work of a team. Where a player that only score points can't do a thing without assists and rebounds. Plus there's all these show off moves, from dunks, dribles and last second shots.

As for football, it's the complete opposite. Even though the goals are rare, the occasions are very frequent. Plus, the styles of playing are very distinctive. Not the only "man on man" or "zone" defence. And of course, it's a team sport by excellence. A team that doesn't keep the communication between the players in passes, is just a loser team. But then of course, there are the players that just can't help but shine under the spotlight, and those goals are always as marvellous as they are rare.

I cant get into basketball. I did get into it while i was in school for a brief period. Went to a few games, just local ones though, not exactly played to any great level or anything. And i watched it a little on TV.

Now i just find it to be too fast and too full of incident and every point scored is met by a big "meh" from me. I just cant convince myself to pay attention when the scoring is so frequent and so relentless that i forget theres a game and a contest buried in there somewhere.

Basketball I never got into either but I loved playing netball when I was younger. I played in a local team and it is such a great competitive sport. Anyone who says it is a girly sport can get lost too, I know plenty of guys that have had loads of fun playing it...

I'm not into basketball either. I also think the nets in NBA games should be higher now - I bet some of the players can touch the net without going on their toes! Higher nets might make the game more challenging, and therefore more exciting.

Not into golf either, and it's hardly a sport so I hate when people call it one!

Lateralus, is netball similar to basketball?

Netball is similar to basketball... I think it's most popular in Australia and New Zealand so I thought some people might not be familiar with it. Main differences include not being able to dribble, but instead only bounce pass, and not being able to take steps when you catch/ get a hold of the ball, and different set positions and limitations as to where these positions can travel in the court. Kind-of hard to explain but it's a really fun/ awesome/ challenging sport! And it's quite big over here, most people play it or play in a team during their schooling, predominantly females though.

Netball - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's played over here too, but it's pretty much just one of those weird games you play in gym class. I don't think anyone really plays it at all outside of that scenario here.

What's the public transport system like in developed countries? (Cost; How many people use a certain mode, anything else).

Same question for televised programming. (Cost; Number of channels on cable/satellite, anything else)

In Canada public transportation is run by the cities (for the most part anyways), so I can really only speak for Toronto (although I'm fairly sure most other cities here have good transport systems). The system here is pretty good, in my opinion. Of course there are always people who complain, saying the fares are too high, buses and trains are never on schedule, etc., but I've never had a problem. The entire city is accessible by bus, and the downtown core (where I live) is also served by streetcars (or trams or trolleys, same thing) and the underground subway. The subway is generally a better mode of transport because it bypasses all the road traffic (obviously!), whereas the buses and streetcars can get stuck in traffic. Our subway system is much smaller than that of New York's though, and I believe it is also older. Thousands of people use public transport here everyday, and the peak times are at rush hour in the mornings and afternoons, when everyone is heading to work or school.

It costs $3 for each ride, but there are passes and tickets available, and the price is lower. Passes and tickets are good if you use the system everyday or for the better part of a week. Oh yeah, it is also MUCH cheaper than a car, for which you have to buy gas and pay for maintenance, etc. I have a car that I use almost everyday because it's pretty good on gas and my uncle is a mechanic who gives me good deals on maintenance, but I sometimes like to take the bus or whatever. And public transport here is a good way to pick out all the weirdos in the city, just as long as you keep yourself safe!

Cable and satellite? It's pretty good here. Though most of the stuff on TV is garbage! There's basic cable packages, in which you get an analog signal and about 40 channels. I think that's about $100/month, but I'm not sure because I don't have it. I have digital cable. Digital cable is a major step up from basic and it's basically equal to satellite, except you don't need a dish. That package offers (well here anyways) up to 500 channels. Most of the programming is repeated though because the majority of channels are networks that broadcast the same shows at different times across the country. That costs almost $200/month. Satellite offers pretty much the same thing for roughly the same price, and sometimes you can get a radio package (like XM or Sirius) for an additional fee. Both digital cable and satellite offer specialty channels that show only movies for example.

In Toronto, the channels are mostly Canadian, but we do get a lot of American channels that broadcast from Buffalo or Rochester (the networks like Fox, NBC, CNN, CBS, etc). With the digital cable and satellite, you get all of that plus the channels that come from other parts of Canada or the US. What's so great about that is, if you know you're going to miss your favourite TV show you can either record it to PVR or catch it later from a more western time zone.

Lateralus, thanks for telling me what netball is! I sort of had an idea but I wasn't really clear on the dynamics of it.

In the US public transportation really varies. In the bigger cities it's usually pretty good. Elsewhere, no so much. In Philadelphia, where I live and which I would describe as a sort of a second-tier American city (1.5 million people), we have two subway lines, trollies, and extensive bus and light-rail service. It's not bad but it doesn't run late enough and some parts of the city don't really have access.

As far as TV goes, I don't have cable so it's free for me. And I get maybe 12 or so channels that anyone would actually want to watch, plus probably another 12 with crappy local programming, infomercials, religious crap, etc. When I had cable, it cost $40 or $50 a month and I had maybe 20 or 30 channels that might be of potential interest and then probably an equal amount of filler. That was one of the really low end packages. Higher end packages I believe run somewhat over $100 a month an give you a couple hundred channels.

public transport in Budapest is great. i don't have a car, i rely on it exclusively. a month pass is around $50 USD.

downtown is covered by a small subway system (3 lines), a much larger tram system, plus an enormous number of buses and trolleys. The trams and trolleys extend to the edges of the city, where suburban railways take over to help commuters get to the nearest villages. the bus system is very pervasive, covering the whole city very efficiently.

the subway is the only place where tickets are checked on entry. buses, trams, and trolleys get infrequent, random checks by plain clothes enforcers. that's the one bad thing about the system - it's too easy for bums to ride free, so there are often smelly folk taking up 20 seats because nobody wants to sit near them!

no idea about television, i just pay for internet and download the shows i want to see. incidentally, i have one of the best internet connections in the world. i pay about $15 USD per month for a 30/20 line with no cap. a hell of a deal!

Hmm...great deal <jealous>

Fastest we've got in South Africa is only 4meg. What makes it worse is the ridiculous prices. The costs with the country's main ISP (Telkom) is about $51 p/m just for the 4meg connection (plus additional for line rental, which is about another $16 p/m). Then comes the installation costs (which can be avoided if you do it yourself), costing you about $75. They're nice enough to throw in a major 3GB's worth of browsing p/m. Want more? "Pay up" (more shabby costs)

Phones have it much worse. About $0.25 per megabyte ($253 per gigabyte)

Public transit in Istanbul is really good, it's one of the things I love about this city. IDO, the company that runs most of the ferries here is the largest ferry transportation company in the world. My commute to work is a nice relaxing 25 minute ferry ride down the bosphoros, and I go past Aya Sofia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi palace, the galata tower, all these thousand year old historical buildings are just along the way to work (ok I'll stop bragging about my awesome commute.)

Buses run all over the place, and dolmuses (shared taxis) run services between many different fixed points around the city. The metro has two lines that access the majority of the major centres, and the metrobus is a really fast way to get around without having to be stuck in traffic. Many areas also have cable cars running a circuit around the neighborhood.

The metro, ferries, metrobus, trams, and public buses are all only 1.50TL, and if you have an akbil (an electonic key) you simply load it up and then pay with that every time you use transit, no need to buy tickets ever. You also get a discount each time you use successive forms of transit, like taking the metro, then a ferry then a bus.

The only drawbacks are that it's usually very crowded, and the transit system can be insanely complicated. It takes most people a few months to really work out all the intricacies, but after that it's really great.

Does anybody know how the weather in oh say... Luxembourg compares to North America?

Depends on what part of north America you're talking about. Google can help you with the forecast for Luxembourg.

Well, what I meant was which part of North America is Luxembourg's climate most similar to? But yeah, I'll just google it instead...... :o:

WHO HAS SNOW?! not meeeee :D

Well of course I do.

Hehe is it snowing there now, Lucas? It did here while I was away for break but it's smelted for the most part.

We have loads of snow right now. It's quite deep, it's great.

I bet it's gone by Christmas. Always bloody is.

Quit yer whining, we've never had snow on Christmas in the history of forever :p:

Probably because it's hotter than all holy hell?

Stupid, backwards Australia. :p:

We has lots of snow, it's so white and full of awesomeness. Think i'll relive my childhood and build a snowman.

No snow yet, but it's coming sooner or later. I need to invest in a good pair of snowpants so I can survive the outdoors for hours on end like I did when I was a kid.

Snow! Yes! Here!
But that's rare overhere as well.

I'd love to answer your questions about the dutch by the way.
The only problem is, the last time I mentioned something about our country, an Irish forum member told me I was wrong, so apparently I don't know all that much about my own country ;D.

Climate of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (that's the offical name)? Wikipedia says it is Oceanic. And Oceanic climate...
Actually, European climate, as climate in general, depends on the altitude too. For example, Mediterranean climate is basically Californian. However, certain areas are higher than others, and that changes the climate there. Look at Nevada in the US. Nevada means snowy in Spanish. And you may say "but it's a f***ing desert!". Yes... except for the mountains, named Sierra Nevada ("snowy mountain range") by the first Spanish explorers. As it happens with the other Sierra Nevada, close to the Mediterranean coast. You can make an analogy with the Californian beaches and mountains too: you can surf and go snowboarding... the same day! It's exactly the same case.

Everything is relative, as Einstein said. For instance, it snowed a little (not settled, though) here in "Matrix" yesterday. Since the Iberian Inner Plateau is 650 metres over the sea level, we suffer a diabolic climatic mixture (Continental and Mediterranean). That is, extreme weather in both senses. Summers may be hot as Caribbean and winters may be cold as the Pole.

So is it as hot as the Caribbean and cold as a Pole every year or is it or something very rare?

Oh and we have about a foot of snow. And its been extremely cold lately. About 15-25 Degrees F

Thank you for the info! :)

And I hate snow...