jkerouac

THE GEOGRAPHY OF A WOMAN: Between 18 and 20 a woman is like Africa, half discovered, half wild, naturally beautiful with fertile deltas. Between 21 and 30 a woman is like America, well developed and open to trade especially for someone with cash. Between 31 and 35 she is like India, very hot, relaxed and convinced of her own beauty. Between 36 and 40 a woman is like France. Gently aging but still a warm and desirable place to visit. Between 41 and 50 she is like Yugoslavia, lost the war - haunted by past mistakes. Massive reconstruction is now necessary. Between 51 and 60, she is like Russia, very wide and borders are unpatrolled. The frigid climate keeps people away. Between 61 and 70, a woman is like Mongolia, with a glorious and all conquering past but alas, no future. After 70, they become Afghanistan. Almost everyone knows where it is, but no one wants to go there. THE GEOGRAPHY OF A MAN: Between 15 and 70 a man is like North Korea - ruled by a [censored].

I forget what problem Admin said this watch had. On my GST, one of the pushers became jammed after I had had the watch a couple of weeks. Because of that problem, and a perpetually loose pusher button, I decided to take it into a local shop. In addition to fixing these small problems, I also asked him to assess the general condition (including cleanliness and lubrication) of the watch. Afterward he told me the movement was in good condition and required no additional service at this time. This minor service cost me ab. $45.

Perhaps the dealer can find another customer for the wrong watch in your country. With popular models it's easier, faster, and less expensive to ship a watch between indivudals in a country or in the EU, for example, than back and forth to the Far East. A good dealer will help come up with the best solution for you. But it is a shame when you wait for a watch only to find out that the one you wanted will take even longer to get to you. Perhaps if you mentioned what watch model you are referring to and what country it is in someone will step forward. Good luck.

This article is from the LA Times. "The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade has estimated that 50% of all consumer goods sold in Russia are fake; the counterfeit trade, Minister German O. Gref announced in January, has reached $4 billion to $6 billion a year — no one knows exactly, because the books are cooked." Forging Ahead in Moscow Forging Ahead in Moscow Want to buy a fake vacation, medical degree or 'Siberian purebred' alley cat? Anything's possible, as long as you don't care if it's real. By Kim Murphy Times Staff Writer July 10, 2006 MOSCOW — Always wanted to brag to your friends about your trip to Brazil, but couldn't afford to go? No problem! For $500, nobody will believe you weren't sunning yourself last week on Copacabana Beach, just before you trekked through the Amazon rain forest and slept in a thatched hut. Hey! That's you, arms outstretched like Kate Winslet on the bow of the Titanic, on top of Corcovado! Persey Tours was barely keeping the bill collectors at bay before it started offering fake vacations last year. Now it's selling 15 a month — providing ersatz ticket stubs, hotel receipts, photos with clients' images superimposed on famous landmarks, a few souvenirs for living room shelves. If the customer is an errant husband who wants his wife to believe he's on a fishing trip, Persey offers not just photos of him on the river, but a cellphone with a distant number, a lodge that if anyone calls will swear the husband is checked in but not available, and a few dead fish on ice. Of course, it's not the real thing. But in Russia, this is a distinction that easily can drift into irrelevance. If there is a world capital of audacious fabrication, it must be Moscow, where fake is never a four-letter word. Forget fake Rolexes and Gucci bags — that's kids' stuff. Russian entrepreneurs offer million-dollar fake Ivan Shishkin paintings, forged passes to the Kremlin bearing President Vladimir V. Putin's apparent signature, false medical school diplomas and alley cats palmed off for $300 as "Siberian purebreds." An old-fashioned brawl at a wedding can be had for $300 to $400. ( "If you read any book about traditional weddings in Russian history, there must be a fight," said 22-year-old Alexander Yermilov, who recently made a living at it.) Any Russian market is likely to contain jars of malodorous fish eggs masquerading as $100 Beluga caviar, fizzy tap water bearing the label of a rare mountain spring, "wine" with exclusive French labels containing grape juice and cheap alcohol, and pricey Japanese cellphones or Sony PlayStation 2 consoles that were assembled on the outskirts of Moscow. International experts say that 12% of the pharmaceutical drugs in Russia are counterfeits. In one recent study, a large proportion of the headache remedies surveyed contained no active ingredients at all. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade has estimated that 50% of all consumer goods sold in Russia are fake; the counterfeit trade, Minister German O. Gref announced in January, has reached $4 billion to $6 billion a year — no one knows exactly, because the books are cooked. American trade officials, who for years have battled rampant piracy here of U.S.-licensed DVDs and CDs, say the situation has gotten worse. Russia is the world's biggest exporter of pirated music products — many of them brazenly manufactured behind the locked gates of former military bases. "What you're witnessing on the piracy front is kind of emblematic of what's happening in Russia generally," said Neil Turkewitz, executive vice president of the Recording Industry Assn. of America. "It's a kind of decision, whether it's an overt one or subconscious, to kind of 'do it on its own terms.' And that you don't really need to play by the rules of the international community to move forward." Every Russian must ford a river of flimflam, much of which is tolerated because it makes everyone's life, for the most part, cheaper and more manageable than the real thing. Moscow's legendary traffic jams, for example, part like the Red Sea for a vehicle with a fake VIP sticker and a flashing blue light on top. (The real ones are issued only to important government officials, but if you have a big black Mercedes with tinted windows, who's going to know?) Stickers in the subway also offer fake work permits, fake certificates for free healthcare and "help" getting a heavy equipment operator's license. For the reasonable sum of $18.50 a year, drivers can buy a perfectly legal-looking liability insurance policy to show if they're stopped by the police. False diplomas and term papers are the busy student's way of getting over that last hurdle at school. Even Putin's doctoral dissertation, researchers from the Brookings Institution revealed earlier this year, contained major sections lifted from a text published by academics from the University of Pittsburgh. The revelations were barely repeated in the Moscow press, not because they were scandalous, but because they weren't — government officials routinely rely on fake dissertations patched together by underlings. A woman named "Nadezhda," whose number was distributed in Moscow subway stations offering to provide university diplomas, was asked by a reporter if she could come up with a degree from the Russian State Medical University. "No problem. It will cost you 15,000 rubles ($555). What year of graduation do you want?" she asked. "How about somewhere between 1982 and 1984?" "It is doable." She told the caller to provide his full name and education specialty, and asked what kind of grades should be listed on his transcripts and whether he wanted to have attended day classes or night school. "By the way, have you studied medicine?" she inquired then, in an apparent attack of conscience. "Frankly, no." "Then maybe you don't need to go into it." "Well, I need it badly." "Well, I mean, if you have nothing to do with medicine, maybe you should reconsider it and maybe settle for something else." "No, really, I need a medical degree quite badly. I can't explain it to you over the phone now." "Well, OK then, let's do it. When will you have the information ready?" Yuri Lubimov, advisor to the economic development minister on piracy issues, said to understand the Russian public's appetite for fakes, one must understand the importance of appearances. "It's like the French notion of faire montrer. It's better to look like something than to be something. It's a very Eastern way of thinking," he said. "I know people here who have not very much money at all, but he will buy a very big car so that other people will see that he's rich, he's powerful." Or maybe, that he has a photo proving he was on the Great Wall of China during his last vacation, wearing his "Adidas" sport shoes and his "Dior" sunglasses. Of course, no one can spot a fake like a Russian — ask any woman who ever looked with disdain at a rabbit fur coat going down Tverskaya Avenue. Or ask Maria Babalova, music critic at the newspaper Izvestia, who raised an eyebrow when she saw billboards pasted all over town for an upcoming performance of "The Rising Stars of La Scala." Why hadn't anyone ever heard of this tenor and soprano, if they were from La Scala? Grigory Papish, general producer of the Moscow International Music House, where the performance was scheduled, said he learned too late that the singers were "on their way to having contracts" with La Scala. "The man, the tenor, he showed some hints of a voice, some signs of the old Italian school of singing," Babalova said in an interview. "As for the woman, she was a tragicomic sight," she said. "Her dress barely covered her aging knees. One of the straps didn't want to stay on her shoulder, and she was more concerned with fixing it than with her performance. She had no voice to speak of. Instead of singing, she howled, squeaked, slurped." The not-quite La Scalites came on the heels of some not-quite Royal Opera House Covent Gardenites at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, and one of the biggest art scandals to hit Europe recently — the revelation last year that hundreds of works of Russian art had been faked and sold for tens of thousands of dollars more than their worth. "I personally know of 120 faked works of which I have firsthand knowledge of what they were originally, what they became through forgery and where they were sold. I also know of about 200 more of such cases, but I don't know where they were sold," said Vladimir Petrov, an expert at the Tretyakov Gallery who has documented the forgeries. The scam involved acquiring relatively cheap works by lesser-known Northern European painters of the 19th century, then altering them slightly, inserting a Russian motif such as an Orthodox church in place of a Dutch windmill, to make it look as if a well-known Russian painter of the same period had painted them. Paintings purchased for $1,500 to $20,000 were altered and sold as Russian masters by Vladimir Orlovsky, Alexander Kiselev and others for $50,000 to $1 million. "I'm afraid there are many others. It's like an epidemic," Petrov said. The issue of counterfeiting reached a crisis of sorts late last month, when government officials in what was said to be an attempt to crack down on the huge quantity of fake wine on the market issued new excise stamps and declared that all the old, easily copied stamps would no longer be valid. Wine store shelves were left nearly empty; merchants and buyers alike flew into a panic. Suddenly, it seemed possible that even fake wine was better than no wine at all. Blame was thrown equally at sluggish bureaucrats, greedy customs officials and corrupt inspectors — the main engines of the status quo, when it comes to fakery in Russia. "To maintain a struggle with fakes in the market, you need to have a well-functioning system of law enforcement organs, a good judicial system, a customs system. All of this is lacking," said Dmitry Yanin, head of the Confederation of Consumer Societies in Russia. "I think everyone understands that there will be no qualitative change on the market in fakes in Russia." Dmitry Popov, founder and chief executive of Persey Tours, certainly hopes not. Last year, he made $2,000 helping a Siberian gas station owner convince his friends that he had rented a ride on the Russian space shuttle to the moon. "Of course he was smiling when he ordered this," Popov said. "But he paid."

You do live in a beautiful place, Sir Jon. I had the good fortune to make a return visit to Lucerne about two years ago. And my parents had the good fortune to be married in one of your landmark churches, many years ago. You also have many fine watch shops. I call watches my "Swiss addiction" because every visit compels me to buy a nice new watch.

I'll go along with Craytonic's recommendations. A friend used to work at Stags Leap some years ago. Excellent reds. For a classy experience, stop at Domain Chandon as well, plus some of the other great wineries. We also did the spa thing in Calistoga. Nothing like getting naked together in a tub of mud!! One of my perennial favorite things to do is hike in Muir Woods. Also, a bit farther up along the coast is Point Reyes, which shouldn't be missed. In the city I love eating in Chinatown, but there are many, many great restaurants. Check out City Lights book store, Coit Tower, the DeYoung Museum, Sausalito..... If you are going by yourself and want to indulge a bit of the racy side, check out the O'Farrell Theater.

It depends on the occasion, the watch, and the weather. Under most cirucumstances, I prefer a bracelet, especially if its a quality bracelet on a sporty watch such as the VC Overseas, IWC GST, or Yachtmaster. Gold and dressier watches call for a strap. Pams look great with their awesome bracelet, but straps give them even more distinctive personality. Other sport watches, such as a Speedmaster or PO, also take on extra personality with a well chosen strap. Then there is the weather question. In really hot tempeatures it could be argued that neither bracelets nor straps are comfortable. But I give a slight edge to the strap because you can loosen it by a notch to minimize the discomfort as you wrist swells from heat, which you can't do with a bracelet.

Violence and sport do not belong together, whether by fans or by athletes. There are stories in the US about parents in kids leagues attacking referees and coaches. How insane is that? I love football (both American and European), basketball, cycling, Olympics, etc. But violence in sports suggests to me that priorities and our countries' relationships to sports are extremely skewed. This is totally not a "this country is better than that country" or "this sport is better than that sport" issue. Violence in sport is wrong, it's an indicator of many things that are wrong in society. Find solutions in sport, and I'd wager the solution has a positive impact on society as well.

I like the fact that soccer doesn't indulge this sort of nonsense, compared to hockey and other sports. It makes for a much superior sport, experience for fans, and example for young people. I think the amount of brawling that takes place is one reason why hockey is not more popular in north america than it is.

Santos two tone has received the most comments for me. Unfortunately the gold bezel is starting to show a bit of wear. I don't know if other people can notice yet, because the slight gold fade at the outer edge could simply be taken as a shadow effect (even I have a hard time with this). But I know the truth, so I seldom wear it outside the house. Oh well, it was a $100 first generation, so it isn't that big a deal.

Was his foul really that hard, or was he suckered into one of the worst moves of his career? I don't mean to let him off lightly, but I think he fell prey to a very crafty bit of psychological gamesmanship, and perhaps acting as well. But he took the bait when he could have served his team and fans much, much better by keeping control, and that's the most important thing.

Congratulations to all of our Italian friends.... and our French friends have much, much to be proud of as well. Zindane was outfoxed to have lost his cool in such a way during an otherwise meaningless moment of the match. But for France to head into the final minutes of overtime and the shootout with Zidane, Henry, or Riberet? And to put it all on the shoulders of Barthez?? They were screwed going into the shootout.

Forget the stupidity angle. The more I think about this, the more I am convinced this was deliberate. And it pisses me off. It's a bit ironic, but earlier today I completed a purchase from one of our dealers (not Eddie) and decided to ask him whether he has a data security strategy. Mind you, I don't want to know what a dealer's data security strategy actually is (divulging that kind of information can compromise the very security we seek), but I would like to know that they have data security strategies. Eddie is particularly vulnerable because he resides in Canada and ships to and from Canada. Dealers in other countries may have more liberal environments today, but that can change. And those with Web sites in particular have to consider the possiblity that their sites (and data that passes through their sites) can be compromised. I am not proposing that we as customers or they as dealers live in fear. But healthy appreciation for prudence and security are good things.

Although I have never purchased from Eddie, I would certainly contribute to a fund to help mitigate his loss. If we can do it for a young Dutch kid or people who purchased RWG Collaboratives, we can absolutely come together for Eddie. (Then he won't have to raise his gigolo rates, or his fees to the likes of us.). I think Ken makes a very good point: Eddie may have been set up. A mere loose screw, the customs declaration, AND the extensive e-mails. This situation smells very bad. And if Eddie was not set up, then there are indeed some screws that are extremely loose -- but not in any watch. Eddie, I urge you to at least share information about this individual with the other dealers, even if you don't out him (or her) in front of the entire board.

But what about the rabid liberals and clueless conservatives? Don't tell me you've forgotten these "endangered minorities."

My heart says France. My brain says Italy. (In part my brain says Italy because my preference is France.) Besides, the wife is cheering for Italy. The knockout round matches have been so close that the outcome could go either way. A penalty kick, corner, or blink by the goalie here or there and you have a winner.

I think this is one of those instances where the dress and general appearance of the wearer will determine whether a rep with fake stones is credible. If a woman or man looks as if he or she could afford the real thing -- or if he or she is a rapper, jock, or hanger on to a rapper or jock -- then he or she probably won't be questioned. On the other hand, if he or she looks as if WalMart is high-end shopping for him or her, then I'd assume the stones are cubic even if they are real.

The great thing about pinned threads (that is, good pinned threads) is that even if you have been around for awhile, you can still learn something if you reread them every six to 12 months. I just reread Edge's "award winning" newbie threads, and learned a few worthwhile things. And I recall appreciating a number of the points/insights that Klink made in his newbie message. Sure, he was overly biased toward certain dealers, and it's harder for a newbie to filter that sort of partisanship than it is for someone who has been here for some time. But pinning a thread is an honor. Although I often didn't know what the heck Klink was talking about, I have no doubt that he is positive asset for any board and I hope that he is made welcome any time he chooses to visit our humble camp.

poste deleted. I should read dates more carefully.

Yes, I am sure the German players do remember. Far better to lose on March 1 in a friendly than on July 4 in the WC.

England-Portugal was a real disappointment. Neither team really deserves to win the championship. Rooney acted like a fool -- and right in front of the ref. He deserved his sendoff. Ronaldo showed spurts or greatness, but seems as if he needs more burning focus. France, on the other hand, showed what a championship caliber team really looks like. Great team and individual play. Although Germany will always be my number 1 team, I have to say that France deserves to be in the final. Bring it on!

Now what, Admin? Back to England? Italy?? Portugal??? Brasil???? Or how about France????? I, too, was cheering for England early on, but they have been uninspiring. I have enjoyed Portugal, but they are down two key players. If they can get past England, I would cheer for them against the Brasil-France winner. Unless I have a natural leaning toward one team or another (in my case Germany), I tend to cheer on the underdogs, so I hope Brasil gets bumped. I'm tired of Brasil this and Brasil that.... The media have been built them up because they are a good story. But there are other compelling teams in the tournament as well. In order of preference for me as of Friday evening: 1) Germany 2) England 3) Portugal 4) France (tie) 4) Italy (tie) 6) Brasil

deLaCour

The "good and easy path" is over. For Italy, the real challenge begins on Tuesday. Germany had a very difficult but satisfying win against Argentina. Now they must really sense that the championship match is within their grasp. Tuesday will show who has learned more about themselves and the competitive level needed to go all the way.

You couldn't help yourself. Uh huh.....yeah.....right. But to answer your question, the crown on my GST also wobbles. I can't tell whether the shaft wobbles, because the crown tube itself does not wobble and blocks my view of the shaft. But it seems as if the wobble has to do with how the crown is connected to the shaft. At least that has been my guess.