Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
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My username comes from my looks ; sometimes people think, or thought 10 years ago when I first came on the internet and took the nick for IRC (Feeling older again. Not helped by my birthday being tomorrow), that I look south american or american indian. Thus Inca, or l'Inca which became linca. I think of it in French (and thus unpronounceable in nasal-vowel-less English).

One of the advantages of a forum such as ET is that its format slows down discussion, and thus prevent me from arguing too much, too fast...

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Mon Dec 31st, 2007 at 05:22:04 AM EST
Hey!  I know in some places it's considered bad form (or bad luck?) to wish someone a happy birthday early, but I'm afraid I might be too hung over tomorrow to remember, so I'll say it now:  Happy Birthday!

My mom thought my younger sister would be a New Year's Day baby, but she missed it by a few days....

by the stormy present (stormypresent aaaaaaat gmail etc) on Mon Dec 31st, 2007 at 06:31:03 AM EST
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Bon anniversaire!
by lychee on Mon Dec 31st, 2007 at 06:39:13 AM EST
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Bonne Annéeversaire !

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
by Melanchthon on Mon Dec 31st, 2007 at 07:10:11 AM EST
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Happy Birthday Linca!

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!
by LEP on Mon Dec 31st, 2007 at 07:18:22 AM EST
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Funny -- I always thought "linca" must be some French child-pet-name version of the Chinese surname Lin.

Bon anniversaire!

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Mon Dec 31st, 2007 at 08:29:12 AM EST
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Einen guten Rutsch in, no wait...

Have a good slide into the New Year, no wait... into your best birthday!

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Mon Dec 31st, 2007 at 11:58:42 AM EST
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Thanks to the stormy present, lychee, Melanchthon, LEP, DoDo and Crazy Horse !

Passez un bon réveillon !

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Mon Dec 31st, 2007 at 02:34:53 PM EST
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by Fran on Tue Jan 1st, 2008 at 09:11:04 AM EST
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And thanks to you too, Fran !

Bonne Année !

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Tue Jan 1st, 2008 at 09:13:33 AM EST
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Happy Birthday!!!

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue Jan 1st, 2008 at 09:42:55 AM EST
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Happy Birthday!
by nanne (zwaerdenmaecker@gmail.com) on Tue Jan 1st, 2008 at 10:40:13 AM EST
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Happy birthday! I hope it is a good one for you.
by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Tue Jan 1st, 2008 at 10:45:20 AM EST
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Three thank to ceebs, nanne and In Wales !

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Tue Jan 1st, 2008 at 11:09:58 AM EST
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Hey, happy birthday!  (Another ETer born within a month of winter solstice!)

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Tue Jan 1st, 2008 at 11:13:50 AM EST
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And another thanks to you, too !

I wonder about the birth date statistics of ET (which have a non-astrological influence on development ; it is well known athletics caters more to those born early in the year, as they statistically have an advantage in the calendar age defined youth competition), and how they correlate with national birthdate statistics (which vary from one country to the next, and indeed within countries ; French female teachers tend to have there children at such a date that their maternity leave ends as the summer vacations begin...)

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Tue Jan 1st, 2008 at 11:20:45 AM EST
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I'd suggest

1) We're just more vocal about our birthdays because we're used to people being in the party mood--I said elsewhere that I can't go out for a birthday drink without finding all venues filled with tinsel etc...

That could be proved/disproved by a poll: "Which month were you born in?"

2)  For different characteristics due to "time of year", yeah I think that's interesting.  There are a lot of different factors (I think first of "When you took your first steps, was it warm and sunny, cold and snowy, blowy and wet?", all the seasonal variations--but yeah, how about the school year in England runs Sept-Aug, so Sept = older kid, Aug = younger kid for any school peer group; whereas the italian year runs (or ran) Jan-Dec, so in Italy (hey, we're both two hundred and thirty nine, right?) you'd be the oldest in your class and I'd be the youngest in the class above you, whereas in England we'd be close (almost the same birthday!) in the same grade.

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Tue Jan 1st, 2008 at 11:33:57 AM EST
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(since I actually started school with the people born before rather than after me, and then skipped a grade, I never was  actually the oldest in my class, halas. I was the too young kids the girls laughed at.)

It's clear being older or younger can have a huge effect ; at the time of learning  how to read, some kids have lived 20 % longer, probably spoken 40 % longer ; and the effect of being labelled, very early, a "smart child" or "a failure" can have huge effects in the way-too-normalised system of early education... Especially since teachers talk among them, and entering the next grade kids already ave a reputation...

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Tue Jan 1st, 2008 at 11:46:16 AM EST
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