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I'm confused. How is "subject and idea"-oriented English geared toward girls? Do you mean that they began requiring students to actually use language rather than require rote memorization of rules for grammar drills? How odd that the boys' grades would slide when that change was made. I wonder if other curriculum changes were made at the same time might also be responsible? I don't know your gender, but if you are male, how do you explain having done well when most male students did not?

You seem like a bright individual. If you feel that your grammar and spelling are sub-par, I encourage you to work on it on your own. When I was in grade school and high school, I couldn't spell my way out of a paper bag. Now I am much better. Constant use of the spell checker is what helped me most. I would get quick feedback on what I had done wrong and could quickly correct it. Each time I would correct an error, I would look closely at the correct spelling and try to remember it. An even better way is to try to fix the word yourself until it is spelled correctly, ignoring the word processor's suggestions. Do not use word processor functions that automatically fix spelling errors; they will just reinforce your bad habits. The spelling errors in your post are almost all careless errors that a little attention to detail would have eliminated.

Grammar is harder. Good writing is harder. I recommend reading examples of good writing and trying to notice what makes it good. Practice writing. You might even consider taking a class.

BTW, if you need to work on usage, you might consider subscribing to "Usage Tip of the Day" found on Oxford Press' website. It has tips on American English usage, but they are probably helpful for Canadian usage as well.

An arbitrage profit is riskless, involving a positive cash inflow at one or more dates, and zero cash flows at all dates. In other words, arbitrage requiers no investment and no cash outlay. The arbitrageur generates only cash inflows at one or more dates.

However, opportunities for true arbitrage only rarely exist in well-functioning markets. Indeed one of the fundamental assumptions of pricing theory is the absence of arbitrage rule, which says that it should not be possible to make arbitrage profits.

What an 'arbitrage' trading desk does is really a kind of speculative trading, with some risk involved, although the risk is usually less than with other kinds of speculation.

I work at an educational institution so we get it for free.

I hate you.

If I had it in electronic form I know I'd waste all kinds of time browsing. The paper version is not quite so diverting, which for me is a good thing.

I see the CD-ROM is down to $295. One-fourth that and Mac compatibility, I'd be interested.... Heck, if they cut the price they might make *more* money. On the other hand, how many people have heard of the thing?

it sounds too much like "walruses" to me.

Um, you prefer ... walri?

Interesting that viruses and bacteria, which people confuse anyway, both have confusing pluralization rules.

No, it's more like end of 1990.

There is a good book written on this concept of "No Duty to Retreat", when someone threatens your life or tresspasses on your property. For example, if someone enters your house, home, land you actually own, like those Scientologists did, you coulda shot and killed them.

So yeah, parts of the USA still have that wild west mentality.

but the CD-ROM is UKP 175.00 plus VAT (US $295) so $550 per year is not necessarily the cheapest option.

I'd love one, don't know how I'd find the time for browsing all those cross-references though.

It's unbelievable to think that somebody would try to sell something by arguing it's similar to Pandora's box

Is it possible that the microsofties are so far removed from reality that good and evil have swapped meanings for them?

Here's some food: Imipolex-G doesn't exist outside of Gravity's Rainbow. Please refer to a chapter in this book.

Basically, the book illustrates how those in power can shape the uses of new technologies to meet their needs. In 10 maybe 20 years the rules for using the internet will be much different. And if history repeats istelf those rules won't be in our favor.

My Spanish-English dictionary of choice -- I am practically in love with it-- is _The Oxford Spanish Dictionary_ (1994). Why do I adore it so? It is nearly 2000 pages of Spanish/English goodness, including >275,000 words/phrases, >450,000 translations, verb tables (every single verb in the dictionary is matched to a particular conjugation pattern found at the back of the book), aid with correspondence, weights and measures conversions, and lots of other helpful features.

My favorite thing about this dictionary, however, is its inclusion of regional idioms and slang. Spanish varies markedly between countries, and this dictionary includes a tremendous number of those regional distinctions. For example, "chamaco" is a Mexican word meaning "boy" or "kid"... Though it is found only in the vocabulary of one Spanish-speaking country, it is included in the dictionary with the annotation "(Méx fam)," indicating that it is a familiar (as opposed to formal) Mexican expression. The same is done for regionalisms of Central America, the Caribbean, the Southern Cone, Spain, and all the other Spanish-speaking countries/regions.

As you can see, I could go on all day about this, but I will spare you...

The _Oxford_ dictionary definitely has French, Italian, German, and Russian counterparts, which I imagine are equally comprehensive. I'd be willing to wager they also offer comparable dictionaries in other languages. (Try looking here.) The dictionaries run somewhere in the vicinity of $45, and they are well worth the price.

I have yet to find a truly comprehensive Brazilian Portuguese or Hebrew dictionary, but, then, I haven't really looked very hard. If anyone knows of one, let me know. (You can use heidipom@hotmail.com for now, as I will be switching ISPs shortly.)

I hope that from this long-winded explanation you were able to derive some substantial content. :)