Nope. In the case of the monarchy, the Queen, by custom, can’t do anything not approved by the Prime Minister (and his Cabinet). She’d never attempt that in Canada (or in the UK, for that matter). I’m perfectly happy with her as our head of state. Incidentally, I think the last time the Crown (in that case, the…

Joseph Finn, I stand corrected. I did mention that the US combined its political head with its head of state. I wasn’t aware that so many other countries did so, as well. Regardless, I think it’s not the best situation, as I don’t think a head of state ought to be subjected to the hostility that politics engenders.…

Joseph Fin, please name some. Most nations without a monarch, have both a President (non-political) and a Prime Minister (political). The US is the only nation I’m aware of that combines both functions. Then again, I’m not too knowledgeable about politics.

don’tshootme, I did that with my last mini. Got my RAM from OWC, as I recall. I could be wrong, but I think it’s no longer possible. I think new Macs have their RAM soldered to the mother board by Apple, and no changes are possible. That’s why I hate Apple’s RAM prices. Fortunately, nothing’s gone wrong with the…

Agreed. I’m thinking about getting one with the i7 chip, 16 Gigs of RAM (Apple’s price on RAM sucks!), and an SSD. I’ve been using a Mac mini with similar features for about 3 years now, and I should have saved up enough for an iMac in another 6 months. Since I live in Canada, it’s going to set me back about C$4500…

Every nation needs a non-political head of state. The Queen serves that purpose quite well. A political head of state is often the target of much dislike, or worse.

New and slightly used banknotes are now a major PITA, but I recently discovered that well-used ones become very easy to handle & fold.

We have the Queen ($20) or some equally useless person on our banknotes. All coins, AFAIK, have the Queen on the front.

Kristin, renters usually are paying mortgage, property tax and insurance costs, as well. However, those charges are built into the rent, so some tenants may not be aware of it. There are few free lunches available. :-)

I’m sorry, fuscator. I missed the fact that Kristin had already changed the error.

The word “criteria” is the plural form of “criterion”. Kristin was correct.