Phaedrus

Lulu's just had a reco written: http://www.cerb.ca/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=86064

More elephants... this time, some old, injured and retired working elephants listening to a guy who lugged a piano up a mountain to play for them.

I'm not convinced the Y is all that pleasant in this game either :) The Yangtze, one of the great rivers of the world.

Ugly Kid Joe - Cat's in the Cradle

Waziristan, as it's periodically in the news

Wow. Now if I could sketch a pretty girl and have her magically appear... well, I think the curtain would have to fall at that point :)

It's not just about making your own data private. It's also about making sure that, for example, your friends can't check you into places or tag you in photos without your explicit consent. Of course, the social media sites don't want you do lessen their data-flow, so they make that difficult, and in some cases you'll just have to turn these features off entirely. So be it. I'm wondering when we'll start to see cases where people's homes got burgled by someone who used FB (or whatever) to find out that the occupant was definitely going to be out all evening, and probably none too alert to something wrong when they did get back... probably only a matter of time, if it doesn't happen already.

Happy birthday, RG! FWIW, I googled 'birthday bass', and this is the first image in the results... make what you will of it :)

+1 on pretty much everything everyone else said. I haven't met very many people who judge others based on their level of education. Those I have met who do this have generally been dispensed with pretty quickly :) As it happens, I was fortunate enough to get a pretty good formal education... but that's due in large part to good choice of parents and the way I happen to be inclined (I'm a horrible nerd at heart :) ). I'm certainly not going to judge others who were less lucky at birth, or whose talents lie in spheres other than the purely academic, or who simply chose to walk a different road. Finally, here's a picture of two college drop-outs. Clearly they'll never achieve anything worth... oh, wait...

Wow, RG. I had no idea you were into wearing things like that! I'm trying to picture you in it, and failing completely... How does it stay on, btw? Is that what the hook's for? :)

Happy birthday!

Thanks, WIT! Further proof, were it needed, that exercise is bad for you :) Now, where did I put the chocolate...?

Hope you had a great birthday, April!

Fischeln.... on the other side of the river :)

Wakefield, on the other other other side of the river :)

I can't say I'm wedded to any particular brand, but I do have a bias towards buying again from companies whose products have served me well in the past. But I really don't give a damn what's fashionable right now, and I won't buy something I don't need just because it's shiny (sorry, Apple :) )

He could look here....

Well, it's been a while, but we have finally been blessed with Soleil's return! I'd been wanting to meet her for a while, so I was very pleased that her visit was at a time when I could take advantage of it. Well, it was absolutely worth the wait. I arrived to be greeted by a vision of sexiness. We sat and chatted for a little while, during which exploratory caresses gradually... well, exploration results in discoveries, right? Soon enough there was rather less conversation, and rather more articles of clothing being dispersed to various corners of the room. And then there was no more clothing left... Gentle reader, I must leave it to your imagination to fill in the next bit, and the bit after that, and then... all I'm going to say is that it was awesome. There was still a little time to lie around and chat some more before trying to work out exactly where my clothes had got to earlier on... and then, alas, it was time to go. And to try (and fail) to stop grinning like an idiot for the rest of the day. Hopefully the wait for the next visit won't be so long. Come back soon, Soleil!

Aylmer, Quebec - which is just the other side of the river.

Publish a letter pointing out their own rampant hypocrisy? I can't see that, alas. I'd love to think they'd be prepared to have that kind of a debate, but I really can't see what's in it for them. Of course, that doesn't mean it isn't worth sending the letter in the first place... at least they'll know that their spectacular conflict of interest doesn't go unnoticed. However, in the interests of helping them clean up their act, maybe everyone in the industry they profess to despise so much should simply not renew their ads? I'm sure they'd appreciate the assistance with their ethical stance :) More seriously... why do the people that advertise there feel obligated to go on funding the hate-mongers? We can't do much about the fact that some folks will always be judgmental and hypocritical and more concerned with their preconceived beliefs than with tedious things like facts and reason, but I don't see any reason to throw money at them. The only argument they're likely to listen to is the one that hits them in the pocket.

Congratulations, Cato! Fantastic job! But I have to wonder... is anyone counting your posts in the groups?

Estonia (never been, but would like to)