Phaedrus

What makes you think I'm qualified to do so?

No so sure about the hair dryer - you can get things quite hot like that and do further damage if you're not careful. Best easy remedy I've found is to put it in a ziplock bag with some rice - uncooked rice is excellent at absorbing water and will dry things out pretty quickly.

R is for Rooting (ask an Australian :) )

Yeesh... I find that video kinda sad - she clearly needs help. On a (much) happier note, for those who like any combination of cars, English accents and stupidity... a handbrake challenge! And... acceleration and braking!

Congratulations, Meg! Love reading your posts!

Sorry, can't reveal my sources. They're even more terrifying than you :) Ah, but first you have to find me...

I is for Intelligence, because I find that sexy as hell.

Awesome job, RG! Looking forward to the next 2500...

So, ladies... a very simple question: which guy's hotter? Which one does it for you? Our first candidate is your fairly standard model type. He landed in the best bums thread before it dies, so I presume someone thinks he's at least acceptable... Our second candidate - the one in the middle - is NZ special forces, somewhere in Afghanistan. I don't know who he is or what he's just got back from doing, but he's still got someone else's blood on his knuckles. So: which one of these guys hits your buttons? (FWIW, this question comes out of a blogpost I ran across, if anyone cares :) )

Ooooh, that sucks. To cheer you up: an a capella version of Rammstein's Du Hast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EOSDOA0tCs

Congratulations, QA!

I have. I've even been to where Flight 19 conducted their last bombing practice before they disappeared... I have ridden a unicycle, but not for very long :) I have never been to Australia.

Wow! Didn't you hit 500 like, last week or something? :) Congrats anyway... love reading your posts!

Awesome job, Lexy! Congrats!

Absolutely. But as the article said, utterly predictable. We're in a never-ending arms race with bacteria and viruses, and there's absolutely no guarantee that we're going to win...

Talking Heads - Take Me To The River. That bassline... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXYB-1KTeh4 Goldfrapp - Strict Machine Or almost anything off her Black Cherry album, for that matter. The title track is good if you want something slower: (ideas with a tip of the hat to the random stuff my iPod chooses sometimes... :) )

Sounds like you've had a good year, RG! What matters is that you're contributing... we *like* the jokes and the song-related silliness :)

I finally had the opportunity to meet Gabriella not so long ago. A few emails back and forth (okay, more than a few) had left me greatly anticipating the chance to finally meet. So, I arrived to find myself greeted by a beautiful lady... some light-hearted conversation, some delicacies upon which to nibble, and things warmed up, so it was time for a shower and a natural progression to more heated activities... with pauses only to collapse and laugh about things. I can't even remember what it was now, but it must have been funny, as there was a *lot* of laughing. What followed was a fantastic time (many happy memories), more conversation, more laughing, and all too soon it's time to go... but I left with a big grin on my face, and I'll be going back for more.

Kim Kato. Again :)

I dropped in on them for a bit... but they weren't as good as Soundgarden, so not for long :) Highlights so far (apart from that): Skrillex and Whale Tooth. Both awesome - but completely different - and I knew nothing about either. Which is why I like Bluesfest so much, because finding new stuff is *fun*!

Skrillex - Kill Everybody http://vimeo.com/18941978

Thanks, WIT - always interesting to read! Can't give you any more rep points, alas...

A couple of thoughts on this. First up, this is bound to be harder to push through than a bill about trafficking minors. I can't see that anyone would oppose the latter, but this one... it's not hard to make the case that this industry contains quite a few consenting adults who are very happy with the service being provided/paid for and whose activities harm no-one. Also, I think that most people in this country recognize that your own disapproval of something is not sufficient reason to inflict your views on everyone else (although not all, obviously). Having said that, the composition of the HoC is obviously more favorable to these things, now. Secondly, I don't think the Government's position matters all that much. I'm sure they're quite happy for it to go ahead - if only as a deniable stalking-horse, if it gets shot down in flames - but the fact that it's a private member's bill rather than official Government business means that any vote is unlikely to be heavily whipped. Thirdly, if it does go through... how much effect will it have? Some guys will stop seeing SPs, for sure. And anyone picking up a SP on the street will be more likely to be arrested on the spot, if LE are around (which will clearly make life even worse than it is now for the SPs that work that way). But the folks who arrange a rendez-vous with a lady in advance... how much risk do they run? I may be complacent here, but I really can't see LE going to a lot of effort to stake out SPs incalls to see who's visiting, or setting up stings to entice guys that they can then prosecute - if they really wanted to do that then I think we'd see a lot more SPs with incalls busted under the bawdy-house law than we currently do. I think the most serious potential impact would be the impact on businesses that are now legal (SCs, MPs, agencies) - if the final bill were worded so that using their services became illegal, life would be very difficult for them. A final question that I really know nothing about: if this bill went through, what would be the effect on the Himel ruling and that case? Would it have no effect as that case is about the selling of sex, not the buying of it? Or would the whole thing have to go back to square one as the law is now different?