Phaedrus

Happy birthday to you, sir!

No... what happens is that if passengers bring more luggage, they can't get as much freight (i.e. extra money) on the same flight. The plane's hold will probably be full, irrespective of how much luggage the passengers bring between them.

Yeah... I can't play stuff online. I know what I'm like, and getting into that stuff would be the end of life as I know it. I tend to play strategy and RPG-type games, but not with other people involved... I don't need to get stuck in a raid that goes on until 3am when I have to be at work the next day.

Have an awesome day, Luxe!

I think pretty much everyone knows this. The point of Nordic-style legislation - or any legislation, for that matter - is that it'll take another decade for it to go through the courts and be struck down, during which time our oh-so-courageous politicians won't have to deal with it any more. And the damage done to sex workers while that happens? Sorry... the boat to Giveafuck Island left long ago.

I did :icon_razz: The only thing I can conclude from the single, much smaller data-point was given as a comparison is that the author wants the reader to believe the response to this one was very large. This may or may not bear any relation to where it actually stands in comparison to consultations in general... which was why I asked.

That seems like a huge response for this sort of thing. Is it? Anyone know?

Wow. Balls of steel, or shit for brains? I can't decide which :)

No, those are the ones who *don't* grow up...

Oh, no! Best of luck with the move and everything else, Carrie... and I hope you'll come back and visit us on occasion!

I have no idea what's going on here. Very strange.

Actually... I think it's only fair to give credit where it's due here. These guys have put out a couple of press releases and a few tweets, and convinced most of the world that they're taking human trafficking seriously without actually doing anything, and definitely not anything that would have risked generating paperwork. This guy deserves his donut.

We'll miss you, Porthos. Good luck with whatever you do next!

I'd suggest you ask in the Toronto section :)

Congratulations, Pisaq! Here's to many more...

It was a sad day. I'd been trying to schedule something with Mandy, but between her being away, and me being away, and general busyness, it had been far too long since I last saw her. And then... she was gone. Forward a couple of weeks and much better news... she's back! She's independent! And she's Karmen! And after another couple of weeks to get schedules to align, I arrived at her new location. She now has a very nice incall in Barrhaven; she's obviously put a lot of effort into decorating it since moving in. So, we had a chance to catch up, and then it was time to... do other things. The change of name has made no difference there; rest assured that Karmen is just as talented and just as much fun as Mandy ever was; you can read all the other posts in this thread if you want to know more about that. Anyway, much too soon, it's time to clean up (if I had my way, I'd still be there now)... and before long, it was time to go. And so there's just happy memories to sustain me until next time... which will have to be soon.

This looks fun. http://positivr.fr/seal-of-approval/

Congratulations, Meg! Here's to many more!

Yep. VPNs are great for this sort of thing. Tor will also work. Although I have to say, I've stayed in hotels that blocked VPN connections (on their free wifi... I was entirely at liberty to pay for a VPN-enabled one). I'd be surprised if an airport did that as they'd royally piss off all their business customers... but then, I'd have thought the same of hotels.

Actually... I think this misses the core of the problem. Although people realize that something is offensive, they lack the self-awareness to understand that they fall into this category. How many times have you heard someone say, "I'm not racist, but..." or "I have friends who are gay"? It's so common that it's a parody of itself. To take the concrete example that springs most immediately to mind: look at Donald Sterling. Utterly racist, despite his ownership of a basketball team and having a mixed-race mistress. And yet... he doesn't consider himself racist. At all. You couldn't make it up... but there it is, played out in front of the world. This isn't a problem with clients, in particular. It's a problem with people, and with society. It's improving, but that's a slow process.

I like both, depending on circumstances. If I'm planning ahead, I much prefer to do things by email. However, if I'm doing something at the last minute, I prefer the phone. When the most important question is, "Are you free this afternoon?" then I want to know the answer ASAP so that I can call someone else if you're not.

The WHO's recent report isn't really talking about the same thing as the latest headline-grabbing bug. Things like SARS, H1N1 and now MERS will inevitably crop up every so often, and we just have to deal with them when they do. What the WHO is talking about is the unfortunate coincidence of two things: the gradual evolution of drug-resistant pathogens, and the fact that there's very little research into new antibiotics. The first is more-or-less inevitable, but the second isn't. it's an unfortunate consequence of the fact that pharmaceutical companies exist to make money, and these days the money is not in treating infectious disease; it's in treating the chronic diseases of the affluent West. If you invent a drug that cures MRSA then you can sell it to a patient that will take it for a few days or weeks and then stop because they're cured, but if you invent a drug that reduces cholesterol you can get decades of continuous revenue from each patient.... and so that's precisely what happens. The WHO is saying, "this needs to change, and here's why". There's no deadline... yet. There will never be a sudden moment when this becomes a huge issue. It'll just get worse and worse and worse, until we realize that we have a major problem on your hands. Of course, the real threat is of something evolving that's as deadly as HIV or ebola and as infectious as the common cold. When that happens, there's a good chance that Homo sapiens will become extinct, as so many other species have done before.