mike carey

I assume this was a typo as tomorrow (now today) is 26 March, which is when the change comes into effect. The date is listed towards the end of this Icelandic Government news item. https://www.government.is/news/article/2021/03/16/Exemption-from-border-measures-for-vaccinated-individuals-to-be-extended-to-non-Schengen-countries/

Fair enough, it's probably one of those things that sparks an American puritan reaction. I'm in favour of salty language.

WTAF? I choose to ignore people who disdain 'wtf'. I think it's useful.

It's an awkward question especially if you have to give an answer to little people. There was a blog on (I think) Huff Post a few years ago by the mother of a gay six or seven year old. She explored the trials of navigating that minefield. The typical question she faced from adults was how her son knew about sex and that it was gross that he did. She was emphatic that he knew that he 'liked' boys not girls, and that there was not a hint of sex in his thought processes. Her message was that adults jump to the question of sex and can't wrap their heads around simple attraction. I'm glad I've never been asked to do that, but I'd hope I could explain that it was like mummy and daddy like each other, except it's when two boys or two girls like each other in the same way. If the kid has no concept of sex, they should be able to understand that. Sex isn't part of how they understand their parents' relationship, so it would not form part of how they understand the relationship between two other people, be they the same or opposite sexes.

I meant savoury, some bakeries in country towns have amazing pies. But I wouldn't say no to a fruit pie with some ice cream. On my last long drive (Melbourne to Canberra) I stopped in a village where the bakery had at least a dozen varieties, good but not the best I've had, and did a decent flat white coffee. I love a good sausage roll, although they tend not to come in different varieties, just the house recipe. I must dig out a recipe I've made a few times for a Thai themed sausage roll, pork mince [ground pork] with garlic, ginger, chilli and coriander [cilantro] leaves.

I recall a blooper tape of a very serious BBC or ABC news reader reading Lebanese in his script as Lesbian or Lesbianese.

Gentlemen don't have periods. (Runs away laughing like a schoolboy.)

Because I do so when I choose to. In this case because I have been doing other things so wasn't up-to-date with new posts it was his mentioning me that alerted me to the thread. I would have got there and posted in due course if he hadn't. He doesn't tell me what to do (/snigger/).

Agree with all of that. I like Wellington with its hillsides around the harbour, but not so much for the wind that can make crossing Cook Strait to the South Island decidedly unpleasant. Thankfully that was not my experience last January! The city bills itself as the hippest little capital in the world, something that Canberra had a friendly debate about for the brief period when Singapore Airlines operated flights between the two, but sadly that flight didn't work out. Rotorua is a wee bit overrated, but worth a visit to see its volcanic springs. Queenstown is great, with jet boats and bungee jumping (not for me!), and three nights in an AirBnB with spectacular views of Lake Wakatipu was a highlight last year.

For those same reasons, a lot of the roads are crap, but that said, dual carriage highways are almost all 110km/h as are a lot of the roads in many places, including more remote ones. 100km/h really doesn't bother me much, I just put the cruise control on and listen to the radio, stop every couple of hours to stretch my legs or buy a coffee and a pie.

The Wiki page @Beancounter posted is good. As the article goes into in some detail, the NT no longer has unrestricted speeds. @Unicorn's map isn't accurate for the rest of the country in that most states and the ACT have a default limit of 100km/h but some roads with 110km/h limits. And yes, the speed limits are metric and the signs are as illustrated, a number in a red circle.

I read the comments you quoted differently, and this is a comment on the statistics not the immunology, which despite diligent reading of Covid issues over the last year I am no expert in. If PrEP is 99% effective in preventing infections that would otherwise occur (which is different from 99% effective in preventing infection each time), and the probability of an infection during such intercourse is 138/10000 in the absence of PrEP, then the overall probability of infection each time is 1.38 times per 10,000 instances.

Some movement at the station (that's an Australian literary reference - see The Man From Snowy River), at last. PM Ardern has announced she's going to make an announcement. She said today that date on which quarantine-free travel from Australia to New Zealand will start again will be made public on 6 April. Also from today Australians do not need to apply for an exemption to the international travel ban to go to New Zealand, so if we want to go and face the two weeks' quarantine we can. Talk of unrestricted travel between Australia and Singapore is also gaining traction. Small steps compared to the relative freedom many other countries have, but significant for us. So, potentially some movement on travel six months before summer. (I know, not summer as most readers here interpret it.)

I've been told that the tram is a great excursion, but I've not done it on my two forum weekends. I would say do it if you can but don't lose any sleep if you miss out. As for renting a car, I didn't on my first weekend, when I was only doing PS, and did on the second when I was going to Las Vegas as well and planned to drive (and did) between the two. If this year is anything like previous ones, there will be people in the hotel that have cars so you'll be able to travel with them to the events (assuming you are in one of the resorts where a number of forum members are staying). I would say if you're thinking about renting a car, see what daily rate you can get and if that's about what you'd expect for two or three Uber rides a day, rent it. There's no right answer. (I only drove on the left hand side of a road once on my last visit.)

A discussion from the radio last night with the authors of a new book Great Sexpectations in part about the differences between popular perceptions about sex and the reality. It's about a 20 minute listen. https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drawingroom/measuring-up-to-sexpectations/13256226

I knew it. I just KNEW it!

With my metal Amex card, they didn't send an envelope, but in the same vein as that they listed a 'Reply Paid' address to use to send it back to them. That's the standard Australia Post method of doing things. (If they had sent me an envelope, it would have had that address printed on it.)

Great to hear. Hope he's still around in the 'after' world.

A footnote to that, Qantas had scheduled Brisbane-Chicago non stop flights starting in April 2020, which didn't happen for the obvious reason.

I suspect this applies only if you were travelling from another US city. I understand that a negative test result is required for all travel from outside the US, which he would be doing. As @WilliamM said, yes. On my trips to forum lunches in DC. I've left Canberra at about 9am and arrived in LAX at 6am the same day and in DC in the afternoon. So he most likely couldn't arrive in Chicago 'before he left' Sydney but certainly on the same day.

I have no idea what the person who tweeted this image was talking about. (OK, so I admit I do.)

The Thursday evening satire segment from the ABC TV news.

It's really quite simple. The proximate cause was the way that the car was being driven. It can be simultaneously true that something else can be the reason that the manner of driving seemed necessary. It's perfectly rational to attribute her death to that indirect cause, in this case the behaviour of the media. It's a bit like blaming the former president for the Covid deaths on his watch. He clearly didn't personally infect the people with the disease, but his inaction created the conditions in which they did. Of course, the media didn't force the driver to drive the way he did, he could have driven like a little old lady on the way to church on Sunday, but he didn't, he drove like someone seeking to escape from perceived danger. Just because you don't see the link or accept the the validity of their assessment doesn't make the princes' attribution of blame to the media irrational.

If not you are anonymous so presumably you can't be blocked individually. I don't know whether escorts can block all anonymous users (i.e. not registered and not logged in).

You don't need to be a paid user to be blocked. If you register for a free account, then you can be blocked from viewing a profile while you are logged into the account.