mike carey

Context is everything! Seems to me that there's a lot of pearl clutching here, much of it from people who are upset that their right to make unsolicited sexual contact with another person is being questioned. The law has to be clear, people's wishes and intentions rarely are. The law prescribes what is and isn't unlawful, and has to consider situations where there is a power imbalance, often a profound one, between the people involved. So, unwanted sexual touching, clothed or unclothed may be unlawful. Consent changes that, but under the law consent may not be able to be assumed. Even without prior consent, there would be no offence if it were given retrospectively, and usually stopping when told it was unwelcome is enough. Being told to 'be a good sport' or that 'you really enjoyed it so why are you complaining' is a confession. But context is still everything.

Not the obituary I wanted to read today. Requiescat in pace. nytimes.com WWW.NYTIMES.COM Robert Redford, Screen Idol Turned Director and Activist, Dies at 89 He made serious topics like grief and political corruption resonate with the masses, in no small part because of his own star power.

It was a Soviet thing, not sure if it was legally mandated or just enforced by hotels, and may still be a Russian thing, but I don't plan on finding out any time soon. The Committee for State Security needed to review them overnight, after all.

Australia doesn't have the sort of constitutional issues that Canada has in Québec, but it does have a similar degree of difficulty in changing its constitution, as demonstrated in our 1999 referendum on becoming a republic. Constitutional change can only be achieved by referendum, and the record of success since federation is dismal. We need a majority vote across the country, and a majority in a majority of states (ie at leas four of the six). The future of our monarchy is secure, I believe, whoever is on the throne.

Maybe the 40 thieves got him? Oh, wait, he's Ali Gator.

Not a delicacy, but it's (or it was) a staple of children's birthday parties, @Gar1eth!

Not roll-on-the-floor-laughing funny but still a bit, and talk of clock watching is apposite on this site. A Brit journalist I first became aware of as a sweary commenter in a politics podcast posted this lament about the way summer was fading: Here, winter isn't fading as fast as that, but fading it is.

My dear Oliver, I'm so happy to see you here, still hale and hearty, have the happiest birthday, you deserve the joy from your family and friends. It's an honour to serve as your representative in my unusual way.

I can only assume that he couldn't believe that her malice would extend beyond him to his family, that the enormity of her evil was beyond his comprehension.

Yes, one for us, now one for you. And better, South Africa thrashed New Zealand in Wellington.

@Jamie21, more allusions and illusions than we've seen in weeks!

Guilty! I checked to see if I had the wording right, 'wordsforlife.org.uk' with the National Literacy Trust in its page header, no less. I had started with 'never' in final bit rather than the negative being in the first part, and took their wording as accurate, but seeing your post, I knew that I had already known that it was 'I know of' not 'I see'. Idiot! There goes my carefully crafted illusion of having some pretence at being literate.

I considered posting this ironically in the 'Cute Critters' thread because it starts talking about shark attacks (there was a fatal one on (or rather, off) a Sydney beach last week), but there's so much more here, 40 minutes of thoughtful conversation about several subjects. The two people talk a little about themselves, almost in passing, but by way of background, Julia Baird is an author and journalist, was working at the NYT and one of those present in 2015 at the first in-house discussion the paper's staff had with a now-prominent politician, her father was a state and federal politician and her brother a premier of NSW, and Darren Saunders, as is mentioned in the program, is a science academic and now deputy chief scientist of NSW.

I've had him buddy listed for some time, I've just never been in Melbourne with the opportunity to try to set something up. A lesson to me to make opportunities, rather than wait and hope that the stars align.

Jamais! Oops, I meant 'never'. But it's something else that, to paraphrase, 'I see no reason ... should ever be forgot'.

A different perspective on the defendant and on trials more generally, and a revealing one on the art portraying her and other defendants in trials. The court artist whose Erin Patterson sketches went around the world: ‘I definitely need to get some therapy’ | Erin Patterson mushroom trial | The Guardian WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM Anita Lester’s distinctive mushroom murder trial portraits show someone she perceived to be ‘consistently sad’

Indeed, 'In America they haven't used it for years'!

You're right, there is only one place that speaks unaccented English, respectfully it's not Canada.

There's a separate thread that Justin (@GentJ) posted about having posted an RM ad. For the moment, that remains a separate topic, but here's a link to provide some context to this thread.

One of the thousands who 'came from away', whose story gave us a glimpse of the humanity that the day could have caused us to lose. I worked in a Defence headquarters, and was at home having already gone to bed. I don't recall the time, maybe 11.30pm, I was awoken to a call from one of my guys who said, 'Boss you've got to turn the TV on'. I sat transfixed and horrified at the spectacle that was unfolding on the other side of the world. I knew it would change everything in my immediate future as we would be scrambling at work to understand what the ramifications would be for the Defence Force and even for the country. I didn't imagine that what happened that day would shape almost everything for the rest of my career.

Her late Majesty had the benefit of a childhood that Charles, William and George could never have. Not the seclusion and privilege that wealth afforded, they all share that, or shared, even though the weight of that privilege has lifted somewhat. Until she was 10 years old, her future was that of a minor princess with a life that promised comfort and the freedom to do much as she wished. At 10 her life suddenly changed to presage the one she became destined to live, she became the heir apparent and had to prepare for a different life to the one she may have thought awaited her. Her heirs were destined to the future they now have from the moment they were born. For many years, Charles knew, or at least hoped, that his reign was in the distant future so was able to combine his preparation for it with the freedom to develop his own ideas and values. As his time approached he adjusted to the strictures that would then face, one which he now seems to have grown into and carried out with a sense of duty. Willaim and Harry grew up with different futures, roles that came to be confirmed when William and Catherine had children, William the duty that he would assume, tempered by the years he has and would have before that time came, and Harry with the relative freedom that Elizabeth had in her early years. That has shaped the men that they today are. If the unthinkable happened and he were to ascend to the throne, from a distance I can see a man who would understand the new weight of his position and be able to meet its demands.

There was some equivocation in this thread, and more widely, about how to consider the event that prompted this thread. On a day when another event has prompted almost universal condemnation and overwhelming sadness, even in social media (there are always outliers), it is well to consider humanity not what people said or stood for. This comment that I saw puts it eloquently. It applies as much to this thread as it does to politics. We should condemn political violence, even against people we find abominable, unless we are prepared to trust the judgement of every violent individual as to who the villains are. We can believe this and express sympathy for the victim's families without retroactively lionizing their politics. If we say we can accept what happens to someone based on not what they did but on what they said or represent, we are accepting that we should be happy if the same thing happens to us based on what some random individual thinks of us.

There were two separate threads running in parallel about @Daniel narssi so I've combined them. That may lead to times where a post doesn't appear to follow on from the one above it, but it will ensure that neither Daniel nor other members will need to repeat things they have said in another thread.

@BSR I'm so glad you had the chance to see both sides of the falls and confirmed my 20-year old recollection of the value of doing so. Must have been in a different thread, or I imagined saying it. Also the boat trip under the falls.