The Hall of Fire

Another succinct response, Lord M. Yes. Again, this is euthanasia with the meaning 'voluntary assisted suicide' - you make the decision to terminate your life, it's not someone else's decision on your behalf (though I'd be interested in the HoF resident lawyers views on the position of a legal guard...

I forgot what book it was, and whether it referred to real or fictional location, but in it, I forgot who :oops: was catching spies and they considered anyone who knew the second verse of the anthem a spy, because real citizens never do. :D :rofl: You'd have to say the same about anyone knowing the...

I was sad for Stéphane Lambiel in the figure skating. He is such nice guy... I was sad for him too, Nin. I don't know anything much about figure skating (in the technical sense), but I liked Stéphane's routines, and the joy he seemed to bring to them. However, Evan Lysacek seemed very polished, and...

Yes, we trot our First Nations people out for these little occasions and then as soon as the visitors have gone home we go back to ignoring them. Which sounds a little like the way Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were represented at ours... though we packed them off home once they'd done the...

It was a little the same during the Sydney Olympics in 2000 - tickets to stadium events were very hard to come buy, in some cases they almost went to a kind of lottery. The only event I did end up seeing was some of the marathon, and that's because it ran through my suburb, so I could just walk down...

Similarly in Australia, a high number of politicians are lawyers.

With very few exceptions (Paul Keating is the one I'm most aware of) they are tertiary educated, with law, economics, philosopy or politics featuring strongly. There have been a number of Rhodes scholars - eg Bob Hawke, Kim Beazley.

Prim and Jewel, :hug: ...That said - the recommendation about mammograms is somewhat more nuanced than it first appeared. A commenter to the linked article (not fact-checked by me) argues that while mammograms in pre-menopausal women achieved a reduction in cancer-related mortality, they <b> did no...

Hal, as someone who doesn't live in the US, and is not familiar with the people or incidents you have cited, it would be helpful if you could provide a little more detail about your conclusions, and how you have reached them. In this way it might be possible to discuss the principle which I think yo...

I'd overlooked the State elections, particularly NSW which is in a parlous state (so to speak). Some part of my reasoning that the election will be called later rather than sooner is that we (as, my workplace) are only just beginning to see an increase in momentum in questioning fulfilment of promis...

... In other news, what in God's name was the Shadow Treasurer thinking? ... Lord M, the cynical part of me (which is most of me, I'm afraid) says 'electionyearelectionyearelectionyear...'* We will be seeing a vast amount of image-making (or breaking) media opportunities over the next few months. H...

Many thanks River, that helps a great deal. I've seen quite a few xkcd comics, but somehow managed to miss the black hatted one. I now have a clearer idea about what he's doing in that picture. (The ratbag!) Mahima, I think my vote is pretty much in the 'for me, myself, there is so much to enjoy in ...

Given the comments so far, I'm not sure if I'm missing something in this. I thought all the little cartoons seem nice summaries of positive-ish things. Not sure about the 'I love your suffering' one - to me that could be read in a number of ways, so I think I'll skip over that one.

In the lead-up to the 2007 election Julia Gillard made considerable efforts to soften her rather stark image. She has had a lot of exposure both as Deputy and as acting Prime Minister when Rudd is overseas, and I would have hoped that the tone of the things said about her has changed with time. I re...

I will add my wishes for her to rest in peace. I have also visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, and stood at the window looking out at the great chesnut tree, heard the chimes of the Westerkerk clock. Many years before that I read Miep Gies' memoir. It's a slim little volume, she tells her sto...

It doesn't explain the style of shoes that are currently fashionable. You know, the 20cm stilettos that you can't actually walk in, just stand in one spot and wobble (or wibble?) Perhaps they're intended to slot into the harnesses for those zero gravity moments.

Or something.

It’s not an acceptable form of protest to simply lie. There are other mechanisms which could have been used I mean, following that tack, it was a similar invasion of privacy for vison’s sister’s in-laws to have been asked for their names…and they’re not complaining about that…are they? And no, I don...

I was intrigued enough by your post, vison, to do a little googling and found some early production details on imdb. It sounds like it should be an interesting project. There was also a version released on DVD just before Christmas, though apparently it was slightly on the budget side. I'd have to c...

Playing the baroque (unkeyed wooden) flute, we used to tune to A-410. more or less. But tuning, and staying tuned, was an interesting exercise whichever way we approached it.

We went there too when we first travelled overseas. It was also a must see, though mainly for me because my husband hadn't actually read the book. (It had been a set text at school and he'd rebelled.) We sat at breakfast that morning in our little hotel near the Singel Canal, and I heard the bells o...

Just caught up with this. Again. As Imp said, the Rev. Nile represents the Festival of Light, and - to be honest - was more active during the 70s and 80s than now. This appears to be a last hurrah, or one can only hope so. Certainly no one else seems to be taking this seriously. The Rev. Nile consis...