mike carey

This afternoon the Senate passed the Equal Marriage bill. The vote was 43-12 in the 76 seat chamber (some senators were absent on business or personal leave [one Canberra senator was at the children's hospital in Sydney where her child is undergoing surgery] and had 'pairs' [a agreement under which does not vote]). Some senate positions are vacant, and some abstained. The bill was passed as it had originally been presented to Parliament, with a raft of 'religious freedom' amendments all defeated. The bill will be debated in the House of Representatives next week, as it isn't sitting this week.

No. Next time look at the whole sign on screen and see if there's a 'keep me signed in' box to check and make sure that you have checked it.

Correctamundo, but it's my term it wasn't an official one. There was no single day when everything changed. Road signs, for example, changed in 1974. Milk, delivered in reusable glass bottle at the time were first labelled as 568ml, and gradually the bottles were replaced by 600ml ones (now only sold in shops in 1, 2 or 3 litre plastic bottles).

Yes, when we are socialised with the view that it is an inevitable scourge it is hard to come to terms with the advances in treatment and what they actually mean. To me what is important is not whether as individuals we can accept the newly accepted science, but whether society at large can come to terms with it. And importantly what it means to HIV+ people. Specialists know what is happening, and that U=U (to all intents and purposes) but from the article, the general medical community is as yet unaware or unconvinced by the current specialist consensus. It's important that even if there is one case where the consensus is wrong that such a case isn't seen as disproving the science on which that consensus was based. The strongest message I took from the article was the one in the last couple of paragraphs: “I’ll never forget him saying those words, ‘You can’t transmit the virus if you’re undetectable,’ ” the 47-year-old substitute teacher recalled. “And I said, ‘Wait, what?’ “It was like the sky opened. Are you kidding? There’s, like, zero risk? I don’t feel like I’m a threat anymore. I don’t feel like I’m dirty. I don’t feel like I’m a dangerous person.”

As far as I'm aware, management can control who can be members of the forum (and hence who can post) but there is no way of controlling who reads it. So, everything we say is, to all intents and purposes, fully in the public domain.

But it's not. A pint is 20 fl oz in the UK (and was here before M day). And unlike the actual or implied set measurement of talking about a pint of berries, a punnet is the container, and there is no set weight/mass that it holds, nor is there a standard size.

Oops, divided by a common language again. Yes, a small basket (or similar container). Usually about 300g of fruit [c. 10 ounces].

The jam would certainly work, although I would be inclined to use a punnet of fresh raspberries or a cup of frozen raspberries (thawed) folded through the chocolate. [Half kilo or even 1 kg bags of frozen berries are readily available here, so I assume they are in the US too. And now at the start of summer you have to fight your way through the shelves of fresh berries in the F&V section.]

Happy Turkey Day everyone!! (From a country where it passes completely without comment or mention.)

Can't be too careful about Kansas City. Oh, no offence @bigjoey.

This is a start. https://m4m-forum.org/threads/411-aj-irons.126231/ I've read a lot of good and very little bad in here over time.

Canberra's newly painted roundabout ... [ATTACH=full]14526[/ATTACH]

The British were in India for 250 years. It's entirely possible that if you have British antecedents there could have been an Indian link in there somewhere. Those liaisons happened and are not always remembered beyond a few generations. In less enlightened times I can remember older people (such as my grandmother, who was born in 1893) referring to others having 'a touch of the tar brush' meaning they allegedly had some indigenous ancestry. The timeframe in Australia is far shorter than the British history in India, and there are first Australians who know of, and identify with their ethnicity but do not 'appear' to be indigenous. As noted above, there is also the possibility that it's an error in the margins of the test.

There is a news announcer here, Kumi Taguchi, who was a mainstream news announcer on ABC TV but is now hosting another program. Her mother was Anglo and her father Japanese, she grew up in Australia. Kumi presents as an archetypal Australian, but she does acknowledge her heritage. For the most part, no-one notices her, or other presenters who are Asian or of Asian descent any more than they notice Emma Alberici. One of them, Jason Om did draw attention to himself though, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-15/same-sex-marriage-how-my-dad-changed-his-mind/9152518

Umm, there have been posters who identify as Asian posting since the thread was opened.

When I was in the air force I had one guy of Asian descent work for me. His last name was Ng. When people asked him where he was from he would say he came from a little fishing port. And then add, 'Fremantle'.

I know I am speaking from afar and that Las Vegas is in my future not my present or past, but 12 months ago I was prepared, if I were to visit, to contemplate Mr Atlas despite his bad rep. The last year as brought no public indications that he is improving, quite the contrary. I wouldn't have had a prearranged Plan B, I think that is disrespectful. I may have had an emergency replacement contact list, as Latbear suggests, but more likely to use the next day rather than immediately. (I wouldn't plan nightly trysts, just a small number over a few days.) Peter would have been my Plan A, and as I read his posts over the last while, nothing has changed my view. Now, to arrange that trip!

In the list of conversations, check the boxes to the left of the titles you want to delete from your list, and in the dialogue box click the down arrow for the dropdown menu to appear, and select 'leave conversations'.

To me the term 'dinner party' is the key, and I'm not sure my interpretation is the same as would apply in the US. To me, a dinner party is one where tables are set, and there are only place settings for the invited guests, in which case the guest list should be the end of it. If one of the hosts invited an additional guest, they would only have done so if catering and seating could be adjusted, and as a host they would know whether it could. If it were a buffet dinner then there could be more flexibility, but unless +1 was specified, a guest bringing someone with them is not appropriate.

It's been explained somewhere before, the default start time of the underlying program for the forum is 0000 hours UTC on 1 January 1970, and some bios don't have an actual start date so default to that time and date. If you are in the US when you read them it shows up at what your local date would have been then, and that would be 31 Dec (as it would have been 1900 EST etc on that day). If I look at those same bios I should see 1 Jan 70 as that day had already started here at 0000 UTC.

Bon anniversaire!

Yes, the legislation was introduced into the Senate on Wednesday and the second reading began on Thursday, the whole day devoted to it. Next sitting week will debate amendments, and even the more conservative ministers are saying that as important as religious freedoms are (or 'might be', I would say), they are a separate issue and should not be included in this bill, it was about one thing. The senator who introduced the Bill and the leader of the opposition in the Senate both spoke movingly about their experiences and the importance of the change, and both received standing ovations from the whole Senate. When it passes the Senate it will go to the House of Representatives, and it is anticipated that the House will not rerun the amendment debates that were run in the Senate. The expectation is that it will pass before Christmas. Senator Dean Smith, who introduced the Bill has said he plans to have a Royal Assent party. The latest speculation is that 15 Dec will be the start date, which given the requirement for 30 days' notice of intention to marry would mean January weddings. The sister of the former (anti-equal marriage) PM, who had planned a 2 Feb wedding at the British Consulate now plans an Australian wedding on the same date.

The 2010 World Cup final was played at Soccer City. Ia Australia, the Australian Football League and Football Federation Australia involve completely different sports. Rather than two sports in the US, when used colloquially, the word 'football' could be used of four different sports depending on where and who you are.

Well, it's not the first time that this interpretation of 'Fly United' has prevailed!

So, on national television, from the Yes celebration in inner Canberra, the gay anchor of the ABC TV evening news bulletin in the ACT interviews the gay Chief Minister about the 74% yes vote in the territory!