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What struck me about that article is that it could have been written before the election - well before - but it wasn't.

I really enjoyed Cloud Atlas. Didn't see how they could make a movie out of that book, but they did! And I could watch Ben Wishaw for days.

Perhaps I was a Nate Silver follower somewhat early in this election, but MsGuy was the one who showed us how to make money off of it. If we'd bought 75-cent Obama when they were selling it, we'd have had a 33 percent return in a month. And those who had bet a hundred dollars on the chance that Obama would win the Electoral College by 91 points would now have enough to spend an hour with someone like Benjamin Nicholas! Plus twenty bucks worth of Handi Wipes. Talk about cleaning up! (Please note this is not a picture of Benjamin Nicholas and is for illustrative purposes only.)

You've lost Lucky again?? Either you have become rather careless of late, or our friend Lucky is even slipperier than we thought. But I think this thread does highlight the need for a new level of membership. I recall wondering, not so long ago, if I would ever reach the rarefied status of Olympian Member. At a thousand posts, it gave me something to shoot for. Now, even I have reached that exalted level, while others have qualified five times over! Isn't it high time we have a new level of membership to reflect the heroic efforts of our most prolific posters? In keeping with the current theme, I'll suggest Rampant Member for those topping five thousand posts. Any other ideas for a suitable honorific? Shall we have a contest? Maybe even with prizes?

And Israel.

There are two other California propositions that will have a major effect on state finances and political power, and both took a surprising turn today when a curtain was lifted to reveal the big money involved in passing one and defeating the other. Proposition 30 is Governor Jerry Brown's attempt to avoid major cuts in education by raising the state sales tax and increasing taxes on high-income earners. And Proposition 32 would limit the role of unions in California politics by preventing them from collecting campaign funds from members, even though there are no such restrictions on the corporations who wrote and support the proposition. Not only are the typical suspects spending millions to defeat Proposition 30 and pass Proposition 32, but last month an Arizona nonprofit donated $11 million to California groups trying to torpedo the tax and muzzle the unions. Something smelled fishy to Governor Brown who wondered where a minor Arizona nonprofit would come up with $11 million and why it would spend that much on two pieces of California legislation. He wanted to know, and thought California voters had the right to know, who was behind the money. And he wanted voters to know before they voted tomorrow. If this were a national election, we wouldn't know until after the election, but California laws are different from federal laws and the California Supreme Court told the Arizona group they had to come clean. Which they did today, one day ahead of voters going to the polls. Through a convoluted set of maneuvers, which State Attorney General Kamala Harris has branded political money-laundering, the money trail leads from the Arizona group, Americans for Responsible Leadership, backwards to a group called Americans for Job Security, and back again to a group called The Center to Protect Patient Rights. The Center to Protect Patient Rights has pumped millions into the Romney campaign in recent months, and tens of millions into the 2010 mid-term Congressional elections in support of conservative candidates. The Center's president is a guy named Sean Noble who, wouldn't you know, turns out to be a front for - wait for it - none other than the fabulous furry Koch Brothers! If they'll pull this kind of shit to cover their tracks in a state ballot, imagine what they're up to at the national level. Of course, thanks to Citizens United, corporations are people too. Just not the kind of people I'd casually turn my back on.

Whatever you do, please don't spritz the kneepads.

isn't the Presidential vote, although I can't wait to hang my chad on that one. But even more important for me is California Proposition 34, which does away with the death penalty. For the first time, it's started leading in the polls. Some of the recent support comes from folks who have concluded that it's just too expensive to kill other folks. Fine by me if that's what brings them into the tent. I'm just hoping California can join the seventeen other states, and the District of Columbia, who don't have it. Not to mention all the other countries who manage to get along without it.

I was poking around with the Sony TV I got from Costco last year, and found it already knows how to hook up to the internet. So, as far as I know, I can sign up for Netflix or Roku and stream it without a separate box. If you have a recent TV, it might be worth checking to see if it already has built-in WiFi. Still haven't decided between Netflix and Roku, as I just don't watch enough TV to be lured in. Like some of you, I also dumped everything but Comcast Basic and the only thing I really miss is the Property Brothers.

Don't know if it's related but I also noticed an anomaly with logging out. After I logged out, the mini-profile screen - the one that pops up when you hold the cursor over your screen name - would show me as still being ONLINE . I didn't test it by trying to post or anything. I just logged in and logged out again, and the ONLINE symbol would be replaced by the OFFLINE symbol, as it should have been the first time. This happened regularly for a week or so, right after the site was rebranded, but I haven't noticed it lately. Perhaps just a bit of sand in the gears that's worked its way through. Mac with Safari browser.

Wedding bands sterilized, glasses dipped in bleach, and the flower boy sprayed for lice, guests prepare to toast the Happy Couple.

With the new smaller banner, the Log In button now disappears below the banner, unless I set the type fairly small. Might I suggest swapping places between the Log In button and the Keep Me Logged In checkbox? This is fairly minor and there's no rush, as I can temporarily reduce the font size to log in and then increase it in order to be able to read the posts comfortably.

Egged on by his boyfriends, OZ agrees to referee a game of Ping Pong Pussy. He vows to get even.

Thanks ever so for the offer, hito, but I'm afraid the way you've been shopping it around lately your nougat might be a little dusty.

Honestly! I'm wondering if he might be due for a new avatar.

. . . . . I Love BoyToy.com ! . . . . . I Love BoyToy.com ! . . . . . I Love BoyToy.com ! . . . . I Miss MER ! ! . . . . .v I Love BoyToy.com ! . . . . . I Love BoyToy.com ! . . . . I Love BoyToy.com ! . . . I Love BoyToy.com ! . . I Love BoyToy.com ! . I Love BoyToy.com ! I Love BoyToy.com !

NCBored, my setup is similar to EXPAT's, although not as extensive. Having just got my first smartphone, I had the same question you did regarding how much data I'd use and how much it would cost. Here's what I've learned so far: . When I'm at home, playing music and video that's already stored on my iPhone is done over my own wireless home network and there's no data usage charge for that. . Also, when I'm at home, downloading new video and music onto my iPhone is done over my cable modem which is connected to my wireless home network. I pay Comcast (my internet service provider) a flat monthly fee of $30 for unlimited data over the internet. So I don't worry about data usage or extra charges. . When I'm away from home, I often find a free WiFi hotspot that connects me to the internet and lets me download new video and music with no data usage charge. (Free hotspots may be slow.) . When I'm away from home and can't find a free WiFi hotspot, only then do I connect to AT&T's network and pay them for the data usage required to download new music or video. I pay AT&T $30 a month for 3GB of data usage and $10 for every 1GB over that. As a rule of thumb, downloading a standard definition movie would use about 1GB per hour and a high definition movie would use about 2GB per hour. Downloading music is a small fraction of that, as is downloading email unless it contains a video file or lots of pictures. . That means the only time I'd really have to worry about data usage is downloading a movie when I'm on AT&T's network, away from home and away from a free WiFi hotspot. So far, I haven't been in a situation where I've needed to do that and would try to avoid it. So the short answer to your question is "No, you probably won't incur any data usage charges using your iPhone as a digital hub for your home entertainment system." Hope the other info was helpful.

Deciding "There's no place like home!" is a big load of crap, and getting absolutely nowhere by clicking his heels, the wannabe boytoy checks for cheap airfares back to OZ.

Just logged in (and posted!) with iPhone 5.

Thanks. I also figured out a couple of tweaks in my browser (Safari) that made the wide black borders much less intrusive. Still black, of course, but much less funereal. Should have realized, but didn't at first, that a major overhaul like the one you folks have done might require some changes in my browser settings. Still trying to figure out what I can do to keep my browser toolbar from disappearing when I open profile windows. I can add it back manually, but need to do it every time I open a profile window. Other windows retain the toolbar, but profile windows don't. The toolbar is especially convenient in the profile windows as it lets me easily zoom the rather tiny default text. Since you asked, the "Total Members" statistics to the right of the Boy Toy logo may be in search of a better layout/placement. They look fine when I have text set to a small font, but they extend past the bottom of the banner into never-never land when I use a larger font. Perhaps they could be placed in a horizontal box of their own, or moved to the bottom of the screen where they won't muck up the primary site banner. As if you had to ask this crowd for guidance!

Hate to carp, but the new color scheme might turn me taphephobic. Stylish, no doubt, but the heavy black borders all round make me feel like I'm gazing skyward from a grave. Maybe after Halloween, we could get back to something more cheerful? ( Fully prepared to learn, however, that my druthers don't reflect the site's new direction. )

Owing to a translation glitch, the New MER makes an unexpected debut. AdamSmith upgrades to Gold.

With a site shutdown hanging over our heads, who can sleep?

Had a similar conversation last week with some friends, one of whom felt there was something going on with Obama that we don't know about yet: perhaps some bad personal news prior to the debate. All conjecture, of course, but he did seem to miss some easy opportunities to refute Romney's 'obfuscations'. My own response was that, whatever the outcome, I'm not looking for Obama to stop being Obama and try to out-Romney Romney. While the pendulum does need to swing more toward calling Romney out clearly, I would not be happy to see Obama turn into a Romney-like performer who lacks honesty, decency, and a moral compass, all in the interest of 'winning' a debate. I think he's better than that and so are we.