TotallyOz

I hate to dumb found anyone. If I had seen the post and saw it was one of the posters first posts on the site, I would have questioned the motives of the post. I would have more of a struggle if it had come from a poster with a long history of posting on the site. I would have written to him and explained the situation and still removed the post. But, I can't imagine anyone that has over 100 posts on this site posting a link to something that could potentially damage someone's reputation and career. Most of the posters on this site would not have done that. IMHO

The post would have been down immediately if there was a Report this Post to Moderators OR if we had seen it. As soon as seen, we took action. One poster alerted us to this and we appreciate it. If you ever see a thread that you think should not be here, please report it to us. We will then get that and log in and take a look. TY did this as fast as he could and with a great deal of explanation. If I had seen it first, I would have just removed it and then banned the poster. TY had a more sensible approach.

Hard to believe 11 years have passed since this. I remember it almost like it was yesterday and still my eyes welt up when I think of it. http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2009/10/we-held-our-breath.html

— President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. In a stunning surprise, the Nobel Committee announced in Oslo that it has awarded the annual prize to the president “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” The award cited in particular Mr. Obama’s effort to reduce the world’s nuclear arsenal. “He has created a new international climate,” the committee said. The announcement, coming extraordinarily early in Mr. Obama’s presidency — less than nine months after he took office as the first African American president — shocked people from Norway to Washington. The White House had no idea it was coming. “There has been no discussion, nothing at all,” said Rahm Emanuel, the president’s chief of staff, in a brief telephone interview. Mr. Emanuel said he had not yet spoken directly to the president, but that he believed Mr. Obama may have been informed of the award by his press secretary, Robert Gibbs. There was no official comment from the White House. However, a senior administration official said in an e-mail message that Mr. Gibbs called the White House shortly before 6 a.m. and woke the president with the news. “The president was humbled to be selected by the committee,” the official said, without adding anything further. Mr. Obama made repairing the fractured relations between the United States and the rest of the world a major theme of his campaign for the presidency and since taking office as president, he has pursued a range of policies intended to fulfill that goal. He has vowed to pursue a world without nuclear arms, as he did in a speech in Prague earlier this year, reached out to the Muslim world, delivering a major speech in Cairo in June, and sought to restart peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. “Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the committee said in its citation. “His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.” But while Mr. Obama has generated considerable good will overseas — his foreign counterparts are eager to meet with him, and polls show he is hugely popular around the world — many of his policy efforts have yet to bear fruit, or are only just beginning to. North Korea has defied him with missile tests; Iran, however, recently agreed to restart nuclear talks, which Mr. Obama has called “a constructive beginning.” In that sense, Mr. Obama is unlike past recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize such as former President Jimmy Carter, who won in 2002 for what presenters cited as decades of “untiring efforts” to seek peaceful end to international conflicts. (Mr. Carter failed to win in 1978, as some had expected, after he brokered a historic peace deal between Israel and Egypt.) Thorbjorn Jagland, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and a former prime minister of Norway, said the president had already contributed enough to world diplomacy and international understanding to earn the award. “We are not awarding the prize for what may happen in the future, but for what he has done in the previous year,” Mr. Jagland said. “We would hope this will enhance what he is trying to do.” The prize comes as Mr. Obama faces considerable challenges at home. On the domestic front, he is trying to press Congress to pass major legislation overhauling the nation’s health care system. On the foreign policy front, he is wrestling with declining support in his own party for the war in Afghanistan. The White House is engaged in an internal debate over whether to send more troops there, as Mr. Obama’s commanding general has requested. Mr. Obama also suffered a rejection on the world stage when he traveled to Copenhagen only last Friday to press the United States’ unsuccessful bid to host the Olympics in Chicago. Mr. Emanuel, who heard the news at 5 a.m. when he was heading out for his morning swim, said he joked to his wife, “Oslo beats Copenhagen.” But rebuffs have been rare for Mr. Obama as he has traveled the world these past nine months — from Africa to Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, with a trip to Asia planned for November. In April, just hours after North Korea tested a ballistic missile in defiance of international sanctions, he told a huge crowd in Prague that he is committed to “a world without nuclear weapons.” For the rest of the article, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/10nobel.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

I have just tested this on Firefox, Safari and IE and did not get any X's and got 11 different reviews. May I suggest you clear your cache and restart your browser to see if this makes a difference. Is anyone else seeing what DicknLA is seeing? This is the image he sent to me and I can't replicate it. What is see is in the above image. Any others see this?

Can you send this via e-mail to maleescortreview@gmail.com and I'll convert to JPG and upload. Also, are others getting this?

I have 120k miles this year. I need 5k more miles to make their highest tier. I have a few trips planned and can easily make that. But, they now offer roll-over miles. If I don't make the next tier, I will roll over 45k miles into next year and only need one long trip to get to Platinum again. I don't see the benefits of Diamond vs. Platinum with their new program. At least not that much difference. Any one see things I am missing?

Leafy greens -- including lettuce and spinach -- top the list of the 10 riskiest foods, according to a study from a nutrition advocacy group released Tuesday. The Center for Science in the Public Interest listed the following foods, in descending order, as the most risky in terms of outbreaks: leafy greens, eggs, tuna, oysters, potatoes, cheese, ice cream, tomatoes, sprouts and berries. The scientists rated these foods, all of them regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, by the number of outbreaks associated with them since 1990, and also provided the number of recorded illnesses. The severity of the illnesses ranged from minor stomach aches to death, the center said. With leafy greens such as lettuce, the top cause of illness were pathogens like E. coli, Norovirus and Salmonella in foods that were not properly washed. Over the past 20 years, leafy greens caused 363 outbreaks, resulting in 13,568 reported illnesses, the center said. That's compared to berries, No. 10 on the list, which were associated with 25 outbreaks totaling 3,397 reported illnesses. "Leafy greens are a healthy home run, but unfortunately they're associated with food-borne illness," said Sarah Klein, a staff lawyer with the center who helped prepared the study. In all, the Top 10 resulted in more than 1,500 outbreaks, totaling nearly 50,000 reported illnesses, according to the center, which added that most food-related illnesses don't get treated or reported, so the real total is likely much larger. "Millions of consumers are being made ill, hundreds of thousands hospitalized and thousands are dying each year from preventable foodborne illnesses," the study said. "Unfortunately, the FDA is saddled with outdated laws, and lacks the authority, tools and resources to fight unsafe food." Food producers, including the Western Growers Association, released statements criticizing the report. "Farmers are consumers, too," the association said, in a release from spokesman Paul Simonds. "They eat the fresh produce they grow as do the members of their families, and have invested millions of dollars enhancing food safety practices in the last few years. Scaring people away from eating some of the healthiest foods on the planet, like fresh produce, does not serve consumers." Salmonella was also a chief culprit in egg, cheese and tomato-related illnesses, the study said, in cases when eggs are undercooked and when cheese is not processed properly. Salmonella can be difficult to remove from raw tomatoes without cooking, according to the study. The study also associated Salmonella and E. coli with potatoes. Klein said this generally happens when cold-prepared potato items, such as potato salad, are mixed with other contaminated ingredients. Unrefrigerated fresh tuna deteriorates quickly, the study said, releasing harmful toxins, and canned tuna gets dragged into the picture because of mixed-in ingredients such as mayonnaise. Improperly washed oysters are at risk of Norovirus. Rich Ruais, executive director of the Blue Water Fisherman Association and the American Blue Fin Tuna Association in Salem, N.H., disagreed with the study's "bad rap" on tuna. "Tuna? I beg to differ," he said. "Tuna is one of the healthiest foods on the Earth. It's life sustaining; it's life prolonging." Ruais said the tuna-based diet of Japanese citizens plays a big part in their high average longevity. He also said the FDA strictly mandates that tuna is gutted and stuffed with ice immediately after it's caught by commercial fisherman, and submerged in slush once it gets to shore, to prevent risk of pathogens. More surprisingly, bacteria can also survive in ice cream, primarily from the Salmonella contamination of eggs, an important ingredient that is sometimes undercooked, the study said. Much of the study's blame goes to a 1994 outbreak that sickened thousands of ice cream lovers in 41 states. The National Milk Producers Federation released a statement criticizing the report as "based on outdated information." "Cheese and ice cream products are among the safest, most stringently regulated foods in this country," said the federation, in its release. "The cheese examples in this report mostly concern consumption of raw milk products, which neither [the] FDA nor the dairy industry recommends. The ice cream example is 15 years old and was an isolated incident." http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Dangerous-foods-list-includes-cnnm-1143667599.html?x=0

One of my favorite writers/actors just told about his childhood and abuse that he suffered. Here is the CNN article I read. There's nothing funny about Tyler Perry's latest work: a revealing account of the horrific abuse he suffered as a child. Tyler Perry is the executive producer of the well-received new film "Precious." "I always thought I would die before I grew up," the comedian writes in an uncharacteristically somber letter to fans on his Web site. After watching a screening of the lauded movie "Precious," about a 16-year-old girl who is physically and emotionally abused, the New Orleans native, 40, best known for his comic Madea character, reveals a flood of memories came back, and that "a large part of my childhood had just played out before my eyes." Beginning with his mother's failed attempt to leave his abusive father, Perry recounts a horrific list of beatings and hardships he suffered. "My father came home, mad at the world," he writes. "He was drunk, as he was most of the time. He got the vacuum cleaner extension cord and trapped me in a room and beat me until the skin was coming off my back." Perry goes on to relate accounts of being seduced by a friend's mother at age 10, to being molested by another friend's father, to finding out that his own father was molesting a friend. And he tells of how his grandmother made a bizarre attempt to rid him of his allergies. Don't Miss "She said she was going to kill these germs on me once and for all," he says. "She gave me a bath in ammonia." But seeing "Precious," he said, helped him realize once again that he had survived it all. "It hit me so hard, I sat there in tears realizing that somehow, by the grace of God, I made it through," writes Perry, who signed on as an executive producer on the film, which was also produced by Oprah Winfrey. "My tears were tears of joy, being thankful that I made it." And the most important lesson of all? Learning to forgive, he says. "I know that there are a lot of people out there with stories far worse than mine but you, too, can make it. To those of you who have, welcome to life. I celebrate you," he said. "We're all PRECIOUS in His sight." http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/06/tyler.perry.abused/index.html

The attached jpg is what I get when I do the search you do. Are you getting the same or something different? For party, you and I think the same. I think that means do they PNP some. I am not sure that the meaning has changed over the years. Has it?

I have been wanting to see this. It is not yet showing where I am at. Anyone else gotten a chance to preview it?

Once our redo is complete and all the bugs and issues worked out, the programmers will start implementing ways for escorts to add videos to their profiles. Any suggestions on how you would like this to work? Other things you would like to see? Interviews? Etc. ???

Much of the debate over legalizing gay marriage has focused on God and Scripture, the Constitution and equal protection. But we see the world through the prism of money. And for years, we’ve heard from gay couples about all the extra health, legal and other costs they bear. So we set out to determine what they were and to come up with a round number — a couple’s lifetime cost of being gay. It was much more complicated than we initially imagined, and that’s probably why we’ve never seen similar efforts. We looked at benefits that routinely go to married heterosexual couples but not to gay couples, like certain Social Security payments. We plotted out the cost of health insurance for couples whose employers don’t offer it to domestic partners. Even tax preparation can cost more, since gay couples have to file two sets of returns. Still, many couples may come out ahead in one area: they owe less in income taxes because they’re not hit with the so-called marriage penalty. Our goal was to create a hypothetical gay couple whose situation would be similar to a heterosexual couple’s. So we gave the couple two children and assumed that one partner would stay home for five years to take care of them. We also considered the taxes in the three states that have the highest estimated gay populations — New York, California and Florida. We gave our couple an income of $140,000, which is about the average income in those three states for unmarried same-sex partners who are college-educated, 30 to 40 years old and raising children under the age of 18. Here is what we came up with. In our worst case, the couple’s lifetime cost of being gay was $467,562. But the number fell to $41,196 in the best case for a couple with significantly better health insurance, plus lower taxes and other costs. These numbers will vary, depending on a couple’s income and circumstance. Gay couples earning, say, $80,000, could have health insurance costs similar to our hypothetical higher-earning couple, but they might well owe more in income taxes than their heterosexual counterparts. For wealthy couples with a lot of assets, on the other hand, the cost of being gay could easily spiral into the millions. Nearly all the extra costs that gay couples face would be erased if the federal government legalized same-sex marriage. One exception is the cost of having biological children, but we felt it was appropriate to include this given our goal of outlining every cost gay couples incur that heterosexual couples may not. Our analysis is not exact science. Not every couple would get married if they could, and others would not want to have children. We also made a number of assumptions based on average costs, life spans, state of residence and gender. Our gay family is made up of two women living in New York State in a committed partnership that lasts 46 years, until the first partner dies at age 81. We ran two sets of calculations: in the one that turned out to be our worst case financially, one woman earned $110,000 and the other $30,000. In our second couple, both partners earned $70,000. We started running the numbers when both were age 35. We received assistance from Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, who performed our tax analysis, which required simulating more than 900 income tax returns, in part because we followed the partners for 50 years. We also decided to run all scenarios across the three states so that the results would not be skewed by different state taxes. We’ve outlined all the detail in a workbook linked to the online version of this column. As for the emotional costs of living with these added complexities, they can’t be quantified. Frederick Hertz, a lawyer in Oakland, Calif., who works with same-sex couples, likens heterosexual marriage to being in the car pool lane. “Being part of a same-sex couple, it’s always stop. Wait. Pay a toll,” he said. Harvey Hurdle, who lives in Philadelphia with his partner and their young son, said he was reminded of the disparities every time his Social Security statement arrived in the mail. “It’s pretty insulting,” he said. “It says your spouse would get this much. And it’s like, ‘Oh no he won’t!’ ” Health Insurance In our worst case, the lower earner’s employer did not provide health insurance and her partner’s employer didn’t cover domestic partners. So the lower earner had to buy coverage on the private market, while the higher-earning partner provided coverage for herself and the two children. All this cost the gay couple $211,993 more than their heterosexual married counterparts, who were able to take advantage of the higher-earner’s family coverage. In our best case, health coverage cost the gay couple $28,595 more. We assumed both gay partners were eligible for employer-provided coverage. The higher-earner’s employer also provided domestic partner coverage, which covered her partner for the five years she stayed at home. When she returned to work, she used her own employer’s insurance. For the rest of this story go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/your-money/03money.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

There is a hyperlink on the banner management area that allows for Silver and Gold members to use the site without the 4 banners there. It does make things look very nice and I hope many will take advantage of this. The Flirt4Free guys stay there as they are not part of that system. All other ads will not be seen by Paid Members.

It is about time to move away from this policy. It was absurd to begin with and I was very disappointed in the President that caved in and allowed it!

Part of the new build for the site has included Most Popular Profiles for the Day, Week and Forever. We also added Hottest Images where logged in members can rate escort photos. I think both areas will be a great new way to find hot talent. Check them out at: http://www.maleescortreview.com/index.php?file=most_popular_profiles http://www.maleescortreview.com/index.php?file=member_hottest_images

I ask the programmers if a way to bookmark inside. I don't get the same results. I get only those areas with cities that are active. Can you walk me through the steps you used to get to this? I think because the registration allowed him to register with a space in his name. This should not be allowed and I have corrected this. Try viewing KevinR. yes, simple searches are still there under searches and at the top menu bar just type a name. This is now changed. Take a look and let me know what you guys think.

Did not mean to sound like Mommy or Daddy. I thought your proposal was good. I just don't have the time right now to do it. When a new site launches, there are tons of issues which go on behind the scenes. Literally hundreds of small issues that we need to fix and check and double check. As someone who has always wanted a Political forum, I see great value in it. It is on the to do list and was not trying to be dismissive at all.

It is something we can talk about for sure. I agree. I asked the programmers to remove.

Ok Tomcal! Honestly, did you make up this list? Come on, tell us the truth.

It is possible over time. Right now, we have about 100 other issues related to the site that we are working with programmers on daily. Once things settle down, we'll have some time to go over the forums closely.

I am back in the USA for a few months. I had quite a few family matters to take care of. I left from the airport and onto Delta. The trip was the most turbulent I have ever been on. I spilled my OJ on the guy next to me. It was not the first mishap. The plane rocked all night long. The flight attendants did tell me that starting next week they are changing planes from the BKK to Tokyo route and it will double in size. I had use miles to upgrade and was happy to have a seat that did not throw me in the lap of the guy next to me. Security is Bangkok airport is now right out of Immigration. You still CANNOT bring water or drinks onto the plane. There was a fight that ensued with one customer as he bought right outside of gate and it was confiscated and he was thoroughly searched. Be careful not to make the same mistake. I was told I could get on an earlier flight in Tokyo if when I got there I asked. I did and was told, "no time to get your luggage on this flight so no." I would have switched tickets at the Bangkok airport if I had known this was an issue. As it was, I had about 4 hours in Tokyo and I used the airport lounge. It now is Delta and no NWA words anywhere. Even in Bangkok, no sign for NWA, only Delta. My blond brain got a bit confused as I didn't see NWA and finally asked was was pointed to Delta. Duh. I should have know that with all the recent e-mails. All the flight attendants I spoke to do now know what to expect once the merger happens in full. One pilot said he had given his notice. It will be interested to see what happens with all this. Lastly, customs in USA is a nightmare. I was prechecked outside of security, went through immigration and then rechecked at the baggage claim area and then again upon exit. That was 4 different officers before it was decided if I had to go through a through screening. I had a dog sniff me twice. Luckily, I guess I smelled like I had been on a plane for 24 hours and he liked it and licked me instead of barking at me.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - So you're moving from the United States to another country and the most important thing you can think of is how you can watch the new season of "American Idol"? You're not alone -- "placeshifting" is one of the hottest new areas in TV technology. People no longer need to live in a country to see all of their local TV stations. In fact, they don't even need a TV anymore. There are platforms for watching popular shows on the Internet and there is technology to actually make a full television feed available just like in the living room. Either way, it can be relatively cheap and surprisingly easy to keep up while on an overseas assignment. PLACESHIFTING The best-known technology for moving an entire TV feed from one place to another is the Slingbox (www.slingbox.com), which came out a few years ago. Although the developer was later acquired by satellite company EchoStar, the device works with any platform, even an over-the-air antenna. The Slingbox, which currently comes in two models starting at $180, connects to a video feed and to the Internet, and lets users watch that feed as though they were in the same room. It even offers an on-screen remote control for changing channels, pausing, opening menus, and so on. The Slingbox is available for Windows and Mac, as well as the BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Symbian and classic Palm mobile platforms. One downside of the Slingbox, though, is that it does not offer wireless support out of the box, meaning users need to put their Slingbox close to their Internet router or buy a separate wireless or home powerline adapter. Also, it is not designed to let users record video onto computers. For those who want wireless or who want to record to a PC, Monsoon Multimedia's Hava Media Player (www.myhava.com) offers many of those features. It leverages the Windows Media Center software to turn a PC into a personal video recorder, using a remote video stream from a Hava box. Hava has four models that start at $120. However, Hava does not offer a Mac version, and its cellular support is limited to Symbian and Windows Mobile. Hava also charges a subscription fee for some services. The problem with the Slingbox and the Hava is that if something goes wrong overseas -- a power outage, a broken cable, an overly inquisitive cat -- they can be difficult or impossible to fix. For American expats with money to burn and a need for guaranteed service, there are options like Nationphone & TV. The company will actually sign you up for cable service, put your cable box in their data center and stream the output to you over a fiber-optic connection. The service costs $99 a month for 65 channels without a digital video recorder, or $199 a month for 200 channels with a recorder and premium movie stations. There is also a one-time set-up fee of $175. http://www.nationphone.com/USATVabroad.html THE INTERNET Some people are content with just a few shows, though, and don't necessarily need to watch the Sunday morning current affairs program from their local public access channel. For those TV junkies, there are services like Hulu.com and TV.com in the United States and the BBC iPlayer in Britain. They are, very simply, TV aggregators that offer free streaming of episodes of many new and classic shows. One problem, though: Unlike placeshifting hardware, you can't watch these services just anywhere. Copyright rules and advertiser demands mean that they are largely unavailable outside their home territories, although they are useful when you're on the road in your home country. Hulu was founded by NBC Universal and News Corp, and TV.com is owned by CBS Corp. (Reporting by Ben Berkowitz; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn) http://in.reuters.co...-42659920090923

Sorry, but for those of you that had avatars in the old forum, you will need to upload them again in this one. I apologize for this. I have tried my best to recover them and move them over but with no luck. My sincere apologies. Please everyone, upload an avatar! You can do this by clicking on your name in the forum top right, Going to My Settings, Then Profile and on the right hand side, you can add one. From this area, you can also change your notifications, add photos, create a blog, etc. Thanks!

Agree. All the threads were combined with other forums. None were deleted but moved. Many of the forums themselves have been removed to make the forums less clutter. I am thinking of even downsizing more. I have wanted this for a long time. I love politics. I have created this forum. TY and I disagree on this and he will most likely prove to be right in the end (he usually does). I hope we can have a civil discussion in that forum and things not get nasty. But, the forum is now there! Looking for the first post!