TotallyOz

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!

No, it is still there. Hit the quote button directly below the thread. If you want to reply to 10 different posters in that thread, hit Multi-Quote and it will place all those quotes in the reply box. It is MUCH easier than the other forum software once you get use to it.

Something is always off when trying to do anything from the Forum area. They are working on this. If you are on main part of site and not forum, this should be solved now. They still have some issues with the forum area. Not the forum itself, but the headers and footers and tabs when someone is in the forum. They are working on this.

Thanks. These have not been corrected. Please let me know if other issues with this.

(CNN) -- Filmmaker Roman Polanski has been arrested on an arrest warrant stemming from a decades-old sex charge, Swiss police said Sunday. The Academy Award-winning director pleaded guilty in 1977 to a single count of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, acknowledging he had sex with a 13-year-old girl, but fled the United States before he could be sentenced. U.S. authorities issued a warrant for his arrest in 1978. He was taken into custody trying to enter Switzerland on Saturday, Zurich police said. Polanski has lived in France for decades to avoid being arrested if he enters the U.S. He declined to collect his Academy Award for Best Director in person when he won it for "The Pianist" in 2003. He was en route to the Zurich Film Festival, which is holding a tribute to him, when he was arrested by Swiss authorities, the festival said. Polanski was nominated for best director Oscars for "Tess" and "Chinatown," and for best writing for "Rosemary's Baby," which he also directed. "Roman Polanski, who is one of the greatest film directors of all time, would have been honored for his life's work in Zurich today," the film festival said in a statement. "However yesterday, on Saturday, he was taken into custody while attempting to enter Switzerland due to a request by U.S. authorities in connection with an arrest warrant from 1978." Polanski was accused of plying a 13-year-old girl with champagne and a sliver of a quaalude tablet and performing various sex acts, including intercourse, with her during a photo shoot at actor Jack Nicholson's house. Nicholson was not at home, but his girlfriend at the time, actress Anjelica Huston, was. According to a probation report contained in the filing, Huston described the victim as "sullen." "She appeared to be one of those kind of little chicks between -- could be any age up to 25. She did not look like a 13-year-old scared little thing," Huston said. She added that Polanski did not strike her as the type of man who would force himself on a young girl. "I don't think he's a bad man," she said in the report. "I think he's an unhappy man." Polanski pleaded guilty to a single count of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. There have been repeated attempts to settle the case over the years, but the sticking point has always been Polanski's refusal to return to attend hearings. Prosecutors have consistently argued that it would be a miscarriage of justice to allow a man to go free who "drugged and raped a 13-year-old child." Polanski's lawyers tried earlier this year to have the charges thrown out, but a Los Angeles judge rejected the request. In doing so, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza left the door open to reconsider his ruling if Polanski shows up in court. Espinoza also appeared to acknowledge problems with the way the 76-year-old director's case was handled years ago. According to court documents, Polanski, his lawyer and the prosecutor thought they'd worked out a deal that would spare Polanski from prison and let the young victim avoid a public trial. But the original judge in the case, who is now dead, first sent the director to maximum-security prison for 42 days while he underwent psychological testing. Then, on the eve of his sentencing, the judge told attorneys he was inclined to send Polanski back to prison for another 48 days. Polanski fled the United States for France, where he was born. In the February hearing, Espinoza mentioned a documentary film that depicts backroom deals between prosecutors and a media-obsessed judge who was worried his public image would suffer if he didn't send Polanski to prison. "It's hard to contest some of the behavior in the documentary was misconduct," said Espinoza. But he declined to dismiss the case entirely. Legal experts said such a ruling would have been extremely rare. Polanski's victim is among those calling for the case to be tossed out. Samantha Geimer filed court papers in January saying, "I am no longer a 13-year-old child. I have dealt with the difficulties of being a victim, have surmounted and surpassed them with one exception. "Every time this case is brought to the attention of the Court, great focus is made of me, my family, my mother and others. That attention is not pleasant to experience and is not worth maintaining over some irrelevant legal nicety, the continuation of the case." Geimer, now 45, married and a mother of three, sued Polanski and received an undisclosed settlement. She long ago came forward and made her identity public -- mainly, she said, because she was disturbed by how the criminal case had been handled. Following Espinoza's ruling earlier this year, Geimer's lawyer, Larry Silver, said he was disappointed and that Espinoza "did not get to the merits and consider the clear proof of both judicial and prosecutorial corruption." He argued in court that had "Mr. Polanski been treated fairly" his client would not still be suffering because of publicity almost 32 years after the crime. Polanski was arrested two days after one of his wife's killers died. The director's pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, and four others were butchered by members of the "Manson family" in August 1969. By her own admission, Susan Atkins held the eight-months-pregnant Tate down as she pleaded for mercy, stabbing the 26-year-old actress 16 times. Polanski was filming in Europe at the time. Atkins, 61, died Thursday. She had been suffering from terminal brain cancer. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/09/27/zurich.roman.polanski.arrested/index.html

We are trying to come up with a strategy that will keep only active profiles on the site. With new code, we can make the rules automatic. One of the things we want is to weed out old profiles that are non responsive. If an escort doesn't log in for a period of time, we will Inactivate their profile. What time frame should we give in this? 90 days? I was thinking after 30 days on not logging in, sending them an e-mail to suggest they log in and update profile, pics, etc. Again, after 60 but when this is done, tell them after 90 days of not logging in their profile will be removed. On the 90th day, Inactive the profile from the site and all searches. The only way to reactivate it is to log in Contact Admin. This would apply only to profile and not to reviews. Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

We are thinking of moving many of the forums together to make it simpler and easier to find topics. What suggestions do you have? A few options that I can think of. 1. Combining a few of the forums together. Ex. Pornification, Word on the Street, and Beyond Vanilla to The Pub. 2. Letting posts occur in the Main Forum The Pub and then moving them to the appropriate forum after discussion dies down after 30 days. 3. A combination of the 2. 4. Other ideas?

If you go to Reviews, and Then Quick Search and type in the escorts name, does that review appear? That is the way I would do it. What review are you looking for so I can replicate this as well?

We needed to upgrade the code as many parts of it were breaking and the site was not doing well. We also want to add videos and several other new features to the site. Instead of adding those things to a site which was held together by thread, we decided for a new rework. This project has been in the forums for a year now and has been discussed many times. Fixed and fixed. Thanks for the heads up!

Thanks. I see him active and should be set. I have left a note for the programmers to find out the reason why his profile is not showing.

Thanks. What I think happened is that the programmers put the majority of photos in the XXX category and I will now have to go through them individually to classify at G or XXX. There are over 10,000 images and I am working on this right now. I'll try to finish up in next 24 hours. Thanks for the heads up.

Tons of issues with the old site. It was very outdated technology and we spent too much time and money to try to hold it together. It was poorly designed by a team I worked with many years ago and it was all we could do to keep it from crashing. The database was getting too big to control and the speed was getting slower and slower. That on top of many other issues made us make this move. It was holding on by a thread and we decided to fix it. Sorry guys!

First thing I see is that the Southern California search for Escorts does not work properly. I'll have the programmers work on this. Please post any other inconsistencies you see. We did test everything in a beta site but when you move this much data and then try to reconnect all the dots, some of the dots don't get linked. My apologies for the inconveniences over the next few days or next week!

With any new website, there are going to be snags and issues. Please use the Contact Us button or post here to let us know if you find glitches and errors or things that do not work. A special thanks to our beta testers who helped get the site ready and our programmers who worked hard to make this happen.

We will be on and off some over the weekend as we are converting over the site. My apologies for any inconvenience.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Gay rights activists hoping to win back the right to marry in California submitted a ballot proposal on Thursday for the November 2010 election -- a date deep-pocketed advocates have said is too soon. Californians in November voted to ban same-sex marriage after courts made it legal in the spring. Advocates ever since have been debating when to challenge the ban, known as Prop 8, in the state, which is closely divided on the issue despite a social liberal reputation. The Los Angeles group Love Honor Cherish filed a proposed state constitutional amendment that repeals the gay marriage ban and says churches would not be forced to perform any marriage. "Marriage is between only two persons and shall not be restricted on the basis of race, color, creed, ancestry, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation, or religion," the proposed amendment says in part. A new fight to win back the right is expected to cost tens of millions of dollars to mount, and smaller groups are leading the way for the 2010 challenge, hoping grass-roots success will convince and shame wary donors that it is not too soon to return to the polls. Love Honor Cherish estimates it needs a million signatures of support by April to qualify as a ballot proposal. The state attorney general must approve the language before petitions are circulated, Social conservatives with strong grass-roots organizers of their own say they are confident of winning again. Californians' 2008 vote to ban same-sex marriage, months after the state's top court legalized it, bolstered the power of social conservatives and sparked nationwide protests among gays and their allies. It was followed by legalization of gay marriage in a handful of mostly Northeastern states and a court challenge aimed at the U.S. Supreme Court. (Reporting by Peter Henderson; Editing by Doina Chiacu) http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNew...E58O09820090925

A new AIDS vaccine tested on more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand has protected a significant minority against infection, the first time any vaccine against the disease has even partly succeeded in a clinical trial. Scientists said they were delighted but puzzled by the result. The vaccine — a combination of two genetically engineered vaccines, neither of which had worked before in humans — protected too few people to be declared an unqualified success. And the researchers do not know why it worked. “I don’t want to use a word like ‘breakthrough,’ but I don’t think there’s any doubt that this is a very important result,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is one of the trial’s backers. “For more than 20 years now, vaccine trials have essentially been failures,” he went on. “Now it’s like we were groping down an unlit path, and a door has been opened. We can start asking some very important questions.” Results of the trial of the vaccine, known as RV 144, were released at 2 a.m. Eastern time Thursday in Thailand by the partners that ran the trial, by far the largest of an AIDS vaccine: the United States Army, the Thai Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Fauci’s institute, and the patent-holders in the two parts of the vaccine, Sanofi-Pasteur and Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases. Col. Jerome H. Kim, a physician who is manager of the army’s H.I.V. vaccine program, said half the 16,402 volunteers were given six doses of two vaccines in 2006 and half were given placebos. They then got regular tests for the AIDS virus for three years. Of those who got placebos, 74 became infected, while only 51 of those who got the vaccines did. Although the difference was small, Dr. Kim said it was statistically significant and meant the vaccine was 31.2 percent effective. Dr. Fauci said that scientists would seldom consider licensing a vaccine less than 70 or 80 percent effective, but he added, “If you have a product that’s even a little bit protective, you want to look at the blood samples and figure out what particular response was effective and direct research from there.” The most confusing aspect of the trial, Dr. Kim said, was that everyone who did become infected developed roughly the same amount of virus in their blood whether they got the vaccine or a placebo. Normally, any vaccine that gives only partial protection — a mismatched flu shot, for example — at least lowers the viral load. That suggests that RV 144 does not produce neutralizing antibodies, as most vaccines do, Dr. Fauci said. Antibodies are long Y-shaped proteins formed by the body that clump onto invading viruses, blocking the surface spikes with which they attach to cells and flagging them for destruction. Instead, he theorized, it might produce “binding antibodies,” which latch onto and empower effector cells, a type of white blood cell attacking the virus. Whatever the vaccine does, he said, it does not seem to mimic the defenses of the rare individuals known to AIDS doctors as “long-term nonprogressors,” who do not get sick even though they are infected. They have low viral loads because they block reproduction in some way that is still mysterious. “If we knew what immune response did it, we’d be able to be a lot more efficient in targeting it,” Dr. Kim said. Also, the RV 144 tested in Thailand was designed to combat the most common strain of the virus circulating in Southeast Asia. Different strains circulate in Africa, the United States and elsewhere, and it is not clear that the vaccine would have similar results, even in modified form. The thousands of Thais chosen were a cross-section of the Thai young adult population, not just high-risk groups like drug injectors or sex workers, Dr. Kim said. One of the substances that were combined to make RV 144 is Alvac-HIV, from Sanofi-Pasteur, a canarypox virus with three AIDS virus genes grafted onto it. Variations of Alvac were tested in France, Thailand, Uganda and the United States; it was found safe but generated little immune response. The other, Aidsvax, was originally made by Genentech and is an engineered version of a protein found on the surface of the AIDS virus; it is grown in a broth of hamster ovary cells. It was tested in Thai drug users in 2003 and also in gay men in North America and Europe; it did not protect them against infection, and Genentech spun off the rights to develop the vaccine. In 2007, two trials of a Merck vaccine in about 4,000 people were stopped early; it not only failed to work but for some men seemed to increase the risk of infection. Combining Alvac and Aidsvax was a hunch by scientists: If one was designed to create antibodies and the other to alert white blood cells, might they work together even if neither worked alone? Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, which pushes for vaccines and other forms of prevention, was enthusiastic about the trial data. “Wow,” he said. “This is a hugely exciting and, frankly, unexpected result. It changes our thinking in ways we hadn’t anticipated.” “We often talk about whether a vaccine is even possible,” he added. “This is not the vaccine that ends the epidemic and says, ‘O.K., let’s move on to something else.’ But it’s a fabulous new step that takes us in a new direction.” Mr. Warren said the finding showed the need for large human trials, expensive as they are. Studies in mice and monkeys have not been good at predicting what would work in people, and small human trials in which researchers test results by looking for antibodies in blood have limited value. Dr. Fauci agreed. “This is not the endgame,” he said. “This is the beginning.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/health/r...rss&emc=rss

BigK, you pay for that speed? That is so slow.