Rogie

Yes This is the 49th post in the avatar thread so here is an apt tribute: Source: wikipedia I assume the significance is clear to our north American readers!

Time for our vegetarian khun Hannibal to go too?

Whilst there is always likely to be a copy-cat element in some instances of weird crimes, so perhaps cannabilism might appeal to a few disturbed people, and of course if there is a whiff of glamour (not a nice word to use but it seems Magnotta, or Newman to use his real name, courted it), and notoriety to be gained by indulging in it that might influence some people. My guess would be cannibilism is no more common now than it has been in the past. Every generation has its strange people, acting outside the box. If you are going to do that sort of thing, as has already been mentioned, you probably want to be discovered. Perhaps the police files at Scotland Yard or indeed any country's police force going back to the 19th century contain a few grisly murders the fine details of which were kept hidden to protect people's sensibilities. The difference now is it's so much easier for the murderer to self-publicise and the media lust after variety so much they will go to extraordinary lengths to satisfy the craving they conveniently asume WE are guilty of! The police don't get much of a look-in in that kind of situation. There was a case a few years ago when a German man, I think it was, advertised for another man to volunteeer to be cooked and eaten. There was probably a sexual dimension to it as well. I will try and find out some more details.

Something tells me this sad and sorry business will run and run. More from the media circus: School officials condemned the popular young instructor's decision to air the footage in his civics and history class. They have provided psychological counseling for the 25 students who saw the disturbing images. Read more: http://www.dailymail...l#ixzz1xmYeqmfV http://www.mirror.co...suspects-882641

I do not see why that should be so if a passenger having booked is happy to switch to an Air Asia flight on a different day, and he does the same on his return. I agree if you go for the refund and still intend flying to Sri Lanka you'll probably end up paying more if you travel on a fully scheduled route.

Good snaps. I love traditional Asian markets and so I was most interested in the photos taken at those. Who would have guessed there are so many varieties of Masala? Supposedly Britain's favourite Indian meal is, or was, chicken tikka masala; I did read a while back it's been overtaken in popularity by chicken jalfrezi, but that's not important. The point is the 'masala' sauce used by British chefs in their chicken dish is probably a filthy blend of insipid spices unfit to carry the proud name of 'masala'. Hopefully in Asian countries where curry originated, masala dishes are treated with rather more respect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala

A link on the E-bab site takes you to: http://www.queersome.com/WebObjects/Queersome.woa/cms/164/en.html "Become a fan on Facebook Connect with us on Facebook and see what's new in the queer community. Join our great interactive activities and win attractive prizes. And maybe you'll even find a nice companion for your next trip to the queer scene?! queersome presents you the whole world of the queer community here and on Facebook. Be curious and discover the queer world!" That a site called Queersome likes the Q word is probably obvious. As if anybody was in any doubt, using 'queer' five times in two small paragraphs rubs it home! To rub my nose in it, they seem to have an infatuation with Facebook

I checked out Rio as hotel prices there strike me as being expensive. There are half a dozen or so places on Ebab averaging around euro 100 a night. Is that a bargain? I have no idea, certainly worth considering I suppose. There is a link to a site called Queersome. I have commented on this on the 'Are you Queer' thread.

Good point you raise about upkeep and restoration. In a country like Cambodia that kind of long-term project should be self-financing, and so I suppose on a very crude level A. Lots of tourists = crumbling structure B. Lots of tourists = increase in revenue to combat A Problems such as flooding however, as we well know from Thailand's experience, are difficult to plan ahead for. As far as 'nasty repetition' is concerned, that's the way things go nowadays. A BBC item may be dubbed into other languages for transmission in non-English speaking countries, or each country can send out its own journalist and do exactly the same thing, but how many Cambodians with jobs as conservationists looking after Angkor speak fluent Spanish, Italian, German or any of the Scandinavian languages? French? quite possibly.

Now I think about it amongst the millions of Facebook users there must be quite a few with dinosaur-sounding names, but any comparison between them and the old-school dinosaurs akin to Rogiosaurus is purely accidental. I assumed people using Facebook used their real names, but I suppose a few may be living in a fantasy world and using pseudonyms, inventing whole new lives for themselves, non-existent friends etc.

It's a whole lot more fun playing with my new-found friends the Fountosaurus, Bobosaurus, Zedosaurus and Kokosaurus than spending all my waking hours keeping a watchful eye for my bete noir T.Rex. Luckily, rumour has it he's spending all his free time networking with all his other carnivorous mates so allowing us gentle herbivores time to enjoy quality time together.

The edit key works for up to an hour after your post. It's to the left of the two very visible boxes 'Quote' and 'Multiquote'. Perhaps because it (and the 'Report' key) are in a rather subdued shade of gray they can be overlooked. When the cursor is placed over the 'edit' it changes from dull gray to black. Perhaps management could consider making it a bit more prominent.

In post #7 I listed the topics that were included on that site, and Fountainhall has reported his disgust. Either this is a different site, the one showing the obese young man and the couple with emo hairstyles, or there is a mixture of harmless and toxic stuff. Maybe the toxic stuff is hidden away and you have to give them your credit card number in order to access it. Lots of sites do that, give you the old come on and then hit you for the dosh.

Not long ago I saw a post from someone somewhere (on one of the Message Boards) leading to me to believe the individual mentioned by Christian had finally been exposed, a suspicion that he wasn't who he said he was long harboured by many. Maybe I am wrong and he is still with us (using the same name), but assuming I am right and he has stopped posting, can anyone tell when and how it happened?

I believe you!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18354513 For anybody who hasn't been to Angkor, here is a good 3 minute video from National Geographic that gives a useful introduction to the temples and a bit of historical background: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/specials/ancient-mysteries/angkor-wat-temples/

Yeah, let me try and guess what was on your mind Koko - he sure has a big comet, right? Whoever would have guessed the phallic undertones to Bill Haley's Comets . . . Boring scientific point of order: The comet speeding through the heavens is spelled Halley, the paunchy rock 'n roller with the quiff Haley.

It seems a shame really to drag butterflies into this in the first place. Unless it is the delicacy and perceived fragility of their wings that strikes a chord with people, any winged creature could fill that role, even a pterodactyl. The role we are speaking about is freedom. Freedom being the opposite of commitment. So how about Thaiworthy and myself when referring to anybody formerly known as a butterfly now using the term terror-dactyl? Visions of talons and a sharp beak may serve to strip away any romantic illusions use of the former word butterfly implied. Back to the Elton John song, Someone Saved my Life Tonight: I have no strong feelings either way about Bernie Taupin's lyrics in this song. After seeing Elton singing at the Jubilee concert I started humming a few of his back catalogue and that one was the one that stuck in my mind, so when FH's post appeared mentioning butterflies it seemed an interesting coincidence.

That's interesting. I just watched to see the performers theatricals rather than enjoy the music as i have bad hearing so couldn't distinguish between Pavarotti and Leonard Cohen (slight exaggeration perhaps! ). Is there any chance the sound deteriorated in quality somewhere en route to Thai TV? Back to the Talk Show format. I wonder if back in the 50's and early 60's many interviewees made for easy pickings. Their lives were much more private and the general public weren't used to knowing details of well-known peoples' private lives so didn't ask too many questions. So to have the 'celebrity' on TV being asked personal questions must have been quite a shock, both for interviewee and viewer. Nowadays when a celeb is interviewed it's often more a case of just larkin' about, name dropping and, as said in the OP, plugging their latest song, book, concert, etc. Many people watching already know virtually everything one would want to know about the person - he or she may have been featured in Hello magazine or one of its clones and been the subject of endless gossip in any of countless newspapers and latter-day penny dreadfuls.

This is my favourite description of a butterfly and it comes from Elton John's Someone Saved my Life Tonight: And someone saved my life tonight sugar bear You almost had your hooks in me didn't you dear You nearly had me roped and tied Altar-bound, hypnotized Sweet freedom whispered in my ear You're a butterfly And butterflies are free to fly Fly away, high away, bye bye I thought he was looking good on Saturday night at the Queen's Jubille concert in front of Buckingham Palace. He sang Crocodile Rock.

There seem to have been a lot of unhappy people back in the 50's and 60's. I wonder if one reason for that is society was by today's standards very strait-laced - maybe not so bad if your own life happily conformed, but not so good if you were an outsider or a bit of a rebel - eventually that had to give sooner or later, witness James Dean, Brando, Bill Haley, angry young men in the theatre etc. That would have been fine if you were young then but for those already in middle age it was too late to reinvent yourself. All the disappointments and set backs (some of their own making no doubt but it must have been very frustrating conforming to society's conservative 'norms') of their younger selves a constant bitter pill. The BBC has come in for a lot of criticism over the poor quality of their coverage of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations. It was deemed very lightweight and lacking an in depth background knowledge, such as the veteran presenter David Dimbleby might have brought. The 'UK talk show trivia' as you call it FH reflects a dumbing down of the whole corporation from management downwards. Gone are the days when the BBC could fritter money away, now the amount they receive via the TV-licence fees is capped so they have to be more careful. On the one hand the number of quality programmes the BBC makes or commissions has diminished, when at the same time the salaries they pay to their top presenters has skyrocketed. The cult of personality at the BBC is alive and well at the expense, some would say, of diminishing the BBC's effectiveness as a producer of good quality television. Many would say the BBC no longer has much prestige.

Photo taken from the internet, courtesy of malaysiabest.net

Short on ideas? How about this? #7

Well surprise surprise, look who's taking the credit for this crazy caper's denouement . . . http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/06/06/luka-rocco-magnotta-video-best-gore/ Three cheers for the Best Gore 'community'! They sound like a cool bunch of guys - perhaps one rung on the ladder above a pack of Hell's Angels on acid. __________________________________________________________ Taken from the introduction to the Best Gore site: "Best Gore website contains gory images and video and depictions of (but not limited to): •death, including beheadings, executions, suicides, murders, electrocution, stoning, torching, drowning •accidents, including car crashes, motorcycle crashes, workplace :(accidents, sexually related accidents, animal attacks •war, including bomb victims often involving children, white phosphorus attacks, decapitation of POVs, mass execution, biological warfare, genocide, ethnic cleansing, torture •diseases, including poisoning, heart attacks, terminal illness patients, drug abuse •weird fetishes, including needle fetish, blood fetish •body modifications, including self mutilation" Hardly surprising that with that kind of intro you are going to attract a rag-bag of assorted weirdos, voyeurs and fetichists. I have yet to click on the 'cute puppy' so I don't know what lurks within. Anyone with the stomach for it . . . ?

correction: stegosaurus Please may I not be a stegosaurus. I wrote that quickly without thinking and now I wish to become a brontosaurus. I am no vegetarian but neither am I downward-looking and uninterested in what others are doing, as I implied in my description of the spiky thick-skinned dinosaur. Ideally I'd like to be spiky and have a long neck; I'd like to have the best of both worlds. The long neck would allow me to be a bit of a snooper and see what's cooking on the savannah or wherever I am. A snooper and a keen observer, that'd describe me, but I keep my private life to myself and so if I come across other friendly dinosaurs I keep out of the gossip circle. What I'm having for dinner tonight and who I'm shagging is none of their business. If only they knew what I get up to in the company of my buddy, the 'cute' triceratops . . .