Posts made by martini20

I'm not aware of any European leaders being overtly religious as say, the US President who has to be seen to a believer. Didn't Nick Clegg say he was an atheist during the election campaign (although he did say a number of things that got conveniently shelved). Famously Tony Blair waitied till he was out of office before converting to Catholicism. He said in his book …

"'I recall giving an address to the country at a time of crisis. I wanted to end my words with "God bless the British people".
'This caused complete consternation. Emergency meetings were convened. The system was aghast. Finally, a senior civil servant said, with utter disdain: "Really, Prime Minister, this is not America you know".'

@underlvr:

Ummm… that's a U.S. concept only.  You live in Canada, right?  Isn't your head of state the head of a major religion?  She is referred to as "Defender of the Faith." Most, if not all, European countries have a state religion.  In northern Europe, it's Lutheran, southern Europe is Catholic, and the British Commonwealth worldwide is Anglican.

There's a vast difference between a country having a monarch who's title encompasses "Defender of the Faith" but in a largely secular society and who's role is mainly ceremonial, and a country where a political leader is openly religious, is expected to be openly religious by a large percentage of it's citizens and where their religion shapes decision making.

Update: 'Chaotic' ACS:Law facing costs over file-sharing cases

A controversial law firm that tried to get money from computer users by accusing them of illegal file sharing could be hit with massive legal fees.
ACS:Law and its one solicitor, Andrew Crossley, sent thousands of letters threatening recipients with court action if they did not pay out.
Now a judge has ruled that the company may be responsible for wasted costs in the case and ordered a full hearing.

Mr Crossley's lawyers declined to comment.

The proceedings represent something of a role reversal. Originally the Patents County Court had been asked to hear the cases brought by Mr Crossley's firm. After those collapsed, it was decided that he might be liable for costs. Those could run into thousands of pounds, although that money is likely to be covered by solicitors' insurance.

ACS:Law had originally teamed-up with a company called MediaCAT, which purported to represent copyright owners, such as film and music producers.
Together they sent letters to around 10,000 people in the UK, alleging that the IP addresses of their computers had been linked to illegal file sharing.
Individuals were given the option of paying £500 or facing court action. Many of those contacted said they had never engaged in such activity and accused ACS:Law of carrying out a speculative "fishing" exercise.

Mr Crossley eventually brought 26 cases to court, but soon after hearings began he tried to have them dismissed, claiming he had been attacked and received death threats. Judge Colin Birss QC refused to allow proceedings to stop and accused Mr Crossley of trying to "to avoid judicial scrutiny".

Soon after, both ACS:Law and MediaCAT were wound-up. It emerged in court that the two companies had agreed on a profit-sharing model, with ACS:Law receiving 65% of any money recovered.

In his most recent ruling, Mr Birss said that arrangement had "brought the legal profession into disrepute".

He also branded the now-defunct firm "amateurish and slipshod".

The court's decision to press ahead with a hearing on wasted costs was welcomed by lawyers representing those people who received ACS:Law letters.
Michael Forrester, from Ralli Solicitors, said his firm was also planning to pursue claims for harassment against Mr Crossley and urged anyone who was affected to join the action.

"It can be incredibly upsetting for people to receive these letters and they may well have a claim in harassment, so I am urging them to come forward."

Mr Crossley's application for permission to appeal was refused. He is also being investigated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Wonder what items would be included in the grave these days if the custom was brought back  ;D

What did the Romans ever do for us?  :laugh:

"A top Italian history professor has caused outrage after he claimed that the Roman Empire fell due to the rise of homosexuality.

Roberto De Mattei, 63, a devout Roman Catholic, had already raised eyebrows by saying the Japanese tsunami was ‘divine punishment’, and now with his latest claim he faces calls to resign.

“The collapse of the Roman Empire and the arrival of the Barbarians was due to the spread of homosexuality,” the Daily Mail quoted the vice-president of Italy’s prestigious Centre for National Research as saying in a radio interview.

“The Roman colony of Carthage was a paradise for homosexuals and they infected many others. The invasion of the Barbarians was seen as punishment for this moral transgression.

“It is well known effeminate men and homosexuals have no place in the kingdom of God.

“Homosexuality was not rife among the Barbarians and this shows God’s justice comes throughout history,” he stated.

Fellow historians, gay rights groups and politicians expressed their outrage over his claims.

“I have tabled an urgent call for the education minister to intervene,” Paola Concia, an MP with the Democratic Left, said.

Italian homosexual groups said the professor’s comments were ‘based on superstition, ridiculous and outrageous’ and called on him to resign from his Rome-based post.

“It is highly improbable homosexuality led to the fall of the Roman Empire,” historian Emilio Gabba, a leading light in Roman history, said.

However research would seem to suggest homosexuality was rife in ancient Rome, and it is widely portrayed in ancient Roman art and was seen as acceptable 2,000 years ago.

“There is no proof Rome had a high number of homosexuals. I can safely say Rome did not fall because it was gay,” Professor Lellia Cracco Ruggini, an expert on Roman history from Turin University, added."

Cheers leatherbear, had thought this was tumbleweed city 

I was bored on that morning of the 1st of April when I posted  ;D

They may not all intersect, but many are freelance performers and will work for different studios, plus they obviously have sex lives outside of the industry.  I'm not suggesting that testing is foolproof, I'm sure the pitfalls have been discussed in other threads, but having some sort of mandatory testing is better than nothing, also important is counselling that emphasises that such testing shouldn't give a false sense of security.
If you look at it from the mercenary point of view, the self-preservation of the performers and continued profits for the studio producers would far outweight the fear of any government intervention

From various news sites:-

"It's the news that has set the adult film industry buzzing with excitement and surprise! Five veteran actors of hetrosexual porn videos are rumoured to be coming out of retirement to star in a new gay porn feature. Harry Reems (63), Ron Jeremy (58), Randy West(63), Paul Thomas (63),Joey Silvera (59) are said to have signed up for "No C*nt For Old Men" a spoof on the 2007 Oscar winning movie.

Reems, star of the 70s porn classic Deep Throat said, "the idea of getting down and dirty with other guys, especially of their calibre is daunting. Hopefully we'll start shooting at the beginning of April, it could be a whole new opening for all of us"

Good article

@fancydude:

the players were saying most of the companies don't have mandatory testing policies or if they do, all but the biggest don't follow them.  Which is shameful.

That's very surprising. For porn industry testing to work, every production and actor would have to adhere to it, unless as suggested, it's largely a sham. If that's the case, surely there would be a bigger outcry from responsible studios and performers at being put at risk.

Big n Beefy in tartan

Interesting seeing the faces behind the famous names.

:clap2:

Is the funeral in Wales? If so, I think its a wonderful idea that the piece of excrement and his entire flock be allowed into the UK to attend. They will be welcomed with a right good kicking that they wouldn't forget.

Brilliant artwork, any idea who the artist is? The hairstyles and kit look very 1980s

Wonder if she had any issues with counseling hetrosexual students about sexual matters outside of marriage as well.

I understand what you mean twinkletoes, but the comments generally are alot better than when I first joined. I remember there were some quite vitriolic ones posted. For porn, the commments these days tend to be either very positive or very negative. I tend to look more at the comments on non-porn torrents and hopefully get a balanced jist of whats on offer. Personally I'd like to see more people using the comments facility.

'mandatory' implies that unless that information is included, their torrents will not be approved, which also implies that power users' automatic approval would have to be done away with. I can sympathise with you if you feel you have wasted your download quota on inferior quality videos. Personally, I can't say I've ever felt deceived by a download or that the quality was so bad it's unwatchable. I would also say I would never read the suggested codec/resolution info to make a choice whether to download.

I'm all for improving the type of information on the torrent page, but realistically someone who is uploading is already taking the time and effort of providing the goods for us to enjoy, and the majority of torrents are perfectly acceptable. There could be better use of the ratings system, eg making it more detailed for audio, visual etc as some torrent sites do, but hardly anyone bothers to rate torrents here anyway. I also look at any comments that are left to see if its worth downloading