There's so much awfulness surrounding the whole victim blaming mess. Aside from all the excellent points already brought up does anyone find it especially henious that the town is switching the victim/assailant roles in every possible way? Aside from the single middle school assailant, every person arrested that I've…

@boxspelunker: *laughs* well I'm Canadian too and the ESL class I mentioned was a "Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada" classroom. The students were a mix of spanish speaking roman catholics and ethnic germans, so I think the rules of ring wearing are less overarching than we might assume when we think of a…

@boxspelunker: Your friend might just be clueless but I had a very interesting conversation regarding rings with my ESL students a couple of weeks ago. Left ring finger is not a universal standard. Some places it's right ring finger for an engagement ring and left for the wedding ring. it was kind of a bad surprise…

She might not be his teacher (thank god for small mercies?) but as someone in the education profession there is NO WAY she could be ignorant of exactly what the laws regarding minors and age of consent are. Since this is the UK I can't say for certain but she likely has a professional responsibility to be a mandatory…

@Dinosaurs and Nachos, girlfriend!: Coming from someone who was forced to sit through that video in sex-ed, I'm not sure you realize the ick factor in what you're asking for... ;)

Whatever happened to smiling while saying "whoopsie-daisy!" in these sorts of situations? Problem solved right there for kiddo and if you're so offended that the FA tried to play then say so calmly! It's not like people helping to keep kids occupied and entertained on an airplane is an imposition - its a favour to…

@roodles: In fact I think the science suggests opposite. I think I read in the Jezebel article about why women tend to feel cold something about women's bodies keep more heat in the core because we may get pregnant and that means less heat to our limbs.

I've mentioned the time I was cold-bloodedly targeted by a train groper in Japan before so I won't go into that again. But I've had my share of creepy old guys in other countries too.

@ZemarSea Urchin: *laughs* too true. You know you may be onto something with that invitation. At least if she gets any self-aggandising ideas "the Hilary Government" sounds better than "the Harper Govenment." Still I think she'd be sensible and keep it the "Government of Canada."

@Snarfblat: there seems to be way to much of that for my comfort. Now I'm having "the knife of never letting go" flashbacks. I might start sobbing at my desk... uh oh.

@Titania: I'm really sorry to say that it's more than nationwide. My top five university in Canada has had a chapter since the 1930s but as long as I can remember the dkes have been suspended: the latest 5 year suspension from the university and three year provisional suspension from DKE headquarters was just handed…

throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Maybe they think god will magically prevent complications/infertillity/gynacological disorders in women that want children and smite all women who don't want kids with infertiility. Seems just as logical...

@MissMollyKate: Thank you for the legit analysis. To be blunt, I'm shocked that in the land of purikura this technology just got adapted to personal cameras. There is an unspoken but palpable pressure to be perfectly turned out in Japan if you're a woman. There's even sartorical pressure for men as well but not nearly…

@firefoxx66: I hear the fear and pain coursing though their systems before slaughtering makes the meat tougher so you must be right! :)

@drunkexpatwriter: There is a huge difference between this and cheating though. An open, agreed upon decision between spouses involving consenting adults is no problem. a discreet/covert relationship that breaks the trust and honesty of a marriage only threatens the stability of the parts of the marriage that DO work.

@ifindyouamusing: Thank you. I needed to see this resource now and I've sent it to my best friend to help with my 6 year old godson. he's so praise addicted that he throws a fit when he's not praised/encouraged for doing the same things his almost 3 year old sister is just now learning.

@roodles: @roodles: Perhaps this might help - I was never particularily good at Chinese or French but I went really far with Japanese because the logic of grammar in Japanese makes sense in the same way english does. The syntax rules may be different but the logic underneath really helped.

@Cinnamoncanuck: They day I figured out how to switch my A/C to heater function on the little remote control I fell to my knees and shouted hallelujah. i still had to be somewhat stingy with the heat though since it was effing expensive. That was the only thing that saved Tokyo from surpassing the Taipei winter as the…

@LolaLane: I was kind of "meh" about them too until my friend told me a story about her two year old daughter copying her. The kid took a pumice stone to the ped egg and the ped egg WON. It's officially gross in my book now.

@memphreblues: *snorts* I'd just take that as an opportunity to discuss the facinating way that verb conjugation rules in Japanese are incorporating loan words that happen to fit the pattern of verbs in dictionary form. That blows my mind - entymological meanings of words don't stand a chance. Certainly not such a…