There have been some horrifying cases recently of people being prosecuted for failing to reveal their status as transgender to sexual partners in Scotland. It's been prosecuted as "gaining sexual intimacy by deception", under fraud legislation, and apparently they're the only known examples of this. No one has ever been prosecuted for, say, lying ( Read more... )

elfbystarlight and I were recently discussing this charming passage from the end of Patrick O'Brian's The Surgeon's Mate. If you haven't read O'Brian's legendary Aubrey-Maturin series, then run along and do so. Here is an example to tempt you, in which Jack Aubrey is visiting HMS Oedipus.

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I have run into a lot of atheists online who annoy the buggery out of me. Not all, of course, and I would never dream of assuming that a noisy minority should be taken as representative of an entire group. But enough to be worth posting about ( Read more... )

As of yesterday, the "remember playback position" function in iTunes has suddenly stopped working. The files still have that option ticked, but whenever I go to a file, it returns to the start. Since I only use iTunes for audiobooks, this is something of a problem. I cannot see any other settings that could be relevant, and I've tried it with ( Read more... )

Temporary accommodation and food donations urgently needed for destitute refugees in Glasgow - please help if you can, or pass the message along.

There's a man in London who has been unfairly incarcerated in a mental hospital and who would very much benefit from some sympathetic visitors. ( I've kept it simple, but I appreciate that this may be triggering for some people )

Is it my imagination, or does adultery turn up in literature these days a lot less than it did a few decades ago? Would anyone care to theorise about why this might be the case?

( Spoilers for the season currently airing )

How a Patient's Understanding of Their Illness Impacts Health Promoting Behaviours in Patients Living with Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Myalgic EncephalomyelitisNo, don't fill it out. Go and read it over, make sure you don't click "continue" from the page which asks what info was provided by your doctor as that will automatically ( Read more... )

You know how Cedric in Love in a Cold Climate has been called "the first happy homosexual in English literature", because he gets his man, isn't mentally ill, and doesn't get killed off or forced to part with his lover? When do we get the first happy adulterer, and in particular the first happy female adulterer? I'm currently reading the Norton ( Read more... )