10 years ago (almost) I was just being introduced to WoW - I played obsessively most nights and sometimes before work in the mornings.

We also had regular boardgame games days at our house, I regularly wrote and ran games at the local RPG tournaments and played in 1 or 2 home campaigns.

These days I raid twice per week, play silly iPhone games most days several times per day, and still play a fair few board games - probably most weeks play something.

For the change in intensity I put slightly less.

And despite that, an unqualified male was still selected for what was a significant public opportunity for a sign language interpreter.

To be fair, the female body types are probably just as attainable by the average gamer - it's just that they involve a significant amount of plastic surgery and low self esteem rather than steroids and a life-changingly intensive gym regieme.

Obviously they are white mice

Drs who 'over service' are investigated. I had a GP a few years back who worked crazy hours in a small practice in an area that was short on Drs, she was investigated for over servicing and was told she couldn't take on any new patients.

Generally extra tests are performed by a path lab or imaging lab that isn't directly associated with the originating Drs practice - so they see no additional income from referring you beyond you going back to get the results.

I was diagnosed with cancer last year because of a Dr ordering what might have been considered an extra test (I needed a blood test because of some medication I was on, she decided to do a full work up because it seemed like a good idea at the time). If my GP had not done the extra test, it's likely I wouldn't have been diagnosed so early, would have gotten much sicker than I was and would have required chemo in addition to surgery.

Given the current standard HR policy of requiring a Drs certificate is you have a sick day, I would say most of my Drs visits these days are to get a note saying 'yes she really was sick' when I have a bad head cold or a migraine. I would be better off at home resting, but have to drag myself out to get a bit of paper and to be told to go home, rest, stay warm and keep up my fluids - all things I already know. Most Drs don't have time for unnecessary tests, they're too busy issuing repeat scripts and medical certs.

4 cups = 1 litre, not really that hard.

How can we get through to these people that religion belongs in church, and not in our schools, courts or government?

I wish it was just restricted to America. I saw a survey this morning from the Australian Christian Lobby looking to have Creationism added to the National Curriculum in Australia.

I despair for the current generation of children being exposed to this lunacy.

Have you been standing downwind form smokers - that's a serious cough you have there...

Mr Data - the original Real Doll TM

Our local zoo collects old mobile phones to have them disassembled and recycled ethically and responsibly. So far I've handed in 4 or 5 handsets this way.

Some of my former workplaces collected old handsets for disposal, as well as batteries.

We generally hang onto the 'last' generation handset as a backup, and then dispose of it when we next replace the current handset.

I'm sure if nursing, childcare, primary education and aged care was paid as well as IT, more guys would sign up for it.

I have personally experienced this a number of times; firstly in high school back in the dim dark past of the 80s where I had teachers actively discouraging me form taking STEM classes (physics and applied maths) and telling me to do home economics instead - or just plain leave school. Later working for an IT company as an office manager, I expressed interest in joining the support team, I was offered marketing as my only option. Two jobs later I was a service tech, and later became the technical supervisor for that service centre.

I know it may be hard for you to imagine, but pockets of this still exists, and you have to be pretty resilient to keep pushing to do something where you are made so blatantly unwelcome.

Interestingly it seems to be a predominately anglo issue, most of the women I know in IT are from non-english speaking backgrounds, such as indian, asian, eastern european, where it is acceptable for them to pursue STEM careers. As a BA in a mid sized IT development house, out of 7 BAs, only 2 are female, only 2 are anglo background - with me being the only female anglo. None of the female developers or testers are anglo.

Quite a few years and jobs ago I used to be the technical supervisor of a computer service workshop. When calls came in, if I answered the phone it was not uncommon for (typically male) callers to assume I was 'merely' the receptionist, and they would ask to be put through to one of the techs. I would usually pass the call to one of my male colleagues rather than argue. It used to make me laugh when they would say the problem was too hard for them and they would have to pass it back to their supervisor - and pass the call back to me.

I read that last paragraph as 'secret sauce' and wondered what drugs we were talking about...