The story is absurd enough, but why a baseball cap in your emergency kit?
I'll be out in Turkey, leaving very, very early this morning, and back August 3rd.
I hope I'm not tempting fate by saying I shouldn't be anywhere near bits that might have bombs around the election (July 22) - we're so far from anything that I can't imagine anyone bothering, and I'm only passing through Istanbul.
But there was a medical condition recognized by medieval authorities that might cause normally heterosexual women to become lesbians. It was called ragadiae. According to Carolyn Dinshaw, who is your go-to scholar for weird medieval sexuality, William of Saliceto's 1285 Summa conservationis et curationis or "Bumper Book of Treatments and Cures" defines ragadiae as fleshy growths, often in the shape of a penis, caused by difficult childbirth, other abscesses of the womb, or sometimes friction from excessive sexual intercourse. Women who found themselves in possession of these growths would sometimes subsequently develop a desire to use them to have sex with other women.
http://gotmedieval.blogspot.com/2007/07/if-medieval-lesbians-dont-get-you-back.html
"The roll call of banks, retailers, government departments, public bodies and other organisations which have admitted serious security lapses is frankly horrifying," said Mr Thomas.
I really like mental_floss, but they post so often it tends to build up in my RSS reader. Here are some random posts that might explain why I like it: Russian books for naughty children, Summer Solstice Celebrations (great photos of celebrations around the world) and Russian stamps depict the darndest things.
I had a really good Sunday (kayaking then a few blissed out hours in the sun (! actual sun!) in the beer garden of the local lezza bar), then a crap Monday morning - visa hassles for Turkey, my porridge exploded, I forgot my Oyster card, the bus was diverted, blah blah blah. So this story in The Age about the power of learning and the benefits of the internet has helped renew my happy Sunday mood.
Armed only with his intelligence, a book on electricity, some plastic piping and found objects, Kamkwamba built his first windmill, which generated enough power to run a light in his room.His second, larger windmill uses a bicycle to increase efficiency and was able to generate power for his parents' house and charge car batteries or mobile phones for people in his village.
Hopefully he won't end up wasting his life on social networking sites like the rest of us.
I got an email from 10 Downing Street about a petition, Roads4bikes, I'd signed. And the petition worked!
This is so far beyond wrong that I can't even start to describe it: The World's Most Photographed Squirrel.
This has cheered me up:
THE Howard Government has been accused of failing to provide moral leadership on crucial issues by the newly named Younger Victorian of the Year.Tom O'Connor, Victorian director of the youth poverty-fighting group the Oaktree Foundation, used yesterday's award presentation to launch a blistering attack on the Federal Government.
While he was "humbled" to receive the award, Mr O'Connor stressed he was accepting it on behalf of a generation that expected moral leadership from government.
The Age: Young state award winner lets fly at Howard Government
American TV journalist Mika Brzezinski is my new hero for refusing to lead with a Paris Hilton story: check it out on YouTube.
For some reason this last paragraph made me laugh:
Rupert Murdoch, who bought MySpace in 2005, has already expressed concern about the growth of Facebook. His executives will now be under even more pressure to find ways of making MySpace fashionable again.
BBC: Social sites battle for new users
Which reminds me - DesignDyke, I emailed you about my other blog that talks about social software a lot more, but it was probably eaten by hotmail.
This was on the front page of the Age online: Divided in sport, united in love
First they played against each other, then they fell in love. Now two of the world's greatest women hockey players have had a baby together.That's the story of Australian Olympian Alyson Annan and her partner, former Olympic rival Carole Thate.
It's a charming story, and it's a great balance to Howard's homophobia which at this distance otherwise forms my opinion of Australia's attitude to all things gay.
Oh, and al-Qaeda can go fcuk themselves.