Too cute! Yes, I am sad, but look at their little faces!
Lesbian Pirates: Anne Bonny and Mary Read
Worth reading:
Globalising the fight for sexuality rights
Unfortunately in many parts of the world the decriminalisation domino hasn't fallen. In fact, in more than 70 countries homosexuality remains illegal. This consigns the vast majority of the world's gay men and lesbians to a life of criminality over which the have no choice. In twelve of these countries homosexuality is punishable by death.The temptation to believe that such laws are relics of a bygone past and aren't enforced was sadly dispelled with the public hanging in 2005 of two Iranian teenagers sentenced under Sharia law for the 'crime' of homosexuality.
Elsewhere the use of anti-gay laws to intimidate and silence lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people is alive and well.
Travel tip for Bruge, Ghent, Antwerp or Brussels: pop into a youth hostel or bar and pick up a copy of the Use It map and guide for 'young people'. Great tips on where to eat, sleep and drink and how to 'act like a local'. Or check it out online at http://www.use-it.be/.
Just as well we went to Bruges when we did:
Internet auction website eBay today withdrew an unusual second-hand sale item, the country of Belgium, which had attracted an offer of 10 million euros ($A16.68 million)."Belgium, a kingdom in three parts" was posted on the Belgian eBay site as offering "plenty of choice" despite the caveat that it comes with "300 billion of National Debt".
Offered in three parts - Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia - the accompanying blurb said the kingdom "can be bought as a whole (not recommended)".
The vendor also included as added extras "the king and his court (costs not included)".
From The Age.
Speaking of archaeology, I wonder if they've considered the possibility that two women found in a Viking burial might be lovers?
From the world of archaeology: Asterix fans -- there's news!
Those stories told how Asterix's little village was encircled by Julius Cæsar's expanding empire unequalled in the art of warfare and determined to civilize a backward people who worshipped Druids and believed in magic potions. Or so it was thought until now.But a discovery in central France has led to a significant reassessment of Asterix representing
the Gauls, who were, it transpires, much more advanced than previously thought.
BBC: Apec security leaves bitter taste in Sydney
Like many, he is incensed by what he regards as the needlessly aggressive and restrictive policing, which carried a heftier security price tag than the 16-day-long Olympics and led to the construction of the 5km ( three mile) "great wall of Sydney"."I'm so embarrassed and annoyed. Where was the sense of proportion? We replaced Olympic volunteers with riot squads," he says.
"Somebody in the security operation got very carried away with their own self-importance, and nobody in the state or federal government counterbalanced them.
"It was totally and utterly disproportionate."
...
For many Sydneysiders, comedians from the already popular The Chasers War on Everything have become folk heroes - they managed to breach the million-dollar security set-up with a few shiny black hire cars, some wrap-around sunglasses, a few fake passes, a colour printer and a handful of bonnet-mounted Canadian and Australian flags.Almost 5,000 New South Wales police officers, 1,500 defence personnel, 450 federal police, teams of sharp-shooters, patrol boats zipping across the harbour, Black Helicopters swooping above - all upstaged by 11 members of a TV comedy show.
I was randomly sent this link about the perfect rock chick, but it's perfect because it just confirms my crush on Kim Gordon, which was renewed after seeing them on Saturday
night.
They are really aware of their sexuality, but they don't use sex to sell their music. They're more interested in expressing power and that feeling of what it's like to jump up and down to your favourite music. They don't resort to that marketing ploy of the rock chick as bad girl. We were all wild things as teenagers, but there's a big difference between wanting to be a rock star and having a burning desire to play music.
I was randomly sent this link about the perfect rock chick, but it's perfect because it just confirms my crush on Kim Gordon, which was renewed after seeing them on Saturday
night.
They are really aware of their sexuality, but they don't use sex to sell their music. They're more interested in expressing power and that feeling of what it's like to jump up and down to your favourite music. They don't resort to that marketing ploy of the rock chick as bad girl. We were all wild things as teenagers, but there's a big difference between wanting to be a rock star and having a burning desire to play music.
And other headlines at the Evening Standard headline generator.
The Guardian posted this list of 'useful maps during the Tube strike', including the Tube lines superimposed on a real street map so you can see how the Tube map relates to the real world - very handy if you're new to London and don't know when not to bother with the Tube, two walking sites and a map that shows how long it takes to get to each station from a particular station.
The Guardian posted this list of 'useful maps during the Tube strike', including the Tube lines superimposed on a real street map so you can see how the Tube map relates to the real world - very handy if you're new to London and don't know when not to bother with the Tube, two walking sites and a map that shows how long it takes to get to each station from a particular station.
"Oh bloody Howard! I'd like to take away his toot breaks and see how he feels in his jolly lower house".
Via The Age.
WTF? This is the weirdest meringue recipe ever: "Once you are satisfied that you have a feminine and glossy-looking mixture".
I suppose it is from a site called 'cook yourself thin', but still. What does a feminine mixture look like anyway?
WTF? This is the weirdest meringue recipe ever: "Once you are satisfied that you have a feminine and glossy-looking mixture".
I suppose it is from a site called 'cook yourself thin', but still. What does a feminine mixture look like anyway?
BBC: Eurostar is making its inaugural journey from Paris to London via Britain's new high-speed line
Richard Brown, chief executive of Eurostar, said he hoped that by 2010 10m people would travel by Eurostar each year."Today marks Britain's entry into the European high-speed rail club."
He said journey times to Paris, even for people travelling from Yorkshire, would be broadly the same as for those flying due to lengthier check-in times at airports.
"It's as quick and more frequent... and we will be matching airline prices."
The BBC says, "Britons are "addicted" to cheap flights and confused about the climate impact of flying".
In a government-funded study, even people living generally "green" lives said they were reluctant to fly less.The Exeter University team that carried out the research says cheap flights have become a lifestyle choice.
Aviation accounts for about 7% of the UK's emissions, and research suggests Britain will not meet its climate targets without curbing the industry.
...
"And it's not people on lower incomes taking these flights, it's middle class people taking more flights to go on city breaks, and they can afford to pay higher prices."
...
But some observers believe there is an inherent contradiction within a government that wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while expanding airport capacity.
The BBC "asks why search engines are so keen to keep hold of our personal data" and raises some interesting issues:
"This is a general problem with free services," she added. "You have the impression that you don't pay for this, you don't pay. In fact, you pay a very high price, because you pay with your own privacy, your own intimacy. You pay with yourself." ... With Web 2.0 now moving so many of our desktop applications, and therefore data, online, campaigners feel we would do well to get these privacy issues sorted out sooner rather than later.
'Pom invasion' hitting Down Under
Changes to the points system, which come into effect on 1 September, will award five valuable extra points for people who can pass a standard English language test, a Brit-friendly policy partly designed to lure more "poms" here. ... To others, the award of extra points to fluent English speakers is more sinister, with shades of the monocultural "white Australia policy", the umbrella term for a swathe of policies and laws engineered to limit non-white immigration which finally petered out in the early 1970s.
The comments about the new citizenship test are ironic because I'm being forced to learn the most popular sports and when various saints days are to prepare for the 'Life in the UK' test. I've managed 34 years of my life without having to know a thing about sport, and now I have to learn sports stuff? It'd make more sense if the English were any good at sport!
So there might be a few glitches along the way... it's quite a good upgrade process, but it would be helpful if it tested that the config file had the right paths for some of the necessary files (though it was my bad for initially getting the mt-static directory name wrong).
I had some stuff to display post categories and link to a category archive that I'll have to fix cos it doesn't recognise
While on the geek thing, my favourite RSS reader is testing new functionality. They have feedback forums, so I posted something from my wishlist:
"I would love a 'drip feed' feature that would load a small set of posts from a feed, so that you could skim read them, mark them as 'keep new' to read properly later, etc; then click to call up the next set of posts from that feed.
Basically it would let you page through a feed so that you don't have to skim through every post because the entire feed will be marked as read when you've let a particular feed build up (cos you've been on holiday or busy or whatever)."
China is taking action on the English translations of its restaurant menus in its campaign to brush up the country's image for next year's Olympics. (BBC)
I hope they keep the traditional names as well, because if you just translate the main ingredients you lose the ability to distinguish between dishes. I've had so many different dishes that were simply translated as "stir-fried tofu" or "tofu in tomato sauce" and it's impossible to order them again if you don't have any idea what the real name or description is.
It's interesting reading about the deliberate things China is doing to change Beijing and the habits of its people before the Olympics - all countries do it, but it's usually more subtle.