tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64105682024-03-13T07:15:56.903-04:00Just another false alarm...Nasty, Brutish and 5'6"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger374125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1165310490920794242006-12-05T04:20:00.000-05:002006-12-05T04:21:30.946-05:00Politics KaraokeThese are great:<br /><br />Watch George Bush doing U2's "<a href="http://www.thepartyparty.com/2006/10/10/sunday-bloody-sunday/">Sunday Bloody Sunday</a>"...<br /><br />...and Tony Blair with The Clash's "<a href="http://www.thepartyparty.com/2006/10/12/should-i-stay-or-should-i-go/">Should I Stay or Should I Go?"</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1163553110672305642006-11-14T20:09:00.000-05:002006-11-14T20:11:50.693-05:00Wasting Time<a href="http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a240/brummiedyke/MB83oe.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a240/brummiedyke/MB83oe.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br />For more, go <a href="http://thefunniest.info">here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1162941527040097182006-11-07T18:16:00.000-05:002006-11-07T18:21:18.770-05:00Celebrity Look-alikesA lot of dating sites, and irritating people, ask you who you look like, usually intending someone famous. Now you can give those people a definite, if perhaps unconvincing, answer with the site <a href="http://www.myheritage.com">My Heritage</a>. Give them a picture and they'll tell you who you look like; but it seems to be pretty dependent on what expression you're wearing in your photo, as I got different answers with a couple of different ones. But now I can at least honestly say that I've been told I look like Tony Curtis and Christian Slater. Whether that's a good thing or not, I'm not sure...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1162749723983734822006-11-05T12:56:00.000-05:002006-11-05T13:02:04.006-05:00CheersA large number of the Americans I know, and (apparently following them) some other international students, end most of their e-mails with "cheers" before signing their name. I've never heard it used as meaning anything other than 'thanks' or (something like) 'drink up', before coming here. I don't really see how it could have any meaning outside of those usages, and particularly not in this context. So if anyone reading this does use it like this, could you perhaps explain when you started doing it, and why/what it means?<br /><br />Cheers.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1162265501366395822006-10-30T22:18:00.000-05:002006-10-30T22:31:41.386-05:00How Many of Me?Hurray! <a href="http://www.howmanyofme.com">Here</a> is an utterly frivolous use for the (US) census! <br /><br />I now know that I'm the first living person with my name to enter the country. A pioneer at last. That is, unless we're just census-avoiders...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1161831894015188762006-10-25T23:04:00.000-04:002006-10-25T23:04:54.043-04:00NJ Equal RightsThe New Jersey supreme court today <a href="http://www.nj.com/newsflash/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1161809057244800.xml&storylist=jersey">ruled</a> that the state legislature must introduce a bill giving gay couples equal rights with straight couples. This is great news. <br /><br />However, they have not specified whether these rights should take the form of marriage or civil partnerships. Less good. Now three of the legislators - Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Wilfredo Caraballo, Assemblyman Brian Stack and Assemblyman Reed Gusciora - are putting forward a bill for full marriage equality. So we'll see what happens.<br /><br />Here's this from a <a href="http://www.gardenstateequality.org">Garden State Equality</a> communique:<br /><br />"As the late Lt. <a href="http://www.pamspaulding.com/weblog/2006/01/outrage-nj-freeholders-turn-down.html">Laurel Hester</a> and too many other cases across New Jersey have shown, half-steps short of marriage -- like New Jersey's domestic-partnership law and also civil union laws -- don't work in the real world. Hospitals and other employers have told domestic-partnered couples across New Jersey: We don't care what the domestic partnership law says. You're not married.<br /> <br />That's why it wouldn't matter if the legislature added all the rights in the world to the current law without calling it marriage. Marriage is the only currency of commitment the real world universally understands and accepts."<br /><br />So Garden State Equality will be running a commercial for the proposal, a rally of same-sex couples will be held tonight in <a href="http://gardenstateequality.org/events.htm#decis">Montclair</a>, and many other events will be happening state-wide as the legislation gets discussed. <br /><br />A <a href="http://gardenstateequality.org/poll.htm">poll</a> has revealed that New-Jerseyans favour full marriage equality by 59-39 percent.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1161705705461376362006-10-24T11:58:00.000-04:002006-10-24T12:01:45.486-04:00Nunc hic aut numquam..."The legend of Elvis Presley lives for ever, and it's of course very important to sing Elvis Presley's songs in the Latin language, because Latin is the eternal language"<br /><br />The Finns go straight to the heart of things <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6079852.stm">here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1161147070867638822006-10-18T00:47:00.000-04:002006-10-18T00:51:37.700-04:00Alternative Source CitationsFor the academics among you, there's no longer any excuse for not knowing <a href="http://www.pmla.org/altsource.html">how to cite</a> body art, magic 8-balls and toilet graffiti. And if you were wondering how to cite wise words from your alien encounter, you can do that too.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1160449363829493852006-10-09T22:30:00.000-04:002006-10-09T23:07:06.100-04:00Robot Sex: For The Ugly And Socially Awkward<blockquote>"To the ugly and socially awkward: How sad that you are so repulsive to<br /> people around you that no one wants to be your friend or lifetime<br /> companion. We won't make it up to you by being your friend or your marriage<br /> partner--we have our own freedom of association to exercise--but you can<br /> console yourself in your miserable loneliness by consuming these material<br /> goods that we, the beautiful and charming ones, will provide. And who<br /> knows? Maybe you won't be such a loser in love once potential dates see how<br /> rich you are." - <a href="http://www.forum2.org/mellon/lj/anderson.html">Elizabeth Anderson </a></blockquote><br />This is the letter that Anderson imagines being written to those chosen for material compensation on some "luck egalitarian" schemes. (It is, incidentally, also my favourite single paragraph in any of the contemporary equality literature in political theory). She argues that their discussions of who should be compensated and how in an egalitarian society imply the kind of patronising mentality depicted here.<br /><br />But how far is it from how people really think? Just replace "how rich you are" with "how much you've learnt courtesy of <em>Robosex</em>", and you get a sense of why <a href="http://sexuality.about.com/od/sexandtechnology/a/david_levy.htm">David Levy</a> thinks sex robots will be both popular and useful.<br /><br />First, he makes great claims for what these robots will be able to do:<br /><br /><blockquote>Scientists have already developed artificial skin sufficiently sensitive to distinguish between a gentle caress and firm pressure; and the complementary capability - an artificial finger that can apply sensuous strokes. There is also research into silicone-based and similar types of materials used in the RealDoll and rival products, materials that provide for the user a measure of simulation of coupling with a human sex partner. Then add one or more of the specifically sexual electronic technologies that are already available, such as those employed for the benefit of women in the Thrillhammer, the Sybian, or the hugely popular vibrators that pleasure so many millions of customers; or the male equivalents - vibrating penis rings. The combination of these technologies and others will enable robots to deliver sexually awesome experiences.</blockquote><br />Then, knocking back claims that people wouldn't want to use them for embarrassment, he says "I hope and believe that one of the great benefits of sexual robots will be their ability to teach lovemaking skills, so that men who do feel inadequate will be able to take unlimited lessons". <br /><br />But its real target market soon becomes clear:<br /><blockquote><br />...What I am convinced of is that robot sex will become the only sexual outlet for a few sectors of the population: the misfits, the very shy, the sexually inadequate and uneducable...</blockquote><br />So there you go: robot sex will redeem the marginalised, teaching them new skills in order to gain re-entry into mainstream society, and consoling those who just can't learn with a "sexually awesome experience", human-contact-free!<br /><br />Anderson follows on her imagined compensation letters with a question: "Could a self-respecting citizen fail to be insulted by such messages?" The case of robot sex, however, brings to light a perhaps unexpected response - "We might be insulted, but that doesn't mean we won't keep the free gift..."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1160445982237175002006-10-09T21:44:00.000-04:002006-10-09T22:06:22.276-04:00Atlantic CityA couple of weeks ago I took up an opportunity that was advertised to the graduates as "Trip to the Jersey shore!". Of course, I'd heard of Atlantic City, but since the place name wasn't included in the notice (maybe to get more people to come), I was picturing a nice day by the sea, with a book, and maybe some snarking at Germans colonising the beach. This being the gambling capital of the East coast, though, I was very wrong.<br /><br />We arrived into the bus depot outside <a href="http://www.harrahs.com/casinos/caesars-atlantic-city/hotel-casino/property-home.shtml">Caesar</a>'s casino and were given $17 to spend there. Naturally, most of the slot machines I found wouldn't accept under five dollars, so that money was gone pretty quickly, and after one good win of $50, I ended up $60 out of pocket. Not as bad as most who go there, I reckon, but not good with payday not for another week.<br /><br />So, knowing I now had forty bucks to last me another week, I spent the rest of the day wandering around and seeing what the town had to offer other than gambling. The answer being "not a whole lot". The boardwalk, which runs the length of the beach between the sea and the casinos, is a nice promenade, with strange little boardwalk-buggy rides for hire every few paces. At least, it's a nice walk on the casino side, but if you go North a bit from Caesar's, you soon reach the other side, with 99 cent shops abounding, ferocious seagulls diving into near misses with your head, and everywhere signs saying "Cash for Gold", "Dinero por oro".<br /><br />Having earlier passed expensive jewellery shops, I began to get a sense of a cycle to A.C. life, at least for its busloads of visitors. If you arrive in the morning, when most of the people in the casinos are pensioners and disabled war veterans, you can spend a lot of money and make a little back before lunch, smoking away in the one place left where it's legal now in Jersey. Then perhaps you feel guilty for leaving your partner at home, looking after those hungry kids, and buy her a bit of jewellery with your winnings. <br /><br />For lunch, you grab a nice enough meal, before heading back in, losing what little you'd gained and deciding "if I could just have one more bet, I know I'd make that money back!" So away you go, getting your cash for gold on the nice necklace you bought earlier, and head back inside. Everything dies, though (<a href="http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bruce+springsteen/atlantic+city_20025144.html">baby, that's a fact</a>), and with all your hope and money gone, you head back on the last bus, maybe stopping to grab a cheap hotdog and some 99 cent watch on the other side of the main drag before you go - "at least she'll see I bought her something..."<br /><br />Okay, so maybe this little tale was something I thought up to pass the time while I was there, losing my own money, but A.C. may well be the most depressing town I've ever seen, and I've spent time in Medway, so that's saying something. <br /><br />I ended up my day there sitting on the almost deserted black-grey beach, struggling to breathe the polluted air, and reading "<a href="http://www.bookslut.com/fiction/2005_03_004674.php">Deliver Me From Nowhere</a>" by Tennessee Jones, a collection of stories with titles from Springsteen's "Nebraska" album, including 'Atlantic City', the story of a couple who take everything they have from the bank in their home town, before going to the A.C., gambling it all away and throwing themselves off the pier. And that sounded about right. <br /><br />The town sign should read "Welcome to Atlantic City, the fag end of the world".Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1160444543357433322006-10-09T21:39:00.000-04:002006-10-09T21:43:17.273-04:00Which Jane Austen Character Are You?<div style="width:300px;_height:250px; min-height:250px; background-color:rgb(216,233,237); text-align:center;"><br /> <div style="background:rgb(129,172,201); height:4px;"><br /> <img src="http://www.quizilla.com/images/blue_drk_corner1.gif" style="float: left" height="4" hspace="0" /><br /> <img src="http://www.quizilla.com/images/blue_drk_corner2.gif" style="float: right" height="4" hspace="0" /><br /> </div><br /> <div style="background:rgb(129,172,201); padding: 0pt 0pt 5px;"><br /> <span style="font-size:12px; color:rgb(255,255,255); padding:3px; font-family:Arial;"><strong>Which Jane Austen Character Are You?</strong></span><br /> </div><br /> <div style="padding:5px; text-align:left; font-size:12px; font-family:Arial; background-color:rgb(216,233,237);"><br /><br /><center><img src="http://images.quizilla.com/M/merriefuller/1060228491_pElizabeth.gif"><br/>You are Eliza Bennett from <i>Pride and Prejudice</i>! Yay, you! Perhaps the brightest and best character in all of English literature, you are intelligent, lively, lovely-- in short, you are the best of company. Your only foibles are that you stick with your first impressions... and your family is quite intolerable.<br/>Take this <a target="quizilla" style="color:rgb(0,0,0)" href="http://quizilla.com/redirect.php?statsid=17&url=http://www.quizilla.com/users/merriefuller/quizzes/Which+Jane+Austen+Character+Are+You%3F">quiz</a>!<br/><br /><br /><br/><a href="http://www.quizilla.com/redirect.php?statsid=18&url=http://www.quizilla.com/" target="quizilla"><br /><img border="0" src="http://www.quizilla.com/images/codepastes/30qzlogo.gif" style="padding:2px;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12;"><br /><br /><a style="color:rgb(0,0,0);" target="quizilla" href="http://www.quizilla.com/redirect.php?statsid=18&url=http://www.quizilla.com">Quizilla</a> | <br /><a style="color:rgb(0,0,0);" target="quizilla" href="http://www.quizilla.com/redirect.php?statsid=21&url=http://www.quizilla.com/register">Join</a> <br /><br />| <a style="color:rgb(0,0,0);" target="quizilla" href="http://www.quizilla.com/redirect.php?statsid=20&url=http://www.quizilla.com/makeaquiz.php">Make A Quiz</a> | <a target="quizilla" href="http://www.quizilla.com/redirect.php?statsid=42&url=http://www.quizilla.com/users/merriefuller/quizzes/">More Quizzes</a> | <a style="color:rgb(0,0,0);" target="quizilla" href="http://www.quizilla.com/redirect.php?statsid=19&url=http://www.quizilla.com/codepastes/?quizid=200849">Grab Code</a></span><br /></div></div></center><br /><br />Well, clearly that's me... But I'm sure I'm much more intolerable than the rest of my family. <br />[Via <a href="http://virtualstoa.net/2006/10/09/which-jane-austen-character-are-you/">Chris</a>]Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1158847951131064592006-09-21T10:09:00.000-04:002006-09-21T10:12:31.163-04:00No scents! No pastels! No scurvy!A bit late for "International Talk Like A Pirate Day", but this is a wonderful idea. It's <a href="http://www.metalandmagic.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=oddities&id=piratetampon&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php&PHPSESSID=1699862ba1af9364f1a27479e4fefd2f">Blackbeard Brand Rugged Tampons</a>, "A product you can trust from a name you can't".Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1158623714728735032006-09-18T19:46:00.000-04:002006-09-18T19:56:54.176-04:00Beast watchOne thing I've found particularly hard in adjusting to a new country is getting used to the presence of real wildlife. As a particularly nervous city kid, I've always been terrified of most animals and insects, so I've not been particularly happy sharing my space with thousands of squirrels, including black ones (native to Princeton); having rabid raccoons going through the bins at night; watching wild deer narrowly escape a bus-mown death; walking by what was reportedly a praying mantis on the pavement in front of me etc. <br /><br />Okay, so there is some wildlife in England, but I've always felt pretty safe from it in Birmingham and central Oxford. Apparently, though I was <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5353882.stm">wrong</a> to feel that way. Little did I know when I lived there how narrowly I'd missed a close encounter of the wallaby kind...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1158242901546744842006-09-14T10:04:00.000-04:002006-09-14T10:09:36.600-04:00A Different PersonI've just started taking undergraduate Latin classes, with a view to using it for research purposes in a couple of years. Being surrounded by high-achieving American undergraduates is both sociologically interesting and amusing in a number of ways.<br /><br />The best moment today came when one student, asked what the English second person plural was, confidently answered "Y'all".Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1157249498743338332006-09-10T09:15:00.000-04:002006-09-10T09:28:29.463-04:00A Boy Named SarahAbout 10 months ago I had my hair cut very short, and since then it's mostly fluctuated between chaemo-patient (as someone here put it), fascist (as I think most of my English friends put it) and crew-cut. A number of memorable moments of gender mis- or re-identification have occurred since then, my favourites including the comments "you could be a boxer with a chest like that, sir" during some close measurements for a suit-fitting, and "I really think women are the future... You and I are on the way out" from a man at a party, where the rest of the group were girls.<br /><br />For the most part, these moments have become a routine part of my life, and something I usually quite enjoy, their unpredictability being the only hard part. But something about the differences between England and America - possibly just a mere fact of accent - seems to have removed the power of the normal tip-offs that I might be, at least biologically, female. Whereas at home the mistaken impressions were usually corrected with great embarrassment later on when I spoke more clearly, or allowed my chest to show more prominently, here that corrective seems to be largely absent. "Oh, he's just English..."<br /><br />Even my name on my ID card - and my long hair in that - doesn't change things here. Cashing travellers' cheques at the bank yesterday, two of the tellers discussed options about bank accounts for me - "he'd get a $250 bonus with his first payslip on that account", "yeah, but he doesn't have a social security number yet..." And <em>after</em> this, one of them looked at my passport for a long time to write down some details, before handing it back with a 'here you go, sir'. Another time, I'd just been ID'd in a bar when I got into a chat with a Brazilian man who talked all night about sports, because he thought I must do a lot of tough ones with a physique like mine (you see, only women are fat - men are <em>built</em>)<br /><br />None of this seems to be a problem in a university town on the East coast, but if I ever leave here my life may rapidly head into <em>Boys Don't Cry</em> territory. And one thing that still scares me about living in this country - people here carry guns...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1157784683497586492006-09-09T02:36:00.000-04:002006-09-09T02:51:23.520-04:00American FareAnother fun part of international orientation was being treated to an "American fare" lunch. This happened on Thursday, where, after several hours of talks, we were taken to experience American junk food. Candy floss (cotton candy), baguettes (Hoagies), popcorn, pizza, snow cones and ice cream were all served up to us with a handy explanation of what they were and their place in American culture. Some extracts:<br /><br /><em>"Eating cotton candy is only part of the fun; watching it being made fascinates children and adults alike."</em><br /><br /><em>"What is a typical pizza topping in your country?"</em> (Bird's custard, naturally...)<br /><br /><em>"Australians and New Zealanders are among the the leading ice cream consumers per capita in the world. The UK is among the lowest consumers of ice cream"</em> (I can't imagine why...)<br /><br />The sessions have been quite fun in many ways, though, and the stereotyping certainly runs in all directions. Thanks to arriving in the country with no furniture and very few possessions of any kind, I've been a regular passenger of New Jersey Transit's buses to Walmart (I know, I know) and the massive grocery store Wegman's. In the West Windsor Wegman's you can find a large international food section, giving us pad thai noodles, Caribbean peas and rice, spring rolls, curries and, delightfully, 'European food'. In this grouping there were included things like strudel, malt loaf and a number of other items, but the English representatives certainly held their own - Bird's custard (hence my comment above), Heinz spaghetti hoops and Worcestershire sauce. Needless to say, any yearning I might have had for those items is fully abated...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1157783130157813122006-09-09T02:05:00.000-04:002006-09-09T02:32:44.513-04:00You may not know this, but...After a very long break in regular posting, this blog has relocated from England to Princeton, New Jersey, and its author is now officially an international graduate student. In my capacity as such, I am being taught about American culture. So today I received the answer to that burning question, "Who is an American?", with a handy checklist of points.<br /><br />Americans, apparently, are characterised by their individualism, their punctuality(!), their emphasis on "doing rather than being" (we may go down the pub to meet people; they go hiking), their egalitarianism, the prominent role they give to women, and their friendliness and openness. The last bit came with a warning - Americans may say hello and ask you how you are, but you should not mistake this for a deep friendship.<br /><br />Thus my personal crusade in the Global War on Terror now comes with a handy guide for spotting those un-/anti-American bastards who are ruining it for the rest of us. Being late for a meeting always seemed so innocent before, but now I know better. No real American would ever do that.<br /><br />Even better, I can now make "American friendships". This is, of course, another dangerous area, full of pitfalls which could leave me isolated for years to come. My future American friends will apparently be put off if I begin on any topic other than the traffic or the weather - these are the <em>safe</em> subjects. If my new American buddy is amenable, I may, after a suitable period of time, begin discussing common interests and so on, but anything more personal than that will come only very gradually. So, for instance, the conversation I had this evening which touched on the sexuality of tree-hugging (tree-humping) will probably render me a social outcast for the remainder of my time here. (Actually, that may be fair enough...)<br /><br />And, armed with all this useful information, I continue on into the unknown...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1150841400917612802006-06-20T18:05:00.000-04:002006-06-20T18:10:00.943-04:00Christian Fisting<a href="http://www.sexinchrist.com/fist.html">This</a> is great fun:<br /><br /><em>"My love thrust his hand through the opening, and my feelings were stirred for him."</em> (Song of Solomon 5:2-4)<br /><br />Did you know that "a Christian couple can use fisting to build trust and intimacy between them, as well as strengthening their relationship with the Lord"?<br /><br />Indeed, it's an act of faith:<br /><br />"...Before attempting fisting, a Christian husband and wife should pray together and ask for divine guidance. The husband should ask that God guide his hand and work through him, and for the skill and patience to fist his wife correctly and maximize her pleasure. The wife should pray for openness and readiness to receive God’s love and grace in the form of her husband’s hand.<br /><br />Both should treat the act of fisting as a divine spiritual mystery to be entered into with reverence and awe, especially the husband. In another spiritual interpretation of fisting, as he inserts his hand into his wife’s vagina, a man is symbolically re-enacting the moment of truth following Christ’s resurrection from the tomb, when Doubting Thomas touches the wounds in the Savior’s flesh: Then He said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and observe My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Don't be an unbeliever, but a believer.” (John 20:27) Thomas’ doubt would not be satisfied until he physically felt the wounds in Christ’s body and penetrated His flesh with his hand. Likewise, the spiritual and sexual power of fisting cannot be known unless experienced physically. "Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1143753491301540482006-03-30T16:14:00.000-05:002006-03-30T16:18:11.316-05:00QuirkyI just passed by a kid wearing a t-shirt saying "Come on feel the Illinoise." Americans are great.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1137114006523261772006-01-12T19:40:00.000-05:002006-01-12T20:06:10.823-05:00Protests In India Over Gay ArrestsFrom <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1497187">Reuters</a>, with some relevant background links added:<br /><br /><blockquote><p>"NEW DELHI - Gay activists held a rare and noisy <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/images/2006-01-12T114147Z_01_NOOTR_RTRIDSP_1_INTERNATIONAL-INDIA-HOMOSEXUALITY-DC.jpg">protest</a> in the Indian capital on Thursday demanding the release of four men arrested for homosexuality and running an online gay club. </p><p>Homosexuality is banned in India under a <a href="http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/Organizations/healthnet/SAsia/suchana/0909/rh374.html">19th century law </a>but is prevalent undercover. About two dozen gay men and women and their supporters gathered outside the New Delhi guesthouse of the northern Uttar Pradesh state which ordered the arrest of the four last week. The protesters from the largely closeted gay community waved banners and placards which read: "My sexuality, My right," "Queer and Proud," and "I am a man. I love a man. That's my only crime."<br /><br />"The entire case is fabricated," said Guam Bhang, a gay rights activist. "None of the men were having public sex. They have been arrested simply because they are homosexual." Human rights and anti-AIDS groups have slammed the arrests saying such discrimination will hurt the fight against HIV/AIDS.<br /><br />"Criminalization of people most at risk of HIV infection may increase stigma and discrimination, ultimately fuelling the AIDS epidemic," UNAIDS India coordinator Denis Braun told Reuters. India has 5.1 million people with HIV/AIDS, the second largest number after South Africa. New York-based Human Rights Watch <a href="http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/01/11/india12399.htm">sent a letter</a> to Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh, protesting against the arrests.<br /><br />"Lucknow police have a shameful record of harassing gay men as well as non-governmental organizations that work with them," said Human Rights Watch<br />official Scott Long in a statement. In a <a href="http://www.sodomylaws.org/world/india/inalert02.htm">similar incident</a> in 2001, Long said, police in Lucknow raided the offices of two non-government organizations working on HIV/AIDS prevention and arrested four staff. They were accused of running a gay sex racket. An outcry by activists led to their release after a month.<br /><br />India's gay community is trying to lift <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4304081.stm">the veil of secrecy </a>surrounding homosexuality in a nation where public hugging or kissing among heterosexuals invites angry stares and lewd comments. "I am queer and I know how difficult it is," said Pramado Menon. "We have to hide our lives." In the past year, three lesbian couples have hit the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4566091.stm">headlines</a> as they struggled to stay together despite public pressure for them to split up.<br /><br />Although activists have been pressing for the<a href="http://www.sodomylaws.org/world/india/innews07.htm"> scrapping </a>of the anti-homosexuality law, the government said last year society was not ready to accept legalized homosexual behavior."<br /><br /></p></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1136076570079440482005-12-31T19:34:00.000-05:002005-12-31T19:57:04.630-05:00New Year's ResolutionsI won't be posting much in the forthcoming year at all, but I'll take an official pause for the while as I prepare to relocate back to Oxford. So this is a last post for a while.<br /><br />I never seriously make resolutions, but this year I vaguely intend to do the following:<br /><ol><li>Read all the books I was given for Christmas for once (unfortunately, this includes the <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0865974365/qid=1136075823/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl/202-3276776-1012632">Rights of War and Peace</a> - only £16.99 in Borders! - so this resolution may end up like those ones about giving up chocolate... it also includes trashy Japanese <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0007178859/qid=1136075859/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/202-3276776-1012632">horror novels</a> for a lighter touch, though). </li><li>Also reading - start working through Aquinas' <em>Summa Theologica</em>.</li><li>Go out drinking more often with people I like but don't see much.</li><li>Spend less on pointless forms of gambling (admittedly, this one was precipitated by being ID'd in a supermarket for a lottery ticket a couple of weeks ago. I can handle someone thinking I'm under eighteen - just about - but under <em>sixteen</em>?) </li><li>Finish my degree. Of course, I remember making this one last year...</li></ol><p>Feel free to post any resolutions you may have made yourself. A happy new year to everyone. May it prove better than the last, on whatever scale you choose.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1134693577401186032005-12-15T19:26:00.000-05:002005-12-15T19:39:37.413-05:00Springer BannedMost people probably know about this already, but I'd missed it somehow. Both Sainsbury's and Woolworths have <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4507636.stm">withdrawn</a> <i>Jerry Springer: The Opera</i> from their stores in response to complaints from Christian Voice-type bigots. Sainsbury's is beginning to say that it was planning to withdraw the DVD anyway due to poor sales, but that sounds like crap to me.<br /><br />There are Pledgebank pledges to do with this <a href="http://www.pledgebank.com/dvd-boycott">here</a>, <a href="http://gb.en-gb.pledgebank.com/DisneyDVDban">here</a> and <a href="http://www.pledgebank.com/JerrySpringer">here</a>. For the more standard complaint strategy, you can go <a href="http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/contactus">here</a> for Sainsbury's and <a href="mailto:customer.relations@woolworths.co.uk">here</a> for Woolworths.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1134176606485095952005-12-09T20:02:00.000-05:002005-12-09T20:03:26.486-05:00Exciting news!This is officially the <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=shittest+website+in+the+world&meta=">'shittest website in the world'</a>. Thank you Google!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1134176411508309442005-12-09T19:39:00.000-05:002005-12-09T20:00:11.523-05:00Throwing money at a problemOkay, so David Cameron has obviously spooked the government more than they'd care to admit. Labour members have had two mailings in one week on the subject. Obviously Ian McCartney, with the first of them, didn't convince people to donate enough to fend off the new threat. So now we have Jo Brand writing to us to tell us to donate 6 times in one e-mail, because a 'hard-hitting' comedienne will obviously drive the message home:<br /><br /><i>Hello,<br /><br />I'm Jo, a Labour supporter and you may have seen me on telly. Have you noticed the big news this week? <br /><br />David Cameron (Dave to his friends), an old Etonian distantly related to the Queen, has been elected leader of the Conservative Party. <br /><br />At last, it has dawned on Tory members that they need to be in touch with the reality of the modern world and the lives of the majority of British people!<br /><br />As his first step, Dave is bringing back that icon of the new century William Hague to the front bench.</i><br /><br />Biting satire...<br /><br />And that's about as funny as it gets. The rest of the e-mail just points out what should be obvious to anyone, which is that behind the flashy modern veneer David Cameron is just the usual Tory scum. He's been pro-hunting, pro-privatisation, against maternity leave and against NHS spending increases. Well, none of that is terribly surprising. What's both surprising and annoying is that we're supposed to think that putting more money into the party is a good response to these facts.<br /><br />Strangely, I don't think that it takes a lot of money to show that however young and flashy David Cameron is, he's still an arsehole. Surely all it takes is to remind people that he is, after all, a Tory. No, what we need is for the Labour party leadership to wake up and realise that with the Tories playing Blair's game, the net effect of 'charismatic leadership' is zero, and we should finally get back to making some vaguely left wing policies by which we could be distinguished from the Conservatives. <br /><br />Of course, what will more likely happen is that the style game and the "Punch and Judy politics" will be notched up even further, while both sides cry out against it. After all, what could be better spin than denouncing spin?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6410568.post-1133734488194818342005-12-04T16:58:00.000-05:002005-12-04T17:14:48.276-05:00Let them sing it for you<a href="http://www.sr.se/p1/src/sing/index.htm#">This</a> is great. You type in any words of your choice, and the programme will "sing" them for you, by taking them from songs already in its database. I decided to try some real lyrics, using "heaven knows I'm miserable now", which wonderfully includes both Fred Astaire and Chris Isaak singing in their version. "Let's spend the night together" also sounds quite fun and familiar...<br /><br />In some ways this is even more fun than the wonderful <a href="http://pandora.com/">Music Genome Project</a>, but not as useful, since the MGP has actually introduced me to a lot of new bands, and made me realise how much I like twisted folk music (and apparently almost any music from Portland, OR).Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0