30 Sep 2007
China bans bra, underwear, sex toy ads

What's interesting about this, besides the government acting like petty Puritans? The current male to female birth ratio in mainland China is 117:100 - that one hundred seventeen boys to every one hundred girls, thanks in large part to the state's one child family policy in place since the early 80's. By 2020 the imbalance will be striking, with some 30+ million more men of marriageable age than women.

And policies like this, which discourage prostitution as well as porn, sex toys and underwear ads, are only going to increase the frustration felt by all these testosterone laden young men.

Throw in some of the other repressive policies the Chinese have, and you have an explosive mix. Not a happy social scenario...

AP - China has banned television and radio ads for push-up bras, figure-enhancing underwear and sex toys in the communist government's latest move to purge the nation's airwaves of what it calls social pollution.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

08:42 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

29 Sep 2007
The Creed of the North

I believe in Ase and Van, the Living Expressions of Creation, who eternally walk with our Folk through Midgard. I believe that the Spiritual Essence of Gods and Men alike will be reborn into Creation, until the End of Time.

I believe that the Line of my Ancestors, back to the Beginning, constitutes my Folk, and I honor and revere their memory, and recognize my place in their midst.

I believe in the Norns who tend the Well of Wyrd and Weave the Fates of Men, and in the tree Yggdrasil that stands at the Center of Creation. I believe that all my words and deeds are cast into the Well, and receive their ultimate expression as the Waters that nourish the Tree.

Hail!

07:16 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Know How To Use a Slide Rule?

Very cool - I remember when my youngest daughter found my old slide rule when we moved once. She couldn't fathom how you could measure anything with it, since it wouldn't lay flat and all the parts moved! I don't think I ever did convice her it was a calculator ...

How many of you have actually used a slide rule? The slide rule was a simple yet powerful and important tool for engineers and scientists before the days of calculators (let alone PCs). In fact, several people I know still prefer to use them. In the interest of preserving this icon we have created a virtual slide rule for you to play with.

(link) [Slashdot]

07:06 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

28 Sep 2007
Are iPods to Blame for Rising Crime?

So is the US Mint responsible for bank robberies?

An Urban Institute study suggests that iPods may partly account for a nationwide increase in violent crime in 2005 and 2006.

(link) [New York Times]

06:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

27 Sep 2007
Alcohol and cancer: is drinking the new smoking?

How about this? - a more or less open admission of their future agenda by the Fun Nazis. But methinks they'll run into some problems alleging damage by "second hand beer", although we'll have to wait and see how creative they can get.

Researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health have clarified the link between alcohol consumption and the risk of head and neck cancers, showing that people who stop drinking can significantly reduce their cancer risk. These results have important implications for tailoring alcohol policies and prevention strategies, especially for people with a family risk of cancer.

(link) [EurekAlert]

06:39 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

26 Sep 2007
6 Ark. nuns excommunicated for heresy

Because they understand that a religion without a goddess is half-way to atheism...

AP - Six Catholic nuns have been excommunicated for heresy after refusing to give up membership in a Canadian sect whose founder claims to be the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, the Diocese of Little Rock announced Wednesday.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

20:57 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Defense Lawyers Cringe at MediaDefender's Porn Patrol Plans

Given the company's track record, Cuomo may have just wiped out the possibility of convictions for passing around kiddie porn. And given the fact that this is the NY AG's office we're talking about, it sets ones mind wondering: they had to know about MediaDefender's antics - what possible reason could there to endanger ongoing cases by using them?

Lawyers raise eyebrows after hacked e-mails reveal that New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo was planning to outsource evidence-gathering on peer-to-peer child pornographers to MediaDefender, a company in the business of deceiving file-sharing sites.

(link) [Wired Top Stories]

06:27 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

25 Sep 2007
Anger at Giuliani 9/11 fundraiser

It occurs to me that when his run for the Presidency fails, Rudy might make a memorable televangelist...

Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani is criticised for a fundraising party urging people to donate $9.11.

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

22:16 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Iran president in NY campus row

Notable remark:

"In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country."

Here's why.

President Ahmadinejad of Iran is involved in heated exchanges during a speech at a New York university.

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

06:47 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Virgin Digital To Close Up Shop

Another one bites the dust.

mrspin writes in to note the demise of the Virgin Digital music store. Here is Virgin's announcement. It will shut down in stages: the service closed its doors to new subscribers on Friday; current subscribers will lose all access to it when their next monthly payment is due or on Oct. 19, whichever comes first. The store advises customers who have purchased downloads to back them up to CD and re-import them as MP3. It used to discourage such DRM-evading tactics.

(link) [Slashdot]

06:44 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

24 Sep 2007
'Crazy' bull escapes, rips apart man's home

How'd you like to be the neighbor, luring the wild critter with a sack of feed?

An escaped and raging bull attacked a neighbor's home, tearing off siding, ripping down part of a fence and damaging a car.

(link) [CNN]

09:06 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

US teacher fired for non-literal bible reading

I wonder what these students would say if the teacher had taught them that the world was licked out of the ice by a cosmic cow? Literally.

A teacher at a US community college in Red Oak, Iowa says he was fired after telling his students not to interpret the story of Adam and Eve as a literal account of events circa BC 4000

(link) [The Register]

08:30 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Seniors balk at ban on free doughnuts

Not content with snatching candy from the mouths of babies, the Nutrition Police have settled on a new target ...

AP - It was just another morning at the senior center: Women were sewing, men were playing pool — and seven demonstrators, average age 76, were picketing outside, demanding doughnuts.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

08:27 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

22 Sep 2007
Thousands rally in La. to support Jena 6

Imagine the reverse situation: six white teens pound a black classmate to a bloody pulp. I guarantee that the same people would be there protesting for the exact opposite result, demanding that the six offenders stay in jail and be charged with a hate crime.

AP - Traffic jammed the two-lane road leading into the tiny town of Jena early Thursday as thousands of demonstrators gathered in support of six black teens initially charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white classmate.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

07:44 /Politics | 4 comments | permanent link

Oz burglar had sex with Hoover

Insanity respects no borders ...

An Oz chap who broke into a neighbour's house and "played sex games in the bathroom with a bottle of toilet detergent and a vacuum cleaner" was fingered two years after the outrage by the DNA he left on a pair of rubber gloves, Reuters reports.

(link) [The Register]

07:39 /Humor | 1 comment | permanent link