Bob-a-job-alog-a-roonie

I'm sure they'll change it before then, even though proposed changes failed this week - but as the UK copyright law stands, Beatles songs and other music from 1962 will be public domain in 2012 - because the 50 year copyright limit will have expired. I wonder if Michael Jackson was aware of this when he bought the rights to the Beatles songs.....?

Labels: music

Read the pic (obviously not real, but nicely done...)

Labels: japan, Paris hilton

A common argument you will hear from people disputing the possibility of gay folk having a genetic disposition to it, is that "you don't see animals doing it".

A mu­se­um ex­hi­bi­tion on ani­mal ho­mo­sex­u­ali­ty is showing that the opposite is true.

The best-known gay an­i­mal is the dwarf chim­pan­zee, or bo­no­bo, one of hu­man­i­ty’s closest rel­a­tives. The whole spe­cies is bi­sex­u­al: sex plays a glar­ing role in all their ac­tiv­i­ties and de­fuses po­ten­tial vi­o­lence, Boek­man ar­gued, the usu­al meth­od of solv­ing con­flicts among an­i­mals.

Gay sex is also common with male lions (to show loyalty), dolphins & killer whales.

Every tenth pair of black-headed gulls are les­bi­an. 90% of male giraffes engage in homosexual sex! Geese & ducks (who mate for life), have 5% gay couples.

Oct 20 should have been a day for a celebratory feast. Exactly 10 years earlier 176 world leaders at the World Food Summit pledged to halve the number of undernourished people by 2015.

Instead it is a day for commiseration and recrimination. More than 850 million are still hungry - some 18 million more than in 1996. And while issues such as debt forgiveness, a better trade deal for Africa and climate change have grabbed the headlines, food has been left off the menu. More.

Brilliant, especially if I ever needed it, because I can't stand needles!

Tears have a tiny concentration of glucose, about 1-10th of that of blood and there's a lag time of about 15 minutes before the eye registers the level.

"We've developed very special molecules that sense glucose at very low levels," said Geddes. "We've incorporated these inside commercially available contact lenses. The test is completely non-invasive and it's continuous."

A person wearing the glucose-sensitive lenses would see a small translucent dot on the left side of the visual field. That dot would change color, warning the patient of dangerously low or high blood sugar levels. More...

Nice bit of global / cultural humour - a site showing public toilet instruction signs, like these:

According to the Bible, as long as it is 2 girls and a guy, it is OK, so long as the girls aren't bull dykes, and partners approve:

- Both women involved in the threesome must be willing to keep within traditional female roles (i.e., not taking on masculine appearance or behavior in or out of the bedroom) and recognize the male as the leader in the relationship.
- The partners of the participants do not object

Full article at sexinchrist.com

I just came across the Racial Slurs Database - after noting the extensive list of sensitive words, you might choose to never speak again, lest you offend someone! Here's a few of them:

Milkman
Milky
Mingia
Mishwa / Mishweya
Miss Cleo
Missing Tooth
Missippi Tree Emblem
Mississippi Blue Lip
Mister Charles

I thought it was a nice idea, and a good sign of the world (slowly) changing towards more friendliness.... Australia's two biggest newspaper companies are considering combining their newsprint & transport operations, to reduce costs and un-necessary duplication. The ACCC might say no, but I say yes to any reduction of resources.

Found this browsing Wikipedia...

The ruins of Hylton Castle (near Sunderland, in Tyne & Wear, Northern England) are reputed to be haunted by the ghost of a murdered stable boy, known locally as the Cauld Lad of Hylton. The events are said to have taken place in the 16th or 17th century and there are several legends concerning the ghost's origins.

One story states that the stable boy was caught courting Baron Hylton's daughter, and was killed.

Another version says that the baron ordered that his horse be prepared for an important journey, but the stable boy, Robert Skelton, had overslept. There are several versions of what happened next. The enraged baron was said to have either

* decapitated the boy
* hit the boy on the back of the head with a riding crop, striking a spot that had been injured (and weakened) the day before, causing a fatal blow
* stabbed him with a nearby pitchfork.

He was then reported to have disposed of the body in a deep pond, or an unused well.

Several months later, the body was recovered. The baron was tried for Skelton's murder, but had an alibi. An old farm worker stated that the baron had ordered the boy to remove a tool from the top shelf in the barn, and the boy had fallen, seriously wounding himself in the process. The baron had tended to the wounds, but the boy had died. It is on record that Robert Hylton, 13th Baron Hylton was pardoned in 1609.

Soon afterwards, strange events began to occur in the castle. The kitchen would be tidied at night if left in a mess, or messed up if left tidy. An unseen person would take hot ashes from the fires, and lie on them, leaving an imprint of a body. Chamber pots were emptied on the floor.

I wouldn't ordinarily blog about the sharemarket, but I just received the annual report from CFK Childcare and I'm flabbergasted at an important point that they buried away in Note 1(u) on page 22:

As at 30 June 2006 the group had a deficiency of net current assets of $12,439,542 [due to a $15m bank loan] ...The group is currently in breach of its financial covenants which have not been remedied. However, the companys bankers have advised that the loan facilities will be extended for a further period until 31 December 2006, allowing the bank to conduct an annual review.

As a a result of the above, there is uncertainty as to whether the group will continue as a going concern....

I am definitely no expert on these matters, and maybe it's quite normal for a business to live so precariously - but I am certainly grateful that I read annual reports fully!

Some geniuses/freaks/obsessives have collected lots & lots of album covers that contain nudity for our viewing pleasure/disgust. I found it interesting how one's opinion is changed by familiarity. The ones I know seem normal, the some of the ones I don't seem gratuitous...

550 at Rate Your Music

Another collection at Rate Your Music

Idolator's Guide To Completely NSFW Album Art

Bush concluded by admitting that his avoidance of email correspondence was because "everything is investigated in Washington". He confessed that, as a result, "we're losing a lot of history, not just with me, but with other presidents as well".

...US prez George Bush has admitted he does not send personal emails to daughters Jenna and Barbara for fear that his "personal stuff" might end up in the public domain. More...

In another article, which I have misplaced, he says that he also cannot receive email, otherwise the assumption would be that every email that was ever sent to him - he must have read it.