Oklahoma proposes legislation to oblige the father of an unborn child to be part of the abortion decision.
The initial uproar is because he’s called women “hosts” and while that conjures up unpleasant images it’s a valid standpoint for a male, antiabortionist.
So far nobody seems to be thinking through how this will be implemented, so here are my thoughts…
All women wanting an abortion will require a fetal DNA test – probably via amniocentesis – because: Read the rest of this entry »
I already have a problem with processed corn that doctors have failed to acknowledge and I manage by “avoidance” so I was intrigued by this article: The Real Reason Wheat is Toxic (it’s not the gluten)
There are plenty of things that farmers do that are distasteful and run contrary to the propaganda fed to us as toddlers in our story books and never questioned. Drenching a food product in a herbicide just prior to harvest has to be on the list. That link takes you to an official Roundup document – it’s up to us if we think the risk is worth it or not. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve bought the “I Quit Sugar” book and follow the facebook page of Sarah Wilson and have extended that to a number of other sources.
Summer is on it’s way so I decided to stock up on salady things and decided to check out the sugar content of the dressings – prompted, in part, by a viral mayonnaise post on facebook.
Check these out. Read the rest of this entry »
I had a chance encounter with a wealthy New Zealander recently. We were both holidaying on one of the beautiful islands in the South Pacific when we met and ended up being invited back for drinks a few days later.
One child stayed back with family and one came with us – intrigued to meet a “Sir”. Another couple, locals, joined us and they proved to be fascinating company and we learned alot in the time we spent together. Read the rest of this entry »
I just had a good laugh at Tech Crunch’s article Want To Top Apple’s All-Time Top Paid Apps List? Sell A Ton Of Apps — Or Do This.
I make the most of the appshopper.com lists of new, popular and free apps and have had a couple of “wins” where an app I’ve put on my wish list is free for a limited time. I figured they were going for the word-of-mouth promotion and given how many kids we know who have access to an iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad the word does get out and I get presented with the app store all ready to download some new (invariably ghastly iMobster type thing) app to install once I put in my much protected password.
Getting anywhere on the list of the paid apps is fantastic for the app developers and I’d never questioned how those lists were constucted. I’d figured Apple knew how much money was changing hands and basing it on that – makes sense right?
If, however, they are counting downloads alone then the system is hugely flawed. Go free for a day, week or even month and a half way decent app will be installed a huge number of times – if only because it won’t be free later and it might just be worth it.
I don’t have a vested interest in Apple getting it right, but now that the secret is out it’ll be worth keeping an eye on appshopper, free app of the day etc to see
The weather is gloomy so my boy has taken advantage of it and cajoled me into taking him with some friends to Yogi Bear. We bought our tickets online and parked in a reasonably inconvenient area because I didn’t want to waste time looking for a park and its no bother to walk.
I was astounded to see that Wilsons parking have been given a contract to enforce parking restrictions. Where I was parked is limited to 90 minutes (less than a movie) and closer parks got a generous 240 minutes.
If you want longer you have to plead your case to Customer Services at their newly relocated desk. The woman I talked to gave me a flyer and a complaint form and told me that extensions would be given if you could show you had made significant purchases.
I have a young daughter who wants to go to the mall with her friends and objects that I feel I should be there too. Given the unreasonable parking situation and the $3/ hour internet at Starbucks it looks likely she’ll get her independence more quickly than I’d planned.
I was impressed by Mashable’s article on customising facebook profiles and used the Schweppes tool to customise mine. I wasn’t hugely committed to it, didn’t have a great photo to use but thought it would be fun for a while.
I got it set up using Firefox and it looked lovely until I decided to show my sister in law and she uses IE. The images were all out of line and I looked like I’d had a severe stroke or palsy. Since then one of my lovely nieces has started tagging the Xmas family photos – and I appear in some.
Unless I stop facebook doing what it does maintaining my profile will be a full time job. However one of the things I liked about facebook was the uniformity. The content and character of the user stands out on page because the garishness that consumed MySpace is gone. With that in mind, perhaps its 1 point facebook, nil to the modifiers.
Auckland is a fairly big city with over 1 million residents but by international standards it doesn’t compare with London, New York or even Sydney. New Years Eve is a party night but not for public partying – private parties, night clubs and restaurants. We have the Sky Tower which is part of the city’s casino and they put on a fireworks display at midnight. Its the same every year but if we’re close enough we watch because its all part of the event.
This year Kim Schmitz (aka Kim DotCom) livened things up with a competing fireworks display. From my home they appeared side by side and his display totally outclassed the Casinos.
I don’t know what statement he was trying to make – a farewell, or that he’s here to stay? Time will tell, in the meantime, “thanks, it was amazing”.
Gawd, don’t even know if anyone would want to hear my daily whine, oops, sorry blog. I don’t even update facebook that often!
Check out http://dailypost.wordpress.com/ for details of their challenge. I doubt there is any reward other than filling the net with more drivel but it may be interesting!
2011 starts for me in 5 and a half hours. So – lets get this moving!
My source for this is reliable… and if this is for real then it’s pretty scary. Especially when there’s the Chinese Lantern Festival on and there will be more people than usual out and about in town. The good news is that the weather is foul so maybe those events will be quiet. Not good for the festival organisers though 😦
Was at a meeting this morning when one of the people from the Ministry of Social Developement stood up with a special announcement, namely that the Bloods gang of South Auckland are doing a recruitment drive this weekend. The police have information that the Bloods are upset with the amount of media and general notoriety of the rival Killer Beez gang, and so have planned the recruitment drive to bolster numbers and gain some attention for themselves. The way the gang works is that prospective members must prove themselves by completing an initiation task.
Apparently, this Saturday night that will involve groups of prospective gang members driving around in cars with the headlights off, with the intention that anyone who flashes their lights back at them will be chased and at the conclusion of said chase will receive a vicious beating. The take home message was not to flash your lights at anyone driving with their lights off on Saturday night. This is supposed to be happening all over the city between the North Shore and Franklin.
According to the source, the police are reluctant to release this information to the general media until either late in the piece or not at all, for fears that the gang will just change their tactic or dates, making it completely unpredictable. I find this all a little hard to believe, but likewise will not be flashing my lights at anyone on Saturday night. Seems a small and logical precaution to take on the off chance that there is any truth behind the murmurings.
Auckland and more 