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should you kiss goodbye to your inflatable sheep sex toy?
Perhaps I should rephrase that… 🙂
Presumably they're also offended by dolphin shaped dildos too, and let's not get into the ones shaped like animal penises…
Let's all conjugate his favourite verb(?) from the 1986 World Cup Continue reading
I had a letter from Parcelforce at work yesterday. It was from Kevin King, who is apparently my local Parcelforce Worldwide Sales Executive, telling me how in the past two years, they have completely revamped their company and invested in the latest leading-edge technology and software which has dramatically changed the service they offer!
Oooh.
And what's more, if we open an account with them they'll deliver my first parcel absolutely free!
Oooh.
One catch though: the account must be opened and the first parcel sent by 30th October…
Oh. For a second there, I was expecting their service to have, you know, improved, because I didn't believe it was possible for it to have got dramatically worse… but evidently it is.
There's this organisation which is well-known in the sex work field. But despite their enviable access to the great and the good, they're… a little out of touch.
Of course, they're doing something on the current government patronisation consultation, 'Paying the Price'.
Hardly any of their members have email – it looks like some don't have a word processor – so because we have a link with them, I've been scanning and OCRing individual members' responses to help them make an organisational one.
One thing a leader of this organisation has written about is convincing buyers of sex that using a condom is necessary.
She's got two reasons she thinks will encourage them.
1) to prevent catching and passing on STD's
Very good… now have a guess what the second one is.
From an interview in USA Today (tries to open a pop-up)
Q: Speaking of security, Internet Explorer has had well-publicized holes …
Gates: Understand those are cases where you are downloading third-party software.
Well, yes. IE's holes could well be described as "where you are downloading third-party software".
The problem is that it's when IE is letting nasty people send you software that you don't actually want to have…
Gates: More has been invested in making IE secure than any [sic] browser on the planet by a long shot. Nothing is going to change. That's the one over 90% of people are going to keep using.
(if you're in the UK, anyway!)
If you missed it, the short version is that in the 1960s, Britain threw the entire population, about two thousand people, off their group of islands in the Indian Ocean, so we could give lease the main island, Diego Garcia, to the Americans as a giant air base. And treated them badly ever since.
What it missed out was Robin Cook's attitude before Labour's victory in 1997 which resulted in him being in a position to do something about it. He was for justice for the islanders in opposition… but when in power, was happy to shit on them too.
(I know the main UK lawyer involved in fighting their case very well.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1319767,00.html
Over the years, there have been lots of reasons to dislike it – at one point it was actively removing the b-word from articles – and some truly awful stories (my favourite was a 1988 front page that said Labour could win a by-election in Kensington, based on… asking a dozen people, none of whom had a vote, at 3am in some nightclub, not in the constituency. Yeah, that's a valid sample…)
But it's been better recently, I got my job via an ad in it, and I'll miss it.
I laughed when I read the first sentence in a story in the Metro last week:
When having sex with a woman, most men would be turned off if they knew another man was nearby.
Mind you, it may just be the people I know. ('If your friends were normal people, they would not know you', remember, though it looks like the Nature article has vanished.)
Oh, yes – the story was that male meadow voles react to the presence of other male meadow voles by producing more sperm…
Ok, let's see what's on the ES website for "House Prices" in the last 24 hours:
1.IMF warns on UK house prices
Plunge threat to Britain's economy…read
News and city: 01/10/04
Hmm, hardly 'good news' and it is today's, not yesterday's news.
2.Inheritance tax threshold 'unfair'
More than two thirds of people think inheritance tax is unfair as rising house prices push more and more families above the threshold on which it is paid, research claimed today…read
News and city: Business 30/09/04
Hmm, well it's a voluntary tax for people who distrust their relatives more than they dislike the Inland Revenue, so tough. In any case, hardly 'good news' on 'house prices'.
3.House price rises gather pace
Trading up is hardest in a decade..read
News and city: Business 01/10/04
Hmm, compare and contrast with #1. Also today's.
4.Rock shrugs off property slowdown
But bank predicts mortgage decline..read
News and city: Business 01/10/04
Hmm, probably not 'house prices' news. Ditto
5.Graduates priced out of property
63% cannot buy before 30..read
News and city: 30/09/04
Well, it's yesterday's, but if this is good news, then…
6.House crash fears ease
Fears of a housing crash in London eased today with a survey showing the property market on course for a soft landing. Latest figures from the Nationwide reveal that London prices, though slowing, will continue to rise gently…read
30/09/04
I think this must be it – house prices will rise… slowly. If you read the story, it says sales are about 20% lower than the spring, and in some areas prices are going up and in some areas they're not moving.
So out of those six, that's two bad news, one possibly good, one 'it depends' and two irrelevant.