Born under a bad sign

R.I.P. Darcy Clay, 1972-1998. Committed suicide a little over a decade ago, at the age of 25.

You stupid, genius bastard.

Learning lessons over the weekend

Hmm - three day weekend, beautiful weather and me with a massive sleep debt.

And then on Friday morning - early Friday morning - I got a call from a pretty young lass along the lines of "I'm boooored. Come out and entertain us, T.!". So over the weekend, I learned the following things:

i, A. is probably pre-diabetic.
ii, M's family is loaded.
iii, Despite the massive weight loss, my trick knee will still give out when I put weight on it the wrong way.
iv, Paraparumu Beach is still very pretty.
v, Losing a cell phone sucks.
vi, The Internet isn't life. People are life.

Annnnnnnd, I see there appears to have been a blogosplosion over the Evil Racism of Amanda Marcotte, She-Devil of the SS. Or something along those lines. It's difficult to make out in between the wails of self-flagellation and ideological rhetoric being hurled left, lefter and leftmost.

We're really going to need a bigger tea-cup for this storm.

On official representation

It will be noted that the Foreign Affairs Minister, Winston Peters, represented New Zealand at the Anzac Day rememberances, at Gallipoli.

Alas, the suggestion by the New Zealand government to the Turkish government that the event be marked by a reenactment with Turkish soldiers shooting at him as he entered the beach area was declined.

Coming up - the Patriarchy is blamed for this as well...

Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital.

You don't even have to click on the link to realise how weird the story is going to be...

A slight shudder down the spine

Trawling through the Usenet archives, I found this exchange from back in 1998, I think after Clinton bombed the Sudan:

Liberal 1: "All I've been saying is that we cause some problems for other countries. That's it."

Conservative: "And? We do it so we don't have those problems here. That's what the rest of the world needs to learn."

Me: "What, to retaliate against US cities? The WTO bombing probably scared Americans more than the embassy bombings, even though they failed to collapse the towers. Oh well, there's always a next time - and now all the nutters in the Middle East have a reason to ensure there *is* a next time..."

1998. Jesus, I'm glad I didn't remember this three years later, or I would have turned myself in as a possible terrorist.

Sister, can you spare a boob?

The Ferrett, that is.

The context.

One reply.

Personally, I want the next con to make available a supply of buttons reading "Only if you want your nuts twisted off". They'd be obtainable in red or green, as per the wearer's preference...

Two steps forward, one step back

Two steps forward:

Zapateros' choice of Cabinet ministers is a symbolic step towards removing the barriers to opportunity.

His so-called 40 per cent rule demands, but does not require, that by 2010 any company negotiating for public contracts should appoint women to 40 per cent of the places on their boards of directors.

The rule will have only a limited impact on the Spanish Parliament, where women already make up 36.6 per cent of the deputies, the fifth-highest figure in Europe, but it could open spectacular opportunities at local government level, and particularly in the boardroom, for Spain's female university students, who outnumber male undergraduates.

[...]

This rule was extended in 2004 to state-owned companies. Then in 2006, the Government legislated to impose an extraordinary ultimatum on Norway's public limited companies - either have a minimum of 40 per cent of women on the company board by January 1, 2008, or be closed down. Despite the dire prophecies of economic catastrophe, the law has come into force without driving out any major company.

"The most alarmist people told us the economy would suffer, that investors would flee Oslo, that the level of competence on the boards would plunge," Marit Hoel, the head of Norway's Centre for Corporate Diversity said. "What we've seen is that the economy is doing very well, that the investors are still there, and that the women who have been appointed to the boards are more highly educated, more international and younger than their male counterparts."

...one step back...

Some of New Zealand's most powerful businesswomen have called for companies to improve diversity on their boards after a blighting report from the Human Rights Commission showed a dearth of female directors.

There are only 45 female directors in the stock market's top 100 companies and they represent just 8.65 per cent of 624 board directorships.

I'm not terribly hot on the Norwegian idea of mandating that every company should have a diversity quota on the board, but there's noting unfair about the government insisting that every company that wants to do business with it demonstrate some commitment to diversity - especially since keeping women off teh boards just doesn't make sense.