Monthly Archives: August 2004

Sex Work in New Zealand

This entry was posted in Capitalism Culture Domestic Terrorism Government Regulation Sex on by

The good folks over at Marginal Revolution show again that they are paying attention to all things economic by bringing our attention to New Zealand’s decriminalization of prostitution.
Alex is so intrigued by the sex-safety manual (PDF) produced by the NZ equivalent of OSHA that he doesn’t get around to discussing the economic side of the decriminalization. Who can blame him? The manual is both well done and a hoot! I’ve downloaded a copy to read at leisure but even a brief skim will be both instructional and entertaining for any of you so inclined.
PZ Myers adds that the Kiwi feds have published a straightforward, unblushing guide to safe sex behavior and suggests that the manual’s section on repetitive stress injuries might also be useful to computer-using geeks.
One thing that is not quite clear to me is whether the ability to produce an entertaining manual is enough to justify the governments involvement in the business. I can’t think of any other good reasons…
Oh, the answers provided for the IQ question posed by Alex Tabarrok seem, at first look, to provide a topological solution more then a safe sex solution.

Playing Politics

This entry was posted in Election 2004 on by

A group of musicians including some popular in conservative demographics are planning to tune the election:

Bruce Springsteen and an eclectic chorus of musicians, including R.E.M., the Dave Matthews Band, Keb’ Mo’ and Death Cab for Cutie, will stage concerts in nine of the presidential campaign’s swing states this fall to raise money and press voters to oust the Bush administration, organizers of the concerts said Wednesday.
Last night Talkleft blogged Springsteen’s Nightline appearance.

Images, Images and More Images

This entry was posted in Comics Culture Information Photography on by

The Presurfer, a great place for the new and the odd, suggests the Devilfinder Image Browser.
Enter a word, name, or whatever describes the image you are looking for, tell it how many images you want and it opens a new window with images gleaned from the net.
If you are at work I strongly suggest turning on the Offensive Content Filter. Trust me, even seemingly innocent searches may show some very unexpected and disturbing results. And, no, I won’t tell you what three letter word I used that I wish I’d turned the filter on for.
I did, though, try Aquaman and got a bunch of cool pictures and was a bit surprised that none of them were from Tegan who is a consummate Aquaman fan.

Truth in Labeling

This entry was posted in bush Election 2004 Humor on by

How often do you read the labels on your clothes? You might want to make it a habit so that you do not miss something like this:
Truth_in_labeling.jpg
Update (11/10/04): Sadley, No! via Memosyne reports that this label is from products manufactured by Tom Bihn.
The label photo was sent to me by my son who was traveling in South America at the time.