Tuesday, April 19, 2005
My, how things go full circle. Strong work-based superannuation schemes will underpin a savings strategy to be announced in next month's budget, Finance Minister Michael Cullen says. If I cup my hands to my ear, do I hear the screams of similar schemes killed off by government policies not that many years ago?
The Prostitution Law Review Committee's benchmark report on the state of the sex industry in New Zealand, tabled in Parliament yesterday, estimated there were 5932 sex workers operating in New Zealand in April last year – up nearly 40 per cent from the 4272 identified in a 2001 police survey. Canterbury was identified after Auckland as the second-largest district of sex workers, with 211 massage parlour workers, 50 employed by escort agencies, 75 on the street, 50 working illegally and 132 privately. The report said Canterbury had 25 sex businesses, compared to Wellington's 15 and Auckland's 243.
The report's authors also said it was possible the number working in the sex industry was much greater. The report identified about 200 sex workers under the age of 18, more than half of whom were street workers but 24 per cent of whom were illegally employed by escort agencies.
And Tim Barnett's response? After creating the mess in the first place, he says: "I think the challenge in the law for police is to come up with new models of policing." Unfortunately, the Act also pulled just about all the police's teeth to do that.
There are actually two reports. One on the extent of the "industry", and one a literature review on prostitution in NZ.
Oxford has replaced Cambridge as the UK's best university, according to the Guardian's annual guide.
The United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) this week adopted a resolution against religious defamation. On the surface, the resolution seems like a good one -- expressing "deep concern" at negative stereotyping of religions, intolerance and religious discrimination. But the United States voted against it. The U.S. representative said it did not address the targeting of religions or people of a certain faith (in other words, it would prohibit criticism of Muslim insurgency).
The Terri Schiavo debate was framed almost entirely in the language of individual rights — and not only the inalienable right to life versus the "right to die." Lawyers on both sides piled up human rights arguments. As Ted Olson comments, it was like a giant Oreo stacking contest: Pile up as many rights as you can, and the one with the highest pile wins. Rights language counters rights language, with no other issues allowed to play.
More bad news for Canada's minority Liberal government. 33 Liberal MPs joined the opposition to vote down the government bill to recognise same-sex marriage.
The sexless marriage is one of several reasons why experts fear Japan is on the verge of a demographic disaster. In 2003 Japan's birthrate hit a record low of 1.29, one of the lowest rates in the world. The population will peak next year at about 128 million, then decline. Meanwhile, 200 women a year seek help at a just one clinic in the Tokyo suburbs because have not had sex with their husbands in up to 20 years, and some never.
Multiple marriage (polygamy) isn’t such a distant step away from gay marriage as many pretend, writes Megan Basham. Among the cases she details, on February 3, 2005, former Hildale police officer Rodney Holm argued to have his 2003 conviction for bigamy and sex with a minor overturned partly on the basis that it violated his privacy rights. Holm's attorney Rodney Parker argued that in light of the Supreme Court's decision striking down sodomy laws, the Utah court should find that 32-year-old Holms had a constitutional right to take his 16-year-old sister-in-law as his third "spiritual wife." To that effect, Parker's brief stated, "Current demographics, domestic relations law, and religious diversity all accommodate plural marriage. Popular departure from traditional marriage has made our domestic laws on cohabitation and fornication anachronistic." A decision in this case is expected shortly.
More on the developing i-pod culture. People are using what's on your i-pod to assess what you're like as a person. "Experts say these playlists and digital music libraries may even become a new way for people to size up potential mates or political candidates. 'We do find that people are able to make fairly accurate assessments solely on the basis of a person's top 10 songs,'' said Jason Rentfrow, a psychology consultant who co-authored a 2003 University of Texas study of more than 3,500 people that showed musical taste can provide a road map to a person's personality." Perhaps before long, job applicants will have to hand over their i-pods when they go for an interview.
The following won't mean anything to those not immersed in computers. To those concerned with printing and publishing in any form, it's huge. Adobe is to buy Macromedia for $4.75 billion. It may well mean the death of Freehand and Director. (Once Adobe got hold of it, look what happened to PageMaker, the program that led the world into the desktop publishing era.)
Tail-out: Yet another to add to the list of up-to-now unsuspected contact sports. A double murderer in Rangipo prison has suffered a broken ankle in a bingo row.
The Prostitution Law Review Committee's benchmark report on the state of the sex industry in New Zealand, tabled in Parliament yesterday, estimated there were 5932 sex workers operating in New Zealand in April last year – up nearly 40 per cent from the 4272 identified in a 2001 police survey. Canterbury was identified after Auckland as the second-largest district of sex workers, with 211 massage parlour workers, 50 employed by escort agencies, 75 on the street, 50 working illegally and 132 privately. The report said Canterbury had 25 sex businesses, compared to Wellington's 15 and Auckland's 243.
The report's authors also said it was possible the number working in the sex industry was much greater. The report identified about 200 sex workers under the age of 18, more than half of whom were street workers but 24 per cent of whom were illegally employed by escort agencies.
And Tim Barnett's response? After creating the mess in the first place, he says: "I think the challenge in the law for police is to come up with new models of policing." Unfortunately, the Act also pulled just about all the police's teeth to do that.
There are actually two reports. One on the extent of the "industry", and one a literature review on prostitution in NZ.
Oxford has replaced Cambridge as the UK's best university, according to the Guardian's annual guide.
The United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) this week adopted a resolution against religious defamation. On the surface, the resolution seems like a good one -- expressing "deep concern" at negative stereotyping of religions, intolerance and religious discrimination. But the United States voted against it. The U.S. representative said it did not address the targeting of religions or people of a certain faith (in other words, it would prohibit criticism of Muslim insurgency).
The Terri Schiavo debate was framed almost entirely in the language of individual rights — and not only the inalienable right to life versus the "right to die." Lawyers on both sides piled up human rights arguments. As Ted Olson comments, it was like a giant Oreo stacking contest: Pile up as many rights as you can, and the one with the highest pile wins. Rights language counters rights language, with no other issues allowed to play.
More bad news for Canada's minority Liberal government. 33 Liberal MPs joined the opposition to vote down the government bill to recognise same-sex marriage.
The sexless marriage is one of several reasons why experts fear Japan is on the verge of a demographic disaster. In 2003 Japan's birthrate hit a record low of 1.29, one of the lowest rates in the world. The population will peak next year at about 128 million, then decline. Meanwhile, 200 women a year seek help at a just one clinic in the Tokyo suburbs because have not had sex with their husbands in up to 20 years, and some never.
Multiple marriage (polygamy) isn’t such a distant step away from gay marriage as many pretend, writes Megan Basham. Among the cases she details, on February 3, 2005, former Hildale police officer Rodney Holm argued to have his 2003 conviction for bigamy and sex with a minor overturned partly on the basis that it violated his privacy rights. Holm's attorney Rodney Parker argued that in light of the Supreme Court's decision striking down sodomy laws, the Utah court should find that 32-year-old Holms had a constitutional right to take his 16-year-old sister-in-law as his third "spiritual wife." To that effect, Parker's brief stated, "Current demographics, domestic relations law, and religious diversity all accommodate plural marriage. Popular departure from traditional marriage has made our domestic laws on cohabitation and fornication anachronistic." A decision in this case is expected shortly.
More on the developing i-pod culture. People are using what's on your i-pod to assess what you're like as a person. "Experts say these playlists and digital music libraries may even become a new way for people to size up potential mates or political candidates. 'We do find that people are able to make fairly accurate assessments solely on the basis of a person's top 10 songs,'' said Jason Rentfrow, a psychology consultant who co-authored a 2003 University of Texas study of more than 3,500 people that showed musical taste can provide a road map to a person's personality." Perhaps before long, job applicants will have to hand over their i-pods when they go for an interview.
The following won't mean anything to those not immersed in computers. To those concerned with printing and publishing in any form, it's huge. Adobe is to buy Macromedia for $4.75 billion. It may well mean the death of Freehand and Director. (Once Adobe got hold of it, look what happened to PageMaker, the program that led the world into the desktop publishing era.)
Tail-out: Yet another to add to the list of up-to-now unsuspected contact sports. A double murderer in Rangipo prison has suffered a broken ankle in a bingo row.
