Canary in the Mine

Apparently it is illegal to sell your vote (see yesterday's briefing). According to Morning Report, TradeMe has pulled the auction - it only got one $2 bid anyway. Guess politicians will have to go back to buying votes the way they always have. (There's an interesting parallel with the position that prostitution formerly had in New Zealand: it was legal to buy, but illegal to sell. Some would say there's not much difference between politics and prostitution - guess that proves it.)

The Maori Party has no doubts that the government's proposed land access bill is an attack on property rights.

A political consensus is said to be emerging between Labour and National on the need to overhaul the "smacking" law. Both apparently agree parents have a right to smack their children but the existing law is being used in some cases to protect parents who used serious abuse as a form of discipline. But the consensus does not guarantee the likelihood of a law change, especially just before an election.

Microsoft has admitted that it is colluding with the Chinese government to censor the company's newly launched Chinese-language Web portal. Agence France-Presse, the French news agency, earlier revealed that bloggers are not allowed to post terms to Microsoft's MSN Spaces such as "democracy," "human rights" and "Taiwan independence." Attempts to enter those words are said to generate a message saying the language was prohibited.

"The AIDS crisis [in Africa] is about evil. It's about the small gangs of predatory men who knowingly infect women by the score without a second thought in the world. The AIDS crisis is about the sanctity of life. It's about people who have come to so undervalue their own life that ruinous behavior seems unimportant and death is accepted fatalistically. It's about disproportionate suffering. It's about people who commit minor transgressions, or even no transgressions, and suffer consequences too horrible to contemplate."

When city officials contact urban expert Joel Kotkin for guidance on how to attract people back into city centres, they often ask about things that make him cringe. Instead of improving schools or infrastructure, they want to construct performing arts centers and pump up cultural offerings to lure the artsy and the hip. That's not the way to revitalize cities, argues Mr. Kotkin, author of "The City: A Global History." To him, attracting and keeping people in urban environments is less about projecting an image of "cool" and more about providing the basics that encourage and support a strong middle class: jobs, schools, churches.

I can understand why people are lazy about computer security. It is an incredible hassle keeping your machine up-to-date with the latest software patches and security fixes. But here's what can happen when you don't (the article is also a good pointer to what to do if your computer is badly infected).

A report that claimed virginity pledge programs don't work, and the teens who pledge abstinence are more likely to engage in riskier sex, falsified the data.

Batman Begins is about to hit the cinemas. Here's an interesting piece looking at the psychology of one of pop culture's greatest icons. "Batman, the only fully human superhero, usually saves the day, but sometimes he doesn't. We can forgive him these occasional failures, but can he forgive himself? More importantly, can he save himself?"

Tail-out: How would you like to be made into a diamond after your death? It's just one of the range of odd options now available to dispose of your earthly remains.