Too many mothers
8 October 2008
Filed under Politics, Text
Shadow attorney-general Robert Clark said the bill put the interests of parents well ahead of those of children. “In the past, if a child lost its mother, that would be regarded as a tragedy for that child… however, those tragedies, if this legislation is passed, would be occurring by a deliberate act,” he said.
MPs are discussing a bill that would give lesbians and single women access to IVF. This subject is obviously of some interest to me. Do you think Robert Clark realises that in cases of IVF being accessed by lesbians, the problem would be a surfeit of mothers, rather than a lack? In itself perhaps a problem, particularly for the hapless partners of the offspring (TWO mothers-in-law), but not something you could fairly hang legislation on.
Conferencing
2 October 2008
Filed under Business, Life, Text
I’m not really sure what “social innovation” means, exactly, but The Feast sounds like a good conference. The organiser has made public his ideas about how conferences should work, and I’ve gotta say I agree with most of his points.
I was at Web Directions South last week, and it was probably as good as a conventional conference can be - the speakers were excellent and the environment reasonably conducive to learning stuff, plus it all ran like clockwork (and the food was good). I can’t help but feel, though, that it’s time to abandon the old conference formula and move towards something more ad-hoc, with much more space for and encouragement of People Talking To One Another, rather than One Person Talking At Everybody Else.
Networking opportunities. We’re sending personal emails to introduce people to each other BEFORE the conference. This gives them the ability to have at least one person to approach and talk to when they come to The Feast.
I really like that idea.
Recent Alerts
Short Eats
- Word.
- Two minutes from the pilot of something called The Remnants. Apparently not anywhere near becoming a series yet, but at least we know what this scaling algorithm (warning: big .mov file) has made it into a commercial desktop application.
- Overview of all the songs the McCain camp has used in its public events against the wishes of their writers.
- Most useful analysis of the financial crisis I've read so far. It's enough to drive us all to drink.
- The Great Schlep - seeking the Florida Jewish Grandparent vote.
- Pocket Weather (that's an iTunes Store link) is a locally-made weather app for your Touch or iPhone. It's a couple of bucks well spent: it's accurate (because it comes from da BOM), and it's nicely designed, with radar access and everything. My only gripe is that you have to go through a couple of screens to GET to the weather when you start it up.
- More Men Are Unabashedly Embracing Their Love of Cats, according to the NYTimes.
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