pinkasphalt

The point is that drugging and raping a child, then leaving the country before you can be sentenced for it, is behavior our society should not — and at least in theory, does not — tolerate, no matter how famous, wealthy or well-connected you are, no matter how old you were when you finally got caught, no matter what your victim says about it now, no matter how mature she looked at 13, no matter how pushy her mother was, and no matter how many really swell movies you’ve made.

Broadsheet – Salon.com

Oh, The Temptation

Operating Systems

I have always loved drag queens, and although I haven’t been to a drag show or hung with a drag queen in years, the love lives on. I just finished watching RuPaul’s Drag Race and I especially liked the bit at the end, where he tells the contestants that if the comments from the judges make them feel terrible and they can’t get over the comments, it’s because they themselves have forgotten who they are and have let others dictate how they feel.

So, here for your viewing pleasure and personal edification, is some advice from RuPaul, to be remembered and repeated to oneself when addressing crowds, making grand entrances, or at any other occasion requiring a bit of balls and attitude.

Since Google has removed Google Calendar’s search for public calendars function, here is a direct link to the ical file of my 2010 Swiss (Geneva) Holidays calendar. A couple people have used it in the past, so maybe it will prove useful to someone. I also made a calendar for 2009-2010 Swiss (Geneva) school holidays.

We went out to the Knie Zoo this week with Ben. It makes me sad to see all the animals in their cages and enclosures. The grandparents were keen though, so away we went. I was amazed how close we were able to get to the elephants and I got a couple nice pics. As usual, I thought the monkeys looked the saddest/angriest at their imprisonment. Ben seemed to enjoy it though, ran around with big eyes looking at everything.

But why … bother? Does it really matter if the Yangtze river dolphin, or the kakapo, or the northern white rhino, or any other species live on only in scientists’ notebooks?

Well, yes it does. Every animal and plant is an integral part of its environment: even Komodo dragons have a major role to play in maintaining the ecological stability of their delicate island homes. …. Ironically, it is often not the big and beautiful creatures but the ugly and less dramatic ones which we need most. …

There is one last reason for caring, and I believe that no other is necessary. It is certainly the reason why so many people have devoted their lives to protecting the likes of rhinos, parakeets, kakapos and dolphins. And it is simply this: the world would be a poorer, darker, lonelier place without them.

- Last Chance to See, Douglas Adams & Mark Cawardine

Tonight I watched the first episode of the new Last Chance to See. Sigh.