News round-up (featuring cats, sports, space currency, Queen row and homosexual dalliances)

[misscam]

I kinda love this story. All art is better with cats around, clearly.

Norwegian princess is now apparently seeing hallucinations as well as angels. *facepalm* But at least she has brought people together here - unity in mock.

Marion Jones pleads guilty to steroid use. Which could cost her the five Olympic medals she won at Sydney 2000. Combined with the cycling drug scandals, it makes me vaguely depressed about sport.

But football cheers me right up again. Season is almost over in Norway, with Brann looking to win. For the first time in 44 years. Brann has rather famously managed to collapse many times at the end (hence why it's been 44 years) but this looks to be the year to break the curse. And my team is safe from delegation, so yayness. Speaking of football, the Vatican has picked a team to back.

BBC boss quits over 'misrepresentation' of Queen footage. Serious business, Royalty. (Except when they see angels. That I cannot take seriously.)

Bush denies torture claims. But how you define torture, Bush? Because therein I think there lies a lot of very scary wriggleroom... And once you start avoiding to cross the line by moving it, you tend to end up somewhere quite nasty.

Currency designed for space. 'Quid'. Heh.

Important archelogical discovery made in Italy. (Yay Etruscans.)

Iraqi Kurds make oil deals.Not exactly a sign the Kurds haven't given up the idea of independence there. If the Kurds do split, I think that's pretty much the end of Iraq as a nation. Ai, European powers and their arbitrary drawing of borders on their then colonies...

'Gay bomb' wins IG Nobel Peace award. Unfortunately, said the organisers, nobody from the US military who carried out the research on chemicals that could prompt homosexual dalliances amongst rival troops (a research project called Harassing, Annoying and "Bad Guy" Identifying Chemicals) attended the ceremony because the study's authors could not be tracked down. Excuse me while I sit down and howl with laughter. Worthy winner of the peace award indeed. (After all, who has time for war when there be shagging?)

This concludes this week's news round-up.

Comments

[padawanpooh.livejournal.com]

I loved the Russian cats story when I caught it on the BBC Website earlier today. Still think it was a bummer they got kicked out during WW2 though: bastards.

[phdelicious.livejournal.com]

The Marion Jones thing makes me so sad. As do a couple of those other headlines. But yay! for kitties. :D

[ljghost.livejournal.com]

On the note of football - interesting because out Premiership winners (Geelong Cats) this year hadn't won the Grand Final for 44 years too. Coincidence?

Good luck to Brann, anyway :)

[norwegianne.livejournal.com]

Warning: Rambling thoughts in the wee hours of the morning. I don't know how much sense it makes.

Actually I get Märtha's point this time around (unlike with the Angel-school). There is equal pay for equal work in Norway (note the economics professor with actual research on the subject who went out and agreed with her)- the problem is that there is a difference in pay between what is seen as typical female work and typical male work - and also that women work less hours than men if they have children. This is what Märtha failed to acknowledge, and yes, it should have been mentioned. More importantly, she should just keep her mouth shut on any subject that can come close to politics.

My mother who is a kindergarten teacher would earn less than my father who is an engineer. (I have no idea of the actual wages here, but picked traditional female/male lines of work) - but this is the same for both females and males in those lines of work. Ie. a male kindergarten teacher would earn less than a female engineer and is also depending on where in the country they work, and whether or not they work in the private or public sector.

Librarians earn less than doctors - and that is regardless of sex - and I am fine with that. As a librarian I won't (hopefully) be standing with someone's beating heart in my hand, and so the actual work reflects the responsibility. (Nurses should probably get paid more, thought, because they have a crappy job, imo, but that is regardless of what sex they have.)

Nobody forces women to go into these roles, actually women are encouraged by quotas to apply for the typical male-dominated educations, so it is a matter of personal choice, not chance, that determines your pay-check. (And I think the whole quota system is is wrong in itself, because I think it should be based on merit and not sex as that is another way of discrimination against males this time around, and I think that is just as bad as female discrimination.But that is another matter entirely.)

I got the mocking of Märtha when the Angel school opened (and when she married someone like Ari, who is pretty much mockable all the time.) and joined in, but this time it seems to me that it is a bit of the papers finding something to beat on, much like the end of the Valla-case.

But yes - different work gets different pay. Same work gets same pay, ideally, though factors like over-time and part-time work may factor in, but the average hours worked should be the determining factor for how we see this.

Of course, anything that has Ms. Veggimellem up in hackles, or Huitfeldt or some of the junior irritants elected to parliament or members of the youth parties, pouting in the press is enough for me to find another aspect of the case to represent. They're just annoying me in a not very interesting way.

[kittycatness.livejournal.com]

I really like the one about the cats. The tradition is really interesting. (And a space is not complete without cats.)

I'm sending the Vatican link to my dad.

When are we going to the other planets?
And for that matter, why?
And if they want to have a "universal" currency, why don't they do one on this planet and then implement it IF we ever get off it?


But yay! Kitties.

♥

[mademoisellenon.livejournal.com]

even occasionally seeming to strike poses copied from the classical-era art which surrounds them.

So...I'm getting a kitten. All the papers, etc. going to be signed next weekend. Happy Birthday to me :P