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
- Some absolutely magnificent photographs from 2008 on The Big Picture. Number 14 of the baseball is sensational, and number 10 of the Kenyan athletes' legs is really great too. And the Maasai fighting with bows and arrows! And the Nigerian fishing festival! And the polar bear!
- Cyanotypes of British Algae - from NYPL on Flickr. I gave Soph a cyanotype of Australian algae for her birthday a few years ago - it's very beautiful.
- Some 2008 patents and how they might look - a slideshow on NYTimes will illos by friend of the Labs, Paul Oslo Davis. UPDATE: Paul didn't do these drawings; he simply pointed them out. They're a bit like him though!
- Vandals have destroyed Banksy's Little Diver, on the Nicholas Building. I suppose it's all par for the course, but still: booo.
- You can see why the work dress appeals to me. I'm thinking of what it might be possible to barter at a distance of 16,000 kilometres.
- I might die laughing.
- This is making me summer-in-Sydney-sick.
- Inside Story. Yes, yes, yes. Australian, lovely, open design, no ads, intelligent writing. (Thanks Rob Corr)
Site by Virginia Murdoch, a Melbourne-based designer of websites.