“The Australian government has said it will oppose any new laws legalising gay civil unions.
Prime Minister John Howard said he did not intend to allow the institution of marriage “to be in any way undermined”.

The head of the ACT government, John Stanhope, said Mr Ruddock’s reaction revealed homophobia in the Howard administration.
“One has to pose the question of whether or not the real reason (for Mr Ruddock’s stance) is that there is no place in John Howard’s Australia for homosexuals,” he told ABC radio.” (BBC)

“The Sex and the City image of women seeking casual encounters for pleasure does not quite fit the latest research.
Nine out of 10 women interviewed in a snapshot survey said they thought one night stands were immoral.” (BBC)
I bet this gets lots of attention. But it’s a study of only 46 women so it’s barely seems worth writing a paper on, let alone making the news.

It’s been ages since I’ve had a properly geek post, so here you go: one really annoying thing about SQL Server 2000’s stored procedures is that it doesn’t automatically update the relevant script if you update the stored procedure name. The solution is to manually update the name in the script, or you’ll get a lovely SQL-DMO error 21037.

I came across this at work today, I had no idea that 1 in 20 people in London are refugees: “According to Refugees and asylum seekers in London: A GLA perspective (2001): ‘Refugees and asylum seekers in London are estimated to number now between 350,000 and 420,000, or about one in 20 of the city

“The Federal Government will try to override laws introduced to the ACT Parliament this week that would allow marriage celebrants to officiate over civil unions between same-sex couples.
The move is reminiscent of the Government’s 1997 disallowance of a Northern Territory law legalising euthanasia.” (The Age)
So, where the bloody hell am I? I’m in a country that doesn’t treat queer people as second-class citizens, and I’m staying here until John Howard is gone.

“Platial provides a home for people who love quirky geographical information or just want to mark the locations that have meaning to them.

You might say Platial is a cross between MapQuest and LiveJournal. Built on the open interfaces for Google Maps, the 2-month-old site is one of a new breed of map mashups — web applications created by mixing an already-existing open mapping platform with original software.
Platial co-creator Di-Ann Eisnor says she built Platial for what she calls “neogeographers,” who use digital maps to tell stories and chart eccentric routes through familiar terrain.” (Wired)

“Melbourne is the proud capital of street painting with stencils. Its large, colonial-era walls and labyrinth of back alleys drip with graffiti that is more diverse and original than any other city in the world. Well, that was until a few weeks ago, when preparations for the Commonwealth games brought a tidal wave of grey paint, obliterating years of unique and vibrant culture overnight.” (Guardian)