“British workers are adding up to 14 days’ unofficial holiday a year, emailing and browsing online. Other studies suggest this is a conservative estimate.”
And also, “When the laws against sexual discrimination were being put in place the kind of things that people were doing was putting Playboy posters up or leaving magazines open in full view,” she said. “Now it is electronic, so it is a little less obvious but it is no less offensive or difficult for women.” (Age)

“The Bush Administration has made an emergency request to the US Congress for a seven-fold increase in funding to mount a huge propaganda campaign against the Tehran Government.
…
Ms Rice told the Senate foreign affairs committee that Iranian leaders “have now crossed a point where they are in open defiance of the international community.” Age
Gosh, imagine being in open defiance of the international community. So, nothing like this, then? UN human rights investigators have called for the immediate closure of the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay.

Saw Lady Vengeance tonight. It was beautifully styled, but it perhaps tried to do too much or needed a tighter edit because everyone I saw it with thought it was half an hour too long. The sometimes extreme violence reminded me of Audition.

“I will not talk during the film … my mobile phone will most definitely be turned off … In short I will be the perfect cinema patron. It’s just that I will be wearing a wardrobe.”

“One of the leading lights of America’s post-war feminist movement, Betty Friedan, has died at the age of 85.” (BBC and SMH)

From the Orange prize site, but not necessarily this year: “to support this year’s award, the Orange Prize for Fiction researched the UK’s first ever living library of 50 contemporary ‘essential reads’“.
I’ve read 20 of the list, but some of them were so long ago I barely remember them. Perhaps that should be my challenge for this year, assuming I manage to read everything on the bookshelves in the flat.
It doesn’t help that I went to the London Review Bookshop last night and bought The Secret River by Kate Grenville.

Oh, and Happy New Year (for yesterday)!

MIA needs to work on an international scale
Mia needs a home that would give her a lot of pampering and care
In short, what MIA needs is not either an airport authority or privatization, but both.
Mia needs to take a bag including “sparklies” to buy the remaining ingredients
Mia needs his help to face her greatest challenge, and the deadline for breaking a centuries-old curse draws near.
Mia needs to build a time machine to turn back the clock and rewrite history!
what MIA needs is a motivational sideline speaker.
MIA needs to do a number of things
MIA needs to coin a genre
Mia needs your help to prevent the tragedy.
As Princess Cranky says, googling “[your name] needs” is the new astrology.

Make your own Bollywood movie. Here’s my quick and dirty go.

Finally, it seems record companies are catching on to the idea that some people just want music to be available, they don’t need a Greatest Hits package with a huge advertising campaign.
“More than 100,000 deleted recordings, including music from the likes of Jacques Brel and Marianne Faithfull, are to be available to download.” (BBC)