More sex increases chances of pregnancy

Believe it or not!

Some men should have sex every day to maximise the chances of getting their partner pregnant, researchers say.

Actually, this is not just stating the obvious, nor is it some guys making shit up to get more sex,

It is known for couples with fertility problems to abstain from sex for several days to boost sperm numbers before trying to conceive.  However, researchers have found this might result in poorer quality sperm.  Dr Allan Pacey, the secretary of the British Fertility Society, said that while not having sex allowed the numbers of sperm to build up, there was a “trade-off” between quality and quantity.

“This research shows that when you put people on a daily ejaculation regime, it reduces the figure for DNA damage.”

The conclusion of the researchers was that if a couple was initially trying to get pregnant, an interval of two to three days was probably advisable - whereas a man with high DNA damage and a “decent” sperm count should try more often.

Cheerleading for John Howard

Well, the election is on for November 24, and unless John Howard somehow pulls a rabbit out of his hat, he is headed for a substantial loss.

Not surprisingly, Piers Akerman in the Sunday Telegraph is leading the cheer squad for Howard.  Hardly surprising, but today’s column hardly pulls any punches. According to Piers, Rudd is unfit to be prime minister due to several flaws of character, namely “an unalloyed ruthlessness, a lack of his loyalty to anything but his own short-term political ambitions and his projection of a carefully constructed image that has little or nothing to do with Rudd the man”.  Further, “Everything he does, every word he utters, comes from a person who is totally absorbed in his mission to get ahead no matter what the cost and no matter who has to be jettisoned in the process.”.

Ok, what do we make of a man desperately clinging to power, unable to face up to the need for a transition in his own party, willing to do or say anything for political gain, making random policy announcements and throwing taxpayers’ money around like there’s no tomorrow.  Not to mention the man who has presided over the most blatant abuse of government advertising for party political purposes that Australia has ever seen.

News Limited seems to be trying its hardest to cheer the government on …this last week they’ve had the amazing Vote-a-matic on their site.  Then trumpeted that the results of this show that Australians back the PM on the issues - the message underlying that presumably being that we should vote on substance rather than personality and other criteria, and that inevitably means we should vote for the government.  Slight problem though is that the survey used to generate this result was ridiculously shallow, the choices given in many questions were absolutely banal, and the whole thing completely lacked credibility or any rigour.

While on electioneering matters, it didn’t take long to see my first ad of the campaign (that is, one paid for by the Liberal Party, not a Liberal Party ad paid for by taxpayers … been seeing those for months).  I think it was during the news tonight, and featured Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan with their L plates.  Negative campaigning very quick off the blocks this election.

Al Gore - peacemaker

Now I think the message Al Gore is spreading around the world on climate change is absolutely crucial, and his advocacy has done more to have more serious attention focused on it than was likely to happen otherwise, but I’m battling to recall what he’s done in the field of diplomacy, settling international disputes or making peace between warring countries.  But apparently he has, because he’s won the Nobel Peace Prize this year (along with the UN panel on climate change).

In the Nobel Prize citation, this was said about him:

“He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted,”

Gore had this to say in response:

“We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.”

Congratulations Al Gore.

Roid rage - a different angle

This puts a whole new angle on the meaning of roid rage.  Usually associated with the use of anabolic steroids (by gym junkie types with large muscles, small brains and shrivelled balls, eg Chris Benoit and his WWE mates), in this case it was something completely different than that.

Finks bikie gang member Richard Savage got a bit upset while waiting at Gold Coast Hospital with his wife, who needed haemorrhoid surgery.  After she’d waited three days for surgery, Savage snapped after being told by staff that operating theatres were full and it was doubtful his wife would be operated on that day.  He punched a hole in the wall and told staff:

“You better call the police because my mates are on the way.
“We’re going to trash this place. My wife has been waiting for surgery for three days and I’m sick of waiting.”

adding:

“I’m the king of the Gold Coast and we don’t wait in line for anyone,”

Savage pleaded guilty yesterday in Southport District Court to threatening violence and wilful damage.  He scored himself a 12 month suspended jail sentence.

I wonder what was the bigger pain in the arse …. his wife’s piles, or him?

Shinade

Saw a girl on the news just now, and that was what the name captioned on screen was.

I wonder if this was just a caption person at the TV station who can’t spell, or bogan parents who either couldn’t spell Sinead, or were trying to be clever and give their daughter a “different” name.

Given her appearance, and the nature of the story (she was a witness), I strongly suspect that mum and dad are the guilty parties.

Oh look, its happened again

Another day, another American gun massacre.

Some nut gets rejected by his girlfriend, so what is the natural thing to do?  Of course, go and get your assault rifle out of the car and shoot a few people to take out your frustrations.

In Crandon, Wisconsin, 20 year old deputy sheriff Tyler Peterson fired more than 30 rounds from an AR-15 rifle, killing 6 people at a party, including his ex-girlfriend.

Peterson broke up with his girlfriend recently - by some accounts a week or so ago - and she had since dated another police officer. But a close friend of Peterson denied rumours that it was a jealous rage, saying he had broken up with her earlier this year and she was not seeing anyone else. “He must have just snapped,” said the friend.

But the difference between America and most of the rest of the modern world is that in America you can snap and grab yourself some high powered weaponry, and do a lot of damage.  A hothead anywhere can do harm if they are so minded - but ready availability of assault weapons magnifies the lethal impact of their brain explosions on others.

Gun advocates will say guns don’t kill people, people do.  Maybe, but guns make it a hell of a lot easier to do it en masse.  How many mass stabbing rampages have there been where 6 or more people have been killed because some nut exploded?  How many mass baseball bat murders have there been lately?

I just can’t see how any reasonable person believes that their right to have a gun should not be subject to some level of control by the state.  Are they saying that their freedom is worth more than everyone else’s right to live without the largely avoidable risk of being caught up in some madman’s acting out of their rage, real or imagined, against the world?  Surely, if we must have guns it is in everyone’s interests to make sure dangerous or unstable people don’t get them, that they are not immediately accessible for use when someone spits the dummy (ie what might have happened if this guy had been forced to keep his guns locked up in a gun safe at home or at the police station, rather than in his car?  Maybe some cooling off time if he’d had to go home and get the gun?)  And what is it with assault rifles and the like …those deer, ducks, rabbits etc are not exactly known to fight back with heavy artillery, are they?

(And the fact that Peterson was a police officer and did this doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the local sheriff’s department’s recruitment standards.)

How long will it last this time around?

Pamela Anderson has gone and got married again.

Husband number 3 is Rick Salomon, formerly a close friend of Paris Hilton’s.

Will their “happily ever after” extend into 2008?

Choke

Once again the NZ All Blacks have choked in a big match.  Early this morning they were beaten in a World Cup quarter final, by France, 20-18.   Once again, the All Blacks have failed in the biggest competition in world rugby, keeping going a lack of success since they won the first world cup in 1987.  Of course, they completely dominate most other countries in between world cups, but inevitably fail when they get to the big, important matches at world cup time.

According to Kiwi rugby commentator, Murray Deaker:

“Sadly we are a dumb rugby nation, we don’t play the big matches well,”

“We were a bunch of boofheads playing out there tonight against a French side that isn’t that good. On the big occasions we choke.”

The loss was particularly painful as NZ had lead the match 13-0 in the first half and seemed well in control.  (Thats what I thought when I first heard a progress score on the radio this morning …thought the All Blacks had it in hand, fell back to sleep rather than getting up and watching on TV - only to hear later that France won).

I think that the shitty looking grey jumpers they wore probably contributed to the loss …what is it with some of the colours at this world cup?  They’d have won playing in their traditional all black jumpers, no doubt.

Also last night England knocked Australia out, winning 12-10.  This score didn’t reflect England’s dominance … their forwards completely outmuscled and out-enthused the Wallabies.  Australia did though have its chances to win, but weren’t good enough.  I guess the Wallabies going out at this stage is about right given their fairly ordinary form for most of the last few years.

All I will say now about the rest of the World Cup is, go Los Pumas!!!!

New toy

I got myself one of these today.

A nice blue ipod Nano 8gb.

Now to find 2,000 songs to load onto it.  My old MP3 player only held about 500 and I’d never filled that up …so why the ipod?   Meh!  Had a couple of hundred dollars cash from an honorarium I’d been paid, it was burning a hole in my pocket, I was looking for something to buy with it, saw the new ipods and thought, yep I’d like one of those.

Tax time

Well, I found myself with nothing better to do this afternoon, so stuff it, I thought, lets get my tax return done.  So I trawled through my highly organised filing system (ie a huge pile of crap in a box under my desk), found all the necessary receipts and things, downloaded e-tax and filed in my return and lodged it.  This is about as early as I get on these things, normally I’m doing it at night on the day of the deadline (31 October), so I’m impressed with how well I’ve got my act together on this.  Should see the refund in my bank account within about a week …. what will I spend it on?

Funny isn’t it how you regard a tax refund as some sort of bonus?  Really its just tax you’d paid too much of during the year, so you’re only getting your own money back … but still it feels like getting some sort of bonus cash to spend.