Daily Archives: August 6, 2009

Things you shouldn’t do in a library – reprise

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It seems that the problem of men looking at hard core pornography on the computers at the library continues up in Maroochydore, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.   After Alison Sheldon saw a man doing it, and complained to the local council about it, her husband  Dr Paul Sheldon presented a petition with over 3,000 signatures to the council, calling on them to install filtering software on the public access computers at the library.

Despite saying this:

"There have been a number of incidents where men have been asked to leave because staff have witnessed them masturbating in front of public computers,"

Councillor Anna Grosskreutz said no action had been taken since the issue was first raised by Dr Sheldon several months ago.  Dr Sheldon said when his wife complained to library staff about the man looking at pornography, she was told similar incidents happened "all the time" and it was "too difficult" to install filters.

cm519porn-posters 

Not only that but this is supposedly not an isolated instance, or a peculiarly Maroochydore behaviour, with Cr Grosskreutz saying this was an issue facing all council libraries, not just those on the Sunshine Coast.

I guess this latest update answers clearly the questions I posed in my earlier post on the subject.  Yes and yes, definitely.  Ewwwwww!!!!

Time for some questions of my readers – leave your answers in the comments.

  1. Ever felt the urge to watch porn, whip the old fella out and whack off when you’re using the computers at the local library (or internet cafe, or any other public place with internet access)?
  2. Are you aware of such masturbatory shenanigans going on at your local library?  I can’t say I’ve ever seen or heard anything re our library here, but they may just sweep it under the carpet (or mop it, undoubtedly more effective in this case than I’d expect a broom would be) and not say anything about it. (Optionally, please include the state/territory/country you’re from, and if you’re a Queenslander, if you are from the Sunshine Coast or nearby ….in the interests of research I am trying to establish if this is some sort of freakish Sunshine Coast thing, or Queensland generally, or maybe it just happens anywhere).

 

Alfred Nobel would be spinning in his grave

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…. at the thought of the possibility of Michael Jackson winning the Nobel Peace Prize.   More than 15,000 people have signed an Internet petition calling for the recently deceased singer to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.  The petitioners’ target is 1,000,000 signatures.  According to the petition:

"Michael Jackson has undoubtedly earned the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize,"

and:

"We the Undersigned, believe Michael Jackson has given of himself completely and selflessly in a lifelong effort to help better global conditions for children, and all of humankind,"

As to the first point, I’d ask how and why?  By dropping dead?

As to the second point, fair enough, I’d agree he did some worthy things, but I think they are vastly overstating his contributions.  Never mind that he also did some things that did not exactly better conditions for some children he knew – unless you count millions of dollars in hush money as bettering a child’s conditions (then again that’s an interesting equation – millions as the price for keeping quiet about being molested – does it represent a net benefit to that child or not?)

However, old Alfred will be pleased to know its not going to happen.  Firstly, Nobel Prize rules stipulate that prizes cannot be awarded posthumously (great news for Elvis fans – he may still be eligible … if only they could figure out where he’s been hiding all these years?).  Second, nominations are only able to be made by certain eligible people, including members of parliament and government worldwide, university professors, previous laureates and members of several international institutes. (damn those elitists in their ivory towers!!!)