[size=7]Gareth Morgan wants cats to go[/size]

Philanthropic economist Gareth Morgan is calling for the eradication of cats from New Zealand.

''The fact is that your furry friend is actually a friendly neighbourhood serial killer,'' his new Cats to Go website, set up by the Morgan Foundation, says.

The site says cats have contributed to the extinction of nine native bird species and impacted on 33 endangered native bird species.

It goes on to say that killing cats is not necessary but is an option.

''We appreciate the fact that you have an emotional connection with your pet and that pet ownership is a rewarding experience.

"But there's a real problem with cats - they kill for pleasure, and most of that killing is out of your sight so probably out of your mind.

"If you think New Zealand's native species are precious and should be fostered then it's important you be a responsible cat owner.

"That means keep them inside 24 hours a day and if that's impractical then when the time comes ensure this is the last cat you ever own.''

Mr Morgan also suggests other ways to reduce the impact cats have on native bird populations.

"I am advocating responsible pet ownership, not for people to bop their pets on the head. To me a responsible pet owner has their cat neutered, keeps it well fed and indoors as much as possible, and puts a bell on them. Then when their cat dies I think people should consider not replacing it".

Councils also need to step up and manage cats like they do already with dogs, he said.

"All cats should be registered, chipped and neutered, while setting live capture cage traps on your property and turning the miscreants over to the local authority should be encouraged.''

Why not? But its probably better than exposing them to all the PC gone insane. I think taking criticism and learning you arent perfect is one of the most important things you learn in the earlier school years, besides social skills, after probably spending the years before school being idolised by the parents.

Humans have driven thousands if not millions of species to extinction so should we kill all of them too?

Humans have driven thousands if not millions of species to extinction so should we kill all of them too?

And this is one of our owners.

So Joffa's more of a dog person :lol:

Cats are the best, you guys are insane.

As a 25 year old male with a girlfriend, cats are awesome.

Cats are the best, you guys are insane.

Obviously should be the other way around :lol:

Child leashes are my biggest pet peeve btw. You're THAT shit a parent? Why reproduce in the first place!

15,000 crocs escape from Sth African farm

From:
AAP January 25, 2013
12:14AM

SOUTH Africa's army and police have been called in to rescue residents from thousands of crocodiles that escaped from a farm where the floodgates were opened due to torrential rains.

About 15,000 predators sprung from the Rakwena Crocodile Farm in the far north of the country when owners were forced to open the gates to prevent a storm surge, local newspaper Beeld reported.

A number have since been recaptured, but at least half remain on the loose, scattered far and wide.

Some turned up on a school rugby pitch 120 kilometres away.

The surrounding province of Limpopo has been hit by serious floods that have killed 10 people and made many more homeless.

"Before, there were only a few crocodiles in the Limpopo River. Now there are plenty," said Zane Langman, the son-in-law of Rakwena's owner.

"We go catch them when farmers phone us and say crocs are around."

Langman earlier used a motor boat to rescue some local residents who had climbed onto the roof of a garage to escape the rising floods.

"When we arrived there, the crocodiles were circling them," he said.

The army has been called in to help track down the reptiles, according to police spokesman Hangwani Mulaudzi.

"Police, the army, and people from the community are assisting," he said.

No incidents involving crocodile attacks have been reported, he told AFP.

Hundreds of kilometres downstream the Limpopo River floods have also savaged neighbouring Mozambique, were tens of thousands of people were being evacuated from their homes.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/breaking-news/crocs-escape-from-sth-african-farm/story-e6frea7u-1226561380080

Record rejected: traveller's visit to every country in the world

DateJanuary 29, 2013 - 10:18AM

A man who completed a unique journey to all 201 countries in the world without flying needs to retrace part of his journey if it is to be recognised as a record.

Graham Hughes, whose entry into South Sudan last November completed a voyage to every country in the world recognised by the United Nations, is currently en route to Russia.

Although he crossed into the country from Estonia in spring 2009, he went over the border illegally, the only country he did not enter officially. For this reason, Guinness World Records is refusing to ratify his journey as a record.

"The visa into Russia cost about 150 quid and I was on a shoestring budget, and travelling to as many countries as possible, very fast," Mr Hughes explained. "It [the Guinness World Record's decision] is completely understandable, because they don't want to encourage people to do illegal things."

Since learning of the obstacle, Mr Hughes has adopted the same phlegmatic approach that allowed him to visit all the world's countries in the first place.

"I can solve the problem. I came back from South Sudan overland, so I can pick up the journey at any time," he said. "It's quite a funny coda to my travels – I am just glad it's not Bangladesh, that it's somewhere that's only 24 hours away on the coach."

Mr Hughes has paid £100 ($A150) for a return coach ticket to Gdansk, where he will arrive on Tuesday local time. From there, he will travel to Kaliningrad a Russian exclave bordering Poland and Lithuania, this time with a €75 ($A97) visa, and is due to return to Britain on Thursday.

Asked whether he was tempted to fly back this time, he said he remained determined to travel in the same way. "It is one of the things I want to keep doing for the rest of my life. Whenever a new country gains independence, I want to head there overland from the UK, and continue the journey."

- The Telegraph, London



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/record-rejected-travellers-visit-to-every-country-in-the-world-20130129-2dhpr.html#ixzz2JLsfS5B1

Craig David’s Unfortunately Named 2013 Australian Tour
Craig David‘s recent Australian tour has highlighted the dangers of coasting along on an album that’s 13 years old. This coming March, the British R&B identity will be returning Down Under for a run of 3 east coast shows entitled…ahem…the Still Born To Do It tour.

Well, that was what the tour was titled until about midday yesterday when the powers-that-be must have realised having “still born” in any heading is a bad op. Craig David will now be touring Australia under the banner of the much-similar Craig David World Tour. But we know what we saw – check the screen grab below. (Update: at the time of writing, the Sydney venue is still listing the tour under the poorly chosen previous name)

It was more than 10 years ago that David last performed his highly decorated music on our shores, so many of that sold-out crowd are sure to return. David’s career is peppered with international smash hits, including the tracks off his debut full-length, Born To Do It, which blew minds the world over in 2000. The release has sold squillions of copies since then.

Donald Trump sues Bill Maher over monkey business

From: News Limited Network February 05, 2013 8:41AM

DONALD Trump is suing Bill Maher for $US5 million ($A4.8 million) after proving his father wasn't an orangutan.

..In January left-wing comedian Maher told The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that he would pay $US5 million if Trump proved that he wasn't the "spawn of his mother having sex with orangutan.”

Maher's joke came after Trump offered $US5 million if US President Barack Obama made his university records public.

Trump said on Fox News that he was coming at Maher to collect.

“He promised me $US5 million for charity if I provided certain information,” Trump said on Fox News’s Fox & Friends. “Well I provided the information. He didn’t pay. So today I sue Bill Maher for $5 million for charity.”

Trump said he did not believe the comedian was joking when he made the offer.

“I don’t think he was joking. He said it with venom. That was venom. That wasn’t a joke. In fact, he was nervous when he said it. It was a pathetic delivery,” he said.

Trump's attorney released the mogul's birth certificate after Maher's comments.

“Attached hereto is a copy of Mr. Trump’s birth certificate, demonstrating that he is the son of Fred Trump, not an orangutan,” Trump's lawyer wrote in a letter.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/donald-trump-sues-bill-maher-over-monkey-business/story-e6frf96o-1226570510652

Killer Vaginas
DateFebruary 8, 2013
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Women using poison to murder their husbands is nothing new, going as far back as Claudius' poisoning, which implicated his wife Agrippina. ''Arsenic Annie'' Nannie Doss saw off four husbands, as well as most of her family, over four decades (she confessed to the murders in 1954).

And now a Brazilian woman may soon be added to this pantheon of gloom. Although this alleged attempted homicide was unsuccessful, the method will certainly go down in history.

She allegedly put poison in her vagina, and invited her husband to perform oral sex on her. The man became suspicious while down south, surprised by an ''unusual smell''. He took her to hospital, where the poison was found.

There is something particularly intriguing about using a method of murder that involves pleasure. It's also completely stupid, as vaginas are absorbent and the woman would have probably killed herself in the process. But no matter, a lethal love tunnel adds to the fascinating mythology of sex and death in the lady garden.

Paranoid fantasies about women's bits are nothing new. Vaginas seem dark and mysterious, and produce strange liquids. Its secretions form the basis of the belief that women are unclean, indeed ritually so. As the South Park character Mr Mackey said: ''I just don't trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn't die.'' And yet pleasure - and most importantly life - also emanate from it.

This is ''dark power''-inspired folklore. It was believed at various points in history that menstrual blood was semen ''gone bad'', that women took men's life-force through their vaginas, that the female orgasm should be prescribed for anxiety disorders, and that some vaginas came laced with teeth that could castrate a man.

Indeed, the myth of the vagina dentata - meaning toothed vagina - can be found in many cultures, from Greek mythology to the Chaco and Guiana tribes of South America.

Its message can be subtly different, depending on where it originated: it either says that penetrative sex is dangerous, that women are evil temptresses bent on male castration, or that men should not rape women, or suffer the consequences.

This latter threat was realised with the invention of Rape-aXe, an anti-rape female condom invented in South Africa in 2005. The Rape-aXe is a latex sheath embedded with sharp, inward-facing barbs that would dig into the attacker's penis, causing excruciating pain.

Of course the threat of castration, whether real or imagined, should not be the motivation for men not to rape.

The mythology surrounding vaginas harm women more than help them. Many women would not actually want to put someone off oral sex with the possibility that it may be a poisoned furry chalice (women are also not more likely to be a poisoner than men: the overwhelming number of convicted poisoners are men).

As long as women are made to feel powerless, those powerful myths will be embraced to protect ourselves by turning us into witches, poisoners or sirens. But these myths only perpetuate fear, distrust and disgust of female genitalia. There are other ways to bite back.

http://www.dailylife.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/killer-vaginas-20130208-2e2td.html

Farting on planes: let 'em rip, study says

DateFebruary 15, 2013 - 10:27AM

Farting, cutting the cheese, letting her rip, breaking wind - whatever you call it, experts say it's better out than in even on a plane.

Pilots, especially, have been urged to let flatulence out for safety's sake, but passengers risk being ignored by cabin crews if they do.

A team of Danish and British gastroenterologists produced a paper on flatulence on planes after one of them, Jacob Rosenberg, was inspired on a flight between Copenhagen and Tokyo.

The problem is that farting is an invariable consequence of digestion and people do it about 10 times a day.

But people may fart more on flights because of changes in the volume of intestinal gasses as cabin pressure alters.

Hans Christian Pommergaard, Jakob Burcharth, Anders Fischer, William Thomas and Professor Rosenberg have told the New Zealand Medical Journal the holding back option may seem "alluring" but there are drawbacks.

Stress, discomfort, pain, bloating, dyspepsia and other symptoms could ensue, while not discounting the chance that all the effort may be sabotaged by turbulence in any case.

"There is actually only one reasonable solution ... just let it go," the medicos say.

However, the odour - and women's farts smell worse than men's - may impair cabin service and thus the quality of life aboard the aircraft.

They warn of consequences in the cockpit.

"If the pilot restrains a fart, all the drawbacks previously mentioned, including diminished concentration, may affect his abilities to control the airplane," the researchers say.

"If he lets go of the fart his co-pilot may be affected by its odour, which again reduces safety on board the flight."

The specialists did not recommend setting farts alight, either on land or in a plane, despite its proven ability to reduce odour.

They reluctantly dismissed the notion of rubber pants with an attached air container for collecting gas as "somewhat extreme".

But they reckon putting active charcoal in passenger seats is a winner of an idea that could be backed up with special undies.

"The future frequent flyer may develop the ability to "sneak a fart" by wearing charcoal-lined underwear thus experiencing a comfortable flight in harmony with fellow passengers," they conclude.

Pre-flight passenger methane breath tests and reducing fibre in airline food options were also considered.

AAP



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/farting-on-planes-let-em-rip-study-says-20130215-2egvi.html#ixzz2Kx81F7Iv

Welcome to Spanker Knob: world's rudest place names mapped

DateFebruary 19, 2013 - 5:01PM

Most of us have heard of Titicaca, the high-altitude lake that straddles Peru and Bolivia, and the prominent Breton port of Brest.

But how many people knew about the Philippine town of Anus, the Cambridgeshire hamlet called Six Mile Bottom, or the Indonesian settlement of Semen?

Now, thanks to the meticulous research of Londoner Gary Gale – a "geo-technologist and self professed geek with a life" – all the world's most amusingly puerile place names can be found on one giggle-inducing website.


One of the Australian highlights is Victoria's Spanker Knob.

Mr Gale's creation – "Vaguely Rude Place Names of the World" – contains hundreds of ludicrously immature road, town and village names, all plotted on an eye-catching map.

Victoria is the star performer in Australia, with the state featuring such pearlers as Tittybong, Bumbang and Spanker Knob.

Britain's funniest include Pratt's Bottom in Orpington, Andrews Knob in Cheshire, Wetwang in Yorkshire and Ringrash Road in Northern Ireland.

Over in the US, there's Hooker in Oklahoma, Climax in Colorado, and Mianus in Connecticut – which featured in one particularly adolescent sketch in Jackass: the Movie.

And then there's the Albanian village of Crap, the Algerian settlement of Tit, and countless more examples too rude to repeat.

"I've had a lifelong love affair with maps since discovering the Harry Beck map of the London Underground on the back of the London A-Z street atlas at an early age," says Mr Gale, on his website. His love affair with infantile comedy is self evident, and is bound to help thousands of like-minded souls stave off boredom during their working day.

- The Telegraph, London


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/welcome-to-spanker-knob-worlds-rudest-place-names-mapped-20130218-2emtc.html#ixzz2LLNNOBDd

Adolf Hitler v Frankenstein! Odd names run for election in India

Meghalaya state's fascination with interesting names is clear with one look at the ballot for state elections

guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 February 2013 12.01 GMT

Adolf Hitler is running for election in India. So is Frankenstein.

The tiny north-east Indian state of Meghalaya has a fascination with interesting, and controversial, names and the ballot for state elections on Saturday provides proof.

Among the 345 contestants running for state assembly are Frankenstein Momin, Billykid Sangma, Field Marshal Mawphniang, and Romeo Rani. Some, such as Kenedy Marak, Kennedy Cornelius Khyriem and Jhim Carter Sangma, are clearly hoping for the electoral success of their namesake US presidents.

Then there is Hitler.

This 54-year-old father of three has won three elections to the state assembly with little controversy despite his name.

His father had worked with the British army, but apparently developed enough of a fascination with Britain's arch-enemy to name his son Adolf Hitler – though he also gave him the middle name Lu.

"I am aware at one point of time Adolf Hitler was the most hated person on Earth for the genocide of the Jews. But my father added 'Lu' in between, naming me Adolf Lu Hitler, and that's why I am different," said Hitler, who hails from the small village of Mansingre, 120 miles west of Gauhati, the capital of neighbouring Assam state.

Hitler said his name has not stopped him from travelling the world, including trips to the US, and to Germany.

"I've never had problems obtaining a visa but I was asked many times during immigration as to why I should have such a name. I told the immigration staff I possibly didn't have a role in my naming," he said.

India played little role in the second world war, and many Indians view Hitler not as the personification of evil but as a figure of fascination.

Hitler's book Mein Kampf is prominently displayed at many Indian bookstores. The owner of a menswear shop named his store Hitler, then expressed confusion last year after Israel complained.

Musfika Haq, a teacher in Meghalaya's capital, Shillong, said such names are common in the state.

"Parents obviously get fascinated by names of well known or great leaders, but must be unaware that some of them, like Hitler, had been highly controversial," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/22/adolf-hitler-frankenstein-india-elections