Gotham Knights rugby auction

Gay rugby isn't only a preserve of Australasia, well, Australia only since New Zealand seems to have lost its gay rugby teams and players to the mainstream competition (why bother with sectarian rugby if you can make it into the big time?).

The New York gay team, the Gotham Knights, have put a good swathe of their team members up for their annual fundraising Bachelors' Auction. Successful bids will ensure a date and night out with your purchase, and you can peruse the goods beforehand here [PDF].

If I had any money I would bid for Lot #16: Douglas Schrafel, just for his mischievous sense of humour in his profile, and of course, he's offering extracurriculars, which seems far more fun than #15's offer to discuss Objectivism with you. (He'll be snapped up by Lindsay Perigo for a record sum)

Hat tip: Joe.My.God

Auckland, the new Copenhagen?

Finally, at last, a piece of good news in town planning. The National Business Review reports (link via the Campaign for Better Transport Forum) the little warren of side streets of Auckland's main thoroughfare, Queen Street, is to be made more "European", i.e. people-friendly, by redesigning the street surface taking out all signalling, traffic lights, kerbs and road markings.
This is an excellent idea. The Fort St/High St/Lorne St area is currently clogged with parked cars and traffic, and pedestrians, who actually try to enjoy the inner city life and shopping, are marginalised on tiny footpaths and take their life in their own hands when trying to cross the street. (If you have Google Earth, the area is available in Street View)
Now if they would just get on with the job, so Auckland can finally become a proper city, like Copenhagen.

Trouble at the museum

The museum is a bit of theme these days, it seems, on this blog.
Now another one is slated to be opened in Louvain-La-Neuve (south of Brussels, Belgium, of course) dedicated to cartoonist Hergé, probably mostly known to you as the creator of Tintin, but highlighting other aspects of his life such as his art collecting.

A press preview didn't go as smoothly as planned because all press photographers and cameramen were obliged to leave their gear at the door. No stills or film were allowed to be recorded inside the new museum, to "avoid creating imagery of exhibits", as museum officials clumsily stated. How the museum will create a buzz in the press seems a mystery when no-one can run any pictures or TV footage. The Tintin owners seem as hellbent on control as Walt Disney!

Magritte Museum

If Roman and Celtic history museums are not your cuppa, Belgium is now also opening on 2 June in Brussels a museum dedicated to one of its most famous avantgarde painters, Rene Magritte.

I always loved his cloud pantings, one of which, a sky landscape framed as a dove, called L'Oiseau de Ciel, was commissioned by the Belgian national airline Sabena for use in its advertising and corporate apparel in the 1970s. It was auctioned off in 2003 after the airline went out of business in 2001.
Empire of Lights is another of my favourites.

Now there really is no excuse not to visit Belgium on your next trip to Europe. I bet you never thought of it as a destination anyway.

Gallo-Roman Museum reopens

A typical school trip outing, especially for students in the classical languages stream, at my former high school in Belgium was to the Gallo-Roman Museum in Tongeren.
It had been closed for three years of renovations and extensions, and has now been reopened to the public. And how fantastic it looks!
The local area has been extensively colonised by the Romans after Julius Caesar, since Atuatuca Tungrorum was on the main Roman road between Colonia Agrippina (Cologne) and Bagacum (Bavay). A wealth of artefacts, treasures, graves, pottery and coins have been found in the area and the museum has long been a great attraction for Belgians interested in their ancient history. King Ambiorix, whose Eburones tribal warriors wiped out a whole Roman legion, is still a legendary figure in primary school history lessons. The revolt is mentioned in Julius Caesar De Bello Gallico, which is required reading for all high school students doing Latin, because it mentions, in its first paragraph no less, the Belgians in print for the first time in history, and what praise Caesar rendered to us:

Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae

Public service announcement

And the news that Labour MP Charles Chauvel has drafted a Private Member's Bill to repeal "gay panic defence" in criminal cases.

Sex in the (sports) news

Another former footie player now TV commentator hits the career dust now that a woman has come forward accusing him of group rape seven years ago in Christchurch when the Cronulla team was on tour. Never mind that a police investigation at the time cleared all players of any wrongdoing and that the group sex was consensual, he has now been let go by his TV station as sports commentator. Talk about rough justice!

Three words to the woman: You. Lucky. Bitch.

Group sex as a male bonding exercise is as old as and never fails to actually make males bond. I would have happily volunteered to assist the Cronulla team in their bonding exercise, but obviously there's a bit of a queue for the job.
Best comment on the case:

Having group sex as a team building exercise is unacceptable and a bit gay in my opinion. You can love your team-mates but having sex in front of them is taking things too far. Apparently there was 14 guys in the room and its said that this woman consented to having all of them being there giving it to her? Hmmmm.

Considering that there are only 13 players in a league team, who was the lucky fan?
And what, pray tell, did actually go on in Christchurch?

Among the allegations aired on Monday, the woman said two men rubbed their penises in her face while other men stood watching and masturbating.
Six men had sex with her while another six looked on. There was always someone touching her, she said.

Sounds like huge fun was had by all.

A trading card range of the 2002 Cronulla team is here in case you want to know who was in the team that time. Not that they all participated, but you can choose your favourite party animal.

Eurovision 2009

It's like choosing between various cheeses or wines. An amuse bouche for a wet Sunday night in New Zealand.

You can watch all official videos of the songs by clicking on their name.
Norway certainly looks like the most acrobatic entry, and Germany is obviously going for the gay vote.

Stratos and Triangle TV are re-broadcasting the Moscow final this Sunday at 7.30pm

Former Gulf News editor dies

Simon Johnston, who has edited the Gulf News on Waiheke for many seasons, has died after an accident on the Devonport ferry on Sunday.
Simon was great fun to have around. Apart from his excellent writing he was also a dab hand at playing his guitar at various social occasions and venues.

A news report is here.
You can read a sample of his journalistic work here.
Simon's Waihekepedia page is here.

Estonian Green Party

Since the European Parliamentary Elections Political Compass indicated my politics most closely resemble the Estonian Green Party, I had a look at their policies, and it doesn't sound too out of kilter. Its principles are:

– true wealth is expressed by biological and cultural diversity;
– it is good to live in a place blessed with fertile land, potable water and clean air;
– everything related to these issues cannot be indiscriminately exchanged for cash; choices rather than compromises are needed to protect our assets;
– finding a better place does not mean returning to a cave or climbing back up a tree; instead we need intelligent, prompt and meticulously planned action, good education, well-aimed innovation and a thoroughly overhauled economy.

And they also advance ecological balance sheets for companies - including declaring them bankrupt if they don't scratch up on their polluting ways.

European parliamentary elections

It's always fun to sort out your electoral preferences and make some online algorithm decide what party your choices mostly agree with - and then be (pleasantly or not) surprised about the outcome.
The EU has set up a political compass site where you can do this - never mind you have to choose a starting country, the system will compare you with all other European parties.
So I started off in Belgium and was somewhat surprised I was closer in profile to the PVDA (a leftist workers party) than the Green Party (which I would probably vote for if I lived in Belgium). In terms of policy points I matched the SP.A by 73%, the highest matching score. Close by, in other country party matches, were the Swiss socialist parties and the Luxembourg Green Parties.
When only using raw figures, without specific emphasis on policy areas, my score more closely matches the Estonian, Dutch and Luxembourg Green parties (over 80% matching scores).
At the other end of the scale, parties I completely do not match with are the ultra-conservative Polish Christian party and, surprisingly, the Dutch Partij voor de Vrijheid. Obviously Geert Wilders' principled stand against Islamo-fascism isn't reflected in his party policies for Europe.

In an earlier similar exercise I did on the Flemish TV political choice site, it recommended I vote for the SLP (Social Liberal Party), a newly formed progressive party. The SLP didn't even come near in the EU format, which only goes to show outcomes depend on the questions and different emphasis laid on subjects.