Settling

Perchance Mount Isa is the paper bag capital of Australia or even the world.

My love grows more and more for Australia with each story I read about the happenings in Oz. The latest comes from the Times Online.

John Molony, the mayor of Mount Isa in northern Queensland, suggested to the Townsville Bulletin newspaper:

“If there are five blokes to every girl, we should find out where there are beauty-disadvantaged women and ask them to proceed to Mount Isa. Quite often you will see walking down the street a lass who is not so attractive with a wide smile on her face. Whether it is recollection of something previous, or anticipation for the next evening, there is a degree of happiness.” He added: “Often those who are beauty-disadvantaged are unhappy with their lot. Some, in other places in Australia, need to proceed to Mount Isa, where happiness awaits. And, really, beauty is only skin deep. Isn’t there a fairy tale about an ugly duckling that evolves into a beautiful swan?”

Since my secondary plan for my trip to Oz involves the search for a wife, this story has proved beneficial in informing me of the apparent lack of lasses in Queensland. The ladies of the town, of which there are suspiciously no pictures in the story, have naturally taken to protesting this disparaging view of their Aussie sisters by the mayor. He will not back down. Clearly the town is in need of some objective judgment. Therefore, I submit my application to deem whether Mount Isa women are fuglier than other cities. This will be exhausting work, but I've been training for this all my life.

The story continues:

One 26-year-old man described the town as the “beer goggles capital of Australia” because the male population was not at all choosy when it came to the opposite sex. Paul Woodlands, 25, a builder, told the Townsville Bulletin: “There’s definitely a lack of beautiful women. Blokes are not as picky - you take what you can get.”

The Ribbon is Our Bitch

Olympic Greatness:


Also go here for more.

Pig Squeels for Wellies

First, check this out.

If you are too lazy to click a link, here's the synop: Six-week old piglet Cinders cleverly discovered a way to avoid a certain future in a skillet near you. Perhaps while watching a recent episode of Monk, Cinders plotted her "fear" of mud.

Cinder's owners fitted her with her very own pair of "Wellies," formerly adorning their child's key chain. I did expect for the Wellies to be a bit more fashion-forward like these:

Now, Cinder can walk in the mud sans fear of getting dirty.

Mr Keeble and wife Debbie, both 42, run a sausage company and keep about 200 pigs on their 1,000-acre farm.

But the father-of-four said there was no chance that Cinders would be slaughtered.

"She's more of a pet really now and she's going to live a very long and happy life," he said.

With a name like "Cinders" is their doubt that the piglet was destined for the stove?

I'm sure they tell ALL the piglets that they will live very long and happy lives, all the way to the slaughterhouse.

Cinders isn't the first pig thirsty for fame. She comes at the curly-tailed end of a long line of porcine princesses.

There was , also a compulsive worrier.

Then came our literary friend Wilbur in E.B. White's .

All leading up to , the mistaken-identity pig who can impress in the sticks as well in the city.

I fully expect Cinders to extend her brand beyond the fenced confines of North Yorks. Expect her own line of Wellies, perhaps with sausages or lil piglets flying. I also heard a movie deal was in the works, after a guest spot on next week's episode of Monk.

China

China gets all the perks. First it was announced that they would play host for this year's Olympics. If that weren't enough they also got the total solar eclipse.

You can go here to check it out in case you missed it. They have a few videos recapping the amazing event. Totality occurs a little after 51 minutes in the telescope-only video.

I will always be amazed by the cosmos. I do recall a solar eclipse when I was in elementary school that was truly amazing.

Patch Print Problems In Three Easy Steps

I'm a parasite.

A leech.

According to this article in the Maui Time Weekly I am part of the problem, not the solution. Ted Rall makes some interesting market-based points about how to remedy the tanking print industry. Among them, all newspapers should pull the plug on their online offerings.

Other suggestions included copyrighting every article and cease participation in wire services.

Other key points:

• "The New York Times or the big city daily has better news, but how much better?" said San Jose State University business professor Joel West. "If it's $20/month (or even $10 or merely requires a login) will readers bother? Most won't. As with other commodities, better loses to 'good enough.'"
• "A reader of The New York Times' print edition generates about 170 times as much revenue as someone who surfs NYTimes.com. (This is because print readers spend 47 minutes with the paper. Online browsers visit the paper's website a mere seven minutes)."