quick rants

Are newsreaders the only ones who say "harassment" with the emphasis on the first syllable? "Harassment" seems to be good enough for the rest of us.

And, on another (unrelated) matter: Girls! Just because your sports team plays in a lower division and you don't have a coach or train regularly, you are still allowed to want to win! It's ok to be competitive! I'm a bit over the concept of "social" sport - this term often seems to be bandied about by people who are afraid of being competitive. You can have fun and seek to win too. You can still be friendly with the opposition, though keep the chatting and jokes for off the court. A while ago I grimaced through a friendly ref telling us with pride how he likes to have a bit of a joke on the court and get the players laughing, because 'it's a social grade'. Inside I was yelling at him 'take me seriously you bastard!'

OK they're my issues and I'll deal with them.

Yeah I still owe y'all a proper post.

Yay for biology, Part II

I was doing the washing up on the weekend and overheard something on the tv about 'peeling sheep', which, unsurprisingly, caught my attention. The show was Landline and the product: 'Bioclip', which has been under development for many years and is just becoming commercially viable. Over thousands of years of domestication, the tendency for sheep to shed their wool has been bred out of most breeds. The bioclip process involves injecting a naturally occurring protein, covering the sheep in a net 'boob tube', and hey presto, a couple of months later, the wool can be peeled off instead of shearing. It's better for the sheep (no cuts from shearing) and better for the wool (more even length and no contaminating bits of skin. I think this is pretty nifty.