News: Parents OK pre-marital sex, but not at home

Sex at 16 is OK for 20% of parents

A survey conducted by SBS television has revealed about one in five parents are fine with their children having sex at age 16 while four in five (80%) have no problems if it happens before marriage. But a quarter of that number still wouldn’t want their child sharing a bed with their partner / boyfriend / girlfriend in their own home. How do you / would you handle things with your own children?

Queensland votes tonight on civil unions

The vote on whether Queensland will allow same sex couples to join together in civil partnership will be exceedingly close in its final push this evening. The bill in Queensland was introduced by Deputy Premier Andrew Fraser and will be put to a conscience vote by Labor. It will fail if just seven Labor MPs vote against it. Those pushing for its carriage have organised a rally outside Queensland Parliament House at 5.30pm. States do not control the Marriage Act (that’s Federal) so civil unions are as much as any state Government can achieve.

Co-sleeping parents should stop, says Victorian Coroner

Victorian Coroner John Olle, who is investigating the deaths of five boys of different ages who died while co-sleeping with their parents, has warned parents to wait at least six months (preferably a year) before sleeping in the same bed with infants. There were 15 cases of co-sleeping deaths in 2010. Mr Olle conceded the information given to parents was ‘confusing’ but that the message across the health sector needed to be strong while the possible links between co-sleeping and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome were properly investigated.

Photoshopped? There’ll soon be an app for that.

Researchers in the US are working on a formula that would allow a computer program to rate how drastically a picture has been Photoshopped on a scale of 1 to 5. One being ‘a little bit’ and five being ‘a great deal’. News of the tool comes as lobbyists push to have a law passed in American that would require Photoshopped images in media and advertising to carry a label saying they had been ‘meaningfully changed’. It’s called the self-esteem act. The American Medical Association adopted a policy on body image and advertising that urged advertisers and others to ‘discourage the altering of photographs in a manner that could promote unrealistic expectations of appropriate body image’.

Harvey Norman talks retail and Christmas

The big boss Gerry Harvey is not happy, saying he can see no sign of a good Christmas for retail with the squeeze put on it by online. “There’s no sign out there in the community that we’re going to have this wonderful Christmas. I don’t see it.” Mr Harvey has himself – reluctantly – moved into the online market. As news.com.au reported: “Mr Harvey said online retail sales had increased every year, but businesses had to be realistic about the effectiveness of selling on the web, particularly as accurate sales and profits figures were difficult to come by. Harvey Norman’s board believes its new online business will grow to one per cent of total sales this year, and by one per cent per year for the next three years.

Will Facebook float make it a $100 billion company?

Facebook. You know the one. For years now it has held off going public but now its founders and directors hope to take the company to the market with a share price offering sometime in 2012. They’re hoping the prices will value the company at $100 billion and raise $10 billion in capital. If that is the case it would make it one of the biggest floats in history – certainly the biggest ever for a technology / Internet company. Facebook has over 750 million users worldwide and would debut with revenue of $4 billion. Most companies debut with $100 million. But just think about it … if Facebook has monopolised social media so far without much outside help, imagine what it could do with $10 billion…

Michael Jackson’s doctor sentenced to maximum jail

Dr Conrad Murray will likely be behind bars for four years after the judge in the Michael Jackson trial sentenced him to the maximum time allowable, saying he showed ‘no remorse’. He was earlier found guilty of involuntary manslaughter by a jury. The Judge said many other doctors had walked away from Jackson, due to his unreasonable sedative and medication demands, and that Dr Murray should have done likewise. He also claimed the reason Dr Murray made a secret recording of the pop singer slurring under the influence of the hospital-grade sedative Propofol was to use it for blackmail, should things go wrong. The Jackson family had a statement read to the court, stating they did not seek revenge but that the judge send a message to doctors everywhere “not to sell their services to the highest bidder.”