Interesting interpretations of Hitchcock

The Univeristy of California Press is offering a book "Alfred Hitchcock Centenary Essays" which looks very interesting. Their website describes it so:

Alfred Hitchcock: Centenary Essays displays the range and breadth of Hitchcock scholarship and assesses the significance of his singular body of work. The book engages with Hitchcock's characteristic formal and aesthetic preoccupations, his relationship with modernism and politics and his engagement with romance and sexuality.

but it's the contents list that is especially interesting:

Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Twice Forgotten: The Sex Lives of Heterosexual Mexicans in the United States
2. Beyond the Hymen: Women, Virginity, and Sex
3. Pleasurable Dangers, Dangerous Pleasures: Men and Their First Sexual Experience
4. Sex Is a Family Affair: Nurturing and Regulating Sexuality
5. Sex and the Immigrant Communities: Risky Opportunities, Opportune Risks
6. Sexual Discourses and Cultures in the Barrio: Networking
7. Sexual Bargains: Work, Money, and Power
8. Gendered Tapestries: Sexuality Threads of Migrant Sexualities

New Zealand in the News Ed.II

Cross-dressing lawyer hangs up his dress

A male lawyer who appeared in court dressed in women's clothes as a protest against what he said was New Zealand's overly-masculine judiciary was suspended Wednesday after being found to be in contempt of court. The High Court found Rob Moodie, a 68-year-old, balding man who appeared in court in dresses and toting a handbag, was in contempt for circulating suppressed documents outside the court in one of his cases.

Moodie officially changed his name to "Miss Alice" as part of his protest against the "old boys network" that he said runs the nation's judiciary, and was granted an award for the most bizarre conduct by a lawyer in 2006 by London's The Times newspaper.

Taupo skydiver tells of miracle survival

Michael Holmes, 25, went into a spin when his main parachute became tangled during a 4000m drop over Taupo, but survived when he landed in a blackberry bush.

"When the second parachute didn't open I realised it was all over," he told London's The Times newspaper from his bed in Waikato Hospital. "I was going to die. You don't have much time to say goodbye. I just said: 'S**t I'm going to die'."

The ordeal was witnessed by John Siddles, a local man, and his 18-year-old son, Adam, who were watching the parachutists to decide if they wanted to try it themselves.

"One of the skydivers was coming down and going round and round," Mr Siddles said. "He looked like he was all tangled up or something. He just came down, straight down. It looked like it had opened. "We decided it's not for us."

New Zealand in the News

(Bleep) bless you, ma'am

A censor was told to edit out all profanities -- including any blasphemy -- for the version of the movie The Queen distributed to Air New Zealand, and other carriers. The new censor mistakenly bleeped out each time a character said "God," instead of just when it was used as part of a profanity, said Jeff Klein, president of Jaguar Distribution, the company that distributed the movie to airlines this month. In-flight viewers of the film at one point heard "(Bleep) bless you, ma'am," as one character spoke to the queen.

Love them Sheep

New Zealanders' love affair with sheep gained official recognition Friday when the agriculture minister declared Feb. 15 "National Lamb Day." New Zealand has 4 million human inhabitants and 60 million sheep. Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton suggested New Zealanders had no reason to be embarrassed about their sheep population, and said Lamb Day would mark the 125th anniversary of the first shipment of frozen meat from New Zealand to London.

Woman fights mountain lion to go to New Zealand

Wildlife officials on Thursday credited a woman with saving her husband's life by clubbing a mountain lion that attacked him while the couple hiked in a California state park

... Jim Hamm, 70, was in fair condition Thursday. He had to have his lips stitched and underwent surgery for other lacerations on his head and body.

He told his wife he still wants to make the trip to New Zealand they planned for their anniversary, she said.

Wood to Ethanol

Two national institutes--Scion (formerly known as the New Zealand Forest Research Institute) and AgResearch (formerly known as the Pastoral Agricultural Research Institute)--are working with Diversa of San Diego, Calif., on experiments for turning wood chips and other byproducts from the country's forestry and paper businesses into cellulosic ethanol. Unlike conventional ethanol made from corn or sugar cane, the cellulosic variety comes from agricultural products with little or no other value, which drives down the cost of production.

and finally...
Mortgage’s for PS3’s
The 60 gigabyte model of Sony's PS3 will be priced at 1199.95 New Zealand dollars when it goes on sale March 23.