Should sex trade be legalised?

International study backs legal sex trade
We'll pay tax if our work is legal, say prostitutes
Hong Kong should legalise the sex trade, according to preliminary findings of a three-year study of prostitution in the city and around the globe. But it does not recommend setting up a red-light district.

Zi Teng, a support group for sex workers that commissioned the study, noted that the demand for sexual services would not disappear and that sex workers were willing to pay tax within a regulated industry.

"Therefore, the government might as well legalise it and regulate it like other trades such as catering," said Elaine Lam Yee-ling, spokeswoman for the group.

Zi Teng said it commissioned a British group in 2005 to research how the industry was regulated on the mainland, in Britain, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries.

Preliminary results of the research will be released later this year, but Ms Lam said they would show that legalising the sex trade seemed to be the best path for the city.

"Problems are less complicated in countries where prostitution is legal, as police no longer have to make efforts to crack down on the trade," she said. "The administration just has to regulate the sex trade according to other ordinances such as fire safety or hygiene."

The study also found that setting up a red-light district was not an acceptable option for the city, as sex was still considered a taboo subject and the general public could not accept such an idea. "It would be difficult to find a place to locate a red-light district, as there would surely be strong objections from district councils and residents in the area."

The group said sex workers were willing to be regulated as other trades and to pay tax. "Sex workers have no problems about paying tax if they can be treated as other normal taxpayers who enjoy protection and respect in society," Ms Lam said.

"The government should devote some resources to educating the public that sex workers are no different from other workers and that they should not be discriminated against because of what they do for a living."

Private data of sex workers' clients would not be revealed if sex workers had to submit information when filling out tax forms, she said.

SCMP. Mar 22, 2008.

Mobile calls on Emirates flights

Dubai-based airline Emirates has become the first commercial airline to allow passengers to make mobile phone calls during flights.

Emirates said the first permitted mobile phone call was made on a flight between Dubai and Casablanca.

The aircraft, an Airbus A340, is fitted with a system which stops mobiles from interfering with a plane's electronics.

Emirates plans to extend the system to more aircraft and later this year add BlackBerry and other data services.

According to the airline, the mobile service will only be activated when the aircraft is at cruising altitude and the cabin crew will be able to monitor and control the use of the system.

Passengers will be able to receive and send text messages, but the crew will be able to prevent voice calls at certain times, such as during night flights.

Passengers will also be requested to keep their phones on "silent" mode, said the airline.

High demand

Emirates said it decided to introduce the use of mobile phones in its fleet after experiencing high demand for the phones already installed in aircraft seats.

The airline had to obtain approval from international air safety organisations before adopting the system, which was developed by the AeroMobile company.

"We have gone to considerable lengths to ensure that all safety and regulatory issues have been fully addressed", said AeroMobile Chief Executive Bjorn-Taale Sandberg.

Emirates flies to more than 60 countries and is owned by the government of Dubai.

BBC News.

Woman stuck after two years on toilet

An American woman's body had became attached to her boyfriend's toilet after she sat on it for two years, police in Kansas said.

"She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body," said Bryan Whipple, the sheriff of Ness County.

It appeared Pam Babcock's skin had grown around the toilet seat, he added. "It is hard to imagine. ... I still have a hard time imagining it myself."

The 35-year-old initially refused emergency medical care but her boyfriend, 36, and police officers finally convinced her to go to hospital.

"We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital," Mr Whipple said. "The hospital removed it."

The county attorney still has to decide whether any charges should be brought against Kory McFarren, the boyfriend.

Mr McFarren told investigators that he brought his girlfriend food and water, and asked her every day to come out of the bathroom.

"And her reply would be, 'Maybe tomorrow'," Mr Whipple said. "According to him, she did not want to leave the bathroom."

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The house in Ness City had a second bathroom that he could use.

On Feb 27, Mr McFarren called police to report that "there was something wrong with his girlfriend", Mr Whipple said, adding that the man never explained why it took him two years to pick up the phone.

Officers found Miss Babcock sitting on the toilet - fully clothed, except for her tracksuit bottoms pulled down to her mid-thigh.

She was "somewhat disoriented" and her legs looked like they had atrophied, the sheriff said. "She said that she didn't need any help, that she was OK and did not want to leave."

She was taken to a hospital in Wichita, about 150 miles away, where she is in a fair condition.

However, Miss Babcock has since refused to speak to police. Authorities said they did not know if she was mentally or physically disabled.

James Ellis, a neighbour, said Miss Babcock's mother died at a young age and she was apparently mostly kept inside the house where she grew up.

"It really doesn't surprise me," Mr Ellis said of the bathroom incident. "What surprises me is somebody wasn't called in a bit earlier."

The Telegraph, UK.

Casual games make a serious impact

For many years video games have been all about the hard core player.

These people, typically young men, have the time, budget and patience to spend hours crafting an empire or honing their skills on a first-person shooter. But that focus is shifting dramatically thanks to a very simple game that involves creating rows of matching jewels.

When it first appeared in 2001 the game was known as Diamond Mine but is best known as Bejeweled.

Since then creator Popcap has sold more than 10 million copies of Bejeweled and the game has been downloaded more than 150 million times.

Name calling

In technical terms Bejeweled is known as a casual game because it can be played for a few minutes rather than for the hours that games such as World of Warcraft demand.

James Gwertzman, director of business development at Popcap, said just because Bejeweled and its ilk can be played for a few minutes at a time doesn't mean they are without merit.

"There's nothing necessarily casual about playing them," he said. Popcap estimates that players rack up 600 million hours playing its online games every year.

Importantly for the gaming industry the people raking up these hours are not traditional gamers.

"Popcap players are 65% female and 70% of them are over the age of 30," said Mr Gwertzman. "It's a demographic that's been completely and utterly written off as gamers."

The stellar growth of casual games is making that much less true than it used to be.

Figures gathered by the Casual Games Association suggest the industry is growing by 20% year on year and in 2007 the market for these titles was worth $2.25bn.

That growth is fuelled by the fact that almost anyone can play them, playing a level or screen takes a short amount of time, they are on consoles, PCs, phones and dedicated gaming gadgets and are either free or very cheap to buy.

By contrast games for the hard core take time to master, soak up huge amounts of time, are only on consoles or high-end PCs and are expensive.

Rising tide

Bejeweled blazed a trail but since then games such as Maple Story, Diner Dash, Jewel Quest and Mystery Case Files have expanded what can be defined as a casual game.

Perhaps the biggest casual gaming success has been Nintendo's Wii which in 2007 became the must-have console largely due to its appeal to the young and old who were never likely to spend time with a first-person shooter.

Toby Rowland, co-founder of casual game site King.com, believes social and technological forces have conspired to bring about the rising interest in casual titles.

The number of people who have grown up with games is increasing meaning there is an ever larger pool of potential players.

More importantly though, he said, were the advances in underlying technology that have made it easier than ever to get good games to people no matter if they are playing on a phone, console or low end PC.

"Broadband penetration is one of the big drivers on the industry and the other is the advance in the quality of Flash technology itself," he said.

According to Adobe more than 98.8% of the PCs being used in mature markets can run programs written in Flash.

Flash was important for more than just making titles look good, said Mr Rowland, it also helped designers make their creations easy to play but hard to master - one of the key qualities a game needs to maintain interest and keep people coming back.

Get the mechanics right and people will return time and again in an attempt to master a game. On King.com, said Mr Rowland, the average casual player stays for 40 minutes - a stickiness many other websites would envy.

The latest trend in casual gaming online follows some of the broader movements seen online. Increasing numbers of casual games allow players to take on others, compare scores and strategies and introduce a community element to the experience.

Others, based around sites such as Kongregate, allow amateur game makers to upload their own creation for others to try. The ubiquity of Flash and other easy to use coding tools has encouraged many to give it a try.

"They do not seem, on the surface, to be that hard to make, but it's a lot harder than most people think," warned Mr Gwertzman.

"There's no formula here," he said. "You cannot engineer fun."

That is something people have to discover for themselves.

BBC News

To be or not to be?

Dear 6AB1 students,

As I told you all in today's lesson, I've been unhappy with the fact that no one are bothered to visit this blog anymore. For now, I want to collect information about our way ahead. Should I continue or not? If you think I should, please give me suggestions on the type of materials I should post.

There is one important thing I want to state now. If there's no reply to this, I will simply stop updating in 3 days' time.

Regards,
Mr. Fu

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