People taking to the streets and standing up for their right to vote, now that's a sign.

It's a sign of a country that has seen it's fair share of oppression, while claiming to have fair elections, that is ready for change. Now it's time to put words into action and let the people have their say.

Of course, even if the reformist Mousavi would get into office, no one has any illusions that there would be a new dawn with a country freed from the clutches of a supreme leader. But it might be a first step in the right direction. At least the recount of the disputed votes gives a glimmer of hope that something might change.

Another four years of Ahmadinejad certainly won't make the country or the world any better off.

It's been a while since I've written anything in this blog ... oh dear this sounds like such a standard intro line, but since I don't share my daily life here (there's enough of that elsewhere) I only throw in snippets of ideas here and there.

That's not to say that nothing has been happening that could be of interest, oh there has, but the internet already contains too much information about my personal life. I do wonder if that will ever come back and haunt me.

Probably in the form of embarassing pictures when I apply for some really important job. Or maybe even this blog? I better not get into politics ...

So here's a random selection of things that caught my attention lately:

• Emotional Intelligence Aids Sex - so basically as long as ladies can imagine that it's actually Brad Pitt and not Bob the builder they're sleeping with, they stand a greater chance of reaching orgasm? No news there ...

• The Spotify Mystery - Spotify is a free music streaming service,which lets you listen to any music you choose ... for free.

  It's really that simple.

  In the age of rampant music piracy and cheap downloads, there's almost an inherent expectation that music should be free. Here it really is. But how the hell is that profitable? It isn't ...

And here's more funny random stuff:

• I'm on a boat!


• Just the most awesome beatboxing ever!


• Weird, weird, weird ... but funny, the Weng Weng Rap.

Shepperding has moved into the 21st century:

Your sexual orientation is not a choice.

Nature made people the way they are and thankfully the society you and I live in has evolved enough to recognise that that's ok. There's nothing wrong with being homosexual.

Yet, a few religions would like us to believe that based on their anciently, outdated views, which in turn are based on books that have been rewritten and translated so many times that no one actually quite knows what was in them in the first place, homosexuality is not only wrong in the eyes of some divine higher being, but also that it is something that can be cured.

The implication is of course that it is a disease that can be managed like a cold or rash.

That's nonsense!

Yet, even in England some therapists admit that upon a patient's request they would attempt to change a patient's sexual orientation (4%). Another 17% admit that they have tried to help patients "curb their homosexual feelings".

That is shocking news!

It is understandable that therapists want to try to help patients that come seeking it. However, it is also their duty to stay clear of therapies that can actually be harmful.

Therapist should be helping gay people that are struggling to come terms with their sexual orientation and make them see that they are not wrong, strange or ill, just different from the norm. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Previoulsy people were locked up and given electro shock therapy because they were thought to be haunted by the devil, when in fact they were epileptic. Today this seems outrageous.

Trying to "cure" homosexuality is just as outrageous.

Jason Mraz is one of the few artists that I can listen to all the time, almost without break. His music is deep, uplifting and just grabs you ...

When I heard that he was playing in Paris, I was trying get tickets, but alas they were completely sold out (not surprised there!)

But then my friend Marc who knows people who know people calls me on Monday afternoon saying

"Dude, please tell me you're in Paris"

"Err, no, not yet ... oh no, you have Jason Mraz tickets"

"Hell, yeah, TWO!"

"OK, OK ... I'll pack my bag and I'm on the next Eurostar!"

Jason was amazing as usual, but I loved this gig even more than the one Royal Alber Hall because there was a smaller band, he played more accoustic songs and the accoustics of the Grand Rex were a lot better than RAH.

Unfortunately he didn't play one of my favourite tracks, "You and I Both", but still the gig was AMAZING!!!

Here are some of the highlights:

To men it's a mystery.

Even to women it's a mystery!

Countless music, poems and novels have been written about it and still, no one's quite sure about it:

What turns on women? What fuels their desires?

Any woman reading this now will throw up her arms in the air and exclaim in shock

"But no, I DO know what I want! I want this, this and this ..."

But if you asked two ladies who have just thrown up their arms to compare what they want, they'd probably be astonished about the gaping differences.

And that's exactly the issue! Different women want different things and what turns on one woman, has no effect or might even be a turn off for another.

Why's that?

Nobody quite knows, but they sure as hell are trying to find out!

Scientits are now actually doing studies where they compare subjective and objective arousal (yes, there's ways of measuring objective arousal in women!) and with women there are interesting results (quelle surprise!).

Women are actually turned on by a much wider variety of stimuli than men.

Gentlemen, the good news is that a lot of women are turned on by other women (even though they don't admit it).

The bad news is that there's no sure way that will work on every woman.

What's very well documented is that it's far more of a mental thing for women than for men. But that's good news too because it explains why very attractive women often go for less attractive men (and it's not just the ones with mountains of cash).

Another interesting fact they found is that in desire being a mental thing for women, one key aspect creating arousal is "being desired". Again, in one way no real surprises there. Women like to be found pretty! But that it's a turn on for them? Now that's news!

One resulting theory therefore is that the reason why women's sex drive in steady long term relationships deteriorates over time is that they don't feel as desired compared to when their partners were courting them.

This, of course, is in stark contrast to the well known courting technique of reverse psychology, whereby the less you're interested in your object of desire, the more she will try to get your attention. I suppose the ultimate aim is to make you desire her, although she doesn't have to know that you did right from the start.

Still, so far they've only been scratching the surface of what's lurking in this deep ocean of unexplained female desire and scientists concede that they might never find out all of it.

Why?

Because women are just too complicated!

And that's why we love them ...

That Saudi Arabia is a country of double standards based on ridiculous religious laws that rob women of basic rights is a widely known fact.

So women in Saudi Arabia are generally not allowed to leave the house without their husbands or an equivalent male chaperone because of the strict, religious moral code governing the interaction between men and women, especially unmarried women.

One would think that is in order to avoid any lewd behaviour that could lead to, oh my god, two people just falling in love or following their natural urges.

Of course women are generally not allowed to work because they belong in the home (according to Muslim clerics). However women still shop. And as any other woman they shop for underwear.

Of course a male dominated society might not be aware of this, but underwear shopping for women is a slightly different affair for women than for men.

Men discover their size (adjust it up with time) and choose the underwear type they prefer and that's pretty much it. They can shop blindly or even have other people do it for them. They don't really care.

Women have it harder of course. The look is very important and let's not even go into sizing. Every woman seems to have a unique body shape that only one of 1492654 brands caters for.

Ergo this requires a lot of discussion with the sales person to find out which brand that is, not to mention how the product actually looks.

Yet, in Saudi Arabia, because women are not allowed to work that easily, they have to contend with discussing their lingerie needs with a man.

So, unmarried women are generally not allowed to be in the same room with male strangers, but it's OK for them, under supervision of a male relative, to discuss their bra sizes and knickers?

Once again, I'd say that works out nicely for male sales people, although to be fair they have to be careful too so their job doesn't land them in jail for lewd talk with a woman.

It's a strange, strange world out there, but what do you expect from a country that forbids Valentine's gifts and roses?

A while ago some friends and I were talking about movie cliches with friends.

Like isn't it funny that women always cover their boobs when they sit up in bed next to their lover / husband?

Here's an exhaustive list of others:

When a girl is in a house all by herself in a horror movie, it is always raining or thunder and lightning outside.

In all junior highs, the popular girls have big boobs, while the geeky girls are flat-chested.

In movies when a character is brushing his/her teeth, they never get toothpaste on their mouth or rinse out their toothbrush when through cleaning their teeth.

Anybody eating chinese food always eats it out of the box with chopsticks.

If you try to get your ex partner back by going out with someone else in order to make your ex jealous, you will succeed but by the time you have achieved what you set out to do you will have fallen for the other person.

A good guy will never, ever, shoot a bad guy in the kneecap, even if it would be incredibly helpful to him.

In any musical, no matter how tough the gang and/or bad guy, they/he can always belt out a heartfelt melody in a deep and lilting baritone voice.

A woman´s shoes always make high heel clacking sounds, regardless which shoe type she wears. She can even wear sneakers...

Whenever at a bar or dance with loud music cranked up on high, the couple the audience sees talking have perfectly audible voices and can talk as though there is no music.

In most 80's action flicks bussiness men and security guards look like Huey Lewis or Bruce Springsteen.

The villain will always have thousands of henchmen working for him or a small army that follows him.

There is always a full moon when people goto bed. When the lights are turned off, a delayed light turns on, causing a blue cast in the room in which they could read by.

If you are going to be killed it has to be at a time when you are alone and it has to be at night and raining.

If you see something, then turn away, it wont be there the next time you look.

The antidote to any horrible, out-of-control virus can always be attained somewhere in the neighborhood of the other side of the world often from an exotic plant. Somehow these plants can always be reproduced to cure the epidemic.

It is impossible for two colleages of the opposite sex to have a completely proffessional relationship.

If you decide to launch into song there will always be backing music available.

If the movie is set in America any Australians will talk with a British accent.

Women of action can run, do karate, kickbox, climb ladders and perform highly acrobatic movements while wearing six inch heals and either a miniskirt or a tight leather cat suit.

If a person has an occupation that involves spending most of their working hours at weddings, their love life will be a disaster or non-existent.

If the bad guy is some kind of well-dressed senior chief of a big company, he´s most likely a brutal guy who likes to kick the hero into the face or some other vital parts of the body.

If you´re getting kicked into the face, there´s no real problem with that. Regardless how hard you´ve been kicked, you will stay unconcious for the maximum of five minutes. Then, after saying "Ouch!", you´ll be able to get on your feet again and rescue the world. You don´t have broken cheek bones or jaw fractures, of course. And there´s not even the slightest hematoma to be seen.

Every city - despite of its size - has at least one old lady who drives herbelongings in some old baby buggy or shopping cart around. If the lady is a guy he always uses a shopping cart and never a baby buggy.

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