Click here to download:

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These ergonomically-designed Factor shelves by Jonathan Olivares make it easy to reach your books wherever they are on the shelves.

The end of May seems so long away...

Very clever - make sure you watch the whole thing.

(Thanks Stefan Keydel)

 
I was once in a sushi bar in Hollywood, a tiny little place on the Sunset Strip across from the Roxy Theater and at one point the topic topic of conversation turned to a particular Japanese delicacy, one rarely encountered, but served in this very same restaurant at certain times of the year, Fugu shirako or Blowfish semen sashimi. I was fairly blase about trying it, but the table consensus was “This stuff is super expensive. We’re on an expense account. They’ve got it. Let’s go for it” and so we did. I don’t remember that much more about it, but I do recall thinking it was pretty good at the time, I must say.

From the description of Natural Harvest on Lulu.com

Semen is not only nutritious, but it also has a wonderful texture and amazing cooking properties. Like fine wine and cheeses, the taste of semen is complex and dynamic. Semen is inexpensive to produce and is commonly available in many, if not most, homes and restaurants. Despite all of these positive qualities, semen remains neglected as a food.

This book hopes to change that.

Once you overcome any initial hesitation, you will be surprised to learn how wonderful semen is in the kitchen. Semen is an exciting ingredient that can give every dish you make an interesting twist. If you are a passionate cook and are not afraid to experiment with new ingredients - you will love this cook book!

Some of the reviews are priceless. And did you hear about the chef in NYC who made cheese out of his wife’s breast milk?

Waste not, want not. Isn’t that what they said during the last Great Depression?

Human rights court rules that censorship of 1907 erotic novel The Eleven Thousand Rods 'hindered public access to a work belonging to the European literary heritage'

• Alison Flood
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 17 February 2010 14.54 GMT
• Article history

'More likely to extinguish sexual desire' ... Guillaume Apollinaire. Photograph: APIC/Getty

Turkey violated freedom of expression laws and prevented access to Europe's literary heritage when it banned Guillaume Apollinaire's classic French erotic novel The Eleven Thousand Rods, the European court of human rights ruled yesterday.

The court found in favour of Turkish publisher Rahmi Akdaş, who complained to it after he was convicted under the Turkish criminal code "for publishing obscene or immoral material liable to arouse and exploit sexual desire among the population" when he released a Turkish translation of Les onze milles verges (The Eleven Thousand Rods) in 1999. The book details the erotic adventures of the debauched Romanian aristocrat Mony Vibescu and his fellow sybarites, containing graphic scenes of intercourse, sadomasochism, paedophilia, necrophilia, coprophilia and vampirism. It was banned in France until 1970 and Apollinaire himself never claimed authorship, fearing prosecution under France's public obscenity statute.

Akdaş had argued that the book was fiction, that it used techniques such as exaggeration and metaphor, that it contained no violent overtones "and that the humorous and exaggerated nature of the text was more likely to extinguish sexual desire", but the Turkish courts ordered the destruction of all copies of the book and fined the publisher approximately €1,100. An appeals court later quashed the destruction order, but upheld the conviction.

Akdaş subsequently complained to the European Court of Human Rights, saying the ruling violated Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Strasbourg-based court ruled yesterday that although states can interfere to protect morals, Turkey was wrong to do so in this case as more than a century had elapsed since Les onze milles verges was published. The erotic novel had also been released in many different languages in a number of countries, and had gained literary acclaim, it said, so its ban and Akdaş's conviction "hindered public access to a work belonging to the European literary heritage".

"The heavy fine imposed and the seizure of copies of the book had not been proportionate to the legitimate aim pursued and had thus not been necessary in a democratic society, within the meaning of Article 10. There had therefore been a violation of that provision," the ruling said.