Tourism futurologist Ian Yeoman, from New Zealand’s University of Wellington, gave an preview of what the world could be like in 2050, shaped by global warming, an older population, food, water and jet fuel supply problems and technological advances.

Dr Yeoman said the future may see a more controlled society with a return to mass tourism spawning a range of new indoor tourism products. Indoor artificial ski centres, circuses, zoos, golf courses and recreated landscapes, as well as giant cruise ships, could be among the new attractions.

As costs for basics such as electricity and food increased, tourism operators could turn to robots as cheap labour, Dr Yeoman said. “Robotics will become important, because you’re going to have labour shortages in the future. “You’ll have some sort of interaction in terms of robots doing certain types of mundane activities,” he said.

Even robot “prostitutes” that would not pass on diseases such as HIV could make an appearance”

Dr Yeoman said technology would also revolutionise hotel bedrooms, with beds that sensed a guest’s comfort needs and chemical wallpaper that could change colour to suit a guest’s mood.

Source

Click here for the gallery
Done with the pics? Click here for the video

The burglary happened early Sunday morning at Taboo. Police have yet to make an arrest.

This is the store’s second burglary in four years.

15 DVD books were stolen from a locked cabinet which contained a stack of roughly four thousand DVD cases. The suspect was able to bypass the alarm and motion sensors and steal the business’s computer operating system and stereo.

Source

Screenshots and video link: The Nip Slip

A sex shop owner in Townsville in north Queensland, Colin Edwards, has been working on the creation of the party for almost a year. Mr Edwards, hopes the new party will provide voters with a viable alternative.

“State and national party presidents are actually quite fearful at the moment about the fact that the Australian Sex Party in its first six months of operation had just under 3,000 members and we haven’t even launched in New South Wales yet,” he said.

Mr Edwards says he may run as a Senate candidate for the Sex Party. “For a long time Australians have had to put up with the moral right, the religious belt, those people that want to dictate their morals to Australians and bash us over the heads with them and they’ve got away with this for far too long,” he said.

Political scientist Professor Geoff Cockfield (ha!) says it is hard to know exactly what the party stands for. He dismisses claims by the party it will be a force in Australian politics.

Professor Cockfield says the party is based on the industry lobby group Eros and has little substance beyond that. “It comes from an industry lobby group – there is particular commercial orientation that would be going on here and I would imagine that a lot of the lobbying would be around creating the conditions that would allow the adult particularly film industry to flourish.”

Source

John Moyer, was sentenced to 180 days of probation, 50 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine. He also must undergo a mental health evaluation and write a letter of apology to the victim.

After the verdict, Moyer continued to maintain his innocence in court. “I’m not guilty,” Moyer told the judge. “I haven’t, as the prosecution says, molested or grabbed — maybe unintentionally touched, but that’s as far as it went.”

Moyer was charged with misdemeanor battery in June after being accused of touching the woman’s chest and buttocks in the Toontown area of the Magic Kingdom.

“If he did it on accident, he would have said, ‘Oh Minnie, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to touch you there,’ ” the victim said.

Prosecutors said during the trial that photographs show the Disney cast member pushing Moyer’s hands away from her after he touched her. “It doesn’t matter she was grabbed. She’s just a mouse,” prosecutor David Bear said, arguing against the defense. “It’s not just a mouse. It’s a person.”

Source