Lazy Guide to Net Culture: Sex laws and fast pics

Published on Monday 26 June 2006 16:39

You learn something new every day:

In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her adulterous husband, but may only do so with her bare hands.

I don’t know if it's true but I'm not going to try it. Another rule I'm not going to test is this one:

In Minnesota, it is illegal for any man to have intercourse with a live fish.

I'm particularly tickled that the legislation specifies a "live" fish. Have I lost my moral compass here? Is consorting in a biblical sense with dead sea creatures now acceptable? I certainly didn't get that memo.

Now you may be relieved that I don't actually have facts like this at my fingertips, as it were. I have become suddenly informed about such sordid matters thanks to DribbleGlass.com's remarkably extensive "strange sex laws" archive. On the site you may also find yourself diverted by a gallery of boobies. (By this I mean images of avians of the genus sula, naturally.)

Slightly more unusual views of nature can be found at LiquidSculpture.com, where artist Martin Waugh has turned water drops into delicate and beautiful pieces of art. He takes the pictures with a high-speed camera to freeze the tiny moments of the drops' existence.

Martin's creative uses of high-speed photography make it possible to capture the smooth and effortless curves of liquid, eliciting a childlike sense of fun and whimsy ... By varying the size, speed and position of drops, as well as the color, viscosity, and surface tension, Martin creates a panorama of color, movement and intrigue.

I have to confess I didn't see any images featuring a cloak and dagger so I don’t know where the intrigue comes from but the pictures - such as this one - are more eloquent than the arty-farty blurb.

More photo wizardy can be found in the gallery at Photron.com. The company sells high-speed cameras and the gallery gives it an opportunity to show off its wares. Instead of static images it contains slow motion films.

Fascinating though "propeller cavitation" is, the best is definitely a water-balloon being punctured by a knife. The knife slowly drops into view and pierces the balloon. At this point, you would expect a "pop" and a "splash". Instead, because the event has been slowed down so much thanks to the 4,000 frames per second it was filmed at, the skin peels back leaving a completely intact balloon of water. The knife then continues to sink through this - and it maintains its form as the metal bores a hole in it.

I always like to sneak a wee bit of politics into the column - primarily because I was once told not to - so why not listen to The Internationale in Hebrew, courtesy of the Russian Anthems Museum?