What? No Vegemite???

Apparently, the US has banned the importation and sale of Vegemite. Too silly for words.

The American Taliban

With the world controlled by George Bush and cohorts, it seems that religious extremism is no longer limited to the rocky mountains of sunny Afghanistan. Equally ignorant and uninformed, the American bible belt is wielding the axe of irrational, unscientific thinking in every aspect of our lives.

Thankfully, the real brains are on our side. Richard Dawkins is one scientist who aims to set the record straight in a hurry.

This is a wake-up call to all who cherish free speech and the modern principle of church separated from state. Quite frankly, religious zealots who are prepared to ignore scientific facts in preference to untethered religious constructs scare the fucking daylights out of me. If these bible bashers get any more power, we'll be back to burning books and witch hunts in no time.

Amen.

IraqForSale

Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers is the story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war. Film by Robert Greenwald.

14B in 3D

I love 3D glasses. They're so dinky 50's and no less fascinating today. Joel Fletcher has a fab gallery of girls, cartoons, movie magic and nature...all in glorious lo-fi 3D. So grab those fold-up glasses you saved from the last MAD magazine 3D special and check it out. Or do this Google Image Search. Cool huh? Maybe it'll inspire you to create some eye-popping digital anaglyphs of your own. And no, you don't need a stereo camera to do it...Easy peasy.

Not Funny Butt

I smoke. These whimsical.cute.funny.butt.good.point Japanese smoking etiquette graphics didn't make me quit, but they did make me change my habit.

The Number's Up

It's official. More Americans have now died in Iraq than during 9/11. And that's not taking into account the 20,000 wounded Americans, or the 40,000+ dead Iraquis and countless injured. Well done George. Your daddy must be real proud of you. Also quite a sad indictment of a country that votes for these blood-thirsty rednecks.

Chinglish

Take a look at the 600 odd pics in this Flickr set and see if you can go the distance without wetting your pants.

Dodgy Network Solution

A couple of weeks ago, I wanted to buy a new domain name. So I did a search at Network Solutions, and they came back with an answer:

"The domain you requested has been parked. Through this Network Solutions Certified Offer Service, you may contact the owner and bid for the domain name. Please allow up to 10 days for the seller to reply. The cost of making an offer is US $19."

No problem. Seemed worth a bid. Paid the $19 and made an offer... waited 10 days...then an email turns up from Network Solutions:

"Offer expired. We're sorry, the Seller did not respond to your Certified Offer within the 10-day period."

And that's it...no comeback...no mention of striking the domain from their 'For Sale' listing...nothing...just "The seller didn't respond." But we'll have your 19 bucks for 'No Result' and thanks for coming.

So for all I know, the domain name will stay on their list, the next person comes along in good faith and pays $19 to make an offer on it, the seller doesn't respond again - and there goes another $19 into the Network Solutions coffers.

This is seriously wrong! When you pay for making an offer, you expect to get a reply from the seller. If the seller doesn't reply, you expect the broker to take action to remedy the situation. If the seller can't be contacted, you expect the broker to withdraw the domain name from sale so that this can't happen again.

I wonder how many other people have had the same experience? And I wonder how many people have thrown $19 at Network Solutions to bid on that same 'No Reply' domain name?

Benjamin Franklin Anyone?

"Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither."

Famous words by a famous American...Bit of a stark contrast to vote fixing, homeland gestapo techniques, blacklists, payola, illegal wiretaps, out-of-legal-jurisdiction concentration camps and generally war mongering across the planet...isn't it, George? ...End Of Suburbia is an award-winning documentary that spells out the real reasons for recent desert storms full of bulldust.

Not So Holy Land

While we're all having a fine time, Israel is systematically destroying Lebanon. These images of graffiti stenciled, shot up walls put a little ray of sunshine into a very sad subject. Spare a moment of thought for the dead, wounded and homeless children affected by this ugly greed. It started out as 'wanting to flush out Hezbollah fighters' and has since developed into a rolling campaign to knock the entire country on its ear.

Can someone explain to me why you need to knock out every major road, bridge, communications centre, power station and airport across the entire country to 'flush out pockets of terrorists'? No, that's right...it doesn't add up.

My personal prediction? Invasion of Syria by Israel in 2007, followed by US attack on Iran in 2008, from Iraq and Afghanistan. Wanna take up the bet?