Tata ma chance, tata ma f*ckall! A local hacker site decided to satirise the South African Lotto scam, (which has made over a billion rand that has yet to be passed on to any charities.) Did the local Lotto company behave like a decent accountable corporation and laugh and shrug it off – or did they behave like self righteous, self-important morons with too much Lotto money in their bank accounts? Read and decide for yourself at National Robbery!
You’re a prisoner in a Texas jail, with an urge to create great art. What do you do? Do you just show it to the jailers and Bubba, who’s chosen you for a wife? Or do you try and get it online and make money out of it? Silly question – try Texas Prison Art. Then you might want to see what words emerge from the whole incarceration process, at the equally odd Prison Poetry.
The US government is about to institute a new program to recruit US citizens to spy on each other, with the eventual aim of having one out of every 24 Americans quietly reporting on their fellow citizens. (A much higher statistic of police informant to public ratio than that which existed in Eastern Europe under the KGB). This project, called Tips (Terrorist Information and Prevention System) begins next month – and focuses on people who have jobs that allow them access to other peoples homes – postal workers, utility employees and so on. Go look at the new, brightly coloured but very unpleasant face of America, at the official Citizen Corps site (the TIP’s project “A national system for concerned workers to report suspicious activity.” is at www.citizencorps.gov/tips.html). Here’s another story on this upcoming project to create millions of spies at Citizen Spies and Your Neighbour Is Watching.
Then if you thought we were the only ones to have to deal with a moron army on the rampage, read this story about the tactics being used by US military recruiters, at Enlist Or Else.
Staying with the military, in these Prague Spring days before the upcoming war, which may happen as soon as next month – note how its harder and harder to tell the difference between film propaganda and military sites – put your mask on and look at the odd Hollywood-like layout of this site for Anthrax Immunisation. One last word on the whole war on terror scam – and possible upcoming nuclear exchange – for a succinct overview of the entire situation that we face, take a long hard read of The Great Charade.
Being a hardcore vegetarian data junkie has its perks, one of which is pointing out to friends in restaurants that a percentage of all milk contains pus. Sterilised and hygienic pus to be sure – but it’s still the same kind of pus that oozes from pimples and boils. In all milk. There, that and other useful bits of information that the Dairy Board won’t tell you, can be found at Not Milk. Then in a similar vein, did you know that a number of the cosmetics available on the market contain toxins that are slowly but surely poisoning you? For an eye opening story about the concept – as well as a list of some of the brands, shut your eyes and spray en-route to Cosmetic Poisons then for a follow-up site with info to confirm the claims, try Not Too Pretty.
Who woulda thunk it? Remember the old days of eight track cassette tapes? Remember punk? Well, did you know that various punk bands released songs on eight track? Me neither – go stare in amazement at the photo’s at Punk 8-tracks.
Then staying with music – for those of you still dumb enough to spend money on buying music – (instead of just downloading Kazaa Lite: www.kazaalite.com ) – test your music cred at 100 Albums You Should Remove From Your Collection Immediately.
Remember those scary bits of old black and white footage from the 1940’s and 1950’s showing soldiers wincing as nukes exploded in the distance? Well you may not have known this, but here and there, the commanders of some of these guinea pig squadrons, created fake little joke ‘Nuclear Test Certificates’ and handed them out to the troops. Take a look at a curious bit of history that never made it into the history books, at Children of Atomic Veterans.
You’ve seen the crap on TV called ‘infomercials’ – featuring thoroughly discredited journalists and actors trying to unload gimmicky plastic products at you, ranging from insurance policies to cooking utensils. If you’ve ever wondered how much mindless rubbish like this costs to make, go browse an overseas site which actually has some prices, Infomercial Services.
Just to show that the Internet is a valuable and useful tool to help in modern living, go listen in to the Latest Weekly News in Latin!. Another equally useful but far too brief site – this one by a photographer, who for reasons best known to himself, decided that giving his photographic subjects drugs and then taking pictures, was a really good idea. High Subjects.
Until the next time, if the Lotto lawyers and Death Squads don’t get me.
Websurfing Supplied by Megawan: http://www.megawan.net/
Ian Fraser is a playwright, author, comedian, conspiracy nut, old-time radio collector and self-confessed data-junkie. Winner of numerous Vita and Amstel Awards, he’s been an Internet addict and games-fanatic since around 1995, when the Internet began to make much more sense than theatre.