Been watching the diamond adverts appear on TV ahead of Christmas, and laughing hysterically at the desperate TV adverts from various diamond sellers. I know it’s hard to understand, but there are actually people so dumb as to believe the advertising campaigns which say that a small piece of squeezed carbon somehow represents ‘love’ and ‘romance’. To discover reasons why buying a diamond is probably the clearest waste of money short of just throwing it out the car window on the highway, read the online book The Diamond Invention.
When you think of De Beers, does Al-Qaeda spring to mind? Read this news report on a recent meeting between diamond distributors trying to get away from the fact that their product finances a range of deadly wars. (I enjoyed the De Beers spokesman’s cautious phrasing when saying “There is no direct link found between al-Qaeda and the diamond business”) Oh really? And what about ‘indirect’ links, hmm? Read Diamond Industry Hopes For Turnaround.
And if you’re seriously thinking of buying a diamond, and putting yourself into debt because of it, read this fascinating three-part overview article looking at the ridiculous con game of the diamond industry – called Have You Ever Tried To Sell A Diamond?.
Then, oddly related, and adults only please, read this interesting online blog written by a very cheerful and articulate London Call Girl. For a huge quantity of blog all coming out of New York City, go pick the suburb that you’d like to find bloggers for, and settle in for a serious quantity of reading (via 2853 assorted writers) at New York City Bloggers.
It hasn’t made much media coverage in the West, but it looks like the poo is about to hit the fan again. Read this report via Pravda on Warplanes Spotted Flying Over Scotland.
The Orwellian hijacking of language continues, as the fake ‘War on Terror’ allows the world’s last superpower to expand across the globe, settling old scores. As the death tolls mount, those in power are quietly tweaking the names of things in order to hide the reality from the public. For instance, once upon a time, when dead soldiers were returned home for burial, the canvas bags containing the corpses used to be called body bags. /Now they’re called Transfer Tubes.
Quick, get the kids sitting at the computer because this next page is something especially for them! (I’m kidding) The folks at this next site can’t spell too well, but from the looks of the photographs, they have the knowledge to effectively help you Build Your Own Landmine.
Fun stats on South Africa: We have 40 million citizens but only 1.6 million taxpayers, and 65% of all tax comes from just 400 000 people. Call me a silly democrat but wouldn’t it make for a fast exit from government by the fairly arrogant and oddly obese Stalinists in power if only taxpayers could vote?
And our President doesn’t mind the genocide in Zimbabwe, or the fact that our food and electricity is keeping Mugabe afloat. Read this view from overseas on what our President is doing for Africa’s image: Instability Spreads As Thousands Flee Zimbabwe.
Then to our North, Namibia slides towards doing exactly the same thing as Zimbabwe, with very little comment in local media. Read this news report Namibia Prepares To Steal White Land and Farms.
Of course, if you believe the marketing hype of Africa as being some sort of Lion King-like fantasy land, read the fun-filled report ‘80% of Ugandan Army Made Up of Children’.
Gear change. It’s a little out there in more ways than one, but you’ll recall my coverage of the possibility of Jupiter igniting, thanks to Nasa’s very odd decision to crash a perfectly working nuclear-powered spacecraft into that planet’s atmosphere. Well, stargazers will know that a strange new black spot has appeared on Jupiter, with no one connecting the crash a month before with it. Go read the possible origins of this gigantic new marking at NASA Nuked Jupiter.
Something cool for art fans. Go take a look at the stunning online exhibit of Michaelangelo’s work, rendered in full 3D, at the exhibit known as The Digital Michelangelo Project.
Then I’m sure that you’ve also wondered where to find info online about the 17th century Dutch painter Vermeer. Well, worry no longer. For a large collection of his work (and for you plebs, yes there’s some amazing wallpaper to be found) go start downloading goodies at Essential Vermeer.
Self help time. Something that’s mainly for kids and teens, but it’s a pretty cool non-patronising gateway towards help on things ranging from alcoholism, bulimia, abuse, drugs and more. If you know a trainee human (ie: a kid) with problems, give them a nudge towards Face The Issue.
Well, part three of the Matrix trilogy is finally available on DVD at fleamarkets across the country — sorry, I meant to say ‘opened in cinema’s across the country’. Heh heh heh. As a fun companion piece to the movie, take the red pill and fall into the vegetarian parody known as The Meatrix.
Alternatively, dive into the bitchy jabbering newsletter which (be warned) features spoilers for what happens in Matrix Revolutions, among other things, at Pop Bitch.(By the way, as a DVD, movie and digital fan, it’s really funny watching the media monopolies locally trying to paint digital copies as ‘low quality’. Digital is digital — the data is either ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.)
Lord of the Rings fans, please note: You’ll have seen the increasingly desperate attempts to sell copies of The Two Towers over the last few months. Why ‘desperate’? Well the extended (longer) version of The Two Towers is being released on the 18 of November, which means you may as well throw out your current version, as it doesn’t have the extra 40 minutes of story that the new release does. The local sellers know this but still kept selling the outdated version. Punish them and go to Amazon and order it direct. Total cost via Amazon? Just $25.99 or R181.93. Thats the price for an official, legal 4-DVD box set — just R181. Wanna bet that local profiteering companies will be selling it for 4 or more times the price? Go read the info and place orders at Amazon The Two Towers Extended Version.
And if you don’t have a genuine multizone player, buy it from the UK (and thus our compatible with our zone) at just £23 — Amazon UK. If you want to get an idea of just how much you’re being ripped off locally, under the guise of ‘not supporting piracy’, go check prices on DVDs at DVD Price Search.
Finally, I don’t believe that you should ever take the media’s word on anything, and it’s always better to grab the full transcripts of public hearings and read them yourself, as opposed to relying on short reports from dangerously biased people like me. So, go grab the complete transcripts of the various Special Hearings held by the government into a range of things, from the Helderberg Crash, through to the Chemical and Biological Warfare Programs. Every mumbled word and fumbling sentences and evasion is available to be downloaded, read and kept as a valuable piece of history from Special Hearings Transcripts.
(If any readers know of any other transcript or government document archives online, drop me a line — I always feel that the government are the last people to be trusted to keep records of themselves…)
Until the next time, if De Beers and DVD-seller hit squads don’t get me.