There is always lots of great reading on the internet. I have stumbled across one of the most enthralling and lengthy reads I’ve had in a long time. Eric Idle was part of Monty Python (and if you don’t know who they were, then really, suicide is your only option).
Anyway, Idle last year went on a North American tour, called The Greedy Bastard Tour — and he kept a daily online diary, describing what was happening in his life and with the show as they drove around. Idle is a very, very good writer — do yourself a favour and settle in for a fascinating and well-written day-by-day account of just what it’s like touring the United States. Go read The Greedy Bastard Tour Online Diary.
And just when you thought it would be a nice, fun column with nary a whisper of politics, let me pull the rug out from beneath you. Albert Gore is rightfully the president of the US, having received more votes than George Bush in the last election. But thanks to a range of criminal machinations by Jeb Bush and others in Florida — and the manipulation of the media — the presidency was effectively stolen and democracy torn apart in the US. If you only read one “political” thing this week, take a slow, considered read through this transcript of a speech by Al Gore, the man who should have been president. Compare his eloquence and outraged detailing of the US’s horrific slide into tyranny and darkness with the mutteringly inane mumblings of Bush. Read Al Gore Speaks.
Those of you who like drugs will enjoy this site that is dedicated to one of those drugs that society doesn’t mind you using as much as possible. In fact, you name the sport and variations of this drug tend to get marketed with it — without anyone noticing that it’s a “drug”. Go speak to fellow drug addicts at The Beer Advocate.
The game of fake politics continues, with the bizarre news that a former Iraqi opposition leader with links to Britain’s MI6 and other spook organisations has been named as Iraq’s interim prime minister.
And if you thought getting the real story on Iraq was tough, spare a thought for the 45 journalists killed in Iraq over the past year in what appears to be a series of quite deliberate murders: Journalist Killings.
Those of you with long memories will recall the Israelis arrested on September 11 as they laughed and cheered while filming the burning World Trade Centre towers. And you may recall the large-scale Israeli spy ring which the Drug Enforcement Agency in the US uncovered last year — in which “art students” were trying to get inside a wide selection of federal buildings. Now Israelis feature again, this time trying to get inside a US nuclear submarine base, disguised as a “removal van company”. This caused a base shutdown and security alert, and was the second attempt in as many weeks. Read this report and this one.
Bear in mind, of course, this is a world where the Bush administration can say with a straight face that the idea of airliners being used as weapons “hadn’t been considered” — yet on the morning of September 11, the CIA was running a simulation training exercise of — you guessed it — planes crashing into buildings.
(More lapses in the official story of September 11 info can be found here.)
Alternatively, for hot air of a different kind: have you, like me, ever wondered whether or not farting through a harmonica could actually result in sound? Download the clip and find out at Fartmonica.
Then, if you have a thing for margarine, go see what it looks like to cover yourself with the stuff. Why? Just because — which is always a good enough reason for deviant behaviour: Margarine Love.
Then, what’s better than water? Correct — water laced with nicotine, designed to be an aid in quitting smoking. So what happens when someone who is not a smoker gives this liquid a try? Find out at Nicowater Experiment.
There’s always some swine who steals your lighter, isn’t there? Assuming of course (he pauses to cough) that you’re a smoker and thus have the instant means of making fire. A couple of cheerful geeks decided to put tracking devices into lighters and observe and track the movements of the lighters. Go stare at the pix at Cigarette Lighter Tracking.
Just to show that reality is far more complicated than the Seff Effriken worldview would have you believe, take a look at this wildly venomous and funny web blog by a gay guy who clearly hates … gay guys. Spend some time and do some reading at the infinitely bitchy Rubbish Gays.
For you folks out there who consider The Lord of the Rings to be some kind of sacred thing, take a look at the ultimate insult — yes, folks, it’s Gollum Raps!.
Or if you’re tired of watching local television news being provided by either that guy with the turkey neck and bad wig or the bright-eyed-crone-to-be on e.tv, why not watch a nice inoffensive three-dimensional virtual babe as she provides your daily news at Ananova.
I’ve noticed that science seems to be fighting with itself, for some odd reason. Is Earth getting darker or brighter? Here’s ABC News reporting scientists say it’s getting brighter.
And here’s the Independent, reporting scientists say it’s getting darker.
Hoax or not, there are now hundreds of thousands of curious people online who are watching the ongoing story of the infamous “Aussie bloke” with apparent info on some kind of imminent cataclysm that’s being kept secret by the world government. I’m repeating the link because “imminent extinction” rumours are always fun. Read the overview.
Then dive right into a condensed version of the posts causing all the fuss.
Regarding the truth of the matter, one of the indicators of something big coming is the way the stock markets and money supply fluctuate. Personally, I get a little nervous when reading info like that at the following Financial Markets Forecast site: “What awful calamity do they see? Something is up. This is unprecedented, unheard-of pre-catastrophe M-3 expansion. M-3 is up an amount that we’ve never seen before without a crisis — $155-billion over the past four weeks, a $2-trillion annualised pace, a 22,2% annualised rate of growth! There must be a crisis of historic proportions coming…” Go read and consider Financial Market Forecast and Analysis.
Something does appear to be happening in the Earth’s crust — and a little too close to home, for my liking. The Democratic Republic of Congo now has active volcanic eruptions under way (and note the amount of volcanic activity around the world recently). Go to Volcano Live.
Did you like the movie Fight Club? Do you like Calvin and Hobbes? These might appear to be unrelated questions — but as this next odd site shows, maybe they’re not. Go do some reading through I Am Jack’s Younger Self.
Finally, remember that rather creepy picture I pointed you towards a few weeks back — of the American GI standing with some Iraqi kids holding a sign? Well, it had to happen — the net tends to exploit those kind of bizarre pictures. Take a look at this website that allows you to put your own info on to the cardboard sign, and then save the picture. Go to Make Your Own Creepy GI with Kids Sign.
Until the next time, if TV news presenters don’t get me.