Ian Fraser

If you’re a regular local Internet user then you will know just how complicated and slow the whole business of getting online is. Sentech’s new MyWireless service aims to change all that. MyWireless is a new broadband Internet access service, now available from Sentech (www. sentech.co.za).

Fancy going up against a chicken, in a game of noughts and crosses, for $10 000? Well, you’d have to get to Las Vegas to do it in person – but here’s an article detailing how a bunch of specially trained chickens are – even as we speak – milking the gamblers at a casino right now.

He’s the ultimate dead parrot customer and Minister for Silly Walks, and known throughout the parts of the world that understand things like ‘comedy’. However, he’s not John Cleese, he’s a celebrity impersonator. Discover what life is like for someone Being John Cleese.

It seems to be only this country which treats its deaf citizens as if they’re morons. Watch local ‘designed for the deaf’ TV, and notice that the content seems laughably juvenile and pretty offensive to any deaf person with an IQ — because being deaf doesn’t mean ‘stupid’.

You know that feeling when looking for a telephone number and a bizarre name happens to catch your eye – well, you’re not alone. Have a look at a collection of names at The Funny Name Server. In keeping with this week’s ‘silly season’ theme, rejoice at the oodles of info to be gleaned from Useless Knowledge.

Okay let’s start off by looking at the animal known as Robert Mugabe. Just to demonstrate that it’s not only white people who can be deranged morons; take a read of this supposedly ‘African’ viewpoint of this Nazi neighbor our President likes holding hands with – at Mugabe The Man of 2001.

I didn’t realize that Zimbabwe’s new media laws prohibit anyone from making rude comments about Mugabe, and it doesn’t matter whether they’re inside the borders of that country or not. It’s now illegal to say anything rude about Mugabe, anywhere.

I think it was Churchill who when asked what constituted Naval traditions replied ‘Rum, Sodomy and the Lash’. So with that in mind, why not take a look at some of the happy songs all those sailors used to sing onboard their ships, at Work Songs of the Sea.

Okay, so you’re rich, bored, and you haven’t discovered that sending me money is a great way of making me happy. So what can you do? Before you try changing channels on your TV, why not browse through the options to be found at <i>101 Things To Do Before You Die</i>.

Local TV has decided to screen a BBC ‘conspiracies’ series, finally introducing the idea that the world is a lot sneakier than previously thought. So here’s a few more conspiracy things. Starting way back in time, try this interesting page from the 1960’s, of a journalist’s escape after Sharpeville.

There aren’t many webcams running locally, thanks to the expensive and lousy bandwidth most users have. For a fascinating glimpse and links into the world of webcams online, as well as the growing increase of kids with webcams trading for goodies try this excellent article from Salon.

If you’re new to computers, then you’ll have discovered the wall of jargon before. But don’t get embarrassed: just try these next sites where you can look up whatever word you want, and find out exactly what it means. Try the Geek-Speak IT Glossary; then File Formats.

The Internet is a useful tool, providing people worldwide with a way to find information they otherwise couldn’t get their hands on, as well as letting them do things that normally they wouldn’t. So let’s look at some useful and silly sites — eg you could always Send Someone Some Doggy Doo!

You’ve heard of the various sex scandals involving the Catholic Church, which have strangely been allowed to receive mass media coverage over the last few months – despite this having been common knowledge for decades.

Conspiracies, weirdness and cutting edge science (and stupidity) this week. Let’s start arbitrarily with WW2, or rather, just afterwards. Did you know that the US allegedly killed some 1,2-million German POW’s after WW2 ended? Follow the links and decide for yourself at German POW Slaughter.

So you’ve worked out that everyone on the road except you is a moron. But there’s still the chance that you could fall victim to an attack of road rage at some point. Take a look at a site designed to provide a useful outlet to drivers. Reach for the gun as you step out of the car en route to Above Average Driver.

If you’ve watched some of the I-Max films and wondered how easily they got made, given the huge cameras required, then take a look at the trials and tribulations of a team making an I-Max movie on the Galápagos Islands. Run for the nearest shopping mall or be ready to meet Nature doing its own thing.

The UN Summit is getting closer, and China is fighting to prevent the Dalai Lama’s party from being allowed to attend. Not content with invading Tibet and continuing a policy of systematic rape, terrorism and occupation of that country China thinks it can make friends with our Government.

Need something to make you go ‘Awwwww cute’? Take a slow browse through the available pictures at the simple, but effective, Random Cute Kitten Picture Generator. Of course, if you’d rather see kittens blown up by landmines, (and who wouldn’t, let’s be honest) try Kitty Mine!

One of the joys of being alive is being able to be thoroughly disenchanted and cynical over and over again – and now there’s online support for this growing positive antisocial attitude. Take a stroll through over 700 reasons to be cynical, and read the goodies on offer at The Cynics Dictionary.

If – like me – you feel that Leon Shuster is doing to film, what the rest of us to do toilet paper, then be of good cheer, because there’re a couple of really good films heading our way, both of which deserve some advance info and background.

Okay, I’ve decided that a number of local politicians need a serious beating, and I’m the person to help organise this. How, you ask? Well, browsing on E-Bay, I found an auction offer for a "real Ass-Kicking" (by a 6 ft, 250 pound American).

Just to show that journalism isn’t necessarily the last refuge of ethics and morality – for some quick and alarming reading – take a look at a collection of the ‘stinkiest media moments of 2001’ (and some of them are pretty darn stinky and frightening to boot) at Media Beat.

Feel like walking around London, but our Mickey Mouse money prevents it? Why not do it online (I know it’s not the same, sorry) at London Streets. If, like me, you worry about one day being attacked by hordes of the living dead, there’s a company that offers a guaranteed zombie early-warning system.

They’re small, full of fluid, and need to be constantly fiddled with and looked after in order for them to work. No, I’m not talking about the collective brains of the ANC’s propaganda tool known as the ‘official press corps’, but rather the ongoing maintenance required to run a Zippo.

So you’ve had a wild and thoroughly debauched festive season, and now the dust has settled, you realise you shouldn’t have sold your soul to that nice gentleman one night. Luckily you can buy it back, go to the Soul Repurchase Program. Instead of doing deals with demons, just Learn To Dance properly.

So it’s not likely, but one day you might find yourself facing a shark, or be trapped in quicksand, or stuck in an aeroplane with a pilot who’s just died at the controls. Luckily for you, you took the time out to read through the expert solutions to these and other life-threatening situations.

Those of you who follow the news will have noticed that a European government resigned en masse recently, after being implicated in accidentally helping a massacre take place. Take a look at an online examination of what happened on The Road to Srebenica.

So you thought your computer was really powerful. How about a computer the size of two basketball courts, powered by over 8 000 microprocessors and using around 6 trillion bytes of memory? For info on the number one fastest computer in the world shuffle jealously towards The Top 500 Most Powerful Computers.

Some of you will have noticed the recent blowing up of a stranded whale on the coast — ‘whale put to sleep using dynamite’ sounds like the start of a rather tasteless comedy sketch routine — but anyway. Point being, instead of exploding the whale, there was another alternative.

What could be cooler than having dolls for the kids to play with? Why, having cute little Osama bin Laden dolls of course! Each doll is packed with a semi-automatic rifle, and a grenade. It’s real and it’s happy tasteless capitalism in action folks. Go stare at ‘Dirty Terrorist’ Dolls.