Pip's Picks

2011-04-15T04:32:00.000+10:00

The best links I can find are now located at Pip's Links, http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/pip's_links.html

2003-05-07T12:54:00.000+10:00

Dear friend

Pip's Picks was my first blog, an experiment in the technology. I've learned a lot, including the fact that Pip's Picks is superfluous to the much better and bigger blog I've now created.

From today, to make it easier for you as a visitor, and for me as well, I've decided to enter great links from the WWW at Wilson's Blogmanac, which will henceforth be one third of the Almy's trinity (!): Scriptorium, ezine and blog.

This change will make the Blogmanac a much more useful online resource, and I intend also to provide a lot more Almanac material there. Subscribers to the free daily ezine will, I believe, find it a useful adjunct to the ezine, so I shall place a link each day to the Blogmanac. I'll leave Pip's Picks up here indefinitely, as you will find in its archives hundreds of links that I believe are very worthwhile.

See you at the Blogmanac, and thanks for visiting.

carpe diem!
Pip

2003-05-07T12:11:00.000+10:00

Is Google too powerful?

"Welcome to freedom, and have a nice day!"

Iraqis have paid the blood price for a fraudulent war

More bloodlust than a real war

Bush made articulate for Tribune readers - or for Bush?

EgyptianIntellectual Speaks Of the Arab World's Despair

Ex-CIA director: USA faces 'World War IV'

The Night After, by Uri Avnery

Meet the New Butcher of Baghdad

Who is Ahmed Chalabi, Bush's choice for Baghdad?

More on Chalabi from Time Magazine

Wag the Kennel?

The Kenneth Joseph Story

Arundhati Roy on the war - great article

Did Brits steal credit for Neptune discovery?

Visitors flock to Michael Moore site

A Shameful Oscar Night

Michael Moore: My Oscar "Backlash"

US was a key supplier to Saddam

This war was not worth a child's finger

How America Lost the War, William Rivers Pitt

Hollywood exec fired for comments about USA

After Iraq: Perpetual War and a Nuclear World

The War for the White House is on

GreenStar Co-op Products that Feed Globalization

Bush's Napoleonic Complex: Telltale Signs of Empire

Why I Oppose the US War on Terror: ex-Marine Sergeant

The Toppling of the Saddam Statue

Bring Troops Home, Before They Learn to Like Killing

The culture jammers' encyclopedia

They Rule: Clever Flash site shows who rules the world

Chickenhawks: Pro-war, but didn't serve

Our BIG directory of 1,000+ peace-related URLs

More questions: An overview of the War on Terrorism

13 Myths: a brief version of our 31 myths

Operation Northwoods, 1962: US Army fake terrorism plan

Powell and CNN lied: what Osama's tape really said

How US policies betray desire for a non-compliant Iraq

Here it is, conclusive proof against Iraq

A warmonger explains war to a peacenik

Personal Voices: An Open Letter to the US President

Peace Planet: new Webring for your planet-friendly site

George Bush Sr warns George Bush Junior on Iraq

Activists in Baghdad Brace for Consequences of War

Almanac's Yellow Page: Ex-Iraqi nuke scientist reveals

51% of Americans still think Iraq did Twin Towers

The Chilling Effects of Anti-Terrorism

Oxfam's appeal to undo our damage in Iraq

"Shut Your Mouth": Assault on civil liberty (Salon mag)

Very funny mpeg: Bush and Blair

Indymedia

Peace Planet: new Webring for your planet-friendly site

Late Night Live, top discussions (with audio)

Paul Kelly's Woomera Song, free download

Bring on the spanners - why we are lucky to have Bush

The Miscalculations of Yes-Men, William Rivers Pitt

The Euro, the $, and the real reasons for the war on Iraq

Links for the February 15 antiwar rallies worldwide

Is Bush nuts? This might explain it all

Naked for peace

Foreknowledge of 9-11?

Huge gallery of photos of February 15 peace rallies

Al-Qaeda and Bush's very strange media conference

Afghanistan has been well and truly betrayed

Pentagon Threatens to Kill Independent Reporters in Iraq

Why Not Kill Dictators with Kindness?

White House spies on UN delegates; US media ducks

Is Bush hearing voices?

US vetoes in UN: allowing Hussein's chemical weapons

Boycott Brand America Campaign

Beyond War, excellent free audio program

Bush Family Values Photo Album

Norman Mailer on US and war (audio)

George Monbiot, commentator

Richard Perle: Death of the UN

US vetoes in UN: allowing Hussein's chemical weapons

Collateral Language: User's Guide to America's New War

Bush Family Values Photo Album

2003-05-07T11:56:00.000+10:00

Iraq Body Count | Comment & Analysis
HOW MANY CIVILIANS WERE KILLED BY CLUSTER BOMBS?
"The Pentagon says 1: Iraq Body Count says at least 200.
It is understandable that the US government should wish to play down the damage done to Iraqi civilians by cluster bombs. The rules of war prohibit the use of inherently indiscriminate weapons. Cluster bombs are weapons which are incapable of being used in a manner that complies with the obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants. Those who use them in civilian areas therefore open themselves to charges of war crimes.
Even so, last month’s claim by the Pentagon that only one civilian has died from cluster bombing is breathtaking in its audacious distortion of reality."

2003-05-07T00:18:00.000+10:00

Unknown News
"The news you need, whether you know it or not."

Thousands of links; not a great job of arranging them, but many gems at this site and worth the digging.

2003-05-07T00:02:00.000+10:00

Peacebus.com Home Page from 5 May 2003
"Peacebus captain, Graeme Dunstan's is returning to Nimbin to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 1973 Nimbin Aquarius Festival, an event for which he was co-director."

Gday, Graeme.

2003-05-06T21:14:00.000+10:00

BIT-101 : ActionScript Experiments and Tutorials
I'm struggling with Flash MX and one of my classmates told me to check this one out. This guy ain't struggling.

2003-05-06T19:03:00.000+10:00

WIRETAP - British Youth Oppose "Bomber" Blair
"A few months ago, if you'd told most British schoolteachers that hundreds of their students were about to start taking a big interest in international politics they’d have been delighted. Now it's all they can do to keep the kids in the classrooms."

This is my way of wishing the British Prime Minister a happy 50th birthday, something I beat him to by two months.

2003-05-06T18:33:00.000+10:00

Fortune.com - Magazine - Rummy's North Korea Connection
"What did Donald Rumsfeld know about ABB's deal to build nuclear reactors there? And why won't he talk about it?"

2003-05-06T18:26:00.000+10:00

US 'threatened NZ's Clark with severe retaliation'
"The United States threatened severe retaliation against New Zealand economic interests unless Prime Minister Helen Clark backed down over her anti-war remarks, it is claimed."

Bravo New Zealand!

2003-05-05T19:56:00.000+10:00

Unequal Protection by Thom Hartmann
"In 1886 the court reporter of the U.S. Supreme Court claimed that the court had ruled that 'corporations are persons' in the Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad case. If you read the case itself, you find that in fact the court ruled no such thing. But the reporter wrote it up in the headnotes of the case - not a legal document, but only a commentary on the case - and subsequent generations of corporate attorneys claimed it was so. Over time, it became so."

I haven't read Hartmann's book, but, based on an interview I heard with him on new Dimensions radio it looks well worth the read.

2003-05-05T18:48:00.000+10:00

The Memory Hole > MSNBC Article on Bush "Misstatement" Pulled Off Site
"While the fact that a big media outlet erased its own reporting to protect the powerful isn't a surprise (although it is still maddening), the big shock is that another tentacle of the corporate media called them on it. On 29 April 2003, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote:
Did the news media feel that it was unpatriotic to question the administration's credibility? Some strange things certainly happened. For example, in September Mr. Bush cited an International Atomic Energy Agency report that he said showed that Saddam was only months from having nuclear weapons. "I don't know what more evidence we need," he said. In fact, the report said no such thing — and for a few hours the lead story on MSNBC's Web site bore the headline "White House: Bush Misstated Report on Iraq." Then the story vanished — not just from the top of the page, but from the site."

2003-05-05T18:32:00.000+10:00

The Video that Proves 9-11 was not a Surprise to Bush
"By now you have all heard the strange story of how George Bush claimed to have seen the first plane hit the World Trade Tower on TV before going into a school room to read to some children. This is a strange story because there was no video of the first impact until a day later, when a video shot by a documentary film crew that captured the first impact surfaced."

2003-05-05T18:23:00.000+10:00

A mean-spirited America
"Today, I fear my own government more than I do terrorists".

2003-05-05T18:18:00.000+10:00

US, UK Waged War on Iraq Because of Oil, Blair Adviser Says
"London, May 1 (Bloomberg) The US and UK went to war against Iraq because of the Middle East country's oil reserves, an adviser to British Prime Minister Tony Blair said."

2003-05-05T13:17:00.000+10:00

Would the US Plant WMD’s?
"This article by ex-CIA officials discusses the question of US vs UN inspection teams looking for the notorious weapons of mass destruction. Also addresses the question of "would the US plant evidence?" and gives a history with specifics of this having happened before - in Central America, Viet Nam & Cambodia, and Cuba; and to justify the first Gulf War. A long (if you read the chronology of faked evidence) but good read with many facts you may want to have at your disposal."

2003-05-04T22:00:00.000+10:00

AltaVista's Babel Fish Translation Service
You if be wanting translare of site of pages. This one thing is. Better is he where? Please to be writing almanaquist the.

2003-05-04T21:49:00.000+10:00

Almanac of Disasters
Macabre, I guess, but useful to almanackists and perhaps others. One glitch: when I used it, sometimes the page I was on jumped onto another page.

2003-05-04T21:43:00.000+10:00

Vivisimo Document Clustering - automatic categorization and content integration software -
Another search engine worth a try. I probably won't switch from the dreaded Google, but this one worked very well on my cursory trial.

2003-05-04T21:39:00.000+10:00

FindArticles.com"FindArticles.com is a vast archive of published articles that you can search for free."

2003-05-04T21:38:00.000+10:00

Space Calendar (JPL)
"The Space Calendar covers space-related activities and anniversaries for the coming year. Included are over 1,100 links to related home pages."

2003-05-04T17:59:00.000+10:00

Best Blond Joke In the World

2003-05-04T17:38:00.000+10:00

Iraqi Nuclear Site Is Found Looted (washingtonpost.com)
"Sunday, May 4, 2003;
NEAR KUT, Iraq, May 3 -- A specially trained Defense Department team, dispatched after a month of official indecision to survey a major Iraqi radioactive waste repository, today found the site heavily looted and said it was impossible to tell whether nuclear materials were missing."

2003-05-04T14:26:00.000+10:00

Lit.Org - Writers resources, epublishing, zines, stories, authors, interviews, chat, links and more!
"Lit.Org is a community for Readers and Writers. We provide a place to share your ideas and thoughts. You can use publish your stories, poems, essays ..."

2003-05-03T11:55:00.000+10:00

Radio National: Re-imagining Utopia
"Ever wondered what's involved in building an intentional community?

Take part in critical debates over land and water sharing, dealing with anti-social behaviour, and building in environmentally sensitive areas, and observe the impact of your involvement in the process."

I believe the radio series is inspired by the 30th anniversary of Australia's Aquarius Festival, where thousands of hippies bought up a town, more or less. Nimbin has a special place in the hearts of thousands of Australians, including your almanackist, and I hope very much to be able to get there for the big gig.

2003-05-03T01:27:00.000+10:00

blogtech : Because Blogger is as flaky as pie crust
I didn't need to use this, but it looks useful for missing archives problems, though a bit scary (technically).

2003-05-03T01:25:00.000+10:00

Well strike me pink, the archives are working after all this time! (I hope for the long term.) For the curious, I used the Blogger suggested method and it worked on about the 5th time over several days. I had read somewhere that it's known to do that.

2003-05-03T01:20:00.000+10:00

Word for the Wise transcripts
"... can you name the first writer who used carpe diem in English as a naturalized English term?"

2003-05-02T23:59:00.000+10:00

Internet Archive
"The Internet Archive, working with Alexa Internet, has created the Wayback Machine [which] makes it possible to surf more than 10 billion pages stored in the Internet Archive's web archive."

Where websites go when they die. Archaeology of the Net has a big future. This is a start. I typed in http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com and was nostalgically delighted to see what my homepage looked like on March 5, 2002.

2003-05-02T23:11:00.000+10:00

Garys HomePage
GARY DUSCHL
GUINNESS WORLD RECORD
GUM WRAPPER CHAIN
OFFICIAL LENGTH ON MARCH 11, 2003
42,908 FEET

2003-05-02T22:56:00.000+10:00

RealityCarnival "News that shatters the ice of our unconscious!"
Death Carnival Unsolved Mysteries Parallel Universes Religion & Science Weird & Fun Sex Beauty & Brains Exotic Sushi Fantastic Memes

2003-05-02T22:44:00.000+10:00

Catalog - Petra Fine Art
This is Petra Fine Art's catalog of antique lithographs produced by David Roberts in the mid-1800s. I got absorbed in these wonderful prints of Middle Eastern scenes.

2003-05-02T20:27:00.000+10:00

Clifford A. Pickover's Home Page
Have you discovered Pickover yet? Maybe not ... I mention him in the Almy from time to time but hear very little about him from any source, so I assume he's not too well known. The polymathic Pick is a must-read, and I recommend checking out his report.

2003-05-02T20:07:00.000+10:00

Rafal T. Prinke - Hermetica
If you are interested at all in hermetics and alchemy, this site is worth a look. It's rich with illustrations; note that it links to Adam McLean's magnificent online alchemy resource.

2003-05-02T19:03:00.000+10:00

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London 1674 to 1834
A fully searchable online edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing accounts of over 100,000 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court."

2003-05-02T13:28:00.000+10:00

Iraqis target Gen. Franks for war crimes trial -- The Washington Times
"The complaint will state that coalition forces are responsible for the indiscriminate killing of Iraqi civilians, the bombing of a marketplace in Baghdad, the shooting of an ambulance, and failure to prevent the mass looting of hospitals ..."

2003-05-02T01:17:00.000+10:00

Follies And Folly Towers Monuments and Obelisks
"The Cerne Abbas giant has stood on the side of this hill, overlooking the village, for an indeterminate number of years. The first mention of it was in 1694 amongst the accounts of a church warden, for re- cutting the turf, this is now done every seven years or so."

Great picture of the excitable Cerne Abbas giant.

2003-05-02T00:13:00.000+10:00

Have you tried to leave a comment and couldn't? Please let me know if it didn't work. Click to email and let me know what browser you have, please.

2003-05-01T23:49:00.000+10:00

Amnesty International - Nigeria: How Much More Suffering under Sharia Penal Legislation?
The Nigerian Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for Amina Lawal, condemned for the crime of adultery on August 19th 2002, and she is to be buried up to her neck and stoned to death. Her death was postponed so that she could continue to nurse her baby. Execution is now set for June 3rd.

Click here for petition
Enter your first name in the space marked "nombre", last name ("apellidos") county or state ("provincia"). Then use drop-down list of countries. Then click on "Seguir" and go to the second page. (There you have the option of entering your email address if you wish to receive follow-up information.) In any case, be sure to click on "Aceptar" to have your name added to the petition list.

For a literal translation you can copy and paste here

2003-05-01T02:06:00.000+10:00

Ari, Why Won't You Answer the Question? - BuzzFlash News Analysis
"4/23/03 Press Briefing w/Fleischer (excerpt below appears middle to two-thirds way down website page - the reporter is referring to a former question on Powell's use of the word "consequences" France will have to face)"

2003-05-01T00:39:00.000+10:00

Amnesty International - Library - Ireland: Irish Government refuses access to Amnesty prison researchers
LONDON -- "Amnesty International is disappointed at the Irish Government's refusal to allow researchers of a joint Amnesty International and Irish Penal Reform Trust project to visit several named Irish prisons to investigate the issue of racism in Irish detention establishments", the human rights organization said today.

2003-05-01T00:28:00.000+10:00

stereotypography :: all your favourite news
Nice looking design site. Wonder how they do that.

2003-04-30T23:22:00.000+10:00

ZNet | Grace News

"The U.S. government this week launched its Arabic language satellite TV news station for Muslim Iraq. It is being produced in a studio -- Grace Digital Media -- controlled by fundamentalist Christians who are rabidly pro-Israel. That's Grace as in 'by the Grace of God.'"

2003-04-30T19:04:00.000+10:00

LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD!?
Funny games, and very well scripted by Andy Foulds.

2003-04-30T13:49:00.000+10:00

Spiritualitea: May Day/Beltane by Mike Nichols
A good article on May Day/Beltane. It's free for the republishing.

2003-04-30T03:02:00.000+10:00

GLOBAL DAY OF PROTEST DEMANDS SOUTH AFRICA GOVERNMENT PROVIDE AIDS TREATMENT TO MILLIONS: South Africa Indymedia
"(Capetown, South Africa and Washington, D.C.) Just days before South Africa’s Freedom day on April 28th, AIDS activists from the Treatment Action Campaign (T.A.C.) of South Africa kicked-off a global day of protest with a non-violent sit-in."

2003-04-30T02:38:00.000+10:00

Independent Media Center Journalism Under Siege
"In spite of the U.S. corporate media's biased pro-war coverage, outrageous examples of media manipulation and the actual targeting of journalists by the U.S. military in Iraq is mirrored regularly in the Occupied Territories of Palestine. In the West Bank city of Nablus on Saturday 19 April, another journalist was murdered by the Israeli military. Such incidents, as well as the limiting of access to the Territories for journalists who might report these atrocities, appears to be standard policy for the forces of repression and empire."

2003-04-29T23:35:00.000+10:00

How the road to war was paved with lies
"A high-level UK source said last night that intelligence agencies on both sides of the Atlantic were furious that briefings they gave political leaders were distorted in the rush to war with Iraq. 'They ignored intelligence assessments which said Iraq was not a threat,' the source said."

2003-04-29T04:00:00.000+10:00

Well, I've got the comments script working (yayy!!), so now you can make comments on any entry here. Soon I'll see what I can do about the missing archives. :)

2003-04-28T23:21:00.000+10:00

POVA - Psychological Operations Veterans Association
Now there's a group with a reunion that would be fun to attend. Don't you love these guys?

2003-04-28T14:51:00.000+10:00

Google Viewer "Overview
The Google Viewer displays the pages found as a result of your Google search as a continuous scrolling slide show. You can view your search results without using your keyboard or mouse and you can adjust the speed with which the images move across your screen. Each image of a page's contents is accompanied by a short "snippet" describing that page."

It might be because Google's the Antichrist, but they sure come uip with some clever tools, like this one.

2003-04-28T14:41:00.000+10:00

electric 6 - gay bar
LMAO! Another Bush-Blair movie like Endless Love that came out a few weeks ago.

2003-04-28T04:17:00.000+10:00

I tried adding a code from some blog place or other to allow readers' comments. Unfortunately, so far I can't get it to work so I removed the script. Any script gurus out there who have any ideas?

2003-04-28T03:56:00.000+10:00

jeb Bush thanks NRA for helping make Dubya president
"ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) -- Florida Gov. Jeb Bush thanked the National Rifle Association Saturday for helping elect his brother president in 2000."

2003-04-26T17:53:00.000+10:00

Blogger's Support question: missing archives hasn't solved the problem yet. I followed what they said but got a message that it failed. Several times.

2003-04-26T14:27:00.000+10:00

Dear Blogger.com,
Why are there three archives links here, and no bloody archives? Where have my archives gone?
Pip

2003-04-26T14:16:00.000+10:00

Spooks on board at Google
"A 'Help Wanted' ad found on the web:
Deployment Engineer (with security clearance)"

Great Echelon image too. I've covered Echelon in the Almanac a few times earlier on, but been distracted by the war, and will have to do some more. If you need to know more about this ginormous global spynet... google it LOL

2003-04-26T13:54:00.000+10:00

Google as Big Brother

" It's not that we believe Google is evil. What we believe is that Google, Inc. is at a fork in the road, and they have some big decisions to make. This Google Watch site is trying to articulate, publicize, and even dramatize the situation at Google, and encourage more scrutiny of their operations ...

"With 150 million searches per day, most from outside the U.S., Google amounts to a privacy disaster waiting to happen. Those newly-commissioned data-mining bureaucrats in Washington can only dream about the sort of slick efficiency that Google has already achieved"

I have a google toolbar that I adore, and I've recommended it in this blog. Thank you Vee Beep for alerting me to this page ... I'm not ditching my google bar yet, but I'm going to keep monitoring google, as well as other privacy/Ashcroftian/US gov't issues where google might be a player.

2003-04-26T02:42:00.000+10:00

Big free portal for online TV and Radio, from WILSON'S ALMANAC
Pip's Picks isn't about promoting things on my own site, but I'm still excited by my radio and TV portal a year or so after I added it to the Scriptorium. As there aren't many places that I've seen with such functionality, I want to recommend it.

I often work late into the night and, living in the country, the local radio can be awful. I love to tune into some good listening, which for me is often Australia's ABC News Radio, as it features news, current affairs and documentaries not only from oz, but also UK, USA, Germany, Holland and maybe others. This station is easily accessible from the Scriptorium's Radio/TV portal, along with hundreds of others.

2003-04-25T23:24:00.000+10:00

F*cked Weblog
"Weblogs aren't forever."
Where blogs go to die. It's reality. (To comply with Blogger.com's terms I had to bowdlerise this link.)

2003-04-25T20:44:00.000+10:00

George W Bush's Resume, by Kelley Kramer
"I started wondering ... what would a George W. Bush resume look like exactly? Listed below is what I came up with."

2003-04-25T20:00:00.000+10:00

Who Owns You? - Media Ownership Basics
"There are plenty of sources for news ... yet most folks (in America at least) accept the information given to them from giant corporations. Namely, MSNBCGE, AOL-TimeWarner-CNN, ABCDisney, ViacomCBS, and FOX. ... You, yes YOU, have the freedom to choose."

>Sigh< I keep finding people who don't know where the news comes from (and the current affairs and programming in general). It kinda scares me that many people do not question what media programming is all about. Guess people who know have just gotta keep spreading info. This site helps.

2003-04-25T19:55:00.000+10:00

For execution of Donahue, General Electric supplied the current, by Ralph Nader
"In the past few months, the corporate "suits" even told Donahue that he had to have more conservative or right-wing guests than liberals on the same hour show. Still, Donahue persevered. His ratings were slowly increasing, despite the regular lacerations that the top brass inflicted on a show that was supposed to be the liberal counterpart of the right-wing, bellicose Fox fare stitched together by Rupert Murdoch's media empire."

2003-04-25T16:33:00.000+10:00

New Scientist: Genetically enhanced humans to come, say DNA pioneers
"At a meeting in London to mark the anniversary, Watson said the future of genetics holds the promise of a much greater understanding of human nature. He argued that, for example, understanding the effect of genetic variation on behaviour will lead to the fusion of biology and psychology."

2003-04-25T16:31:00.000+10:00

Economist.com | The art of DNA
"Fifty years after its discovery, the double helix is twisting itself ever deeper into popular culture

“'WE WISH to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid (D.N.A.).' So began the modest introduction to what turned out to be one of the most momentous papers in the history of biology. It was published exactly 50 years ago, on April 25th 1953, in Nature.

"The first artist to use it was Salvador Dali, who included DNA spirals in his surreal, phantasmagoric paintings of the 1950s. But he was ahead of his time."

2003-04-25T02:41:00.000+10:00

President Bush's Neoconservatives Were Spawned in NYC
"...Originally, a neoconservative was an anti-communist liberal who rejected the 1960’s counterculture. After the Cold War ended, neoconservatism came to be associated with an aggressive foreign policy."
This thorough article by Joe Hagan is a hagiography of the neo-cons. I'm glad to see Rupert Murdoch accorded his place among the econo-rat patriarchs. Australia's worst export ever.

2003-04-24T23:31:00.000+10:00

The Journalist's Toolbox: Global Journalism
A useful page of links courtesy of the American Press Institute.

2003-04-24T19:25:00.000+10:00

Transcript of Tim Robbins Speech to the National Press Club, April 15, 03
"You have, whether you like it or not, an awesome responsibility and an awesome power: the fate of discourse, the health of this republic is in your hands, whether you write on the left or the right. This is your time, and the destiny you have chosen."

2003-04-24T16:30:00.000+10:00

Keith Windschuttle Vs Pat Grimshaw on Australian Aboriginal massacres
"In his recent book, The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Keith Windschuttle charges academic historians with a series of wilful misrepresentations intended to portray Australia as a society marked by atrocities against Aborigines."

Keith Windschuttle is obviously a rabid rabble rouser, given the rabid rabble he has roused in my native land. Windschuttle is a well-known Australian left-wing academic and author who for years, on his own admission, adopted and taught the 'black armband' view of Australian history. Then, smelling a rat, he decided to do some research of his own and not just accept willy-nilly the assertions and allegations of Prof. Henry Reynolds and others who assert that many Aboriginal people were massacred by colonists.

A coolly rational Windschuttle (author of The Killing of History: How Literary Critics and Social Theorists are Murdering Our Past) is regaled, not debated, by an embarrassingly strident Prof. Pat Grimshaw, who rarely answers her antagonist with evidence. Reynolds would have made a better opponent in these MP3 audios, and the debate is far too short, but it's one not to be missed by anyone who has heard the theories Windschuttle has rendered questionable, if not obsolete. I trust Keith has now learned one trusim of the Australian Old Left: they eat their own young.

2003-04-24T13:44:00.000+10:00

Help Raise Awareness: Add Refusenik Watch, autoupdate banner to your site, oznik-news
A banner showing Israeli soldiers refusing to serve the Occupation. I've placed one on

2003-04-24T13:05:00.000+10:00

Naked against the war in Barcelona
Old news, nice nudes.

2003-04-24T12:58:00.000+10:00

Ulli's Roy Orbison in Cling-film site
"Hello, and welcome to my homepage. My name is Ulrich Haarbürste and I like to write stories about Roy Orbison being wrapped up in cling-film."

2003-04-24T11:32:00.000+10:00

Official - Operation Iraqi Freedom Cards
"Our Leader assures the Iraqi people that the sacrifice will be worth it." Great, funny cards.

2003-04-24T11:29:00.000+10:00

Memes.org :: Memes are Mind Viruses

2003-04-24T03:28:00.000+10:00

Byzant Biography - Encyclopedia of Quotations
Esoteric quotes.

2003-04-24T02:56:00.000+10:00

the News Insider
An excellent news source in a superbly designed website. I've just added their news ticker to the many others at Daily Planet News Page 3.

2003-04-24T02:52:00.000+10:00

Case for war built on fake reports, claims Blix
"The chief United Nations weapons inspector, Hans Blix, has questioned the intelligence used by the United States and Britain to justify attacking Iraq for concealing weapons of mass destruction."

2003-04-24T02:51:00.000+10:00

US Has Plans to Bomb N Korea Nuke Plant
"CANBERRA (Reuters) - The Pentagon has drawn up plans to bomb a North Korea nuclear plant if it reprocesses spent nuclear fuel rods, according to an Australian newspaper report on Tuesday that was quickly downplayed by Australian officials."

2003-04-24T02:48:00.000+10:00

www.hopecaravan.com [HOME]
A very inspiring band of Australians who travel out to the desert to help free asylum seekers being held in this country's concentration camps. I subbed to their newsletter and look forward to getting it.

2003-04-24T01:36:00.000+10:00

For the People on the Streets, This is not Liberation but a New Colonial Oppression

"The looters make money from their rampages but the arsonists have to be paid. The passengers in those buses are clearly being directed to their targets. If Saddam had pre-paid them, they wouldn't start the fires. The moment he disappeared, they would have pocketed the money and forgotten the whole project.

"So who are they, this army of arsonists? I recognized one the other day, a middle-aged, unshaven man in a red T-shirt, and the second time he saw me he pointed a Kalashnikov at me. What was he frightened of? Who was he working for? In whose interest is it to destroy the entire physical infrastructure of the state, with its cultural heritage? Why didn't the Americans stop this?

"As I said, something is going terribly wrong in Baghdad and something is going on which demands that serious questions be asked of the United States government. Why, for example, did Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, claim last week that there was no widespread looting or destruction in Baghdad? His statement was a lie. But why did he make it?"

Robert Fisk writes from Baghdad and poses some of the most chilling questions yet asked on the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq.

2003-04-24T01:18:00.000+10:00

The Unthinkable Is Becoming Normal - John Pilger - 20 April 2003
"We must not forget that a British defence secretary has announced, for the first time, that his government is prepared to launch an attack with nuclear weapons. He echoes Bush, of course. An ascendant mafia now rules the United States, and the Prime Minister is in thrall to it. Together, they empty noble words – liberation, freedom and democracy – of their true meaning. The unspoken truth is that behind the bloody conquest of Iraq is the conquest of us all: of our minds, our humanity and our self-respect at the very least. If we say and do nothing, victory over us is assured."

I don't always like my countryman Pilger but he does himself proud in this article.

2003-04-24T00:41:00.000+10:00

ABCNEWS.com : U.S. Military Wanted to Provoke War With Cuba
"Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities.
The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba's then new leader, communist Fidel Castro."

More on Operation Northwoods (as posted earlier).

2003-04-24T00:38:00.000+10:00

Our Ignorance, Their Want - Maureen Farrell on BuzzFlash.com
"U.S. forces have already prevented a Save the Children plane, carrying medical supplies and emergency food, from landing in northern Iraq, delaying help to doctors who have heroically fought to save lives under deplorable conditions. 'The lack of cooperation from the U.S. military is a breach of the Geneva Conventions and its protocols but more importantly the time now being wasted is costing children their lives,' Emergency Program Manager Rob MacGillivray said."

2003-04-24T00:08:00.000+10:00

BILLBOARD
Dixie Chicks Number One on Top Country Albums, second week in a row. Americans sending their President a message, maybe?

2003-04-23T20:49:00.000+10:00

How Neocons Conquered Washington – and Launched a War
"It is not clear that George W fully understands the grand strategy that Wolfowitz and other aides are unfolding. He seems genuinely to believe that there was an imminent threat to the U.S. from Saddam Hussein's "weapons of mass destruction," something the leading neocons say in public but are far too intelligent to believe themselves."

Michael Lind's article shares with the Guardian's excellent Mesopotamia. Babylon. The Tigris and Euphrates by that passionate and adept writer, Arundhati Roy, equal best of the hundreds of articles that I've read about the war on terrorism and Iraq. Lind, whose background gives him some authority to speak, briefly maps out the Zionist connections around the US admin – connections many refer to but few delineate, until now. If Lind were a sultry Indian beauty, his article might just edge out Arundhati Roy' as standalone Number One, but it's nil contendere.

2003-04-23T19:35:00.000+10:00

Donald Foster Uses Computer Tests to Search for Shakespeare's Hidden Hand
Today being the traditional date of Shakespeare's birth, I found this interesting and well-written account of Donald Foster's claim that he discovered a lost poem by the Bard. It was also illuminating in terms of the 'WS' to whom the Sonnets are dedicated, as I'd always accepted Oscar Wilde's famous interpretation, or similar.

2003-04-23T18:39:00.000+10:00

Report shows global warming link to Australia's worst drought
"SYDNEY: A new scientific report by WWF Australia and leading meteorologists has shown that human-induced global warming was a key factor in the severity of the 2002 drought. The report compares the 2002 drought with the four other major droughts since 1950 and has found higher temperatures caused a marked increase in evaporation rates from soil, watercourses and vegetation."

2003-04-23T13:27:00.000+10:00

Giant Colon Replica Educates Arkansans
"The "Colossal Colon" is designed for children and adults to crawl through, and allows visitors to see different stages of the disease, from polyps to full-blown cancer. "

2003-04-23T13:23:00.000+10:00

Children held at Camp Xray, US admits. 22/4/2003. ABC News Online
"The US military has revealed it is holding juveniles at its high-security prison for terrorists at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, known as Camp Xray."

2003-04-23T13:21:00.000+10:00

Salon.com | Why the antiwar movement was right
Arianna Huffington writes, "the speedy fall of Baghdad proves the antiwar movement was dead right".

2003-04-23T13:16:00.000+10:00

Warblogging.com: Another Backbench Revolt?
"The Guardian reported Saturday that 'Tony Blair is facing the threat of a fresh rebellion from Labour backbenchers who are growing increasingly alarmed that the failure to uncover weapons of mass destruction in Iraq will confirm that the war was illegal.'

"The British MPs are suggesting that all those promises by Bush, Blair and Powell that they knew that Iraq possessed WMD were lies."

2003-04-23T12:04:00.000+10:00

Email stripper free download
There's a lot of similar products, but this is the best I've seen to get rid of all the >>>>> and other crap from emails when you forward them (especially if it's to me).

2003-04-23T01:23:00.000+10:00

William Shakespeare - Wikipedia
Almanac readers have probably noticed that I use Wikipedia quite a lot. This article on birthday boy (April 23, 1564) Bill the Bard shows why. Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia being written by volunteers all over cyberspace, and is to be commended, and recommended. Definitely worth bookmarking, and if you can figure out their code, which is sort of a blog, it's worth contributing articles to this very idealistic project.

2003-04-23T01:04:00.000+10:00

The Poetry of D.H. Rumsfeld - Recent works by the secretary of defense
Oh, the things one misses, not having a TV. I've never even 'seen' this man speak, though I've heard him on radio. So, a sensitive bard lies just a heartbeat and a ham fist from the Presidency! But then, the whole cabal lies, as we have seen over and over.

2003-04-23T00:59:00.000+10:00

Noosphere Blues
I like this blog.

2003-04-23T00:22:00.000+10:00

Guardian Unlimited | Israel seeks pipeline for Iraqi oil
"Plans to build a pipeline to siphon oil from newly conquered Iraq to Israel are being discussed between Washington, Tel Aviv and potential future government figures in Baghdad."
Pretend you're surprised.

2003-04-22T22:33:00.000+10:00

BBC Unit 731: Japan's biological force
"It was October 1940. Wu was a boy of 11, when his nine-year-old brother fell sick from a mysterious disease, an epidemic that was raging through his village."

2003-04-22T22:06:00.000+10:00

Salon.com Technology | Building the underground computer railroad
Sept 23, 2002: "Anti-globalization activists in Oakland, Calif., are recycling old machines, loading them with free software and shipping them off to Ecuador."

2003-04-22T18:29:00.000+10:00

Melbourne Indymedia - features archive
Police Raid Camp With Machine Guns
"Around 10:45am ten police entered the baxter2003 protest camp armed with semi-automatic weapons ..."

Just another day as Western countries get increasingly led by the nose by neo-fascist wannabes. Australia's government keeps asylum seekers confined worse than you or I would keep an animal, rather like the US with Guantanamo.

2003-04-22T18:24:00.000+10:00

The Other Holocaust : Nanjing Massacre, Unit 731, Unit 100, Unit 516
"This Biological Warfare is definitely the worst case of systematic biological massacre against Humanity committed by a country in our Human History."