The Bush Family and the Nazi's

The Guardian has a somewhat dated article about the links between the Bush Family and the rise of the Nazi's in Germany. There's much conjecture as to exactly how much support the Nazi's received from the Bush family but one fact is very clear: The Bush family company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act.

Julian Assange and the Rape Accusations - What Really Happened

There's rumours and there's innuendo but very few media outlets have actually published the truth about the accusations Julian Assange of Wikileaks is facing. For the love of all that's sane and rational please read this article on the Times of India web site.

TL,DR: Two women had consensual sex with Julian Assange, then latter decided to charge him with rape under a weird Swedish law. Both bragged that they'd had consensual sex then changed their stories.

Just Some Guys About to Cross the Road

Wonder who the little old lady in the purple house coat is? It's hard to believe this bunch of guys were just about to break up acrimoniously.

Ubuntu CD label

Ghosts of Amsterdam

Jo Teeuwisse, a Historical Consultant in Amsterdam, has scanned old World War II pictures (from negatives found in a flea market) and superimposed them on photos taken recently in Amsterdam. They're quite extraordinary and can be found here.

20 Things I Leaned About Browsers and the Web

Google has released a book in HTML5 format called: "20 Things I Leaned About Browsers and the Web". It's a great resource and well worth a look.

DealExtreme - Christmas Present List?

DealExtreme is a wonderful (and cheap) site with lots of gadgets! Here's my favs:

USB Powered Mini Robot Dog

Fried Egg Shaped Mouse Pad

Sexy 3D Optical USB Mouse

Candle Powered Flying Sky Lantern

Cool Movie/Film Action Board Clock

Glacier Magnetizer and Demagnetizer


Here's some more ... erm, practical items:
Stainless Steel Hand/Palm Odor Remover (Lasts Forever)

USB Cable via RJ45 Extender Set (Power Boost Up to 150 feet)

This is a news website article about a scientific paper

Junk Science, the Media is full of it. Here's a magnificent article by Martin Robbins from the Guardian that lays out exactly how the vast majority of Junk Science news articles are presented to the public. You will never read a news article about science the same way after you've read this.

Homeopathy

There's a lot of talk about complementary medicine (otherwise known as: Homoeopathy) in the media today but what does it mean? Check out this illuminating "comic" strip about Homoeopathy and make up your own mind.

Seat Saver Fake Food

This is ... genius. Let me set the scene: you're at a cinema, restaurant, BBQ and you leave your seat to visit the Loo. On your return your seat has been taken by a bloated, obnoxious, sweaty freak who simply wont take the hint and leave. There goes your day.

Instead of that why not use one of these fake food seat savers? Who's going to sit on a seat that's got ice cream, sauce or coffee split on it? I love these things.

Colour Photos of Pre War USA

Check out these amazing colour pictures of the good ol' US of A during the Great Depression. Colour film was only in it's infancy but these pictures capture a long lost world in vibrant detail.

Princess Leia ... GOLD!

Carrie Fisher in her iconic "bikini Leia" mode, along with her stunt double, catching some rays during the filming of Return of the Jedi. That is all.

Make Your Own Paper Tardis

Need to spruce up the ol' cubicle desk or perhaps impress the niece/nephew but are on a limited budget? How about making your own Paper Tardis (or Dalek or Cyberman)? Just follow the link, print, fold and .. voila!

Eight Awesome SciFi Graphic Novels

Check out i09's list of eight SciFi graphic novels that (they believe) will get you hooked for life. Tintin in Tibet gets a mention as does Ronin.



http://io9.com/5625177/fantastic-scifi-graphic-novels-that-will-get-you-hooked-for-life

Paintbrush: Simple Paint Program for Mac OS X

Paintbrush is a simple paint program for Mac OS X, reminiscent of Microsoft Paint and Apple’s own now-defunct MacPaint. It provides users with a means to make simple images quickly, something which has been noticeably absent from the Mac for years. Paintbrush can open and save to most major image formats, including BMP, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, and GIF. Full support for transparency is available for image formats which support an alpha channel (currently PNGs and GIFs). Also does: Image resizing, canvas resizing, and cropping.

Superman Appears

Check out these scans of the original Action Comics No. 1 that featured the first ever appearance of Superman.

Mactracker provides detailed information on every Apple Macintosh computer ever made, including items such as processor speed, memory, optical drives, graphic cards, supported Mac OS versions, and expansion options. Also included is information on Apple mice, keyboards, displays, printers, scanners, digital cameras, iPod, Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, Wi-Fi Cards/Base Stations, Newton, and Mac OS versions.

Catweazle

Who remembers Catweazle, the lovable medieval wizard who was inexplicably transported forward in time to the 70's? "Come Touchwood we are called by the telling bone". I used to love watching this show.

Tom Grattan's War

Ah the memories come flooding back! Tom Grattan's War used to be a staple of afternoon TV back in the day. You can see a video of it here.

The Truth About Cats

With the aid of an old STASI animal translator (they used to use them to interrogate the pets of dissidents in the DDR) our intrepid elf sets off to determine what cats think. ...turns out it's: urm... ah napping and.. sardines.. sorta.

Another quality strip from the "Faraday the Blob" webcomic.

Allsop Folding Wheel Cart

Need to move "stuff" around the yard but don't have the space for a wheelbarrow? The Allsop Folding Wheel Cart folds up, has an inflatable wheel and wont take up valuable real estate around your home.

Manly Guys Doing Manly Things

This is a funny, funny comic - check it out.

It's been quite some time since I visited the ThinkGeek site but here's a few gems from the catalogue:

• Star Wars R2-D2 Trashcan
• USB Memory Watch
• Non-Slip Gadget Holder With 4 Port USB Hub
• All-Over TARDIS T-Shirt
• Doctor Who TARDIS 4 Port USB Hub
• Darth Vader USB Hub
• USB 8GB Flash Drive Lighter
• USBCell

Tom Waits' portrait using coffee & cigarettes as media

John Maynard Keynes

Even if you didn't know who John Maynard Keynes was you'd have to admire the way his economic theory has fuelled the revival of the German economy. The parallels with the effect of the "pump priming" of the Australian economy stand in stark comparison with the economic woes in the USA. Oddly enough the good folk in the US of A still believe that supporting the economy is like spoiling kids. Strange fruit indeed.

Math Department Humour

Maths geek humour at it's best...

The Beatles Through the Years

Whaaaa...tha????

If you have any idea (seriously ANY idea!!!) what this is all about, you're a better man than me Gunga Din. WTF ... don't say I didn't warn you.

...and You Thought You Had A Bad Job.

Hands up all those that would like to work IN a sewer shovelling rancid fat? Thought so. Well the nice people at Thames Water have just removed an estimated 1,000 tonnes of putrid fat from the sewers under London's Leicester Square.

Everything You Thought You Knew About Coffee Is Wrong

So you think you know what coffee does to the brain/body? Chances are that you're probably completely wrong! Read this excellent article to get the full story about coffee's effect on humans.

Food for Thought

In light of the ongoing debate about refugee's (and the usual "dog whistle" reactions from the media, politicians and the uninformed) here's some food for thought from a chap called Chiune Sugihara. Oh, incidentally this chap managed to single-handedly save about 7500 Jewish refugees (or: "illegal emigrants") from certain death in Nazi concentration camps. He did this against the direct orders of his superiors at the beginning of the Second World War. Did I mention he was Japanese?

"You want to know about my motivation, don't you? Well. It is the kind of sentiments anyone would have when he actually sees refugees face to face, begging with tears in their eyes. He just cannot help but sympathize with them. Among the refugees were the elderly and women. They were so desperate that they went so far as to kiss my shoes, Yes, I actually witnessed such scenes with my own eyes. Also, I felt at that time, that the Japanese government did not have any uniform opinion in Tokyo. Some Japanese military leaders were just scared because of the pressure from the Nazis; while other officials in the Home Ministry were simply ambivalent.

People in Tokyo were not united. I felt it silly to deal with them. So, I made up my mind not to wait for their reply. I knew that somebody would surely complain about me in the future. But, I myself thought this would be the right thing to do. There is nothing wrong in saving many people's lives....The spirit of humanity, philanthropy...neighborly friendship...with this spirit, I ventured to do what I did, confronting this most difficult situation---and because of this reason, I went ahead with redoubled courage."

The IT Basement 360° Panorama

The wonderful folks over at Channel 4 have helpfully supplied us with a 360° panorama of the "IT Crowd" set. Enjoy.

What is a Criminal

An oldie (I'm guessing early 70's) but a goodie, especially in light of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the Afghan war. As a side note many states in the U.S.A. are now looking to legalise Cannabis use to increase their tax base.
(Click on the image to expand)

Australia's Dirty Little Water Secret

How much water does the average household use? More importantly what percentage of the total consumption of water in Australia (22186 Gigalitres) is used in Cities and towns? 70%? 50%? 30%?

How about: less than 20%? Depending on the figures available (and no, they're not easy to find) the amount of water used in Australian households is between 8% and 16% (about 3500 Gigalitres) of the total used in Australia. Those figures are from 1996-7 so the true figure would probably come in under that since there has been such a concerted effort to reduce domestic consumption due to the recent crippling drought in Eastern Australia.

So where's the water being used? Primarily in Agriculture (70%). Most of that is being used to irrigate crops such as rice and cotton. Why isn't this wasteful use of water bigger news?

Surface area required to power the whole world by solar power

Click on image to expand