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.
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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

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Struwwelpeter (WTF)

I remember reading this book when I was a small kid. Scared the bejesus out of me! Here it is in all it's web glory c/w the English translation. Let the bad dreams begin...

How bad is the European Crisis anyhow?

How bad is the European Crisis you ask? This article has eight charts that layout the issues with the ongoing European Crisis and indicate that the worst is yet to come. Brace yourself.

David Thorne has done it again!

If you're a fan of David Thorne (who can forget his sublime: "The spider and the over due account") I know you're just going to love his latest piece of genius: "Permission Slip". Enjoy!

The "Man Trance" explained

Louann Brizendine (who wrote: "The Female Brain" and, the just released, "The Male Brain") is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. She explains the fundamental differences between men and women.
Here's a classic quote:

Men look at attractive women the way we look at pretty butterflies. They catch the male brain's attention for a second, but then they flit out of his mind. Five minutes later, while we're still fuming, he's deciding whether he wants ribs or chicken for dinner. He asks us, "What's wrong?" We say, "Nothing." He shrugs and turns on the TV. We smolder and fear that he'll leave us for another woman."

Amiga Commodore is baaaaaaaaaack!

Is the Amiga Commodore going to make a comeback? Who knows, but judging from their web site they can still make a sensational PC.