Sunday the 29th of March seems to be "Weird traffic and road behavior day" in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, maybe in all of Australia but surely around Regent and Preston. People stopping for no reason in the middle of the street, driving backwards, going in a walking pace on major roads or just standing on the street. Maybe the more-than-average driving skills of the F1 pilots at the Grand Prix are generated by leeching the skills of "normal" drivers, who knows. If you have observed similar, please let me know.
My first follower
My first follower
Since yesterday I have my first follower. Thanks Emily, as you are also the only follower you'll get a personalised greeting! I feel a bit like Jesus when he got his first disciple and contemplate (again) if I should start my own religion. I'll have to discuss this with my friend Dirk, when I'm back home. I'll keep you updated.
The meat feast
Yesterday evening was awesome. I was at a meat feast, ok actually we had lots of veggies too:
And this is how it looked 45 minutes later
But then we also had dessert
It was a great evening, the food was fuckin awesome (Thanks Chris! and sorry mum) and the conversations were very entertaining and mainly about sex. I learned that gay men don't care about the clitoris and that people who describe themself as "bi-curious" are in the majority of cases female and also pathetic.
Australia goes China
One thing which happens here right now and causes quite some stir is the plan of the Australian government to implement a "blacklist" for the internet. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) plans to make a filter software mandatory for all Australian Internet Service Providers which would block access to "prohibited" content and child pornography. But also to "inappropriate" and "unwanted" material such as euthanasia, satanism, gambling and all pornography websites. And also some sites that promote Christianity! This is a nice touch...
Right now this filter software is tested with several Australian ISPs.
When I heard about that the first time I couldn't believe it, my beloved Australia, land of easy-going people, land of "no worries" and "she'll be all right" wants to join the elite group of freedom loving countries and model-democracies like China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and all those other arsehole states.
I meant apart from this being some technophobic to-the-bone-conservative bavarian town politicians wet-dream such a plan wouldn't even been seriously discussed back home, which is one of the up-sites of Germany. After the 3rd Reich we are a little allergic to censorship in any form. And up until now I thought the Australians wouldn't be overly keen on censorship too but I can only hope that this plan will be buried in a deep hole in the middle of a moonless night as it should be.
But now for the funny bit. The ACMA made a big secret out of the contents of the blacklist for quite some time but than it came as it always does...the whole list leaked. And some of the URL on there were a little surprised to find themself on a government blacklist. A dentist from Queensland, a pet care facility and a site belonging to a school cafeterias consultant, just to name a few. For those who want to have a look at the full list:
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Australian_government_secret_ACMA_internet_censorship_blacklist%2C_18_Mar_2009
If you aways wanted to look at forbidden content on the net this is your chance, the Australian government has compiled this nice list with suggestions for you. Maybe you should write to your MP and thanks them personally for providing you with the URLs to some of the filthiest and sickest websites on the internet.
Btw, the minister responsible for this bullshit plan, minister for communications, Stephen Conroy, blames the russian mafia for adding the "harmless" URLs to the blacklist...yeah sure...
http://www.theage.com.au/news/home/technology/conroy-uses-russian-mob-defence/2009/03/27/1237657120642.html
As a result of the leak and the public stir, several of the ISPs have pulled out of the filtering software trials and urged the government to drop the plan. The use of filter software would slow down the internet, the whole thing wouldn't work properly anyway as the already existing filters in the freedom loving democracies such as Saudi Arabia fail to filter around 20% of the "forbidden" content and the biggest point why it wouldn't work is the one simple fact that the criminal mind will always find a way to overcome such simple obstacles. I mean I'm no computer hacker but even I have at least 2 ideas how to circumnavigate such filter software.
For those of you who feel like they want to do something again this outrageous plan. Here is the website which organises the campaign "Save the net!" join and let your voice be heard:
http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet/442
That's all for today, take care and cya soon
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