Athens is ace! I've taken lots of photos and will write up my journal some time in the new year.

Age: "We know [plastic bag] levies work, so why are we faffing around?"

Very useful day at work today, I'm downloading the Kylie Agent Provocateur ad and staring at a javascript error.

Saw Lord of the Rings last night. Woohoo! Go see it! Then see it again! But maybe not the late session, we got out after 3am and it was nearly 4am by the time I was home.

Aussie men eh?

Kaante, a Bollywood 'Reservoir Dogs', sounds amazing.

Freak of the week, [John] "Abbott, 56, heads the Blackshirts, a group that dons masks and protests outside the homes of women they deem to be immoral. The mainly male, middle-aged group also heckles women at the Family Court and demands that divorce laws be repealed."
...
"Sitting beneath a yellowing photograph of the Beatles, Abbott seems to think he can force a change back to the '50s, when men made the money and marriage was forever. Just how serious he is about physical violence is not clear. He says his group is non-violent, but there are women who say he has terrified them by turning up outside their homes, or at court cases, with a mob of hooded men. " (Age)

Just for me, so I can find them from net cafes when I'm actually there, http://athensguide.com/, more athens, http://athensguide.com/ and basic Greek phrases

Eww! (don't look at this at work)

Age German town switches to Linux
"The German town of Schwäbisch Hall (population 36,000) will build its IT infrastructure entirely on SuSE Linux - replacing a more costly Windows installation."

User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 released by the W3C.

Santa Considering Move to Linux: "Citing concerns about security and licensing costs, Santa Claus is considering migrating his computer systems from Microsoft Windows to Linux."

Age: "Australia was handed virtual automatic qualificiation for the 2006 soccer World Cup after Oceania was given direct entry into the finals tournament yesterday."
...
"The 11-member OFC was given full status by FIFA in 1998 but remained the only confederation not to have at least one automatic berth at the World Cup finals."

Age: "Victoria's privatised public transport system is in crisis after the biggest operator announced last night that it would abandon its train and tram services by next week."
...
"the withdrawal of National Express showed that the former Kennett government's privatisation process was a failure."

Maybe politicians will finally learn that privatising public services is a bad thing. *cough* John Howard *cough* Telstra.

Age: "In the most recent census snapshot of Melbourne, more than one million workers, or 67 per cent, commuted by car - compared to 4.4 per cent by train, 2 per cent by tram, 1 per cent by bus, and 3.3 per cent by bike or foot - according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics."

Courtesy of Merryl, Age: "As Pauline Hanson was ordered yesterday to face a committal hearing on a charge that she stole $25,000 from her One Nation party, she has told members that she plans a new career in country and western music."

The BBC on office Christmas parties. I've just had my office Christmas do - we spent the Friday paintballing in the woods before staying overnight in the depths of Kent. We ended up drinking till late back at the hotel after an unsuccessful attempt to go clubbing in town. I think I did ok, but I do remember telling my boss to stop being so David Brent. (Let's hope he doesn't remember).

BBC: "A survey conducted by search engine AltaVista found that male chauvinism is alive and well on the internet, with 80% of men claiming to be better surfers than their female partners.

Men are also far more likely to be backseat drivers, interfering while their partners surf the web. "

I'm still learning new Dutch words, thanks to randomdutchword@yahoogroups.com. "Kroeg" is pub-crawl, apparently, and that's what I'll be doing when I visit Amsterdam over New Year's.

BBC: "Researchers in the US are studying a relative of the starfish, known as a brittlestar, whose arms are covered with perfect lenses.
The lenses provide the brittlestar with all-round vision. Scientists say they are better than any optical devices developed in the lab."

Age: Australia blasts back into space game

"The first Australian-built satellite in 35 years is due to be launched on Saturday as the nation re-enters the Space Age."

I'm putting together a cd of the greatest ever Australian songs. First, Spiderbait, 'Old Man Sam'. God this rocks.

I'm having trouble picking a definitive song for some bands. Hunters and Collectors' has to be 'You don't make me feel like a woman any more', Hoodoo Guru's 'What's my scene', but if I have to put a Cold Chisel song on (and let's face it, I do), what should it be? Khe Sahn? Cheap Wine? And how do I pick just one Whitlams song?

TISM would have to be either 'Greg, the stop sign' or 'Old Man River'.

Do the Hard-Ons make it to the list? What about the Cruel Sea? Is Kylie still Australian enough? Have the Avalanches and the Vines been around long enough? What about all the new Australian bands I've missed since I left? I love Tumbleweed and the Fauves (dogs *are* the best people) but are they known well enough?

Best odd spot ever: "An English vicar reduced young children to tears and stunned their parents after he said Santa Claus and his reindeer would burn to a crisp while delivering presents at super sonic speed."

Age: "Australian museums are among the most progressive in the world when it comes to returning human remains and cultural objects to their original homes.

Unlike the key international museums that have declared their opposition to the wholesale repatriation of cultural artefacts, the National Museum of Australia and Museum Victoria have repatriation policies in place and actively seek to return human remains and secret and sacred objects to indigenous people."

Age: "Australia has been accused of being an enemy of Islam in speeches to mosques in Asia, increasing the risk of terrorist attacks, according to a leading defence expert."

BBC: talking George W Bush doll

Age: "Men continued to lead women in the pay stakes and the gap was widening, an official survey of employee earnings showed today."

It's so cold! Overnight minimum is 0C (32F), tomorrow the maximum is just 1C (33F). What am I doing here?

Your clit is bigger than science will tell you.

This is going to stuff up my search terms, but this summary of a report about Australian researchers' discovery that medical and general textbooks failed to depict the clitoris as it actually is was really interesting.

According to another article, "

After dissecting the bodies of 10 women and using 3D photography, O'Connell discovered that much of the female sexual anatomy, not just its fine tuning, was wrong in textbooks."

I've actually seen a 'your body' guide published in 1975 with a diagram of the female genital area that didn't include the clitoris. Heaven help any poor girl who compared her body to the diagram and found an extra bit!

While I'm at it, the New Scientist on the G-spot.

Age: "Lobby group Fair Wear has pledged to name and shame retailers that have refused to sign an ethical code of conduct protecting clothing workers from exploitation."

Age: "Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has publicly rejected the push from Defence Minister Robert Hill and Prime Minister John Howard to amend the United Nations charter to allow pre-emptive strikes against terrorists."

Age: "Labor frontbencher Carmen Lawrence today resigned from Labor's shadow cabinet in protest at the party's new immigration policy."
...
"Dr Lawrence said it was time for Labor to have some ideals and to stop playing politics on Prime Minister John Howard's turf.

She said Labor's immigration policy was an improvement on what she described as the moral panic of the policy they took to last year's election after the MV Tampa, but the new policy did not go far enough."
Carmen, don't go!

Age: Coles Myer to fight sweatshops

"Hundreds of thousands of textile and clothing outworkers came a step closer to protection from exploitation yesterday when giant retailer Coles Myer signed a national code of practice on behalf of Myer Grace Bros, Target and Kmart."

Microsoft Anonymous: The 12 Steps

BBC: "A North East writer has been given a grant of £2,000 to use sheep to create random poems, which also utilise the deepest workings of the universe."

Gareth's Tips on Sucks-Less Writing

Cool links

Well, quelle surprise! Expatica: "the Dutch population are the thriftiest population in Europe over the Christmas period, with Europeans on average paying EUR 48 for a present, while the Dutch will pay EUR 23. Germans pay EUR 76 for a present."

I learnt two things last night. One, suspenders are ace. Two, 'muff nudges': apparently this is when a woman bumps her muff against you, usually in the context of a flirtation. I can't work out if the English have a name for it because it's something that only English women do, or if everyone does it but no other culture has named it.

BBC: Life 'began on the ocean floor'

it is time for England to relinquish their grip on the Ashes urn.

BBC: contraception 'key to poverty trap'

"Better access to family planning and sexual health services for women is the key to fighting poverty across the world, a UN report has said."

Are you reading, Dubya?

In London, you can go weeks without seeing your shadow. I'm having a 'what am I doing here?' moment - I was shocked to realise I'm used to seeing huge piles of garbage on the streets. I shouldn't be so down on London, tonight I'm going to a big fund-raising ball at the Tate Modern as a corporate guest; and I had a beautifully trashy weekend worthy of a Sun headline.

Sunday I went to see the Z Star Afro Punk Experience at Vibe. Vibe has an undies dispenser in the girls toilets, so of course I had to try them - I got a pair with a 50s pulp fiction styel graphic and 'she tries to be good'. Heh.

If this was prison, you'd be our bitch

Ugh, I've been at work for 15 hours, from 8am to 11pm.

Ironically, BBC publishes Hi-tech workplace no better than factories

Age: "The old barley silos that bear the Nylex clock above the Yarra River and Punt Road are to be demolished."

Age: Danniii tries to explain her 'racist' comments.

The Onion presents a Thanksgiving project for the little ones

ickle.org on jaffas. I never knew New Zealanders had them as well as Australians. I could really do with some right now. Does that make me a tragic expat?

It's 30 years since Gough Whitlam came into power and the Age reviews the effect he had.

According to the Death Clock, I'm going to die on May 2, 2053 at the age of 79 but according to the Death Meter I'm going to die on May 2 2058. Then again, I'm not going to die till I'm 83 according to the Longevity Game.