Beating around the Bush

So nothing really important ever happens in Mainz? Well, wait for February the 23rd, when Bush the younger comes here! Yes, realising he's not welcome in the capital Berlin - Germany (just in case...) he decided to go with the "cosy atmosphere" of this town.So that gives two good reasons to get out of here for next month (the other being the carnival). However, if you do end up having to stay, here's a site which will help you find interesting things to do. Of course, the security of this city, already increased after Mainz 05 started off the season in the first division, will have to be stepped up a notch again, which can already be seen to be taking effect, in that terrorists are being caught (yes, here).

Keeping on the US theme, a well respected journalist (he found out about the iraqi jail abuses), has reported that the US special forces are presently operating inside Iran and gathering intelligence for a possible invasion. I wonder if there's any oil to be found there...

In information recently released, the US had considered using chemical weapons in war - to make the enemy soldiers gay and sexually irresistable from each other. Of course, they couldn't ave tested it on their own soldiers first, as such behaviour is seen as reason for dismissal there.

One of the most famous cinema lines "I'll be back" may turn out to be more difficult than ever thought. After terminating (pardon the pun) a convicted killer in his state, the governer (Arnie) has gone against the principles of Austria, and in so doing, should be relinquished of his austrian nationality - says an austrian politician. Well, there goes the chances of Terminator 4 being shot in Europe...

In an act of -continuing- stupidness, the UK government has shown it's worth once again in the push for ID-cards to stop ID fraud, by hiring such a fraudster as an " asylum-seeker health policy adviser". Yes, some guy who didn't even have any credentials with his name on, was allowed to review over 1500 specific immigration cases as an expert witness. I really don't want to have to continue this list of mishaps every week, but I'm afrais they'll just keep on happening with the present labour government.

Just to show the record companies that many people do buy their music legally, even if it is online, the figures for legal download music sales have shown a jump of 900% in 2004 from 2003's count. So if we would like to take this into context now, how much does it cost to produce a CD-less copy of music? Surely not the amount that these services are presently charging (roughly the same as a CD version)!!

In a copycat tale of Shakespeare's famous love story, an italian man couldn't live with himself after his wife went into a coma, and he committed suicide, only to be missed be the aforementioned wife when she awoke and asked for him. This is when one needs one of life's "back-buttons".

In a new twist to phone-line scams, an adults-only number offering filipino girls was actually staffed by nottigham lasses, putting on exotic accents. Yes, next time you ring such a number (yes, I've seen your phone-bill) maybe you should take some reality checks, asking about their home town, local culture, and mother language.

And if you haven't had enough of those "becoming a better person" programmes doing the rounds on TV at the moment (otherwise know as "plastic surgery R US") the bounds have been crossed and animals now are also counted. And so Mischief wins the Pet Slimmer Of They Year award for losing 5kg in 9 months. My hero.

Now on a more serious note, a concert in Wales put on at 3 week's notice to raise money for the victims of the Tsunami, has raised 1.25 million pounds. This brings the total raised by the UK public to more than 200 million pounds (about 300 million euros). Congratulations.

And with that happy note, I will leave you to plan ahead for the following month.

Skipping the usual new year's greetings and the "why haven't you written in so long" I would like to get straight to the news.

Now, there's nothing I can really say, that you probably haven't heard a hundred times on the local news programmes about the Tsunami in Indonesia, India and Thailand (amongst others), so I'll just leave it at that saying that of course our feelings are with all those families affected by this disaster.

So onto the slightly weird news stories. A baby hippo in Kenya has become friends with a 100-year old tortoise. They apparently go everywhere and do everything together. So I presume we'll be seeing some weird genetic mixes coming up in the not so distant future.

An idea taken from the Dutch (where else) is going to be implemented in London, whereby a road is left without any signs, lights or rules, and the drivers are expected to drive carefully just by the pschological impact of not having to. This "naked road" experiment of course could first be implemented in Paris as despite all the rules, none of the parisian cars actually follow them.

In another great political move, tea-bags are to be prohibited from being thrown onto the compost heaps, as they carry the possibility of foot-and-mouth infection. I wonder if the same applies to coffee leftovers?

Yet again, some politicians really know how to handle foreign relations. Take Mexico, whose government has just published a booklet explaining how their citizens can survive crossing the border with the US, despite it being illegal. Now maybe this will come in helpful for all those immigrants trying to enter the UK illegally.

Ever had things happen in your online Sims 2 game that couldn't quite be explained? Like after downloading that new dishwasher, your 14 year old daughter gets pregnant, and your wife no longer slaps you for having multiple lovers. Well, apparently the so-called "hacks" for changing how some elements of the game behave are spreading like viruses, and people are finding themselves with new "features" which they hadn't asked for.

Okay, we've all heard of the regular gaffes coming from the mouths of Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, or US spokesperson, sorry, president, Bush (junior - or was that baby?). Now another one from the house of MS, about ethical fair trade. I really can't do it justice by summarizing it, you'll just have to read the article. But I assure you, it's worth it.

Now for those of you with new computers for Christmas, here's a little story to help you understand what Spammers, Spyware and Bot-nets are, and why they help the russian mafia to get your credit card details. Read and learn !

And if you have a webcam connected to your PC, be especially aware, as some simple google searches are showing up webcam images from all over the world, which has now become a new hobby for some this year.

No news post would be complete without the latest virus warning. So, the windows media format has again been used for transferring viruses, this time through it's controversial Digital Rights Management feature. So that's two good reasons to leave this format alone.

Well, that was probably enough to chew on for the beginning of this year.

Stay tuned