Bob-a-job-alog-a-roonie

Be aware of a new car-jacking scheme.

Imagine: you walk across the parking lot, unlock your car and get inside. Then you lock all of your doors, start the engine and shift into reverse, and you look into the rearview mirror to back out of your parking space and you notice a piece of paper stuck to the middle of the rear window.

So, you shift into park, unlock your doors and jump out of your car to remove that paper (or whatever it is) that is obstructing your view. When you reach the back of your car, that is when the car-jackers appear out of nowhere, jump into your car and take off!

Your engine was running, (ladies would have left their purse in the car) and they practically mow you down as they speed off in your car.

[I don't care if this is just an urban myth or no, it sounds plausible to me]

Listening to: Madmax performed by Julian Cope

Quite possibly my charitable / hairbrained act caused a stabbing incident...

My wife wanted to chuck out some of my old clothes, so last night, rather than taking it to a charity place I thought I'd cut out the middleman and leave the bag on the doorstep of the Gatwick Hotel, home to all sorts of druggie homeless types. Four guys out the front were a bit scary, so I dropped off the bag just around the corner - it had a Jim Beam cap clearly showing on top of the pile. Now read this:

.... a 31-year-old St Kilda man was stabbed at the Gatwick Hotel in Fitzroy Street, St Kilda. Two men were fighting over property when the stabbing took place, police said. The man suffered two stab wounds in the stomach and was taken to the Alfred Hospital.
A 50-year-old man was arrested and questioned but later released without charge, the spokesman said. Herald Sun

The incident occured less than 1 hour after I left the bag there....

Listening to: Better Living Through Chemistry performed by Queens Of The Stone Age

If terrorists follow the news, then they might be devising a devious plan...

Last night Home Secretary David Blunkett defended police handling of the situation, insisting the police had taken the "entirely correct decision" in identifying Hatch as a protester and not a terrorist.

Mr Blunkett said the Palace's alarm and camera systems had worked and the police acted correctly in assessing the threat.

1) Dress in a fancy dress costume
2) Have a protest banner
3) Blow yourself up

Listening to: Take Your Guns to Town performed by Whiskeytown

As soon as you hear that it was his drug dealer trying to kill him, then you have less sympathy - anyone knows that it's your friends who should deal with dealers, not yourself.

From the Herald Sun, via The Register:

An Australian man who was attacked by his drug dealer wielding a crossbow escaped with his life only because his mobile phone took the full force of the bolt, the Herald Sun reports.

Michael Brown, 33, came out of the December 2002 assault by dope dealer Robert Troy Scanlon virtually unscathed after his selfless cellphone's intervention. Brown had previously bought marijuana from Scanlon on various occasions and the latter became suspicious, threatening to kill his customer if he turned out to be a police nark.

A court heard how Scanlon bought a crossbow from an archery outlet in Ipswich, Brisbane, before luring Brown to the intended killing ground in bushland outside the town. Once Brown had been shot in the mobe, he wisely legged it with nothing more than an injured finger.

Scanlon was jailed for 12 years today after being convicted of attempted murder and possession of narcotics. The make of the heroic mobile phone is not noted

Listening to: Fools performed by The Lightning Seeds

From Salon.com, via TruthOut.org, comes the following:

The former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee tells Salon that the White House has suppressed convincing evidence that the Saudi royal family supported at least two of the hijackers

Why do you think the White House is so intent on keeping that information from the public?

I think there are several possible reasons. One is that it did not want the public to be aware of the degree of Saudi involvement in supporting the 9/11 terrorists. Second, it was embarrassing that that support took place literally under the nose of the FBI, to the point where one of the terrorists in San Diego was living at the house of a paid FBI informant. Third, there has been a long-term special relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia, and that relationship has probably reached a new high under the George W. Bush administration, in part because of the long and close family relationship that the Bushes have had with the Saudi royal family.

Much, much more in the full interview

Listening to: Dial: Revenge performed by Mogwai

I was on A Current Affair a few years ago, so to balance things out I will be (hopefully) making a brief appearance on Today Tonight next week, to promote Freecycle. This follows a piece a short while ago in The Australian

It started in America. it's not my idea, but I did at least spend 10 minutes setting it up for Melbourne. Although I did absolutely nothing to promote it, the Kevin Costnerism of "build it and they will come" seems to be at work!

Listening to: What Else Is New List performed by His Name Is Alive

Another bombing today, this time an Australian embassy. It is bound to happen within Australia one day, and it is a rather scary prospect.

A columnist from the New York Times says it plainly in today's article:

We should by now have become used to the death cult that is thriving at the fringes of the Muslim world. This is the cult of people who are proud to declare: "You love life, but we love death." This is the cult that sent waves of defenceless children to be mowed down on the battlefields of the Iran-Iraq war, which trains kindergarten children to become bombs, which fetishises death, which sends people off joyfully to commit mass murder.

This cult attaches itself to a political cause but parasitically strangles it. The death cult has strangled the dream of a Palestinian state. The suicide bombers have not brought peace to Palestine; they've brought reprisals. The car bombers are not pushing the US out of Iraq; they're forcing the US to stay longer. The death cult is now strangling the Chechen cause, and will bring not independence but blood.

But that's the idea. Because the death cult is not really about the cause it purports to serve. It's about the sheer pleasure of killing and dying

Listening to: Bummer in the Summer performed by Love

Large-breasted, narrow-waisted women have the highest reproductive potential, according to a new study, suggesting western men's penchant for women with an hourglass shape may have some biological justification.

"In Western societies, the cultural icon of Barbie as a symbol of female beauty seems to have some biological grounding," concludes the team. "I would be the last person to propagate Barbie," Jasienska notes wryly. "But when you think about the hourglass shape, Barbie is sort of the symbol."

Forget FHM and Ralph... New Scientist has the best stories for when I want to feel good about being a warm-blooded male...

Listening to: Your Sweetness Is My Weakness performed by Barry White