This site is funny, in a slightly sickly-cutesy kind of way – an artist receives briefs from his toddler daughter who then critiques the results (read: gets angry and hurls abuse).

Cost of producing Acme Consumer Widget™ in two countries:

Item
Country A
Country B

Raw materials
$5
$5

Labour costs in compliance with local
minimum wage and employment laws
$30
$2

Cost of compliance with OH&S requirements
$5
$0

Cost of compliance with environmental laws
$3
$0

Total
$43
$7

So why do we persist in calling trade agreements with countries that lack basic labour and environmental standards “free” trade agreements?
Prediction 1: in 20 years [...]

You may have come across software “End User Licence Agreements” before in the course of installing Adobe Acrobat, Windows or other software.  These are documents which typically require a person wishing to use software to click “I Agree” (or similar) to the terms before they are permitted to do so (called a “shrink-wrap” or “click-wrap” [...]

I came across this very informative summary of the current (purported) rights that various on-line communities claim over the content you, the user, uploads.  For example, Facebook’s terms of service are completely horrendous, whereas Flickr is relatively respectful of your rights.  I say “purported” because whether some of the stuff in these agreements would stand [...]

I don’t know what this is, but I like it: one man documents the extraordinarily bad shoes worn by his crazy Russian housemate’s prostitute(s).
Somewhat NSFW, but not completely (depending on where you work).

An update on Harry Nicolaides – he’s set to receive a royal pardon.  Which is great for Harry, but just goes to show that the current Thai legal regime is one in which arbitrary decisions of members of a royal family are more important that principles of free speech or basic human rights.

I… don’t know what the hell is going on.  Telstra, harbinger of telecommunications doom, monopolistic behemoth extraordinaire, profit driven dinosaur which ambles across the land devouring its small, innovative mammalian competitors, has made a radically pro-human rights submission to the national human rights consultative panel.
I find it very disturbing to read words put forward by [...]

An example of why prisons (and police, and prosecutors) are best kept in public hands: making findings of guilt and consequential imprisonment profitable creates an incentive to put people in prison who don’t deserve to be there, which leads to this – two judges who have been giving offenders unwarranted sentences of detention in exchange [...]

Pictures like these seem like a good enough reason to continue exploring space – it’s an excellent tool for reflecting the utter triviality of the apparently significant matters with which we fill our days.
Now if only we could find one of those obelisks…

I really wanted to believe that this was fake when it was first emailed to me – but no, there it is on the Catch the Fire Ministries website: Pastor Danny Nalliah, leader of that esteemed fundamentalist Christian group, tells us that the horrendous bushfires in Victoria in the past week which have so far [...]

I was lucky enough to see Neil Young at the Adelaide Big Day Out.  Erin and I photographed the day for Rhum.
Some of my Neil Young shots (click for bigger versions):

Obama’s been in office all of five minutes and his hair has already started going grey.

Clinton and Bush had the same experience (scroll down here).
Possible causes:

no longer has to dye hair in order to look younger than John McCain
following Bush Administration’s introduction of everyday use of ‘signing statements‘ to alter reality, now simply orders all [...]

Fight Club is starting to look somewhat prophetic this week – a number of recent events are reminiscent of ‘Project Mayhem’, Tyler Durden’s plan to bring down the structures and sensibilities of conservative/capitalist America (apparently loosely based on the Cacophany Society).
Specifically:

U.S. broadcaster Comcast ’somehow’ showed 30 seconds of porn to some viewers during its broadcast [...]

Continuing with the emerging theme of “totally repulsive things you should never actually eat”, Erin points to this masterpiece of high-energy, low nutrient food: various McDonalds products on a pizza.

The gun in the final picture is presumably there so you can finish yourself off rather than waiting another 10-15 years for the effects of the [...]