For Sale: Wireless Network Cable

This auction on eBay Germany (you can use Babel Fish to translate it if you like) seems to be trying to sell a Wireless Network Cable.

(and, for the benefit of Adam, who won’t ‘get’ it: a wireless network, being wireless, doesn’t have cables – this is geek humour that even you can understand)

Daddy, Why Did We Have To Attack Iraq

Daddy, why did we have to attack Iraq?
Because they had weapons of mass destruction.

But the inspectors didn’t find any weapons of mass destruction.
That’s because the Iraqis were hiding them.

And that’s why we invaded Iraq?
Yep. Invasions always work better than inspections.

But after we invaded them, we STILL didn’t find any weapons of mass destruction, did we?
That’s because the weapons are so well hidden. Don’t worry, we’ll find something, probably right before the 2004 election.

Why did Iraq want all those weapons of mass destruction?
To use them in a war, silly.

I’m confused. If they had all those weapons that they planned to use in a war, then why didn’t they use any of those weapons when we went to war with them?
Well, obviously they didn’t want anyone to know they had those weapons, so they chose to die by the thousands rather than defend themselves.

That doesn’t make sense. Why would they choose to die if they had all those big weapons with which they could have fought back?
It’s a different culture. It’s not supposed to make sense.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think they had any of those weapons our government said they did.
Well, you know, it doesn’t matter whether or not they had those weapons. We had another good reason to invade them anyway.

And what was that?
Even if Iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein was a cruel dictator, which is another good reason to invade another country.

Why? What does a cruel dictator do that makes it OK to invade his country?
Well, for one thing, he tortured his own people.

Kind of like what they do in China?
Don’t go comparing China to Iraq. China is a good economic competitor, where millions of people work for slave wages in sweatshops to make U.S. corporations richer.

So if a country lets its people be exploited for American corporate gain, it’s a good country, even if that country tortures people?
Right.

Why were people in Iraq being tortured?
For political crimes, mostly, like criticizing the government. People who criticized the government in Iraq were sent to prison and tortured.

Isn’t that exactly what happens in China?
I told you, China is different.

What’s the difference between China and Iraq?
Well, for one thing, Iraq was ruled by the Ba’ath party, while China is Communist.

Didn’t you once tell me Communists were bad?
No, just Cuban Communists are bad.

How are the Cuban Communists bad?
Well, for one thing, people who criticize the government in Cuba are sent to prison and tortured.

Like in Iraq?
Exactly.

And like in China, too?
I told you, China’s a good economic competitor. Cuba, on the other hand, is not.

How come Cuba isn’t a good economic competitor?
Well, you see, back in the early 1960s, our government passed some laws that made it illegal for Americans to trade or do any business with Cuba until they stopped being Communists and started being capitalists like us.

But if we got rid of those laws, opened up trade with Cuba, and started doing business with them, wouldn’t that help the Cubans become capitalists?
Don’t be a smart-ass.

I didn’t think I was being one.
Well, anyway, they also don’t have freedom of religion in Cuba.

Kind of like China and the Falun Gong movement?
I told you, stop saying bad things about China. Anyway, Saddam Hussein came to power through a military coup, so he’s not really a legitimate leader anyway.

What’s a military coup?
That’s when a military general takes over the government of a country by force, instead of holding free elections like we do in the United States.

Didn’t the ruler of Pakistan come to power by a military coup?
You mean General Pervez Musharraf? Uh, yeah, he did, but Pakistan is our friend.

Why is Pakistan our friend if their leader is illegitimate?
I never said Pervez Musharraf was illegitimate.

Didn’t you just say a military general who comes to power by forcibly overthrowing the legitimate government of a nation is an illegitimate leader?
Only Saddam Hussein. Pervez Musharraf is our friend, because he helped us invade Afghanistan.

Why did we invade Afghanistan?
Because of what they did to us on September 11th.

What did Afghanistan do to us on September 11th?
Well, on September 11th, nineteen men – fifteen of them Saudi Arabians – hijacked our airplanes and flew three of them into buildings, killing over 3,000 Americans.

So how did Afghanistan figure into all that?
Afghanistan was where those bad men trained, under the oppressive rule of the Taliban.

Aren’t the Taliban those bad radical Islamics who chopped off people’s heads and hands?
Yes, that’s exactly who they were. Not only did they chop off people’s heads and hands, but they oppressed women, too.

Didn’t the Bush administration give the Taliban 43 million dollars back in May of 2001?
Yes, but that money was a reward because they did such a good job fighting drugs.

Fighting drugs?
Yes, the Taliban were very helpful in stopping people from growing opium poppies.

How did they do such a good job?
Simple. If people were caught growing opium poppies, the Taliban would have their hands and heads cut off.

So, when the Taliban cut off people’s heads and hands for growing flowers, that was OK, but not if they cut people’s heads and hands off for other reasons?
Yes. It’s OK with us if radical Islamic fundamentalists cut off people’s hands for growing flowers, but it’s cruel if they cut off people’s hands for stealing bread.

Don’t they also cut off people’s hands and heads in Saudi Arabia?
That’s different. Afghanistan was ruled by a tyrannical patriarchy that oppressed women and forced them to wear burqas whenever they were in public, with death by stoning as the penalty for women who did not comply.

Don’t Saudi women have to wear burqas in public, too?
No, Saudi women merely wear a traditional Islamic body covering.

What’s the difference?
The traditional Islamic covering worn by Saudi women is a modest yet fashionable garment that covers all of a woman’s body except for her eyes and fingers. The burqa, on the other hand, is an evil tool of patriarchal oppression that covers all of a woman’s body except for her eyes and fingers.

It sounds like the same thing with a different name.
Now, don’t go comparing Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are our friends.

But I thought you said 15 of the 19 hijackers on September 11th were from Saudi Arabia.
Yes, but they trained in Afghanistan.

Who trained them?
A very bad man named Osama bin Laden.

Was he from Afghanistan?
Uh… no; he was from Saudi Arabia too. But he was a bad man, a very bad man.

I seem to recall he was our friend once.
Only when we helped him and the mujahadeen repel the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan back in the 1980s.

Who are the Soviets? Was that the Evil Communist Empire Ronald Reagan talked about?
There are no more Soviets. The Soviet Union broke up in 1990 or thereabouts, and now they have elections and capitalism like us. We call them Russians now.

So the Soviets – I mean, the Russians – are now our friends?
Well, not really. You see, they were our friends for many years after they stopped being Soviets, but then they decided not to support our invasion of Iraq, so we’re mad at them now. We’re also mad at the French and the Germans because they didn’t help us invade Iraq either.

So the French and Germans are evil, too?
Not exactly evil, but just bad enough that we had to rename French fries and French toast to Freedom Fries and Freedom Toast.

Do we always rename foods whenever another country doesn’t do what we want them to do?
No, we just do that to our friends. Our enemies, we invade.

But wasn’t Iraq one of our friends back in the 1980s?
Well, yeah. For a while.

Was Saddam Hussein ruler of Iraq back then?
Yes, but at the time he was fighting against Iran, which made him our friend, temporarily.

Why did that make him our friend?
Because at that time, Iran was our enemy.

Isn’t that when he gassed the Kurds?
Yeah, but since he was fighting against Iran at the time, we looked the other way, to show him we were his friend.

So anyone who fights against one of our enemies automatically becomes our friend?
Most of the time, yes.

And anyone who fights against one of our friends is automatically an enemy?
Sometimes that’s true, too. However, if American corporations can profit by selling weapons to both sides at the same time, all the better.

Why?
Because war is good for the economy, which means war is good for America. Also, since God is on America’s side, anyone who opposes war is a godless un-American Communist. Do you understand now why we attacked Iraq?

I think so. We attacked them because God wanted us to, right?
Yes

But how did we know God wanted us to attack Iraq?
Well, you see, God personally speaks to George W. Bush and tells him what to do.

So basically, what you’re saying is that we attacked Iraq because George W. Bush hears voices in his head?
Yes! You finally understand how the world works. Now close your eyes, make yourself comfortable, and go to sleep. Good night, dear.

Safe Road Use Of Elephants

Aside from the main point of this article, I found it most amusing to find that state-run Indian elephants are fitted with reflectors ‘in an attempt to prevent road accidents’. What does it take to accidentally crash into an elephant?

Elephant wearing reflectors

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Silliest Thing I’ve Seen All Week

As this hilarious BBC news story tells it, an artist came home to his Liverpool house to find that:

(a) A criminal had broken in to his home.
(b) Mistaking a piece of his artwork as a human head in a jar, the criminal turned himself in to the police to tell them about it. He also confessed all of his crimes to his mother.
(c) The police broke down the door and raided the house, and found that the contents of the jar were merely formaldehyde and a mask made from rashers of bacon.

I laughed.

Now I’m going home. I’m not feeling top-form today.

Almost Passed This On The Way To Work

Another fantastic story from the BBC: this one took place yesterday, and so I missed it, as I didn’t come in to work. Apparently this lorry full of cheese caught fire on the A44, on my usual route to the office. The driver said: “I saw the fire starting but by the time I’d gone back to the cab to get the fire extinguisher the whole lot had started to go on fire.”

1. Cheese burns?
2. What route did he take back to the cab? Via Bow Street?
3. How does combusion occur in the hold of a moving lorry full of milk produce?

Sandplough

As this report by the BBC states, Danish soldiers in Iraq were surprised when their latest supplies shipment, instead of containing much-needed morphine and tent equipment, contained a snowplough and a supply of lawnmowers.

Now; okay – I understand that mistakes happen, and perhaps there was a mix-up between two supplies orders… but somebody must have signed-off this snowplough to Iraq… didn’t they think to question the order just once?

Defense Minister Svend Aage Jensby has told one Danish paper, Ekstra Bladet, of his displeasure over the mistakes and has promised to put them right.

That lit up my Thursday morning.

Anonymity For Beginners

Somebody obviously didn’t understand the idea of the BBC’s story on annoying work colleagues when they posted the following comment: see how they signed it off –

Why are there so many ‘Anonymous’ comments above? If people are so concerned about their colleagues, then say so with the courage of your convictions rather than snipe about them anonymously!
Anonymous, UK

Raised a laugh among my work colleagues, anyway.

Practical Joke Of The Week

Am pulling off a fantastic one against my girlfriend, Claire. On Friday, our landlord arrived with a plumber to replace the leaky taps in our bathroom. The new taps are very similar in design, but significantly taller. I didn’t tell Claire that we have them.

Yesterday – Saturday – night, after washing her hands, she remarked “This is going to sound really weird… but have those taps changed?” I played it cool – after all, these were the same taps we’ve always had, aren’t they? She keeps looking at them in an odd way every time she walks past the bathroom.

Claire’s birthday tomorrow.

Scatman’s World

[this page was originally posted to AvAngel.com but is archived here; the links have been adapted to improve usability]

Introduction

After playing around for some time with Corel Photo-Paint and Adobe Premiere, I decided it was time to make a cool music video that quite blatantly took the piss out of Bagpuss, a friend of mine with whom I used to share lodgings at University. I believe that when he saw it, his exact words were “I’m going to kill him.”

Well, not content with having made a fool out of him, my next project was to make a fool out of myself (what do you mean, I do that all the time anyway!)… and so my next video project was…

Scatman’s World

After my nickname among many folks in Aberystwyth, Scatman Dan (a reference, of course, to the late Scatman John), I made this music video, which made it’s big-screen premiere at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre Cinema on Saturday 4th May 2002 (after a two-week delay caused by numerous technical problems). And now, for your viewing pleasure, it’s available to download here (it’s a DixX-encoded file, so you’ll need an appropriate player). Being, as it is, filled from top to bottom with in-jokes, it’s probably not even remotely funny if you don’t know who I am.

Download The Video

Warning : This file is just under 30MB in size, and will take a considerable amount of time to download, even on a fast connection. You have been warned.

Warning : Owing to explicit content, this video is not suitable for viewing by anybody under the age of 18 years, without parental consent and supervision.

Note : It is recommended that you attempt to save this file to your hard disk, rather than attempting to play it directly from the site, as this corrects a lot of potential download problems with this file. In most browsers, this can be achieved by right-clicking on the link and selecting “Save File As…” or “Save Target As…”.

[the download is no longer hosted here, but you can view the video on YouTube]