Ozneyland gets a new American ambassador

After a two year wait George W finally got around to deciding which one of his old drinking buddies would become the US's new ambassador to Australia. The new ambassador, Robert McCallum, has kindly allowed Australians to disagree with American policy,

I want to get out across the entire continent of Australia to say that it's OK to disagree with this US policy or that US policy but still be pro-American because we have so much in common.

They didn't report it in the newspapers, but I'm pretty sure that when a journalist asked him about his foreign policy experience he replied by chugging a beer.

Free books!

Google is now offering full pdf downloads of out-of-copyright books at the google books website. I guess it's time to start digging through the google catalogue!

A great thing happened to me yesterday

My copy of the second season of Battlestar Galactica arrived from Amazon 2 days early! Seven episodes down, 17 to go...

More on the AWB

It seems that the Cole inquiry is back in full swing. The latest evidence demonstrates that the Howard government knew in great detail about the involvement of the AWB in the Oil-for-Food scandal before it broke in late 2004.

I would like to say that this means that heads will role in Canberra as the Government has always maintained that they knew nothing untill the Oil-for-Food scandal broke. It seems now that they knew, and were planning how to deal with the political fallout months before the findings of the UN inquiry were released. In particular it seems that Alexander Downer had to have known about the AWBs involvement in the scandal.

It will be interesting to see if the Cole inquiry re-calls Downer or any other senior ministers to give more evidence before the inquiry.

Futurama, thawed out and waking up in the future

Apparently Futurama is going to make a comeback next year. There's a bit of debate about whether this will be in the form of a series of movies or a continuation of the TV series but either way it's some pretty interesting news.

I'm a big Futurama fan and I'm really looking forward to seeing how they continue the storyline, especially seeing as they brought the series to an ending somewhat after it was canceled on Fox. I guess if they are releasing a series of movies then there will be an irresistible temptation to make a lot of Star Trek revamp jokes...

Congratulations all round

Dave had a big week a couple of weeks ago. As did Terry Tao who became the first Australian to win a Fields medal.

Nice work Kevie, you little halfwit you :-)

Kevin Rudd gave his couterpart Alexander Downer a rough time in the Australian Federal Parliament yesterday.

Apparently in the Cole inquiry has released an email from 2002 demonstrating that Australian dimplomats were helping the AWB (Australian Wheat Board) to get contacts within Saddam's inner circle so that they could land bigger contracts...

Wordpress?

I'm thinking about moving Quantumbiodiscs to a free wordpress site. I've set up a little test page here.

What do people think? It seems that Wordpress has some pretty cool features, but ultimately it seems that all the features are essentially the same. The only thing that I think Wordpress does better is sidebar widgets.

Oh yea, I'd also lose my google rank if I switched.

Any comments are welcome.

Windows live writer test

This is a test for Windows live writer. I wonder if this is gonna work....

Sorry for the un-announced hiatus II, III, IV, V,...

A huge sorry out there to all my regular readers for not posting for three months. I don't have many excuses other than real life has caught up with me in many ways and I just haven't had the time or energy for regular blogging. My only real web-presence of late has been as an occasional commenter at LP or Road to Surfdom.

Dammit i'm Spidy too

Apparently me and the Pontiff are going to have to fight it out to see who really is Spider-Man.

My Superhero quiz results:

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 95% The Flash 90% Robin 75% Superman 70% Green Lantern 70% Supergirl 60% Wonder Woman 55% Catwoman 55% Iron Man 55% Batman 45% Hulk 40%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz