“Australians – made nervous by the Bali bombings two years ago – may now feel increasingly under siege.
In such uncertain times, they could well turn again to the safe hands of Prime Minister John Howard, who has been in office since 1996.” (BBC)
Please, no. Time to email Mum and remind her I’m not moving back until he’s gone. John Howard is a bad, bad man.

From a museums email list I’m on:
“Could you recommend a collection management software? The PC based program needs to be in English very user friendly, since it is for a person that has no computer, museum or collection experience.”
Amusing from an analyst/programmers point of view – perhaps they’d like it to read their minds and save them going near a keyboard? – and scary from a museum point of view – are they so under-resourced they’ve started asking passers-by to manage their collections?

“Disaster in an age of global communications demands an instant running commentary, but last week’s images of the carnage in Beslan left many uneasy. Is it right for TV crews and photographers to satisfy our appetite for horror – or are there some things that should never be seen?” Go read the rest at the Observer.
“Take pictures – show the world the American democracy” (Guardian) This article is also well worth reading, but it’s quite graphic and even more depressing.

“Squeezing one of the “Think of Me” rings makes the other heat up, giving people a way to let a partner know when they are thinking of them.

“We wanted to see how technology can be used to communicate something other than just information”” (BBC)
Speaking of cute

Random quotes: “the average reading age of people in the UK is equivalent to an educated nine-year-old.” (BBC) That seems really low, but I guess I don’t know what the international standard is.