Was just going through some of the top rated 'blogs' in the world. This was a fascinating eye-opener. The top rated blogs are all about telling people how to write top rated blogs.

I'm deliberately overlooking sites such as boingboing and laughing squid, as these aren't really personal blogs per se, but rather content compilations assembled by teams of writers. As far as personal blogs, the most prominent content featured amongst the market leaders is about blogging itself.

So if you design a site that tells folks how to use wordpress or blogger, you too could be a blogging superstar. 

Marshall McLuhan would be proud.  

I found the news of Ms. Bhutto's assassination a bit troublesome. Where does Pakistan go from here?

I think it's time for Musharref to go away. Did he have something to do with the assassination? They're currently rounding up the 'usual suspects' and doing their best to paint this as an al-Qaeda operation. It is the Musharref regime however, which by virtue of being so virulently anti-democratic - lies at the root of the incident. I seem to recall that it was a military government that first deposed and later murdered Benadir's father as his populism was a threat to their hold on power.

Deja vu?  

Apologies, but there just doesn't seem to be any news over here (or anywhere that I'm plugged into) about the recent Lakota Nation dissolution of peace treaties with the U.S. Can anybody on the other side of the pond find something more informative? Reactions? Anything?

You would think that the north-central U.S. reverting to Indian ownership and cancellation of land treaties which means the loss/secession of both Dakotas and most of a couple more states; and the issuing of Lakota passports - might cause a bit of a stir. The land title issues alone could be tied up in court for another twenty years. If you've got a house or business in Lakota territory and you're not Indian, it's no longer yours; unless you're willing to take up arms to defend it.  

But no - nothing. Not even chatter. That's a bit odd. Don't you think? 

As I'm ordering a beer at the pub, I notice the guy behind me in the queue looks a bit familiar. Oh yeah, that's right. The vicar.

Back for Trivia Night are you? I heard you won last week - he says; as he orders a tall lager. 

Boy, you can't keep many secrets around here... Glad I wasn't there to do any serious sinning.

Seems the US scandal du jour is the waterboarding/torturing of prisoners at Guantanamo, and then having the gall to delete the videos before somebody leaked them to YouTube.

Believe I talked about what was taking place at Guantanamo almost 6 years ago.  It's taken this long for them to admit what we already knew was happening. The only reason they're whining about the videos now is because it's coming up on an election year and they'd really like to use the footage on the campaign trail.

But I got to thinking... The only reason why we can hold all these guys in violation of Geneva Convention is because we claim that technically they aren't part of an army. They're 'illegal combatants' in Cheney-speak. If Al-queda wanted to prevent us from doing things like this going forward, all they would have to do is declare themselves to be a political party operating under a government in exile from somewhere. Then they would legally be soldiers and we couldn't torture the poor buggers. In fact I'd have to say that Iraqi-born insurgents are probably legal combatants and completely entitled to POW status today. Defending one's homeland from foreign invaders is the noblest of military pursuits.

Any Syrian or Iranian combatants are on their own. 

The Australian government announced that they plan to sell off and privatize the electric grid. My American friends should find this amusing. I was in hysterical laughter listening to the talking heads talking about it.

• Privatizing the electric utilities will result in reduced costs for the consumer.
• It will lead to investment in new power generation facilities.
• It will lead to increased competition, which is good for the consumer.

Right. Let me tell you about what happened in California when they did something similar...

Prices went through the roof.

No new power generation facilities were built. This would of course increase supply, which would lower the price - which reduces profits. The primary goal of private sector companies is to maximize profits.

Existing facilities were taken offline during peak periods for 'maintenance', resulting in artificial shortages, which made rates skyrocket. At times, more than half of the generating capacity was idle when it was needed the most. As the spot-rates per kilowatt rose as a result, somebody pushed a button and allowed electricity to flow from these idle plants - at ten to thousands of times the normal cost of off-season power. 

But not before creating a shortage and widespread blackouts. This created a hostage situation where people would pay anything to turn the lights back on.   

So maybe the thing to do is invest in the stocks of the companies who buy these power generation resources?

Wrong again, although this is a good short-term play. Eventually the power companies went into receivership, but not before siphoning off all the profits and laundering them through subsidiary companies and off-shore accounts. The investors lost everything. The only folks that came out ahead were the company directors.

So you're saying there's no way for the consumer to come out ahead in this situation?

That's exactly what I'm saying.

[Though I should point out that if you're planning on buying any real estate in the near future, consider buying within two blocks of a hospital or fire station. These are the last places to lose power when the rolling blackouts occur.] 

(CNN) -- For many families, having the children help decorate the Christmas tree is a treasured tradition, starting with the strands of lights. But a CNN analysis of four common brands of Christmas lights shows levels of lead experts say are high enough to be dangerous to children.

Manufacturers do not hide the fact that lead is part of the PVC insulation that insulates Christmas light wiring. Lead is used legally to stabilize polyvinyl chloride so it does not crack or crumble with age. The lead also acts as a fire retardant.

----

Maybe they weren't hiding it, but it's the first I've heard. Lead is a PVC stabilizer? Criminy - I use PVC quite often. I handle PVC coated cables every day. Nobody told me before. Heck I used to extrude PVC - nasty stuff to breathe incidentally but I still don't remember using any lead in the products we made with it.

Course back in those days huffing hydrochloric acid and all kinds of other nasty stuff was part of the job description. We wore radiation badges - not to protect us from anything, but to tell us after the fact if we received a lethal dose and should quickly make peace with our creator.  Fishing in San Francisco Bay was not yet known to cause liver damage, though it had been doing so for a hundred years. I fished in San Francisco Bay.

So now they say you can get lead poisoning from handling electrical cables. Sigh... 

Speaking of Netscape, I laughed when I saw this picture of Al Gore with a big 'N' over his shoulder. What a ghastly image. You almost expect him to be wearing a red and black cape. Wonder if he can see his reflection in the mirror. I feel like putting some garlic round my neck or making certain I'm armed with a silver spike or three.

So when do you get to be too old for one of those 25 cent kiddie-rides outside the grocery store?

I suppose it's probably about a year after you finally realize that you just don't fit in/on the thing anymore.

Note: This was the cost I grew up with. I didn't look to see what they cost here in Australia - likely 50 cents since they don't make a 25 cent piece - and the girls seemed much more interested in just sitting on the thing rather than asking for change to fire it up.