Susi Rajah

Yes We Can Song

Okay, as far as political/election promotional materials go, this is pretty much the coolest piece I've seen.

Visit www.yeswecansong.com. (Dip.finition is well worth reading.)

A World Without Writers

This is a little video in support of the Hollywood writer's strike. As you probably already know, they are striking because they want eight cents from the sale of every DVD of their work (they currently get four cents from a twenty-dollar DVD). The AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) think this an unreasonable request.

What I can't understand is why all other creative people in Hollywood, who interpret the original material, are treated better than the people who create the original material.

I think the fair thing to do would be to let the consumer decide where the money goes when they buy the DVD. I'm guessing that then the writers would get paid for their work and ideas, and the producers would find themselves in a position where they have make do with last year's boobs on their girlfriends.

Watch A World Without Writers.

 

Ricky Gervais Does Charity

A new, more honest take on the celebrity-does-charity genre. It is about eight minutes long and is well worth watching until the end.

Vodka Can Save Your Life

A recent news story has proven a couple of things I've suspected all along. Vodka is a greatly underrated beverage. And it is possible to administer it through a drip.

A tourist, visiting Australia, decided to end it all by drinking something you ought not to drink if you like being alive. In this case it was something like anti-freeze. He ended up in hospital, where, to save his life, they had to put him on an alcohol drip, as alcohol inhibits the effects of the poison. The hospital ran out of the medicinal grade alcohol they usually use in cases like this, and so, went out and bought a case of vodka and hooked the man up to a vodka drip. He received about three standard drinks an hour for three days and made a full recovery. The physician in charge of the case said that the hospital's administrators were very understanding when they explained their reasons for buying a case of vodka. He also said that the man was fortunate he was in a medically-induced coma because that meant he missed the world-class hangover he would've had. I think I'd like this doctor to be my doctor.

There are two conclusions I can draw from this story:

1. It makes me sort of proud to be Australian.

2. That guy was an Absolut drip*.

(*A "drip", in Australian slang, refers to someone who is boring and stupid with no character, but I think the meaning can be expanded to include anyone who is stupid enough to drink anti-freeze.)

If you think I'm making this up, you can verify the story here, or by googling it.

Security Breach

APEC 2007 (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation), which took place in Sydney, didn't get a lot of media coverage in this part of the world, which is probably a good thing. But some parts of it are worth noting and sharing.

For example, here is proof that millions of dollars of security is no match for a bunch of comedians, some big black cars and a small Canadian flag.

See the APEC security breach:

Truth & Beauty

No one in the beauty industry ever got rich telling or showing women the truth. Except, maybe, Dove.

Watch Dove Evolution:

And, of course, someone's done a parody.

Watch Dove Evolution Parody

Blackle It

Black is the new green. Or rather, Blackle is the black Google. Because it's green. Am I making any sense?

Let me start again. Blackle is the Goth's Own Google. It uses the same search engine, except instead of a white background, it has a black background.

Why? Because Google uses more energy than Blackle. It takes more energy to make a screen white than it does to make a screen black. The thinking goes: everybody and their mother uses Google, so if everyone switched to Blackle, there would be a saving of 750 megawatt-hours a year. I'm pretty sure that if I knew what a megawatt-hour was I'd find that impressive.

I do know that using less energy is better for the world. Though, there seems to be some skepticism about whether or not using Blackle actually does save energy. And a lot of that seems to be coming from Blackle itself. They do a nice save by saying that if you use Blackle anyway, each time you see it, you will be reminded that we can all reduce our energy use in little ways, and that will have a profound effect on the planet.

Apparently, Blackle doesn't have all of Google's functions. And there's only so much reversed-out type (white on black) the human eye can comfortably read (this is something they teach you in art director school, even though they didn't cover those megawatt-hour things). The question then is, if Blackle may not really save energy, why use it? Well, because it's black. And black is cool (that's something else they teach you in art director school). You'll look cooler while you're googling yourself, or, at least, not quite as desperate.

And, you've got to give Blackle points for trying to be green.

Go Blackle Yourself.

God Gets Sued

In my novel, my heroine writes an email to American God telling Him to watch out because he has chosen for his flock the people most likely to sue him for everything that has ever gone wrong in their lives.

I always thought it was only a matter of time before someone did sue Him, especially as He is responsible for everything in creation, including natural disasters and terminal illnesses. If everything that happens is God's will then I'd say there's a case against him.

And now someone is suing God. He's being sued in Nebraska because, well, it's as good a place as any. God, after all, is everywhere. According to the lawsuit, God has made terrorist threats and caused “widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth’s inhabitants.” (Is terrorization a word?) The senator behind the suit is seeking a permanent injunction against God.

Perhaps he will also be able to get back some of that money that God gets TV Evangelists to collect for Him.

If you don't believe me, here's the story:
Senator Sues God

Instant Contraception

Let me start this post by saying that I like babies and I like kids. I am very fond of all of the offspring of my friends and family members (but then, their parents are sane). I'm even considering breeding myself.

But, in my generation, in a certain socio-economic group, in which most people have more money than sense, parenting has become an extreme sport and children have achieved the status of minor deities. Correcting bad behavior in a child is akin to blasphemy. These children can do no wrong. Toddlers are running households. They decide when the adults can sleep/eat/talk to their friends (and in some cases, the adults are never allowed to talk to their friends). And this would be fine if these kids were never allowed out in public where they can terrorize the rest of us, and where we are not allowed to tell them what to do, even when their parents won't. But they are. For example, an eight-year-old boy, in a store, was running around whipping open the curtains of dressing rooms (exposing women in various states of undress to the world) and his mother did nothing about it. We were, apparently, supposed to be charmed by the little pervert's behavior. And, when someone else tried to tell him to stop, his mother had a big problem with that person telling her child what to do. I feel sorry, in advance, for anyone this boy dates when he grows up. He is one of the many reasons I think this banned ad should have been allowed to run.

See Banned Commercial

Mind you, maybe these kids perform a societal and universal service. Maybe they are placed among us as a form of population control.

God's Billboards

The idea of the Catholic Church hiring an advertising agency (as they do in my novel) may seem far-fetched, but as long as they have a brand image problem and as long as they are losing customers, it makes sense that the Catholic Church will advertise at some point. They did, after all, hire a PR agency in California after the pedophile scandal broke. Small ad campaigns from different Christian groups are already running, and, most notably, one Christian outdoor billboard campaign has been running for several years now. The God Speaks campaign started as quite a reasonable campaign. Straightforward, simple, eye-catching, with a sense of humor. But my two favorite billboards (which I saw on another site) are no longer anywhere on the official website. They were:

"What part of 'Thou Shalt Not ...' didn't you understand?" - God

"Don't make me come down there." - God

I hope they're not already losing their sense of humor. Why don't religions have a sense of humor? If God did make us, it's obvious that He has a sense of humor.

Still, I guess the campaign is admirable because it purports to represent the whole Christian faith. But I wonder how long that will last. Because, you know, historically, different religious groups do all get along so well.