30/3/01 - Another animated .gif, this time of the rugby 'incident': [Click on picture] (via Haddock)

30/3/01 - Take your New Mexico driving exam online.  After driving in New Mexico I'm surprised to learn they have a driving test. (via NewsTrolls)

30/3/01 - The press isn't mincing words over George W. Bush's change of mind on cutting emissions: 

"Rather than focussing on energy conservation and pollution control, Mr Bush is calling for an all-out bonanza of oil and gas exploration including drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Arctic Refuge. He has tossed out new standards regulating arsenic levels in drinking water, arguing that 10 years of exhaustive research and policy debate had not made a sufficiently strong scientific case compared with the costs involved in bringing the US in line with European practice.

He has thrilled his backers in the mining industry by saying they no longer have to post bonds to pay for environmental clean-ups in the wake of hard-rock mining. And he is actively exploring ways to overturn regulations passed in the twilight of the Clinton administration that would put 30 per cent of National Forest land off-limits to loggers, miners and other commercial interests."

"Let me try to summarize the most useful advice I received, so that all those who anticipate having to confront the "usability for seniors" issue can benefit. First, and fully expected, were the alternative platform letters. "Buy an iMac," they wrote--and none too gently. A few writers suggested clearly that physical harm should come to me for having selected a Wintel machine."

30/3/01 - Amazing animated .gif of Randy Johnson striking a dove mid-pitch: [Click on picture]

30/3/01 - Biting?  Yes.  Gouging?  Yes.  But this?  No. (via 0xdeadbeef)

29/3/01 - About the only good thing to come from the foot and mouth epidemic, people reconsidering their eating habits.

29/3/01 - Just three words "Jet Set Loony".

29/3/01 - New Seamus Heaney poems. (via Blue Ruin)

29/3/01 - EOnline do their Best and Worst of the Oscars:

"Best Tribute to Old Hollywood:  Best Original Song winner Bob Dylan, performing live from Australia, wearing whiteface makeup and a little moustache just like Charlie Chaplin's lovable Little Tramp...Wait a  minute; what do you mean he wasn't wearing makeup?"

"Many New Mexicans will have a lot more time to worry about their federal income taxes. The Internal Revenue Service announced it is giving New Mexico a break because of the huge fires that ripped through the state this past year."

Reading between the lines:

"It was 18 months ago that we re-launched Independent.co.uk and since then the site has grown rapidly, as indeed has the number of visitors coming to us. We felt that the time was right for a new design which allowed visitors to experience the full depth and breadth of our site. So here it is.

Much of it will be familiar to our 'regulars' but we hope that it is easier to read, easier to navigate and that we have made it easier to find what you are looking for.

It has been designed for modern computers, but we've tried to be more accommodating to people with varying systems and added some new features."

The Electronic Telegraph has barely changed in the 6 years I've been on the web.  It is also very good.  All articles can be linked and don't die or move to inaccessible archives.  The whole lot is searchable.  They have graphics and photos.  They have excellent external links and reference their own stories.  Apart from their dubious political standpoint I can't fault it.

28/3/01 - It's Prada handbags at 10 paces:

"Battle of the It Girls: Lady Victoria Hervey v. Tara Palmer-Tomkinson"

28/3/01 - The Virgin of Guadalupe updated.  Not to everyone's taste.

"López's depiction of the Virgin of Guadalupe wearing a floral bikini also prompted a statement Monday from Archbishop of Santa Fe Michael J. Sheehan. The Virgin of Guadalupe is the Hispanic version of the Virgin Mary. Sheehan, who returned last Friday from leading a pilgrimage to Fatima and Lourdes, called the picture "insulting, even sacrilegious, to the many thousands of New Mexicans who have deep religious devotion to Guadalupe.""

I wonder if Rudy Giuliani will get in on the act.

27/3/01 - Not something you might expect in your garden:

"When Michael Whittaker came home from shopping he made a shock discovery at the bottom of his garden: a giant hole... "I thought it might be like an underground stream which caused the void, or maybe an unexploded bomb, because they had been dropped on Thorpe during the war but it is a piece of ice which has been trapped in a glacier. As the climate changed it became trapped under the earth. It's slowly melted away and created a void.""

"?In particular, the scheme will provide welcome enhancement to the setting of St George?s Church in this Area of Special Character,? says a report to the city centre planning board."

27/3/01 - Ooh, a chance to vote for a new name for George W. Bush. (via YAWL)

27/3/01 - Tallahassee's running super hero, Tim Simpkins, has died:

"Simpkins, who was declared a Super Hero in a joint proclamation by city and county governments two weeks ago, succumbed to cancer after a four-month battle with the disease for which he had sought treatment in Mexico."

27/3/01 - The Worst of the Oscars:

"Indeed, there were many sights that had fans cramming their knuckles into their mouths in fear and terror. Tom Hanks still has that small, hairy creature camped out on his top lip; Winona Ryder sported a hairstyle closely modelled on that of Lenny the Lion, and would someone please ask Tom Cruise why, if every other man at the Oscars can make an attempt at some form of evening dress, he has to turn up to present an award in an open-necked shirt and lounge suit? (I know, it's a power thing.) Bjork wore a swan, not a good look at the best of times, made for her by a friend, Marjan Pejoski - some friend! Kate Hudson, nominated as Best Supporting Actress for Almost Famous, wore a strange, fringed lampshade affair that was made by Stella McCartney, a designer who, until now, has kept her sense of humour well hidden."

27/3/01 - How to deal with those pesky requests for your Social Security number:

"You know, everyone always looks at me funny when I refuse to give them my Social Security number for trivial reasons... I give them 567-68-0515. It belongs to Richard Milhous Nixon. :-) "

"?Transmission? - Joy Division, single (Factory, 1980)

A pounding industrial-disco beat, two chords over a pulsing Peter Hook bass line, and Ian Curtis dance, dance, dancing to the radio, swept into a frenzy as the song drives to its hysterical climax. Majestic and terrifying."

27/3/01 - See Russell Crowe's labrum. (via Metascene)

26/3/01 - How Renee Zellweger fooled staff at a London PR company:

"The answer to the question "don't I feel stupid about offering career advice to a Golden Globe-winning actress?" is yes, of course I bloody do, but she was really lovely and I was only trying to be nice. And the answer to the question "why didn't I realise it was her?" is that I'm not used to sitting opposite Hollywood stars, so I'm not usually on the look-out for them."