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Ug. I have no idea if there's anything I should be doing in advance of this cyclone except hope for the best. I guess tomorrow I go out and finally get around to putting the shovel in the shed? I can't see us getting flooding on the top of a hill in the north east of Perth but who knows. *catastrophises*

Also, wtf Egypt?

If you need to update your enrolment be quick! http://www.aec.gov.au/Enrolling_to_vote/Update_enrolment.htm

1) Our web server is going down for a week to protest the $^%&$& internet filter omg. This is more Cam's protest than mine but I'm in favour of it and I thought anyone who might encounter the website should realise it's down on purpose.

2)I just finished Disk 1 of The First Australians. It's a sobering antidote to the view of history and colonialism in stuff like regency romances and Avatar. It's a bit slow, but the choice to tell the stories of individuals, as much as possible in their own words or from the POV of their descendents, and let the facts of history come up naturally when relevant rather than dryly telling the "overall" narrative from on high makes it very compelling. It's often very sad of course: so many leaders as brave and determined as any Braveheart whose works are thoughtlessly destroyed by the settlers and government. But they also make a point of telling the stories of the modern descendants who have overcome the odds to preserve and celebrate their culture (including Aboriginal Tasmanians, despite "common knowledge" being that they all died out) . I've been watching it in bits over a month or so while I sew.

I know this sort of thing normally goes on my dw but it's so specifically Australian I deiced it should go on the journal with more of an Australian readership.

A Dirty Pun Tweaks China’s Online Censors: in response to internet censors, chinese people create and share an "inoffensive children's song" about a "grass mud horse"..which uses puns to be (a)Obscene and (b)Criticise censorship

Here's the original video (as far as I can tell) *restrains self from making a comment about the gendered nature of the language* nb "harmony" is code for "censorship".

Here's another, from the article and I'll totally ignore the point of it to say it's very cute, and I found the chinese rap and animation interesting.

It's also really interesting to see how the Chinese Government uses cracking down on pornography as an excuse to censor everything. Not that any other governments would ever do that *cough*

Since the NYT can be annoying, full text after the cut:
( Read more... )

Via lauredhel: google map of the victorian fires

Jesus, that's just..argh. Good luck to any of you over there!

I know this is old news (I saw a vague reference to this on a metaquotes discussion and googled it), but I just found it really bizarre seeing an ad actively promoting homophobia. I guess it hadn't really sunk in that that's what people were doing.

Yes on 8 TV Ad: Everything To Do With Schools
I imagine the others are just as bad but that was enough for me.

Am I the only heterosexual person who would have no problem with my kids reading gay fairytales? Then again, when I was a kid we used to play pretend at being lesbians(*) so, you know... :D

(*)I'm trying to think of a way to make this sound less weird, but in retrospect, it was pretty weird. Ironically, the only boy we let play is the only one of us who ended up actually being gay, afaict. See! No harm done!

So you know how I said West Wing totally stole the plot of the current election? Well the Chief of staff of Obama Santos was the cute(*) and unrealistically snarky Josh Lyman, who was a senior advisor to the previous democratic president. Josh was apparently based on the democratic politician Rahm Emanuel.

And now? Rahm Emanuel is Obama's chief of staff. You have to watch Rahm Emanuel reads a love letter, really, it's bizarre (ok, he's a bit more Jon Stewart than Josh Lyman, but still)

(*)At least to me :)

So it's pretty clear that the writers of West Wing season seven, lacking the guidance of original show-runner Aaron Sorkin, decided that the best way to come up with a plot was to use a time machine to view the future and copy that.(nb, my understanding of american politics and the plot of west wing are both pretty fuzzy, feel free to corect parts!) EDIT:via stephiepenguin, the new york times describes it better

( Cut for spoilers, though reality has pretty much done that already )

OMG OMG! Yay! *happy dance*

I mean, I know Obama, like Kevin Rudd, is just a politician, and there's going to be lots of compromises and backroom deals and random stupid crap (hello internet filter) But he doesn't totally suck. Which right now is more than enough to warm the cockles of my little heart :)

*no really, I am doing a little happy dance right now. Doopy doopy do*

EDIT:
President-elect Obama earned laughs from the crowd when he thanked his two young daughters.
"You have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House," he said.

So if he lost, they wouldn't have gotten a puppy? *imagines ads going "Vote for Obama or these adorable girls...miss out on a puppy!"* Not that he needed the help, as it turned out.

I keep meaning to do a proper post on this but am just too dumb (Mental age of 37, according to the DS, but I do not feel as clever as the 37 year olds I have known) So: Roundup of links on Aussie Net Censorship at Hoyden about Town (Lots of other people have posted about it, but they have a nice list of links)

Just..argh! Bad! Stupid government.

In happier news, I am currently watching Kyle XY. It is fun, in a slightly tacky teen soap opera sort of way.