They spent 3 days driving around Miami trying to find their hotel. They were ultimately found by police, sitting in their car in the parking area of a servo. According to police:

“The two women were taking turns driving, and they’ve been driving around non-stop trying to find their hotel,”

“The gentleman does have Alzheimer’s, so he didn’t even know he was lost.”

Funny, but kind of sad, too.

Technorati Tags: Miami, lost, Alzheimer’s

The reported pre-nuptial agreement between Cruise and Katie Holmes might explain why.  She gets $4m for every year they remain together, up to 11 years.  After 11 years, the agreement becomes void and Holmes becomes entitled to half of Cruise’s assets.

Given that Cruise is reported to be worth something like $450m, 10 years = $40m, vs 12 years = $225m, bailing out at 10 years makes great financial sense.  Its the economically rational thing to do, one might argue.

Wonder if Nicole had a similar sort of pre-nuptial agreement with Tom?

Perhaps I’m being overly cynical and it was just his zealous adherence to the wackiness of Scientology that pushed them apart.

Technorati Tags: Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Nicole Kidman, pre-nuptial agreement, Scientology, wackiness

Then, I did a bit of research and discovered that “Viagra Soft” is ground up Viagra mixed in a gel.  It is absorbed into the bloodstream quicker and you get it up in about 20 minutes rather than the 60-90 minutes that Viagra tablets take.

And there I was, thinking it might have been an antidote for a guy who maybe overdosed on normal Viagra.

Technorati Tags: viagra, viagra soft, spam

Today, petrol here is 146.9 cents per litre (*).  This morning is was 10 cents cheaper.  What a coincidence that this weekend is a long holiday weekend, and also the start of ski season just down the road from Canberra.  What a coincidence indeed that this happens every public holiday, every school holidays, in fact every time people are likely to be doing more travelling than usual.  Truly bizarre coincidence!

Yet that is exactly what the petrol companies tell us is the case.  They don’t collude or fix prices in any way. Sure, they do, just not in any way that leaves evidence.  And even if there was evidence, I think the various governments in Australia, and regulators, aren’t that interested in finding it.

Maybe they don’t collude, but I heard a guy from the service station association talking on the radio this morning and he was saying the petrol companies all subscribe to an electronic monitoring service which gives them real time indications of price movements across the major metropolitan areas.  He also said something along the lines of the petrol companies employing spotters who drove around taking note of their competitors prices.  He suggested that any price movement was well and truly known within about 10 minutes of happening, and competitors then made decisions about whether to match it or not.  Guess what usually happens?

Of course, collusion is no longer really necessary, as all companies know how the game is played and its all done with a wink and a nod, no traces left.

(*)  For those in the US, this is approx $US 4.15 per gallon (so we’re quite a bit higher than your average at the moment of $US 2.76).  If you’re in the UK, try 60p/litre.

Technorati Tags: petrol prices, gas, ripoff, price fixing, collusion

All I can say is good riddance … a blight on humanity eliminated.

Al-Zarqawi was supposedly Al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq. General George W Casey Jr, the head of US-led forces in Iraq, says his death is a significant blow to Al Qaeda, but:

“Although the designated leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq is now dead, the terrorist organisation still poses a threat as its members will continue to try to terrorise the Iraqi people and destabilise their Government as it moves toward stability and prosperity,”

It will be interesting to see what impact al-Zarqawi’s death has on the insurgency in Iraq. I suspect not much, although it is a morale boost to the US and Iraqi government forces. Problem is there are so many fundamentalist nutcases around that someone will step up and fill the leadership role and continue committing atrocities.

I find the portrayal of Al Qaeda in the media sometimes fascinating. Sometimes it seems like Al Qaeda is a franchise like McDonalds, with branches all over the world, all controlled by Osama bin Laden from his cave in Afghanistan. I suspect reality is that it is more a loose alliance of like-minded nutjobs, than anything organised more formally or tightly controlled.

Technorati Tags: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al Qaeda, Iraq, insurgency, Osama bin Laden

According to the England team captain:

“The bottom line is [that] this is just a little incident in a nightclub where unfortunately Danny probably had a drink too many and obviously saw someone dancing with a girl he liked and either hit or tried to hit them.”

Gormally and his team captain apologised to the Armenian team and Aronian the next morning, but while the apologies were being made, some of Aronian’s team mates went the fist.

Gormally left the Olympiad of his own volition, and now faces disciplinary action from the English Chess Federation.

And I always thought chess was a geekish game. No way, these guys can punch on just like footy players.

Technorati Tags: Arianne Caoili, Danny Gormally, Levon Aronian, Chess, World Chess Olympiad, fighting

Technorati Tags: 666, ABC Canberra, radio

Now I didn’t think John Kerry impressive at all as an alternative president to George Bush, so I don’t really have any axe to grind over him losing.  I would have preferred Al Gore to have won in 2000, as I think he would have made a better president.

What really astounds me is the lack of complete outrage from the American public, and in particular the media there, over all the irregularities in voter enrolment, conduct of the election and counting of the votes.  Evidently there were crooked things done in (Ohio in particular) 2004, and Florida still stinks from the way its state officials rigged the 2000 election.   Imagine if these things happened here in Australia (or I would expect most modern democratic nations).  No way would the apparent loser of the election concede defeat in the face of the scandals that seem to have happened.  No way would the press have rolled over and accepted it as the way it is.  I would say that a government that was seen to have been elected illegitimately would be hounded out of office by public and media pressure – the calls for a fresh election would be overwhelming.

Following the 2000 election results, it struck me what a shambles the US electoral system was.  There isn’t really a federal system … elections are conducted by thousands of local government bodies, under some degree of control by their respective states.  Clearly there is much partisan involvement by politicians and aspiring politicians in conducting those elections.  Would it be so hard for the US to run its elections in a uniform way across the country, conducted by independent officials?  Just about everywhere else in the democratic world does it that way.  I’m not aware of any huge complaints about Australian elections, or any suggestion that the results were tampered with, or didn’t reflect the votes actually cast, or that vast numbers of people were denied the opportunity to vote.

Technorati Tags: US elections, George W Bush, John Kerry, Al Gore, vote rigging

The month long training will emphasise “professional military values and the importance of disciplined, professional conduct in combat”.  In other words, soldiers are being taught how to be professional soldiers, and fight in a civilised manner (at least in as civilised a manner as war can be fought) after they’ve been in the combat zone already.  Seems arse-about to me!

I wonder how much of the attitudes and behaviour of some elements of the US forces in Iraq is driven by the crazy American gun culture, and also comes from a complete lack of respect for the Iraqi civilian population.  Beats me every time how a civilised country can have so many people stupid enough to believe they have some god given right to arm themselves, and that this is constitutionally protected forever.  And a gun lobby so powerful that few politicians in the US are willing to take it on.  Does anyone ever stop to think that all the stuff about right to bear arms and a well regulated militia may have been relevant in the context of a new and growing nation in the 1700′s, but is completely out of touch with today’s realities?

Technorati Tags: Iraq, Haditha, military training, gun culture, Second Amendment, right to bear arms

A prostitute called in and mentioned the name of a Labor politician who had “seen” her. The hosts cut her off and started apologising – wonder if they made it in time to get their station out of any possible defamation action. Mind you, would the politician be prepared to go public and take action?

How long will it be before everyone knows who the politician is? I give it till tomorrow morning.

Update (05/07/2006): Well, it took till today, when Michael Costa outed himself as the politician who was named, in launching defamation action against Merrick and Rosso’s radio station, Nova.

Technorati Tags: Merrick and Rosso, politician, Labor, ALP, prostitute, sex