The BBC reports that researchers in New Zealand have discovered that memory problems may be part-perceived, rather than wholly induced by alcohol. Students who thought they were drinking Vodka showed signs of memory loss, despite actually being given tonic water with lime. Bunch of lightweights

The Boston Globe turned up some interesting information about George W. Bush’s military history and, as the Toronto Star commentates, he has had a less than ideal past.

Bush’s actions in the Alabama National Guard included being AWOL for a year - they just didn’t know where he’d gone. Although absentees were usually punished by being sent to the army, Bush never did - his well-established links prevented him from being sent to Vietnam.

There is a lot more interesting commentary in there, well worth reading.

[Found via 1DO3 Weblog]

The Boston Globe turned up some interesting information about George W. Bush’s military history and, as the Toronto Star commentates, he has had a less than ideal past.

Bush’s actions in the Alabama National Guard included being AWOL for a year - they just didn’t know where he’d gone. Although absentees were usually punished by being sent to the army, Bush never did - his well-established links prevented him from being sent to Vietnam.

There is a lot more interesting commentary in there, well worth reading.

[Found via 1DO3 Weblog]

Just got back from the new movie Bowling for Columbine, which is an excellent documentary about American gun culture by Michael Moore (British readers might make comparison to Mark Thomas, for his comedic yet dramatic and to-the-point journalism). Very good movie - I thoroughly recommend it.

 On a slightly different cinematic note my belief that Portsmouth’s Warner Village cinema is an expensive and over-rated place were furthered today by a notice in their cinema telling punters that car park tickets were only redeemable (ie. your ticket only costs a pound) if the time between parking the car and validating the ticket was less than four hours. This has only appeared very recently, say - since The Two Towers was released - which is 179 minutes long. Add to that the 15-25 minutes minimum for ads and trailers; and the queueing time on the front for such a popular sequel, and you’d be in the cinema for just over four hours. Call me a cynic but isn’t that rather convenient?

http://newyorker.com/talk/content/?030106ta_talk_rosenwald

A man in Hot Springs, Montana is suing Viacom (who own MTV) because he claims Jackass is defaming his name.

“Ass filed a six-page complaint against Viacom, which owns MTV, for “plagiarizing” and “defaming” his name with a TV show and a movie depicting young men who, among other things, snort lines of wasabi and pee on snow and eat it”

Funny old world, isn’t it?

Slightly dubious article but still fun. Apparantly somebody has developed a communications method whereby one computer sends information to another using the viscosity of liquid to help.

Having chatted to one of the people involved in the ToTL Potato Powered Webserver hoax (that even the BBC believed), it’s easier to see how much of a pisstake this could be - still it’d be a nice thought….