News
Eric Ripper, the unfortunately named WA Opposition leader, is set to announce his resignation within days. Which seems fair, because while I actually have a bit of respect for Mr Ripper, if you're being toweled by the endless pit of smarm that is Colin Barnett, then perhaps party leadership just isn't for you.
The man who mooned the Queen has had an indecent exposure charge against him dropped, because he had the Australian flag wedged between his butt cheeks to such an extent that no exposure would have been possible. Justice has been served.
Brace yourselves, kids, because
Wikipedia is going offline for 24 hours later today in protest against the SOPA/PIPA bills currently being kicked around the US Congress. As one of the most regularly accessed websites on the internet – it has some 500 million unique visitors a month – this is one of the most significant digital protests I've seen.
They are being joined by fellow timesinks Reddit and the icanhazcheezburger family of websites, which ensures that the next 24 hours could be one of the most productive in recent memory.
There's a small scale cyber war going on between Saudi Arabia and Israel right now, with hackers on both sides (theoretically acting independently) taking down websites, releasing credit card details and Facebook account passwords and otherwise just being pests. While it's still pretty low intensity at the moment, it does start to suggest ways in which regional conflict might be accelerated by acts of digital bastardry.
Where some see an unmitigated financial disaster, the East African Community has just dispatched a fact-finding mission to Brussels in order
to investigate how they might also start using a shared currency. Give it a couple of decades and some friendly growth rates and we could get to go through all of this again!
Good look: audio recordings from the Coast Guard suggest that
the captain of that capsized cruise liner apparently jumped on to a lifeboat with a whole bunch of women and children, leaving the rest of the passengers and staff to rot in hell. The death toll now sits at 11, with another 20 still unaccounted for. [
Listen to the audio recordings here].
Which, suddenly, brings us to the end of one of the single slowest news days I can remember since starting this column in August 2010. Here, this video seems on point:
Features
Guy Rundle takes on Rick Santorum in typically acerbic form. With the other challengers to Mitt Romney having either had their time in the sun, or being entirely unelectable (Ron Paul), Santorum is emerging as the final wild card of the nutbar Right. He's picking up support from the evangelicals and everything, although, really it's just the final gaspings of a conservative movement that is linked primarily by its distaste for the only viable candidate they have. [Linked:
Mitt Romney pays an effective tax rate of around 15%. That should play well with the middle class].
A nice, alternate take:
the top ten good news stories from Africa in 2011.
Oddities/Curiosities
Two futurists set out some predictions for what life might look like in the year 2112. Telepathy and immortality, here we come!
The always entertaining Charlie Brooker on his New Year's resolutions for the world at large.
Iranian man ends up with permanent erection after getting penis tattoo. Yes. Yes he does.
Video
My kind of Presidential candidate. Vermin Supreme may have a limited platform, but, man, what a platform. Dentistry and ponies for all. And yes, you can vote for him.