In an interesting experiment to see how quickly Google Adsense can bring traffic to your site, a Sydney blogger has set up a page to collect Heather Ledger Jokes.

Initially the traffic was high and cheap, but the click thru price of the Google search soon went through the roof, with a price of $6.50 for a click thru on the phrase “Heather Ledger Dead”.

As for the jokes themselves, the quality is not that high.
My favourite?
Q: Which script does Heath Ledger wish he’d read?

A: The one from the chemist.

With an honourable mention to:

Grim Repear stands with Heath Ledger in front of him and yells, “you morons, I said bring me the DEATH LEDGER”.

Damn, I knew I shouldn’t have joined the “al Qaeda Appreciation Group” in Facebook. It seems one of the directors of Facebook is also associated with a technology venture capital firm set up by the CIA.

So it seems that this social networking site is an easy way for the US government to obtain private information about millions of people around the world, without them even knowing.

Have a look at this article from The Guardian.

This video has been gathering dust on my shelf for years now. It shows me jumping out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft for no apparent reason. I was a bit hung over at the time, but that soon ended.

Enjoy

It is the new year and someone has decided that their new year’s resolution will be to get rich quick with a pyramid letter scheme. In this case it was someone called D.Craven of Centenary Heights, Queensland. Thanks for the 5c piece attached to the letter, but I won’t be sending $10 to the person on the top of the list, nor moving your name up the list, nor sending the letter out to another 200 people. However for your trouble, you and the five people on the list before you get added to my David Rhodes page. Congratulations, you are the first for 2008.

It looks like the scheme has changed slightly. All other letters only had five names on the list. This time it is six. That means it will take even longer for a new entrant to get to the top of the list.

I have had this tool in my tool box for at least 15 years and could never figure out what it was. However, in the great tradition of old men and sheds I knew that I couldn’t throw it out because one day it would come in handy.

This weekend I needed to rearrange some shelves in the shed. The shelves are Dexion keylock and are a modular shelving system. Shelf heights are easily adjusted and the shelves locked in place with a special keylock. I was pondering how to get the keylock out and was about to use a screwdriver when I heard this previously mysterious tool calling out to me.

Read the rest of this entry »

I recently finished reading “Mercy” by Jodie Picoult. It is a great book, but it made me quite depressed because I chose the wrong time to read it. The book is about a man convicted of murder after the mercy killing of his wife who in in the last stages of cancer. It was on the top of my “book to read” pile which is why I read it. At the same time my father died of cancer, so it was all a bit close to home. I finished reading it and then looked at the next book on the pile. It was called “1001 Places to see before you die”. I have moved it down the pile.

The subtle attempts by the Howard Government to take Australia back to the White Australia Policy have led to the introduction of a test for new citizens. It is designed to make sure that prospective citizens know something about the country to which they are about to pledge loyalty. By letting them know about “Australian Values”, it might make those people who don’t support “The Australian Way of Life” think twice about moving here. (Not) 

As someone born in this country I would never have to sit the exam, but if I did I wonder if I would pass without a bit of coaching.

Follow the link, have a go and see if you have got what it takes to pass the Australian Citizenship Test.

The other day I was listening to the classic Irish folk tune “The Fields of Athenry”. The song is about a man who is transported to Botany Bay after stealing “Trevelyan’s corn”.

In 2000, we moved with the family to Ireland to look for work and settle for a while. The town we went to was Galway, outside of which is the village of Athenry. Things didn’t work out and we returned to Sydney, originally to Coogee, but soon moved to Botany (Bay) and the name of our street is Trevelyan. (Cue Twilight Zone music).

I awoke on Sunday morning to find the some complete and utter mongrel had tagged my fence. It is an attractive white/cream picket fence with a lovely garden in front of it and does not require any “beautification” by some mindless Bozo with a spray can. I can understand why they might paint on an ugly brick wall in a back alley, but not on my bloody fence.

This is one of those crimes where the Saudi idea of chopping off hands is required!