Lara Flynn Boyle then.

Lara Flynn Boyle now.

23/6: 'After the jump, the shocking proof of the downfall of Lara Flynn Boyle's face.' [here]

It's so furiously cruel and so ... furiously impossible not to laugh. I think it's my sin for today.

'I drove to the shops a few hours ago, where I parked under heavy sniper fire. Oh, excuse me; that was a misstatement and a minor blip. What I meant was that it was raining.' - Tim Blair sees bullets, bullets everywhere in war-t ... I mean water-torn Australia.

But you know what it's like down here in the wild, wild antipodes, right?! If you're not too careful you might end up raped by a wombat. Or something.

(Wombat. Well, you can just see that rape wildness in his (?) eyes, can't you?!)

30 [Photoshopped] Error Messages You Will Never See. But it does somehow feel as if I've seen #28 somewhere.

Funniest one: #13.

NYT via Tim Blair:

1934: 'America is believed by Weather Bureau scientists to be on the verge of a change of climate, with a return to increasing rains and deeper snows and the colder Winters of grandfather's day.'

1935: 'The great glaciers of the West, last remnants of the Ice Age on continental United States, have been retreating from their strongholds in the mountains at double time since last year.'

That weather! It's completely untrustworthy!

A post on Wired's compiler contains the perfect illustration of the age-old why-your-website-sucks problem. It's impossible to see it and not laugh with recognition. Poignant.

The post actually discusses an article by Jakob Nielsen on the problem of the so-called designer gap. Writes compiler: 'Nielsen tackles problems that lead to exactly the sort of failures outlined in the cartoon, including recognizing not just the gap between the designer and the intended audience, but how big that gap is.'

Nielsen identifies the problem as a three-tier one, of which I find his Level 2 the most instructive (here Nielsen discusses on-line shopping at Banana Republic and Googling respectively; depressing fact: circa 25% of people trying to google can't even get to Google to begin with!!!). He writes:

Generally, if you're a member of a design team, you are not representative of the target audience. I don't care if you're the interaction designer, the graphics artist, the information architect, the writer, the programmer, or the marketer. All of these people:

• know too much about the product (be it a website, intranet, application, phone, whatever);
• are too skilled in using computers and the Web in general; and
• care too much about their own baby (so they can't imaging visitors bouncing after scanning the homepage for 30 seconds -- but that's what outside users do).

I am constantly amazed at how klutzy and completely un-user-friendly so many websites still are and this is the best explanation for it I have come across so far.

Which, personally, I intend to celebrate in no way in particular. Except possibly to watch Die Hard 4.0. Bruce Willis ... he's Irish, right?!

TimesOnline presents 9 of the worst 2007 stories involving 'lies, damned lies, and statistics'. ('Those figures you read in the newspaper were pretty convincing, right? Think again. Here are some classic idiocies.')

My personal favourite would probably be:

First, the UN, for making a mockery of a serious business. It said in November that HIV-Aids was spreading, while revising its figures for the number of sufferers down. That's right, they've gone up -- to a lower number (from about 40 million to 33 million). Researchers admitted that their sampling (in urban maternity clinics) had been biased. Pregnant women turn out to be a poor sample of the rest of the population because -- guess what? -- they've all had unprotected sex. [Emphasis added.]

Urgent Appeal: Please Help Protect Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Donations to the Ayaan Hirsi Ali Security Trust can be made here.

(And yes, MFM and I have already donated to this really very worthwhile cause.)

Always be careful what you eat.

[T]he fact is that consensual sexual generosity is far more likely to occur
in good countries than in evil ones; it is a sign of confidence, not of decadence.

- Julie Burchill, The Times

Fred Phelps has new signs.

According to The Scotsman, a man in Saudi Arabia taking his sick 63-year-old female neighbour to hospital and visiting her in her flat upon her return has been

... convicted of immoral behaviour by religious police who enforce the state's strict code banning women from mixing with men other than relatives.

His "charitable act... has landed him 50 days and counting behind bars", Arab News, an English language daily, said.

The completely bizarro Saudi religious police actually reminds me of Brian's mother in Life of Brian (except, of course, that they are not necessarily as funny) whose own preoccupation with sex makes her conclude that everybody else is also so inclined:

Brian: Have I got a big nose, Mum?
Brian's mother: Stop thinking about sex!

I hate day light saving. I hate day light saving in general and day light saving in Australia in particular. Yes, obviously it's super-important to save on that precious day light in a place where the sun seems to shine all the bloody time. NOT!

Day light saving is an invention by the devil. That's what it is.

Time has a list of the Top 25 Horror Movies and at spot #20 we find Bambi. Lets read that one more time, shall we?!
 
... and at spot number 20 we find BAMBI!
 
  That's right: fawns, stomping rabbits, ice ... ooooooooh, spokey!

(Actually, to be fair, I don't know how serious this list is: they have Shaun of the Dead as their #1.)

At least someone in Britain still has a sense of humour.