Say what you like about North Korea - and some may say quite a lot - but they have really good looking traffic cop uniforms.

Fantastic graph on the increase in the price of petrol (before tax) compared with other goods.

I was sent this via a friend in the petrol industry, but it is evidentally from here. (Full disclosure: the friend does not work for Shell.)

This story is terrible. Not all beer and skittles as students pay price.

Firstly, there has been no significant increase in full-fee arts student positions. It remains steady at roughly 6% - almost nothing when you consider the various overseas and international student programs which the Melbourne Arts faculty is a party to.

Secondly, Sheehan is 26. Not really a representative student. The story would be much stronger if you got a student who had just left school.

Then why choose him? Perhaps some hint is in these lines -

The number of full-fee-paying places at universities was too high, according to Opposition education spokeswoman Jenny Macklin, who was on the lawn of the university cooking sausages at the ALP Club table.

It was the ALP Club.

Maoist reviews of computer games.

From their review of Rise of Nations:

The [Rise of Nations] economy does not depend on individual choices, sales or profits. The marketplace does exist but it plays no directing role. It is the player who directs the economy and if for no other reason, that is why [the Maoist International Movement] has to recommend RoN.

Link via Boingboing

Instead of those scheming Livejournal quizzes, here is a description of being drunk from Thomas Nashe, a playwright who is credited with inventing the second most words in the English language (nearly 800), after Shakespeare.

Which drunk are YOU? I suspect you don’t drink. Pathetic.

“The first is ape drunk, and he leaps and sings and hollers and danceth to the heavens. The second is lion drunk, and he flings the pots about the house, calls his hostess whore, breaks the glass windows with his dagger, and is apt to quarrel with any man that speaks to him. The third is swine drunk - heavy, lumpish, and sleepy, and cries for a little more drink and a few more clothes. The fourth is sheep drunk, wise in his own conceit when he cannot bring forth a right word. The fifth is maudlin drunk, when a fellow will weep for kindness in the midst of his ale, and kiss you, saying “By God, Captain, I love thee; go thy ways, thou dost not think so often of me as I do of thee. I would, if it pleased God, I did not love thee so well as I do“- and then he puts his finger in his eye, and cries.”

(here)

The Wikipedia entry linked above mentions that he got his Bachelors Degree in 1586 - 418 years before I did.

Of course the Germans are very good at making expressive music, sometimes overly so. But you don’t think of them as an expressive people. Hence it comes out in adagios, or blitzkriegs.

James Lileks

Cute little picture from the Bulletin’s photo archives. Link via Tim Blair, of course.

Growing them or buying [organic food] does not really strike a blow against consumerism; it just creates a market for more expensive vegetables.

From a review of Nation of Rebels: Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture.

This is fantastic. A recent yahoo search that found this website was for “mr personality, Chris Berg”. Turns out there is a movie called Mr Personality, and a fellow named Chris Berg plays “Chris Berg - Bachelor #17/Dark Green Mask”

Hopefully that half-hearted effort works to googlebomb “mr personality” to me. Chris Berg, known for his starring role in “mr personality”.

Ari Sharp is going off the radar, as he enters North Korea.

I was going to make jokes about him stealing nukes and infiltrating NK high command with a deft commando roll, but he’d probably be arrested by the thought police if I did.