First came the Eco House by Wonderland Toys. Next up is the Green Dollhouse by Plan Toys. In the company’s own words: The solar passive designed dollhouse features a wind turbine and a solar cell panel with electrical inverter for generating electricity, a rain barrel for collecting rain, a gr...

For a variety of reasons — personal, business, linux australia, linux.conf.au — I’ve been poking at budgeting lately. I thought it might be worth a post on some of the ideas that I’ve found useful; if they turn out to be too obvious, well, bad luck. :) The way to look at a bu...

On Monday, the in-transition Tribeca Film Festival announced its World Competition and Discovery sections, 38 films from what will be a slimmed-down 86 feature line-up. That's down from 174 films just three years ago.But amongst those 3 dozen-plus films are......

Here sit women in Kandahar, celebrating International Women's Day 2009. What is wrong with this picture? The audacious statement these women are making is to put a blue towel on their heads. Liberal lurkers of the Anti-Strib will surely make excuses for letting this kind of oppressive crap seep into...

Step 1. Shop at Toys ‘R’ Us. Step 2. Nature calls. Take your 2-year-old to the restroom. Step 3. Child-in-hand, have the bathroom stall crash down on you, trapping you in the wreckage. Suffer chronic pain that changes your whole life, rack up medical bills and be victimized a second time...

An interesting article in New Scientist from earlier in the year summarises some interesting Quantum Physics papers, though now I look, I see they’re actually a little dated, one from 2006 and the other from 1994, with Carlo Rovelli listed as the last author of both, and quoted in the article....

First thought: What babies really need is a way to conceal booze. Upon closer inspection, it’s a Binky Buddy, for babies who lack the dexterity to hold a pacifier. First thought: What sound does a bear make when you crush its skull? Upon closer inspection, it’s a Digit Saver Pinch Guard ...

If you're an Alien fan, that is. If not, this little homemade horror may seem like the biggest waste of a PlayStation 3 ever. The tattoo artist/case modder responsible for this creation used (and burned himself with) super heated epoxy putty and Games Workshop's Chaos Black paint for the finish. He ...

Disclaimer: I’m not Catholic, so this is even more speculative than usual. It’s also probably taking “devil’s advocacy” a little too literally, but hey, faith is there to be tested, right? So I wonder how much Catholic Guilt is an economic phenomenon, as opposed to a pu...

A recent ABC story quotes the Brotherhood of St Laurence’s recommendations for counting the family home amongst net assets while calculating pension entitlements, with the recommendation that retirees who have valuable homes take out a reverse mortgage, eg, rather than getting a pension. I som...