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Inspired by the most recent xkcd comic, I decided to check out some common search terms and where they get googled the most. (I got bored and immature towards the end, and I've edited this post several times as I've thought of new ones)

google - Montreal, Canada
obama, mccain, biden, and palin - Reston, VA, USA (no idea what's going on there)
windows - Mexico City, Mexico
mac - San Francisco, CA, USA
linux - Beijing, China
ubuntu - Milan, Italy
firefox - Frankfurt Am Main, Germany
god - Atlanta, GA, USA
jesus - Lima, Peru
is there a god - Dallas, TX, USA
christmas - Manchester, UK
is global warming real - Atlanta, GA, USA
gay marriage - Boston, MA, USA
proposition 8 - Salt Lake City, UT, USA
am i pregnant - Thames Ditton, UK
why am i fat - Toronto, Canada
bacon - Seattle, WA, USA
broccoli - St. Louis, MO, USA
running for president - Miami, FL, USA
running mates - Washington, DC, USA
define (ie, looking up words using Google) - Mexico City, Mexico
define irony - Washington, DC, USA
define internet - Makati, Philippines
jfgi (just fucking google it) - Moscow, Russia
the answer to life the universe and everything - Stockholm, Sweden
online dating - Prague, Czech Republic
paris hilton - Melbourne, Australia
pamela anderson - Lima, Peru
jenna jameson - Helsinki, Finland
angelina jolie - Toronto, Canada
porn - Manchester, UK
hardcore - Zurich, Switzerland
penis - Los Angeles, CA, USA
vagina - Jakarta, Indonesia (whoa, a lot of Indonesians google this)
sex - Delhi, India
pussy - Tampa, FL, USA
hentai - Jakarta, Indonesia (hmm)
fuck - Delhi, India

And finaly:

why am i single - New York, NY, USA

Tim

As much as I was banging on in the last post about not wanting to observe Christmas because I'm not religious, you can't help but get caught up in the festivites. And we put our Christmas tree up last night, went to my grandmother's for lunch, and had my uncle up for Christmas dinner. It was all very nice, and not wanting anything in particular, I was pleasantly surprised with my presents.

My parents were kind enough to get me:

• A 320GB external hard drive (:D)
• Bill Bailey's Tinsel Worm DVD
• Four sets of earphones (cause they always break so quickly)
  
• A Writer's Tale, about the making of the latest Doctor Who series
• Catherine Tate's autobiography
• Derren Brown's Tricks of the Mind
• A book of songs to play on guitar (even though I don't play guitar, they work just as well for piano)

My grandmother bought me:

• Some nice Belgian chocolates
• $100

And my uncle got me:

• Chocolate candy cane thing
• $40 K-mart gift voucher
• $25 Sanity gift voucher

So I feel quite spoilt and satisfied. Have a great rest of the year, guys, and I will see you in 2009.

Victorian schools will now have the option to have religious education classes taught by atheists, or rather, those who say that there is "no evidence of any supernatural power".

Thank you very much for letting common sense prevail. Luckily going to a small private school run by fairly liberal atheists (or at least Christians who do not follow the Bible very closely - I'm never sure with my principals), I've never been subjected to any kind of religious education, but from what I've heard from other students who haven't been so fortunate, it is a load of bullshit. Basically, it is Christian propaganda - maybe touching on some other religions but basically teaching the Bible as if it were fact. Having classes taught by atheists is surely a great way to restore some integrity to religious education - a very important part of the curriculum if taught in the proper way.

As always, here is a stupid quote from Jenny Stokes, research director for the fundamentalist Christian group (who I admit I'd never heard of) the Salt Shakers: ""If you go there, where do you stop? What about witchcraft or Satanism? If you accredit humanism, then those things would have an equal claim to be taught in schools."

Uh-huh. Because humanism is even remotely comparable to Satanism or witchcraft. The whole premise is that humanists or atheists don't believe in Satan or witches in the first place. And while we're arguing semantics, surely Satanism and witchcraft are just as valid beliefs as Christianity? They really are just as absurd and even quite similar when you look at them side by side. Now I do respect your rights to have your beliefs and opinions, however stupid I think tem to be, but I'm sorry - if you bring out that whole atheist to Satanist comparison, you are an idiot. Plain and simple.

And Jenny Stokes does it again: "[religious instruction in state schools should be Christian because] basically we are a Christian nation".

Argh. There's no helping some people.

A note on Christmas: I'm not waging some "war on Christmas" like a lot of people go on about. I say "happy holidays" not to be politically correct, but rather to be secular. I just simply see the December period as a time of various religious festivals, and "happy holidays" refers to all of them, the New Year, and the general partying and holidays that follow. I'm ignoring Christmas as much as I can (my parents will probably do presents and that on the day, however, and then my grandmother will fear for my soul if I don't turn up at her place on Christmas day), but I really don't care if you celebrate it or not. I agree that it is a great time, and brings out a lot of kindness and generosity in people. I love that. Go and have fun, get drunk, eat a lot, and buy lots of nice things for your friends and family. And have fun.

In case this is my last blog entry for 2008, have a good holiday season and New Year. I'll be back to blog again in '09. You know I will.

Au revoir,

Tim

The rain bucketed down in Hobart today, and so Tasmania's protest against the government's clean feed was postponed until next week.

I'd say about fifty people turned up at various times, however, which was quite impressive considering the terrible weather. Hopefully next week there will be a much larger crowd, however (and nicer weather!).

Southern Cross were there though, and they filmed us standing around in the rain doing a bit. They also interviewed me and John Dalton, from Digital Tasmania. Watch the news tonight for hopefully a bit of coverage of us getting wet.

I also did an interview with Edge Radio, although I'm not sure when it will broadcast. Keep an ear out for that, though. WIN and ABC cameras were also at Parliament Lawns, although I think they were just covering something else involving cars parked on the grass that also happened to be going on. They may have got some footage of us, however.

The protest will now be held on Saturday the 20th of December, at 11am. I hope to see as many as possible there!