Political developments

Australian Prime minister John Howard has reshuffled his ministry. Richard Alston, Minister for Communications and the most unbelievably stupid politician I have ever seen in my life, and who turned the computer and telecommunications industries of Australia into an international joke, has lost his job and has been replaced by Darryl Williams. Friends and family would never quite believe me when I told them just how internationally famous Alston was as a laughing stock. As a fine example, might I point to this wonderful British article with the title This man must be the biggest luddite in history. (My own opinion was that he isn't a luddite so much as just being amazingly and mindblowingly stupid. I once knew someone who went to a meeting with him, and Alston observed at one point in the meeting that only rich Australians would be likely to gamble using overseas internet casinos, because poorer people wouldn't be able to afford the international phonecalls).

The guys at slashdot are commemorating the event by ruthlessly mocking him.

Still, will things ever be better? As one slashdot commenter has put it "OTOH, Williams has possibly been the worst Attorney-General in living memory, and he's being replaced by the most embarrassing Immigration Minister of all time so he can replace Alston! This I gotta see".

That does pretty much sum things up.