• NEWS.com.au | Saddam suffers a 'stroke' (July 29, 2004): ONE of Saddam Hussein's legal team has claimed the former Iraqi dictator has suffered a stroke and could die before his trial. Amazing how a trial brings on terminal illness like this.
• Online ad spending tipped to increase. 28/07/2004. ABC News Online: Internet advertising will grow 27 per cent this year to $8.4 billion, with double-digit growth for both paid search listings and display ads like banners, Jupiter said in a report.
• Custody overhaul to improve men's access to children. 29/07/2004. ABC News Online: The Federal Government has announced an overhaul of family law arrangements, with plans to give men involved in marriage break-ups greater access to their children. Note the implicit admission that the current system is stacked against men.
• A daughter's agony, her family's suffering - National - www.smh.com.au / Five may go free as rape family calls it quits - National - www.smh.com.au: The parents of a gang-rape victim want to stop her giving evidence for a third time if her attackers are granted a retrial, meaning the five men who attacked her may walk free. This sort of thing has got to stop - making victims testify over and over again is undue stress, particularly when all they can do is say the same things again. Unless the testimony itself is the reason for retrial/etc, then transcripts or video of the original testimony should be used if the victim is unable to reappear - they should still have the choice to reappear, but they shouldn't be forced into it.
• In the zone - Upgrade - smh.com.au, a tech review about how wonderful ZoneAlarm is. Also a review of a CPU fan which keeps running for a few minutes after you shut down the computer, to avoid a heat spike.
• Fahrenheit 9/11 - FilmReviews - www.smh.com.au: [W]hen journalism becomes so degraded that Fox News can get away with the slogan 'We report, you decide', then Michael Moore is what you get in opposition. Damn straight. Journalism has been compromised by media monopolies and a failure to meet its own standards. Yes, journalism has standards; and they are actually quite comprehensive, idealistic and based on ethical considerations. Then you leave University, enter the industry and suddenly you are faced with the realities of media in the modern world. The majority of the public doesn't actually want news, facts and discussion; it wants entertainment. The people making the money don't want the public to think, so they also want entertainment going out. However the public still expects journos to break the big stories, and the people making the money know the journos have to look like it. The journos are stuck in the middle of all that crap.

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