Posted by Bel. The time is 10.56am here in Wellington, NZ.

For when the facts are too confusing: Fake Science.

Posted by Bel. The time is 4.45pm here in Wellington, NZ.

UPDATE: Forgot to say - if you just want to get rid of Buzz altogether, scroll down all the way down, downtown to Chinatown on your Gmail page, to where there is a bunch of small print. One of those teeny tiny bits of writing at the centre says "turn off buzz". Click on that link and presumably everything will return to normal. You might want to delete your 'posts' beforehand just to be doubly sure.

...

So Google Buzz has been thrust upon us, a weird mix of Facebook, Flickr and Twitter that appears right there in your Gmail inbox.

A lot of people are worried about privacy issues, and with good reason it seems. Google has become so all encompassing that it is assuming we are all grateful to receive this social networking gifthorse. Who are we to question another free feature connecting us in ways we never before imagined? All hail the googooplex!

And maybe some are embracing Buzz, busy thinking up new twists on language that are as absurb as the ways that we've had to start talking about Twitter. ("I tweeted him about it" is something that still doesn't sit right with me.)

But right now I would advise caution. Being paranoiac about online privacy is high on my lists of Fun Things To Do. There's a lot racing round at the moment about how everyone you've ever emailed can now see everything you've ever written and so on.

There is an easy way to make sure that your lists of followers and who you are following are not visible to anyone. When you are in Buzz, click on your name to go through to what I guess is your profile page. You should see a link through to your "Google profile" right next to where your name is.

Click on this, which opens in a new window. Editing the settings of your Google profile will affect what goes public in Buzz. I clicked on "edit profile" and then unticked the following options (the last one is the most pertinent):

• Display my full name so I can be found in search
• Allow people to contact me (without showing my email address)
• Display the list of people I'm following and people following me

There was also a big pop-up box about how I needed to set up something so that my profile could be found on Google search. NO THANKS. If someone needs to find me, it's not that hard. Chances are I'll bump into them at a bar or swimming pool or a mate's birthday. I don't like the idea of having to feed my full name and details into a search engine in order for my "friends" to be able to find me via the internet.

This is just what I've come across prodding around this afternoon. By no means extensive! In fact, I have a weird mysterious follower who I don't recognise as a Buzz follower. I have no idea how to get rid of this person. Anyone got any tips on this aspect? The Google help forums are not very, ahh, helpful.

Overall, I'm not sure how successful Buzz can be. It is only available to those with Gmail addresses and really it doesn't seem much better than Facebook, so why would anyone who doesn't already have a Gmail rush over, particularly as initial reaction seems to be that most of us are pretty whelmed...

Posted by Bel. The time is 12:15pm here in Wellington, NZ.

flickr: Somethingintheair

flickr: anna t

flickr: clairity

It's a rainy day here in Wellington and I have an hour to kill before I brave the elements and get my hair cut in my lunch break. In case your afternoon is dragging as much as mine, here are some links from the last week that managed to hold my attention.

--

Where The Wild Things Are interview with director Spike Jonze, co-screenwriter Dave Eggers (squee!) and the indomitable Maurice Sendak: "I would rather not have had a film than turn it into a kiddie movie". Includes a quick video from the London premiere.

--

Polaroid's not dead? The company has now announced the classic Polaroid camera and standard 600 film will be back in production. In the meantime, check out this exhibition in London of the very last batches of film with the final expiry date or go download Poladroid to easily turn your digital pics into retro goodies!

--

This we need to talk about: The Guttmacher Institute have released latest research which shows that the abortion rates have declined worldwide as contraceptive use has increased. Pow.

The sad flipside of this is in developing countries where safe access to contraceptives is not possible and where abortion remains highly restricted, tens of thousands of women are dying each year from unsafe abortions. And millions suffering serious complications as a result.

The report is very short and includes three key recommendations. It is highly recommended reading.

--

I have probably only removed about four staples in my lifetime. But when that time came, those staples really needed to be removed and it was no fun shredding my fingertips in the process. Would I have preferred to have had this nifty contraption instead? All signs point to: GRRRROWL.

--

As a writer (!), there are few things I abhor more than writing exercises. I find they evoke little more than stale and derivative scribblings in me, desperately squeezed from my mind grapes.

But when I clicked through to 100 Colors, 100 Days, 100 Writings, I was struck by not only the originality and freshness of the writing, but the thought that maybe, just maybe, this was something I could get into.

--

I find home renovation as about as thrilling as the next person - assuming that the next person is someone who finds it completely dull, and not my Aunty Lynda, who could watch Mitre 10 Home Make Over until the cows come home. (And make over the cowshed.)

But props to the couple who did this to their bathroom:

i.e. MADE IT AWESOME!!

A comment says they should've gone for proper coloured tiles and everything, but the blogger says they're hoping that when they eventually resell the house, prospective buyers won't notice the Tetris motif and just think it's a random pattern. Or it will be a SELLING POINT to end all!!

--

And finally, if you haven't already watched this video, enjoy!

Posted by Bel. The time is 5:24pm here in Wellington, NZ.

When there's a catchy beat, it doesn't matter what age you are, sometimes you just need to dance:

This has gone viral and is all over US websites - but has its origins right here in NZ. Note the C4 logo on the telly screen!

Now excuse me while I go take my pants off and dance around.

Posted by Bel. The time is 10:02am here in Wellington, NZ.

The LIFE website is probably one of my favourite in the whole world. I mainly use it to spend hours oogling the old movie stars I adore, like Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, Marilyn Munroe and Brigitte Bardot. (Before she turned into a crazy racist bitch that is.)

But there are photos galore there, including this charming gallery called "Pet Kisses: Kinda Cute, Kinda Gross". Mostly celebrity snaps, you can judge for yourself how cute it is to be sharing salivia with something that has the tendency to lick its own butt. And I am referring to the dog here, not Will Smith.

Enjoy!

Posted by Bel. The time is ***:**am/pm here in Wellington, NZ.

Look at this. I was on Twitter and saw that someone appeared to be following (I am going to treat all these social networking jargony terms as if there were real words, just as we eventually got used to talking about 'friendsing' people, despite how moronic that sounded at first. And still does, when you think about it. As I am now. Friendsing. Dear god. This is our gift to the future?).

Where was I?! Oh yeah, it appears all these cats are Twittering. WTF!? I'm finding it annoying enough to keep up with Twitter as it is, since no one really seems to be into it - and yet out there a bunch of people are pretending to be their cats on the internet?? Why? Why oh why.

However in cat-orientated interweb behaviour I completely approve, ROLcats cannily translates the Russian version of LOLcats back into English for us Western capitalist bastards. Thus:

I can see someone’s misplaced Ushanka?
Careless fool, winter’s bitter fury will surely smother their spirit.

And:

Do you mistake us for sincere?
We adorn ourselves thus to mock the capitalist sacrament of annual materials exchange…

And so on. Much other such Soviet hilarity to be had here: http://rolcats.com At least they're not trying to pretend the cats write it themselves.

Posted by Bel. The time is 8:37pm here in Wellington, NZ.

I can't direct you to this URL without causing some kind of offense, but I really do insist you check out: http://thisiswhyyourefat.com (no offense).

A lot of it made me feel quite nauseous, particularly as a vegetarian, but I'll tell ya what - that hot dog encased in shoestring fries might be a goer...