The Daily Lifeweb design and personal blog by Evan Skuthorpe

It was 1918 and the Allies had won the Great War. As one of the main contributing victors, the newly established country of Australia had a place on the world stage and was in a position to influence the coming peace treaty and as Australian Prime Minister, Billy Hughes was the man to do so.

President Wilson from the USA questioned Hughes’s authority to intervene in world affairs because he was ‘speaking for only five million people’. Hughes replied: ‘I speak for sixty thousand dead. For how many do you speak?’

It’s the Tuesday after a long weekend and I’m sat in the Roebuck pub near work having just eaten a Cajun chicken baguette. Tastey it was too. I have my book, 1918, but I’ve been more tempted by my new poker app that I downloaded over the weekend. I managed to get tickets today thanks to O2 Priority for the Australia v England at Twickenham in November. Some more freelance work is lined up for this afternoon.

But in the meantime, I’m just sitting back enjoying this relaxing moment in the day before heading back into the business end of the afternoon for some more web design and related work. A busy week is lined up but will be topped off with a nice dinner this Friday night with my girlfriend and her family where I’ll be meeting her sister for the first time.

Checkout this footage shot by Sean Stiegemeier of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption in Iceland. It’s pretty amazing!

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull – May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

A curious case… the Principality of Hutt River has claimed to be an independent sovereign state within the State of Western Australia.

Leonard George Casley’s farm where the Principality is now situated, had around 4,000 hectares or 9,900 acres in old-speak of wheat ready to harvest when the Western Australian quotas were issued which allowed Casley to sell only 40 hectares worth. Five families who owned farms in Hutt River banded together to fight the quota. Casley lodged a protest with the Governor of Western Australia Sir Douglas Kendrew who replied “no rectification of our Quota would be allowed” which, as the Queen’s representative, made Her Majesty technically liable, in Tort, for applying an unlawful imposition as the quota had not yet been passed into law. Casely lodged a claim for $52 million hoping that this would force a revision of the quota. Two weeks later the government introduced a bill into Parliament to “resume” their rural lands under compulsory acquisition. Several approaches to the government to reconsider the acquisition bill failed and Casley and his associates resorted to the Treason Act 1495, a British law, which they felt allowed them to secede and declare their independence from the Commonwealth of Australia.

The government of Western Australia determined it could do nothing without the intervention of the Commonwealth. The Governor-General of Australia, Sir Paul Hasluck, stated that it was unconstitutional for the Commonwealth to intervene. In correspondence with the Governor-General’s office, Casley was inadvertently addressed as the “Administrator of the Hutt River Province” which, under the application of Royal Prerogative, makes this recognition binding on all courts. The government then threatened him with prosecution Casley styled himself His Royal Highness Prince Leonard of Hutt to take advantage of a Commonwealth law where a monarch could not only not be charged and that anyone who interfered with his duties could be charged with treason.

On the whole, the Australian Government departments do not interfere with the sovereignty of Hutt River Province. The ATO (Australian Taxation Office) has not acted against the Principality and government authorities are unable or unwilling to act against Province. it also does not pay taxes.

A case of using the system to beat the system?

Pictorymag.com has a good story on London article in photos. Check it out whilst you can!

Kevin Rudd meets with the Queen of England.

He asks her, “Your Majesty, how do you run such an efficient government?
Are there any tips you can give to me?”
“Well,” says the Queen, “the most important thing is to surround yourself
with intelligent people.”

Rudd frowns “But how do I know the people around me are really intelligent?”

The Queen takes a sip of tea. “Oh, that’s easy. You just ask them to answer
an intelligent riddle.”

The Queen pushes a button on her intercom. “Please send Gordon Brown in
here, would you?”

Gordon Brown walks into the room. “Yes, my Queen?”

The Queen smiles. “Answer me this, please, Gordon. Your mother and father
have a child. It is not your brother and it is not your sister. Who is it?”

Without pausing for a moment, Gordon Brown answers, “That would be me.”

“Yes! Very good,” says the Queen. Rudd goes back home to ask Wayne Swan, his
Treasurer, the same question.

“Wayne ! Answer this for me. Your mother and your father have a child. It’s
not your brother and it’s not your sister. Who is it?”

“I’m not sure,” says Swan. “Let me get back to you on that one.”

He goes to his advisors and asks everyone, but none can give him an answer.

Finally, he sees Tony Abbott, and asks him.

Swan asks Abbott, “Tony! Can you answer this for me?
Your mother and father have a child and it’s not your brother or your
sister. Who is it?”

Tony Abbott yells back, “That’s easy. It’s me!”

Swan smiles, and says, “Thanks Tony!” Then, he goes back to speak with Rudd.

“Say, I did some research and I have the answer to that riddle. It’s Tony
Abbott.”

Rudd gets up, stomps over to Swan, and angrily yells into his face “No, you
idiot! It’s Gordon Brown!”

Libya’s ultimate bearded fucktard, Gaddafi has called for a jihad against Switzerland. The Libyan dictator made his comments while speaking to mark the birthday of the Mohammed.

“Let us wage jihad against Switzerland, Zionism and foreign aggression,” said the fucknut dictator.

“Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against Muhammad, God and the Koran.” apparently.

Is anyone else getting sick of these extremist reactionary fruitcakes and the morons who listen to them?

Gaddafi as seen at Dragfest 09

“Australian troops had, at Milne Bay in New Guinea, inflicted on the Japanese their first undoubted defeat on land. If the Australians, in conditions very like ours, had done it, so could we. Some of us may forget that of all the Allies it was the Australian soldiers who first broke the spell of the invincibility of the Japanese Army; those of us who were in Burma have cause to remember.”

British Field Marshal Sir William Slim (who had no part in the battle).

Quite possibly the funniest thing I’ve seen on the internet in a long time. Two Scuba clad larrikins in Bergen, Norway chased the Google Street View car as it drove past them sitting in a car park on foldable chairs.

Scuba Clad Larrikins

“I just have a hunch that Stalin is not that kind of a man. . . . I think that if I give him everything I possibly can and ask for nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he won’t try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.”

- Franklin Roosevelt, 1943