I really liked this climbing video of Natalija Gros (or in Slovnglish).

There’s lots of good climbing films around, but many or most of them feature fairly “Xtr3m3″ soundtracks – some are OK, but sometimes they can be a bit lame. The soundtrack to this video is entirely different, and it really suits the style of the filiming too.

Not to mention the climb, phew! Even if you’ve never lead a climb it should be pretty obvious that your instinct is always to clip into any protection you get near, so I love the way she takes her time, has a nice rest, gets some chalk and then clips in – a pro at work.

After not quite a year of Rudd and his minions, it seems to be becoming fashionable to bitch and moan about them, and go on about how they’re just as bad as the last lot.

Well, no. Not yet anyway.

And if you need reminding just what a pack of bastards the last lot were, the ABC are conveniently screening The Howard Years. Don’t miss it.

Cause you’ve all been following me on last.fm you’ll already know this .. but I am really loving these albums.

At some point, it might even have been in the car driving back from Sydney, we heard one of the new Kings of Leon tracks and loved it. I notice with some trepidation that they’re from Tennessee, which I flamed a few posts back, but oh well I’m sure they’re top blokes. I don’t know their earlier stuff that well, but there is some seriously good song writing on this album.

I had to get the Muse album after listening it to a bit in Freiburg with Nahd, not to mention my obsession with playing Knights of Cydonia on Guitar Hero. In fact “Exo-Politics” is a great song to play on the (real) guitar, Cydonia is not bad but a lot of the best bits are actually keyboard.

Meg and I both loved the last Emilíana Torrini album, and I think this one is even better. It’s just a bit more varied and upbeat than the last, including the awesome dubish title track, and the very fun Jungle Drum which I think they’re playing on the J’s.

And for cute lyrics and singable melodies you’ve gotta love Josh Pyke. His newie is awesome, also better than his last I think, which is often hard for a second album but I think he’s done it. Great to play along with, though some of the guitar is trickier than you’d think. I’ve been a fan of his for a while now, nice to get another installment.

Oh and did I mention he’s playing at Woodie, rock!

I’ve plugged the TED talks before, but here’s another one that’s a must watch.

If you can take anymore of him, don’t miss his possibly even more acerbic blog Cluster#### Nation:

Mr. Obama’s victory was a moment of epochal exhilaration, not least because he appears to be a decent and intelligent person …

The current occupant of the White House, however, has sedulously prepared for his successor the biggest shit sandwich the world has ever seen, and there is naturally some concern that Mr. Obama might choke on it. The dilemma is essentially this: the consumer economy we all knew and loved has died. … The economy-to-come is one of rigor and austerity. It is not the kind of thing that a nation of overfed clowns is used to.

Actually I think it would be more accurate to say Bush has accidentally prepared the biggest shit sandwich, to suggest he did it on purpose is giving him too much credit.

The maps are from Mark Newman at the University of Michigan.

It’s interesting to compare the maps, 2004 on top and 2008 on the bottom in case you were wondering. In nearly all areas there’s been a gradual bleeding of the blue from the coastal and populated areas out into the countryside. The exceptions being parts of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee – where there was a noticeable shift into the red.

I wonder what would cause people to vote for John Kerry, but not Barrack Obama?