Given that, oooh, eleven sixteenths of this pointless site is about nerdy geek-things, and the other eighteen twentieths consists of rambling rants about the evils of the Bush cabal, you will be unsurprised to hear that the Poorhouse quite liked the below video.

Combining the razzamatazz of Apple launching its nine-millionth nigh-on-identical iPod upgrade and the upper limits of American mispronunciation satire, check out the fabulous premiere of the iRack.

The rumours are untrue - the recent absence is not because the Poorhouse is actually Saddam Hussein and the recent (death) sentencing has caused an interruption in Internet connectivity. Still, let's not deal with that thorny issue now - other to note that Blair has amazed the Poorhouse in a good way by publicly (if ineffectively) stating his opinion that he is entirely against the death sentence. Beckett's comments that "we always try to persuade others not to use it" do seem a little unrealistic given our lot seem happy enough with America being into executions despite it totally breaching of human rights legislation the UK Government supposedly stands firm with. Oh, and co-incidental congratulations to Bush and the Republicans for managing to arrange this just in time for their otherwise embarrassing elections.

Time to lighten the mood. In a near-seasonal celebration, the Poorhouse recommends having a game of Attack of the Sprouts. Assume the role of a party-hatted-up Xmas diner tucking into his turkey whilst trying to defend himself from a sprout invasion into his dinner. Slightly noisy for the workplace, but you can tell the boss you're improving reaction time, hand-eye co-ordination, team building or other such corporately self-developmentally enough excuse.

The Poorhouse wanted to highlight a few little snippets of information regarding the consequences of the Iraq invasion as determined by agencies that we - and the Government - should ideally be able to trust at least a little to have the relevant expertise.

...there is "no doubt" the invasion of Iraq has "given a boost to the al-Qaida network" in "propaganda, recruitment and fundraising"

- summary of a report by Chatham House, which used to be known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, as reported in the Guardian.

For anyone who's been wondering what's happened to Saddam Hussein, ex-dictator, torturer and all round evil-doer of Iraq, since he was purportedly captured, here's your answer.

He's been watching cartoons.

VP shoots republican donor shockA couple of weeks ago one of the Bush administration took their lust for shiny guns and brutal violence a little further than even usual and personally shot someone. US Vice President Dick Cheney - possibly the second most powerful man in the world - got confused between the quail he was on a hunt for, and Mr Harry Whittington, one of his pals who was also after shooting said bird.

In the words of Katharine Armstrong, the owner of the Texas ranch they were hunting on: "The covey flushed and the vice-president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by God, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good".