At the moment that equates to US$167,000.

In the US, the same vehicle costs US$94,000.

The price difference is simply outrageous, and not justified by shipping costs, local taxes etc.

So you would think that paying not far off twice as much as the US price, Australian’s would at least get outstanding service.

Not so, it would seem.

Below are two photos taken from a dealer in Melbourne, Australia.

The car shown in an ML63, with a full Mercedes Service history, which has blown its engine after just 80,000km, which is appalling.

It would appear from the signage and location of the vehicle that any claim on Mercedes Benz has been knocked back. So the end result is lots of free, negative publicity right outside the dealer located in the richest suburb in Melbourne.

Come on Mercedes, there better be a good explanation for this one!

Newsgroups Part 1: What are they and where did they come from?

This is a four part article on Newsgroups – covering their history, evolution, what they can do for you now (and why things like Bittorrent are a bad idea to use for some people), and exactly how you can use Newsgroups today.

This is written for normal people – not nerds. So if you have heard about it and want to give it a go, reading these four articles will give you all you need to know.

Best of all, I will enable you try Newsgroups out for free so you can gain an understanding of how they work and why they are so cool. They are not really mainstream at the moment, but have capabilities far in excess of alternatives – which is why at the moment mostly more hard core Internet users use them.

Read on…

Part 1: Newsgroup History

Newsgroups are a very old part of the internet and also often referred to as UseNet. In days gone past they were one of the main ways people with things in common got together to discuss their favourite topics. Like a bulletin board or forum, people posted things, others replied, and often robust, challenging discussions resulted – occasionally not for the faint hearted!

A user posts a message to their newsgroup server, and soon that message is spread across the world’s newsgroup servers which are constantly updated and sharing content.

They run on servers just like websites do, but you can’t directly view them in your internet browser like a website. (Well strictly speaking it is technically possible, but not a very good user experience) . Some internet service providers (ISPs) provide their users with free Newsgroup access, however in the vast majority of instances they provide only a tiny glimpse at what’s available and only more recent things, and you simply cannot see most of what’s out there. This is where Newsgroup providers come into play, and for a small monthly fee you gain access to much, much more and often much higher bandwidth which means you can download things faster.

Newsgroups are divided into “Groups”. The name of a group tends to follow a set standard so people can guess from the name what it’s about. For example alt.autos.toyota is a newsgroup for those interested in cars – specifically Toyotas. There is also an alt.autos.ford, and a multitude of others that can be specific (ie focus on one manufacturer) or more generic to chat about anything to do with cars, eg alt.autos

There is a naming hierarchy which includes the first word of the group name being:

• comp.* — Discussion of computer-related topics
• news.* — Discussion of Usenet itself
• sci.* — Discussion of scientific subjects
• rec.* — Discussion of recreational activities (e.g. games and hobbies)
• soc.* — Socialising and discussion of social issues.
• talk. * — Discussion of contentious issues such as religion and politics.
• misc.* — Miscellaneous discussion—anything which does not fit in the other hierarchies.

(Reference: the above list was obtained from Wikipedia)

alt.* groups I mentioned earlier are more modern groups with fewer limits of what can be discussed.

There are well over 100,000 newsgroups now. The exact number will depend on your Newsgroup provider and how good they are – but more on that in the next parts!

NH 300×250 A

Coming soon: Part 2: Newsgroup Evolution

Zombies. Machetes. Unix adminstration, shotguns, brains and more!

How cool is this:

Well,

By now we are all well and truly saturated with the St Kilda Girl story.

It’s given us an interesting insight into what many would consider to be an AFL groupie.

So far aside from the likely terrible impact on the life of the girl in question – Kim Duthie, the whole scandal has also touched the lives of:

Sam Gilbert (alleged to have slept with her)
Ricky Nixon (alleged to have slept with her)
Nick Riewoldt (naked photos released of him by the girl)
Nick Dal Santo (also tied up with the naked photo issue)

and God knows who else.

What amazes me is this: the guys who are alleged to have slept with her are too old to legally do so.

So why havent the police investigated them? For sure any non-football-related member of the public would have been arrested for doing the same, and then interviewed and likely charged – if anything based on the accusations alone.

It’s hard not to consider double standards may be at play here. It wouldnt be the first time that football related celebrities have received special treatment.

I have sat on these for a long time, as the name and face of the woman in question was still private, but given recent media coverage where both her name and face were clearly shown, I decided anonymity of Kim was no longer able to be reasonably considered an issue as she and the TV networks appear happy to fully disclose her details.

Oh, and there is no denying that Kim is hot!

Stay tuned – more to follow.

Well,

By now we are all well and truly saturated with the St Kilda Girl story.

It’s given us an interesting insight into what many would consider to be an AFL groupie.

So far aside from the likely terrible impact on the life of the girl in question – Kim Duthie, the whole scandal has also touched the lives of:

Sam Gilbert (alleged to have slept with her)
Ricky Nixon (alleged to have slept with her)
Nick Riewoldt (naked photos released of him by the girl)
Nick Dal Santo (also tied up with the naked photo issue)

and God knows who else.

What amazes me is this: the guys who are alleged to have slept with her are too old to legally do so.

So why havent the police investigated them? For sure any non-football-related member of the public would have been arrested for doing the same, and then interviewed and likely charged – if anything based on the accusations alone.

It’s hard not to consider double standards may be at play here. It wouldnt be the first time that football related celebrities have received special treatment.

I have sat on these for a long time, as the name and face of the woman in question was still private, but given recent media coverage where both her name and face were clearly shown, I decided anonymity of Kim was no longer able to be reasonably considered an issue as she and the TV networks appear happy to fully disclose her details.

Oh, and there is no denying that Kim is hot!

Stay tuned – more to follow.

Well,

By now we are all well and truly saturated with the St Kilda Girl story.

It’s given us an interesting insight into what many would consider to be an AFL groupie.

So far aside from the likely terrible impact on the life of the girl in question – Kim Duthie, the whole scandal has also touched the lives of:

Sam Gilbert (alleged to have slept with her)
Ricky Nixon (alleged to have slept with her)
Nick Riewoldt (naked photos released of him by the girl)
Nick Dal Santo (also tied up with the naked photo issue)

and God knows who else.

What amazes me is this: the guys who are alleged to have slept with her are too old to legally do so.

So why havent the police investigated them? For sure any non-football-related member of the public would have been arrested for doing the same, and then interviewed and likely charged – if anything based on the accusations alone.

It’s hard not to consider double standards may be at play here. It wouldnt be the first time that football related celebrities have received special treatment.

I have sat on these for a long time, as the name and face of the woman in question was still private, but given recent media coverage where both her name and face were clearly shown, I decided anonymity of Kim was no longer able to be reasonably considered an issue as she and the TV networks appear happy to fully disclose her details.

Oh, and there is no denying that Kim is hot!

Stay tuned – more to follow.

Well,

By now we are all well and truly saturated with the St Kilda Girl story.

It’s given us an interesting insight into what many would consider to be an AFL groupie.

So far aside from the likely terrible impact on the life of the girl in question – Kim Duthie, the whole scandal has also touched the lives of:

Sam Gilbert (alleged to have slept with her)
Ricky Nixon (alleged to have slept with her)
Nick Riewoldt (naked photos released of him by the girl)
Nick Dal Santo (also tied up with the naked photo issue)

and God knows who else.

What amazes me is this: the guys who are alleged to have slept with her are too old to legally do so.

So why havent the police investigated them? For sure any non-football-related member of the public would have been arrested for doing the same, and then interviewed and likely charged – if anything based on the accusations alone.

It’s hard not to consider double standards may be at play here. It wouldnt be the first time that football related celebrities have received special treatment.

I have sat on these for a long time, as the name and face of the woman in question was still private, but given recent media coverage where both her name and face were clearly shown, I decided anonymity of Kim was no longer able to be reasonably considered an issue as she and the TV networks appear happy to fully disclose her details.

Oh, and there is no denying that Kim is hot!

Stay tuned – more to follow.

By now we are all well and truly saturated with the St Kilda Girl story.

It’s given us an interesting insight into what many would consider to be an AFL groupie.

So far aside from the likely terrible impact on the life of the girl in question – Kim Duthie, the whole scandal has also touched the lives of:

Sam Gilbert (alleged to have slept with her)
Ricky Nixon (alleged to have slept with her)
Nick Riewoldt (naked photos released of him by the girl)
Nick Dal Santo (also tied up with the naked photo issue)

and God knows who else.

What amazes me is this: the guys who are alleged to have slept with her are too old to legally do so.

So why havent the police investigated them? For sure any non-football-related member of the public would have been arrested for doing the same, and then interviewed and likely charged – if anything based on the accusations alone.

It’s hard not to consider double standards may be at play here. It wouldnt be the first time that football related celebrities have received special treatment.

I have sat on these for a long time, as the name and face of the woman in question was still private, but given recent media coverage where both her name and face were clearly shown, I thought that the anonymity of Kim was no longer able to be reasonably considered an issue. Both she and the TV networks appear happy to fully disclose her face and name.

Oh, and there is no denying that Kim is hot!

Stay tuned – more to follow.

In short:
- Woman’s husband is overseas fighting for the US in Iraq.
- Woman falls pregnant, having a baby with dark skin – whereas she and her husband both have white skin.
- Woman claims she went to watch a 3D porn film with a friend, and fell pregnant from the film.
- And, most amazing of all, her husband believes her!