Bytemarks
Getting the last laugh with cyberjokes

By Burt Lum

There are many places in the world where poking fun at the political leadership would bring down the wrath of authority. Thanks to our First Amendment right to freedom of speech, comedians, writers, cartoonist and actors enjoy a fertile ground of material, without the threat of incarceration. So with that shield properly erected, I will proceed with the rest of the story.

My cyber-buddies are always sending me cool site URLs, and lately I have been getting a disproportionate number of George W. Bush links. I recently got turned on to John S. Pritchett's site at www.pritchettcartoons.com John, a cartoon fixture in Hawai'i, has several good cartoons on George W., such as www.pritchettcartoons.com/china.htm, but his real passion seems to be Hawai'i politics at www.lava.net/~pritchet/.

Another buddy of mine sent me this interesting story, which could happen nowhere else but the Internet. Go to www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,41401,00.html for the full story, but the essence is that typing an unprintable insult into the window at Google.com is making the search engine return a particular George W. site on the top of the list. What I find amazing about this story is that evidently, a good amount of manipulation can go on with the search indexes. So who is in control here? Google? Whereas some search engines resorted to payment for top listings, Google claims to hold to its algorithmic approach. So whatever the method used to get this result, it ushers in a new era of cyber jokemanship.

Although there are many more sites on the Internet, my final George W. humor site was at www.kookazoid.com/bush/vehicle It's worth noting, even though this URL now displays a mysterious message: "Due to circumstances outside of our control, the President Bush piece has been taken down." It was an interactive animation allowing the visitor to duke it out with the Prez, GW's face getting all red and distorted. These political sites often have a short shelf life, so be warned. Get in your punches before the bell rings.;-):

Burt Lum, cyber-citizen and self-anointed tour guide to the Internet frontier, is one click away at burt@brouhaha.net.