This are weird and strangely appealing...

Hey everyone (all both of you), just wanted to put something new on the site, even if it's nothing more than a quick note to say the Augean Stables are not dead. We will be slowly reinvigorating the site, rather than trying for a big blow out relaunch...We'll be adding new content slowly, and revamping some stuff...We'll have a new forum soon, so there'll be another place to waste time, and we'll be refining the look of the place...

I'm cautiously optimistic at this point ;)

Found this article on presidential candidate and democratic frontrunner John Kerry. Turns out he was in a band back in his Ivy League days. Nothing amazing considering we're now in an era when major politicians grew up listening to rock music, but the important thing (at least to me) is that he was a bassist...This is obviously significant for many reasons, most importantly 'I am also a bassist'...I'm still very unlikely to vote for him, but if he ever wants to jam, I'm up for it...

Also, we do have a load of stuff coming up, I just need to get it posted and you'll be deluged with yummy features and reviews, loaded with cromulent facts, nearly decipherable insights, and 'entertain-esqe' content...

Well I hope that KK doesn't mind me plugging on AS, but the artist behind the graphics on this fancy site has gone and bought and created his own site over at

.

Granted it doesn't have the fancy layout of Despot, or at least not yet.. *wink wink*, but it's still good enough that I'd consider it worthy of deeming a "sister site" to Augean Stables.

It comes complete with a forum (and we're not talking chintzy either) and plenty of offers to you folks. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to Paypal so that I might actually bank off my investment.

Hey everyone, here's hoping that you're with friends and family this time of year...I'm with my parents in the UK (And I've got lots of pictures of our vaction for you), and just wanted to check in and wish you a Happy Holidays and let you know that The Stables are gearing up for a push of new content for the New Year...See you then!

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By Joseph Logan
AD-DAWR, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops seized Saddam Hussein hiding in a filthy hole near his hometown of Tikrit in a coup for Washington's beleaguered occupation force in Iraq.

Grubby and bearded, the fugitive 66-year-old dictator was dug out by troops from a cramped hiding pit during a raid on a farm in Ad-Dawr village late Saturday, the jubilant U.S. commander in Iraq Ricardo Sanchez said Sunday.

Gunfire crackled in celebration across the country as Iraqis greeted a U.S. military video showing their once feared leader, disheveled and sporting a bushy black and gray beard, undergoing a medical examination after seven months on the run.

The arrest is a boon for President Bush, whose campaign for re-election next year was haunted by dogged attacks on U.S. troops and their allies. Saddam may also provide intelligence on alleged banned weapons.

Saddam, who once seemed almost to believe his own claims of invincibility and urged diehard loyalists to go down fighting, gave up without a shot being fired, Lieutenant General Sanchez told a news conference in Baghdad.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we got him," a beaming U.S. administrator Paul Bremer said in his first comments to the news conference where the film was shown. "The tyrant is a prisoner."

Cheering Iraqis in the audience shouted "Death to Saddam!"

Not much to say...The story is much longer, take the time to read the whole thing

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A public interest group had a holiday warning and a new word on Monday for parents of video game users: Beware of "killographic," defined as the "graphic depiction of brutal violence." The National Institute on Media and the Family, an independent, nonprofit group, said "killographic" scenes are featured in a number of video games within reach of children.

"If pornographic is the 'graphic depiction of sex,' then killographic should enter our vocabulary to describe the 'graphic depiction of brutal violence,"' David Walsh, the institute's president, told a Capitol Hill news conference.

"Clever phrase," Doug Lowenstein, head of the Entertainment Software Association, which represents computer and video game software publishers, replied when asked about "killographic."

Lowenstein noted that the average age of those who play video games is 28, and said as adults they should be allowed to pick their entertainment.

He also pointed out that the industry rates its games on age appropriateness, and that Walsh's institute found most parents are not aware of a game's content. "The message is that parents in many cases aren't doing their job," Lowenstein said.

No, no, no, no, no...no...Honestly, I don't care about the whole violence issue, I think both sides are narrow-minded...Gamers do average in their 20s, and Parents should (really should) be informed about what their kids are playing, but on the other hand, the gaming industry (along with the film and music industries) are full of it when they say that their products don't affect people in any way...Nonsense...

People play games or watch movies or listen to music because it affects them in some way, otherwise there's no point...If what went in our head didn't affect us, then advertisers are wasting a whole heap-o-money...This isn't to say "Violent Games = Violent People", that's equally nonsense, people choose their own actions, and a violent movie or video game can no more 'make' anyone do anything than a potato...People are accountable for their own actions...

My real issue with this is the fact they made up the word 'Killographic'...What the heck is that?!? The statement "If pornographic is the 'graphic depiction of sex,' then killographic should enter our vocabulary to describe the 'graphic depiction of brutal violence," is so stupid, I fear my head might explode...The reason 'pornographic' means what it does is because of 2500 years of linguistic development...The reason 'killographic' means what it does is because whoever coined it was too lazy to go and look up a proper Latin or Greek root word...It almost makes me want to interfect someone (that has a root, go look it up ;)...

The guys over at Penny-Arcade have already tried their hand at inventing a new word, so instead I'm going to invent word to describe a whole new species because, well, I thought of the word, and it's funny...I'm hoping to get the entry into the Oxford English Dictionary...ahem:

n. Feclapotamus
A pachydermatous septaped, inhabiting the volcanic islands in the western regions of my imagination, Feclapotamus Fictitius, a large beast, known primarily for its tendency to listen to Kylie Minogue albums during dinner, diet consists primarily of purple radishes and OiNutter's pudding, solely responsible for all the evils of the world, including, but not exclusive to, Steven Seagal films, the New York Yankees, beets, the number 134, vinyl car seats, cover charges, John Romero, and the break up of the Beatles (cf. Yoko Ono)...