Long time readers of OzSoapbox will no doubt know that my relationship with the clothing brand American Apparel has been a turbulent one.

By far my favourite brand of tshirt out there, for years now I’ve been caught between loving the style of American Apparel’s plain fine jersey tshirts and learning to live as a second class citizen.

As far as American Apparel’s marketing department is concerned, anyone living outside of the US is gullible consumer whore trash all but willing to be shafted over to kingdom come. [Read the rest of this entry...]

With a depressing estimate of nine billion people set to inhabit Earth by 2050, it’s no secret that we as a global civilization are going to have to ramp up our food production methods to keep up with demand.

The days of livestock grazing on open rolling plains is fast becoming extinct and more then ever humanity is going to have to rely on science more then ever to fix the problem.

Personally I’d rather see science solve the greater problem of the world’s population reaching nine billion, but admittedly science has a ways to go yet before it can compete with stupid people outbreeding their environments.

In the meantime however, a group of scientists in the UK have suggested we all bunker down and prepare for artificially grown meat fresh from the vat, otherwise known as ‘in vitro meat‘.

Mmmm artificial vat grown meat. It’s the other, other, other white… well we’re not actually sure if it fits the definition of meat or not but you don’t really have a choice now do you.

Bon Apetite. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Despite having lived in Melbourne for nearly three decades I’d never heard of Macchour Chaouk until he was gunned down last week in his Brooklyn home in Melbourne’s west.

Not knowing who Chaouk was, I paid little attention to the initial reports of his death. Some guy I’ve never heard of died in one of Melbourne’s trashy western suburbs gets a big yawn from me and it’s onto the next news story.

Despite the irrelevance of this Chaouk guy, coverage of his death has remained persistent in the media and yesterday climaxed with the Chaouk family basically telling the media to sod off.

Ok guys, now you’ve got my full attention – so let’s see what you’ve got to say. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Eating out in Taiwan by yourself is for the most part cheaper then anything you could cook up at home. Meat is expensive and a lot of the time you’re lucky to even have a kitchen.

It’s only when you want to feed a large group of people, such as a family, that the cost of eating in becomes comparable to eating out.

I was recently at one such family dinner and following the mountain of a banquet the rare opportunity arose to participate in some dish washing. Needless to say when a family sits down to eat a ton of food the dish count is quite high and takes a while.

After we’d finished washing up, one of the family members began to start stacking the dishes in what looked like a wine chiller.

‘Oh cmon, surely you guys aren’t that desperate for chilled bowls and plates?!’ [Read the rest of this entry...]

I’m not quite sure about the significance of it, but this Monday marks Chinese Valentines day here in Taiwan. Due to Monday being a craptastic day for hanging out with your significant other, the bulk of Taiwanese people celebrate their Valentines day over the weekend.

Having been seeing a girl steadily for about a month now and completely missing February’s Valentines day due to being single, this time around I had no excuse. [Read the rest of this entry...]

The aptly named Green World Ecological Farm is kind of like a zoo. With a strong emphasis on the farming and nature, Green World is located just outside of Beipu in Hsinchu Country, Taiwan.

The park itself is quite large with a lot of attractions to see, mostly in the form of animal and plant exhibits. Fortunately (or unfortunately) the park is aimed at kids, so Green World doesn’t really pass as a zoo but there are enough animals on site to keep you interested for a few hours.

On a recent trip to Green World, here’s what I found. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Come election time there’s always going to be opportunists coming out of the woodwork. Their aim is to use the election itself as leverage to push a particular agenda, be it personal or for a communal cause.

Most of the time they’re ignored and simply brushed aside as irritating however these people aren’t always a bad thing. Recently Jenny Sturrock made a plea to Julia Gillard to finance treatment for the rare blood disease, Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria.

Unfortunately the leading treatment drug, Soliris, is currently the single most expensive drug in the world. [Read the rest of this entry...]

When I moved to Taiwan my cycling jersey was one of the things I had to leave at home. I figured what with Taiwan being the cycling manufacturing capital of the world that finding decent gear here wouldn’t be too much of a challenge.

Upon arriving here however I quickly came to the realisation that unless you wanted to deck yourself out in cheap and crappy Giant branded cycling apparel, you didn’t have many options.

Thus the search for a decent cycling jersey online commenced and in the end I decided it would be a great opportunity to try out some of Ground Effect’s cycling gear.

I’d heard good things about Ground Effect gear and the simplicity of their ‘Median Strip’ Merino wool cycling jersey caught my eye.

Admittedly I was bit reluctant to purchase a wool based cycling jersey because I’m one of those people who can’t wear a sweater on bare skin… it just irritates me and feels scratchy. In doing some research though I’d read about the benefits of woolen cycling jerseys and it seemed that so long as you weren’t buying bargain basement stuff the feel off the wool was quite nice.

Still not 100% convinced, I decided to put an order in for a Median Strip anyway to test one out and after about a week my jersey arrived. After four or five months of use, here’s my thoughts. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Something didn’t sit right with me when Kevin Rudd was ousted from the Labor Party back in June.

Despite copping a bit of flak over the proposed mining resources tax, the hanging over of Australia’s top job to Julia Gillard felt rushed and a little too well staged.

Then there was Rudd’s reaction, well if you could call it a reaction. Apart from trying to appear genuine in his farewell speech there pretty much wasn’t any reaction on his part. Well short of what you’d expect from someone who’s just been voted out of the Prime Minister’s office by his own party.

I’m not suggesting Rudd had to go all Mark Latham on Labor but some sort of reaction would have been well, normal. Meanwhile speculation was rife over what exactly went down after it was confirmed that Rudd and Gillard had a private chat before the reigns of the nation were signed over to Gillard.

Both parties have sworn themselves to total secrecy. Bugger the Australian public who voted them in, you lot aren’t worthy enough to be told how Australia’s first female Prime Minister came to be.

Following his ousting Rudd for the most part disappeared and has only just recently resurfaced with the 2010 federal election only weeks away. Amazingly he’s all smiles and appears to have completely stifled the normal reaction anyone else should have had when put in his position.

Well, anyone else who wasn’t expecting it… or worse still had a hand in it. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Let me preface this article by saying that there’s plenty of people who absolutely love their pets to bits in Taiwan. These people treat their pets the same as any other person who loves their animals would and ensure that their companions lead happy and fruitful lives.

Like everywhere else though, there’s also those that appear to not give a crap about the welfare of those dependent on them.

In Taiwan the major difference to me seems to be the complete blatantness of it all. [Read the rest of this entry...]