FWIW, The W3C are planning, in the next specification of XHTML, to revise the functionality of the <BASE> tag. Future browsers wll be expected to render the following message for unattributed <BASE> tags:

  All Your Base Are Belong To Us
[download]

It is hoped that widespread adoption of this tag will reduce Internet bandwidth consumption by as much as 75%. Other tags under consideration include <DESTRUCTION>, <JUSTICE>, and <ZIG>...

   MeowChow                                   
               s aamecha.s a..a\u$&owag.print