Archive for October, 2005

Advice from the unwise

Well, the walk I had with Nattie this afternoon was interesting. Despite walking on the other side of a nearby street to the location of the Ten-Year-Old Anti-Angels, I still managed to get an earful of their noise, the more I hear of them, the more I want to print out that article and put it in their letter box, not that it is likely to help, but it would relieve the frustration a bit.

Also on the walk, some lunatic who decided to be an animal health expert for the minute gave some less than useful advice. This all occured while Nattie was sniffing a tree, as she does, and as is natural for dogs to do. This bloke was walking nearby and called out “It’ll get sick if you let it sniff things….pull it away”, I ignored him. Nattie was just about finished with the tree and was doing a bit of ground scratching, which she does occasionally, and most dogs do…what I mean by “ground scratching” is scratching the ground and kicking up a bit of dirt, this seemed to be an opportunity for the loony, who was now further away, to provide more advice “It’s just marking territory, pull it away”.

There was nothing odd about the tree, but there was about the advice provider. For someone offering animal health advice, he wasn’t particularly healthy himself…appearing to be somewhat agitated and under the influence of something, alcohol or otherwise, and littering the ground with orange peels. Eating the orange could be the only thing he had going for him…if he had ever eaten it…he just peeled it and looked at it. Whilst I can’t confirm it, he was certainly heading in the direction of an area notorious for drug dealers, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was going there.

I must wonder what he thinks dogs do? He certainly doesn’t understand what happens when you take dogs for walks. Walks are not only good excersise for dogs, they also provide an opportunity for them to investgate and explore the area, and due to their extremely good sense of smell, this means sniffing things.

He, on the other hand, should refrain from sniffing or inhaling whatever it is he sniffs or inhales.

Samuel

4 comments October 23rd, 2005 at 08:17pm

Samuel’s Musicians Of The Week

This week the Musicians Of The Week Award (which has returned to it’s regular Sunday spot) is Fleetwood Mac and the feature song is Don’t Stop.

It was actually quite a difficult choice coming to a decision for a feature song for Fleetwood Mac, and I pass over a few other good artists on the alphabeticla journey to Fleetwood Mac, but there is always next time!

If you wake up and don’t want to smile,
If it takes just a little while,
Open your eyes and look at the day,
You’ll see things in a different way.

Don’t stop, thinking about tomorrow,
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here,
It’ll be, better than before,
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone.

Why not think about times to come,
And not about the things that you’ve done,
If your life was bad to you,
Just think what tomorrow will do.

Don’t stop, thinking about tomorrow,
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here,
It’ll be, better than before,
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone.

All I want is to see you smile,
If it takes just a little while,
I know you don’t believe that it’s true,
I never meant any harm to you.

Don’t stop, thinking about tomorrow,
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here,
It’ll be, better than before,
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone.

Don’t you look back,
Don’t you look back.

Samuel

October 23rd, 2005 at 07:59pm

Cop threatens to sue John Laws

Of all the cases of stupidity this planet shows, this has to be near the top of the list. The police woman who gave 83-year-old Pat Gallen a $30 for crossing the road slowly is threatening to sue John Laws for defamation. Laws, and the rest of the media, criticised this police woman, and the fine was revoked after a public outcry. according to previous newspaper articles on the matter “A police spokeswoman said it was not clear if any disciplinary action would be taken against the officers involved”, so let me get this straight, QLD police revoked the fine, a clear sign it was a wrongful fine, and were considering disciplining the officer(s) involved, the entire media criticised the officer(s) involved (including Today Tonight if memory serves me correctly) and yet this stupid police woman is singling out John Laws for defamation???

As if the fine wasn’t stupid enough, she somehow got the hair-brained idea that she should sue only one of the people who criticised her? She is quite clearly one of the stupidest people on the planet.

So far only The Sunday Mail have covered the story, and their research is a little odd as well. They contacted Pat Gallen (the elderly lady who was fined), she refused to comment, and that is fair enough, but they also rang 2UE

A spokeswoman for Sydney station 2UE was unaware of the proposed legal action and said she could not comment.

The Sunday Mail is the Sunday edition of a daily newspaper, just like The Sun Herald and The Sunday Telegraph, which indicates that the story surfaced yesterday, which would mean that The Sunday Mail rang 2UE yesterday…on the weekend…They would have ended up speaking with the producer of one of 2UE’s Saturday programs…somebody who would have no connection with John Laws or his show…so of course they know nothing about it, nobody did until The Sunday Mail published the story today.

To add to the confusion of this stupidity, I’ve just checked back over my archive of “Best Of Laws” segments, which are the 24 minutes highlight segments for each week…none of them contained anything about Pat Gallen, which indicates that, if John Laws did say anything, it wasn’t much. I think I recall him saying something about it, but from memory it was pretty much in line with the rest of the media, and I’m pretty sure other said worse.

I have a message for that police woman, grow a brain, some thicker skin, and stop trying to make money out of sections of the media which have done nothing to harm you.

The full Sunday Mail article can be read here, and is mirrored below.

Samuel

Cop to sue John Laws
DAMIEN STANNARD
23oct05
John Laws
FLAK: Radio talkback host John Laws

A POLICEWOMAN is planning to sue radio talkback star John Laws after he criticised her for booking a grandmother for crossing a road too slowly.

The Queensland Police Union is backing the Atherton-based officer’s legal bid, saying Laws’ comments, made on his nationally syndicated 2UE talkback show, defamed her.

Laws criticised the officer for issuing a ticket to pensioner Pat Gallen, 83, for not crossing the road in a straight line in Malanda, near Cairns, this month.

She was coming home from shopping.

The ticket – and the media attention that followed – created a storm and the $30 fine was waived after a public outcry.

But QPU vice-president Senior-Sergeant Denis Fitzpatrick said the ticket was issued lawfully and Laws had impugned the officer’s character.

“We’re gathering evidence because our lawyer is of the opinion that we have a case,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Sydney station 2UE was unaware of the proposed legal action and said she could not comment.

Sen-Sgt Fitzpatrick said an apology would not suffice “and I don’t think that’s likely”.

He said the officer was upset by Laws’ comments and the union was angry about incorrect media reports.

Mrs Gallen declined to comment.

1 comment October 23rd, 2005 at 07:23pm

Welshy’s Trading Post

Sunday morning’s Trading Post on 2CC is normally the realm of Mike Frame, but this morning I was surprised when I turned on the radio at 11:15 (or thereabouts) and found Mike Welsh presenting the Trading Post. Welshy often uses the line “Talk radio 2CC with the Drive Show” during the week, and he adapted it today to “Talk radio 2CC with the Trading Post”, although I could be certain I heard him begin uttering “Drive Show” at one stage…and then there was the mystery caller, Mike picked up the call and said “Who’s this?”, that call was followed by a “failure” of the phone system, which prompted a playing of an Elvis blooper song where there is some extremely high pitched backing vocals singer, which makes Elvis burst out laughing.

The Trading Post was quite entertaining today, and it got me thinking, 2CC could have Welshy’s jingle ammended for the Trading Post:

Make your sales clear
Still selling them with Welshy, Welshy
Trading Post man on two double C
He knows how to buy, knows how to sell
Welshyyyy

Mike did note that he didn’t know where Kane was and that they hadn’t been able to contact him. Mike also said that he was “not bad under the conditions”…does that mean that he sleeps in on Sunday mornings and was rudely awoken by the telephone? I suppose we will never know.

Samuel

4 comments October 23rd, 2005 at 06:13pm

Antibacterial Soap Promoting Superbugs

Australian readers would probably be familiar with Dettol and it’s partner product, Dettol Soap. This is probably the most well known anti-bacterial soap in Australia, and it is advertised as being incredibly good for you, if you believe the advertisers it does just about everything except paint the ceiling.

But research is now proving that these anti-bacterial soaps are no more useful than ordinary soaps, and may in fact be enhancing the evolution of drug-resistant superbugs. I suppose superbugs are inevitable, but we really don’t need to speed up the process.

Medical Newspaper Medpage Today have more

Samuel

October 22nd, 2005 at 06:35pm

The John Kerr Function Catamaran

As you may be aware from this post and this one, John Kerr is hosting a christmas function on Sydney Harbour with the help of the lovely people at All Occasion Cruises.

I’ve been excited about this for a few days, and on Friday morning I found out which boat from All Occasion’s fleet will be holding the function, and it turns out it will be the Lady Rose.
The Lady Rose

The Lady Rose can be seen here in front of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge
Lady Rose Opera House Harbour Bridge

All Occasion Cruises have this to say about the Lady Rose:

The stunning brand new Lady Rose is the biggest and newest cruising catamaran on Sydney Harbour Licensed to carry 500 passengers, she is built with all the modern day features including 2 fully air-conditioned dining rooms, cocktail deck, large dance floor, spacious wrap around decks on all levels, licensed bar, in house system, large galley and 360 degrees views of Sydney Harbour!

The lady rose looks quite stunning at night.
Lady Rose at night

I believe there are still some places left for the function which is from 12pm-4pm on Thursday December 1, so if you would like to come it only costs $45 and you can book your place by calling All Occasion Cruises on (02) 9809 5499. If you do come I look forward to seeing you there. I suppose once Google pick up this post it will be helpful to the New Day Australia listeners who would like some more information.

I’m also thinking of arranging a phone call to John Stanley during the cruise.

Samuel

October 22nd, 2005 at 11:38am

ACTION Mathematics

It would appear that ACTION have launched a new dialect of mathematics which challenges conventional thinking on the subject. The advance copies of their new maths appears to contain the notion that swapping plus and minus signs provides more interesting results. ACTION have even launched at least one set of signs which use the new version of maths.

An example of ACTION Mathematics

It would appear to me that this new dialect of mathematics is in line with ACTION management’s general policy of making things harder and more confusing, unlike most staff there who seem to try their hardest to make things work.

Samuel

1 comment October 21st, 2005 at 08:00pm

2CC Music Radio Jingle

As many Canberrans would know, this year Canberra’s Talk Radio 1206 2CC is turning 30. In those 30 years many many things have changed, probably the most significant thing is that it used to be a music station, and then gradually became a talk radio station. Today 2CC is Canberra’s number one radio station for news and entertainment (oops, I’m sounding like an ad again), and broadcasts many talented and influential broadcasters, including the king of talk radio, John Laws. (Just a quick note here, that is my opinion and there are plenty of people who will disagree with me, none the less, I still think 2CC is great.)

But, as I say, it wasn’t always so, at one stage as a music station 2CC consistently topped the ratings, this was during the time which can now be referred to as the time when they made those things you hear about when people say “They don’t make ’em like they used to”.

Well, as part of 2CC’s 30th birthday, former 2CC staff are invited along to the 2CC reunion being held on Saturday the 29th of October, two days before 2CC’s birthday…or so I’m led to beleive.

Anyway, why am I babbling? Well, believe it or not I do have a point, and it fits into the category of “They don’t make ’em like they used to.” While I was browsing the 2CC reunion website I stumbled across something which can probably be described as one of the best radio jingles ever made. If you listen closely you can probably spot the points where they would have chopped it up into smaller “sweepers”, and it probably sounded good in sweeper form, but it sounds fantastic as a one minute jingle. As I keep saying, this is arguably one of the best jingles ever produced, and I hope you enjoy listening to it. I’ve cleaned it up a bit as the copy on the reunion website had a long silence at the end, and their version was a WMA file which makes it mildly restrictive for playback.

Click here for the one minute MP3 “2CC Music Radio” jingle.

I was listening to this earlier in Winamp on a loop with a two second crossfade between the end and the beginning, and my verdict is that this jingle is fantastically addictive.

Samuel

8 comments October 20th, 2005 at 10:31pm

New Day Australia Christmas Function

Yeesh, anybody would think John Kerr and his radio show “New Day Australia” were sponsoring me with the amount of times I’ve mentioned them lately. Today is no different, and it could last for a while…why? I hear you ask, could it be that Samuel is trying to boost the New Day Australia ratings or get more radio stations to take John Kerr’s show? Well, no, it isn’t any of the above. The reason that you will probably hear more about John Kerr over the next few weeks or so is that I have just confirmed my booking on John Kerr’s Christmas Function on Sydney Harbour.

The event itself takes place from just before midday until 4pm on Thursday the 1st of December and costs $45. If you ask me, for a four hour function on Sydney Harbour, fully catered etc, this is quite a deal. Obviously travel to and from Sydney is my issue, and after a bit of research I found that Murrays Coaches are offering a $55 day return pass. On closer inspection this isn’t strictly true, because you still have to book a seat on the buses you wish to utilise, and you pay for each seat, but the seats are somewhat discounted when you travel both ways on the same day, and if you are lucky (as I was), you can also get the special deals. In total it is costing me $42.50 to travel to and from Sydney on Murrays Coaches.

I rang All Occasions Cruises on (02) 9809 5499 earlier today and made my booking with them over the phone. If you want to be there too you better hurry as places are limited…I think the number is 150, but I’m not sure. The lady I spoke to at All Occasions was absolutely lovely, it is nice to know that some businesses still understand cutomer service.

I then went to Murrays Coaches website and made my travel booking online with an incredible amount of ease. Of course if you don’t like the Internet for transactions you can always call them on 13 22 51.

So let’s have a look at my itinerary for that day. I have to wake up early, and by early I mean when John Kerr is still on air…he gets off air at 5:30am and if I’m not up by then, well, I’m in trouble.

I need to be at the Jolimont Centre by about 6:30am, I can probably arrive a few minutes later than that, but it is always good to be early for interstate buses.

The bus leaves Civic at 7am or thereabouts, my plan is to take my radio with me and listen to 2CC for as long as possible. When I finally lose the 2CC signal I will listen to one of my tape recordings, which should last about 90 minutes, and then I should be close to, if not in, Sydney, and will be able to pick up 2UE 954. I might quickly switch across to 2GB to find out how Ray Hadley presents his morning show, but I think I’ll stick with 2UE for most of the morning. I should reach Central Station at around 10:30.

In my experience of one visit to Sydney, the bus is in Sydney for close to an hour before it reaches Central Station, when I visited Sydney last it didn’t go past the airport, so it could be in Sydney for a full hour before reaching Central.

At 10:30 I’ll have a cup of coffee before making my way down to the Opera House. This is a familiar journey for me, even though I’ve only done it once. Last time I was in Sydney I forgot to take a photo of Central Station, I won’t be making that mistake again.

I’m expecting to be down at the Opera House by 11:30. I should be there before that, but you never know, the coffee could take longer than usual…

At about 11:45 boarding for the Christmas Function should begin, and then it will be on the boat until about 4pm.

After this it will be time to make my way back to Central Station, which will be followed by another coffee, well, probably, I know I love my coffee, but I might be full after the function…not that I plan to eat more than my fair share or anything…this is one of those sentences I can’t win…

I’ll probably listen to some of Steve Price’s drive show on 2UE while at Central Station, then at about 6pm it will be bus time again, hopefully arriving back in Canberra at 9:15pm.

Naturally I will have the camera with me (you can expect another one of my photographic tour posts in the days after the event), and I will probably take a pad and a pen with me so that I can write my tour post on the go and then type it later.

This is an event I am looking forward to immensely as I have been wanting to meet John Kerr for a long time. I was planning on meeting him at Floriade last year, but I had too much work to do, and then 2UE sent someone else this year, so this is the first chance I’ll get to meet him, and I’m looking forward to it. John Kerr has been very good to me, he even agreed to be interviewed for an assignment I had where I was writing an article on radio automation, he even rang me after I had difficulty getting through to him at the arranged time, John is a lovely man, and his kindness and personability is probably the reason he has hosted New Day Australia for so long. I’m also looking forward to meeting some of the regular callers who I hear so much of.

Now, I’ll just clarify once more that I am NOT sponsored by any of these companies, and I am only recommending them because they were very useful for me.

Samuel

2 comments October 20th, 2005 at 04:19pm

John Kerr’s Animal Taxi

I have some Google Alerts setup with various names and keywords so that when a news story appears with these names or keywords I know about it. I have one for “John Laws” which often gives me newspaper reports on various interviews he has conducted, but I also have one for “John Kerr”. Whilst I know John Kerr as an overnight radio presenter and a former Governor General, but it seems that Google know him as a bunch of sports coaches in the US, and now as a taxi driver in Port Macquarie. The reason I bring this up is that this recent taxi driver story is quite entertaining. This story comes from the Port Macquarie News, and is as follows.

Heard the one about the owl and the snake?
Wednesday, 19 October 2005

IF YOU caught a cab in Port Macquarie on Thursday morning, chances are you shared it with a brown snake.

The 40 centimetre reptile spent about five hours in the car before it was discovered by a horrified passenger.

According to taxi driver John Kerr the snake managed to get into the car when he hit an owl on his shift.

“I was driving out near Major Innes Drive about one in the morning on Thursday when I saw this owl take off from the road with a snake in its claws,” John explained.

“The owl flew straight into the car and got wedged in the roof racks.”

John stopped the car and got out to see if the owl was still alive.

While he was helping the dazed bird he failed to notice the brown snake slither into the darkness of his cab.

“The owl was a bit dazed, but all right,” John said. “I searched for the snake, but couldn’t find it so I assumed it had slithered off into the bushes.”

John had a few more passengers before he dropped his cab off at the end of his shift.

After giving it a quick clean out he left it for the next driver who began his shift at 5.30am.

When Charlie Beddie started work that morning he was totally unaware of his venomous passenger.

“My first job was at Rydges where I had to pick up a few flight staff,” Charlie said.

“Two of the crew had already climbed in the back of the car and the pilot was sitting in the front when the last flight attendant climbed in.

“As he was getting into the car he noticed the snake and calmly announced it to the rest of us.”

Charlie said when the other passengers heard the news they were out of the car quicker than lightning.

Charlie borrowed a dustpan and broom from the hotel and tried to catch the snake.

“The snake was certainly a feisty fella and did not want to be caught,” Charlie said.

“Finally I managed to get him into the dustpan and then put him into a plastic bin, much to the relief of the flight crew.”

The snake was later released into the bush and Charlie still got his fare out to the airport.
If anyone did catch the cab on Thursday morning Charlie hopes they did not have bare feet.

Samuel

4 comments October 19th, 2005 at 05:14pm

10-year-old anti-angels

Sometimes I find the attitudes of some children to be quite appalling, and even more disturbing is the non-caring attitude that the parents of such children often display.

For example, the other day while I was taking Nattie for a walk, a bunch of children aged around 9 or 10 were playing in the front yard of their house, as Nattie and I walked past, one of the children for no apparent reason called out “Go Away!”, pulled a funny face and stuck his tongue out at me. A person, who I can safely assume was the mother of at least one of the children, was only a couple metres away from the children and saw the whole event, but did she reprimand the child for such unprovoked anti-social behaviour? No, she did not.

I mostly ignored the event, making a quick glance at the child in question and kept walking the whole time. I was not intruding, I was walking along the footpath, and there was a small garden wall and a row of small bushes between myself and the front yard which the children were playing in, so I am at a loss to explain why I received such words and gestures.

The thing that amazes me about the whole event is that the parents of this anti-social miscreant of a child are reinforcing that the actions of the child are acceptable by not punishing him for it. Is it any wonder that a small proportion of the child population grow into reprehensible teenagers when the people who should be acting as role models and authority figures allow their children to act like little devils.

I can understand that children are children and have little games, but the actions of that child are not acceptable, and they are lucky, considering the area which this occured in, that it was me passing by and not some drugged or drunk idiot who may have seen such actions as a reason to start a fight.

It might sound like I am making a big deal out of nothing, but this kind of behaviour should not be encouraged. I know the type of child that does that, having been a child myself recently, and I have seen far too many of that type of child turn into utterly moronic teenagers, the worst part of which is that the parents of such children often think that they have done nothing wrong or that the behaviour is “normal”. Very few things irk me more than parents who do not assert their authority over their children and then wonder why they can’t talk to them as teenagers, I often find it sadly amusing when “experts” claim that it is normal behaviour and tell the parents that they didn’t do anything wrong. Opinions may differ over how to raise children, but one thing is for sure, parents have a responsibility to assert their authority over their children, and to stamp out the kind of behaviour I have just discussed before it turns into a larger problem.

Samuel

2 comments October 18th, 2005 at 10:04pm

Piers Akerman hits Stanhope’s nails on the head

Apoligies for the very bad attempt at a pun in the title, but it seemed appropriate.

This afternoon my attention was drawn to the comments of Daily Telegraph columnist Piers Akerman. Piers made some very interesting, and in my view correct, observations about the Leaky Stanhope Saga, which I have previously covered.

As I don’t know how long the link to the Daily Telegraph article will last for, I have mirrored Piers’ comments below. I have since emailed Piers with my views on the issue, and some little bits of information which Piers might be interested in when it comes to the rest of the Chief Turnip’s cabinet.

I also found it quite interesting that the John Laws web poll “Are the Howard Government’s proposed anti-terror laws too tough?” attracted the following result.
Yes 21%
No 79%

I’ll admit that the average John Laws listener is probably somewhat right-winged, but considering that the John Laws website is reported to have hundreds of thousands of visitors each day, it is probably a mostly fair representation of a cross section of the community, especially seeing as people are often referred to the polls by email with no knowledge of what discussions have taken place on the show.

Another fiddle by the Nero of Canberra

October 18, 2005
Piers Ackerman

SHOWING once again he is not the best man to have on your side in a firestorm, ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope, on whose watch Canberra burnt two summers ago, has abandoned all ethical and security considerations in an attempt to undermine the Federal Government’s proposed anti-terrorism legislation.
Having agreed with all other state and territory leaders to respect the confidentiality of the draft anti-terrorism bill while it was under discussion, Mr Stanhope, displaying all the maturity of a wet-behind-the-ears student activist, promptly published the content on his Toy Town government’s website, and, in so doing made himself out to be some sort of hero with the immature Left.

Responsible government requires responsible leadership – even more so with the world locked in combat against the most lethal forms of terrorism.

But not from the knee-jerk populist Mr Stanhope. The lessons taught by New York, Bali, Jakarta, Madrid and London have escaped the notice of this former Beazley political staffer.

If security matters cannot be discussed in confidentiality, there is little chance of ever meeting the terrorist threat.

Mr Stanhope, has, of course, a dismal record when it comes to protecting the malcontented public servants in his fiefdom.

When bushfires threatened the ACT in January, 2003, his administration rejected the concerned inquiries made by the NSW fire authorities and the subsequent firestorm that swept through Canberra’s suburbs destroyed more than 500 houses, killed four people and left others with serious burns.

Scandalously, this self-proclaimed man-of-the-people then attempted to shut down the coronial inquiry just as it began to raise questions which went to the heart of his administration’s failed decision-making process.

When later challenged about the ACT Government’s failure to recognise the gravity of the bushfire threat, he said famously: “I’m not a firefighter; I don’t have that experience.”

No, indeed. Nor is there any evidence that he is an expert on terrorism but he did say after being briefed by the heads of the security apparatus on the new anti-terror laws: “Faced with blunt advice from the head of ASIO, from the head of the Office of National Assessments and from the head of the Australian Federal Police that we do indeed face grave circumstances in Australia, it really isn’t possible for any head of government to turn away and to take some other advice or to make some personal judgment on how serious the situation is. The situation is serious.”

The meeting with the security chiefs, he said, “provided, I believe, a strong justification for a range of new laws”.

That was last month. Three weeks later, the populist politician has changed his tune dramatically, telling a meeting of Muslim leaders in Canberra last Friday: “Today I invite Canberra’s Muslims to see for themselves the draft legislation the Prime Minister has presented to the states and territories for their consideration.

“I do not wish to deceive you. The laws to which I have agreed are unpalatable laws. They are laws I never anticipated I would be called upon to consider.

“I believe it is wrong and counterproductive for us to keep insisting that this behaviour has no causal links to our invasion of Iraq. I also believe that the anxiety and dislocation felt by Muslims can no longer be seen in isolation from the West’s behaviour in relation to Palestine.”

Where Mr Stanhope’s newfound knowledge of terrorism comes from is a mystery.

Perhaps he is being briefed by Michael Costello, who also worked on Mr Beazley’s staff and is now the $400,000-a-year head of the ACT’s water and electricity utility.

Fanatical Islamist terrorists began targeting infidels or poor observers of the tenets of Islam long before the Iraqi conflict and without any reference to Middle Eastern political structure.

Previously, Mr Stanhope restrained his half-baked political activism to providing support for a juvenile staffer who stealthily crept around Canberra shopping areas in the dead of night creating stultifyingly stupid graffiti. Now he has brought his naive approach to bear on more serious affairs.

The contrast between the stupefying response of this arch poseur to the current global crisis and that of the 10 million or so brave Iraqis who defied suicidal murderers to register their acceptance of Iraq’s new constitution last weekend is absolutely breathtaking.

Their enthusiasm in the face of dreadful threats matched that of the millions of Africans a decade ago who queued for hours to vote for freedom from apartheid in South Africa after years of oppression.

Like the South Africans, Iraqis believe they can stand up to those who want to steal the keys of liberty and democracy.

How, given his absurd utterances, would Mr Stanhope and his fellow doomsayers expect Australia to respond to the threat of international terrorism against those he represents? With the same facile response he mustered before the bushfires two years ago or with more steel?

His unprincipled abrogation of his agreement to participate in confidential talks on a series of unexceptional proposals to deal with terrorism certainly does not inspire confidence in his understanding of the gravity of the situation the world now faces.

Nor do his views on Iraq and the Middle East indicate anything beyond arrant populism.

He has committed a serious breach of trust and it would be perfectly understandable should colleagues in the state and federal governments exclude him from future confidential talks and briefings.

Courtesy of dailytelegraph.com.au

Samuel

11 comments October 18th, 2005 at 08:59pm

Another Dream By Samuel

As regular readers would know, I am capable of having very strange dreams, and I had another one last night.

This dream takes place on Sydney Harbour at John Kerr’s Christmas Function. It is a lovely clear sunny warm day and everyone at the function is enjoying their lunch when all of a sudden the crew of the boat decide that it is time for the cleaning competition. We are all handed cleaning cloths and sprays and mops and brooms and various other cleaning implements, and the captain of the boat starts talking like a pirate “Aarrgh, he or she who cleans ye boat the best wins a bottle of flowers…aargh.”

So everybody starts cleaning various parts of the boat, and it starts to look very shiny, the bottle of flowers is sitting on top of the flagpole, and the captain goes up to the top to retrieve it, and comes back down and hands it to Georgie, one of John’s many lovely callers. After that we all go back to lunch.

I think I might have to ring John Kerr tonight to tell him about this dream.

Samuel

1 comment October 18th, 2005 at 02:41pm

Video of Millionaire

As previously reported, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire made a millionaire, and I now have video online of the event.

I have two version online for compatibility reasons.
MP4 (MPEG Layer 4) This version is more compatible with lots of media software, although Windows Media Player doesn’t seem to like it, it is also higher quality.
WMV (Windows Video) Lower quality, but Windows Media Player supports it.

I strongly suggest that if you are running Windows, download Quicktime which supports MP4 without issues. It also integrates with Mozilla Firefox quite nicely. None the less, choose which file pleases you more and download it, if it doesn’t work the other one almost certainly will.

Samuel

2 comments October 18th, 2005 at 03:05am

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire make a millionaire

Australia’s version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire have just made their first millionare with a question relating to sixites television. The answer “bewitched” is the first one of the selction to be released on television.

They haven’t come back from the ad break to solve the answer yet, but a quick bit of fact checking proves it. Congratulations Channel 9!

Update Here are a couple pictures from the event, I’ll work on the video and get that online ASAP.

Firstly, Rob Fulton just after discovering that he won $1 Million
Millionaire Rob Fulton

Secondly, a picture of Rob and partner Clare, who delayed moving in with each other for a week so that Rob could study for his appearance on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.
Rob and Clare

Further Update:
I now have videos of the event online, two copies in fact, the WMV (Windows Video) and the MP4 (MPEG 4). Why two formats I hear you ask, compatibility is the answer, whilst Windows Media Player can play WMV files, a lot of other players can not, and other operating systems often lack the WMV codec. To the same extent, the MP4 codec is fairly universal, even if Windows Media Player can’t seem to play it. Personally I think the MP4 is better quality, so if your computer supports it, then use it, otherwise try the WMV. Both files are approx 10MB (It is video after all, so you can’t expect it to be dial up friendly AND watchable).

Samuel

2 comments October 17th, 2005 at 09:11pm

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