Archive for April 4th, 2009

Daylight Saving

Hmmm, looks like the ABC1 Electronic Program Guide has already reverted to Eastern Standard Time. I’m glad that I noticed because otherwise I would have recorded the hour before The Bill, and only 30 minutes of the first 45 minute episode.

The Bill will be screening in my house at 10pm, following Saturday Night Football: Carlton V Brisbane from 3AW Melbourne.

Samuel

April 4th, 2009 at 07:29pm

No counting to three for Energy Australia

Or that’s what we hope anyway. They counted to two today:

Power has been restored to the 50,000 homes and businesses in Sydney’s CBD and the eastern suburbs which fell into darkness after two major cable’s failed this morning.

Around 10.30 am (AMEDT) this morning the lights went out again in the northern part of the CBD including areas such as Surry Hills, as well as pockets of the Eastern suburbs.

Around fifty sets of traffic lights were also affected, causing problems on major roads.
[..]
Energy Australia say around fifty thousand homes were affected when two major cable’s failed.

The section of the city from Town Hall to Circular Quay are affected including George and Pitt Streets.

EnergyAustralia spokeswoman Kylie Yates says that it was not the same cable which failed last Monday, throwing the city into chaos, but a second one.

According to a 2GB news bulletin this afternoon, the failure occurred while a substation was being worked on, and was caused by some issue within that substation. I can only imagine the sinking feeling which must have been felt by the people working on that substation at the time.

New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees isn’t happy, but perhaps he should nip down to his local newsagent and buy a ticket in tonight’s lottery:

“I want to get to the bottom of this – it’s not good enough,” he told reporters in Sydney.

“I was told the other day that the chances of this happening again were one in a million.

On the bright side for Mr. Rees, if he wins the lottery tonight, he can flee the ailing ship New South Wales and make room for Carmel Tebbutt, making some other punters happy:

New South Wales could soon have a female premier, if the latest betting odds are anything to go by.

NSW Deputy Premier Carmel Carmel Tebbutt has shot up the ranks, with Centrebet placing her as the $2.00 favourite to lead the Labor Party to the next election.

At the very least, he would be able to make somebody happy.

Samuel

April 4th, 2009 at 06:27pm

Frank and Dale are back

It only took a nine month hiatus for the 3rd episode of Season two to be released, here’s hoping that there is more to come.

For those of you who haven’t got the faintest clue what I’m going on about. Frank and Dale is an Australian animated series which I first mentioned on this blog in May last year when Season two started.

Samuel

April 4th, 2009 at 12:38pm

Editorial Echoes: 4 April 2009: Consumerism and Easter don’t mix

Consumerism is invading Easter, but as Samuel explains, the two don’t mix, and more respect needs to be paid to this important holiday.

[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/EditorialEchoes/019.mp3]
Download MP3

You are more than welcome to respond to anything you hear on the show by sending an email to echoes@samuelgordonstewart.com. Emails may be read and responded to on a future episode.

The episode can be played in the MP3 player above or by downloading the MP3 file. You can also subscribe to Editorial Echoes. The RSS Feed can be found at https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/EditorialEchoes/echoes.xml and you can subscribe through iTunes by clicking on a link which should be sitting here, but isn’t because Editorial Echoes is still missing from the iTunes Store. I’ve submitted it again, hopefully it gets added back in this time.

The script follows.

Samuel

Welcome to Editorial Echoes, I’m Samuel Gordon-Stewart.

Has the consumerism of Easter gone too far? The same question is asked of Christmas every year, but after seeing an ad on television last night, I have to wonder if the majority of the general public even know what Easter is about any more.

The ad in question was for a local golf shop. I won’t dignify them by naming them, but they are a reasonably well known store. The ad starts with a golfer hitting a golf ball, a fairly innocuous start. The golfer then sees somebody, or to be more precise, something, on the course in the distance and calls out “fore!”.

The golf ball then hits the distant thing, which is now identifiable as a large furry rabbit carrying a sack, the rabbit falls over, and the sack flies open, causing a heap of Easter Eggs to fly out, and cause a rather large mess.

Needless to say, the ad is for this golf shop’s Easter sale.

Now, I can understand the advertisements for Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns, these things have become a part of the Easter culture in our society, and it is quite normal to see ads for them (although a number of us do get annoyed when supermarkets start flogging Easter Eggs on Boxing Day), however this advertisement, to my mind, is one step too far.

Easter, for those of you who have forgotten, is a Christian celebration of the crucifixion and subsequent resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is marked by a series of Public Holidays, and is generally treated with some dignity, even by those who are not Christian. It differs from Christmas in that consumerism seems to fit in with Christmas due to the notion of giving presents to each other as a celebration of Christ’s birth, but it does not fit in with Easter where gift giving just isn’t appropriate.

Perhaps it’s the economic crisis that’s too blame. Perhaps a population with less disposable income has caused a sharp decline in the sale of golf clubs. If so, why not advertise a “stimulus payment sale” in an effort to get a slice of the $900 payments which start flowing on Monday. That would be more dignified and respectful than an Easter sale, surely.

Then again, perhaps I’m just being outmoded here. After all, the retail association want a relaxation of the Easter trading restrictions which apply in most states, although not in the ACT I might add. In New South Wales retailers want trading to be permitted on Easter Sunday and the TAB has decided to open on Good Friday.

Perhaps in this increasingly secular society we shouldn’t have public holidays to mark events on the Christian calendar. Or perhaps, as I’m inclined to believe, we should remember the heritage of our society and treat such holidays with the respect they deserve.

Nobody is going to force non-Christians to conform to a Christian lifestyle, but it would be fair to say that non-Christians look forward to the Easter long weekend just as much as Christians do, even if for different reasons, and as such, should at the very least remember why they have the holiday, and have a little respect for the reasons.

A little respect in exchange for a few days off is a very reasonable bargain in my books, and I can guarantee you that I will not be spending any of my $900 stimulus payment in that golf shop, be it on the Easter weekend, or at any other time.

I’m Samuel Gordon-Stewart on Editorial Echoes. If you would like to respond to today’s episode, please send me an email, echoes@samuelgordonstewart.com. Until next time, tada.

April 4th, 2009 at 06:39am

Samuel’s Political Compass Results: 2009

Something Padders wrote over at The Right Aussie reminded me that I’ve been intending on posting my Political Compass results on this blog for some time, and keep forgetting to do it.

The Political Compass isn’t perfect, but it is a useful tool for tracking where you stand on political issues over time. Unfortunately I don’t have any of my old results on-hand, but that doesn’t stop me from starting to publish my results on a regular (probably annual) basis from now on.

So, for April 2009, my score is:
Samuel's Political Compass results: April 2009
Economic Left/Right: 3.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 4.00

I will, as the years go by, chart any changes in these results for you. In the meantime, I’d be interested to hear what your score is. Take the test, and then let me know in the comments.

Samuel

2 comments April 4th, 2009 at 04:18am

“The Hutch” is dead, long live “The Right Aussie”

Padders informs me by email that The Hutch has been closed, and has been replaced by The Right Aussie.

The move is apparently so that Padders can “pitch to a more targeted audience” with his musings. I assume, from that statement and his recent posts, that the new site allows him to write more from a conservative angle, on a site which unashamedly targets a conservative audience. I always thought that The Hutch targeted a conservative audience, but I can see how The Right Aussie targets it better.

So far I’m impressed with what I have seen on The Right Aussie and I look forward to seeing more posts there. Bookmark it or add it to your feed reader folks, it’s well worth the read!

Samuel

1 comment April 4th, 2009 at 12:55am


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