I certainly didn’t expect that, apparently Ron Wilson, co-anchor of Channel Ten Sydney’s 5PM News is going to replace outgoing 2GB breakfast newsreader Rowan Barker whilst retaining his Channel Ten job.
That a very long set of hours. Congratulations to Ron on the new job, I just hope that the hours don’t become too much for him.
I’m not sure where Rowan is headed, but he isn’t the only person leaving 2GB this month. Trevor Long, Executive producer of Sport, Special Events and The Continuous Call Team had his final day with the station on Sunday. His new role is Business Affairs Manager for SBS Radio.
2cc Jane’s “editorialising”. My saying is “I don’t rant, I editorialise”. Samuel
I like 2CC’s SMS functionality. It might cost me 55 cents to send them a message, but it’s immediate and it’s worth it, especially for things which don’t warrant a phone call.
I’m a couple days late with this (and I completely forgot last week) so I’m glad that the random number generator has picked a song that I was listening to the other day and thinking “I must make sure that this is on the Musicians Of The Week waiting list”. Last time I mentioned this song I was helpfully informed that I am “most likely a sheltered, white-bread, middle-class anglo-saxon who has never been met with even a small amount of hardship”, a statement which is at least half wrong…hooray for stereotypes!
Anyway, the award this week goes to (if you haven’t already worked that out from the previous paragraph) The Eagles, and the feature song is “Get Over It”.
(I can only assume that the person who decided to find semi-related anime clips for this video was very bored at the time…it’s the only embeddable video of the song with decent sound quality that I can find though).
I turn on the tube and what do I see
A whole lotta people cryin’ “Don’t blame me”
They point their crooked little fingers at everybody else
Spend all their time feelin’ sorry for themselves
Victim of this, victim of that
Your mumma’s too thin; your daddy’s too fat
Get over it
Get over it
All this whinin’ and cryin’ and pitchin’ a fit
Get over it, get over it
You say you haven’t been the same since you had your little crash
But you might feel better if I gave you some cash
The more I think about it, Old Billy was right
Let’s kill all the lawyers, kill ’em tonight
You don’t want to work, you want to live like a king
But the big, bad world doesn’t owe you a thing
Get over it
Get over it
If you don’t want to play, then you might as well split
Get over it, Get over it
It’s like going to confession every time I hear you speak
You’re makin’ the most of your losin’ streak
Some call it sick, but I call it weak
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
You drag it around like a ball and chain
You wallow in the guilt; you wallow in the pain
You wave it like a flag, you wear it like a crown
Got your mind in the gutter, bringin’ everybody down
You bitch about the present and blame it on the past
I’d like to find your inner child and kick its little ass
Get over it
Get over it
All this bitchin’ and moanin’ and pitchin’ a fit
Get over it, get over it
Get over it
Get over it
It’s gotta stop sometime, so why don’t you quit
Get over it, get over it
WARNING: My modifications to the Twitter Tools plugin broke the daily update posts. Do not attempt these changes unless you want to break the daily updates on your installation of Twitter Tools
Looks like the Twitter Tools plugin has gone slightly cuckoo and decided to repost the last daily digest. I think the reason it did that is because I disabled and then re-enabled the daily digests as Twitter Tools seemed to be stuck in the wrong timezone.
We’ll see if it’s feeling any better soon I suppose.
Update 1:13am: It seems to be storing tweet creation times in UTC rather than local time but storing the time it downloaded them in local time. I suppose I’ll find out around 10am if it’s worked out that I’m in Canberra and not London. I’ll see if I can find out anything more about this weird behaviour before then. End Update
Update 2:09am: It’s apparently a known issue, but not one that’s likely to be officially fixed any time soon. I didn’t find anything useful on Google either, so I went looking through the plugin and found this section related to digest creation starting on line 214:
if ($last_post != date(‘Y-m-d 10:00:00’, $yesterday)) {
$days = ceil((strtotime(date(‘Y-m-d 10:00:00’, $yesterday)) – strtotime($last_post)) / (3600 * 24));
}
else {
$days = 1;
}
for ($i = 0; $i < $days; $i++) {
$n = $days - $i;
$digest_day = strtotime('-'.$n.' days', $now);
$tweets = $wpdb->get_results(”
SELECT *
FROM $wpdb->aktt
WHERE tw_created_at >= ‘”.date(‘Y-m-d 10:00:00’, $digest_day).”‘
AND tw_created_at < = '".date('Y-m-d 09:59:59', $now)."'
GROUP BY tw_id
ORDER BY tw_created_at
Basically I’ve added ten hours (the difference between Canberra’s timezone and GMT), hopefully that will fix the problem until it is officially fixed in an update by the plugin’s author. If this works, then I suppose that I’ll need to write a version of the workaround for those people in timezones behind GMT. It should be one extra line and a different variable, but I’ll wait to see if this works first. It hasn’t broken anything yet, so for one of my coding efforts it’s looking promising. End Update
If you think back three years to 2005and the height of the media excitement around the Schapelle Corby trial, almost everyone had an opinion on whether she was guilty of smuggling drugs or not, many of those opinions appeared to based on nothing more than a whim or whether she “looked like a drug smuggler”, A smaller number of opinions seemed to be based on selections of information presented at the trial and regurgitated by the media in a manner which would be impossible for an Australian based trial. Regardless of the opinions, the only person who really knew for sure was Schapelle Corby, for everyone else, it was a guess.
In the end, an Indonesian court found her guilty, and based on that, plus Schapelle’s body language of hitting herself on the head in a “why did I do something so stupid?” type of motion upon hearing the verdict, I formed the opinion that she probably was guilty. I don’t know for sure, but the evidence seems to fairly strongly indicate it in my mind.
SCHAPELLE Corby was in a Bali hospital under guard last night as a documentary revealed her ex-lawyer said Alexander Downer had suspected her family was behind her notorious crime.
[..]
The claim is made by Corby’s former defence lawyer, Robin Tampoe, in an explosive new documentary Schapelle Corby: The Hidden Truth.
The three-hour documentary screens tonight and Tuesday night on Channel 9.
In the documentary Mr Tampoe admits fabricating the defence that Australian baggage handlers could have planted the drugs in Corby’s luggage.
“Baggage handlers didn’t put drugs in the bag, nothing to do with it,” said Mr Tampoe, whom Corby sacked after she was sentenced to 20 years’ jail.
“Now she (Schapelle Corby) believes it. They all f—— believe it.
“It’s not true. That’s why you can’t put direct evidence relating to baggage handlers, ’cause they didn’t do it.
[..]
Mr Tampoe admitted in the documentary making up the theory after hearing ABC radio talkback in which callers discussed alleged corruption among airport staff. He no longer practises law.
He will face the Queensland Law Society next month over a misconduct complaint by Mercedes Corby.
Asked what he would say to the baggage handlers of Australia, Mr Tampoe says: “Sorry about that guys. Poor buggers. I won’t do it again. Thanks for the defence.”
If you think about it, the baggage handler theory was far fetched anyway. Illegal drugs are a rather valuable commodity and the people who take the risk of transporting it from one place to another in bulk amounts do so in a relatively controlled manner, they’re not going to “forget” to remove the drugs from a bag before shipping it overseas, and they’re not going to whack the illicit substance in some random bag that they may never see again. They’re going to know exactly where the bag is going, what it looks like, when it will get there, and how they’re going to get the substance out before anybody notices.
The inherent risks of transporting this stuff are too great to not take extreme care, admittedly mistakes will occur from time to time, but if the drugs in Corby’s bag had been planted by a baggage handler, there would have been at least a trace of suspicious activity by a baggage handler…but there wasn’t, so that defence fell flat on its face despite the media having a field day with it.
It’s unfortunate that this story is still dragging out and that everyone who has even a remote relationship with the Corby family seem to be doing their best to cash in on the saga. I have to wonder why we seem to be so content to make such a glorified spectacle of a convicted drug smuggler, and why the media think that her mental state, three years after her conviction, is of any interest to the general public. There are many people in Australian prisons who have mental health problems but we don’t make their plight a front-page news story…I don’t see any good reason for Schapelle Corby to receive media attention unless some amazing evidence comes to light showing that she is innocent, or (and I certainly don’t wish this on her) she dies, in which case she would deserve fleeting media attention as a person who was once in the public eye and is now no longer with us.
I don’t have the faintest clue why this story keeps getting a run in the media, perhaps somebody can enlighten me. Have I completely missed the point here? Does Schapelle deserve the attention? If so, why? And could it really be true that this story is so much more important than everything else going on in the world that it needs to be dragged up over and over and over every few months?
I just don’t get it. Unless I’ve completely missed something here and I’m looking at this from the perspective of another planet, I just can’t see any reason for the continued interest in the story. She was convicted, she is in prison, and her appeals failed; surely that should be a sign for the rest of us to move on.
I decided to join twitter due to the fact that I seem to put off writing a lot of my short blog posts because I want to expand on them even though they would be fine as a short blog post.
Twitter constrains me to 140 characters per message so it’s perfect for short blog posts, and can be used for other miscellaneous updates. Hopefully this will not only make me not put off the short blog posts to the point where they never get written, but it will also make me more interested in actually writing my longer blog posts because I won’t be dismayed by all of those short blog post titles just waiting for an accompanying article.
All of my twitter updates will be posted here daily (as long as the WordPress plugin for that actually works) and I’m debating whether or not to show them in the sidebar. You can also follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/SamuelGS
At this stage I think this is just what I need to get back in to blogging regularly. Twitter’s 140 character limit is just the psychological limit that I need…I think…we’ll see how it goes.
Update: OK, it’s silly for me to post short immediate updates to twitter and only have them appear here once per day. The daily archive will be posted here once per day, but I’ve decided that the latest updates need to be visible in the sidebar. So far, so good, this is looking promising. End Update
On Tuesday you were talking about the amount of coffee people consume per day, and you also didn't seem to like the cold coffee which was sitting on your desk at the time.
I usually have four or five cups of coffee per day, most of them will be after 3pm. During the day I'll probably take a very long time to drink a coffee while I work. The coffee which is on my desk at the moment is about 25% consumed and has been here for nearly two hours. I'll probably finish it just before lunch.
I'm quite partial to cold coffee, I think it tastes better than hot coffee but that could just be because I struggle to taste warm things.
It's great to have you on the morning show, I hope you've enjoyed your couple of weeks filling in for Pricey and that you come back again soon.
I usually take a look through the press releases from the New South Wales Police and the Australian Federal Police’s ACT division every day or two as they often make for interesting reading, and I usually get at least one “there are some really dumb people on this planet” story in the mix…but for all of the strange antics I get to read about, I’m often more bewildered by the names given to the various taskforces and operations. Names like “Operation Southroads” are perfectly understandable and even manage to convey the purpose of the operation…sadly the taskforce named in this press release from yesterday afternoon does not make as much sense:
Windsor shooting – Strike Force Tracksuit
Wednesday, 18 Jun 2008 01:15pm
Police are appealing for information from the public following a shooting at Windsor on Monday.
About 5:40pm a 31-year-old man became involved in an argument with another man outside a tattoo parlour in George Street.
A firearm was produced and the 31-year-old was shot in the leg.
The victim was taken to Hawkesbury Hospital where he remains in a stable condition.
Strike Force Tracksuit, comprising of detectives from the Hawkesbury Local Area Command and State Crime Command’s Gangs Squad, are investigating the shooting.
Police are investigating whether the incident may be related to internal tensions involving an outlaw motorcycle gang or external tensions involving a rival gang.
Anyone with information that can assist investigators is urged to contact Windsor detectives on 4560 6999 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Why do I get the feeling that somebody wearing a blindfold picked this name out of a dictionary?
Rolf Harris and John Laws To Receive ARIA Hall of Fame Nods
by Paul Cashmere – June 13 2008
One of Australia’s most colourful characters, Rolf Harris, and legendary broadcaster John Laws, will be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in month.
Harris became a household name in Australia and the United Kingdom after scoring his first hit with the quirky ‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport’.
His run of hits went into the 70s, when ‘Two Little Boys’ hit number one.
He reinvented himself in the 90s after covering Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway To Heaven’.
Harris has been honored by the Queen and is the recipient of the MBE, OBE, CBE and AM.
Rolf said from his home in the UK “I look up at the shelf in my office and see the ARIA pyramid obelisk which was sent to me back in 1994, on my 64th birthday actually. At that time I was just gearing myself up to do my first Glastonbury Festival, and I was knocked out to get this recognition from the 8th ARIA Awards. It commemorates my win for Best Comedy Release. I think it was my version of ‘Stairway to Heaven’, which changed my whole life by thrusting me back into the awareness of all the University aged youngsters. They suddenly realised they knew all my songs from their childhood, and what’s more, remembered all the words. (Thanks again to Andrew Denton!) Now, 14 years later, I’m being inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. I look at all the famous names and am thrilled to be with them, for basically, just enjoying myself through music for the whole of my life. Thank you so much.”
Laws retired from his radio career last year. He was one of the most successful broadcasters on the planet, owning the airways in Sydney for some 40 years.
Laws will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from ARIA for his contribution to the Australian Music Industry. Previous recipients are Ted Albert, Daryl Somers, Stan Rofe, Ian Meldrum, Michael Gudinski, Ron Tudor, Bill Armstrong, Charles Fisher and last year’s recipient John Woodruff.
The ARIA Hall of Fame will be held on Monday July 1 at the Melbourne Town Hall.
Russell Morris, The Triffids, Max Merrit and Dragon will also be inducted.
(Update: Fixed formatting)
When I saw the headline, I was hoping that John Laws’ induction was for services to music rather than his actual singing, thankfully this was correct. As for Rolf Harris, all I can say is that it’s about time, and it’s also a good excuse for me to do something I’ve been wanting to do for a few weeks.
Back when I was adding music videos to most of the Musician(s) Of The Week posts, I had to find one for Rolf Harris. It amused me so much that I wanted to repost it somewhere where people would be more likely to see it. Today is my day of excuse.
I’m also pleased to see Dragon are being inducted. Congratulations to all who are being inducted.
After the 3am news you posed a question about how it is possible for the second state of origin match to have such a vastly different outcome to the first game. Well I'm glad you asked, because I've been thinking about that around this time of the year for the last few years and I have a bit of a conspiracy theory on the subject.
In this decade I count four years where the second game has been very different to the first. 2001, 2002, 2006 and 2008. (2005 almost made the cut but was a bit too close to include).
My theory is that the second game (at least) is thrown by the team that won the first game for the sake of maintaining public interest in the series, and therefore keeping the sponsors, advertisers, broadcasters and stadium owners happy. If, after the second game, either state is leading the series 2-nil, then the third game is of less general public interest because the result of the series is known and the final game is merely a chance for a team to get a clean sweep of the series, something which only the diehard fans will be particularly interested in.
Conversely, if the third game is the deciding match of the series, then it becomes even more interesting than the first two games. The amount of public interest (and therefore marketability of the game to advertisers and sponsors) is greater in this scenario, and is generally better for everyone involved.
I'm not convinced that my theory is accurate, but it does enter my mind for some serious consideration every year.
I’m not entirely sure how this train of thought started, but I think it was a couple nights ago when I was thinking about the benefits and disadvantages of the AM radio frequency stepping in Australia and the US from a marketing perspective. For those of you that aren’t aware, Australia uses a 9kHz stepping system whereas the US uses a 10kHz stepping system, so in the US radio stations on the AM band have frequencies which are divisible by 10kHz such as 1040, 920 and 730, whilst in Australia they are divisible by 9kHz, so you have frequencies like 873, 954, 1206 and 1494 (first three stations are obvious, if anybody wants to guess the fourth I’d be quite obliged…as far as I can tell there is only one station in Australia on that frequency, but ACMA keep changing the layout of their website so I can’t be sure).
Anyway, it was around 3am when I was thinking about all of this and my mind wandered on to the way numbers which are divisible by nine and ten work in a base 10 numbering system such as the one we use. I’ll take a step back for a moment here to explain the base ten numbering system for people who are not familiar with the term. Basically it means a numbering system with ten distinct characters available for use in any given number, so in the case of our usual numbering system the available characters are 0123456789. Effectively the way it works is that you count up (eg. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) and when you run out of characters you increment the leading digit by one character and start again with the following digit(s) (eg, you would carry on with 10, 11, 12 etc). To make it blatantly obvious what I mean by “leading digit”, it would be possible to repeat those original numbers as “00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09” or even as “000, 001, 002, 003, 004, 005, 006, 007, 008, 009”. The “leading digit” in this case is the one immediately preceding the digit which has run out of characters. In the case of “0099″ the bold zero would be the leading digit as both digits behind it have reached their highest digit and so to continue we must increment the leading digit by one and reset the digits behind it to the lowest available character which in our case is zero.
Other numbering systems also exist, such as base 2 (0, 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, 110, 111, etc) and base 16 (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 20 etc). It starts to get a tad more confusing if you’re converting between numbering systems but it’s helpful to be able to do so. As an example, the number 91 from the base 10 numbering system would be represented as “1011011” in base 2 and “5B” in base 16. If it still doesn’t make sense to you, perhaps reading the wikipedia article on the subject might be helpful.
Anyway, on with my story (and returning to base 10 for the moment). My thought was specifically about numbers which are divisible by 9 and 10. In base 10 there are certain exclusive rules about these numbers which make them very easy to spot. All numbers which are divisible by ten have a zero as their final digit (eg 10, 50, 730), whilst the sum of the digits in a number which is divisible by nine, is equal to nine or a number which, if you continue the process of adding the digits until you reach a single digit number, will equal nine (eg. 18 (1+8=9), 72 (7+2=9), 99 (9+9=18 1+8=9), 67833 (6+7+8+3+3=27 2+7=9). As implied by the term “exclusive rules”, numbers which are not divisible by nine or ten will not fit these rules.
I was interested in working out whether or not these rules would still apply in numbering systems other than base 10.
It’s quite clear that the rule for numbers which are divisible by ten would not continue to hold true (as 20 in base 9 is “22” and in base 11 is “19”) but I was too tired to work out whether the “divisible by nine rule” would continue to work in other numbering systems. My theory was that, seeing as “divisible by ten” didn’t work, neither would “divisible by nine”, however the rules would work in the form of “divisible by n where “n” is derived from base n” as a substitute for “divisible by ten”, and to the same extent a rule for “divisible by n-1 where “n” is derived from base n” as a substitute for “divisible by nine”. In both cases, if my theory was accurate, the rules I was originally working with would just be the base 10 equivalent of the new rules anyway.
So, to test this, I’m going to work with examples from base 9, base 11, and base 12. For the sake of clarity, the symbols available in the versions of these numbering systems that I’m using for this theory are displayed below (it’s also so that once I confuse myself I will be able to just count along the symbols).
Base 9: 012345678
Base 11: 0123456789A
Base 12: 0123456789AB
In the case of “divisible by n where “n” is derived from base n”, all numbers which are divisible by “n” should end in zero which is the lowest available symbol.
For base 9, we can use the example numbers (as expressed in base 10) 9, 27 and 99, all of which are divisible by nine.
9: 10
27: 30
99: 110
All of these, when expressed in base 9, end in zero, fitting the theory.
For base 11, we can use the example numbers (as expressed in base 10) 11, 55 and 132, all of which are divisible by eleven.
11: 10
55: 50
132: 120
All of these, when expressed in base 11, end in zero, again fitting the theory.
And for base 12, we can use the example numbers (as expressed in base 10) 12, 72 and 240, all of which are divisible by eleven.
12: 10
72: 60
240: 200
All of these, when expressed in base 12, end in zero, again fitting the theory.
The “divisible by n where “n” is derived from base n” rule, where numbers which meet the criteria exclusively end in zero seems to work, although it is a fairly straight-forward rule to prove.
It gets a bit more interesting with the “divisible by n-1 where “n” is derived from base n” rule where the sum of the digits in the number need to add up to “n” in base n as the addition needs to be performed in base n, making the whole process so much more confusing.
Working in base 9, where the available symbols are 012345678, and therefore the digits of numbers divisible by 8 need to add up to 8. To make this slightly easier to follow, I’m just going to work up in multiples of 8 (so 8, 16, 24 etc) converted to base 9 (which would be 8, 17, 26 etc, as you will find if you use the example symbol set and count up in groups of 8):
8 (8=8)
17 (1+7=8)
26 (2+6=8)
35 (3+5=8)
44 (4+4=8)
53 (5+3=8)
62 (6+2=8)
71 (7+1=8)
80 (8+0=8)
88 (8+8=17 1+7=8)
etc
With this number set it works. With Base 11:
Available characters: 0123456789A
A (A=A)
19 (1+9=A)
28 (2+8=A)
37 (3+7=A)
46 (4+6=A)
55 (5+5=A)
64 (6+4=A)
73 (7+3=A)
82 (8+2=A)
91 (9+1=A)
A0 (A+0=A)
AA (A+A=19 1+9=A)
I suppose if I stop and think about it, the whole thing makes perfect sense. Unfortunately to convince myself that it made sense, I had to write it down and prove that the theories were correct.
I have another, far less coherent, theory about zero being an even number and the possible erosion of the entire numbering system if it isn’t, but I’ll save that for another day. I can’t see much point in tarnishing a perfectly good theory with a theory which is probably completely nuts…and I’m sure you’ve seen enough numbers for today.
I’m not sure where Fox Sports found the commentators for today’s Brisbane V Fremantle match at The Gabba, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re random people they plucked out of the crowd.
Amongst other things, they’ve come up with the sun marking the ball, a revelation about how “they have so many players in their back line that they won’t have many in their forward line” and something about how Fremantle are having trouble getting the ball out of their defensive fifty with a boundary throw in…my only thought there is that the boundary umpire shouldn’t be playing for Fremantle.
They also have an unusual habit where one commentator will be talking and the other one will interject with a short comment, seemingly forcing the first commentator to stop mid-sentence and repeat whatever interjection the second commentator came up with, almost as if the interjection has forced them to forget what they were doing.
That said, the commentators do seem very enthusiastic and they are certainly very good at providing the audience with some amusement. If they keep their mind in gear a bit more often, they could become great commentators.
This week’s award goes to Jessy Greene and the feature song is “Brand New Day’. If you’re not familiar with the song, you may recall that an extract was used by the ABC in their television idents earlier this year, prior to ABC TV and ABC 2 being relaunched as ABC1 and ABC2 respectively.
As I don’t appear to be able to locate a video of the song, the ABC ident with an extract of the song appears below.
I’m waiting on a fairytale
Its presence is my virtue
It’s a brand new day and I did not desert you
Nothing now can hurt us now
Pain’s the bottom dollar
I’m spending all I have earned
loving my tomorrows
Laugh at me if you want to
I’m so bashfully exposed
Here I stand before you
In the emperors new clothes
It’s a brand new day
I can feel a change is coming
It’s a brand new day
I can feel a change is coming
You’ve got a pretty little thing
A pretty little thing indeed
Everything you need is falling down at your feet
Can you leave this
You got to feed it if you stay
Think too hard and you’ll never get away
It’s a brand new day
I can feel a change is coming
It’s a brand new day
I can feel a change is coming
Laugh at me if you want to
I’m so bashfully exposed
Here I stand before you
In the emperors new clothes
It’s a brand new day
I can feel a change is coming
It’s a brand new day
I can feel a change is coming