Archive for August, 2008
Good evening Gibbsy and Russell,
I tuned in to a few minutes of the swimming last night and I have to agree that Bruce's commentary was flat, which surprised me as he covered the 2006 Commonwealth Games in partnership with the late great Clinton Grybas and their commentary was spectacular. That said though, I'd prefer a flat Bruce over Ray Warren whom I just can't stand commentating anything let alone swimming.
Personally I think Seven should have outsourced the AFL coverage to Fox and simulcast the matches much like they do with the Sunday game in some markets when Fox have the more relevant match for the region. Doing this would have enabled them to send Dennis Cometti to the Olympics to relive his fantastic swimming commentary of the 2000 games.
I don't really care about the Olympics though so I'm glad that Dennis is here doing a great job with the AFL. I'll be interested in the Olympics once they add golf and lawn bowls to the schedule.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
August 11th, 2008 at 07:00pm
The amazingly amusing statements coming out of the Chinese media are just too good to resist:
The People’s Daily, a newspaper controlled by the ruling communist party, has made the rather bold declarations that last night’s opening ceremony is a “potential turning point in world history” and “will become an important page in the history of world civilisation”.
Meanwhile The China Daily (with information courtesy of official Chinese news agency Xinhua) reports that:
Beijing fired over 1,000 rain dispersal rockets on Friday evening to blow away rain clouds for the smooth opening ceremony of the 29th Olympic Games at the National Stadium, confirmed the local observatory on Saturday morning.
It was the largest rain dispersal operation in China, and the first time that such technology has been used to ensure the weather condition for Olympic opening, said Chinese meteorologists.
“We fired a total of 1,104 rain dispersal rockets from 21 sites in the city between 4:00 p.m. and 11:39 pm on Friday, which successfully intercepted a stretch of rain belt from moving towards the stadium,” said Guo Hu, head of the Beijing Municipal Meteorological Bureau
Apparently the weather bureau had forecasted rain which leads me to wonder why, if they were so confident of their technological achievements, they didn’t issue a forecast of “it would rain, but we’ll make sure it doesn’t”, and why we have only been told about the 1,104 rain dispersal rockets after the event.
Perhaps this perplexing sentence explains it:
“Under such a weather condition, a small bubble in the rain cloud would have triggered rainfall, let alone a lightening,” said Guo, whose team had monitored the movement of the rain cloud heading for Beijing from 7:20 am Friday.
With English skills as excellent as those, a forecast of “rain avoided due to rain dispersal rockets” would probably have come out as “fire of rockets raining away” which could very easily have alarmed the international media who had already reported on a terrorist threat against the opening ceremony.
As much as I really don’t care about the actual sporting events of the Olympics, I have to admit that the reporting of it and the bizarre stories being produced by China’s bizarre media are most enthralling.
Samuel
August 9th, 2008 at 05:21pm
Greetings amusements of the airwaves,
In reply to the question of whether I have ever seen a dog walking a human, the answer is yes, every time my dog takes me for a walk. I have almost no say in which direction we go or how often we must stop to sniff things…and for some reason, whenever I want a quick walk, the directive from my canine overlord seems to involve a lot of very slow walking and a stop every half a metre.
It’s very clear who wears the doggy coat in this relationship!
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
August 9th, 2008 at 04:52pm
Good evening Stuart,
I'm disappointed with Channel Seven and Prime Television in Canberra this evening. In Melbourne the AFL started half an hour early at 7pm to allow Seven to screen the entire match before the opening ceremony of the Olympic games. Normally in Canberra we would get the AFL match at 8:30pm on a one hour delay, however tonight they've been running various shows about China and the Olympics since 7pm, and they're not going to show tonight's AFL match until 7:50 tomorrow morning.
I suppose I can be happy that they;re not replacing the overnight shopping at 1am with the AFL and I can therefore watch it at an almost sensible hour, but I would have been much happier if the AFL had been screened at 7pm in Canberra.
I hope you're enjoying Melbourne.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
August 8th, 2008 at 10:30pm
Good evening Stuart,
I see that the ACCC have decided that their amazing solution to everything, a website with a list of prices, would be a good idea to keep the supermarkets in line.
For petrol I can almost understand it because it’s a very small number of products which can easily be compared between outlets…I don’t, however, see how “grocery watch” is going to have any chance of succeeding when each supermarket has thousands upon thousands of products. The only way that such a website would work is if either the supermarkets are required to report their prices each day which would take a bit of work, especially for smaller outlets who might want to have some discounts during the afternoon, or if the ACCC were to pay people to walk around each store every day noting the prices on a portable computer which reports back to the website.
Having the supermarkets do it would mean that they need to spend more time monitoring their own prices, a cost which would effectively be passed on to consumers, and having the ACCC run the monitoring operation would require a massive increase in their budget, which would get passed on to us as an increase in taxes. Ultimately, for the website to work, our cost of living would have to go up…it hardly seems worth it to me.
As for mandatory unit pricing…well that idea has been floating around for ages…it’s nice to see that the ACCC know how to take credit for an idea though.
Enjoy your night!
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
August 5th, 2008 at 08:54pm
As you would probably be aware by now, Google Street View was launched in Australia this morning, with pictures of many places across the nation now available as part of Google Maps.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept, basically Google sent cars with cameras mounted on them around a large number of streets and how now made the pictures available in conjunction with their place on the map. It’s an interesting concept and good for a quick bit of research if you ever need to work out exactly what a place looks like before you get there…or maybe want to know what some of the nearby landmarks are.
I had a little play with it this morning and noticed, amongst other things:
I did briefly consider the possibility that Google’s project may nullify my plan for a photographic series after I finish the “Canberra’s Dams” series, where I was going to pick a random street in Canberra each week and take photos of it…but then I noticed that Google’s photos don’t come with a date attached, whereas mine would. Mine would also last longer than “until we decide to drive around again”, which means mine would have some lasting historical value. I think I’ll go ahead with my series anyway.
Samuel
August 5th, 2008 at 04:35pm
If first impressions count, then what’s the first thing that this job advertisement says to you?
The headline seems to invite me to apply to become insolvent, whilst the body text seems to invite insolvent people to discover “what else it out there”. Some sort of swap arrangement (“I’ll become insolvent so that you can have money”) perhaps?
Maybe I should just stop trying to read too much in to poorly written titles…but it’s too much fun. What a bind I find myself in.
Samuel
August 5th, 2008 at 10:56am
As I’ve previously noted, I like to read through the ACT and New South Wales police press releases on a daily basis because there is usually at least one peculiar or slightly amusing story in there…and it’s nice to see the raw version of the more serious stories which manage to make their way in to the mainstream news as it gives me a better understanding of the story. Unfortunately it also has the rather unwanted side-effect of scaring the living daylights out of me at least once every few months:
A driver has died following a motor vehicle collision involving a truck and a car near Cooma this morning.
About 3am a Subaru Forrester was travelling south along the Monaro Highway, about 10km north of Cooma, when it has collided with a semi-trailer travelling in the opposite direction on the Numeralla Bridge.
As a result of the collision, the driver of the Subaru has died at the scene.
The male driver of the semi-trailer and his female passenger were uninjured and have been taken to Cooma Hospital for assessment.
I know two, possibly three males who own a Subaru Forrester, although I can’t imagine why they would have been driving to Cooma at 3am. I now need to contact each one of them…I usually try not to send them an email saying “there was a car crash near Cooma, please tell me that you weren’t involved” or similar…rather I contact them without making any reference to the crash.
Last time I went through this was a few months ago after a fatal car accident in Canberra. Thankfully the person I know wasn’t involved in that crash…but I hate going through this anyway. It’s just a really awful feeling reading that sort of press release and thinking “that matches the description of someone I know…I hope they’re OK”.
Samuel
August 5th, 2008 at 08:40am
Corin Dam Road has been closed until further notice due to a rock fall:
[..]the National Parks section of Corin Dam Road (past the ski field) will be closed until further notice due to rocks falling.
The ski field will still be accessible to motorists however Corin Dam will not.
Barriers as well as warning and diversion signs will be erected to alert people to the road closure.
For up-to-date information on road closures please call Canberra Connect 13 22 81.
Corin Dam was the next on my (seemingly halted) list of dams to photograph as part of my photographic series on Canberra’s four main dams. That reminds me that I still haven’t made the pictures of Googong Dam available publicly…I must get around to doing that.
Samuel
August 5th, 2008 at 06:40am
Morning Jason,
Just listening to you talking about the smog being visible within the swimming complex in Beijing. To find a similar amount of fog in Sydney you don’t need to look any further than the M5 tunnel…although I suppose the big difference is that no athletes are trying to compete in the M5 tunnel.
Imagine what the swimming venue would be like if it was filled with cars!
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
August 5th, 2008 at 05:47am
From tonight’s AFL coverage on Channel Seven. Bruce McAvaney was talking about Collingwood.
Bruce McAvaney: A month ago we were wondering if they would get in to the top four, now we’re wondering if they can cling on to a spot in the top eight.
Umpire (on field): Nooooo
One wonders if they commentators are hooked in to the same mix as the audience and are therefore able to hear the umpires. I only wonder because the commentators didn’t seem to notice the umpire’s comment, and I would have almost expected Dennis Cometti to inform Bruce that “you have your answer”.
Samuel
August 1st, 2008 at 11:25pm
It’s 6PM, so there ends today’s 2CC drive show, and with it the tenure of Australia’s best provincial newcomer off-air for 2007, producer Michael Thompson.
Michael is leaving Canberra’s garden suburb of the north* (Mitchell) for the tropical island of Pyrmont (I was told that he was on a tropical island the last time he was in Pyrmont) where he will join the team responsible for Ray Hadley’s morning show on 2GB. At this stage it is unclear whether or not he will be taking any green mesh with him to Pyrmont.
The news came as a shock to me as I only found out today. I knew that my week or so of isolating myself from the world recently worked well, I just didn’t know that it worked that well.
Best of luck Michael, you definitely deserve the new job and I hope it all goes well for you. I don’t think that it’s within my power to turn Pyrmont in to a tropical island, but I could probably convince a professor to release a report in to global warming complete with a picture of Pyrmont floating in the ocean due to rising sea levels and an increase in temperatures by about ten degrees…not sure about the palm trees though, you might have to improvise by moving 2GB’s indoor plants to the building’s roof.
*Apologies to Mike Jeffreys for stealing his description of Mitchell…it’s the only decent description out there.
Due to my break from the blog, I’m a week behind on the Musician(s) Of The Week award and my plan was to run two Musician(s) Of The Week posts this weekend…I will still do that, but I may have to overrule the random number generator and pick one of the songs from the 101-song-list purposefully tomorrow. I know that Michael has been eagerly waiting for me to run this song for some time so I might as well do it before he forgets what Canberra’s average temperature is for May.
Samuel
August 1st, 2008 at 06:00pm
I’ve got two Friday Funnies for you this week. Firstly, take a look at the following screenshot of a BBC News story…notice anything?
I wonder what how the cricketers will handle the 40°c+ temperatures all day and night at Adelaide Oval during summer?
The BBC have since removed the image, but the folks over at Andrew Bolt’s blog certainly had some fun with it:
- and I thought it was global warming that is causing all this cold weather. Teach me to go away for a few days and have home move on me. Do you think they are trying to tell me something?
Tator of Adelaide
Thu 31 Jul 08 (08:36am)
- See, I KNEW I had a good excuse for being late for work this morning
(bloodly [sic] global cooling, it’s f#####g cold here in the tropics)
MudCrab of Adelaide
Thu 31 Jul 08 (10:34am)
- Banjo replied to berfel
Thu 31 Jul 08 (06:44am)
On the way back from Thailand last year, the big projection screen on the plane had an updating map showing our destination and path. It was a stop over in Sydney, which was oddly placed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Thankfully the plane [k]new better.
I’ve been going through some of my old emails and I’ve found a few Friday Funnies entries which were sent to me but never got on to the website. This one is from Charity of Sydney, although I have to say that I’m quite worried about Charity…nobody seems to have heard from her in about nine months and her family aren’t replying.
What the teacher says and (what the teacher means)
1. Your son has a remarkable ability in gathering needed information from his classmates.
(He was caught cheating on a test).
2. Karen is an endless fund of energy and viability.
(The hyperactive monster can’t stay seated for five minutes).
3. Fantastic imagination! Unmatched in his capacity for blending fact with fiction.
(He’s definitely one of the biggest liars I have ever met).
4. Margie exhibits a casual, relaxed attitude to school, indicating that high expectations don’t intimidate her.
(The lazy thing hasn’t done one assignment all term).
5. Her athletic ability is marvellous. Superior hand-eye coordination.
(The little creep stung me with a rubber band from 15 feet away).
6. Nick thrives on interaction with his peers.
(Your son needs to stop socialising and start working).
7. Your daughter’s greatest asset is her demonstrative public discussions.
(Classroom lawyer! Why is it that every time I explain an assignment she creates a class argument?).
8. John enjoys the thrill of engaging challenges with his peers.
(He’s a bully).
9. An adventurous nature lover who rarely misses opportunities to explore new territory.
(Your daughter was caught skipping school at the fishing pond).
10. I am amazed at her tenacity in retaining her youthful personality.
(She’s so immature that we’ve run out of diapers).
11. Unlike some students who hide their emotion, Charles is very expressive and open.
(He must have written the Whiner’s Guide).
12. I firmly believe that her intellectual and emotional progress would be enhanced through a year’s repetition of her learning environment.
(Regretfully, we believe that she is not ready for high school and must repeat the 6th grade).
13. Her exuberant verbosity is awesome!
(A mouth that never stops yacking).
If you have a joke or a funny video that you’d like to see here on a Friday, send an email to samuel@samuelgordonstewart.com and it might just appear in the coming weeks.
Samuel
August 1st, 2008 at 12:11pm
I honestly don’t understand the thinking of the powers-that-be in the Labor Party on this one.
By-elections for the federal seats of Mayo and Lyne will be held on September 6.
The polls come as a result of the resignations from parliament of former foreign minister ALEXANDER DOWNER .. and former Nationals leader MARK VAILE.
House of Representatives speaker HARRY JENKINS says he’ll issue writs for the by-elections on Monday .. rolls will close on August 8 .. and nominations close on August 14.
The government will not run a candidate in Mayo .. and is not expected to run one in Lyne.
At last year’s federal election, Labor recorded a rather large swing towards them in Mayo as the AEC results show.
Alexander Downer won the ballot for the Liberal Party with 45,893 votes (51.08%) which was a pretty reasonable distance ahead of the ALP’s Mary Brewerton who received 27,957 votes (31.12%). Admittedly it is quite a gap, however Ms. Brewerton had a swing towards her of 14.63% whilst Mr. Downer had a swing against him of 2.56%. With the swing clearly showing that a large number of people lost confidence in Liberal Party, if you were the Labor Party, wouldn’t you at least try to play the “Alexander Downer ditched you, but we’re here for the long haul” card?
The seat of Lyne is a similar story according to the AEC.
Mark Vaile won for the National Party with 41,319 votes (52.26%), ahead of the Labor Party’s James Langley who managed to receive 25,358 votes (32.07%). The swing wasn’t as exciting as the one in Mayo; Mr. Vaile lost 4.44% and Mr. Langley gained 5.52%, but there is still plenty of votes to gain with the “we respect your decision to vote for us” campaign.
I’m not saying that it would be a definite win for Labor in either of these seats, but surely it’s worth a shot? Or was their 2007 election victory over the coalition and the independents by 83 seats to 65 to 2, giving them a majority of the House of Representatives, enough to make them believe that as long as they have a majority, those who didn’t vote for them last time are of no importance?
At the very least, wouldn’t you want to take advantage of good opinion polls while they’re here and give yourself a shot at having the advantage of incumbency at the next general election?
Oh well, if they want to waste a good opportunity, who am I to try and stop them?
Samuel
August 1st, 2008 at 08:49am
Another feature returning to Samuel’s Blog from a lengthy absence is the weekly poll.
This morning one of the top news stories is an unfortunate story about a plane crash in Minnesota claiming at least eight lives. The news comes while stories of Qantas’ recent problems are still fresh in the minds of most Australians and still doing the rounds in the media. As somebody who has only flown a couple times, it got me thinking:
The recent spate of aeroplane issues has:
-
Made you more willing to fly
-
Made you less willing to fly
-
Not affected your willingness to fly
Total Votes: 21
Started: August 1, 2008
Personally, it makes me less inclined to fly, although it’s entirely possible that is simply because I’m not a huge fan of flying anyway. I’d be interested to see how this poll turns out…and if you’d like to provide a more detailed response, please feel free to leave a comment below.
A list of previous poll results can be seen here.
Samuel
August 1st, 2008 at 06:19am
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