I received a request for a song this morning on 2QN and, seeing as I had a bit of time and the song was a more appropriate length than one of the others in the log, I decided to run it. Had I recognised the song from the title, I would have played it and made the rest of the hour fit around it.
The song was “What’s Up” by Four Non Blondes. It’s a song which aired the last time I was in Deni and wanted to jot down the title and artist, but I didn’t get a chance to check the log and promptly forgot about it until today.
I was very pleased to hear the song, and I have now purchased a copy from iTunes.
On a related note, three brick bats to the Universal Music Group. I am becoming increasingly frustrated by their policy of disabling the embedding of YouTube videos of music to which they own the rights. I wanted to embed the song here for your reference, but the only embeddable version I can find in a hurry is a techno remix of the song…all of the videos of the original song (not live versions) that I’ve found have embedding disabled. I have noticed that many YouTube videos have recently started to carry ads over the video with a link to iTunes to purchase the song…so one wonders why Universal are cutting off a potential revenue stream. I’m sure that, if you don’t know the song, you would be much more likely to watch a video of it on this website than you would be to go to YouTube and find a video of it.
I’m sure Universal have their reasons, but as far as I’m concerned, embeddable videos of music are a great promotional tool for music companies. The whole idea of disabling the embedding of music videos is just nuts.
I’m on a roll here, so Universal Music Group, have another couple of brickbats!
Last week when I practically lost my voice, and I needed to rest it for a day or so afterwards while my throat continued to hurt whenever I would try to speak, I discovered something that I knew, but didn’t appreciate to its full extent, and that is that I talk to myself an awful lot. In fact it’s almost constant, and it’s almost subconcious. I talk to myself about things I’m doing, I talk to myself about things other people are doing, and I comment to myself about many many things. It would appear to be one of my main ways of processing and thinking about things. (I’m trying to work out if there should have been any semi-colons in that last sentence as I have managed to confuse myself…Padders where are you?)
I only noticed the full extent of this last week when I was trying to be quiet, and kept catching myself talking to myself, which was more noticeable than usual due to the aforementioned sore throat.
Anyway, one time when I quite happily talk to myself and argue with myself is when I’m having a shower. I do some of my best thinking in the shower, and as such I’m quite used to the acoustic properties of my bathroom, and in particular my shower recess. I received a shock today when I went to have a shower in the bathroom of my hotel room and noticed that the echo in there is particularly loud. I can’t see any reason why it would be any different to any of the other rooms of the hotel (I have stayed in a different room on each trip to Deniliquin), but it is, and it is annoyingly loud.
It did amuse me somewhat when I said something (I don’t remember what it was), interrupted myself to make a comment about how annoying the echo is, only to be distracted by the echo on the statement about how annoying the echo is.
They say that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness…the fact that I’m quite happy to concede that I’m insane aside, has anybody proven the link between talking to yourself and madness, or is it just an old wives’ tale?
Authorities say a North Carolina teen who was thwarted as he tried to rob a store with a banana ate it before they could arrive.
Winston-Salem authorities say 17-year-old John Szwalla held the banana under his shirt when he entered the store Thursday, saying he had a gun and demanded money.
Owner Bobby Ray Mabe says he and a customer jumped Szwalla, holding him until deputies arrived. While they waited, Mabe says the teen ate the banana.
Mabe says deputies took pictures of the banana peel.
Forsyth County Sheriff’s office spokesman Maj. Brad Stanley says deputies joked about charging Szwalla with destroying evidence.
Brussels sprouts would be an effective weapon against me, or anything with mint in it. The challenge would be finding a way to convince me that you’re capable of force-feeding me.
This week’s award goes to the Scottish band Franz Ferdinand, and the feature song is one which doesn’t get enough attention, and is in my view their best song, Come On Home.
Although my lover lives
In a place that I can’t live
I kind of find I like a life this lonely
It rips and pierces me
In places I can’t see
I love the rip of nerves
The rip that wakes me
So I’m dissatisfied
I love dissatisfied
I love to feel there’s always more that I need
So come on home
So come on home
So come on – home home
You’re where you want to be
I’m where I want to be
Come on we’re chasing everything we’ve ever wanted
Replace you easily
Replace pathetically
I flirt with every flighty thing that falls my way
But how I needed you
When I needed you
Let’s not forget
We are so strong
So bloody strong
Come on home
So come on home
So come on – home home
Blue light falls upon your perfect skin
Falls and you draw back again
Falls and this is how I fell
And I cannot forget
And I cannot forget
Come on home
So come on home
But don’t forget to ring
I don’t have a new poll ready yet, however I do need to close the old poll due to both the fact that it has been up for well over a week, and the possibility that new votes may be taking more than the first hundred days in to account. As such, I will post the results now, and put up a new poll tomorrow.
What grade do you give Barack Obama for the first 100 days of his presidency?
A very interesting spread there. I suppose one way to interpret this would be the votes indicating “approve (“A” and “B”), “disapprove” (“D” and “F”) and “neutral” (“C”), which produces the following breakdown:
For the record, I gave Mr. Obama a “D”, because my official grade for his first hundred days is a “D-“…it wasn’t a complete failure, but it would have struggled to be much worse, and it didn’t show many signs of promise. I’m sure he will be pleased to know that, if I had to grade the days since then, I’d probably give him a “C” or “C-“.
Anyway, a very interesting range of opinions in that poll. I’m pleased that I’m not alone, and it’s always nice to have someone to argue with! (well, almost always)
I’m not used to packing as efficiently as this. Usually when I travel to Deniliquin I can take as much stuff as I want, with a car boot and seats all waiting to carry my luggage, however as I am travelling with Countrylink on this occasion, I am forced to adhere to baggage limits, so while I was buzzing around making sure that I had all of the essential items and the few optional items that I wish to take, whilst ensuring that it all fits within the limits, the lyrics “my bags are packed I’m ready to go” popped in to my mind, and with my spare minutes I decided to find the version of the song that started running through my mind so that I could share it with you.
Sadly, YouTube was of little help. Below is the closest version that I can find. I might just have to play the song during the week.
In the meantime for the trip I have my iPod (which, apart from music, currently contains the last five days of the Rush Limbaugh show), a radio (which I don’t expect to be able to receive much on) and some reading material, namely the Community Broadcasting Codes of Practice (it’s always good to re-familiarise yourself with stuff which governs the way you work) and Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years, a book which I started reading and never finished due to being sidetracked and not giving myself enough time to read it. The half that I read was great, however it is a rather densely packed book of facts and figures, and it requires a fair bit of concentration to read and comprehend…perhaps I’ll get through it this week.
It’s the 1WAY FM breakfast show from the 5th of January, 2009, and due to the death of a car, and the subsequent need to have it towed, I was unable to be in the 1WAY FM building during the breakfast show. I needed to be in Weston to be present for the towing of the car…although as it happened, the tow truck didn’t turn up until about 9:30 so I probably could have done the show live.
Tim, the station manager, was out of the country at the time and graciously allowed me to borrow his car, so I was able to present The Best of Open House the preceding night without any hassle, and as such I recorded the breakfast show after that at about 10pm. Unfortunately due to the way the automation system Startrax works, it was not possible to work out the exact time that the broadcast would go to air, however I made sure that my two hours would time out, and left enough spare time for the weather.
The weather segments were recorded a couple hours before the broadcast went to air so that they would contain up-to-date forecasts. From memory I had to pre-record weather for later in the day as well. Coming in early in that morning was useful for another reason too…I was able to make the 6am hour timeout properly (end at 7am rather than, for example, 7:03am) which was essential for making the breakfast show work properly.
It’s also worthwhile noting that the aircheck system at 1WAY FM doesn’t always record the audio in the few seconds around the top of the hour correctly…this is noticeable around the 8am mark in this aircheck. I also don’t have the last few seconds of the broadcast.
Listening to the aircheck I have spotted a trademark Startrax error (see if you can spot it), along with a “Samuel forgot to put the post-news weather in to the 8am hour playlist” error.
Copyright notice: Copyright on this audio is jointly held by Samuel Gordon-Stewart and 1WAY FM. It is made available for personal use, and “fair use” as defined by copyright legislation only. This audio may not be redistributed without the prior written permission of a copyright holder.
Good news: Brumbies lose to the Chiefs 10-7, taking with it their slim chance os making the Super 14 finals
Good news: Crusaders defeat the Blues 15-13, propelling them in to the top four
Bad news: The Hurricanes defeat the Reds 37-28, putting the Hurricanes back in to the top four
Good news: The Crusaders have a better points difference than the equally placed Waratahs, keeping the Crusaders in the top four, and in the finals.
Now it’s just a matter of ensuring that the Bulls prevent the Sharks from winning and getting four or more tries.
Update: Bulls win 27-26, Crusaders are in the finals! Very good news.End Update
Looks like those ocean flow models which contribute to those (already wrong) climate change models are wrong:
A 50 year old model of global thermohaline circulation that predicts a deep Atlantic counter current below the Gulf Stream is now formally called into question by an armada of subsurface RAFOS floats drifting 700 – 1500m deep. Nearly 80% of the RAFOS floats escaped the Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC), drifting into the open ocean.
This confirms suspicions that have been around since the 1990’s, and likely plays havoc with global models of climate change.
[..]
the research represents a major paradigm shift in ocean circulation theory.
No real surprises here…just more proof that flawed theories form large parts of flawed theories.
There has been a change of plans for the coming week. I was going to be producing and presenting the local news on 2QN and Classic Rock, however this is no longer the case. Instead, due to a staff illness, another fill-in journalist will present and produce the local news, and I will be hosting breakfast on 2QN.
I have to admit that I am a tad excited as this is my first on-air shift in commercial radio. This should be fun.
At this stage I’m not sure if I will be posting news headlines on this blog.
Looks like the Fairfax Syndication operation is currently kaput. I noticed that Tim Webster’s show was unlistenable to due to satellite issues (partial words interspersed with odd noises and silence) and that 2CC fell back on the 2UE webstream. Currently they’re taking the rugby league off 2GB’s webstream as far as I can tell…sounds great, but it causes me to fiddle with delaying the television coverage to keep the commentary in sync (it’s roughly a 20 second delay).
Fairfax Syndication’s technical website is not very optimistic, having the current message:
15 May 2009 – 19:58:00
Please note the current system outage is more serious than first thought. Unfortunately we cannot give an estimate when normal services will resume. Please check this website. News is available from Digital Courier.
With Medispy currently off the air due to scheduled maintenance, I’m in the dark as to what other stations are doing…but one does have to wonder if Macquarie (2GB) News is being made available by Digital Courier, or just Fairfax News. 2GB do put Macquarie News on livenews.com.au at about twenty past the hour, but that’s not quite as useful as live (or thereabouts) news. That might explain why the 7pm Macquarie news did not contain any timecalls though.
Further updates as information comes to hand.
Update 8:43pm: The rugby league is back on the satellite with just the slightest hint of the dreaded underwater bubbling noises which so often are a part of the Fairfax failures. Once can only assume that other programming (AFL etc) is back as well…Friday night must be an awful time for such failures with all the live sport coverage. Fairfax’s website hasn’t noticed that services are online again.End Update
Update 9:11pm: Update from Fairfax:
Please note that 99% of services have been restored. You still may receive an occasional, minor audio glitch, but all programs are available. We will continue to work on the problem until service is restored to 100%.
The way it started, oh so long ago, was that a particular person under the name “Morgan” was interested in convincing Jumba to “go green”, and wanted to use the discussion to take numbers of interested people to Jumba, so that they could then decide on what, if any, plans may be viable:
I am interested in exploring the idea of making our hosting with Jumba a darker shade of green! Have been advised to guage interest from other users here on the forum… anyone interested? Am guessing we will need to take over one of the jumba servers and then offset the power usage of that machine. I have contacted Carbon Planet Australia to get an idea of the cost. Shoot me a message with an indication of the amount of domains you have with jumba… will come back with a price soon,
cheers,
Morgan
This whole thing placed me in a difficult position, because silence would indicate either a lack of interest or agreement, especially if the entire thread was filled with people supporting the idea, and no dissenting voices. On the other hand, butting in to the thread to say “no” would almost certainly drag the thread off-topic, with it devolving in to a discussion of global warming.
When there were three people in a row supporting the idea, I couldn’t remain silent on the issue as one of the reasons I am happy to deal with Jumba on an ongoing basis is that they (to the best of my knowledge) do not have any of these anti-global warming programs, and I needed to make sure that they knew there is not unanimous support for any “green” plans.
If I merely said “no, not interested” then it would have been inevitable that somebody would come back with a “you don’t want to save the planet?” response…so in the interests of keeping my contribution to a minimum and to give Morgan as much time and room as possible to gather their numbers, I decided to mention my unwillingness to be involved in any sort of “green” project that they may be considering, and a brief outline of my reasons:
Sorry, but no. I aim to avoid giving money to “green” companies, especially seeing as the planet’s temperature is trending downwards.
Not trying to start a debate, just pointing out that there are people such as me who will avoid this type of scheme for various reasons.
Succinct and, in theory at least, should have kept the “where’s your proof? Haven’t you seen the evidence?” brigade at bay. Alas, no…it seems that going against “green” anywhere requires a flame suit. One of the three aforementioned supporters of the idea was less than impressed:
Samuel,
1. How exactly is it that you are not starting a debate when you add a message to a discussion saying that you don’t believe what it is about?
2. Looking at the page you referenced, of what is visible, the upper, later half of the cycle of the smooth is much higher than the lower part – indicating increasing average temperature over the top of the smooth. Looks to me like the smooth won’t cycle to as low as that of ’87-’89. Conclusion: upwards trend. Also, the person who wrote the site you reference agrees that there has been an increase in temperature over the last 100 years, but disagrees as to the cause. You should get you references straight.
3. Human society has existed for about 10,000 years – basically since the Earth’s temperatures settled in a temperature range which allowed us to grow crops. If we can’t grow crops, it’s back to the trees and the savannahs – no cars, no internet. Even if it is only a remote possibility, from whatever cause, but overwhelmingly acknowledged to be caused by us, would you wish that on future generations?
Karl
Whether Karl was legitimately asking the questions, or just trying to make me drag the thread off-topic, I don’t know, but I replied briefly.
Because I’ve been in this position before. If I don’t briefly explain why I won’t send money the way of green companies, then people speculate about my reasons.
If you want answers to the rest of your questions, PM me, I’m not dragging this thread off-topic.
The thread then went back on-topic, and I never heard from Karl…until a couple days ago. The replies to the thread had long since died off, but months later Karl decided that now would be a good time to revive it by provoking me…he must have known which buttons to press because loony arguments are good way to interest me in a debate:
Samuel and lonely,
Nobody is requiring you to do anything. I happen to want the energy that I use to be from non-polluting sources. Many, many others do as well (I think the majority of people, but that is not for discussion here). This has no effect on you – you can choose where your energy comes from.
Nobody in this discussion has said that you should be using any particular form of energy. You have freedom of choice and my desire to obtain non-polluting energy does not impinge in any way on your ability to choose polluting energy.
In fact, what you are doing by disrupting this thread with you nay-saying is removing mine and others’ freedom of choice. This is hypocritical.
Your comments may be well-placed in discussions where people dispute the effects of pollution or where people are requiring the use of non-polluting energy. Neither is happening here. Your comments are neither relevant nor welcome.
I ask that you remove yourselves from this thread.
Karl
Uh huh. “This is a place for believers of the warming faith only…we don’t want your numbers included in any tally because, let’s face facts, you’re ignorant unbelievers who should be banished from the planet for your evil polluting and warming ways.”
A reply from me, once I read it and got myself a coffee this morning, was inevitable:
Originally Posted by kgg
Samuel and lonely,
Nobody is requiring you to do anything.
Except to say whether I’m interested in “greening” my association with my hosting provider, so that the OP can take numbers to said hosting provider.
Originally Posted by kgg
I happen to want the energy that I use to be from non-polluting sources.
As is your choice.
Originally Posted by kgg
In fact, what you are doing by disrupting this thread with you nay-saying is removing mine and others’ freedom of choice. This is hypocritical.
Wrong. Suppose that I, and people with similar views to me, stay silent, and a large number of people with your views respond…Jumba might just decide that carbon offsets or some other green plan should become part of their mandatory plan pricing, which would cause me to move hosting provider in order to maintain my “freedom of choice”.
By replying in this thread, I am not removing your freedom of choice, I am simply making it known that not every Jumba customer supports this idea. My aim is not to prevent Jumba from going down this path, merely to make carbon offsets etc “optional extras” for those who do want to use them.
I am completely in favour of freedom of choice.
Some days it’s therapeutic to demolish a loony argument. Now I’ll wait and see if he responds again. If he does, I will politely inform him that the argument is off-topic (but a clever way to draw attention to the thread) and I will reply by private message.
My household received a call from NewsPoll yesterday, about two hours before Malcolm Turnbull delivered his budget reply. The call contained the standard questions about who you would vote for if there was an election today, your preferred prime minister, etc, and then moved on to the federal budget. Whilst there were questions about Wayne Swan’s budget, there were no questions about Malcolm Turnbull’s reply (thankfully).
Keep an eye out for the next NewsPoll. If they claim that the preferred prime minister figures and the like have anything to do with the budget reply, then you know they’re lieing.
Oh, and I didn’t receive the call, I was just listening in.
2UE’s Jim Ball came across an interesting little video from The Free Congress Foundation about the history of political correctness, and its base in statism (that is, the political systems which believe that power should be centralised in a governing body (the state) rather than distributed amongst the people).
Marxists have murdered many times more people than the Nazis. They have destroyed the livelihoods of people the world over and imprisoned many millions in gulags and work camps. The last thing we want to do is let them win here or anywhere else.
While it may seem communism is dead, communism, socialism, fascism are all part of a many headed hydra called statism. These are political systems which are all about empowering the state as much as possible. The name they go under now is “progressive.” Many progressives on the ground think they are fighting for equal rights and social justice. The progressive elites know better. They want power and control over people’s lives. Political correctness is a tool to accomplish these goals.
The video goes for 22 minutes, but it is well worth finding some time over the weekend to sit down and watch it.
President Obama is expected to announce the administration’s decision to restart Bush-era military tribunals for a small number of Guantanamo detainees Friday, U.S. officials said Thursday.
Obama suspended the tribunals within hours of taking office in January, ordering a review but stopping short of abandoning President George W. Bush’s strategy of prosecuting suspected terrorists.
An administration official familiar with Obama’s decision said between 10 and 20 of the 241 detainees currently at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would be tried by military commissions.
Thirteen other detainees — including five charged with helping orchestrate the Sept. 11 attacks — already have been moved into the system and are expected to be tried there, FOX News has confirmed.
The rest of the detainees would either be released, transferred to other nations or tried by civilian prosecutors in U.S. federal courts, an official said. It’s also possible that some could continue to be held indefinitely as prisoners of war with full Geneva Conventions protections, according to another senior U.S. official.
[..]
Obama’s decision to resume the tribunals is certain to face criticism from liberal groups, already stung by his decision Wednesday to block the court-ordered release of photos showing U.S. troops abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan — a reversal of his earlier stand on making the photos public.
[..]
In February 2008, during his presidential campaign, Obama described the Guantanamo trials as “a flawed military commission system that has failed to convict any one of a terrorist act since the 9/11 attacks and that has been embroiled in legal challenges.” Critics, including many Democrats, cited the tribunals in assailing Bush, who had pushed Congress to create the system. They accused him of violating U.S. law by limiting the detainees’ legal rights.
The new decision will delay the trials for several more months, the officials said. Obama is adding some changes to the commissions before they are restarted, including expanding the detainees’ legal protections by restricting hearsay evidence that can be used against them, according to two officials.
The delay would give the administration time to adjust the system and allow Congress to review any rule changes or pass legislation altering the military commission law.
[..]
Obama’s decision also amounts to an admission that delivering on his promise to close Guantanamo is easier said than done. Since he ordered the prison closed, Republicans have focused on the issue of where the detainees would go — and the new Democratic administration’s lack of a plan to deal with them.
On Capitol Hill Thursday, the House approved war-funding legislation that says detainees from Guantanamo must not be released on U.S. soil — though it would allow some of the prisoners to be transferred to the United States to stand trial or serve their sentences.
It’s funny how much changes when you take the reigns and realise just how unworkable your plans are, and just how close to being right the plans of your opponents were.
I’m pleased to see Obama coming to a correct decision despite pressure from his own side of the political divide to do the opposite, however I am disappointed at the amount of time we have had to waste on making minimal changes to an almost correct system.