Samuel's Blog

An email to 2GB’s Continuous Call Team

G’day Andrew and Blocker,

I’m glad to hear that you managed to find Etihad Stadium. I hope that the Melbournites find the place as well.

I’m tipping Queensland by 6.

Have a great call (as you always do),

Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra

4 comments June 3rd, 2009 at 07:16pm

Ben Ikin quits from Channel Nine

One of Channel Nine’s few decent rugby league commentators has reportedly “stormed out” mere hours before he was going to join the commentary team for tonight’s State of Origin clash in Melbourne.

FORMER Queensland State of Origin star Ben Ikin has stormed out of Channel Nine only hours before he was supposed to be commentating on tonight’s showdown in Melbourne.

A furious Ikin phoned Nine’s director of sport Steve Crawley early this afternoon to resign from all his commentary duties.
[..]
Ikin, who is the son-in-law of super coach Wayne Bennett, is angry that Channel Nine’s A Current Affair is doing an investigation tonight into a business owned by his father on the Gold Coast.
[..]
Steve Crawley confirmed Ikin had quit but refused to comment, other than saying, “”At this stage I’m just concentrating on getting the telecast right for tonight.’’

Ah well, it just makes the already superior coverage on 2GB that little bit better. Best wishes to Ben, I hope he pops up on Foxtel or radio in the near future.

Samuel

5 comments June 3rd, 2009 at 02:45pm

And uh, I’m supposed to facilitate your theft of my identity how?

I received an email today claiming to be from the Commonwealth Bank, informing me, as a customer (I don’t recall opening an account there, but I have been known to forget these things) that my account has been suspended, and that I should call 08 7123 3018 to “update my account” as soon as possible.

I rang the number to see what would happen. It rang twice, and I was then informed by the Telstra woman that “we regret that the number you have dialled is disconnected or unavailable”.

Intent on facilitating the theft of my identity, I decided to reply to the email, but alas it is “from” service@commbank.com.au with a reply-to address of no-reply@commbank.com.au

Looks like my identity is safe today.

Samuel

June 3rd, 2009 at 02:29pm

Spam stories

Some days it is worthwhile reading the spam which one has received, if only to see how absurd the stories therein happen to be:

All he does is to sit in the water;
regrets:

[link removed]

Mr Shove electrophoresis
unquestioned

I eagerly await Mr. Shove’s sequel.

Samuel

June 3rd, 2009 at 01:15pm

Tragedy confirmed

The wreckage of the missing Air France jet has been found, however there are no signs of survivors.

A five kilometre path of wreckage has been found in the Atlantic, confirming the missing Air France jet has crashed into the ocean carrying 228 people.

Brazilian Defence Minister Nelson Jobim said on Tuesday the discovery “confirms that the plane went down in that area” hundreds of kilometres from the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha.

He said the strip of wreckage included metallic and non-metallic pieces, but did not describe them in detail. No bodies were spotted in the crash of the Airbus in which all aboard are believed to have died.
[..]
A French ship equipped with two mini-submarines is on its way to scour the bottom of the ocean but it is not expected to arrive until tomorrow.

The sparse remains – which included an aircraft seat – were located 650km northeast of Brazil’s Fernando do Noronha island on Tuesday.

Meanwhile details of the plane’s final moments are starting to come to light. Apparently the plane sent more than just the single “electrical fault” message which we had been told about until now.

While the cause of the disaster remains a mystery, Air France chief executive Pierre-Henry Gourgeon said the aircraft had sent a series of error messages before it vanished.

“A succession of a dozen technical messages” sent by the aircraft around 0215 GMT showed that “several electrical systems had broken down” which caused a “totally unprecedented situation in the plane,” he said.

“It is probable that it was shortly after these messages that the impact in the Atlantic came,” he told reporters at Charles de Gaulle airport

This is an utter tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those on board, and I can only hope that a black box recorder can be salvaged from the wreckage, and that useful information to prevent a similar tragedy in the future can be retrieved from it.

Samuel

June 3rd, 2009 at 10:32am

Aren’t they going to let Jason get any sleep?

I just noticed today’s schedule on the 2GB website. Alan Jones is away again, and has been since Monday. Drive presenter Jason Morrison has been filling in for him, and Andrew Moore has been filling in for Jason, however Andrew is in Melbourne today as he is calling the State of Origin match tonight…which leaves 2GB with this:

If accurate (and one can assume that 7pm-10pm is not, as it fails to mention tonight’s State of Origin match), Jason Morrison is going to be very very tired by the end of the day, and will be facing an early start once again tomorrow. Sydney-siders who only listen on their drives to and from work may also be wondering if they’re stuck in a time warp.

As much as I’m sure that Jason can handle the extra workload, I do hope that 2GB move Luke Bona from the evening slot to Drive for the day. I will be tuning in at 3pm to see what happens.

All of this reminds me, I owe Jason some chocolate biscuits.

Update 2:30pm: The schedule has been updated with tonight’s rugby league coverage, however Jason is still doing a double shift.

3pm here we come.
End Update

Update 3:11pm: It’s Jason…and he didn’t get any sleep as he explained at the start of the show!
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/2GBJasonMorrisonNoSleep.mp3]
Download MP3
End Update

Further Update 4:20pmAlan Jones is back tomorrow, so Jason gets to sleep in tomorrow. I think he’ll need it! End Update

Samuel

June 3rd, 2009 at 10:04am

Consistency?

I can understand the reasoning behind this decision, but I wonder if it will be applied consistently?

A U.S. court says a kindergartner’s mother cannot read Scripture during show and tell, even if the Bible is the boy’s favorite book.

Monday’s ruling is a victory for the Marple Newtown School District in suburban Philadelphia.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says the school’s decision does not violate First Amendment rights given the nonpublic nature of the classroom and the tender age of the children.

The mother, Donna Kay Busch, argues the students heard stories related to Passover, Christmas and other religious holidays.

The appeals court says there is a “significant difference” between identifying those holidays and reading from Scripture.

I can understand the theory that reading extracts of a book which pushes a specific agenda to young children is some form of indoctrination, although I disagree in this case as I think the Bible is, linguistically, too challenging for young minds without a degree of interpretation, and I doubt that the kids would grasp the meaning of much of it…I also doubt that they would be particularly interested unless they happen to live in a devoted Christian household.

My thoughts on this specific case to one side, the ruling here is, effectively, that books which push an agenda which is not shared by all (or at the least, a vast majority) should not be read to young children in public schools. This makes me wonder what would happen if a mother were to claim that one of Barack Obama’s numerous books were her child’s favourite reading material, and then proceeded to read extracts to her child’s class…would the court rule that such activity is not permissible considering that 47.1% of the country voted against him, and his political views are therefore not shared by enough people in the country to warrant them being read to young children?

The answer should be “yes, the court would not allow such an activity”, but I would like to see it tested as I’m not confident that this ruling will be applied consistently.

Time will tell, and I’m sure that this ruling will be tested many many times in the future.

Samuel

June 3rd, 2009 at 04:29am