It’s safe to say that this week’s award is quite a change from the norm for my Musician(s) Of The Week awards. Generally speaking I’m not a huge fan of modern music, although of late I have been getting in to some of the electronic music dance and pop music. I’m convinced that the ratio of junk to good stuff is somewhere around 50:1 or worse, but there are a few gems in there.
One of the things which I think is sadly lacking in most modern music (even stuff that I would consider to be good modern music) is interesting lyrics. Somewhere along the line, the art of telling a story, painting a picture or merely doing something clever with words, was lost. Thankfully it’s not completely lost though, and this week’s award highlights that.
This song caught my attention when I was watching Robbie The Reindeer on ABC1 last week as it played over the closing credits. The lyrics in this one certainly paint a picture and are quite clever, and I’m quite impressed by the catchy musical arrangement which goes with it. By the way, the male voice in this (not the deep one, the other one) is Fred Schneider from the B-52s (for those not familiar, think of the male voice from “Love Shack”). At first when I heard it, I thought it had to be him, and then Wikipedia confirmed it.
Anyway, enough of my preamble, enjoy the feature song for this week which is Supersonic.
Supersonic from the Earth to the Sun now
Flash – from your atomic gun wow
Hang a right at the next zodiac sign
Your kiss is mine
Our love is radiating
Chill out, it´s worth the waiting
You´ve got me spinning like a satellite
I´m in orbit, we´re in heaven
Countdown is a quarter to seven
Faster than the stars shooting by
(5, 4, 3, 2, 1)
Venus collides with Mars
Romance written in the stars
Supersonic from the Earth to the Sun now
Flash – from your atomic gun wow
Hang a right at the next zodiac sign
Your kiss is mine
Kiss so divine
My supersonic baby
Your kiss is mine
Kiss so divine
My supersonic lover baby
Supersonic, I´m at the controls now
The course I take is gonna be bold
I´ve got you covered, covered like lotion
We move together, perpetual motion
All the planets are in alignment
Venus rising, that´s the assignment
The love phase is emerging
Signs show harmonic converging
Venus collides with Mars
Romance written in the stars
Supersonic from the Earth to the Sun now
Flash – from your atomic gun wow
Hang a right at the next zodiac sign
Your kiss is mine
Kiss so divine
My supersonic baby
Your kiss is mine
Kiss so divine
My supersonic lover baby
Zoom baby your signal is clearer
Flashing lights are getting nearer
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 !
Supersonic from the edge of the Sun now
Flash – from your atomic gun wow
Hang a right at the next zodiac sign
Supersonic from the edge of the Sun now
Flash – from your atomic gun wow
Hang a right at the next zodiac sign
Supersonic from the edge of the Sun
My supersonic baby
Flash – from your atomic gun
My supersonic baby
Your kiss is mine
Kiss so divine
My supersonic baby
Your kiss is mine
Kiss so divine
My supersonic lover baby
I see that Vodafone have made it in to the news for the wrong reasons again. The last time around I didn’t really care as that was due to people complaining about data throughput and call quality…I don’t use Vodafone for data and have no problem with my call quality so it didn’t really affect me. Today’s story on the other hand:
THE personal details of millions of Vodafone customers have been available on the web in what is described as an “unbelievable” lapse in security by the mobile phone giant.
The details include names, home addresses, driver’s licence numbers and credit card details.
[..]
The personal details, accessible from any computer because they are kept on an Internet site rather than Vodafone’s internal system, include numbers dialled or texted, plus the time and location of calls or texts.
[..]
“The fact you can look up anybody as easily as that seems to be a gross breach of privacy and resulting in an almost negligent exposure to criminal activity,” said Professor Fraser, who is also head of the Australian Communication Consumer Action Network.
A Vodafone spokesman said on Saturday the company has ordered an immediate investigation and review of its security.
Vodafone retailers say each store has a system username and password, and access is shared among staff and changed every three months.
Full access means you can look up a customer’s bills and make alterations to accounts.
Vodafone got my name wrong when I signed up with them years ago and they’ve never fixed it. About the only bit of sensitive data they have about me is my credit card number and I’ll be watching the account activity there with my usual vigour, but otherwise my call and SMS details will make for fairly boring reading. I’ve made two calls in the last week…they were both to work. I have sent zero text messages. Yes, my phone usage is exciting.
As for the security side of things, I’m not surprised that the retailer/dealer portal is available over the internet, but I am surprised that it’s not protected by either an IP block disallowing access to IP addresses which don’t belong to dealers/retailers, or by a VPN whereby the only way to access it would be through an encrypted VPN connection. I’m also a tad surprised that logins are store-based and not user-based. A system which grants that much access to customer data should be user-based so that each user can be individually tracked should the need arise.
I’m not in the least bit surprised that the portal grants access to the entire customer base’s details. Back when I worked for a Telstra contractor in a Telstra call centre, I could pull up the details of any Telstra customer based on as little as their phone number or Bigpond email address. It was essential for my job that I was able to do this. It is not surprising that Vodafone retail stores have such access to Vodafone customer data…how else do people expect them to do their job?
This story isn’t as earth-shattering as the Fairfax papers would have us believe.
***
From the “People who should be banned from having more children” department comes this abomination:
A COUPLE so desperate for a baby girl that they terminated twin boys are fighting to choose the sex of their next child.
The couple, who have three sons and still grieve for a daughter they lost soon after birth, are going to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to win the right to select sex by IVF treatment.
They say they want the opportunity to have the baby daughter they were tragically denied.
An independent panel, known as the Patient Review Panel, recently rejected the couple’s bid to choose the sex of their next child using IVF.
They have gone to VCAT in a bid to have that decision overturned.
[..]
The couple said it had been a traumatic decision to make but they could not continue to have unlimited numbers of children.
If their test case fails, they say they will go to the US to conceive a girl.
So they aborted perfectly healthy twins because they didn’t like the sex of the babies, and now they want to make a designer baby. These people are nuts, and if they think the US will make it easier for them, well I suggest that they go over there and enjoy an even bigger public outcry.
Forget for a moment that what these people are doing is illegal (it’s illegal to select the sex of a child in Victoria unless for the legitimate health reasons of the child), what they have done and continue to do is, as far as I’m concerned, morally reprehensible. Aborting a child for this reason is downright wrong…I generally disagree with abortion at the best of times, but then wanting to have further children AND select their sex. Sorry, but these people shouldn’t be allowed to have children…they are sick and twisted people, end of story.
Shopping centre giant Westfield has launched the nation’s first virtual mall, grouping its “bricks and mortar” tenants into a one-stop website, The Australian reported.
And in an effort to reconnect with tech-savvy shoppers, it has hired an online “insider” to infiltrate the internet.
Alyce Cowell, a 23-year-old fashion stylist and journalist, won an online contest for the $100,000 job to tweet, blog and use Facebook to tell “shopping-engaged females” about her shopping trips and tips.
“Shoppers trust the advice from other shoppers,” she said yesterday of her cyber-marketing strategy. “The benefit of researching online before heading out to the shops is that customers can be much more savvy.”
See, this is how you compete. You do something to make your product competitive, and you do something to make sure people know about your product. Gerry should learn a thing or two from this…perhaps if he allowed people to buy products from the Harvey Norman website he wouldn’t be trying to make people pay more tax because they don’t flock to his stores whenever he gets a free run on Today Tonight. Perhaps…as long as Gerry doesn’t start tweeting about his shopping trips and how a lovely sales rep named Brad treated him politely and gave him a good deal at the Woden store…I think that would be more than anyone could bear.
***
Need a reminder about what we’re at war with? It’s the people who want to replace our way of life with this:
Al-Qaida-linked militants in war-torn southern Somalia have banned unrelated men and women from shaking hands, speaking or walking together in public, residents said Saturday. People who break the rules could be imprisoned, whipped or even executed.
The insurgents already have banned women from working in public, leaving many mothers with a terrible choice: risk execution by going to sell some tea or vegetables in the marketplace, or stay safely at home and watch the children slowly starve.
You’d think that the “compassionate left” would be for the war and against this type of denial of basic human rights…but no, they want an open borders policy so that the crazies can come in and take over.
A Stanford University study led by Sean Mackey discovered love stimulated the dopamine-oriented centres of the brain linked to reward and craving.reported the Sunday Herald Sun.
This is the reason why falling in love can trigger a sense of euphoria and an emotional high.
In the study, the brains of 15 student volunteers, who Dr Mackey described as being wildly in love, were observed via a functional magnetic resonance imaging, a brain scan, as they were exposed to mild pain via a heated device in their hand.
The subjects were alternately shown images of their loved ones, then an attractive friend and finally asked to perform a mental skills test to distract themselves from the pain.
They had greater resistance to pain when looking at the picture of their partner and researchers speculate that is because the brain releases natural painkillers in the first stage of new love.
[..]
Dr Mackey said other pleasurable activities, such as listening to music or reading a book, could also aid pain relief.
This does lead me to the question of whether a broken heart, which is a pain of a different type, can be lessened by falling in love with someone else? Somehow, at least at first, I doubt it. And then for those of us, like me, who quite gladly avoid relationships like the plague, it’s nice to know that the next time I get a papercut while reading a book, the pain will go away if I just keep reading…allegedly…hmmm, I think I’ll stick to the panadol.
Urgent Update 6:55am: Conflicting reports as to whether Rep. Giffords has died or not. Reports suggest that up to six people have died, but I can’t give you a definitive answer on the status of Rep. Gaffords. Hopefully she is alive and pulls through. End Update
Further Update 7:53am: Thankfully Rep. Giffords is alive. She is in a critical condition, but it is wonderful that she is alive, and I hope she makes a full recovery. Sadly not everyone was so lucky as FOX News reports:
At least 19 people were shot at Gifford’s “Your Corner” event held outside a Safeway grocery store in Tucson, including three members of the Democratic congresswoman’s staff in Arizona. Five have died, including one of Gifford’s aides, and nine are in critical condition at the University of Arizona Medical Center.
FOX also notes that police are looking for a possible second suspect in the shooting. Now clearly it is up to the courts to decide on guilt, but let me say right from the get-go that this is the sort of crime which deserves the death penalty. If somebody is found guilty of being the shooter or being involved in the shooting, then they lose all of their rights to being a part of our society in my view.
In the meantime though, my thoughts and prayers continue to be with all of the victims and their families. End Update
Urgent Update 6:37am: I’m very sad to have to report that Gabrielle Giffords has died as a result of the shooting. This is utterly tragic. My most sincere condolences go out to Mrs. Giffords’ family, friends and colleagues. I have no word on the condition of the others who have been shot at this stage…I can only hope that they recover. End Update
Some very disturbing news in from Arizona. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (Democrat-Arizona) has been shot in the head and has been rushed to hospital.
Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot along with three of her aides by a gunman Saturday morning outside a grocery store in Tucson while holding a public event, Fox News has confirmed.
Twelve others were shot as well at Giffords’ “Your Corner” event held at Safeway. The gunman is in custody.
Giffords was taken to a hospital but the condition of those shot was not immediately known, a senior congressional aide told Fox News.
The three staffers who were shot worked out of Giffords’ Arizona office.
Giffords has held multiple “Your Corner” events over the past four years, the aide told Fox News, adding that she had held three previous events that this venue before.
(Article credit: Fox News. Image credit: Wikipedia/United States Congress)
Investigations are obviously ongoing, but given the fact that Mrs. Giffords was shot at a public event which she has held at this location a number of times prior to today, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that this shooting was a deliberate crime of hatred, probably politically motivated…and almost certainly the action of an unhinged person. This is deplorable, and one can only hope that the responsible person is brought to justice and has the full force of the law thrown at them.
To Mrs. Giffords, her family, and everyone else who has been injured in this horrifying act, my thoughts and prayers are with you. May you all recover thoroughly and quickly.
You were asking for suggestions for names for Princess Mary's newborn children a short while ago, and mentioned that she wants Australian names for them. Well I was thinking that we could have a bipartisan political contribution based on our current political leaders. The boy could be named "Kevin Anthony" after our Foreign Affairs minister and our Opposition Leader. The girl could have the slightly sillier name of "Julie Julia", after the deputy-leader of the opposition and our Prime Minister. I will fully understand if you think this might not go down so well with Her Highness.
Also you asked about TV personalities who we wish were still on television. When you mentioned that the late great Adriana Xenides was born on this day, I was reminded of how I miss Rob Elliott who hosted Wheel Of Fortune after John Burgess and Tony Barber. I was a bit young for Baby John, but I fell in love with Wheel when Rob hosted it. He seems to have disappeared from TV since then…I don't suppose you know what he is up to these days?
Have a wonderful day John, and I hope you have a great time at the Tamworth Country Music Festival.
Some very disturbing news in from Arizona. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (Democrat-Arizona) has been shot in the head and has been rushed to hospital.